Despite the author’s indication that Taras Bulba was born in the 15th century, the well-known fact of Bulba’s heavy smoking speaks in favor of the 17th century: the discovery of tobacco by Europeans occurred at the very end of the 15th century (thanks to Columbus) and only by the 17th century did it become widespread.
Pointing out the 15th century, Gogol emphasized that the story is fantastic, and the image is collective, but one of the prototypes of Taras Bulba is the ancestor of the famous traveler Kurennaya ataman of the Zaporozhian Army Okhrim Makukha, an associate of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, born in Starodub at the beginning of the 17th century, who had three Nazar's sons, Khomu (Foma) and Omelko (Emelyan), of whom Nazar betrayed his fellow Cossacks and went over to the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army because of his love for the Polish lady (the prototype of Gogol's Andriy), Khoma (the prototype of Gogol's Ostap) died trying deliver Nazar to his father, and Emelyan became the ancestor of Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay and his uncle Grigory Ilyich Mikloukha, who studied with Nikolai Gogol and told him the family legend. The prototype is also Ivan Gonta, who was mistakenly attributed to the murder of two sons from his Polish wife, although his wife is Russian and the story is fictional.
Plot
Postage stamp of Romania, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of N.V. Gogol (“Taras Bulba”, 1952)
USSR postage stamp dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of N.V. Gogol, 1952
Russian postage stamp dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of N.V. Gogol, 2009
After graduating from the Kyiv Academy, his two sons, Ostap and Andriy, come to the old Cossack colonel Taras Bulba. Two stalwart young men, healthy and strong, whose faces have not yet been touched by a razor, are embarrassed to meet their father, who makes fun of their clothes as recent seminarians. The eldest, Ostap, cannot stand his father’s ridicule: “Even though you’re my dad, if you laugh, then, by God, I’ll beat you!” And father and son, instead of greeting each other after a long absence, seriously hit each other with blows. A pale, thin and kind mother tries to reason with her violent husband, who himself stops, glad that he has tested his son. Bulba wants to “greet” the younger one in the same way, but his mother is already hugging him, protecting him from his father.
On the occasion of the arrival of his sons, Taras Bulba convenes all the centurions and the entire regimental rank and announces his decision to send Ostap and Andriy to the Sich, because there is no better science for a young Cossack than the Zaporozhye Sich. At the sight of the young strength of his sons, the military spirit of Taras himself flares up, and he decides to go with them to introduce them to all his old comrades. The poor mother sits all night over her sleeping children, without closing her eyes, wanting the night to last as long as possible. Her dear sons are taken from her; they take it so that she will never see them! In the morning, after the blessing, the mother, desperate with grief, is barely torn away from the children and taken to the hut.
Three horsemen ride in silence. Old Taras remembers his wild life, a tear freezes in his eyes, his gray head hangs down. Ostap, who has a stern and firm character, although hardened over the years of studying at the Bursa, retained his natural kindness and was touched by the tears of his poor mother. This alone confuses him and makes him lower his head thoughtfully. Andriy is also having a hard time saying goodbye to his mother and home, but his thoughts are occupied with memories of the beautiful Polish woman whom he met just before leaving Kiev. Then Andriy managed to get into the beauty’s bedroom through the fireplace chimney; a knock on the door forced the Polish woman to hide the young Cossack under the bed. Tatarka, the lady's servant, as soon as the anxiety passed, took Andriy out into the garden, where he barely escaped from the awakened servants. He saw the beautiful Polish girl again in the church, soon she left - and now, with his eyes cast down into the mane of his horse, Andriy thinks about her.
After a long journey, the Sich meets Taras and his sons with his wild life - a sign of the Zaporozhye will. Cossacks do not like to waste time on military exercises, collecting military experience only in the heat of battle. Ostap and Andriy rush with all the ardor of young men into this riotous sea. But old Taras does not like an idle life - this is not the kind of activity he wants to prepare his sons for. Having met all his comrades, he is still figuring out how to rouse the Cossacks on a campaign, so as not to waste their Cossack prowess on a continuous feast and drunken fun. He persuades the Cossacks to re-elect the Koshevoy, who keeps peace with the enemies of the Cossacks. The new Koshevoy, under the pressure of the most militant Cossacks, and above all Taras, is trying to find a justification for a profitable campaign against Turkey, but under the influence of the Cossacks who arrived from Ukraine, who spoke about the oppression of the Polish lords and Jewish tenants over the people of Ukraine, the army unanimously decides to go to Poland, to avenge all the evil and disgrace of the Orthodox faith. Thus, the war takes on a people's liberation character.
And soon the entire Polish southwest becomes the prey of fear, the rumor running ahead: “Cossacks! The Cossacks have appeared! In one month, the young Cossacks matured in battle, and old Taras loves to see that both of his sons are among the first. The Cossack army is trying to take the city of Dubno, where there is a lot of treasury and wealthy inhabitants, but they encounter desperate resistance from the garrison and residents. The Cossacks are besieging the city and waiting for famine to begin. Having nothing to do, the Cossacks devastate the surrounding area, burning defenseless villages and unharvested grain. The young, especially the sons of Taras, do not like this life. Old Bulba calms them down, promising hot fights soon. One dark night, Andria is awakened from sleep by a strange creature that looks like a ghost. This is a Tatar, a servant of the same Polish woman with whom Andriy is in love. The Tatar woman whispers that the lady is in the city, she saw Andriy from the city rampart and asks him to come to her or at least give a piece of bread for his dying mother. Andriy loads the bags with bread, as much as he can carry, and the Tatar woman leads him along the underground passage to the city. Having met his beloved, he renounces his father and brother, comrades and homeland: “The homeland is what our soul seeks, what is dearer to it than anything else. My homeland is you.” Andriy remains with the lady to protect her until his last breath from his former comrades.
Polish troops, sent to reinforce the besieged, march into the city past drunken Cossacks, killing many while sleeping and capturing many. This event embitters the Cossacks, who decide to continue the siege to the end. Taras, searching for his missing son, receives terrible confirmation of Andriy's betrayal.
The Poles are organizing forays, but the Cossacks are still successfully repelling them. News comes from the Sich that, in the absence of the main force, the Tatars attacked the remaining Cossacks and captured them, seizing the treasury. The Cossack army near Dubno is divided in two - half goes to the rescue of the treasury and comrades, half remains to continue the siege. Taras, leading the siege army, makes a passionate speech in praise of comradeship.
The Poles learn about the weakening of the enemy and move out of the city for a decisive battle. Andriy is among them. Taras Bulba orders the Cossacks to lure him to the forest and there, meeting Andriy face to face, he kills his son, who even before his death utters one word - the name of the beautiful lady. Reinforcements arrive to the Poles, and they defeat the Cossacks. Ostap is captured, the wounded Taras, saved from pursuit, is brought to Sich.
Having recovered from his wounds, Taras persuades Yankel to secretly transport him to Warsaw to try to ransom Ostap there. Taras is present at the terrible execution of his son in the city square. Not a single groan escapes from Ostap’s chest under torture, only before death he cries out: “Father! where are you! Can you hear? - “I hear!” - Taras answers above the crowd. They rush to catch him, but Taras is already gone.
One hundred and twenty thousand Cossacks, including the regiment of Taras Bulba, rise up on a campaign against the Poles. Even the Cossacks themselves notice Taras’s excessive ferocity and cruelty towards the enemy. This is how he takes revenge for the death of his son. The defeated Polish hetman Nikolai Pototsky swears not to inflict any offense on the Cossack army in the future. Only Colonel Bulba does not agree to such a peace, assuring his comrades that the forgiven Poles will not keep their word. And he leads his regiment away. His prediction comes true - having gathered their strength, the Poles treacherously attack the Cossacks and defeat them.
And Taras walks throughout Poland with his regiment, continuing to avenge the death of Ostap and his comrades, mercilessly destroying all living things.
Five regiments under the leadership of that same Pototsky finally overtake the regiment of Taras, who was resting in an old collapsed fortress on the banks of the Dniester. The battle lasts four days. The surviving Cossacks make their way, but the old chieftain stops to look for his cradle in the grass, and the haiduks overtake him. They tie Taras to an oak tree with iron chains, nail his hands and lay a fire under him. Before his death, Taras manages to shout to his comrades to go down to the canoes, which he sees from above, and escape from pursuit along the river. And at the last terrible minute, the old ataman predicts the unification of the Russian lands, the destruction of their enemies and the victory of the Orthodox faith.
The Cossacks escape from the chase, row their oars together and talk about their chieftain.
Gogol's work on Taras Bulba
Gogol's work on Taras Bulba was preceded by a careful, in-depth study of historical sources. Among them should be named “Description of Ukraine” by Boplan, “History of the Zaporozhye Cossacks” by Myshetsky, handwritten lists of Ukrainian chronicles - Samovidets, Velichko, Grabyanka, etc.
