The name of the novel is "Noble Nest" locally. Although this novel, like all of Turgenev's novels, is historically specific and, although in it the problems of the era are of paramount importance, the “local” coloring of his images and situations is no less significant. In the late 40s - early 50s, Turgenev made a kind of renewal of the image of the "Hamletist", giving his characterization not "temporary" ("A Hero of Our Time"), but a spatial and local definition ("Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district"). The novel "Noble Nest" is imbued with the consciousness of the flow of historical time, which takes away the lives of people, the hopes and thoughts of generations and entire layers of national culture. The image of the "noble nest" is locally and socially separated from the large, generalized image of Russia. In the "noble nest", in an old house in which generations of noblemen and peasants lived, the spirit of the motherland, Russia, breathes from it, "the smoke of the fatherland." The lyrical theme of Russia, reflections on the peculiarities of Russian historical conditions and characters in the "Noble Nest" anticipate the problems of the novel "Smoke". In the “noble nests”, in the houses of the Lavretskys and Kalitins, spiritual values \u200b\u200bwere born and matured, which will forever remain the property of Russian society, no matter how it changes. According to Saltykov-Shchedrin's definition, "The light poetry diffused in every sound of this novel" should be seen not only in the writer's love for the past and his humility before the supreme law of history, but also in his belief in the internal organic nature of the country's development, in the fact that there is, despite historical and social changes and antagonisms, spiritual continuity. One cannot ignore the fact that at the end of the novel the new life “plays” in the old house and the old garden, and does not leave this house, renouncing it, as, for example, in Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard.

In none of Turgenev's works to the same extent as in The Noble Nest is denial connected with affirmation, in none of the opposites is it woven into such a tight knot. The outgoing noble culture in this novel, like in no other, is perceived in unity with the folk. In the novel “On the Eve”, hopes, which, as it were, illuminate the melancholic narration of The Noble's Nest, are transformed into clear foresight and decisions.

The author's clarity of thought corresponds to his concept of a new ethical ideal - the ideal of active good - and his idea of \u200b\u200ba character that the younger generation is ready to recognize as their hero - an integral, strong, heroic character. The main question for Turgenev is about the relationship between thought and practical deed, about the importance of a person of action and a theoretician for society in this novel, is solved in favor of the hero who practically implements the idea. In "On the Eve" the writer predicts the onset of a new period of historical activity and claims that the main figure in public life is again becoming a man of action.

The title of the novel "On the Eve" - \u200b\u200b"temporary", in contrast to the "local" name "Noble Nest" - says that the novel depicts a moment in the life of society, and the content of the title defines this moment as "eve", a kind of prologue of historical events ... The patriarchal seclusion of everyday life depicted in The Noble Nest is receding into the past. The Russian noble house, with its age-old way of life, with its companions, neighbors, gambling losses, finds itself at the crossroads of world roads. Already Rudin from a provincial manor house got to the Parisian barricade and tested Russian liberation ideas in the street battles of Europe. The figure of Rudin on the barricade looked rather exotic. The Russian revolutionary was still little known in Europe, and the French blouses, next to which he died, mistook him for a Pole. Lavretsky did not see revolutionary workers in France. He was suppressed by the triumphant vulgarity of the bourgeoisie. France, like Russia, has been affected by political timelessness.

In "On the Eve" the idea of \u200b\u200bthe world character of political life is clearly expressed through the story of a leader of the Slavic liberation movement who found himself in Russia and met with sympathy and understanding here. The Russian girl finds application of her strength and selfless aspirations, participating in the struggle for the independence of the Bulgarian people. Left lonely in Italy after Insarov's death, Elena Stakhova goes to Bulgaria to continue his work, and writes to her family: “And why go back to Russia? What to do in Russia? " We have already noticed that Elena is not the first heroine of Turgenev to ask this question, but for Elena "business" means political struggle, active work in the name of freedom, social justice, and national independence of the oppressed people. There is reason to believe that the title of the novel What Is to Be Done? Is oriented precisely to this question of Elena, which concludes "On the Eve". Chernyshevsky, who showed Russian youth the ways of becoming involved in the revolutionary cause. Turgenev viewed the emerging liberation movements in the West not as random and scattered outbreaks, but as the beginning of a process that could cause seemingly unexpected “outbursts” of events in Russia. The title "On the Eve" not only reflects the plot of the novel (Insarov dies on the eve of the war for independence, in which he was ready to take part), but also emphasizes the crisis state of Russian society on the eve of the reform and hints at the general European significance of the liberation struggle in Bulgaria. In Italy, gripped by a protest against Austrian domination and representing, along with the Balkans, a hotbed of revolutionary and patriotic activity, Turgenev's heroes sense a pre-storm political situation.

Turgenev considered Don Quixote - the image in which he saw the embodiment and typifying model of revolutionary, effective human nature - no less tragic than the image of Hamlet - a nature doomed to the development of "pure thought." Fate, powerfully condemning the best representatives of the Hamletic tribe to loneliness and misunderstanding, weighs on Don Quixote as well.

Elena's last letter, which concludes the main action of the novel, is imbued with tragic moods. The heroine is obsessed with a thirst for self-sacrifice, which, as Turgenev's historically keen eye noticed, increasingly penetrated young minds. “An uprising is being prepared there, they are going to war; I will go to the sisters of mercy; I will go after the sick, the wounded ... I probably can't stand it all - so much the better... I am led to the edge of the abyss and must fall. Fate united us not without reason; who knows, maybe I killed him; now it's his turn to drag me along with him. I was looking for happiness - and perhaps I will find death. Apparently, it should be so; apparently it was the fault ... Forgive me for all the troubles I have caused you; it was not in my will ”(VIII, 165; our italics. - L. L.).

Elena's frame of mind is not so far from Liza Kalitina's ascetic self-denial. For both, the pursuit of happiness is inseparable from guilt, and guilt is inseparable from retribution. The revolutionary democrats argued with the Hegelian theory of the inevitability of the tragic course of history and opposed the ethics of renunciation. Chernyshevsky in his dissertation "Aesthetic relations of art to reality" and in the article "The Sublime and the Comic" attacks the concept of tragic guilt, seeing in it a transcendental justification for persecution of outstanding, creatively most gifted revolutionary leaders, on the one hand, and a theoretical justification of social inequality, on the other (II, 180-181). However, Chernyshevsky himself noted the ascetic moods of revolutionary youth and recognized the historical conditionality of these moods, endowing his hero, the revolutionary Rakhmetov, with the features of a rigor who renounces love and happiness.

Dobrolyubov in the article "When Will the Present Day Come?" opposed the idea of \u200b\u200bsacrifice, which, as it seemed to him, permeated the image of Bersenev. But in his other article - "A ray of light in a dark kingdom" - the critic saw precisely in "self-destruction", the suicide of the heroine of Ostrovsky's drama, ready to die rather than compromise and live in a house where, in her opinion, "not good" , an expression of the spontaneous revolutionary sentiments of the masses. Dobrolyubov considered the image of Elena to be the focus of the novel - the embodiment of young Russia; in it, according to the critic, expressed "the irresistible need for a new life, new people, which now embraces the whole of Russian society, and not even just one so-called educated" (VI, 120).

Thus, like Ostrovsky's heroine, Katerina, who embodies people's Russia, Elena Stakhova, a representative of the country's younger generation, is considered by Dobrolyubov to be a spontaneous nature, instinctively striving for justice and goodness. Elena “thirsts for learning”, wants to consciously comprehend her aspirations, to find an “idea” that would explain them and give them a general meaning. In Turgenev's Strange Story, the story of the tragic fate of the young lady Sophie, who, striving for the feat of self-denial, takes the foolishness of a “godly man” - a mad vagabond for the ideal of such service - ends with a short summary: “She was looking for a mentor and leader and found him” ( X, 185).

Dobrolyubov sees in the "apprenticeship" of the "Turgenev women", which is especially clearly manifested in the heroine "On the Eve", a typical feature of the modern young generation in general. “The“ desire for active good ”is in us, and there is strength; but fear, uncertainty and, finally, ignorance; what to do? - they constantly stop us ... and we ... wait for someone to explain to us what to do ”(VI, 120-121), - he asserts, as if responding to Elena's question,“ what to do in Russia? ". The critic opposes philanthropic activity, which does not require self-sacrifice from a person, does not put him in conflict relations with the carriers of evil, to an uncompromising struggle against social injustice. It is the last path, in his opinion, that can satisfy the moral needs of young enthusiasts and bring real, socially significant benefits. Dobrolyubov regards the search by the heroine of On the Eve of the “leader, teacher”, her attempts to find an ethical and theoretical solution to the question of which path to choose, what to strive for, what to take as an ideal, as a typological scheme of those searches through which Russian society has passed in recent decades: Elena “felt there was a liking for Shubin, as our society at one time was fond of art; but in Shubin there was no meaningful content ... I was carried away for a minute by serious science in the person of Bersenev; but serious science turned out to be modest, doubting, waiting for the first number to follow. And Elena just needed a person to appear ... independently and irresistibly striving for his goal and drawing others to it ”(VI, 121).

