When I write history, I like to be true to the smallest detail.
L. N. Tolstoy
What is simplicity, truth, kindness? Is a person who has all these character traits omnipotent? These questions are often asked by people, but they are not easy to answer. Let's turn to the classics. Let her help you figure this out. The name of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is familiar to us from early childhood. But then I read the novel “War and Peace”. This great work makes you look at the questions posed differently. How often was Tolstoy reproached for distorting the history of one thousand eight hundred and twelve, that he distorted characters Patriotic War. According to the great writer, history as science and history as art have differences. Art can penetrate into the most distant eras and convey the essence of past events and inner world people who participated in them. Indeed, history as a science focuses on the particulars and details of events, limiting itself only to their external description, and art history embraces and conveys the general course of events, while at the same time penetrating into their depth. This must be kept in mind when assessing the historical events in the novel “War and Peace”.
Let's open the pages of this work. Salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. Here for the first time a sharp dispute about Napoleon arises. It begins with guests of a noble lady's salon. This dispute will end only in the epilogue of the novel.
For the author, not only was there nothing attractive about Napoleon, but, on the contrary, Tolstoy always considered him a man whose “mind and conscience were darkened,” and therefore all his actions “were too contrary to truth and goodness...”. Not a statesman who knows how to read in the minds and souls of people, but a spoiled, capricious and narcissistic poser - this is how the Emperor of France appears in many scenes of the novel. So, having met the Russian ambassador, he “looked into Balashev’s face with his big eyes and immediately began to look past him.” Let us dwell a little on this detail and conclude that Napoleon was not interested in Balashev’s personality. It was clear that only what was happening in his soul was of interest to him. It seemed to him that everything in the world depended only on his will.
Maybe it’s too early to draw a conclusion from such a particular case as Napoleon’s inattention to the Russian ambassador? But this meeting was preceded by other episodes in which this emperor’s manner of “looking past” people also manifested itself. Let us remember the moment when the Polish lancers, in order to please Bonaparte, rush into the Viliya River. They were drowning, and Napoleon sat calmly on a log and did other things. Let us recall the scene of the emperor’s trip across the Austerlitz battlefield, where he showed complete indifference to the killed, wounded and dying.
The imaginary greatness of Napoleon is exposed with particular force in the scene depicting him on Poklonnaya Hill, from where he admired the marvelous panorama of Moscow. “Here it is, this capital; she lies at my feet, awaiting her fate... One word of mine, one movement of my hand, and this ancient capital perished...” So thought Napoleon, who in vain expected a deputation of “boyars” with the keys to the majestic city spread out before his eyes. No. Moscow did not go to him “with a guilty head.”
Where is this greatness? It is where goodness and justice are, where the spirit of the people is. According to “popular thought,” Tolstoy created the image of Kutuzov. Of all the historical figures depicted in “War and Peace,” the writer calls him one truly great man. The source that gave the commander the extraordinary power of insight into the meaning of the events that took place “lay in this popular feeling, which he carried within himself in all its purity and strength.”
Military review scene. Kutuzov walked through the rows, “occasionally stopping and speaking several times. kind words officers whom he knew from Turkish war, and sometimes to soldiers. Looking at the shoes, he sadly shook his head several times...” The field marshal recognizes and warmly greets his old colleagues. He enters into a conversation with Timokhin. When meeting with soldiers, the Russian commander knows how to find a common language with them, often using a funny joke, or even an old man’s good-natured curse.
The feeling of love for the Motherland was embedded in the soul of every Russian soldier and in the soul of the old commander-in-chief. Unlike Bonaparte, the Russian commander did not consider the leadership of military operations to be a kind of game of chess and never took credit for main role in the successes achieved by his armies. The field marshal led the battles not in Napoleonic style, but in his own way. He was convinced that the “spirit of the army” was of decisive importance in war, and he directed all his efforts to leading it. During battles, Napoleon behaves nervously, trying to keep in his hands all the threads of control of the battle. Kutuzov, on the other hand, acts with concentration, trusts the commanders - his comrades-in-arms, and believes in the courage of his soldiers.
It is not Napoleon, but the Russian commander-in-chief who takes full responsibility on his shoulders when the situation requires the most difficult sacrifices. It is difficult to forget the alarm-filled scene of the military council in Fili. Kutuzov announced his decision to leave Moscow without a fight and retreat into the depths of Russia! In those terrible hours, the question arose before him: “Did I really allow Napoleon to reach Moscow? And when did I do this? It is difficult and painful for him to think about this, but he gathered all his mental and physical strength and did not succumb to despair. The Russian commander-in-chief retains confidence in victory over the enemy and in the rightness of his cause to the end. He instills this confidence in everyone - from the general to the soldier. Only Kutuzov could have guessed Battle of Borodino. Only he alone could give Moscow to the enemy in order to save Russia, for the sake of saving the army, in order to win the war. All the commander’s actions are subordinated to one goal - to defeat the enemy, to expel him from Russian soil. And only when the war is won, Kutuzov ceases his activities as commander-in-chief.
