"Peter the Great" and Russian literature. Russian literature often and on various occasions turned to the image of the tsar-transformer, the tsar-revolutionary. In the 18th century the heroic-odic tonality prevailed: the poem by M. V. Lomonosov “Peter the Great”, “Lamentation on the Death of Peter” by V. K. Trediakovsky, poems by M. M. Kheraskov, G. R. Derzhavin, “Dithyramb” by A. P. Sumarokova (“Founder of our glory, oh, creator of great deeds! See the end of your power and the happy limit”). In the 19th century, however, assessments of the activities of Peter I were divided. Unlike Pushkin, who perceived Peter’s deeds as a feat, the Slavophiles pointed out the negative consequences of the exaggerated and violent, in their opinion, Europeanization of Russia. Leo Tolstoy treated the figure of Peter in a similar way. Having conceived a novel from the era of Peter, he gave up writing it because, by his own admission, he hated the personality of the king, “the most pious robber, murderer.” Such a negative assessment was later picked up, already in the new century, by symbolists, which was especially clearly manifested in D. S. Merezhkovsky’s novel “Peter and Alexey” (1905) from his trilogy “Christ and Antichrist”.
Peter and Pushkin. However, through all the contrasts and contradictions of the Peter the Great era, the Pushkin tradition shows us the vector of movement. Pushkin, as A.I. Kuprin said, “was, is and will be the only writer who could, with his divine inspiration, penetrate the gigantic soul of Peter and understand, feel its supernatural dimensions... No, Pushkin was not blinded or intoxicated by the beautiful and terrible the appearance of Peter. In the words of a cold mind, he speaks about the actions of the transformer of Russia: “The difference between the state institutions of Peter the Great and his temporary decrees is worthy of surprise. The first are the fruits of a vast mind, full of goodwill and wisdom; the latter - often cruel - are capricious and, it seems, written with a whip. The first were for eternity, or at least for the future; the second - they escaped from an impatient, autocratic landowner." This is how truthful and careful Pushkin is, how sharp his eyes are."
The theme of Peter in early Tolstoy. Working on a novel about Peter, Tolstoy followed from Pushkin's source. But he turned to this topic, one might say the theme of the artist’s life, long before writing his grandiose work. “I have been targeting Peter for a long time,” Tolstoy wrote. “I saw all the stains on his camisole, but Peter still stuck out as a mystery in the historical fog.”
Russian history, feeling of the Fatherland, native land form the core of Tolstoy's nature. This deeply national essence of talent was characterized much later by Bunin: “Tolstoy knew and felt everything Russian (Tolstoy - O.M.) like very few.” His burning interest in Russia’s past and its history was dictated by the desire to better understand the present, to understand what was happening. "The Tale of Troubled Times" (1922), stylized as " handwritten book Prince Typenev”, is dedicated to the turbulent events of the beginning of the XYII century, when in a bloody tangle of palace coups, foreign invasions, and peasant riots “settled” Russian state and when, in the midst of immense suffering, the most amazing biographies were sculpted, such as the transformation of the murderer Naum into Saint Niphon - another repetition in Rus' of the story of Kudeyar, in whom, in the words of Nekrasov, “the Lord awakened the conscience.” This gave the artist a historical run, although direct, albeit distant, approaches to Peter’s theme were the stories “Obsession” (1917), “The Day of Peter” (1917), and then the historical play “On the Rack” (1928).
Actually, the figure of Peter himself is not yet in “Obsession”: it depicts the tragic death of the innocently accused Kochubey and the unhappy love of his daughter Matryona for the traitor - Hetman Mazepa. But in the next story, the personality of the king-transformer appears at the very center of the narrative. But how does Peter appear against the backdrop of the “paradise” under construction - St. Petersburg? This is a destroyer of national foundations, the centuries-old way of Russian life. “With his face twisted with anger and impatience, the owner galloped from Holland to Moscow, swooped in with annoyance... Now, on this same day, turn everything over, reshape it, cut off their beards, put on a Dutch caftan for everyone, wise up, start thinking differently. And with little resistance - they only stuttered that, they say, we are not Dutch, but Russians... we cannot be Dutch, for mercy - where is that! The royal soul was enraged at such persistence, and the heads of the Streltsy flew.”
It is significant that for the story “The Day of Peter” Tolstoy, among other sources, turned to the diary of a foreigner, a chamber cadet at the court of the Duke of Holstein F. Berchholtz, who was very hostile to Peter and his activities. And in general, the writer gives a negative assessment of Peter’s transformations, drawing closer to the Slavophiles and D. S. Merezhkovsky. As Tolstoy believes, the entire Russian land, all classes, all the people were against the drastic reforms of Peter, who, “sitting on wastelands and swamps, with his terrible will alone strengthened the state and rebuilt the land.” In this one can hear topical echoes of the upheavals that Russia experienced in the terrible year of 1917.
Working on a novel. Historicism and topicality. The first book of the epic “Peter the Great” was created in a situation when centuries-old foundations were being broken in Soviet Russia, when in a heroic-labor and at the same time tragic atmosphere, marked by millions of victims, industrialization and collectivization were carried out with an iron hand and the foundations of the cult of I.V. Stalin were laid. In the early 30s, talking about his work on Peter the Great, Tolstoy emphasized the topicality of his historical narrative:
“I could not pass indifferently by the creative enthusiasm that engulfed our entire country, but I could not write about modernity, having visited our new buildings once or twice... I decided to respond to our era as best I could. And again he turned to the past, this time to talk about the victory over the elements, inertia and Asianism.” But at the same time, the writer strongly protested against the attempts of vulgarizing critics to present the novel “Peter the Great” as an artistic encoding of his time: “What led me to the epic “Peter the Great”? It is not true that I chose that era for the projection of modernity - this would be a false-historical and anti-artistic device on my part. I was captivated by the feeling of the fullness of the “unkempt” and creative power of that life, when the Russian character was revealed with particular brightness.”
Influence historical school M. N. Pokrovsky. At the end of the 20s, when Tolstoy began work on the novel, the views of M. N. Pokrovsky dominated in historical science. He believed that Russia in the 17th century. developed under the auspices of merchant capital in the Monomakh cap. In other words, Pokrovsky believed that all of Peter’s foreign and domestic policies served to strengthen the “merchant bourgeoisie,” and as a result, the monarch himself appeared in the role of a merchant king fighting against the “Thermidor of the boyars.” While working on the first book of the novel, Tolstoy was influenced by this vulgar Marxist concept, which sometimes manifested itself quite straightforwardly. Thus, the wise clerk Vinius teaches the king: “You exalt the merchant people, pull them out of the mud, give them strength, and the honor of the merchant will be in one honest word - boldly rely on them.” And further: “The same words were spoken by Sidney, and Van Leyden, and Lefort. The unknown seemed to Peter in them, as if a vein of vitality was being felt under his feet...” In accordance with this doctrine, the image of Ivashka Brovkin, a poor serf, who, thanks to the support of the tsar, makes it “into the people”, becomes one of the richest people in the country and gives away his beautiful daughter for the former master boyar Volkov.
However, such examples occurred during the reign of Peter. And Rus' itself, like a sleeping princess, needed a powerful shake-up. And here Tolstoy sharply disagrees with Pokrovsky in assessing the results of Peter’s reforms, summing up which the scholar-historian concluded: “The death of the reformer was a worthy finale to this feast during the plague.” Meanwhile, from the first to the last page, the epic is permeated by a deep conviction that all initiatives and reforms will find a happy end, because they are useful and necessary for Russia. In essence, Tolstoy returns us to the optimistic, Pushkin tradition in assessing the activities of Peter the Great.
Composition of the novel. Image of Peter the Great. Tolstoy's innovation. According to the established tradition in literature, dating back to Walter Scott, decisive events, the so-called “big story,” served only as a background for the history of another, “small”, and private human destinies. The clearest example of this is Leo Tolstoy’s epic “War and Peace”, where what is happening is conveyed through the perception of fictional characters - Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova, etc., while historical figures - Kutuzov, Napoleon, Bagration, Rostopchin, right up to Emperor Alexander I - relegated to the background. Going against the tide, Alexey Tolstoy makes the hero of his epic precisely “ big story"and Peter himself.
“A historical novel cannot be written in the form of a chronicle, in the form of history...,” the author himself noted. - What is needed first of all, as in any artistic canvas, is composition, the architectonics of the work. What is this composition? This is, first of all, the establishment of a center, the center of the artist’s vision... In my novel, the center is the figure of Peter I.” As in Pushkin’s “Poltava,” the monumental figure of the Tsar-Transformer, as if cast from bronze, becomes the core of the work. On the contrary, the broad historical background is filled with fictional characters - the Brovkins, Buinosovs, Vasily Volkov, Golikov, Zhemov, Gypsy, Fedka Wash Yourself with Mud, etc.
At the same time, multiplicity storylines creates, as it were, several planes in the work, growing out of rough, working outlines: “Peter’s Line (war, construction). Monet's line (love). Sanka (Brovkin) line. Golikov Line (split). Line of Flap, Overyan (revolutionary protest]).” However, the versatility of the composition, the contrast of the chapters, the continuously changing author's tonality - all this adds up to a mosaic panorama of the era. Decisive events in the life of the country become the plot basis of the epic novel: the uprising of the Streltsy in Moscow, the reign of Sophia, the unsuccessful campaigns of Golitsyn and the Azov campaign of Peter, the Streltsy revolt, the construction of St. Petersburg, the capture of Yuryev and Narva. The very movement of the era, a series of its key events over a huge period of time, starting from 1682 to 1704, forms, as it were, the internal framework of the unfolding narrative. The action moves with cinematic swiftness from the poor hut of Ivashka Brovkin to the noisy square of old Moscow; from the room of the imperious and predatory princess Sophia to the Red Porch in the Kremlin, where little Peter becomes an eyewitness to the brutal reprisal of the boyar Matveev; from the boring chambers of the Tsar’s mother Natalya Kirillovna in the Preobrazhensky Palace to a clean, well-groomed German settlement on Kukui, and from there to the scorched steppes of southern Russia, along which the army of Prince Golitsyn wanders, etc., etc.
