Ehrenburg Ilya

Thaw

Ilya Grigorievich Ehrenburg

THAW

Maria Ilyinishna was worried, her glasses slipped down to the tip of her nose, and her gray curls bounced up and down.

The floor is given to Comrade Brainin. Get ready Comrade Koroteev.

Dmitri Sergeevich Koroteev slightly raised his narrow, dark eyebrows, as he always did when he was surprised; meanwhile, he knew that he would have to speak at a reader's conference - he had been asked about this a long time ago by the librarian Maria Ilyinishna, and he agreed.

Everyone at the plant treated Koroteev with respect. Director Ivan Vasilyevich Zhuravlev recently admitted to the secretary of the city committee that without Koroteev, the production of high-speed cutting machines would have to be postponed until the next quarter. Dmitry Sergeevich was appreciated, however, not only as a good engineer - they were amazed at his comprehensive knowledge, intelligence, and modesty. Chief designer Sokolovsky, man, general opinion, caustic, never once said a bad word about Koroteev. And Maria Ilyinishna, having once talked with Dmitry Sergeevich about literature, enthusiastically said: "He exclusively feels Chekhov! .." It is clear that the reader's conference, for which she was preparing More than a month, like a schoolgirl for a difficult exam, could not pass without Koroteev.

Engineer Brinin spread out a pile of papers in front of him; he spoke very quickly, as if he was afraid that he would not have time to say everything, sometimes he stammered painfully, put on his glasses and rummaged through the papers.

Despite the shortcomings that those who spoke before me rightly pointed out, the novel has, so to speak, a great educational value. Why did the agronomist Zubtsov fail in afforestation? The author correctly, so to speak, posed the problem - Zubtsov misunderstood the significance of criticism and self-criticism. Of course, Shebalin, secretary of the party organization, could help him, but the author vividly told what the neglect of the principle of collegial leadership leads to. The novel will be able to enter the golden fund of our literature if the author, so to speak, takes into account criticism and reworks some episodes...

The club was full, people stood in the aisles, near the doors. The novel of the young author, published by the regional publishing house, apparently excited the readers. But Brynin plagued everyone with long quotations, and "so to speak," and in a boring, official voice. He was applauded sparingly for decency. Everyone perked up when Maria Ilyinishna announced:

The floor is given to Comrade Koroteev. Get ready Comrade Stolyarova.

Dmitry Sergeevich spoke vividly, they listened to him. But Maria Ilyinishna frowned: no, he spoke differently about Chekhov. Why did he run into Zubtsov? It is felt that he did not like the novel ... Koroteev, however, praised the novel: the images of both the petty tyrant Shebalin and the young honest communist Fedorova are true, and Zubtsov looks alive.

Frankly, I just didn’t like how the author reveals Zubtsov’s personal life. The case he describes is, first of all, implausible. And there is nothing typical here. The reader does not believe that the overly self-confident, but honest agronomist fell in love with the wife of his comrade, a coquettish and windy woman, with whom he has no common spiritual interests. It seems to me that the author was chasing cheap entertainment. Right, our Soviet people spiritually purer, more serious, and Zubtsov's love is somehow mechanically transferred to the pages Soviet novel from the works of bourgeois writers ...

Koroteev was carried out with applause. Some liked the irony of Dmitry Sergeevich: he told how some writers, arriving on a creative business trip, with a notebook, briefly question a dozen people and announce that they have "collected material for a novel." Others were flattered that Koroteev considered them people more noble and mentally more complex than the hero of the novel. Still others applauded because Koroteev is generally smart.

Zhuravlev, who was sitting on the presidium, loudly said to Maria Ilyinishna: "Well, he whipped him, that's indisputable." Maria Ilyinishna did not answer.

Zhuravlev's wife, Lena, a teacher, seemed to be the only one who didn't applaud. She is always original! Zhuravlev sighed.

Koroteev sat down in his place and vaguely thought: the flu is coming. It's silly to fall ill now: I have Brainin's project on me. It was not necessary to speak: he repeated elementary truths. My head hurts. It's unbearably hot in here.

He did not listen to what Katya Stolyarova was saying, and flinched at the clapping that interrupted her words. He knew Katya from work: she was a cheerful girl, whitish, without eyebrows, with an expression of some unceasing admiration for life. He forced himself to listen. Katya objected to him:

I don't understand Comrade Koroteev. I won't say that this novel is classically written, like Anna Karenina, for example, but it is captivating. I have heard this from many. And what does the "bourgeois writers" have to do with it? A person, in my opinion, has a heart, so he suffers. What's wrong with that? I’ll say frankly, I also had such moments in my life ... In a word, it takes for the soul, so you can’t brush it aside ...

Korotev thought: well, who could say that the laughing Katya had already experienced some kind of drama? "A man has a heart" ... He suddenly forgot, did not listen to the speakers anymore, did not see either Maria Ilyinishna, or a prickly brown-gray palm tree, or shields with books, looked at Lena - and all the torment recent months came to life. Lena never looked at him, but he wanted it and was afraid. This was the case every time they met. But even in the summer he talked to her at ease, joked, argued. Then he often visited Zhuravlev, although in his heart he did not like him - he considered him too complacent. He visited Zhuravlev, most likely because he was pleased to talk with Lena. Interesting woman, in Moscow, I did not meet this. Of course, there is less chatter here, people read more, there is time to think. But Lena is an exception here too, one can feel a deep nature. It is not even clear how she can live with Zhuravlev? She is a head taller than him. But they seem to live together, their daughter is already five years old ...

More recently, Koroteev calmly admired Lena. The young engineer Savchenko once said to him: "In my opinion, she is a real beauty." Dmitry Sergeevich shook his head. "No. But her face is memorable..." Lena had golden hair, red in the sun, and hazy green eyes, sometimes fervent, sometimes very sad, and most often incomprehensible - it seems, another minute - and she will be all gone, disappear into oblique beam of dusty, room sun.

It was good then, thought Korolev. He went outside. Well, a blizzard! But when I went to the club, it was quiet ...

Koroteev walked in semi-consciousness, did not remember either the reader's conference or his speech. Before him was Lena - the ruin of his life, feverish dreams recent weeks, powerlessness in front of him, which he did not know before. True, his comrades considered him a success - everything worked out for him, in two years he gained universal recognition. But after all, he had not only these two years behind him; he recently turned thirty-five, and life did not always indulge him. He knew how to deal with difficulties. His face, long and dry, with a high, convex forehead, gray eyes, sometimes cold, sometimes affectionately condescending, with a stubborn crease near the mouth, betrayed will.

A few years later, in a sultry August, he marched across the steppe with a retreating division. He was gloomy, but did not lose heart. For some reason, it was on him that the general took out his anger, called him a coward and a selfish person in front of everyone, threatened to bring him to justice. Koroteev calmly said to his comrade: "It's good that he swears. So, we'll get out ..." Shortly after this, a shell fragment hit him in the shoulder. He lay in the hospital for six months, then returned to the front and fought to the end. He was in love with the signalman Natasha; their battalion was already fighting in Breslau when it turned out that she reciprocated; she said: "You look cold, it's even scary to approach, but your heart is not, I immediately felt it ..." He dreamed: the war would end - there would be happiness. Natasha died absurdly - from a mine that exploded on the streets of Dresden on May 10, when no one thought about death anymore. Koroteev endured his grief steadfastly, none of his comrades had any idea how hard it was for him. Only much later, when his mother told him: “Why don’t you marry? After all, you’re over thirty, I’ll die - and there’s no one to look after,” he admitted: “I, mom, lost my happiness in the war. Now it doesn’t fit into my head .. ."

