And Kukshina went abroad. She is now in Heidelberg and is no longer studying the natural sciences, but architecture, in which, she says, she discovered new laws. She still hangs out with students, especially with the young Russian physicists and chemists who fill Heidelberg and who, at first surprising the naive German professors with their sober view of things, subsequently surprise those same professors with their complete inaction and absolute laziness. With such and such two or three chemists, who are unable to distinguish oxygen from nitrogen, but filled with denial and self-respect, and with the great Elisevich, Sitnikov, who is also preparing to be great, huddles in Petersburg and, according to his assurances, continues Bazarov's "work". They say that someone recently beat him, but he did not remain in debt: in one dark article, embossed in one dark magazine, he hinted that the one who beat him was a coward. He calls it irony. His father still pushes him around, and his wife considers him a fool ... and a writer.

There is a small rural cemetery in one of the remote corners of Russia. Like almost all our cemeteries, it shows a sad look: the ditches surrounding it have long been overgrown; the gray wooden crosses are drooping and rotting under their once-painted roofs; the stone slabs are all shifted, as if someone is pushing them from below; two or three plucked trees barely give a meager shade; sheep roam freely over the graves... But among them there is one that a man does not touch, that an animal does not trample on: only birds sit on it and sing at dawn. An iron fence surrounds it; two young Christmas trees are planted at both ends: Yevgeny Bazarov is buried in this grave. From a nearby village, two already decrepit old men often come to her - a husband and wife. Supporting each other, they walk with a heavy gait; they will approach the fence, fall down and kneel, and weep long and bitterly, and look long and attentively at the mute stone, under which their son lies; they exchange a short word, brush off the dust from the stone and straighten the tree branch, and pray again, and cannot leave this place, from where they seem to be closer to their son, to the memories of him ... Are their prayers, their tears fruitless? Isn't love, holy, devoted love, all-powerful? Oh no! No matter how passionate, sinful, rebellious heart hides in the grave, the flowers growing on it serenely look at us with their innocent eyes: they tell us not only about eternal calmness, about that great calmness of “indifferent” nature; they also speak of eternal reconciliation and endless life...

notes

1

Candidate- a person who has passed a special "candidate's examination" and defended a special written work upon graduation from the university, the first academic degree established in 1804

2

English club- a meeting place for wealthy and well-born nobles for an evening pastime. Here they had fun, read newspapers, magazines, exchanged political news and opinions, etc. The custom of organizing such clubs is borrowed from England. The first English club in Russia appeared in 1700.

3

« ... but then came the 48th year". - 1848 - the year of the February and June revolutions in France. Fear of the revolution caused Nicholas I to take drastic measures, including a ban on traveling abroad.

4

quitrent- a more progressive monetary form of exploitation of the peasants compared to corvée. The peasant was “doomed” in advance to give the landowner a certain amount of money, and he let him go from the estate to work.

5

marquise- here: a canopy of some kind of dense fabric over the balcony to protect from the sun and rain.

6

He is really free (fr.).

7

Valet- (German) room servant) - the closest of the servants.

8

clerk- here: manager of the estate.

9

Philistines- one of the estates in tsarist Russia.

10

Vorotishche- the remains of the gate without wings.

11

Livery jacket- short livery casual wear young servant.

12

English cut suit ( English).

13

Handshake (English).

14

Became cheekier (fr.).

15

Gambs' armchair- an armchair made by the fashionable St. Petersburg furniture master Gambs.

16

"Galignani"- "Galignani's Messenger" - "Galignani's Herald" - a daily newspaper published in Paris on English language since 1814. It was named after its founder, Giovanni Antonio Galignani.

17

Women's warm jacket, usually sleeveless, with gathers at the waist.

18

Nihilist- negative (from Latin. nihil- Nothing); nihilism - a system of views that was widespread in mid-nineteenth century. In the 60s 19th century the opponents of revolutionary democracy called nihilists in general all those who were revolutionary-minded.