From book to book, the composition is improved and verified, reaching in the last, third, special harmony and coherence. “Individual chapters, sub-chapters, episodes, descriptions,” notes a researcher of the historical novel
A. Tolstoy A. V. Alpatov, - replace each other not just in order of general chronological sequence. In their movement and tempo one can sense a focus on a certain artistic expressiveness; one can even feel some kind of orderliness in the very rhythm of the narrative.” At the same time, the patriotic sound is growing. The third book was created in the context of the heroic rise of the Great Patriotic War. In it, the theme of the military exploits of the Russian soldier, the Russian man, which is clearly revealed in the description of the storming of Narva, naturally comes to the fore. The figure of Peter appears even larger in the third book. “Character only benefits from boldly applied shadows,” said Leo Tolstoy. Peter is revealed in all his grandiose contradictory nature - generous and cruel; brave and subject to attacks of fear coming from childhood; broad and merciless towards dissenters; a revolutionary tsar and truly the first landowner of Russia, he precedes the entire Russian eighteenth century - “a century that is crazy and wise” (A. N. Radishchev).
Image of Peter. Personality formation. Creating the image of Peter, Tolstoy traces the process of personality formation, the formation of his character both under the influence of historical circumstances and the principles inherent in him by nature: will, energy, perseverance in achieving a goal. He cannot stand the “spirit of the old woman” and from an early age he feels disgust for all old customs, for everything patriarchal, the personification of which for him are mothers, nannies, hangers-on and firecrackers. This well-fed, but empty life without thought and work is contrasted with the vigorous activity of Peter, who always had “no time.” “You gave birth to a good son,” Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn says to Natalya Kirillovna, “you will turn out to be smarter than everyone else, give it time.” His eye is awake." Peter greedily strives for a new life, for new people, not like those who surround him in the Preobrazhensky Palace.
From the first pages of the novel, Tolstoy emphasizes external resemblance Peter with people of the “mean” breed: “Peter, covered in dust, in the ground, sweaty, like a peasant,” stood under the linden tree in front of Nikita; “To the left stood lanky Peter, as if at Christmas time they had dressed a man in a royal dress that was not his height.” Life in the village of Preobrazhenskoye allowed him to communicate closely with the people, here friendly relations began between him and the peasant children of his own age. “You... read the divine more with him,” Natalya Kirillovna’s mother says with concern to Peter’s first teacher Nikita Zotov. - Otherwise, he doesn’t even look like a king... He still hasn’t learned to walk with his feet. Everything runs like a simple person.” Among the ossified boyars who boast of their “high birth”, even greater fear for the fate of the tsar and the state is caused by the lack of arrogance in relations with ordinary people, friendship with peers of the “vile rank” (Alexashka Menshikov, Alyoshka Brovkin), indifference to the tsar’s rank, love of work and the desire to be able to do everything yourself (from pulling a needle through your cheek to building a ship).
Tolstoy's merit is that he was able to show the gradual formation of Peter as an outstanding historical figure, and did not immediately paint him as an established statesman and talented commander (as he appears in the third book of the novel). Thus, the idea of the necessary transformation of the country does not come to him immediately after Sophia’s imprisonment in the Novodevichy Convent and the acquisition of full power. Only after visiting Arkhangelsk and seeing foreign merchant ships, Peter realized how economically the country lagged behind the West, and he acutely felt the need to create a fleet in Russia and develop trade. Thus, life itself pushes Peter to transformative activity.
The failure in the Azov campaign finally turned Peter's face to the state and its needs. “With a courageous voice” that does not tolerate objections, he speaks - and does not speak, but “barks cruelly” - at the second meeting of the boyar duma about the immediate improvement of the devastated and scorched Azov and the Taganrog fortress, about the creation of “kumpan enterprises” for the construction of ships, about the collection of taxes for the construction of the Volga-Don canal. “In two years they must build a fleet, from fools to smart ones,” he unquestioningly declares, and the boyars understand that now Peter has “everything decided in advance” and will soon do without a thought.
Tolstoy does not put literary makeup on Peter, showing how he breaks everything “anew” - he forcibly cuts off the boyars’ beards and participates in the cruel torture of his enemies. However, Peter’s merciless struggle against the boyars, the Streltsy rebellion and the schismatic movement is dictated by the historical need to turn Byzantine Rus' into new Russia. The novel repeats the thoughts of Peter, seeing the poverty, squalor, and darkness of the country: “Why is this? We sit in the great open spaces and are beggars...” Like Romodanovsky or Vasily Golitsyn, Peter sees a way out in the development of industry, trade, and in the conquest of the shores of the Baltic. But, unlike the weak-willed dreamer Golitsyn, Peter is a statesman who decisively puts his ideas into practice.
This sovereign awakens national forces in the country. Seeing how foreigners are enriching themselves at the expense of Russia, Peter exclaims: “Why can’t our own people?” Without hesitation, he happily gives money to the enterprising Tula blacksmith Demidov, who decided to “raise the Urals”, helps the Bazhenin brothers, who built a water saw mill without overseas craftsmen, provides three ships to the first “navigator” Ivan Zhigulin, so that he can carry blubber and seal skins overseas , salmon and pearls. He understands perfectly well that the development of trade is impossible without access to the Baltic Sea, otherwise there will be complete dependence on foreign merchants. "No. The Black Sea is not a concern... - he tells the ministers. “We need our own ships in the Baltic Sea.” AND Northern War with Sweden 1700-1721 was a just war, for it was fought for the return of those captured by it at the beginning of the 17th century. Russian lands and access to the Baltic Sea.
Peter, with a strong-willed effort, is trying not only to overcome the backwardness of his country, but also to fight ignorance and darkness; he is a practitioner who thinks more about “today” than about the “eternal”, especially since this “eternal”, in his opinion, only pulls back , to the past. “Theology has given us lice...” exclaims the Tsar. - Navigation, mathematical sciences. Ore mining, medicine. We need this...” He established a school at a foundry in Moscow, where two hundred and fifty children of boyars, townspeople, and even “mean” ranks studied casting, mathematics, fortification and history. With a “club” Peter drives the noble ignoramuses into science, but he rejoices immensely when he sees the fruits of his labor, especially when an energetic, quick-witted Russian man rises “from the bottom” to match the Tsar himself. “They didn’t take me by birth, others need to take me,” explains yesterday’s “serf” Ivan Brovkin. And Peter, “suddenly” fired up to marry Rurikovna, Princess Buinosova, to one of Brovkin’s six sons, Artamoshka, rushes to kiss and clap the young man when he answers him in French (“like he sprinkled peas”), in German and Dutch. Therefore, it is clear that Peter’s decision to “reward counts for intelligence.”
Reception of contrast. Tolstoy resorts to the technique of contrast in the novel, comparing and contrasting Peter with Prince Vasily Golitsyn, and later with the Swedish king Charles XII and the Polish Elector Augustus. This not only gives prominence and brightness to the image of the main character, but also sharply highlights his merits and preparedness for the activities of the great reformer of Russia. Golitsyn ruled the country for seven years, fully aware of how radical changes it needed. "In all Christian countries, - and there are those who are not even worth our district, - trade is growing fat, people are getting richer, everyone is looking for their own profit... - he says bitterly to the boyars. “We alone are sleeping soundly... Soon the Russian land will be called a desert!” But it is not he, but Peter, who is destined to “raise Russia on its hind legs.” Why? Golitsyn is smart, elegant, good-looking, but weak. The prince either issues a decree in order to punish the culprit, then “out of kindness” cancels it. The insightful princess Sophia thinks: “Oh, he’s handsome, but weak, with female veins.” He lacks energy, will, and perseverance in achieving his goal - exactly what was inherent in Peter. This contrast is especially clearly visible in the example of two unsuccessful Azov campaigns - under the leadership of Golitsyn and under the leadership of Peter. Tolstoy clearly shows the behavior of each of them during the battle: “Vasily Vasilyevich on foot rushed about the convoy, beat the gunners with a whip, grabbed the wheels, pulled out the wicks”; “Peter threw off his cloak and caftan, rolled up his sleeves, took the banner from the gunner, with a strong movement he cleaned the sooty barrel... threw a pound-sized round projectile in his hands, rolled it into the barrel, leaning on the banner, hammered it tightly,” etc. Even verbs are important here forms used by the writer. “All the verbs that Tolstoy successfully found,” N. A. Demidov writes in his manual about the novel “Peter the Great,” help to reveal Golitsyn’s state of mind, his complete helplessness, confusion, and ignorance of military affairs. When drawing Golitsyn, Tolstoy uses all verbs in the imperfect form. Peter is focused, his calm is conveyed to those around him, he is not new to military affairs, so all his actions are confident. When drawing Peter, Tolstoy uses perfective verbs, emphasizing the completeness of the action.”
The comparison is no less contrasting: Peter - Charles XII. The Swedish king is bold, decisive, hot-tempered; but this is an adventurer king. Tolstoy accumulates details that paint a portrait of a ghoul, a flighty, a reckless boy. Self-respecting citizens are already preparing for the dinner meal, and Karl has not yet left his bed, reading Racine, next to him is the adventurer Countess Desmont: “A cup of chocolate was cooling at his bedside on the table between bottles of golden Rhine wine... The king’s pants were hanging on the head of a golden cupid... silk skirts and lingerie are scattered on the chairs.” While hunting, the military officer who brought an important letter “looked with a grin at his [Karl’s] boyish, stooped back, at the proudly tense back of his head.” Even the “extraordinary determination and restraint” of the Swedish king is the impulse of a “spoiled youth.” Another kind of contrast is Peter and Augustus the Magnificent. This is a pampered sybarite, “seemingly created by nature for luxurious festivities, for the patronage of the arts, for love pleasures with the most beautiful women Europe, for the vanity of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth." In both cases, Tolstoy unobtrusively, through the power of artistic details, leads to the idea that Charles XII and Augustus were born kings, and Peter forged a giant king within himself.
