Saltykov-Shchedrin, a Russian satirist, wrote his moralizing stories in the form of fairy tales. The difficult years of reaction and strict censorship, which carefully monitored the activities of writers, blocked all roads for writers who expressed their opinion on political events. Fairy tales gave the author the opportunity to express his opinion without fear of censorship. We offer brief analysis fairy tales, this material can be used both for work in literature lessons in grade 7, and for preparing for the exam.
Brief analysis
Year of writing - 1883
History of creation - The years of reaction could not allow openly expressing their Political Views, and the writer veiled socially - political sense their statements in the form of fairy tales.
Subject- Socio-political background implies political topic expressed in ridicule of the Russian liberal intelligentsia.
Composition — Compositional construction fairy tales are simple: the beginning of a fairy tale, a description of the life, and death of a gudgeon.
Genre- The genre of "The Wise Minnow" is an epic allegorical tale.
Direction— Satire.
History of creation
The great Russian satirist had the time to live and create in the years of reaction. The authorities and censorship carefully monitored what entered the minds of citizens, hushing up political problems in every possible way.
The harsh reality of the events taking place had to be hidden from the people. People who openly expressed their progressive views were severely punished. People engaged in literary activities tried by all means to convey to the people revolutionary ideas. Poets and prose writers used various artistic means to tell the whole truth about fate ordinary people and their oppressors.
The history of the creation of satirical tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin was a direct necessity against the policy of the state. For ridicule human vices, civic cowardice and cowardice the writer used satirical devices, giving human characteristics various beasts and animals.
Subject
The theme of "The Wise Minnow" includes the socio-political problems of the society of that era. The work mercilessly ridicules the behavior of the inhabitants of the reactionary era, their cowardly inaction and indifference.
In the moralizing work of Saltykov-Shchedrin main character- a liberal fish, which by its existence fully reflects the policy of the liberal-minded intelligentsia. This image contains the main idea of the tale, which denounces intellectuals - liberals, hiding from the truth of life behind their own cowardice, trying to spend their lives unnoticed. It pops up here again eternal theme that time when everyone behaves like this, thinking only about “no matter how something happens, no matter how something happens”.
The denunciation of such a society clearly proves that such behavior will lead to nothing, the point is that anyway, you will not be able to escape by hiding in your hole.
In The Wise Gudgeon, the analysis of the work is impossible without determining the meaning of the title that the author gave to his tale. allegorical and satirical tale implies a satirical title.
There is a gudgeon who considers himself "wise". In his understanding, this is true. The gudgeon's parents managed to live long, they died of old age. This is what they bequeathed own son- minnow, "live quietly and calmly, don't go anywhere, you will live happily ever after." The author puts sarcasm into the name of the minnow "wise". It is impossible to be wise, living a gray, meaningless life, fearing everyone and everything.
Composition
Features of the composition of the writer's fairy tale is that this fairy tale is an allegory. The exposition of the tale at the beginning of the development of the action. The beginning begins in it: it tells about the minnow and his parents, about the hard life and ways of surviving. The father makes a testament to the gudgeon how to live in order to save his life.
The plot of the action: the minnow understood his father well, accepted his wishes for action. Next comes the development of the action, the story of how the minnow lived, did not live, but vegetated. All his life he was trembling, from any sound, noise, knock. He was afraid all his life, and he hid all the time.
The climax of the tale is that when, finally, the gudgeon thought about what it would be like if everyone lived the way he lives. The gudgeon was horrified when he presented such a picture. After all, the whole gudgeon family would have bred in this way.
The denouement comes: the gudgeon disappears. Where and how remained unknown, but everything suggests that he died a natural death. The author sarcastically emphasizes that no one will eat an old, skinny minnow, and even a “wise one”.
The whole tale of the satirist is built on allegory. Heroes of a fairy tale, events, environment- all this in an allegorical sense reflects human life that time.
All satirical tales of the writer are written in response to some event or social phenomenon. Fairy tale " wise gudgeon”is the writer’s reaction to the assassination attempt by the People’s Will forces on the monarch Alexander II.
What the work of the satirist teaches is shown by the death of the gudgeon. We must live brightly, for the benefit of society, and not hide from problems.
