A long time ago, a very long time ago (this is how my grandmother began her story), at a time when I was no more than sixteen years old, we lived - me and my late father - in the Nizhne-Ozernaya fortress, on the Orenburg line. I must tell you that this fortress did not at all resemble either the local city of Simbirsk, or that provincial town to which you, my child, went last year: it was so small that even a five-year-old child would not have gotten tired of running around it; the houses in it were all small, low, mostly made of twigs, coated with clay, covered with straw and fenced with wattles. But Nizhne-ozernaya also did not resemble your father’s village, because this fortress had, in addition to huts on chicken legs, an old wooden church, quite large and equally an old house a serf warden, a guardhouse and long log grain stores. In addition, our fortress was surrounded on three sides by a log fence, with two gates and sharp turrets in the corners, and the fourth side was tightly adjacent to the Ural bank, steep as a wall and high as the local cathedral. Not only was Nizhneozernaya so well fenced: there were two or three old cast-iron cannons in it, and about fifty of the same old and grimy soldiers, who, although they were a little decrepit, still stood on their own feet, had long guns and cutlasses, and after every evening dawn cheerfully shouted: with God the night begins. Although our disabled people rarely managed to show their courage, it was impossible to do without them; because in the old days the side there was very restless: the Bashkirs were either rebelling, or the Kirghiz were robbing - all infidel Busurmans, fierce as wolves and terrible as unclean spirits. They not only captured Christian people into their filthy captivity and drove away Christian herds; but sometimes they even approached the very back of our fortress, threatening to chop and burn us all. In such cases, our little soldiers had enough work: for whole days they shot back at the adversaries from small towers and through the cracks of the old tine. My late father (who received the rank of captain during the time of Empress Elisaveta Petrovna of blessed memory) commanded both these honored old men and other residents of Nizhneozernaya - retired soldiers, Cossacks and commoners; in short, he was a commandant in the present day, but in the old commander fortresses My father (God remember his soul in the kingdom of heaven) was a man of the old century: fair, cheerful, talkative, he called the service mother, and the sword sister - and in every matter he loved to insist on his own. I no longer had a mother. God took her to Him before I could pronounce her name. So, in the large commander’s house that I told you about, only the priest lived, and I, and several old orderlies and maids. You might think that we were quite bored in such a remote place. Nothing happened! Time rolled by for us as quickly as for all Orthodox Christians. Habit, my child, adorns every life, unless the constant thought comes into one’s head that it's good where we are not, as the proverb says. Moreover, boredom is mostly attached to idle people; and my father and I rarely sat with our hands crossed. He or learned his dear soldiers (it is clear that the soldier’s science needs to be studied for a whole century!), or read sacred books, although, to tell the truth, this happened quite rarely, because the deceased light (God grant him the kingdom of heaven) was learned in ancient, and he himself used to say jokingly that he was not given a diploma, like infantry service was given to a Turk. But he was a great master - and he oversaw the work in the field with his own eye, so that in the summer he spent whole days in the meadows and arable fields. I must tell you, my child, that both we and the other inhabitants of the fortress sowed grain and cut hay - not much, not like your father’s peasants, but as much as we needed for household use. You can judge the danger in which we lived then by the fact that our farmers worked in the field only under the cover of a significant convoy, which was supposed to protect them from attacks by the Kyrgyz, who were constantly prowling around the line like hungry wolves. That is why my father’s presence during field work was necessary not only for its success, but also for the safety of the workers. You see, my child, that my father had plenty to do. As for me, I didn’t kill time in vain. Without boasting, I will say that, despite my youth, I was a real mistress of the house, I was in charge in the kitchen and in the cellar, and sometimes, in the absence of the priest, in the yard itself. I sewed the dress for myself (we’ve never even heard of fashion stores here); and besides that, she found time to mend my father’s caftans, because the company tailor Trofimov was beginning to see poorly in his old age, so one day (it was funny, really) he put a patch, past the hole, in the whole place. Having managed to attend to my household affairs in this way, I never missed an opportunity to visit God’s temple, unless our father Blasius (God forgive him) was too lazy to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. However, my child, you are mistaken if you think that my father and I lived alone within four walls, not knowing anyone and not accepting good people. True, we were rarely able to visit; but the priest was a great hospitable man, and does a hospitable man ever have no guests? Every almost evening they gathered in our reception room: the old lieutenant, the Cossack foreman, Father Vlasiy and some other inhabitants of the fortress - I don’t remember them all. They all loved to sip cherry and home-made beer, and loved to talk and argue. Their conversations, of course, were not arranged according to book writing, but at random: it happened that whoever came into his head would talk about it, because the people were all so simple... But one must say only good things about the dead, and ours old interlocutors have been resting in the cemetery for a long, long time.
In this article we will describe the work of A.S. Chapter by chapter retelling of this short novel, published in 1836, is brought to your attention.
1. Sergeant of the Guard
The first chapter begins with the biography of Pyotr Andreevich Grinev. The father of this hero served, after which he retired. There were 9 children in the Grinev family, but eight of them died in infancy, and Peter was left alone. His father registered him even before his birth as Pyotr Andreevich and was on vacation until he came of age. Uncle Savelich serves as the boy's teacher. He supervises the development of Russian literacy by the Petrushas.
After some time, the Frenchman Beaupre was discharged to Peter. He taught him German, French, as well as various sciences. But Beaupre did not raise the child, but only drank and walked. The boy's father soon discovered this and drove the teacher away. At the age of 17, Peter was sent to serve, but not to the place where he had hoped to go. He goes to Orenburg instead of St. Petersburg. This decision determined the future fate of Peter, the hero of the work "The Captain's Daughter."
Chapter 1 describes the parting words of a father to his son. He tells him that it is necessary to take care of honor from a young age. Petya, having arrived in Simbirsk, meets Zurin, the captain, in a tavern, who taught him to play billiards, and also got him drunk and won 100 rubles from him. It was as if Grinev had broken free for the first time. He behaves like a boy. Zurin demands the allotted winnings in the morning. Pyotr Andreevich, in order to show his character, forces Savelich, who protests this, to give out money. After which, feeling pangs of conscience, Grinev leaves Simbirsk. This is how chapter 1 ends in the work "The Captain's Daughter". Let us describe further events that happened to Pyotr Andreevich.
