Literature help needed! what kind and genre does the "captain's daughter" belong to and prove why. given by the author Happiness the best answer is From the middle of 1832, A. S. Pushkin began work on the history of the uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev. The tsar gave the poet the opportunity to get acquainted with secret materials about the uprising and the actions of the authorities to suppress it. Pushkin refers to unpublished documents from family archives and private collections. In his "Archival Notebooks" copies of personal decrees and letters of Pugachev, extracts from reports on hostilities with Pugachev's detachments have been preserved.
In 1833, Pushkin decides to go to those places in the Volga and Ural regions where the uprising took place. He looks forward to meeting with eyewitnesses of these events. Having received permission from Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin leaves for Kazan. “I have been in Kazan since the fifth. Here I was busy with old people, contemporaries of my hero; traveled around the city, examined the battlefields, asked questions, wrote down and is very pleased that it was not in vain that he visited this side, ”he writes to his wife Natalya Nikolaevna on September 8. Then the poet goes to Simbirsk and Orenburg, where he also visits the battlefields, meets with contemporaries of the events.
From the materials about the rebellion, the "History of Pugachev" was formed, written in Boldin in the autumn of 1833. This work of Pushkin was published in 1834 under the title "History Pugachev rebellion, which was given to him by the emperor. But Pushkin had a plan artwork about the Pugachev uprising of 1773-1775. It arose while working on Dubrovsky in 1832. The plan of the novel about a renegade nobleman who ended up in Pugachev's camp changed several times. This is also explained by the fact that the topic addressed by Pushkin was acute and complex in ideological and political terms. The poet could not help thinking about the censorship obstacles that had to be overcome. Archival materials, stories of living Pugachevites, which he heard during a trip to the places of the uprising of 1773-1774, could be used with great care.
According to the original plan, the hero of the novel was to be a nobleman who voluntarily went over to the side of Pugachev. Its prototype was Lieutenant of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment Mikhail Shvanovich (in the plans of the novel Shvanvich), who “preferred a vile life to an honest death.” His name was mentioned in the document "On the death penalty for the traitor, rebel and impostor Pugachev and his accomplices". Later, Pushkin chose the fate of another real participant in the Pugachev events - Basharin. Basharin was taken prisoner by Pugachev, escaped from captivity and entered the service of one of the suppressors of the uprising, General Mikhelson. The name of the protagonist changed several times, until Pushkin settled on the surname Grinev. In the government report on the liquidation of the Pugachev uprising and the punishment of Pugachev and his accomplices dated January 10, 1775, Grinev's name was listed among those who were initially suspected of "communicating with villains", but "as a result of the investigation turned out to be innocent" and were released from arrest. As a result, instead of one hero-nobleman in the novel, there were two: Grinev was opposed by a nobleman-traitor, the “vile villain” Shvabrin, which could facilitate the passage of the novel through censorship barriers.
Pushkin continued to work on this work in 1834. In 1836 he reworked it. October 19, 1836 - the date of completion of work on The Captain's Daughter. " Captain's daughter" was published in the fourth issue of Pushkin's Sovremennik at the end of December 1836, a little over a month before the death of the poet.
What is the genre of The Captain's Daughter? Pushkin wrote to the censor, passing him the manuscript: “The name of the maiden Mironova is fictitious. My novel is based on a legend ... ". Pushkin explained what a novel is like this: “In our time, by the word novel we mean historical era developed in a fictional narrative". That is, Pushkin considered his work historical novel. And yet, "The Captain's Daughter" - a small work in size - in literary criticism is often called a story.
So, is it more correct to call The Captain's Daughter a novel? Maybe a story. But only if we take into account that the story is a novel formation, albeit a small one - “medium”, as researchers call it, form. (Although, in my opinion, when defining this or that genre, it is strange to approach it with a tailor's centimeter, or with school ruler, or even with a modern engineering calculator!)
- “Pushkin wrote: “By the word“ novel ”we mean a historical epoch developed in a fictional narrative”, thereby emphasizing this synthetic nature of a large epic form and the fact that it depicts precisely a complex life process - an epoch” . But isn't the historical epoch developed in the narrative of The Captain's Daughter? Isn't this story itself fictional? It turns out that L.I. Timofeev at first confidently called The Captain's Daughter a story, and then indirectly - through Pushkin's definition of the genre - a novel!