The most important aspect of the appearance of a Russian commander is a living connection with the people, a heartfelt understanding of their moods and thoughts. The ability to take into account the mood of the masses is the wisdom and greatness of the commander in chief.
Napoleon and Kutuzov are two commanders, two historical figures with different essence, purpose and purpose in life. The “Kutuzov” principle as a symbol of the people is opposed to the “Napoleonic”, anti-people, inhumane. That is why Tolstoy leads all his favorite heroes away from “Napoleonic” principles and puts them on the path of rapprochement with the people. Truly, “there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.”
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In “War and Peace,” L. N. Tolstoy argues with the cult of an outstanding figure, widespread in Russia and abroad. historical figure. This cult was based on the teachings of the German philosopher Hegel. According to Hegel, the closest guides of the World Mind, which determines the destinies of peoples and states, are great people who are the first to guess what is given to them only to understand and is not given to the human mass, the passive material of history, to understand. Hegel's great people are always ahead of their time, and therefore turn out to be loners of genius, forced to despotically subjugate the inert and inert majority. L.N. Tolstoy did not agree with Hegel.
In L.N. Tolstoy, it is not an exceptional personality, but the life of the people as a whole turns out to be the most sensitive organism, responding to the hidden meaning of the historical movement. The calling of a great man lies in the ability to listen to the will of the majority, to the “collective subject” of history, to folk life. Napoleon in the eyes of the writer is an individualist and ambitious, brought to the surface historical life dark forces that temporarily took possession of the consciousness of the French people. Bonaparte is a toy in the hands of these dark forces, and Tolstoy denies him greatness because “there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.”
L. Tolstoy argues this way: the people are the decisive force of history, but this force is only an instrument of Providence. The greatness of Kutuzov lies in the fact that he acts in accordance with the will of Providence. He understands this will better than others and obeys it in everything, giving appropriate orders. For example, the path of the French in 1812 to Moscow and back was determined from above. Kutuzov is great because he understood this and did not interfere with the enemies, which is why he surrendered Moscow without a fight, preserving the army. If he had given battle, the result would have been the same: the French would have entered Moscow, but Kutuzov would not have had an army, he would not have been able to win.
Tolstoy’s understanding of the meaning of Kutuzov’s activities is characterized by the scene of the military council in Fili, where Kutuzov laments: “When, when was it done that Moscow was abandoned, and who is to blame for this? “But it was Kutuzov who, half an hour ago in the same hut, gave the order to retreat beyond Moscow! Kutuzov the man is grieving, but Kutuzov the commander cannot do otherwise.
Revealing the greatness of Kutuzov the commander, Tolstoy emphasized: “Kutuzov knew that there was something stronger and more significant than his will - this is the inevitable course of events, and he knows how to see them, understand their meaning and, in view of this meaning, knows how to refuse participation in these events, from your personal will, aimed at something else.” Tolstoy’s general assessment of Kutuzov repeats Pushkin’s characterization: “Kutuzov alone was invested with the people’s power of attorney, which he so wonderfully justified!” In Tolstoy, this remark creates the basis artistic image.
The antithesis of Kutuzov’s image is Napoleon, who in Tolstoy’s portrayal is focused not on the “inevitable course of events,” but on his own arbitrariness; in his decisions he does not take into account circumstances. That's why Napoleon is defeated, and Tolstoy ridicules him. This antithesis is consistently carried out in the novel: if Kutuzov is characterized by the rejection of everything personal, the subordination of his interests to the interests of the people, then Napoleon is the embodiment of the egg principle with the idea of himself as the creator of history, Kutuzov is characterized by modesty and simplicity, sincerity and truthfulness, Napoleon - arrogance , vanity, hypocrisy and posturing. Kutuzov treats war as an evil and inhumane matter; I recognize only defensive war, but for Napoleon, war is a means of enslaving peoples and creating a world empire,
The final characterization of Napoleon is very bold, it expresses Tolstoy’s original understanding of his role: “Napoleon throughout his career was like a child who, holding on to the strings tied inside the carriage, imagines that he is ruling.”
For Tolstoy, Bonaparte in the huge moving picture that stood before his eyes was not at all main force, but was a particularity: if subjectively he believed that he was reshaping the destinies of peoples, objectively life went on as usual, it did not care about the plans of the emperor. This is the conclusion that Tolstoy comes to in his study of Napoleon. The writer is not interested in the number of battles won by the brilliant commander, or the number of conquered states; he approaches Napoleon with a different measure.
In his epic novel, Tolstoy gives a universal Russian formula for the heroic. He creates two symbolic characters, between which all the others are located in varying proximity to one or the other pole.