But these sources did not completely satisfy Gogol. He lacked a lot in them: first of all, characteristic everyday details, living signs of the times, a true understanding of the past era. Special historical studies and chronicles seemed to the writer too dry, sluggish and, in essence, of little help to the artist to comprehend the spirit of people's life, characters, and psychology of people. Among the sources that helped Gogol in his work on Taras Bulba, there was another, most important one: Ukrainian folk songs, especially historical songs and thoughts. "Taras Bulba" has a long and complex creative history. It was first published in 1835 in the collection “Mirgorod”. In 1842, in the second volume of his Works, Gogol placed “Taras Bulba” in a new, radically revised edition. Work on this work continued intermittently for nine years: from to. Between the first and second editions of Taras Bulba, a number of intermediate editions of some chapters were written.
Differences between the first and second edition
In the first edition, the Cossacks are not called “Russians”; the dying phrases of the Cossacks, such as “let the holy Orthodox Russian land be glorified forever and ever,” are absent.
Below are comparisons of the differences between both editions.
Edition 1835. Part I
Bulba was terribly stubborn. He was one of those characters that could only have emerged in the rough 15th century, and moreover in the semi-nomadic East of Europe, during the time of the right and wrong concept of lands that had become some kind of disputed, unresolved possession, to which Ukraine then belonged... In general, he was a great hunter of raids and riots; he heard with his nose where and in what place the indignation flared up, and out of the blue he appeared on his horse. “Well, children! what and how? “Who should be beaten and for what?” he usually said and intervened in the matter. |
Edition 1842. Part I
Bulba was terribly stubborn. This was one of those characters that could only emerge in the difficult 15th century in a semi-nomadic corner of Europe, when the entire southern primitive Russia, abandoned by its princes, was devastated, burned to the ground by the indomitable raids of Mongol predators... Eternally restless, he considered himself the legitimate defender of Orthodoxy. He arbitrarily entered villages where they only complained about the harassment of tenants and the increase in new duties on smoke. |
Idioms
- “What, son, did your Poles help you?”
- “I gave birth to you, I will kill you!”
- “Turn around, son! How funny you are!”
- “The Fatherland is what our soul seeks, what is dearest to it.”
- "There is life in the old dog yet?!"
- “There is no bond holier than fellowship!”
- “Be patient, Cossack, and you will be an ataman!”
- “Good, son, good!”
- “Damn you, steppes, how good you are!”
- “Don’t listen to your mother, son! She’s a woman, she doesn’t know anything!”
- “Do you see this saber? Here is your mother!
Criticism of the story
Along with the general approval that critics met with Gogol's story, some aspects of the work were found unsuccessful. Thus, Gogol was repeatedly accused of the unhistorical nature of the story, the excessive glorification of the Cossacks, and the lack of historical context, which was noted by Mikhail Grabovsky, Vasily Gippius, Maxim Gorky and others. This can be explained by the fact that the writer did not have enough reliable information about the history of Little Russia. Gogol studied the history of his native land with great attention, but he drew information not only from rather meager chronicles, but also from folk tales, legends, as well as frankly mythological sources, such as “History of the Rus”, from which he gleaned descriptions of the atrocities of the gentry and the atrocities of the Jews and the valor of the Cossacks. The story caused particular discontent among the Polish intelligentsia. The Poles were outraged that in Taras Bulba the Polish nation was presented as aggressive, bloodthirsty and cruel. Mikhail Grabowski, who had a good attitude towards Gogol himself, spoke negatively about Taras Bulba, as well as many other Polish critics and writers, such as Andrzej Kempinski, Michal Barmut, Julian Krzyzanowski. In Poland, there was a strong opinion about the story as anti-Polish, and partly such judgments were transferred to Gogol himself.
The story was also criticized for anti-Semitism by some politicians, religious thinkers, and literary scholars. The leader of right-wing Zionism, Vladimir Jabotinsky, in his article “Russian Weasel”, assessed the scene of the Jewish pogrom in the story “Taras Bulba” as follows: “ None of the great literature knows anything similar in terms of cruelty. This cannot even be called hatred or sympathy for the Cossack massacre of the Jews: this is worse, this is some kind of carefree, clear fun, not overshadowed even by the half-thought that the funny legs kicking in the air are the legs of living people, some amazingly whole, indecomposable contempt for the inferior race, not condescending to enmity". As literary critic Arkady Gornfeld noted, Jews are depicted by Gogol as petty thieves, traitors and ruthless extortionists, devoid of any human traits. In his opinion, Gogol’s images “ captured by the mediocre Judeophobia of the era"; Gogol’s anti-Semitism does not come from the realities of life, but from established and traditional theological ideas “ about the unknown world of Jewry"; the images of Jews are stereotyped and represent pure caricature. According to religious thinker and historian Georgy Fedotov, " Gogol gave a jubilant description of the Jewish pogrom in Taras Bulba", which indicates " about the well-known failures of his moral sense, but also about the strength of the national or chauvinistic tradition that stood behind him» .
The critic and literary critic D.I. Zaslavsky held a slightly different point of view. In the article “Jews in Russian Literature,” he also supports Jabotinsky’s reproach for the anti-Semitism of Russian literature, including in the list of anti-Semitic writers Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leskov, Chekhov. But at the same time he finds justification for Gogol’s anti-Semitism as follows: “There is no doubt, however, that in the dramatic struggle of the Ukrainian people in the 17th century for their homeland, the Jews showed neither understanding of this struggle nor sympathy for it. This was not their fault, this was their misfortune.” “The Jews of Taras Bulba are caricatures. But the caricature is not a lie. ... The talent of Jewish adaptability is vividly and aptly depicted in Gogol’s poem. And this, of course, does not flatter our pride, but we must admit that the Russian writer has captured some of our historical features with evil and aptness.” .
Philologist Elena Ivanitskaya sees “the poetry of blood and death” and even “ideological terrorism” in the actions of Taras Bulba. Educator Grigory Yakovlev, arguing that Gogol’s story glorifies “violence, incitement to war, excessive cruelty, medieval sadism, aggressive nationalism, xenophobia, religious fanaticism demanding the extermination of infidels, incessant drunkenness elevated to a cult, unjustified rudeness even in relations with loved ones” , raises the question of whether this work should be studied in high school.
Critic Mikhail Edelstein differentiates the personal sympathies of the author and the laws of the heroic epic: “The heroic epic requires a black and white palette - emphasizing the superhuman virtues of one side and the complete insignificance of the other. Therefore, both Poles and Jews - yes, in fact, everyone except the Cossacks - in Gogol’s story are not people, but rather some kind of humanoid mannequins that exist to demonstrate the heroism of the main character and his warriors (like the Tatars in the epics about Ilya of Muromets or the Moors in "Songs of Roland"). It’s not that the epic and ethical principles come into conflict - it’s just that the first completely excludes the very possibility of the manifestation of the second.”
Film adaptations
In chronological order:
Musical adaptations
The pseudonym “Taras Bulba” was chosen by Vasily (Taras) Borovets, a leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, who in 1941 created the armed formation of the UPA, called the “Bulbovtsy”.
Notes
- The text says that Bulba’s regiment is participating in the campaign of Hetman Ostranitsa. Ostranitsa is a real historical character, elected hetman in 1638 and in the same year was defeated by the Poles.
- N.V. Gogol. Collection of works of art in five volumes. Volume two. M., Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1951
- Library: N.V. Gogol, “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, part I (Russian)
- N.V. Gogol. Mirgorod. Text of the work. Taras Bulba | Komarov Library
- NIKOLAI GOGOL BLESSED ANOTHER “TARAS BULBA” (“Mirror of the Week” No. 22, June 15-21, 2009)
- Janusz Tazbir. “Taras Bulba” - finally in Polish.
- Comments on "Mirgorod".
- V. Zhabotinsky. Russian weasel
- A. Gornfeld. Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich. // Jewish Encyclopedia (ed. Brockhaus-Efron, 1907-1913, 16 vols.).
- G. Fedotov New on an old topic
- D. I. Zaslavsky Jews in Russian literature
- Weiskopf M. Gogol's plot: Morphology. Ideology. Context. M., 1993.
- Elena Ivanitskaya. Monster
- Grigory Yakovlev. Should we study Taras Bulba at school?
- How a Jew turned into a woman. The story of a stereotype.
- Taras Bulba (1909) - information about the film - films of the Russian Empire - Cinema-Theatre. RU
- Taras Bulba (1924)
- Tarass Boulba (1936)
- The Barbarian and the Lady (1938)
- Taras Bulba (1962)
- Taras Bulba (1962) - Taras Bulba - information about the film - Hollywood films - Cinema-Theatre. RU
- Taras Bulba, il cosacco (1963)
- Taras Bulba (1987) (TV)
- Duma about Taras Bulba - Slobidsky region
- Taras Bulba (2009)
- Taras Bulba (2009) - information about the film - Russian films and TV series - Kino-Teatr.RU
- Classical music.ru, TARAS BULBA - opera by N. Lysenko // author A. Gozenpud
Sources
The historical basis of N.V. Gogol’s story “Taras Bulba”.