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe novel and its structural expression, so complex and polysemantic in The Noble Nest, in On the Eve are clear and unambiguous. Dobrolyubov defined the main theme of the novel as an image of a typical young girl's quest for the ideal in the moral sphere and in a real person, almost symbolically representing Russian society, and her dream of the unity of life with the ideal of “active good”. The heroine's heartfelt choice turns into a choice of an ethical concept, a spontaneous development of her attitude to speculative and practical decisions, which came to analysts and artists who interpreted the course of social events after 1848.

Elena chooses from four applicants for her hand, from four ideal options, because each of the heroes is the highest expression of his ethical and ideological type. Upon closer examination, we are convinced that these four options, in a sense, can be reduced to two pairs. Shubin and Bersenev represent the artistic-thinking type (the type of people of abstract-theoretical or figurative-artistic creativity), Insarov and Kurnatovsky belong to the “active” type, that is, to people whose vocation is practical “creativity”.

Each of the characters is compared with the other and opposed to the other, however, this opposition of heroes in pairs is given according to the general complex of features, determined by the main feature: readiness to act, finality (simplicity) of decisions, lack of reflection - on the one hand; abstraction from the direct needs of modern society, interest in their activities outside its utilitarian goals, introspection and criticism of their position, breadth of view - on the other. Within each “pair”, the comparison is more “diverse”, the main ideas of the characters, their ethical attitudes, their personal characters and the paths of life they have chosen are opposed. It is significant that Shubin and Bersenev are intimately close friends, while Insarov and Kurnatovsky are both Elena's suitors, one official, the other "chosen by the heart."

Considering Elena's search-selection of a “hero” as a process, an evolution similar to the development of Russian society over the past decade, Dobrolyubov argued that Shubin, and then Bersenev, correspond in their characters and ideological attitudes to more archaic, distant stages of this process. At the same time, both of these heroes are not so archaic as to be "incompatible" with Kurnatovsky (a figure of the new era) and Insarov (who is given special importance by the emerging revolutionary situation). Bersenev and Shubin are people of the 50s. None of them are purely Hamletic. Thus, Turgenev in "On the Eve" seemed to say goodbye to his favorite type. Both Bersenev and Shubin are genetically related to "superfluous people", but they lack many of the main features of the characters of this kind. Both of them, first of all, are not immersed in pure thought, the analysis of reality is not their main occupation. They are “saved” from reflection and withdrawal into abstract theory by professionalization, vocation, a keen interest in a certain field of activity, and constant work. Behind the images of these heroes, one can easily discern a circle of moods and ideas characteristic of the progressive people of the epoch of the “gloomy seven years”, in particular, their belief that by working in the field of art and science, one can preserve one's dignity, protect oneself from compromises and benefit society.

The image of the artist Shubin is an aesthetic and psychological study in the form of a portrait. Turgenev strove in the person of this hero to synthesize those features that constituted an ideal idea of \u200b\u200bart in the 50s.

Shubin in his appearance, carefully described at the beginning of the novel, is similar to Pechorin: short, strong blond, at the same time, he is pale and delicate, his small arms and legs testify to aristocracy. Having “gifted” his hero with the surname of the great Russian sculptor, Turgenev gave his portrait features reminiscent of Karl Bryullov's appearance.

From the very first conversation of the heroes - friends and antipodes (Bersenev's appearance is drawn as the direct opposite of Shubin's appearance: he is thin, black, awkward) - it turns out that one of them is "a clever, philosopher, the third candidate of Moscow University", a novice scientist, the other is an artist , "Artist", sculptor. But the characteristic features of the "artist" of the 50s are very different from the romantic idea of \u200b\u200bthe artist. Turgenev makes this clear in a special episode: Bersenev “points out” to Shubin what an artist should be like according to generally accepted concepts. The traditional stereotype "prescribes" to the artist a compulsory admiration of nature, an enthusiastic attitude to music, etc. Resisting the "norms" of behavior and attitudes that are forcibly imposed on him by routine, Shubin defends his interest in manifestations of real, sensual life, in its "material nature": I'm a butcher, sir; my job is to mold meat, meat, shoulders, legs, arms ”(VIII, 9). Shubin's approach to the profession of an artist, to the tasks of art and to his vocation reveals his organic connection with the era. The possibilities of sculpture as an artistic genus seem to him limited, and he wants to expand them, enriching sculpture with the artistic means of other arts. Creating sculptural portraits, he sets himself the task of conveying not so much the appearance as the spiritual essence of the original, not the "face lines", but the look of the eyes. At the same time, he has a special, sharpened ability to evaluate people and the ability to raise them into types. The accuracy of the characteristics that Shubin gives to the other heroes of the novel turns his expressions into winged words. These characteristics are in most cases the key to the types depicted in the novel.

Often the sharpening of the characteristics leads to the emergence of a satirical image, sometimes to the assimilation of a person to his primitive counterpart. Shubin's caricature and satirical comparisons are remarkable in that they arise from a dual and sometimes ambiguous assessment of a phenomenon and represent a certain approach, perception, consciously focused on a sharp, unusual angle of the object. The artist is able to see one and the same person in a series of sublime, graceful phenomena and in a satirical sense. Anna Vasilievna Stakhova is perceived by Shubin in one way as a woman worthy of respect, doing good deeds, in another - as a stupid and defenseless chicken. Much more significantly manifests itself this breadth of view of Shubin, his ability to see the same people from different points of view and in different ways to convey their image in the episode with two sculptural images of Insarov - heroic (his facial features are given an expression of courage, strength, honesty and nobility ) and satirical (here the main thing in his physiognomy is "dull importance, enthusiasm, limitation"). Both images convey the essence of the object. Shubin's assessment of his own personality is dual. He knows that he is naturally endowed with talent, and says about himself: “Perhaps the name of Pavel Shubin will eventually become a glorious name?”; at the same time, he admits another possibility - vulgarization, transformation into a submissive, weak-willed roommate by a brisk and stupid woman, sinking into vulgar provincial life. He embodies this possibility in a cartoon figurine. He sees the origins of this danger in the traits of his character, which make him akin to "superfluous people" of a reduced, provincial type (cf. the story of Turgenev's "Petushki", Ostrovsky's "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident"; there is a similar episode in Goncharov's Oblomov); in art, in his profession, in serious pursuits of it - salvation from the fate of Russian Hamlet.

The very themes of Shubin's work, his ideas (for example, a bas-relief: a boy with a goat) speak of him as an artist of the middle of the century, they resemble the works of Ramazanov, “anticipate” the young Antokolsky.

Shubin intensely reflects on contemporary social and ethical problems. He owns in the novel all the sayings expressing the author's point of view, and criticism (including Dobrolyubov) constantly referred to his words, defining the fruitful, historically progressive ideas of the novel. Thus, the author of the novel conveyed all his originality and strength as a thinker and analyst to Shubin, and not to Insarov and not to the representative of science - Bersenev. This clearly expressed Turgenev's view of the artist's personality. Turgenev did not share the theory of unconscious creativity, which was widespread among the supporters of "pure art". However, the talent of generalization, typification, sharp thought in the artist, depicted by Turgenev, is combined with the ability to unconsciously, a feeling to perceive the environment and appreciate in others the gift of spontaneous penetration into the essence of life phenomena. Shubin has long conversations with the observant and silent Uvar Ivanovich, delving into the vague meaning of his irrational assessments and prophecies. He asks him the most important question in the novel: “When will our time come? When will people be born in our country? - Give time, - answered Uvar Ivanovich, - they will ”(VIII, 142). Only Shubin understands the mysterious connection of the old nobleman, immersed in complete inaction and contemplation, with the "choral principle", "black earth power", his ability to penetrate the people's point of view and foresee the spontaneous processes taking place among the people. However, Shubin understands, develops incoherent, vague speeches of Uvar Ivanovich. In their primordial formlessness, amorphousness, they are just as unacceptable to him as Insarov's “simple”, rationalistic answers to “damned questions”. As a personality, Shubin was given features that corresponded to Turgenev's view of the ideal artist. He is graceful, simple-minded, perspicacious, kind and selfish, loves life in its real manifestations and forms, spontaneously and joyfully enjoys beauty, not romantic, ideal and abstract, but rough, alive, he longs for happiness and is able to indulge in it. This is a man "with the sun in his blood." At the same time, he, more than anyone else in the novel, is capable of introspection, of an insightful and witty assessment of phenomena, of understanding someone else's spiritual world and of dissatisfaction with his own. Creative imagination reveals to him the charm of that inner animation, which is permeated by Insarov, and he dreams that such a spiritual uplift would become possible for everyone. This open-mindedness of Shubin is characteristic of Turgenev, but does not correspond to the ideas of an ideal artistic nature, which were usual in the writers' environment in the 50s. It is through the lips of Shubin that the novel expresses the idea that art cannot give satisfaction to modern youth, thirsting for self-denial for the sake of universal happiness. Thus, having said goodbye to the ideal of the mysterious power of art standing above ethics and ideological strife in The Noble Nest, in On the Eve, Turgenev pronounces the final verdict on illusions about artistic creativity as a sphere of higher activity, capable of resolving all conflicts and issues of the time within itself.

