The history of the creation of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Wise Minnow. Fairy tales “for children of a fair age” as a work of a new genre in Russian literature. The history of the creation of "Fairy Tales"

The series of tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin was created over 18 years and consists of 32 works. As a result of his work, fairy tales are filled with a special satire that opposes social evil. They intertwine comedy and tragedy, fantasy and reality, and demonstrate an amazing command of the language of allegory.

The first tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin were published in 1869 in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. The rest were published between 1880 and 1886 in various publications. Some fairy tales were not published during Mikhail Evgrafovich’s lifetime due to strict censorship and were distributed illegally both in Russia and abroad. Also, one of the fairy tales, “The Bogatyr,” was published only in 1922, as it was lost in the archives. Due to censorship harassment, Saltykov-Shchedrin was unable to publish full cycle fairy tales Therefore, in the fall of 1886, a collection was published that contained only 23 fairy tales. A year later, an expanded collection was published, to which the writer added another work - “A Christmas Tale.”

Saltykov-Shchedrin turned to fairy tales for many reasons. The difficult political situation in Russia did not allow revealing all the contradictions of society and directly criticizing the existing order. Also, the fairy tale genre was close to the satirical writer. Fantasy, strong exaggeration, irony are common in fairy tales and are very characteristic of Saltykov-Shchedrin. He furiously ridicules slave psychology in his fairy tales. Shows such traits of the Russian people as long-suffering and disregard, tries to find the sources of these troubles and determine their limits, seeing them as the main tragedy time.

The satirist uses Russian folklore in his fairy tales, thanks to which the characters’ dialogues are very colorful, and a certain social type of character emerges. Shchedrin's works are united not only by genre, but also general topics, which connect the tales and give unity to the entire cycle.

According to their ideological content, Shchedrin’s tales can be divided into four themes:

satire on government and the exploiting classes;
showing the behavior of the philistine intelligentsia;
display of life common people in Russia;
denouncing the morality of owners and promoting new ideals and morality.

It is impossible to make a strict distinction between the themes of the writer’s fairy tales, and it is not required. The same fairy tale can touch on several topics at once. In most fairy tales, Mikhail Evgrafovich touches on the life of ordinary people, placing them in contrast to the elite strata of society.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing– 1869

History of creation– Unable to openly ridicule the vices of autocracy, Saltykov-Shchedrin resorted to allegorical literary form- a fairy tale.

Subject– In Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work “The Wild Landowner” the theme of the situation of serfs in the conditions of Tsarist Russia, the absurdity of the existence of a class of landowners who cannot and do not want to work independently.

Composition– The plot of the tale is based on a grotesque situation, behind which the real relations between the classes of landowners and serfs are hidden. Despite the small size of the work, the composition is created according to a standard plan: beginning, climax and denouement.

Genre- A satirical tale.

Direction- Epic.

History of creation

Mikhail Evgrafovich was always extremely sensitive to the plight of the peasants, forced to be in lifelong bondage to the landowners. Many of the writer’s works, which openly touched on this topic, were criticized and were not allowed to be published by censorship.

However, Saltykov-Shchedrin still found a way out of this situation by turning his attention to the outwardly quite harmless genre of fairy tales. Thanks to the skillful combination of fantasy and reality, the use of traditional folklore elements, metaphors, bright aphoristic language, the writer managed to disguise the evil and sharp ridicule of the landowners' vices under the guise of an ordinary fairy tale.

In an environment of government reaction, it was only thanks to fairy-tale fiction that one could express one’s views on the existing political system. The use of satirical techniques in a folk tale allowed the writer to significantly expand the circle of his readers and reach the masses.

The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” was first published in 1869 in the popular literary magazine"Domestic Notes". At that time, the magazine was headed by the writer’s close friend and like-minded person, Nikolai Nekrasov, and Saltykov-Shchedrin did not have any problems with the publication of the work.

Subject

Main theme The tale “The Wild Landowner” lies in social inequality, the huge gap between the two classes that existed in Russia: landowners and serfs. Enslavement of the common people difficult relationships between exploiters and exploited - main issue of this work.