Genre
The reactionary era led to the birth different ways expressing his thoughts, the author of The Wise Gudgeon used for this the genre of an allegorical fairy tale, of course, a satirical direction. The fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" is an epic essay for adults. The satirical orientation indicates the denunciation of social vices, their harsh ridicule. In a short fairy tale, the author revealed interrelated vices - cowardice and inaction. It is typical for Saltykov-Shchedrin to portray the unpleasant aspects of life through hyperbolic images and the grotesque.
wise scribbler, wise scribbler summary
fairy tale/fable
Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin
December 1882 - first half of January 1883
newspaper "Common cause" (Geneva)
(in some modern children's publications - "The Wise Gudgeon") - a satirical tale from the cycle "Tales for Children fair age» M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, published in 1883.
- 1 History of creation and publication
- 2 Criticism
- 3 Plot
- 4 Using an expression
- 5 Screen adaptations
- 6 Illustrations
- 7 Notes
History of creation and publication
Written in December 1882 - the first half of January 1883. First published in September 1883 in No. 55 of the émigré newspaper The Common Cause (Geneva), p. 2-4, along with fairy tales " selfless hare” and “Poor Wolf”, under the editorial heading “Tales for children of a fair age”, without a signature. Russia for the first time - in the journal "Domestic Notes" No. 1, 1884, p. 275-280 (January 16). As a book edition - in the publication of the free hectography "Public benefit", under the general title "Fairy tales" and under the signature of N. Shchedrin. The Geneva edition during 1883 (before the publication of the tales in Otechestvennye Zapiski) was issued eight times in various formats (six times with the date of issue and two times without). The publication was distributed by the participants " People's Will”, as evidenced by the seal on a number of surviving copies (“Narodnaya Volya Book Agents”). One of the editions of the collection with the designation of the release date, unlike all the others, contains only one fairy tale - “ wise scribbler».
Criticism
According to commentators and critics, the tale is dedicated to satirical criticism of cowardice and cowardice, which seized the public mood of part of the intelligentsia after the defeat of the Narodnaya Volya.
The writer and critic Konstantin Arseniev noticed that the tale "The Wise Scribbler" echoes the "Fourth Evening" from "Poshekhonsky Tales", which appeared in No. 10 " Domestic notes” for 1883, where the publicist Kramolnikov denounces liberals hiding from the harsh reality in “burrows”, stating that they will still not be able to escape in this way.
Subsequently, on the basis of this similarity and considering its appearance in Russia in January 1884 as the first publication of the tale, the writer Ivanov-Razumnik concluded that the idea of "Piskar" was originally expressed in the third Poshekhon "evening". In reality, Kramolnikov’s speech in Poshekhonsky Tales does not portend, but repeats the idea already written and published in the foreign “ common cause» fairy tales «The wise scribbler».
Plot
The gudgeon lives in the river. His parents have lived through Aredov's eyelids and die a natural death. Before his death, the gudgeon's father tells him to always be careful (after all, danger is everywhere), and he himself almost got into his ear. The gudgeon decides to dig a small hole for himself so that no one but him can fit in there, and he never leaves the hole during the day, and at night he crawls out of it for a short time to perform a nocturnal exercise.
So many years pass. The minnow is afraid of everything and does not crawl out of the hole. One day he sees in a dream how he wins two hundred thousand rubles in the lottery. Minnow lives for a hundred years, sick and old, but glad that he dies like a father and mother. Falling asleep, he sees old ambitious dreams, as if he had won two hundred thousand and swallowed the pike himself. Falling asleep, the gudgeon forgets, his snout crawls out of the hole, and after that the gudgeon inexplicably disappears. The story ends with a guess:
Most likely, he died himself, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow an ailing, dying minnow, and besides, a wise one?
Using an expression
The expression "wise minnow" was used as a common noun, in particular, by V. I. Lenin in the fight against Russian liberals, former "left Octobrists" who switched to supporting the right-liberal model of constitutional democracy after the dissolution of the Duma of the first convocation by Nicholas II:
Oh, wise minnows of the notorious progressive "intelligentsia"! Protection of the Peaceful Renovators by the Intelligentsia Radicals, Turn central authority Party of Cadets to a peaceful renewal immediately after the instructions on forms, these are all typical examples of liberal tactics. The government is one step to the right, and we are two steps to the right! You see - we are again legal and peaceful, tactful and loyal, we will adapt even without forms, we will always adapt in relation to meanness! This seems to the liberal bourgeoisie realpolitik.
V. I. Lenin, Forgery by the government of the thought and tasks of social democracy, 1906, PSS V. I. Lenin, vol. 14, p. 199. Archived from the original on November 21, 2012.
According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions”, Shchedrin, under the guise of a minnow, portrayed the Russian liberal intelligentsia, concerned only with survival; in an ironic and allegorical sense, the expression is used in the sense: a conformist person, a socially or politically passive cowardly person who elevates his conformism to the rank of philosophy.
