"Cossacks"- published in 1863, the story of Leo Tolstoy about the stay of a cadet in the village of Terek Cossacks.
History of creation
"Cossacks" was the fruit of ten years of Tolstoy's work. In 1851, as a cadet, he went to the Caucasus; he had to live for 5 months in a Pyatigorsk hut, waiting for documents. Tolstoy spent much of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of Eroshka from the future story. Then he served in an artillery battery stationed in the village of Starogladovskaya located on the banks of the Terek. The success of the first work of Lev Nikolayevich, published in 1852 ("Childhood"), prompted him to continue literary activity. In the summer of 1853, Tolstoy wrote a chapter of the manuscript, which he entitled "The Terek Line", about the life of the Cossacks. The narration was conducted on behalf of a person who arrived in the village, and this method was preserved until the last edition of the Cossacks. In August, Tolstoy wrote 3 chapters of the Caucasian novel The Fugitive, only small parts of which were included in the final version of The Cossacks. Further, the writer did not return to this topic until 1856, when he resumed work on the Cossack story (without mentioning the officer). The officer appeared in April 1857, when Tolstoy rewrote 3 chapters of The Fugitive. It was there that many characters of the future "Cossacks" appeared, although sparingly described.
In the spring of 1858, Lev Nikolayevich again worked on a Caucasian novel, and by May, 5 chapters had been written, without any special artistic frills. Although they end with a date between Lukashka (then called Kirka) and Maryana, even then the writer stopped at the denouement printed in The Cossacks. At the same time, the style of narration was translated into the letters of the protagonist, officer Rzhavsky. In the fall, Tolstoy significantly revised and expanded the same 5 chapters. In winter, Lev Nikolaevich continued to work on and deepen the first part of the Caucasian novel. During a trip to Switzerland in 1860, the writer created a chapter from the third part of the planned novel, where Rzhavsky became Olenin. By February 1862, when Tolstoy returned to the novel, he had already sold the rights to publish it to Mikhail Katkov. Having written 3 more chapters of the third part, in which Olenin had already lived with Maryana for 3 years, Tolstoy decided to abandon the creation of the novel. However, Katkov did not agree to accept the payment for the novel back, and Lev Nikolaevich decided to reduce the finished chapters of the novel into a story. He dedicated the summer and autumn of 1862 to this goal, adding also several new bright episodes.
Plot
Junker Dmitry Andreevich Olenin is sent from Moscow to the Caucasus to his new military unit. Moscow, where he was involved in a love story, got bored young man. Upon arrival, Olenin quartered in the village of Novomlinskaya near the Terek, waiting for his regiment. Soon the owners of his house give the go-ahead in response to the matchmaking of the daring Cossack Lukashka to their daughter Maryana. Olenin, having made friends with the old Cossack Eroshka, begins to hunt in the vicinity, and soon love for the local nature and contempt for the civilization from which he comes from awakens in him. He is delighted with the Cossacks, who are so different from the city dwellers, and he himself dreams of becoming one of them. The young and strong Cossack Maryana delights him, although he does not dare to speak to her. The arrived prince Beletsky, familiar to Olenin from his old life, and now unpleasant, arranges a feast, where the cadet gets the opportunity to get closer to Maryana. Olenin decides to marry Maryana and stay here to live, seeking the girl's consent to the wedding. Before he can ask the girl's parents for permission to marry, Olenin, with Lukashka and other Cossacks, go to the river, where several Chechens crossed to the Cossack shore. The battle ends with the victory of the Cossacks, but Lukashka is seriously wounded by a Chechen who is avenging the murder of his brother. At death, Lukashka is brought to the village and sent to the mountains for a doctor who is ready to cure the Cossack with healing herbs (Lukashka's further fate is unclear). After what happened, Maryana takes up arms against Olenin and refuses any relationship with him. Olenin understands that he has nothing else to do here, and leaves the village.
Reviews
The story was published in January 1863 by Katkov's magazine Russkiy Vestnik. The Cossacks received the widest critical response of any of Tolstoy's works written up to that point. The idea of the story - the charm of a life close to nature in isolation from modern civilization - was understood by everyone. Edelson supported Tolstoy, pointing out that modern man learned from the development of civilization only the habit of convenience and comfort. Annenkov called the reason for Olenin's changes the lack of an original character inherent in the majority of educated Russians. At the same time, many critics, such as Evgenia Tur and Polonsky, reacted negatively to the idea of a novel, denying educated people the right to seek degradation. Art style"Kazakov" received wide acclaim, even among critics of the main idea. Turgenev and Bunin, who spoke of it with enthusiasm, reread the story many times.
In 1961, the Soviet adaptation of the story of the same name was released.
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Notes
Literature
- Zhurov P. A. [Foreword: On the history of the creation of "Cossacks": Unknown pages of the "Caucasian novel" and "Cossack story"] // Leo Tolstoy: In 2 books. / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Institute of world literature. them. A. M. Gorky. - M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1961. - Book. 1. - S. 231-234. - (Lit. heritage; T. 69).