If the author of the novel put the most important generalizations, definitions and assessments into Shubin's mouth, up to the recognition of the legitimacy of "Elena's choice," he conveyed a number of ethical declarations to Bersenev. Bersenev is the bearer of the high ethical principle of selflessness and service to the idea ("the idea of \u200b\u200bscience"), as Shubin is the embodiment of the ideal "high" egoism, egoism of a healthy and integral creative nature. Turgenev stressed that Bersenev was brought up in the traditions of noble culture. Bersenev's father - the owner of eighty-two souls - freed his peasants before his death. Schellingian and mystic, he studied abstract philosophical subjects, but he was a republican, admired Washington. He anxiously followed world events, and the treatise he wrote was related to utopian theories of humanism, in any case “the events of 48 shook him to the ground (it was necessary to redo the whole book), and he died in the winter of 53, not waiting for his son to leave the university, but in advance ... blessing him to serve science ”(VIII, 50).

The characterization is concrete and clear in historical and social terms. Bersenev's father, an abstract humanist and utopian, died a little before the first portents of a new social upsurge, deeply shaken by the impressions of the catastrophe of 1848; he pointed out to his son abstract science as an object worthy of service (faith in enlightenment remained unshaken in him). So Turgenev creates a biography-concept for his hero, which was then perceived by other writers. The main significance of Bersenev's biography was not in its specific content, but in the very method of constructing a story about the fate of one person in connection with the historical evolution of the social environment and with the assessment of philosophical and ethical concepts that replace each other in the course of the historical development of society. This method was then mastered by Pomyalovsky (who developed it and gave it an openly publicistic character), Chernyshevsky (for whom it became a rethought element of his original artistic system), Pisemsky and many others.

Going into science as a sphere of pure and independent creativity was widespread among the thinking people of Russia in the middle of the century. Chernyshevsky himself hesitated as to which path to choose - whether to become a philologist or a publicist writer. Since the 60s, natural science studies have especially attracted independent-minded young people with the opportunity to combine the development of accurate knowledge with the freedom to express their philosophical, materialistic views.

Bersenev was given a moral trait to which Turgenev assigned a particularly high place on the scale of spiritual merit: kindness. In his opinion, the kindness of Don Quixote attaches exceptional ethical significance to this hero in the spiritual life of mankind: “Everything will pass, everything will disappear, the highest rank, power, all-embracing genius, everything will crumble to dust. But good deeds will not go up in smoke; they are more durable than the most radiant beauty ”(VIII, 191). Bersenev's kindness comes from the deep, traditionally inherited by him "Schillerian" humanism and from its inherent "justice", the objectivity of the historian, who is able to rise above personal, selfish interests and determine the meaning of the phenomena of reality regardless of his personality. This is where the modesty interpreted by Dobrolyubov as a sign of the moral weakness of the "superfluous person", his understanding of the secondary importance of his interests in the spiritual life of modern society, his "second number" in the hierarchy of types of modern leaders.

In the mediation of Bersenev, his patronage of the love of Elena and Insarov, an objective understanding of what Elena is striving for, the consciousness of the "centrality" of Insarov's nature ("number one") and their correspondence to each other, and most importantly - strict adherence to the ethical principle of the individual's right to freedom of development and freedom of feeling, ingrained and "second nature" respect for someone else's "I".

Significant are the similarities between Bersenev and Granovsky (the text of the novel gives direct indications that he is a student of Granovsky and looks at his teacher as a role model). The personality of Bersenev brings to the fore those features that were noted by Chernyshevsky ("Sketches of the Gogol period", positively assessed by Turgenev) in the best people of the 40s: camaraderie, high respect for someone else's personality, the ability to "pacify" passions, suppress quarrels of friends, which was distinguished by the "meek and loving" Stankevich (III, 218): the humanity and sensitivity of Ogarev, dedication to the cause of enlightenment, the simplicity and dedication of Granovsky, - "he was a simple and modest man who did not dream of himself, who did not know pride" (III, 353 ), - all this is akin to the character of Bersenev.

Thus, Turgenev emphasizes the ideality of his scientist hero, endowing him with the character traits of people who have become legend, habitually perceived by the democratic reader of the 60s as ideal images. At the same time, the type of scientist as an ideal turns out to be historically disavowed. Disdainfully naming the themes of Bersenev's scientific works, which have exclusively historical significance, and citing words from the novel that experts praised the author, Dobrolyubov writes about the scientist's work as a surrogate for “real activity”: “The structure of our life turned out to be such that Bersenev had only one means of salvation: "To dry up the mind with fruitless science" ... And it is also a blessing that at least in this he could find salvation ... "(VI, 136-137).

Describing Bersenev's activity with a quote from Lermontov's Duma, Dobrolyubov thus assessed it as the fruit of an “era of timelessness” and as a manifestation of noble culture, the occupation of “superfluous people”. Such an attitude to the professional activity of a scientist-historian could have arisen only at a time when a revolutionary situation was taking shape in the country and the thirst for direct life-building, social creativity had captured the best people of the younger generation.

It is interesting to note that all the young people surrounding Elena renounce aristocracy and noble class narrowness, all claim to be a worker and even a proletarian - also a sign of the era, representing a mystified reflection in the minds of people of the historical process of democratization. Labor, democracy, service to the cause have become the ethical ideal of a generation that has replaced the ideal of elitism and exclusivity. Bersenev says about people of his type: “We ... are not sybarites, not aristocrats, not darlings of fate and nature, we are not even martyrs, we are toilers, toilers and toilers. Put on your leather apron, hard worker, and stand behind your working machine, in your dark workshop! " (VIII, 126).

The hero's dramatic monologue expresses a spontaneous premonition that in the eyes of society, a scientist steadily turns from a priest of science, possessing the gift of penetrating the mysterious essence of things (such is, for example, the interpretation of the scientist's personality in Goethe's Faust) turns into a mental worker who brings society a lasting income and content with more or less modest wages for their work, without moral satisfaction, recognition, glory ("Passenger First Class" by AP Chekhov).

The optimism and active practicality generated by social and political changes were not expressed in all people of the 60s in selfless service to the common good. The bearer of the traits of selfish bargaining in the novel is (the chief secretary of the Senate is the careerist Kurnatovsky. It was in the dispute with Kurnatovsky that Bersenev, ready to recognize the secondary importance of science in relation to the struggle for the immediate improvement of people's lives, defends the independence of scientific activity, opposing the doctrines of subordinating it to bureaucratic "types »Government.

The representative of art, Shubin, more painfully than Bersenev perceives the cooling of the progressive people of society towards his work. Shubin cannot agree with either vulgar or intellectual rejection of art. He is burdened by the imposition of a certain stereotype of behavior on him as an artist, and the traditional attitude towards the artist as an inspired and idle child-dreamer. Unswerving and persistent work is done by Shubin's ethical ideal. In the name of his calling, he is ready to play the lot of an ordinary "worker".

Insarov - the ideal embodiment of an active and consciously heroic nature - is characterized in the novel by a sum of features in which democracy, hard work, and simplicity of the proletarian are not the last. They talk about him like that - as a commoner, "some Montenegrin". Its social characteristics turned out to be especially important for the reader of the 60s, since in it Turgenev showed the process of democratization of the advanced, thinking stratum of Russian society, “complete displacement of the nobility by commoners in our liberation movement,” and idealized a new social type. Of course, the foreign origin of Insarov is very significant, however, the "proletariat", otherwise the diversity of Insarov, combined with the radicalism of convictions and the readiness to act boldly and decisively, not sparing his life, associated him with new ideals and new heroes of Russian society, turned his image into a "substitute ", In the form of expressing the thought about the inevitable appearance of such a Russian hero.

It is interesting to note that not only Bersenev, Insarov, and partly Shubin feel themselves to be "thinking proletarians." This "title" is also claimed by such a "figure" of the younger generation as the antipode of Bersenev and Insarov - Kurnatovsky.

