Relations between the people and the state in the novel “Peter the Great. Genre and compositional features of the novel “Peter the Great”. A. Tolstoy
"Peter the Great" is a historical novel. The genre specificity of a historical novel is predetermined by the time distance between the moment of creation of the work and the one to which the author addresses. Unlike a novel about modernity, addressed to realities today, to the study of emerging conflicts, emerging characters and literary types, the historical novel is fundamentally addressed to previous eras. This is the specificity of the position of a historical novelist: unlike a writer who recreates modernity, he knows how the conflicts described by him were resolved in a real historical retrospective, how the fate of the people who became specific historical prototypes of his heroes developed.
However, the presence of temporal distance and a fundamental focus on the past do not at all deprive the historical novelist of interest in the present. On the contrary, most often interest in the past is dictated by the need to read in it the answers to the questions of today, to find analogies, parallels between the logic of two historical moments, connected by the temporal distance of a historical novel. Thus, one or another interpretation historical events is not completely “disinterested”, but is rather subordinated to the need to understand the present and the desire to look into the future.
Alexei Tolstoy, with his historical novel “Peter the Great,” which we will analyze, compares two eras of Russian life, in which he finds common impulses, common conflicts, and a common national-historical pathos: this is the turn of the 17th-18th centuries and the 30s of the 20th century. The writer himself spoke about the coincidence of the historical pathos of both eras: “Despite the difference in goals,” he wrote, “the era of Peter and our era resonate precisely with some kind of riot of forces, explosions of human energy and will aimed at liberation from foreign dependence.”
This coincidence, which Tolstoy thought of as programmatic at the time of creating the novel, predetermines both the artistic concept of the work and the concept of the personality of its main character.
In order to show this, it is necessary to turn to the central conflict of the historical novel. The ideological and plot-compositional structure of the work is formed by the conflict between Peter, with his desire for renewal, reform of Russia, with the need to direct the country along the Western path of economic, scientific and technical, cultural development, and the historical intractability of the Russian people, the force ancient tradition, the resistance of the boyars, in a word, everything that is perceived by the author and hero as inertia, the age-old sleep of the people and the authorities. The qualities of his personality help Peter win this conflict: determination, the ability to exert enormous willpower, uncompromisingness, and the ability to go to the end. Its goal is to speed up the passage of historical time, which may enable Russia to catch up with what it lost during its centuries-long sleep. Peter literally “grabs Fortuna by the hair” and forcibly forces her to turn to face him. Victory is achieved by the incredible willpower of the king and his associates.
This historical perception of the world characterizes not only the Petrine era, it turns out to be in highest degree in tune with the 30s, Tolstoy's time. Creating the novel “Peter the Great,” he correlated Peter’s transformations with Stalin’s, finding much in common in them. First of all, this commonality lay in the scale of the truly global achievements of the two eras and the incredible expenditure of people’s energy, strength, and lives that these transformations required. Neither in one nor in another era did they think about the cost of historical achievements that were capable of making Russia the strongest and most militarily powerful power in Europe. To achieve their goals, both historical eras chose strong, rigid centralized power. Peter, depicted in Tolstoy’s novel, who does not take into account human waste and achieves his goals with incredible willpower, seemed to sanction the actions of Tolstoy’s contemporary government, justifying the monstrous waste of people’s resources released by collectivization and aimed at industrializing the country.
The image of Peter in Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great”
In order to understand the personality of Peter the Great, as it is presented in Tolstoy’s novel, one must remember that in the second half of the 20s - 30s the concept heroic personality, characteristic of the literature of socialist realism. It affirms an exceptional, sacrificial personality, capable of self-restraint, renunciation of natural human needs, and complete subordination of oneself to work and duty. It is this type of heroic personality that is affirmed by N. Ostrovsky’s novel “How the Steel Was Tempered” (the image of Pavel Korchagin), and A. Fadeev’s novel “Destruction” (the image of Levinson). In both cases, the hero discovers the ability to overcome natural human weakness, to rule over your body (Levinson), because strength of spirit makes it possible to overcome weakness, rise above illness, and remain in service, even when bedridden (Korchagin). The hero, faced with illness, feeling physical weakness, strengthens spiritually, overcomes the contradictions of his own consciousness, and gains inner integrity.
Tolstoy also makes his contribution to the formation of a general literary concept of personality, creating the image of Peter in the novel “Peter the First”. However, the contradictions he has to face are of a slightly different nature. Possessing remarkable physical strength and health, Peter does not know what illness is, and the heroic beginning of his character does not manifest itself in the fight against it. His heroism lies in his ability to shoulder the entire burden of responsibility for reforming the country, discarding natural human weakness, timidity, and doubt.
The heroic concept of personality, which developed in the literature of the 30s, affirmed an active person, capable of overcoming doubts and reflection and entering into direct interaction with reality in order to transform it in accordance with accepted plans. In creating just such a character, Tolstoy resorts to the technique of antithesis. In the system of characters in the novel, Peter and Prince Vasily Golitsyn, Sophia’s favorite, who held all the levers in his hands throughout her reign, are contrasted state power. A literate, thoughtful, European-educated man, he is well aware of the historical need to reform Russian life. For several years he has been drawing up his “projects” - plans for socio-political government reforms, which are undoubtedly progressive in nature and go further than Peter’s reforms. One of the points of his “projects” even included the liberation of peasants from serfdom. However, things did not go further than “projects” and notes: Golitsyn’s plans, according to the purely Russian tradition, remained on paper. Peter is the one who acts, which is why he wins the struggle with Sophia for power. Action, emotional and impulsive, often thoughtless, whether we are talking about public policy or relationships with the closest and most devoted people, becomes the main dominant character of the character created by Tolstoy. He can beat Aleksashka Menshikov, elbow Lefort in the nose, obeying outbursts of anger or equally unexpected surges of generosity, execute and pardon. But this is precisely a man of active action, which, on the one hand, ensures the success of all his state plans, on the other, forms the main contradiction in his character.