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An excerpt characterizing the Cossacks (story)
When the sovereign was still in Vilna, the army was divided into three: 1st army was under the command of Barclay de Tolly, 2nd under the command of Bagration, 3rd under the command of Tormasov. The sovereign was with the first army, but not as commander in chief. The order did not say that the sovereign would command, it only said that the sovereign would be with the army. In addition, under the sovereign personally there was no headquarters of the commander-in-chief, but there was the headquarters of the imperial main apartment. Under him was the chief of the imperial headquarters, the quartermaster general Prince Volkonsky, generals, adjutant wing, diplomatic officials and a large number of foreigners, but there was no army headquarters. In addition, without a position with the sovereign were: Arakcheev - the former Minister of War, Count Benigsen - the eldest of the generals by rank, Grand Duke Tsarevich Konstantin Pavlovich, Count Rumyantsev - chancellor, Stein - a former Prussian minister, Armfeld - a Swedish general, Pfuel - the main drafter of the campaign plan, Adjutant General Pauluchi - a Sardinian native, Wolzogen and many others. Although these persons were without military positions in the army, they had influence by their position, and often the corps chief and even the commander in chief did not know what Benigsen, or the Grand Duke, or Arakcheev, or Prince Volkonsky was asking or advising for. and did not know whether such an order in the form of advice was issued from him or from the sovereign and whether it was necessary or not to execute it. But this was an external situation, but the essential meaning of the presence of the sovereign and all these persons, from the court point (and in the presence of the sovereign, everyone becomes courtiers), was clear to everyone. He was as follows: the sovereign did not assume the title of commander in chief, but disposed of all the armies; the people around him were his assistants. Arakcheev was a faithful executor, guardian of order and bodyguard of the sovereign; Benigsen was a landowner of the Vilna province, who seemed to be doing les honneurs [was busy with the business of receiving the sovereign] of the region, but in essence he was a good general, useful for advice and in order to have him always ready to replace Barclay. The Grand Duke was here because it pleased him. The former Minister Stein was there because he was useful for advice, and because Emperor Alexander highly valued his personal qualities. Armfeld was a bitter hater of Napoleon and a self-confident general, which always had an influence on Alexander. Pauluchi was here because he was bold and resolute in his speeches, the adjutant general was here because they were everywhere where the sovereign was, and, finally, - most importantly - Pfuel was here because he, having drawn up a plan of war against Napoleon and forcing Alexander believed in the expediency of this plan, led the whole cause of the war. Under Pfuel, there was Wolzogen, who conveyed Pfuel's thoughts in more accessible form than Pfuel himself, sharp, self-confident to the point of contempt for everything, an armchair theorist.In addition to these named persons, Russians and foreigners (especially foreigners, who, with the courage characteristic of people in their activities among a foreign environment, every day offered new unexpected ideas), there were many more persons of secondary importance who were with the army because their principals were here.
Among all the thoughts and voices in this vast, restless, brilliant and proud world, Prince Andrei saw the following, sharper divisions of directions and parties.
The first party was: Pfuel and his followers, war theorists who believe that there is a science of war and that this science has its own immutable laws, the laws of oblique movement, detour, etc. Pfuel and his followers demanded a retreat into the interior of the country, deviations from the exact laws prescribed by the imaginary theory of war, and in any deviation from this theory they saw only barbarism, ignorance or malice. German princes, Wolzogen, Wintzingerode and others, mostly Germans, belonged to this party.
The second batch was the opposite of the first. As always happens, at one extreme there were representatives of the other extreme. The people of this party were those who, ever since Vilna, had demanded an offensive against Poland and freedom from all plans drawn up in advance. In addition to the fact that the representatives of this party were representatives of bold actions, they were at the same time representatives of nationality, as a result of which they became even more one-sided in the dispute. These were Russians: Bagration, Yermolov, who was beginning to rise, and others. At this time, the well-known joke of Yermolov was widespread, as if asking the sovereign for one favor - his promotion to the Germans. The people of this party said, recalling Suvorov, that one should not think, not prick a card with needles, but fight, beat the enemy, not let him into Russia and not let the army lose heart.
The third party, in which the sovereign had the most confidence, belonged to the court makers of transactions between both directions. The people of this party, for the most part non-military and to which Arakcheev belonged, thought and said what people usually say who have no convictions, but who wish to appear as such. They said that, without a doubt, a war, especially with such a genius as Bonaparte (he was again called Bonaparte), requires the most profound considerations, a deep knowledge of science, and in this matter Pfuel is a genius; but at the same time it is impossible not to admit that theoreticians are often one-sided, and therefore one should not completely trust them, one must listen both to what Pfuel's opponents say, and to what practical people, experienced in military affairs, and from everything take the average. The people of this party insisted that, by holding the Drissa camp according to the Pfuel plan, they would change the movements of other armies. Although neither one nor the other goal was achieved by this course of action, it seemed better to the people of this party.
The fourth direction was the direction of which the most prominent representative was the Grand Duke, the heir to the Tsarevich, who could not forget his disappointment at Austerlitz, where, as if at a review, he rode in front of the guards in a helmet and tunic, hoping to valiantly crush the French, and, unexpectedly falling into the first line , forcibly left in general confusion. The people of this party had in their judgments both the quality and the lack of sincerity. They were afraid of Napoleon, they saw strength in him, weakness in themselves and directly expressed it. They said: “Nothing but grief, shame and death will come out of all this! So we left Vilna, we left Vitebsk, we will leave Drissa too. The only thing left for us to do wisely is to make peace, and as soon as possible, before we are driven out of Petersburg!”
“The whole history of Russia was made by the Cossacks. It’s not for nothing that the Europeans call us Cossacks. Peter took it and lost it."
Parents and Cossacks in general, who enjoy confidence among young people, need to explain and inspire young people that they can and should be proud of their Cossack origin, that the phrase “Thank God that we are Cossacks”, which has become a proverb among the Cossacks, is not empty bragging - on the contrary, it has deep base. It is not for nothing that such a giant of spirit as Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, who spent part of his youth in the Caucasus in a Cossack village, well recognized the Cossack life, social structure, love of freedom, daring and the whole way of life. Cossack life, came to the conclusion that Russia would be saved if it was imbued with the Cossack spirit, introduced the Cossack orders in itself - in particular and mainly in the field of land organization. According to the testimony of a descendant of the Zaporozhians, who remained a Cossack until the end of his life, V. Gilyarovsky, a person close to Tolstoy, L. N. Tolstoy, during his fatal departure from Yasnaya Polyana, before his death, was heading to the Terek, to the village where he spent his youth, to the Cossacks, hoping, obviously, to find last days balance and peace in your life.