Reception of an internal gesture. When creating a portrait of Peter, the writer resorts to the technique of internal gesture as the most important means of artistic expression. At the beginning of the novel, Tolstoy thus conveys the shyness and spontaneity of his protagonist. Here he finds himself among well-mannered ladies. N.A. Demidova comments: “Peter covers his face with his palm, then with an effort of will he forces himself to tear his hand away from his face: out of embarrassment, it seems to have grown to him. He not only bowed, he folded himself like a pole - he was ridiculous in his embarrassment and this made him even more embarrassed. Peter does not speak, but mutters in a fallen voice, that’s all german words slipped out of his memory. However, we note that Tolstoy does not forget for a minute that his shy, spontaneous, easy-to-handle Peter is cruel and scary. It is no accident that the author shows changes in Peter’s face caused by memories of the hut in Preobrazhenskoye, sour with blood, where he had recently tortured Tsykler. His (Peter’s) mouth twisted, his cheek jumped up, his bulging eyes glazed over for a moment,” and before us again is Peter on the day of Tsykler’s execution. He tries to dismiss the vision and smiles guiltily at the women.
Peter's speech is characteristic, expressing his “quick temper” - emotional, aphoristic, lively, folk. Most often it is a short, chopped phrase, flavored with vernacular: “Our boyars, nobles - gray-footed peasants - sleep, eat and pray”; “Confusion is a good lesson”; “I will lead the siege myself. Myself. Start digging tonight. So that there is bread... I will hang you.” The language of the author is skillfully woven into this speech, who himself, as it were, becomes a participant in the events taking place.
Characters. After reading the first book of the novel, Bunin said: “Menshikov is beautiful and the lovely Anna Monet is subtle and gentle. After all, these are the remnants of some kind of heroic Rus'.” Numerous historical and fictional heroes surrounding Peter, his associates and opponents are all living human characters. Such is Menshikov, selflessly devoted to Peter. This is a rogue, money-grubber, cunning and at the same time brave and simple nature. The dominant feature of his character is his love for Peter: “What can I tell you? Again, some kind of stupidity - a blunder like a peasant. - Menshikov stomped, hesitated and raised his eyes - Pyotr Alekseevich’s face was calm and sad, he rarely saw him like that. Pity cut Alexashka like a knife through his heart. “Min herts,” he whispered, wrinkling his eyebrows, “min herts, what are you talking about?” Give it until the evening, I’ll come to the tent, I’ll come up with something...” “Happiness’s rootless darling, semi-sovereign ruler” is written out with stereoscopic brightness, like other heroes - Ivan Brovkin, Prince Buinosov, the smart and cunning princess Sophia.
I must say that female images in the novel they are depicted with amazing insight into their psychology. The magical gift that Tolstoy possessed allows him to create a whole gallery of portraits - Princess Natalya, Sanka Brovkina, and finally Anna Monet and her “female crafty love.” “Anna’s eyes trembled and saw him at the door before anyone else. She rose and flew across the waxed floor... And the music was already cheerfully singing about good Germany, where pink almonds bloom in front of clean, clean windows, kind father and mother with kind smiles look at Hans and Gretel, standing under these almonds, which means love forever, and when their sun bends over the blue of the night, with a peaceful sigh both will go to their graves... Ah, the impossible distance!
Peter, clutching the warm Ankhen under pink silk, danced silently and for so long that the musicians were out of tune... Walking around the hall, Peter said: “I’m happy with you...”
The people in the novel. And outside the window of a cheerful, cozy German house - Rus', tragic fates. Peter appeared at the ball after he ordered that a woman buried up to her throat, who had killed her husband with a knife, be shot so that she would not suffer. The people in the novel are not a crowd, but destinies that have crippled common man(“boney with anger” Fedka Wash himself with Mud, the warrior Gypsy “all overgrown with an iron beard, an eye knocked out, his shirt, trousers rotted on his body”), then enlightened by inescapable talent (the skilled blacksmith Zhemov, the hero, the Valdai blacksmith Kondrat Vorobyov, the Palekh icon painter Andrei Golikov ), then rushed into the abyss of violent riots (participants in the uprising of Stepan Razin, Ataman Ivan Vasilyevich and Ovdokim). The element of the people spills out in crowd scenes - on Red Square or near the walls of Narva, under Swedish artillery fire. The remarkable beginning of the novel is told from a peasant hut, and not from a palace: “Sanka jumped off the stove and hit the jammed door with her back. Yashka, Gavrilka and Artamoshka quickly climbed down behind Sanka; suddenly everyone became thirsty - they jumped into the dark hallway following a cloud of steam and smoke from the sour hut. A slightly bluish light shone through the window through the snow. Studeno. A tub of water became iced over, and a wooden ladle became iced over. The children were jumping from foot to foot - everyone was barefoot. Sanka has a scarf tied around her head. Gavrilka and Artamoshka in the same shirts up to the navel.
Door, announced! - the mother shouted from the hut. Mother stood by the stove...”
The power of representation. Already in these lines the figurative, to the point of hallucination, power that is inherent in Tolstoy the artist is clearly manifested. The metaphorical, sometimes deliberately “zoological” principle penetrates into all the cells of the prose, right down to the names and nicknames of the characters, evoking an almost sensual clarity in the reader. “The black earth visceral power just sticks out in the expressive surname of one of episodic characters the first volume - Ovsey Rzhov,” notes A. V. Alpatov in his study “Alexey Tolstoy - the master of the historical novel.”
Ovsey Rzhov- “sagittarius of the Pyzhov regiment”, about whom the author says that “in his basement there is a strong smell of a hearty spirit, meat cabbage soup...”. And the hero of the second book of the novel is the runaway Kashira peasant Fedka, nicknamed Wash Yourself with Dirt?! And the Mytishchi woman-witch Sparrow with her nimble “mouse” eyes or the eminent boyars Endogurov, Svinin, Buynosov, Lykov sitting in the Prikaz of the Big Palace - in all these names and nicknames there is a visual objectivity, emphasized figurative expressiveness. The yard yard Styopka Bear, a gloomy, tall guy who, “having stabbed his knives into them, ran up the stairs like a stallion,” is forced to wear out Peter’s new boots. “Executioner Emelyan Svezhev with an indifferent horse face punishes the girl Masha Selifontova, who screams like a pig...”
The paintings created by Tolstoy amaze with what could be called the “effect of presence.” You see clearly and seem to be participating in what is happening. This is achieved, among others artistic means, in that the writer combines his own view of what is depicted with a view “from the inside,” as if emanating from the persons depicted. Here are the daughters of boyar Buinosov in everyday boredom: “Buinosov’s maidens, waiting for balls and fireworks, languished at the window... No grove to take a walk, no banks to sit around, mud, garbage, wood chips all around... Of course, you could have fun with the maidens, sitting on other wings: with Princess Lykova, foolish - across themselves wider, even eyes swam, or with Princess Dolgorukova - Black Sea Gordia (do not hide - all Moscow knew that she had hairy legs), or eight princes Shakhovsky - these broods are malicious - They just whispered among themselves, scratching their tongues. Olga and Antonida did not like women.”
A novel about Peter and the lessons of Tolstoy.“Peter the Great” is the result of Tolstoy’s work and, as it were, his artistic testament. The novel crystallized the deeply national origins of the writer's talent, the extraordinary, holographic brightness in recreating a distant era, skill in depicting characters, the courage of metaphorization and the primacy of language.
The novel about Peter can be called a treasury of native speech. Movement, pressure, muscularity of words reach here highest point. Tolstoy's diamond Russian language is one of the main facets of his enormous literary gift. And can there be a truly artistic creation without language! Language is not just the ability of a person to express his thoughts in words, but language as a set of words and expressions used by an entire people. AND artistic practice, and Alexei Tolstoy’s direct testaments to us, our descendants, in this sense are topical and valuable.
His precepts are addressed primarily to those who want to write, that is, to young writers. But their meaning is immeasurably wider. “Pushkin,” Tolstoy recalled, “learned language from the prosvirens, Leo Tolstoy learned speech from the village peasants. What did this mean? A man who has not yet risen to complex world abstract concepts, a person whose ideas are inseparable from the tools of labor and do not outgrow the simple world of surrounding things - this person thinks in images, objects, their movements, their gestures, he sees what he is talking about. His speech is figurative. A city person, and even an armchair person, often loses the connection between ideas and things. Language becomes only an expression of abstract thought. This is good for a mathematician. This is bad for a writer - a writer must see first of all and, having seen, tell what he saw - see the current world of things as a participant in the flow of life.”
A lover of life, to whom nothing earthly is alien, and a great worker in the literary field. A light, cheerful pen that seems to be running across the sheet itself, and dozens of drafts, editing and editing, the true devotion of an artist of words. Even a fatal illness - a malignant tumor of the lung - and terrible physical suffering could not tear him away from work: with truly heroic effort, Tolstoy wrote the third, last book"Petra". “It’s hard to believe,” says his biographer, “that lines sparkling with life, love, full of cheerful colors and enormous optimism were created by a dying man.”
Alexei Tolstoy in the novel “Peter the First” paid tribute to the image of Peter the Great, creating a novel of the same name. Having accepted the revolutionary events, Tolstoy chose for a better understanding of them the most accurate analogy in Russian history - with the era of Peter.
Works of the historical genre, especially large forms, are distinguished by the presence of the author’s idea of the laws of history, expressed through artistic means, its driving forces and conflicts.
In contrast to the novels of the 1920-1930s, which depicted popular uprisings and their leaders (“Razin Stepan” and “Walking People” by A. Chapygin, “Salavat Yulaev”
S. Zlobina, “The Tale of Bolotnikov” by G. Storm, etc.). A. Tolstoy placed at the center of the work the figure of the king, a figure of historical significance. In Peter, the writer first of all showed his transformative genius, his understanding of the need for fundamental changes in the life of the country (“In Russia, everything needs to be broken - everything is new”).
The author no longer doubts the historical prospects of reforms. The meaning of the Peter the Great era in A. Tolstoy’s novel is a breakthrough from the past to the future, from isolation and patriarchy to the number of the leading powers of the world, a time of sharp collision between the old and the new. In this Tolstoy saw a consonance between the “tragic and creative” era of Peter and the revolutionary history of Russia.
If the traditional historical novel is characterized by a focus on
depiction of the past, then A. Tolstoy sought to recreate the connection of times, to reveal common features turning points in history. This approach has become a fundamentally new phenomenon for historical prose.
"Personality formation in historical era"- this is how A. Tolstoy defined it main principle images. The author not only recreates the biography of Peter, he seeks to show, on the one hand, how the era influenced the formation of the hero’s personality, and on the other, what was the impact of Peter’s
transformations on the fate of the country.
