White Guard (novel). White Guard White Guard characters

26.06.2020

Essay text:

Novel White Guard completed by Mikhail Bulgakov in 1925, and tells about the revolutionary events in Kyiv in the winter of 1918-1919. It was a difficult, alarming time, when Soviet power was difficult to win its right to exist.
Bulgakov in his novel The White Guard truthfully showed the confusion, turmoil, and then the bloody orgy that reigned in Kyiv at that time.
The heroes of the novel are the Turbin family, their friends and acquaintances, that circle of people who preserve the primordial traditions of the Russian intelligentsia. Officers: Alexey Turbin and his brother cadet Nikolka, Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Colonel Malyshev and Nai-Tours were thrown out by history as unnecessary. They are still trying to resist Petliura, fulfilling their duty, but the General Staff betrayed them, led by the hetman, leaving Ukraine, handing over its inhabitants to Petliura, and then to the Germans.
Fulfilling their duty, the officers are trying to protect the cadets from senseless death. Malyshev is the first to learn about the betrayal of the headquarters; he disbands the regiments created from the cadets so as not to senselessly shed blood. The writer very dramatically showed the position of people called upon to defend ideals, the city, the Fatherland, but betrayed and abandoned to their fate. Each of them experiences this tragedy in their own way. Alexei Turbin almost dies from a Petliurite bullet, and only an accident in the person of Reise, a resident of the suburbs who helped him hide and protect himself from the reprisals of bandits, saves him.
Nikolka is saved by Nai-Tours, ordering the cadet to stop shooting and hide, to save his life. Nikolka will never forget this man, true hero, not broken by the betrayal of the headquarters. Nai fights his battle, in which he dies, but does not give up. Nikolka fulfills her duty to this man by telling his family about the last moments of Tours’ life and burying him with dignity.
It seems that the Turbins and their circle will perish in this whirlwind of revolution, civil war, bandit pogroms, but no, they will survive, because there is something in these people that can protect them from senseless death.
They think, dream about the future, try to find their place in this new world, which so cruelly rejected them. They understand that Motherland, family, love, friendship are enduring values that a person cannot part with so easily.
They hold on to each other, to their cozy home behind cream curtains and a lamp under a green lampshade. But the Turbins understand perfectly well that they cannot sit inside the walls of their apartment. The time described is very difficult for the heroes; they perceive their forced inaction as a respite, a desire to comprehend and understand their place in life.
It is no coincidence that Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Lariosik come to the Turbins. These people have charm, warmth, warmth, which they give to loved ones, receiving sincere love and devotion in return.
Eat Eternal values, which exist outside of time, and Bulgakov was able to talentedly and sincerely talk about them in his novel The White Guard. The author ends his story with prophetic words. His characters are on the eve of a new life; they believe that all the worst is in the past. And together with the author and the characters, we believe in the good.
All will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, famine and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our bodies will not remain on the earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our gaze to them? Why?

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In the novel “The White Guard” the writer addresses many serious and eternal themes. From the very first pages of the novel, the themes of family, home, faith, moral duty - as the beginning of all beginnings, the source of life and culture, the key to preserving the best traditions and moral values - sound at all times.

Bulgakov happened to live in difficult times for Russia. The revolution, and then the Civil War, forced people to rethink all previously acquired values. The writer had a hard time experiencing the events taking place and tried with all his soul to understand the reality around him. And he realized that the main trouble in Russia was the decline in the level of morality, lack of culture and ignorance, which, in his opinion, was associated with the destruction of the intelligentsia, which for a long time acted as the main bearer of moral values.

The heroes of the novel “The White Guard,” like the writer himself, are representatives of the intelligentsia. Not all of the Russian intelligentsia accepted and understood the great achievements of October. Fears for the fate of the country's culture played an important role in the rejection of these achievements, the path to achieving which was difficult and often contradictory. The main theme of the novel, which is usually associated with the tragic motive of disappointment of the heroes, with the need they feel to break with their past, is revealed in a new way. The past, in which the heroes’ happy childhood remains, not only does not disappoint them, but is preserved by them in every possible way in a situation when it seems that “everything is destroyed, betrayed, sold.”

The entire novel is permeated with a sense of disaster. The heroes still sing the hymn “God Save the Tsar” and make a toast to the health of the now non-existent monarch, but this shows their despair. Everything that happens to them appears as a tragedy of people who faithfully and truly served this system, which suddenly revealed all its inconsistency, hypocrisy, and falsehood. The position of Bulgakov's heroes could not be different, because the writer himself did not feel nostalgia for the old, bourgeois Russia, its monarchical past.

House and City are the two main characters of the novel. The Turbins' house on Alekseevsky Spusk, depicted with all the features of a family idyll crossed out by the war, breathes and suffers like a living being. When it's frosty outside, you're anxious and scared, goes home intimate conversation, warmth emanates from the tiles of the stove, you can hear the chime of the clock tower in the dining room, the strumming of a guitar and the familiar voices of Alexei, Elena, Nikolka and their cheerful guests. And the City, tormented by endless battles and shelling, filled with crowds of soldiers, also lives its own life. “Beautiful in frost and fog...” - this epithet opens the narrative about the City and becomes dominant in its depiction. The image of the City emits an extraordinary light - the light of life, which is truly unquenchable. Bulgakov’s City is under God’s protection: “But the electric white cross sparkled best of all in the hands of the enormous Vladimir on Vladimirskaya Hill, and it was visible far away, and often... they found by its light... the way to the City...”

