The writing
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev gave artistic interpretation of the problem of the active principle in a person in his novel "On the Eve". The work contains "the idea of the necessity of consciously active natures" for the movement of society towards progress. Insarov, on the other hand, rises above all the characters in the novel (excluding Elena. He is on a par with her). He rises as a hero, whose whole life is illuminated by the thought of a heroic deed. The most attractive feature of Insarov for the author is his love for his homeland - Bulgaria. Insarov is the embodiment of fiery love for the motherland. His soul is full of one feeling: compassion for his native people, who are in Turkish bondage. “If you only knew how blessed our land is! - says Insarov to Elena. - And meanwhile they trample him, they torment him ... everything was taken away from us, everything: our churches, our rights, our lands; filthy Turks chase us like a herd, they slaughter us ... Do I love my homeland? - What else can you love on earth? What is one thing that is invariable, what is above all doubts, what can you not believe after God? And when this homeland needs you ... "The entire work of I. S. Turgenev is imbued with the" greatness and holiness "of the idea of liberation of the suffering homeland. Insarov is a kind of ideal of self-denial. He is characterized to the highest degree by self-restraint, the imposition of "iron chains of duty." He subdues all other desires in himself, subordinating his life to the service of Bulgaria. However, his self-denial differs from humility before the duty of Lavretsky and Liza Kalitina: it has not a religious-ethical, but an ideological nature. In accordance with the principle of objective reflection of reality, Turgenev did not want and could not obscure those qualities (albeit not always attractive) that he saw in the hero - not in an abstract image, but in a living person. Any character is too complex to be painted with only one color - black or white. Insarov is no exception. Sometimes he is too rational in his behavior, even his simplicity is deliberate and complex, and he himself is too dependent on his own desire for independence. The writer in Insarov is attracted by quixoticism. There are no other heroes capable of acting around him. “We don't have anyone yet, there are no people wherever you look,” Shubin says. - Everything - either miluzha, rodents, hamletics ... from empty to empty sprinklers and drum sticks! And then there are others: they have studied themselves to the shameful subtlety, they constantly feel the pulse of each of their sensations and report to themselves: this is what I, they say, feel, this is what I think. Useful efficient occupation! No, if there were good people between us, this girl would not have left us, this sensitive soul would not have escaped like a fish into water. " "Hamlets" ... The word is spoken! Could these words by Shubin also contain the author's self-condemnation? In "On the Eve" more clearly than in other novels by Turgenev, O1 anticipates the presence of the author himself, his thoughts and doubts, which are too clearly reflected in the thoughts of many characters, in their thoughts and interests. Turgenev expressed himself even in a quiet and bright envy for the love of the main characters. Is it by chance, bowing to this love, Bersenev says to himself the very words that are found more than once in the author's letters. "What a desire to cuddle up to the edge of someone else's nest?" There is one hidden plot in the novel "On the Eve", which has nothing to do with the socio-political struggles in pre-reform Russia. In the actions, reflections, statements of the heroes, the development of the author's thought about happiness is gradually taking place. "" Thirst for love, thirst for happiness, nothing more, "Shubin praised ..." Happiness! Happiness! Until life has passed ... We will win ourselves happiness! " Bersenyev raised his eyes to him. "As if there is nothing higher than happiness?" - he said quietly ... Further, each of the heroes will find their happiness. Shubin - in art, Bersenev - in science. Insarov does not understand personal happiness if the homeland is in sorrow. "How can you be content and happy when your fellow countrymen are suffering?" - Insarov asks, and Elena is ready to agree with him. For them, the personal must be based on the happiness of others. Happiness and duty thus coincide. And it is not at all the divisive well-being that Bersenyev speaks of at the beginning of the novel. But later the heroes realize that even their altruistic happiness is sinful. Before Insarov's death, Elena feels that for earthly - whatever it may be - a person should be punished. For her, this is the death of Insarov. The author reveals his understanding of the law of life: "... the happiness of each person is based on the unhappiness of the other." But if so, then happiness is indeed a "separating word" - and therefore, it is unacceptable and unattainable for a person. There is only duty, and you have to follow it. This is one of the most important thoughts of the novel. But will there ever be selfless Don Quixotes in Russia? The author does not give a direct answer to this question, although he hopes for a positive solution. There is also no answer to the question that sounds in the very name of the rum on “On the eve”. On the eve of what? - the appearance of the Russian Insarovs? When will they appear? "When will the real day come?" - this question is asked by Dobrolyubov in the article of the same name What is this - if not a call for revolution? The genius of Turgenev lies in the fact that he was able to see the urgent problems of the time and reflect in his novel, which has not lost its freshness for us. Russia needs strong, courageous, purposeful individuals at all times.
In this article, we will consider the novel by Ivan Sergeevich, created in 1859, we will outline its summary. "On the Eve" Turgenev first published in 1860, and to this day this work remains in demand. Interesting not only the novel itself, but also the history of its creation. We will present it, as well as a brief analysis of the work, after we present a summary of "On the Eve". it is presented below) has created a very interesting novel, and you will surely enjoy its plot.
Bersenev and Shubin
On the banks of the Moskva River in the summer of 1853, two young men lie under a linden tree. Acquaintance with them begins the summary of "On the Eve". Turgenev introduces to us the first of them, Andrei Petrovich Bersenev. He is 23 years old, he just graduated from Moscow University. This young man will have an academic career. The second is Pavel Yakovlevich Shubin, a promising sculptor. They argue about nature and about the place of man in it. Its self-sufficiency and completeness amaze Bersenev. He believes that the incompleteness of man is seen more clearly against the background of nature. This creates anxiety and sadness. Shubin believes that you need to live, not reflect. He advises his friend to have a friend of the heart.
Then young people move on to talking about everyday things. Bersenev recently saw Insarov. It is necessary to acquaint Shubin with him, as well as with the Stakhov family. It's time to return to the dacha, you shouldn't be late for dinner. Stakhova Anna Vasilievna, Pavel Yakovlevich's second cousin, will be unhappy. And to this woman he owes the opportunity to do sculpture.
The story of Stakhov Nikolai Artemievich
The story of Nikolai Artemyevich Stakhov continues Turgenev's novel "On the Eve" (summary). This is the head of the family who, from a young age, dreamed of marrying profitably. He made his dream come true at the age of 25. Shubina Anna Vasilievna became his wife. However, Stakhov soon became friends with Augustina Christianovna. Both of these women bored him. His wife suffers infidelity, but she still hurts, because he tricked his mistress into giving his mistress a pair of gray horses from the factory owned by Anna Vasilievna.
Shubin's life in the Stakhov family
Shubin has been living in this family for about 5 years, after his mother, a kind and intelligent Frenchwoman, died (Shubin's father died several years earlier than her). He works hard, but in fits and starts, does not want to hear anything about the professors and the academy. In Moscow, Shubin is considered promising, but he still has not done anything outstanding. daughter of the Stakhovs, he really likes it. However, the hero does not miss the opportunity to flirt with the plump 17-year-old Zoya, Elena's companion. Alas, Elena does not understand these contradictions in Shubin's personality. She was always outraged by the lack of character in a person, angered by stupidity, she does not forgive a lie. If someone loses her respect, he immediately ceases to exist for her.