All other problems of the novel are also connected with the solution of this main problem: the question of the objective necessity and significance of Peter’s transformations; depiction of an acute struggle between the new and the old; “identifying the driving forces of the era”, the role of the individual and the people in history.
The concept of the work determined the features of the composition and plot.
The work is distinguished by its epic scope in depicting the life of the country at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. The plot is based on real events of a short period, but rich in content, from 1682 to 1704.
The first book of the novel (1930) represents the background to Peter's reforms. This is the period of Peter’s childhood and youth, cruel life lessons, studying with foreigners, the beginning of the creation of a fleet, military “embarrassment,” the suppression of the Streltsy rebellion.
The second book (1934) includes a description of the initial period of the Northern War and
ends with the construction of St. Petersburg.
Climax of the image government activities Peter was supposed to be the third book, but the novel remained unfinished. In the published chapters of the third book (1943-1944), in accordance with the spirit of wartime when it was created, the main motive was the glorious victories of Russian weapons (the capture of Narva). The novel recreates a living, dynamic, multifaceted picture of the era.
The first chapter is a historical exposition depicting the life of pre-Petrine Russia. The negative aspects of patriarchal Russian life are emphasized here: “poverty, servility, lack of contentment,” lack of movement (“the sour hundred-year twilight”).
The general dissatisfaction with life is emphasized by the author’s digressions (beginning of chapter 2; chapter 5, subchapter 12; beginning of chapter 7). They formulated a general conclusion: “What kind of Russia is this, a sworn country—when will you move?”
Creating an image of Russia awaiting change, the author uses the cinematic technique of changing camera angles. The action, which began in the peasant hut of Ivashka Brovkin, is transferred to the estate of Vasily Volkov,
from there to Moscow, will linger more than once on the roads of Russia, will lead to the royal chambers, where at the bedside of the dying Fyodor Alekseevich it is decided who will be king.
The scene of the action is the tavern on Varvarka, where the opinion of ordinary people is expressed, the room of Princess Sophia, the square where the archers are rioting, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Pereslavl, Arkhangelsk, Don, Voronezh, Germany and Holland, Narva.
The multifaceted composition gave the author the opportunity to depict the life of all classes and groups of Russian society: from royal family, boyars, foreigners to merchants and military people, peasants, schismatics, convicts, fugitives. Along with real facts and characters of history, fictional events and characters play an important role in the novel.
In this regard, we can especially note the closely related Peter - history the Brovkin family, which illustrates specific changes in the lives of Russian people.
Life, morals, customs, the very spirit of a bygone era are recreated in the novel based on documents, historical works and other sources. The most important of them was the book of Professor N. Novombergsky “The Word and Deed of the Sovereign,” which contains acts of the Secret Chancery and the Preobrazhensky Order. In these “torture recordings” she “told, moaned, lied, screamed in pain and fear folk Rus'"(XIII, pp. 567-568).
The simple and precise spoken language of the 17th century formed the basis of the language of A. Tolstoy’s novel. This made it possible to give the work a historical flavor, liveliness and imagery, while making it accessible to the modern reader.
The language of the work reflects the spirit of Peter’s reforms, it combines folk words and expressions, archaisms, foreign borrowings. Researchers are unanimous in their opinion about Tolstoy’s novel as the pinnacle of the artist’s verbal and visual skills.
Image of Peter the Great.
The peculiarity of the portrayal of the hero is that the writer shows Peter not as an already established statesman, but traces the process of personality formation under the influence of historical circumstances.
The depicted events in the life of the country become milestones in Peter’s personal biography, stages of his growing up. Tolstoy makes the young hero a witness
massacres of the Streltsy with his loved ones, and this memory will be echoed in the future by an irreconcilable conflict with his sister Sophia and the boyars in the struggle for power and brutal reprisals against the Streltsy.
A visit to the German settlement awakens Peter's interest in the European way of life. A trip to Arkhangelsk and the sight of foreign ships strengthens in Peter’s mind the idea of the need for transformation.
The author repeatedly uses the technique of paired episodes, showing rapid changes in the character of the hero (for example, two meetings of the Boyar Duma - before
Azov campaign (book 1, chapter 5, subchapter 20.) and after it (book 1, chapter 7, subchapter 1) - they emphasize: Peter is now “... a different person: angry, stubborn, businesslike.”
These contrasts reveal the energy and determination of the main character, his willingness to learn from a variety of people, to learn lessons from defeats, his sincere pain for the poverty and backwardness of the country, simplicity and lack of arrogance.
Alexei Tolstoy shows Peter as a complex and contradictory personality (for example, scenes of the procession in the Assumption Cathedral - book 1, chapter 4, subchapter 2; the end of book 1 - the suppression of the Streltsy rebellion; Peter at the Elector - book 1, chapter 7 , subch. 8; in the forge of Zhemov, chapter 10; book 2, chapter 3; Peter In the dugout - book 3, chapter 2, subch.
He, using Pushkin’s definition, “raised Russia on its hind legs with an iron hand.” Transformations are carried out through brutal exploitation, at the cost of thousands of lives; the country is breaking out of backwardness through mass executions, torture, and the forcible introduction of elements of European culture.
But the author balances the acute drama of the situation with attention to the image
the results of Peter’s case (you can compare the description of the life of peasants on Volkov’s estate during the reign of Sophia (book 1, chapter 4, subchapter 1) and on the Buinosov estate during the reign of Peter (book 2, chapter 1, subchapter 3) ; follow the changes in the life of Ivashka Brovkin).
Peter is shown through the eyes of different people: his mother, Sophia, boyars, comrades-in-arms: Menshikov, Brovkin, the German Lefort, ordinary people - the blacksmith Zhemov, the artist Golikov, peasants, builders, soldiers. This allows us to convey a polyphony of opinions about the main content of the image - the case of Peter.
The writer captured a phenomenon unique to the era depicted: a change in traditional social trajectories, the promotion of people not according to the nobility of their family, but according to their intelligence, efficiency, commitment to the new (Menshikov, Alyoshka Brovkin and his sister Sanka, Demidov, etc.).
Defining the relationship between the characters, the writer places them between two poles: supporters and opponents of Peter’s reforms. In relation to all characters, even minor ones, the principle of versatility of the image applies (for example, the image of the boyar Buinosov).
In revealing the psychology of the hero, Tolstoy widely uses the “internal gesture” technique. We are talking about the transfer of internal state through external manifestation. through movement, gesture. The writer was convinced that “you cannot paint a portrait of a hero on ten whole pages”, “the portrait of a hero must appear from the very movement, struggle, in clashes, in behavior”) (XIII, p. 499)3. That is why movement and its expression - the verb - are the basis for creating an image.
The people in the novel Peter the Great.
Peter In the novel by A.N. Tolstoy appears as the brightest embodiment of the Russian national character. Placing the tsar-reformer at the center of the work, the writer paid special attention to depicting the active role of the people in Peter’s reforms. In the work one can constantly hear the people’s assessment of what is happening, and for the author this is the most important criterion for the historical justice of Peter’s cause. In crowd scenes, people are not depicted statically, but in a clash of contradictory moods. Tolstoy masterfully uses polylogue and identifies individual figures in the generalized image of the people.
In the second and third books, the author shows the growth of popular discontent, evidenced by the frequent mention of the name of the rebellious Stepan Razin. The schismatic movement is also interpreted by Tolstoy as one of the forms of protest against increased oppression in the era of Peter the Great.
The conflict was embodied in close-up images of Ovdokim, the piebald Ivan and Fedka Wash Yourself with Mud. The ending of the second book of the novel sounds symbolically: a gloomy, branded, shackled man “Fedka washed himself with Mud, throwing his hair on his sore wet forehead, beat and hit the piles with an oak sledgehammer...”. Here the bloody efforts that are being made to create a passage from Ladoga to the open sea are emphasized, and the threat posed by construction is emphasized new capital empires.
Talking about the life of a Russian person, A. Tolstoy emphasizes his hard work and talent (images of Kuzma Zhemov, Kondrat Vorobyov (book 2, chapter 5, subchapter 3); Palekh painter Andrei Golikov (book 2, chapter 5, subchapter 3; book 2, chapter 2, subch.
In the battles that Peter wages, such qualities of the Russian people as heroism and courage are clearly manifested. Thanks to the interaction of the images of Peter and the people, the author was able to show the turbulent, contradictory historical movement of Russia and reveal the fate of the nation at a turning point that determined the course of its history for many centuries.
The novel “Peter the Great” is Tolstoy’s pinnacle work, which has received recognition both in Russia and in the Russian diaspora. If not everyone accepted the historical concept of Peter the Great's era, then the highest mastery of depiction, living language, and inexhaustible humor made the novel classic work Russian literature.
War as a test of Russian character “During the days of the war, Alexei Tolstoy found himself at his post. His words encouraged, amused, and excited the fighters. Tolstoy did not go into silence, did not wait, did not refer to the alienation of the muses from the music of battle. Tolstoy spoke in October 1941, and Russia will not forget this,” wrote Ilya Ehrenburg.
The leading theme of Tolstoy’s work—the Russian character in its historical development—acquired particular relevance during the Great Patriotic War. As in the historical theme, the central image in the works of the war years became the image of the native land, watered with the blood of their ancestors, protected by “smart, clean, leisurely” Russian people, “protecting their dignity.” Characteristic of the public consciousness and culture of the period of the Great Patriotic War, the appeal to heroic images of national history and culture, the exploits of fathers and grandfathers contributed to the strengthening national identity. The writer saw the task of literature as being “the voice of the heroic soul
people."
Analysis of the novel "Peter the Great"
5 (100%) 1 vote"Peter the Great" and Russian literature. Russian literature often and on various occasions turned to the image of the tsar-transformer, the tsar-revolutionary. In the 18th century the heroic-odic tonality prevailed: the poem by M. V. Lomonosov “Peter the Great”, “Lamentation on the Death of Peter” by V. K. Trediakovsky, poems by M. M. Kheraskov, G. R. Derzhavin, “Dithyramb” by A. P. Sumarokova (“Founder of our glory, oh, creator of great deeds! See the end of your power and the happy limit”). In the 19th century, however, assessments of the activities of Peter I were divided. Unlike Pushkin, who perceived Peter’s deeds as a feat, the Slavophiles pointed out the negative consequences of the exaggerated and violent, in their opinion, Europeanization of Russia. Leo Tolstoy treated the figure of Peter in a similar way. Having conceived a novel from the era of Peter, he gave up writing it because, by his own admission, he hated the personality of the king, “the most pious robber, murderer.” Such a negative assessment was later picked up, already in the new century, by symbolists, which was especially clearly manifested in D. S. Merezhkovsky’s novel “Peter and Alexey” (1905) from his trilogy “Christ and Antichrist”.