In a fairytale-allegorical form, Saltykov-Shchedrin wanted to convey to readers a simple idea- it is the peasant who is the salt of the earth, and without him the landowner is just an empty place. Few of the landowners think about this, and therefore the attitude towards the peasant is contemptuous, demanding and often downright cruel. But only thanks to the peasant does the landowner get the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits that he has in abundance.

In his work, Mikhail Evgrafovich concludes that it is the people who are the drinker and breadwinner not only of their landowner, but of the entire state. The true stronghold of the state is not the class of helpless and lazy landowners, but exclusively the simple Russian people.

It is this thought that haunts the writer: he sincerely complains that the peasants are too patient, dark and downtrodden, and do not fully realize their full strength. He criticizes the irresponsibility and patience of the Russian people, who do nothing to improve their situation.

Composition

The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is a small work, which in “Notes of the Fatherland” took up only a few pages. It talks about a stupid master who endlessly pestered the peasants working for him because of the “slave smell.”

In the beginning works main character turned to God with a request to forever get rid of this dark and hateful environment. When the landowner's prayers for deliverance from the peasants were heard, he was left completely alone on his large estate.

Climax The tale fully reveals the master's helplessness without the peasants, who were the source of all blessings in his life. When they disappeared, the once polished gentleman quickly turned into a wild animal: he stopped washing himself, taking care of himself, and eating normal human food. The life of a landowner turned into a boring, unremarkable existence in which there was no place for joy and pleasure. This was the meaning of the title of the fairy tale - the reluctance to give up one’s own principles inevitably leads to “savagery” - civil, intellectual, political.

In denouement works, the landowner, completely impoverished and wild, completely loses his mind.

Main characters

Genre

From the first lines of “The Wild Landowner” it becomes clear that this fairy tale genre. But not good-naturedly didactic, but caustic and satirical, in which the author harshly ridiculed the main vices social order in Tsarist Russia.

In his work, Saltykov-Shchedrin managed to preserve the spirit and general style nationalities. He masterfully used such popular folklore elements as fairy-tale beginnings, fantasy, and hyperbole. However, he managed to tell about modern problems in society, describe events in Russia.

Thanks to fantastic, fairy-tale techniques, the writer was able to reveal all the vices of society. The work is an epic in its direction, in which real-life relations in society are grotesquely shown.

Outstanding achievement of the last decade creative activity Saltykov-Shchedrin’s book “Fairy Tales,” which includes thirty-two works. This is one of the brightest and most popular creations of the great satirist. With a few exceptions, fairy tales were created over four years (1883-1886), at the final stage creative path writer. The fairy tale is only one of the genres of Shchedrin’s creativity, but it is organically close artistic method satirical

For satire in general, and in particular for Shchedrin’s satire, the usual techniques are artistic exaggeration, fantasy, allegory, bringing together those accused social phenomena with phenomena of the animal world.

These techniques, associated with folk fairy tales, in their development led to the appearance in Shchedrin’s work of individual fairy tale episodes and “inserted” fairy tales within works, then to the first separate fairy tales and, finally, to the creation of a cycle of fairy tales. Writing a whole book of fairy tales in the first half of the 80s. This is explained, of course, not only by the fact that by this time the satirist had creatively mastered the fairy tale genre.

In an environment of government reaction, fairy-tale fiction to some extent served as a means of artistic camouflage for the most acute ideological and political intentions of the satirist.

Approaching the form of satirical works to a folk tale also opened the way for the writer to a wider readership. Therefore, for several years Shchedrin has been working enthusiastically on fairy tales. In this form, the most accessible to the masses and loved by them, he pours all the ideological and thematic richness of his satire and creates a kind of small satirical encyclopedia for the people.

In the complex ideological content of Saltykov-Shchedrin's tales, three main themes can be distinguished: satire on the government leaders of the autocracy and on the exploiting classes, a depiction of the life of the masses in Tsarist Russia, and an exposure of the behavior and psychology of the philistine-minded intelligentsia.

But, of course, it is impossible to draw a strict thematic distinction between Shchedrin’s tales and there is no need for this. Usually the same tale along with its own main theme affects others too. Thus, in almost every fairy tale, the writer touches on the life of the people, contrasting it with the life of the privileged strata of society.