Screen adaptations
In 1979, director V. Karavaev released a cartoon of the same name based on the fairy tale (Soyuzmultfilm studio, duration 9 minutes 23 seconds).
Illustrations
The tale has been illustrated many times, incl. such artists as Kukryniksy (1939), Y. Severin (1978), M. Skobelev and A. Eliseev (1973)
Notes
Wikiquote has quotations related to- 1 2 According to the spelling rules of the XIX century, the word "gudgeon" in this tale traditionally written with "and" - "p And scar", including in modern academic (with comments) editions of Saltykov-Shchedrin. Some children's illustrated non-academic publications call the main character according to modern standards - "p e scary."
- 1 2 3 Comments by V. N. Baskakov, A. S. Bushmin to the publication: M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Fairy tales. Variegated letters // Collected works in twenty volumes. - Volume 16. - Book 1. - S. 425-435.
- K. K. Arseniev. Saltykov-Shchedrin. SPb., 1906, p. 218-219.
- M. E. Saltykov (Shchedrin). Works, vol. V. M. - L., GIZ, 1927, p. 496-497.
- Cit. according to the commentary of T. Sumarokova in: Saltykov-Shchedrin, M. E. The history of one city; Tales / Foreword Y. Kozlovsky; Comment. T. Sumarokova; Il A. Samokhvalova. - M.: Pravda, 1984. - 400 p., ill. - S. 395.
- The instruction of the tsarist government prohibiting the issuance of election forms to illegal parties was introduced after the dissolution of the Duma of the first convocation by Nicholas II.
- The wise gudgeon // encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions / comp. Vadim Serov. - M .: "Lokid-Press", 2003 ..
- Kukryniksy, illustration for the fairy tale The Wise Piskar. Archived from the original on November 21, 2012.
- Wise minnow, 1978
- M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. "Wise minnow". Drawings by M. Skobelev and A. Eliseev. Ed. "Children's Literature", M. - 1973
| Saltykov-Shchedrin | |
|---|---|
| Novels and Chronicles |
Lord Golovlyov · History of one city · Poshekhonskaya antiquity · Monrepos refuge |
| Fairy tales | Lost conscience · Faithful Trezor · wild landlord · Karas-idealist · The Tale of the Zealous Boss · Bear in the province · Eagle Patron · · The story of how one man fed two generals · selfless hare · poor wolf · sane hare · Liberal · Konyaga · Adventure with Kramolnikov · Christ night · Christmas tale · Dried vobla · Virtues and Vices · The deceitful newspaperman and gullible reader · Watchful eye · Fool · Sheep-not remembering · Kissel · idle talk · Bogatyr · Petition Raven · Toy business people · Neighbours · village fire · Way-way |
| stories | Anniversary · kind soul · Spoiled children · Neighbours · Chizhikovo mountain |
| Essays | In the hospital for the insane · Gentlemen of Tashkent · Lord Molchaliny · Provincial essays · Diary of a provincial in St. Petersburg · Abroad · Letters to aunt · Innocent stories · Pompadours and pompadours · satires in prose · Modern idyll · well-intentioned speeches |
| Comedy | Death of Pazukhin · Shadows |
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Summary: Main character fairy tale The wise minnow is trying to save his existence and his life at any, all possible cost. He is afraid of everything in the world, hiding from everyone, from large and small fish, colorful crayfish, tiny water fleas and, of course, from humans. From his very young age, he often listened to stories from his father about the cruelty and deceit of man. They can put a worm, a fly or other bait on their line, or they can stretch a large and long seine all over the river, thereby raking in it all the living things that fall into these nets.
For a long time, the gudgeon compiled and wrote for himself how it is possible to avoid this or that trick and danger. He made such a narrow hole for himself that no one but himself could get into it. I decided to go out of the hole and look for food only at night or during the day, when life near the river freezes a little and calms down. Often he dreamed that he had won a lot of money and had grown very much, that even the insidious and big toothed pike was not terrible and dangerous for him. And so a hundred years passed. By his old age he did not start a family, he had no friends, no kids. The author censures this main character, since his whole life was useless and could not bring any benefit to anyone and could not make minnows his kind a little more perfect. You can read the fairy tale The Wise Minnow online for free on our website here. You can listen to it on audio. Leave your feedback and comments.
The text of the fairy tale The Wise Gudgeon
There lived a gudgeon. Both his father and mother were smart; Little by little, the Arid eyelids lived in the river and didn’t get into the ear or the pike in the haylo. And ordered the same for my son. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to live life, then look at both!”