In the morning Turbin began to dream about the City. It is not called Kiev anywhere, although its signs are clear, it is just a City, but with a capital C, as something generalized, eternal. It is described in detail in the dreams of Alexei Turbin: “Like a multi-tiered honeycomb, the City smoked and made noise and lived. Beautiful in the frost and fog on the mountains, above the Dnieper. The streets were smoking with haze, the downed giant snow creaked... The gardens stood silent and calm, weighed down by white, untouched snow. And there were so many gardens in the City as in no other city in the world... In winter, like in no other city in the world, peace fell on the streets and alleys of both the upper City, on the mountains, and the lower City, spread out in the bend of the frozen Dnieper.. The City played with light and shimmered, glowed and danced and shimmered at night until the morning, and in the morning it faded, covered in smoke and fog.” This symbolic picture combines the memories of youth, the beauty of the City and anxiety for its future, for the fate of everyone.

The “Eternal Golden City” is contrasted with the City of 1918, the existence of which brings to mind the biblical legend of Babylon. Confusion and turmoil reign in the city, which the writer often emphasizes by repeating the words: “Germans!! Germans!! Germans!!,” “Petlyura. Petliura. Petliura. Petliura”, “Patrols, patrols, patrols”. The author cannot remain indifferent to what is happening in the City (mobilization, rumors, the hetman, the proximity of Petliura, theft, murder, stupid orders of the bosses, deception, mysterious Moscow in the northeast, the Bolsheviks, close shooting and constant anxiety). Thanks to the expressive author's characteristics, the reader finds himself at the mercy of a unique effect of presence: he breathes the air of the City, absorbs its anxieties, hears the voices of the cadets, feels Elena's fear for her brothers.

With the beginning of the war, a diverse audience flocked to the shadow of the Vladimir Cross: aristocrats and bankers who fled from the capital, industrialists and merchants, poets and journalists, actresses and cocottes. Gradually, the appearance of the City loses its integrity and becomes shapeless: “The City swelled, expanded, and climbed like sourdough from a pot.” The natural course of life is disrupted, the usual order of things disintegrates. Almost all the townspeople find themselves drawn into a dirty political show.

The theme of saving spiritual, moral and cultural traditions runs through the entire novel, but most clearly it is embodied in the image of a house. Life in this house goes against the surrounding unrest, bloodshed, destruction, and cruelty. The mistress and soul of the house is Elena Turbina-Talberg - “beautiful Elena”, the personification of beauty, kindness, and Eternal Femininity. The two-faced opportunist Talberg leaves this house. And the Turbins’ friends find shelter here, healing their wounded bodies and souls in it. And even the opportunist and coward Lisovich seeks protection here from robbers.

The Turbins' house is depicted in the novel as a fortress that is under siege, but does not surrender. The author gives his image a tall, almost philosophical meaning. According to Alexey Turbin, home is the highest value of existence, for the sake of which a person “fights and, in essence, should not fight for anything else.” The only purpose that allows one to take up arms, in his opinion, is to protect “human peace and hearth.”

Everything in the Turbins’ house is beautiful: old red velvet furniture, beds with shiny cones, cream curtains, a bronze lamp with a lampshade, books in chocolate bindings, a piano, flowers, an icon in an ancient setting, a tiled stove, a clock with a gavotte; “the tablecloth, despite the guns and all this languor, anxiety and nonsense, is white and starchy... The floors are shiny, and in December on the table in a matte vase there are blue hydrangeas and two gloomy and sultry roses, affirming the beauty and strength of life.” The atmosphere of the house is inspired by music and ever-living art. Cousin Lariosik from Zhitomir, who found shelter in the Turbins’ house, blesses family comfort with a simple-minded confession: “Lord, cream curtains... you can rest your soul behind them... But our wounded souls are so thirsty for peace...” The Turbins and their friends read in the evenings and sing with a guitar, play cards, love and worry, and sacredly preserve family traditions.

For each of the novel's heroes, the war becomes a test, a test moral principles personality. It is no coincidence that in the epigraph to the novel Bulgakov places the famous lines from the Apocalypse: “and everyone will be judged in accordance with their deeds.” The main topic The novel becomes the theme of retribution for one’s actions, the theme of moral responsibility for the choices that every person makes.

Among the defenders of the monarchy were different people. Bulgakov hates high-ranking officials who think not about saving the Fatherland, but about saving their own skin. He does not hide his attitude towards the opportunist Talberg with “double-layered eyes”, the cowardly and greedy engineer Lisovich, and the unprincipled Mikhail Semenovich Shpolyansky.

But if Thalberg is “a damn doll, devoid of the slightest concept of honor,” running away from a sinking ship, abandoning his brothers and wife, then the main characters of the novel are the embodiment of the best knightly qualities. Ordinary participants white movement, according to the author, are the heirs of the military glory of the Fatherland. When the Mortar Regiment, formed to protect the City, marched along the corridors of the Alexander Gymnasium, in the vestibule right in front of it, it was as if “the sparkling Alexander flew out,” pointing to the Borodino field. The song that was played to the words of Lermontov's "Borodino", according to the author, is a symbol of valor, courage, honor, that is, everything that distinguishes the Turbins, Myshlaevsky, Malyshev from other "gentlemen officers".