- “Usually, in short stories combined into one novel, they are not content with the commonality of one main character, and episodic faces also pass from short story to short story (or, in other words, are identified). A common technique in romance technique is episodic roles in individual moments entrust to a person already used in the novel (compare Zurin's role in The Captain's Daughter...).
- “The middle epic form is most often called a story. AT ancient literature the term “story” had a broader meaning, denoting a narrative in general, for example: “The Tale of Bygone Years”. A story is also called a “chronicle” - a work that is a presentation of events in chronological order: “The Tale of the Days of My Life” Volnova. AT early XIX century, the term "story" corresponded to what is now called a story. The story (as an average epic form) differs from the story in that it gives a series of episodes united around the main character, which already constitute a period of his life. It's a different type life process. In this regard, the story is larger in volume, it includes more wide circle characters; the plot, the denouement, the summit point (culmination) form already more developed events; characters interacting with the main one are more broadly outlined. An example of a story is Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter, which compositionally forms a series of episodes from the life of Grinev, which make up certain period his life."
- The Captain's Daughter (film, 1928)
- The Captain's Daughter - a film by Vladimir Kaplunovsky (1958, USSR)
- Captain's Daughter - teleplay by Pavel Reznikov (1976, USSR)
- Volga en flames (fr.) Russian (1934, France, dir. Viktor Tourjansky)
- Captain's daughter (Italian) Russian (1947, Italy, directed by Mario Camerini)
- La Tempesta (Italian) Russian (1958, directed by Alberto Lattuada)
- The Captain's Daughter (1958, USSR, dir. Vladimir Kaplunovsky)
- The Captain's Daughter (animated film, 2005), director Ekaterina Mikhailova
Earnestly? But in the same manual we reach the “big epic form”, which “gives both a number of periods and a number of multilaterally shown characters, which allows it to reflect the most complex shapes life's contradictions not in their separate manifestation in one event or in connection with one character, but in the complex relationships of people. We reach genre definition: « big shape most commonly referred to as a novel. And suddenly:
And so it went. Belinsky each time calls The Captain's Daughter a story, and the first Pushkin biographer P.V. Annenkov - a novel. For Chernyshevsky, Pushkin's work is a story, for A.M. Skabichevsky - a novel. The author of the first major work on the "Captain's Daughter" N.I. Chernyaev confidently calls it a novel, and a contemporary of Chernyaev, a well-known literary critic Yu.I. Eichenwald, - a story. M. Gorky is convinced that Pushkin wrote a historical novel, and V.B. Shklovsky - what a story. We will encounter the same genre discrepancies in the works of Soviet literary critics. So it will not be at all surprising that in two editions of The Captain's Daughter, published in the series " Literary monuments”, Pushkin’s work is called a novel, and M.I. Gilelson and I.B. Mushina, which we have already quoted here, is called “The Tale of A.S. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter"
In other words, our great theorist fully confirmed our greatest practitioner: new experience The "modern view of the past" is the artist's invention, it is the subjective attitude of the creator to the past (in a broader sense - to time, to the era), to known and therefore undistorted historical facts.
Let us recall Pushkin's interpretation of the novel, which was quoted by L.I. Timofeev. Literally, it sounds like this: “In our time, by the word novel we mean a historical era developed in a fictional narrative.” And let's compare it with what M.M. writes about the novel. Bakhtin: “The depiction of the past in the novel does not at all imply the modernization of this past. On the contrary, a truly objective depiction of the past as past is possible only in the novel. Modernity with its new experience remains in the very form of vision, in the depth, sharpness, breadth and liveliness of this vision ... "
And how many storylines are in The Captain's Daughter? It seems that for the first time N.N. Strakhov, in an article devoted not even to Pushkin's work, but to L. Tolstoy's War and Peace, began to insist on only one line on which the entire plot of Pushkin's work was strung: “The Captain's Daughter is a story about how Pyotr Grinev married daughter of Captain Mironov. The title of the article G.P. Makogonenko "Historical novel about people's war” testifies to another - and also only one! - storyline. Finally, V.G. Marantsman calls The Captain's Daughter "a story about the Pugachev rebellion."