The personality of Elena Nikolaevna
I must say that Elena Nikolaevna is an extraordinary nature. She is 20 years old, she is very attractive and stately. She has a dark blond braid and gray eyes. However, there is something nervous, impetuous in the appearance of this girl, which not everyone will like.
Nothing can satisfy Elena Nikolaevna, whose soul strives for active good. From childhood this girl was occupied and disturbed by hungry, beggars, sick people and animals. At the age of 10, she met a beggar girl, Katya, and began to take care of her. This girl even became a kind of object of her worship. Elena's parents did not approve of this hobby. True, Katya soon died. However, in Elena's soul there was a trace of meeting her.
The girl had been living her life since the age of 16, but she was lonely. Nobody embarrassed Elena, but she languished, saying that there was no one to love. She did not want to see Shubin as her husband, since he is notable for impermanence. But Bersenev attracts Elena as an educated, intelligent and deep person. But why is he so insistently talking about Insarov, who is obsessed with the idea of liberating his homeland? Bersenev's stories awaken in Elena a keen interest in the personality of this Bulgarian.
The story of Dmitry Insarov
Insarov's story is as follows. His mother was kidnapped and then killed by a certain Turkish aga, when the Bulgarian was still a child. The father made an attempt to take revenge on him, but was shot. Left an orphan at the age of eight, Dmitry came to his aunt in Russia. After 12 years, he returned to Bulgaria, which he studied up and down for 2 years. Insarov was repeatedly endangered in his travels, he was persecuted. Bersenyev personally saw the scar left at the site of the wound. Dmitry does not intend to take revenge on the age, he is pursuing a broader goal.
Insarov is poor, like all students, but scrupulous, proud and undemanding. He is distinguished by his enormous capacity for work. This hero studies political economy, law, Russian history, translates Bulgarian chronicles and songs, composes Bulgarian grammar for Russians and Russian for Bulgarians.
How Elena fell in love with Insarov
During the first visit, Dmitry Insarov did not make such a great impression on Elena as she expected after Bersenev's enthusiastic stories. However, one case soon confirmed that he was not mistaken about the Bulgarian.
Once Anna Vasilievna was going to show the beauty of Tsaritsyn to her daughter and Zoya. A large company went there. The park, the ruins of the palace, the ponds - all this made an impression on Elena. Zoya sang well while sailing on a boat. She was even shouted an encore by a group of Germans who had played around. At first they did not pay much attention to them, but after the picnic, already on the shore, we again met with them. Suddenly one man of impressive height separated from the company. He began to demand a kiss as compensation for the fact that Zoe did not respond to the applause of the Germans. Shubin began to pretend to be ironic, floridly admonish this drunken impudent, but this only provoked him. And so Insarov stepped forward. He simply demanded that the impudent man leave. The man leaned forward, but Insarov lifted him up into the air and threw him into the pond.
Curious about how the "The Eve" summary continues? Sergeevich has prepared a lot of interesting things for us. After the incident at the picnic, Elena admitted to herself that she fell in love with Dmitry. Therefore, the news that he was leaving his dacha was a big blow for her. Only Bersenyev still understands why this departure was needed. His friend once admitted that he would definitely leave if he fell in love, since he cannot change his debt for the sake of a personal feeling. Insarov said that he did not need Russian love. Upon learning of this, Elena decides to personally go to Dmitry.
Declaration of love
So we got to the scene of declaration of love, describing the summary of the work "On the Eve". Surely readers are interested in how it happened. Let's briefly describe this scene. Insarov confirmed to Elena, who came to him, that she was leaving. The girl decided that she needed to be the first to confess her feelings, which she did. Insarov asked if she was ready to follow him everywhere. The girl answered in the affirmative. Then the Bulgarian said that he would marry her.
The difficulties faced by the beloved
In the meantime, Kurnatovsky began to appear at the Stakhovs, who worked in the Senate as chief secretary. Stakhov sees this person as the future husband of his daughter. And this is just one of the dangers that lie in wait for the beloved. Letters from Bulgaria are becoming more and more alarming. It is necessary to go while it is possible, and Dmitry is preparing to leave. However, he suddenly caught a cold and fell ill. For 8 days Dmitry was dying.
All these days Bersenyev looked after him, and also told Elena about his condition. Finally the threat was over. But full recovery is still far away, and Insarov is forced to remain in his home. Ivan Sergeevich tells about all this in detail, but we will omit the details, making up a summary of Ivan Turgenev's novel "On the Eve".
One day Elena visits Dmitry. They talk for a long time about the need to hurry up with leaving, about Bersenev's golden heart, about their problems. On this day, they become husband and wife no longer in words. The parents find out about their date.
Elena's father calls his daughter to account. She confirms that Insarov is her husband, and that in a week they will go to Bulgaria. Anna Vasilievna faints. The father grabs Elena by the hand, but at this moment Shubin shouts that Augustina Christianovna has arrived and is calling Nikolai Artemyevich.
The journey of Elena and Dmitry
The young have already arrived in Venice. A difficult journey was left behind, as well as 2 months of illness in Vienna. After Venice they will go first to Serbia and then to Bulgaria. You just need to wait for Randych, the old wolf, who must ferry them across the sea.
Elena and Dmitry liked Venice very much. However, listening to La Traviata at the theater, they are embarrassed by the scene in which Alfredo says goodbye to Violetta, who is dying of consumption. Elena leaves a feeling of happiness. Insarov gets worse the next day. He has a fever again, he is in oblivion. Elena, exhausted, falls asleep.
Further, her dream is described by Turgenev ("On the Eve"). Reading the summary is, of course, not as interesting as the original work. We hope that after getting to know the plot of the novel, you will have a desire to get to know him better.
Elena's dream and Dmitry's death
She dreams of a boat, first at Tsaritsyn pond, and then in the restless sea. Suddenly a whirlwind of snow begins, and now the girl is no longer in the boat, but in the cart. Katya is next to her. Suddenly, the carriage rushes into the snowy abyss, and her companion laughs and calls Elena from the abyss. Raising her head, Elena sees Insarov, who says that he is dying.
The further fate of Elena
The summary of "On the Eve" is already approaching the final. Turgenev I.S. further tells us about the fate of the main character after the death of her husband. Three weeks after his death, a letter comes from Venice. Elena informs her parents that she is going to Bulgaria. She writes that from now on there is no other homeland for her. The further fate of Elena remained reliably unclear. There were rumors that someone had seen her in Herzegovina. Elena was allegedly a sister of mercy in the Bulgarian army, always wearing black clothes. Further, the trace of this girl is lost.
This concludes the summary of "The Eve". Turgenev took as the basis of this work a plot from the story of his friend. You will learn more about this by reading the history of the creation of "On the Eve".