Peter and Pushkin. However, through all the contrasts and contradictions of the Peter the Great era, the Pushkin tradition shows us the vector of movement. Pushkin, as A.I. Kuprin said, “was, is and will be the only writer who could, with his divine inspiration, penetrate the gigantic soul of Peter and understand, feel its supernatural dimensions... No, Pushkin was not blinded or intoxicated by the beautiful and terrible the appearance of Peter. In the words of a cold mind, he speaks about the actions of the transformer of Russia: “The difference between the state institutions of Peter the Great and his temporary decrees is worthy of surprise. The first are the fruits of a vast mind, full of goodwill and wisdom; the latter - often cruel - are capricious and, it seems, written with a whip. The first were for eternity, or at least for the future; the second - they escaped from an impatient, autocratic landowner." This is how truthful and careful Pushkin is, how sharp his eyes are."
The theme of Peter in early Tolstoy. Working on a novel about Peter, Tolstoy followed from Pushkin's source. But he turned to this topic, one might say the theme of the artist’s life, long before writing his grandiose work. “I have been targeting Peter for a long time,” Tolstoy wrote. “I saw all the stains on his camisole, but Peter still stuck out as a mystery in the historical fog.”
Russian history, the feeling of the Fatherland, native land form the core of Tolstoy’s nature. This deeply national essence of talent was characterized much later by Bunin: “Tolstoy knew and felt everything Russian (Tolstoy - O.M.) like very few.” His burning interest in Russia’s past and its history was dictated by the desire to better understand the present, to understand what was happening. “The Tale of Troubled Times” (1922), stylized as “a handwritten book of Prince Typenev,” is dedicated to the turbulent events of the early 18th century, when the Russian state was “established” in a bloody tangle of palace coups, foreign invasions, and peasant revolts and when the most amazing biographies, such as the transformation of the murderer Naum into Saint Niphon - another repetition in Rus' of the story of Kudeyar, in whom, in the words of Nekrasov, “the Lord awakened his conscience.” This gave the artist a historical run, although direct, albeit distant, approaches to Peter’s theme were the stories “Obsession” (1917), “The Day of Peter” (1917), and then the historical play “On the Rack” (1928).
Actually, the figure of Peter himself is not yet in “Obsession”: it depicts the tragic death of the innocently accused Kochubey and the unhappy love of his daughter Matryona for the traitor - Hetman Mazepa. But in the next story, the personality of the king-transformer appears at the very center of the narrative. But how does Peter appear against the backdrop of the “paradise” under construction - St. Petersburg? This is a destroyer of national foundations, the centuries-old way of Russian life. “With his face twisted with anger and impatience, the owner galloped from Holland to Moscow, swooped in with annoyance... Now, on this same day, turn everything over, reshape it, cut off their beards, put on a Dutch caftan for everyone, wise up, start thinking differently. And with little resistance - they only stuttered that, they say, we are not Dutch, but Russians... we cannot be Dutch, for mercy - where is that! The royal soul was enraged at such persistence, and the heads of the Streltsy flew.”
It is significant that for the story “The Day of Peter” Tolstoy, among other sources, turned to the diary of a foreigner, a chamber cadet at the court of the Duke of Holstein F. Berchholtz, who was very hostile to Peter and his activities. And in general, the writer gives a negative assessment of Peter’s transformations, drawing closer to the Slavophiles and D. S. Merezhkovsky. As Tolstoy believes, the entire Russian land, all classes, all the people were against the drastic reforms of Peter, who, “sitting on wastelands and swamps, with his terrible will alone strengthened the state and rebuilt the land.” In this one can hear topical echoes of the upheavals that Russia experienced in the terrible year of 1917.
Working on a novel. Historicism and topicality. The first book of the epic “Peter the Great” was created in a situation when centuries-old foundations were being broken in Soviet Russia, when in a heroic-labor and at the same time tragic atmosphere, marked by millions of victims, industrialization and collectivization were carried out with an iron hand and the foundations of the cult of I.V. Stalin were laid. In the early 30s, talking about his work on Peter the Great, Tolstoy emphasized the topicality of his historical narrative:
“I could not pass indifferently by the creative enthusiasm that engulfed our entire country, but I could not write about modernity, having visited our new buildings once or twice... I decided to respond to our era as best I could. And again he turned to the past, this time to talk about the victory over the elements, inertia and Asianism.” But at the same time, the writer strongly protested against the attempts of vulgarizing critics to present the novel “Peter the Great” as an artistic encoding of his time: “What led me to the epic “Peter the Great”? It is not true that I chose that era for the projection of modernity - this would be a false-historical and anti-artistic device on my part. I was captivated by the feeling of the fullness of the “unkempt” and creative power of that life, when the Russian character was revealed with particular brightness.”
The influence of the historical school of M. N. Pokrovsky. At the end of the 20s, when Tolstoy began work on the novel, the views of M. N. Pokrovsky dominated in historical science. He believed that Russia in the 17th century. developed under the auspices of merchant capital in the Monomakh cap. In other words, Pokrovsky believed that all of Peter’s foreign and domestic policies served to strengthen the “merchant bourgeoisie,” and as a result, the monarch himself appeared in the role of a merchant king fighting against the “Thermidor of the boyars.” While working on the first book of the novel, Tolstoy was influenced by this vulgar Marxist concept, which sometimes manifested itself quite straightforwardly. Thus, the wise clerk Vinius teaches the king: “You exalt the merchant people, pull them out of the mud, give them strength, and the honor of the merchant will be in one honest word - boldly rely on them.” And further: “The same words were spoken by Sidney, and Van Leyden, and Lefort. The unknown seemed to Peter in them, as if a vein of vitality was being felt under his feet...” In accordance with this doctrine, the image of Ivashka Brovkin, a poor serf, who, thanks to the support of the tsar, makes it “into the people”, becomes one of the richest people in the country and gives away his beautiful daughter for the former master boyar Volkov.
However, such examples occurred during the reign of Peter. And Rus' itself, like a sleeping princess, needed a powerful shake-up. And here Tolstoy sharply disagrees with Pokrovsky in assessing the results of Peter’s reforms, summing up which the scholar-historian concluded: “The death of the reformer was a worthy finale to this feast during the plague.” Meanwhile, from the first to the last page, the epic is permeated by a deep conviction that all initiatives and reforms will find a happy end, because they are useful and necessary for Russia. In essence, Tolstoy returns us to the optimistic, Pushkin tradition in assessing the activities of Peter the Great.
Composition of the novel. Image of Peter the Great. Tolstoy's innovation. According to the established tradition in literature, dating back to Walter Scott, decisive events, the so-called “big story,” served only as a background for the history of another, “small”, and private human destinies. The clearest example of this is Leo Tolstoy’s epic “War and Peace”, where what is happening is conveyed through the perception of fictional characters - Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova, etc., while historical figures - Kutuzov, Napoleon, Bagration, Rostopchin, right up to Emperor Alexander I - relegated to the background. Going against the grain, Alexei Tolstoy makes the “big story” and Peter himself the hero of his epic.
“A historical novel cannot be written in the form of a chronicle, in the form of history...,” the author himself noted. - What is needed first of all, as in any artistic canvas, is composition, the architectonics of the work. What is this composition? This is, first of all, the establishment of a center, the center of the artist’s vision... In my novel, the center is the figure of Peter I.” As in Pushkin’s “Poltava,” the monumental figure of the Tsar-Transformer, as if cast from bronze, becomes the core of the work. On the contrary, the broad historical background is filled with fictional characters - the Brovkins, Buinosovs, Vasily Volkov, Golikov, Zhemov, Gypsy, Fedka Wash Yourself with Mud, etc.
At the same time, the multiplicity of plot lines creates, as it were, several planes in the work, growing from rough, working outlines: “Peter’s Line (war, construction). Monet's line (love). Sanka (Brovkin) line. Golikov Line (split). Line of Flap, Overyan (revolutionary protest]).” However, the versatility of the composition, the contrast of the chapters, the continuously changing author's tonality - all this adds up to a mosaic panorama of the era. Decisive events in the life of the country become the plot basis of the epic novel: the uprising of the Streltsy in Moscow, the reign of Sophia, the unsuccessful campaigns of Golitsyn and the Azov campaign of Peter, the Streltsy revolt, the construction of St. Petersburg, the capture of Yuryev and Narva. The very movement of the era, a series of its key events over a huge period of time, starting from 1682 to 1704, forms, as it were, the internal framework of the unfolding narrative. The action moves with cinematic swiftness from the poor hut of Ivashka Brovkin to the noisy square of old Moscow; from the room of the imperious and predatory princess Sophia to the Red Porch in the Kremlin, where little Peter becomes an eyewitness to the brutal reprisal of the boyar Matveev; from the boring chambers of the Tsar’s mother Natalya Kirillovna in the Preobrazhensky Palace to a clean, well-groomed German settlement on Kukui, and from there to the scorched steppes of southern Russia, along which the army of Prince Golitsyn wanders, etc., etc.
From book to book, the composition is improved and verified, reaching in the last, third, special harmony and coherence. “Individual chapters, sub-chapters, episodes, descriptions,” notes a researcher of the historical novel
A. Tolstoy A. V. Alpatov, - succeed each other not just in order of general chronological sequence. In their movement and tempo one can sense a focus on a certain artistic expressiveness; one can even feel some kind of orderliness in the very rhythm of the narrative.” At the same time, the patriotic sound is growing. The third book was created in the context of the heroic rise of the Great Patriotic War. In it, the theme of the military exploits of the Russian soldier, the Russian man, which is clearly revealed in the description of the storming of Narva, naturally comes to the fore. The figure of Peter appears even larger in the third book. “Character only benefits from boldly applied shadows,” said Leo Tolstoy. Peter is revealed in all his grandiose contradictory nature - generous and cruel; brave and subject to attacks of fear coming from childhood; broad and merciless towards dissenters; a revolutionary tsar and truly the first landowner of Russia, he precedes the entire Russian eighteenth century - “a century that is crazy and wise” (A. N. Radishchev).