Ehrenburg Ilya

Thaw

PART ONE

Maria Ilyinishna was worried, her glasses slipped down to the tip of her nose, and her gray curls bounced up and down.

The floor is given to Comrade Brainin. Get ready Comrade Koroteev.

Dmitri Sergeevich Koroteev slightly raised his narrow, dark eyebrows, as he always did when he was surprised; meanwhile, he knew that he would have to speak at a reader's conference - he had been asked about this a long time ago by the librarian Maria Ilyinishna, and he agreed.

Everyone at the plant treated Koroteev with respect. Director Ivan Vasilyevich Zhuravlev recently admitted to the secretary of the city committee that without Koroteev, the production of high-speed cutting machines would have to be postponed until the next quarter. Dmitry Sergeevich was appreciated, however, not only as a good engineer - they were amazed at his comprehensive knowledge, intelligence, and modesty. The chief designer Sokolovsky, a man, by all accounts, caustic, never once said a bad word about Koroteev. And Maria Ilyinishna, having once talked with Dmitry Sergeevich about literature, enthusiastically said: “He exclusively feels Chekhov! ..” It is clear that the reader's conference, for which she had been preparing for more than a month, like a schoolgirl for a difficult exam, could not pass without Koroteev .

Engineer Brinin spread out a pile of papers in front of him; he spoke very quickly, as if he was afraid that he would not have time to say everything, sometimes he stammered painfully, put on his glasses and rummaged through the papers.

Despite the shortcomings that those who have spoken before me have rightly pointed out, the novel has, so to speak, a great educational value. Why did the agronomist Zubtsov fail in afforestation? The author correctly, so to speak, posed the problem - Zubtsov misunderstood the significance of criticism and self-criticism. Of course, Shebalin, secretary of the party organization, could help him, but the author vividly showed what the neglect of the principle of collegial leadership leads to. The novel will be able to enter the golden fund of our literature if the author, so to speak, takes into account criticism and reworks some episodes ...

The club was full, people stood in the aisles, near the doors. The novel of the young author, published by the regional publishing house, apparently excited the readers. But Brynin plagued everyone with long quotations, and "so to speak," and in a boring, official voice. He was applauded sparingly for decency. Everyone perked up when Maria Ilyinishna announced:

The floor is given to Comrade Koroteev. Get ready Comrade Stolyarova.

Dmitry Sergeevich spoke vividly, they listened to him. But Maria Ilyinishna frowned: no, he spoke differently about Chekhov. Why did he run into Zubtsov? It is felt that he did not like the novel ... Koroteev, however, praised the novel: the images of both the tyrant Shebalin and the young honest communist Fedorova are true, and Zubtsov looks alive.

Frankly, I just didn’t like how the author reveals Zubtsov’s personal life. The case he describes is, first of all, implausible. And there is nothing typical here. The reader does not believe that the overly self-confident, but honest agronomist fell in love with the wife of his comrade, a coquettish and windy woman, with whom he has no common spiritual interests. It seems to me that the author was chasing cheap entertainment. Indeed, our Soviet people are spiritually purer, more serious, and Zubtsov’s love is somehow mechanically transferred to the pages of the Soviet novel from the works of bourgeois writers ...

Koroteev was carried out with applause. Some liked the irony of Dmitry Sergeevich: he told how some writers, arriving on a creative business trip, with a notebook, briefly question a dozen people and announce that they "collected material for a novel." Others were flattered that Koroteev considered them people more noble and mentally more complex than the hero of the novel. Still others applauded because Koroteev is generally smart.

Zhuravlev, who was sitting on the presidium, loudly said to Maria Ilyinishna: "Well, he whipped him, that's indisputable." Maria Ilyinishna did not answer.

Zhuravlev's wife, Lena, a teacher, seemed to be the only one who didn't applaud. She is always original! Zhuravlev sighed.

Koroteev sat down in his place and vaguely thought: the flu is coming. It's silly to fall ill now: I have Brainin's project on me. It was not necessary to speak: he repeated elementary truths. My head hurts. It's unbearably hot in here.

He did not listen to what Katya Stolyarova was saying, and flinched at the clapping that interrupted her words. He knew Katya from work: she was a cheerful girl, whitish, without eyebrows, with an expression of some unceasing admiration for life. He forced himself to listen. Katya objected to him:

I don't understand Comrade Koroteev. I won't say that this novel is classically written, like Anna Karenina, for example, but it is captivating. I have heard this from many. And what does the "bourgeois writers" have to do with it? A person, in my opinion, has a heart, so he suffers. What's wrong with that? I’ll say frankly, I also had such moments in my life ... In a word, it takes for the soul, so you can’t brush it aside ...

Koroteev thought: well, who could say that the funny Katya has already experienced some kind of drama? “A man has a heart” ... He suddenly forgot, did not listen to the speakers anymore, did not see either Maria Ilyinishna, or a prickly brown-gray palm tree, or shields with books, looked at Lena - and all the torment of the last months came to life. Lena never looked at him, but he wanted it and was afraid. This was the case every time they met. But even in the summer he talked to her at ease, joked, argued. Then he often visited Zhuravlev, although in his heart he did not like him - he considered him too complacent. He visited Zhuravlev, most likely because he was pleased to talk with Lena. An interesting woman, I have not met such a woman in Moscow. Of course, there is less chatter here, people read more, there is time to think. But Lena is an exception here too, one can feel a deep nature. It is not even clear how she can live with Zhuravlev? She is a head taller than him. But they seem to live together, their daughter is already five years old ...

More recently, Koroteev calmly admired Lena. The young engineer Savchenko once told him: "I think she is a real beauty." Dmitry Sergeevich shook his head. "No. But her face is memorable ... "Lena had golden hair, red in the sun, and green foggy eyes, sometimes fervent, sometimes very sad, and most often incomprehensible - it seems, another minute - and she will all disappear, disappear in the oblique beam of dusty, indoor sun.

It was good then, thought Korolev. He went outside. Well, a blizzard! But when I went to the club, it was quiet ...

Koroteev walked in semi-consciousness, did not remember either the reader's conference or his speech. Before him was Lena - the ruin of his life, the feverish dreams of the last weeks, the impotence before himself, which he had not known before. True, his comrades considered him a success - everything worked out for him, in two years he gained universal recognition. But after all, he had not only these two years behind him; he recently turned thirty-five, and life did not always indulge him. He knew how to deal with difficulties. His face, long and dry, with a high, convex forehead, gray eyes, sometimes cold, sometimes affectionately condescending, with a stubborn crease near the mouth, betrayed will.