And the young scribbler had a mind. He began to scatter with this mind and sees: no matter where he turns, he is cursed everywhere. All around, in the water, everything big fish swim, and he is the smallest of all; any fish can swallow him, but he cannot swallow anyone. Yes, and does not understand: why swallow? Cancer can cut it in half with a claw, a water flea can bite into the spine and torture to death. Even his brother minnow - and he, as soon as he sees that he has caught a mosquito, will rush to take it away with a whole herd. They will take it away and start fighting with each other, only they will ruffle a mosquito for free.
And the man? What kind of wicked creature is this! What tricks he invented, so that he, a scribbler, would be destroyed by a vain death! And seine, and nets, and administer, and norota, and, finally ... I will fish! It seems that it can be more stupid than oud? A thread, a hook on a thread, a worm or a fly on the hook are put on ... Yes, and how are they put on? In the most, one might say, unnatural position! And meanwhile, it is precisely on the hook of all that the gudgeon is caught!
The old father warned him more than once about oud. “Most of all, beware of the oud! - he said, - because even though it is the most stupid projectile, but with us, scribblers, what is more stupid is more true. They will throw us a fly, as if they want to take a nap on us; you cling to it - but death is in the fly!
The old man also told how one day he missed a little in the ear. At that time they were caught by a whole artel, they stretched a net over the entire width of the river, and so they dragged it about two miles along the bottom. Passion, how many fish then caught! And pikes, and perches, and chubs, and roaches, and loaches - even couch potato breams were raised from the mud from the bottom! And the scribblers lost count. And what fears he, the old gudgeon, had suffered while being dragged along the river, is neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen. He feels that he is being taken, but where he does not know. He sees that he has a pike on one side, and a perch on the other; he thinks: just about, now, either one or the other will eat him, but they don’t touch him ... “At that time, there was no time for food, brother, it was!” Everyone has one thing in mind: death has come! And how and why she came - no one understands.
Finally, they began to lower the wings of the seine, dragged it ashore and began to bring down the fish from the bobbin into the grass. It was then that he learned what an ear is. Something red flutters in the sand; gray clouds run up from him; and the heat is such that he immediately succumbed. Even without water, it's sickening, but here they still give in ... He hears - "bonfire", they say. And on the "bonfire" on this black something is laid, and in it the water, as if in a lake, during a storm, walks with a shaker. This is a "cauldron", they say. And in the end they began to say: put the fish into the “cauldron” - there will be an “ear”! And they started throwing our brother there. A fisherman will throw a fish - at first it will plunge, then, like a madman, it will jump out, then it will plunge again - and subside. "Uhi" means you've tasted it. They felled and felled at first indiscriminately, and then one old man looked at him and said: “What use is he, from the baby, for the fish soup! Let it grow in the river!” He took him under the gills, and let him into free water. And he, do not be stupid, in all the shoulder blades - home! He ran, and his squeaker peeped out of the hole neither alive nor dead ...
And what! no matter how much the old man explained at that time what an ear is and what it consists of, however, even if you raise it in the river, rarely does anyone have a sound idea about the ear!
But he, the minnow-son, perfectly remembered the teachings of the scribbler-father, and he wound it around his mustache. He was an enlightened minnow, moderately liberal, and he very firmly understood that living life is not like licking a whorl. “You have to live in such a way that no one notices,” he said to himself, “otherwise you will just disappear!” - and began to settle down. First of all, he invented such a hole for himself, so that he could climb into it, but no one else could get in! He hollowed out this hole with his nose whole year, and how much fear he took at that time, sleeping either in silt, or under water burdock, or in sedge. Finally, however, hollowed out for glory. Clean, tidy - just one fit just right. The second thing, about his life, he decided this: at night, when people, animals, birds and fish are sleeping, he will exercise, and during the day he will sit in a hole and tremble. But since he still needs to drink and eat, and he does not receive a salary and does not keep servants, he will run out of the hole around noon, when all the fish are already full, and, God willing, maybe a booger or two and hunt. And if he doesn’t provide, the hungry one will lie down in a hole, and will tremble again. For it is better not to eat, not to drink, than to lose life with a full stomach.
And so he did. Did exercise at night, in moonlight bathed, and during the day he climbed into a hole and trembled. Only at noon will he run out to grab something - but what can you do at noon! At this time, the mosquito hides under the leaf from the heat, and the insect buries itself under the bark. Swallows water - and the coven!