“The Bear in the Voivodeship” stands out for its sharp satirical attack directly on the government leaders of the autocracy. The tale, mockingly ridiculing the tsar, ministers, and governors, is reminiscent of the theme of “The History of a City,” but this time the tsar’s dignitaries are transformed into fairy bears, rampant in the forest slums.

There are three Toptygins in the fairy tale. The first two marked their activities to pacify “internal enemies” with various kinds of atrocities. Toptygin 3rd differed from his predecessors, who longed for the “brilliance of bloodshed,” by his good-natured disposition. He limited his activities only to observing the “old established order” and was content with “natural” atrocities.

However, even under the leadership of Toptygin the 3rd, the forest never changed its former physiognomy. “Both day and night it thundered with millions of voices, some of which represented an agonizing cry, others a victorious cry.”

The cause of the people's misfortunes lies, therefore, not in the abuse of the principles of power, but in the very principle of the autocratic system. Salvation does not lie in replacing the evil Toptygins with good ones, but in eliminating them altogether, that is, in overthrowing the autocracy as anti-people and despotic state form. This is the main idea of the fairy tale.

In terms of the sharpness and boldness of its satire on the monarchy, next to “The Bear in the Voivodeship” can be placed the fairy tale “The Eagle Patron,” which exposes the activities of tsarism in the field of education. Unlike Toptygin, who dumped “the works of the human mind into a waste pit,” the eagle decided not to eradicate, but to establish the sciences and arts, to establish a “golden age” of enlightenment.

When creating an enlightened servant, the eagle defined its purpose as follows: “...she will comfort me, but I will keep her in fear. That's all". However, there was no complete obedience. Some of the servants dared to teach the eagle itself to read and write. He responded to this with massacre and pogrom. Soon there was no trace left of the recent “golden age”. The main idea of the fairy tale is expressed in the words: “eagles are harmful to enlightenment.”

The fairy tales “The Bear in the Voivodeship” and “The Eagle Patron,” aimed at higher administrative spheres, were not allowed for publication by censorship during the writer’s lifetime, but they were distributed in Russian and foreign illegal publications and played their revolutionary role.

With caustic sarcasm, Shchedrin attacked the representatives of mass predation - the nobility and bourgeoisie, who acted under the patronage of the ruling political elite and in alliance with it. They appear in fairy tales either in the usual social image of a landowner (“Wild Landowner”), a general (“The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals”), a merchant (“Faithful Trezor”), a kulak (“Neighbors”), or this is more often in the images of wolves, foxes, pikes, hawks, etc.

Saltykov, as V.I. Lenin noted, taught Russian society“to distinguish under the smoothed and pomaded appearance of the education of the feudal landowner his predatory interests...” This satirist’s ability to expose the “predatory interests” of the serf owners and arouse popular hatred towards them was clearly manifested already in Shchedrin’s first fairy tales - “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals” and “The Wild Landowner.”

Using the techniques of witty fairy-tale fiction, Shchedrin shows that the source of not only material well-being, but also the so-called noble culture is the work of a man.

What would have happened if the man had not been found? This is proven in the story of a wild landowner who expelled all the peasants from his estate. He became wild, overgrown with hair from head to toe, “walked more and more on all fours,” “he even lost the ability to utter articulate sounds.”

Along with the satirical denunciation of the privileged classes and estates, Saltykov-Shchedrin touches on the second main theme of the works of the fairy-tale cycle in the tale of two generals - the position of the people in an exploitative society. With bitter irony, the satirist depicted the slavish behavior of a peasant.

Among the abundance of fruits, game and fish, the worthless generals died on the island from hunger, since they could only get hold of partridge in a fried form. Wandering helplessly, they finally came across the sleeping “lounger” and forced him to work.

He was a huge man, a jack of all trades. He took apples from the tree, and got potatoes from the ground, and made a snare for catching hazel grouse from his own hair, and made a fire, and baked various provisions to feed the voracious parasites, and collected swan fluff so that they could sleep softly. Yes, this is a strong man! The generals could not resist his strength.