At one pole is the classically vain Napoleon, at the other is the classically democratic Kutuzov. These heroes represent the element of individualistic isolation (“war”) and the spiritual values of “peace,” or the unity of people. “The simple, modest and therefore truly majestic figure” of Kutuzov does not fit “into that deceitful formula of a European hero who allegedly controls people, which history has come up with.”
Kutuzov is free from actions and deeds dictated by personal considerations, vain goals, and individualistic arbitrariness. He is completely imbued with a sense of common necessity, and is endowed with the talent of living “in peace” with the many thousands of people entrusted to him. Tolstoy sees the “source of extraordinary power” and special Russian wisdom of Kutuzov in “that national feeling that he carries within himself in all its purity and strength.”
“Recognition of greatness, immeasurable by the measure of good and bad,” Tolstoy considers ugly. Such “greatness” “is only the recognition of one’s insignificance and immeasurable smallness.” Napoleon appears insignificant and weak in his ridiculous egoistic “greatness”. “There is no deed, no crime or petty deception that he committed, which would not immediately be reflected in the mouths of those around him in the form of a great deed.” The aggressive crowd needs the cult of Napoleon to justify their crimes against humanity.
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You are now reading: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth” (the contrast between Kutuzov and Napoleon in the epic novel “War and Peace”)
“War and Peace” is a Russian national epic, which reflected the character of a great people at the moment when its historical destinies were being decided. Tolstoy, trying to cover everything that he knew and felt at that time, gave in the novel a set of life, morals, spiritual culture, beliefs and ideals of the people. That is main task Tolstoy was to reveal “the character of the Russian people and troops,” for which he used the images of Kutuzov (an exponent of the ideas of the masses) and Napoleon (a person personifying anti-national interests).
L.N. Tolstoy in the novel depicts truly great people, whose names are remembered now and will be remembered in the future. Tolstoy had his own view on the role of personality in history. Every person has two lives: personal and spontaneous. Tolstoy said that a person consciously lives for himself, but serves as an unconscious tool for achieving universal human goals. The role of personality in history is negligible. Even the most brilliant person cannot direct the movement of history at will. It is created by the masses, the people, and not by an individual who has risen above the people.
But Lev Nikolaevich does not deny the role of man in history; he recognizes the obligation to act within the boundaries of the possible for everyone. In his opinion, one of the people who is gifted with the ability to penetrate into the course deserves the name of genius. historical events, comprehend them general meaning. There are only a few of them. Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov belongs to them. He is an exponent of the patriotic spirit and moral strength of the Russian army. He is a talented and, when necessary, energetic commander. Tolstoy emphasizes that Kutuzov - folk hero. In the novel he appears as a truly Russian man, free from pretense, and a wise historical figure.
The main thing for Leo Tolstoy in goodies- communication with the people. Napoleon, who is opposed to Kutuzov, is subjected to devastating exposure because he chose for himself the role of “executioner of nations”; Kutuzov is exalted as a commander who knows how to subordinate all his thoughts and actions to popular feeling. “People's Thought” opposes Napoleon's wars of conquest and blesses the liberation struggle.
The people and the army placed their trust in Kutuzov in 1812, which he justified. The Russian commander is clearly superior to Napoleon. He did not leave his army, he appeared in the troops at all times the most important points war. And here we can talk about the unity of spirit between Kutuzov and the army, about their deep connection. The commander's patriotism, his confidence in strength And the courage of the Russian soldier was passed on to the army, which, in turn, felt a close connection with Kutuzov. He talks to the soldiers in simple Russian. Even sublime words in his mouth sound everyday and stand in contrast to the deceitful tinsel of Napoleon’s phrases.
So, for example, Kutuzov says to Bagration: “I bless you for a great feat.” And Napoleon, before the Battle of Shengraben, addresses his troops with a long warlike speech, promising them inexhaustible glory. Kutuzov is the same as the soldiers. You can compare him when, in a field situation, he calls an ordinary soldier darling, addresses the army with in simple words gratitude, and him, extinguished and indifferent, at the ceremonial meeting with the king. He believed in victory over the enemy, and this faith was transmitted to the army, which contributed to the uplifting of the soldiers and officers. Drawing the unity of Kutuzov and the army, Tolstoy leads the reader to the idea that the victorious outcome of the war was determined primarily by the high fighting spirit of the army and the people, which the French army did not have.
Napoleon did not support his troops in difficult times. During the Battle of Borodino, he was so far away that (as it turned out later) not a single order of his during the battle could be carried out. Napoleon is an arrogant and cruel conqueror, whose actions cannot be justified either by the logic of history or by the needs of the French people. If Kutuzov embodies folk wisdom, then Napoleon is the exponent of false wisdom. According to Tolstoy, he believed in himself, and the whole world believed in him. This is a person for whom only what happened in his soul is interesting, and the rest did not matter. As much as Kutuzov expresses the interests of the people, Napoleon is so pathetic in his selfishness. He opposes his “I” to history and thereby dooms himself to inevitable collapse.
