Name: Lieutenant Rzhevsky (Dmitry Rzhevsky)

Country: Russia

Creator: Alexander Gladkov

Activity: hussar

Family status: not married

Lieutenant Rzhevsky: character history

People who are far from history and literature are sure that Lieutenant Rzhevsky really existed - the gallant hussar successfully got used to the mass consciousness. Lieutenant Rzhevsky is a unique phenomenon in oral folk art.

Appearing on Soviet screens, the character successfully migrated to folklore and acquired contradictory qualities. The hero of folk anecdotes is boastful, but keeps his promises, loves dancing, but cannot stand high society, a vulgar womanizer and a patriot to the marrow of his bones. Rzhevsky has been raising the spirits of Russians for half a century.

Story

For the first time, Soviet moviegoers really got to know Lieutenant Rzhevsky: in 1962, the comedy "Hussar Ballad" was released on the screens of the USSR. The film is based on Alexander Gladkov's play Once Upon a Time, which was staged back in 1941. However, the folklore birth of the character happened precisely after the Ryazanov production.

Russian playwright wrote the play, having been impressed as a child by the books War and Peace and Captain Grant's Children. As expected, the work about the events of the war turned out to be bright and cheerful, and the lieutenant's character and lifestyle are clear from his first words:

“It would be nice to have a bite to eat on the road, otherwise I’m somehow not used to falling in love on an empty stomach.”

The epigraph of the play is also to match:

"Luxury, cheerful crowd, in a living and fraternal willfulness!"

Image

Historians still cannot agree on who the image of the lieutenant is written off from, sheer assumptions and conjectures. The hero's homeland may well be one of the nine regions of Russia (from Oryol to Tver province) - in each, a trace of noblemen with the surname Rzhevsky was found. Naturally, the city of Rzhev also claims fame, and not for empty place: in the annals of the beginning of the 14th century, the princes of Rzhevsky appear.

The northern capital of Russia proves its involvement in the character "in practice." In St. Petersburg, there is the Rzhevsky artillery range, the lands of which once belonged to the captain of the Imperial Army, Rzhevsky.

A significant detail does not converge in the versions - the military ranks are different. Only one person fully corresponds to the character in this sense. I served as lieutenant Yuri Rzhevsky, great-great-grandfather. Man before receiving military rank studied maritime science in Italy. But Yuri Alekseevich did not differ in the broken character of the folklore namesake.

Or maybe you should not start from the surname, the researchers thought. So a number of versions appeared. For example, the writer Yuri Voitov considers the famous lieutenant Nikolai Ashinov from Tsaritsyn to be the prototype. At the end of the 19th century, he made a lot of noise, turning part of the lands of African Somalia into the Cossacks - an act of a real adventurer.

The phrase "The uniform is on you, I see, Pavlograd!" from the "Hussar Ballad" suggested to the Ukrainian professor of history Viktor Bushin that Rzhevsky was from his native place.

But most of all, the lieutenant Sergei Rzhevsky, a rake and reveler who lived in the 19th century in the Tula province, was most worthy of the honor to bear the title of the prototype of the hussar, plunged into shock secular society sophisticated jokes and amusements. Be that as it may, Rzhevsky is urged to consider it in a collective way.

Alexander Gladkov endowed the lieutenant with two main character traits from Denis Davydov's poem "Decisive Evening" - love for women and drunkenness. It turned out to be a daring bully, a braggart and a player who, moreover, treats high society with irony. However, there were also positive traits: Dmitry Rzhevsky is a brave and straightforward man, a devoted patriot, a good friend.

Later, from the mid-1980s, the image of the folklore lieutenant changed. Indifference to women turns downright into passion, Rzhevsky appears as a brutal womanizer with gaps in education. Almost all the jokes have sexual overtones, which the author of the lieutenant did not even mean.

Rzhevsky's face is invariably decorated with a mustache, but his uniform is literary works, productions and films is changing. The lieutenant appears in the form of the Mariupol, Grodno or Life Guards Hussars, hence the confusion in military service. The question of where Dmitry Rzhevsky actually served was also not sorted out.