A few years later, in a sultry August, he marched across the steppe with a retreating division. He was gloomy, but did not lose heart. For some reason, it was on him that the general took out his anger, called him a coward and a selfish person in front of everyone, threatened to bring him to justice. Koroteev calmly said to his comrade: “It’s good that he swears. So, we'll get out ... ”Shortly after that, a shell fragment hit him in the shoulder. He lay in the hospital for six months, then returned to the front and fought to the end. He was in love with the signalman Natasha; their battalion was already fighting in Breslau when it turned out that she reciprocated; she said: “You look cold, it’s even scary to approach, but your heart doesn’t, I immediately felt it ...” He dreamed: the war would end - there would be happiness. Natasha died absurdly - from a mine that exploded on the streets of Dresden on May 10, when no one thought about death anymore. Koroteev endured his grief steadfastly, none of his comrades had any idea how hard it was for him. Only much later, when his mother said to him: “Why don't you get married? After all, you are over thirty, I will die - and there is no one to look after, ”he admitted:“ Mom, I lost happiness in the war. Now it doesn’t cross my mind…”

By own confession Ehrenburg, it was the thought of April 1953 that gave rise to this story, and that April, who remembers it, was special. In his memoirs, Ehrenburg wrote allegorically about him: "He warmed the old people, played pranks, cried with the first rains and laughed when the sun showed up again." The intelligent contemporaries of the author of these words understood him well - after all, on April 4, 1953, the newspapers read out the message of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in which, unexpectedly for the country and the world, it was announced: all those arrested in the doctors' case were innocent. For many it was a shock, but for those who did not believe in "killer doctors", it was a holiday. “Probably, I was thinking about this April,” Ehrenburg continued, “when in the fall I decided to write a short story and immediately put the name “Thaw” on a piece of paper.” (Beloved Russian poet XIX century for Ehrenburg was Tyutchev. It is characteristic that Tyutchev called the political changes in Russia during the change of power from Nicholas I to Alexander II precisely the word "thaw". I don’t know if I. G. knew about this, but if he did, he would undoubtedly be glad.)

Let's continue the quote about the thaw:

“This word must have misled many; some critics said or wrote that I like rottenness, dampness. IN explanatory dictionary Ushakov says: “Thaw is warm weather during winter or at the onset of spring, causing the melting of snow and ice.” I was not thinking about thaws in the middle of winter, but about the first April thaw, after which light frost, and bad weather and the bright sun - about the beginning of that spring that was supposed to come.

Speaking in the same language of weather forecasters, it must be admitted that Russia no longer knew Stalin’s cruel “winters” and perhaps will not know ...

“I wanted to show,” to quote Ehrenburg’s memoirs again, “how huge historical events reflect on the lives of people in a small town, convey my sense of thawing, my hopes. It seems to me that in the story I conveyed the spiritual climate memorable year. The plot, the characters, unlike the usual, came as illustrations lyrical theme…» .

In 1953, the country was still shackled by fear. What is going on in the supreme power, what is the alignment of forces in the inevitable struggle for power - no one, except for the direct participants in this fight, knew (for example, until recently it was not known that the initiator of all the first anti-Stalinist documents was Beria, who tried to strengthen his position in this way) . Khrushchev, who opened the memorial service at Stalin's funeral, and Malenkov, Beria, Molotov, who spoke after him, are the four who had real chances in the first place in the leadership of the country. But as a result of a conspiracy initiated by Khrushchev, Beria was arrested on June 26 (which was announced on July 10; it was this message that gave rise to hopes for a change for the better, as was already the case when Yagoda was liquidated, and then Yezhov). There are three candidates left. Of course, no one knew how now the process will go"bug fixes", but hopes have risen. Ehrenburg did not know much more than others, but he remembered 1937 and did not believe in the then Stalinist trials. This was a tangible advantage over those who took them at face value. That is why it was Ehrenburg - the first in the country - who began to write "The Thaw" (he felt exactly what he could tell readers about). Knowing how inexorably and cruelly the state machine cracks down on dissidents, Ehrenburg was very cautious and said a lot of things rather in hints. Of course, many readers understood these hints of his, but many who were accustomed to expect unconditional political clarity from Ehrenburg, after reading the story, were confused.

The Thaw was published in Znamya No. 5, 1954; she became something of a worldwide sensation.

“The Thaw was invariably criticized in the press,” Ehrenburg recalled, “and at the Second Congress of Writers at the end of 1954 it served as an example of how not to show reality. The Literary Gazette cited letters from readers who denigrated the story. However, I received many thousands of letters in defense of the Thaw.

Apparatus "literary critics" could not but remember the military and post-war journalism of Ehrenburg and, even scolding the "Thaw", emphasized the respectful attitude towards his journalistic work. As for the hardware “art critics”, they couldn’t stand the spirit artistic sympathies Ehrenburg and, conversely, loved everything that he could not stand. Therefore, it is not surprising that when July 6, 1954. The Department of Science and Culture of the Central Committee of the CPSU sent a note to N. S. Khrushchev and P. N. Pospelov “On the state of the Soviet visual arts”, it was it that contained sharp attacks on the “Thaw”, where the theme of modern Soviet art was one of the main

“Especially unhealthy aesthetic sentiments in relation to Soviet art,” the note said, “are expressed in I. Ehrenburg's story The Thaw. It shows two Soviet artist Saburov and Pukhov, who supposedly personify state of the art our art. Saburov lives half-starving in a slum, paints only intimate landscapes and portraits of his wife. According to Ehrenburg, the antipodes of Saburov are encouraged in the Soviet Union - hacks chasing "shock" themes. The artist Vladimir Pukhov is exactly that. Ehrenburg put slanderous thoughts about Soviet reality and art into his mouth: “Now everyone is shouting about art, and no one loves it - such is the era” and more: “Raphael would now not be accepted into the Union of Artists.” I. Ehrenburg's commitment to French "fashionable" painting is well known. In defense of this art, he speaks in the story "The Thaw".

The very name of Ehrenburg's story became for the free world a capacious designation of the processes that timidly began in the USSR after Stalin's death. But the authorities categorically rejected the word "thaw" to denote the post-Stalinist changes in the country, and all the opportunists agreed with it in unison. B. Slutsky recalled about Ehrenburg that he “was in serious trouble when, at a government reception, Yevtushenko began to challenge the legitimacy of the term“ thaw ”, arguing that it was not a thaw in the political court, but a real spring.” This was in 1963, and I remember very well how I read Yevtushenko's speech in the press and how disgusting it looked in the general chorus of attacks. In the autumn of 1967, Slutsky wrote about Ehrenburg:

Do not confuse thaw with spring

and, being carried away by novelty,

I didn't see the antiquity in it.

No! Don't confuse thaw with spring

and was not at all frightened, frightened,

Characteristically, while in power, Khrushchev was indignant at the use of the word "thaw" in relation to contemporary politics(he took the title of Ehrenburg's story with hostility, although, most likely, he did not read the story itself). But in his oral memoirs, the assessments have changed (the last chapter, where we are talking about his relationship with the intelligentsia, was told by him in September 1971 just before his death, when he had been retired for seven years and lived in Petrov-Dalny at the state dacha, mournfully pondering his fate, the treachery of his environment and the mistakes he had made). This is what he told the tape recorder:

“Ehrenburg used the word ‘thaw’. He believed that after the death of Stalin, a thaw began in people's lives. I did not meet this characterization of that time very positively. Certainly there were concessions. To put it in police language, we loosened control, people began to speak out more freely. But two feelings fought within us. On the one hand, such indulgences reflected our new internal state We were aiming for this. On the other hand, there were people among us who did not want a thaw at all and reproached: if Stalin had been alive, he would not have allowed anything like this. The voices against the thaw sounded very distinctly. And Ehrenburg in his works was very aptly able to notice the trends of the day, to characterize the running time. I believe that the word he let out reflected reality, although we then criticized the concept of “thaw”

Plot: http://briefly.ru/erenburg/ottepel/

Ehrenburg (1891-1967) - poet, prose writer, international journalist. Was in the Bolshevik underground organization. Genius of form and discoverer of new literary devices. He invented the Soviet epic as a genre. "The Tempest" - 1949. Genre of a picaresque novel. Julio Chorenito. The first one began to use biblical allusions (later Bulgakov). I tried to apply the artistic effect when writing poetic works in one line. This is an invention of Maria Shkapskaya, but Ehrenburg applied it. Ehrenburg possessed an almost bestial social sensitivity.