Tolstoy sees the most important contradiction in the character of his hero in the fact that Peter is fighting the historical backwardness of Russia (as he understands the state of his country at that time) with barbaric means, monstrous cruelty and violence, suppressing resistance and forcing the people to rise to historical achievements with a whip, batogs, and rack and the gallows.
Thus, the main contradiction in the image of Peter is the contradiction between a good and historically justified goal and the ways and means of achieving it.
The author's position is expressed in the fact that the highest criterion for assessing the activities of the tsar is the perception of his policies by the people. If Peter succeeds, having broken the boyar resistance and suppressed the Moscow Streltsy riots, to enlist the support of people from the people, breaking the existing patriarchal social hierarchy, then such support will be the highest and absolute proof of the historical promise of Peter's reforms.
The system of characters in Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great”
The study of this issue determines the system of characters in the novel. It is structured in such a way as to evaluate the actions of Peter from various social and cultural points of view. These points of view are formed both by people from the people who are able to most accurately and concentratedly express the general perception of what is happening, and by the boyars, and by schismatics, and by people from foreign embassies.
The system of characters in the novel “Peter the Great” is built according to the “heliocentric” principle: in the center is the image of the main character, after whom the novel is named, the remaining characters are important insofar as they are close to him, express one or another point of view on Peter or attitude towards historical processes predetermined by his policies. The system of characters includes several groups, each of which is united by a common attitude towards the personality of Peter and his reforms. Traditionally for the genre of historical novel, the combination of real historical characters with fictional ones.
The fate of the Brovkin family, fictional characters, reflects a typical phenomenon of Peter the Great's time: people promoted from among the people occupy important government positions. Ivashka Brovkin, as his neighbors called him, an enslaved backyard peasant, turns into Ivan Artemyevich, a wealthy merchant, supplier to the court of His Imperial Majesty, who is entrusted with the supply of ammunition to the army of the new Russia.
The language of the novel “Peter the Great”
Is it possible to narrate events from a fairly distant history in modern language? Wouldn't the historical material come into some kind of comic contradiction if told about it in modern language? Or write a novel in the language of that era, in Russian late XVII century? But will it then be understandable to the modern reader? In addition, in the Peter the Great era, the tradition of the literary language had not yet been formed: the times of classicism, Fonvizin, Derzhavin, Sumarokov, Lomonosov, the Pushkin era, which created the Russian literary language, are still ahead.
Tolstoy solves this problem in a different way: he stylizes his narrative in the language of the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, creating in the linguistic element of his novel the illusion of the reader’s immersion in that era. The sharp turn carried out by Peter in the sphere of domestic and foreign state policy led to a radical change in the entire national life. The era of Peter is an era of fundamental changes, which could not but be reflected in the speech sphere. Language reflects the times better than any chronicler or historian. In the speech element of Tolstoy’s novel, words and lexical groups collide, mixing and coexisting, the meeting of which in another era would simply be impossible: this is Old Slavonic vocabulary belonging to previous, patriarchal forms of life; and many borrowings from European languages, German and Dutch primarily; and vernaculars, which always characterize the speech picture of the language at turning points in national life. Thus, by stylistic means, Tolstoy manages to show time and capture a turning point era that combined different cultural layers, mixed historical traditions, which included Byzantium and Europe.
The tragic and the originality of the comic
The Peter the Great era, like any turning point, inevitably combines fragments of the past and signs of the future that have not always been realized. Such a combination is always fraught with contradictions, which can turn either comic or tragic. Russia, turned by the iron hand of Peter onto a new path of development, is mastering new forms of historical existence, building a fleet, creating a regular army, pouring cannons, but at the same time suffering huge human losses. Tolstoy does not turn a blind eye to this; on the contrary, he introduces into the novel clearly audible voices coming from the rack or from under the whip, groans of horror and pain heard from the smoky huts of the torture investigation, where Prince Caesar Romodanovsky and Peter himself are in charge. The departure of old, Byzantine, patriarchal Rus' cannot but be painted in tragic tones. Refer to the last chapters of the first volume, to the descriptions of the Streltsy investigation and mass Streltsy executions. Show what is the essence of the tragic in historical events, reproduced with almost documentary accuracy by the writer.
The death of any significant phenomenon always carries with it a tragic beginning, even if its historical exhaustion is obvious. The tragic lies in the inevitable losses, in the farewell to the tradition created by previous generations. The tragic thing in the novel “Peter the Great” is that Orthodox Byzantine Rus', against which Peter raised his hand, finds many defenders who are ready to sacrifice themselves, rebelling in rebellion in order to elevate Sophia to the throne, even under terrible torture, not naming the instigators: “Sagittarius they only admitted guilt in armed rebellion, but not in plans... In this mortal stubbornness, Peter felt all the power of anger against him... "Before this stubbornness, the king really turns out to be powerless. Suspecting treason everywhere, arranging torture and executions, the tsar can physically destroy his opponents, but cannot make them repent, win them over to his side, or convince them of the promise of their chosen path. Showing the tragic sides of a turning point, Tolstoy cites historical documents: the diary of one of the foreign diplomats who witnessed the massacres of the Streltsy: “I was told that the tsar on that day complained to General Gordon about the stubbornness of the Streltsy, even under the ax they did not want to admit their guilt. Indeed, Russians are extremely stubborn.” How is the courage and uncompromisingness of the people who stood up to defend the old order shown? How do those sentenced to death behave? How do they express their disdain for the king? Contempt for executioners? The tragic does not simply consist in the depiction of mass torture and execution; it is expressed in the position of those executed, who by their death affirm the national ideals of patriarchal Rus'.