He lies day and day in a hole, does not sleep at night, does not eat a piece, and still thinks: “It seems that I am alive? Oh, what will happen tomorrow?
Doze off, a sinful deed, and in a dream he dreams that he has winning ticket and he won two hundred thousand on it. Beside himself with delight, he will roll over to the other side - lo and behold, he has a whole half of his snout sticking out of the hole ... What if at that time there was a baby bee nearby! after all, he would have pulled him out of the hole!
One day he woke up and sees: right in front of his hole is a cancer. He stands motionless, as if bewitched, staring at him with bone eyes. Only the whiskers move with the flow of water. That's when he got scared! And for half a day, until it got completely dark, this cancer was waiting for him, and in the meantime he was trembling, trembling all the time.
Another time, just before dawn he had time to return to the hole, he just yawned sweetly, in anticipation of sleep, - he looks out of nowhere, at the very hole, the pike is standing and clapping his teeth. And she, too, guarded him all day, as if she were fed up with the sight of him alone. And he blew a pike: he did not come out of the bark, and the Sabbath.
And not once, not twice, this happened to him, but almost every day. And every day he, trembling, won victories and overcomings, every day he exclaimed: “Glory to you, Lord! Alive!
But this is not enough: he did not marry and had no children, although his father had big family. He reasoned like this: “Father could have lived jokingly! At that time, the pikes were kinder, and perches did not covet us, small fry. And although once he was in the ear, and then there was an old man who rescued him! And now, as the fish have hatched in the rivers, and squeakers have hit in honor. So it’s not up to the family here, but how to live on your own!”
And the wise gudgeon of this kind lived for more than a hundred years. Everyone trembled, everyone trembled. He has no friends, no relatives; neither he to anyone, nor anyone to him. He doesn’t play cards, he doesn’t drink wine, he doesn’t smoke tobacco, he doesn’t chase red girls - he only trembles and thinks for one thought: “Thank God! Seems to be alive!
Even the pikes, in the end, and they began to praise him: “Now, if everyone lived like that, then it would be quiet in the river!” Yes, but they said it on purpose; they thought that he would introduce himself for praise - here, they say, I am! Here it and clap! But he did not succumb to this thing either, and once again defeated the intrigues of his enemies with his wisdom.
How many years have passed after a hundred years is unknown, only the wise gudgeon began to die. He lies in a hole and thinks: “Thank God, I am dying of my own death, just like my mother and father died.” And then he remembered the pike words: “Now, if everyone lived like this wise gudgeon lives ...” Come on, really, what would happen then?
He began to scatter the mind, which he had a ward, and suddenly, as if someone whispered to him: “After all, that way, perhaps, the entire squeaky family would have died long ago!”
Because, in order to continue the minnow family, first of all, a family is needed, but he does not have one. But this is not enough: in order for the minnow family to strengthen and prosper, for its members to be healthy and vigorous, it is necessary that they be brought up in their native element, and not in a hole where he is almost blind from eternal twilight. It is necessary that the scribblers receive sufficient food, that they do not alienate themselves from the public, that they share bread and salt with each other and borrow virtues and other excellent qualities from each other. For only such a life can perfect the minnow breed and will not allow it to be crushed and degenerate into a smelt.
Those who think that only those scribblers can be considered worthy citizens who, mad with fear, sit in holes and tremble, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless scribblers. No one is warm or cold from them, no honor, no dishonor, no glory, no dishonor ... they live, they take up space for nothing and eat food.
All this presented itself so distinctly and clearly that suddenly a passionate desire came to him: “I’ll get out of the hole and swim like a goldeneye across the river!” But as soon as he thought about it, he was frightened again. And he began, trembling, to die. Lived - trembled, and died - trembled.
His whole life flashed before him in an instant. What were his joys? Who did he console? To whom did you give good advice? To whom good word said? Who sheltered, warmed, protected? Who heard about it? Who remembers its existence?
And he had to answer all these questions: "No one, no one."
He lived and trembled, that was all. Even now: death is on his nose, and he is trembling, he himself does not know why. It is dark and cramped in his hole, there is nowhere to turn around, neither a ray of sunlight will look into it, nor does it smell of warmth. And he lies in this damp darkness, blind, exhausted, of no use to anyone, lies and waits: when will starvation finally free him from a useless existence?
He can hear other fish darting past his hole - perhaps, like him, piskari - and not one of them will take an interest in him. Not a single thought will come to mind: “Let me ask the wise scribbler, in what manner did he manage to live for more than a hundred years, and neither the pike swallowed him, nor the cancer of the claws did not break, nor did the fisherman catch him on the hook?” They swim past, or maybe they don’t know that in this hole the wise minnow life process completes!
