Author immortal comedy"Woe from Wit" Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov was born 220 years ago, on January 15, 1795, in the Moscow house of his mother. This house in the 70s of the last century was restored so thoroughly that little was left of the previous building.
He began to study literature very early. although she was a domineering and old-fashioned woman, she understood that without books and a real education in life it is impossible to achieve anything decent.
S.N. Bagichev, an army comrade of Griboyedov, recalled: “Back then, summers had not yet been appointed for entering the university, and he entered as a student at the age of thirteen, already knowing completely French, German and English languages and understanding freely in the original of all the Latin poets; in addition to this, he had an extraordinary ability for music, played the piano perfectly, and if he had devoted himself only to this art, then, of course, he would have become a first-class artist. But in the fifteenth year of his life, it was already indicated that his decisive vocation was poetry. " Bagichev recalled that he once found Griboyedov "... just getting out of bed: he, undressed, sat against a melted stove and threw his first act into it sheet by sheet. I screamed: "Listen, what are you doing?!" “I thought about it,” he answered, “yesterday you told me the truth, but don’t worry: everything is already ready in my head.” And a week later the first act was already written.
However, the exact date of the start of writing the comedy "Woe from Wit" is unknown. Most likely, Griboedov began writing it in Persia, where he was seconded in 1818 as secretary of the Russian embassy, continued in Tiflis and finished in the autumn of 1824 in Moscow. There is also evidence that he conceived it while still a boy, having discovered that his own uncle is the spitting image of Famusov.
Faddey Bulgarin, who was the first to write and publish a biography of Griboedov, cites an alleged fact: “He dreamed that he, in a circle of friends, was talking about the plan of a comedy, as if he had written it, and even read some passages from it. Having woken up, Griboyedov takes a pencil, runs to garden and on the same night outlines the plan of "Woe from Wit" and composes several scenes of Act I. This comedy occupied all his leisure time, and he finished it in Tiflis in 1822. In March 1823, he received leave to Moscow and St. Petersburg for 4 months. Arriving in Moscow, Griboedov began to attend societies and at the same time felt the shortcomings of his comedy and began to remake it. Each trip to the world presented him with new materials to improve his work, and it often happened that, returning home late, he wrote entire scenes at night, so to speak, in one sitting".
During the life of the author, the comedy "Woe from Wit" was not staged on any stage of any of the domestic theaters and was not published anywhere either in full printed form: censorship banned it. But in manuscripts it diverged. Thousands of copies copied by hand became the property of the reading public in St. Petersburg and Moscow, then scattered throughout vast Russia.
The following year, Griboyedov was arrested on charges of having links with the Decembrists, but they could not prove anything. In 1828, in spite of categorical reluctance and an acute foreboding of trouble, he was appointed ambassador to Persia. From there he returned in a coffin. He was buried in Tiflis, on the Mount of St. David. Fifteen-year-old Nina Chavchavadze, daughter of a famous Georgian poet, became his wife a few months before the death of her beloved husband. Circumstances tragic death Griboyedov has not yet been studied in its entirety, but officially it was said in St. Petersburg: "I am to blame." And it was strictly forbidden to spread on this topic, draw any conclusions and get to the bottom of something not very official.
The manuscript with lifetime revisions of the comedy was inherited by his wife and sister. They say that it is this text that sounds from the current theatrical stage, not always exactly corresponding to the author's intention, but always in the most avant-garde versions with an extremely sharp satire of "time and manners."
The playwright achieved his goal with deadly force. Another force, barbaric and elemental, killed him himself. The creator of the images of Chatsky, Famusov, Sofya Andreevna, Lisa, Skalozub, Molchalin, Repetilov and others was so talented that it was hardly liked by those about whom it was said in the comedy: “And who are the judges? - For antiquity / K free life their enmity is irreconcilable, / Judgments draw from forgotten s x newspapers / The times of the Ochakovskys and the conquest of the Crimea.
The comparison of himself with Chatsky is true, but only in part. It never happens that the author exactly matches the image that he himself composed. It is partly true that those times disappeared somewhere there, in the "gray old days", and there are no Zagoretskys, Repetilovs, or Molchalins for a long time. They themselves, of course, are not in any nooks and crannies of modern Moscow, but their descendants are and are in good health. Not literally, but as if on the sly, so that they would not be suspected of involvement in "some incomprehensible plans." They lead our whole life, not "knowing shame" and not in a hurry to "fit into the regiment of jesters", but they themselves fit in precisely there.
We, on occasion, will not refuse to "choose our century mercilessly", remembering little that we went through "Woe from Wit" back in school and discovering in ourselves only fleeting traces of the past. It seems to us that Griboedov is some kind of a strange man, of good height, looking into some mysterious unknown, black-haired and with thin lips. Quite the same as in the late portrait by Kramskoy.
Is it so? No not like this. He was a duelist and a mocker, an aristocrat and a great brave man. He composed two waltzes and several dramatic plays, wrote many poems and created a whole treatise on how to equip Georgia. Volunteered for Patriotic War 1812. He walked merrily and loudly in his youth in St. Petersburg. Thoroughly explored the Moscow elite and then made significant changes and additions to the comedy. He was a friend of the Decembrists and served under General Yermolov in the rebellious Caucasus. But, when he lived and did all this, only a small percentage of the current population knows. Some don’t know anything about him at all (“What, God, is the emptiness around!”), And many believe that “Woe from Wit” was written by ... Pushkin and that Alexander Andreevich Chatsky was no hero: he just went crazy on the ground unhappy love for Sofya Pavlovna, and immediately after the ball they took him in a carriage to the Yellow House ...
Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov, from Famusov's Moscow, who brilliantly looked into the distant future and paid dearly for this gift, reproached himself for writing too little: "Time flies, dear friend, it burns in my soul, thoughts are born in my head, and meanwhile I can’t get down to business, because the sciences are advancing, and I don’t even have time to study, not only to work, but I have to do something ... "
Vladimir Vester
Magazine Superstyle
Subject: Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. A word about a writer . Childhood in the image of Leo Tolstoy. The story of L.N. Tolstoy "Childhood" (chapters from the story).
educating: bring up moral values: kindness, sympathy, empathy.
Equipment: subject newspaper, a portrait of the writer, an exhibition of the writer's books, student drawings, “Literature 7th grade. textbook-reader.» Author-compiler V.Ya Korovina, presentation “Childhood in the image of L.N. Tolstoy"
Methodical methods: selective reading chapters, analytical conversation.
During the classes
I. Organizing time.
II. Presentation of the topic and objectives of the lesson.
In today's lesson, we will learn some information from the biography of L.N. Tolstoy, in particular, those that are reflected on the pages of the story "Childhood", discuss the chapters of this story, which we met on the pages of the textbook, think about what is interesting about the character of the hero and features developing relationships with adults.
III. Exploring a new topic.
Reading textbook material (p. 305).
Consider carefully the portrait of L.N. Tolstoy. Describe his appearance high forehead, intelligent penetrating eyes, gray hair, beard and mustache, wrinkles on the forehead.)
What is your idea of a writer? Judging by his portrait? What kind of person is this? (It's very smart, a wise man, kind and noble).
You are right guys. L. N. Tolstoy was, indeed, a very wise and noble man, warm-hearted, kind, hardworking.
The guys who prepared reports about the writer will tell in more detail about L. N. Tolstoy.
Information from the biography of Leo Tolstoy. Brief retelling reports.
L.N. Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 in the estate Yasnaya Polyana Tula province (portrait on a board or slide). Leo Tolstoy is a descendant of two old noble families: Counts Tolstoy and Princes Volkonsky.
Tolstoy is an unusual count. He was fond of agriculture, understood and respected peasant labor. Big role played in the life of Tolstoy Yasnaya Polyana: there he learned to see nature and ordinary people, many works have been written there. (Reproductions on a board or slides) In Yasnaya Polyana, Lev Nikolaevich opened a school for peasant children, then 20 more schools in the surrounding villages. For the children, Tolstoy created the alphabet, arithmetic, 4 books for reading, stories and fairy tales (“Filipok”, “Bone”, “Lion and Dog”, “Liar”, “How a Man Divided Geese”, “Three Bears”, etc.) .