However, Tolstoy, without closing his eyes to the tragic nature of the turning point, shows the transient nature of the tragic. To do this, he translates the same historical contradiction, which has just turned tragic, into a comic channel. The approval of a new historical way of life results not only in the execution of defenders of patriarchal life, but also... in the cutting of boyar beards. Read the 18th part of the seventh chapter of the first volume. How do the boyars behave when they hear that the sovereign is cheerful? How do they react when they see that the royal large, newly decorated chamber has been turned into a barber shop? How do they feel when they see “at the feet of Peter two godless Karls, Tomos and Seka, with sheep shears”? Show what is comic about this scene.
An inexhaustible source of comedy in the novel is the collision of elements of the old way of life with the new. Prince Buynosov, having difficulty surviving the invasion of elements of a new life into his everyday life, dreams of giving up “coffee”, doing it in such a way as not to ruin himself in the eyes of his daughters, “meticulous to the point of politeness”, which does not fit into the usual household skills. The arrival of noblewoman Volkova, forcing the prince to interrupt the meal, during which, however, there was no garlic, “no cabbage with lingonberries on the table, no chopped salted saffron milk caps, with onions,” but only “a small pie, the devil with what,” suggests him to very sad thoughts: “Reluctantly, Roman Borisovich got out from behind the table - to gallant the guest: shake his hat in front of him, kick his legs.”
Tolstoy in the novel “Peter the Great,” which we analyzed, shows a positive version of the interaction between personality and historical time. Requiring complete dedication from the protagonist and his associates and like-minded people, this interaction turns out to be a benefit for the state and fills the lives of people who are able to see and feel the global historical perspectives of Russia with true meaning.
Shakhbulatov Rajab Saitasanovich, Student – National Philology, Chechen languages literature, Russian languages literature. Chechen State University. Grozny.
Serdyukova Elena Fedorovna,
Art. Lecturer at the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology of the Chechen State University; trainer, psychological consultant, Grozny [email protected]
Genre and compositional features of the novel “Peter the Great” by A. Tolstoy
Abstract. This article was written during the research of the novel “Peter the Great”. In many ways, this work and article are aimed at identifying genre and compositional features. “A historical novel cannot be written in the form of a chronicle, in the form of history... What is needed first of all, as in any artistic canvas, is the composition, the architectonics of the work. What is composition? This is, first of all, the establishment of a center, the center of the artist’s vision... In my novel, the center is the figure of Peter I.” Key words: historical novel about the era of Peter, composition and plot of the novel.
INTRODUCTIONRelevance. Alexey Tolstoy is one of the greatest Soviet writers, a wonderful master of words, the creator of a number of well-known books in our country and abroad. literary works. His extensive creativity, in which they found their embodiment best traditions Russian classical literature is a valuable contribution to the literature of socialist realism. A. Tolstoy’s artistic talent was exceptionally bright and versatile. The writer distinguished himself as a prose writer and as a poet, as a publicist and as a playwright. He created stories, tales, novels, poems, fairy tales, plays, film scripts, essays, journalistic and critical articles. With equal interest and liveliness, he painted the present, the events of the recent civil war, and the distant past of our people. The action of his works unfolds either in the context of Russian life or abroad. The palette of A. Tolstoy, the artist, was so rich, his creative range was so wide that, it seemed, nothing was impossible for him in the creative development of the most diverse themes. By his very perception of the world, A. Tolstoy was an artist of life, a realist writer, acutely sensitive to all colors and her smells. Always gravitating toward the concrete, visible, and visually imaginable, Tolstoy as an artist stubbornly eschewed all kinds of artificial abstractions in literature, far-fetched decadent tricks and conventions. According to A. Tolstoy, true art “should smell like flesh,” the artist must be able to “stick his hands up to the elbows in the dough of life.” With the keen eye of a true artist and painter, with the amazing mastery of the literary form, Alexey Tolstoy was able to combine the formulation of large, deep socio-philosophical problems, living topical issues of our time. The best creations A. Tolstoy - his trilogy “Walking through Torment” and the monumental historical novel “Peter the Great” - are characterized by the exceptional richness and depth of their ideological content. The research material is A. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great”, published for the first time in 1930-1934.
The object is the novel “Peter the First” by A. Tolstoy. The subject is genre and compositional features using the example of the novel “Peter the First” by A. Tolstoy. The goal of the work is to determine the genre and compositional features of the novel “Peter the First” by A. Tolstoy. To achieve this goal, the following tasks are formulated: consider the work of A.N. Tolstoy; study the genre organization of the novel "Peter the Great"; study the compositional organization of the novel "Peter the Great";
analyze the figurative structure of the novel "Peter the Great"; identify and describe the author's picture of the world of the novel. The purpose and objectives determined the choice of research methods; a comparative method is used, which provides the opportunity to study genre specificity, a systematic method that allows us to identify ideological and artistic unity, a stylistic analysis of the work.