"... The whole history of Russia was made by the Cossacks. No wonder the Europeans call us Cossacks. The people want to be Cossacks. Golitsyn went to the Crimea under Sophia, disgraced himself, and the Crimeans asked for forgiveness from Paley, and Azov took 4000 Cossacks and kept - that Azov, who with such difficulty Peter took and lost ... "
April 4, 1870 entry
(Complete collection of works in 90 vols. M., 1952, vol. 48, p. 123)
"I am reading the story of Solovyov. Everything, according to this history, was a disgrace in pre-Petrine Russia: cruelty, robbery, right, rudeness, stupidity, inability to do anything. The government began to correct. - And the government is just as ugly to our time. You read this story and one involuntarily comes to the conclusion that the history of Russia has been accomplished by a series of outrages. single state? This alone proves that it was not the government that produced history. But besides, reading about how they robbed, ruled, fought, ruined (only this is what is discussed in history), you involuntarily come to the question: what did they rob and ruin? And from this question to another: who produced what they ruined? Who and how fed all these people with bread? Who made brocades, cloth, dresses, kamki, in which tsars and boyars flaunted? Who caught black foxes and sables, which were given to ambassadors, who mined gold and iron, who brought out horses, bulls, rams, who built houses, palaces, churches, who transported goods? Who brought up and gave birth to these people of the same root? Who guarded the religious shrine, folk poetry, who made Bogdan Khmelnitsky hand over to Russia, and not to Turkey and Poland? The people live, and among the departures folk life there is a need for people ruining, robbing, luxurious and swaggering. And these are the rulers - unfortunate, who must renounce everything human ... "
The great French writer Alexander Dumas considered himself a descendant of a Zaporozhian Cossack who arrived in France with Henry III as part of the Cossack detachment that accompanied this monarch from the Kingdom of Poland, where he was elected king. By the way, there is reason to believe that on the basis of this detachment of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, the same regiment of royal musketeers, so colorfully described by Dumas in his novels, was created.
At the time described, Lieutenant-General of the French army, Comte de Bregy was the ambassador to Poland. It was he who persuaded the first minister, Mazarin, and the commander-in-chief, Prince Conde, to hire him to take part in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), against Spain and its allies, the Ukrainian Cossacks. For this purpose, preliminary negotiations were held with Cossack officers: Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who by that time (October 1645) was not yet a well-known commander, since the war against Poland under his leadership began only in 1648; and Ivan Sirko, who also became famous over time.
The French epic did not end there. As is often the case, the payment of the money earned by “sweat and blood” was delayed. I had to wait almost a year. Ukrainian mercenaries scattered around the French settlements. In the end, having received the long-awaited money, Sirko, according to legend, built his army. To his surprise, many Cossacks arrived with their wives. Ataman divided the soldiers into "unmarried" and those who "married". Sirko forced the latter to stay in France, motivating decision very simple: every real man should be responsible for his wife.
Many of the Cossacks who came to France with Sirko to take part in the Thirty Years' War wished to remain there, and almost all continued to serve. And now even in France there are people who remember that they are the descendants of those Cossacks who fought in the time of d'Artagnan. In this regard, they are even trying to unite in the historical Cossack brotherhood.
Researchers claim that under the command of Ataman Ivan Sirko, the troops of the Ukrainian Cossacks managed to win more than 60 battles. However, he really did not suffer a single serious defeat. In addition, contemporaries testified to his pronounced talent (saying modern language) psychic.
LN Tolstoy worked on The Cossacks for almost ten years. Like many of his other works, the story is autobiographical, it is based on the Caucasian memoirs of Leo Tolstoy, the story of his unrequited love for a Cossack woman who lived in the Starogladkovskaya village. None of the works of L.N. Tolstoy, written by him before 1863, did not cause such a wide discussion in criticism as "Cossacks". The story was not just mentioned among other works, but was analyzed in detail in articles specially devoted to it and caused a lively controversy. The poet and critic Y. Polonsky wrote: “Civilization does not satisfy us. Shouldn't we look for this satisfaction in the simplicity of semi-wild life, in the bosom of nature? Here is a sincere thought carried out by the author. P. Annenkov saw in the author of The Cossacks “a skeptic and persecutor not only of Russian civilization, but of a relaxing, bizarre, much demanding and confusing civilization in general.
The famous French traveler, one of the first researchers of the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks, publicist Pierre Chevalier, author of the book "The History of the War of the Cossacks against Poland", published in 1663, as well as studies: "About the Perekop Tatars", "About the land, customs, method of government, origin and religion of the Cossacks.
Pierre Chevalier was unlucky. A book about the Ukrainian Cossacks by his fellow countryman, a talented French fortification engineer in the Polish service, Guillaume de Beauplan, appeared in France in 1650, that is, much earlier than his book. Apparently, de Beauplan simply got ahead of him with the publication of his study.
In Paris, in the printing house of Claude Barben "Under the Sign of the Cross", a book by Pierre Chevalier appeared in 1663, which included his essays "Studies on the land, customs, method of government, origin and religion of the Cossacks", "Studies on the Perekop Tatars", "History of the Cossack War against Poland" and "The Second Cossack War". This work, indeed, is still an invaluable testimony of a contemporary of those events, a source of many scientific researches; and the very name of Pierre Chevalier is revered in Ukraine among the names of the first foreign researchers of the history and life of the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Pierre Chevalier really considered himself a historiographer of the Ukrainian Cossacks. And although his works are poor in order to appear truly scientific and serious, nevertheless they remain an important eyewitness account, which is still revered by many Ukrainian and foreign researchers.
The book of the French fortifier and traveler de Beauplan "Description of Ukraine" was first published in Rouen (France) in 1650, that is, three years after the events described. Researchers claim that in his later works, Chevalier used this book as a primary source, as evidenced by some actual and even textual borrowings.
Those wishing to argue about whether the terms “Ukraine”, “Ukrainian” were used at that time in relation to Ukrainian events, I inform you: during the entire period of the long-term liberation war of the Ukrainian people led by B. Khmelnitsky, the French government newspaper “Gazette de France” in each issue presented information collections under the heading "News from Ukraine". So there is no point in arguing about this.