Who is right? We read in a special study:
B.V. Tomashevsky, naming the small form of the narrative prose work short story, and a long one - a novel, stipulated that the boundary between them could not be firmly established: "Thus, in Russian terminology, for a medium-sized narrative, the name of a story is often assigned"14. But in the future he does not return to the story. Having laid the short story as the basis of narrative prose as a unit of measure, he distinguishes between a collection of short stories (for example, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes) and short stories combined into a novel. In the latter case, according to B.V. Tomashevsky, the endings of the short stories are cut off, their motives are confused, i.e. everything is done to turn the short story from independent work in plot element novel:
Ultimately, it is not the size that matters, but the number of storylines developed in the narrative. If there are several such lines, we are dealing with a novel or (we will not break the usual, well-established, but, in my opinion, absurd idea about the connection between the genre of a literary thing and its volume) with a story - a small novel. If there is one, we have before us a story or a short story (explaining their differences is beyond the scope of our author's task).
About the role of Zurin in The Captain's Daughter and how B.V. Tomashevsky, we will have the opportunity to talk in more detail. And as for combining short stories into a novel, or, as B.V. Tomashevsky, to linking them together there, then, according to the fair remark of the commentator of the book Tomashevsky S.N. Broitman, such a formalistic explanation of the genre of the novel is not accepted modern science and has long since been rejected. Back in the 20s of the XX century about the inconsistency of such an explanation genre nature The novel was written by our outstanding scientist M.M. Bakhtin, whose works on the novel and the novel word have not lost their relevance today.
Pushkin himself, having sent first the first part of The Captain's Daughter (end of September 1836), and then its entire text (October 1836) to the censor P.A. Korsakov, invariably calls his work a novel. But the very first response to the Captain's Daughter, just published in Sovremennik, belongs to V.F. Odoevsky, recorded that Pushkin's friend perceives this work as a story.
Externally, The Captain's Daughter is similar to the "family legends" highly valued by Pushkin. All events are transmitted through the eyes of Grinev, who takes notes, and are instructive for his grandson, that is, a contemporary of Pushkin, and therefore for his contemporary nobility. Pushkin and many researchers of his work called The Captain's Daughter a novel; the poet himself defined the novel as "a historical epoch developed in a fictional narrative."
However, there is another point of view, according to which The Captain's Daughter is a lyrical story with a bright and strong historical basis.
Novel- an epic prose genre in which a comprehensive picture of the whole way of life is recreated, deployed in a complex and complete action, striving for drama and isolation.
Tale- an epic prose genre, smaller in volume than a novel, but larger than a short story or short story. The plot of the story covers a certain chain of episodes (events) that gravitate towards the chronicle.
While working on The History of Pugachev and The Captain's Daughter, Pushkin clearly understood: there could be no union between the nobility and the peasantry. However, the only force capable of public administration in Russia, he saw in the nobility. it social contradiction with a huge artistic power appeared in the novel. One of the researchers of A.S. Pushkin Yu.M. Lotman noted: “The entire artistic fabric of The Captain’s Daughter is clearly divided into two ideological and stylistic layers, subordinate to the image of the worlds - noble and peasant. It would be an unacceptable simplification that prevents penetration into Pushkin’s true intention, to consider that the noble world is depicted in the story only satirically , and the peasant one - only sympathetically, as well as to assert that everything poetic in the noble camp belongs, but to Pushkin's opinion, not specifically to the noble, but to the national principle.
The figurative world of the "captain's daughter"
The artistic idea of the novel is concentrated in its epigraph, folk proverb"Keep honor from a young age." It is expressed through the disclosure of the images of almost all the main characters of the work - Grinev and Shvabrin, Pugachev and Captain Mironov.
“The central figure of the work is Pugachev. All the plot lines of the story converge to it. Love affair"The Captain's Daughter", the relationship between Masha Mironova and Grinev is significant only because they motivate the plot of the "strange" relationship between Grinev and Pugachev: in fact, unauthorized (half a cover of chance) appearance of a nobleman faithful to his military duty, an officer of government troops, in the camp Pugachev for help,” writes E. N. Kupreyanova, a researcher of Pushkin’s novel.
Illustration for the novel by A.S. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter" - woodcuts by N.V. Favorsky
Pugachev of Pushkin - a talented leader of a spontaneous movement, the first full-blooded folk character in the work of Pushkin and in Russian literature in general. Without idealizing his hero, showing him as tough, and at some moments - scary, Pushkin at the same time emphasizes his most important qualities: purposefulness and willpower, the ability to remember and appreciate good, willingness to Hard time come to the rescue and what may seem strange at first glance - justice. In this regard, his actions in relation to Shvabrin, Grinev, Masha Mironova are characteristic. There are no figures close to this character in The Captain's Daughter either among Pugachev's closest associates or among his opponents. To some extent, Pugachev, in Pushkin's perception, is a lonely and tragic person: he realizes the futility of his enterprise, understands the inevitability of his death. But he cannot refuse rebellion. To understand the motives of his behavior, his attitude to what is happening, the moral of the Kalmyk fairy tale, which he tells Grinev, helps: “... than to eat carrion for three hundred years, better time drink living blood, and then what God will give!”