And what is most offensive of all: not even to hear anyone call him wise. They just say: “Have you heard about the dumbass who doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, doesn’t see anyone, doesn’t take bread and salt with anyone, but only saves his hateful life?” And many even simply call him a fool and a shame and wonder how the water tolerates such idols.
He scattered in this way with his mind and dozed. That is, not that he was dozing, but he began to forget. Death whispers rang out in his ears, languor spread throughout his body. And then he dreamed of the former seductive dream. He allegedly won two hundred thousand, grew by as much as half an arshin and swallows the pike himself.
And while he was dreaming about it, his snout, little by little and gently, completely poked out of the hole.
And suddenly he disappeared. What happened here - whether the pike swallowed him, whether the crayfish was killed by claws, or whether he himself died of his own death and surfaced - there were no witnesses to this case. Most likely, he died himself, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow an ailing, dying squeaker, and besides, also a “wise one”?
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In the most hard years reaction and strict censorship, which created simply unbearable conditions for the continuation of his literary activity, Saltykov-Shchedrin found a brilliant way out of this situation. It was at that time that he began to write his works in the form of fairy tales, which allowed him to continue the scourging of vices. Russian society despite the frenzy of censorship.
Fairy tales became for the satirist a kind of economical form that allowed him to continue the themes of his past. Hiding the true meaning of what was written from censorship, the writer used Aesopian language, grotesque, hyperbole and antithesis. In fairy tales for a "fair age" Saltykov-Shchedrin, as before, spoke about the hard fate of the people and ridiculed their oppressors. Bureaucrats, pompadour mayors and other impartial characters appear in fairy tales in the form of animals - an eagle, a wolf, a bear, etc.
"Lived - trembled, and died - trembled"
One of these works is the tale "The Wise Scribbler", written by Saltykov-Shchedrin in 1883, which has become a textbook. The plot of the tale, which tells about the life of the most ordinary minnow, is known to anyone. educated person. Having a cowardly character, the gudgeon leads a secluded life, tries not to stick out of his hole, shudders at every rustle and a flashing shadow. So he lives until his death, and only at the end of his life does he realize the worthlessness of his miserable existence. Before his death, questions arise in his mind concerning his whole life: “Who did he pity, whom did he help, what did he do good and useful?”. The answers to these questions lead the minnow to rather sad conclusions: that no one knows him, no one needs him, and hardly anyone will remember him at all.
According to the spelling norms of the 19th century, the word "minnow" was written through "and" - "piskar".
In this plot, the satirist in a caricature form clearly reflects the mores of modern petty-bourgeois Russia. The image of a minnow has absorbed all the unpleasant qualities of a cowardly, self-contained man in the street, constantly shaking for his own skin. “He lived - trembled, and died - trembled” - such is the moral of this satirical tale.
The expression "wise minnow" was used as a common noun, in particular, by V. I. Lenin in the fight against liberals, the former "left Octobrists", who switched to supporting the right-liberal model of constitutional democracy.
Reading the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin is quite difficult, some people still cannot understand deep meaning invested by the writer in his works. The thoughts that are set forth in the tales of this talented satirist are still relevant in Russia, mired in a series of social problems.
There lived a gudgeon. Both his father and mother were smart; little by little, but gently arid eyelids ( long years. - Ed.) They lived in the river and did not get into the ear or the pike in the haylo. And ordered the same for my son. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to live life, then look at both!”
And the young minnow had a mind chamber. He began to scatter with this mind and sees: no matter where he turns, he is cursed everywhere. All around, in the water, all the big fish swim, and he is the smallest of all; any fish can swallow him, but he cannot swallow anyone. Yes, and does not understand: why swallow? A cancer can cut it in half with a claw, a water flea can bite into a ridge and torture to death. Even his brother minnow - and he, as he sees that he has caught a mosquito, will rush to take it away with a whole herd. They will take it away and start fighting with each other, only they will ruffle a mosquito for free.
And the man? What kind of wicked creature is this! no matter what tricks he invented, so that he, the gudgeon, would be destroyed by a vain death! And seine, and nets, and administer, and norota, and, finally ... I will fish! It seems that it can be more stupid than oud? - A thread, a hook on a thread, a worm or a fly on the hook are put on ... Yes, and how are they put on? . in the most, one might say, unnatural position! And meanwhile, it is precisely on the hook of all that the gudgeon is caught!
