In 1836, Pushkin's story "The Captain's Daughter" was first published in the Sovremennik magazine. The story that we all went through in school and which few reread later. A story that is much more complex and deeper than it is commonly believed. What is it about "The Captain's Daughter" that remains outside the school curriculum? Why is it still relevant to this day? And why is it called "the most Christian work of Russian literature"? These and other questions were answered by the writer and literary critic Alexey Varlamov.

By fabulous 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 works to the trial of Zinaida Gippius. The decadent witch spoke of his opuses low. “Read The Captain's Daughter,” was her admonition. Mikhail Prishvin - and he was a young writer - dismissed this parting word, for he considered it offensive for himself, but a quarter of a century later, having gone through a lot, he wrote in his diary: “My homeland is not Yelets, where I was born, not 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 - this is an amazing work that everyone recognized and never tried to throw off the ship of our time. Not in the metropolis, not in emigration, not under any political regimes and power moods. In the Soviet school, this story was taught in the seventh grade. I still remember an essay on the topic "Comparative characteristics of Shvabrin and Grinev." Shvabrin is the embodiment of individualism, slander, meanness, evil, Grinev is nobility, kindness, honor. Good and evil come to grips and ultimately triumphs over good. It would seem that everything is very simple in this conflict, but not linearly. "The Captain's Daughter" is a very difficult work.

Firstly, this story was preceded, as you 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 the personality of Pugachev, which Tsvetaeva noted very accurately in the 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 from himself he gave only the title and epigraphs to chapters. And secondly, The Captain's Daughter has another predecessor and companion - the unfinished novel Dubrovsky, and these two works have a very whimsical relationship. Who is Vladimir Dubrovsky closer to - to Grinev or to Shvabrin? Morally - of course to the first. And historically? Dubrovsky and Shvabrin are both traitors to the nobility, albeit for different reasons, and both end up badly. Perhaps, it is in this paradoxical similarity that one can find an explanation of why Pushkin refused to continue working on Dubrovsky and from the not completely outlined, somewhat vague, sad image of the protagonist a couple of Grinev and Shvabrin arose, where each external corresponds to the internal and both receive according to their deeds, as in a moralizing tale.

"The Captain's Daughter", in fact, is written according to fabulous laws. The hero behaves generously and nobly in relation to casual and seemingly unnecessary people - an officer who, taking advantage of his inexperience, beats him at billiards, pays a hundred rubles of loss, a random passer-by who brought him out on the road, treats him with vodka and gives him hare sheepskin coat, and for this they later repay him with great good. So Ivan Tsarevich disinterestedly saves a pike or a turtledove, and for this they help him to defeat Kashchei. Uncle Grineva Savelich (in a fairy tale it would be a "gray wolf" or a "hunchbacked horse") with the undoubted warmth and charm of this image, the plot looks like a hindrance to Grinev's fabulous correctness: he is against the "child" paying the card debt and rewarding Pugachev , because of him Grinev is wounded in a duel, because of him he is taken prisoner by the soldiers of the impostor when he goes to rescue Masha Mironova. But at the same time, Savelich intercedes for the master before Pugachev and gives him a register of looted things, thanks to which Grinev receives a horse as compensation, on which he makes trips from besieged Orenburg.

Supervised from above

There is no pretense here. In Pushkin's prose there is an invisible coherence 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 God's presence in the world of people. Providence (but not the author, as, for example, Tolstoy in War and Peace, who removes Helen Kuragina from the stage when he needs to make Pierre free) leads Pushkin's heroes. This does not in the least cancel the well-known formula "what kind of thing Tatyana ran away with me, she got married" - just Tatyana's fate is a manifestation of the higher will, which she is given to recognize. And the same gift of obedience is possessed by the dowry Masha Mironova, who wisely is in no hurry to marry Petrusha Grinev (a variant of an attempt at marriage without parental blessing is semi-seriously and semi-parodically presented in The Blizzard, and it is known what it leads to), but relies on Providence, it is better knowing what is needed for her happiness and when his time comes.

In the Pushkin world, everything is under the supervision of above, but nevertheless both Masha Mironova and Liza Muromskaya from The Young Lady-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 whole life, but the only thing she could console herself with was that she became a female symbol of fidelity, a trait that Pushkin revered in both men and women, albeit put different meanings into them.

One of the most persistent motives in "The Captain's Daughter" is the motive of girlish innocence, girlish honor, so that the epigraph to the story "Take care of the honor from your youth" can be attributed not only to Grinev, but also to Masha Mironova, and her story of keeping honor is no less dramatic than him. The threat of 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, she is potentially 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), finally, Zurin also threatens her. Let us recall that when Zurin's soldiers detain Grinev as "the sovereign's godfather", the officer's order follows: "take me to prison, and bring the mistress to him." And then, when everything is clarified, Zurin asks an apology to the lady for his hussars.

And in the chapter, which Pushkin excluded from the final edition, the dialogue between Marya Ivanovna and Grinev is significant, when both are captured by Shvabrin:
“- Enough, Pyotr Andreevich! Do not 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 the 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 name Grinev in this chapter):
"- Hang him ... and everyone ... except her ..."
Pushkin's woman is the main war booty and the most defenseless creature in the war.
How to preserve honor for a man is more or less obvious. But the 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 Yegorovna, who, after the capture of the fortress, the Pugachev robbers "disheveled and stripped naked" are taken out onto the porch, and then her, again naked, body is lying on everyone under the porch, and only the next day Grinev looked for it with his eyes and noticed that it was carried slightly to the side and covered with matting. In essence, Vasilisa Yegorovna takes upon herself what was intended for her daughter, and removes dishonor from her.