Analyzing these works, one can see that the main thing for Tolstoy is kindness, respect for the child, the ability to see a personality in him. He believed that many adults do not understand and do not respect the child, they give him little freedom.
This idea - respect for a person, even the smallest one, is the main one for the story, which we will consider today.
– What was the significance of Yasnaya Polyana for Tolstoy? (She is a cradle, she introduced people to the life of people, to folk songs, fairy tales, legends, epics. She taught him to love.)
- Who main character story "Childhood"? (Nikolenka Irteniev.)
2. The word of the teacher.
Autobiographical prose is usually based on a living memory of the past, the authenticity of immediate impressions. Think about who owns the words below: the author or the hero Nikolenka Irteniev. Why did you decide so? What thoughts and feelings are conveyed in them?
“Happy, happy, irretrievable time of childhood! How not to love, not to cherish the memories of her? These memories refresh, elevate my soul and serve as a source of the best pleasures for me. (Of course, these are the reflections of an adult, for whom childhood is a distant past. And memories of him, of what happened, “elevate the soul”, i.e. make it better, be like wonderful people who met on the path of life, remember and love the closest people - mother and father.)
What is the story "Childhood" about? (This story is about the relationship between children and adults in a noble family.)
Who is the main character of the story? (Nikolenka Irteniev).
Let's trace the character of the protagonist by reading the chapters. How does Nikolenka observe the behavior of adults, how acutely does she feel their attitude towards herself? What answers them?
3. Vocabulary work. On the board are written the words: affection, self-sacrifice, sympathy, consent.
Read the words written on the board. How do you understand them? After the discussion, open the slides.
Attachment- this is a feeling of love, getting used to a person, when a person cannot imagine himself without someone or without something.
self-sacrifice- this is when a person sacrifices himself (his happiness or life) for the benefit of other people.
Sympathy- this is when a person experiences someone else's misfortune as his own, helps people in trouble.
Agreement- mutual understanding, good relations, peace between people.
Use these words when discussing the chapters you have read.
4. Reading by the teacher of the chapter "Maman" from the story "Childhood" pp. 308-310
5. Analytical conversation (about the mother) on issues.
What does Mother Nikolenka seem like?
Find the lines of the story that describe maman's appearance. (“When I try to remember my mother the way she was at that time, I imagine only her brown eyes always expressing the same kindness and love, a mole on her neck, a little below the place where small hairs curl, an embroidered white collar, a tender dry hand who caressed me so often and whom I kissed so often; but the general expression eludes me.”) (p. 308)
- What feeling is imbued with the author's memories of his mother? (Love, adoration. He remembered certain features of “a beloved creature: brown eyes that always expressed the same kindness and love” for everyone, a tender dry hand, which he kissed when she caressed him. Of the clothes, he remembered only an embroidered white collar. memory retained not the general expression of the image of the mother, but only its details.)
– What else did the author remember in the portrait of his mother? (The smile that made the beautiful and kind face of the mother beautiful. The eyes shone with kindness and joy. The smile added charm to her face. And it seemed that everything around was shining with happiness and joy. And if, according to the author, in difficult moments of life, at least for a moment to see that smile, “I wouldn’t know what grief is.”)
What does Tolstoy say about the beauty of the face? Find and read these lines. (“It seems to me that a smile alone consists of what is called the beauty of a face: if a smile adds charm to a face, then the face is beautiful; if it does not change it, then it is ordinary; if it spoils it, then it is bad.”) (with .309)
What is Nikolenka's relationship with her mother?
Remember what else the hero says, remembering his mother's smile? Find these words and read. (“If in the difficult moments of my life I could even catch a glimpse of this smile, I would not know what grief is.”) (p. 309)
What do these words say?
What does mother call Nikolenka? (My angel, my darling.)
How does he answer her? How does this characterize him?
How did your mother treat the servants? (“Wait a minute, Mimi,” said Marya Ivanovna with a smile ... ““ Put it on, Karl Ivanovich,” said my mother, when he raised his hat over his head. Natalya Nikolaevna did not express either impatience or annoyance when she I had to repeat my question, did the children sleep peacefully, three times.)
– Why did the author “unwittingly” shudder when answering the question why he was crying? (“It was I who wept in my sleep…” It was a lie. He could not explain the cause of the tears so as not to upset his mother. But to lie to her, this kind, pure, heavenly being, was a great sin for him…)
6. Teacher reading the chapter “What Kind of Man Was My Father?” pp. 310–312.
7. Conversation on questions.
- What is the portrait of the father? (S. 310.)
What was Nikolenka's father like and what is characteristic of him (his relationship with other people, the features of his clothes, his attitude to music, books, the ability to speak)?
How did the people around him treat him? (Everyone liked him, especially those who wanted to be liked. In dealing with people, he kept the border of pride and arrogance. He skillfully hid the unsightly aspects of life from others, avoiding grief. In a word, the author’s father is a born artist, an expert in all things that bring convenience and pleasures, and he knew how to use them. My father communicated with the relatives of his wife, the author’s mother, and friends of his youth, being angry with them, of course, in his heart for having succeeded in the service and “grew far away in ranks” from him. music, sang; he liked folk music.
Conclusion. the author's father lived for himself, thinking only about his own pleasures (cards, women). His life was full of all sorts of hobbies, and he never thought about whether his hobbies were pleasant to others, whether his wife and children were happy, he was so happy in life that he did not see the need (in moral convictions).
V. Summing up the lesson.
- How does the mother appear to the hero of the story? When did her face get even better?
- What was your father like and what was characteristic of him (his relationship with other people, the features of his clothes, his attitude to music, books, the ability to speak)?
L.N. Tolstoy. Chapter "Classes".
Goals and objectives: to reveal the ideological and artistic meaning of the work, to show the moral problems posed by the author.
Organizing time(greeting, communication of goals, setting goals).
Explanation of new material. The story "Childhood" is the first part of the trilogy "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth". A trilogy is a literary work consisting of three independent works, but united by a common idea and continuity of the plot (writing the term in a workbook). She first appeared in the September issue of the Sovremennik magazine for 1852 signed LN. "Boyhood" was printed in 1854 and was signed "LNT", "Youth" was published in January 1857, and the name "Count L.N. Tolstoy" was already widely known in Russian literature.
The protagonist of "Childhood" Nikolenka Irteniev is brought up in a serf estate. In the 19th century, children began studying in lyceums and gymnasiums from the age of 9-10, and before that they were brought up by tutors and home teachers, most often foreigners. Sometimes home education continued until the young man entered the university or the corps of pages.
The teacher of Nikolenka and his brother Volodya was Karl Ivanovich Mauer, a German. Let's get to know him better.
Work with the text of the work .
Teacher. And now Karl Ivanovich found out that the guys were leaving to study in Moscow, where the best educational institutions were located. That is why our passage begins with the words: "Karl Ivanovich was very out of sorts." Let's read it.
Commented reading chapter "Classes" (pp. 312-315).
1. Tell us how children studied at the beginning of the last century. (Children studied at home, worked with them home teacher and caregiver. He gave assignments in the subjects themselves and immediately asked the answers of his students.)
2. Read the description of the classroom. What is interesting about the inhabitants of this room and their activities tells the interior?
Karl Ivanovich, with glasses on his nose and a book in his hand, was sitting in his usual place, between the door and the window. To the left of the door were two shelves: one was ours, the children's, the other was Karl Ivanych's, his own. On ours there were all sorts of books - educational and non-educational: some were standing, others were lying. Only two large volumes"Histoire des voyages" (" General History travels”), in red bindings, decorously rested against the wall; and then there were long, thick, large and small books - crusts without books and books without crusts (...)
Landcards hung on the other wall, all almost torn, but skilfully pasted over by the hand of Karl Ivanovich. On the third wall, in the middle of which there was a door down, two rulers hung on one side: one was cut, ours, the other was brand new, his own, used by him more for encouragement than for ruling; on the other, a black board, on which our big misdeeds were marked with circles and small ones with crosses. To the left of the board was a corner where we were put on our knees (...)
In the middle of the room stood a table covered with a tattered black oilcloth, under which in many places one could see the edges cut with penknives. There were several unpainted stools around the table, but from long use of varnished stools. The last wall was occupied by three windows.
