The novel “The White Guard” was first published (incompletely) in Russia, in 1924. Completely in Paris: volume one - 1927, volume two - 1929. “The White Guard” is a largely autobiographical novel based on the writer’s personal impressions of Kyiv at the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919.
The Turbin family is to a large extent the Bulgakov family. Turbiny is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother on his mother’s side. “White Guard” was started in 1922, after the death of the writer’s mother. No manuscripts of the novel have survived. According to the typist Raaben, who retyped the novel, The White Guard was originally conceived as a trilogy. Possible titles for the novels in the proposed trilogy included “The Midnight Cross” and “The White Cross.” The prototypes of the novel's heroes were Bulgakov's Kyiv friends and acquaintances.
So, Lieutenant Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky was copied from his childhood friend Nikolai Nikolaevich Sigaevsky. The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky was another friend of Bulgakov’s youth - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer. In “The White Guard” Bulgakov strives to show the people and intelligentsia in the flames of the civil war in Ukraine. The main character, Alexei Turbin, although clearly autobiographical, is, unlike the writer, not a zemstvo doctor who was only formally listed in military service, but a real military medic who has seen and experienced a lot during the years of the World War. The novel contrasts two groups of officers - those who “hate the Bolsheviks with hot and direct hatred, the kind that can lead to a fight” and “those who returned from the war to their homes with the same thought, like Alexei Turbin, to rest and rebuild the non-military, but ordinary human life.”
Bulgakov sociologically accurately shows the mass movements of the era. He demonstrates the centuries-old hatred of the peasants for the landowners and officers, and the newly emerged, but no less deep hatred for the “occupiers.” All this fueled the uprising raised against the rise of Hetman Skoropadsky, the leader of the Ukrainian national movement Petlyura. Bulgakov called one of the main features of his work in “The White Guard” there is a persistent portrayal of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in an impudent country.
In particular, the depiction of an intellectual-noble family, by the will of historical fate, thrown into the camp of the White Guard during the Civil War, in the traditions of “War and Peace”. “The White Guard” - Marxist criticism of the 20s: “Yes, Bulgakov’s talent was not as deep as it was brilliant, and the talent was great... And yet Bulgakov’s works are not popular. There is nothing in them that affected the people as a whole. There is a mysterious and cruel crowd.” Bulgakov's talent was not imbued with interest in the people, in their life, their joys and sorrows cannot be recognized from Bulgakov.
M.A. Bulgakov twice, in two different works of his, recalls how his work on the novel “The White Guard” (1925) began. The hero of the “Theatrical Novel” Maksudov says: “It was born at night when I woke up after a sad dream. I dreamed of my hometown, snow, winter, the Civil War... In my dream, a silent blizzard passed in front of me, and then an old piano appeared and near it people who were no longer in the world.” The story “To a Secret Friend” contains other details: “I pulled my barracks lamp as far as possible to the table and put a pink paper cap on top of its green cap, which made the paper come to life. On it I wrote the words: “And the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds.” Then he began to write, not yet knowing very well what would come of it. I remember that I really wanted to convey how good it is when it’s warm at home, the clock chiming like a tower in the dining room, sleepy slumber in bed, books and frost...” With this mood, Bulgakov began to create a new novel.
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov began writing the novel “The White Guard,” the most important book for Russian literature, in 1822.
In 1922-1924, Bulgakov wrote articles for the newspaper “Nakanune”, constantly published in the railway workers’ newspaper “Gudok”, where he met I. Babel, I. Ilf, E. Petrov, V. Kataev, Yu. Olesha. According to Bulgakov himself, the concept of the novel “The White Guard” finally took shape in 1922. During this time, several important events in his personal life occurred: during the first three months of this year, he received news of the fate of his brothers, whom he never saw again, and a telegram about the sudden death of his mother from typhus. During this period, the terrible impressions of the Kyiv years received additional impetus for embodiment in creativity.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Bulgakov planned to create a whole trilogy, and spoke about his favorite book like this: “I consider my novel a failure, although I distinguish it from my other things, because I took the idea very seriously.” And what we now call the “White Guard” was conceived as the first part of the trilogy and initially bore the names “Yellow Ensign”, “Midnight Cross” and “White Cross”: “The action of the second part should take place on the Don, and in the third part Myshlaevsky will end up in the ranks of the Red Army." Signs of this plan can be found in the text of The White Guard. But Bulgakov did not write a trilogy, leaving it to Count A.N. Tolstoy (“Walking through Torment”). And the theme of “flight”, emigration, in “The White Guard” is only outlined in the story of Thalberg’s departure and in the episode of reading Bunin’s “The Gentleman from San Francisco”.
