White Guard review. Novel "The White Guard"
Analysis of Bulgakov's "The White Guard" allows us to study in detail his first novel in creative biography. It describes the events that took place in 1918 in Ukraine during the Civil War. The story is about a family of intellectuals who are trying to survive in the face of serious social cataclysms in the country.
History of writing
The analysis of Bulgakov's "The White Guard" should begin with the history of the work. The author began working on it in 1923. It is known that there were several variations of the name. Bulgakov also chose between the “White Cross” and the “Midnight Cross”. He himself admitted that he loved the novel more than his other works, promising that it would “make the sky hot.”
His acquaintances recalled that he wrote “The White Guard” at night, when his feet and hands were cold, asking those around him to warm the water in which he warmed them.
Moreover, the beginning of work on the novel coincided with one of the most difficult periods in his life. At that time he was frankly in poverty, there was not enough money even for food, his clothes were falling apart. Bulgakov looked for one-time orders, wrote feuilletons, performed the duties of a proofreader, while trying to find time for his novel.
In August 1923, he reported that he had completed the draft. In February 1924, one can find references to the fact that Bulgakov began reading excerpts from the work to his friends and acquaintances.
Publication of the work
In April 1924, Bulgakov entered into an agreement to publish the novel with the magazine Rossiya. The first chapters were published about a year after this. However, only the initial 13 chapters were published, after which the magazine closed. The novel was first published as a separate book in Paris in 1927.
In Russia, the entire text was published only in 1966. The manuscript of the novel has not survived, so it is still unknown what the canonical text was.
In our time, this is one of the most famous works of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, which has been repeatedly filmed and staged drama theaters. It is considered one of the most significant and beloved works by many generations in the career of this famous writer.
The action takes place at the turn of 1918-1919. Their place is an unnamed City, in which Kyiv is guessed. To analyze the novel " White Guard“It is important where the main action takes place. There are German occupation troops in the City, but everyone is waiting for Petliura’s army to appear; the fighting continues just a few kilometers from the City itself.
On the streets, residents are surrounded by an unnatural and very strange life. There are many visitors from St. Petersburg and Moscow, among them journalists, businessmen, poets, lawyers, bankers, who flocked to the City after the election of its hetman in the spring of 1918.
At the center of the story is the Turbin family. The head of the family is the doctor Alexey, his younger brother Nikolka, who has the rank of non-commissioned officer, his sister Elena, as well as friends of the whole family - lieutenants Myshlaevsky and Shervinsky, second lieutenant Stepanov, whom those around him call Karasem, are having dinner with him. Everyone is discussing the fate and future of their beloved City.
Alexei Turbin believes that the hetman is to blame for everything, who began to pursue a policy of Ukranization, not allowing the formation of the Russian army until the last time. And if If the army had been formed, it would have been able to defend the City; Petliura’s troops would not now be standing under its walls.
Elena’s husband, Sergei Talberg, an officer of the general staff, is also present here, who announces to his wife that the Germans are planning to leave the city, so they need to leave today on the headquarters train. Talberg assures that in the coming months he will return back with Denikin’s army. Just at this time she is going to the Don.
Russian military formations
To protect the city from Petliura, Russian military formations are formed in the City. Turbin Sr., Myshlaevsky and Karas go to serve under the command of Colonel Malyshev. But the formed division disbands the very next night, when it becomes known that the hetman fled from the City on a German train along with General Belorukov. The division has no one left to protect, since there is no legal authority left.
At the same time, Colonel Nai-Tours was instructed to form a separate detachment. He threatens the head of the supply department with weapons, because he considers it impossible to fight without winter equipment. As a result, his cadets receive the necessary hats and felt boots.
On December 14, Petlyura attacks the City. The colonel receives direct orders to defend the Polytechnic Highway and, if necessary, take the fight. In the midst of another battle, he sends a small detachment to find out where the hetman’s units are. The messengers return with the news that there are no units, machine guns are being fired in the area, and the enemy’s cavalry is already in the City.
Death of Nai-Tours
Shortly before this, Corporal Nikolai Turbin is ordered to lead the team along a certain route. Arriving at their destination, the younger Turbin watches the fleeing cadets and hears Nai-Tours’ command to get rid of shoulder straps and weapons and immediately hide.