"Thaw". The main idea is related to the events that shape society. The appearance of a person who has the courage to say what he thinks. It depicts the Khrushchev amnesty, the consequences of this. Depicted the changed relationship with the West. The hero argues with the authorities. He is a writer. His works are discussed, he argues.

Ehrenburg knew how to find words for naming social phenomena. Thaw - most often temporarily warming, then it will freeze again. Ehrenburg's merit is a sense of time and language skills. Ehrenburg was very controversial. The novel "The Tempest" was criticized a lot. For him, the opinion of readers, not critics, was more important. Stalin loved him very much. He was called the last Russian European.

Following the story "The Thaw" appeared the story Panova "Seryozha". Some stories from the life of a little boy. 1955. The child perceives the world good-naturedly and says everything he thinks (Uncle Petya, you are a fool!). It is necessary to give things their names, then life will return to normal.

1956 - A. Yashin "Levers"- story. Vologda writer. In this story, the people in the party want the will to make decisions, but they are waiting for the order to be given to them.

Pavel Nilin "Cruelty". A criminal investigation officer travels through the villages. The problem of justice is incredibly difficult. Ends with the hero's suicide.

Vladimir Dudintsev "We are not united by bread". There are no opportunities for the full realization of the will for a creative person.

1956-57 - Sholokhov "The Fate of Man". From socialist realism there was only a happy ending, from the point of view of modern analysts. Andrei Sokolov is the same age as the century (1900). Maybe it's autobiographical. On civil war loses all his loved ones. In the 20s he became a driver - an advanced profession. Marries, two children. Son Anatoly - very talented, dies on May 9, 1945. Sokolov ended up in a concentration camp, drank vodka with Muller. The war took everything from him. Leaves Voronezh and lives in an apartment. Picked up the homeless orphan Vanyushka. Sokolov is afraid to die in his sleep - he will scare Vanyushka. This is a story of great hope. We must remain human, feeling and sensitive.

The Stalin era ruled out the human factor. There are no irreplaceable people. According to Stalin, prisoners of war were considered traitors, so Sholokhov discovered new topic. You couldn't write about them.

Changes in the linguistic qualities of literature in Sholokhov and Nilin. Sholokhov has unique speech characteristics of the characters.

Human life is determined by love, according to Sholokhov. Sokolov, fighting, remembers his family, not Stalin. He is worried that he pushed his wife Irina before leaving.

A significant artistic achievement of the writer was the story "Destiny of Man" published on the pages of Pravda in 1957. The story quickly became known to the whole world. Based on it, the talented Soviet film director and actor S. Bondarchuk created a wonderful film under the same name.

Roman Abramova "Brothers and sisters ».

Bright focus of the administrative system.

Pery raised the problem of the state's responsibility to the individual.

Abramov did not see any changes in the literature after the 1952 article. Decided to quit my job at uni. He began to write his own novel according to his own criteria. 1958 - the novel "Brothers and Sisters".

Lev Abramovich Dodin - play "Brothers and Sisters". He is already 40 years old. Theater of Europe on Rubinstein in St. Petersburg.

Russian lyrical prose appears in the "thaw". Stories by Yuri Kazakov ("Autumn in oak forests").

Youth prose: Granin, Trifonov, Vasily Aksenov. Urban prose.

The tragic conflict between the ideal and reality in P. Nilin's story "Cruelty" (1956).

If V. Dudintsev in his novel “Not by Bread Alone” was one of the first to try to answer the question “what is the essence of the system?”, “What is it based on?”, then another Russian writer P. Nilin in his story “Cruelty” first asked an extremely important question: when did this start, when was the system based on lies, fear and hypocrisy born? In 1937 or much earlier? The duration of P. Nilin's story is the winter of 1922 - the summer of 1923. Location - Siberia, Krasnoyarsk Territory. The heroes of the work are employees of the criminal investigation department, security officers who are at war with gangs consisting of local peasants who do not want to obey Soviet power. It is not for nothing that the writer deduces the word "cruelty" in the title of the story. It was cruelty that was the first fruit of the system. Is cruelty necessary, asks 18-year-old Chekist Venka Malyshev, and is a lie necessary? Pavel Nilin creates the image of an idealist who believes in the rightness of the revolutionary cause, convinced that revolutionary truth does not need to be deceived and embellished. Venka Malyshev, believing in the correction of the bandit Baukin, used his help to capture the ataman of the gang, Konstantin Vorontsov. But the victory obtained by Malyshev with the help of military cunning and revolutionary truth turns into lies, betrayal and deceit in the hands of the head of the criminal investigation department and journalist Uzelkov who oppose Malyshev. The latter see lies as a political tool necessary to achieve victory. If for the idealist Venka Malyshev it is important not only to win, but also how to fight, then only victory is important for his opponents. Main conflict associated with different attitudes towards people, towards a person. Venka Malyshev believes in people, recognizes their right to make mistakes, and, consequently, the need for persuasion. For his opponents, people, as individuals, do not exist, they are “carnations”, which “you won’t notice in a huge state”. The head of the criminal investigation department arrests Baukin, and the honest Malyshev finds himself in the position of a deceiver. He is ashamed to look Baukin in the eye, it hurts him for the undermined authority of the Soviet government. Seeing no place for himself in the emerging system, Venka shoots himself. Referring to the image of the "repentant Chekist", P. Nilin expresses tragic conflict between ideal and reality, between faith in the power of an idea and faith in mere strength, between trust and suspicion, between humanity and cruelty. Thus, the significance of P. Nilin's story lies in the fact that it shows that "evil" was born in the early years of the revolution ...

21. Ideological and artistic originality of V.G. Rasputin "Farewell to Matera"

Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin was born in 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda, which stands on the Angara, almost halfway between Irkutsk and Bratsk. After school in 1959 he graduated historical and philological department of Irkutsk University, then took up journalism. The first essays and stories of Rasputin were written as a result of correspondent work, trips to Siberia close to his heart; observations and impressions were deposited in them, which became the basis for the writer's reflections on the fate of his native land. Rasputin loves his homeland. He cannot imagine life without Siberia, without these bitter frosts, without this blinding eye of the sun. That is why in his works the writer reveals taiga romance, the unity of people with nature, depicts characters that fascinate with their strength, primordialness, naturalness. Rasputin discovered such characters in Siberian villages. Based on the material of the Siberian village, such stories are written as “ Deadline* (1970), "Money for Mary" (1967), "Up and Downstream". Here the author raises the high moral problems of goodness and justice, sensitivity and generosity of the human heart, purity and frankness in relations between people. However, Rasputin was interested not only in the personality with its spiritual world, but also in the future of this personality. And I would like to talk about just such a work in which the problem is posed of human existence on Earth, the problem of the life of generations, which, replacing each other, should not lose touch. This is the story "Farewell to Matera". I would like to note that Rasputin tried to restore interest in the old Russian narrative genre, the story.