2. Counselor
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin tells us about future fate this hero of the work "The Captain's Daughter". Chapter 2 of the novel is called "Counselor". In it we meet Pugachev for the first time.
On the way, Grinev asks Savelich to forgive him for his stupid behavior. Suddenly a snowstorm begins on the road, Peter and his servant lose their way. They meet a man who offers to take them to the inn. Grinev, riding in a cab, has a dream.
Grinev's dream is an important episode of the work "The Captain's Daughter". Chapter 2 describes it in detail. In it, Peter arrives at his estate and discovers that his father is dying. He approaches him to take the last blessing, but instead of his father he sees an unknown man with a black beard. Grinev is surprised, but his mother convinces him that this is his imprisoned father. A black-bearded man jumps up waving an ax, dead bodies fill the entire room. At the same time, the man smiles at Pyotr Andreevich and also offers him a blessing.
Grinev, already standing, examines his guide and notices that he is the same man from the dream. He is a forty-year-old man of average height, thin and broad-shouldered. There is already a noticeable streak of gray in his black beard. The man’s eyes are alive, and one can feel the sharpness and subtlety of his mind in them. The counselor's face has a rather pleasant expression. It's picaresque. His hair is cut into a circle, and this man is dressed in Tatar trousers and an old Armenian coat.
The counselor talks with the owner in “allegorical language.” Pyotr Andreevich thanks his companion, gives him a hare sheepskin coat, and pours a glass of wine.
An old friend of Grinev’s father, Andrei Karlovich R., sends Peter from Orenburg to serve in the Belogorsk fortress located 40 miles from the city. This is where the novel "The Captain's Daughter" continues. Chapter by chapter retelling further developments, occurring in it, the following.
3. Fortress
This fortress resembles a village. Vasilisa Egorovna, a reasonable and kind woman, the wife of the commandant, is in charge of everything here. The next morning Grinev meets Alexey Ivanovich Shvabrin, a young officer. This man is short, extremely ugly, dark-skinned, very lively. He is one of the main characters in the work "The Captain's Daughter". Chapter 3 is the place in the novel where this character first appears to the reader.
Because of the duel, Shvabrin was transferred to this fortress. He tells Pyotr Andreevich about life here, about the commandant’s family, while speaking unflatteringly about his daughter, Masha Mironova. You will find a detailed description of this conversation in the work “The Captain's Daughter” (Chapter 3). The commandant invites Grinev and Shvabrin to a family dinner. On the way, Peter sees a “training” going on: a platoon of disabled people is led by Ivan Kuzmich Mironov. He is wearing a “Chinese robe” and a cap.
4. Duel
Chapter 4 occupies an important place in the composition of the work "The Captain's Daughter". It says the following.
Grinev really likes the commandant's family. Pyotr Andreevich becomes an officer. He communicates with Shvabrin, but this communication brings the hero less and less pleasure. Grinev especially doesn’t like Alexei Ivanovich’s caustic remarks about Masha. Peter writes mediocre poems and dedicates them to this girl. Shvabrin speaks sharply about them, while insulting Masha. Grinev accuses him of lying, Alexey Ivanovich challenges Peter to a duel. Vasilisa Egorovna, having learned about this, orders the arrest of the duelists. Broadsword, the yard girl, deprives them of their swords. After some time, Pyotr Andreevich learns that Shvabrin was wooing Masha, but was refused by the girl. He understands now why Alexey Ivanovich slandered Masha. A duel is scheduled again, in which Pyotr Andreevich is wounded.
5. Love
Masha and Savelich are caring for the wounded man. Pyotr Grinev proposes to a girl. He sends a letter to his parents asking for blessings. Shvabrin visits Pyotr Andreevich and admits his guilt before him. Grinev’s father does not give him a blessing, he already knows about the duel that took place, and it was not Savelich who told him about it. Pyotr Andreevich believes that Alexey Ivanovich did this. The captain's daughter does not want to get married without her parents' consent. Chapter 5 tells about this decision of hers. We will not describe in detail the conversation between Peter and Masha. Let's just say that the captain's daughter decided to avoid Grinev in the future. The chapter-by-chapter retelling continues with the following events. Pyotr Andreevich stops visiting the Mironovs and loses heart.
6. Pugachevshchina
The commandant receives notification that a bandit gang led by Emelyan Pugachev is operating in the surrounding area. attacks fortresses. Pugachev soon reached Belogorsk fortress. He calls on the commandant to surrender. Ivan Kuzmich decides to expel his daughter from the fortress. The girl says goodbye to Grinev. However, her mother refuses to leave.
7. Attack
The attack on the fortress continues with the work "The Captain's Daughter". The chapter-by-chapter retelling of further events is as follows. At night, the Cossacks leave the fortress. They go over to the side of Emelyan Pugachev. The gang attacks him. Mironov, with a few defenders, is trying to defend himself, but the forces of the two sides are unequal. The person who has captured the fortress organizes a so-called trial. The commandant, as well as his comrades, are executed on the gallows. When it’s Grinev’s turn, Savelich begs Emelyan, throwing himself at his feet, to spare Pyotr Andreevich, and offers him a ransom. Pugachev agrees. Residents of the city and soldiers swear an oath to Emelyan. They kill Vasilisa Yegorovna, bringing her naked onto the porch, as well as her husband. Pyotr Andreevich leaves the fortress.
8. Uninvited Guest
Grinev is very worried about how the captain’s daughter lives in the Belogorsk fortress.
The chapter-by-chapter content of further events in the novel describes the subsequent fate of this heroine. A girl is hiding near the priest, who tells Pyotr Andreevich that Shvabrin is on Pugachev’s side. Grinev learns from Savelich that Pugachev is accompanying them on the road to Orenburg. Emelyan calls Grinev to come to him, he comes. Pyotr Andreevich draws attention to the fact that everyone behaves like comrades with each other in Pugachev’s camp, and does not show preference to the leader.
Everyone boasts, expresses doubts, challenges Pugachev. His people sing a song about the gallows. Emelyan's guests leave. Grinev tells him in private that he does not consider him a king. He replies that good luck will be for the daring, because Grishka Otrepiev once ruled. Emelyan releases Pyotr Andreevich to Orenburg despite the fact that he promises to fight against him.