Image of Peter. Personality formation. Creating the image of Peter, Tolstoy traces the process of personality formation, the formation of his character both under the influence of historical circumstances and the principles inherent in him by nature: will, energy, perseverance in achieving a goal. He cannot stand the “spirit of the old woman” and from an early age he feels disgust for all old customs, for everything patriarchal, the personification of which for him are mothers, nannies, hangers-on and firecrackers. This well-fed, but empty life without thought and work is contrasted with the vigorous activity of Peter, who always had “no time.” “You gave birth to a good son,” Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn says to Natalya Kirillovna, “you will turn out to be smarter than everyone else, give it time.” His eye is awake." Peter greedily strives for a new life, for new people, not like those who surround him in the Preobrazhensky Palace.
From the first pages of the novel, Tolstoy emphasizes Peter’s external resemblance to people of the “vile” breed: “Peter, covered in dust, in the ground, sweaty, like a peasant,” stood under the linden tree in front of Nikita; “To the left stood lanky Peter, as if at Christmas time they had dressed a man in a royal dress that was not his height.” Life in the village of Preobrazhenskoye allowed him to communicate closely with the people, here friendly relations began between him and the peasant children of his own age. “You... read the divine more with him,” Natalya Kirillovna’s mother says with concern to Peter’s first teacher Nikita Zotov. - Otherwise, he doesn’t even look like a king... He still hasn’t learned to walk with his feet. Everything runs like a simple person.” Among the ossified boyars who boast of their “high birth”, even greater fear for the fate of the tsar and the state is caused by the lack of arrogance in relations with ordinary people, friendship with peers of the “vile rank” (Alexashka Menshikov, Alyoshka Brovkin), indifference to the tsar’s rank, love of work and the desire to be able to do everything yourself (from pulling a needle through your cheek to building a ship).
Tolstoy's merit is that he was able to show the gradual formation of Peter as an outstanding historical figure, and did not immediately paint him as an established statesman and talented commander (as he appears in the third book of the novel). Thus, the idea of the necessary transformation of the country does not come to him immediately after Sophia’s imprisonment in the Novodevichy Convent and the acquisition of full power. Only after visiting Arkhangelsk and seeing foreign merchant ships, Peter realized how economically the country lagged behind the West, and he acutely felt the need to create a fleet in Russia and develop trade. Thus, life itself pushes Peter to transformative activity.
The failure in the Azov campaign finally turned Peter's face to the state and its needs. “With a courageous voice” that does not tolerate objections, he speaks - and does not speak, but “barks cruelly” - at the second meeting of the boyar duma about the immediate improvement of the devastated and scorched Azov and the Taganrog fortress, about the creation of “kumpan enterprises” for the construction of ships, about the collection of taxes for the construction of the Volga-Don canal. “In two years they must build a fleet, from fools to smart ones,” he unquestioningly declares, and the boyars understand that now Peter has “everything decided in advance” and will soon do without a thought.
Tolstoy does not put literary makeup on Peter, showing how he breaks everything “anew” - he forcibly cuts off the boyars’ beards and participates in the cruel torture of his enemies. However, Peter's merciless struggle against the boyars, the Streltsy rebellion and the schismatic movement is dictated by the historical need to transform Byzantine Rus' into a new Russia. The novel repeats the thoughts of Peter, seeing the poverty, squalor, and darkness of the country: “Why is this? We sit in the great open spaces and are beggars...” Like Romodanovsky or Vasily Golitsyn, Peter sees a way out in the development of industry, trade, and in the conquest of the shores of the Baltic. But, unlike the weak-willed dreamer Golitsyn, Peter is a statesman who decisively puts his ideas into practice.
This sovereign awakens national forces in the country. Seeing how foreigners are enriching themselves at the expense of Russia, Peter exclaims: “Why can’t our own people?” Without hesitation, he happily gives money to the enterprising Tula blacksmith Demidov, who decided to “raise the Urals”, helps the Bazhenin brothers, who built a water saw mill without overseas craftsmen, provides three ships to the first “navigator” Ivan Zhigulin, so that he can carry blubber and seal skins overseas , salmon and pearls. He understands perfectly well that the development of trade is impossible without access to the Baltic Sea, otherwise there will be complete dependence on foreign merchants. "No. The Black Sea is not a concern... - he tells the ministers. “We need our own ships in the Baltic Sea.” And the Northern War with Sweden 1700-1721. was a just war, for it was fought for the return of those captured by it at the beginning of the 17th century. Russian lands and access to the Baltic Sea.
Peter, with a strong-willed effort, is trying not only to overcome the backwardness of his country, but also to fight ignorance and darkness; he is a practitioner who thinks more about “today” than about the “eternal”, especially since this “eternal”, in his opinion, only pulls back , to the past. “Theology has given us lice...” exclaims the Tsar. - Navigation, mathematical sciences. Ore mining, medicine. We need this...” He established a school at a foundry in Moscow, where two hundred and fifty children of boyars, townspeople, and even “mean” ranks studied casting, mathematics, fortification and history. With a “club” Peter drives the noble ignoramuses into science, but he rejoices immensely when he sees the fruits of his labor, especially when an energetic, quick-witted Russian man rises “from the bottom” to match the Tsar himself. “They didn’t take me by birth, others need to take me,” explains yesterday’s “serf” Ivan Brovkin. And Peter, “suddenly” fired up to marry Rurikovna, Princess Buinosova, to one of Brovkin’s six sons, Artamoshka, rushes to kiss and clap the young man when he answers him in French (“like he sprinkled peas”), in German and Dutch. Therefore, it is clear that Peter’s decision to “reward counts for intelligence.”
Reception of contrast. Tolstoy resorts to the technique of contrast in the novel, comparing and contrasting Peter with Prince Vasily Golitsyn, and later with the Swedish king Charles XII and the Polish Elector Augustus. This not only gives prominence and brightness to the image of the main character, but also sharply highlights his merits and preparedness for the activities of the great reformer of Russia. Golitsyn ruled the country for seven years, fully aware of how radical changes it needed. “In all Christian countries - and there are some that are not even worth our district - trade is growing fatter, people are getting richer, everyone is looking for their own profit... - he tells the boyars bitterly. “We alone are sleeping soundly... Soon the Russian land will be called a desert!” But it is not he, but Peter, who is destined to “raise Russia on its hind legs.” Why? Golitsyn is smart, elegant, good-looking, but weak. The prince either issues a decree in order to punish the culprit, then “out of kindness” cancels it. The insightful princess Sophia thinks: “Oh, he’s handsome, but weak, with female veins.” He lacks energy, will, and perseverance in achieving his goal - exactly what was inherent in Peter. This contrast is especially clearly visible in the example of two unsuccessful Azov campaigns - under the leadership of Golitsyn and under the leadership of Peter. Tolstoy clearly shows the behavior of each of them during the battle: “Vasily Vasilyevich on foot rushed about the convoy, beat the gunners with a whip, grabbed the wheels, pulled out the wicks”; “Peter threw off his cloak and caftan, rolled up his sleeves, took the banner from the gunner, with a strong movement he cleaned the sooty barrel... threw a pound-sized round projectile in his hands, rolled it into the barrel, leaning on the banner, hammered it tightly,” etc. Even verbs are important here forms used by the writer. “All the verbs that Tolstoy successfully found,” N. A. Demidov writes in his manual about the novel “Peter the Great,” help to reveal Golitsyn’s state of mind, his complete helplessness, confusion, and ignorance of military affairs. When drawing Golitsyn, Tolstoy uses all verbs in the imperfect form. Peter is focused, his calm is conveyed to those around him, he is not new to military affairs, so all his actions are confident. When drawing Peter, Tolstoy uses perfective verbs, emphasizing the completeness of the action.”
The comparison is no less contrasting: Peter - Charles XII. The Swedish king is bold, decisive, hot-tempered; but this is an adventurer king. Tolstoy accumulates details that paint a portrait of a ghoul, a flighty, a reckless boy. Self-respecting citizens are already preparing for the dinner meal, and Karl has not yet left his bed, reading Racine, next to him is the adventurer Countess Desmont: “A cup of chocolate was cooling at his bedside on the table between bottles of golden Rhine wine... The king’s pants were hanging on the head of a golden cupid... silk skirts and lingerie are scattered on the chairs.” While hunting, the military officer who brought an important letter “looked with a grin at his [Karl’s] boyish, stooped back, at the proudly tense back of his head.” Even the “extraordinary determination and restraint” of the Swedish king is the impulse of a “spoiled youth.” Another kind of contrast is Peter and Augustus the Magnificent. This is a pampered sybarite, “seemingly created by nature for luxurious festivities, for the patronage of the arts, for love pleasures with the most beautiful women of Europe, for the vanity of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.” In both cases, Tolstoy unobtrusively, through the power of artistic details, leads to the idea that Charles XII and Augustus were born kings, and Peter forged a giant king within himself.
Reception of an internal gesture. When creating a portrait of Peter, the writer resorts to the technique of internal gesture as the most important means of artistic expression. At the beginning of the novel, Tolstoy thus conveys the shyness and spontaneity of his protagonist. Here he finds himself among well-mannered ladies. N.A. Demidova comments: “Peter covers his face with his palm, then with an effort of will he forces himself to tear his hand away from his face: out of embarrassment, it seems to have grown to him. He not only bowed, he folded himself like a pole - he was ridiculous in his embarrassment and this made him even more embarrassed. Peter does not speak, but mutters in a fallen voice, all German words have slipped out of his memory. However, we note that Tolstoy does not forget for a minute that his shy, spontaneous, easy-to-handle Peter is cruel and scary. It is no accident that the author shows changes in Peter’s face caused by memories of the hut in Preobrazhenskoye, sour with blood, where he had recently tortured Tsykler. His (Peter’s) mouth twisted, his cheek jumped up, his bulging eyes glazed over for a moment,” and before us again is Peter on the day of Tsykler’s execution. He tries to dismiss the vision and smiles guiltily at the women.