N.V. Gogol’s story “Taras Bulba” reflects the main events of the 16th century: in Ukraine at that time, Polish gentry - “lords” - became large landowners, who introduced Polish laws on their lands and instilled “their faith” - Catholicism.
The bulk of the population of Ukraine professed Orthodoxy and did not want to convert to Catholicism: apostasy was always considered a terrible sin by the Russian people. In addition, the arrival of Polish lords to the Ukrainian lands was accompanied by a deterioration in the life of the people: the best plots of land, which had belonged to their families for centuries, were taken away from the peasants, many were simply driven off their land or resettled to unsuitable for farming, infertile lands. Large taxes were imposed on free peasants in order to force them to sell their land to a large landowner.
A “quiet” expansion of foreign territory began: everything Ukrainian, everything national was persecuted, the language, way of life and customs of the Polish people were implanted. Some Ukrainian landowners adopted the customs and way of life of the Poles, but the people resisted desperately, resisted polonization as best they could (Poland in Latin sounds like Polonia) and, if possible, waged an open struggle against the new owners and the new faith.
Expansion (lat. expansio) - expansion, spread of boundaries or influence beyond the original limits, for example. trade expansion - capturing new markets. — (Newest
dictionary of foreign words and expressions. - M.: AST; Minsk: Harvest, 2002. - P. 933.)
In order to somehow “win” the Ukrainian people to their side, Polish and Ukrainian landowners, under the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, came up with a “union” - an “agreement” between Orthodox and Catholics, essentially a new version of the Christian religion - Uniateism. Many church rituals in the Uniate externally resembled the ritual side of Orthodoxy, but in fact, the Uniate was and remains an offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church with its dogmas and ideas about how a Christian should live.
Ukrainians spoke out against the encroachment on the faith and moral foundations of their people in
XVI-XVII centuries, the fictional hero Taras Bulba is fighting against this with the “damned gentlemen”, “Poles”.
The story by N.V. Gogol describes Zaporizhzhya Sich is a real historical object, arose in Ukraine in the Middle Ages: often peasants from the western and central regions of Ukraine, fleeing Polish oppression, went east, many settled in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. Here, at the Dnieper rapids, on the island of Khortitsa, a large fortified camp of Cossacks and fugitive peasants from Great Russia arose. (After the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station in the 1940s, the island of Khortytsia, like part of the rapids, went under water.) They began to be called Zaporozhye Cossacks.
Zaporozhye Cossacks usually surrounded their camps with fences - fences made of felled trees, pointed upward. From the Ukrainian word sech (in Russian - zaseka) the largest camp on Khortytsia got its name - Zaporozhye Sich.
The Cossacks are a conditional name, since there was no permanent population in the Zaporozhye Sich: as a rule, in the spring the bulk of the Cossacks gathered in the Sich, united in kuren - a kind of detachment that lived in one hut (kuren - hut), elected their kuren ataman. To better manage such a combined population, kurens were united into camps, or koshes, which were headed by koshe atamans. All affairs of the Sich were decided at a general meeting - the Rada.
Many Cossacks were engaged in cattle breeding, hunting or various crafts, less often - farming. More often they went on long trips to Poland or Crimea, to Turkish cities or Tatar settlements on the Black Sea coast. There is no point in idealizing the Cossacks: their campaigns were predatory, in the spirit of the Middle Ages.
However, by the end of the 16th century, the oppression of Poland became unbearable for the population of all of Ukraine, so the Zaporozhye Cossacks, fugitive peasants and the population of the enslaved regions actively opposed the expansion of the Poles: they attacked Polish lands, burned crops and cities, drove out Polish landowners and “put them in their place” their landowners.
This went on for almost a hundred years. In the second half of the 17th century, Ukraine voluntarily joined the Moscow state (1654). Now a strong Orthodox state defended the interests of its citizens, most of whom were
Ukrainians - a people related to the Russians.
The time of action of the story “Taras Bulba” is related to the events in the Zaporozhye Sich. However, Gogol, violating historical chronology, mixed incidents and episodes from different centuries. He did not observe historical accuracy at all, because for him it was not historical, but artistic time that was more important.
Artistic time is the conventional time that is depicted in a work of art.
In Gogol, as in other writers, it does not coincide with historical time and with the time of the image. Gogol, firstly, describes the events of almost three centuries, but places them in one artistic time. It is absolutely clear that even such a hero as Taras Bulba could not live two or three hundred years. Secondly, about the historical era of the Zaporozhye Sich, which had long disappeared by the time of Gogol, is written not by its contemporary, but by a distant descendant. Consequently, the time depicted in the story does not coincide with the time of the image. In other words, a person of the 19th century writes about the era of the 15th-17th centuries. Artistic time is conditional, and the writer, in this case Gogol, needs it for special purposes.
There are two such features of artistic time in Taras Bulba: it is famous for its exploits and heroes, and it is epic, that is, it was a long time ago. The story was created in the spirit of a heroic epic, like the epic of Homer or the epic of chivalry, but it arose in a different place.
Its main character, Taras Bulba, is endowed with epic integrity and carries within himself the conventional ethical values of the Zaporozhye Sich. And they are that the Zaporozhye Sich is an Orthodox world, a special “nomadic” and free cultural and historical community. Its irreconcilable enemy is Catholic and “sedentary” Poland. Statehood has already been established in Poland. The Zaporozhye Sich is a wild freemen, which rests on “comradery”, brotherhood, on conditional equality that excludes property. All concepts of good and evil in the Zaporozhye Sich are special, they belong to a bygone world, and they must be judged not according to modern, but according to the laws of that time. For example, a Cossack needs will, but not a hut, because if a person has a house or any property, he loses courage. The one who is homeless is brave. Everyone needs a wife to bear children. Otherwise, she is a burden and only fetters the will. For a Cossack, mother and wife are lower than friend. Above all else, even family ties, is camaraderie. The two sons of Taras Bulba are first of all comrades, brothers, and then sons. Old Taras is proud of Ostap because he follows the laws of brotherhood without betraying them. Andriy is unworthy to be the son of Taras, since he violated the commandments of partnership. He must certainly die in order for the Cossack community to maintain unshakable unity. Since Taras gave birth to a traitor, he is obliged to rid the Cossacks of Andriy.
Another feature of the Cossack partnership is the Orthodox faith. It does not at all act as a teaching of the church, but is thought of as a simple belonging to Orthodoxy, to Christ. Consequently, faith is a sign, a symbol of the Sich.
The Cossacks know literacy, but they consider it bookish wisdom, which is lower than military wisdom. True education in the spirit of camaraderie will only be completed when Ostap and Andriy master the martial art and take part in battles with the Catholic Poles. War is a bloody test of loyalty to comradeship, loyalty to Orthodoxy. Anyone who fought receives an indisputable right to an honorable place in the sacred Fatherland. The meaning of the feasts in “Taras Bulba” is clear, when a barrel of red wine is rolled out and with this wine and simple bread the Cossacks partake of faith and comradeship before battles.
Zaporozhye Sich is a special conventional artistic world in which its own moral values, its own concepts of good and evil operate. When Gogol describes them, he takes the side of the main character - Taras Bulba. Taras Bulba is the keeper of the holy laws of partnership and faith. He is the bearer of epic consciousness and its exponent. Therefore, his point of view appears as objective and always correct, undeniable. This is how the chronicler writes, this is how the folk storyteller tells it, completely trusting the epic hero. In other words, Taras Bulba is always right. Even when in the actions of the Zaporozhye freemen there is a feeling of predatory revelry, both from a modern point of view and from the point of view of a person of the 19th century, many of Taras Bulba’s actions are anti-human and disgusting. But Gogol portrays them with epic calm. They are not subject to critical evaluation or moral judgment, because Taras Bulba is an ideal hero of Slavic antiquity and because he acted in full accordance with the morals that reigned in his era.
As soon as the common feelings and concepts that unite people (Fatherland, faith, blood family kinship, common clan property that belongs to everyone and the brotherhood and camaraderie based on them) are replaced by personal feelings and concepts, individual preferences, the epic world immediately decomposes and collapses.