Main partPeter's personality and his era excited the imagination of writers, artists, and composers of many generations. From Lomonosov to the present day, the theme of Peter has not left the pages of fiction. It was addressed by Pushkin, Nekrasov, L. Tolstoy, Blok and others. Before moving on to the topic of Peter in the works of A. N. Tolstoy, let us briefly dwell on the image of Peter and his era in Russian literature, in particular in the works of A. S. Pushkin and L.N. Tolstoy. Pushkin carefully studied the history of Peter, worked in the archives, compiled interesting notes, but he failed to complete his work. The poet's correct understanding of history helped him to see deep contradictions in the great transformer, whose image he captured in his poems and verses. Thus, he writes in the notes of “The History of Peter”: “The difference between the state institutions of Peter the Great and his temporary decrees is worthy of surprise. The first are the fruits of an extensive mind, full of goodwill and wisdom, the second are often cruel, capricious and, it seems, written with a whip. The first were for eternity, or at least for the future; the second were wrested from an impatient, autocratic landowner.”1 Already in the poem " Bronze Horseman"The poet showed the other side of Peter's progressive activity. But in Pushkin this is hinted at, and in the novel by Alexei Tolstoy, who followed Pushkin’s tradition in the depiction of Peter, it is developed, as D. D. Blagoy rightly notes, on “real historical material. The novel gives us a clear idea of the two sides of Peter’s activity that Pushkin guessed about in his unpublished notes about the tsar.” Leo Tolstoy collected material for several years to create a novel about Peter and his era, but he never wrote it, although I did it whole line preliminary notes. Tolstoyne was able to write it because this era, as he said, “is too remote from us.” But the real reasons were apparently different. As researchers point out (B. Eikhenbaum, A. Alpatov, L. Polyak), the novel from the era of Peter was not written, probably because the very personality of the king 1 Serov S. A. Tolstoy and Russian history // Tolstoy A. N. Peter First. M: Fiction, 1990.P. 12. the transformer, actively influencing the course of historical events, came into conflict with Tolstoy’s concept of historical fatalism, his understanding of the role of the individual in history. For over twenty years, Alexei Tolstoy was also worried about the theme of Peter. The story “The Day of Peter” was written in 1917, last chapters his historical novel “Peter the Great” - in 1945. A. N. Tolstoy was not immediately able to deeply, truthfully and comprehensively draw the Peter’s era, to understand the progressive nature of Peter’s transformations.2 “I have been aiming at Peter for a long time, since the beginning of the February revolution,” wrote A. . N. Tolstoy. “I saw all the stains on his camisole, but Peter still stuck out as a mystery in the historical fog.” This is evidenced by his story “The Day of Peter” and the tragedy “On the Rack” (1928), which I recommend getting acquainted with. A comparison of the story “The Day of Peter” and the tragedy “On the Rack” with the novel “Peter the Great” clearly shows how Marxist-Leninist philosophy was important for Tolstoy’s ideological and artistic growth. historical science, helping to correctly reveal the driving forces historical process, the personality of Peter. It is characteristic that A. N. Tolstoy turned to the Peter the Great era in 1917. In the distant past, he tried to find answers to the questions that tormented him about the fate of his homeland and people. Why did the writer turn to this era? Peter's era - a time of transformative reforms, a radical break in patriarchal Rus' - was perceived by him as something reminiscent of 1917. How does Tolstoy depict Peter and the Petrine era in the story “The Day of Peter”? Peter is shown in the context of everyday affairs and worries, the writer makes one feel the scale of his activities, his colossal will, tireless energy aimed at transforming the state. But is these transformations necessary for Russia? Is this whole turnaround, a radical restructuring of the country, necessary - this is the thought that runs through the entire story. Denying the expediency of sharp changes in the development of the country, Tolstoy in 1917 could not answer this question positively and could not show the pattern of Peter the Great's transformations. Moreover, he asserted throughout the course of his story and in the author’s digressions the futility of Peter’s measures, the impossibility of sharply turning a slowly moving, independent human will the course of history. Therefore, the country did not become what Tsar Peter wanted it to be: “...Russia did not enter the feast of the great powers, smart and strong. And pulled up by his stripes, bloodied and maddened with horror and despair, she appeared to her new relatives in a pitiful and unequal form - a slave.” According to the author, the entire turnaround that took place in Russia was caused by Peter’s personal will alone. The entire Russian land, all classes, all estates were against Peter’s reforms; he alone rebelled against the entire country: “...sitting in wastelands and swamps, with his terrible will he strengthened the state, rebuilt the land.” Tolstoy gloomily, tragically depicts the contradictions of the era, shows cruelty, harsh methods of implementing reforms. Tolstoy’s interpretation of the image of Peter is close to the interpretation of the Slavophiles, symbolists, who saw in Peter the destroyer of national foundations, the familiar, centuries-old way of Russian life. He is presented in the story as a cruel, proud man; there is even something mystical in the description of Peter’s black eyes, “as if burning with madness,” his soul is “greedy, dashing, hungry.” He is lonely and scary. Tolstoy deliberately reduces the image of Peter. 2Alpatov A.V. The works of A.N. Tolstoy. M: Uchpedgiz, 1956. P. 120; Andreev Yu. A. Once again about “Peter the Great” // Russian literature, 1958, No. 2. P. 123.
A certain creative concept of the author finds expression in artistic form. A comparison of excerpts from the story “The Day of Peter” and the novel “Peter the Great,” dedicated to the depiction of St. Petersburg under construction, makes it possible to verify this. Let’s analyze the excerpts and try to understand what is common in the depiction of the construction of St. Petersburg in the story and the novel, how the descriptions differ, how it manifests itself in them the author's position.
"Peter's Day"
A damp wind drove a strong fog from the sea... blew away rotten straw from huts and cages, howled in the cold chimneys... many houses were empty at that time, because the people were dying to the last degree from ulcers, fogs and hunger. Life was rough and cheerless in St. Petersburg. The swollen river beat into the log embankments; ...snow and slanting rain splashed whole lakes on the squares and streets... In the black fire of the Gostiny Dvor that burned out last Thursday... four gallows stuck out... In the mud, in the yellow fog... new barns, long barracks appeared every day , hospitals, private houses of resettled boyars. The royal city was built on the edge of the earth, in the swamps, right next to the land. Who needed him, for what new torment it was necessary to sweat and blood and die in thousands - the people did not know. (pp. 81-82).