The characterization of Kurnatovsky, "attributed" by the author to Elena, reveals the idea that Kurnatovsky, like Insarov, belongs to the "active type" and about the mutually hostile positions they hold within this very broad psychological type. At the same time, this characteristic also reveals how historical tasks, the need to solve which are clear to the whole society, force people of various political orientations to put on the mask of a progressive person and cultivate in themselves the traits that are attributed by society to such people. Elena informs Insarov about Kurnatovsky: “There is something iron about him ... and stupid and empty at the same time - and honest; they say he is definitely very honest. You, too, are iron, but not so ... he even once called himself a proletarian. We are laborers, he says. I thought: if Dmitry had said that, I would not have liked it, but let this one speak to himself! let him brag! .. He must be self-confident, hardworking, capable of self-sacrifice ... that is, to donate his benefits, but he is a great despot. The trouble is to fall into his hands! "

In conclusion, Elena tells Shubin's opinion that Insarov and Kurnatovsky “are both practical people, but look what the difference is; there is a real, living, life-given ideal; and here it is not even a sense of duty, but simply service honesty and efficiency without content ”; “But in my opinion,” says Elena, “what do you have in common? You believe, but he does not, because you cannot believe in yourself alone ”(VIII, 108).

It would seem that in the characterization of Kurnatovsky, the clarity of characterization inherent in the novel "On the Eve", the peremptory character of the author's verdict reaches its apogee. The writer does not want to waste fictional funds to depict this type, which is too clear for him. Insarov acts as the main engine of action in the novel; his personality, the work to which he devoted himself entirely, determine the fate of the heroine. The "official" groom - Kurnatovsky - does not bother Elena at all. Young people decide their destiny boldly and independently. The characterization of Kurnatovsky is given succinctly, in one place, almost in the style of the famous "registers of characters" that Turgenev compiled in the early stages of work on the works. However, putting the last point in this characterization, the writer moves away from straightforwardness, a dispute between Shubin and Elena arises on the most basic issue of assessing Kurnatovsky's personality. Elena with words that almost literally coincide with the key wording of the article "Hamlet and Don Quixote" opposes Kurnatovsky to Insarov as an egoist, without faith and ideal, that is, "denies" him the main line of the active type ("Don Quixote", after terminology of Turgenev); Shubin directly ranks him among the leaders, although it is stipulated that his ideal follows not from the living needs of society, but from formal dedication to official duty, a "principle" without content.

The dispute between Elena and Shubin is in the nature of a joint search for truth. Disagreeing with Shubin and putting forward a seemingly opposite point of view, Elena nevertheless attaches serious importance to his words, takes them into account. Each of them turns out to be right, and in general, their dispute clarifies not only the characteristics of Kurnatovsky, but also the idea of \u200b\u200ban active type. A person of an active character, capable of selflessly serving an idea, is not only a revolutionary or fighter of the national liberation movement, but also a bureaucrat, for whom belief in the state and government plans replaces any other ideal.

However, in accordance with the artistic structure of the novel "On the Eve", Kurnatovsky is not only an image of a certain modern type, but also the embodiment of an ideal: he is an ideal administrator - a bureaucrat of a new type, characteristic of the 60s. Kurnatovsky is energetic, decisive, honest and adamant in following a certain principle ("iron"). Behind the external and purely psychological features of Kurnatovsky as a person lies a certain worldview, it embodies the result of the evolution of some ideas of the 40s, a political, philosophical concept, the "solution" of social problems of our time by thought, which developed in a peculiar direction. In pronouncing his verdict on the “hero of the case” - Kurnatovsky, Turgenev assesses not only the “case” itself, but also the concept, the ideological direction on which it is based. Herzen's Past and Thoughts contains an episode of his acquaintance with the real bearer of this kind of ideas, a type that was new in 1857 and seemed ideal, not yet completely debunked in the early 60s. Herzen writes:

“In the fall of 1857 Chicherin came to London. We were looking forward to him: once one of Granovsky's favorite students, a friend of Korsh and Ketcher, he represented a loved one for us. We have heard about his cruelty, about conservative wishes (aspirations. - L. L.), about immeasurable pride and doctrinalism, but he was still young ... A lot of angular things are being sharpened by the passage of time.

- I thought for a long time whether to go to you or not ... I, as you know, fully respecting you, not in everything agree with you. That's where Chicherin started. He came up not just, not young, he had stones in his bosom ... The light of his eyes was cold, in the timbre of his voice there was a challenge and a terrible, repulsive self-confidence. From the first words I sensed that it was not an enemy, but an enemy ... The distances dividing our views and our temperaments became apparent soon ... He saw the upbringing of the people in the empire and preached a strong state and the insignificance of a person in front of him. One can understand that these thoughts were applied to the Russian question. He was a governmentalist, he considered the government much higher than society and its aspirations ... All this teaching came from him from a whole dogmatic structure, from which he could always and immediately deduce his philosophy of bureaucracy "(IX, 248-249; our italics .- L. L.).

The similarity of external manners, character and, most importantly, the worldview of Kurnatovsky in Turgenev and Chicherin in the image of Herzen is striking. Moreover, Herzen's analysis of the personality of one of the main ideologists of the "state school" clarifies the meaning of the contradictory reviews of Elena and Shubin about Kurnatovsky (on the one hand, he has no ideal, he is an egoist, on the other, he is able to sacrifice his own benefit, he is honest; his activities and selfless and does not follow from the needs of society). Kurnatovsky's "faith" is faith in the state "as applied to the Russian question" (Herzen's expression), that is, devotion to the estate-bureaucratic, monarchical state. Realizing that reforms are inevitable, figures like Kurnatovsky associated all possible changes in the life of the country with the functioning of a strong state, and considered themselves carriers of the idea of \u200b\u200bthe state and executors of its historical mission, hence the self-confidence, egocentrism, and hence the willingness to sacrifice personal benefits.

However, faith in a monarchical state and in a bureaucratic "strong" system is faith in a system that historically can be filled with very different content (reforms and counter-reforms).

Saltykov-Shchedrin, the most “political” writer in Russia in the mid-19th century, who saw the colossal historical significance of the state in the development of society, more than once in his satirical artistic manner touched upon the issue of “new”, modern “purely” bureaucrats who were preparing themselves to conduct government reforms that claimed the role of leaders who were destined to turn the "wheel of history" and then became servants of reaction. In the satirical drama Shadows, for example, he depicts the situation at the beginning of the 60s, when the implementation of reforms was combined with an attack on any free thought, with the suppression of the democratic forces of society. The heroes of the drama, young bureaucrats who believed in the doctrine of a "strong state" and convinced themselves that any system proposed from above is a blessing, come to naked careerism, cynicism, and an inner consciousness of the "monstrous corvee" that they bear by showing their " obligatory assistance ”to any nefarious design of the government.

N. G. Pomyalovsky was the largest denouncer of bureaucracy among the sixties. Having learned a lot from Turgenev and Saltykov, he saw completely different socio-political aspects of the problem of bureaucracy and expressed his observations through a special, specific system of images. However, the episode of Kurnatovsky's matchmaking in "On the Eve" left a noticeable mark in his creative imagination. In Molotov, he repeated this situation, making the image of the groom-official a grotesque-satirical embodiment of the formalism of the bureaucratic apparatus.

In more detail than Turgenev in the novel "On the Eve", he developed the conflict between fathers and children, seeking the right to freedom of feeling and independence of choice in life. Turgenev did not complicate the transparent construction of the novel by analyzing this conflict, which was not so important for him in this case. At the end of the 60s, he devoted his novel Smoke (1867) to the problem of bureaucracy, the fate of young bureaucrats, figures of the "new time", as well as the question of the international significance of the Russian administrative system. Pomyalovsky, who “plunged” the conflict common in Russian tales since the 1940s, into a peculiarly illuminated and understandable moral world of the bureaucratic-philistine environment, against its background considered those real, new paths that young people are trying to blaze in the old, established society.

The relationship between Elena and Insarov is "ideal" in many ways. The writer draws heroes flying like moths into the light to fight, not seeing and not recognizing the "small" obstacles in their path, ignoring them. There is still not that decisive rejection of the old society and its morality, that war with them, which was declared in "What is to be done?", But there is a poetic, emotional affirmation of the intrinsic value and irresistible force of an ideal impulse, its fruitfulness.

We see that in "On the Eve" Turgenev consistently debunked three ideals, in the formation and strengthening of the influence of two of which on society he played an important role. Turgenev contributed to the assertion among Russian readers of the authority of the personality of the artist, poet, whose activities can be opposed to participation in the practical affairs of the upper classes of society. The ideal of learning was also no stranger to Turgenev. Indeed, quite shortly before "On the Eve" - \u200b\u200bin "Noble Nest" - he internally opposed Lavretsky, striving for "positive knowledge", to his former heroes - "pure theoreticians", abstract "dreamy" thinkers. Soon, in the novel Fathers and Sons, he will again write about learning and faith in science as the most important features of a new type of people, the most modern, in a sense, ideal exponents of society's aspirations.