Historically, the satisfaction of personal interests and individual aspirations, of course, meant a decisive step by society towards humanity, spiritual subtlety, and deeper individual development. But to Gogol, as well as to other writers, this process was revealed from the other side: as the triumph of individualism, selfish passions over common interests, over common faith, over patriotic feelings. The power of egoism and the superiority of individualistic passions meant the end of an epic era in which man had not yet distinguished himself from the general whole. In Taras Bulba, Cossack unity is placed above Andriy’s individualism, but it is dying, losing its power and is supported only by tradition. The epic world is still capable of temporarily protecting itself and protecting it from the triumph of egoistic manifestations; it is still capable of punishing and punishing a hero who has fallen away from the family-tribal fraternal unity, but gradually the epic world itself, and time, and its heroes are also dying. Together with them, the heroic epic goes into the past, the place of which goes to the novel, including love, glorifying refined personal feelings, revelations of individual love. Andriy becomes such a novel hero. Contrary to his preferences, Gogol with exceptional lyricism describes his inherent feeling of love, the beauty of the Polish woman, who appears to Andriy simultaneously in traditionally epic and folklore images and in individual sensations (paleness, comparison with pearls, etc.). The writer presents this personal feeling as a satanic temptation, as a devilish obsession, as a manifestation of individualism, but through such an image admiration for beauty, the sophistication of experiences, and spiritual richness also shines through. Gogol cannot hide his intoxication with girlish beauty.
Nevertheless, it is the epic world and epic consciousness that is leaving the historical arena that wins, and not the individualistic world and egoistic consciousness, in which humanity, humaneness, and personality in general with its own morals and interests were contradictorily manifested. In contrast to the execution of Andria, Gogol depicts the execution of Ostap, the eldest son, heir to the tradition. The shameful execution in solitude is replaced by the high, solemn execution of Ostap in full view of the entire square: “... people poured in there from all sides.” And so Ostap approached the frontal area. His life is directly compared with the execution of Christ, with the cup he drank the day before in the Garden of Gethsemane (“He was the first to drink this heavy cup”). The execution is understood as an execution for faith, just as Christ sacrificed himself for faith: “Grant, God, that all the heretics who stand here do not hear, the wicked, how a Christian suffers! So that not one of us utters a single word!” And here Ostap, enduring unbearable torment, as befits an epic hero, calls out not to his mother, not to his wife: “... he would like to see a strong husband now...” And he turns to his father, to the family origin, and he responds to his exclamation. Gogol contrasts the bewitching female beauty and her personal experience with the beauty of courage, which is characteristic of a rough and simple, but integral epic hero.
Taras Bulba is also faithful to the triumph of the masculine principle. He gathers an army and starts a war to avenge the death of Ostap. The new war is an attempt to preserve the Cossack community, the Cossack freemen, who lived by raids, robberies and at the same time firmly defending their independence and the Orthodox faith. When Taras is captured by the Poles, the execution ahead of him - to be burned at the stake - is interpreted as a high, sin-burning and cleansing sacrifice for the sake of comradeship. It is not for nothing that Taras was given the last joy - to see that the brother of the beautiful Polish woman who seduced Andriy died, and the last minute of happiness to watch how his comrades were saved and the Cossack brotherhood was preserved. This means that the “Orthodox Russian faith” has not died.
Three executions: one execution of the traitor, the traitor Andriy, another execution of Ostap, who died for his faith, and the third - Taras for the glory of comradeship. Three last words, three shouts: Andria - to the Polish lady, Ostap - to his father, Taras - to his comrades and to the coming Russian power: “Even now they sense distant and close generations: their king is rising across the Russian land and there will be no power in the world , which would not submit to him!..” The Zaporozhye Sich goes into the mythological past, becoming a legend, tradition, the property of epic tales. She did not die, her memory was preserved. It only gave way to the historical place of the great Russian kingdom, which has such power that there is no force “that would overpower the Russian force!” And although the writer’s romantic prophecy came true, the enthusiastic elation of the prophecies in “Taras Bulba” was nevertheless corrected by the general composition of the stories included in “Mirgorod”.
The historical basis of N.V. Gogol’s story “Taras Bulba”.
N.V. Gogol’s story “Taras Bulba” reflects the main events of the 16th century: in Ukraine at that time, Polish nobles - “lords” - became large landowners, who introduced Polish laws on their lands and instilled “their faith” - Catholicism.
The bulk of the population of Ukraine professed Orthodoxy and did not want to convert to Catholicism: apostasy was always considered a terrible sin by the Russian people. In addition, the arrival of Polish lords to the Ukrainian lands was accompanied by a deterioration in the life of the people: the best plots of land, which had belonged to their families for centuries, were taken away from the peasants, many were simply driven off their land or resettled to unsuitable for farming, infertile lands. Large taxes were imposed on free peasants in order to force them to sell their land to a large landowner.
A “quiet” expansion of foreign territory began: everything Ukrainian, everything national was persecuted, the language, way of life and customs of the Polish people were implanted. Some Ukrainian landowners adopted the customs and way of life of the Poles, but the people resisted desperately, resisted polonization as best they could (Poland in Latin sounds like Polonia) and, if possible, waged an open struggle against the new owners and the new faith.
Expansion (lat. expansio) - expansion, spread of boundaries or influence beyond the original limits, for example. trade expansion - capturing new markets. - (The newest dictionary of foreign words and expressions. - M.: AST; Minsk: Harvest, 2002. - P. 933.)
In order to somehow “win” the Ukrainian people to their side, Polish and Ukrainian landowners, under the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, came up with a “unia” - an “agreement” between Orthodox and Catholics, essentially a new version of the Christian religion - Uniateism. Many church rituals in the Uniate externally resembled the ritual side of Orthodoxy, but in fact, the Uniate was and remains an offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church with its dogmas and ideas about how a Christian should live.
Ukrainians spoke out against the encroachment on the faith and moral foundations of their people in the 16th-17th centuries, and the fictional hero Taras Bulba is fighting against the “damned gentlemen” and “Polyakhs”.
The story by N.V. Gogol describes the Zaporozhye Sich - a real historical object that arose in Ukraine in the Middle Ages: often peasants from the western and middle regions of Ukraine, fleeing Polish oppression, went east, many settled in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. Here, at the Dnieper rapids, on the island of Khortitsa, a large fortified camp of Cossacks and fugitive peasants from Great Russia arose. (After the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station in the 1940s, the island of Khortytsia, like part of the rapids, went under water.) They began to be called Zaporozhye Cossacks.
Zaporozhye Cossacks usually surrounded their camps with fences - fences made of felled trees, pointed upward. From the Ukrainian word sech (in Russian - zaseka) the largest camp on Khortytsia got its name - Zaporozhye Sich. The Cossacks are a conditional name, since there was no permanent population in the Zaporozhye Sich: as a rule, in the spring the bulk of the Cossacks gathered in the Sich, united in kuren - a kind of detachment that lived in one hut (kuren - hut), elected their kuren ataman. To better manage such a combined population, kurens were united into camps, or koshes, which were headed by koshe atamans. All affairs of the Sich were decided at a general meeting - the Rada.
Many Cossacks were engaged in cattle breeding, hunting or various crafts, less often - farming. More often they went on long trips to Poland or Crimea, to Turkish cities or Tatar settlements on the Black Sea coast. There is no point in idealizing the Cossacks: their campaigns were predatory, in the spirit of the Middle Ages.
However, by the end of the 16th century, the oppression of Poland became unbearable for the population of all of Ukraine, so the Zaporozhye Cossacks, fugitive peasants and the population of the enslaved regions actively opposed the expansion of the Poles: they attacked Polish lands, burned crops and cities, drove out Polish landowners and “put them in their place” their landowners.
This went on for almost a hundred years. In the second half of the 17th century, Ukraine voluntarily joined the Moscow state (1654). Now a strong Orthodox state protected the interests of its citizens, most of whom were Ukrainians - a people related to the Russians.
Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia
One of the prototypes of Taras Bulba is the ancestor of the famous traveler N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, who was born in Starodub at the beginning of the 17th century, Kureni Ataman of the Zaporozhian Army Okhrim Makukha, an associate of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who had three sons: Nazar, Khoma (Foma) and Omelka (Emelyan ), Khoma (the prototype of Gogol's Ostap) died trying to deliver Nazar to his father, and Emelyan became the ancestor of Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay and his uncle Grigory Ilyich Mikloukha, who studied with Nikolai Gogol and told him the family legend. The prototype is also Ivan Gonta, who was mistakenly attributed to the murder of two sons from his Polish wife, although his wife is Russian and the story is fictitious.
Plot
After graduating from the Kiev Academy (Kyiv was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1654), his two sons, Ostap and Andriy, come to the old Cossack colonel Taras Bulba. Two stalwart young men, healthy and strong, whose faces have not yet been touched by a razor, are embarrassed to meet their father, who makes fun of their clothes as recent seminarians. The eldest, Ostap, cannot stand his father’s ridicule: “Even though you’re my dad, if you laugh, then, by God, I’ll beat you!” And father and son, instead of greeting each other after a long absence, seriously hit each other with blows. A pale, thin and kind mother tries to reason with her violent husband, who himself stops, glad that he has tested his son. Bulba wants to “greet” the younger one in the same way, but his mother is already hugging him, protecting him from his father.