Movies

Eldar Ryazanov's comedy "The Hussar Ballad" was the first adaptation of the play "A long time ago". The plot of the film moves to 1812. 17-year-old Shura Azarova and Dmitry Rzhevsky are engaged in absentia. The lieutenant is not happy about this fact, imagining a stupid girl obsessed with fashion. However, the bride is not so simple: the pupil of two old military men shoots perfectly and stays in the saddle.

For the first time, the main characters saw each other in the garden of Azarov's estate. Shurochka, preparing for the upcoming carnival, put on a cornet uniform. Rzhevsky mistook the girl for a relative of the future bride and shared the assumption that she was probably spoiled and not far off.

This is how the girl behaves during the “real” meeting, which makes the lieutenant horrified. The outbreak of war with the French almost divorced the fate of young people. Rzhevsky went to the front, but Shurochka, without thinking twice, also went to defend the Motherland - in the uniform of a cornet. Heroes are waiting for adventure, intrigue and, of course, a meeting.

In the picture, a brilliant duet was made up and made her film debut. Yuri Vasilyevich managed to create an anecdotal image of a ladies' man, a braggart and a player.

In 2005, director Andrey Maksimkov presented to the audience a funny series of eight episodes " True story lieutenant Rzhevsky, where the time of action is already 1817, and the main character's name is Alexander (the role was played by Alexander Bargman). The man returns home to St. Petersburg, where his beloved woman is waiting.

His life is changing best friend and fellow cornet Obolensky, who wrote a book about the frivolous adventures of lieutenant Rzhevsky. High society is in shock, parents hide the works of their daughters from the alleged hero, and adult women faint when they meet with the lieutenant.

Another film fantasy on the theme of this character is Rzhevsky against Napoleon, filmed in 2012. The authors of the comedy laughed plenty at the story, turned everything upside down. Bonaparte in the film is affectionately called Bonya, a pot-bellied and arrogant Frenchman starts a war out of boredom. Lieutenant Rzhevsky, disguised as a woman, is sent to the rake and womanizer Napoleon. Temperamental madam manages to fall in love french emperor.

Who just didn’t get into the script - and, and Lefty, and even. Set united actors.

The hero of the famous blockbuster Turkish Gambit, released in 2005, also reminds the lieutenant. The prototype of the hussar Zurov in the performance was Rzhevsky - the same womanizer, gambler, plus a reckless duelist.

In 2011, as part of the program “Provincial Notes”, TVC released documentary"Lieutenant Rzhevsky: a duel with high society". Journalist Elena Panova went to the city of Veneva, Tula region, to acquaint viewers with a curious manuscript - museum exhibit written by the niece of Lieutenant Rzhevsky. Not all pages of the notebook have survived, but what remains speaks of the tricks of an unlucky relative.

Theatre, literature, songs

Performances with the main character, Lieutenant Rzhevsky, take place on the stages of theaters in different cities of Russia. The first production of the play "A long time ago" was released on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, Rzhevsky was brought to the stage of the Leningrad Theater by Alexei Popov - the director received Stalin Prize. Until now, the performance has been successfully staged at the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army.

In the late 1970s, the character got into ballet: the premiere of The Hussar Ballad took place at the Mariinsky Theater. Artistic director Oleg Vinogradov spoke.

In the new millennium, the directors of the Rostov Youth Theater turned to the image of the lieutenant, presenting the audience with the play “Forward, Hussars!” and Khabarovsk musical theater, where the production of "The True Story of Lieutenant Rzhevsky" took place.

the main role in the metropolitan temples of Melpomene got brilliant actors. The image of Rzhevsky was tried on by Gennady Gushchin, Andrei Bogdanov and others. Shurochka Azarova was first introduced to the public by Maria Babanova, the actress was replaced by Lyubov Dobzhanskaya, Larisa Golubkina, Tatyana Morozova.