The novel was created in an era of greatest material need. The writer worked at night in an unheated room, worked impetuously and enthusiastically, and was terribly tired: “The third life. And my third life blossomed at the desk. The pile of sheets kept swelling. I wrote with both pencil and ink.” Subsequently, the author returned to his favorite novel more than once, reliving the past. In one of the entries dating back to 1923, Bulgakov noted: “And I will finish the novel, and, I dare to assure you, it will be the kind of novel that will make the sky feel hot...” And in 1925 he wrote: “It will be a terrible pity, if I’m mistaken and the “White Guard” is not a strong thing.” On August 31, 1923, Bulgakov informed Yu. Slezkine: “I finished the novel, but it has not yet been rewritten, it lies in a heap, over which I think a lot. I’m fixing something.” This was a draft version of the text, which is mentioned in the “Theatrical Novel”: “The novel takes a long time to edit. It is necessary to cross out many places, replace hundreds of words with others. A lot of work, but necessary!” Bulgakov was not satisfied with his work, crossed out dozens of pages, created new editions and variants. But at the beginning of 1924, I already read excerpts from “The White Guard” from the writer S. Zayaitsky and from my new friends the Lyamins, considering the book finished.
The first known mention of the completion of the novel dates back to March 1924. The novel was published in the 4th and 5th books of the Rossiya magazine in 1925. But the 6th issue with the final part of the novel was not published. According to researchers, the novel "The White Guard" was written after the premiere of "Days of the Turbins" (1926) and the creation of "Run" (1928). The text of the last third of the novel, corrected by the author, was published in 1929 by the Parisian publishing house Concorde. The full text of the novel was published in Paris: volume one (1927), volume two (1929).
Due to the fact that “The White Guard” was not completed publication in the USSR, and foreign publications of the late 20s were not readily available in the writer’s homeland, Bulgakov’s first novel did not receive much attention from the press. The famous critic A. Voronsky (1884-1937) at the end of 1925 called The White Guard, together with Fatal Eggs, works of “outstanding literary quality.” The response to this statement was a sharp attack by the head of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP) L. Averbakh (1903-1939) in the Rapp organ - the magazine “At the Literary Post”. Later, the production of the play “Days of the Turbins” based on the novel “The White Guard” at the Moscow Art Theater in the fall of 1926 turned the attention of critics to this work, and the novel itself was forgotten.
K. Stanislavsky, worried about the censorship of “The Days of the Turbins,” originally called, like the novel, “The White Guard,” strongly advised Bulgakov to abandon the epithet “white,” which seemed openly hostile to many. But the writer treasured this very word. He agreed with the “cross”, and with “December”, and with “buran” instead of “guard”, but he did not want to give up the definition of “white”, seeing in it a sign of the special moral purity of his beloved heroes, their belonging to the Russian intelligentsia as parts of the best stratum in the country.
"The White Guard" is a largely autobiographical novel based on the writer's personal impressions of Kyiv at the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919. The members of the Turbin family reflected the characteristic features of Bulgakov’s relatives. Turbiny is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother on his mother’s side. No manuscripts of the novel have survived. The prototypes of the novel's heroes were Bulgakov's Kyiv friends and acquaintances. Lieutenant Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky was copied from his childhood friend Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky.
The prototype for Lieutenant Shervinsky was another friend of Bulgakov’s youth - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer (this quality passed on to the character), who served in the troops of Hetman Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky (1873-1945), but not as an adjutant. Then he emigrated. The prototype of Elena Talberg (Turbina) was Bulgakov’s sister, Varvara Afanasyevna. Captain Talberg, her husband, has many similarities with Varvara Afanasyevna Bulgakova’s husband, Leonid Sergeevich Karuma (1888-1968), a German by birth, a career officer who served first Skoropadsky and then the Bolsheviks.
The prototype of Nikolka Turbin was one of the brothers M.A. Bulgakov. The writer’s second wife, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya-Bulgakova, wrote in her book “Memoirs”: “One of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s brothers (Nikolai) was also a doctor. It’s the personality of my younger brother, Nikolai, that I want to dwell on. The noble and cozy little man Nikolka Turbin has always been dear to my heart (especially in the novel “The White Guard”. In the play “Days of the Turbins” he is much more sketchy.). In my life I never managed to see Nikolai Afanasyevich Bulgakov. This is the youngest representative of the profession favored by the Bulgakov family - doctor of medicine, bacteriologist, scientist and researcher, who died in Paris in 1966. He studied at the University of Zagreb and was assigned to the department of bacteriology there.”
The novel was created at a difficult time for the country. Young Soviet Russia, which did not have a regular army, found itself embroiled in the Civil War. The dreams of the traitor hetman Mazepa, whose name was not accidentally mentioned in Bulgakov’s novel, came true. The “White Guard” is based on events related to the consequences of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, according to which Ukraine was recognized as an independent state, the “Ukrainian State” was created led by Hetman Skoropadsky, and refugees from all over Russia rushed “abroad.” Bulgakov clearly described their social status in the novel.
The philosopher Sergei Bulgakov, the writer’s cousin, in his book “At the Feast of the Gods” described the death of his homeland as follows: “There was a mighty power, needed by friends, terrible by enemies, and now it is rotting carrion, from which piece by piece falls off to the delight of the crows that have flown in. In place of a sixth of the world there was a stinking, gaping hole...” Mikhail Afanasyevich agreed with his uncle in many respects. And it is no coincidence that this terrible picture is reflected in the article by M.A. Bulgakov “Hot Prospects” (1919). Studzinsky speaks about this in his play “Days of the Turbins”: “We had Russia - a great power...” So for Bulgakov, an optimist and talented satirist, despair and grief became the starting points in creating a book of hope. It is this definition that most accurately reflects the content of the novel “The White Guard.” In the book “At the Feast of the Gods,” the writer found another thought closer and more interesting: “What Russia will become depends largely on how the intelligentsia determines itself.” Bulgakov's heroes are painfully searching for the answer to this question.