9. Separation
Emelyan gives Peter the order to tell the governor of this city that the Pugachevites will soon arrive there. Pugachev, leaving, leaves Shvabrin as commandant. Savelich writes a list of Pyotr Andreevich’s plundered goods and sends it to Emelyan, but he, in a “fit of generosity,” does not punish the impudent Savelich. He even gives Grinev a fur coat from his shoulder and gives him a horse. Meanwhile, Masha is sick in the fortress.
10. Siege of the city
Peter goes to Orenburg, to see Andrei Karlovich, the general. Military people are absent from the military council. There are only officials here. It is more prudent, in their opinion, to remain behind a reliable stone wall than to try their luck in an open field. Officials offer to put a high price on Pugachev’s head and bribe Emelyan’s people. A police officer from the fortress brings a letter from Masha to Pyotr Andreevich. She reports that Shvabrin is forcing her to become his wife. Grinev asks the general to help, to provide him with people in order to clear the fortress. However, he refuses.
11. Rebel settlement
Grinev and Savelich rush to help the girl. Pugachev's people stop them on the way and lead them to the leader. He interrogates Pyotr Andreevich about his intentions in the presence of his confidants. Pugachev's people are a hunched, frail old man with a blue ribbon worn over his shoulder over a gray overcoat, as well as a tall, portly and broad-shouldered man of about forty-five. Grinev tells Emelyan that he came to save an orphan from Shvabrin’s claims. The Pugachevists propose to simply solve the problem with both Grinev and Shvabrin - hang them both. However, Pugachev clearly likes Peter, and he promises to marry him to a girl. Pyotr Andreevich goes to the fortress in the morning in Pugachev’s tent. He, in a confidential conversation, tells him that he would like to go to Moscow, but his comrades are robbers and thieves who will betray the leader at the first failure, saving their own necks. Emelyan says Kalmyk fairy tale about a raven and an eagle. The raven lived for 300 years, but at the same time pecked carrion. But the eagle chose to starve rather than eat the carrion. It’s better to drink living blood one day, Emelyan believes.
12. Orphan
Pugachev learns in the fortress that the girl is being bullied by the new commandant. Shvabrin starves her. Emelyan frees Masha and wants to marry her right away with Grinev. When Shvabrin says that this is Mironov’s daughter, Emelyan Pugachev decides to let Grinev and Masha go.
13. Arrest
On the way out of the fortress, soldiers take Grinev under arrest. They mistake Pyotr Andreevich for a Pugachevo man and take him to the boss. It turns out to be Zurin, who advises Pyotr Andreevich to send Savelich and Masha to their parents, and for Grinev himself to continue the battle. He follows this advice. Pugachev’s army was defeated, but he himself was not caught; he managed to gather new troops in Siberia. Emelyan is being pursued. Zurin is ordered to take Grinev under arrest and send him under guard to Kazan, putting him under investigation in the Pugachev case.
14. Court
Pyotr Andreevich is suspected of serving Pugachev. This is not last role played by Shvabrin. Peter is sentenced to exile in Siberia. Masha lives with Peter's parents. They became very attached to her. The girl goes to St. Petersburg, to Tsarskoe Selo. Here she meets the empress in the garden and asks to have mercy on Peter. He talks about how he ended up with Pugachev because of her, the captain’s daughter. Briefly chapter by chapter, the novel we described ends as follows. Grinev is released. He is present at the execution of Emelyan, who nods his head, recognizing him.
The genre of historical novel is the work "The Captain's Daughter". The chapter-by-chapter retelling does not describe all the events; we have mentioned only the main ones. Pushkin's novel is very interesting. After reading the original work "The Captain's Daughter" chapter by chapter, you will understand the psychology of the characters, and also learn some details that we have omitted.
In 1836, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin wrote the story “The Captain's Daughter,” which was a historical description of the Pugachev uprising. In his work, Pushkin was based on real events of 1773-1775, when, under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev (Liar Peter Fedorovich), the Yaik Cossacks, who took escaped convicts, thieves and villains as their servants, began a peasant war. Pyotr Grinev and Maria Mironova are fictional characters, but their destinies very truthfully reflect the sad time of the brutal civil war.
Pushkin designed his story in a realistic form in the form of notes from the diary of the main character Pyotr Grinev, made years after the uprising. The lyrics of the work are interesting in their presentation - Grinev writes his diary in adulthood, rethinking everything he has experienced. At the time of the uprising, he was a young nobleman loyal to his Empress. He looked at the rebels as savages who fought with particular cruelty against the Russian people. During the course of the story, one can see how the heartless ataman Pugachev, who executes dozens of honest officers, over time, by the will of fate, wins favor in Grinev’s heart and finds sparks of nobility in his eyes.
Chapter 1. Sergeant of the Guard
At the beginning of the story, the main character Peter Grinev tells the reader about his young life. He is the only survivor of 9 children of a retired major and a poor noblewoman; he lived in a middle-class noble family. The old servant was actually involved in raising the young master. Peter's education was low, since his father, a retired major, hired the French hairdresser Beaupre, who led an immoral lifestyle, as a tutor. For drunkenness and dissolute acts he was expelled from the estate. And his father decided to send 17-year-old Petrusha, through old connections, to serve in Orenburg (instead of St. Petersburg, where he was supposed to go to serve in the guard) and assigned an old servant Savelich to look after him. Petrusha was upset, because instead of partying in the capital, a dull existence in the wilderness awaited him. During a stop along the way, the young master made an acquaintance with the rake-captain Zurin, because of whom, under the pretext of learning, he became involved in playing billiards. Then Zurin suggested playing for money and as a result Petrusha lost as much as 100 rubles - a lot of money at that time. Savelich, being the keeper of the master’s “treasury,” is against Peter paying the debt, but the master insists. The servant is indignant, but gives the money.
Chapter 2. Counselor
In the end, Peter is ashamed of his loss and promises Savelich not to play for money anymore. A long road awaits them ahead, and the servant forgives the master. But due to Petrusha’s indiscretion, they again find themselves in trouble - the approaching snowstorm did not bother the young man and he ordered the coachman not to return. As a result, they lost their way and almost froze to death. As luck would have it, they met a stranger who helped the lost travelers find their way to the inn.