A kind of comic antithesis to the narrator's notions of the preciousness of maiden honor are the words of the commander of Grinev, General Andrei Karlovich R., who, fearing the same thing that became a moral torture for Grinev ("You cannot rely on the discipline of robbers. What will happen to the poor girl?"), completely in German, worldly practical and in the spirit of Belkin's "Undertaker" he argues:
“(...) it is better for her to be Shvabrin's wife for the time being: now he can give her protection; and when we shoot him, then, God willing, she will find the suitors. Pretty widows do not sit in girls; that is, I wanted to say that a widow would sooner find a husband than a maiden. "

And Grinev's hot answer is characteristic:
"I'd rather agree to die," I said in a rage, "rather than yield her to Shvabrin!"

Dialogue with Gogol

"The Captain's Daughter" was written almost simultaneously with Gogol, and between these works there is also a very tense, dramatic dialogue, hardly conscious, but all the more essential.

In both stories, the plot of the action is connected with the manifestation of the paternal will, which contradicts and overcomes maternal love.

In Pushkin: "The thought of an imminent separation from me struck my mother so much that she dropped the spoon into the saucepan, and tears ran down her face."

In Gogol: “The poor old woman (...) did not dare to say anything; but hearing about such a terrible decision for her, she could not refrain from crying; she looked at her children, with whom she was threatened by such an early separation, - and no one could describe all the silent sorrow that seemed to tremble in her eyes and in convulsively compressed lips. "

The fathers are decisive in both cases.

“Father did not like to change his intentions, nor to postpone their implementation,” Grinev says in his notes.

Gogol's wife Taras hopes that "maybe Bulba, waking up, will postpone the departure for two days", but "he (Bulba - A. V.) remembered very well everything that he ordered yesterday."

In both Pushkin and Gogol, fathers do not look for an easy lot for their children; they send them to places where it is either dangerous, or at least there will be no secular entertainment and extravagance, and give them instructions.

“Now, mother, bless your children! - said Bulba. - Pray to God that they fought bravely, that they would always defend the honor of the knight, that they always stand for the faith of Christ, otherwise - let them be better off, so that their spirit would not be in the world!

“Father said to me:“ Farewell, Peter. Serve faithfully to whom you swear; obey your superiors; do not chase their affection; do not ask for service; do not excuse yourself from the service; and remember the proverb: take care of your dress again, and honor from your youth. "

It is around these moral precepts that the conflict of both works is built.

Ostap and Andriy, Grinev and Shvabrin - loyalty and betrayal, honor and treason - 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 restrained Pushkin does not regret black colors. This is no longer a complex Byronic type, like Onegin, and not a cute parody of a disappointed romantic hero, like Alexei Berestov from "The Young Lady-Peasant", who wore a black ring with a picture of a dead head. A person capable of slandering a girl who refused him (“If you want Masha Mironova to visit you at dusk, give her a pair of earrings instead of tender rhymes,” he says to Grinev) and thereby violate the honor of nobility, will easily betray his oath. Pushkin deliberately tries to simplify and lower the image of a romantic hero and a duelist, and the last stigma on him is the words of the martyr Vasilisa Yegorovna: "He was discharged from the guards for murder, he does not believe in God either."

That's right - he does not believe in the Lord, this is the most terrible baseness of human fall, and this assessment of the dear is in the mouth of the one who once took the "lessons of pure Afeism" himself, but by the end of his life artistically merged with Christianity.

Gogol's betrayal is a different matter. It is, so to speak, more romantic, more seductive. Andria was ruined by love, sincere, deep, selfless. The author writes with bitterness about the last minute of his life: “Andrii was as pale as a sheet; you could see how softly his mouth moved and how he pronounced someone's name; but it was not the name of the motherland, or mother, or brothers - it was the name of a beautiful Polish woman. "

Actually, Andrii dies at Gogol much earlier than Taras says the famous "I gave birth to you, I will kill you." He dies ("And the Cossack died! Lost for the whole Cossack chivalry") at the moment when he kisses the "fragrant lips" of a beautiful Polish woman and feels "that only once in a lifetime is it possible for a person to feel."

But in Pushkin, the scene of Grinev's farewell to Masha Mironova on the eve of Pugachev's attack is written as if in defiance of Gogol:
“- Farewell, my angel, - I said, - goodbye, my dear, my beloved! Whatever happens to me, believe that the last (my italics. - AV) my thought will be about you. "
And then: "I kissed her with passion and hurried out of the room."

Pushkin's love for a woman is not a hindrance to noble loyalty and honor, but her pledge and the sphere where this honor manifests itself to the greatest extent. In the Zaporizhzhya Sich, in this gulba and "incessant feast", which had something enchanting in itself, there is everything except one. "Only the admirers of women could find nothing here." Pushkin has a beautiful woman everywhere, even in the garrison backwoods. And love is 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 the side of Pugachev, then they surrender their leader to the king. And that they are wrong, both sides know in advance.