Officer's honor required the protection of the white banner, loyalty to the oath, the fatherland and the tsar. In a situation where it seems “everything is destroyed, betrayed, sold,” Alexey Turbin asks himself with bewilderment and pain: “We need to protect now... But what? Emptiness? The sound of footsteps? And yet he is not able to stay away from terrible events, to violate his duty as an officer, and rushes to those who are trying to save the Fatherland without giving its fate into the unclean hands of Petliura or Hetman Skoropadsky. Nai-Tours also follows the laws of honor and nobility. Covering the cadets, he entered into an unequal duel, left alone with his machine gun in front of the advancing cavalrymen. Colonel Malyshev is also a man of honor. Realizing the futility of resistance, he accepts the only correct solution in the current situation, he dismisses the cadets to their homes. These people are ready to be with Russia in its troubles and trials, ready to defend the Fatherland, City and Home. Meeting new guests of the City, each of them sacrifices his life. The Almighty Himself takes them under His protection. WITH slight irony Bulgakov depicted in the novel the kingdom of God, where the Apostle Peter receives the dead. Among them is Colonel Nai-Tours in a luminous helmet, chain mail, and a knight’s sword from the times of the Crusades. Next to him is Sergeant Zhilin, who died in the First world war, and the Bolsheviks from Perekop, and many others who grabbed “each other by the throat”, and now calmed down, having fought for their faith. The Lord God utters prophetic words: “All of you with me... are the same - killed in the battlefield.” Rising above the battle, the author sincerely mourns for all those who died: “Will anyone pay for the blood? No. Nobody. The snow will simply melt, the green Ukrainian grass will sprout, weave the ground... lush shoots will come out... the heat will tremble under the fields and there will be no traces of blood left. Cheap blood is on the fields of hearts, and no one will buy it back. Nobody".

Bulgakov believed in the natural human order on earth: “Everything will be right, the world is built on this.” In the novel “The White Guard,” the writer showed how terrible and irreversible the consequences of deviation from the accepted norms of good and bad, consecrated for more than one millennium, are. human culture. In this retreat the writer saw the greatest danger to humanity. He calls on his readers to remain faithful to the main principles of humanity, devotion to the ideals of Justice, Goodness and Beauty.

Although the manuscripts of the novel have not survived, Bulgakov scholars have traced the fate of many prototype characters and proved the almost documentary accuracy and reality of the events and characters described by the author.

The work was conceived by the author as a large-scale trilogy covering the period of the Civil War. Part of the novel was first published in the magazine "Russia" in 1925. The entire novel was first published in France in 1927-1929. The novel was received ambiguously by critics - the Soviet side criticized the writer’s glorification of class enemies, the emigrant side criticized Bulgakov’s loyalty to Soviet power.

The work served as a source for the play “Days of the Turbins” and subsequent several film adaptations.

Plot

The novel takes place in 1918, when the Germans who occupied Ukraine leave the City and it is captured by Petliura's troops. The author describes the complex, multifaceted world of a family of Russian intellectuals and their friends. This world is breaking under the onslaught of a social cataclysm and will never happen again.

The heroes - Alexey Turbin, Elena Turbina-Talberg and Nikolka - are involved in the cycle of military and political events. The city, in which Kyiv is easily guessed, is occupied by the German army. As a result of the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, it does not fall under the rule of the Bolsheviks and becomes a refuge for many Russian intellectuals and military personnel who are fleeing Bolshevik Russia. Officer military organizations are created in the city under the patronage of Hetman Skoropadsky, an ally of the Germans, Russia's recent enemies. Petlyura's army is attacking the City. By the time of the events of the novel, the Compiegne Truce has been concluded and the Germans are preparing to leave the City. In fact, only volunteers defend him from Petlyura. Understanding the complexity of their situation, the Turbins reassure themselves with rumors about the approach of French troops, who allegedly landed in Odessa (in accordance with the terms of the truce, they had the right to occupy the occupied territories of Russia up to the Vistula in the west). Alexey and Nikolka Turbin, like other residents of the City, volunteer to join the defenders’ detachments, and Elena protects the house, which becomes a refuge for former officers of the Russian army. Since it is impossible to defend the City on its own, the command and administration of the hetman leave him to the mercy of fate and leave with the Germans (the hetman himself disguises himself as a wounded German officer). Volunteers - Russian officers and cadets unsuccessfully defend the City without command against superior enemy forces (the author created a brilliant heroic image of Colonel Nai-Tours). Some commanders, realizing the futility of resistance, send their fighters home, others actively organize resistance and die along with their subordinates. Petlyura occupies the City, organizes a magnificent parade, but after a few months is forced to surrender it to the Bolsheviks.

The main character, Alexei Turbin, is faithful to his duty, tries to join his unit (not knowing that it has been disbanded), enters into battle with the Petliurists, is wounded and, by chance, finds love in the person of a woman who saves him from being pursued by his enemies.

A social cataclysm reveals characters - some flee, others prefer death in battle. The people as a whole accept the new government (Petliura) and after its arrival demonstrate hostility towards the officers.

Characters

Alexey Vasilievich Turbin- doctor, 28 years old.
Elena Turbina-Talberg- sister of Alexei, 24 years old.
Nikolka- non-commissioned officer of the First Infantry Squad, brother of Alexei and Elena, 17 years old.
Victor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky- lieutenant, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei’s friend at the Alexander Gymnasium.
Leonid Yurievich Shervinsky- former lieutenant of the Life Guards Uhlan Regiment, adjutant at the headquarters of General Belorukov, friend of the Turbin family, friend of Alexei at the Alexander Gymnasium, longtime admirer of Elena.
Fedor Nikolaevich Stepanov(“Karas”) - second lieutenant artilleryman, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei’s friend at the Alexander Gymnasium.
Sergei Ivanovich Talberg- Captain of the General Staff of Hetman Skoropadsky, Elena’s husband, a conformist.
father Alexander- priest of the Church of St. Nicholas the Good.
Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich(“Vasilisa”) - the owner of the house in which the Turbins rented the second floor.
Larion Larionovich Surzhansky(“Lariosik”) - Talberg’s nephew from Zhitomir.