"Peter the First"
Through bloody efforts, the passage from Ladoga to the open sea was opened. Countless obovs, crowds of workers and convicts came from the east... Huts and dugouts stood on the shore, fires were smoking, axes were knocking, saws were screeching. Here, to the ends of the earth, working people walked and walked without returning.... The open sea was just a stone's throw away from here. The wind covered it with cheerful ripples... There was not enough bread. There was no supply from devastated Ingria, where the plague began... Peter wrote to the prince-caesar, asking him to send more people, “they are very sick here, and many have died” (end of the second volume)... A desirable, beloved place was here. It’s good, of course, on the Azov Sea, whitish and warm, obtained with great difficulty, it’s good on the White Sea:..., but they are not equal to the Baltic Sea - a wide road to wonderful cities, to rich countries... Here the heart beats in a special way, and thoughts open their wings, and their strength doubles... The wind tears the flag on the fortress bastion, piles protrude from the muddy banks, people walk everywhere in their labors and worries, and the city already stands like a city, not yet great, but already in full ordinariness. The considered excerpts from the story “The Day of Peter” and the novel “Peter the First” are devoted to one topic - the construction of St. Petersburg. Both in the story and in the novel, Tolstoy depicts the hard labor of the people, poverty, hunger, countless diseases that decimated the working people who were building a city on the edge of the earth. Nevertheless, the impression from the two passages is different. In the story “The Day of Peter”, Tolstoy sought to show Peter the Great as a willful landowner who wants to change life home country. “Yes, that’s it,” he writes below, “did Tsar Peter want the good of Russia? What was Russia to him, the tsar, the owner, who was inflamed with vexation and jealousy: how is it that his yard and cattle, farm laborers and the entire household are worse, more stupid than the neighbor’s?” 3. And the city of Petersburg is a “royal” city, created at his whim, a city not needed by Russia, - this is Tolstoy’s thought, which finds its expression in the selection of certain vocabulary that creates gloomy picture Petersburg under construction. The tone of excerpts from the novel “Peter the Great” is life-affirming and optimistic. Showing the difficult living conditions of workers, many of whom “died” from hard labor and hunger, revealing the social contradictions of the Petrine era, Tolstoy, with the entire tone of the narrative, emphasizes the historical need for the construction of the city of St. Petersburg, from which the Baltic Sea is “at your fingertips.” This place is desired, beloved, because it opens up Russia ample opportunities trade with the West, the road to “wonderful cities, rich countries.” The negative attitude towards Peter and his transformative activities was connected, as is fair; say the researchers, with rejection and misunderstanding. A. N. Tolstoy in the 1917 October Revolution. One of the best works of Soviet literature on historical topic A. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great” became “excellent,” according to A. M. Gorky. The beginning of work on this novel coincides, as we know, with events of great historical significance in the life of our country. 1929 is the year of the great turning point. A decisive offensive is being launched against the capitalist elements of town and countryside. In the 1930s, new cities, factories, and power plants were built on once empty places. The appearance of the village is changing. The powerful labor upsurge in the country, the pathos of the socialist restructuring of town and countryside, and the flourishing of culture could not but influence Tolstoy4. It was during these years that Tolstoy again turned to the depiction of the Peter the Great era. He feels the roll call of the distant time of Peter the Great, “when it cracks and collapses old world", with our time, feels a certain consonance between these two eras, which he writes about in one of his notes: "... despite the difference in goals, the era of Peter and our era resonate precisely with some riot of forces, explosions of human energy and will, aimed at liberation from foreign dependence.” The main focus of the work on the novel was the study of the works of the classics of Marxism, the assessment in these works of the activities of Peter and his era. Peter ceased to be for the artist “a mystery in the historical fog.” Marxism, as the artist himself testified, enriched his art, Marxist knowledge of history gave him “purposefulness and method in reading the book of life.” Marxist-Leninist historical science, socialist reality, which illuminated the past in a new way, helped the writer understand the pattern and historical inevitability of the abrupt breakdown of the old way of Russia at the beginning of the 18th century, the progressive nature of Peter’s reforms and their class limitations. “Work on “Peter,” Tolstoy himself wrote, “is, first of all, an entry into history through modernity, perceived Marxistically. First of all, processing your artistic feeling. The result is that history began to reveal untapped riches. Under the superimposed grid of Marxist analysis 3Andreev Yu. A. Once again about “Peter the Great” // Russian literature, 1958, No. 2. P. 109,121.4 Baranov V. I. From the creative history of A. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great” // Philological Sciences, 1983, No. 1. P. 4. history came to life in all its living diversity, in all the dialectical laws of the class struggle.”
CONCLUSION
A. Tolstoy’s thoughts turned especially persistently to the knowledge and revelation of the great historical destinies of our homeland. The theme of the homeland and revolution, the depiction of the heroic struggle of the Russian people for their future, the disclosure of the remarkable properties of the Russian national character, the best and most sincere pages of his works are devoted to the process of its formation. The writer saw the origins of the formation of the character of our people in its distant historical past. He understood at the same time how immeasurably our people had grown and transformed, enriched by the experience of the socialist revolution. He wrote with admiration about Soviet people, who amazed the whole world with their heroism, the strength of resistance discovered in the context of the recent struggle against fascism. Speaking with vivid journalistic articles, A. Tolstoy found the most ardent and heartfelt words to express his feelings of love for his homeland and devotion to it. The patriotic writer A. Tolstoy was proud of Russian literature, which had won world fame. He loved Russian folklore, admired the beautiful and expressive language. In his very work on the word, A. Tolstoy discovered an amazing ability to deeply penetrate into the riches of folk Russian speech. A. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great” was called by A. M. Gorky “the first real historical novel in our literature,” “a book for a long time.” " Gorky called this book a real historical novel, what significance does Marxist-Leninist historical science have for a writer reproducing the events of a bygone era, how does it help Soviet artist figure it out driving forces historical process, in the contradictions of the depicted era. Reflecting one of the most interesting eras in the development of Russia - the era of the radical breakdown of patriarchal Russia and the struggle of the Russian people for their independence, A. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great” will always attract readers with its patriotism, extraordinary freshness and high artistic skill. This novel has great educational value, because it introduces us to the life of Russia at the end of the 17th - early XVIII century, depicts the struggle of the new, young Russia, striving for progress, with the old, patriarchal Russia, clinging to the antiquity, asserts the invincibility of the new. "Peter the Great" is huge historical painting, big picture morals, but first of all, this is, according to A.S. Serafimovich, a book about Russian character. Tolstoy’s novel is an outstanding work of art, and this obliges us to open it aesthetic value, to show the writer’s high skill in depicting vivid pictures of life and customs of the era of Peter the Great, in creating living images, in the ability to reproduce the originality and color of the language of the early 18th century. Studying the “juicy, musical and at the same time simple” language of the novel will help develop artistic taste, feel how “great and powerful” the Russian language is. The way to work on the novel “Peter the Great”, as with every work of art, is from the emotional perception of it to in-depth critical analysis works, comprehending it in everything artistic originality, in the unity of content and form.