“- Take proper action! said the commandant, taking off his glasses and folding the paper. - Hear you, it's easy to say. The villain is evidently strong; and we have only one hundred and thirty people, not counting the Cossacks, on whom hope is bad, do not be told in reproach, Maksimych. (The police officer grinned.) ".
“The impostor pondered a little and said in an undertone:
- God knows. My street is narrow; will is not enough for me. My guys are getting smart. They are thieves. I must keep my ears open; at the first failure they will redeem their neck with my head. "

And here in Gogol: "No matter how much I live forever, I did not hear, brothers and sisters, that the Cossack left where or somehow sold 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 a noise, mother, green oak tree" about the Cossack comrades - a dark night, a damask knife , a good horse and a tight bow.

And Grinev, who had just witnessed the terrible atrocities perpetrated by the Cossacks in the Belogorsk fortress, this singing is amazing.

“It is impossible to tell what effect this common folk song about the gallows, sung by people doomed to the gallows, had on me. Their formidable faces, slender voices, dull expression, which they gave to their words already expressive - everything shook me with some kind of piitical horror. "

History movement

Gogol writes about the cruelty of the Cossacks - “beaten babies, circumcised breasts of women, skin torn from the knees of those released from freedom (...) Cossacks did not respect black-browed ladies, white-breasted, light-faced girls; they could not be saved at the very altars, ”and 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's not embarrass our readers with a picture of hellish torment, from which their hairs would stand on end. They were a product of the then rough, fierce age, when a person still led a bloody life of some military exploits and hardened his soul in it, not feeling humanity. "

Pushkin's description of an old Bashkir disfigured by torture, a participant in the unrest of 1741, who cannot say anything to his torturers, because a short stump instead of a tongue moves in his mouth, is accompanied by a seemingly similar maxim from Grinev: “When I remember what happened on my age and that I have now lived to the meek reign of Emperor Alexander, I cannot but marvel at the rapid success of enlightenment and the spread of the rules of philanthropy. "

But in general, Pushkin's attitude to history is different from that of Gogol - 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 tsar at the beginning of the drama to the remark “the people are silent” at the end.
In Gogol's work "Taras Bulba" as a story about the past is opposed to "Dead Souls" of the present, and the vulgarity of the new time is more terrible for him than the cruelty of old times.

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 death finds a familiar face or voice in a strange crowd.

“But when they brought him to the final death throes, it seemed as if his strength began to be fed. And he led his eyes around him: God, God, all the unknown, all the strangers! If only someone close to him was present at his death! He would not want to hear the sobbing and crushing of a weak mother or the mad screams of a wife plucking her hair and beating herself in white breasts; he would like now to see a firm husband who would refresh and comfort at death with a reasonable word. And he fell down in strength and cried out in spiritual weakness:
- Father! Where are you? Can you hear?
- I hear! - was heard among the general silence, and the whole million people at one time shuddered. "
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 - one motive.

At Gogol's, his own father sees off his son and quietly whispers: "Good, son, good." Pushkin's Pugachev is the imprisoned father of Grinev. So he appeared to him in a prophetic dream; as a father he took care of his future; and at the last minute of life, in the huge crowd of people, no one was closer than the dumb noble who preserved his honor, the robber and impostor Emelya was not found.

Taras and Ostap. Pugachev and Grinev. Fathers and children of bygone times.

On the headband: illustration by Mikhail Nesterov.

The historical novel "The Captain's Daughter" was completed by Pushkin and appeared in print in 1836. The creation of the novel was preceded by a lot of preparatory work. The first evidence of the intention of the novel dates back to 1833. In the same year, in connection with work on the novel, Pushkin had the idea to write a historical study about the Pugachev uprising. Having received permission to familiarize himself with the investigative case of Pugachev, Pushkin deeply studies archival materials, and then travels to the area where the uprising unfolded (Volga region, Orenburg region), examines the places of events, asks old people, eyewitnesses of the uprising.

As a result of this work, in 1834, The History of Pugachev appeared, and two years later - The Captain's Daughter. In a small novel, close in volume to a story, Pushkin resurrects before us one of the brightest pages of Russian history - the period of Pugachevism (1773-1774) full of violent unrest. The novel acquaints us with the dull ferment among the population of the Volga region, which foreshadowed the imminence of the uprising, and with the formidable appearance of the leader of the uprising, Pugachev, and with his first military successes. At the same time, the novel depicts the life of various strata of Russian society in the second half of the XVIIIB: the patriarchal life of the noble nest of the Grinevs, the modest life of the family of the commandant of the Belogorsk fortress, Captain Mironov, etc.

The idea of \u200b\u200b"The Captain's Daughter" arose in Pushkin even before the start of work on The History of Pugachev, at the time when he was writing Dubrovsky. Remember the conflict underlying Dubrovsky and the main characters. In Dubrovsky, the theme of the struggle of the serf peasantry against the feudal-landlord state and its order is touched upon, but not developed. The young nobleman Dubrovsky becomes the leader of the rebellious peasants. In chapter XIX of the novel, as we remember, Dubrovsky dissolves his "gang".