At the same time, the colonel covers the retreating cadets to the last. He dies in front of Nikolai. Shocked, Turbin makes his way through the alleys to the house.
In an abandoned building
Meanwhile, Alexey Turbin, who was unaware of the dissolution of the division, appears at the appointed place and time, where he discovers a building with a large number of abandoned weapons. Only Malyshev explains to him what is happening around him, the city is in the hands of Petlyura.
Alexey gets rid of his shoulder straps and makes his way home, encountering a detachment of the enemy. The soldiers recognize him as an officer because he still has a badge on his hat, and they begin to chase him. Alexey is wounded in the arm, he is saved by an unfamiliar woman, whose name is Yulia Reise.
In the morning, a girl takes Turbin home in a cab.
Relative from Zhitomir
At this time, Talberg’s cousin Larion, who had recently experienced a personal tragedy: his wife left him, comes to visit the Turbins from Zhitomir. Lariosik, as everyone is beginning to call him, likes the Turbins, and the family finds him very nice.
The owner of the building in which the Turbins live is called Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich. Before Petlyura enters the city, Vasilisa, as everyone calls him, builds a hiding place in which she hides jewelry and money. But a stranger spied on his actions through the window. Soon, unknown people show up to him, they immediately find a hiding place, and take with them other valuable things from the house management.
Only when the uninvited guests leave does Vasilisa realize that in reality they were ordinary bandits. He runs for help to the Turbins so that they can save him from a possible new attack. Karas is sent to their rescue, for whom Vasilisa’s wife Vanda Mikhailovna, who has always been stingy, immediately puts veal and cognac on the table. The crucian carp eats its fill and remains to protect the safety of the family.
Nikolka with Nai-Tours' relatives
Three days later, Nikolka manages to get the address of Colonel Nai-Tours’ family. He goes to his mother and sister. Young Turbin talks about the last minutes of the officer’s life. Together with his sister Irina, he goes to the morgue, finds the body and arranges a funeral service.
At this time, Alexey's condition worsens. His wound becomes inflamed and typhus begins. Turbin is delirious, he gets high heat. A council of doctors decides that the patient will soon die. At first, everything develops according to the worst scenario, the patient begins to go into agony. Elena prays, locking herself in her bedroom, to save her brother from death. Soon the doctor, who is on duty at the patient’s bedside, reports with amazement that Alexey is conscious and on the mend, the crisis has passed.
A few weeks later, having finally recovered, Alexey goes to Yulia, who saved him from certain death. He gives her a bracelet that once belonged to his deceased mother, and then asks permission to visit her. On the way back, he meets Nikolka, who is returning from Irina Nai-Tours.
Elena Turbina receives a letter from her Warsaw friend, who talks about Talberg's upcoming marriage to their mutual friend. The novel ends with Elena remembering her prayer, which she has addressed more than once. On the night of February 3, Petliura’s troops leave the City. Red Army artillery thunders in the distance. She approaches the city.
Artistic features of the novel
When analyzing Bulgakov's "The White Guard", it should be noted that the novel is certainly autobiographical. For almost all characters you can find prototypes in real life. These are friends, relatives or acquaintances of Bulgakov and his family, as well as iconic military and political figures of that time. Bulgakov even chose the surnames for the heroes, only slightly changing the surnames of real people.
Many researchers have analyzed the novel “The White Guard”. They managed to trace the fate of the characters with almost documentary accuracy. In the analysis of Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard", many emphasize that the events of the work unfold in the scenery of real Kyiv, which was well known to the author.
Symbolism of the "White Guard"
Carrying out even a brief analysis of The White Guard, it should be noted that symbols are key in the works. For example, in the City one can guess small homeland writer, and the house coincides with the real house in which the Bulgakov family lived until 1918.
To analyze the work "The White Guard" it is important to understand even symbols that are insignificant at first glance. The lamp symbolizes the closed world and comfort that reigns among the Turbins, the snow is a vivid image of the Civil War and Revolution. Another symbol important for analyzing Bulgakov’s work “The White Guard” is the cross on the monument dedicated to St. Vladimir. It symbolizes the sword of war and civil terror. Analysis of the images of the "White Guard" helps to better understand what he wanted tell the author of this work.