In The White Guard, Bulgakov sought to show the people and intelligentsia in the flames of the Civil War in Ukraine. The main character, Alexei Turbin, although clearly autobiographical, is, unlike the writer, not a zemstvo doctor who was only formally enrolled in military service, but a real military medic who saw and experienced a lot during the years of the World War. There are many things that bring the author closer to his hero: calm courage, faith in old Russia, and most importantly, the dream of a peaceful life.
“You have to love your heroes; if this does not happen, I do not advise anyone to take up the pen - you will get into the biggest troubles, so you know,” says the “Theatrical Novel”, and this is the main law of Bulgakov’s work. In the novel "The White Guard" he talks about white officers and intelligentsia as ordinary people, reveals their young world of soul, charm, intelligence and strength, and shows their enemies as living people.
The literary community refused to recognize the novel's merits. Out of almost three hundred reviews, Bulgakov counted only three positive ones, and classified the rest as “hostile and abusive.” The writer received rude comments. In one of the articles, Bulgakov was called “a new bourgeois scum, splashing poisoned but powerless saliva on the working class, on its communist ideals.”
“Class untruth”, “a cynical attempt to idealize the White Guard”, “an attempt to reconcile the reader with the monarchical, Black Hundred officers”, “hidden counter-revolutionism” - this is not a complete list of characteristics that were given to the “White Guard” by those who believed that the main thing in literature is the political position of the writer, his attitude towards the “whites” and “reds”.
One of the main motives of the “White Guard” is faith in life and its victorious power. Therefore, this book, considered banned for several decades, found its reader, found a second life in all the richness and splendor of Bulgakov’s living word. Kiev writer Viktor Nekrasov, who read The White Guard in the 60s, quite rightly noted: “Nothing, it turns out, has faded, nothing has become outdated. It was as if these forty years had never happened... before our eyes an obvious miracle happened, something that happens very rarely in literature and not to everyone - a rebirth took place.” The life of the novel's heroes continues today, but in a different direction.
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http://www.licey.net/lit/guard/history
Illustrations:
The novel “The White Guard” took about 7 years to create. Initially, Bulgakov wanted to make it the first part of a trilogy. The writer began work on the novel in 1921, moving to Moscow, and by 1925 the text was almost finished. Once again Bulgakov ruled the novel in 1917-1929. before publication in Paris and Riga, reworking the ending.
The name options considered by Bulgakov are all connected with politics through the symbolism of flowers: “White Cross”, “Yellow Ensign”, “Scarlet Swoop”.
In 1925-1926 Bulgakov wrote a play, in the final version called “Days of the Turbins,” the plot and characters of which coincide with the novel. The play was staged at the Moscow Art Theater in 1926.
Literary direction and genre
The novel “The White Guard” was written in the tradition of realistic literature of the 19th century. Bulgakov uses a traditional technique and, through the history of a family, describes the history of an entire people and country. Thanks to this, the novel takes on the features of an epic.
The work begins as a family novel, but gradually all events receive philosophical understanding.
The novel "The White Guard" is historical. The author does not set himself the task of objectively describing the political situation in Ukraine in 1918-1919. The events are depicted tendentiously, this is due to a certain creative task. Bulgakov’s goal is to show the subjective perception of the historical process (not revolution, but civil war) by a certain circle of people close to him. This process is perceived as a disaster because there are no winners in a civil war.
Bulgakov balances on the brink of tragedy and farce, he is ironic and focuses on failures and shortcomings, losing sight of not only the positive (if there was any), but also the neutral in human life in connection with the new order.
Issues
Bulgakov in the novel avoids social and political problems. His heroes are the White Guard, but the careerist Talberg also belongs to the same guard. The author's sympathies are not on the side of the whites or the reds, but on the side of good people who do not turn into rats running away from the ship and do not change their opinions under the influence of political vicissitudes.
Thus, the problem of the novel is philosophical: how to remain human at the moment of a universal catastrophe and not lose yourself.
Bulgakov creates a myth about a beautiful white City, covered with snow and, as it were, protected by it. The writer asks himself whether historical events, changes in power, which Bulgakov experienced in Kyiv during the civil war 14, depend on him. Bulgakov comes to the conclusion that myths rule over human destinies. He considers Petliura to be a myth that arose in Ukraine “in the fog of the terrible year of 1818.” Such myths give rise to fierce hatred and force some who believe in the myth to become part of it without reasoning, and others, living in another myth, to fight to the death for their own.
Each of the heroes experiences the collapse of their myths, and some, like Nai-Tours, die even for something they no longer believe in. The problem of the loss of myth and faith is the most important for Bulgakov. For himself, he chooses the house as a myth. The life of a house is still longer than that of a person. And indeed, the house has survived to this day.