Peter's speech is characteristic, expressing his “quick temper” - emotional, aphoristic, lively, folk. Most often it is a short, chopped phrase, flavored with vernacular: “Our boyars, nobles - gray-footed peasants - sleep, eat and pray”; “Confusion is a good lesson”; “I will lead the siege myself. Myself. Start digging tonight. So that there is bread... I will hang you.” The language of the author is skillfully woven into this speech, who himself, as it were, becomes a participant in the events taking place.
Characters. After reading the first book of the novel, Bunin said: “Menshikov is beautiful and the lovely Anna Monet is subtle and gentle. After all, these are the remnants of some kind of heroic Rus'.” Numerous historical and fictional heroes surrounding Peter, his associates and opponents are all living human characters. Such is Menshikov, selflessly devoted to Peter. This is a rogue, money-grubber, cunning and at the same time brave and simple nature. The dominant feature of his character is his love for Peter: “What can I tell you? Again, some kind of stupidity - a blunder like a peasant. - Menshikov stomped, hesitated and raised his eyes - Pyotr Alekseevich’s face was calm and sad, he rarely saw him like that. Pity cut Alexashka like a knife through his heart. “Min herts,” he whispered, wrinkling his eyebrows, “min herts, what are you talking about?” Give it until the evening, I’ll come to the tent, I’ll come up with something...” “Happiness’s rootless darling, semi-sovereign ruler” is written out with stereoscopic brightness, like other heroes - Ivan Brovkin, Prince Buinosov, the smart and cunning princess Sophia.
It must be said that the female characters in the novel are depicted with amazing insight into their psychology. The magical gift that Tolstoy possessed allows him to create a whole gallery of portraits - Princess Natalya, Sanka Brovkina, and finally Anna Monet and her “female crafty love.” “Anna’s eyes trembled and saw him at the door before anyone else. She rose and flew across the waxed floor... And the music was already cheerfully singing about good Germany, where pink almonds bloom in front of clean, clean windows, kind father and mother with kind smiles look at Hans and Gretel, standing under these almonds, which means love forever, and when their sun bends over the blue of the night, with a peaceful sigh both will go to their graves... Ah, the impossible distance!
Peter, clutching the warm Ankhen under pink silk, danced silently and for so long that the musicians were out of tune... Walking around the hall, Peter said: “I’m happy with you...”
The people in the novel. And outside the window of a cheerful, cozy German house - Rus', tragic fates. Peter appeared at the ball after he ordered that a woman buried up to her throat, who had killed her husband with a knife, be shot so that she would not suffer. The people in the novel are not a crowd, but destinies, either crippled by a simple person (“Fedka, boney with anger,” Wash himself with Mud, the warrior Gypsy, “all overgrown with an iron beard, an eye knocked out, his shirt, trousers rotted on his body”), or enlightened by inescapable talent ( the skilled blacksmith Zhemov, the hero, the Valdai blacksmith Kondrat Vorobyov, the Palekh icon painter Andrei Golikov), then those who rushed into the abyss of violent riots (participants in the uprising of Stepan Razin, Ataman Ivan Vasilyevich and Ovdokim). The element of the people spills out in crowd scenes - on Red Square or near the walls of Narva, under Swedish artillery fire. The remarkable beginning of the novel is told from a peasant hut, and not from a palace: “Sanka jumped off the stove and hit the jammed door with her back. Yashka, Gavrilka and Artamoshka quickly climbed down behind Sanka; suddenly everyone became thirsty - they jumped into the dark hallway following a cloud of steam and smoke from the sour hut. A slightly bluish light shone through the window through the snow. Studeno. A tub of water became iced over, and a wooden ladle became iced over. The children were jumping from foot to foot - everyone was barefoot. Sanka has a scarf tied around her head. Gavrilka and Artamoshka in the same shirts up to the navel.
Door, announced! - the mother shouted from the hut. Mother stood by the stove...”
The power of representation. Already in these lines the figurative, to the point of hallucination, power that is inherent in Tolstoy the artist is clearly manifested. The metaphorical, sometimes deliberately “zoological” principle penetrates into all the cells of the prose, right down to the names and nicknames of the characters, evoking an almost sensual clarity in the reader. “The black earth visceral power just sticks out in the expressive name of one of the episodic characters of the first volume - Ovsey Rzhov,” notes A. V. Alpatov in his study “Alexey Tolstoy - Master of the Historical Novel.”
Ovsey Rzhov- “sagittarius of the Pyzhov regiment”, about whom the author says that “in his basement there is a strong smell of a hearty spirit, meat cabbage soup...”. And the hero of the second book of the novel is the runaway Kashira peasant Fedka, nicknamed Wash Yourself with Dirt?! And the Mytishchi woman-witch Sparrow with her nimble “mouse” eyes or the eminent boyars Endogurov, Svinin, Buynosov, Lykov sitting in the Prikaz of the Big Palace - in all these names and nicknames there is a visual objectivity, emphasized figurative expressiveness. The yard yard Styopka Bear, a gloomy, tall guy who, “having stabbed his knives into them, ran up the stairs like a stallion,” is forced to wear out Peter’s new boots. “Executioner Emelyan Svezhev with an indifferent horse face punishes the girl Masha Selifontova, who screams like a pig...”
The paintings created by Tolstoy amaze with what could be called the “effect of presence.” You see clearly and seem to be participating in what is happening. This is achieved, in addition to other artistic means, by the fact that the writer combines his own view of what is depicted with a view “from the inside,” as if emanating from the persons depicted. Here are the daughters of boyar Buinosov in everyday boredom: “Buinosov’s maidens, waiting for balls and fireworks, languished at the window... No grove to take a walk, no banks to sit around, mud, garbage, wood chips all around... Of course, you could have fun with the maidens, sitting on other wings: with Princess Lykova, foolish - across themselves wider, even eyes swam, or with Princess Dolgorukova - Black Sea Gordia (do not hide - all Moscow knew that she had hairy legs), or eight princes Shakhovsky - these broods are malicious - They just whispered among themselves, scratching their tongues. Olga and Antonida did not like women.”
A novel about Peter and the lessons of Tolstoy.“Peter the Great” is the result of Tolstoy’s work and, as it were, his artistic testament. The novel crystallized the deeply national origins of the writer's talent, the extraordinary, holographic brightness in recreating a distant era, skill in depicting characters, the courage of metaphorization and the primacy of language.
The novel about Peter can be called a treasury of native speech. The movement, pressure, and muscularity of the word reach their highest point here. Tolstoy's diamond Russian language is one of the main facets of his enormous literary gift. And can there be a truly artistic creation without language! Language is not just the ability of a person to express his thoughts in words, but language as a set of words and expressions used by an entire people. Both the artistic practice and the direct testaments of Alexei Tolstoy to us, our descendants, are topical and valuable in this sense.
His precepts are addressed primarily to those who want to write, that is, to young writers. But their meaning is immeasurably wider. “Pushkin,” Tolstoy recalled, “learned language from the prosvirens, Leo Tolstoy learned speech from the village peasants. What did this mean? A person who has not yet risen to the complex world of abstract concepts, a person whose ideas are inseparable from the tools of labor and do not outgrow the simple world of surrounding things - this person thinks in images, objects, their movements, their gestures, he sees what he is talking about . His speech is figurative. A city person, and even an armchair person, often loses the connection between ideas and things. Language becomes only an expression of abstract thought. This is good for a mathematician. This is bad for a writer - a writer must see first of all and, having seen, tell what he saw - see the current world of things as a participant in the flow of life.”
A lover of life, to whom nothing earthly is alien, and a great worker in the literary field. A light, cheerful pen that seems to be running across the sheet itself, and dozens of drafts, editing and editing, the true devotion of an artist of words. Even a fatal illness - a malignant tumor of the lung - and terrible physical suffering could not tear him away from work: with truly heroic effort, Tolstoy wrote the third and last book of “Peter”. “It’s hard to believe,” says his biographer, “that lines sparkling with life, love, full of cheerful colors and enormous optimism were created by a dying man.”
“To understand the secret of the Russian people,” wrote L.N. Tolstoy, “you need to know its past well and deeply: our history, its fundamental nodes...”
From here it becomes clear why it was the era of Peter the Great, a time of stormy and decisive transformations and changes in Russia, that could attract the creative attention of A.N. Tolstoy for so long. Over historical novel“Peter the Great”, Alexey Tolstoy, as is known, worked on the preparation of its individual volumes for about two decades.
In the first book of the novel (1930), Peter as a transformer is shown to be closely connected with his time and environment. The writer reveals in him the bright talent of a great statesman, sees in his bold thought, perseverance and perseverance a reflection of the best features of the Russian national character. At the same time, the author truthfully shows what an unbearable burden the costs of reforms fell on the shoulders of the common people. The Tsar-Reformer appears to the reader as an unprepared, already established personality. The writer depicts his hero in dynamics, in development, in the process of his complex formation.
The first volume captures the most early childhood king For the first time, the reader sees Peter as a frightened child in Monomakh’s hat slid to one side, when, at the request of the rebellious archers, the queen shows him from the porch to the people. Here he is - a twelve-year-old teenager, “a boy with a muffled voice and unblinking owl eyes”, whom Aleksashka Menshikov, his future favorite, teaches the “trick” of threading a needle through his cheek... Then this is Peter, already spreading his wings, giving the first rebuff to his claims elder sister Sophia: during a solemn religious procession in the cathedral, he enters into an argument with her, a sharp dispute over the right to carry the icon.
Next, this is an awkward, lanky young man, with a barely visible mustache on his tanned face, who awkwardly and shyly tries to dance an overseas dance with Ankhen Mons on fun party at Lefort's in the German settlement. Then there is the young king, returning from a trip to Europe. With indomitable fury, he dealt with the rebellious archers in October 1698, participating in brutal executions himself.
The plot of the novel emphasizes that Peter's youth and early life were full of sharp, dramatic clashes and intense struggles for power. Peter gradually gains strength, accumulates experience, experiences the inevitable stage of first failures and defeats, and only then comes close to implementing the transformations he has planned.
In the second volume (1934), the reader sees Peter in the heat of his government endeavors - in the preparation of new laws and regulations, in measures to rearm the Russian army, in the construction of the fleet. Tolstoy shows him in an atmosphere of exciting work at the Voronezh shipyard, in the forge, where Peter himself participates in forging the anchor for the new forty-gun ship “Fortress”:
Near Narva we see Peter loading a cannon with calm efficiency; He shoots accurately, successfully hitting the wall of the Swedes' fortress tower.