"Farewell to Matera" - a kind of drama of people's life - was written in 1976. Here we are talking about human memory and loyalty to one's family.

The action of the story takes place in the village of Matera, which is about to die: a dam is being built on the river to build a power plant, so “the water along the river and rivers will rise and spill, flood ...”, of course, Matera. The fate of the village is sealed. Young people leave for the city without hesitation. The new generation does not have a craving for the land, for the Motherland, it is always striving to "move to a new life." Of course, the fact that life is a constant movement, change, that one cannot remain motionless in one place for a century, that progress is necessary. But people who entered the era of scientific and technological revolution, should not lose touch with their roots destroy and forget centuries-old traditions, cross out thousands of years of history, on the mistakes of which they should learn, and not make their own, sometimes irreparable.

All the characters in the story can be conditionally divided into "fathers" and "children".“Fathers * are people for whom a break with the earth is fatal, they grew up on it and absorbed love for it with their mother's milk. This is Bogodul, and grandfather Yegor, and Nastasya, and Sima, and Katerina.

“Children” are those youth who so easily left the village to the mercy of fate, a village with a history of three hundred years. This is Andrey, and Petruha, and Klavka Strigunova. As we know, the views of the "fathers" differ sharply from the views of the "children", therefore the conflict between them is eternal and inevitable. And if in Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" the truth was on the side of the "children", on the side of the new generation, which sought to eradicate the morally decaying nobility, then in the story "Farewell to Matera" the situation is completely opposite: youth destroys the only thing that makes it possible preservation of life on earth (customs, traditions, national roots).

The main ideological character of the story - old woman Daria. This is the person who, until the end of his life, until his last minute, remained devoted to his homeland, Daria formulates the main idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe work, which the author himself wants to convey to the reader: “The truth is in memory. He who has no memory has no life." This woman is a kind of keeper of eternity. Daria is a true national character. The thoughts of this dear old woman are very close to the writer. Rasputin gives her only positive features, simple and unpretentious speech. I must say that all the old-timers of Matera are described by the author with warmth. How skillfully depicts Rasputin scenes of parting people with the village. Let us read again how Egor and Nastasya postpone their departure again and again, how they do not want to leave native side, how Bogodul desperately fights for the preservation of the cemetery, because it is sacred for the inhabitants of Matera: “... And the old women crawled around the cemetery until the last night, stuck crosses back, installed bedside tables.”

All this proves once again that it is impossible to tear a people away from the earth, from its roots, that such actions can be equated with brutal murder.

The author very deeply comprehended the problem that confronted society in the era of scientific and technological revolution - the problem of the loss of national culture. From the whole story it is clear that this topic worried Rasputin and was also relevant in his homeland: it is not for nothing that he places Matera on the banks of the Angara,

Matera is a symbol of life. Yes, she was flooded, but her memory remained, she will live forever.

"Farewell to Matera" - generalized symbolic in meaning a drama in which we are talking about human memory, loyalty to one's own kind . The main character is Daria. One of her main character traits is sense of memory, responsibility toancestors. The same question, addressed to oneself and children, to past and future generations, posed by Anna Stepanovna (“Deadline”), now with new force sounds in the speeches of Daria, and in the entire content of the work: “And who knows the truth about a person: ... What should a person feel for whom many generations have lived? He doesn't feel anything. He doesn't understand anything." Daria finds the main part of the answer: “The truth is in the memory. He who has no memory has no life." The story describes the conflict between "fathers andchildren", since Daria's moral home is opposed tothe position of Andrei's grandson, inspired by everything new, progressive. The story is full of symbolism: in Matera we guess sim the ox of life, and perhaps our land; in Daria - the keeper this life, the mother through whom truth itself speaks. This story is a kind of warning about danger, threatening mother earth, “like an island”, lost “in the cosmic ocean”. There are many other symbolic images in the story: symbolicallythe image of the hut that Daria decorates before being burned; thatman who hides the island. And, only digressing from the real concreteness of the content, it becomes clear the determination of Daria and her friends not to part with Matera (the earth) and share her fate. In general, the story is characterized by sharp publicism, high Tolstoy edification, apocalyptic worldview. The sound of the central theme carries a high biblical tragedy. The finale of the story was disputed in criticism, the concept of the work, which was in conflict with the ideas of progress, caused an objection.

22. Ideological and artistic originality of V.P. Astafiev "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess".

A little more than half a century that passed after the Great Patriotic War did not weaken public interest in this historical event. The time of democracy and glasnost, which illuminated many pages of our past with the light of truth, poses more and more questions to historians and writers. And along with the traditionally considered works by Y. Bondarev, V. Bykov, V. Bogomolov, our life includes “not tolerating half-truths” novels by V. Astafiev “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”, V. Grossman “Life and Fate”, novels and stories by V. Nekrasov, K. Vorobyov, V. Kondratiev.

“War has been and remains a fatal obstacle on the noble human path - the most immoral act of all that man has created *. And that is why the war does not stop in the work of Viktor Astafiev. About those young guys with whom the writer had to fight, but who did not have a chance to live to see the Victory, he wrote one of the best, in my opinion, one of the most “difficult and more painful things he got” - the story “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”. In this story, recreated image pure love, the life of human souls, not crushed by war, not suppressed.

"Modern pastoral" (Pastoral - a genre in literature, painting, music and theater, poetizing the peaceful and simple rural life) - such a subtitle, which determines and clarifies a lot in the ideological sound of the work, was given by the writer of his story, in which there is love, there is happiness - these are the main signs of the traditional pastoral.

But it was not for nothing that the writer put the word “modern” next to the word “pastoral”, as if emphasizing the cruel certainty of the time, ruthless to human destinies, to the most subtle and quivering impulses of the soul.

There is a very important opposition in the story - the childhood memory of the protagonist, Lieutenant Boris Kostyaev, about a theater with columns and music, about white sheep grazing on a green lawn, about dancing young shepherds and shepherds who loved each other, and "were not ashamed of this love, and who were not afraid for her, sharply, screamingly contrasts, outwardly restrained, but inwardly amazingly deep and emotional, with the aggravated pain and aching sadness of the scene written about the murdered old men, the farm shepherd and the shepherdess, "embracing faithfully at the hour of death."

“A volley of artillery preparation pressed the old men behind the bath - they almost killed them. They lay, covering each other. The old woman hid her face under the old man's arm. And the dead were beaten with shrapnel, their clothes were cut...” This short scene, the symbolism of which is especially obvious in contrast to the theatrical idyll, is perhaps the central one in the work. It seems to be concentrated the tragedy of war, its inhumanity. And now we cannot perceive the further narrative, follow the short, like a flash of a rocket, the love story of Boris and Lucy, the fate of other characters, otherwise through the lens of this scene.

To show the inhumane essence of the war, breaking and distorting destinies, not sparing life itself, is the main task that V. Astafiev set for himself in the story.