Plot and composition
In the center of the composition is the Turbin family. Their house, with cream curtains and a lamp with a green lampshade, which in the writer’s mind has always been associated with peace and homeliness, looks like Noah’s Ark in the stormy sea of life, in a whirlwind of events. Invited and uninvited, all like-minded people, come to this ark from all over the world. Alexei's comrades in arms enter the house: Lieutenant Shervinsky, Second Lieutenant Stepanov (Karas), Myshlaevsky. Here they find shelter, table, and warmth in the frosty winter. But the main thing is not this, but the hope that everything will be fine, so necessary for the youngest Bulgakov, who finds himself in the position of his heroes: “Their lives were interrupted at dawn.”
The events in the novel take place in the winter of 1918-1919. (51 days). During this time, the power in the city changes: the hetman flees with the Germans and enters the city of Petliura, who ruled for 47 days, and at the end the Petliuraites flee under the cannonade of the Red Army.
The symbolism of time is very important for a writer. Events begin on the day of St. Andrew the First-Called, the patron saint of Kyiv (December 13), and end with Candlemas (on the night of December 2-3). For Bulgakov, the motive of the meeting is important: Petlyura with the Red Army, past with future, grief with hope. He associates himself and the world of the Turbins with the position of Simeon, who, having looked at Christ, did not take part in the exciting events, but remained with God in eternity: “Now you release your servant, Master.” With the same God who at the beginning of the novel is mentioned by Nikolka as a sad and mysterious old man flying into the black, cracked sky.
The novel is dedicated to Bulgakov’s second wife, Lyubov Belozerskaya. The work has two epigraphs. The first describes a snowstorm in Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter, as a result of which the hero loses his way and meets the robber Pugachev. This epigraph explains that the whirlwind of historical events is as detailed as a snowstorm, so it is easy to get confused and go astray, not to know where the good person is and where the robber is.
But the second epigraph from the Apocalypse warns: everyone will be judged according to their deeds. If you chose the wrong path, getting lost in the storms of life, this does not justify you.
At the beginning of the novel, 1918 is called great and terrible. In the last, 20th chapter, Bulgakov notes that the next year was even worse. The first chapter begins with an omen: a shepherd Venus and a red Mars stand high above the horizon. With the death of the mother, the bright queen, in May 1918, the Turbins' family misfortunes began. He lingers, and then Talberg leaves, a frostbitten Myshlaevsky appears, and an absurd relative Lariosik arrives from Zhitomir.
Disasters are becoming more and more destructive; they threaten to destroy not only the usual foundations, the peace of the house, but also the very lives of its inhabitants.
Nikolka would have been killed in a senseless battle if not for the fearless Colonel Nai-Tours, who himself died in the same hopeless battle, from which he defended, disbanding, the cadets, explaining to them that the hetman, whom they were going to protect, had fled at night.
Alexei was wounded, shot by the Petliurists because he was not informed about the dissolution of the defensive division. He is saved by an unfamiliar woman, Julia Reiss. The illness from the wound turns into typhus, but Elena begs the Mother of God, the Intercessor, for her brother’s life, giving her happiness with Thalberg for her.
Even Vasilisa survives a raid by bandits and loses her savings. This trouble for the Turbins is not a grief at all, but, according to Lariosik, “everyone has their own grief.”
Grief comes to Nikolka too. And it’s not that the bandits, having spied Nikolka hiding the Nai-Tours Colt, steal it and threaten Vasilisa with it. Nikolka faces death face to face and avoids it, and the fearless Nai-Tours dies, and Nikolka’s shoulders bear the responsibility of reporting the death to his mother and sister, finding and identifying the body.
The novel ends with the hope that the new force entering the City will not destroy the idyll of the house on Alekseevsky Spusk 13, where the magic stove that warmed and raised the Turbin children now serves them as adults, and the only inscription remaining on its tiles says in the hand of a friend that tickets to Hades (to hell) have been taken for Lena. Thus, hope in the finale is mixed with hopelessness for a particular person.
Taking the novel from the historical layer to the universal one, Bulgakov gives hope to all readers, because hunger will pass, suffering and torment will pass, but the stars, which you need to look at, will remain. The writer draws the reader to true values.
Heroes of the novel
The main character and older brother is 28-year-old Alexey.
He is a weak person, a “rag”, and caring for all family members falls on his shoulders. He does not have the acumen of a military man, although he belongs to the White Guard. Alexey is a military doctor. Bulgakov calls his soul gloomy, the kind that loves women’s eyes most of all. This image in the novel is autobiographical.
Alexey, absent-minded, almost paid for this with his life, removing all the officer’s insignia from his clothes, but forgetting about the cockade, by which the Petliurists recognized him. The crisis and death of Alexei occurs on December 24, Christmas. Having experienced death and a new birth through injury and illness, the “resurrected” Alexey Turbin becomes a different person, his eyes “have forever become unsmiling and gloomy.”
Elena is 24 years old. Myshlaevsky calls her clear, Bulgakov calls her reddish, her luminous hair is like a crown. If Bulgakov calls the mother in the novel a bright queen, then Elena is more like a deity or priestess, the keeper of the hearth and the family itself. Bulgakov wrote Elena from his sister Varya.
Nikolka Turbin is 17 and a half years old. He is a cadet. With the beginning of the revolution, the schools ceased to exist. Their discarded students are called crippled, neither children nor adults, neither military nor civilian.