Turgenev did not put his hand to the assertion of the ideal of bureaucratic "state" reformism. In Turgenev's system of artistic images, the liberal bureaucrat-reformer is always a negative figure, although Turgenev understood that this type could have its ideal expression in the minds of his contemporaries. The peculiarity of the artistic debunking of ideals by Turgenev was that he, "revitalizing" them, giving them the structural form of a living human character, individuality endowed with a certain worldview and style of behavior, reduced them to a type. The ethical ideal, the social decision, born of the seeking minds of the era, received a real, life embodiment, realization and thus revealed their social and temporal limitations. Turgenev showed that this ideal had already "materialized", and often that humanity had already passed the stage of its embodiment on its way.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe ideal for him was inseparable from the idea of \u200b\u200bthe most modern, most progressive human character, ultimately from the idea of \u200b\u200bhistory and time. This trait, inherent in Turgenev to the highest degree, was also characteristic of other writers of the 60s, especially those of them who passed through the school of the 40s with its historical philosophism. A. N. Ostrovsky in the 70s wrote about the ability to destroy old ideals as an obligatory trait of a true artist: “Every time has its own ideals, and the duty of every honest writer (in the name of eternal truth) is to destroy the ideals of the past when they have become obsolete ... ".

It was already noted above that the liberation movement in Europe is viewed in "On the Eve" as the beginning of a revolutionary situation in a number of countries, as a possible prologue to a change in the political climate in Russia. Insarov utters words that immediately attracted the attention of readers and still make the interpreters of the novel think: “Note: the last man, the last beggar in Bulgaria and I - we wish the same thing. We all have one goal. Understand what confidence and strength this gives! " (VIII, 68). These words are seen as an expression of the thought "about the need to unite all the advanced forces of Russian society to fight for reforms" and as a political lesson for revolutionary democrats, preaching that "only the struggle for" national "interests gives birth to heroes."

Without denying the possibility of some political and didactic meaning, contained both in this phrase of Insarov and in the very depiction in the novel of the national liberation struggle uniting the nation, it should be noted, however, that for Turgenev, no less, and perhaps more important, was the other side of the matter. In "On the Eve", despite the fact that this novel by its very structure is perhaps the most "rational", journalistic of the writer's novels, the lyrical element is unusually strong. The form of expression of a new ideal and a new one that replaces the recent depression, social revival is the general tone of cheerfulness, energy, inspiration, which is felt in the moods of the main characters and, as it were, illuminates other characters in the novel with a reflected light.

Describing the position of a person in different periods of the life of society and under different political conditions, Herzen wrote about the revolutionary situation: “There are epochs when a person is free in a common cause. The activity to which every energetic nature strives then coincides with the striving of the society in which it lives. At such times - also quite rare - everything rushes into the cycle of events, lives in it, suffers, enjoys, perishes ... Even those individuals who are at enmity against the general stream are also carried away and satisfied in a real struggle ... At such a time, no the need to talk about self-sacrifice and devotion — all this is done by itself and is extremely easy. - Nobody backs down because everyone believes. In fact, there are no victims, the viewers seem to be victims of actions that constitute a simple execution of the will, a natural way of behavior ”(VI, 120-121).

Herzen, who wrote these lines under the direct impression of the revolutionary situation at the end of the 1940s in Europe, speaks of the historical possibility of social unity - if not unity in worldview and aspirations (cf. the words of Insarov, who argued that all Bulgarians want the same thing), but in activity, in a state of mind that expresses social enthusiasm. It is significant that Herzen writes about reactionary leaders that they are "at enmity against the general stream." The revolutionary situation, in his opinion, covers the entire society, the majority of citizens in one way or another participate in the struggle on the side of progressive forces, since revolutionary changes are becoming a historical necessity. The revolutionary situation in the 60s in Russia made the main mood, the main tone of society, optimism, the desire for happiness, faith in the fruitfulness of political creativity, and the revolutionaries, who realized the inevitability of self-sacrifice in the struggle, angrily protested against the concept of “sacrifice”.

Interest in the epochs of popular upsurge, the activity of all members of society, in historical periods when the chorus of collective political action sounded powerfully and each individual (often aimed at achieving private and personal goals) will poured into the mainstream of great historical achievements, embraced Russian literature. Its highest expression was L. Tolstoy's novel War and Peace.

The life of the main character in "On the Eve" is tragic; and, of course, it is no coincidence that Insarov dies without joining the fight of which he dreams, and Elena, preparing to take part in the war, anticipates her imminent end and is looking for it. Turgenev was characterized by an acute awareness of the tragic nature of the course of history. It was reflected in the images of his heroes - the children of their time - and in their fates. Elena, as noted above, is brought closer to Liza Kalitina by a sacrificial impulse. Moreover, the writer connects the dedication of both heroines, their inherent thirst for feat with the traditions of national asceticism (it is not for nothing that the beggar Katya “appears” in her dream, instilling in her the dream of wandering and leaving the family). However, unlike Liza Kalitina, Elena is free from ascetic morality. She is a modern, courageous girl, easily breaking with the oppression of traditions, striving for happiness.

Before joining his life with hers, Insarov introduces his beloved woman into his plans, interests and concludes with her a kind of contract, which presupposes on her part a conscious assessment of their possible future. This is exactly how, according to Chernyshevsky, expressed in the article “Russian people on rendez-vous,” a “decent person” would behave when meeting with Asya, and Chernyshevsky himself tried to “conclude” such an agreement with his fiancée. Elena's selfless love and her noble determination destroy Insarov's ascetic isolation, make him happy. Dobrolyubov especially appreciated the pages of the novel, which portrayed the bright and happy love of young people. The novel contains a meaningful conversation between Shubin and Uvar Ivanovich: “... Insarov coughs up blood; this is bad. I saw him the other day ... his face is wonderful, but unhealthy, very unhealthy.

- Fighting ... it's all the same, - said Uvar Ivanovich.

- Fighting is all the same, for sure ... but living is not all the same. But she will want to live with him.

- It's a young business, - Uvar Ivanovich responded.

- Yes, a young, glorious, courageous deed. Death, life, struggle, fall, triumph, love, freedom, homeland ... Good, good. God grant everyone! It's not like sitting up to your throat in a swamp and trying to pretend that you don't care when you really don't really care. And there - the strings are stretched, the links are for the whole world, or they are torn ”(VIII, 141).

Shubin opposes the view of his generation, according to which life, happiness, and struggle are inseparable, to the idea of \u200b\u200bUvar Ivanovich, an old man, of struggle as synonymous with death (therefore, it doesn't matter whether a healthy or sick person goes to fight). Regardless of whether triumph or death leads a struggle, it makes a person happy ("God grant everyone").

The aspirations and needs of the young "children of the time" were characterized by Turgenev in the novel, and this was its main novelty. In "On the Eve" a hero of the 60s was found, albeit nominally; in fact, it was synthesized from historical needs, emerging ideals, individual observations of the trends in the development of the historical process. Not wanting to pass this hero off as a typical, real rooted phenomenon of Russian life, Turgenev gave his idea the appearance of a life-like, historically concrete hero - a fighter of the national liberation movement. Why this particular type was chosen by the writer as a “substitute” for the Russian revolutionary leader, a “substitute” expressing both the inevitability of such a hero's transformation into the main figure of our time and the incompleteness of the process of his formation, we had the opportunity to say above.

The fundamental feature on which Turgenev built the character of this hero is his active, active nature, his significance as a social engine, a person who is assigned to implement tasks that are at the same time the simplest and most important for a person, people, time.

N. Shchedrin (M.E.Saltykov). Full collection op. T. XVIII. M., 1937, p. 144.

The clarity and some deliberate sketchiness of both the general structure of the novel and its individual images were noted by contemporary criticism for the writer. See: K. N. Leontiev. A letter from a provincial to Turgenev. - Otechestvennye zapiski, 1860, No. 5, dep. III, p. 21; N.K. Mikhailovsky. Literary critical articles. M., 1957, p. 272.

SM Petrov rightly writes: “The problem of the social role and significance of the various democratic intelligentsia is posed by Turgenev for the first time not in Fathers and Children, but in On the Eve” (S. M. Petrov. I. S. Turgenev. M. , 1968, p. 167).

V. I. Lenin. Full collection cit., vol. 25, p. 94.

Chernyshevsky in What Is To Be Done ?, speaking about Lopukhov's work at the plant, very closely reproduced the wording of Kurnatovsky's confessions, who asserted that he almost changed his service in the Senate to the position of manager of a large plant in search of a live business. Needless to say, the meaning of Lopukhov's activities at the plant is essentially the opposite of the administrative work that attracts Kurnatovsky, but the willingness of both heroes to abandon office studies (Lopukhov leaves science) for the sake of communicating with the direct producers of material wealth and understanding by them (each in accordance with his own worldview) the importance of industrial enterprises in society characterizes both of these heroes as figures of a new era. The possibility of a direct polemic by Chernyshevsky (or his hero - Lopukhov) with the understanding of the importance of organizational work at the plant, which is stated in Kurnatovsky's reasoning, is also not excluded.