Quite ordinary, in comparison with Pugachev, Pyotr Andreevich Grinev looks, but it is this perception that is consistent with Pushkin's intention. Pugachev is a historical figure, significant and exceptional. The figure of Grinev is fictional and ordinary.
Grinev's name (in the draft version he was called Bulanin) was not chosen by chance. On January 10, 1755, the end of the trial of Pugachev and the Pugachevites was announced. The name of Lieutenant Grinev is listed among those who "were under guard, being at first suspected of communicating with the villains, but, as a result of the investigation, turned out to be innocent."
Grinev is a representative of the impoverished noble nobility of Catherine's time, belonging to which Pushkin was proud and regretted the "humiliation" of whose social position.
At first glance, some Sissy”, Who cannot be let go anywhere without the constant supervision of Uncle Savelyich, a sort of silly and undersized, Grinev subsequently appears before the reader as a person capable of extraordinary deeds (an episode with a sheepskin coat donated to the “counselor”). It is this independence, and not only the very fact of donating a hare sheepskin coat, as it turned out, that distinguishes Grinev from many. He is able not only to sincerely love, but also to go to the end in the struggle for his feeling, for the honor and dignity of both himself and his beloved girl. In this struggle, he will once again show his ability, without betraying anyone, to accept independent solutions and take responsibility for them. His coming to Pugachev does not look like a betrayal in comparison with the actions of Schvabria and in relation to the oath and duty to the Fatherland.
There is also Grinev's character trait, hidden from the first glance. The novel was written in his name, by his hand. These are his notes for his grandson, and in them Pyotr Andreevich Grinev does not present himself better than he really was. He is truthful and sometimes merciless to himself: in assessments, in the transfer of actions, in the characterization of thoughts.
By the will of fate, old people dear to Pushkin's heart turn out to be drawn into the whirlpool of events: the servant Savelich, Captain Mironov and his wife, infinitely devoted to him.
Of course, Savelich, to whom Grinev treats with tender love and warmth, could not be otherwise. Too much good memories Pushkin’s “mothers and nannies” left in Pushkin’s heart: both Arina Rodionovna and uncle Nikita Kozlov, who kept him sincere devotion all his life. The uncle knew how to do things that Pushkin appreciated. Once in St. Petersburg, immediately after the Lyceum, when the master set the sovereign against himself with his “outrageous” poems, Nikita Kozlov, in the absence of Alexander, did not let the gendarmes into the apartment with a search: “The master is not at home, but without him it’s impossible.”
Sometimes offended by the strict Savelich, grumbling at his grumbling, "excessive" chores, Grinev, however, pays his uncle with his sincere, almost filial love. Love for love.
Grinev warmly treats the Mironov family as well. Materials for the plot of the novel, in particular about the family of the commandant of the fortress, Pushkin could also draw from the stories of I.A. Krylov, whose childhood was spent in Yaitsky town and in Orenburg. The image of Captain Ivan Kuzmich Mironov, a modest and inconspicuous officer of a provincial garrison, but a firm and prudent commander, rising to true heroism at the time of the siege of the fortress, was probably suggested by the fabulist's memories of his father, captain Andrey Krylov, an officer of the Yaitsky town besieged by the Pugachevites.
FROM highest respect the character of the captain Vasilisa Yegorovna Mironova is also written out. At the first meeting with Grinev, she appears as an old woman “in a padded jacket and with a scarf on her head. She unwinds the threads ”- a sort of classic patriarchal image. In fact, Vasilisa Yegorovna Mironova is the actual head of the fortress; out of the kindness of her soul, both Captain Mironov and all the servicemen in the garrison obey her in everyday life. And at the decisive moment, this does not make you ashamed and bitter.