Nai-Tours appears to Nikolka as a man with an iron face, simple and courageous. This is a person who neither knows how to adapt nor seek personal gain. He dies having fulfilled his military duty.
Captain Talberg is Elena’s husband, a handsome man. He tried to adapt to rapidly changing events: as a member of the revolutionary military committee, he arrested General Petrov, became part of an “operetta with great bloodshed,” elected “hetman of all Ukraine,” so he had to escape with the Germans, betraying Elena. At the end of the novel, Elena learns from her friend that Talberg has betrayed her once again and is going to get married.
Vasilisa (houseowner engineer Vasily Lisovich) occupied the first floor. He is a negative hero, a money-grubber. At night he hides money in a hiding place in the wall. Outwardly similar to Taras Bulba. Having found counterfeit money, Vasilisa figures out how he will use it.
Vasilisa is, in essence, an unhappy person. It is painful for him to save and make money. His wife Wanda is crooked, her hair is yellow, her elbows are bony, her legs are dry. Vasilisa is sick of living with such a wife in the world.
Stylistic features
The house in the novel is one of the heroes. The Turbins’ hope to survive, survive and even be happy is connected with it. Talberg, who did not become part of the Turbin family, ruins his nest by leaving with the Germans, so he immediately loses the protection of the Turbin house.
The City is the same living hero. Bulgakov deliberately does not name Kyiv, although all the names in the City are Kyiv, slightly altered (Alekseevsky Spusk instead of Andreevsky, Malo-Provalnaya instead of Malopodvalnaya). The city lives, smokes and makes noise, “like a multi-tiered honeycomb.”
The text contains many literary and cultural reminiscences. The reader associates the city with Rome during the decline of Roman civilization, and with the eternal city of Jerusalem.
The moment the cadets prepared to defend the city is associated with the Battle of Borodino, which never came.
The novel has a ring composition. It begins and ends with ominous premonitions of the apocalypse. The novel contains a motif of diabolism. It is associated with such details as the underworld, hell, where Nikolka and her sister Nai-Turs descend in search of his body, the “devil’s doll” Talberg, the devil in a cassock on the bell tower of the cathedral, the demon – Shpolyansky, the demon – Shervinsky...
The entire novel is permeated with the symbolism of the apocalypse; the bloody revolutionary events are depicted as the Last Judgment. However, the apocalypse in the novel is not only death, but also salvation, light. The writer shows that the main goal of human existence means nothing. It seemed like the end of the world had come. But the Turbin family continues to live in the same time dimension.
Bulgakov carefully describes all the household little things kept in the family: the stove (the focus of all life), the service, the lampshade (a symbol of the family hearth), cream curtains that seem to close the family, saving it from external events. All these details of everyday life, despite external shocks, remain the same as they were. Life in the novel is a symbol of existence. When everything around collapses, values are revalued, but life is indestructible. The sum of the little things that make up the life of the Turbins is the culture of the intelligentsia, the foundation that keeps the characters’ characters intact.
The world in the novel is shown as a devilish carnival, a farce. Through theatrical and farcical images, the author shows the chaos of history. The story itself is shown in theatrical style: the toy kings change repeatedly, Thalberg calls the story an operetta; many characters dress up. Talberg changes clothes and runs, then the hetman and other whites, then the flight takes over everyone. Shpolyansky is similar to the opera Onegin. He is an actor who constantly changes masks. But Bulgakov shows that this is not a game, but real life.
Turbines are given by the author at the moment when a family suffers a loss (the death of the mother), when the beginnings of chaos and discord that are alien to it invade the house. The new face of the City becomes their symbolic embodiment. The city appears in the novel in two time coordinates - past and present. He is not hostile to the house in the past. The city, with its gardens, steep streets, Dnieper steeps, Vladimir Hill with the statue of St. Vladimir, preserving the unique appearance of Kyiv, the foremother of Russian cities, appears in the novel as a symbol of Russian statehood, which is threatened to be destroyed by waves of rapid decline, Petliurism, and “gnarly peasant wrath.”
Current events are included at great length by the author. Bulgakov often reveals tragic episodes in the flow of history to the heroes through dreams. Prophetic dreams in the novel are one of the ways to reflect the depths of the characters’ subconscious. Correlating reality with ideal ideas, they reveal the universal truth in symbolic form. Thus, reflecting on what is happening in the light of the problems of existence, Alexei Turbin reads the phrase from “the first book he came across” (“Demons” by Dostoevsky), “senselessly returning to the same thing”: “For a Russian man, honor is just an extra burden... “But reality flows into a dream, and when Alexey falls asleep in the morning, in a dream a “short nightmare in large checkered trousers” appears to him, saying: “You can’t sit on a hedgehog with your naked profile!.. Holy Rus' is a wooden, poor country.” and... dangerous, and for a Russian person honor is just an extra burden.” "Oh you! - Turbin cried out in his sleep. “G-reptile, I’ll tell you...” In his sleep, Turbin reached into the table drawer to take out a Browning gun, sleepily took it out, wanted to shoot at the nightmare, chased after it, and the nightmare disappeared.” And again the dream flows into reality: “For two hours a cloudy, black, dreamless dream flowed, and when it began to dawn pale and softly outside the windows of the room overlooking the glassed-in veranda, Turbin began to dream of the City,” - this is how the third chapter ends.