(Everything in this room says that they are studying here: books, maps, rulers, a table with stools, a blackboard ... But each item also tells about people: the teacher Karl Ivanovich and his students. And it turns out that almost a century and a half ago the children were also sometimes lazy, and, worrying or thinking about something extraneous, they could cut the table with a knife or tear the map, and were not averse to looking out the window, dreaming that the lesson would end quickly. knees, or circles and crosses on a black board.
A lot has also been said about Karl Ivanovich: about his strictness, accuracy, desire to assert independence (his own things), and much more.)
3. Conversation on questions.
- Briefly describe the content of the chapter.
- Why was Karl Ivanovich out of sorts? (S. 313. "...Tnow the children have become big, they need to study seriously ... Yes, now I have become no longer needed, and I must be driven away; where are the promises? where is the gratitude?
Find and read the episode from the chapter "Classes" in which the hero talks about how he was punished. (« Karl Ivanovich got angry, put me on my knees, kept repeating that this was stubbornness, a puppet comedy (that was his favorite word), threatened with a ruler and demanded that I ask for forgiveness, while I could not utter a word from tears; Finally, probably feeling his own injustice, he went into Nikolai's room and slammed the door.(p. 313)
Nikolenka hears a conversation between Karl Ivanovich and Nikolai. Karl Ivanovich complains about the injustice of the owner, who takes the children away to study, not trusting his work. What feelings does Nikolenka experience?
- How does Nikolenka perceive what he hears? (“... I was upset that I could not do anything.” From tears and sobs, I could not pronounce the dialogue and was punished, although Karl Ivanovich understood the injustice of punishment.)
- What is the relationship between Karl Ivanovich and the father of the protagonist?
(S. 314. “I know whose jokes these are ... to tell the truth ...”.)
Find the lines describing Nikolenka's feelings and read.
(« I sympathized with his grief, and it hurt me that my father and Karl Ivanovich, whom I loved almost equally, did not understand each other; I again went to the corner, sat on my heels and talked about how to restore harmony between them".) (p. 314)
– How is the character characterized by his thoughts about Karl Ivanovich and his father? (S. 314. "I sympathized ... there was agreement between them.")
Questions to the class:
How did Karl Ivanovich react to the news of the children's departure?
What did he say to Uncle Nikolai?
What was the teacher's indignation at the lesson?
What proposal did he dictate to the guys?
How did the boys react to separation from the teacher?
Summarizing. What did Tolstoy want to tell us, creating the image of Karl Ivanovich? What was the main thing for him? (Kindness, sincerity, love for children, affection, but most importantly - respect. This is the only way to educate a person).
Literature lesson "The story of the life and death of Natalia Savishna" (based on the story of L.N. Tolstoy "Childhood").
Target: continuing the study of L.N. Tolstoy's story "Childhood", deepening the penetration into the writer's artistic world, arouse the desire to draw moral lessons from classical literature; reveal the image of Natalia Savishna, show his place in the story and in the life of the protagonist.
During the classes
I. Quiz "Recognize the hero by the portrait."
1) “Large, stately height, strange, small steps, gait, the habit of twitching the shoulder, small, always smiling eyes, a large aquiline nose, irregular lips that somehow awkwardly but pleasantly folded, lack of pronunciation - whispering, and big, in all his head, bald head ... ”(Father Nikolenka).
2) “... brown eyes, always expressing the same kindness and love, a mole on the neck, a little lower than the place where small hairs curl, an embroidered and white collar, a gentle dry hand that caressed me so often and which I kissed so often; but the general expression eludes me.” (Maman).
– Who are these words about?
“What a rare, wonderful creature this old woman was!” (About Natalya Savishna.)
- Let's trace the life story of Natalia Savishna, to whom the author devoted a whole chapter - "Natalia Savishna". Why an entire chapter? What role did Natalya Savishna play in the life of the narrator? So, lesson topic: "The story of the life and death of Natalia Savishna".
II. Conversation on the text of the chapter “Natalya Savishna”.
- Who is Natalya Savishna?
a simple serf woman,
yard servant,
serf peasant woman,
nanny mother Nikolenka,
housekeeper.
- Who is she housekeeper?(A woman who was in charge of the household.)
- She did not immediately become the housekeeper Natalia Savishna. Let's trace her history through the history of her name. Let's write:
Why is the name changed? (Growing respect.)
What did she do to deserve it? (“Meekness of disposition”, “industriousness”, “fidelity and devotion”, “love”.)
- Was there any self-interest in caring for the master's good? (“I didn’t profit from the master’s thread” - disinterested work, selfless love.)
What did Natasha look like? (“In a shabby dress, a barefoot, but cheerful, fat and red-cheeked girl.”)
– And Natalya Savishna? (No portrait.)
- How do you imagine her? (In a cap and apron.)
- Did Natalya Savishna have a family, children? And love? (Did not take place.)
- Tell me why. Who is to blame? ( Retelling.) p.316
- For what was the girl Natashka punished and exiled to the steppe village to the barnyard? (For the love of the lordly waiter. She is a serf, she has no right to love, to personal happiness. Her duty is to serve the masters and live for them, only for them.)
Why was she returned to her masters? («… nno one could replace Natalya ... "And if she is irreplaceable, why should she be punished if she gave her soul and heart to the masters even before punishment ?! Because she wished a little personal happiness?! Natashka returned (otherwise the servants were not called) insulted, humiliated, devastated. She didn't even think about love. “Returning in a robe (simple peasant clothes) from exile; she came to her grandfather, fell at his feet and asked him to return her mercy, affection and forget that nonsense that had been found on her and which, she swore, would never return. Indeed, she kept her word.")
“Fate was cruel to this woman. Was she angry at life? Does he grumble at fate? (With true Christian humility she bears the cross.)
“Besides, is her life devoid of love?” (Life gave her a huge, inexhaustible love for Natalya Nikolaevna.)
What is her main character trait? (“love and self-sacrifice.”)
What is self-sacrifice? (Relinquishing personal interests for the sake of others.)
- Is it good or bad? (If you love, then it’s good. Self-sacrifice without love is fruitless. On the other hand, it’s impossible to love and not sacrifice anything.)
- What act of Natalia Savishna speaks about this? (Tore free.)
- Why did Natalya Savishna do this? (Misunderstood, offended, regarded as a desire to drive away.)
- How does Nikolenka feel about Natalia Savishna? (With love and tenderness, but takes her love for granted: “Since I can remember myself, I remember Natalya Savishna, her love and caresses; but now I only know how to appreciate them ...”).
- Natalia Savishna's room beckoned Nikolenka. Let's imagine that "under the pretext of ... need" he ran here. Let's enter the room with him... What do we see?
Let's look at the picture in the textbook. Why so few details? (In Tolstoy, Natalia Savishna's room is described succinctly: "filled" with chests.)
– “In the chests ... there was definitely everything ...” Which of the following things were stored in the blue chest of Natalya Savishna?
- Why did Nikolenka like to be in Natalya Savishna's room? What did you do? (dreaming out loud)
- How do Nikolenka's dreams characterize him?
- What does the interior of the room in which Natalya Savishna lives say about her mistress? (The room where a person lives can tell a lot about the character, habits, occupation of the tenant. Natalya Savishna runs the household in the Irtenev family, so in her chests “there was absolutely everything.” In the blue chest - on the lid is a drawing of Volodya - Nikolenka's brother - proof of how dear Natalya Savishna is every sign of attention of her beloved children.Ochakovo smoking, brought by Nikolenka's grandfather from Turkey and carefully preserved by Natalya Savishna, is also a memory of the past years of faithful service and devotion.)
- “She was always busy with something ...” What occupation is Natalya Savishna depicted at A. Westfalen? (Rummages in the chest.)
What else could she be doing? (I knitted a stocking, wrote down linen.)
- When did Nikolenka appreciate the nanny? (When I became an adult, after 1.5 decades I realized: “Her whole life was love and self-sacrifice.”)
Assignment: "I got mad at her once." For what?
What was the main character thinking about as he walked around the room? (S. 319. “How! Natalya Savishna ... No, this is terrible! ..” ... The future master lives in the boy, until he himself realizes this. Class education made itself felt.)
- And then ... Nikolenka was not only not grateful, but even thought about how to take revenge on the impudent Natalya, who insulted him. What happened? What act of Nikolenka aroused such a base feeling?