History of writing

Bulgakov began writing the novel “The White Guard” after the death of his mother (February 1, 1922) and wrote until 1924.

The typist I. S. Raaben, who retyped the novel, argued that this work was conceived by Bulgakov as a trilogy. The second part of the novel was supposed to cover the events of 1919, and the third - 1920, including the war with the Poles. In the third part, Myshlaevsky went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and served in the Red Army.

The novel could have other names - for example, Bulgakov chose between “Midnight Cross” and “ White cross". One of the excerpts from an early edition of the novel in December 1922 was published in the Berlin newspaper "On the Eve" under the title "On the night of the 3rd" with the subtitle "From the novel" The Scarlet Mach "." The working title of the first part of the novel at the time of writing was The Yellow Ensign.

It is generally accepted that Bulgakov worked on the novel The White Guard in 1923-1924, but this is probably not entirely accurate. In any case, it is known for sure that in 1922 Bulgakov wrote some stories, which were then included in the novel in a modified form. In March 1923, in the seventh issue of the Rossiya magazine, a message appeared: “Mikhail Bulgakov is finishing the novel “The White Guard,” covering the era of the struggle with whites in the south (1919-1920).”

T.N. Lappa told M.O. Chudakova: “...I wrote “The White Guard” at night and liked me to sit around, sewing. His hands and feet were cold, he told me: “Hurry, quickly, hot water”; I was heating water on a kerosene stove, he put his hands in a basin of hot water...”

In the spring of 1923, Bulgakov wrote in a letter to his sister Nadezhda: “... I’m urgently finishing the 1st part of the novel; It’s called “Yellow Ensign.” The novel begins with the entry of Petliura's troops into Kyiv. The second and subsequent parts, apparently, were supposed to tell about the arrival of the Bolsheviks in the City, then about their retreat under the attacks of Denikin’s troops, and, finally, about the fighting in the Caucasus. This was the writer's original intention. But after thinking about the possibilities of publishing such a novel in Soviet Russia Bulgakov decided to shift the duration of action to more early period and exclude events related to the Bolsheviks.

June 1923, apparently, was completely devoted to work on the novel - Bulgakov did not even keep a diary at that time. On July 11, Bulgakov wrote: “The biggest break in my diary... It’s a disgusting, cold and rainy summer.” On July 25, Bulgakov noted: “The novel is because of the “Beep”, which takes away the best part day, hardly moves."

At the end of August 1923, Bulgakov informed Yu. L. Slezkin that he had completed the novel in a draft version - apparently, work on the earliest edition was completed, the structure and composition of which still remain unclear. In the same letter, Bulgakov wrote: “... but it has not yet been rewritten, it lies in a heap, over which I think a lot. I'll fix something. Lezhnev is starting a thick monthly “Russia” with the participation of our own and foreign ones... Apparently, Lezhnev has a huge publishing and editorial future ahead of him. “Russia” will be published in Berlin... In any case, things are clearly moving forward... in the literary publishing world.”

Then, for six months, nothing was said about the novel in Bulgakov’s diary, and only on February 25, 1924, an entry appeared: “Tonight... I read pieces from The White Guard... Apparently, I made an impression in this circle too.”

On March 9, 1924, the newspaper “Nakanune” appeared next message Y. L. Slezkina: “The novel “The White Guard” is the first part of a trilogy and was read by the author over four evenings in literary circle „Green lamp“. This thing covers the period of 1918-1919, the Hetman and Petliurism until the appearance of the Red Army in Kyiv... Minor shortcomings noted by some pale in front of the undoubted merits of this novel, which is the first attempt to create a great epic of our time.”

Publication history of the novel

On April 12, 1924, Bulgakov entered into an agreement for the publication of “The White Guard” with the editor of the magazine “Russia” I. G. Lezhnev. On July 25, 1924, Bulgakov wrote in his diary: “... in the afternoon I called Lezhnev on the phone and found out that for now there was no need to negotiate with Kagansky regarding the release of The White Guard. a separate book, since he doesn’t have any money yet. This is a new surprise. That's when I didn't take 30 chervonets, now I can repent. I’m sure that the Guard will remain in my hands.” December 29: “Lezhnev is negotiating... to take the novel “The White Guard” from Sabashnikov and give it to him... I don’t want to get involved with Lezhnev, and it’s inconvenient and unpleasant to terminate the contract with Sabashnikov.” January 2, 1925: “... in the evening... I sat with my wife, working out the text of the agreement for the continuation of “The White Guard” in “Russia”... Lezhnev is courting me... Tomorrow, a Jew Kagansky, still unknown to me, will have to pay me 300 rubles and a bill. You can wipe yourself with these bills. However, the devil only knows! I wonder if the money will be brought tomorrow. I won’t give up the manuscript.” January 3: “Today I received 300 rubles from Lezhnev towards the novel “The White Guard,” which will be published in “Russia.” They promised a bill for the rest of the amount...”

The first publication of the novel took place in the magazine “Russia”, 1925, No. 4, 5 - the first 13 chapters. No. 6 was not published because the magazine ceased to exist. The entire novel was published by the Concorde publishing house in Paris in 1927 - the first volume and in 1929 - the second volume: chapters 12-20 newly corrected by the author.