Here is a heroic and tragic scene in which her real character is revealed: “Several robbers dragged Vasilisa Yegorovna onto the porch, disheveled and stripped naked. One of them had already dressed up in her shower jacket. Others carried featherbeds, chests, tea utensils, linen and all the junk. "My fathers! cried the poor old woman. - Release your soul to repentance. Fathers, take me to Ivan Kuzmich." Suddenly she looked at the gallows and recognized her husband. "Villains!" she shouted in a frenzy. "What did you do to him? You are my light, Ivan Kuzmich, a daring soldier's head! neither Prussian bayonets nor Turkish bullets; you did not lay down your stomach in a fair battle, but perished from a fugitive convict! "Take away old witch"- said Pugachev. Then a young Cossack hit her on the head with a saber, and she fell dead on the steps of the porch."
“The name of the girl Mironova,” Pushkin noted in a letter to the censor P.A. Korsakov, - fictional. My novel is based on a legend, once heard by me, that one of the officers who betrayed his duty and joined the Pugachev gangs was pardoned by the Empress at the request of her elderly father, who threw himself at her feet. The novel, as you will see, has gone far from the truth.
Masha Mironova is a modest, shy, silent girl. Brought up in a Christian spirit, she respects her mother and father, without affectation and coquetry behaves with guest officers, with dignity and humility she experiences all the events that take place. Experiencing a heartfelt inclination for Grinev, Masha does not give her consent to marriage without the blessing of his parents. Sensitive and meek Masha, fainting at the sound of shots, at a difficult moment in her life, for the sake of saving her loved one, makes a decisive and courageous act. Masha is the spiritual and moral starting point in the novel named after her. She asks the Empress for mercy, not justice. This is a very important topic for Pushkin. The writer's position is based on the assertion of humanity as the highest moral law. That is why his main characters do not die: Masha is saved by Pugachev, who does what he is told not by political considerations, but human feeling. Grinev's pardon is in the hands of the empress, who follows not a schematic law, but mercy.
Pushkin was not the ideologist of the peasant revolution; he was far from "calling Russia to the ax." With his novel, he warns his contemporaries and descendants about the bloody lawlessness that always comes with rebellion, about its despotism and uselessness. Pushkin himself will derive this exact warning formula: "God forbid to see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless."
Previously, students did not have questions about which prose genre refers to "The Captain's Daughter". Is this a novel or a short story? "Of course, the second one!" - so would have answered any teenager ten years ago. Indeed, in the old textbooks on literature, the genre of "The Captain's Daughter" (story or novel) was not questioned.
In modern literary criticism
Today, most researchers believe that the story of Captain Grinev is a novel. But what is the difference between these two genres? "The Captain's Daughter" - a story or a novel? Why did Pushkin himself call his work a story, and modern researchers refuted his statement? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary, first of all, to understand the features of both the story and the novel. Let's start with the largest form a prose work can have.Novel
Today, this genre is the most common type. epic literature. The novel describes a significant period in the life of the characters. There are many characters in it. And often in the plot there are completely unexpected images and, it would seem, have no effect on the overall course of events. In reality, there can be nothing superfluous in real literature. And a rather gross mistake is made by one who reads "War and Peace" and " Quiet Don", skipping the chapters on the war. But let's get back to the work" The Captain's Daughter ".
Is this a novel or a short story? This question comes up often, and not only when we are talking About The Captain's Daughter. The fact is that there are no clear genre boundaries. But there are features, the presence of which indicates belonging to one or another type of prose. Recall the plot of Pushkin's work. A considerable period of time covers "The Captain's Daughter". "Is this a novel or a short story?" - answering such a question, one should remember how the main character appeared before the readers at the beginning of the work.
The story of the life of an officer
Landowner Pyotr Grinev recalls his early years. In his youth, he was naive and even somewhat frivolous. But the events that he had to go through - meeting with the robber Pugachev, meeting Masha Mironova and her parents, Shvabrin's betrayal - changed him. He knew that honor must be preserved from a young age. But true price I understood these words only at the end of my misadventures. The personality of the protagonist has undergone significant changes. Before us - salient feature novel. But why, then, was the work "The Captain's Daughter" attributed to another genre for so long?
Story or novel?
There are not many differences between these genres. The story is a kind of intermediate link between the novel and the short story. In the work short prose there are several characters, events cover a small time period. There are more characters in the story, there are also minor ones who do not play important role in the main storyline. In such a work, the author does not show the hero in different periods his life (in childhood, adolescence, youth). So, "The Captain's Daughter" - is it a novel or a story "? Perhaps the second.
The narration is conducted on behalf of the protagonist, who is already in old age. But almost nothing is said about the life of the landowner Pyotr Andreevich (only that he was widowed). Main character- a young officer, but not that middle-aged nobleman acting as a storyteller.