Allusions in the novel
To analyze Bulgakov's "The White Guard" it is important to study the allusions with which it is filled. Let's give just a few examples. So, Nikolka, who comes to the morgue, personifies the journey to the afterlife. The horror and inevitability of the upcoming events, the approaching Apocalypse to the city can be traced by the appearance in the city of Shpolyansky, who is considered the “forerunner of Satan”; the reader should have a clear impression that the kingdom of the Antichrist will soon come.
To analyze the heroes of The White Guard, it is very important to understand these clues.
Dream Turbine
Turbin's dream occupies one of the central places in the novel. Analysis of The White Guard is often based on this episode of the novel. In the first part of the work, his dreams are a kind of prophecies. In the first, he sees a nightmare that declares that Holy Rus' is a poor country, and honor for a Russian person is an exclusively unnecessary burden.
Right in his sleep, he tries to shoot the nightmare that torments him, but it disappears. Researchers believe that the subconscious convinces Turbin to escape from the city and go into exile, but in reality he does not even allow the thought of escape.
Turbin’s next dream already has a tragicomic connotation. He is an even clearer prophecy of future events. Alexey dreams of Colonel Nai-Tours and Sergeant Zhilin, who went to heaven. In a humorous manner, it is told how Zhilin got to heaven on the wagon trains, but the Apostle Peter let them through.
Turbin's dreams acquire key significance at the end of the novel. Alexey sees how Alexander I destroys the lists of divisions, as if erasing from the memory of white officers, most of whom are dead by that time.
Afterwards Turbin sees his own death on Malo-Provalnaya. It is believed that this episode is associated with the resurrection of Alexei, which occurred after an illness. Bulgakov often invested great importance into the dreams of their heroes.
We analyzed Bulgakov's "White Guard". A summary is also presented in the review. The article can help students when studying this work or writing an essay.
The history of the creation of Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”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 flames civil war in Ukraine. Main character, Alexey Turbin, although clearly autobiographical, but, unlike the writer, is 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 idea, like Alexei Turbin, to rest and re-establish a 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 hometown, snow, winter, Civil War... In a 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. Big, but necessary work! 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 “The White Guard” together with “ Fatal eggs" called 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. Members of the Turbin family reflected character traits relatives of Bulgakov. 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 Thalberg, her husband, has a lot common features 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 political position 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.
http://www.litra.ru/composition/get/coid/00023601184864125638/wo
http://www.licey.net/lit/guard/history
Illustrations:
Bulgakov's "White Guard" summary which is unlikely to reflect the full depth of the work, describes the events of the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1919. This book is largely autobiographical: the author himself, his friends and family are present on its pages. The action of the novel undoubtedly takes place in Kyiv, which is simply called the city. In the “pseudonyms” of the streets, the originals are easily guessed, and Bulgakov left the names of the districts (Pechersk, Podol) completely unchanged.
Situation in the city
The townspeople have already experienced the brief “coming” of the Ukrainian people's republic. Betrayed by the allies, the White Guard disappeared into space. The novel, a summary of which is presented below, fully reflects the nightmare of post-revolutionary life in Kyiv. At the moment when events begin, the city is experiencing last days under the rule of a German-backed hetman.
On Alekseevsky Spusk, in house No. 13, the Turbin family lives: 27-year-old Alexey, 24-year-old Elena and Nikolka, who is only 17 years old. The story begins with the fact that on a frosty December evening, Lieutenant Myshlaevsky, frozen half to death, stumbles into the apartment. From his story it is clear that there is confusion and betrayal in the army. Late in the evening, Elena's husband, Sergei Talberg, returns from a business trip - an insignificant person, ready to adapt to any boss. He informs his wife that he is forced to flee immediately: the Germans are leaving the capital.
Illusions and unrealistic hopes
Squads are actively being formed in the city to protect against the advancing Petliura. These scattered units, in which 80 out of 120 cadets do not know how to shoot, are the same White Guard desperately clinging to their former life and suffering imminent disaster. A summary of events can hardly adequately describe the subsequent disaster.