The old father warned him more than once about oud. “Most of all, beware of the oud! - he said, - because even though it is the most stupid projectile, but with us minnows, what is more stupid is more true. They will throw us a fly, as if they want to take a nap on us; you cling to it - en death is in the fly!
The old man also told how one day he missed a little in the ear. At that time they were caught by a whole artel, they stretched a net over the entire width of the river, and so they dragged it about two miles along the bottom. Passion, how many fish then caught! And pikes, and perches, and chubs, and roaches, and loaches - they even raised couch potato breams from the mud from the bottom! And the minnows lost count. And what fears he, the old minnow, had suffered while they dragged him along the river - it is neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen. He feels that he is being taken, but he does not know where. He sees that he has a pike on one side, and a perch on the other; he thinks: just about, now, either one or the other will eat him, but they don’t touch him ... “At that time, there was no time for food, brother, it was!” Everyone has one thing in mind: death has come! and how and why she came - no one understands. . Finally, they began to lower the wings of the seine, dragged it ashore and began to bring down the fish from the bobbin into the grass. It was then that he learned what an ear is. Something red flutters in the sand; gray clouds run up from him; and the heat is such that he immediately succumbed. Even without water, it's sickening, and then they give in ... He hears - "fire", they say. And on the "bonfire" on this black something is laid, and in it the water, as if in a lake, during a storm, walks with a shaker. This is a "cauldron", they say. And in the end they began to say: put the fish into the “cauldron” - there will be an “ear”! And they started throwing our brother there. A fisherman will throw a fish - it will first plunge, then, like a madman, jump out, then plunge again - and calm down. "Uhi" means you've tasted it. They felled and felled at first indiscriminately, and then one old man looked at him and said: “What use is he, from the baby, for the fish soup! let it grow in the river!” He took him under the gills, and let him into free water. And he, do not be stupid, in all the shoulder blades - home! He ran, and his gudgeon peeps out of the hole neither alive nor dead ...
And what! no matter how much the old man explained at that time what an ear is and what it consists of, however, even if you raise it in the river, rarely does anyone have a sound idea about the ear!
But he, the minnow-son, perfectly remembered the teachings of the minnow-father, and he wound it around his mustache. He was an enlightened minnow, moderately liberal, and he very firmly understood that living life is not like licking a whorl. “You have to live in such a way that no one notices,” he said to himself, “otherwise you’ll just disappear!” - and began to settle down. First of all, he invented such a hole for himself, so that he could climb into it, but no one else could get in! He pecked this hole with his nose for a whole year, and how much fear he took at that time, spending the night either in silt, or under water burdock, or in sedge. Finally, however, hollowed out for glory. Clean, tidy - just one fit just right. The second thing, about his life, he decided this: at night, when people, animals, birds and fish are sleeping, he will exercise, and during the day he will sit in a hole and tremble. But since he still needs to drink and eat, and he does not receive a salary and does not keep servants, he will run out of the hole around noon, when all the fish are already full, and, God willing, maybe a booger or two and hunt. And if he doesn’t provide, the hungry one will lie down in a hole and will tremble again. For it is better not to eat, not to drink, than to lose life with a full stomach.
And so he did. At night he did exercise, bathed in the moonlight, and during the day he climbed into a hole and trembled. Only at noon will he run out to grab something - but what can you do at noon! At this time, the mosquito hides under the leaf from the heat, and the insect buries itself under the bark. Swallows water - and the Sabbath!
He lies day and day in a hole, does not sleep at night, does not eat a piece, and still thinks: “It seems that I am alive? ah, what will happen tomorrow?
He will doze off, a sinful thing, and in a dream he dreams that he has a winning ticket and he won two hundred thousand on it. Beside himself with delight, he will roll over to the other side - lo and behold, he has a whole half of his snout sticking out of the hole ... What if at that time there was a little pup nearby! after all, he would have pulled him out of the hole!
One day he woke up and sees: right in front of his hole is a cancer. He stands motionless, as if bewitched, staring at him with bone eyes. Only the whiskers move with the flow of water. That's when he got scared! And for half a day, until it got completely dark, this cancer was waiting for him, and in the meantime he was trembling, trembling all the time.
Another time, he had just managed to return to the hole in front of the dawn, he had just yawned sweetly, in anticipation of sleep, - he was looking, out of nowhere, at the very hole, a pike was standing and clapping his teeth. And she, too, guarded him all day, as if she were fed up with the sight of him alone. And he blew a pike: he did not come out of the hole, and the coven.