– Tablecloth case: role reading.
- Why did Natalya Savishna punish Nikolenka like that? (“Beloved” - punished like her own son.)
- What interests Tolstoy more - an event or inner experiences?
- Let's see what feelings Nikolenka experienced, how one feeling is replaced by another.
Tolstoy was the first in Russian literature to show the world of the hero not frozen, but in constant change and development. This artistic discovery is called "Dialectics of the Soul"
- What angered Nikolenka? (The arrogance of serf Natalia.)
Why did he refuse revenge? (Natalya Savishna came to ask for forgiveness.)
- What are you ashamed of? (He behaved with a woman who gave herself to their family without a trace, as with an ordinary serf.)
- How does Natalya Savishna herself experience what happened? (Suffers from his own rudeness, pities the child.)
- What are the details about it? (“…Natalya Savishna… timidly came up to me and began to say:
– Completeness , my father, do not Cry... forgive me, you fool... it's my fault... you must forgive me, my darling... there you are.
She took out from under her handkerchief a cornet made of red paper, in which were two caramels and one fig, and trembling gave it to me by hand.)
- What significance did this story have for Nikolenka? (She taught me to love, appreciate the love of others, forgive. The author is convinced that love and forgiveness are the path to harmony and happiness.)
- If Natalya Savishna were different, Nikolenka would grow up like that conscientious person, how do we feel it in the narrator? (No .. If Natalya Savishna had behaved differently, she would not have been ashamed, the incident would not have been remembered, because Nikolenka, after so many years, remembers her unseemly behavior).
Why did Tolstoy devote an entire chapter to Natalia Savishna, a simple woman? (Left a deep mark in the soul, taught high wisdom, true love to people, disinterestedness, sensitivity, kindness.)
L. N. Tolstoy. STORY "Childhood". chapter "childhood"
Goals: reveal the world of thoughts and conflicting feelings of the protagonist; show the generosity of the people who love him; to show Tolstoy's skill in depicting the movements of the soul.
During the classes
I. Organizational moment.
II. Checking homework.
Find out which heroine is being referred to in the above passage. What is she? How does Nikolenka feel about it and how is the author?
“She not only never spoke, but also did not think, it seems, about herself; her whole life was love and selflessness. I was so accustomed to her disinterested, tender love for us that I did not imagine that it could be otherwise, I was not at all grateful to her and never asked myself questions: is she happy? is it enough?
Sometimes, under the pretext of a necessary need, you would run from a lesson to her room, sit down and start dreaming aloud, not at all embarrassed by her presence. She was always busy with something: either knitting a stocking, or rummaging through the chests with which her room was filled, or writing down linen and, listening to every nonsense that I say (...), she would say: “Yes, my father, yes ". Usually, when I got up and was about to leave, she opened a blue chest, on the inside of which - as I remember now - there were pasted a painted image of some hussar, a picture from a lipstick jar and a drawing of Volodya, - she took out smoking from this chest, lit it and , waving, said:
- This, father, is still Ochakov smoking. When your dead grandfather - the kingdom of heaven - went under the Turk, they brought him from there. That’s the last piece left,” she added with a sigh.
In the chests with which her room was filled, there was absolutely everything.
In this passage we are talking about Natalia Savishna. All her life she selflessly served the Irtenev family, she was unusually modest and kind, she treated all family members with love, especially children. Nikolenka loved Natalya Savishna, but not only never tried to please her, to take care of her, but even when, on behalf of her mothers, Natalya Savishna punished him for ruining the tablecloth, he was indignant like a true little barchon: how the serf dared to punish him. The author not only describes the kind old woman with extraordinary love and tenderness, but also recalls with belated regret how little true warmth and attention that she deserved, he once showed to her.
III. Presentation of the topic and objectives of the lesson.
IV. Study of the chapter "Childhood".
1. Commented reading.
Task: draw an oral picture (using a textbook) of a boy falling asleep at the table.
What does he see through his drowsiness? (Look and smile.)
– What does he feel? (The touch of a “gentle hand,” a “wonderful gentle hand,” hears a “cute” voice.)
- What kind of feeling do the memories of parting breathe before going to bed? (Love filled his heart, it was a need, it gave strength. And nothing was needed except innocent gaiety and the boundless need of love.)
What is young Irteniev praying for? Find these lines and read.
(« After that, as you used to come upstairs and stand in front of the icons, in your quilted robe, what a wonderful feeling you experience when you say: "Save, Lord, papa and mama.")
(“Remember, it happened, about Karl Ivanovich and his bitter fate - the only person whom I knew unhappy - and you will feel so sorry for him, you will love him so much that tears will flow from your eyes, and you think: "God grant him happiness, give me the opportunity to help him, ease his grief; I am ready to sacrifice everything for him.")
(« You will also pray that God will give happiness to everyone, that everyone will be happy and that tomorrow there will be good weather for walking, you will turn on the other side, thoughts and dreams will get mixed up, mixed up, and you will fall asleep quietly, calmly, still with your face wet from tears. )
How does this characterize him?
So, let's characterize the hero of the story "Childhood". How do you see Nikolenka Irteniev?
Conclusion (teacher's word): Nikolenka is smart, observant, has a vivid imagination, constantly analyzes his thoughts and actions. Nikolenka's soul is open to all the impressions of life, but in childhood, children are limited to a narrow family circle. Nikolenka begins to notice the shortcomings of the people of his circle and comes to the idea of the need to correct human vices and, above all, correct himself. But real life every now and then destroys his dreams.
Nikolenka makes mistakes, analyzes her actions, suffers because of her mistakes.
Conclusion. L. N. Tolstoy carefully preserved the spiritual image of his mother. "She seemed to me such a high, pure, spiritual being that often... I prayed to her soul, asking her to help me, and this prayer always helped a lot."
At the end of the chapter, Tolstoy asks: “Will that freshness, carelessness, need for love and strength of faith that you possess in childhood ever return? What time can be better than when the two best virtues - innocent gaiety and the boundless need for love - were the only motives in life? .. Has life left such heavy traces in my heart that these tears and raptures have departed from me forever?
- What worries Tolstoy when he thinks about childhood?
V. Summing up the lesson.
A feature of the hero of the story "Childhood" is that he constantly thinks about the manifestation of his feelings and is often "merciless to himself."
- What interests Tolstoy more - an act or his moral sense?
Do you always critically evaluate your actions and feelings? Are you at the same time "merciless" to yourself?
Homework: prepare an answer to question-task 4 (p. 322); read the article by N. K. Gudziy “How Tolstoy worked” (p. 323).
In the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (1881-1886), as in "Kholstomer", the moral problem was combined with the social one. The tragedy of the hero, who only before his death realized the whole horror of his past existence, is perceived as a completely inevitable, natural consequence of the way of life that he and all those around him perceived as something completely normal, generally accepted and absolutely correct.
ABOUT " past history the life of Ivan Ilyich”, which, according to Tolstoy, was “the simplest, most ordinary and most terrible”, is not told in the story in as much detail as about the three months of his illness. Only at the very last period the hero is endowed with individual, personal traits, in other words, he goes from an official to a person, which leads him to loneliness, alienation from his family and, in general, from all his previously familiar existence. Time, until recently for Ivan Ilyich, had rushed extremely quickly, now slowed down. With brilliant skill Tolstoy revealed the belated insight of his hero, the hopeless despair of a lonely man who only before his death realized that all his past life was self-deception. Ivan Ilyich opens up the ability for self-esteem, self-analysis. All his life he suppressed in himself everything individual, unique, personal. The paradox of the situation lies in the fact that only a feeling of the proximity of death contributes to the awakening of human consciousness in him. Only now does he begin to understand that even the people closest to him live a false, artificial, ghostly life. One peasant Gerasim, who was courting Ivan Ilyich, brought him peace of mind.
IN works of art, created after the turning point, Tolstoy revealed all the horror of the lies, deceit, and lack of spirituality that dominated the life of that time, forcing the most sensitive and conscientious people to suffer, suffer and even commit crimes (“Kreutzer Sonata”, “Devil”, “Father Sergius”). Tolstoy's new moods were most fully and artistically expressed in his novel Resurrection.