According to researchers, the novel “The White Guard” was written after the premiere of the play “Days of the Turbins” in 1926 and the creation of “Run” in 1928. The text of the last third of the novel, corrected by the author, was published in 1929 by the Parisian publishing house Concorde.

First full text The novel was published in Russia only in 1966 - the writer’s widow, E. S. Bulgakova, using the text of the magazine “Russia”, unpublished proofs of the third part and the Paris edition, prepared the novel for publication Bulgakov M. Selected prose. M.: Fiction, 1966 .

Modern editions of the novel are printed according to the text of the Paris edition with corrections of obvious inaccuracies according to the texts of the magazine publication and proofreading with the author's editing of the third part of the novel.

Manuscript

The manuscript of the novel has not survived.

The canonical text of the novel “The White Guard” has not yet been determined. For a long time, researchers were unable to find a single page of handwritten or typewritten text of the White Guard. At the beginning of the 1990s. An authorized typescript of the ending of “The White Guard” was found with a total volume of about two printed sheets. When conducting an examination of the found fragment, it was possible to establish that the text is the very ending of the last third of the novel, which Bulgakov was preparing for the sixth issue of the magazine “Russia”. It was this material that the writer handed over to the editor of Rossiya, I. Lezhnev, on June 7, 1925. On this day, Lezhnev wrote a note to Bulgakov: “You have completely forgotten “Russia”. It’s high time to submit the material for No. 6 to the typesetting, you need to type the ending of “The White Guard”, but you don’t include the manuscripts. We kindly request you not to delay this matter any longer.” And on the same day, the writer handed over the end of the novel to Lezhnev against a receipt (it was preserved).

The found manuscript was preserved only because the famous editor and then employee of the newspaper “Pravda” I. G. Lezhnev used Bulgakov’s manuscript to paste newspaper clippings of his numerous articles onto it as a paper base. It is in this form that the manuscript was discovered.

The found text of the end of the novel not only differs significantly in content from the Parisian version, but is also much sharper in political terms - the author’s desire to find commonality between the Petliurists and the Bolsheviks is clearly visible. The guesses were also confirmed that the writer’s story “On the Night of the 3rd” is integral part"White Guard".

Historical outline

The historical events described in the novel date back to the end of 1918. At this time, in Ukraine there is a confrontation between the socialist Ukrainian Directory and the conservative regime of Hetman Skoropadsky - the Hetmanate. The heroes of the novel find themselves drawn into these events, and, taking the side of the White Guards, they defend Kyiv from the troops of the Directory. "The White Guard" of Bulgakov's novel differs significantly from White Guard White Army. The volunteer army of Lieutenant General A.I. Denikin did not recognize the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and de jure remained at war with both the Germans and the puppet government of Hetman Skoropadsky.

When a war broke out in Ukraine between the Directory and Skoropadsky, the hetman had to turn for help to the intelligentsia and officers of Ukraine, who mostly supported the White Guards. In order to attract these categories of the population to its side, Skoropadsky’s government published in newspapers about Denikin’s alleged order to include the troops fighting the Directory into the Volunteer Army. This order was falsified by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Skoropadsky government, I. A. Kistyakovsky, who thus joined the ranks of the hetman’s defenders. Denikin sent several telegrams to Kyiv in which he denied the existence of such an order, and issued an appeal against the hetman, demanding the creation of a “democratic united power in Ukraine” and warning against providing assistance to the hetman. However, these telegrams and appeals were hidden, and Kyiv officers and volunteers sincerely considered themselves part of the Volunteer Army.

Denikin's telegrams and appeals were made public only after the capture of Kyiv by the Ukrainian Directory, when many defenders of Kyiv were captured by Ukrainian units. It turned out that the captured officers and volunteers were neither White Guards nor Hetmans. They were criminally manipulated and they defended Kyiv for unknown reasons and unknown from whom.

The Kiev “White Guard” turned out to be illegal for all the warring parties: Denikin abandoned them, the Ukrainians did not need them, the Reds considered them class enemies. More than two thousand people were captured by the Directory, mostly officers and intellectuals.

Character prototypes

The "White Guard" is in many details autobiographical novel, which is based on the writer’s personal impressions and memories of the events that took place in Kyiv in the winter of 1918-1919. Turbiny is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother on his mother’s side. Among the members of the Turbin family one can easily discern the relatives of Mikhail Bulgakov, his Kyiv friends, acquaintances and himself. The action of the novel takes place in a house that, down to the smallest detail, is copied from the house in which the Bulgakov family lived in Kyiv; Now it houses the Turbin House Museum.

The venereologist Alexei Turbine is recognizable as Mikhail Bulgakov himself. The prototype of Elena Talberg-Turbina was Bulgakov’s sister, Varvara Afanasyevna.

Many of the surnames of the characters in the novel coincide with the surnames of real residents of Kyiv at that time or are slightly changed.

Myshlaevsky

The prototype of Lieutenant Myshlaevsky could be Bulgakov's childhood friend Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky. In her memoirs, T. N. Lappa (Bulgakov’s first wife) described Syngaevsky as follows:

“He was very handsome... Tall, thin... his head was small... too small for his figure. I kept dreaming about ballet, I wanted to ballet school enroll. Before the arrival of the Petliurists, he joined the cadets.”