A distinctive feature of Napoleon's character was also posturing. He is narcissistic, arrogant, intoxicated with success. Kutuzov, on the contrary, is very modest: he never boasted of his exploits. The Russian commander is devoid of any panache or boasting, which is one of the features of the Russian national character. Napoleon started a war, cruel and bloody, without caring about the people who die as a result of this struggle. His army is an army of robbers and marauders. It captures Moscow, where over the course of several months it destroys food supplies and cultural values... But still, the Russian people are winning. When confronted with this mass that has risen to defend the Motherland, Napoleon turns from an arrogant conqueror into a cowardly fugitive. War is replaced by peace, and “the feeling of insult and revenge” is replaced by “contempt and pity” among Russian soldiers.
The appearance of our heroes is also contrasted. In Kutuzov’s depiction of Tolstoy, there is an expressive figure, gait, gestures, facial expressions, sometimes a gentle, sometimes mocking look. He writes: “...a simple, modest, and therefore truly majestic figure could not fit into that deceitful form of a European hero, supposedly ruling people, which was invented.” Napoleon is depicted downright satirically. Tolstoy portrays him as a small man with an unpleasantly feigned smile (whereas about Kutuzov he writes: “His face became lighter and brighter from an old gentle smile, wrinkled like stars in the corners of his lips and eyes”), with a fat chest, a round belly, fat thighs short legs.
Kutuzov and Napoleon are antipodes, but at the same time both are great people. However, if you follow Tolstoy’s theory, of these two famous historical figures, only Kutuzov can be called a true genius. This is confirmed by the words of the writer: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity.”
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy truthfully portrayed the Russian and French commanders, and also created a living picture of the Russian reality of the first half of the 19th century century. Tolstoy himself highly praised his work, comparing it with the Iliad. Indeed, “War and Peace” is one of the most significant works not only of Russian, but also of world literature. One Dutch writer said: “If God wanted to write a novel, he could not do it without taking War and Peace as a model.” I think one cannot but agree with this idea.
“There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth”
(based on the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”)
Nature has endowed those who crawl with poison. He doesn't need anything strong.
A. Mitskevich
The main idea of the epic novel “War and Peace” is the affirmation of communication and unity of people and the denial of disunity and separation.
In the novel, two camps of the Russia of that time were sharply contrasted: popular and anti-national. Tolstoy considered the people the main, decisive force of history. According to the writer, the leading role in the national liberation movement is played not by the nobility, but by the masses. The proximity of one or another hero of the novel “War and Peace” to the people’s camp is its moral criterion.
The contrast between Kutuzov and Napoleon plays a vital role in the novel. Kutuzov is a true people's leader, nominated by the people. Unlike historical figures like Alexander I and Napoleon, who think only about glory and power, Kutuzov is not only able to understand common man, but he himself is a simple person by nature.
In the appearance of Kutuzov, Tolstoy is primarily distinguished by his simplicity. “There is nothing of the ruler in that plump, doughy old man, in his diving gait and stooped figure. But how much kindness, simplicity and wisdom he has!”
Describing Napoleon, the writer emphasizes the coldness, complacency, feigned thoughtfulness in the expression of Napoleon's face. One of his traits stands out especially sharply: posing. Napoleon behaves like an actor on stage, he is convinced that everything he says and does “is history.”
For Tolstoy, Kutuzov is the ideal of a historical figure, the ideal of a person. Tolstoy wrote about the goal to which Kutuzov devoted himself: “it is difficult to imagine a goal more worthy and more consistent with the will of the entire people.” Contrasting Kutuzov with Napoleon, the writer notes that Kutuzov did not say anything about himself at all, did not play any role, always seemed to be the simplest and most ordinary person and said the simplest and most ordinary things. All of Kutuzov’s activities were aimed not at exalting his own person, but at defeating and expelling the enemy from Russia, alleviating, as far as possible, the misfortunes of the people and troops.
In the opposition between Napoleon and Kutuzov, which forms the core of the novel, it is proven that the one who acts in accordance with the course of historical events, the one “whose personality most fully shows the general”, will win.
Tolstoy Kutuzov is constantly at the very center of military events. Kutuzov always sees his army, thinks and feels with every soldier and officer, in his soul there is everything that is in the soul of every soldier.
Tolstoy constantly emphasizes humanity in his Kutuzov, which, in the writer’s opinion, could justify Kutuzov’s power. Humanity combined with power represented “that human height from which he directed all his strength not to kill people, but to save and take pity on them.” For Kutuzov, the life of every soldier is precious.
When Napoleon travels around the battlefield after the battle, we see on his face “a radiance of complacency and happiness.” The ruined lives, the misfortunes of people, the very sight of the dead and wounded are the basis of Napoleon’s happiness.
Kutuzov’s “highest human height” is expressed in his speech to the Preobrazhensky Regiment, in which he says that as long as the French “were strong, we did not feel sorry for them, but now we can feel sorry for them. They are people too."