Links to sources1. Petrov S. M. Russian Soviet historical novel. M: Sovremennik, 1980. P. 24. 2. Tolstoy A.N. Brief autobiography And Tolstoy A.N. Knowledge of happiness. M: Young Guard, 1981. P. 23. 3. Pautkin A.I. Soviet historical novel. M: Znanie, 1970. P. 19 20. 4. Perkhin V.V. Fiction A. N. Tolstoy in the assessment of pre-revolutionary and Soviet criticism // The artistic world of A. N. Tolstoy. Articles. Messages /V. Skobelev/Kuibyshev: Book. Publishing house, 1983. P. 126. 5. Alpatov A. V. Two novels about Peter I (1933), Peter I for a teenage reader (1933), An image as if carved on copper (1934) cit. by Rozhdestvenskaya I. S., Khodyuk A. G. A. N. Tolstoy. Seminary. L: Uchpedgiz, 1962. P. 3542. 6. Veksler I. I. Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy: life and creative path. M: Soviet writer, 1948. P. 337.
Novel "Peter the Great". The idea of the work. Features of composition and plot. What were the tasks facing A. Tolstoy as the author of a historical novel?
First of all, Tolstoy had to determine what would be the main thing for him in the work. This, according to the writer, is “the formation of personality in historical era" The author wrote more than just a biography historical figure, but sought to show, on the one hand, how the era influenced the formation of Peter’s personality, and on the other, what was the impact of Peter’s transformations on the fate of the country.
All other problems of the novel are connected with the solution of this main problem: the question of the objective necessity and significance of Peter’s transformations; “identifying the driving forces of the era” - first of all, the image historical role people, complex relationships between Peter and the people; depicting the intense struggle between the new and the old.
The concept of the work determined the features of the composition and plot. The basis of the plot is the decisive events in the life of the country, the movement of history itself. Name what historical events are depicted in each book. Make a short list of these events. Prove that the selection of events itself is dictated by the main task - to show the formation of personality in an era. How are Peter's character traits revealed in these events?
Re-read the first chapter of the novel, which is exposition. What do we learn about life in pre-Petrine Russia from these scenes? What role do the author’s digressions play in the first book of the novel (see the beginning of chapter 2; chapter 5, subchapter 12; the beginning of chapter 1)1 Why are the events described through the eyes of a child, Sanka Brovkina? How is the need to transform the life of Russia shown in these scenes?
Compare the description of Moscow at the beginning of the second and third books of the novel. What role does the technique of contrast play here?
“Man,” wrote A.N. Tolstoy, as well as the historical period of time, can only be understood dialectically - in movement, in struggle, in contradiction.” Name the episodes in which the main conflicts of the work are revealed: the struggle of the new with the old; deepening contradictions between the king and the people.
How does Tolstoy show the role of the people in the implementation of Peter's reforms? Give examples of crowd scenes, analyze their significance in the work. Show the writer's skill in conveying polylogue and highlighting individual figures in close-up. Analyze the ending of the second book of the novel.
At the center of the work’s image system is Peter. The remaining characters, in accordance with the conflict of the work, are divided into two main groups, supporters and opponents of Peter’s reforms. The peculiarity of the novel is that in relation to all characters, even minor ones, the principle of versatility of the image applies, the desire to show the hero in dynamics, to reveal how the contradictions of time are reflected in him (see, for example, the image of Menshikov, the Brovkin family, on the other hand, boyar Buinosov).
Thus, the formation of Peter’s personality and the depiction of the era in its development through struggle and contradictions determined the features of the novel’s composition. The multifaceted composition gave the author the opportunity to depict the life of all classes and groups of Russian society: peasants, soldiers, archers, artisans, nobles, boyars. Russia is shown in a turbulent, contradictory movement, the fate of the nation is revealed at a turning point in history, and the role of the masses in history is revealed. All this allows us to talk about “Peter the Great” as an epic novel.
“Peter I and his era in Tolstoy’s novel “Peter I””
The novel by A. N. Tolstoy is of particular value to me, a person interested in the history of Russia. In the novel we find a description of the era, a description of the characters (both the characters of the people and the characters of the aristocrats). There are also threads connecting the people and the government. From Tolstoy's novel we get full picture the relationship between power and the people and the people with power, which worries the minds of many historians and is so important to me. The problem of relations between the people and the state is, without a doubt, an eternal problem for Russia. Of course, A.N. Tolstoy could not bypass her in his work. After all, every talented writer is always part of his people, and this problem becomes a personal problem for him. Tolstoy had the opportunity to live and work in a very difficult and contradictory period of our history, when, in my opinion, the problem of the relationship between the people and the authorities acquired unprecedented urgency. Therefore, it is legitimate for the writer to turn to the origins, to our history. After all, to understand and comprehend the past means to understand and comprehend the present and the future (in my opinion, this statement does not require proof). The era of Peter's reforms, indirect transformations of life in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century, in my opinion, helps us understand the whole essence of this eternal problem in the conditions of our country. This, it seems to me, the main problem relations between government and people in Russia. The enormous merit of A.N. Tolstoy, in my opinion, is that he was able to show not only the confrontation between the people and the authorities, but also their unity with the state. Such an example is scenes of battles with the Swedes. These scenes perfectly show the unity of power with the people, and above all through the example of the king. Peter helps move the cannons, is in the thick of the battles, and talks with the soldiers. Here Tolstoy showed how the abyss separating power and people is disappearing. A united people, a mighty people comes to the fore. But at the same time, I have a deep sense of bitterness about the circumstance in which the people and the government united. Is this really possible only in the face of external danger? So far I have come to the conclusion that yes. Having conceived the construction of St. Petersburg on the reclaimed mouth of the Neva, Peter again begins to build that ditch, that abyss that faces the people and the authorities. The city is growing “on the bones”. This serves as another confirmation: the unity of the people and the authorities in peacetime is unattainable. For me, in Tolstoy’s novel “Peter I,” the relationship between the people and the government appeared in all its diversity and contradiction. For himself, the author solves the problem unambiguously: he denies the violence of the state over the people, no matter how it is justified. Everyone must decide this question for themselves. My point of view coincides with the point of view of the author. It is hardly possible to justify the suffering of the people with good intentions.
Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy's novel "Peter I" tells the story of the distant era of the late 17th - early 18th centuries, which rightfully remained in Russian history as the era of Peter the Great. The author’s work on the novel lasted 16 years: from 1929 to 1945, Alexey Tolstoy could say about himself in the words of Belinsky: “For me, Peter is my philosophy, my religion, my revelation in everything that concerns Russia.” The novel "Peter I" continues the traditions of Russian classical literature, the largest representatives of which - Lomonosov, Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy - were invariably excited by the image of the great reformer. The writer recreates the political and cultural life, household and National character, morals, customs, social and religious conflicts of a turning point. Pictures of folk life are also presented in specific images. This is Fedka Wash Yourself with Mud, one of the first builders of St. Petersburg; The Vorobyov brothers are excellent craftsmen, for whom “casting a bell”, “heating a sword”, or “making a pistol” - everything plays in their talented hands. This is the blacksmith Zhemov - “a man of rare skill” who dreams of aerial flight. The author also does not ignore the crowds of beggars and “yaryzheks” (dissolute people, drunkards), rebellious and resigned, ordinary people different classes and conditions. Above this motley and many-sided Russia, which has moved from its home with a rattle and groan, rises the figure of Emperor Peter. Depicting the character of the king and his actions, the author never violates the historical scale of events. The camp of opponents of Peter’s reforms is presented in the novel with pomp and external monumentality: the majestic posture and “gait” of Sophia, the inaccessibility of Prince Golitsyn. The stagnation and immobility in their environment are emphasized by the author in the slow development of the plot, especially the first chapters of the novel.
The image of Peter the Great is characterized by swiftness, dynamism, and unostentatious simplicity. In Alexei Tolstoy, it is as if the history of Russia itself, spurred on by the will of Peter, accelerates its course. Military campaigns were an integral part of Peter's policy. And although they greatly exhausted the state, they had to be carried out due to historical necessity. The ancestral Russian lands in the south were captured by the Tatars and Turks, who blocked Russia's path to the Black Sea. The exit to the Baltic is closed by Swedish garrisons. The initially lost battles only strengthened the young king. “From the trouble and shame near Azov, the Kukui reveler immediately matured, failure bridled him with a mad bit. Even his relatives did not recognize him - he was a different person: angry, stubborn, businesslike.” Shipyards are being built in Voronezh, and a fleet is being hastily built.
The next year, Peter takes Azov: "... first of all, it was a victory over his own: Kukui defeated Moscow." The writer shows Peter, who has mastered 14 crafts, at the reception of ambassadors and at the blacksmith's forge, securing tackle on a sailboat and in the gunpowder smoke of battles, in the royal chambers and in the scene of a tavern feast. During the war with the Swedes, Peter “did not wash his face, he ate on the go.” With a face burned by the sun, with palms covered in bloody calluses, in a dusty caftan that smelled of tobacco and sweat - this is how Tsar Peter appears on the pages of the novel. We see the emperor at the shipyard, at the table of the military council, in the torture chamber, at assemblies and at the lovely Ankhen.
The third book of the novel was not completed due to the death of the writer. Here Peter is depicted somewhat differently than in the first two books. Main character becomes an experienced, mature ruler. His large figure breathes a sense of confidence, devoid of the sharp, impetuous movements that were noticed before. But the tsar’s bulging eyes are still “stern and scary”; he still has flashes of unbridled anger, but in his entire appearance there is more restraint, characteristic of a statesman - far-sighted, insightful, powerful, even cruel. On the pages of the novel, which capture the victorious assault on Narva, Peter personifies the “formidable greatness” of the monarch, inspired by a lofty state goal: “It was a European matter: no joke - to take by storm one of the most impregnable fortresses in the world.”
The fresh wind from the Baltic tears the sails of Peter the Great's frigates and brigantines, sailing in wake formation after the victory at Yuryev. Thus, young Russia, straining its strength in battles with external and internal enemies, rushed uncontrollably into the future. Other historical figures were also recreated with great artistic skill: Menshikov, Lefort, Romodanovsky, Princess Natalya. But the center of the novel, to which all the threads of the narrative are drawn, is the image of Peter, sculpted by Alexei Tolstoy in a large, prominent, powerful way. His nature embodies the main contradictions of that time. Peter the Great is a national figure on a large scale. After Pushkin's Poltava, Alexei Tolstoy's novel is the greatest success in creating the image of Peter in Russian literature.
The writer did not idealize Peter I. The ardor and temperament with which Peter sets out to break and eradicate the old order often lead to mockery of people. The despotism of the autocratic tsar is manifested, for example, in the fact that he mockingly cuts the beards of the boyars, commits outrages in their houses, and organizes wild clownish processions through the streets of Moscow. But in relation to the noble boyars, dissatisfied with the reforms and gravitating towards the old way of life, the tsar’s despotism is completely justified. Tolstoy depicts in the novel memorable types of arrogant, arrogant boyars of noble families, who can only lament the old order, which has now passed away. Such is the old boyar Buynosov, a slow and sluggish slow-witted figure who personifies the degeneration of this privileged class in the era of Peter the Great. He is being replaced by energetic, active representatives of the serving nobility and merchants, who actively participate in Peter's transformations. Heroes such as Alexander Menshikov, Andrei Golikov, and the Brovkin family made a dizzying career, becoming close associates of the tsar. Highly appreciating the importance of Peter's reforms for the development and prosperity of Russia, Tolstoy pointed out the negative phenomena of the era of Peter's reign. Throughout the novel there are pictures of poverty, downtroddenness, oppression and lack of rights of the people.