19

you changed it all (fr.).

20

God bless you and give you the rank of general.- A slightly modified quote from Griboedov's Woe from Wit (Act II, Ph. V).

21

Tula- The top of the hat.

22

23

Snipe- a small bird, swamp game.

24

Schiller Friedrich(1759-1805) - the great German poet, author of the plays "Cunning and Love", "Robbers", etc.

25

Goethe- a distorted pronunciation of the name of Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) - the great German poet and philosopher; Schiller's friend. Both of them are called poets of the "age of storm and stress."

26

Liebig Justus(1803-1873) - German chemist, author of a number of works on the theory and practice of agriculture.

27

Aza cannot be seen in the eyes means not to know the very beginning of something; Az is the first letter of the Slavic alphabet.

Quote from the novel "" (1861) by a Russian writer (1818 - 1883). These are the last lines of the piece. The old Bazarovs came to the grave of their son Yevgeny Bazarov (ch. 28):

"There is a small rural cemetery in one of the remote corners of Russia. Like almost all of our cemeteries, it looks sad: the ditches surrounding it have long been overgrown; the gray wooden crosses have drooped and rot under their once painted roofs; the stone slabs are all shifted, as if someone they are pushed from below; two or three plucked trees barely give a scant shade; sheep roam freely over the graves... But between them there is one that a man does not touch, that an animal does not trample on: only birds sit on it and sing at dawn. a fence surrounds it; two young fir trees are planted at both ends: Yevgeny Bazarov is buried in this grave. To her, from a nearby village, two already decrepit old men often come - a husband and wife. Supporting each other, they walk with a heavy gait; they approach fence, they will fall down and kneel, and weep long and bitterly, and look long and attentively at the dumb stone under which their son lies; they will exchange a short word, brush off the dust from the stone and straighten the branch of the Christmas tree, and pray again, and cannot leave this is a place where they seem to be closer to their son, to memories of him ... Are their prayers, their tears fruitless? Isn't love, holy, devoted love, all-powerful? Oh no! No matter how passionate, sinful, rebellious the heart is hidden in the grave, the flowers growing on it serenely look at us with their innocent eyes: they tell us not only about eternal calmness, about that great calmness of "indifferent" nature; they also speak of eternal reconciliation and endless life... "

Grigory YAKOVLEV,
Education Center No. 1811,
Moscow

And who is Odintsova?

Probably hundreds of articles have been written about Turgenev's most interesting novel over the 140 years of its existence. It is known that the content of the work immediately aroused fierce controversy in Russian educated society, and, despite the strength of the novel’s position in the circle of masterpieces of literary classics (or therefore), the disputes continue to this day (recall at least a series of sharp articles by O. Tchaikovsky). Naturally, the main object of research and disagreement was and remains the main character of "Fathers and Sons" Evgeny Bazarov. I am not going to return to this topic in this article. I will only remind you that even Nikolai Leskov, far from revolutionary ideas, called him a “healthy type”, in contrast to the nihilist epigones, and Fyodor Dostoevsky was ready to “shake his hand”.

Less was written about secondary characters, casually or very little - about Anna Sergeevna Odintsova. I have not seen a detailed description of it. CM. Petrov, in an eighteen-page afterword to the third volume of Turgenev's collected works, gave five sentences to Bazarov's relationship with Odintsova, justifying this by the fact that "... in Fathers and Sons, Turgenev assigns a secondary place to the love story." M.G. Kachurin, in a textbook for the “in-depth” study of literature in the 10th grade (1998), said that he “respects” Odintsova and that “in the face of death” the “poetic love for Odintsova” of the hero of the novel manifested itself. This is what was limited. A little more attention and respect was given to the heroine in the textbook by Yu.V. Lebedev (2001), and earlier - in the book by G.A. Byaly "Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons"" (1968).