We cannot talk about Tolstoy’s complete denial of the role and significance of the individual in history, in the movement of the masses. Tolstoy persistently emphasized that Kutuzov alone felt the true meaning of events.
How could this man guess the meaning so correctly? folk meaning events?
The source of this extraordinary power of insight lay in that “folk feeling” that Kutuzov carried within himself in all its purity and strength.
For Tolstoy, Kutuzov is a true people’s leader, chosen by the people. The image of Kutuzov in the novel is an image of national unity, an image of the people's war itself.
Napoleon appears in the novel as the main, “concentrated expression of the very spirit of separation.”
The strength and greatness of Kutuzov lies precisely in unity with the army and the people. Characteristic feature Napoleon, as the writer notes, is that the French commander placed himself outside of people and above people and therefore could not understand goodness, beauty, truth, or simplicity.
Tolstoy wrote that where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth, there cannot be true greatness. The greatness of Kutuzov is the greatness of goodness, simplicity and truth.
The main argument that the writer puts forward against those who considered Napoleon great is the following: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.” In assessing the actions of a historical figure, Tolstoy applies a moral criterion. Following Pushkin, Tolstoy asserts that “genius and villainy are two incompatible things.”
Tolstoy not only does not deny, he affirms a great personality, a great man, with his entire novel, because he affirms the greatness of the people. For the first time in world literature, these concepts merged into a single whole. Tolstoy was the first to assert that the more fully a person embodies national traits, the greater and greater he is.
“Among thunder, among fires, among seething passions, in elemental fiery discord, she flies from heaven to us.”
(based on lyrics by F.I. Tyutchev)
Poetry is a fire that lights up in a person’s soul. This fire burns, warms and illuminates.
L.N. Tolstoy
Poetry is truly the ocean of the soul. A real poet himself involuntarily burns with suffering and burns others. This is my favorite poet - F.I. Tyutchev.
It is curious that ten years after the death of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, Fet composed the inscription “On the book of Tyutchev’s poems.”
Time has confirmed Fetov’s assessment of the significance of Tyutchev’s poetry:
But the muse, observing the truth,
She looks - and on the scales she has
This is a small book
There are many heavier volumes.
“You can’t live without Tyutchev,” said Leo Tolstoy.
N.A. Nekrasov wrote that Tyutchev’s poems “belong to the few brilliant phenomena in the field of Russian poetry.”
Dostoevsky revered Tyutchev as the first poet-philosopher, who had no equal except Pushkin.
This is this “small book”, how we imagine Tyutchev’s poetry...
Meanwhile, Tyutchev never sought to collect his poems into books or publish these books. Two small collections of his poems, published during the poet’s lifetime, were published, in essence, without Tyutchev’s participation, and upon release they left him indifferent to fame or obscurity...
We can't predict.
How our word will respond,
And we are given sympathy,
How grace is given to us...
Tyutchev has a poem “Two Voices”, which Blok considered a symbol of his faith. It contains two fatal voices. First voice: “Take courage, O friends, fight diligently, even though the battle is unequal, the struggle is hopeless!” And the second voice: “Take courage, fight, O brave friends, no matter how cruel the battle is, no matter how stubborn the struggle!” Both voices are infinitely harsh and tragic. High heroism sounds:
Let the Olympians have an envious eye
They look at the struggle of unyielding hearts.
Who, while fighting, fell, defeated only by Fate,
He snatched the victorious end from their hands.
Tyutchev was not “in the mountainous Olympus”, where “the gods are blissful”; he was neither an Olympian nor an abstract philosopher. The poet lived with the anxieties and passions of the time. World politics, the fate of Europe and Russia deeply occupied Tyutchev until his last minutes.
In my opinion, in Tyutchev’s poetry the Universe opens up before man, before humanity:
vault of heaven, burning with star glory,
Looks mysteriously from the depths, -
And we float, a burning abyss
Surrounded on all sides.
It should be noted that for Tyutchev nature is not a subject of cold conclusions, but a dramatic change of living states that are one with the mental life of a person. The poet is endowed with an indefatigable need to love, worship, believe, and the atmosphere of love, love passion, memories of experienced love permeate all of Tyutchev’s poetry.
There is more than one memory here,
Here life spoke again, -
And you have the same charm,
And that love is in my soul!..
Love, if you look deeper, is the sun of Tyutchev’s poetry. “A novel within a novel” in Tyutchev’s poetry is a marvelous “Denisievsky” cycle. This is the whole meaning of Tyutchev’s understanding of life. For if time and space absorb everything, then the victory of man lies in the power of experience, in passion that challenges the starry abyss, in the feat of love and service.
O my prophetic soul!
O heart full of anxiety,
Oh how you beat on the threshold
As if double existence!
And yet, if we highlight the main thing, what was Tyutchev’s heart devoted to, the anxiety and hope of the poet’s entire life? We must say: “Motherland, Rus', Russia...” The poet was ready to shield the Motherland from enemies, to give everything so that Russia would survive:
They are preparing captivity for you,
They prophesy shame for you, -
You are the best, future times
Verb, and life, and enlightenment!