The really great, philosophical thought of Leo Tolstoy is conveyed through a story about the most uninteresting, most typical inhabitants of that time. The depth of this thought goes through the whole story as a grandiose background for an insignificant, small puppet theater, which are the heroes of this work. Member of the Judicial Chamber Ivan Ilyich Golovin, having married at one time without love, but very beneficial for his own position, takes a very important step in life - moving. His affairs in the service are going well, and, to the delight of his wife, they move to a more worthy and prestigious apartment.
All the worries and worries about the purchase of furniture, the furnishings of the apartment take first place in the thoughts of the family: "To be no worse than others." What should be the chairs in the dining room, whether to upholster the living room with pink cretonne, but all this must certainly be "on the level", in other words, exactly repeat hundreds of the same apartments. It was the same in times of "stagnation" - carpets, crystal, wall; and in our time - renovation. Everyone has. The main thing is prestigious and worthy.
But do these people have happiness? Praskovya Fyodorovna, his wife, constantly "nags" Ivan Ilyich so that he advances in his service like the others. Children have their own interests. And Ivan Ilyich finds joy in a delicious dinner and success at work.
Tolstoy is not writing about some random family. It shows generations of such people. Most of them. To some extent, Tolstoy's story is a preaching of spiritual thought. Maybe such Ivan Ilyich, after reading this book today, will think about who he really is: is he only an official, a husband, a father, or does he have a higher destiny?
Our Ivan Ilyich discovers this greatness just before his death. But for all the time of his illness, and indeed for his whole life, such a thought does not come to him.
Decorating his new home, Ivan Ilyich hung up a fashionable picture, but fell off and fell from a height. "Absolutely successfully fell", only slightly damaged the side. Our hero laughs carelessly, but the reader is already hearing terrible music, the leitmotif of providence, death. The scene shrinks, the characters become cartoonish, fake.
The hurt side from time to time began to remind of itself. Soon even tasty food ceased to please the member of the Trial Chamber. After eating, he began to experience terrible pain. His complaints terribly irritated Praskovya Fyodorovna. She did not feel any pity, much less love for her husband. But she felt great pity for herself. Hey, with her noble heart, she has to endure all the stupid whims of her spoiled husband, and only her sensitivity allows her to restrain her irritation and respond favorably to his stupid whining. Each restrained reproach seemed to her an enormous feat and self-sacrifice.
Seeing no affection, the husband also tried not to start talking about the disease, but when, emaciated, with constant pain, he could no longer go to work and various mediocre doctors prescribed poultices for him, everyone already began to understand that the matter was serious. And an even more stuffy atmosphere develops in the family, since a conscience that is not quite asleep prevents the children and wife from having fun, as before. an even more stuffy atmosphere, because a not quite asleep conscience prevents the children and the wife from having fun as before. The children, offended in their hearts by their father, hypocritically ask him about his health, the wife also considers it her duty to take an interest, but the only one who really sympathizes with the patient is the barman Gerasim. He becomes both a nurse at the bedside of the dying and a comforter in his suffering. The absurd request of the master - to hold his legs, they say, it’s easier for him, does not cause either surprise or irritation of the peasant. He sees before him not an official, not a master, but first of all a dying person, and he is glad to serve him somehow.
Feeling like a burden, Ivan Ilyich became even more irritated and capricious, but finally, death, the deliverer, approached him. After a long agony, a miracle suddenly happened - never thinking about that very "great", Ivan Ilyich felt an unknown feeling of universal love and happiness. He was no longer offended by the callousness of his relatives, on the contrary, he felt tenderness for them and happily said goodbye to them. With joy, he went to a wonderful, sparkling world, where, he knew, he was loved and welcomed. Only now has he found his freedom.
But his son remained, the meeting with whom after the funeral is fleeting, but terribly specific: “It was little Ivan Ilyich, as Pyotr Ivanovich remembered him in Jurisprudence. ".
Every day, thousands of Ivanov Ilyichs die on the planet, but people also continue to marry and marry for convenience, hate each other and raise the same children. Everyone thinks that they are capable of a feat. And the feats lie in the very ordinary life, if it is illuminated, permeated with love and care for others.
UDC 821.161.1
THE STORY OF L.N. TOLSTOY "DEATH NOTES OF THE OLD FEDORA KUZMICH"
V.V. Lepakhin
"THE POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS OF THE STARETS FEODOR KUZMICH" BY L.N.TOLSTOY
University of Szeged (Hungary), [email protected]
The article is devoted to the late work of Leo Tolstoy, in which he supported the identification of Alexander I and the Tomsk Elder Fyodor Kuzmich, who several years ago was canonized as a locally revered saint. The main attention is paid to the relationship of this work with more early stories, novels, Tolstoy's autobiographical prose. The question of why the story remained unfinished is also considered.
Keywords: Leo Tolstoy, Emperor Alexander, Elder Fyodor Kuzmich, spiritual life, spiritual crisis, holiness
The article is devoted to a late work of Leo Tolstoy, in which he supported the theory of Alexander I and Feodor Kuzmich, recently canonized starets of Tomsk being the same person. A special attention is given to the relationship between this work and earlier stories, novels and autobiographical prose by Tolstoy. The article also examines why the story remained unfinished. Keywords: Leo Tolstoy, Emperor Alexander, starets Fyodor Kuzmich, spiritual life, spiritual crisis, sainthood
The full title of Leo Tolstoy's story sounds like this: Posthumous notes of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, who died on January 20, 1864 in Siberia. Near Tomsk at the estate of the merchant Khromov. The idea for the work came from Tolstoy in 1890. The following year, he told his aunt, A.A. Tolstoy, about the idea, who in response sent the writer a card from Elder Fyodor Kuzmich. In 1905, Tolstoy began work on the Posthumous Notes, but for various reasons he did not finish them.
In February 1912, these Notes were prepared for publication in a separate issue of the Russian Wealth magazine (with cuts). The story was forbidden
on censorship, the issue was confiscated, and the editor of the magazine, VG Korolenko, had to go through a trial. The story was first published in the same 1912 in Berlin. In Russia, Zapiski was published already under Soviet rule in Moscow in 1918. As noted by researchers of the writer's work, during his lifetime he did not even try to print " posthumous notes old man."
The story can be divided into three parts. The first is in the nature of a preface, which contains historical data regarding the identification of the emperor and the elder. Here Tolstoy gives all the arguments for and against. The second part presents the history
the story of the death and replacement of the body of Alexander in Taganrog, told by the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, but seen, as it were, through the eyes of the emperor himself. Finally, the third part has its own title - My life, it is actually a note, the diary of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich. The first entry is dated December 12, 1849, i.e. it was made fifteen years before his death (the elder died in 1864). Since the work remained unfinished, the Notes describe only the childhood of the elder emperor.
Tolstoy had no doubt that Elder Fyodor Kuzmich was in fact Sovereign Alexander I. In the first part of the work, he lists some strange, questionable facts related to the death of the Sovereign in Taganrog: “... Firstly, ... Alexander died completely unexpectedly, without any serious illness before that, secondly, he died far from everyone, in a rather remote place, Taganrog, thirdly. when he was placed in a coffin, those who saw him said that he had changed so much that it was impossible to recognize him and that therefore he was closed and not shown to anyone, fourthly, Alexander repeatedly spoke, wrote (and especially often in Lately) that he wants only one thing: to get rid of his position and get away from m1ra, fifthly, a little known circumstance, is that during the protocol for describing Alexander’s body, it was said that his back and buttocks were purple-grey-red, which could not have been on the pampered body of the emperor.
Since the time of Tolstoy, researchers have clarified something, but they have not said anything fundamentally new, so the writer was aware of all the latest problems related to the death of the emperor.
Here, in the first part, Tolstoy lists five arguments in favor of identifying the elder and the emperor. These arguments are as follows: “.Firstly, . the elder was so similar in height, build, and appearance to the emperor that people (the footmen who recognized Kuzmich as Alexander) who had seen Alexander and his portraits found a striking resemblance between them, and the same age, and the same characteristic stoop; secondly, Kuzmich, who pretended to be a vagabond of no remembrance, knew foreign languages and with all his majestic gentleness he denounced a person accustomed to the highest position; thirdly, the elder never revealed his name and rank to anyone, and meanwhile, with involuntarily erupting expressions, he pretended to be a person who once stood above all other people; and fourthly, before his death, he destroyed some papers, of which one sheet remained with encrypted strange characters and the initials A. and P. (possibly Alexander Pavlovich. - V.L.); fifthly, despite all his piety, the elder never fasted. When the bishop who visited him persuaded him to fulfill the duty of a Christian, the elder said: “If I had not told the truth about myself in confession, heaven would have been surprised; if I had said who I was, the earth would have been surprised.”