Events in the work cover only a few years. So this is a story? Not at all. As already mentioned above, feature novel is the development of the protagonist's personality. And this is not just present in The Captain's Daughter. This is main theme. After all, it is no coincidence that Pushkin used a wise Russian proverb as an epigraph.
"Is the captain's daughter a novel or a story? To give the most accurate answer to this question, you should know the basic facts from the history of writing this work.
Book about Pugachev
In the thirties of the 19th century, the novels of Walter Scott were very popular in Russia. Inspired by creativity English writer, Pushkin decided to write a work that would reflect events from the history of Russia. The theme of rebellion has long attracted Alexander Sergeevich, as evidenced by the story "Dubrovsky". However, the story of Pugachev is a completely different matter.
Pushkin created controversial image. Pugachev in his book is not only an impostor and a criminal, but also a man who is not without nobility. One day he meets a young officer, and he presents him with a sheepskin coat. The point, of course, is not in the gift, but in relation to Emelyan, the offspring of a noble family. Pyotr Grinev did not show the arrogance characteristic of the representatives of his estate. And then, during the capture of the fortress, he acted like a true nobleman.
As is often the case with writers, in the process of working on a work, Pushkin somewhat departed from original intention. Initially, he planned to make Pugachev the main character. Then - an officer who went over to the side of the impostor. The writer scrupulously collected information about the Pugachev era. He traveled to Southern Urals, where the main events of this period took place, and talked with eyewitnesses. But later the writer decided to give his work a memoir form, and introduced the image of a noble young nobleman as the main character. So the work "The Captain's Daughter" was born.
Historical novel or historical novel?
So after all, what genre does Pushkin's work belong to? In the nineteenth century, a story was called what is called a story today. The concept of "novel" by that time, of course, was known to Russian writers. But Pushkin nevertheless called his work a story. If you do not analyze the work "The Captain's Daughter", it really can hardly be called a novel. After all, this genre is associated for many with famous books Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. And everything that is in volume fewer novels"War and Peace", "Idiot", "Anna Karenina", according to the generally accepted opinion, is a story or a story.in Wikisource
But it is worth mentioning one more feature of the novel. In a work of this genre, the narrative cannot be focused on one hero. In "The Captain's Daughter" great attention given to Pugachev. In addition, he introduced into the plot another historical personality- Empress Catherine II. So, "The Captain's Daughter" is a historical novel.
« Captain's daughter"- one of the first and most famous works Russian historical prose, a story by A. S. Pushkin, dedicated to the events of the Peasant War of 1773-1775 led by Emelyan Pugachev.
It was first published in 1836 in the Sovremennik magazine without the author's signature. At the same time, the chapter on the peasant revolt in the village of Grinyov remained unpublished, which was explained by censorship considerations.
The plot of the story echoes Europe's first historical novel, Waverley, or Sixty Years Ago, which was published without an author's name in 1814 and was soon translated into the main languages of Europe. Separate episodes date back to the novel by M. N. Zagoskin "Yuri Miloslavsky" (1829).
The story is based on the notes of the fifty-year-old nobleman Pyotr Andreevich Grinev, written by him during the reign of Emperor Alexander and dedicated to the “Pugachevshchina”, in which the seventeen-year-old officer Pyotr Grinev, due to a “strange chain of circumstances”, took an involuntary part.
Pyotr Andreevich with light irony recalls his childhood, the childhood of a noble undergrowth. His father Andrey Petrovich Grinev, in his youth, “served under Count Munnich and retired as prime minister in 17 ... year. Since then, he lived in his Simbirsk village, where he married the girl Avdotya Vasilyevna Yu., the daughter of a poor local nobleman. The Grinev family had nine children, but all Petrusha's brothers and sisters "died in infancy." “Mother was still my belly,” Grinev recalls, “as I was already enrolled in the Semyonovsky regiment as a sergeant.” From the age of five, Petrusha has been looked after by the stirrup Savelich, “for sober behavior” granted to him as uncles. “Under his supervision, in the twelfth year, I learned Russian literacy and could very sensibly judge the properties of a greyhound male.” Then a teacher appeared - the Frenchman Beaupré, who did not understand the "meaning of this word", since he was a hairdresser in his own country, and a soldier in Prussia. Young Grinev and the Frenchman Beaupré quickly got along, and although Beaupre was contractually obliged to teach Petrusha "in French, German and all sciences", he preferred to soon learn from his student "to chat in Russian." Grinev's upbringing ends with the expulsion of Beaupre, convicted of debauchery, drunkenness and neglect of the duties of a teacher.