So immeasurable and unshakable is Tyutchev’s faith in Russia...
Of course, the poet’s views had many utopian and conservative features. In my opinion, Tyutchev foresaw the “worldwide destiny” of Russia, but did not guess by what will historical forces Russia will achieve this “world destiny.”
People's life is in the poet's heart. Tyutchev was especially hurt by what he saw in the Bryansk region:
These poor villages
This meager nature -
The native land of long-suffering,
You are the edge of the Russian people!
How many declarations of love does Tyutchev have for native land, people, Russian nature! Let us remember the poem “In the original autumn...”
This is more than a landscape, more than a picture of nature. This is the Motherland itself. And what a new, folk expressiveness comes to Tyutchev’s poetry!
This is how the famous “extra-logical” Tyutchev’s quatrain is born, as swift as a Russian attack:
You can't understand Russia with your mind,
The general arshin cannot be measured:
She will become special -
You can only believe in Russia.
It seems to me that it is quite possible to compose an entire article or even a book in refutation of this one stanza by Tyutchev. However, it is much more difficult to explain what is her undeniable charm and poetic passion. After all, this is not a denial of the mind, but a rejection of the preconceived mind, the ready-made “yardstick”. And faith in that popular mind, which in its own time will find its word and offer its way. Truly modern thought! The poet's many concerns about the fate of Russia and the fate of the world make him our contemporary. However, despite all the worries, the poet expresses confidence in the future:
Wonderful day! Centuries will pass -
They will also be in the eternal order,
The river flows and sparkles
And the fields to breathe in the heat.
Today, all of humanity, our people, are faced with the task of preserving and saving the “eternal order” of life from the “last cataclysm” that nuclear madmen threaten the planet with. The poet’s anxiety for all living things is even more understandable to us, contemporaries of the greatest confrontation between the forces of peace and the forces of war.
Turgenev wrote that Tyutchev “created speeches that were not destined to die.” Poetry is the will to immortality, the will to life. The guarantee of this will is our people, preserving the word, the land, the song.
“When a person loves feats, he always knows how to do them and will find where it is possible. In life, you know, there is always room for exploits."
(based on the early romantic works of M. Gorky)
We need feats! We need words that would sound like an alarm bell, disturb everything and, shaking, push us forward.
M. Gorky
Romanticism as new style Russian literature appeared in early XIX century. Its features were pathos, intense emotion in the speech of the heroes, the brightness of the images and extreme hyperbolization of the qualities of the heroes, and the unusualness of events.
The romantics adopted from their time the idea of individual freedom put forward by the revolution, while at the same time realizing the defenselessness of a person in a society where monetary interests prevail.
That is why the worldview of many romantics is characterized by confusion and confusion in front of the world around them, and personal tragedy. The romantic artist does not set himself the task of accurately reproducing real reality; rather, he tries to express his attitude towards it. Create your own, fictional image of the world, so that through this fiction, this contrast, you can convey to the reader your ideal, your rejection of the world he denies. The heroes of romanticism are restless, passionate and indomitable.
Almost all heroes early works Gorky are the embodiment of courage, determination, selflessness, and faith in a sublime ideal.
In “The Old Woman Izergil” Gorky develops the theme of the meaning of life. The story consists of three parts, each of which can serve as a basis separate work. The author builds the story on the principle of contrast. He contrasts two heroes - Larra and Danko. People condemn Larra, selfish and arrogant, to eternal loneliness. The greatest good - life - becomes eternal torment. The meaning of this legend is that a person cannot live for himself, away from society - he perishes morally, dies from suffering. The author emphasizes this with the following sentence: “There was so much melancholy in his eyes that one could poison all the people of the world with it.” And since the eyes are the mirror of the soul, this determines everything state of mind hero.
The opposite of Larra is the image of Danko, brave, proud, beautiful and strong. Danko gives everything he has to people. His life becomes a feat because he follows high goal– save people; he is proud, but not proud of himself, but of the person as a whole. He sacrifices himself. But Gorky shows that this life is also maximalist.
At the center of the work, Gorky placed a story about Izergil herself. At first you might think that the image of the old woman combines the features of both Larra and Danko, that her personality is a balance between two extremes. But upon closer examination, Izergil becomes closer to Larra rather than to Danko. She lived only for herself, and although she says that man is free, she herself wants freedom only for herself.
That is why, when describing her portrait, the author focuses his attention on her sultriness and emptiness: “...dry, cracked lips, a pointed chin with gray hair it also has a wrinkled nose, curved like the beak of an owl. In place of the cheeks there were black pits... the skin on the face, neck and arms was all cut up with wrinkles, and with every movement of old Izergil one could expect that this dry skin would all rip, fall apart in pieces and a naked skeleton with dull black eyes would stand before me.” M. Gorky also emphasizes the creaking of her voice, which “sounded as if everyone was grumbling forgotten centuries, embodied in her chest as shadows of memories.” All this suggests that fate punished Izergil for a life lived incorrectly.