Grinev recalls how, tired from the road, he had a dream in a wagon, which he called prophetic: he sees his house and his mother, who says that his father is dying. Then he sees an unfamiliar man with a beard in his father’s bed, and his mother says that he is her sworn husband. The stranger wants to give his “father’s” blessing, but Peter refuses, and then the man takes up an ax, and corpses appear around. He doesn't touch Peter.
They arrive at an inn that resembles a thieves' den. A stranger, frozen in the cold in only an army coat, asks Petrusha for wine, and he treats him. A strange conversation took place between the man and the owner of the house in thieves' language. Peter does not understand the meaning, but everything he heard seems very strange to him. Leaving the shelter, Peter, to Savelich’s further displeasure, thanked the guide by giving him a sheepskin coat. To which the stranger bowed, saying that the century would not forget such mercy.
When Peter finally gets to Orenburg, his father’s colleague, having read the cover letter with instructions to keep the young man “with a tight rein,” sends him to serve in Belgorod fortress- even more wilderness. This could not but upset Peter, who had long dreamed of a guards uniform.
Chapter 3. Fortress
The owner of the Belgorod garrison was Ivan Kuzmich Mironov, but his wife, Vasilisa Egorovna, was actually in charge of everything. Grinev immediately liked simple and sincere people. The middle-aged Mironov couple had a daughter, Masha, but so far their acquaintance has not taken place. In the fortress (which turned out to be a simple village), Peter meets the young lieutenant Alexei Ivanovich Shvabrin, who was exiled here from the guard for a duel that ended in the death of his opponent. Shvabrin, having a habit of speaking unflatteringly about those around him, often spoke sarcastically about Masha, the captain’s daughter, making her look like a complete fool. Then Grinev himself meets the commander’s daughter and questions the lieutenant’s statements.
Chapter 4. Duel
By his nature, kind and good-natured, Grinev began to become closer and closer friends with the commandant and his family, and moved away from Shvabrin. The captain's daughter Masha had no dowry, but ended up charming girl. Shvabrin's caustic remarks did not please Peter. Inspired by thoughts of the young girl on quiet evenings, he began to write poems for her, the contents of which he shared with a friend. But he ridiculed him, and even more began to humiliate Masha’s dignity, assuring that she would come at night to someone who would give her a pair of earrings.
As a result, the friends quarreled, and it came to a duel. Vasilisa Egorovna, the commandant’s wife, found out about the duel, but the duelists pretended to make peace, deciding to postpone the meeting until the next day. But in the morning, as soon as they had time to draw their swords, Ivan Ignatich and 5 disabled people were escorted out to Vasilisa Yegorovna. Having reprimanded them properly, she released them. In the evening, Masha, alarmed by the news of the duel, told Peter about Shvabrin’s unsuccessful matchmaking with her. Now Grinev understood his motives for his behavior. The duel still took place. The confident swordsman Peter, taught at least something worthwhile by tutor Beaupre, turned out to be a strong opponent for Shvabrin. But Savelich appeared at the duel, Peter hesitated for a second and ended up wounded.
Chapter 5. Love
The wounded Peter was nursed by his servant and Masha. As a result, the duel brought the young people closer together, and they were inflamed mutual love to each other. Wanting to marry Masha, Grinev sends a letter to his parents.
Grinev made peace with Shvabrin. Peter's father, having learned about the duel and not wanting to hear about the marriage, became furious and sent his son an angry letter, where he threatened to be transferred from the fortress. At a loss as to how his father could have found out about the duel, Peter attacked Savelich with accusations, but he himself received a letter of dissatisfaction from the owner. Grinev finds only one answer - Shvabrin reported the duel. His father’s refusal to give his blessing does not change Peter’s intentions, but Masha does not agree to get married secretly. They move away from each other for a while, and Grinev realizes that unhappy love can deprive him of his reason and lead to debauchery.
Chapter 6. Pugachevism
Trouble begins in the Belgorod fortress. Captain Mironov receives an order from the general to prepare the fortress for an attack by rebels and robbers. Emelyan Pugachev, who called himself Peter III, escaped from custody and terrified the surrounding area. According to rumors, he had already captured several fortresses and was approaching Belgorod. It was impossible to count on victory with 4 officers and army “disabled” soldiers. Alarmed by rumors about the capture of a neighboring fortress and the execution of officers, Captain Mironov decided to send Masha and Vasilisa Yegorovna to Orenburg, where the fortress was stronger. The captain's wife speaks out against leaving, and decides not to leave her husband in difficult times. Masha says goodbye to Peter, but she fails to leave the fortress.
Chapter 7. Attack
Ataman Pugachev appears at the walls of the fortress and offers to surrender without a fight. Commandant Mironov, having learned about the betrayal of the constable and several Cossacks who joined the rebel clan, does not agree to the proposal. He orders his wife to dress Masha as a commoner and take her to the priest’s hut, while he opens fire on the rebels. The battle ends with the capture of the fortress, which, together with the city, passes into the hands of Pugachev.
Right at the commandant’s house, Pugachev commits reprisals against those who refused to take the oath to him. He orders the execution of Captain Mironov and Lieutenant Ivan Ignatyich. Grinev decides that he will not swear allegiance to the robber and will accept an honest death. However, then Shvabrin comes up to Pugachev and whispers something in his ear. The chieftain decides not to ask for the oath, ordering all three to be hanged. But the old faithful servant Savelich throws himself at the ataman’s feet and he agrees to pardon Grinev. Ordinary soldiers and city residents take the oath of allegiance to Pugachev. As soon as the oath was over, Pugachev decided to have dinner, but the Cossacks dragged the naked Vasilisa Yegorovna by the hair from the commandant’s house, where they were plundering property, who was screaming for her husband and cursing the convict. The chieftain ordered to kill her.
Chapter 8. Uninvited Guest
Grinev's heart is not in the right place. He understands that if the soldiers find out that Masha is here and alive, she cannot avoid reprisals, especially since Shvabrin took the side of the rebels. He knows that his beloved is hiding in the priest's house. In the evening, the Cossacks arrived, sent to take him to Pugachev. Although Peter did not accept the Liar’s offer of all sorts of honors for the oath, the conversation between the rebel and the officer was friendly. Pugachev remembered the good and now granted Peter freedom in return.