Until the age of sixteen, Grinev lives "undersized, chasing pigeons and playing leapfrog with the yard boys." In the seventeenth year, the father decides to send his son to the service, but not to St. Petersburg, but to the army "to smell gunpowder" and "pull the strap." He sends him to Orenburg, instructing him to serve faithfully "to whom you swear", and to remember the proverb: "take care of the dress again, and honor from youth." All the "brilliant hopes" of young Grinev for happy life in St. Petersburg collapsed, “boredom in the deaf and distant side” awaited ahead.
Approaching Orenburg, Grinev and Savelich fell into a snowstorm. A random person who met on the road leads a wagon lost in a snowstorm to a litter. While the wagon was “quietly moving” towards the dwelling, Pyotr Andreevich had a terrible dream in which the fifty-year-old Grinev sees something prophetic, connecting it with the “strange circumstances” of his later life. A man with a black beard lies in the bed of Father Grinev, and mother, calling him Andrei Petrovich and “an imprisoned father,” wants Petrusha to “kiss his hand” and ask for blessings. A man swings an ax, the room is filled with dead bodies; Grinev stumbles over them, slips in bloody puddles, but his "terrible man" "calls affectionately", saying: "Do not be afraid, come under my blessing."
In gratitude for the rescue, Grinev gives the “counselor”, dressed too lightly, his hare coat and brings a glass of wine, for which he thanks him with a low bow: “Thank you, your honor! God bless you for your goodness." The appearance of the “counselor” seemed “wonderful” to Grinev: “He was about forty, medium height, thin and broad-shouldered. AT black beard gray hair showed him; alive big eyes so they ran. His face had a rather pleasant, but roguish expression.
The Belogorsk fortress, where Grinev was sent to serve from Orenburg, meets the young man not with formidable bastions, towers and ramparts, but turns out to be a village surrounded by a wooden fence. Instead of a brave garrison - disabled people who do not know where the left is, and where Right side, instead of deadly artillery - an old cannon clogged with debris.
The commandant of the fortress Ivan Kuzmich Mironov is an officer "from soldiers' children", an uneducated man, but an honest and kind one. His wife, Vasilisa Egorovna, manages him completely and looks at the affairs of the service as if they were her own business. Soon Grinev becomes "native" for the Mironovs, and he himself " discreetly[…] became attached to a good family.” In the daughter of the Mironovs, Masha, Grinev "found a prudent and sensitive girl."
The service does not burden Grinev, he became interested in reading books, practicing translations and writing poetry. At first, he becomes close to Lieutenant Shvabrin, the only person in the fortress who is close to Grinev in terms of education, age and occupation. But soon they quarrel - Shvabrin mockingly criticized the love "song" written by Grinev, and also allowed himself dirty hints about the "custom and customs" of Masha Mironova, to whom this song was dedicated. Later, in a conversation with Masha, Grinev will find out the reasons for the stubborn slander with which Shvabrin pursued her: the lieutenant wooed her, but was refused. “I do not like Alexei Ivanovich. He is very disgusting to me, ”admits Masha Grinev. The quarrel is resolved by a duel and wounding Grinev.
Masha takes care of the wounded Grinev. Young people confess to each other "in a heartfelt inclination", and Grinev writes a letter to the priest, "asking for parental blessings." But Masha is a dowry. The Mironovs have “only one girl Palashka souls”, while the Grinevs have three hundred souls of peasants. Father forbids Grinev to marry and promises to transfer him from Belogorsk fortress“somewhere far away” so that the “nonsense” passes.
After this letter to Grinev's life became unbearable, he falls into gloomy thoughtfulness, seeks solitude. "I was afraid to either go crazy or fall into debauchery." And only “unexpected incidents,” Grinev writes, “which had an important impact on my whole life, suddenly gave my soul a strong and good shock.”
At the beginning of October 1773, the commandant of the fortress received secret message about Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev, who, posing as "the late emperor Peter III”, “gathered a villainous gang, caused an uproar in the Yaik villages and already took and ruined several fortresses.” The commandant was asked to "take appropriate measures to repulse the aforementioned villain and impostor."