A. N. Ostrovsky. Full collection op. T. XV. M., 1953, p. 154.

M.C. Clement. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. L., 1936, p. 123; A. I. Batuto's commentary to "On the Eve" (VIII, 533).

The writing

The novel begins in the summer of 1853 in the dacha Kuntsevo near Moscow. Two young people are in love with Elena, the twenty-year-old daughter of the nobleman Nikolai Artemyevich Stakhov and Anna Vasilievna Stakhova, a native of Shubina, 26-year-old Pavel Yakovlevich Shubin, an artist-sculptor, and 23-year-old Andrei Petrovich Bersenev, an aspiring philosopher, the third candidate of Moscow University. Elena is more sympathetic to Bersenev, which causes annoyance and jealousy in Shubin, but this does not in any way affect his friendship with Bersenev. Friends are completely different: if Shubin, as befits an artist, sees everything sharply and vividly, wants to be “number one” and longs for love-pleasure, then Bersenyev is more restrained, considers the purpose of his life - to put himself “number two” and love for him first of all - sacrifice.

Elena adheres to a similar point of view. She tries to help and protect everyone, patronizes the oppressed animals, birds, insects she meets, provides charity and gives alms. Bersenev invites his university friend, the Bulgarian Insarov, to Kuntsevo. Dmitry Nikanorovich Insarov is a man of iron spirit, a patriot of his homeland. He came to be educated in Russia with only one purpose - to then apply the knowledge gained in the liberation of his native Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke. Bersenev introduces Insarov to Elena. Light, real, mutual, disinterested, sensual love flares up between Insarov and Elena. Bersenyev, remaining true to his principles, steps aside. Passionately in love, Insarov, faithfully serving his main purpose, is trying to drown out love with his departure, in order to protect his chosen one ahead of time, awaiting her terrible trials. However, Elena at the last minute is the first to open up to Insarov and admits that she does not see her further life without him. Insarov surrenders to the power of feelings, but he cannot forget about the purpose of his life and prepares to leave for Bulgaria. Elena knows no other for herself how to follow the person so beloved by her. In search of a solution to the difficulties of the problem of leaving Russia, Insarov catches a cold and becomes seriously ill. Bersenev and Elena are nursing him. Insarov is recovering a little and is secretly married to Elena.

Thanks to the "well-wishers" this secret is revealed and serves as a frank blow for Elena's parents, who see her future in marriage with the collegiate adviser Yegor Andreevich Kurnatovsky. However, thanks to Anna Andreevna's love for her daughter, Elena and Insarov's marriage is still blessed and financially supported. In November, Elena and Insarov leave Russia. Insarov has no direct route to Bulgaria. His illness is progressing and he has to undergo treatment in Vienna for two months. In March Elena and Insarov come to Venice, Italy. From here, Insarov intends to reach Bulgaria by sea. Elena constantly looks after Insarov and even, sensing the approach of something terrible and irreparable, does not at all regret her actions. Her feelings for Insarov only deepen. Elena blooms from this love. Insarov, worn out by the illness, is fading away and rests only on love for Elena and the desire to return to his homeland.
On the day of the arrival of the ship, Insarov dies rapidly. Before his death, he says goodbye to his wife and homeland. Elena decides to bury her husband in Bulgaria and sets out on the arrived for the Insarov ship across the dangerous Adriatic Sea. On the way, the ship falls into a terrible storm and the further fate of Elena is not known. In her last letter home, Elena says goodbye to her family and writes that she does not repent of anything and sees her happiness in fidelity to the memory and work of the whole life of her chosen one. The main character of the novel is the Bulgarian Dmitry Insarov, who personifies a new generation of people of civil feat, whose word does not differ from deed. Insarov speaks exclusively the truth, he certainly fulfills his promise, does not change his decisions, and his whole life is subordinated to one supreme goal for him - the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke. Insarov's ideological core is the belief in the alliance of all anti-serfdom forces, the alliance of all parties and political trends in the struggle against the forces of enslavement and humiliation of man. Drawing the image of Insarov, Turgenev endows his hero not only with a rare mind (not everyone, however, like now, manages to enter Moscow University), but also excellent physical strength and dexterity, vividly describing the scene of protection at the Tsaritsyn pond by Insarov Zoe - Elena's companion from encroachments of a drunken hulk of a German. Love in the novel is constantly opposed to the common cause.

It is much easier for Elena here than for Insarov. She completely surrenders to the power of love and thinks exclusively with her heart. Love inspires her, and under the influence of this great power, Elena blooms. Insarov is much more difficult. He has to split between his chosen one and the main goal of his life. Sometimes, love and a common cause are not quite compatible, and Insarov repeatedly tries to escape from love. However, he does not succeed, and even at the moment of his death Insarov utters two characteristic words: "reseda" - the subtle smell of Elena's perfume and "Randich" - Insarov's compatriot and like-minded person in the fight against the Turkish enslavers. With this opposition, Turgenev is probably trying to convey to the reader that as long as there is injustice in the world, pure love will always have a worthy competitor. And only people themselves can help love to reign supreme over the world, if all of them, in one impulse, stretch out their hands to each other. The ending of the novel is frankly sad and uncertain about its main character.

However, tragic colors, if we consider the novel, exclusively as a very beautiful love story, even more vividly outline the great power that is true love. If, while reading the novel, one feels a symbolic subtext in it and sees in Elena the personification of young Russia, which is "on the eve" of great changes, then the sad result of the work can be considered as a warning to the author about the vulnerability and weakness of a single person, even one such as Insarov, and great strength. people united by one idea.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev created his novel "On the Eve" in 1859. A year later, the work was published. Despite the remoteness of the events described in it, the novel remains in demand today. How does he attract the modern reader? Let's try to understand this issue.

History of creation

In the 1850s, Turgenev, who supported the views of the liberal democrats, began to think about the possibility of creating such a hero whose positions would be quite revolutionary, but at the same time would not conflict with his own. The embodiment of this idea would allow him to avoid the ridicule of his more radical colleagues at Sovremennik. His understanding of the inevitability of a generational change in progressive Russian circles was already clearly expressed in the epilogue to The Noble Nest and was reflected in the work Rudin.

In 1856, the landowner Vasily Karateev, a neighbor of the great writer in the Mtsensk district, left notes to Turgenev that served as a manuscript of an autobiographical story. It was a story about the author's unhappy love for a girl who left him for a Bulgarian student from Moscow University.

A little later, scientists from several countries conducted research, as a result of which the identity of this character was established. Nikolay Katranov turned out to be Bulgarian. He came to Russia in 1848, enrolling here at Moscow University. The girl fell in love with the Bulgarian, and together they went to his homeland in the town of Svishtov. However, all the plans of the lovers were canceled out by a fleeting illness. The Bulgarian contracted consumption and soon died. However, the girl, despite the fact that she was left alone, never returned to Karateev.

The author of the manuscript went to Crimea to serve as an officer of the noble militia. He left his work to Turgenev and offered to process it. After 5 years, the writer began to create his novel "On the Eve". The manuscript left by Karateev, who had already died by that time, served as the basis for this work.

Shubin and Bersenev

The plot of the novel "On the Eve" by Turgenev begins with a dispute. It is led by two young men - sculptor Pavel Shubin and scientist Andrei Bersenev. The topic of the controversy concerns nature and the place of man in it.

I. S. Turgenev introduces his heroes to the reader. One of them is Andrei Pavlovich Bersenev. This young man is 23 years old. He has just graduated from Moscow University and is dreaming of starting an academic career. The second young man, Pavel Yakovlevich Shubin, is waiting for art. The young man is a budding sculptor.

Their dispute about the nature and place of man in it did not arise by chance. Bersenev is struck by its completeness and self-sufficiency. He is sure that nature outshines people. And these thoughts cause sadness and anxiety in him. According to Shubin, it is necessary to live a full life and not reflect on this. He recommends that his friend get distracted from sad thoughts by making a friend of his heart.

After that, the conversation of young people turns into an ordinary course. Bersenev reports that he recently saw Insarov and wishes him to get to know Shubin and the Stakhov family. They are in a hurry to return to the dacha. You can't be late for dinner. Pavel's aunt, Anna Vasilievna Stakhova, will be extremely unhappy with this. But it was thanks to this woman that Shubin had the opportunity to do his favorite thing - sculpting.

Stakhov Nikolay Artemievich

What does the summary of "On the Eve" given in the article tell us about? Turgenev introduces his reader to a new character. Nikolai Artemyevich Stakhov is the head of the family, who from a young age dreamed of a profitable marriage. At 25, his plans came true. He married Anna Vasilievna Shubina. But soon Stakhov got a mistress - Augustina Christianovna. Both the one and the other women have already bored Nikolai Artemyevich. But he does not break his vicious circle. The wife tolerates his infidelity, despite the mental pain.