Chapter 9. Separation
The next morning, in front of the people, Pugachev called Peter to him and told him to go to Orenburg and report on his attack in a week. Savelich began to bother about the looted property, but the villain said that he would let him go to sheepskin coats for such impudence. Grinev and his servant leave Belogorsk. Pugachev appoints Shvabrin as commandant, and he himself goes off to his next exploits.
Peter and Savelich are walking, but one of Pugachev’s gang caught up with them and said that His Majesty was granting them a horse and a sheepskin coat, and half a rouble, but he supposedly lost it.
Masha fell ill and lay delirious.
Chapter 10. Siege of the city
Arriving in Orenburg, Grinev immediately reported on Pugachev’s actions in the Belgorod fortress. A council met, at which everyone except Peter voted for defense rather than attack.
A long siege begins - hunger and need. On his next foray into the enemy’s camp, Peter receives a letter from Masha in which she begs to be saved. Shvabrin wants to marry her and keeps her captive. Grinev goes to the general with a request to give half a company of soldiers to save the girl, but he is refused. Then Peter decides to help out his beloved alone.
Chapter 11. Rebel settlement
On the way to the fortress, Peter ends up on Pugachev’s guard and is taken for interrogation. Grinev honestly tells everything about his plans to the troublemaker and says that he is free to do whatever he wants with him. Pugachev's thug advisors offer to execute the officer, but he says, “have mercy, so have mercy.”
Together with the robber chieftain, Peter travels to the Belgorod fortress; on the road they have a conversation. The rebel says that he wants to go to Moscow. Peter pities him in his heart, begging him to surrender to the mercy of the empress. But Pugachev knows that it’s too late, and says, come what may.
Chapter 12. Orphan
Shvabrin holds the girl on water and bread. Pugachev pardons the AWOL, but from Shvabrin he learns that Masha is the daughter of an unsworn commandant. At first he is furious, but Peter, with his sincerity, wins favor this time too.
Chapter 13. Arrest
Pugachev gives Peter a pass to all outposts. Happy lovers go to their parents' house. They confused the army convoy with Pugachev's traitors and were arrested. Grinev recognized Zurin as the head of the outpost. He said that he was going home to get married. He dissuades him, assuring him to stay in the service. Peter himself understands that duty calls him. He sends Masha and Savelich to their parents.
The military actions of the detachments that came to the rescue ruined the robber plans. But Pugachev could not be caught. Then rumors spread that he was rampant in Siberia. Zurin's detachment is sent to suppress another outbreak. Grinev recalls the unfortunate villages plundered by savages. The troops had to take away what people were able to save. News arrived that Pugachev had been caught.
Chapter 14. Court
Grinev, following Shvabrin's denunciation, was arrested as a traitor. He could not justify himself with love, fearing that Masha would also be interrogated. The Empress, taking into account his father's merits, pardoned him, but sentenced him to lifelong exile. The father was in shock. Masha decided to go to St. Petersburg and ask the Empress for her beloved.
By the will of fate, Maria meets the Empress in the early autumn morning and tells her everything, not knowing who she is talking to. That same morning, a cab driver was sent to pick her up at the house of a socialite, where Masha had settled down for a while, with the order to deliver Mironov’s daughter to the palace.
There Masha saw Catherine II and recognized her as her interlocutor.
Grinev was released from hard labor. Pugachev was executed. Standing on the scaffold in the crowd, he saw Grinev and nodded.
The reunited loving hearts continued the Grinev family, and in their Simbirsk province, under glass, a letter from Catherine II was kept, pardoning Peter and praising Mary for her intelligence and kind heart.
The history of the creation of "The Captain's Daughter" may be of interest to anyone who has read this historical novel by Pushkin or in its entirety.
"The Captain's Daughter" writing history
From the middle 1832 A. S. Pushkin begins work on the history of the uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev. The poet was given the opportunity to get acquainted with the king classified materials about the uprising and the actions of the authorities to suppress it. Pushkin turns to unpublished documents from family archives and private collections. His “Archival Notebooks” contain copies of Pugachev’s personal decrees and letters, extracts from reports on military operations with Pugachev’s detachments.
IN 1833 year, Pushkin decides to go to those places in the Volga and Urals regions where the uprising took place. He looks forward to meeting eyewitnesses of these events. Having received permission from Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin leaves for Kazan. “I’ve been in Kazan since the fifth. Here I tinkered with the old people, my hero’s contemporaries; traveled around the city, examined the battle sites, asked questions, wrote down notes, and was very pleased that it was not in vain that he visited this side,” he writes to his wife Natalya Nikolaevna on September 8. Next, the poet goes to Simbirsk and Orenburg, where he also visits the battle sites and meets with contemporaries of the events.
From materials about the riot, “The History of Pugachev” was formed, written in Boldin in the fall of 1833. This work of Pushkin was published in 1834 entitled “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion”, which was given to him by the emperor. But Pushkin had a plan work of art about the Pugachev uprising of 1773–1775. The plan of the novel about a renegade nobleman who found himself in Pugachev’s camp changed several times. This is also explained by the fact that the topic that Pushkin addressed was ideologically and politically acute and complex. The poet could not help but think about the censorship obstacles that had to be overcome. Archival materials, stories of living Pugachevites, which he heard during a trip to the site of the uprising of 1773–1774, could be used with great caution.
According to the original plan, he was supposed to become a nobleman who voluntarily went over to Pugachev’s side. His prototype was second lieutenant of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment Mikhail Shvanovich (in the plans of the novel Shvanvich), who “preferred a vile life to an honest death.” His name was mentioned in the document “On the death penalty for the traitor, rebel and impostor Pugachev and his accomplices.” Later, Pushkin chose the fate of another real participant in Pugachev’s events - Basharin. Basharin was captured by Pugachev, escaped from captivity and entered the service of one of the suppressors of the uprising, General Mikhelson. The name of the main character changed several times until Pushkin settled on the surname Grinev. In the government report on the liquidation of the Pugachev uprising and the punishment of Pugachev and his accomplices dated January 10, 1775, Grinev’s name was listed among those who were initially suspected of “communication with the villains,” but “as a result of the investigation they turned out to be innocent” and were released from arrest. As a result, instead of one hero-nobleman in the novel, there were two: Grinev was contrasted with a nobleman-traitor, the “vile villain” Shvabrin, which could make it easier to carry the novel through censorship barriers.