He cannot be the real leader of the peasants in their struggle against the masters; he has not been given to fully understand the motives of the "rebellion" of the serfs against the landlords. Pushkin leaves Dubrovsky unfinished. He could not depict a genuine peasant uprising on the basis of modern material. Without finishing the "robber" novel, he turns to the grandiose liberation movement of the huge masses of the peasantry, Cossacks and small oppressed peoples of the Volga region and the Urals, which shook the very foundations of Catherine's empire. In the course of the struggle, the people brought forward from their midst a bright and original figure of a real peasant leader, a figure of great historical significance. Work on the story has been going on for several years. The plan, the plot structure, the names of the characters are changing.

At first, the hero was a nobleman who went over to the side of Pugachev. Pushkin studied the true affairs of the well-born officer Shvanvich (or Shvanovich), who voluntarily went over to Pugachev, officer Basharin, taken prisoner by Pugachev. Finally, two characters were identified - officers, one way or another connected with Pugachev. Shvanovich, to a certain extent, served to convey the history of Shvabrin, and the poet's name Grinev was taken from the actual history of an officer arrested on suspicion of having links with Pugachev, but later acquitted.

Numerous changes in the plan of the story indicate how difficult and difficult it was for Pushkin to cover the acute political theme of the struggle between two classes, topical in the 30s of the XIX century. In 1836, The Captain's Daughter was completed and published in Volume IV of Sovremennik. Pushkin's long-term study of Pugachev's movement led to the creation of both a historical work ("The History of Pugachev") and a work of fiction ("The Captain's Daughter"). Pushkin was in them a scientist-historian and artist who created the first truly realistic historical novel.

"The Captain's Daughter" was first published in Sovremennik during the poet's lifetime. One chapter remained unpublished for censorship reasons, which Pushkin called "The Missed Chapter". In The Captain's Daughter, Pushkin painted a vivid picture of a spontaneous peasant uprising. Recalling at the beginning of the story of the peasant unrest that preceded the Pugachev uprising, Pushkin strove to reveal the course of the popular movement for several decades, which led to a massive peasant uprising in 1774-1775.

In the images of the Belogorsk Cossacks, the mutilated Bashkir, Tatar, Chuvash, peasant from the Ural factories, the Volga peasants, Pushkin creates an idea of \u200b\u200bthe broad social basis of the movement. Pushkin shows that the Pugachev uprising was supported by the peoples of the south of the Urals oppressed by tsarism. The story reveals the wide scope of the movement, its popular and mass character. The people depicted in The Captain's Daughter are not an impersonal mass. Pushkin tried to show the serf peasantry, the participants in the uprising, in various manifestations of their consciousness.

If the grain from which the novel "Dubrovsky" grew was the story of Pushkin's friend Nashchokin about a Belarusian nobleman, then the creation of "The Captain's Daughter" was preceded by the great work carried out by Pushkin to study the Pugachev uprising. Pushkin researched archival materials, based on them he wrote "The History of Pugachev"; in addition, he visited the places covered by the uprising, collected a lot of material from the population of these localities, especially from the old people who personally knew Pugachev, used oral-poetic folk works associated with the peasant war of the 70s of the 18th century. As a result of such a huge work, the story "The Captain's Daughter" appeared, which brilliantly combines the work of a researcher - a historian and a poet.

Shot from the film "The Captain's Daughter" (1959)

The novel is based on the memoirs of the fifty-year-old nobleman Pyotr Andreevich Grinev, written by him during the reign of Emperor Alexander and dedicated to the "Pugachevshchina", in which the seventeen-year-old officer Pyotr Grinev took an involuntary part due to "a strange chain of circumstances".

Pyotr Andreevich recalls his childhood with a slight irony, the childhood of an ignorant noble. His father, Andrei Petrovich Grinev, in his youth, “served under Count Minich and retired as prime major in 17 ... year. Since then he lived in his Simbirsk village, where he married the girl Avdotya Vasilievna Yu., The daughter of a poor local nobleman. " The Grinev family had nine children, but all of Petrusha's brothers and sisters "died in infancy." “Mother was still a belly of me,” Grinev recalls, “as I was already enrolled in the Semyonovsk regiment as a sergeant.”

From the age of five, Petrusha has been looked after by the stirrup Savelich, who was given to him as an uncle "for sober behavior". "Under his supervision, in the twelfth year, I learned Russian reading and writing and could very sensibly judge the properties of a greyhound dog." Then a teacher appeared - the Frenchman Beaupré, who did not understand the "meaning of this word", since in his homeland he was a hairdresser, and in Prussia - a soldier. Young Grinev and the Frenchman Beaupre quickly got along, and although Beaupre was contractually obliged to teach Petrusha "in French, German and all sciences", he soon preferred to learn from his student "to chat in Russian". Grinev's upbringing ends with the expulsion of Beaupre, who was convicted of dissipation, drunkenness and neglect of the duties of a teacher.

Until the age of sixteen, Grinev lives "undersized, chasing pigeons and playing leapfrog with the yard boys." In the seventeenth year, the father decides to send his son to the service, but not to Petersburg, but to the army "to sniff gunpowder" and "pull the strap." He sends him to Orenburg, instructing him to serve faithfully "to whom you swear", and remember the proverb: "Take care of your dress again, and honor from your youth." All the "brilliant hopes" of the young Grinev for a cheerful life in St. Petersburg were destroyed, ahead of them was "boredom in the deaf and distant side."