History of creation
Vasily Katareev, an acquaintance of Turgenev and his neighbor on the estate, went to the Crimea in 1854. He had a presentiment of his death, so he gave Ivan Sergeevich the story he had written. The work was called "The Moscow Family". The story presented the story of Vasily Katareev's unhappy love. While studying at Moscow University, Katareev fell in love with a girl. She left him and went with the young Bulgarian to his homeland. Soon this Bulgarian died, but the girl never returned to Katareev.
The author of the work invited Ivan Sergeevich to process it. After 5 years, Turgenev began writing his novel "On the Eve". Katareyev's story served as the basis for this work. By that time, Vasily had already died. In 1859, Turgenev completed "On the Eve".
Brief analysis
After the creation of the images of Lavretsky and Rudin, Ivan Sergeevich wondered where the "new people" would come from, from what strata would they appear? He wanted to portray an active, energetic hero who is ready for a stubborn struggle. Such people were demanded by the "thunderous" 1860s. They were to replace the likes of Rudin, who could not move from words to deeds. And Turgenev created a new hero, whom you have already met after reading the summary of the novel. Of course, this is Insarov. This hero is an "iron man" who possesses determination, perseverance, willpower, and is in control of himself. All this characterizes him as a practical figure, in contrast to contemplative natures like the sculptor Shubin and the philosopher Bersenev.
Elena Stakhova finds it difficult to make a choice. She can marry Alexei Bersenev, Pavel Shubin, Yegor Kurnatovsky or Dmitry Insarov. The presentation of the chapters of the work "On the Eve" (Turgenev) allowed you to get acquainted with each of them. Elena personifies young Russia "on the eve" of change. In this way, Ivan Sergeevich solves the important question of who the country needs most now. Artists or scientists, statesmen or people of nature who have dedicated their lives to serving a patriotic goal? Elena, with her choice, answers a question that was very important for Russia in the 1860s. On whom she chose, you know, if you read the summary of the novel.
Turgenev, according to the views of a liberal-democrat who rejected the ideas of revolutionary-minded raznochin, began to think about the possibility of creating a hero whose positions would not conflict with his own, more moderate, aspirations, but who, at the same time, would be revolutionary enough not to cause ridicule from more radical colleagues in Sovremennik. The understanding of the inevitable change of generations in progressive Russian circles, clearly visible in the epilogue of The Noble Nest, came to Turgenev back in the days when he was working on Rudin:
Karateev, who had a presentiment of his death when he handed the manuscript to Turgenev, did not return from the war, having died of typhus in the Crimea. Turgenev's attempt to publish an artistically weak work by Karateev was not crowned with success, and until 1859 the manuscript was forgotten, although, according to the memoirs of the writer himself, having read it for the first time, he was so impressed that he exclaimed: “Here is the hero I was looking for! " Before Turgenev returned to Karateev's notebook, he managed to finish Rudin and work on The Noble Nest.
Plot
The novel begins with a dispute about nature and the place of man in it between two young people - the scientist Andrei Bersenev and the sculptor Pavel Shubin. In the future, the reader gets to know the family in which Shubin lives. The spouse of his second aunt Anna Vasilievna Stakhova, Nikolai Artemyevich, once married her because of money, does not love her and makes acquaintance with the German widow Augustina Christianovna, who is robbing him. Shubin has been living in this family for five years, since the death of his mother, and is engaged in his art, however, he is subject to bouts of laziness, works in fits and starts and does not intend to learn the skill. He is in love with the daughter of the Stakhovs Elena, although he does not lose sight of her seventeen-year-old companion Zoya.
Elena Nikolaevna, a twenty-year-old beauty, from an early age was distinguished by a kind and dreamy soul. She is attracted by the opportunity to help the sick and hungry - both people and animals. At the same time, she has long been showing independence and lives by her own mind, but has not yet found a companion for herself. Shubin does not attract her because of his volatility and inconstancy, and Bersenev is interesting to her for his intelligence and modesty. But then Bersenev introduces her to his friend, the Bulgarian Dmitry Nikanorovich Insarov. Insarov lives with the idea of liberating his homeland from Turkish rule and attracts Elena's keen interest.
After the first meeting, Insarov did not manage to please Elena, but everything turns upside down after the incident in Tsaritsyn, when Insarov protects Elena from the harassment of a drunkard of enormous stature, throwing him into a pond. After that, Elena admits to herself in her diary that she fell in love with the Bulgarian, but soon it turns out that he intends to leave. At one time, Insarov told Bersenev that he would leave if he fell in love, since he did not intend to give up debt for the sake of personal feelings, which Elena Nikolaevna later learned about from Andrei. Elena goes to Dmitry and confesses her love to him. When asked if she will follow him everywhere, the answer is yes.
After that, Elena and Dmitry for some time contact through Bersenev, but in the meantime, more and more disturbing letters come from Insarov's homeland, and he is already seriously preparing to leave. One day Elena goes to him herself. After a long and heated conversation, they decide to get married. This news becomes a blow for Elena's parents and friends, but she still leaves with her husband.
Having reached Venice, Dmitry and Elena are waiting for the arrival of the old sailor Randich, who is supposed to ferry them to Serbia, from where their route lies to Bulgaria. However, Insarov is ill, he begins to develop a fever. Exhausted Elena has a nightmare, and, waking up, she realizes that Dmitry is dying. Randich no longer finds him alive, but at Elena's request he helps her deliver her husband's body to his homeland.
Three weeks later, Anna Stakhova receives a letter from her daughter: she is sent to Bulgaria, which will become her new homeland, and will never return home. Further traces of Elena are lost; rumored to have been seen with the troops as a sister of mercy.
Motives of the novel
The ideas and motives of the novel were analyzed in detail from a progressive standpoint by NA Dobrolyubov in the Sovremennik magazine in January 1860 (article "When will the present day come?"). Dobrolyubov notes Turgenev's sensitivity as a writer to pressing social issues and dwells on how the author reveals some of these topics in his new novel.
Dobrolyubov paid special attention to the issue of choosing the main character. Dobrolyubov sees in Elena Stakhova an allegory of young Russia on the eve of social upheavals - an interpretation with which Turgenev himself did not agree (see):
She expressed that vague longing for something, that almost unconscious but irresistible need for a new life, for new people, which now embraces the whole of Russian society, and not even just one so-called educated one. In Elena, the best aspirations of our modern life are so vividly reflected, and in her those around her, all the inconsistency of the usual order of the same life appears so clearly that she involuntarily takes the desire to draw an allegorical parallel ... This longing of expectation has long tormented Russian society, and how many times have already been mistaken we, like Elena, thinking that the expected one had appeared, and then cooled down. N. A. Dobrolyubov
Elena drew from the Russian people the dream of the truth, which must be sought in distant lands, and the readiness to sacrifice herself for the sake of others. An artist, a scientist, a successful official and a revolutionary claim to love Elena, and in the end she chooses not a pure mind, not art and not a civil service, but a civil feat. Dobrolyubov emphasizes that of all the candidates, the only worthy one is Insarov, who cannot imagine his happiness without the happiness of his homeland, who is completely subordinated to a higher goal and whose word does not differ from deed.