Guillaume de Beauplan and the "country of the Cossacks"
http://www.day.kiev.ua/ru/article/ukraina-incognita/giyom-de-boplan-i-strana-kazakov
Sicheviki - sworn brothers of musketeers
http://www.day.kiev.ua/ru/article/ukraina-incognita/secheviki-pobratimy-mushketerov
In the service of six monarchs
http://www.day.kiev.ua/ru/article/istoriya-i-ya/na-sluzhbe-u-shesti-monarhov
Lavrin Kapusta is a historical figure. During the war of liberation under the command of B. Khmelnytsky (1648-1654), he became a colonel, more than once carried out diplomatic missions.
Over time, Lavrin Kapusta headed the security, intelligence and counterintelligence service at the headquarters of B. Khmelnitsky. Created an agent network in Poland, Muscovy, Turkey and the Crimea; personally carried out intelligence assignments in Warsaw, Venice and Moscow.
This talent of L. Kapusta was very clearly manifested when he participated in the disclosure of a conspiracy against B. Khmelnitsky, Colonel Fedorovich; in exposing the Polish spy Matrona Chaplinsky - the second wife of Khmelnitsky, who was then executed on the orders of the hetman's son, Timosh Khmelnitsky.
Lavrin Kapusta himself was directly involved in the formation of Ukrainian statehood both as a warrior and as a diplomat. In May 1653, as ambassador, he spoke at the Zemsky Sobor in Moscow on the issue of the union of Ukraine with Russia; had a conversation with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It was he who brought to the hetman's capital Chigirin the letter of the Russian tsar on the decision of the Zemsky Sobor regarding the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. He also headed the Ukrainian embassy to Turkey.
Lavrin Kapusta, aka Urbach, really established a powerful intelligence service at the headquarters of Khmelnitsky. It was he who managed to uncover several conspiracies against Khmelnitsky and prevent attempts on his life. He managed to create a whole network of his agents in Warsaw, Moscow, Bakhchisarai, Istanbul.
After in February 1949 Chigirin was officially declared the capital of the hetmanate with the hetman's headquarters in it, Subbotov was completely given over to the power of Colonel Lavrin Kapusta (Urbach), who was appointed Subbotov city ataman (that is, mayor, headman). Staying here, Kapusta, in essence, acted as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Cossack Ukraine. In Subbotovo, he received ambassadors, sent ambassadorial missions from here, and his agents left from here to all parts of Europe. That is, the fortified village of Subbotov turned out to be at the center of diplomatic life and intelligence activities of Khmelnitsky's headquarters.
Lavrin Kapusta was indeed appointed Gadyach military-administrative colonel. In Ukraine during the Hetmanate, the functions of a military-administrative colonel (not to be confused with an army colonel!) are quite comparable to those of a governor-general. The administrative-territorial division of Ukraine was such that instead of districts and regions there were administrative hundreds and administrative regiments.
Lavrin Kapusta headed Khmelnitsky's embassy in 1653 at the Zemsky Sobor in Moscow, where the issue of a military alliance between Russia and Ukraine was decided. It was he, on behalf of the hetman, who turned to the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with a proposal for such an alliance. He then, on the eve of the famous Pereyaslav Rada, received the ambassadors of the Russian Tsar in Subbotov.
The Russian Voivodeship of the Commonwealth then covered parts of the territories of the modern Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions of Ukraine. It was there, in Western Ukraine, that the locals retained their original names for the longest time - “Russians”, “Rusichs”, “Rusyns” ... As for the state located on the territory modern Russia, then it was officially and unofficially called “Muscovy” in all documents, and the population was called “Muscovites” (in Ukraine they were also called “Muscovites”, which in those days did not have a humiliating connotation). The terms "Russia", "Russian Empire" were introduced in Muscovy only 73 years after the events described, that is, in 1721, by a special decree of Peter I, when Ukraine was already, in essence, a colony. The appearance of this decree was associated with the adoption of the title of emperor by Peter I.
http://www.litlib.net/author/7405
The story "Cossacks" was published in 1863. The work tells about the stay of a young cadet in the village of the Terek Cossacks. Initially, the story was conceived as a novel. At the beginning of 1851, Tolstoy, being in the rank of cadet, went to the Caucasus. Here he lived exactly the life that his hero Olenin lived: he communicated with local residents, spent a lot of time hunting, walking around the neighborhood.
The main characters of the novel were the same as in the story. The differences were only in the names. Dmitry Olenin was called officer Rzhavsky. Lukashka was called Kirka. Work on the novel lasted at least ten years. Most of the material was prepared by the writer in the Caucasus. However, work continued during Tolstoy's travels in Switzerland in the early 1860s. It was during this journey that the main character received the last name by which the reader knows him in the story. Then Tolstoy for some time forgot about his novel.
In early 1862, work resumed. The writer managed to sell the publishing rights future book. At the same time, Tolstoy decided to abandon the creation of the work and return the money already received for it. However, the writer was denied the termination of the contract, and Tolstoy was forced to turn his novel into a story.
Almost 100 years after the creation of the work, in 1961 the story was filmed.
Juncker Dmitry Olenin lived in Moscow for a long time. However, over time, he got tired of staying in this city, and he decided to go to the Caucasus in search of new experiences. Dmitry goes to a new military unit. Arriving in the village of Novomlinsky, the main character settled near the Terek and began to wait for the arrival of his regiment.
Olenin likes the nature of the village very much. He begins to feel disgust for the civilization in which he spent so much time. Dmitry was able to love not only nature, but also local residents. The Cossacks are unlike all those people with whom he used to communicate. Main character wants to stay in the village forever.
Olenin dreams of marrying Maryana, the daughter of his masters. He really likes the girl, but he is afraid to talk to her. Maryana has a fiancé - the daring Cossack Lukashka. The girl's parents have already given their blessing for marriage. But Olenin is not embarrassed. By marrying Maryana, he will be able to stay in Novomlinskaya.