Meanwhile, he resignedly submitted to his enslavers. He gave them ten apples each, and took “one sour one” for himself. He himself made a rope so that the generals would keep him on a leash at night. Moreover, he was grateful to “the generals for the fact that they did not disdain his peasant labor.” It is difficult to imagine a more vivid depiction of the strength and weakness of the Russian peasantry in the era of autocracy.

The glaring contradiction between the enormous potential power and class passivity of the peasantry is presented on the pages of many other Shchedrin fairy tales. With bitterness and deep compassion, the writer reproduced pictures of poverty, downtroddenness, long-suffering, mass ruin of the peasantry, languishing under the triple yoke of officials, landowners and capitalists.

The democratic writer’s never-ending pain for the Russian peasant, all the bitterness of his thoughts about the fate of his people, home country concentrated within the narrow confines of the fairy tale “The Horse” and expressed themselves in exciting images and paintings filled with high poetry.

The tale depicts, on the one hand, the tragedy of the life of the Russian peasantry - this enormous but enslaved force, and on the other - the author’s sorrowful experiences associated with the unsuccessful search for an answer to the most important question: “Who will free this force from captivity? Who will bring her into the world?

The tale of Konyaga expresses the writer’s desire to raise the consciousness of the masses to the level of their historical calling, to arm them with courage, to awaken their enormous dormant forces for collective self-defense and active liberation struggle.

Saltykov-Shchedrin believed in the victory of the people, although the specific paths to this victory were not entirely clear to him as a peasant democrat-socialist. Until understanding historical role he did not reach the proletariat, he completed his literary activity on the eve of the proletarian stage of the liberation struggle.

A significant part of Shchedrin's tales is devoted to exposing the behavior and psychology of the intelligentsia, intimidated by government persecution and succumbing to shameful panic during the years of political reaction. Representatives of this category of people found a satirical reflection in the mirror of Shchedrin’s fairy tales in the images of the wise gudgeon, dried roach, selfless hare, sensible hare, Russian liberal.

A depiction of the pitiful fate of the fairy tale hero, distraught with fear, “ The wise minnow", who had walled himself up in a dark hole for life, the satirist publicly disgraced the average intellectual and expressed contempt for those who, submitting to the instinct of self-preservation, retreated from active social struggle into the narrow world of personal interests.

Similar in theme to “The Wise Piskar” is one of the most caustic satires on liberalism—the fairy tale “The Liberal.” The noble-minded liberal at first timidly asked the government for reforms “if possible,” then “at least something,” and ended up acting “in relation to meanness.” V.I. Lenin repeatedly used this famous Shchedrin fairy tale to characterize the evolution of bourgeois liberalism, which easily retreated from the “ideal” to “meanness,” that is, to reconciliation with reactionary politics.

Shchedrin always hated cowardly, corrupt liberals, all those people who hypocritically masked their pathetic social grievances in loud words. He felt no other feeling towards them other than open contempt. More complex was the satirist’s attitude towards those honest but misguided naive dreamers, of whom the title character is a representative. famous fairy tale"Crucian idealist."

As a sincere and selfless champion of social equality, the idealistic crucian carp acts as an exponent of the socialist ideals of Shchedrin himself and, in general, the advanced part of the Russian intelligentsia. But the naive faith of the crucian carp in the possibility of achieving social harmony through the mere moral re-education of predators dooms all his lofty dreams to inevitable failure. The ardent preacher of the desired future paid cruelly for his illusions: he was swallowed by a pike.

By mercilessly exposing the irreconcilability of class interests, exposing the harmfulness of liberal compromise with reaction, ridiculing the naive faith of simpletons in the awakening of the generosity of predators - all of this Shchedrin's tales objectively brought the reader to the realization of the necessity and inevitability of a social revolution.

The rich ideological content of Shchedrin's tales is expressed in a publicly accessible and vivid artistic form. “A fairy tale,” said N.V. Gogol, “can be a lofty creation when it serves as an allegorical garment, clothing a lofty spiritual truth, when it tangibly and visibly reveals even to a commoner a matter that is accessible only to a sage.” These are precisely Shchedrin’s tales. They are written in real vernacular- simple, concise and expressive.