Another theme running through the novel is the theme of the conflict between egoistic and altruistic aspirations in the human soul. For the first time, this question is raised in the scene of the dispute between Bersenev and Shubin about happiness: is not the pursuit of happiness an egoistic feeling, which is higher - “love-pleasure” separating people or “love-sacrifice” that unites people. At first, Elena and Insarov think that this contradiction does not exist, but then they become convinced that this is not so, and Elena is torn between Insarov and her family and homeland, and later Insarov himself asks her whether his illness was sent as a punishment for their love. Turgenev emphasizes this inevitable tragedy of human existence on Earth, when at the end of the book Insarov dies, and Elena disappears and her trace is lost. But this ending even more emphasizes the beauty of the emancipatory impulse, giving the idea of the search for social perfection a timeless, universal character.
Criticism
Turgenev, who dreamed of an alliance of anti-serfdom forces and reconciliation of liberals with radical democrats for the sake of fighting for a common national idea, did not accept the position of Dobrolyubov, who denied the viability of noble liberalism and opposed the Russian Insarovs to the "internal Turks", among which he included not only obscurantist reactionaries, but also dear to the heart of the author of the liberals. He tried to persuade Nekrasov to refuse to publish Dobrolyubov's article in Sovremennik, and when he did not heed his arguments, he finally broke with the editorial board of the magazine. For their part, the commoners of Sovremennik also embarked on a course of confrontation, and soon a devastating review of Rudin appeared in the magazine.
The name of the novel is "Noble Nest" locally. Although this novel, like all of Turgenev's novels, is historically specific and, although in it the problems of the era are of paramount importance, the “local” coloring of his images and situations is no less significant. In the late 40s - early 50s, Turgenev made a kind of renewal of the image of the "Hamletist", giving his characterization not a "temporary" ("Hero of Our Time"), but a spatial and local definition ("Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district"). The novel "Noble Nest" is imbued with the consciousness of the flow of historical time, which takes away people's lives, the hopes and thoughts of generations and entire layers of national culture. The image of the "noble nest" is locally and socially separated from the large, generalized image of Russia. In the "noble nest", in an old house in which generations of nobles and peasants lived, the spirit of the motherland, Russia, emanates from it, "the smoke of the fatherland" emanates from it. The lyrical theme of Russia, reflections on the peculiarities of Russian historical conditions and characters in the "Noble Nest" anticipate the problems of the novel "Smoke". In the "noble nests", in the houses of the Lavretskys and Kalitins, spiritual values were born and matured, which will forever remain the property of Russian society, no matter how it changes. According to Saltykov-Shchedrin's definition, "The light poetry diffused in every sound of this novel" should be seen not only in the writer's love for the past and his humility before the supreme law of history, but also in his belief in the internal organic nature of the country's development, in the fact that there is, in spite of historical and social changes and antagonisms, spiritual continuity. One cannot ignore the fact that at the end of the novel the new life “plays” in the old house and the old garden, and does not leave this house, renouncing it, as, for example, in Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard.
In none of Turgenev's works to such an extent as in "Noble Nest" is denial connected with affirmation, in none of the opposites is it woven into such a tight knot. The leaving culture of the nobility in this novel, like in no other, is perceived in unity with the folk. In the novel "On the Eve", hopes, which, as it were, illuminate the melancholic narrative of "The Noble's Nest" with reflections, are transformed into clear foresight and decisions.
The author's clarity of thought corresponds to his concept of a new ethical ideal - the ideal of active goodness - and his idea of a character that the younger generation is ready to recognize as its hero - an integral, strong, heroic character. The main question for Turgenev is about the relationship between thought and practical deed, about the importance of a person of action and a theoretician for society in this novel, is solved in favor of the hero who practically implements the idea. In "On the Eve" the writer predicts the onset of a new period of historical activity and claims that the main figure in public life is again becoming a man of action.
The title of the novel "On the Eve" - "temporary", as opposed to the "local" name "Noble Nest" - says that the novel depicts a moment in the life of society, and the content of the title defines this moment as "eve", a kind of prologue of historical events ... The patriarchal seclusion of everyday life depicted in The Noble Nest is receding into the past. The Russian noble house, with its age-old way of life, with its companions, neighbors, gambling losses, finds itself at the crossroads of world roads. Already Rudin from a provincial manor house got to the Parisian barricade and tested Russian liberation ideas in the street battles of Europe. The figure of Rudin on the barricade looked rather exotic. The Russian revolutionary was still little known in Europe, and the French blouses, next to which he died, mistook him for a Pole. Lavretsky did not see revolutionary workers in France. He was suppressed by the triumphant vulgarity of the bourgeoisie. France, like Russia, was affected by political timelessness.
In "On the Eve" the idea of the world character of political life is clearly expressed through the story of a leader of the Slavic liberation movement who found himself in Russia and met with sympathy and understanding here. The Russian girl finds application for her strength and selfless aspirations, participating in the struggle for the independence of the Bulgarian people. Left lonely in Italy after Insarov's death, Elena Stakhova travels to Bulgaria to continue his work, and writes to her family: “And why go back to Russia? What to do in Russia? " We have already noticed that Elena is not the first heroine of Turgenev to ask this question, but for Elena "business" means political struggle, active work in the name of freedom, social justice, national independence of the oppressed people. There is reason to believe that the title of the novel, What Is to Be Done? Chernyshevsky, who showed Russian youth the ways of becoming involved in the revolutionary cause. Turgenev viewed the emerging liberation movements in the West not as random and scattered outbreaks, but as the beginning of a process that could cause seemingly unexpected “outbursts” of events in Russia. The title "On the Eve" not only reflects the plot of the novel (Insarov dies on the eve of the war for independence, in which he was ready to take part), but also emphasizes the crisis state of Russian society on the eve of the reform and hints at the general European significance of the liberation struggle in Bulgaria. In Italy, gripped by a protest against Austrian domination and representing, along with the Balkans, a hotbed of revolutionary and patriotic activity, Turgenev's heroes sense a pre-storm political situation.
Turgenev considered Don Quixote - the image in which he saw the embodiment and typifying model of revolutionary, active human nature - no less tragic than the image of Hamlet - a nature doomed to the development of "pure thought." Rock, imperiously condemning the best representatives of the Hamletic tribe to loneliness and misunderstanding, gravitates over Don Quixote.
Elena's last letter, which concludes the main action of the novel, is imbued with tragic moods. The heroine is obsessed with a thirst for self-sacrifice, which, as Turgenev's historically keen eye noticed, more and more penetrated young minds. “An uprising is being prepared there, they are going to war; I will go to the sisters of mercy; I will go after the sick, the wounded ... I probably can't take it all - so much the better.... I am led to the edge of the abyss and must fall. Fate united us not without reason; who knows, maybe I killed him; now it's his turn to drag me along with him. I was looking for happiness - and perhaps I will find death. Apparently, it should be so; apparently it was the fault ... Forgive me for all the troubles I have caused you; it was not in my will "(VIII, 165; our italics. - L. L.).