Working on a historical novel, Pushkin relied on creative experience English novelist Walter Scott (among his many admirers in Russia was Nicholas I himself) and the first Russian historical novelists M.N. Zagoskin, I.I. Lazhechnikov. “In our time, the word novel means a historical era developed in a fictional narrative” - this is how Pushkin defined the main genre sign novel on historical topic. The choice of era, heroes, and especially the style of “fictional narrative” made “The Captain’s Daughter” not only the best among the novels of V. Scott’s Russian followers. According to Gogol, Pushkin wrote “a one-of-a-kind novel” - “in its sense of proportion, in its completeness, in its style and in its amazing skill in depicting types and characters in miniature...” Pushkin the artist became not only a rival, but also a “winner” of Pushkin -historian. As the outstanding Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky noted, in “The Captain’s Daughter” “ more history than in “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion,” which seems like a long explanatory note to the novel.”
Pushkin continued to work on this work in 1834. In 1836 he reworked it. October 19, 1836 year – the date of completion of work on “The Captain’s Daughter”. “The Captain’s Daughter” was published in the fourth issue of Pushkin’s Sovremennik at the end of December 1836, a little over a month before the poet’s death.
Now you know the history of the writing and creation of Pushkin’s novel “The Captain’s Daughter” and can understand the entire historicism of the work.
A story that we all went through in school and which few re-read later. A story that is much more complex and deeper than is commonly believed. What is there in “The Captain’s Daughter” that remains outside the scope of school curriculum? Why is it still relevant today? Why is it called “the most Christian work of Russian literature”? Writer and literary critic Alexey Varlamov reflects on this.
According to fairy tale laws
At the very beginning of the twentieth century, one ambitious writer, who came to St. Petersburg from the provinces and dreamed of getting into the St. Petersburg religious and philosophical society, brought his writings to the court of Zinaida Gippius. The decadent witch spoke poorly of his opuses. “Read The Captain's Daughter,” was her instruction. Mikhail Prishvin - and he was a young writer - brushed aside this parting word, because he considered it offensive, but a quarter of a century later, having experienced a lot, he wrote in his diary: “My homeland is not Yelets, where I was born, not St. Petersburg, where I settled down to live, both are now archeology for me... my homeland, unsurpassed in simple beauty, in the kindness and wisdom combined with it - my homeland is Pushkin’s story “The Captain’s Daughter”.
And in fact, here is an amazing work that everyone recognized and never tried to throw off the ship of modernity. Neither in the metropolis, nor in exile, under any circumstances political regimes and power moods. IN Soviet school This story was told in the seventh grade. How I remember now an essay on the topic “ Comparative characteristics Shvabrina and Grineva." Shvabrin is the embodiment of individualism, slander, meanness, evil, Grinev is nobility, kindness, honor. Good and evil come into conflict and ultimately good wins. It would seem that everything is very simple in this conflict, linear - but no. “The Captain's Daughter” is a very difficult work.
Firstly, this story was preceded, as we know, by “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion”, in relation to which “The Captain’s Daughter” is formally a kind of artistic application, but in essence, a refraction, transformation of the author’s historical views, including on the personality of Pugachev, which Tsvetaeva very accurately noted in her essay “My Pushkin.” And in general, it is no coincidence that Pushkin published the story in Sovremennik not under his own name, but in the genre of family notes, allegedly inherited by the publisher from one of Grinev’s descendants, and only gave his own title and epigraphs to the chapters. And secondly, The Captain's Daughter has another predecessor and companion - the unfinished novel Dubrovsky, and these two works are connected by a very whimsical relationship. Who is Vladimir Dubrovsky closer to - Grinev or Shvabrin? Morally - of course to the first. What about historically? Dubrovsky and Shvabrin are both traitors to the nobility, albeit for different reasons, and both end badly. Perhaps it is precisely in this paradoxical similarity that one can find an explanation for why Pushkin abandoned further work on “Dubrovsky” and from the incompletely outlined, somewhat vague, sad image of the main character, the pair Grinev and Shvabrin arose, where for each the external corresponds to the internal and both receive according to their deeds, as in a moral tale.
“The Captain's Daughter”, in fact, was written according to fairy tale laws. The hero behaves generously and nobly towards random and seemingly unnecessary people - an officer who, taking advantage of his inexperience, beats him at billiards, pays a hundred rubles for his loss, a random passer-by who took him out onto the road, treats him to vodka and gives him a hare sheepskin coat, and for this they later repay him with great good. So Ivan Tsarevich unselfishly saves a pike or a turtledove, and for this they help him defeat Kashchei. Grinev’s uncle Savelich (in a fairy tale it would be “ Gray wolf"or "Humpbacked Horse"), with the undoubted warmth and charm of this image, the plot looks like an obstacle to Grinev's fairy-tale correctness: he is against the “child” paying off a gambling debt and rewarding Pugachev, because of him Grinev is wounded in a duel, because He is captured by the impostor's soldiers when he goes to rescue Masha Mironova. But at the same time, Savelich stands up for the master in front of Pugachev and gives him a register of looted things, thanks to which Grinev receives a horse as compensation, on which he travels out of besieged Orenburg.
Under supervision from above
There is no pretentiousness here. In Pushkin's prose there is an invisible connection of circumstances, but it is not artificial, but natural and hierarchical. Pushkin's fabulousness turns into the highest realism, that is, the real and effective presence of God in the world of people. Providence (but not the author, like, for example, Tolstoy in War and Peace, who removes Helen Kuragina from the stage when he needs to make Pierre free) guides Pushkin’s heroes. This in no way cancels the well-known formula “what a trick Tatyana ran away with me, she got married” - it’s just that Tatyana’s fate is a manifestation of a higher will, which she is given the power to recognize. And the same gift of obedience is possessed by the dowry-free Masha Mironova, who wisely is not in a hurry to marry Petrusha Grinev (the option of attempting marriage without parental blessing is half-seriously and half-parodically presented in “Blizzard”, and it is known what it leads to), but relies on Providence, better knowing what is needed for her happiness and when its time will come.