Meanwhile, the love story of Bazarov (nine chapters of a small book) is extremely important both in ideological and in moral attitude, and from a purely artistic point of view. I am convinced that at least two lessons can be devoted to a conversation about these pages without being stingy. The reason for starting such a conversation can be the words of Bazarov: “When I meet a person who would not give in to me, then I will change my mind about myself.”

Such a person suddenly turns out to be a charming woman. It is no secret that the moral essence of a man is often found in his relationships with women. Bazarov is no exception. Everyone passes before him characters, all except Odintsova. Relationship with her a holiday romance, not an incident, but an event that determines a revolution in psychology, in mood, views, in a person’s life, in his destiny. The reader saw the main character in a new light, in the clash of dry theory and the “green tree of life”, in the openness of feelings and desires deeply hidden from himself. Love is a spontaneous feeling, and yet it is important who and how a person loves and who loves him; it, like friendship, characterizes the lover and the beloved.

So what is the woman who struck the smart, indestructible and self-confident Yevgeny Vasilyevich? Charming beauty, queen. But could she really attract Bazarov only with her appearance? The negative answer would seem to be clear. However, apparently not all. Other nineteenth and XX centuries, ignoring Turgenev's text, they noticed in the heroine only her model catchiness and ability to behave in a secular society. So, the anonymous author of the journal Library for Reading (1862, No. 5) informed readers following fresh tracks: “There is nothing unusual in Odintsova, except for her beauty, graceful endurance and readiness for life.” Sometimes writers seriously started a funny skirmish. For example, Bazarov’s expression “such a rich body” (his first impression) caused a magazine fight. A critic in the journal Russky Vestnik (1862, No. 5) wrote about this: “Progressive criticism, sympathetic to the Bazarov type, indulged in serious and lengthy explanations of what exactly should be valued feminine beauty from a real, realistic-modern, young, progressive point of view, that the “wealth” of the body is the only sign of beauty, that it is not appropriate to look for any other signs, for such a search is rotten idealism, a contradiction to natural scientific knowledge, and so on.

Dmitry Pisarev intervened in the dispute about the shoulders and body of Odintsova, who drew attention, one of the few at that time, to mental capacity and other aspects of the gifted nature of this woman. That Odintsova is not a painted doll, not a model and not a dummy, is clear from the first Turgenev lines about her: her eyes looked “calmly and intelligently”, “her face blew with some gentle and soft power”. In contrast to the falsely emancipated Kukshina and Sitnikov, Anna Sergeevna is presented at the governor’s ball as unhurried, uncommunicative (“she herself spoke little”, laughed softly twice), with dignity of posture, in a casual conversation with a certain dignitary. It seems that, not without intent, Turgenev makes us recall the textbook verses:

Who is there in a raspberry beret
Is he talking to the Spanish ambassador?

She was slow
Not cold, not talkative
Without an arrogant look for everyone,
No claim to success
Without these little antics
No imitations...
Everything is quiet, it was just in her ...

And the situation is similar, and almost an exact portrait of Anna Sergeevna Odintsova, as they say now, with a plus sign. “Almost”, since the word “not cold” can confuse, but at the first perception of Bazarov, there could not yet be a feeling of coldness of an unfamiliar woman. The perspicacious Bazarov, unlike the journalists from the Library for Reading, immediately singled her out from the mass of secular ladies, just like Onegin at the ball - the unrecognized Princess Tatyana: “She doesn’t look like other women.” With what? Impossible, according to his ideas and beliefs, a combination of independence, beauty and intelligence in a woman: “According to my remarks, only freaks think freely between women.” Before his eyes was the first living refutation of his ideas; the first but not the last.

“A woman with a brain”, it turned out, experienced a lot in her life, knew a lot, was interested in a lot, willingly read good books(with bad, random, fell asleep) and "expressed in the correct Russian language." Ah, crafty Turgenev! The image of Tatyana Larina arises again, but from a different angle of view, who, alas, “knew Russian poorly, did not read our magazines and expressed herself with difficulty in her native language.” Of course, one cannot in any way throw a reproach to Pushkin's favorite: other years, a different upbringing, but how can one not put another plus on Odintsova, especially since the author complacently provides us with such an opportunity.