So, the writer has no doubts that the elder and
Tsar Alexander is one person. artistic intent Tolstoy was to compile on behalf of the elder-emperor such Notes that would unconditionally testify that the famous Tomsk elder is in fact Emperor Alexander I. Tolstoy’s preface to the work ends with the following statement regarding the identification of the elder with the emperor: “All conjectures and these doubts ceased to be doubts and became certainty as a result of the found notes of Kuzmich. These notes are the following.
As we can see, a kind art game writer and reader, which occurs many times in the history of literature, was that 1) the Notes were found by Tolstoy (as Belkin's stories were found by Pushkin, for example), 2) they are a reliable document, 3) they were written by the emperor, who became famous in Siberia as Fyodor Kuzmich , and the elder himself reveals his secret, 4) these Notes put an end to the debate about whether Fyodor Kuzmich is really the former emperor. From now on, according to Tolstoy, (and this too artistic technique) there is no doubt: the elder is Emperor Alexander I. So, Tolstoy wrote the Notes as the final confirmation of the identity of the two personalities.
The work remained unfinished. For what reasons? What difficulties did the writer face? We will try to name some obvious and others hidden.
The writer began his work too far away - from the childhood of the emperor. But Tolstoy has already described the childhood of his heroes in many works; there are no new lyrical finds in the Notes. The reader is presented with the usual, already used, Tolstoy's techniques in depicting childhood, child psychology, relationships between children and adults. The main conflict that poisoned Alexander's childhood, according to Tolstoy, is the conflict between Empress Catherine II and the heir Paul I, the father of Alexander I. Tolstoy's entire court life seems to be involved in Catherine's desire to transfer the throne to Alexander, through the head of his father and legitimate heir Paul.
Tolstoy in the Notes often strays into the usual style of a penitent nobleman, as in the novel Resurrection or in the autobiographical Confession. According to the style of the work, it is not felt that the Notes are already being written by a holy elder who repented of sins, who has been leading the life of a wanderer, ascetic for almost fifteen years, purifying his soul with fasting and prayer. In fact, Tolstoy took it upon himself to forge the holy man's notes. But how can you fake holiness, how can you describe an apple if you have never tasted it, but only seen it in a picture?!
In ancient Russian literature, the author of the life of a saint usually points out the main difficulty of his task: he, the author, far from holiness, undertakes to write about a holy man, i.e. writes about what he does not know own experience does not know the truth.
When writing Notes to Tolstoy
difficulties arose related to the mention of specific facts from the life of first the heir, and then Tsar Alexander, and from the era of his reign. To give credibility to the factual side of the Notes, Tolstoy used the most famous at that time four-volume military figure and historian N.K. Schilder (Emperor Alexander the First. His life and reign), oral stories A.F. Koni, but apparently this was not enough to give credibility and authenticity to the memories of the Tsar's childhood. Basically, the Notes talk about such facts from the life of the court of that time, which are known to every more or less educated person.
Why does Alexander decide to change his life so dramatically, drastically? It seems that there is hardly a writer in the world who could convincingly describe such a spiritual and spiritual change in a convincing manner. If we turn again to ancient Russian literature, then we cannot but pay attention to the fact that the scribe of that time speaks very briefly and carefully about a spiritual turning point in a person’s soul. How exactly does an unbeliever or even a thief embark on the path of serving God and become a saint? And is it worth invading this mystery? After all, this is a meeting of man with God. Tolstoy took upon himself an exorbitantly difficult, if not impossible, task.
So why does Alexander make the switch and start living the life of a wanderer? In Tolstoy we find several reasons.
First. Alexander realized the vileness and sinfulness of his life. As is often the case with Tolstoy in his later works, he confines himself to a general statement of fact. Among the sins that torment the emperor more than others are the murder of his father, debauchery, orders that lead to mass death of people.
Tolstoy has no doubt, in accordance with the widespread belief at that time, that Alexander was directly involved in the murder of his father, however, the writer is silent about the degree of his guilt. The very fact of Alexander's involvement in the conspiracy is needed by Tolstoy to show the pangs of conscience that torment the author of the Notes, the Siberian elder, the former emperor. Currently, cautious historians believe that the maximum that can be attributed to Alexander's heir is knowledge of a conspiracy being prepared against his father.
The second reason. Alexander has a difficult unbearable relationship with his wife. In parentheses, we note that this is not entirely true. In recent years, and especially in Taganrog, between them, according to many testimonies of contemporaries, the former warm relationship. Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna is depicted by Tolstoy through Alexander's eyes in a supercritical way: “... Limited, deceitful, capricious, evil, consumptive and all pretense, she poisoned my life worst of all. it was hell in decent forms, feigned and terrible. All data known to us, materials about the life and character of the Empress indicate that this characteristic in the highest degree unfair. She was a famous philanthropist and woman
difficult, even dramatic fate.
There is not a word in Tolstoy's story, for example, that just as the elder Fyodor Kuzmich was identified with the former emperor Alexander I, in the same way, folk rumor said that Vera the Silent from the Syrkov Devichy Monastery of the Novgorod diocese is in fact the wife Alexander I, Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, who followed the feat of her husband.
It is striking that the relationship between Emperor Alexander and his wife is described according to the Tolstoy stereotype of his later works. Exactly such relationships are found in The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) - with Ivan Ilyich and his wife, in the Kreutzer Sonata (1890) - with Pozdnyshev and his wife, in the novel Resurrection (1899) - with Nekhlyudov's friend Selenin and his wife. In the Notes, one can find echoes of Evgeny's relationship with Stepanida in the story The Devil (1889), there are situational and linguistic (sometimes verbatim) coincidences with the Diaries: a late relationship with Tolstoy's wife himself. Nothing new about family relationships, as well as about childhood, Tolstoy failed to say in the Notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich. He got off with repetitions from his previous works, which describe the psychology of family drama.
Third reason. The emperor seeks to get rid of lust, so he wants not only to leave the throne, but to get out of the world. Tolstoy includes in his Notes some rather naturalistic descriptions of the "prodigal temptations" of the emperor. At night, “lust” for the murdered Nastasya (Arakcheev’s mistress), for her former mistress Maria Antonovna Naryshkina, who left him, and hatred for her hateful wife merge into one feeling. The scene, worthy of Freudianism, of combining thoughts about the sensually beautiful mistress of Arakcheev (just killed!) and the bloody mess on the back of a non-commissioned officer punished with gauntlets, the very person whose body will be passed off as the body of the supposedly deceased emperor, also impresses. The scene itself is strong, but it is unlikely that the holy elder began to describe it so naturalistically fifteen ascetic years after what happened.
Below, Tolstoy also talks about the carnal temptations of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich: “I slept little and had bad dreams: some woman, unpleasant, weak, pressed close to me, and I’m not afraid of her, not of sin, but I’m afraid that my wife will see. And there will be reproaches again. Seventy-two years old, and I'm still not free... In reality, you can deceive yourself, but the dream gives a true assessment of the degree to which you have reached... And this is again confirmation of the low degree of morality on which I stand. . Let us also note here the motive of freedom, i.e. liberation from passions.
The fourth reason or, rather, the last impetus for a decisive step - the substitution of the body - can be considered an accidental resemblance of Alexander to non-commissioned officer Strumensky. “When I peered into the face of this man,” writes Tolstoy on behalf of Alexander, “I recognized him. It was Strumensky
soldier, left-flank non-commissioned officer of the 3rd company of the Semyonovsky regiment, at one time known to all the guards by his resemblance to me. He was jokingly called Alexander II.