In Pushkin’s world, everything is under supervision from above, but still both Masha Mironova and Liza Muromskaya from “The Young Lady the Peasant” were happier than Tatyana Larina. Why - God knows. This tormented Rozanov, for whom Tatyana’s tired gaze turned to her husband crosses out her entire life, but the only thing she could console herself with is that she became a female symbol of fidelity, a trait that Pushkin revered in both men and women, although put different meanings into them.
One of the most persistent motifs in “The Captain’s Daughter” is the motif of maiden innocence, maiden honor, so the epigraph to the story “Take care of honor from a young age” can be attributed not only to Grinev, but also to Masha Mironova, and her story of preserving honor is no less dramatic than him. The threat of being subjected to violence is the most terrible and real thing that can happen to the captain's daughter throughout almost the entire story. She is threatened by Shvabrin, potentially she is threatened by Pugachev and his people (it is no coincidence that Shvabrin scares Masha with the fate of Lizaveta Kharlova, the wife of the commandant of the Nizhneozersk fortress, who, after her husband was killed, became Pugachev’s concubine), and finally, she is also threatened by Zurin. Let us remember that when Zurin’s soldiers detain Grinev as the “sovereign’s godfather”, the officer’s order follows: “take me to the prison and bring the hostess to you.” And then, when everything is explained, Zurin asks the lady to apologize for his hussars.
And in the chapter that Pushkin excluded from the final edition, the dialogue between Marya Ivanovna and Grinev is significant, when both are captured by Shvabrin:
“- That’s enough, Pyotr Andreich! Don’t ruin yourself and your parents for me. Let me out. Shvabrin will listen to me!
“No way,” I shouted with my heart. - Do you know what awaits you?
“I won’t survive dishonor,” she answered calmly.”
And when the attempt to free himself ends in failure, the wounded traitor Shvabrin issues exactly the same order as the faithful Zurin (who bears the surname Grinev in this chapter):
“- Hang him... and everyone... except her...”
Pushkin's woman is the main spoil of war and the most defenseless creature in war.
How to preserve a man's honor is more or less obvious. But to a girl?
This question probably tormented the author; it is no coincidence that he so persistently returns to the fate of Captain Mironov’s wife Vasilisa Egorovna, who, after the capture of the fortress, Pugachev’s robbers, “disheveled and stripped naked,” were taken out onto the porch, and then her, again naked, body lay on everyone’s in sight under the porch, and only the next day Grinev looks for it with his eyes and notices that it is moved a little to the side and covered with matting. In essence, Vasilisa Yegorovna takes upon herself what was intended for her daughter and averts dishonor from her.
A kind of comic antithesis to the narrator’s ideas about the preciousness of a girl’s honor are the words of Grinev’s commander, General Andrei Karlovich R., who, fearing the same thing that became moral torture for Grinev (“You can’t rely on the discipline of robbers. What will happen to the poor girl?”), He argues in a completely German, practical, everyday manner and in the spirit of Belkin’s “Undertaker”:
“(...) it’s better for her to be Shvabrin’s wife for now: he can now provide her with protection; and when we shoot him, then, God willing, suitors will be found for her. Pretty little widows don't sit as girls; that is, I wanted to say that a widow is more likely to find a husband than a girl.”
And Grinev’s hot answer is typical:
“I would rather agree to die,” I said in rage, “than to give it up to Shvabrin!”
Dialogue with Gogol
The Captain's Daughter was written almost simultaneously with Gogol's Taras Bulba, and between these works there is also a very intense, dramatic dialogue, hardly conscious, but all the more significant.
In both stories, the beginning of the action is connected with the manifestation of the father’s will, which contradicts mother's love and she is overcome.
From Pushkin: “The thought of a quick separation from me struck my mother so much that she dropped the spoon into the saucepan, and tears streamed down her face.”
From Gogol: “The poor old woman (...) did not dare to say anything; but, hearing about such a terrible decision for her, she could not help but cry; she looked at her children, with whom such a quick separation threatened her, - and no one could describe all the silent grief that seemed to tremble in her eyes and in her convulsively compressed lips.”
The fathers are decisive in both cases.
“Father did not like to change his intentions or postpone their execution,” Grinev reports in his notes.
Gogol’s wife Taras hopes that “perhaps Bulba, waking up, will delay his departure for a day or two,” but “he (Bulba. - A.V.) remembered very well everything that he ordered yesterday.”
Both Pushkin and Gogol’s fathers do not look for an easy life for their children, they send them to places where it is either dangerous, or at least there will be no social entertainment and extravagance, and give them instructions.
“Now, mother, bless your children! - said Bulba. “Pray to God that they fight bravely, that they always defend the honor of a knight, that they always stand for the faith of Christ, otherwise it would be better if they disappeared, so that their spirit would not be in the world!”
“Father told me: “Goodbye, Peter. Serve faithfully to whom you pledge allegiance; obey your superiors; Don’t chase their affection; don’t ask for service; do not dissuade yourself from serving; and remember the proverb: take care of your dress again, but take care of your honor from a young age.”
The conflict of both works is built around these moral precepts.
Ostap and Andriy, Grinev and Shvabrin - loyalty and betrayal, honor and betrayal - these are the leitmotifs of the two stories.
Shvabrin is written in such a way that nothing excuses or justifies him. He is the embodiment of meanness and insignificance, and for him the usually reserved Pushkin does not spare black colors. This is no longer a complex Byronic type, like Onegin, and not a cute parody of a disappointed romantic hero, like Alexey Berestov from “The Young Peasant Lady,” who wore a black ring with image of a dead woman heads. A man who is capable of slandering a girl who refused him (“If you want Masha Mironova to come to you at dusk, then instead of tender poems, give her a pair of earrings,” he tells Grinev) and thereby violate noble honor, will easily betray his oath. Pushkin consciously goes to simplify and reduce the image of a romantic hero and duelist, and the last mark on him is the words of the martyr Vasilisa Egorovna: “He was discharged from the guard for murder and was discharged from the guard, he does not believe in the Lord God.”