On the occasion of the arrival of his sons, Taras Bulba convenes all the centurions and the entire regimental rank and announces his decision to send Ostap and Andriy to the Sich, because there is no better science for a young Cossack than the Zaporozhye Sich. At the sight of the young strength of his sons, the military spirit of Taras himself flares up, and he decides to go with them to introduce them to all his old comrades. The mother sits over her sleeping children all night, wanting the night to last as long as possible. In the morning, after the blessing, the mother, desperate with grief, is barely torn away from the children and taken to the hut.
Three horsemen ride in silence. Old Taras remembers his wild life, a tear freezes in his eyes, his gray head hangs down. Ostap, who has a stern and firm character, although hardened over the years of studying at the Bursa, retained his natural kindness and was touched by the tears of his poor mother. This alone confuses him and makes him lower his head thoughtfully. Andriy is also having a hard time saying goodbye to his mother and home, but his thoughts are occupied with memories of the beautiful Polish woman whom he met just before leaving Kiev. Then Andriy managed to get into the beauty’s bedroom through the fireplace chimney; a knock on the door forced the Polish woman to hide the young Cossack under the bed. Tatarka, the lady's servant, as soon as the anxiety passed, took Andriy out into the garden, where he barely escaped from the awakened servants. He saw the beautiful Polish girl again in the church, soon she left - and now, with his eyes cast down into the mane of his horse, Andriy thinks about her.
After a long journey, the Sich meets Taras and his sons with his wild life - a sign of the Zaporozhye will. Cossacks do not like to waste time on military exercises, collecting military experience only in the heat of battle. Ostap and Andriy rush with all the ardor of young men into this riotous sea. But old Taras does not like an idle life - this is not the kind of activity he wants to prepare his sons for. Having met all his comrades, he is still figuring out how to rouse the Cossacks on a campaign, so as not to waste their Cossack prowess on a continuous feast and drunken fun. He persuades the Cossacks to re-elect the Koshevoy, who keeps peace with the enemies of the Cossacks. The new Koshevoy, under the pressure of the most militant Cossacks, and above all Taras, is trying to find a justification for a profitable campaign against Turkey, but under the influence of the Cossacks who arrived from Ukraine, who spoke about the oppression of the Polish lords and Jewish tenants over the people of Ukraine, the army unanimously decides to go to Poland, to avenge all the evil and disgrace of the Orthodox faith. Thus, the war takes on a people's liberation character.
And soon the entire Polish southwest becomes the prey of fear, the rumor running ahead: “Cossacks! The Cossacks have appeared! In one month, the young Cossacks matured in battle, and old Taras loves to see that both of his sons are among the first. The Cossack army is trying to take the city of Dubno, where there is a lot of treasury and wealthy inhabitants, but they encounter desperate resistance from the garrison and residents. The Cossacks are besieging the city and waiting for famine to begin. Having nothing to do, the Cossacks devastate the surrounding area, burning defenseless villages and unharvested grain. The young, especially the sons of Taras, do not like this life. Old Bulba calms them down, promising hot fights soon. One dark night, Andria is awakened from sleep by a strange creature that looks like a ghost. This is a Tatar, a servant of the same Polish woman with whom Andriy is in love. The Tatar woman whispers that the lady is in the city, she saw Andriy from the city rampart and asks him to come to her or at least give a piece of bread for his dying mother. Andriy loads the bags with bread, as much as he can carry, and the Tatar woman leads him along the underground passage to the city. Having met his beloved, he renounces his father and brother, comrades and homeland: “The homeland is what our soul seeks, what is dearer to it than anything else. My homeland is you.” Andriy remains with the lady to protect her until his last breath from his former comrades.
Polish troops, sent to reinforce the besieged, march into the city past drunken Cossacks, killing many while sleeping and capturing many. This event embitters the Cossacks, who decide to continue the siege to the end. Taras, searching for his missing son, receives terrible confirmation of Andriy's betrayal.
The Poles are organizing forays, but the Cossacks are still successfully repelling them. News comes from the Sich that, in the absence of the main force, the Tatars attacked the remaining Cossacks and captured them, seizing the treasury. The Cossack army near Dubno is divided in two - half goes to the rescue of the treasury and comrades, half remains to continue the siege. Taras, leading the siege army, makes a passionate speech in praise of comradeship.
The Poles learn about the weakening of the enemy and move out of the city for a decisive battle. Andriy is among them. Taras Bulba orders the Cossacks to lure him to the forest and there, meeting Andriy face to face, he kills his son, who even before his death utters one word - the name of the beautiful lady. Reinforcements arrive to the Poles, and they defeat the Cossacks. Ostap is captured, the wounded Taras, saved from pursuit, is brought to Sich.
Having recovered from his wounds, Taras persuades Yankel to secretly transport him to Warsaw to try to ransom Ostap there. Taras is present at the terrible execution of his son in the city square. Not a single groan escapes from Ostap’s chest under torture, only before death he cries out: “Father! where are you! Can you hear? - “I hear!” - Taras answers above the crowd. They rush to catch him, but Taras is already gone.
One hundred and twenty thousand Cossacks, including the regiment of Taras Bulba, rise up on a campaign against the Poles. Even the Cossacks themselves notice Taras’s excessive ferocity and cruelty towards the enemy. This is how he takes revenge for the death of his son. The defeated Polish hetman Nikolai Pototsky swears not to inflict any offense on the Cossack army in the future. Only Colonel Bulba does not agree to such a peace, assuring his comrades that the forgiven Poles will not keep their word. And he leads his regiment away. His prediction comes true - having gathered their strength, the Poles treacherously attack the Cossacks and defeat them.
And Taras walks throughout Poland with his regiment, continuing to avenge the death of Ostap and his comrades, mercilessly destroying all living things.
Five regiments under the leadership of that same Pototsky finally overtake the regiment of Taras, who was resting in an old collapsed fortress on the banks of the Dniester. The battle lasts four days. The surviving Cossacks make their way, but the old chieftain stops to look for his cradle in the grass, and the haiduks overtake him. They tie Taras to an oak tree with iron chains, nail his hands and lay a fire under him. Before his death, Taras manages to shout to his comrades to go down to the canoes, which he sees from above, and escape from pursuit along the river. And at the last terrible minute, the old ataman predicts the unification of the Russian lands, the destruction of their enemies and the victory of the Orthodox faith.
The Cossacks escape from the chase, row their oars together and talk about their chieftain.
Gogol's work on "Taras..."
Gogol's work on Taras Bulba was preceded by a careful, in-depth study of historical sources. Among them should be named “Description of Ukraine” by Boplan, “The History of the Zaporozhye Cossacks” by Prince Semyon Ivanovich Myshetsky, handwritten lists of Ukrainian chronicles - Samovidets, Samuil Velichko, Grigory Grabyanka, etc. helping the artist to comprehend the spirit of folk life, characters, psychology of people. Among the sources that helped Gogol in his work on Taras Bulba, there was another, most important one: Ukrainian folk songs, especially historical songs and thoughts.
"Taras Bulba" has a long and complex creative history. It was first published in 1835 in the collection “Mirgorod”. In 1842, in the second volume of Gogol’s Works, the story “Taras Bulba” was published in a new, radically revised edition. Work on this work continued intermittently for nine years: from 1833 to 1842. Between the first and second editions of Taras Bulba, a number of intermediate editions of some chapters were written. Due to this, the second edition is more complete than the 1835 edition, despite some of Gogol’s claims due to many significant inconsistent edits and changes to the original text during editing and rewriting.
The original author's manuscript of "Taras Bulba", prepared by Gogol for the second edition, was found in the sixties of the 19th century. among the gifts of Count Kushelev-Bezborodko to the Nezhin Lyceum. This is the so-called Nezhin manuscript, entirely written by the hand of Nikolai Gogol, who made many changes in the fifth, sixth, seventh chapters, and revised the 8th and 10th.
Thanks to the fact that Count Kushelev-Bezborodko bought this original author’s manuscript from the Prokopovich family in 1858, it became possible to see the work in the form that suited the author himself. However, in subsequent editions “Taras Bulba” was reprinted not from the original manuscript, but from the 1842 edition, with only minor corrections. The first attempt to bring together and unite the author's originals of Gogol's manuscripts, the clerk's copies that differ from them, and the 1842 edition was made in the Complete Works of Gogol ([V 14 vol.] / USSR Academy of Sciences; Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House). - [M.; L.]: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1937-1952.).
Differences between the first and second edition
A number of significant changes and significant additions were made to the version for the publication of “Works” () compared to the original of 1835. In general, the 1842 version is more censored, partly by the author himself, partly by the publisher, in some places in violation of the original style of the original version of the work. At the same time, this version is more complete, and the historical and everyday background of the story has been significantly enriched - a more detailed description of the emergence of the Cossacks, the Zaporozhye army, the laws and customs of the Sich is given. The condensed story about the siege of Dubno is replaced by a detailed epic depiction of the battles and heroic exploits of the Cossacks. In the second edition, Andriy's love experiences are given more fully and the tragedy of his situation, caused by betrayal, is more deeply revealed.