Fifth reason. The spectacle of the execution had a strong effect on the emperor. Tolstoy describes Alexander's feelings as follows: “My main feeling was that I had to sympathize with what was being done with this double of mine. If not to sympathize, then to recognize that what is being done is what should be done - and I felt that I could not. Meanwhile, I felt that if I did not admit that this is how it should be, that this is good, then I must admit that my whole life, all my deeds are all bad, and I have to do what I have long wanted to do. do: quit everything, leave, disappear.
This state is characteristic of many heroes of the Tolstoy period of the religious crisis, characteristic of the psychology of a penitent nobleman. Such feelings, thoughts, states are repeatedly described by the writer, for example, in Anna Karenina, in Confession, in the Diaries, only in these works this state leads to thoughts of suicide, but here it gives rise to a desire to “leave, disappear”. In this sense, one can also say that Tolstoy, through the lips of the emperor (and let's not forget: through the lips of an old man at the same time), repeats himself, reproduces excerpts from previous works. As for the description of punishment with gauntlets, it is found in Tolstoy in the story After the Ball (1903), written two years before the Notes.
Sixth reason. “I made and butchered constitutions in Europe,” writes Tolstoy on behalf of Alexander, “and what and who got better from this? And most importantly, who am I to do this? The main thing was that the whole external life, any organization of external affairs, any participation in them - and whether I did not participate in them and did not restructure the life of the peoples of Europe - was not important, was not necessary and did not concern me. I suddenly realized that it was none of my business. That my business is me, my soul. And all my previous desires to abdicate the throne, then with flair, with a desire to surprise, sadden people, show them my greatness of soul, have returned now, but returned with new force and with complete sincerity, no longer for people, but only for himself, for the soul. It was as if all this brilliant circle of life that I had passed through in the secular sense was passed only in order to return to that youthful desire, caused by repentance, to leave everything, but to return without vanity, without thought of human glory, but for myself, for God. Then it was vague desires, now it was the impossibility to continue the same life. In this passage, the elder-emperor tells most accurately and in detail about his spiritual crisis and turning point. The consciousness came to him that there is an external and an internal. Imperial duties appeared in a different light. They relate to external life, along with them there are duties before God, before one's own soul.
It also turns out that Alexander, in his youth, intended or, rather, dreamed of renouncing his pre-
table. But then, according to Tolstoy, he wanted to show off in front of people out of vanity, but now he abdicates the throne for God, for the soul, because of the “impossibility” to continue his former life. In this passage, Alexander's spiritual crisis largely coincides with the crisis of Konstantin Levin in Anna Karenina's novel, who, after a painful search for the meaning of life, finds it in a simple answer suggested by a simple peasant: one must live for God, for the soul. Echoes of Nekhlyudov's reasoning on this subject are also heard.
These six reasons for the departure of the emperor, his transformation into a wanderer and an old man are named by Tolstoy in an artistic context. It seems to us that they are not enough to explain such a serious and responsible step for which they have been preparing for years. Tolstoy's motives for leaving the emperor are described unconvincingly. The organization of the replacement of the body of the emperor with the body of a non-commissioned officer beaten to death is described in much more detail and reliably. True, the elder in his Notes promises below to tell in more detail about the spiritual turning point itself. Interestingly, the departure of Alexander Tolstoy calls liberation. After talking about the body swap, he states: "And on November 17 I was free."
A reader who knows Tolstoy's work well, when reading the Notes, cannot get rid of the feeling that much in them is already familiar from other works of the writer - from Childhood, Youth, Confession, Anna Karenina, the Kreutzer Sonata, Resurrection, Diaries, Memoirs (1902), according to Father Sergius, based on the stories After the Ball, The Devil, Notes of a Madman (1884-1903).
Here, for example, he writes in the Notes: “I was born and lived forty-seven years of my life among the most terrible temptations and not only did not resist them, but reveled in them, tempted and tempted others, sinned and forced to sin. But God looked back at me. And all the abomination of my life, which I tried to justify to myself and blame on others, finally revealed itself to me in all its horror, and God helped me get rid not of evil - I am still full of it, although I am struggling with it - but from participation in him. What mental anguish I experienced and what happened in my soul when I realized all my sinfulness and the need for redemption (not faith in redemption, but real atonement for sins with my suffering), I will tell in its place.
Of course, this is not the style of Alexander I, but not the old man Fyodor Kuzmich either. This is typical of many of Tolstoy's works, the style of a period of religious crisis, a period of spiritual turning point in life and work. And, of course, there is the mentioned motif of the penitent nobleman.
Further, Tolstoy writes: “I, the greatest criminal, the murderer of my father, the murderer of hundreds of thousands of people in the wars that I was the cause of, the vile lecher, the villain, believed what they told me about me, considered myself the savior of Europe, the benefactor of mankind. I considered myself so, but God did not completely leave me, and the vigilant voice of conscience does not
nibbling on me. Everything was bad for me, everyone was to blame. I alone was good, and no one understood it. I turned to God, ... but I turned to God only in front of people, so that they would admire me.
And here is what is said earlier in Confession (18771882): “Someday I will tell the story of my life - both touching and instructive in these ten years of my youth. Whenever I tried to express what constituted my most sincere desires: that I want to be morally good, I met with contempt and ridicule; and as soon as I indulged in vile passions, I was praised and encouraged. Ambition, lust for power, greed, lust, pride, anger, revenge - all this was respected. Surrendering to these passions, I became like a big man, and I felt that I was satisfied. I cannot remember those years without horror, disgust and heartache. I killed people in war, challenged them to duels to kill them, lost at cards, devoured the labors of peasants, executed them, fornicated, deceived. Lies, theft, fornications of all kinds, drunkenness, violence, murder ... There was no crime that I would not have committed, and for all this I was praised, considered and considered by my peers comparatively a moral person. So I lived for ten years. As you can see, in two passages there are coincidences and semantic, and linguistic, and stylistic. Alexander in Notes and main character Confessions are not only surprisingly similar, but they also speak the same language, use the same expressions, and similar intonations are heard in them.
". The main thing, - Tolstoy writes on behalf of the elder Fyodor, - the sleepy spiritual state, renewed the opportunity to communicate with God with all my soul. Last night I prayed in the dark. I clearly realized my position in the world: I - my whole life - is something necessary for the One Who sent me. And I can do what He needs and I can not do it. By doing what is right for Him, I contribute to the good of myself and the whole world. Without doing this, I lose my good - not all good, but that which could be mine, but I do not deprive m1r of the good that is intended for him (m1ru. - V.L.). What I should have done, others will do. And His will will be done. This is my free will. But if He knows what will happen, if everything is determined by Him, then there is no freedom? Don't know. Here is the limit of thought and the beginning of prayer, a simple, childish and senile prayer: "Father, let not my will be done, but Yours. Help me. Come and dwell in us." Simply: "Lord, forgive and have mercy"; yes, Lord, forgive and have mercy, forgive and have mercy. I can’t say with words, but you know your heart, you yourself are in it.
Earlier in his Confession, Tolstoy wrote: “The life of the world is accomplished by someone’s will, someone is doing his own business with this life of the whole world and our lives. In order to have hope of understanding the meaning of this will, we must first of all fulfill it - to do what they want from us. And if I don’t do what they want from me, then I will never understand what they want from me, much less what they want from all of us and from the whole world. Similar
the idea was put earlier in the mouth of Konstantin Levin in Anna Karenina.
Often unconvincing in Tolstoy, as in Father Sergius, descriptions inner life the elder and his communication with visitors, with those who believe in his prayer, spiritual strength, holiness. The elder writes in his diary: “These visits are difficult for me, but I know that she would be upset by a refusal. And now she has arrived. The skids could be heard from afar, how they screeched through the snow. And she, entering in her fur coat and kerchiefs, brought in bags with gifts and such a cold that I dressed in a dressing gown. She brought pancakes, vegetable oil and apples. She came to ask about her daughter. A rich widower is getting married. Do you give? It is very difficult for me to have their idea of my clairvoyance. Everything I say against them they attribute to my humility. I said that I always say that chastity is better than marriage, but, according to Paul, it is better to marry than to be inflamed.
Or such a passage about irritability on behalf of the elder Fyodor: “Nikanor Ivanovich is a great temptation for me. I can not overcome antipathy, disgust for him. "Yes, Lord, grant me to see my transgressions and not condemn my brother." And I see all his sins, I guess them with the insight of malice, I see all his weaknesses and I cannot overcome antipathy towards him, towards my brother, towards the bearer, like me, of the Divine principle. Precisely such a state of mind of the protagonist has already been described by Tolstoy in Father Sergius.