Shubin and Stakhovs

What else becomes known to us from the summary of "On the Eve"? Turgenev tells his reader that Shubin has been living in the Stakhov family for almost five years. He moved here after the death of his mother, a kind and intelligent French woman. Paul's father died before her.

Shubin does his job with great zeal, but in fits and starts. At the same time, he does not even want to hear about the academy and the professors. And despite the fact that in Moscow they believe that the young man shows great promise, he still could not do anything outstanding.

Here I.S.Turgenev introduces us to the main character of his novel - Elena Nikolaevna. This is Stakhov's daughter. She really likes Shubin, but the young man does not miss the opportunity to flirt with the 17-year-old plump Zoya, who is Elena's companion. Stakhov's daughter is not able to understand such a contradictory personality. She is outraged by the lack of character in any person and is angry at stupidity. In addition, the girl never forgives a lie. Anyone who has lost respect simply ceases to exist for her.

The image of Elena Nikolaevna

The review of the novel "On the Eve" by Turgenev speaks of this girl as an extraordinary nature. She is only twenty years old. She is stately and attractive. The girl has gray eyes and a dark blond braid. However, there is something impetuous and nervous in her appearance that not everyone likes.

Elena Nikolaevna's soul strives for virtue, but nothing can satisfy her. Since childhood, the girl was interested in animals, as well as sick, poor and hungry people. Their situation disturbed her soul. At the age of 10, Elena met a beggar girl named Katya and began to take care of her, making her a kind of object of her worship. Parents did not approve of this hobby. But Katya died, leaving an indelible mark on Elena's soul.

From the age of 16, the girl considered herself lonely. She lived an independent life, not constrained by anyone, believing that she had no one to love. In the role of her husband, she could not imagine Shubin in any way. After all, this young man was distinguished by inconstancy.

Bersenyev attracted Elena. She saw in him an intelligent, educated and deep person. But Andrei constantly and persistently told her about Insarov, a young man obsessed with the idea of \u200b\u200bliberating his homeland. This aroused Elena's interest in the personality of the Bulgarian.

Dmitry Insarov

We can also find out the story of this hero from the summary of "On the Eve". Turgenev told his reader that the boy's mother had been kidnapped and then killed by a Turkish aga. Dmitry was then still a child. The boy's father decided to avenge his wife, for which he was shot. At the age of eight, Insarov was left an orphan, and his aunt, who lived in Russia, took him to her.

At the age of 20, he returned to his homeland and in two years traveled the country far and wide, having studied it well. Dmitry was in danger more than once. He was persecuted during his travels. Bersenyev said that he himself saw a scar on the body of a friend, which remained at the site of the wound. However, the author of the novel points out that Dmitry does not at all want to take revenge on the age. The goal pursued by the young man is more extensive.

Insarov, like all students, is poor. At the same time, he is proud, scrupulous and undemanding. He is distinguished by his enormous capacity for work. The hero studies law, Russian history and political economy. He is engaged in the translation of Bulgarian annals and songs, compiling the grammar of the native language for Russians, and Russian for his people.

Elena's love for Insarov

Dmitry, already during his first visit to the Stakhovs, made a strong impression on the girl. The courageous character traits of the young man were confirmed by an incident that happened soon. We can learn about him from the summary of Turgenev's "On the Eve".

Once Anna Vasilyevna came up with the idea to show her daughter and Zoya the beauty of Tsaritsyn. They went there in a large company. The ponds, the park, the ruins of the palace - all this made a great impression on Elena. During the walk, a man of impressive height approached them. He began to demand a kiss from Zoe, which would serve as compensation for the fact that the girl did not respond to applause during her beautiful singing. Shubin tried to protect her. However, he did it in a florid manner, trying to admonish a drunken impudent person. His words only angered the man. And here Insarov stepped forward. In a demanding manner, he invited the drunk to leave. The man did not listen and leaned forward. Then Insarov lifted him up and threw him into the pond.

Further, Turgenev's novel tells us about Elena's feeling. The girl admitted to herself that she loved Insarov. That is why the news that Dmitry was leaving the Stakhovs was a blow to her. Only Bersenyev understands the reason for such a sudden departure. After all, one day his friend admitted that he would leave if he fell in love. Personal feelings should not be an obstacle to his duty.

Declaration of love

After her confession, Insarov clarified whether Elena was ready to follow him and accompany him everywhere? To this, the girl answered him in the affirmative. And then the Bulgarian invited her to become his wife.

First difficulties

The beginning of the joint journey of the main characters of Turgenev "On the Eve" was not cloudless. As a husband for his daughter, Nikolai Artemyevich chose the chief secretary of the Senate Kurnatovsky. But this obstacle was not the only one for the happiness of lovers. Disturbing letters began to arrive from Bulgaria. Dmitry was going to go home. However, he suddenly caught a cold and was dying for eight days.

Bersenyev looked after his friend and constantly talked about his condition to Elena, who was simply in despair. But the threat passed, after which the girl visited Dmitry. The young people decided to hurry up with their departure. On the same day they became husband and wife.

Elena's father, having learned about the date, called his daughter to account. And here Elena told her parents that Insarov had become her husband, and that they would soon leave for Bulgaria.

The journey of the young

Further in the novel by Turgenev, the reader is told that Elena and Dmitry arrived in Venice. Behind them were not only a difficult journey, but also two months of illness, which Insarov spent in Vienna. After Venice, the young went to Serbia, then to move to Bulgaria. To do this, you need to wait for Randych.

This old "sea wolf" will transport them to Dmitry's homeland. However, the young man is suddenly crushed by consumption. Elena looks after him.

Sleep

Elena, exhausted from taking care of the patient, fell asleep. She had a dream in which she was in a boat, first on a pond in Tsaritsyno, and then in the sea. After she is covered with a snow whirlwind, and the girl finds herself in a cart near Katya. The horses carry them straight into the snowy abyss. Elena's companion laughs and calls her into the abyss. The girl wakes up, and at this moment Insarov says that he is dying. Randich, who arrived to take the young to Bulgaria, no longer finds Dmitry alive. Elena asks him to take the coffin with the body of her beloved and goes with him.

The further fate of the heroine

After the death of her husband, Elena sent a letter to her parents that she was going to Bulgaria. She wrote to them that there was no other homeland for her besides this country. Nobody knows what happened to her later. They said that someone accidentally met a girl in Herzegovina. Elena got a job as a sister of mercy and worked with the Bulgarian army. After that, no one saw her.

Analysis of the work

The theme of Turgenev's work "On the Eve" touches on the artistic understanding of the issue of the active principle in a person. And the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe novel is the need for active natures for the progress and movement of society.

The image of Elena Stakhova in Turgenev's novel "On the Eve" is what readers have long been expecting. After all, he shows us a strong-willed woman who has chosen an active and decisive man for herself. This was also noted by critics of Turgenev's novel "On the Eve". Reviews of literary critics confirmed that the completely Russian, lively and complete image of Elena became a real gem of the work. Such a strong female character before Turgenev was not shown by any Russian work. The main feature of the girl is her self-sacrifice. Elena's ideal is active good, which is associated with the understanding of happiness.

As for Insarov, he, of course, rises above all the characters in the novel. The only exception is Elena, who is on the same step with him. The protagonist of Turgenev lives with the thought of a heroic deed. And the most attractive feature of this image is love for the homeland. The soul of the young man is filled with compassion for his people, who are in Turkish bondage.

The entire work of the Russian writer is imbued with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe greatness and sacredness of the idea of \u200b\u200bliberating the fatherland. At the same time, Insarov is the real ideal of self-denial.

According to critics, Turgenev's genius is most clearly reflected in this novel. The writer was able to consider the topical problems of his time and reflect them in such a way that the work remains relevant for the modern reader. After all, purposeful, courageous and strong personalities are always needed by Russia.

The relationship of the novel with public life. Turgenev's novel "On the Eve" (1859) has a connection with the events of Russian social life of that time. He entered the era immediately following the end of the failed Crimean campaign, when important transformations of state life and reforms in its various areas were awaited. It was an era of extraordinary social excitement. To solve the immediate tasks of life, people with energy and knowledge of life were required, people of action, and not of reasoning and dreams, like Rudin. The type of these "new people" was already emerging. And Turgenev, captured by the events of the era he was going through, wanted to reflect this moment in life and depict the new feelings and thoughts of these new people and their influence on the old motionless life.