Hussar Rzhevsky can boast of literary baggage, which contained about 20 works of art. The authors took up the pen with zeal in the early 2000s. Dmitry Repin presented readers with a poetic work “Lieutenant Rzhevsky. Hussar Poems", Sergey Ulyev wrote the novel "Lieutenant Rzhevsky, or Love in Hussar Style", Yuri Voitov created the film story "I have the honor, Lieutenant Rzhevsky!"

Documentary publications offer to understand the character’s biography - “Personal Memoirs and Everything Heard”, released based on the memoirs of the hero’s niece, Princess Rzhevskaya, and “Lieutenant Rzhevsky and Others” authored by Oleg Kondratiev.

Artists and sculptors also turned their eyes to the hussar. In 1979, Vladimir Ovchinnikov pleased with the painting "Lieutenant Rzhevsky", and a sculpture adorned a bench near a chemical plant in Pavlograd, Ukraine, inviting you to relax and at the same time take a photo with the hero of films and jokes.

By the way, jokes are a hotel topic in a conversation about a lieutenant. A flurry of funny mini-stories gushed after the release of the picture "The Hussar Ballad". Anecdotes are mostly vulgar, breaking the conceivable limits of decency. The lieutenant appears in them as a vulgar man who does not know how to keep up the conversation, a boor and a naive peasant who takes everything literally.

Among the main characters of folklore, next to Rzhevsky was Natasha Rostova, although she has nothing to do with the lieutenant. A girl appeared in jokes after the success of the film "War and Peace", filmed. Rostova's company is often made up of other heroes of the great novel, for example, Andrei Bolkonsky. Sometimes Leo Tolstoy himself suddenly appears, and often acts as an adviser. These are just Rzhevsky's contemporaries, whom the people easily "made friends" with each other.

Favorite folk character they still do not leave them alone, they compose poems and songs about the hussar. Rzhevsky is pampered with attention even by rappers. In 2017, fans of the "titan of Russian rap culture" received as a gift new album"A Man in Hedgehogs", one of the tracks of which is dedicated to the folk hero.

Among the namesakes of the hussar - popular group"Lieutenant Rzhevsky", who debuted with the scandalous song "Night and Ball". They approached the creation of the team with humor: Natasha Rostova and Anka the Machine-gunner sang along with the lieutenant.

jokes

A beautiful sunny morning. Rzhevsky went out onto the porch - ruddy, dashing - and already grunted with pleasure. He jumped into the saddle, galloped a mile, only a column of dust. Suddenly he stopped, looked down and slapped his forehead: “Oh my! And where is the horse? And jumped back.

- We're on fire, we're on fire! Water! Water!
The door of one room opens, Lieutenant Rzhevsky shouts:
- And in the thirteenth number of champagne ...

The bus with tourists drives up to the city of Rzhev. Guide:
- And here, gentlemen, Lieutenant Rzhevsky lived and worked.
Curious from the public:
- Well, he lived - this is understandable. What, I wonder, did he do?
Guide:
- Oh, sir, he did such a thing here ...

Lieutenant Rzhevsky says:
- Yesterday I was with Countess N. And her husband unexpectedly returned.
- So what? What have you done?
- Protected the honor of the officer's uniform.
- How?
- I killed all the moths in the closet.

- Lieutenant, did you have a hobby in your youth?
- Yes, even two - hunting and women.
- And who were you after?
- I hunted for them, for women, sir!

Lieutenant Rzhevsky. Legendary person

The legendary lieutenant Rzhevsky is one of the most popular heroes jokes for the most part indecent. In them, he appears as a kind of reveler, womanizer and braggart. But where did it come from and why did people like it so much?

Did Rzhevsky have real prototype, or the personality of the lieutenant, so to speak, synthetic, having absorbed the habits and actions of real hussars XIX century? Let's try to figure this out.