Elena's mentality is not so far from the ascetic self-denial of Liza Kalitina. For both, the pursuit of happiness is inseparable from guilt, and guilt is inseparable from retribution. The revolutionary democrats argued with the Hegelian theory of the inevitability of the tragic course of history and opposed the ethics of renunciation. Chernyshevsky in his dissertation "Aesthetic relations of art to reality" and in the article "The Sublime and the Comic" attacks the concept of tragic guilt, seeing in it a transcendental justification for the persecution of outstanding, creatively most gifted revolutionary leaders, on the one hand, and a theoretical justification of social inequality, on the other (II, 180-181). However, Chernyshevsky himself noted the ascetic moods of revolutionary youth and recognized the historical conditionality of these moods, endowing his hero, the revolutionary Rakhmetov, with the features of a rigor who renounces love and happiness.
Dobrolyubov in the article "When Will the Present Day Come?" opposed the idea of sacrifice, which, as it seemed to him, permeated the image of Bersenev. But in his other article - "A ray of light in a dark kingdom" - the critic saw precisely in "self-destruction", the suicide of the heroine of Ostrovsky's drama, ready to die rather than compromise and live in a house where, in her opinion, "not good" , an expression of the spontaneous revolutionary sentiments of the masses. Dobrolyubov considered the image of Elena to be the focus of the novel - the embodiment of young Russia; in it, according to the critic, expressed "the irresistible need for a new life, new people, which now embraces the entire Russian society, and not even just one so-called educated" (VI, 120).
Thus, like Ostrovsky's heroine, Katerina, who embodies people's Russia, Elena Stakhova, a representative of the country's younger generation, is considered by Dobrolyubov to be a spontaneous nature, instinctively striving for justice and goodness. Elena “thirsts for learning”, wants to consciously comprehend her aspirations, to find an “idea” that would explain them and give them a general meaning. In Turgenev's Strange Story, the story of the tragic fate of the young lady Sophie, who, striving for the feat of self-denial, takes the foolishness of a “godly man” - a mad vagabond as the ideal of such service - ends with a short summary: “She was looking for a mentor and leader and found him” ( X, 185).
Dobrolyubov sees in the "apprenticeship" of the "Turgenev women", which is especially clearly manifested in the heroine "On the Eve", a typical feature of the modern young generation in general. “The“ desire for active good ”is in us, and there is strength; but fear, uncertainty and, finally, ignorance; what to do? - they constantly stop us ... and we ... wait for someone to explain to us what to do ”(VI, 120-121), - he asserts, as if in response to Elena's question,“ what to do in Russia? ". The critic opposes philanthropic activity, which does not require self-sacrifice from a person, does not put him in conflict relations with carriers of evil, to an uncompromising struggle against social injustice. It is the last path, in his opinion, that can satisfy the moral needs of young enthusiasts and bring real, socially significant benefits. Dobrolyubov regards the search for the heroine "On the Eve" of the "leader, teacher", her attempts to find an ethical and theoretical solution to the question of which path to choose, what to strive for, what to take as an ideal. decades: Elena “felt there was a liking for Shubin, as our society at one time was fond of art; but in Shubin there was no meaningful content ... I was carried away for a minute by serious science in the person of Bersenev; but serious science turned out to be modest, doubting, waiting for the first number to follow. And Elena just needed a person to appear ... independently and irresistibly striving for his goal and drawing others to it ”(VI, 121).
The idea of the novel and its structural expression, so complex and ambiguous in The Noble Nest, in On the Eve are clear and unambiguous. Dobrolyubov defined the main theme of the novel as an image of the quest by a typical young girl, almost symbolically representing Russian society, for the ideal in the moral sphere and in a real person, and the embodiment of her dream of the unity of life with the ideal of “active good”. The heroine's heartfelt choice turns into a choice of an ethical concept, a spontaneous development of her attitude to speculative and practical decisions, which came to analysts and artists who interpreted the course of social events after 1848.
Elena chooses from four applicants for her hand, from four ideal options, for each of the heroes is the highest expression of his ethical and ideological type. Upon closer examination, we are convinced that these four options, in a sense, can be reduced to two pairs. Shubin and Bersenev represent the artistic-thinking type (the type of people of abstract-theoretical or figurative-artistic creativity), Insarov and Kurnatovsky belong to the “active” type, that is, to people whose vocation is practical “creativity”.
Each of the characters is compared with the other and opposed to the other, however, this opposition of heroes in pairs is given according to the general complex of traits, determined by the main feature: readiness to act, finality (simplicity) of decisions, lack of reflection - on the one hand; abstraction from the direct needs of modern society, interest in their activities outside of its utilitarian goals, introspection and criticism of their position, open-mindedness - on the other. Within each “pair”, the comparison is more “diverse” in nature, the main ideas of the characters, their ethical attitudes, their personal characters and the paths of life they have chosen are opposed. It is significant that Shubin and Bersenev are intimately close friends, while Insarov and Kurnatovsky are both Elena's suitors, one official, the other "chosen by the heart."
Considering Elena's search-choice of a “hero” as a process, an evolution similar to the development of Russian society over the past decade, Dobrolyubov argued that Shubin, and then Bersenev, correspond in their characters and ideological attitudes to more archaic, distant stages of this process. At the same time, both of these heroes are not so archaic as to be "incompatible" with Kurnatovsky (a leader of the new era) and Insarov (who is given special importance by the emerging revolutionary situation). Bersenev and Shubin are people of the 50s. None of them are purely Hamletic. Thus, Turgenev in "On the Eve" seemed to say goodbye to his favorite type. Both Bersenev and Shubin are genetically related to "superfluous people", but they lack many of the main features of the characters of this kind. Both of them, first of all, are not immersed in pure thought, the analysis of reality is not their main occupation. They are “saved” from reflection and withdrawal into abstract theory by professionalization, vocation, a keen interest in a certain field of activity, and constant work. Behind the images of these heroes, one can easily guess the circle of moods and ideas characteristic of the progressive people of the "gloomy seven years" era, in particular, their belief that, working in the field of art and science, one can preserve one's dignity, protect oneself from compromises and benefit society.
The image of the artist Shubin is an aesthetic and psychological study in the form of a portrait. In the person of this hero, Turgenev strove to synthesize those features that constituted the ideal idea of art in the 50s.
Shubin in his appearance, carefully described at the beginning of the novel, is similar to Pechorin: short, strong blond, at the same time pale and delicate, his small arms and legs testify to aristocracy. Having “gifted” his hero with the surname of the great Russian sculptor, Turgenev gave his portrait features reminiscent of the appearance of Karl Bryullov.