T.N. Lappa also recalled that the service of Bulgakov and Syngaevsky with Skoropadsky boiled down to the following:

“Syngaevsky and Misha’s other comrades came and they were talking about how we had to keep the Petliurists out and defend the city, that the Germans should help... but the Germans kept scurrying away. And the guys agreed to go the next day. They even stayed overnight with us, it seems. And in the morning Mikhail went. There was a first aid station there... And there should have been a battle, but it seems there was none. Mikhail arrived in a cab and said that it was all over and that the Petliurists would come.”

After 1920, the Syngaevsky family emigrated to Poland.

According to Karum, Syngaevsky “met the ballerina Nezhinskaya, who danced with Mordkin, and during one of the changes in power in Kyiv, he went to Paris at her expense, where he successfully acted as her dance partner and husband, although he was 20 years younger her" .

According to Bulgakov scholar Ya. Yu. Tinchenko, the prototype of Myshlaevsky was a friend of the Bulgakov family, Pyotr Aleksandrovich Brzhezitsky. Unlike Syngaevsky, Brzhezitsky was indeed an artillery officer and participated in the same events that Myshlaevsky talked about in the novel.

Shervinsky

The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky was another friend of Bulgakov - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer who served (though not as an adjutant) in the troops of Hetman Skoropadsky; he later emigrated.

Thalberg

Leonid Karum, husband of Bulgakov's sister. OK. 1916. Thalberg prototype.

Captain Talberg, the husband of Elena Talberg-Turbina, has many common features with Varvara Afanasyevna Bulgakova’s husband, Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888-1968), a German by birth, a career officer who served first Skoropadsky and then the Bolsheviks. Karum wrote a memoir, “My Life. A story without lies,” where he described, among other things, the events of the novel in his own interpretation. Karum wrote that he greatly angered Bulgakov and other relatives of his wife when, in May 1917, he wore a uniform with orders to his own wedding, but with a wide red bandage on the sleeve. In the novel, the Turbin brothers condemn Talberg for the fact that in March 1917 he “was the first - understand, the first - to come to military school with a wide red bandage on his sleeve... Talberg, as a member of the revolutionary military committee, and no one else, arrested the famous General Petrov.” Karum was indeed a member of the executive committee of the Kyiv City Duma and participated in the arrest of Adjutant General N.I. Ivanov. Karum escorted the general to the capital.

Nikolka

The prototype of Nikolka Turbin was the brother of M. A. Bulgakov - Nikolai Bulgakov. The events that happened to Nikolka Turbin in the novel completely coincide with the fate of Nikolai Bulgakov.

“When the Petliurites arrived, they demanded that all officers and cadets gather in the Pedagogical Museum of the First Gymnasium (the museum where the works of gymnasium students were collected). Everyone has gathered. The doors were locked. Kolya said: “Gentlemen, we need to run, this is a trap.” Nobody dared. Kolya went up to the second floor (he knew the premises of this museum like the back of his hand) and through some window he got out into the courtyard - there was snow in the courtyard, and he fell into the snow. It was the courtyard of their gymnasium, and Kolya made his way into the gymnasium, where he met Maxim (pedel). It was necessary to change the cadet clothes. Maxim took his things, gave him to put on his suit, and Kolya got out of the gymnasium in a different way - in civilian clothes - and went home. Others were shot."

crucian carp

“There was definitely a crucian carp - everyone called him Karasem or Karasik, I don’t remember if it was a nickname or a surname... He looked exactly like a crucian carp - short, dense, wide - well, like a crucian carp. The face is round... When Mikhail and I came to the Syngaevskys, he was there often..."

According to another version, expressed by researcher Yaroslav Tinchenko, the prototype of Stepanov-Karas was Andrei Mikhailovich Zemsky (1892-1946) - the husband of Bulgakov’s sister Nadezhda. 23-year-old Nadezhda Bulgakova and Andrei Zemsky, a native of Tiflis and a philologist graduate of Moscow University, met in Moscow in 1916. Zemsky was the son of a priest - a teacher at a theological seminary. Zemsky was sent to Kyiv to study at the Nikolaev Artillery School. During his short leave, the cadet Zemsky ran to Nadezhda - to the very house of the Turbins.

In July 1917, Zemsky graduated from college and was assigned to the reserve artillery division in Tsarskoe Selo. Nadezhda went with him, but as a wife. In March 1918, the division was evacuated to Samara, where the White Guard coup took place. Zemsky's unit went over to the White side, but he himself did not participate in the battles with the Bolsheviks. After these events, Zemsky taught Russian.

Arrested in January 1931, L. S. Karum, under torture at the OGPU, testified that Zemsky was listed in Kolchak’s army for a month or two in 1918. Zemsky was immediately arrested and exiled to Siberia for 5 years, then to Kazakhstan. In 1933, the case was reviewed and Zemsky was able to return to Moscow to his family.

Then Zemsky continued to teach Russian and co-authored a Russian language textbook.

Lariosik

Nikolai Vasilievich Sudzilovsky. Lariosik prototype according to L. S. Karum.

There are two candidates who could become the prototype of Lariosik, and both of them are full namesakes of the same year of birth - both bear the name Nikolai Sudzilovsky, born in 1896, and both are from Zhitomir. One of them is Nikolai Nikolaevich Sudzilovsky, Karum’s nephew (his sister’s adopted son), but he did not live in the Turbins’ house.