The image of Taras Bulba was rethought. The place in the first edition where it is said that Taras “was a great hunter of raids and riots” was replaced in the second by the following: “Restless, he always considered himself the legitimate defender of Orthodoxy. He arbitrarily entered villages where they only complained about the harassment of tenants and the increase in new duties on smoke.” The calls for comradely solidarity in the fight against enemies and the speech about the greatness of the Russian people, put into the mouth of Taras in the second edition, finally complete the heroic image of a fighter for national freedom.
Edition 1835. Part I
Bulba was terribly stubborn. He was one of those characters that could only have emerged in the rough 15th century, and moreover in the semi-nomadic East of Europe, during the time of the right and wrong concept of lands that had become some kind of disputed, unresolved possession, to which Ukraine then belonged... In general, he was a great hunter of raids and riots; he heard with his nose where and in what place the indignation flared up, and out of the blue he appeared on his horse. “Well, children! what and how? “Who should be beaten and for what?” he usually said and intervened in the matter. |
Edition 1842. Part I
Bulba was terribly stubborn. This was one of those characters that could only emerge in the difficult 15th century in a semi-nomadic corner of Europe, when the entire southern primitive Russia, abandoned by its princes, was devastated, burned to the ground by the indomitable raids of Mongol predators... Eternally restless, he considered himself the legitimate defender of Orthodoxy. He arbitrarily entered villages where they only complained about the harassment of tenants and the increase in new duties on smoke. |
The original author's version of the revised manuscript was transferred by the author to N. Ya. Prokopovich for the preparation of the 1842 edition, but differs from the latter. After Prokopovich’s death, the manuscript was acquired, among other Gogol manuscripts, by Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko and donated by him to the Nizhyn Lyceum of Prince Bezborodko (see N. Gerbel, “On Gogol’s manuscripts belonging to the Lyceum of Prince Bezborodko,” “Time,” 1868, No. 4, pp. 606-614; cf. “Russian Antiquity” 1887, No. 3, pp. 711-712); in 1934, the manuscript was transferred from the library of the Nizhyn Pedagogical Institute to the manuscript department of the Library of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kyiv.
Neither the 1842 edition nor the 1855 edition can be used as the basis for developing the canonical text of the story, since they are clogged with extraneous editorial corrections. The basis of the published text of the story (Gogol N.V. Complete works: [In 14 volumes] / USSR Academy of Sciences; Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin. House). - [M.; L.]: Publishing House Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937-1952) based on the text prepared for publication by Gogol himself in 1842, that is, the text of the autograph; the missing passages were taken from the clerk’s copy, where they were copied from the corrected copy of “Mirgorod” (in several cases the text was taken from “Mirgorod” without changes and thus can be checked directly against the edition of “Mirgorod”). Only in a few cases does the text deviate from the manuscript, correcting suspected errors or filling in omissions. According to the general principles of the publication (see the introductory article to volume I), neither the amendments made by N. Ya. Prokopovich on behalf of Gogol in the 1842 edition, nor the later (1851-1852) amendments of Gogol himself are introduced into the main text, applied in proofreading to the text of the 1842 edition, since the separation of Gogol’s corrections from non-Gogol’s cannot be made in this text with complete confidence and consistency.
Idioms
- “Turn around, son!”
- “I gave birth to you, I will kill you!”
- "There is life in the old dog yet?!"
- “Be patient, Cossack, and you will become an ataman!”
- “There is no bond holier than fellowship!”
- “What, son, did your Poles help you?”
Criticism of the story
Along with the general approval that critics met with Gogol's story, some aspects of the work were found unsuccessful. Thus, Gogol was repeatedly accused of the unhistorical nature of the story, the excessive glorification of the Cossacks, and the lack of historical context, which was noted by Mikhail Grabovsky, Vasily Gippius, Maxim Gorky and others. Critics believed that this could be explained by the fact that the writer did not have enough reliable information about the history of Ukraine. Gogol studied the history of his native land with great attention, but he drew information not only from rather meager chronicles, but also from folk tales, legends, as well as frankly mythological sources, such as “History of the Rus”, from which he gleaned descriptions of the atrocities of the gentry and the atrocities of the Jews and the valor of the Cossacks. The story caused particular discontent among the Polish intelligentsia. The Poles were outraged that in Taras Bulba the Polish nation was presented as aggressive, bloodthirsty and cruel. Mikhail Grabowski, who had a good attitude towards Gogol himself, spoke negatively about Taras Bulba, as well as many other Polish critics and writers, such as Andrzej Kempinski, Michal Barmut, Julian Krzyzanowski. In Poland, there was a strong opinion about the story as anti-Polish, and partly such judgments were transferred to Gogol himself.
Antisemitism
The story was also criticized for anti-Semitism by some politicians, religious thinkers, and literary scholars. The leader of right-wing Zionism, Vladimir Jabotinsky, in his article “Russian Weasel”, assessed the scene of the Jewish pogrom in the story “Taras Bulba” as follows: “ None of the great literature knows anything similar in terms of cruelty. This cannot even be called hatred or sympathy for the Cossack massacre of the Jews: this is worse, this is some kind of carefree, clear fun, not overshadowed even by the half-thought that the funny legs kicking in the air are the legs of living people, some amazingly whole, indecomposable contempt for the inferior race, not condescending to enmity". As literary critic Arkady Gornfeld noted, Jews are depicted by Gogol as petty thieves, traitors and ruthless extortionists, devoid of any human traits. In his opinion, Gogol’s images “ captured by the mediocre Judeophobia of the era"; Gogol’s anti-Semitism does not come from the realities of life, but from established and traditional theological ideas “ about the unknown world of Jewry"; the images of Jews are stereotyped and represent pure caricature. According to the thinker and historian Georgy Fedotov, “ Gogol gave a jubilant description of the Jewish pogrom in Taras Bulba", which indicates " about the well-known failures of his moral sense, but also about the strength of the national or chauvinistic tradition that stood behind him» .
The critic and literary critic D.I. Zaslavsky held a slightly different point of view. In the article “Jews in Russian Literature,” he also supports Jabotinsky’s reproach for the anti-Semitism of Russian literature, including in the list of anti-Semitic writers Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leskov, Chekhov. But at the same time he finds justification for Gogol’s anti-Semitism as follows: “There is no doubt, however, that in the dramatic struggle of the Ukrainian people in the 17th century for their homeland, the Jews showed neither understanding of this struggle nor sympathy for it. This was not their fault, this was their misfortune.” “The Jews of Taras Bulba are caricatures. But the caricature is not a lie. ... The talent of Jewish adaptability is vividly and aptly depicted in Gogol’s poem. And this, of course, does not flatter our pride, but we must admit that the Russian writer has captured some of our historical features with evil and aptness.” .
Film adaptations
In chronological order:
- Well, honey? No, brother, my pink beauty, and their name is Dunyasha... - But, looking at Rostov’s face, Ilyin fell silent. He saw that his hero and commander was in a completely different way of thinking.
Rostov looked back angrily at Ilyin and, without answering him, quickly walked towards the village.
“I’ll show them, I’ll give them a hard time, the robbers!” - he said to himself.
Alpatych, at a swimming pace, so as not to run, barely caught up with Rostov at a trot.
– What decision did you decide to make? - he said, catching up with him.
Rostov stopped and, clenching his fists, suddenly moved menacingly towards Alpatych.
- Solution? What's the solution? Old bastard! - he shouted at him. -What were you watching? A? Men are rebelling, but you can’t cope? You yourself are a traitor. I know you, I’ll skin you all... - And, as if afraid to waste his reserve of ardor in vain, he left Alpatych and quickly walked forward. Alpatych, suppressing the feeling of insult, kept up with Rostov at a floating pace and continued to communicate his thoughts to him. He said that the men were stubborn, that at the moment it was unwise to oppose them without having a military command, that it would not be better to send for a command first.
“I’ll give them a military command... I’ll fight them,” Nikolai said senselessly, suffocating from unreasonable animal anger and the need to vent this anger. Not realizing what he would do, unconsciously, with a quick, decisive step, he moved towards the crowd. And the closer he moved to her, the more Alpatych felt that his unreasonable act could produce good results. The men of the crowd felt the same, looking at his fast and firm gait and decisive, frowning face.
After the hussars entered the village and Rostov went to the princess, there was confusion and discord in the crowd. Some men began to say that these newcomers were Russians and how they would not be offended by the fact that they did not let the young lady out. Drone was of the same opinion; but as soon as he expressed it, Karp and other men attacked the former headman.
– How many years have you been eating the world? - Karp shouted at him. - It’s all the same to you! You dig up the little jar, take it away, do you want to destroy our houses or not?
- It was said that there should be order, no one should leave the houses, so as not to take out any blue gunpowder - that’s all it is! - shouted another.
“There was a line for your son, and you probably regretted your hunger,” the little old man suddenly spoke quickly, attacking Dron, “and you shaved my Vanka.” Oh, we're going to die!
- Then we’ll die!