From the very first conversation of the heroes - friends and antipodes (Bersenev's appearance is drawn as the direct opposite of Shubin's appearance: he is thin, black, awkward) - it turns out that one of them is "a clever, philosopher, third candidate of Moscow University", a novice scientist, the other is an artist , "Artist", sculptor. But the characteristic features of the "artist" of the 50s are very different from the romantic idea of the artist. Turgenev makes this clear in a special episode: Bersenev "points out" to Shubin what an artist should be like according to generally accepted concepts. The traditional stereotype “prescribes” to the artist a compulsory admiration of nature, an enthusiastic attitude to music, etc. Resisting the “norms” of behavior and attitudes that are forcibly imposed on him by routine, Shubin defends his interest in manifestations of real, sensual life, in its “material nature”: “ I'm a butcher, sir; my business is to mold meat, meat, shoulders, legs, arms ”(VIII, 9). Shubin's approach to the profession of an artist, to the tasks of art and to his vocation reveals his organic connection with the era. The possibilities of sculpture as an artistic genus seem to him limited, and he wants to expand them, enriching sculpture with the artistic means of other arts. Creating sculptural portraits, he sets himself the task of conveying not so much the appearance as the spiritual essence of the original, not the "lines of the face", but the look of the eyes. At the same time, he has a special, sharpened ability to evaluate people and the ability to raise them into types. The accuracy of the characteristics that Shubin gives to other heroes of the novel turns his expressions into winged words. These characteristics are in most cases the key to the types depicted in the novel.
Often, the sharpening of the characteristics leads to the emergence of a satirical image, sometimes to the assimilation of a person to his primitive counterpart. Shubin's caricature and satirical comparisons are remarkable in that they arise from a dual and sometimes ambiguous assessment of the phenomenon and represent a certain approach, perception, consciously focused on a sharp, unusual angle of the object. The artist is able to see the same person in a series of sublime, graceful phenomena and in a satirical sense. Anna Vasilievna Stakhova is perceived by Shubin in one way as a woman worthy of respect, doing good deeds, in another - as a stupid and defenseless chicken. Much more significantly manifests this breadth of view of Shubin, his ability to see the same people from different points of view and in different ways to convey their image in the episode with two sculptural images of Insarov - heroic (his facial features are given an expression of courage, strength, honesty and nobility ) and satirical (here the main thing in his physiognomy is “stupid importance, enthusiasm, limitation”). Both images convey the essence of the object. Shubin's assessment of his own personality is dual. He knows that he is naturally endowed with talent, and says about himself: “Perhaps the name of Pavel Shubin will eventually become a glorious name?”; at the same time, he admits another possibility - vulgarization, transformation into a submissive, weak-willed roommate by a brisk and stupid woman, sinking into a vulgar provincial life. He embodies this possibility in a caricatured figurine. He sees the origins of this danger in the traits of his character, which make him akin to "superfluous people" of a reduced, provincial type (cf. the story of Turgenev's "Petushki", Ostrovsky's "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident"; there is a similar episode in Goncharov's Oblomov); in art, in his profession, in serious pursuits of it - salvation from the fate of the Russian Hamlet.
The very themes of Shubin's work, his ideas (for example, a bas-relief: a boy with a goat) speak of him as an artist of the middle of the century, they resemble the works of Ramazanov, “anticipate” the young Antokolsky.
Shubin intensely reflects on contemporary social and ethical problems. He owns in the novel all the sayings expressing the author's point of view, and criticism (including Dobrolyubov) constantly referred to his words, defining the fruitful, historically progressive ideas of the novel. Thus, the author of the novel conveyed all his originality and power as a thinker and analyst to Shubin, and not to Insarov and not to the representative of science - Bersenev. This clearly expressed Turgenev's view of the artist's personality. Turgenev did not share the theory of unconscious creativity, which was widespread among the supporters of "pure art". However, the talent of generalization, typification, sharp thought in the artist, depicted by Turgenev, is combined with the ability to unconsciously, a feeling to perceive the environment and appreciate in others the gift of spontaneous penetration into the essence of life phenomena. Shubin has long conversations with the observant and silent Uvar Ivanovich, delving into the vague meaning of his irrational assessments and prophecies. He asks him the most important question in the novel: “When will our time come? When will people be born in our country? - Give time, - answered Uvar Ivanovich, - they will ”(VIII, 142). Only Shubin understands the mysterious connection of the old nobleman, immersed in complete inaction and contemplation, with the "choral principle", "black earth power", his ability to penetrate the people's point of view and foresee the spontaneous processes taking place among the people. However, Shubin understands, develops incoherent, vague speeches of Uvar Ivanovich. In their primordial formlessness, amorphousness, they are just as unacceptable to him as Insarov's “simple”, rationalistic answers to “damned questions”. As a personality, Shubin was given features that corresponded to Turgenev's view of the ideal artist. He is graceful, simple-minded, perspicacious, kind and selfish, loves life in its real manifestations and forms, spontaneously and joyfully enjoys beauty, not romantic, ideal and abstract, but rough, alive, he longs for happiness and is able to indulge in it. This is a man "with the sun in his blood." At the same time, he, more than anyone else in the novel, is capable of introspection, of an insightful and witty assessment of phenomena, of understanding someone else's spiritual world and of dissatisfaction with his own. Creative imagination reveals to him the charm of that inner animation, which is permeated by Insarov, and he dreams that such a spiritual uplift would become possible for everyone. This open-mindedness of Shubin is characteristic of Turgenev, but does not correspond to the ideas of an ideal artistic nature, which were usual in the literary environment in the 50s. It is through the lips of Shubin that the novel expresses the idea that art cannot satisfy modern youth, thirsting for self-denial for the sake of universal happiness. Thus, having said goodbye to the ideal of the mysterious power of art standing above ethics and ideological strife in the Noble Nest, in On the Eve, Turgenev pronounces the final verdict on illusions about artistic creativity as a sphere of higher activity, capable of resolving all conflicts and issues of time within itself.
If the author of the novel put the most important generalizations, definitions and assessments into Shubin's mouth, up to the recognition of the legitimacy of "Elena's choice," he conveyed a number of ethical declarations to Bersenev. Bersenev is the bearer of the high ethical principle of selflessness and service to the idea (“the idea of science”), just as Shubin is the embodiment of the ideal “high” egoism, egoism of a healthy and integral creative nature. Turgenev stressed that Bersenev was brought up in the traditions of noble culture. Bersenev's father - the owner of eighty-two souls - freed his peasants before his death. Schellingian and mystic, he studied abstract philosophical subjects, but was a republican, admired Washington. He followed world events with alarm, and the treatise he wrote was related to utopian theories of humanism, in any case, “the events of 48 shook him to the ground (the whole book had to be redone), and he died in the winter of 53, not waiting for his son to leave the university, but in advance ... blessing him to serve science ”(VIII, 50).
The characterization is concrete and clear from the historical and social point of view. Bersenev's father - an abstract humanist and utopian - died a little before the first portents of a new social upsurge, deeply shaken by the impressions of the catastrophe of 1848; he pointed out to his son abstract science as an object worthy of service (faith in enlightenment remained unshaken in him). So Turgenev creates a biography-concept for his hero, which was then perceived by other writers. The main significance of Bersenev's biography was not in its specific content, but in the very method of constructing a story about the fate of one person in connection with the historical evolution of the social environment and with the assessment of philosophical and ethical concepts that replace each other in the course of the historical development of society. This method was then mastered by Pomyalovsky (who developed it and gave it a frankly journalistic character), Chernyshevsky (for whom it became a rethought element of his original artistic system), Pisemsky and many others.