In his memoirs, L. S. Karum wrote about the Lariosik prototype:

“In October, Kolya Sudzilovsky appeared with us. He decided to continue his studies at the university, but was no longer at the medical faculty, but at the law faculty. Uncle Kolya asked Varenka and me to take care of him. Having discussed this problem with our students, Kostya and Vanya, we offered him to live with us in the same room with the students. But he was a very noisy and enthusiastic person. Therefore, Kolya and Vanya soon moved to their mother at 36 Andreevsky Spusk, where she lived with Lelya in the apartment of Ivan Pavlovich Voskresensky. And in our apartment the imperturbable Kostya and Kolya Sudzilovsky remained.”

T.N. Lappa recalled that at that time Sudzilovsky lived with the Karums - he was so funny! Everything fell out of his hands, he spoke at random. I don’t remember whether he came from Vilna or from Zhitomir. Lariosik looks like him.”

T.N. Lappa also recalled: “Someone’s relative from Zhitomir. I don’t remember when he appeared... An unpleasant guy. He was kind of strange, there was even something abnormal about him. Clumsy. Something was falling, something was beating. So, some kind of mumble... Average height, above average... In general, he was different from everyone else in some way. He was so dense, middle-aged... He was ugly. He liked Varya right away. Leonid was not there..."

Nikolai Vasilyevich Sudzilovsky was born on August 7 (19), 1896 in the village of Pavlovka, Chaussky district, Mogilev province, on the estate of his father, state councilor and district leader of the nobility. In 1916, Sudzilovsky studied at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. At the end of the year, Sudzilovsky entered the 1st Peterhof Warrant Officer School, from where he was expelled for poor academic performance in February 1917 and sent as a volunteer to the 180th Reserve Infantry Regiment. From there he was sent to the Vladimir Military School in Petrograd, but was expelled from there in May 1917. To get a reprieve from military service, Sudzilovsky got married, and in 1918, together with his wife, he moved to Zhitomir to live with his parents. In the summer of 1918, Lariosik's prototype unsuccessfully tried to enter Kiev University. Sudzilovsky appeared in the Bulgakovs' apartment on Andreevsky Spusk on December 14, 1918 - the day Skoropadsky fell. By that time, his wife had already left him. In 1919, Nikolai Vasilyevich joined the Volunteer Army, and his further fate unknown

The second probable contender, also named Sudzilovsky, actually lived in the Turbins’ house. According to the memoirs of Yu. L. Gladyrevsky’s brother Nikolai: “And Lariosik is my cousin, Sudzilovsky. He was an officer during the war, then he was demobilized and tried, it seems, to go to school. He came from Zhitomir, wanted to settle with us, but my mother knew that he was not a particularly pleasant person, and sent him to the Bulgakovs. They rented a room to him..."

Other prototypes

Dedications

The question of Bulgakov’s dedication to L. E. Belozerskaya’s novel is ambiguous. Among Bulgakov scholars, relatives and friends of the writer, this question gave rise to different opinions. The writer’s first wife, T. N. Lappa, claimed that in handwritten and typewritten versions the novel was dedicated to her, and the name of L. E. Belozerskaya, to the surprise and displeasure of Bulgakov’s inner circle, appeared only in printed form. Before her death, T. N. Lappa said with obvious resentment: “Bulgakov... once brought The White Guard when it was published. And suddenly I see - there is a dedication to Belozerskaya. So I threw this book back to him... I sat with him for so many nights, fed him, looked after him... he told his sisters that he dedicated it to me...".

Criticism

Critics on the other side of the barricades also had complaints about Bulgakov:

“... not only is there not the slightest sympathy for the white cause (which would be complete naivety to expect from a Soviet author), but there is also no sympathy for the people who devoted themselves to this cause or are associated with it. (...) He leaves lubriciousness and rudeness to other authors, but he himself prefers condescending, almost loving relationship to your characters. (...) He almost does not condemn them - and he does not need such condemnation. On the contrary, it would even weaken his position, and the blow that he deals to the White Guard from another, more principled, and therefore more sensitive side. The literary calculation here, in any case, is evident, and it was done correctly.”

“From the heights from where the whole “panorama” opens up to him (Bulgakov) human life, he looks at us with a dry and rather sad smile. Undoubtedly, these heights are so significant that at them red and white merge for the eye - in any case, these differences lose their meaning. In the first scene, where the tired, confused officers, together with Elena Turbina, are having a drinking binge, in this scene, where characters not only ridiculed, but somehow exposed from the inside, where human insignificance obscures all other human properties, devalues virtues or qualities - Tolstoy is immediately felt.”

As a summary of the criticism heard from two irreconcilable camps, one can consider I. M. Nusinov’s assessment of the novel: “Bulgakov entered literature with the consciousness of the death of his class and the need to adapt to a new life. Bulgakov comes to the conclusion: “Everything that happens always happens as it should and only for the better.” This fatalism is an excuse for those who have changed milestones. Their rejection of the past is not cowardice or betrayal. It is dictated by the inexorable lessons of history. Reconciliation with the revolution was a betrayal of the past of a dying class. The reconciliation with Bolshevism of the intelligentsia, which in the past was not only by origin, but also ideologically connected with the defeated classes, the statements of this intelligentsia not only about its loyalty, but also about its readiness to build together with the Bolsheviks - could be interpreted as sycophancy. With his novel “The White Guard,” Bulgakov rejected this accusation of the White emigrants and declared: the change of milestones is not capitulation to the physical winner, but recognition of the moral justice of the victors. For Bulgakov, the novel “The White Guard” is not only reconciliation with reality, but also self-justification. Reconciliation is forced. Bulgakov came to him through the brutal defeat of his class. Therefore, there is no joy from the knowledge that the reptiles have been defeated, there is no faith in the creativity of the victorious people. This defined him artistic perception winner."