“I am not a refuser from the world,” said Dron.
- He’s not a refusenik, he’s grown a belly!..
Two long men had their say. As soon as Rostov, accompanied by Ilyin, Lavrushka and Alpatych, approached the crowd, Karp, putting his fingers behind his sash, slightly smiling, came forward. The drone, on the contrary, entered the back rows, and the crowd moved closer together.
- Hey! Who is your headman here? - Rostov shouted, quickly approaching the crowd.
- The headman then? What do you need?.. – asked Karp. But before he could finish speaking, his hat flew off and his head snapped to the side from a strong blow.
- Hats off, traitors! - Rostov’s full-blooded voice shouted. -Where is the headman? – he shouted in a frantic voice.
“The headman, the headman is calling... Dron Zakharych, you,” submissive voices were heard here and there, and hats began to be taken off their heads.
“We can’t rebel, we keep order,” said Karp, and several voices from behind at the same moment suddenly spoke:
- How the old people grumbled, there are a lot of you bosses...
- Talk?.. Riot!.. Robbers! Traitors! - Rostov screamed senselessly, in a voice that was not his own, grabbing Karp by the yurot. - Knit him, knit him! - he shouted, although there was no one to knit him except Lavrushka and Alpatych.
Lavrushka, however, ran up to Karp and grabbed his hands from behind.
– Will you order our people to call from under the mountain? - he shouted.
Alpatych turned to the men, calling two of them by name to mate Karp. The men obediently emerged from the crowd and began to loosen their belts.
- Where is the headman? - Rostov shouted.
The drone, with a frowning and pale face, emerged from the crowd.
-Are you the headman? Knit, Lavrushka! - Rostov shouted, as if this order could not meet with obstacles. And indeed, two more men began to tie Dron, who, as if helping them, took off the kushan and gave it to them.
“And you all listen to me,” Rostov turned to the men: “Now march home, and so that I don’t hear your voice.”
“Well, we didn’t do any harm.” That means we are just being stupid. They just made nonsense... I told you there was a mess,” voices were heard reproaching each other.
“I told you so,” said Alpatych, coming into his own. - This is not good, guys!
“Our stupidity, Yakov Alpatych,” answered the voices, and the crowd immediately began to disperse and scatter throughout the village.
The two tied men were taken to the manor's courtyard. Two drunk men followed them.
- Oh, I’ll look at you! - said one of them, turning to Karp.
“Is it possible to talk to gentlemen like that?” What did you think?
“Fool,” confirmed the other, “really, a fool!”
Two hours later the carts stood in the courtyard of Bogucharov’s house. The men were briskly carrying out and placing the master's things on the carts, and Dron, at the request of Princess Marya, was released from the locker where he had been locked, standing in the courtyard, giving orders to the men.
“Don’t put it in such a bad way,” said one of the men, a tall man with a round, smiling face, taking the box from the maid’s hands. - It also costs money. Why do you throw it like that or half a rope - and it will rub. I don't like it that way. And so that everything is fair, according to the law. Just like that, under the matting and covering it with hay, that’s what’s important. Love!
“Look for books, books,” said another man, who was taking out Prince Andrei’s library cabinets. - Don't cling! It's heavy, guys, the books are great!
- Yes, they wrote, they didn’t walk! – the tall, round-faced man said with a significant wink, pointing to the thick lexicons lying on top.
Rostov, not wanting to impose his acquaintance on the princess, did not go to her, but remained in the village, waiting for her to leave. Having waited for Princess Marya's carriages to leave the house, Rostov sat on horseback and accompanied her on horseback to the path occupied by our troops, twelve miles from Bogucharov. In Yankov, at the inn, he said goodbye to her respectfully, allowing himself to kiss her hand for the first time.
“Aren’t you ashamed,” he answered Princess Marya, blushing, to the expression of gratitude for her salvation (as she called his action), “every police officer would have done the same.” If only we had to fight with the peasants, we would not have allowed the enemy so far away,” he said, ashamed of something and trying to change the conversation. “I’m only happy that I had the opportunity to meet you.” Farewell, princess, I wish you happiness and consolation and wish to meet you under happier conditions. If you don't want to make me blush, please don't thank me.
But the princess, if she did not thank him in more words, thanked him with the whole expression of her face, beaming with gratitude and tenderness. She couldn't believe him, that she had nothing to thank him for. On the contrary, what was certain for her was that if he had not existed, she would probably have died from both the rebels and the French; that, in order to save her, he exposed himself to the most obvious and terrible dangers; and what was even more certain was that he was a man with a high and noble soul, who knew how to understand her situation and grief. His kind and honest eyes with tears appearing on them, while she herself, crying, talked to him about her loss, did not leave her imagination.
When she said goodbye to him and was left alone, Princess Marya suddenly felt tears in her eyes, and here, not for the first time, she was presented with a strange question: does she love him?
On the way further to Moscow, despite the fact that the princess’s situation was not happy, Dunyasha, who was riding with her in the carriage, more than once noticed that the princess, leaning out of the carriage window, was smiling joyfully and sadly at something.
“Well, what if I loved him? - thought Princess Marya.
Ashamed as she was to admit to herself that she was the first to love a man who, perhaps, would never love her, she consoled herself with the thought that no one would ever know this and that it would not be her fault if she remained with no one for the rest of her life. speaking of loving the one she loved for the first and last time.
Sometimes she remembered his views, his participation, his words, and it seemed to her that happiness was not impossible. And then Dunyasha noticed that she was smiling and looking out the carriage window.
“And he had to come to Bogucharovo, and at that very moment! - thought Princess Marya. “And his sister should have refused Prince Andrei!” “And in all this, Princess Marya saw the will of Providence.
The impression made on Rostov by Princess Marya was very pleasant. When he remembered about her, he became cheerful, and when his comrades, having learned about his adventure in Bogucharovo, joked to him that, having gone for hay, he picked up one of the richest brides in Russia, Rostov became angry. He was angry precisely because the thought of marrying the meek Princess Marya, who was pleasant to him and with a huge fortune, came into his head more than once against his will. For himself personally, Nikolai could not wish for a better wife than Princess Marya: marrying her would make the countess - his mother - happy, and would improve his father’s affairs; and even - Nikolai felt it - would have made Princess Marya happy. But Sonya? And this word? And this is why Rostov got angry when they joked about Princess Bolkonskaya.
Having taken command of the armies, Kutuzov remembered Prince Andrei and sent him an order to come to the main apartment.
Prince Andrei arrived in Tsarevo Zaimishche on the very day and at the very time of the day when Kutuzov made the first review of the troops. Prince Andrei stopped in the village at the priest’s house, where the commander-in-chief’s carriage stood, and sat on a bench at the gate, waiting for His Serene Highness, as everyone now called Kutuzov. On the field outside the village one could hear either the sounds of regimental music or the roar of a huge number of voices shouting “hurray!” to the new commander-in-chief. Right there at the gate, ten steps from Prince Andrei, taking advantage of the prince’s absence and the beautiful weather, stood two orderlies, a courier and a butler. Blackish, overgrown with mustaches and sideburns, the little hussar lieutenant colonel rode up to the gate and, looking at Prince Andrei, asked: is His Serene Highness standing here and will he be there soon?
Prince Andrei said that he did not belong to the headquarters of His Serene Highness and was also a visitor. The hussar lieutenant colonel turned to the smart orderly, and the orderly of the commander-in-chief said to him with that special contempt with which the orderlies of the commander-in-chief speak to officers:
- What, my lord? It must be now. You that?
The hussar lieutenant colonel grinned into his mustache in the tone of the orderly, got off his horse, gave it to the messenger and approached Bolkonsky, bowing slightly to him. Bolkonsky stood aside on the bench. The hussar lieutenant colonel sat down next to him.
– Are you also waiting for the commander-in-chief? - the hussar lieutenant colonel spoke. “Govog”yat, it’s accessible to everyone, thank God. Otherwise, there’s trouble with the sausage makers! It’s not until recently that Yeg “molov” settled in the Germans. Now, maybe it will be possible to speak in Russian. Otherwise, who knows what they were doing. Everyone retreated, everyone retreated. Have you done the hike? - he asked.
“I had the pleasure,” answered Prince Andrei, “not only to participate in the retreat, but also to lose in this retreat everything that was dear to me, not to mention the estates and home... of my father, who died of grief.” I am from Smolensk.
- Eh?.. Are you Prince Bolkonsky? It’s great to meet: Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known as Vaska,” said Denisov, shaking Prince Andrei’s hand and peering into Bolkonsky’s face with especially kind attention. “Yes, I heard,” he said with sympathy and, after a short silence, continued : - Here comes the Scythian war. It’s all good, but not for those who take the puff on their own sides. And you are Prince Andgey Bolkonsky? - He shook his head. “It’s very hell, prince, it’s very hell to meet you,” he added again with a sad smile, shaking his hand.