In dreams that interrupt the narrative, the author's position is expressed. The key is Alexey Turbin’s dream, when he imagines a paradise in which there is Nai-Tours and sergeant Zhilin. A paradise in which there is a place for both reds and whites, and God says: “You are all the same to me, killed on the battlefield.” Both Turbin and the nameless Red Army soldier have the same dream.
The writer shows the collapse of the old, familiar life through the destruction of the house, in the traditions of Bunin (“Antonov Apples”) and Chekhov (“The Cherry Orchard”). At the same time, the Turbins’ house itself – a quiet “harbour” with cream-colored curtains – becomes a kind of center of the author’s moral and psychological stability.
The city in which the main events unfold is a border zone between a quiet “harbour” and the bloody outside world, from which everyone is running. The running motif, which originates in this “external” world, gradually deepens and permeates the entire action of the book. Thus, in “The White Guard” three interconnected and interpenetrating spatio-temporal, plot-event and cause-and-effect circles are formed: the Turbins’ house, the City and the world. The first and second worlds have clearly defined boundaries, but the third is limitless and therefore incomprehensible. Continuing the traditions of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Bulgakov shows that all external events are reflected in the life of the house, and only the house can serve as a moral support for the heroes.
Based on some of the realities outlined in the novel, one can understand that the action takes place in Kyiv. In the novel it is designated simply as the City. Thus, the space expands, transforming Kyiv into a city in general, and the city into the world. The events taking place are taking on a cosmic scale. From the standpoint of human values, the significance of a person’s belonging to a social group is lost, and the writer evaluates reality from the position of eternal human life, not subject to the destructive purpose of time.
Epigraphs to the novel have a special meaning. The novel is preceded by two epigraphs. The first roots what is happening in Russian history, the second correlates it with eternity. Their presence serves as a sign of the type of generalization chosen by Bulgakov - from the image of today to its projection onto history, onto literature in order to reveal the universal human meaning of what is happening.
The first epigraph is Pushkin’s, from “The Captain’s Daughter”: “Fine snow began to fall and suddenly fell in flakes. The wind howled; there was a snowstorm. In an instant, the dark sky mixed with the snowy sea. Everything has disappeared. “Well, master,” the coachman shouted, “trouble: a snowstorm!” This epigraph conveys not only the emotional tone of the “time of troubles,” but is also perceived as a symbol of the moral stability of Bulgakov’s heroes at the tragic turning point of the era.
The key words of Pushkin’s text (“snow”, “wind”, “blizzard”, “blizzard”) are reminiscent of the indignation of the peasant element, of the peasant’s account of the master. The image of the raging elements becomes one of the cross-cutting ones in the novel and is directly related to Bulgakov’s understanding of history, which has a destructive nature. By the very choice of the epigraph, the author emphasized that his first novel is about people who were initially tragically lost in the iron storm of the revolution, but who found their place and path in it. With the same epigraph, the writer also indicated his uninterrupted connection with classical literature, in particular with the traditions of Pushkin, with “The Captain’s Daughter” - a wonderful reflection of the great Russian poet on Russian history and the Russian people. Continuing the traditions of Pushkin, Bulgakov achieves his artistic truth. Thus, in “The White Guard” the word “Pugachevism” appears.
The second epigraph, taken from the “Revelation of John the Theologian” (“And the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to their deeds...”), reinforces the sense of crisis of the moment. This epigraph emphasizes the point of personal responsibility. The theme of the apocalypse constantly appears on the pages of the novel, not allowing the reader to forget that the reader is presented with pictures of the Last Judgment, reminding that this Judgment is carried out “in accordance with deeds.” In addition, the epigraph emphasizes a timeless point of view on the events taking place. It is noteworthy that in the next verse of the Apocalypse, although it is not included in the text of the novel, the following is said: “... and each was judged according to his deeds.” So, in the subtext, the motive of the trial enters into the fate of each of the heroes of the novel.
The novel opens with a majestic image of 1918. Not by the date, not by the designation of the time of action, but precisely by the image: “It was a great and terrible year after the birth of Christ, 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution. It was full of sun in summer and snow in winter, and two stars stood especially high in the sky: the shepherd star - evening Venus and red, trembling Mars. Time and space of the “White Guard” symbolically intersect. Already at the very beginning of the novel, the line of biblical times (“And the dead were judged...”) crosses the synchronic space of formidable events. As the action develops, the intersection takes the form of a cross (especially expressive at the end of the novel), on which Rus' is crucified.
The satirical characters of the novel are united by the motif of “running”. The grotesque picture of the City highlights the tragedy of the honest officers. Using the motif of “running,” Bulgakov shows the scale of panic that gripped different segments of the population.
Color schemes become a symbolic attribute of the events depicted in the novel. The tragic reality (cold, death, blood) is reflected in the contrast of the peaceful snow-covered City and red and black tones. One of the most common colors in the novel is white, which, according to the author, is a symbol of purity and truth. In the author’s perception, the white color has not only a political connotation, but also a hidden meaning, symbolizing the position “above the fray.” Bulgakov associated his ideas about the Motherland, home, family, and honor with the white color. When all this is threatened, black (the color of evil, sorrow and chaos) absorbs all other colors. For the author, the color black is a symbol of a violation of harmony, and the contrasting combination of white and black, black and red, red and blue emphasizes the tragedy of the characters and conveys the tragedy of events.