Also in the Notes, Tolstoy repeats his thoughts (from earlier works) about reading the Gospel, about prayer, about temptations, about spiritual struggle, about pride and vanity. Even the motives of misogyny are used almost verbatim.
So let's repeat the main objective Tolstoy was to show as convincingly as possible that the elder and the emperor are one and the same person, therefore all other themes and motives are of a service nature in the story. This is probably why the work contains so many repetitions from previous stories, novels, novels that describe childhood, a spiritual break, attempts to live in God. Sometimes it is simply striking that the Notes are compiled as proof of the main idea.
In conclusion, we note that in early XXI century, the president of the Russian graphological society, Svetlana Semyonova, and a number of other handwriting experts stated that the handwriting of Alexander I and Fyodor Kuzmich are identical. Thus, Tolstoy's confidence that the elder was a former emperor received another important confirmation. However, this question lost its sharpness for the reason that the Tomsk elder Fyodor Kuzmich was canonized as a saint and he can be approached with prayer. If, over time, one hundred percent evidence of the identity of the tsar and the elder is found, then the Monk Fedor of Tomsk will still remain in church veneration, only in encyclopedias and calendars next to the name of the elder in brackets will it be indicated: in the world - Alexander Pavlovich Romanov, emperor and autocrat of All-Russian Alexander I ( 1801-1825).
1. Tolstoy L.N. Collected works: In 22 t. M .: Fiction, 1978-1985.
2. Graphological examination confirmed the identity of the handwriting of Alexander I and Elder Fyodor // Russian newspaper. 23.07.2015.
1. Tolstoy L.N. Coll. of works in 22 vols. Moscow, 1978-1985.
2. Grafologicheskaia ekspertiza podtverdila identichnost pocherkov Alexandra I i startsa Fedora. Rossiiskaia Gazeta, 2015, 23 of July.
“Childhood” is one of the first works of Leo Tolstoy, from which his long life began. creative way. This story is autobiographical.
Lev Nikolayevich was always interested in the life and soul of a simple Russian person, and in 1851, being in the Caucasus with his brother, Tolstoy thoroughly set about writing the story “Childhood” - the first part of the trilogy, which was supposed to show all the stages of development and formation of personality. Many stories and facts from the book are taken from the life of the author himself. He, too, looked up to his brother in everything, lost his mother early and searched for himself from birth.
Genre and direction
Book genre - autobiographical story. The direction is realism, because all the main events are based on facts from the life of the writer. Everything that is told in the work shows the life and customs of the Russian nobles of the 19th century.
The story is part of a trilogy, as you know, after "Childhood" follow "Boyhood" and "Youth" Nikolenka.
essence
The story is based on events from the life of Nikolenka Irteniev, the main character. The story is told on behalf of Kolya himself, the boy talks about life in a noble house, hunting, a teacher, first love, personal experiences and hard times. We see the world through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy who is just beginning to understand the essence of things, feelings and behavior of people.
Nicholas is faced with a variety of phenomena. His mother dies, and he is forced to leave home and go to study in a large and foreign city. There he begins new life, full of adventure, discoveries and reflections. We described the plot of the book briefly and precisely in
Main characters
The image and characteristics of each character are in this. Here we give only the most basic information about the life and character of the hero.
- Nikolenka Irteniev- the main character, a boy from noble family. He feels the world very subtly, is smart beyond his years, but the learning process itself is boring for him. Nikolenka tries to find the essence, meaning in everything, but she often makes mistakes due to her heightened sensitivity and temper. He is kind, but driven: he is easily led astray, because he often imitates older or stronger peers.
- Mother- in the story itself, the author does not show the character of the woman directly, but we can trace her influence on her son. Thanks to the kind mother's heart, the boy became so sensitive and compassionate.
- Dad- a sensible and strict man. The hero loves him no less, the father retains authority over his son in any situation.
- Natalya Savishna- housekeeper, former nanny of Nikolenka's mother. By nature, a very altruistic woman, she is ready to give everything for the sake of the family she serves.
- Karl Ivanovich- Nikolenka's teacher, a very kind and caring person who wants only the best for the boy.
Themes
- The main theme of the story is the formation of personality. A person acquires individuality, starting from childhood. Events in early age further influence the fate of people, determine it in many ways. Tolstoy shows the dialectic of the hero's soul - the process of his development. Every trait, every gesture has an explanation, and it is necessary to look for it in childhood.
- Another important topic is upbringing. The hero is surrounded by care and attention with young years he feels needed. Therefore, good qualities often prevent him from doing bad things. This is not the merit of genetics, he is simply well brought up, and, assimilating manners in an urban environment, he gradually becomes more and more reasonable and far-sighted.
- Mother's love is also a central theme in the story. It was the mother who taught her sons to subtly feel the world around them, rewarded the children with a heightened sense of justice and sympathy. Receiving affection and warmth of maternal participation, they themselves became merciful, attentive and caring people who were able to admit mistakes and make amends.
- Family Theme- also very important aspect. Relationships between relatives largely determine the future of children. Seeing a prosperous home and well-being, they strive to build their lives in the image and likeness of their relatives.
- The role of the teacher. Tolstoy understands the importance of the educator for the pupil. Karl Ivanovich does not dismiss his students, he shows firmness, but at the same time he is sincerely disposed towards them. The old man loves and respects children, not allowing himself to be rude towards them.
Issues
In this story, Tolstoy touches on many issues that are relevant to this day. We will list only the main ones.
- Loss of a loved one. Children especially take loss to heart. Especially in the family. The writer showed how sons yearn for their mother, how painful it is for them to lose her. They just don't know how to live on. This problem does not have a universal solution, but relatives should do everything possible so that children do not feel like orphans. This is the only way out, and Tolstoy shows how to behave in such a situation.
- bad influence. The child is very susceptible to outside influences. It is easy to lead him astray from the true path, especially if he was brought up gently, without special demands. Nikolai succumbed to harmful moods and began to behave badly towards another boy, obeying the herd mentality. He imitated Seryozha Ivin and wanted to please him. Unfortunately, adults do not always notice the source of bad influence in time, and this connivance can lead to the fact that proper upbringing will not bear fruit.
- Adult negligence and indiscretion. Parents themselves often make mistakes in education. For example, Tolstoy showed this at a reception at his grandmother, where little Nikolenka was strongly pressed by relatives. Grandmother publicly assured people that her grandson was taking care of the little guest, he was very embarrassed and lost confidence in himself. The impressionability of the child must be taken into account and not frighten him with his revelations, especially in front of outsiders.
- Problem of choice life path . The hero rushes between good and evil, between vocations, between the girls he likes. He hasn't decided what he is yet.
the main idea
In his work, Tolstoy wanted to show the influence of the surrounding world and people on the formation of personality. How each event is built into a clear picture and is reflected in the formation of human consciousness. Each seemingly insignificant episode can become a motive for a fateful act in the future. Such is the idea of the story, from which morality can be drawn: nothing can be neglected in the upbringing of the rising generation. Everything that is done with a child is very important, because the foundations of the human worldview are formed from childhood.
The meaning of the story is that the role of the family in society cannot be overestimated. In that social institution a person acquires moral guidelines where he finds himself. And what he will be depends, first of all, on his parents, relatives, who must choose the right and healthy environment for the younger generation.
Conclusion: what does it teach?
This story teaches us to value our family, our home and to be more attentive to everything that surrounds us. Being close to the people we love, learning from mistakes to make the lives of our loved ones better every day.
The author also teaches the reader responsibility. The birth of a child is a very important and responsible step that the whole family takes, and not just the mother. Every relative, every friend of the family should take part in the upbringing of children, be attentive to their needs, because this is our common future.
The children themselves must learn moral lessons: to love and respect their relatives, to think with their own heads, and not repeat the mistakes of others. You need to value yourself without humiliating yourself in front of other children and not trying to win their friendship if they themselves treat you arrogantly. Also, the child must learn to objectively evaluate the world around and people, not allowing the first and wrong impressions to overshadow the arguments of the mind.
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