Approaching Orenburg, Grinev and Savelich were caught in a blizzard. A random person who meets on the road brings the wagon, lost in a blizzard, to the exit. While the wagon was "quietly moving" to housing, Pyotr Andreevich had a terrible dream in which fifty-year-old Grinev sees something prophetic, linking it with the "strange circumstances" of his future life. A man with a black beard lies in the bed of Father Grinev, and mother, calling him Andrei Petrovich and "planted father", wants Petrusha to "kiss his hand" and ask for blessings. A man waves an ax, the room is filled with dead bodies; Grinev stumbles over them, slides in bloody puddles, but his “terrible man” “tenderly cries”, saying: “Don't be afraid, come under my blessing”.

In gratitude for the salvation, Grinev gives the “counselor”, dressed too lightly, his hare sheepskin coat and brings a glass of wine, for which he thanks him with a low bow: “Thank you, your honor! God reward you for your virtue. " The outward appearance of the “counselor” seemed to Grinev “wonderful”: “He was about forty years old, of average height, thin and broad-shouldered. His black beard showed gray; lively big eyes kept running. His face had a rather pleasant expression, but rogue. "

The Belogorsk fortress, where Grinev was sent to serve from Orenburg, meets the young man not with formidable bastions, towers and ramparts, but turns out to be a village surrounded by a wooden fence. Instead of a brave garrison, there are disabled people who do not know where is the left and where is the right, instead of deadly artillery, there is an old cannon clogged with garbage.

The commandant of the fortress, Ivan Kuzmich Mironov, is an officer "from the soldiers' children", an uneducated man, but honest and kind. His wife, Vasilisa Yegorovna, completely manages it and looks at the affairs of the service as if it were her own business. Soon Grinev became “native” for the Mironovs, and he himself “imperceptibly \u003c…\u003e became attached to a good family”. In the daughter of the Mironovs, Masha Grinev, "I found a sensible and sensible girl."

The service does not bother Grinev, he was carried away by reading books, practicing translations and writing poetry. At first, he became close to Lieutenant Shvabrin, the only person in the fortress who was close to Grinev in education, age and occupation. But soon they quarrel - Shvabrin scoffed at the love "song" written by Grinev, and also allowed himself dirty hints about the "temper and custom" of Masha Mironova, to whom this song was dedicated. Later, in a conversation with Masha, Grinev will find out the reasons for the stubborn slander that Shvabrin pursued her: the lieutenant wooed her, but was refused. “I don't like Alexei Ivanovich. He is very disgusting to me, ”Masha admits to Grinev. The quarrel is resolved by a duel and Grinev's injury.

Masha takes care of the wounded Grinev. Young people confess to each other "in a heartfelt inclination", and Grinev writes a letter to the priest, "asking for parental blessing." But Masha is a dowry. The Mironovs have “only one soul, Palashka,” while the Grinevs have three hundred peasants. Father forbids Grinev to marry and promises to transfer him from the Belogorsk fortress "somewhere further away" so that the "nonsense" will pass.

After this letter, life became unbearable for Grinev, he falls into gloomy reverie, seeks solitude. "I was afraid either to go mad or to go into debauchery." And only "unexpected incidents," writes Grinev, "that had an important impact on my whole life, suddenly gave my soul a strong and good shock."

In early October 1773, the commandant of the fortress received a secret message about the Don Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev, who, posing as “the late Emperor Peter III,” “gathered a villainous gang, stirred up indignation in Yaik villages and had already taken and destroyed several fortresses”. The commandant was asked to "take appropriate measures to repel the mentioned villain and impostor."

Soon everyone was talking about Pugachev. A Bashkir with "outrageous plates" was captured in the fortress. But they failed to interrogate him - the Bashkir's tongue was torn out. From day to day, the inhabitants of the Belogorsk fortress expect an attack by Pugachev,

The rebels appear unexpectedly - the Mironovs did not even have time to send Masha to Orenburg. At the first attack, the fortress was taken. Residents greet Pugachevites with bread and salt. The prisoners, among whom was Grinev, are taken to the square to swear allegiance to Pugachev. The first to die on the gallows is the commandant, who refused to swear allegiance to the "thief and impostor." Under the blow of a saber, Vasilisa Yegorovna falls dead. Death awaits Grinev on the gallows, but Pugachev has mercy on him. A little later, Grinev learns from Savelich "the reason for the mercy" - the ataman of the robbers turned out to be the tramp who received from him, Grinev, a hare sheepskin coat.

In the evening Grinev was invited to the “great sovereign”. “I have pardoned you for your virtue, - says Pugachev to Grinev, -‹… ›Do you promise to serve me with zeal? But Grinev is a "natural nobleman" and "swore allegiance to the empress." He cannot even promise Pugachev not to serve against him. “My head is in your power,” he says to Pugachev, “if you let me go, thank you, you will execute me - God is your judge.”

Grinev's sincerity amazes Pugachev, and he lets the officer go "on all four sides." Grinev decides to go to Orenburg for help - after all, Masha remained in a strong fever in the fortress, whom the priest passed off as her niece. He is especially worried that Shvabrin has been appointed commandant of the fortress, who has sworn allegiance to Pugachev.

But in Orenburg Grinev was denied help, and a few days later the rebel troops surrounded the city. Long days of siege dragged on. Soon, by chance, a letter from Masha falls into the hands of Grinev, from which he learns that Shvabrin is forcing her to marry him, otherwise threatening to give her over to the Pugachevites. Once again, Grinev turns to the military commander for help, and again receives a refusal.