Prince Beletsky, who arrived in the village after the protagonist, is well known to Olenin. There has long been hostile relations between men. The prince arranges a celebration on the occasion of his arrival. During the holiday, the main character finally managed to talk with Maryana. Dmitry persuades the girl to marry him. Olenin also wants to talk to her parents. However, the conversation never took place. Chechens crossed the river, with whom local Cossacks and visiting military men were forced to fight. The Cossacks were able to win, but Lukashka was seriously wounded. He was wounded by one of the Chechens. The enemy tried to avenge the death of his brother.
The dying Lukashka is brought to the village, and then sent for a doctor. The further fate of the hero remains unknown to the reader. Upon learning of what had happened, Maryana refuses to marry Olenin. Dmitry understands that the most prudent act for him will be to leave. He is leaving Novomlinsky.
Dmitry Olenin
In the main character of the story, it is not difficult to recognize the notorious Pechorin or Eugene Onegin. Both characters suffer from boredom and the meaninglessness of their existence. Each of them is trying to entertain themselves in one way or another.
Dmitry Olenin also cannot find a place for himself. In Moscow, out of boredom, he became a participant in a love affair, which partly forced him to change his place of residence. After moving to the village, the main character seems to have found his "promised land". Olenin likes absolutely everything here: nature, people, and customs. Dmitry wants to become a Cossack, like the inhabitants of the village.
Juncker returns to what he was trying to escape from: he is again at the center of a love affair. Olenin is not trying to find a free girl. He certainly wants to "recapture" someone else's bride. For the main character, this becomes a kind of entertainment. When Maryana makes it clear that she does not intend to respond to Olenin's courtship, Dmitry once again runs away, leaving everything in which, as he thought, he found his meaning of life.
Cossack Mariana
The image of Maryana is the exact opposite of the image of Olenin. This girl grew up in the wild, far from civilization. She attracted the main character with her naturalness and dissimilarity to salon young ladies, in whose company he happened to spend time in Moscow. The young Cossack does not own foreign languages, does not know how to "play music" and conduct secular conversations. She is alien to hypocrisy and coquetry.
Judgment in the character of Maryana
Having no education, Maryana has a decisive and adamant character, which serves as her life guide. Despite the appearance of a more promising gentleman, the young Cossack is in no hurry to agree. Maryana doubts: she has known Lukashka all her life, Olenin is a stranger from an unfamiliar world.
The tragedy that happened to the girl's fiancé becomes a "sign from above" for Maryana. Being religious and superstitious, the young Cossack believes that she herself and the person who tried to seduce her are to blame for what happened.
The main idea of the story
Lacking interest and meaning in life, a person blames the surrounding reality for this. However, even after a change of scenery, a bored person returns to his original state after a while, not realizing that both interest and the meaning of life must be sought, first of all, in oneself.
Analysis of the work
One of the most significant works of Russian literature mid-nineteenth century was the story "Cossacks" by Tolstoy. Summary this piece can be summed up in a few words. But in order to comprehend his idea, you will probably have to re-read the story several times.
The protagonist, who is in search of something that he himself cannot understand and describe to himself, becomes the first object that the reader pays attention to. After Olenin moved to the village, the author invites the public to pay attention to the new scenery, among which was his hero. Instead of a dull, dirty city, the untouched beauty of nature appears before us. Despite the fact that the author does not directly call for the abandonment of civilization, he does his best to prove the superiority of natural living conditions over artificial ones created by man, and therefore imperfect.
The story reveals to the reader all the difficulties and worries that young people encounter during the period of growing up and becoming a person.
Tolstoy turned to nature in his youth. As he got older, he strengthened that bond even more. The great Russian writer loved simple peasant life, preferred the society of peasants to the elite. Real life, according to Tolstoy, is possible only in the bosom of nature, far from the hypocrisy of secular salons in big cities. This idea found its fans among those who read the story "Cossacks".
However, opponents of the unity of people and nature were also found. Some literary critics believed that for modern educated person such aspirations are tantamount to degradation. A person should always go forward, and not turn back.
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Everything is quiet in Moscow. Rarely, rarely where is heard the squeal of wheels on a winter street. There are no more lights in the windows, and the lanterns have gone out. The sounds of bells are heard from the churches and, swaying over the sleeping city, they remember the morning. The streets are empty. Rarely where a night cab will knead the sand with snow with narrow runners and, having crossed to another corner, will fall asleep, waiting for the rider. An old woman will pass into the church, where, reflected in the gold salaries, asymmetrically spaced wax candles burn red and rarely. The working people are already getting up after the long winter night and going to work.
And the gentlemen still evening.
In one of Chevalier's windows, a fire glows unlawfully from under a closed shutter. At the entrance are a carriage, a sleigh and cabbies, shy of their backs. The post office is right there. The janitor, wrapped up and cowering, seems to be hiding behind the corner of the house.
“And what is poured from empty to empty? - thinks the footman, with a haggard face, sitting in the hall. - And all on my duty! From the adjacent bright room, the voices of three young people having dinner are heard. They are sitting in a room near a table on which are the remnants of dinner and wine. One, small, clean, thin and ugly, sits and looks at the departing man with kind, tired eyes. The other one, tall, lies near the table lined with empty bottles and plays with the clock key. A third, in a brand new short fur coat, walks around the room and, stopping occasionally, snaps an almond in his rather thick and strong fingers, but with cleaned nails, and everyone smiles at something; his eyes and face are on fire. He speaks with warmth and gestures; it is evident that he does not find words, and all the words that come to him seem insufficient to express everything that came to his heart. He smiles constantly.
Now we can say everything! - says the departing. - I'm not just making excuses, but I would like you to at least understand me as I understand myself, and not as vulgarity looks at this matter. You say that I am guilty before her, - he turns to the one who looks at him with kind eyes.
Yes, it's my fault, - the small and bad one answers, and it seems that even more kindness and fatigue are expressed in his eyes.
I know why you say that, - continues the departing. - To be loved, in your opinion, is the same happiness as to love, and enough for a lifetime, if once you have achieved it.