That’s right - he doesn’t believe in the Lord, this is the most terrible baseness of the human fall, and this assessment is precious in the mouth of one who once himself took “lessons of pure atheism,” but by the end of his life he artistically merged with Christianity.
Betrayal in Gogol is a different matter. It is, so to speak, more romantic, more seductive. Andria was destroyed by love, sincere, deep, selfless. The author writes bitterly about the last minute of his life: “Andriy was as pale as a sheet; you could see how quietly his lips moved and how he pronounced someone’s name; but it was not the name of the fatherland, or mother, or brothers - it was the name of a beautiful Pole.”
Actually, Gogol’s Andriy dies much earlier than Taras utters the famous “I gave birth to you, I will kill you.” He dies (“And the Cossack died! He disappeared for all the Cossack knighthood”) at the moment when he kisses the “fragrant lips” of the beautiful Pole and feels what “a person is given to feel only once in his life.”
But in Pushkin, the scene of Grinev’s farewell to Masha Mironova on the eve of Pugachev’s attack was written as if to spite Gogol:
“Farewell, my angel,” I said, “farewell, my dear, my desired one!” Whatever happens to me, believe that my last (emphasis added - A.V.) thought will be about you.”
And further: “I kissed her passionately and hastily left the room.”
Pushkin’s love for a woman is not an obstacle to noble loyalty and honor, but its guarantee and the sphere where this honor is found. to the greatest extent manifests itself. In the Zaporozhye Sich, in this revelry and “continuous feast”, which had something bewitching about it, there is everything except one. “Only women admirers could not find anything here.” At Pushkin's a beautiful woman is everywhere, even in the garrison outback. And there is love everywhere.
And the Cossacks themselves, with their spirit of male camaraderie, are romanticized and heroized by Gogol and depicted in a completely different way by Pushkin. First, the Cossacks treacherously go over to Pugachev’s side, then hand over their leader to the tsar. And both sides know in advance that they are wrong.
“- Take appropriate measures! - said the commandant, taking off his glasses and folding the paper. - Listen, it’s easy to say. The villain is apparently strong; and we have only one hundred and thirty people, not counting the Cossacks, for whom there is little hope, no matter how much it’s said to you, Maksimych. (The officer grinned.).”
“The impostor thought a little and said in a low voice:
- God knows. My street is cramped; I have little will. My guys are smart. They are thieves. I have to keep my ears open; at the first failure, they will ransom their neck with my head.”
But from Gogol: “As long as I have lived, I have never heard, gentlemen brothers, of a Cossack leaving somewhere or somehow selling his comrade.”
But the very word “comrades”, in whose glory Bulba makes a famous speech, is found in “The Captain’s Daughter” in the scene when Pugachev and his associates sing the song “Don’t make noise, mother, green oak tree” about the Cossack’s comrades - dark night, a damask knife, a good horse and a tight bow.
And Grinev, who had just witnessed the terrible outrage committed by the Cossacks in the Belogorsk fortress, is shocked by this singing.
“It is impossible to tell what effect this simple folk song about the gallows, sung by people doomed to the gallows, had on me. Their menacing faces, slender voices, the sad expression they gave to words that were already expressive - everything shocked me with some kind of pyitic horror.”
Movement of history
Gogol writes about the cruelty of the Cossacks - “beaten babies, cut off breasts of women, skin torn off from the legs up to the knees of those released (...) the Cossacks did not respect black-browed panyankas, white-breasted, fair-faced girls; they could not save themselves at the very altars,” and he does not condemn this cruelty, considering it an inevitable feature of that heroic time that gave birth to people like Taras or Ostap.
The only time he steps on the throat of this song is in the scene of Ostap's torture and execution.
“Let us not confuse our readers with a picture of hellish torments that would make their hair stand on end. They were the product of that rough, ferocious age, when man still led a bloody life alone military exploits and tempered his soul in it, not sensing humanity.”
Pushkin’s description of an old Bashkir man mutilated by torture, a participant in the unrest of 1741, who cannot say anything to his torturers because a short stump moves in his mouth instead of a tongue, is accompanied by a seemingly similar sentiment from Grinev: “When I remember that this happened on my age and that I have now lived to see the meek reign of Emperor Alexander, I cannot help but marvel at the rapid successes of enlightenment and the spread of the rules of philanthropy.”
But in general, Pushkin’s attitude to history was different from Gogol’s - he saw the meaning in its movement, saw the goal in it and knew that there is God’s Providence in history. Hence his famous letter to Chaadaev, hence the movement of the people’s voice in “Boris Godunov” from the thoughtless and frivolous recognition of Boris as the tsar at the beginning of the drama and to the remark “the people are silent” at its end.
In Gogol, “Taras Bulba” as a story about the past is contrasted with “ Dead Souls"of the present, and the vulgarity of the new time is worse for him than the cruelty of the old days.
It is noteworthy that in both stories there is a scene of the execution of heroes in front of a large crowd of people, and in both cases the person condemned to execution finds a familiar face or voice in a strange crowd.
“But when they brought him to his last mortal throes, it seemed as if his strength began to give out. And he looked around him: God, God, all the unknown, all the strange faces! If only someone close to him had been present at his death! He would not want to hear the sobs and contrition of a weak mother or the insane cries of his wife, tearing out her hair and beating her white breasts; Now he would like to see a firm husband who would refresh and console him with a reasonable word at his death. And he fell with strength and exclaimed in spiritual weakness:
- Father! Where are you? Can you hear?
- I hear! - rang out amid the general silence, and the whole million people shuddered at the same time.”
Pushkin is stingier here too.
“He was present at the execution of Pugachev, who recognized him in the crowd and nodded his head to him, which a minute later, dead and bloody, was shown to the people.”
But both there and there are the same motive.
Gogol's biological father sees his son off and quietly whispers: “Good, son, good.” In Pushkin, Pugachev is Grinev’s imprisoned father. This is how he appeared to him in a prophetic dream; as a father he took care of his future; and at the last minute of his life, in a huge crowd of people, there was no one closer to the robber and impostor Emelya, who had preserved his honor as a noble ignoramus.
Taras and Ostap. Pugachev and Grinev. Fathers and sons of bygone times.