It is not surprising that Bazarov found in her, in a woman, an interlocutor (and not only), with whom he could quite seriously, without arrogance and without coquetry, talk about “useful objects”, starting with the structure of Russian society (“ugly device”) and continuing issues of medicine, botany, painting, music, and finally, the problems of psychology, happiness, love, the future of Bazarov himself. It is difficult to imagine with which of the inhabitants of this novel Evgeny Vasilyevich could have such a respectful conversation about really important problems. There is nothing to say about women: neither Katya, nor Fenichka, nor the caricature Kukshina can compete with Odintsova either in intelligence or in many other criteria.

There is another female character, off-stage, - Princess R., whose extravagant and “almost meaningless” image Pavel Petrovich keeps in his soul all his life. One of the literary critics tried to somehow exalt his “romantic” love. But Turgenev does not favor the “mysterious” person and this passion: her eyes were “small and gray”, but the look is mysterious, “her language babbled the most empty speeches”; she had a "little mind" and "her whole behavior presented a series of inconsistencies." “Pavel Petrovich met her at a ball, danced a mazurka with her, during which she did not say a single sensible word, and fell passionately in love with her.” So romantic! But Pavel Petrovich is not at all a romantic nature: “He was not born a romantic, and his smartly dry and passionate, French-style misanthropic soul did not know how to dream.” And I would not digress in this article, recalling the history and subject of Pavel Petrovich's virtual love, if, in contrast with it, the dignity of Anna Sergeevna had not been highlighted more clearly, the birth of Bazarov's love had not become clearer and the significance of his personality would not have been more prominent.

Feminine charm, beauty, intelligence, gentleness and determination, independence and independence in thoughts and actions (she “favored Bazarov, although she rarely agreed with him”), aversion to vulgarity, self-esteem, female pride - such a combination human qualities as they were recognized, Bazarov was more and more convinced that this woman “does not look like other women.” And at the same time, many properties of her nature were related, in the opinion of Odintsova, to her interlocutor and determined their “homogeneity”, which Evgeny Vasilyevich, perhaps, impressed, and, according to Anna Sergeyevna, interfered with their rapprochement.

Bazarova's love turned out to be so powerful and unstoppable that it destroyed (not without the help and purely female demonic provocation) all the dams and dams of far-fetched prohibitions and theories and rudely broke out in the form of a straightforward confession. The writer brilliantly conveyed the development of the hero’s feelings, the psychological state of him and her, the quivering, mysterious atmosphere in the room, the “mysterious whispering” of the night, the trembling of the hands and the raging “strong and heavy passion” of Bazarov. That's where romance, and love, and temperament, and character!

Turgenev loves comparisons and soft, graceful contrasts. A few more chapters - and the writer will lead us to the garden, where Arkady will declare his love to Katya. Carefully selecting clerical-newspaper turns, he mumbles: “... a question that I have not yet touched ... I wish to devote all my strength to the truth ... I believe that it is the duty of everyone an honest man... this feeling relates in some way ... in some way, mind you, up to you ... ”The young man is worried, but this is not the burning whirlwind of Bazarov's passions. He will talk about Arkady's love - “blancmange” (jelly made from cream or almond milk). And Turgenev, with an ironic smile, interrupts the timid monologue of the lover of the magnificent artistic detail: “... and the finch above him in the birch foliage carelessly sang his song ...” And the picture of a banally sentimental confession is completed in the spirit of old popular prints with doves over kissing couples. And the chirping Arkasha Kirsanov himself - isn't he a finch? At the lesson, I read to the children the scenes of declarations of love between two friends and ask: “Whose feeling seems stronger to you?” As a rule, they answer unanimously: “Bazarova!” Aren't they right?