Yes, quite enough, my soul! More than necessary, - confirms the small and bad, opening and closing his eyes.
But why not love yourself! - says the departing man, pondering and as if looking with regret at his friend. - Why not love? Not liked. No, to be loved is a misfortune, a misfortune when you feel that you are to blame, because you do not give the same and cannot give it. Oh my god! He waved his hand. - After all, if all this was done reasonably, otherwise it is done upside down, somehow not in our way, but in our own way, all this is done. It's like I stole that feeling. And you think so; don't give up, you have to think it. And will you believe it, of all the stupidities and nasty things that I managed to do a lot in my life, this is one in which I do not repent and cannot repent. Neither at first nor since have I lied to myself or to her. It seemed to me that at last I fell in love, and then I saw that it was an involuntary lie, that it was impossible to love like that, and could not go further; and she went. Am I to blame for not being able to? What was I to do?
Well, it's over now! - said a friend, lighting a cigar to disperse sleep. - Only one thing: you have not yet loved and do not know what it is to love.
The one in the sheepskin coat wanted to say something again and grabbed his head. But what he wanted to say was not expressed.
Did not love! Yes, I really didn't like it. Yes, there is in me a desire to love, stronger than which it is impossible to have a desire! Yes again, and is there such a love? Everything remains unfinished. Well, what can I say! I messed up, I messed up my life. But it's over now, you're right. And I feel like a new life is starting.
In which you will again confuse, - said the one lying on the sofa and playing with the clock key; but the departing man did not hear him.
I am both sad and glad that I am going,” he continued. - Why are you sad? I dont know.
And the departing man began to talk about himself alone, not noticing that others were not as interested in it as he was. A person is never so selfish as in a moment of spiritual delight. It seems to him that there is nothing in the world at this moment more beautiful and more interesting than himself.
In the spring of 1851, 22-year-old Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy decided to end his “careless, aimless and serviceless” life in the circle of high-society youth and, together with his brother Nikolai Nikolayevich, an artillery officer, left for the Caucasus. On May 30, 1851, they arrived at the village of Starogladkovskaya.
The majestic nature of the Caucasus shocked Lev Nikolaevich. “Suddenly he saw, about twenty paces from him, as it seemed to him at first, pure white masses with their snowy outlines and a bizarre, distinct aerial line of their peaks and the distant sky. And when he understood all the distance between him and the mountains and the sky, all the immensity of the mountains, and when he felt all the infinity of this beauty, he was afraid that this was a ghost, a dream. He shook himself to wake up. The mountains were still the same.
Tolstoy shares his first impressions of what he saw in the Caucasus with his Moscow relatives: “There are wonderful views here, starting from the area where the springs are; a huge stone mountain, the stones are piled on top of each other; others, torn off, form, as it were, grottoes, others hang at a great height, crossed by streams hot water, which break loose with a roar in other places and cover, especially in the morning, the upper part of the mountain with white steam, which continuously rises from this boiling water. The water is so hot that eggs are boiled (hard boiled) in three minutes.
The women are mostly beautiful and well built. Their oriental attire is charming, although poor. The picturesque groups of women and the wild beauty of the area is a truly charming picture, and I often admire it.
In his diaries and notebooks, Tolstoy wrote down everything he saw around him. These records were the sources of his future works, became a real encyclopedia about the Caucasus of those years. The historical value of Tolstoy's numerous notes about what he saw in the Caucasus lies in the fact that they were made by a person who directly observed the events he described. This is precisely the special significance of the works of Tolstoy, who gave us, his descendants, invaluable information about the events of the “days of the past” as a precious heritage. Even then, the writer, as it were, warned his descendants about the peculiarities of the Caucasus and the peoples living there, drew attention to the problems of relationships between them. Even then, Tolstoy seemed to warn us that without a fair resolution of these problems it would be impossible to ensure a stable and prosperous life for the peoples living in the Caucasus.
During his stay in the Caucasus, Tolstoy lived for a number of years in the village of Starogladkovskaya. It was there that his special, "Tolstoy" view of the world was formed, which then allowed him to create literary masterpieces recognized throughout the world. The village went down in history also because it was a fortification of the Grebensky Cossacks.
“The village was surrounded by an earthen rampart and thorny thorn bushes,” Tolstoy wrote, “They leave the village and enter it with gates high on pillars with a small lid covered with reeds, near which there is a cannon on a wooden carriage, ugly, not fired for a hundred years, once then beaten off by the Cossacks. A Cossack in uniform, in a saber and a gun, sometimes stands, sometimes does not stand on the clock at the gate, sometimes does, sometimes does not make a passing officer.
Reading the road between the villages described in detail, you involuntarily feel that it is you who is driving along this road, inspecting the cordons of Cossacks and towers with soldiers, that it is you who enter the village through the gate and become a participant in its daily life.
“The houses of the Cossacks are all raised on poles from the ground to a arshin or more, neatly covered with reeds, with tall princelings. All, if not new, are straight, clean, with a variety of high porches and are not stuck to each other, but are spacious and picturesquely located by wide streets and lanes.
In front of the bright large windows of many houses, behind the vegetable gardens, dark green rainforests rise above the huts, delicate light-leaved acacias with white fragrant flowers, and right there - brazenly shining yellow sunflowers and climbing vines of grasses and grapes.
On a wide square one can see three shops with red goods, seeds, pods and gingerbread, and behind a high fence, from behind a row of old rains, one can see, longer and higher than all the others, the house of the regimental commander with casement windows.
The description of the village is organically soft and warmly woven with the writer's appeal to nature, as an integral part of everyday life of the measured and long-established life of the Cossacks: “There was that special evening that happens only in the Caucasus. The sun had set behind the mountains, but it was still light. Dawn covered a third of the sky, and in the light of dawn, the white-matted masses of mountains sharply separated. The air was thin, still and resonant. A long, several versts, shadow lay from the mountains on the steppe.