Someone in the city is still experiencing rainbow illusions. The turbines and family friends also did not lose hope for a good outcome. In the depths of their souls they cherish the hope that somewhere on the Don there is Denikin and his invincible White Guard. The content of the conversations in the Turbins’ apartment produces a depressing impression: tales of miraculous salvation the emperor, toasts to his health, talk about the upcoming “offensive on Moscow.”
Lightning War
The hetman flees shamefully, the generals in command of the troops follow his example. There is confusion at headquarters. The officers, who have not lost their conscience, warn the personnel and give young guys, almost children, the opportunity to escape. Others abandon untrained, poorly armed cadets to certain death. Among the latter is Nikolka Turbin, a 17-year-old squad leader of twenty-eight people. Having received the order to go “for reinforcements,” the guys do not find anyone at the position, and after a few minutes they see the remnants of the fleeing unit of Colonel Nai-Turs, who dies in front of the younger Turbin, trying to cover the panicky “retreat” of the city’s defenders with machine-gun fire.
The capital was taken by the Petliurites without a fight - the pitiful, scattered White Guard could not give it. It doesn’t take long to read a summary of her future fate - it fits into the answer of a little boy met by the younger Turbin on Alekseevsky: “There are eight hundred of them in the whole city, and they were playing the fool. Petlyura came, and he has a million troops.”
The theme of God in the novel "The White Guard"
Nikolka himself manages to get home in the evening, where he finds a pale, agitated Elena: Alexey has not returned. The elder brother is brought back only the next day by the stranger who saved him, Julia Reiss. His condition is critical. When typhus is added to the fever caused by the wound, the doctors decide that Turbin is dead.
In Bulgakov's works, the theme of religion is an everyday phenomenon. The White Guard was no exception. The summary of the prayer that Elena brings to the Mother of God looks like a deal: take your husband, but leave your brother. And a miracle happens: the hopeless patient is on the mend and recovers by the time Petliura leaves the city. At the same time, Elena learns from a letter she received that her husband left her.
This is where the Turbins' misadventures end. A warm company of surviving friends gathers again on Alekseevsky Spusk: Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Karas.
...and the devil theme
Life takes its toll: Nikolka and Alexey Turbin collide on Malo-Provalnaya Street. The younger one comes from the Nai-Tours: he is attracted by the sister of the deceased colonel. The eldest went to thank his savior and admits that she is dear to him.
In the Reiss house, Alexey sees a photograph of a man and, asking who it is, receives the answer: a cousin who has left for Moscow. Julia is lying - Shpolyansky is her lover. The surname named by the savior evokes in the doctor an “unpleasant, sucking thought”: a patient “touched” on the basis of religion spoke to Turbin about this “cousin” as a forerunner of the Antichrist: “He is young. But there are abominations in him, like in the thousand-year-old devil...”
It is amazing that The White Guard was published in the Soviet Union at all - an analysis of the text, even the most superficial, gives a clear understanding that Bulgakov considered the Bolsheviks the worst of threats, “angels”, minions of Satan. From 1917 to 1921, Ukraine was a kingdom of chaos: Kiev found itself in the power of one or another “benefactors” who could not agree with each other or with anyone else - and as a result were unable to fight the dark force, which was approaching from the North.
Bulgakov and the revolution
When reading the novel “The White Guard,” analysis is, in principle, useless: the author speaks quite directly. Mikhail Afanasyevich had a bad attitude towards revolutions: for example, in the story “Future Prospects” he unambiguously assesses the situation: the country found itself “at the very bottom of the pit of shame and disaster into which the “great social revolution” drove it.
The White Guard does not at all contradict this worldview. Summary cannot convey general mood, but it clearly appears when reading the full version.
Hatred is the root of what is happening
The author understood the nature of the cataclysm in his own way: “four times forty times four hundred thousand men with hearts burning with unquenchable anger.” And these revolutionaries wanted one thing: an agrarian reform in which the land would go to the peasants - for eternal ownership, with the right to transfer to children and grandchildren. This is very romantic, but the sensible Bulgakov understands that “the beloved hetman could not carry out such a reform, and no devil will carry it out.” It must be said that Mikhail Afanasyevich was absolutely right: as a result of the arrival of the Bolsheviks, the peasants were hardly in a better position.