Prince Andrei knew Denisov from Natasha's stories about her first groom. This memory, both sweet and painful, now transported him to those painful sensations that he had not thought about for a long time, but which were still in his soul. Recently, so many other and such serious impressions as leaving Smolensk, his arrival in Bald Mountains, the recent death of his father - so many sensations were experienced by him that these memories had not come to him for a long time and, when they came, had no effect on him. him with the same strength. And for Denisov, the series of memories that Bolkonsky’s name evoked was a distant, poetic past, when, after dinner and Natasha’s singing, he, without knowing how, proposed to a fifteen-year-old girl. He smiled at the memories of that time and his love for Natasha and immediately moved on to what was now passionately and exclusively occupying him. This was the campaign plan he came up with while serving in the outposts during the retreat. He presented this plan to Barclay de Tolly and now intended to present it to Kutuzov. The plan was based on the fact that the French line of operations was too extended and that instead of, or at the same time, acting from the front, blocking the way for the French, it was necessary to act on their messages. He began to explain his plan to Prince Andrei.
“They can’t hold this entire line.” This is impossible, I answer that they are pg"og"vu; give me five hundred people, I will kill them, it’s veg! One system is pag “Tisan.”
Denisov stood up and, making gestures, outlined his plan to Bolkonsky. In the middle of his presentation, the cries of the army, more awkward, more widespread and merging with music and songs, were heard at the place of review. There was stomping and screaming in the village.
“He’s coming himself,” shouted a Cossack standing at the gate, “he’s coming!” Bolkonsky and Denisov moved towards the gate, at which stood a group of soldiers (an honor guard), and saw Kutuzov moving along the street, riding a low bay horse. A huge retinue of generals rode behind him. Barclay rode almost alongside; a crowd of officers ran behind them and around them and shouted “Hurray!”
The adjutants galloped ahead of him into the courtyard. Kutuzov, impatiently pushing his horse, which was ambling under his weight, and constantly nodding his head, put his hand to the cavalry guard’s bad-looking cap (with a red band and without a visor) that he was wearing. Having approached the honor guard of fine grenadiers, mostly cavaliers, who saluted him, he silently looked at them for a minute with a commanding stubborn gaze and turned to the crowd of generals and officers standing around him. His face suddenly took on a subtle expression; he raised his shoulders with a gesture of bewilderment.
- And with such fellows, keep retreating and retreating! - he said. “Well, goodbye, general,” he added and started his horse through the gate past Prince Andrei and Denisov.
- Hooray! hooray! hooray! - they shouted from behind him.
Since Prince Andrei had not seen him, Kutuzov had grown even fatter, flabby, and swollen with fat. But the familiar white eye, and the wound, and the expression of fatigue in his face and figure were the same. He was dressed in a uniform frock coat (a whip hung on a thin belt over his shoulder) and a white cavalry guard cap. He, heavily blurring and swaying, sat on his cheerful horse.
“Whew... whew... whew...” he whistled barely audibly as he drove into the yard. His face expressed the joy of calming a man intending to rest after the mission. He took his left leg out of the stirrup, falling with his whole body and wincing from the effort, he lifted it with difficulty onto the saddle, leaned his elbow on his knee, grunted and went down into the arms of the Cossacks and adjutants who were supporting him.
He recovered, looked around with his narrowed eyes and, glancing at Prince Andrei, apparently not recognizing him, walked with his diving gait towards the porch.
“Whew... whew... whew,” he whistled and again looked back at Prince Andrei. The impression of Prince Andrei's face only after a few seconds (as often happens with old people) became associated with the memory of his personality.
“Oh, hello, prince, hello, darling, let’s go...” he said tiredly, looking around, and heavily entered the porch, creaking under his weight. He unbuttoned and sat down on a bench on the porch.
- Well, what about father?
“Yesterday I received news of his death,” Prince Andrei said briefly.
Kutuzov looked at Prince Andrei with frightened open eyes, then took off his cap and crossed himself: “The kingdom of heaven to him! May God's will be over us all! He sighed heavily, with all his chest, and was silent. “I loved and respected him and I sympathize with you with all my heart.” He hugged Prince Andrei, pressed him to his fat chest and did not let him go for a long time. When he released him, Prince Andrei saw that Kutuzov’s swollen lips were trembling and there were tears in his eyes. He sighed and grabbed the bench with both hands to stand up.
“Come on, let’s come to me and talk,” he said; but at this time Denisov, just as little timid in front of his superiors as he was in front of the enemy, despite the fact that the adjutants at the porch stopped him in angry whispers, boldly, knocking his spurs on the steps, entered the porch. Kutuzov, leaving his hands resting on the bench, looked displeased at Denisov. Denisov, having identified himself, announced that he had to inform his lordship of a matter of great importance for the good of the fatherland. Kutuzov began to look at Denisov with a tired look and with an annoyed gesture, taking his hands and folding them on his stomach, he repeated: “For the good of the fatherland? Well, what is it? Speak." Denisov blushed like a girl (it was so strange to see the color on that mustachioed, old and drunken face), and boldly began to outline his plan for cutting the enemy’s operational line between Smolensk and Vyazma. Denisov lived in these parts and knew the area well. His plan seemed undoubtedly good, especially from the power of conviction that was in his words. Kutuzov looked at his feet and occasionally glanced at the courtyard of the neighboring hut, as if he was expecting something unpleasant from there. From the hut he was looking at, indeed, during Denisov’s speech, a general appeared with a briefcase under his arm.
- What? – Kutuzov said in the middle of Denisov’s presentation. - Ready?
“Ready, your lordship,” said the general. Kutuzov shook his head, as if saying: “How can one person manage all this,” and continued to listen to Denisov.
“I give my honest, noble word to the Hussian officer,” said Denisov, “that I have confirmed Napoleon’s message.
- How are you doing, Kirill Andreevich Denisov, chief quartermaster? - Kutuzov interrupted him.
- Uncle of one, your lordship.
- ABOUT! “We were friends,” Kutuzov said cheerfully. “Okay, okay, darling, stay here at headquarters, we’ll talk tomorrow.” - Nodding his head to Denisov, he turned away and extended his hand to the papers that Konovnitsyn brought him.
“Would your lordship please welcome you to the rooms,” the general on duty said in a dissatisfied voice, “we need to consider the plans and sign some papers.” “The adjutant who came out of the door reported that everything was ready in the apartment. But Kutuzov, apparently, wanted to enter the rooms already free. He winced...
“No, tell me to serve, my dear, here’s a table, I’ll take a look,” he said. “Don’t leave,” he added, turning to Prince Andrei. Prince Andrei remained on the porch, listening to the general on duty.
During the report, outside the front door, Prince Andrei heard a woman’s whispering and the crunching of a woman’s silk dress. Several times, looking in that direction, he noticed behind the door, in a pink dress and a purple silk scarf on her head, a plump, rosy-cheeked and beautiful woman with a dish, who was obviously waiting for the commander to enter. Kutuzov's adjutant explained to Prince Andrei in a whisper that it was the mistress of the house, the priest, who intended to serve bread and salt to his lordship. Her husband met His Serene Highness with a cross in the church, she is at home... “Very pretty,” the adjutant added with a smile. Kutuzov looked back at these words. Kutuzov listened to the report of the general on duty (the main subject of which was criticism of the position under Tsarev Zaimishche) just as he listened to Denisov, just as he listened to the debate of the Austerlitz Military Council seven years ago. He apparently listened only because he had ears, which, despite the fact that there was a sea rope in one of them, could not help but hear; but it was obvious that nothing that the general on duty could tell him could not only surprise or interest him, but that he knew in advance everything that they would tell him, and listened to all of it only because he had to listen, as he had to listen singing prayer service. Everything Denisov said was practical and smart. What the general on duty said was even more sensible and smarter, but it was obvious that Kutuzov despised both knowledge and intelligence and knew something else that was supposed to solve the matter - something else, independent of intelligence and knowledge. Prince Andrei carefully watched the expression on the commander-in-chief's face, and the only expression that he could notice in him was an expression of boredom, curiosity about what the woman's whispering behind the door meant, and a desire to maintain decency. It was obvious that Kutuzov despised intelligence, and knowledge, and even the patriotic feeling that Denisov showed, but he did not despise intelligence, not feeling, not knowledge (because he did not try to show them), but he despised them with something else. He despised them with his old age, his experience of life. One order that Kutuzov made on his own in this report related to the looting of Russian troops. At the end of the report, the reder on duty presented the Highness with a document for his signature about penalties from the army commanders at the request of the landowner for cut green oats.
Kutuzov smacked his lips and shook his head after listening to this matter.
- Into the stove... into the fire! And once and for all I tell you, my dear,” he said, “all these things are on fire.” Let them mow bread and burn wood for health. I don’t order this and I don’t allow it, but I can’t exact it either. It is impossible without this. They chop wood and the chips fly. – He looked again at the paper. - Oh, German neatness! – he said, shaking his head.