Words and images for your own wonderful tales the satirist overheard in folk tales and legends, in proverbs and sayings, in the picturesque talk of the crowd, in all the poetic elements of the living folk language.

And yet, despite the abundance of folklore elements, Shchedrin’s tale, taken as a whole, is unlike folk tales; it does not repeat traditional folklore schemes either in composition or in plot. The satirist did not imitate folklore models, but freely created on the basis of them and in their spirit, creatively revealed and developed them deep meaning, took them from the people in order to return them to the people ideologically and artistically enriched.

Therefore, even in cases where topics or individual images Shchedrin's tales find their counterpart in previously known folklore stories, they are always distinguished by originality of interpretation traditional motifs, novelty ideological content and high artistic perfection. Here, as in the fairy tales of Pushkin and Andersen, the artist’s enriching influence on the genres of folk poetic literature is clearly manifested.

Based on the folklore, fairy tale and literary fable tradition, Shchedrin gave unsurpassed examples of laconicism in the artistic interpretation of complex social phenomena. In this regard, especially noteworthy are those fairy tales in which representatives of the zoological world act.

Images of the animal kingdom have long been inherent in fables and satirical tale about animals, which was, as a rule, the work of the lower social classes.

Under the guise of a story about animals, the people gained some freedom to attack their oppressors and the opportunity to speak in an intelligible, funny, witty manner about serious things. This popular form artistic storytelling found wide application in Shchedrin's tales.

Masterful embodiment of the accused social types In the images of animals, Shchedrin achieved a bright satirical effect. The very fact of likening representatives of the ruling classes and the ruling caste of the autocracy beasts of prey the satirist declared his deepest contempt for them.

The meaning of Shchedrin’s allegories is easily understood both from the figurative paintings themselves, corresponding to the poetic structure folk tales, and due to the fact that the satirist often accompanies his allegories with direct hints at their hidden meaning, he switches the narrative from the fantastic to the realistic, from the zoological to the human sphere.

“The crow is a fertile bird and agrees to everything. Mainly, she is good because the class of “men” is represented by a craftswoman” (“Eagle the Patron”).

Toptygin ate the little siskin. “It’s the same as if someone drove a poor tiny high school student to suicide through pedagogical measures...” (“Bear in Voivodeship”). From this one hint it became clear to the thinking reader that we're talking about about administrative police persecution of advanced students.

The satirist was inventive and witty in choosing the images of animals and in distributing among them the roles that they had to play in small social comedies and tragedies.

In the “menagerie” presented in Shchedrin’s fairy tales, hares study “statistical tables published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs” and write correspondence to newspapers; bears go on business trips, receive money for travel and strive to get into the “tablets of history”; the birds are talking about the capitalist railway worker Guboshlepov; Pisces talk about the constitution and even debate about socialism.

But this is precisely the poetic charm and irresistible artistic persuasiveness of Shchedrin’s tales, that no matter how the satirist “humanizes” his zoological pictures, no matter how complex social roles no matter what he entrusted to his “tailed” heroes, the latter always retain their basic natural properties.

History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.

“Saltykov-Shchedrin fairy tales” - Here Saltykov-Shchedrin became seriously interested in literature. “The story of how one man fed two generals.” "Eagle Patron". Some plans (at least six fairy tales) remained unrealized. 6. If Gogol’s is “laughter through tears,” then how can one define Shchedrin’s? Genre originality. In terms of genre, the fairy tales of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin are similar to Russian folk tales.

“Gentlemen Golovlevs” - -What is it! Saltykov-Shchedrin "Lord Golovlevs". "Niece." Pavel Vladimirovich and Vladimir Mikhailovich die. Stepan dies. Volodya's suicide. Ideological and thematic content of the novel. "In a kindred way." "Family Court" Suicide of Lyubinka Death of Judas. Judas' binge of idle thinking. Depth and breadth of concept.

“Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin” - 4. Mother, Olga Mikhailovna Zabelina. Education of young Saltykov. In our family, it was not so much stinginess that reigned, but some kind of stubborn hoarding.” 2. Daughter of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Son of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Father, Evgraf Vasilyevich Saltykov. She appeared angry, unforgiving, with a bitten lower lip, decisive on hand, angry.”

“The history of a city, a lesson” - The writer’s works are still relevant today. Checking your understanding difficult words and expressions. What is “The Story of a City” in terms of genre? Brief retelling Chapters “On the Roots of the Origin of the Foolovites.” How can you explain the names of the peoples listed by the writer? (Literature lesson for 8th grade).

“Works of Shchedrin” - Cruel and merciless laughter in “The History of a City” has a cleansing meaning. The language of Shchedrin's tales is deeply folk, close to Russian folklore. Saltykov-Shchedrin. At the end of the 60s. No. The images of Foolov's inhabitants are also fantastic. Shchedrin's fairy-tale genre flourished in the 1980s.

“Lesson of Saltykov-Shchedrin” - 1869 – 1886. . As a result, no writer was subjected to such persecution as Saltykov-Shchedrin. Purpose of the lesson: Features: Fantasy, reality + tragic, grotesque, hyperbole, Aesopian language. Cover of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s book “The History of a City.” Saltykov-Shchedrin. Evgrafovich. Satire writer-satirist hyperbole grotesque “Aesopian language.”

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A brief analysis of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”: idea, problems, themes, image of the people

The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” was published by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in 1869. This work is a satire on the Russian landowner and the ordinary Russian people. In order to bypass censorship, the writer chose a specific genre, “fairy tale,” within which a deliberate fable is described. In the work, the author does not give his characters names, as if hinting that the landowner is collective image all landowners in Rus' in the 19th century. And Senka and the rest of the men are typical representatives of the peasant class. The theme of the work is simple: the superiority of the hardworking and patient people over the mediocre and stupid nobles, expressed in an allegorical manner.

Problems, features and meaning of the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”

Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tales are always distinguished by simplicity, irony and artistic details, using which the author can absolutely accurately convey the character of the character “And there was that stupid landowner, he read the newspaper “Vest” and his body was soft, white and crumbly”, “he lived and looked at the light rejoiced."

The main problem in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is the problem difficult fate people. The landowner in the work appears as a cruel and ruthless tyrant who intends to take away the last thing from his peasants. But after hearing the prayers of the peasants for better life and the landowner's desire to get rid of them forever, God grants their prayers. They stop bothering the landowner, and the “men” get rid of oppression. The author shows that in the world of the landowner, the peasants were the creators of all goods. When they disappeared, he himself turned into an animal, grew overgrown, and stopped eating normal food, since all the food disappeared from the market. With the disappearance of the men, the bright one left, rich life, the world has become uninteresting, dull, tasteless. Even the entertainment that previously brought pleasure to the landowner - playing pulque or watching a play in the theater - no longer seemed so tempting. The world is empty without the peasantry. Thus, in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” the meaning is quite real: the upper strata of society oppress and trample the lower ones, but at the same time cannot remain at their illusory heights without them, since it is the “slaves” who provide for the country, but their master is nothing but problems, we are unable to provide.

The image of the people in the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin

The people in the work of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin are hardworking people in whose hands any business “argues.” It was thanks to them that the landowner always lived in abundance. The people appear before us not just as a weak-willed and reckless mass, but as smart and insightful people: “The men see: although their landowner is stupid, he has been given a great mind.” Peasants are also endowed with such an important quality as a sense of justice. They refused to live under the yoke of a landowner who imposed unfair and sometimes insane restrictions on them, and asked God for help.

The author himself treats the people with respect. This can be seen in the contrast between how the landowner lived after the disappearance of the peasantry and during his return: “And suddenly again there was a smell of chaff and sheepskins in that district; but at the same time, flour, meat, and all kinds of livestock appeared at the market, and so many taxes arrived in one day that the treasurer, seeing such a pile of money, just clasped his hands in surprise...”, it can be argued that the people are driving force society, the foundation on which the existence of such “landowners” is based, and they, of course, owe their well-being to the simple Russian peasant. This is the meaning of the ending of the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”.

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