And not once, not twice, this happened to him, but almost every day. And every day he, trembling, won victories and overcomings, every day he exclaimed: “Glory to you, Lord! alive!"
But this is not enough: he did not marry and had no children, although his father had a large family. He reasoned like this:
“Father jokingly could live! At that time, the pikes were kinder, and perches did not covet us, small fry. And although once he was in the ear, and then there was an old man who rescued him! And now, as the fish have hatched in the rivers, and the minnows have hit in honor. So it’s not up to the family here, but how to live on your own!”
And the wise gudgeon of this kind lived for more than a hundred years. Everyone trembled, everyone trembled. He has no friends, no relatives; neither he to anyone, nor anyone to him. He doesn’t play cards, doesn’t drink wine, doesn’t smoke tobacco, doesn’t chase red girls - he only trembles and thinks for one thought: “Thank God! seems to be alive!
Even the pikes, in the end, and they began to praise him: “Now, if everyone lived like that, then it would be quiet in the river!” Yes, but they said it on purpose; they thought that he would introduce himself for praise - so, they say, I’m here and bang him! But he did not succumb to this thing either, and once again defeated the intrigues of his enemies with his wisdom.
How many years have passed after a hundred years - it is not known, only the wise minnow began to die. He lies in a hole and thinks: “Thank God, I am dying of my own death, just like my mother and father died.” And then he remembered the pike words: “Now, if everyone lived like this wise minnow lives ...” Come on, really, what would happen then?
He began to scatter the mind, which he had a ward, and suddenly, as if someone whispered to him: “After all, that way, perhaps, the entire minnow family would have been transferred long ago!”
Because in order to continue the minnow family, first of all, a family is needed, but he does not have one. But this is not enough: in order for the minnow family to strengthen and prosper, for its members to be healthy and vigorous, it is necessary that they be brought up in their native element, and not in a hole where he is almost blind from eternal twilight. It is necessary that minnows receive sufficient food, that they do not alienate themselves from the public, that they bring bread and salt with each other and borrow virtues and other excellent qualities from each other. For only such a life can perfect the minnow breed and will not allow it to be crushed and degenerate into a smelt.
Those who think that only those minnows can be considered worthy citizens, who, mad with fear, sit in holes and tremble, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless minnows. No one is warm or cold from them, no honor, no dishonor, no glory, no dishonor ... they live, they take up space for nothing and eat food.
All this presented itself so distinctly and clearly that suddenly a passionate desire came to him: “I’ll get out of the hole and swim like a goldeneye across the river!” But as soon as he thought about it, he was frightened again. And he began, trembling, to die. Lived - trembled, and died - trembled.
His whole life flashed before him in an instant. What were his joys? who did he comfort? who gave good advice? to whom did he say a kind word? who sheltered, warmed, protected? who heard about it? who remembers its existence?
And he had to answer all these questions: "No one, no one."
He lived and trembled - that's all. Even now: death is on his nose, and he is trembling, he himself does not know why. In his hole it is dark, cramped, there is nowhere to turn around; not a ray of sunshine will look there, nor will it smell of warmth. And he lies in this damp darkness, blind, exhausted, of no use to anyone, lies and waits: when will starvation finally free him from a useless existence?
He hears how other fish darting past his hole - perhaps minnows, like him - and not one of them will take an interest in him. Not a single thought will come: come on, I’ll ask the wise minnow, in what manner did he manage to live for more than a hundred years, and neither the pike swallowed him, nor the cancer of the claws did not break, nor did the fisherman catch him on the hook? They swim past, or maybe they don’t know that in this hole the wise gudgeon completes his life process!
And what is most offensive of all: not even to hear anyone call him wise. They just say: “Have you heard about the dumbass who doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, doesn’t see anyone, doesn’t take bread and salt with anyone, but only saves his hateful life?” And many even simply call him a fool and a shame and wonder how the water tolerates such idols.
He scattered in this way with his mind and dozed. That is, not that he was dozing, but he began to forget. Death whispers rang out in his ears, languor spread throughout his body. And then he dreamed of the former seductive dream. He allegedly won two hundred thousand, grew by as much as half an arshin and swallows the pike himself.
And while he was dreaming about it, his snout, little by little and gently, completely poked out of the hole.
And suddenly he disappeared. What happened here - whether the pike swallowed him, whether the crayfish was killed by claws, or whether he himself died by his own death and surfaced - there were no witnesses to this case. Most likely, he died himself, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow an ailing, dying minnow, and besides, a wise one?