Turgenev. The day before. Audiobook

New types in the novel. Turgenev chose an old landowner family as the corner for the reproduction, where the moldy, quiet life of people of the old way proceeded and where one could feel the fermentation of young forces rising to meet the movement of a new life. The representative of the protesting side was a young girl Elena, the first swallow of the new era, who has common features with Liza Kalitina from the Noble Nest. The Bulgarian Insarov was a man of action, a new type that replaced the Rudin type. The novel caused a great stir in the press and society by its appearance, was a major event in Russian life; all intelligent Russia was read to them. Dobrolyubov dedicated an extensive article to him. Elena's appearance in the gallery of Turgenev's women occupies a peculiar place.

Parallel between Lisa Kalitina and Elena. Like Lisa, Elena in the novel “On the Eve” is a girl with a lively and strong character, dissatisfied with the life around her and striving for another life, more in accordance with the needs of her mind and soul. But while Liza is completely immersed in her inner life and has certain goals for her future life that she herself has decided on, Elena does not find life content in herself. She is neither dreamy nor religious; she is looking for some kind of social cause that would occupy her mind and hands.

If the spirit of the times and new tasks and needs of life can explain the replacement of "extra people", Rudins and Beltovs, people of action - Insarovs, then we see the same evolution in the type of woman: instead of Liza, completely turned inward and living her individual deep life, setting purely personal life tasks for herself, we now see Elena, languishing in inaction and looking for a living , hot work among people and for the benefit of people. The only difference is that "superfluous people", in contrast to people, were weak in character, while Lisa and Elena equally have willpower, perseverance and perseverance in pursuing their goals.

Elena's personality traits. The main feature of Elena's nature should be recognized precisely her activity, her thirst for activity. Since childhood, she has been looking for applications for her strength, looking for opportunities to be useful and do something necessary for someone. Left to herself in childhood, Elena grew and developed independently. The sickly mother and the weak-willed father interfered little in the child's life. Elena was used to reckoning with herself from childhood, she herself invented games and activities for herself, she herself found solutions to everything she did not understand at first, she herself reached certain conclusions and decisions.

Independence. Thirst for activity. This strengthened her inherent feature of independence, it also developed in her that certainty of views and opinions, in which it is difficult to reckon with alien and new views that disagree with those previously accepted. Having grown up in a circle of certain opinions and views, Elena remained with them, not interested in what is outside this circle, being sharply intolerant of alien views. Among the things that surrounded her in her father's house, everything seemed to her lifeless and empty. She vaguely waited for some great deeds, the accomplishment of feats and languished with forced inaction. As a child, she gathered around her beggars, homeless people, cripples, miserable dogs, sick birds, actively caring for everyone and finding great satisfaction in this. One of her friends, a homeless girl Katya, tells Elena about how they live, the poor poor. A world of suffering, poverty, horror unfolds before Elena, and her decision to actively serve people is even more strengthened.

Having become an adult young lady, she still lives the same lonely and independent life, feeling even more emptiness and dissatisfaction with her life and longingly looking for some way out. The people around her are alien to her and she confides her lonely thoughts and feelings only to the pages of her diary. She is annoyed by two close acquaintances to her - the artist Shubin and the scientist Bersenyev - that both of them are immersed in their work and in the interests of their personal lives and lead - one carefree and selfish, the other - a dry and sluggish life. Elena wants to find a person with a lively, boiling energy, who is fully focused on the tasks and needs of the life around her, ready to happily make sacrifices and deeds.

In a word, in her girlish dreams she sees a hero. He will come and show her where to go and what to do, and will fill her life with a living deed, turn this life into an active, cheerful and joyful one. But the hero does not come, and Elena complains in her diary about her helplessness and dissatisfaction. “Oh, if someone told me this is what you have to do,” she writes. - Being kind is not enough; doing good, yes, is the main thing in life. But how to do good? "

The influence of Insarov. The first news about Insarov (see about him in the article The Image of Insarov in the novel "On the Eve") excited her. She learned that he is a public figure, that he is seeking the liberation of his homeland. In the life of this man there were lofty goals, he was preparing to give all of himself to serve the good of the homeland. This gave a boost to Elena's imagination. She began to draw the appearance of a hero who looked very little like the real Insarov, which disappointed Elena at the beginning. But, having met him, she noted in him the traits of strength, perseverance, concentration in achieving the intended goals. The main thing was that Insarov's whole life was filled with one goal and subordinated to it, that he knew where he was going, what was, what to work on and what to strive for. Elena, on the other hand, suffers precisely from the lack of vital content, living goals that would capture her and fill her whole life.

In the end, it begins to become clear to her that heroism is not accompanied by any effects and loud phrases, but that its indicator is precisely perseverance, perseverance, dedication and firm calm, with which the work is invariably carried out. All these qualities of Insarov give him in the eyes of Elena a decisive advantage over her other two acquaintances. All Shubin's aesthetic interests, questions of art and the impressions of poetry, as well as the interests of the scientific world pale before the halo that surrounds Insarov. Having fallen in love with him, the girl boldly and resolutely goes with him to a new land, to a new life, full of anxiety, work and danger, leaves her family and friends. In this step, she does not experience any breaking of views and beliefs, but, on the contrary, remains true to herself. Her closeness to Insarov is explained by the significant similarity of their natures and views. Together with Insarov, she put public interests above all; just like Insarov, she rejects the world of artistic interests, being intolerant of everything that is alien to her world.

When Insarov dies, she remains faithful to her husband's cause and to everything that connected them and filled their lives. Persistent and persistent in following the accepted paths, she goes after her husband to the same goal, sacredly honoring the memory of her husband. Elena refuses to all the persistent requests of her relatives to return to her homeland and remains in Bulgaria, which was the goal of her husband's work and life. Throughout the novel, the image of Elena is sustained as a new woman, firm and strong, although a little narrow, because devotion to one interests prevented her from being interested in and knowing other important and deep aspects of life.

Shubin. Shubin is the complete opposite of Insarov. This is an artistic nature, the nature of a subtly impressionable artist, for whom the temptations of external beautiful and vivid impressions are too strong for him not to surrender to them. And Shubin's life passes in a change of direct impressions of life at work in his studio as a sculptor. Easily succumbing to all impressions, mobile and frivolous, Shubin often outrages Elena with his epicureanism, his too light outlook on life.

But there is also something serious in Shubin's life: this is the area of \u200b\u200bcreativity and impressions of the beauty of nature and art. The charms of beauty are strong over him, and he could not physically suppress the need for an artistic nature. He is incapable of business, of practical work, like Insarov; he has a contemplative nature, deeply perceiving the impressions of living life and making them material for their artistic embodiment in works of creativity.

Bersenev. As for Bersenev, he is a theoretician, a man of thought, logical calculations and reasoning. He is an armchair scientist, for whom the most important and pleasant thing is to live not in immediate life and not in practical social work, but in the scientist's office, where the results of the work of human thought are collected. His scientific interests are very far from the life around him, but his very works are in the nature of dryness and pedantry. But, as a person close to the idealists of the 1830s and 1840s (student Granovsky), Bersenev is no stranger to philosophical interests. Compared to Insarov, he, like Shubin, is people of the old type, poorly understanding these new people of life, practical work.

As a result of these differences in the traits of nature, Elena felt a great closeness to Insarov, a Bulgarian by birth. Regarding the fact that the character of the novel, bred as a public figure, turned out to be not Russian, guesses were made that Turgenev had not yet found this type among Russians. This is partly answered by the author through the mouth of Uvar Ivanovich, who prophesies in response to Shubin's question that such people will be born among us.

As is known from the writer's memoirs, Insarov's prototype was the Bulgarian Katranov, a student of the philological faculty of Moscow University. Insarov is truly heroic in nature, he is devoid of selfishness, his whole life is completely subordinated to public interests. Nothing can force him to deviate from the intended goal, even the possibility of personal revenge he sacrifices to a common cause. This gives integrity and certainty to his character.

The traits of I.'s nature stand out in relief when compared with other characters in the novel - the young historian Bersenev and the talented artist Shubin, who are not able to bring practical benefits to their homeland: one is engaged in the history of German law, while the other sculpts bacchantes and dreams of Italy.

The stubborn and purposeful I. passes the test of love with honor, which before him was beyond the power of any Turgenev hero: he boldly responds to the feelings of Elena Stakhova, not fearing responsibility for her life and any other obstacles. In their union, he plays a leading role: it is with the appearance of I. in Elena's life that a goal appears.

At the same time, Insarov is the only one of the central characters of Turgenev, who united with his beloved and whose happiness is deserved. I.'s nature is such that he evokes sympathy and ardent affection even among those people who might hate him. So, Bersenev, who loves Elena and knows about her love for I., remains completely devoted to him, caring for him during his illness.

I.'s unexpected death introduces into the novel the motives of payment for happiness, the tragedy of human life. Although he dies not in a fight with the Turks, but in the arms of his wife in an Italian hotel, I.'s influence on Elena is so significant that after her husband's death she goes to Bulgaria to continue his work.