1. Introduction. M. A. Bulgakov was one of those few writers who, during the years of omnipotent Soviet censorship, continued to defend their rights to authorial independence.
Despite fierce persecution and a ban on publishing, he never followed the lead of the authorities and created sharp independent works. One of them is the novel "The White Guard".
2. History of creation. Bulgakov was a direct witness to all the horrors. The events of 1918-1919 made a huge impression on him. in Kyiv, when power passed several times to different political forces.
In 1922, the writer decided to write a novel, the main characters of which would be the people closest to him - white officers and the intelligentsia. Bulgakov worked on The White Guard during 1923-1924.
He read individual chapters in friendly companies. Listeners noted the undoubted merits of the novel, but agreed that it would be unrealistic to publish it in Soviet Russia. The first two parts of "The White Guard" were nevertheless published in 1925 in two issues of the magazine "Russia".
3. The meaning of the name. The name "White Guard" carries a partly tragic, partly ironic meaning. The Turbin family are staunch monarchists. They firmly believe that only the monarchy can save Russia. At the same time, the Turbins see that there is no longer any hope for restoration. The abdication of the Tsar became an irrevocable step in the history of Russia.
The problem lies not only in the strength of the opponents, but also in the fact that there are practically no real people devoted to the idea of the monarchy. The “White Guard” is a dead symbol, a mirage, a dream that will never come true.
Bulgakov's irony is most clearly manifested in the scene of a night drinking session in the Turbins' house with enthusiastic talk about the revival of the monarchy. This is the only strength of the “white guard”. Sobering up and hangover are exactly reminiscent of the state of the noble intelligentsia a year after the revolution.
4. Genre Novel
5. Theme. The main theme of the novel is the horror and helplessness of ordinary people in the face of enormous political and social upheavals.
6. Problems. The main problem of the novel is the feeling of uselessness and uselessness among white officers and the noble intelligentsia. There is no one to continue the fight, and it makes no sense. There are no more people like Turbins left. Betrayal and deception reign among the white movement. Another problem is the sharp division of the country into many political opponents.
The choice has to be made not only between monarchists and Bolsheviks. Hetman, Petlyura, bandits of all stripes - these are just the most significant forces that are tearing Ukraine and, in particular, Kyiv apart. Ordinary people who do not want to join any camp become defenseless victims of the next owners of the city. An important problem is the huge number of victims of the fratricidal war. Human life has become so devalued that murder has become commonplace.
7. Heroes. Alexey Turbin, Nikolay Turbin, Elena Vasilyevna Talberg, Vladimir Robertovich Talberg, Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Vasily Lisovich, Lariosik.
8. Plot and composition. The novel takes place at the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919. At the center of the story is the Turbin family - Elena Vasilievna with two brothers. Alexey Turbin recently returned from the front, where he worked as a military doctor. He dreamed of a simple and quiet life, of a private medical practice. Dreams are not destined to come true. Kyiv is becoming the scene of a fierce struggle, which in some ways is even worse than the situation on the front line.
Nikolai Turbin is still very young. The romantically inclined young man endures the Hetman’s power with pain. He sincerely and ardently believes in the monarchical idea, dreams of taking up arms in its defense. Reality roughly destroys all his idealistic ideas. The first military clash, the betrayal of the high command, and the death of Nai-Tours amaze Nikolai. He understands that he has until now harbored ethereal illusions, but cannot believe it.
Elena Vasilievna is an example of the resilience of a Russian woman who will protect and take care of her loved ones with all her might. The Turbins' friends admire her and, thanks to Elena's support, find the strength to live on. In this regard, Elena’s husband, Staff Captain Talberg, makes a sharp contrast.
Thalberg is the main negative character of the novel. This is a person who has no beliefs at all. He easily adapts to any authority for the sake of his career. Thalberg's flight before Petlyura's offensive was due only to his harsh statements against the latter. In addition, Thalberg learned that a new major political force was being formed on the Don, promising power and influence.
In the image of captain, Bulgakov showed the worst qualities of the white officers, which led to the defeat of the white movement. Careerism and lack of sense of homeland are deeply disgusting to the Turbin brothers. Thalberg betrays not only the defenders of the city, but also his wife. Elena Vasilievna loves her husband, but even she is amazed by his actions and in the end is forced to admit that he is a scoundrel.
Vasilisa (Vasily Lisovich) personifies the worst type of everyman. He does not evoke pity, since he himself is ready to betray and inform, if he had the courage. Vasilisa’s main concern is to better hide her accumulated wealth. Before the love of money, the fear of death even recedes in him. A gangster search of the apartment is the best punishment for Vasilisa, especially since he still saved his miserable life.
Bulgakov’s inclusion of the original character Lariosik in the novel looks a little strange. This is a clumsy young man who, by some miracle, remained alive after making his way to Kyiv. Critics believe that the author deliberately introduced Lariosik to soften the tragedy of the novel.