Grinev with Savelich leave for the Belogorsk fortress, but they are captured by the rebels near the Berdskaya settlement. And again, Providence brings Grinev and Pugachev together, giving the officer a chance to fulfill his intention: having learned from Grinev the essence of the matter in which he was going to the Belogorsk fortress, Pugachev himself decides to free the orphan and punish the offender.

On the way to the fortress, a confidential conversation takes place between Pugachev and Grinev. Pugachev is clearly aware of his doom, expecting betrayal primarily on the part of his comrades, he knows that he will not wait for "the Empress's mercy" either. For Pugachev, as for an eagle from a Kalmyk fairy tale, which he tells Grinev with “wild inspiration”, “than eating carrion for three hundred years, it is better to drink living blood once; and there what God will give! " Grinev draws a different moral conclusion from the fairy tale, which surprises Pugachev: "To live by murder and robbery means to peck at the carrion for me."

In the Belogorsk fortress, Grinev, with the help of Pugachev, frees Masha. And although the enraged Shvabrin reveals deception to Pugachev, he is full of magnanimity: "Execute, execute, grant, grant, this is my custom." Grinev and Pugachev part “amicably”.

Grinev sends Masha as a bride to his parents, and he himself remains in the army due to his "duty of honor". The war "with robbers and savages" is "boring and petty." Grinev's observations are filled with bitterness: "God forbid to see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless."

The end of the military campaign coincides with the arrest of Grinev. Appearing before the court, he is calm in his confidence that he can justify himself, but Shvabrin slanders him, exposing Grinev as a spy dispatched from Pugachev to Orenburg. Grinev was convicted, shame awaited him, exile to Siberia for an eternal settlement.

From shame and exile, Grinev is saved by Masha, who goes to the queen to "ask for mercy." Walking through the garden of Tsarskoye Selo, Masha met a middle-aged lady. In this lady everything "involuntarily attracted the heart and inspired confidence." Having learned who Masha was, she offered her help, and Masha sincerely told the lady the whole story. The lady turned out to be the empress, who pardoned Grinev in the same way as Pugachev once pardoned both Masha and Grinev.

In this article, we will describe the work of A.S. A chapter retelling of this short novel, published in 1836, is here for 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 wrote it down even before his birth in Peter Andreevich, before the onset of adulthood, he was on vacation. Uncle Savelich serves as the boy's educator. He supervises the development of Russian literacy by Petrusha.

Some time later, the Frenchman Beaupré was discharged to see Peter. He taught him German, French, and various sciences. But Beaupre was not engaged in raising a child, but only drank and walked. The boy's father soon discovered this and drove the teacher away. Peter in the 17th year is sent to the service, but not to the place where he hoped to get. He goes to Orenburg instead of Petersburg. This decision determined the further 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 preserve honor from a young age. Petya, having arrived in Simbirsk, meets in a tavern with Zurin, the captain, who taught him to play billiards, and also gave him a drink and won 100 rubles from him. Grinev seemed to break free for the first time. He behaves like a boy. Zurin demands the expected winnings in the morning. Pyotr Andreevich, in order to show his character, makes Savelich, protesting this, give money. Then, feeling reproaches of conscience, Grinev leaves Simbirsk. This is how chapter 1 ends in the work "The Captain's Daughter". Let's describe the further events that happened to Pyotr Andreevich.

2. Counselor

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin tells us about the further fate of this hero of the work "The Captain's Daughter". Chapter 2 of the novel is called The Leader. In it, we first meet Pugachev.

Grinev on the way asks Savelich to forgive him for his stupid behavior. Suddenly a storm begins on the road, Peter and his servant go astray. They meet a man who offers to accompany them to the inn. Grinev, riding in a booth, has a dream.

Grinev's dream is an important episode of 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 planted father. Brandishing an ax, a black-bearded man jumps up, dead bodies filling the whole room. At the same time, the man smiles at Pyotr Andreevich, and also offers him a blessing.

Grinev, already being on, examines his guide and notices that he is the very person from the dream. He is an average height man of forty, thin and broad-shouldered. Gray is already visible in his black beard. The man's eyes are alive, they feel sharpness and subtlety of mind. The counselor's face has a rather pleasant expression. It's roguish. His hair is cut in a circle, and this man is dressed in Tatar trousers and an old Armenian.

The counselor talks to the owner in "allegorical language". Pyotr Andreyevich thanks his companion, gives him a hare sheepskin coat, 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. It is here that the novel "The Captain's Daughter" continues. Chapters retelling of further events occurring in it, the following.

3. Fortress

This fortress resembles a village. Vasilisa Yegorovna, a reasonable and kind woman, the wife of the commandant, is in charge of everything here. Grinev the next morning meets Alexei Ivanovich Shvabrin, a young officer. This man is of short stature, superbly ugly, dark complexion, very lively. He is one of the main characters in The Captain's Daughter. Chapter 3 is the place in the novel where this character first appears before the reader.

Due to the duel, Shvabrin was transferred to this fortress. He tells Pyotr Andreyevich 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. Peter sees on the way how the "exercises" are 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 tells the following.