In the story “Makar Chudra” the story is told on behalf of the young man. Here the author shows us two types of attitudes towards life. Chudra himself believes that the meaning of life is in the glorious lot of a tramp, and the narrator is convinced that the meaning of life is to “learn and teach.”
Makar Chudra tells an amazing legend about Radda and Loiko. Both are beautiful and strong personalities, both powerful and proud. They love each other, but cannot be together. The heroes of the story do not want to compromise, they do not want to obey anyone, not even their loved one. And in the choice between submission and death, Loiko gives preference to the latter. Heroes die, but the legend continues to live in the mouths of people.
Indeed, “in life... there is always room for exploits,” and everyone decides for himself whether to perform them or not. However, to live means to feel and think, to suffer and bliss, and any other life means death. Gorky's maximalist heroes reveal their truth to us: to live means to burn oneself with the fire of struggle, quest and anxiety.
“I’m not afraid to portray the harsh truth of life as it is”
(based on M. Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths”)
Option 1
Freedom - at any cost! - this is her spiritual essence. That freedom for which people sink to the bottom of life, not knowing that there they become slaves.
K.S. Stanislavsky
M. Gorky's play “At the Depths” was written in 1902. She puts it sharply not only social problems, but also philosophical, the main one of which is the essence of man, his purpose. In the play “At the Lower Depths,” Gorky depicted the life of tramps living in the Kostylevo flophouse, which at the same time resembles a cave and a prison cell.
As the plot progresses, each character throws the cruel truth in the face of his interlocutor, hearing it also addressed to himself. Satin and Bubnov propose to use such truth to test a person for a break: “In my opinion, throw away the whole truth as it is! Why be ashamed? The inhabitants of the flophouse are people without a future, and not everyone has a past, if the Baron is a former baron, and Satin is a former telegraph operator, the Actor is former actor provincial theater, then Vaska Pepel is a born thief, and Nastya has no past at all - there were no parents or family. In the present, everyone is equal in poverty and lawlessness.
It is under these conditions that the true essence of a person is revealed. When asked whether a person deprived of all conditions remains normal life, a person, Gorky answers in the affirmative. The humanity in these people has not died; it breaks through in everyday trifles. The wanderer Luke, who endured a lot in life, managed to retain the best human qualities: attention to each person, a sense of compassion. His arrival illuminated the shelter with a ray of kindness and affection towards people, a desire to help them. The atmosphere in the shelter with the arrival of Luka became more humane, something long forgotten began to awaken in everyone’s soul, they began to remember the past, when they had not nicknames, but names.
Luka brought to the shelter not only kindness, but also his philosophy, his truth about man, a controversial and contradictory truth. The essence of Luke's position is revealed in two parables. Luke’s story about how he took pity on two robbers who were plotting murder, fed and warmed him, that is, responded to evil with good, confirms how some characters speak of him: “He was a good old man!” (Nastya); “He was compassionate...” (Mite); “Man is the truth... He understood this...” (Satin).
The parable of the “righteous land” raises the question of whether a person needs truth. A man hanged himself when he learned that the “righteous land” did not exist. Luke believes that people do not need the truth, since their situation is hopeless. Feeling sorry for them, he comes up with beautiful fairy tales to console them, instilling in them faith in the impossible. “I lied out of pity for you,” says Satin. And this lie gave people the strength to live, resist fate and hope for the best.
The play “At the Bottom” is an allegory about a man for whom life and truth are polar opposites. The truth of a person and the truth about a person cannot possibly coincide among the characters in the play. For example, Nastya's. Bubnov and Baron laugh at the story she made up about Raoul’s love for her. Behind this fiction is Nastya’s inner need for this love and the belief that such love would change her and her life. For her this is the most sacred truth. But Nastya’s truth cannot move from the realm of dreams to the realm of reality. She did not separate from Nastya and did not become a fact of her life.
The contradiction between the hero’s truth and the truth about the hero is characteristic of almost every character, including Satin, who likes to repeat: “It’s good to feel like a human being!” But in reality he is “a prisoner, a murderer, a sharper.” Gorky in his play “At the Lower Depths” built a bridge between the concepts of “man” and “truth”. In the final debate about truth and man in Satin’s monologues, this thought is clearly formulated: “What is truth? Man is the truth." “Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain.” According to Gorky, the naked truth is of no value. The truth-seeker Bubnov is depicted by the playwright with outright hostility. He confesses the truth of fact. You shouldn’t try to change anything in life, you need to come to terms with evil and go with the flow: “People all live... like chips floating down a river.”