Tolstoy’s description of the evening nature smoothly translates to a description of the evening life of the village’s population: “... the village at this time of the evening is especially animated. From all sides, people are advancing on foot, on horseback and on creaking carts to the village. Girls in tucked-up shirts, with twigs, chatting merrily, run to the gate to meet the cattle, which crowds in a cloud of dust and mosquitoes, brought by it from the steppe.
Well-fed cows and buffaloes scatter through the streets, and Cossack women in colored beshmets scurry between them. One can hear their sharp voice, cheerful laughter and squeals, interrupted by the roar of cattle. There, a Cossack in arms, on horseback, escaping from the cordon, drives up to the hut and, leaning over to the window, taps on it, and after the knock the beautiful young head of the Cossack is shown and smiling affectionate speeches are heard.
The Cossacks squeal, chasing head over heels in the streets wherever there is a flat place. Through the fences, in order not to go around, climb the women. Fragrant dung smoke rises from all the chimneys. In every courtyard one hears an intensified bustle that precedes the stillness of the night.
At that time, there were other villages on the left bank of the Terek, between which a road was laid in the forest - a cordon line. On the right "non-peaceful" side of the Terek, almost opposite the village of Starogladkovskaya, there was the Chechen village of Hamamat-Yurt. In the south, beyond the Terek, the Cossack villages bordered on greater Chechnya. In the north - with the Mozdok steppe with its sandy breakers.
In the area of the villages of the Grebensky Cossacks, “The Terek, which separates the Cossacks from the highlanders, flows muddy and fast, but already wide and calm, constantly applying grayish sand to the low right bank overgrown with reeds and washing away the steep, albeit low left bank with its roots of hundred-year-old oaks, rotting plane trees and young undergrowth. On the right bank are peaceful, but still restless auls; along the left bank, half a verst from the water, at a distance of seven and eight versts from one another, there are villages.
Grebentsy is the oldest Cossack community, formed in the late 15th and early 16th centuries in the foothills of the North-Eastern Caucasus from the Don Cossacks and fugitive peasants from the regions of the Great Moscow Principality who settled here.
The established community of Cossacks gradually settled in the Grebni tract along the Sunzha River. Under pressure from neighbors - Kumyks and Chechens, who began to attack the towns of the Cossacks, drive away their cattle, horses and take prisoner not only men, but also women and children, the combers were forced to move to the left bank of the Terek.
The new land holdings of the combers lay along the Terek River, opposite the confluence of the Sunzha River, and represented a narrow strip of fertile and wooded land: about 86 km long and 11-22 km wide. The Grebensky Cossacks were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, horse breeding, fishing, viticulture and winemaking.
After the relocation of the combers from the right bank to the left, Grebenskoye was formed from them. Cossack army, which was part of the irregular troops Russian Empire. In 1870, a Cossack regiment was formed from the combers as part of the Terek Cossack army.
Being in the Caucasus, the Grebenians, despite the distance from Russia, preserved the Russian language and the old faith in their former purity. The most famous description of the character of the "belligerent, beautiful and rich Old Believer Russian population, called the" Grebensky Cossacks ", was given by Tolstoy. Describing the combers, he noted their connections with the mountain population.
“Living among the Chechens, the Cossacks were reborn with them, and adopted the customs of life and customs of the highlanders; Until now, the Cossack clans are considered to be related to the Chechen ones, and love for freedom, idleness, robbery and war are the main features of their character. Panache in dress consists in imitation of the Circassian. The Cossacks got the best weapons from the highlanders, they bought the best horses from them.
Adopting the surrounding culture of the highlanders, “well done Cossack, flaunting his knowledge of the Tatar language and, having taken a walk, even speaks Tatar with his brother. “Despite the fact that this Christian people, thrown into a corner of the earth, surrounded by semi-savage Mohammedan tribes and soldiers, considers himself on high degree development and recognizes only one Cossack as a person, looks at everything else with contempt. In his works, L. Tolstoy noted the hostility of the Grebensky Cossacks to Russian influence, which "is expressed only from an unfavorable side: constraint in elections, removal of bells and troops that stand and pass there."
Observing the life of the combers, Tolstoy wrote: “A Cossack, by inclination, hates the highlander horseman who killed his brother less than the soldier who stands by him to defend his village, but who lit up his hut with tobacco. He respects the highlander enemy, but despises the soldier who is alien to him and the oppressor. Actually, the Russian peasant for the Cossack is some kind of alien, wild and despicable creature, whom he saw as an example in the visiting merchants and Little Russian settlers, whom the Cossacks contemptuously call Shapovals.
In the year of Tolstoy's arrival in the Caucasus, the war with the highlanders continued there. Russian troops under the command of Prince A.I. Baryatinsky conquered more and more new areas, forcing the highlanders to go to the mountains. Many highlanders lost heart and went over to the side of the Russians. As a volunteer, Tolstoy participated in military operations. He observed the life of soldiers and officers, learned about the war, saw the grave consequences of raids on mountain villages.
Tolstoy fell in love with the Caucasus and decided to stay here in the military or civil service, "it doesn't matter, only in the Caucasus, and not in Russia." Moreover, he so fell in love with the life and free life of the Cossacks, their closeness to nature, that he even seriously began to think "to join the Cossacks, buy a hut, cattle, marry a Cossack woman."
Life in the Caucasus ordinary people and rich nature had a beneficial effect on Tolstoy. He feels fresh, cheerful, happy and wonders how he could live so idly and aimlessly before. Only in the Caucasus did it become clear to him what happiness is. Happiness is being close to nature, living for others, he decides. Tolstoy also likes the general structure of life of the Cossacks; with his militancy and freedom, he seemed to him an ideal for life and the entire Russian people. But no matter how much he admired both the people and the nature of the Caucasus, how much he did not want to connect his fate with these people, he nevertheless understood that he could not merge with the life of the common people.