For the first time Lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky appeared as one of the main characters of the poem in verse "Pets of Glory", written in 1940 by playwright and screenwriter Alexander Konstantinovich Gladkov. The following year, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, this poem was staged musical performance"A long time ago". The premiere took place on November 7, 1941 in besieged Leningrad at the Musical Comedy Theater. And in 1962, director Eldar Ryazanov filmed it, but under a new name - "The Hussar Ballad". It was then that the whole country learned about the dashing hussar lieutenant, whose role was brilliantly played by Yuri Yakovlev. At the same time, jokes about Lieutenant Rzhevsky appeared. In them, he was depicted as a rake, a drunkard, a cynic and a braggart. Alexander Gladkov himself said that the idea of ​​such a protagonist of his future poem came to him after reading the poems of the famous hussar poet, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Denis Vasilyevich Davydov. Indeed, Lieutenant Rzhevsky is somewhat reminiscent of Denis Davydov. The same lover of drinking, having a good time, and in relation to the female sex, they were somewhat similar. Like Denis Davydov, Gladkov's hero fought against Napoleon's troops. But there were also differences between them. Denis Davydov was an educated and educated officer, with a subtle mind and undoubted talent as a military leader. And Lieutenant Rzhevsky is an ordinary dashing grunt, not enough stars from the sky, somewhat rustic and even narrow-minded.

A confirmation of the similarity between Davydov and Rzhevsky can serve as a phrase from the poem: “Pugnacity, brother, yours has become a proverb for a long time in the Akhtyrsky regiment ...” The fact is that Denis Davydov himself served in the Akhtyrsky hussar regiment in 1812. True, in Ryazanov's film, Yuri Yakovlev's hero wears the uniform of the Mariupol Hussar Regiment. But here, rather, the point is that the director himself decided how this or that character of his film would look, based on their aesthetic considerations, and not in terms of historical accuracy.

Was there actually a lieutenant named Rzhevsky in the Russian army that fought Napoleon in 1812?

The Rzhevsky family is noble and ancient. He traced his origins to Rurik himself. In the Middle Ages, representatives of this family were Smolensk princes. The clan got its name from the city of Rzhev, once rich and populous, now it has become small. regional center Tver region. The last prince Rzhevsky, Fedor Fedorovich, lived at the beginning XIV century. His descendants no longer bore the princely title.

The first of the Rzhevsky family to receive the title of lieutenant was Yuri Alekseevich Rzhevsky, sent at the beginning XVIII century to Italy by Tsar Peter I for maritime training. By the way, he was the great-great-grandfather of the great Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. And a descendant of Yuri Rzhevsky, Nikolai Rzhevsky, became Pushkin's classmate at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.

AT Patriotic war 1812, two Rzhevsky brothers took part. But they were not lieutenants, and they did not differ in extravagant behavior. In the memoirs of Denis Davydov, his fellow soldier Pavel Rzhevsky is mentioned. But he, again, was not a womanizer, he did not abuse alcohol and his behavior was modest.

However, one person who bore the surname Rzhevsky could well become the prototype not only of the lieutenant from Gladkov's poem, but also of the hero of modern jokes. It's about about Sergei Semenovich Rzhevsky, who lived in the middle XIX century and therefore did not participate in the Patriotic War of 1812. He was in military service, but did not rise to the rank of lieutenant. For adventures and deeds discrediting the honor of an officer, he was expelled from the army just a year and three months after he was admitted to military service. Sergei Rzhevsky retired with the rank of second lieutenant. He lived in his estate in the Venevsky district of the Tula province. Rzhevsky's neighbors did not know what to do with his very frivolous actions. Some of his jokes often shocked the society of the nobility and even hit the pages of the local tabloid press several times. believe that the stories about Lieutenant Rzhevsky came from the so-called army jokes. It's just that the lieutenant became the hero who was well known and understood by millions of people in our country. It is quite natural that there were enthusiasts who wished to perpetuate the image of their favorite hero. The first monument to lieutenant Rzhevsky opened in Ukraine, in Pavlograd. It happened in the early 2000s. And this despite the fact that it was not he who served in the Pavlograd hussar regiment, but, according to the play “A long time ago”, Shurochka Azarova. The monument was made in Belarus by sculptor Vladimir Zhbanov. The same sculptor created a monument to lieutenant Rzhevsky for the city of Dolgoprudny near Moscow. The sculpture was installed in 2012 on Sobin Square.