The writer plunges us into the atmosphere of war, densely saturated with pain, fury, bitterness, suffering, blood. Here is a picture of a night battle: “Hand-to-hand combat has begun. Hungry, demoralized by the environment and the cold, the Germans climbed forward madly and blindly. They were quickly finished off with bayonets. But this wave was followed by another, a third. Everything changed, the trembling of the earth, the recoils of the cannons, worn with a screech, which now hit both their own and the Germans, not understanding who was where. Yes, and it was impossible to disassemble anything. ” This scene is intended to bring the reader to the main idea of ​​the story: the unnaturalness that makes people kill each other.

Out of this main idea one cannot understand the tragedy of the story of Lieutenant Boris Kostaev, who died in a sanitary hospital, to whom the war gave love and immediately took it away. “Nothing could be corrected and returned. Everything was and everything is gone.”

In the story "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess", a work of great philosophical meaning, along with people of high spirit and strong feelings, the writer creates the image of foreman Mokhnakov, capable of violence, ready to cross the line of humanity, neglect the pain of others. The tragedy of Boris Kostaev becomes even clearer if you take a closer look at one of the central images - foreman Mokhnakov, who, not by chance, passes next to the main character.

Once, in a conversation with Lyusya, Boris will say very important words about how terrible it is to get used to death, to come to terms with it. And with Boris and Mokhnakov, who was on the front line, constantly seeing death in all its manifestations, something happens that Kostaev was afraid of, They are used to death.

The story of V. Astafiev warns: "People! This must not happen again! »

23. Ideological and artistic originality of Y. Trifonov's story "Exchange".

In the center of Yuri Trifonov's story "Exchange" are the attempts of the protagonist, an ordinary Moscow intellectual Viktor Georgievich Dmitriev, to exchange an apartment and improve his living conditions. To do this, he needs to move in with a seriously ill mother, who guesses that she does not have long to live. The son assures her that he really wants to live with her in order to take better care of her, but the mother guesses that he is primarily interested not in her, but in the living space and that he is in a hurry with the exchange because of fear that in the event of her death he will lose mother's room. Material interest replaced Dmitriev's feeling of sons' love. And it is no coincidence that at the end of the story, his mother tells him that she used to want to live with him, but now she doesn’t, because: “You have already exchanged, Vitya. The exchange took place... It was a very long time ago. And it always happens, every day, so don't be surprised, Vitya. And don't get angry. It’s just so imperceptible ... ”Dmitriev, a initially good person, gradually, under the influence of his wife’s egoism, and even his own, exchanged moral principles for philistine welfare. True, having managed to move in with his mother literally on the eve of her death, this death, perhaps a little accelerated by a hasty exchange, is going through hard: “After the death of Ksenia Fedorovna, Dmitriev had a hypertensive crisis, and he lay at home for three weeks in strict bed rest. After all this, he passed and looked like “not yet an old man, but already elderly.” What is the reason for Dmitriev's moral decline?

In the course of the story, the grandfather, an old revolutionary, says to Victor, “You are not a bad person. But not amazing either." In Dmitriev there is no lofty idea that inspires his life, there is no passion for any business. No, which turns out to be very important in this case, and willpower, Dmitriev cannot resist the pressure of his wife Lena, who is striving to obtain life's blessings at any cost. At times he protests, makes scandals, but only to clear his conscience, because he almost always capitulates in the end and does as Lena wants. Dmitriev's wife has long been putting her own prosperity at the forefront. And she knows that her husband will be an obedient tool in achieving her goals: "... She spoke as if everything was predetermined and as if it was clear to him, Dmitriev, that everything was predetermined, and they understand each other without words." Regarding people like Lena, Trifonov said in an interview with critic A. Bocharov: “Egoism is that in humanity that is most difficult to overcome.” And at the same time, the writer is far from sure whether it is possible in principle to completely defeat human egoism, or whether it would not be more reasonable to try to introduce it into some kind of moral limits, to set certain boundaries for it. For example, such: the desire of each person to satisfy their own needs is legitimate and fair as long as it does not harm other people. After all, egoism is one of the most powerful factors in the development of man and society, and this cannot be ignored. Let us recall that Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky wrote about “reasonable egoism” with sympathy and almost as an ideal of behavior in the novel What Is To Be Done? The trouble, however, is that it is very difficult in real life to find the line that separates " reasonable selfishness from "unreasonable". Trifonov emphasized in the mentioned interview: "Egoism disappears where an idea arises." Dmitriev and Lena do not have such an idea, so selfishness becomes their only moral value. But this idea and the comforts of those who oppose them do not exist - Ksenia Feodorovna, Victor's sister Laura, cousin of the protagonist Marina ... And it is no coincidence that in a conversation with another critic, L. Anninsky, the writer objected to him: “You pretended that I idolize the Dmitrievs (meaning all representatives of this family, except for Viktor Georgievich. - B.S.), and I mock them ". Dmitriev, unlike the family of Lena, Lukyanov, they are not very adapted to life, they do not know how to benefit for themselves either at work or at home. They do not know how and do not want to live at the expense of others. However, Dmitriev's mother and his relatives are by no means ideal people. They are characterized by one very disturbing vice of Trifonov - intolerance. Ksenia Fedorovna calls Lena a bourgeois, she is a hypocrite. In fact, Dmitriev's mother is hardly fair to consider a hypocrite, but the inability to accept and understand people with different behavioral attitudes makes her difficult to communicate, and this type of people is not viable in the long run. Grandfather Dmitriev was still inspired by the revolutionary idea. For subsequent generations, it has greatly faded due to comparison with the post-revolutionary reality, which is very far from ideal. And Trifonov understands that in the late 60s, when "Exchange" was written, this idea is already dead, and the Dmitrievs have no new one. This is the tragedy of the situation.On the one hand, there are Lukyanov's acquirers, who know how to work well (that Lena is valued at work is emphasized in the story),they know how to equip life, but they don’t think about anything other than this. On the other hand, the Dmitrievs, who still retain the inertia of intellectual decency, but with time are losing it more and more, not supported by the idea. The same Viktor Georgievich has already “became a fool”, - probably, in the new generation this process will accelerate. The only hope is that the conscience will awaken in the main character. Still, the death of his mother caused him some kind of moral shock, with which, apparently, Dmitriev's physical ailment was also connected. However, there is little chance of his moral revival. The worm of consumerism has already deeply drained his soul, and weakness of will prevents him from taking decisive steps towards fundamental changes in his life. And not without reason, in the last lines of the story, the author reports that he learned the whole story from Viktor Georgievich himself, who now looks like a sick man, crushed by life. The exchange of moral values ​​for material ones, which took place in his soul, led to a sad result. A reverse exchange is hardly possible for Dmitriev.

24. Ideological and artistic originality of A. Platonov's story "Return".

Biography of Platonov, written by Brodsky:

“Andrei Platonovich Platonov was born in 1899 and died in 1951 from tuberculosis, infected by his son, whose release from prison he achieved after much effort, only for his son to die in his arms. By education, an ameliorator engineer (Platonov worked for several years on various irrigation projects), he began to write quite early, at the age of twenty-something, that is, in the twenties of our century. He participated in the civil war, worked in various newspapers and, although he was reluctantly printed, gained fame in the thirties. Then his son was arrested on charges of an anti-Soviet conspiracy, then the first signs of official ostracism appeared, then the Second World War began, during which Platonov served in the army, working in a military newspaper. After the war, he was forced into silence; his story, published in 1946, served as a pretext for a devastating article to a whole page of the Literary Gazette, written by a leading critic, and that was the end. After that, he was only occasionally allowed to do anything as a freelance anonymous lits worker, such as - edit some fairy tales for children. Nothing else. But by this time, his tuberculosis had worsened, so he could do almost nothing anyway. He, his wife and daughter lived on the salary of his wife, who worked as an editor; he sometimes worked as a janitor or a stagehand at a theater nearby.”