And the question is certainly heard: why is the charming and clever woman, carried away by an unusual personality and having achieved recognition from a severe denier of love, did not answer him in the same way, did not marry him? One can guess and argue about the reasons, but not in the way that the critic of the Sovremennik magazine M. Antonovich did - rudely, primitively and insultingly: with horror and disgust, he turns away from him, spitting and “wiping himself” with a handkerchief ...” No, of course, it’s not like that. First of all, they are not so “homogeneous” as Odintsova believed. Rather, Bazarov was right: “... there is such a distance between you and me ...” Yes, the distance is social, ideological, psychological, material, and the like. But we know many cases when people successfully overcome this distance under one condition - under the condition of mutual Great love. Did the beautiful “aristocrat” have such love?

Turgenev claims that she “falls a little in love with Bazarov” (letter to the poet K. Sluchevsky). Yes, not much, but the fact is that she didn’t love anyone in her life - either she was incapable, or she was unlucky - and that’s why she suffers, she wants to love (Mayakovsky wrote: “It’s terrible not to love”), so much so that “ life for life. He took mine, give me yours ... ”And Bazarov,“ a man not from among the ordinary, ”she wants to fall in love. And something is happening in her soul and in her heart. When Bazarov, even before the confession, mentioned that he intended to go to his father, “she turned pale, as if something stung in her heart, and it stung so much that she was surprised and thought for a long time about what it would mean.” This does not happen to women who are cold and indifferent to a man. And Anna Sergeevna was already ready to say “one word” to Yevgeny Vasilyevich, trying to keep him, but Bazarov, whose “heart was torn”, quickly left her. And for a long time a woman will decide for herself this fatal Hamlet question, mentally say: “Or?”, Evaluate her feelings: “I didn’t understand myself either.” And even at the bedside of a dying person, she is still not able to answer definitely whether she “surely loved” this person. And where is she, this measure of love? Perhaps the attraction to Bazarov is the ceiling of the love possibilities of Odintsova, who did not know any other love. And the fear that she sometimes feels when thinking about the “nihilist”, we can explain: her late husband, “a hypochondriac, plump, heavy and sour”, she “barely endured”, married him by calculation, had suffered, as they say, burned herself and now, being free, she decides her fate more prudently, peers into a man who is unfamiliar, but who struck her imagination, and tries to understand her unusual feelings. Can you blame her for this?

Or in the pursuit of calm, stability (a constant argument against Odintsova)? What woman doesn't want peace? Turgenev, and after him both literary critics and the authors of a number of textbooks, reproach Anna Sergeevna for her coldness. It seemed to me appropriate to turn again to Pushkin's poems:

I knew inaccessible beauties,
Cold, pure as winter
Relentless, incorruptible,
Incomprehensible to the mind ...
And, I confess, I ran away from them ...

Does Odintsova belong to this category of beauties? According to the deliberate descriptions and reasoning of Turgenev - perhaps. But in her actions, in her meetings with Bazarov - no, she is different, lively, addicted. However, fast sharp turns in life, instant decisions are not characteristic of all women who have a difficult life experience behind them. And maybe what is called the coldness of the heroine is actually just the ability to "master oneself", which Onegin taught Tatyana?

Pisarev believed that Anna Sergeevna was also frightened off by the fact that “in Bazarov’s feeling there is no that outward prettiness, joli a voir (beautiful in appearance, pretty), which Odintsova completely unconsciously considers necessary attributes of any love pathos.” Perhaps this played a role. Let's not forget that our lady, with some democracy in everyday life, is a representative of a princely family (by mother). Something in Bazarov's appearance and manner frightened her. However, she knew how to overcome her fear. What made her come to a dying man, kiss him, despite the warning of a contagious disease? Guilt? Or thanks? Or?.. By the way, this episode was perceived differently by critics: M. Antonovich went on a rampage, called the scene “disgusting”, found sinfulness and immorality in it; D. Pisarev saw in her a manifestation of the hero's courage; A. Skabichevsky concluded that Bazarov “makes fun of his love even on his deathbed”, and Chekhov, as a doctor, was amazed at how accurately the process of Bazarov’s dying was described.