But the residents of Rzhev are just planning to erect a monument to their famous countryman. "Shame on you!" - the lieutenant would certainly tell them.

Natasha Rostova's birthday is her 19th birthday. All hussars are invited. Natasha sticks candles into the cake, only 18 fit. Natasha says: “Gentlemen, where should I put the nineteenth?” Lieutenant Rzhevsky is ahead of everyone:
- Hussars, be silent!

Lieutenant Rzhevsky - famous hero spicy jokes. Everyone knows his name, but few are aware of the history of the creation of the image. Along with this, Lieutenant Rzhevsky has a rich "life", surrounded by truth and fiction. The character also had prototypes.

Was there a frank cult character in real? Especially for you Faktrum understands the intricacies of the story about the lieutenant.

The complex history of the lieutenant

An outstanding personality is putting it mildly. Lieutenant Rzhevsky combines incredible, at first glance, things. He is both a braggart and a man of duty, a patriot and a gambler, a great dancer and an ardent opponent. high society. The main features of the lieutenant (which will later become calling card of all hussars) have always had desperate courage in battles and an attraction to the weaker sex.

The image of the lieutenant was glorified by actor Yuri Yakovlev, who completely got used to the role of a hussar-rake. The date of the "birth" of the character can be considered 1962, when the film "The Hussar Ballad" was released, which told the audience in detail about the adventures of a brave warrior and a hunter for women's hearts. It should be noted that in the film Rzhevsky appears in a rather plausible light. Yes, he is a jester and impudent, but at the same time he also has important human qualities. The lieutenant acquires his true "face" already in the process of folklore evolution. Over the years, stories and anecdotes with the participation of Rzhevsky acquire an increasingly piquant and bold shade.

By the way, the film "Hussar Ballad" was created on the basis of a play called "A long time ago", which in 1941 the playwright Alexander Gladkov presented to the general public. In turn, the writer was inspired by a poem written by a real-life hussar Denis Davydov. Thus, we can say that the real prototype, thanks to which Rzhevsky appeared, really existed.

Was there a real Rzhevsky?

The surname of the lieutenant was considered quite common in Russia at that time. The nobles of the Rzhevskys were listed in nine Russian provinces at once. AT early XVII century one of the lieutenants Russian army, Yuri Rzhevsky, was sent by Peter I to Italy to study naval military affairs. The officer then entered Preobrazhensky Regiment. Interestingly, Yuri Rzhevsky is considered the great-great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin.

Today it is believed that the real prototype of the folklore Rzhevsky was Sergey Rzhevsky, a nobleman who, in late XIX century really lived near Tula. Behind the lieutenant (this was the title of the real Rzhevsky) there was an extensive series of outrages: from noisy drinking to conflicts with the police. The officer was vulgar, reputed to be impudent and rude. As his niece later wrote in her memoirs, the second lieutenant often made fun of the nuns, which provoked constant scandals with the church.

Food for creativity

The extraordinary and equally ambiguous image of Rzhevsky could not go unnoticed by his contemporaries. A peculiar copy of the lieutenant appeared in the famous domestic film "Turkish Gambit". Gusar Zurov - a duelist, a dashing fighter and a hopeless gambler - very much reminded the viewer of the classic Rzhevsky. Frank anecdotes associated with the life of a rake lieutenant have become fertile ground for humorous sketches. The authors of the TV show "Gorodok" repeatedly used the image of Rzhevsky to create miniatures and productions. Contemporaries embodied the image of the lieutenant in the film "Rzhevsky against Napoleon", where all the negative qualities of the character were elevated to the absolute to the point of absurdity.

Newspapers of the forties and fifties of the XIX century often wrote about the "jokes" of Sergei Semenovich Rzhevsky, who comes from the nobles of the Venevsky district of the Tula province. He found a place and time to mess around. To understand this man, let's look at the records preserved in the archives.