We see peasants, serfs, soldiers, runaways, those who suffer unbearably from extortion and oppression. The novel by Alexei Tolstoy reflects all the diversity of issues of the Peter the Great era. And yet it's not historical chronicle, but a broad socio-psychological and dramatic canvas that contains the storms and passions of the transitional period of Russian life. It is remarkable that not only Russia, but also the European theater of military operations is captured by the author. European diplomacy, the intrigues of kings and courtesans, the life of merchants and artisans are also fully reflected in the novel. While working on a large epic canvas, Alexey Tolstoy used a large number of historical documents: “torture” records, ancient judicial acts, so-called “Words and Deeds” materials, folklore sources. All this helped to convey the flavor of a distant era, to recreate the language of the Russian people of the 18th century. The novel by Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy gives a vivid and extensive idea of the personality of the great transformer of Russia and the Russian state itself of that time. This is an artistic monument to the great Emperor Peter 1 and his era.
Tolstoy's legacy is enormous (" Complete collection works" actually covers a small part of what he wrote) and is extremely unequal. He made very significant contributions to several genres and thematic layers of literature, he has masterpieces (in one field or another) and works that are below all criticism. Strong and weak sides often intertwined within the same work.
writer alexey tolstoy creativity
A. N. Tolstoy begins work on the novel in 1929. The theme of the historical novel is being revived. Tolstoy first addressed the topic of Peter in 1918. The reason that prompted the writer to create the work was, apparently, a feeling of consonance between the Peter the Great era, when “the old world was cracking and collapsing,” with the era in which the author of the novel lived. Tolstoy considers one of the main tasks of the novel to be the need to show “the formation of personality in history, in an era.” The entire course of the narrative was supposed to show the mutual influence of personality and era, to emphasize the progressiveness of Peter's transformative actions. In addition, it was extremely important for the writer to identify the “driving forces of the era,” that is, to resolve the question of the role of the people.
The novel's time covers an entire era, limited, however, by the activities of the central character - Peter I, whom the writer shows for 25 years.
Initially, Alexei Tolstoy intended to bring the story about Peter to the Battle of Poltava, but the death of the writer stopped work on the manuscript, and the novel ends with the victory of Russian troops near Narva.
Thus, the historical fate of the main character determined the composition of the novel.
Three books.
1930 – first – Peter’s childhood and youth; return from abroad; execution of the archers (1698)
1934 – second – defeat near Narva; first victories over the Swedes; foundation of St. Petersburg (1703)
1944 - the third (not finished due to Tolstoy's death) - was conceived as a book about the mature activity of the monarch.
Genre: historical novel. Features of an epic novel.
The problem of power and people. The first scene explains everything later life Peter and reform activities. Psychological message. Peter did not like Moscow; he associated it with danger. The fate of the state at that time was decided by the people. The strength of the people is the archers. Executed in the first book - the fate is decided not by the people, but by the sovereign.
So, at the center of the writer’s narrative is the image of Peter, the process of formation of his personality. But the novel does not become a biography of Peter. Tolstoy is interested in the era that shapes a historical figure, its movement. This determines the compositional features of the novel. A multifaceted composition is being created, making it possible to show the life of the most diverse segments of the Russian population. The novel presents all social groups of the country of that time (boyars, nobles, merchants, archers, peasants, soldiers), the action takes place in various places: in the Kremlin, Ivashka Brovkin’s hut, in the German settlement, Azov, Narva, etc.
The plot of the novel is based on decisive events in the life of the country: the uprising of the Streltsy, the reign of Sophia, the Crimean campaigns of Golitsyn, the Azov campaigns of Peter, etc.
Taxi image composition features:
1.Chronology
2. Panoramic
3. Chapters become the unit of storytelling
4. Episodes appear without warning
The peculiarity of the novel lies in its dynamism. The dynamics of the novel are given by the severity of the main conflicts: between the autocracy and the people, between the old, obsolete, and the new, the religious conflict. The novel is also based on a historical conflict - between Peter and Sophia. Sophia is patriarchal, old Rus'. Peter is a progressive beginning.
Plot: Peter takes away the icon from Sophia during the religious procession.
The boyars and archers are on Sophia's side.
Climax: the decision to “heal gangrene-ridden Russia with iron.” Peter believes that Russia must be hurt in order to heal it.
Denouement: mass execution of archers.
The first chapter of the novel introduces us to the life and customs of old Moscow, to the moods of various groups of people. In the exposition of the work, the author shows the historical need for transformation (“All nations live in wealth, we alone are poor”). The second book, according to A. Tolstoy, “is more monumental, more psychological.” It begins with an image of a “reluctantly” awakening Moscow and ends with a picture of the construction of St. Petersburg. There are fewer descriptions of historical events, more psychological characteristics. Using the example of individual characters and descriptions of the lives of individual families, for example the Brovkin family, the author shows how new things are breaking into the life of Russian people.
On the path to transformation, Peter sees his support precisely in the people. Aleksashka Menshikov, a native of the people, becomes his main assistant.
From the children of peasants and townspeople, Peter forms his amusing guard, the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments, which will later serve the Tsar and the Fatherland gloriously.
Having come to power, Peter begins his reforms. He acts cruelly, even too cruelly, he realizes his plans without taking into account the opinions of the masses. A completely different side of the relationship between the people and the authorities appears before us in the description of the war that Russia is waging with the Swedes. In these scenes, the patriotism of the people, their resilience, and the ability to sacrifice themselves for the good of the Fatherland come to the fore. At these moments, the gap between the people and the state disappears. The state becomes part of the people. Tsar Peter merges with his army. He helps soldiers pull cannons and carts during transitions, and is in the thick of battles with the enemy. The Tsar fights as a simple bombardier. There is no confrontation, there is no sovereign and his servants.