Going into science as a sphere of pure and independent creativity was a widespread phenomenon among the thinking people of Russia in the middle of the century. Chernyshevsky himself hesitated as to which path to choose - whether to become a philologist or a publicist writer. Since the 60s, natural science studies have especially attracted independent-minded young people with the opportunity to combine the development of accurate knowledge with the freedom to express their philosophical, materialistic views.
Bersenev was given a moral trait to which Turgenev assigned a particularly high place on the scale of spiritual merit: kindness. In his opinion, the kindness of Don Quixote attaches exceptional ethical significance to this hero in the spiritual life of mankind: “Everything will pass, everything will disappear, the highest rank, power, all-embracing genius, everything will crumble to dust. But good deeds will not go up in smoke; they are more durable than the most radiant beauty ”(VIII, 191). For Bersenev, kindness comes from the deep, traditionally inherited by him "Schillerian" humanism and from its inherent "justice", the objectivity of a historian who is able to rise above personal, selfish interests and determine the meaning of the phenomena of reality regardless of his personality. This is where the modesty interpreted by Dobrolyubov as a sign of the moral weakness of the "superfluous person", his understanding of the secondary importance of his interests in the spiritual life of modern society, his "second number" in the hierarchy of types of modern leaders.
In the mediation of Bersenev, his patronage of the love of Elena and Insarov, an objective understanding of what Elena is striving for, the consciousness of the "centrality" of Insarov's nature ("number one") and their correspondence to each other, and most importantly - strict adherence to the ethical principle of the individual's right to freedom of development and freedom of feeling, ingrained and "second nature" respect for someone else's "I".
Significant are the similarities between Bersenev and Granovsky (the text of the novel gives direct indications that he is a student of Granovsky and looks at his teacher as a role model). The personality of Bersenev brings to the fore those features that were noted by Chernyshevsky ("Sketches of the Gogol period", positively assessed by Turgenev) in the best people of the 40s: camaraderie, high respect for someone else's personality, the ability to "calm down" passions, suppress quarrels of friends, which was distinguished by the "meek and loving" Stankevich (III, 218): the humanity and sensitivity of Ogarev, dedication to the cause of enlightenment, simplicity and dedication of Granovsky, - "he was a simple and modest man who did not dream of himself, who did not know pride" (III, 353 ), - all this is akin to the character of Bersenev.
Thus, Turgenev emphasizes the ideality of his scientist hero, endowing him with the character traits of people who have become a legend, habitually perceived by the democratic reader of the 60s as ideal images. At the same time, the type of scientist as an ideal turns out to be historically disavowed. Disdainfully naming the themes of Bersenev's scientific works, which have exclusively historical significance, and citing words from the novel that experts praised the author, Dobrolyubov writes about the scientist's work as a surrogate for "real activity": one means of salvation: "To dry up the mind with fruitless science" ... And it is also good that at least in this he could find salvation ... "(VI, 136-137).
Describing Bersenev's activity with a quote from Lermontov's Duma, Dobrolyubov thus assessed it as the fruit of an “era of timelessness” and as a manifestation of noble culture, the occupation of “superfluous people”. Such an attitude to the professional activity of a scientist-historian could have arisen only at a time when a revolutionary situation was taking shape in the country and the thirst for direct life-building, social creativity took hold of the best people of the younger generation.
It is interesting to note that all the young people surrounding Elena renounce aristocracy and noble class narrowness, all claim to be a worker and even a proletarian - also a sign of the era, representing a mystified reflection in the minds of people of the historical process of democratization. Labor, democracy, service to the cause have become the ethical ideal of a generation that has replaced the ideal of elitism and exclusivity. Bersenev says about people of his type: “We ... are not sybarites, not aristocrats, not darlings of fate and nature, we are not even martyrs, we are toilers, toilers and toilers. Put on your leather apron, hard worker, and stand behind your working machine, in your dark workshop! " (VIII, 126).
The hero's dramatic monologue expresses a spontaneous presentiment that in the eyes of society, a scientist steadily turns from a priest of science, possessing the gift of penetrating the mysterious essence of things (such is, for example, the interpretation of the scientist's personality in Goethe's Faust) turns into a mental worker who brings society a lasting income and content with more or less modest wages for their work, without moral satisfaction, recognition, glory ("Passenger First Class" by A. P. Chekhov).
The optimism and active practicality generated by social and political changes were not expressed in all people of the 1960s in selfless service to the common good. The bearer of the traits of selfish bargaining in the novel is (the chief secretary of the Senate is the careerist Kurnatovsky. It is in the dispute with Kurnatovsky that Bersenev, who is ready to recognize the secondary importance of science in relation to the struggle for the immediate improvement of people's lives, defends the independence of scientific activity, opposing the doctrines of subordinating it to bureaucratic "types »Government.
The representative of art, Shubin, more painfully than Bersenev perceives the cooling of the progressive people of society towards his work. Shubin cannot agree with either vulgar or intellectual rejection of art. He is burdened by the imposition of a certain stereotype of behavior on him as an artist, and the traditional attitude towards the artist as an inspired and idle child-dreamer. Unswerving and persistent work is done by Shubin's ethical ideal. In the name of his calling, he is ready to play the lot of an ordinary "worker".
Insarov - the ideal embodiment of an active and consciously heroic nature - is characterized in the novel by a sum of features in which democracy, hard work, and simplicity of the proletarian are not the last. They talk about him like that - as a commoner, "some Montenegrin". Its social characteristics turned out to be especially important for the reader of the 60s, since in it Turgenev showed the process of democratization of the advanced, thinking stratum of Russian society, “complete displacement of the nobility by commoners in our liberation movement,” and idealized a new social type. Of course, the foreign origin of Insarov is very significant, but the "proletariat", otherwise the diversity of Insarov, combined with the radicalism of convictions and the readiness to act boldly and decisively, not sparing his life, associated him with new ideals and new heroes of Russian society, turned his image into a "substitute ”, In the form of expressing the thought about the inevitable appearance of such a Russian hero.
It is interesting to note that not only Bersenev, Insarov and partly Shubin feel themselves to be "thinking proletarians." This "title" is also claimed by such a "figure" of the younger generation as the antipode of Bersenev and Insarov - Kurnatovsky.