The Rzhevsky family had three sons. The eldest son became a diplomat, the middle son became a military man, rising to the rank of colonel, and the youngest became a "shameful guardsman." Sergei Rzhevsky began his "exploits" while still a cadet. His mother, the general's daughter of the Golovin family, managed to get him into a cadet school in St. Petersburg. He graduated with great difficulty, often went out in the evenings in the company of other cadets, dressed in civilian clothes, and then had fun:

They tore off hats from passers-by, sometimes it turned out to rip off a fur coat;

Creeping up from behind, poured out ice water by the collar of the young ladies - they loudly and provocatively squealed from the unexpected water treatment, some even fainted, which greatly amused the young people;

They went into taverns and overturned the tables, took refreshments from the tables without permission, and then left the premises;

They threw mud at passing carriages;

With special enthusiasm they smeared the gates of the houses of famous people with mud;

They wrote obscene poems on the walls;

Were making our way into Mariinskii Opera House in the dressing room of actresses, joking, stealing their clothes, adding soot to their makeup;

Ballerinas were scared by dressing up as devils and other evil spirits.

During this period, young people had not yet fallen into the hands of the police, the city newspapers wrote about the "exploits" of the merry fellows the next day. They were ambushed, but these ambushes were easily figured out, passing in places of future entertainment, dressed in cadet uniforms - they did not pay attention to the junkers. Only after changing into civilian clothes, the youth began their pranks. A special apartment was rented for changing clothes, where outfits for “jokes” were kept. Before going out for entertainment, young people put strips of soot on their faces, so no one could remember their faces, they remembered only dirty stripes on their faces.

At the end of the cadet school, Rzhevsky was given the rank of second lieutenant, in which he remained for life (in the film "The Hussar Ballad" he was given the rank of lieutenant). Rzhevsky was sent to serve in the hussar regiment. But Rzhevsky served for a very short time, after a year and three months he was dismissed. The mother blushed for a long time for her unlucky son when she was called to the general. What did Rzhevsky do? He decided to test in practice how brave his general was.

The young man had necessary knowledge to make a cracker (explosion package). Rzhevsky managed to hide the entire device inside a walnut. On the parade ground before the formation and march, Rzhevsky calculated and threw a nut in the place where the general should command the formation. The daily march of the regiment's mouth began. The general, shifting from foot to foot, managed to step on the joker. She jerked loudly under the general's feet.

The general was already quite an elderly man. From an unexpected strong pop between his legs, he made a puddle, and then fainted. Everyone laughed loudly and cheerfully at the event. The general arranged a trial, as a result of which the intruder was identified. Military career Rzhevsky ended with expulsion from the military ranks.

Rzhevsky did not drink or play cards; he was interested in ladies as an object of entertainment. He did not have permanent mistresses. Once in a convent, he fell behind a pretty nun, became so close to her that, while beating out prostrations, he hit her with his forehead in the back. She tried to move away, but Rzhevsky pursued her during the service. When they began to take him out of the church, he grabbed two girls by the arms and ran out into the street together with them. The girls couldn't get rid of young man forced to flee with him. He ran and shouted: “Here is the daring troika rushing ...”.

Observers around applauded the merry fellow. He managed to drag the girls into the carriage, the further events of this incident remained a mystery, but the nuns, after this joke, prayed for their sin for a long time.

Attempts to rein in Rzhevsky did not lead to anything. Once he himself was embarrassed in front of his bride that he remained a bachelor for the rest of his life. At the age of 25 he returned to Venev, where locals Rzhevsky was remembered for a long time as a great ugly.

Who hasn't heard jokes about Lieutenant Rzhevsky! Thanks to them, this rude, but damn charming warrior became truly folk hero. We can assume that immortality is guaranteed to him. He is like Chapaev, like Armenian radio, like Stirlitz! Naturally, the question arises: did this dashing hussar have a real prototype? Let's try to find out.

PROTOTYPE FROM TSARITSYNO

Let's start, of course, with an anecdote.