The commandant's family really likes Grinev. Pyotr Andreevich becomes an officer. He communicates with Shvabrin, but this communication brings the hero less and less pleasure. Aleksey Ivanovich's sharp remarks about Masha are especially disliked by Grinev. Peter writes mediocre poems and dedicates them to this girl. Shvabrin speaks out sharply about them, while insulting Masha. Grinev accuses him of lying, Alexey Ivanovich challenges Peter to a duel. Vasilisa Yegorovna, having learned about this, orders the arrest of the duelists. The stick, the yard girl, deprives them of their swords. After a while, Pyotr Andreevich becomes aware that Shvabrin wooed Masha, but received a refusal from the girl. He now understands why Alexey Ivanovich slandered Masha. A duel was again appointed, in which Pyotr Andreyevich was wounded.

5. Love

Masha and Savelich are taking care of the wounded. Petr Grinev proposes to the girl. He sends a letter to his parents asking for blessings. Shvabrin visits Pyotr Andreyevich and admits his guilt to him. Father Grinev does not give him a blessing, he already knows about the duel that happened, and Savelich did not tell him about it at all. Pyotr Andreevich believes that it was Alexey Ivanovich who did it. The captain's daughter does not want to marry without parental consent. Chapter 5 tells about her decision. We will not describe in detail the conversation between Peter and Masha. Let's just say that the captain's daughter decided to avoid Grineva in the future. The chapter retelling continues with the following events. Pyotr Andreevich stops visiting the Mironovs, becomes discouraged.

6. Pugachevshchina

The commandant is notified that a bandit gang led by Yemelyan Pugachev is operating in the vicinity. attacks fortresses. Pugachev soon reached the Belogorsk fortress. He urges 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 the work "The Captain's Daughter". Retelling the chapters of further events is as follows. At night, the Cossacks leave the fortress. They go over to the side of Yemelyan Pugachev. The gang attacks him. Mironov, with a few defenders, is trying to defend, but the forces of the two sides are unequal. The one who seized the fortress arranges the so-called trial. The executions on the gallows betray the commandant, as well as his comrades. When it comes to Grinev's turn, Savelich begs Emelyan, throwing himself at his feet, to spare Pyotr Andreyevich, offers him a ransom. Pugachev agrees. Residents of the city and soldiers swear allegiance to Emelyan. They kill Vasilisa Yegorovna, taking 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 content of the chapters of the subsequent events of the novel describes the subsequent fate of this heroine. A girl is hiding with a priest, who tells Pyotr Andreevich that Shvabrin is on Pugachev's side. Grinev learns from Savelich that Pugachev is their escort on the way to Orenburg. Emelyan calls Grinev to him, he comes. Pyotr Andreevich draws attention to the fact that everyone behaves like comrades with each other in the camp of Pugachev, and does not give preference to the leader.

Everyone boasts, voices doubts, disputes Pugachev. His people sing a song about the gallows. Yemelyan's guests disperse. Grinev tells him privately that he does not consider him a king. He replies that luck will be daring, because once Grishka Otrepiev ruled. Emelyan releases Pyotr Andreyevich to Orenburg despite the fact that he promises to fight against him.

9. Parting

Emelyan gives Peter the order to tell the governor of this city that the Pugachevites will soon arrive there. Pugachev, leaving Shvabrin as commandant. Savelich writes a list of Pyotr Andreevich's plundered goods and sends it to Yemelyan, but the latter does not punish him in a "fit of magnanimity" and does not punish the impudent Savelich. He even favors Grinev with a fur coat from his shoulder, gives him a horse. Meanwhile Masha is ill in the fortress.

10. Siege of the city

Peter goes to Orenburg, to Andrey Karlovich, 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 experience your happiness in an open field. For the head of Pugachev, officials propose to appoint a high price and bribe Yemelyan's people. The sergeant from the fortress brings Peter Andreevich a letter from Masha. She reports that Shvabrin is forcing her to become his wife. Grinev asks the general for help, to provide him with people in order to clear the fortress. However, he refuses.

11. Rebellious settlement

Grinev and Savelich are rushing to help the girl. Pugachev's people stop them on the way and lead them to the leader. He interrogates Pyotr Andreyevich about his intentions in the presence of confidants. Pugachev's people are a hunched over, puny old man with a blue ribbon worn over his shoulder over a gray army jacket, as well as a tall, portly and broad-shouldered man of about forty-five. Grinev tells Yemelyan that he came to save an orphan from Shvabrin's claims. The Pugachevites propose with both Grinev and Shvabrin simply to solve the problem - to hang both of them. However, Pyotr Pugachev is clearly sympathetic, and he promises to marry him to a girl. In the morning Pyotr Andreevich goes to the fortress in Pugachev's wagon. He, in a confidential conversation, tells him that he would like to go to Moscow, but his comrades are robbers and thieves who will surrender the leader at the first failure, saving their own neck. Emelyan tells a Kalmyk tale about a crow and an eagle. The raven lived for 300 years, but pecked at the same time. And the eagle preferred to starve, but did not eat. Better to drink living blood once, says Emelyan.

12. Orphan

In the fortress, Pugachev learns that the girl is being bullied by the new commandant. Shvabrin starves her. Emelyan frees Masha and wants to marry her immediately with Grinev. When Shvabrin says that this is Mironov's daughter, Emelyan Pugachev decides to let Grinev and Masha go.