As is known, Soviet criticism subjected the novel to merciless persecution, declaring the writer a defender of white officers and “philistines.” However, the novel does not at all defend the white movement. On the contrary, Bulgakov paints a picture of incredible decline and decay in this environment. The main supporters of the Turbine monarchy, in fact, no longer want to fight with anyone. They are ready to become ordinary people, isolating themselves from the surrounding hostile world in their warm and cozy apartment. The news their friends report is depressing. The white movement no longer exists.
The most honest and noble order, paradoxically, is the order to the cadets to throw down their weapons, tear off their shoulder straps and go home. Bulgakov himself subjected the “white guard” to sharp criticism. At the same time, the main thing for him becomes the tragedy of the Turbin family, who are unlikely to find their place in their new life.
9. What does the author teach? Bulgakov refrains from making any author's assessments of the novel. The reader's attitude towards what is happening arises only through the dialogues of the main characters. Of course, this is pity for the Turbin family, pain for the bloody events that shook Kyiv. “The White Guard” is the writer’s protest against any political coups, which always bring death and humiliation for ordinary people.
Problematics of M. Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard" PROBLEMATICS OF M. BULGAKOV'S NOVEL
"WHITE GUARD"
All will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, famine and pestilence.
The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain when the shadows
our bodies and deeds will not remain on earth. No neither
one person who would not know this. So
why don’t we want to turn our gaze to them?
Why?
M. Bulgakov “White Guard”
persistent portrayal of the Russian intelligentsia as
the best layer in our country...”, “image
noble family abandoned during the Civil War
war to the White Guard camp.” Here we talk about
a very difficult time when it was impossible
to understand everything at once, to understand everything, to reconcile in
self-contradictory feelings and thoughts.
THE PROBLEM OF MORAL CHOICE
In Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard" it is very poignant and
The problem of moral choice is painful.
Each of the heroes of the work accepts within
decision according to which he will
to live and act in the future. Somebody
sacrifices his conscience for the sake of life, and someone -
with your life for the sake of conscience. I think Bulgakov is worth
on the side of the best representatives of the White Guard
The problem of moral choice
THE PROBLEM OF MORAL CHOICEAlexey Turbin - one of the officers of the old Russian army,
who after the revolution have to make a choice between
warring parties, willingly or unwillingly
serve in one of the warring armies. Turbine does not burn
desire to fight. However, he and his younger brother Nikolka
war cannot be avoided. They are part of disparate
officer squads participate in the hopeless defense of the city from
Petlyura. Yes, none of them would dare to evade their duty.
This is not in the rules of Russian officers. Honor and dignity
guides the behavior of the heroes.
The problem of duty, honor
THE PROBLEM OF DEBT, HONORTurbines have a special decency, a sense of
duty, responsibility. These people are representatives
intelligentsia, they do not accept betrayal and
meanness, for them such concepts are above all,
like honor and dignity. That is why Turbin
and their friends are wild and incomprehensible to everything that happens in
Russia.
The problem of courage and bravery
THE PROBLEM OF COURAGE AND COURAGEThe younger Turbin perhaps showed particular courage and
courage. He remained with his commander NaiTours to the last, was not afraid for his life, and fulfilled his duty as an officer.
The problem of betrayal, selfishness, dishonor
THE PROBLEM OF BETRAYAL, SELFISHNESS,DISHONOR
Elena's husband Sergei Talberg at the first
opportunity, fled with the Germans from Russia,
leaving his wife to the mercy of fate. No wonder I myself
Bulgakov says the following about this hero: “Oh, damn
a doll devoid of the slightest concept of honor!
The problem of lack of morality
THE PROBLEM OF LACKMORALS
Also, the Turbin family is opposed by their neighbors
Lisovichi. These are opportunists who are alien
concepts of honor and dignity. The only thing is
What they care about is their own peace of mind and prosperity.
Lisovichi will betray anyone without a twinge of conscience, only
to shield ourselves. Before Vasily Lisovich
and his wife Wanda never had a problem
moral choice, they can adapt to
any conditions.
The problem of returning the departed
THE PROBLEM OF RETURNING THE GONEBut the tragedy of the Russian intelligentsia and their moral
choice is that these people could not
see the doom of the monarchical system in Russia.
They fought, worried, suffered for the old one,
the old Rus', which can no longer be returned. And it is not necessary
bring back what has become obsolete, life must move
forward.
The problem of home value
THE PROBLEM OF HOME VALUEOne of the most important motives of M. Bulgakov’s creativity
- the value of home, family, ordinary people
attachments. The heroes of the "White Guard" are losing
the warmth of the hearth, although they are desperately trying
save it. Despite the difficult times of the war,
they all stay together.
The problem of equality of all people before God
THE PROBLEM OF EQUALITY FOR ALL PEOPLEBEFORE GOD
In Alexei Turbin’s dream, the Lord says to Zhilin: “One
believes, another does not believe, but you all have actions
identical: now each other is at each other’s throats, and as for
barracks, Zhilin, then you have to understand this, you all have
me, Zhilin, are the same - killed in the battlefield.
This, Zhilin, must be understood, and not everyone will understand it.”