By showing all this, A. Tolstoy completely avoided the idealization of the “carpenter king”. Already one meeting of Peter near Azov with the boyar Streshnev, whom the tsar cruelly “teaches” for his negligence in supplying the troops with food - one such scene excludes the possibility of reproach for the idealizing make-up of Peter.
From chapter to chapter, from one part to another, more and more new touches are revealed in the image of Peter. It is as if before our eyes he is turning into a mature statesman, carrying out his difficult political program with calm prudence.
In the third book (1945), when A. Tolstoy depicts Peter’s arrival in newly rebuilt St. Petersburg, or when Peter is shown in the context of the victorious assault on Narva, in the scene of the official surrender of the Swedes, he seems to grow on his head; it emphasizes the majestic posture, imperious calm, self-confidence of the ruler of one of the strongest European countries... The figure of Peter is given special relief and volume by the fact that next to him, or rather, around him, the writer gives a whole series of portraits of his contemporaries - the rulers of neighboring states, Peter's political enemies or his closest associates.
A. Tolstoy's novel is densely populated by people, each of whom has not only his own appearance, but also his own destiny. But they are all united by a progressive and steady movement forward and up the ladder of life. Tolstoy admires how Alexander Menshikov, who came from a humble background, became the first dignitary, right hand sovereign; how the village girl Sanka Brovkina turns into the noble noblewoman Volkova, and the indentured servant Ivashka Brovkin grows into a major merchant; how a modest icon painter from Palekh, Andryushka Golikov, goes to Italy itself to learn his craft.
A. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great” remained unfinished. The worsening illness and death of the writer (1945) interrupted the work. The last thing he managed to write was the sixth chapter of the third volume.
In the novel, the writer depicts a wide stream of historical life, a whole panorama of the country, the fate of not only individual heroes, a narrow circle of people, but also the entire people in their great movement. This determines a number of such essential points artistic structure the entire work, like the wide scale of the drawing; highlighting historical rather than fictional heroes; the presence of chronicle elements in the development of the plot; versatility of the composition, etc.
The content of the third book is the success of the transformations, the first tangible fruits of Peter's reforms. The strength of Peter's army is shown, the growing military power of Russia at the beginning of the 18th century, and at the same time the cultural upsurge in Russian society, the imperious penetration of a new, secular principle into the ascetic medieval way of old Russia is depicted. The third book of Peter the Great, created during the Great Patriotic War, especially vividly develops the theme of the glory of Russian weapons, the theme of heroism and exploits of Russian soldiers.
Behind all this there is one thing - cherished dream the tsar to make Russia a rich power, and the Russian people happy. In the affirmation of this humanistic idea, Tolstoy found a solution to his doubts regarding the veracity of both the past and the present of his Motherland. Any, the most serious, bleeding problems, he believed, must retreat before the highest truth: “The goal of all efforts is man, the highest created and creative form of nature.”
Roman A.N. Tolstoy "Peter the First" - central work in revealing Petrovsky themes in the writer’s work. However, the object of the image in it becomes not only the personality of the famous Russian Tsar, but also an entire era of reforms and upheavals, a time when peasant Russia, which had hitherto followed its own special path, suddenly came into contact with the attributes European civilization. And this contact was both progressive and painful, because attempts to impose a European way of life sometimes came into deep contradiction with national traditions, did not take root well on Russian soil and, of course, gave rise to resistance.
The novel consists of three books. The narration is told on behalf of the author. The work features both fictional characters and real historical figures. Play a huge role in organizing the development of the plot crowd scenes, dialogues, descriptions of home, life and portraits of heroes.
A. Tolstoy emphasizes the natural riches of the Russian land: centuries-old pine trees, expanses of deep rivers, fluffy-tailed squirrels, caravans of birds. “The earth spread out before our eyes; there was no edge to it.”
In the traditions of I. Shmelev, A. Tolstoy in the novel depicts, first of all, Orthodox Rus'. This is evidenced in the very first scene of the work by the portrait of the episodic heroine: “The mother’s wrinkled face was illuminated by fire. Most terribly, the tear-stained eyes flashed from under the torn cloth,
Like an icon." This laconic description of a simple Russian woman essentially reveals hard fate a person of the pre-Petrine era: constant material deprivation, the habit of daily work and at the same time perseverance, spiritual depth, honed in torment and suffering.
From the description of the peasant way of life in the house of Ivan Brovkin A.N. Tolstoy moves on to the story of the nobleman Vasily Volkov, who also barely makes ends meet: he has to pay huge taxes to the monastery and quitrents and tribute to the royal treasury. In a conversation with neighbor Mikhaila Tyrtov, Volkov exclaims with pain: “All peoples live in wealth, in contentment, we are the only beggars.” Vasily remembers how he went to Moscow to Ku-kui-Sloboda, where the Germans live. Everything there is clean and tidy, people are friendly. And they live richer than all of Moscow.
The reasons for the miserable existence of Russia A.N. Tolstoy sees in mismanagement, sometimes reaching the point of elementary greed, and in theft, and in riots on the roads, when the prince's son maintains a gang of robbers who rob merchants on the road. The Russian mentality seemed especially absurd to foreigners. They were surprised that at the royal court there were no balls and gallant fun, no subtle entertainment with music. Russian people work little. There is almost no time left for this: they held church services three times a day, ate heartily four times, and even slept during the day for health. However, A.N. Tolstoy shows that European manners are increasingly entering the lives of representatives of the royal court. The house of Prince Golitsyn is guarded by the Swiss. He himself shaves his beard, wears a French suit, and reads Latin books. The house has French and Italian exquisite furniture. Golitsyn is thinking about liberating the peasantry and creating academies. However, even his interlocutor, Mr. de Neuville, does not believe that this entire utopian program can be implemented in Russia. In a conversation with Sophia, the idea is heard that the clergy who support patriarchal traditions will not be happy with European manners.
Notable in the novel is the image of medieval Moscow with its ancient toponymy (Iverskaya, St. Basil the Blessed, Spassky Gate, Varvarka, All Saints Bridge). In the Kalashny row of Gostiny Dvor they sell hot pies and sbiten with honey. In Moscow, like nowhere else in Russia, the property gap between the highest nobility and the people is acutely felt: the brocade fur coat of Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn can buy half of Moscow.
A.N. writes with a high degree of detail. Tolstoy about the fierce struggle for the royal throne waged by Sophia and her brother Peter. But a woman, even in political affairs, remains a woman: for one wrinkle on the face of her beloved Prince Golitsyn, Sophia is ready to burn half of Moscow. In an indomitable desire to wrest power from Peter’s hands at any cost, she is ready to destroy him. In the scene when Sofya and Natalya Kirillovna listen to the advice of Patriarch Jokim on how to pacify the archers, A.N. Tolstoy compares Sophia to a snake.
By the will of fate, Peter came to Russian throne ahead of schedule. He was still a boy. The first description of Peter in the novel eloquently testifies to this: “Monomakh’s hat slid down over his ear, revealing his black cropped hair. Round-cheeked and blunt-nosed, he craned his neck. The eyes are round, like those of a mouse. The small mouth is clenched in fear.” This is how the cruel and powerful Russian Tsar Peter first appeared before his subjects. He remembered the Streltsy riots for the rest of his life.
Growing up, Tsar Peter increasingly visited the Kukuevskaya settlement: he became interested in the life of the Germans, gradually adopting their manners. A.N. Tolstoy tells in detail how the tsar puts on a European costume for the first time, how he dances with Frau Schimelpfe-nigg and Anchen kontrdans. Then Peter invites German teachers to study mathematics and fortification.
The young Tsar falls in love with a pretty German woman. But even the monarch in Russia cannot step over the established foundations. Peter must marry the one his mother chose for him.
The scene of the king's wedding is noteworthy in the novel. In this whole ceremony, it is only important to observe the ritual. The fact that young people have no feelings for each other does not bother anyone. The hay girls dress the bride for a long time with songs. The jewelry was choking Evdokia’s throat, pulling her ears back, and her hair was tied so tightly that the bride could not blink her eyes.” All these details emphasize the pompous unnaturalness of this situation. The groom's gifts, presented to the bride according to custom, are symbolic and personal: sweets, jewelry, a chest with handicrafts and a rod. It was assumed that after the wedding the wife became completely dependent on her husband, and for disobedience she could be beaten with a whip.
During the wedding itself, everyone behaves unnaturally: they are afraid of making a mistake. Evdokia's ribs are trembling with fear. The bride's relatives are afraid to even eat, so as not to show that they are hungry, so as not to ruin themselves in the eyes of the king. During the wedding, Peter only thinks about the fact that he could not say goodbye to Ankhen.
Peter submitted to the will of his mother, but this was one of the last concessions to ancient customs. When the newlyweds were escorted to the bedchamber, Peter turned sharply to the guests. “They lost their laughter when they saw his eyes and backed away...” writes A.N. Tolstoy, showing with this scene the depth of the sovereign’s anger, who does not want to make a mockery of his life.
The further plot of the novel paints an image of the active Peter. He builds ships, studies new technologies. Sitting on the throne, shouting, stamping your feet - this is not how Peter imagines his life. Having matured, he managed to get a real state power in the country. A.N. Tolstoy shows how the Russian Tsar “spits on royal greatness for the sake of curiosity about trade and science...”. Peter understands well that Russia needs sea trade routes. For their sake, he, relying on the Cossacks, takes Azov by siege at the cost of enormous human sacrifices after unsuccessful assaults.
In parallel with artistic biography Petra A.N. Tolstoy tells in the novel about the fate of his devoted assistants - Aleksashka Menshikov and Aleshka Brovkin. For the first time, the reader sees them on the pages of the novel as boys with difficult, but typical destinies for people of that time. Gradually, these heroes begin to fight for their own happiness and dignity and become Peter’s closest associates.
Seeing the contempt of European captains for their homemade fleet, the tsar resorted to “Asian cunning,” as A.N. writes. Tolstoy, all the time emphasizing that Peter’s work
This is Russia's path from Asia to Europe. The Russian Tsar asks foreigners to help Russia overcome squalor.
The author of the novel openly writes about the difficulties that await Peter in his difficult task. Vast distances and the lack of high-speed communications mean that while the tsar is traveling around Europe, he does not have reliable information about what is happening in Russia.
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