13. Arrest

The soldiers on their way out of the fortress take Grinev under arrest. They take Pyotr Andreevich for a Pugachev and lead him to the boss. It turns out to be Zurin, who advises Pyotr Andreevich to send Savelich and Masha to their parents, and Grinev himself - to continue the battle. He follows this advice. Pugachev's army was defeated, but he himself was not caught, he managed to assemble new detachments in Siberia. Yemelyan is being pursued. Zurin is ordered to arrest Grinev and send him under guard to Kazan, betraying the investigation into the Pugachev case.

14. Court

Pyotr Andreevich is suspected of serving Pugachev. Shvabrin played an important role in this. 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. Tells about how he got to Pugachev because of her, the captain's daughter. Briefly by chapters, the novel we have described ends as follows. Grinev was released. He is present at the execution of Yemelyan, who nods his head recognizing him.

The genre of the historical novel is "The Captain's Daughter". The 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 "The Captain's Daughter" chapter by chapter, you will understand the psychology of the characters, and also learn some of the details that we have omitted.

A complex and deep work, marked by historical truth, strong feeling and masterly skill.
And it all started like that. From the beginning of the 1830s, the theme of the peasant uprising became important for Pushkin. And in the summer of 1833 he sought permission for a long trip to the places of the Pugachev uprising. This journey lasted four months. In the Orenburg province there were still people who remembered Emelyan Pugachev. And in the fall of 1833 the poet returned to the capital with "The History of Pugachev". This work was the first scientific study of the "Russian revolt", a bold, unusual study for that time. Pushkin wrote in it that "all the black people were for Pugachev," and "the nobility was openly on the side of the government," since their goals and interests were too "opposite". The poet was not afraid to speak here the truth he understood. But Pushkin decided to create another work dedicated to the events of the Pugachev uprising.
The historical process was presented to the poet as an endless chain, where people were links, and its beginning and end were lost in time. According to Pushkin, history is a stream flowing through a person's house, through his personal, private life. The poet believed that a person remains in history thanks to self-esteem, kindness, breadth and wealth of the soul, and not to orders and royal favor. For Pushkin, history is not a scientific abstraction, but a living connection of living people, in faces, "in a cap and a dressing gown." This living connection meant the continuity of generations, when each subsequent one respects and preserves the experience of the fathers, increases the spiritual values \u200b\u200bof the ancestors. Therefore, the poet connected social progress not with technical discoveries, but with the achievements of culture, with the development of the spiritual world of man. Many of these thoughts were embodied in The Captain's Daughter in one way or another.
The genre of this work is still controversial. What is it? A story? Novel? Historical chronicle? Family notes? This is not memoir literature - it is created only on the basis of factual material. And here a lot belongs to fiction. For the same reason, "The Captain's Daughter" cannot be attributed to family notes, although the work was written in the form of a family chronicle. Therefore, this is a story or a historical novel. Modern literary criticism tends to the former. Nevertheless, this story contains historical material, is written in the form of family notes and is a memoir of an already aging Grinev. Here we see how Pushkin's understanding of historicism was reflected in the very genre of the work: the poet portrayed important social events through the fate of people.

This work is a literary note of a literary hero. Such a technique made it possible for the author, when reproducing pictures of the Pugachev war, not to give a direct assessment of either side. The family memoirs that Grinev writes require him to say only what he himself has witnessed. Therefore, Pushkin, for example, could not give a psychological portrait of the empress (Grinev never saw her), and reproduce this image in the spirit of ceremonialness inherent in that time.
For Pushkin, truth is the principle of presenting material, so he makes his hero the best of the nobles. Grinev is characterized by kindness and nobility. Another predecessor of Pushkin, Fonvizin, in the comedy "The Minor" through the lips of one of the heroes, Starodum, who remembers his father's behest, said: "Have a heart, have a soul, and you will be a man at any time."
Grinev is just such a person. But this is not Pushkin, his views are not in tune with Pushkin's. He does not understand everything from what he had to see. Much in Pugachev remains closed to him, and here the poet, as it were, "corrects" Grinev's judgments with the help of observations and facts that he, as a conscientious memoirist, allegedly writes down. Let us recall, for example, the episode with the Kalmyk tale, when Pugachev looks with surprise at a young nobleman. This surprise speaks volumes. Grinev did not understand Pugachev's allegory, but the author helps the readers: he "makes" Grinev see this bewildered look of the "rebel", thereby leaving room for us to think about the fairy tale.
The story is also interesting in compositional terms: each chapter is structured in such a way that it adds a new touch to the characterization of the heroes.
In 1837, a contemporary of the poet, historian A.I. Turgenev wrote: "Pushkin's story" The Captain's Daughter "became so famous here that Barant, not joking, suggested that the author, in my presence, translate it into French<язык> with his help, but how will he express the originality of this syllable, this era, these old Russian characters and this girlish Russian charm - which are sketched throughout the story? The main charm is in the story, and it is difficult to retell the story in another language. The Frenchman will understand our uncle<…>, such and they have been; but will the faithful wife understand the faithful commandant? "(Letter from A. I. Turgenev to K. Ya. Bulgakov. January 9, 1837 - In the book: Letters from Alexander Turgenev to Bulgakov. M., 1939, p. 204.)