Bulgakov about the novel

It is obvious that Bulgakov understood true meaning his work, since he did not hesitate to compare it with “

Characters

Alexey Vasilievich Turbin- doctor, 28 years old.
Elena Turbina-Talberg- sister of Alexei, 24 years old.
Nikolka- non-commissioned officer of the First Infantry Squad, brother of Alexei and Elena, 17 years old.
Victor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky- lieutenant, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei’s friend at the Alexander Gymnasium.
Leonid Yurievich Shervinsky- former lieutenant of the Life Guards Uhlan Regiment, adjutant at the headquarters of General Belorukov, friend of the Turbin family, friend of Alexei at the Alexander Gymnasium, longtime admirer of Elena.
Fedor Nikolaevich Stepanov(“Karas”) - second lieutenant artilleryman, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei’s friend at the Alexander Gymnasium.
Sergei Ivanovich Talberg- Captain of the General Staff of Hetman Skoropadsky, Elena’s husband, a conformist.
father Alexander- priest of the Church of St. Nicholas the Good.
Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich(“Vasilisa”) - the owner of the house in which the Turbins rented the second floor.
Larion Larionovich Surzhansky(“Lariosik”) - Talberg’s nephew from Zhitomir.

History of writing

Bulgakov began writing the novel “The White Guard” after the death of his mother (February 1, 1922) and wrote until 1924.

The novel could have other names - for example, Bulgakov chose between “Midnight Cross” and “White Cross”. One of the excerpts from an early edition of the novel was published in December 1922 in the Berlin newspaper Nakanune under the title “On the Night of the 3rd” with the subtitle “From the novel “The Scarlet Mach”.” The working title of the first part of the novel at the time of writing was “The Yellow Ensign”.

In 1923, Bulgakov wrote about his work: “And I will finish the novel, and, I dare to assure you, it will be the kind of novel that will make the sky feel hot...” In his 1924 autobiography, Bulgakov wrote: “It took a year to write the novel The White Guard. I love this novel more than all my other works.”

In the spring of 1923, Bulgakov wrote in a letter to his sister Nadezhda: “... I’m urgently finishing the 1st part of the novel; It’s called “Yellow Ensign.” The novel begins with the entry of Petliura's troops into Kyiv. The second and subsequent parts, apparently, were supposed to tell about the arrival of the Bolsheviks in the City, then about their retreat under the attacks of Denikin’s troops, and, finally, about the fighting in the Caucasus. This was the writer's original intention. But after thinking about the possibilities of publishing a similar novel in Soviet Russia, Bulgakov decided to shift the time of action to an earlier period and exclude events associated with the Bolsheviks.

Alexey Vasilyevich Turbin, captain, military doctor, 28 years old, - Leshka Goryainov.
Demobilized, engaged in private practice.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Turbin, cadet, 19 years old - apparently, Dimka, because Zhenka does not have time.
A very nice young man.

Sergei Ivanovich Talberg, captain of the general staff for 31 years, - Igor. A rather private person, he serves in the Hetman's War Ministry as a captain (previously he served in a division under Denikin. The author of a sensational note beginning with the words “Petlyura is an adventurer who threatens the region with destruction with his operetta..."

Elena Vasilievna Turbina-Talberg, 24 years old - Dara. Sister of the Turbins, wife of Talberg.

Larion Larionovich Surzhansky, engineer, cousin of the Turbins, 24 years old - Mitechka.
Just arrived in town.

Phillip Phillipovich Preobrazhensky, professor of medicine, the best and most famous doctor in the city of Kyiv, specializes in urology and gynecology, 47 years old - Kolya.
Single. Single, or more accurately, married to medicine. He is harsh with loved ones, gentle with strangers.

Lidiya Alekseevna Churilova, head of the Institute of Noble Maidens, 37 years old - Irrra
Born and raised in Kyiv. In her youth she lived in St. Petersburg for a couple of years, then returned. An excellent boss, loved by both teachers and schoolgirls and their parents. Goddaughter of Obalkov. I started writing, but haven’t been very successful yet.

Maria Benkendorf, actress, 27 years old, - Vlada.
Moscow actress stuck in Kyiv due to unrest.

Zinaida Genrikhovna Orbeli, niece of Professor Preobrazhensky, 22 years old - Marisha.
I just returned from Kharkov. Last time she was seen in Kyiv 6 years ago, when she was studying at the institute. She didn’t finish college, got married and left the city.

Fedor Nikolaevich Stepanov, captain of artillery, - Menedin.
A close friend of the elder Turbin, as well as Myshlaevsky and Shervinsky. Before the war he taught mathematics.

Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky, staff captain, 34 years old - Sasha Efremov. Harsh, sometimes too harsh. Best friend Alexey Turbin.

Andrey Ivanovich Obalkov, assistant city manager, 51 years old - Fedor. He took the chair after the Central Rada came to power and became an assistant under Burchak. Surprisingly, he remained at his post under the hetman. They say he drinks bitter. Godfather of Churilova and Nikolka Turbin.

Shervinsky Leonid Yurievich, adjutant of Prince Belorukov, 27 years old - Ingvall.
Former lieutenant of the Ulan Regiment of the Life Guards Uhlan Regiment. Opera lover and owner of a magnificent voice. He says he once took the top “A” and held it for seven bars.

Petr Aleksandrovich Lestov, scientist, physicist, 38 years old - Andrey.
If Preobrazhensky is married to medicine, then Lestov is married to physics. I started coming to the Turbins relatively recently.

game equipment: Belka, Garik.