In the village of Starogladkovskaya, Tolstoy likes the life and way of life of the Cossacks, who never knew serfdom, their independent, courageous character, especially among women. He studies the Kumyk language, the most common among Muslim highlanders, and writes down Chechen songs, learns to ride horses. Among the highlanders, Tolstoy finds many wonderful, courageous and selfless, simple and close to nature people.
In officer society, he felt lonely. He was more attracted to soldiers, in whom he was able to appreciate the simplicity, kind heart, stamina and courage. But the free life of the Cossacks was especially attractive to him. He became friends with the old Cossack hunter Epifan Sekhin, listened to and wrote down his stories, Cossack songs. Tolstoy captured the character traits of this man later in the image of Uncle Eroshka in The Cossacks. He says about him: “This is an extremely interesting, probably already the last type of Grebensky Cossacks. He was of enormous stature, with a broad beard as gray as a harrier, and broad shoulders and chest. He was wearing a tattered, tucked-up zipun, on his legs reindeer pistons tied with ropes around the onuches, and a disheveled white cap. Behind his back he carried over one shoulder a filly and a bag with a hen and a falcon to bait a hawk; over the other shoulder he carried a wild dead cat on a belt; on the back behind the belt were a bag of bullets, gunpowder and bread, a horse tail to brush off mosquitoes, a large dagger with a torn scabbard stained with old blood, and two dead pheasants. Tolstoy went hunting with this old 90-year-old Cossack, which allowed the writer to describe his appearance and numerous hunting items so colorfully.
On August 28, 1853, Tolstoy began to write the famous story "The Cossacks", on which he worked for a total of about ten years with interruptions. The title accurately conveys the meaning and pathos of the work, which affirms the beauty and significance of life. In the story, the simple, close to nature working life of the Cossacks is shown as a social and moral ideal. Labor is the necessary and joyful basis of people's life, but labor is not on the landowner's, but on one's own land. So Tolstoy decided back in the early 60s the most topical issue of the era. No one has expressed this dream of a Russian peasant in his work stronger than him. None of Tolstoy's works is imbued with such faith in the elemental power of life and its triumph as The Cossacks.
The first part of the story "Cossacks" was published in the journal "Russian Messenger" in 1863. In this work, the writer combined the description of the beautiful nature of the Caucasus, the deeply personal experiences of her hero Olenin with the majestic description of the whole people, their way of life, faith, labors and days.
While working on The Cossacks, Tolstoy restored his Caucasian impressions from memory, reread Caucasian diaries: conversations with Eroshka, and hunting adventures, and love for a Cossack woman, and night knocks on the window, and admiring Cossack round dances with songs and shooting, and dreams buy a house and settle in the village.
Tolstoy paid much attention to the folklore and ethnography of the peoples of the Caucasus and the Cossacks of the Grebensky villages. Their life, customs, history, folk art and language are captured by Tolstoy in many details and with amazing artistic accuracy.
In Tolstoy's descriptions, the charming women of the Grebensky Cossacks appear - strong, free, strikingly beautiful and independent in their actions. They were complete mistresses in their home. Tolstoy admired their beauty, their healthy build, their elegant oriental attire, courageous character, stamina and determination. In the story “Cossacks” he wrote: “Constant male, hard work and worries gave a particularly independent, courageous character to the Grebenskaya woman and amazingly developed her physical strength, common sense, determination and fortitude. Women for the most part are stronger, smarter, more developed, and more beautiful than the Cossacks. The beauty of the Grebenskaya woman is especially striking due to the combination of the purest type of the Circassian face with the broad and powerful build of the northern woman. Cossack women wear Circassian clothes: a Tatar shirt, beshmet and chuvyaks; but scarves are tied in Russian. Panache, cleanliness and elegance in the clothes and decoration of the huts are a habit and a necessity of their life.
To match the Cossacks and Grebensky Cossacks and men. Tolstoy described one of them in the image of the young Lukashka: “... he was a tall, handsome fellow of about twenty ... His face and whole build expressed great physical and moral strength. Looking at his stately build and black-browed, intelligent face, anyone would involuntarily say: "Well done little fellow!"
In my small work, I noted the strong impression that the Caucasus had on the spiritual state of Tolstoy. Life in the village of Starogladkovskaya allowed him to learn and perfectly describe the history of the Grebensky Cossacks - a relatively small community of Russian people who found themselves on the outskirts of Russia, surrounded by hostile highlanders, but who firmly preserved all Russian, Orthodox faith and devotion to their Fatherland.
Given the current reality, I believe it is possible to conclude that the problems of the Caucasus and its peoples, as the writer pointed out, mainly in the region of Chechnya and Dagestan, remain unresolved, rightly unresolved. It seems that we managed to reconcile another Chechen war, but tensions between the peoples of this region of Russia remain. Attacks of militants on government officials, terrorist attacks, deaths of people do not stop. The population continues to be in a state of fear for their lives.
The Cossacks of the South of Russia remain dissatisfied for the unfair taking away of their lands in favor of the Chechens, for forced resettlement, for the lack of support in this matter from the authorities. The Chechens expelled the Grebensky Cossacks by force and threats from the Cossack villages located on the left bank of the Terek. Now the entire Shelkovskaya region, its lands, are included in Chechnya, and the former villages of the Grebensky Cossacks are inhabited by Chechens, including the village of Starogladkovskaya, where Tolstoy lived during his stay in the Caucasus. Yes, now these are no longer villages, and Starogladkovskaya is no longer Starogladkovskaya, but Starogladovskaya. It's not all the same, since the village received its original name by the name of its first ataman - Gladkov. At state support Chechens built good houses for themselves there and got farms. Those who tried to resist were often killed by the Chechens, and entire families of Cossacks were slaughtered. It should be noted that the Grebensky Cossacks and the South of Russia did not reconcile themselves and intend to return to themselves their historical lands and villages, where the Chechens never lived, but now they live on the original Cossack land! The prospect of this deep-seated problem can only be conjectured. At the same time, one thing is clear, the main thing is that it cannot be solved by force!