Soon everyone was talking about Pugachev. A Bashkir with "outrageous sheets" was captured in the fortress. But it was not possible to interrogate him - the Bashkir's tongue was torn out. From day to day, the inhabitants of the Belogorsk fortress expect an attack by Pugachev.
The rebels appear unexpectedly - the Mironovs did not even have time to send Masha to Orenburg. At the first attack, the fortress was taken. Residents greet the Pugachevites with bread and salt. The prisoners, among whom was Grinev, are taken to the square to swear allegiance to Pugachev. The first to die on the gallows is the commandant, who refused to swear allegiance to the "thief and impostor." Under the blow of a saber, Vasilisa Yegorovna falls dead. Death on the gallows awaits Grinev, but Pugachev pardons him. A little later, Grinev learns from Savelich "the reason for mercy" - the ataman of the robbers turned out to be the tramp who received from him, Grinev, a hare sheepskin coat.
In the evening, Grinev was invited to the “great sovereign”. “I pardoned you for your virtue,” Pugachev says to Grinev, “... Do you promise to serve me with zeal?” But Grinev is a “natural nobleman” and “sweared allegiance to the empress”. He cannot even promise Pugachev not to serve against him. “My head is in your power,” he says to Pugachev, “let me go - thank you, execute me - God will judge you.”
Grinev's sincerity amazes Pugachev, and he releases the officer "on all four sides." Grinev decides to go to Orenburg for help - after all, Masha remained in the fortress in a strong fever, whom the priest passed off as her niece. He is especially worried that Shvabrin, who swore allegiance to Pugachev, was appointed commandant of the fortress.
But in Orenburg, Grinev was denied help, and a few days later the rebel troops surrounded the city. Long days of siege dragged on. Soon, by chance, a letter from Masha falls into Grinev's hands, from which he learns that Shvabrin is forcing her to marry him, threatening otherwise to extradite her to the Pugachevites. Again Grinev turns to the military commandant for help, and is again refused.
Grinev and Savelich leave for the Belogorsk fortress, but they are captured by the rebels near Berdskaya Sloboda. And again, providence brings Grinev and Pugachev together, giving the officer a chance to fulfill his intention: having learned from Grinev essence case, on which he goes to the Belogorsk fortress, Pugachev himself decides to release the orphan and punish the offender.
I. O. Miodushevsky. "Presenting a letter to Catherine II", based on the plot of the story "The Captain's Daughter", 1861.
On the way to the fortress, a confidential conversation takes place between Pugachev and Grinev. Pugachev is clearly aware of his doom, expecting betrayal, first of all, from his comrades, he knows that he can’t wait for the “mercy of the empress”. For Pugachev, as for an eagle from a Kalmyk fairy tale, which he tells Grinev with “wild inspiration”, “than eating carrion for three hundred years, it is better to drink living blood once; and then what God will give!”. Grinev draws a different moral conclusion from the fairy tale, which surprises Pugachev: “To live by murder and robbery means for me to peck at carrion.”
In the Belogorsk fortress, Grinev, with the help of Pugachev, frees Masha. And although the enraged Shvabrin reveals the deceit to Pugachev, he is full of generosity: “Execute, execute like this, favor, favor like that: this is my custom.” Grinev and Pugachev part "friendly".
Grinev sends Masha as a bride to his parents, and he himself remains in the army due to his “debt of honor”. The war "with robbers and savages" is "boring and petty." Grinev's observations are filled with bitterness: "God forbid to see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless."
The end of the military campaign coincides with the arrest of Grinev. Appearing before the court, he is calm in his confidence that he can be justified, but Shvabrin slanders him, exposing Grinev as a spy sent from Pugachev to Orenburg. Grinev is convicted, shame awaits him, exile to Siberia for an eternal settlement.
Grinev is saved from shame and exile by Masha, who goes to the queen "to ask for mercy." Walking through the garden of Tsarskoye Selo, Masha met a middle-aged lady. In this lady, everything "involuntarily attracted the heart and inspired power of attorney." Having learned who Masha was, she offered her help, and Masha sincerely told the lady the whole story. The lady turned out to be the Empress, who pardoned Grinev just as Pugachev pardoned both Masha and Grinev in his time.
Screen adaptations
The story has been filmed many times, including abroad.
Notes
Links
Works by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin Novel in verse Eugene Onegin poems Poems Fairy tales Artistic prose historical prose History of Pugachev History of Peter
Other List of works by Pushkin Pushkin's translations from foreign languages
Unfinished works are in italics