Fire in brothel. There are screams:
- We're on fire, we're on fire! Water! Water! The door of one room opens, Lieutenant Rzhevsky shouts: - And in the thirteenth room of champagne

In this - he is all, a hopeless zhuir and a womanizer.

However, let's start our research. What does the Internet free encyclopedia say? I quote: Lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky - popular in the USSR, Russia and the CIS countries literary, cinematographic, theatrical and humorous (folklore) fictional character. Initially - the hero of the play in 2 parts by Alexander Gladkov "A long time ago" (1940). He became widely known in the USSR thanks to Eldar Ryazanov's comedy "The Hussar Ballad" (1962), which in turn was based on the play by Gladkov. In the film, Ryazanov, the lieutenant was played by Yuri Yakovlev.

Pay attention to the word "fictitious"?

But still, let us disagree with the opinion of the universal mind. Many researchers are sure: the lieutenant had a prototype!

So. Volgograd writer Yuri Voitov is convinced that Nikolai Ashinov, a native of Tsaritsyn, who was a desperate adventurer and an equally ardent patriot, could become the prototype of Rzhevsky. It was necessary to think of it - to land a Cossack landing on the territory of present-day African Somalia more than a hundred years ago, establish there "African Cossacks with the village of Moscow" and declare that from now on these lands are under the jurisdiction of the Russian crown. Only a true ... lieutenant Rzhevsky could do this. And all sorts of amorous feats there are side details in the life of a real man

BRAVIY DENIS DAVYDOV

It could well fit into the cliche of a brutal lieutenant and Denis Davydov - the legendary popular favorite. By the way, the last name collective image revelers-hussars, a desperate warrior, a reliable comrade and a tireless womanizer, Alexander Gladkov (the same author of the play "A long time ago", on which the "Hussar Ballad" was filmed) took from the memoirs of Denis Vasilyevich Davydov, the most famous partisan of the Patriotic War of 1612, etc. Also used " Captain's daughter» Pushkin.

The work of Denis Davydov was highly appreciated and supported by the AS. Pushkin as one of his devoted friends, Denis Davydov - a hussar, writer, poet, future lieutenant general, was himself a desperate lover wild life, guilt, love affairs, dashing battles, had an infectiously cheerful disposition and was the soul of the company. Why not lieutenant Rzhevsky himself ?! Denis Davydov liked to play pranks, and in 1804 "for writing outrageous poems" he was transferred to the Belarusian Hussar Regiment.

Back in 1793, the legendary Suvorov, when examining the Poltava Light Horse Regiment, noticed the frisky boy and said with a blessing: "He will be a military man ... You will win three battles." And predicted his fate. The life of Davydov, according to the prediction of the great commander, was full of battles and remote battles. In addition to military glory, he had a trail of love victories and active creativity.

ANCIENT KIND

As for the surname Rzhevsky, in Russia there really was such a genus, first mentioned in 1315. Historian and journalist Oleg Kondratiev in the book "Lieutenant Rzhevsky and others" collected a lot interesting facts about the colorful carriers of this surname. It was famous noble family. descended from Prince Rurik himself. The Rzhevskys repeatedly participated in the military campaigns of that time, fought with Tatar yoke on the Kulikovo field, with False Dmitry and Polish troops, actively participated in the development of distant Siberia.

The historically real prince Rodion Fedorovich Rzhevsky laid down his head on the Kulikovo field in 1380. He's already. of course, he could not become a character in jokes about Lieutenant Rzhevsky.

Bearers of this glorious and ancient family also lived in Voronezh, Kursk, Tula. Moscow. Orlovskaya. Ryazan, St. Petersburg, Tambov and Tver provinces.

In Northern Palmyra, the captain of the Imperial Army, Rzhevsky, really lived and served the tsar. He owned the Rzhev settlement in the capital, which received its name from his last name. Lived in St. Petersburg and a lieutenant with that surname. By order of Peter I, Yuri Rzhevsky studied maritime affairs in Italy, and after that he was appointed to the rank of lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky Hussar Regiment. His descendant, Nikolai Rzhevsky, studied with the future great Russian poet Pushkin at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. He, like the previous characters, does not fit well with the image of a broken hussar, and he does not fit into the time frame either.