This position undermines the desire of every person for the better, deprives him of hope, makes him passive, cruel and heartless. Satin enters into an argument with Luka and Bubnov, who in his famous monologue asserts his truth about man. Rejecting the wretched ideal of satiety, based on the power of money, Satin talks about self-worth human personality. Man is the center of the universe, he is the creator, the transformer of life. “Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and brain.”
He talks about the equality of all people, regardless of their social status and nationality. You just need to face the truth, believe in yourself and change the world for the better. The words of Satin, who instills faith in man, in his mind and creative energy, only had a temporary effect on the shelters. Gorky is not so much looking in the play for a ready answer to the question: “Is there a way in the world to break free from this vicious circle?”, but rather posing the question: “Can one be considered a person who has resigned himself and is no longer looking for an answer to this question? ?.
Hence the core motive of the play - the contradiction between the Truth of the slave and the freedom of Man. Artistic value The play is that she asked this sharp and painful question, and not that the answer was found. There was no answer in life. And the question sounded like hope for those who despaired and resigned, and as a challenge to those who preferred to philosophize in comfort.
One of the brightest works of Russian prose is the epic novel “War and Peace.” Through dramatic personal stories of heroes, pictures of military battles and landscape sketches the author depicted one of the most significant civil events in history Russian state – Patriotic War 1812, proclaiming the idea that “there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.”
Historical figures in the novel's character system
To create a work reflecting heroic impulses, the revival of the patriotic spirit and national unity, courage and bravery ordinary people, the behavior of noble society, the author used a complex and branched system of characters. The heroes of the 4-volume epic novel were both real historical figures and heroes created by the author’s imagination. Compositional, character and ideological plan the author is realized through the technique of opposition. Through the prism of using the antithesis technique, the author portrays the two main representatives of opposing military camps - Napoleon and Kutuzov.
The ideological content of the images of Napoleon and Kutuzov
When creating these images, the author endows them with features that symbolize certain ideological views. Napoleon, who for a long time was the idol of the highest Russian society and representatives of the Russian army, L.N. Tolstoy depicts the degradation of personality using the technique. Bonaparte in the work “War and Peace” symbolizes an anti-people, inhumane, inhumane attitude. In the novel War and Peace, he is depicted as a selfish military leader, ready to do anything to satisfy his own ambitions.
He is contrasted with the commander Russian army Mikhail Kutuzov, who is the personification of the Russian people, their invincible spirit. The image of Mikhail Kutuzov is a symbol of the people's opposition to the conqueror of the Fatherland. In the novel, when the need arose to defend his native land not for life but for death, Mikhail Kutuzov proved himself to be the most experienced, far-sighted and true patriot.
Contrasting selfishness with the national spirit
The tsar’s reluctance to see Kutuzov as the commander of the Russian army, which Tolstoy emphasized, in once again emphasizes Kutuzov’s closeness to the people. The most striking is the thought of Andrei Bolkonsky, who explained to Pierre Bezukhov why the Russian army is led by this particular man. Prince Andrei believed that when native land it’s bad, only a true native of the people who loves their native land and has a heart for everyone who lives on it can protect it. Kutuzov showed great military wisdom when he made the risky decision to retreat and surrender Moscow to the enemy. Only true patriot and a wise commander, able to think globally in the interests of the entire country, took the risk of giving up one of the main cities in exchange for the freedom of the country and the lives of soldiers.
This decision of Kutuzov and the behavior of the Russian army made Napoleon rejoice, enjoying his greatness and invincibility. His selfish and self-righteous thoughts regarding Moscow and Russia are most clearly reflected in the episode on Poklonnaya Hill. Admiring the panorama of Moscow, Napoleon was confident in his victory and the subjugation of the Russian people, but did not take into account the high patriotic feelings local population, which was ready to burn and destroy their homes and property, but just not surrender to him with a “guilty head.”
Attitude towards soldiers
Such closeness of the commander to his subordinates, the ability to feel every fighter, ensured the success of Kutuzov’s ideas and actions, which brought victory to Russia. He put Moscow and the army, which could defend the rest of Russia, on the scales, and made a decision in favor of the Russian people. Kutuzov showed love for the people and high human humanity after the end of the war, refusing the post of commander-in-chief. He believed that shedding the blood of soldiers outside the Motherland was pointless when the native land and the Russian people were no longer threatened by the enemy.
Unlike his Russian opponent, Napoleon shows complete coldness and indifference to the soldiers of his own army. Lives and personalities are not important to him. Bonaparte was only interested in what ensured his success. He showed complete indifference to the wounded and dying of his army. This explains his attitude towards the people who followed his idea. For Napoleon, soldiers are just one of the military tools to satisfy his ambitions.
Conclusions
In the novel War and Peace, two commanders are contrasted. Napoleon and Kutuzov in the novel are distinguished by their different essence and purpose of life. By contrasting these characters, Tolstoy reveals one of the main ideas of the work - connection with the people and the unity of the Russian spirit. The commander who is guided only by ambition and the desire to rule will never be able to lead the people and win true victories - such is main idea my essay on the topic: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.”
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