The person to whom they are addressed last words Bazarova, - Anna Sergeevna. He takes his love for her to the grave. He tells her about the unfulfilled life task. Odintsova also had a life goal, completely unpredictable. What did the royal beauty dream about, what “ real role” read to yourself? “The role of an aunt, mentor, mother,” she said to Bazarov. It is not known whether this modest and noble wish came true, the epilogue does not say. From it we only learn that Anna Sergeevna, without waiting for love, “married, not out of love, but out of conviction, one of the future Russian leaders, a very smart person, a lawyer, with a strong practical sense, strong will and wonderful gift of words, a man still young, kind and cold as ice. They live in great harmony with each other and will live, perhaps, to happiness ... perhaps to love.

It is curious what conclusions are sometimes drawn from these words of the writer. I remember how the methodologist E.I. Ilyin, during a long-standing meeting with him, shown on television, told how he educates his students. He seriously quoted the words from the epilogue, omitting the comparison “cold as ice” and the expression “survive”, and addressed the students with the following instruction: “Do not expect love, get married and marry without love, get used to and live to love and happiness - this Turgenev teaches. But Turgenev, as always, is subtle and precise in details: Anna Sergeevna’s husband is “cold as ice”, although he is smart, practical, a “lawyer”. They “will live (do not “live” - the difference!), Perhaps (!), Until happiness ... (ellipsis of the author. - G.Ya.) perhaps (!), to love”. It is wise not to notice the writer's irony here. It is unlikely that icebergs, having rubbed against each other, will ever ignite. And such an idea cannot be close to Turgenev, who lived his life “on the edge of someone else’s nest” because of his deep love for Pauline Viardot and who did not want, having married, to “live up” to love with another woman.

Turgenev's attitude towards his heroine is ambiguous. In the image of the writer, she is endowed with such a wealth of beautiful features that, despite some coldness and commitment to comfort and peace, she appears as a woman, quite worthy of love Bazarov, whom the author secretly sympathizes with. In Turgenev's descriptions of not only the face, but the whole appearance of Anna Sergeevna - undisguised male enthusiasm and fascination, in the story of her habits and in the epilogue - mild irony, and only in an irritated letter to Sluchevsky - a sharper splash.

The appearance in the novel of such a character as Odintsova made it possible not only to refute some erroneous views, but also to reveal best features Bazarov: the ability to love, respect a woman, maintain self-esteem in a difficult situation, restraint, modesty, honesty and directness, aroused his interest in an individual, made him look at the world in a different way: “Maybe you are right; maybe, for sure, every person is a riddle. Yes, sadly, love is not omnipotent, but the defeat in love, as unforeseen as its occurrence, was not in vain for Bazarov. He, undoubtedly, humanly rose in the eyes of the reader, became closer to him.

However, the heroine of the novel is extremely interesting in and of itself. Unlike the typical "Turgenev" girls - Natalya, Elena, Lisa, Marianne - she attracts with other qualities, which were mentioned above. But, apparently, the biased assessment of Odintsova's personality by critics created her a steadily unflattering reputation. I recently asked a high school literature teacher, “What is your idea of ​​Odintsova?” The wordsmith thought a little and said: “Either a lioness, or a tigress.” If this were an exhaustive description of Anna Sergeevna, then how low Bazarov would have fallen, sliding into vulgar red tape for a secular lady! What a gray little man would have looked like, whom Turgenev represented "a gloomy, wild, large figure, up to half grown out of the soil, strong, vicious, honest."

The history of Bazarov’s relationship with Odintsova is fertile material for discussion in the classroom, for the development of independent thinking: there are many unresolved problems, scope for self-expression, for talking “about the oddities of love”, about the relationship between duty and feeling, about female beauty, about artistic skill writer and so on. All this is topical and eternal.