The genre originality of A. Platonov's stories is also manifested in the way the image of the hero is constructed and in the organization of the narrative action in them. In many stories by A. Platonov the conflict was based on the opposition of the untrue understanding of life to the true. Narrative action in the stories of A. Platonov, as a rule, focused on depicting the hero's transition from one way of understanding life to another At the same time, the consciousness of the hero is rebuilt in the most radical way, and with it, the very scale of comprehension of life and the depth of its comprehension change. In the spiritual feat of forgiveness and philanthropy, in returning to the true moral foundations of life, the hero of the story "The Return" (1946), the Russian man Alexei Ivanov, finally defeats the devastating consequences of the war, acquires spiritual integrity. Not so much the return of the hero home to his family, but "return to yourself" lost four years ago.

The terrible test that a person goes through in war is not limited to physical pain, deprivation, horror, the constant presence of death. In the story "Return" Platonov said about the main evil that war brings - bitterness. The loss of emotional ties with loved ones became Ivanov's tragedy . He sees the pitiful Petrushka, in need of love and care, but feels only coldness, indifference and irritation. A child who, due to the fault of the war, had to grow up rapidly and painfully, does not understand why his father refuses him sincere love. And Ivanov leaves the family, and only children running after him, and then falling, exhausted, break the wall of indifference.Self-love, interest - everything goes somewhere far away, and only a “naked heart”, open to love, remains.

Ivanov's soul is incapable of touching someone else's soul. A long absence from home separated him from his family. He believes that he accomplished feats in the war, while they lived a "normal" life here. Ivanov decides to leave, Ivanov's sharp dialogues with his relatives are replaced in the middle of the work by the author's monologue (as at the beginning of the story), but the author names his hero not as at the beginning of the story - "Ivanov", but "their father".

When the children run after him: And then they fell to the ground again, "and suddenly Ivanov" himself felt how hot it became in his chest, as if the heart, enclosed and languishing in him, had been beating long and in vain all his life and only now it broke free, filling his whole being with warmth and shudder."

It is necessary to build the future not at the expense of those who live in the present.

25. Dramaturgy of the second half of the twentieth century. General characteristics. Analysis of one work (at the student's choice).

Drama (other Greekδρᾶμα - deed, action) - one of the three types of literature, along with epic and lyrics, simultaneously belongs to two types of art: literature and theater. Intended to be played on stage, drama differs formally from epic and lyric poetry in that the text in it is presented in the form of replicas of characters and author's remarks, as a rule, is divided into actions and phenomena.

A unique kind of literature. First came the lyrics, then the epic art, then the dramaturgy. Translate monologue into dialogue is a very difficult task. The intermediality of the text is the use of different sign systems. One critic believed that before Ostrovsky there were only three playwrights in Russia: Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Sumarokov. Plus Gogol's Inspector General. Then Chekhov, Gorky, Andreev, Blok, Mayakovsky, Bulgakov, and then a lull came. In the 1950s, the revival of dramaturgy began.

Several directions . The most famous -production drama :Ignatius Dvoretsky "Man from outside", Bokarev "Steelworkers", Alexander Gelman "Minutes of one meeting" (film adaptation of Panfilov's "Award"). Minutes of one meeting of the party committee. A quarterly bonus is issued to the brigade, but the entire brigade comes and refuses. The workers say that they did not fulfill the plan and want to work honestly. The problem of the responsibility of each person for what is happening in this world. No ordinary people. In this approximately was the essence of industrial dramaturgy . Kitchen Democracy – Discussions are bold in kitchens, but not elsewhere. Serious social problems turned out to be the subject of public discussion. A signal that true democracy can begin. Peculiarities:

But all the plays had only a journalistic character.

Eliminate family conflicts

Such dramaturgy severely limited the idea of ​​​​artistic space, that is, events took place in the premises for official meetings, in the offices of chiefs

Raising a particular case to unfounded generalizations is the biggest drawback. One case turned into an alleged typicality, although this is not so.

This drama was a step towards the theory of non-conflict.

The second direction is lyrical melodrama . Alexander Volodin is a Leningrad playwright. His classic Five Evenings. IN Youth theater on the Fontanka there are his performances. Leonid Zorin "Warsaw Melody" at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. Peculiarities:

Narrowing of space and narrowing of time. In "Five Evenings" everything happens in a communal apartment

Refusal of socially significant issues. Volodin said: “We are abandoning the bureaucracy”

Raised questions about the meaning of human life and the mode of human existence

Rejection happy endings. This was a direct challenge to the conflict-free theory.

Third direction - military drama. Opening - Viktor Rozov "Forever Alive" (1956). This is a play about the war, written in the mainstream of military prose. Not a single shot. About events in the rear. About love, expectation, fidelity. The war was won by an effort of will of a huge number of people, united by a fantastic desire for victory.

The fourth direction satirical drama . Soviet satire - Shukshin. The play "Energetic people". Energetic people are the Chichikovs of the Soviet era.

Analysis of one work (at the student's choice):

Alexander Valentinovich Vampilov (1937-1972). He loves Gogol, Chekhov. He was a classmate of Valentin Rasputin. Faculty of History and Philology of Irkutsk University. Vampilov wrote 10 humorous stories. He became famous as a comedian. Then he had Provincial Anecdotes. Everyone began to believe that he was a satirist playwright. He himself was a deeply tragic figure. He was talented and incredibly proud. Approximately the same aura that Zakhar Prilepin now possesses. Vampilov's plays are staged in every city in Russia. He tragically died on Baikal with frequent visits to Moscow. I went fishing with a friend to Lake Baikal. The boat capsized ice water. The comrade held on to the edges of the boat and called for help. But Vampilov did not like to call for help, for the wrestler began to swim to the shore, and his legs cramped, and he died in front of everyone. He believed that everyone should choose for himself. His personality as a playwright:

In his plays, it is always an accident, a trifle, a combination of circumstances becomes the most dramatic moment in a person's life. The situation is a test.

Vampilov's Man - ordinary person. His heroes, as a rule, are the heroes of the Russian outback. He introduced the concept of a province. Reminiscent of Chekhov's concept of the province. At that time, Moscow snobbery was on a grand scale.

Vampilov in a microscene, in a detail, in a gesture, in a short monologue, he could convey the feeling of former life hero.

Large genre range: from lyric-comedy to tragicomedy

When Life is going apart, hope and man only on himself. Vampilov was for such people. Who can resist the whole world. What is wrong with today's world? This is one of Vampilov's questions."Provincial Anecdotes". An anecdote is not a fictional, extraordinary case with a paradoxical ending. For Vampilov, these are anecdotes made on local material in local space. The main characters are characters unmarked by time. "Twenty minutes with an angel."

"Provincial Jokes"- these are two one-act plays: "The Story of the Metranpage" and "Twenty Minutes with an Angel", which were written by Alexander Vampilov in the early 1960s, much earlier than they were merged into Provincial Jokes, which probably happened in the first half of 1968.