Times of great upheaval
What people do out of hatred and in the name of hatred cannot be good. Bulgakov demonstrates the senseless horror of what is happening to the reader using abrupt but memorable images. The “White Guard” abounds in them: here a man whose wife is giving birth runs to the midwife. He hands the mounted Petliurist the “wrong” document - and he chops it with a saber. The Haidamaks discover a Jew behind a stack of firewood and beat him to death. Even the greedy Turbino homeowner, robbed by bandits under the guise of a search, adds a touch to the picture of the chaos that ultimately brought “ little man" revolution.
Anyone who wants to better understand the essence of the events of the early twentieth century cannot find a better textbook than Bulgakov’s “The White Guard.” Reading a summary of this work is the lot of careless schoolchildren. This book certainly deserves a better fate. Written in magnificent, piercing prose, it once again reminds how consummate master words were Mikhail Bulgakov. "White Guard", a summary of which in the most different options offers the World Wide Web, belongs to the category of literature that is best to get acquainted with as closely as possible.
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 the fierce persecution and the ban on publishing, Bulgakov 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 of the Civil War. 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. Issues. the main problem the novel - a 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, Petliura, 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 depreciated so much that murder became 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.
Talberg - chief negative character 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 specifically 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 the author teaches. 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.
The events of the Civil War at the end of 1918 are described; The action takes place in Ukraine.
The novel tells the story of a family of Russian intellectuals and their friends who are experiencing the social cataclysm of the civil war. The novel is largely autobiographical; almost all the characters have prototypes - relatives, friends and acquaintances of the Bulgakov family. The setting of the novel was the streets of Kyiv and the house in which the Bulgakov family lived in 1918. Although the manuscripts of the novel have not survived, Bulgakov scholars have traced the fate of many prototype characters and proved the almost documentary accuracy and reality of the events and characters described by the author.
The work was conceived by the author as a large-scale trilogy covering the period of the Civil War. Part of the novel was first published in the magazine "Russia" in 1925. The entire novel was first published in France in 1927-1929. The novel was received ambiguously by critics - the Soviet side criticized the writer’s glorification of class enemies, the emigrant side criticized Bulgakov’s loyalty to Soviet power.
The work served as a source for the play “Days of the Turbins” and subsequent several film adaptations.
Plot
The novel takes place in 1918, when the Germans who occupied Ukraine leave the City and it is captured by Petliura’s troops. The author describes the complex, multifaceted world of a family of Russian intellectuals and their friends. This world is breaking under the onslaught of a social cataclysm and will never happen again.
The heroes - Alexey Turbin, Elena Turbina-Talberg and Nikolka - are involved in the cycle of military and political events. The city, in which Kyiv is easily recognizable, is occupied by the German army. As a result of the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, it does not fall under the rule of the Bolsheviks and becomes a refuge for many Russian intellectuals and military personnel who are fleeing Bolshevik Russia. Officer military organizations are created in the city under the patronage of Hetman Skoropadsky, an ally of the Germans, Russia's recent enemies. Petlyura's army is attacking the City. By the time of the events of the novel, the Compiegne Truce has been concluded and the Germans are preparing to leave the City. In fact, only volunteers defend him from Petliura. Realizing the complexity of their situation, the Turbins reassure themselves with rumors about the approach of French troops, who allegedly landed in Odessa (in accordance with the terms of the truce, they had the right to occupy the occupied territories of Russia as far as the Vistula in the west). Alexey and Nikolka Turbin, like other residents of the City, volunteer to join the defenders’ detachments, and Elena protects the house, which becomes a refuge for former officers of the Russian army. Since defending the City on our own impossible, the hetman’s command and administration abandon him to his fate and leave with the Germans (the hetman himself disguises himself as a wounded German officer). Volunteers - Russian officers and cadets unsuccessfully defend the City without command against superior enemy forces (the author created a brilliant heroic image of Colonel Nai-Tours). Some commanders, realizing the futility of resistance, send their fighters home, others actively organize resistance and die along with their subordinates. Petlyura occupies the City, organizes a magnificent parade, but after a few months is forced to surrender it to the Bolsheviks.
- Equisetaceae department general characteristics and significance What structure does a horsetail spore have?
- Practical work “Structure of fern and horsetail. Horsetails have
- Who is behind the attacks on Tuleyev?
- Kirill Barabash - Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Force: biography, political views What is the IGPR “call”