Two Rzhevsky brothers participated in the Patriotic War of 1812, but they are not the prototypes of the lieutenant either.

PAVLOGRAD RZHEV

“The uniform is on you, I see, Pavlograd!” - it was this phrase from the movie "The Hussar Ballad" that laid the foundation for the urban legend about the Pavlograd citizen lieutenant Rzhevsky. Viktor Bushin, history teacher from Pavlograd, again looking through the picture of Eldar Ryazanov, he decided to figure out whether the legendary lieutenant had anything to do with Pavlograd. And after all, he got to the bottom of the truth, swarming on the archival documents of the Pavlograd hussar regiment: the name of a certain lieutenant Rzhsosky is really mentioned there!

“Therefore, in the debate about the “registration” of Rzhevsky, I can now dot the i with full confidence: your favorite literary, cinematic and folklore hero was indeed an officer of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment!” - Viktor Bushin proudly stated in the local media. True, this version was somewhat spoiled by the employees of Pavlogradsky local history museum who claim that Lieutenant Rzhevsky is nothing more than a collective image.

“For many years it was believed that the names of the legendary lieutenant could not be on the lists of the Pavlograd hussar regiment. - says the director of the museum Tatyana Borisenko. “Now some researchers do not exclude such a possibility, but we have no documentary evidence.”

NAPOLEON'S TRUCK?

Kursk ethnographer Mikhail Lagutich in his book “A steamer sailed along the Seim” also mentions a certain lieutenant Rzhevsky, who allegedly lived in the Kursk province under the governor Pavel Demidov, who was appointed to this position in 1831. What is true in it, and what is fiction, we do not undertake to judge. But here is what the author writes: “The lieutenant, a vain man, set up a striped pillar by the road with a shield nailed to it, on which he wrote: “The estate of the nobleman Rzhevsky, who smashed Napoleon, for which he was promoted to lieutenant.”

True, the Kursk lieutenant Rzhevsky, if he really existed, then the prototype famous character is unlikely. Somehow his story does not fit with the image of the hero of jokes: “That year, Rzhevsky should have turned fifty. He lived his life without a woman, and he only endured his sister, who moved in with him fifteen years ago after the death of her husband. In general, the lieutenant - but not the one.

SUB-LEUTENANT OF THE VENEVSK DISTRICT

But the nobleman Lieutenant Sergei Semenovich Rzhevsky, who lived in the middle of the 19th century in the Venevsky district of the Tula province, was considered the real stalker. They told and wrote about him that he "disregarded recklessly" and let out such salty jokes, from which decent representatives noble society were often shocked. His adventures were even written in the then Moscow yellow press.

Once Rzhevsky dressed up for a masquerade ball ... as a stove. True, it was cardboard. He stuck his head into the chimney, pushed his legs through holes specially made at the bottom of the furnace. I attached something like a door to the holes (front and back), which represent a flood and an air vent. A large inscription on them read: "Do not open the stove, there is a waste in it." At the same time, he remained naked inside. At all. Of course, there were many curious people who wanted to look into the flood or the air vent, after which some spat, others laughed. Satisfied with the effect, the joker had to be removed from the masquerade by the police. Well, why not the legendary lieutenant Rzhevsky ?! However, it has already been proven that he is not.

HE'S A MONUMENT!

In the meantime, historians and local historians are hoarsely arguing on the topic: was there a boy, that is, Lieutenant Rzhevsky, in fact, a tenacious version of the reality of the existence of his prototype encourages other artists to perpetuate their favorite character. So, in Pavlograd, a monument was erected to a noble countryman. True, for some reason near the chemical plant. Vladimir Zhbanov, a sculptor from Minsk, who himself once lived in Pavlograd, “seated” the bronze lieutenant on a bench, and now anyone can sit next to him and touch eternity.

Yuri Larinsky

MYSTERIES AND MYSTERIES SPECIAL ISSUE №2 2012