Ilya Grigorievich Ehrenburg

"Thaw"

In the club of a large industrial city - a full house. The hall is packed, people stand in the aisles. An extraordinary event: a novel by a young local writer is published. Participants of the reader's conference praise the debutant: everyday work is reflected accurately and vividly. The heroes of the book are truly the heroes of our time.

But one can argue about their "personal life", says one of the leading engineers of the plant Dmitry Koroteev. Not a penny is typical here: a serious and honest agronomist could not fall in love with a windy and flirtatious woman, with whom he has no common spiritual interests, in addition - the wife of his comrade! The love described in the novel seems to be mechanically transferred from the pages of bourgeois literature!

Koroteev's speech causes a heated debate. More discouraged than others - although they do not express it aloud - are his closest friends: the young engineer Grisha Savchenko and the teacher Lena Zhuravleva (her husband is the director of the plant, who sits on the presidium of the conference and is frankly pleased with the sharpness of Koroteev's criticism).

The argument about the book continues at Sonya Pukhova's birthday party, where she comes straight from Savchenko's club. " Clever man, but performed on a stencil! Grisha gets excited. - It turns out that the personal has no place in literature. And the book touched everyone to the quick: too often we still say one thing, but in our personal lives we act differently. The reader yearned for such books! “You are right,” one of the guests, the artist Saburov, nods. “It’s time to remember what art is!” “But in my opinion, Koroteev is right,” Sonya objects. — soviet man learned to control nature, but he must learn to control his feelings ... "

Lena Zhuravleva has no one to exchange opinions with about what she heard at the conference: she has lost interest in her husband for a long time, it seems, from the day when, at the height of the “doctors’ case,” she heard from him: “You can’t trust them too much, that’s indisputable.” The dismissive and merciless “him” shocked Lena. And when, after a fire at the factory, where Zhuravlev showed himself to be a fine fellow, Koroteev spoke of him with praise, she wanted to shout: “You don’t know anything about him. This is a soulless person!”

That's also why Koroteev's speech at the club upset her: he seemed to her so whole, extremely honest both in public, and in a conversation face to face, and alone with his own conscience ...

The choice between truth and falsehood, the ability to distinguish one from the other, calls on all the heroes without exception to lead the time of the “thaw”. The thaw is not only in the social climate (Koroteev’s stepfather returns after seventeen years of imprisonment; relations with the West are openly discussed at a feast, the opportunity to meet with foreigners; there are always brave souls at the meeting, ready to contradict the authorities, the opinion of the majority). This is the thaw of everything “personal”, which for so long it was customary to conceal from people, not to let out of the door of one’s house. Koroteev is a front-line soldier, there was a lot of bitterness in his life, but this choice is painful for him too. At the party bureau, he did not find the courage to stand up for the leading engineer Sokolovsky, to whom Zhuravlev feels hostility. And although after the ill-fated party bureau, Koroteev changed his mind and directly announced this to the head of the department of the city committee of the CPSU, his conscience did not calm down: “I have no right to judge Zhuravlev, I am the same as him. I say one thing, but I live differently. Probably, today we need other, new people - romantics, like Savchenko. Where can I get them? Gorky once said that we need our Soviet humanism. And Gorky has been gone for a long time, and the word "humanism" has disappeared from circulation - but the task remains. And solve it - today.

The reason for the conflict between Zhuravlev and Sokolovsky is that the director disrupts the housing construction plan. Storm, first spring days having flown into the city, destroying several dilapidated barracks, causes a response storm - in Moscow. Zhuravlev goes to Moscow on an urgent call for a new appointment (of course, with a demotion). In the collapse of his career, he blames not the storm, and even more so not himself - Lena who left him: the departure of his wife is immoral! In the old days for this ... And Sokolovsky is also to blame for what happened (he was almost in a hurry to report the storm to the capital): “It’s a pity, after all, that I didn’t kill him ...”

There was a storm and it went away. Who will remember her? Who will remember director Ivan Vasilyevich Zhuravlev? Who remembers the past winter, when loud drops fall from icicles, until spring is just a stone's throw away?..

It was difficult and long - like the way through snowy winter to the thaw is the path to the happiness of Sokolovsky and the “pestician doctor” Vera Grigorievna, Savchenko and Sonya Pukhova, drama theater actress Tanechka and Sonya’s brother artist Volodya. Volodya passes his temptation with lies and cowardice: in the discussion art exhibition he lashes out at Saburov, a childhood friend, "for formalism." Repenting of his meanness, asking for forgiveness from Saburov, Volodya admits to himself the main thing that he did not realize for too long: he has no talent. In art, as in life, the main thing is talent, and not loud words about ideology and popular demands.

Be people need now Lena is striving, having found herself again with Koroteev. Sonya Pukhova also experiences this feeling - she confesses to herself that she loves Savchenko. In love, conquering trials in both time and space: they barely had time to get used to one separation from Grisha (after the institute, Sonya was assigned to a plant in Penza) - and here Grisha has a long way to go, to Paris, for an internship, in a group of young specialists.

Spring. Thaw. She is felt everywhere, everyone feels her: both those who did not believe in her, and those who were waiting for her - like Sokolovsky, going to Moscow, to meet his daughter Masha, Mary, a ballerina from Brussels, completely unknown to him and very dear, with whom he dreamed of seeing all his life.

A local young writer published his novel. On this occasion, a conference was started in the club of the industrial city, where everyone came. The writer introduced the heroes of his story modern people, whose work is well and vividly described in the text of the book. But Dmitry Koroteev, a factory engineer, did not like the plot of the book much, because he does not approve of the love of an agronomist and a windy woman, especially when she is also the wife of his friend. These words cause a great discussion, which develops into an argument. Koroteev's words struck his friends: teacher Lena Zhuravleva, whose husband is the director of the plant where Koroteev works, and engineer Grisha Savchenko. Grisha transferred the conversation about the book to Sonya Pukhova, who invited him to her birthday party, while Lena, on the contrary, came as a quiet and calm lady, because she had already lost all interest in communicating with her husband after he dismissively and reproachfully referring to the actions of doctors. But the chagrin after the words of Dmitry in the club has not yet disappeared, because she considered him honest and whole. Melted in the thaw feelings were lost. It was a thaw of everything personal, which was hidden from everyone.

Dmitry Koroteev himself went through the front, his life was pretty battered. He did not find the strength to intercede for Sokolovsky, the leading engineer, in the party bureau, when Zhuravlev reproached him. According to Ivan Vasilyevich Zhuravlev, it was Sokolovsky who caused his demotion. And this happened because of a storm that swooped in at the beginning of spring and destroyed several barracks. Because of her, Zhuravlev stopped the construction of houses, which disrupted the schedule. Upon learning of this, Moscow urgently calls him to the carpet and demotes him, which is why his wife Lena leaves him. At that moment, he blamed Sokolovsky, who sat him up and, after waiting for a moment, immediately dripped about what was happening to Moscow.

Lena Zhuravleva found herself again, building relationships with Koroteev, and Sonya Pukhova catches herself on the feeling that Grisha Savchenko is not indifferent to her, and most likely she loves him.

After the cold weather came the long-awaited spring. Thaw. A lot has changed in the life of the factory workers, but everything boils, boils, and makes them move only forward.