The characterization of Kurnatovsky, "attributed" by the author to Elena, reveals the idea that Kurnatovsky, like Insarov, belongs to the "active type" and about the mutually hostile positions they hold within this very broad psychological type. At the same time, this characteristic also reveals how historical tasks, the need to solve which are clear to the entire society, force people of various political orientations to put on the mask of a progressive person and cultivate in themselves the traits that are attributed by society to such people. Elena informs Insarov about Kurnatovsky: “There is something iron about him ... and stupid and empty at the same time - and honest; they say he is definitely very honest. You, too, are iron, but not so ... he even once called himself a proletarian. We are laborers, he says. I thought: if Dmitry had said that, I would not have liked it, but let this one speak to himself! let him brag! .. He must be self-confident, hardworking, capable of self-sacrifice ... that is, to donate his benefits, but he is a great despot. The trouble is to fall into his hands! "
In conclusion, Elena informs Shubin's opinion that Insarov and Kurnatovsky “are both practical people, but look what the difference is; there is a real, living, life-given ideal; and here it is not even a sense of duty, but simply service honesty and efficiency without content ”; “But in my opinion,” says Elena, “what do you have in common? You believe, but he does not, because you cannot believe in yourself alone ”(VIII, 108).
It would seem that in the characterization of Kurnatovsky, the clarity of characterization inherent in the novel "On the Eve", the peremptory character of the author's verdict reaches its apogee. The writer, as it were, does not want to spend fictional funds on the depiction of this type, which is too clear for him. Insarov acts as the main engine of action in the novel; his personality, the work to which he devoted himself entirely, determine the fate of the heroine. The "official" groom - Kurnatovsky - does not bother Elena at all. Young people decide their fate boldly and independently. The characterization of Kurnatovsky is given succinctly, in one place, almost in the style of the famous "registers of characters" that Turgenev compiled in the early stages of work on the works. However, putting the last point in this characterization, the writer moves away from straightforwardness, a dispute between Shubin and Elena arises on the most basic issue of assessing Kurnatovsky's personality. Elena with words that almost literally coincide with the key wording of the article "Hamlet and Don Quixote" opposes Kurnatovsky to Insarov as an egoist, without faith and ideal, that is, "denies" him the main line of the active type ("Don Quixote", after terminology of Turgenev); Shubin, however, directly ranks him among the leaders, although it is stipulated that his ideal follows not from the living needs of society, but from formal dedication to official duty, a "principle" without content.
The dispute between Elena and Shubin is in the nature of a joint search for truth. Disagreeing with Shubin and putting forward a seemingly opposite point of view, Elena nevertheless attaches serious importance to his words, takes them into account. Each of them turns out to be right, and in general, their dispute clarifies not only the characteristics of Kurnatovsky, but also the idea of an active type. A person of an active character, capable of selflessly serving an idea, turns out to be not only a revolutionary or fighter of the national liberation movement, but also a bureaucrat, for whom belief in the state and government plans replaces some other ideal.
However, in accordance with the artistic structure of the novel "On the Eve", Kurnatovsky is not only an image of a certain modern type, but also the embodiment of an ideal: he is an ideal administrator - a bureaucrat of a new type, characteristic of the 60s. Kurnatovsky is energetic, decisive, honest and adamant in following a certain principle ("iron"). Behind the external and purely psychological features of Kurnatovsky as a person is a certain worldview, it embodies the result of the evolution of some ideas of the 40s, a political, philosophical concept, the "solution" of social problems of our time by thought, which developed in a peculiar direction. In pronouncing his verdict on the "hero of the case" - Kurnatovsky, Turgenev assesses not only the "case" itself, but also the concept, the ideological direction on which it is based. Herzen's Past and Thoughts contains an episode of his acquaintance with a real bearer of this kind of ideas, a type that was new in 1857 and seemed ideal, not yet completely debunked in the early 60s. Herzen writes:
“In the fall of 1857, Chicherin arrived in London. We were looking forward to him: once one of Granovsky's favorite students, a friend of Korsh and Ketcher, he represented a loved one for us. We have heard about his cruelty, about conservative wishes (aspirations. - L. L.), about immense pride and doctrinalism, but he was still young ... A lot of angular things are being sharpened over time.
- I thought for a long time whether to go to you or not ... I, as you know, fully respecting you, not in everything agree with you. This is where Chicherin began. He came up not just, not young, he had stones in his bosom ... The light of his eyes was cold, in the timbre of his voice there was a challenge and a terrible, repulsive self-confidence. From the first words I sensed that it was not an enemy, but an enemy ... The distances dividing our views and our temperaments became apparent soon ... He saw the upbringing of the people in the empire and preached a strong state and the insignificance of a person before him. One can understand that these thoughts were applied to the Russian question. He was a governmentalist, he considered the government much higher than society and its aspirations ... All this teaching came from him from a whole dogmatic structure, from which he could always and immediately deduce his philosophy of bureaucracy "(IX, 248-249; our italics .- L. L.).
The similarity of external manners, character and, most importantly, the worldview of Kurnatovsky in Turgenev and Chicherin in the image of Herzen is striking. Moreover, Herzen's analysis of the personality of one of the main ideologists of the "state school" clarifies the meaning of the contradictory reviews of Elena and Shubin about Kurnatovsky (on the one hand, he has no ideal, he is an egoist, on the other, he is able to sacrifice his own benefit, he is honest; his activities and selfless and does not follow from the needs of society). Kurnatovsky's "faith" is faith in the state "as applied to the Russian question" (Herzen's expression), that is, devotion to the estate-bureaucratic, monarchical state. Realizing that reforms are inevitable, figures like Kurnatovsky associated all possible changes in the life of the country with the functioning of a strong state, and considered themselves carriers of the idea of the state and executors of its historical mission, hence the self-confidence, egocentrism, and hence the willingness to sacrifice personal benefits.
However, faith in a monarchical state and in a bureaucratic "strong" system is faith in a system that historically can be filled with very different content (reforms and counter-reforms).
Saltykov-Shchedrin, the most “political” writer in Russia in the mid-19th century, who saw the colossal historical significance of the state in the development of society, more than once in his satirical artistic manner touched upon the issue of “new”, modern “purely” bureaucrats who were preparing themselves to conduct government reforms that aspired to the role of leaders who were destined to turn the "wheel of history" and then became servants of reaction. In the satirical drama Shadows, for example, he depicts the situation at the beginning of the 60s, when the implementation of reforms was combined with an attack on any free thought, with the suppression of the democratic forces of society. The heroes of the drama, young bureaucrats who believed in the doctrine of a "strong state" and convinced themselves that any system proposed from above is a blessing, come to naked careerism, cynicism and an inner consciousness of the "monstrous corvee" that they bear, showing their " obligatory assistance ”to any nefarious design of the government.
N. G. Pomyalovsky was the largest denouncer of bureaucracy among the sixties. Having learned a lot from Turgenev and Saltykov, he saw completely different socio-political aspects of the problem of bureaucracy and expressed his observations through a special, specific system of images. However, the episode of Kurnatovsky's matchmaking in "On the Eve" left a noticeable mark in his creative imagination. In Molotov, he repeated this situation, making the image of the groom-official a grotesque-satirical embodiment of the formalism of the bureaucratic apparatus.
In more detail than Turgenev in the novel "On the Eve", he developed the conflict between fathers and children seeking the right to freedom of feeling and independence of choice in life. Turgenev did not complicate the transparent construction of the novel by analyzing this conflict, which was not so important for him in this case. At the end of the 60s, he devoted his novel Smoke (1867) to the problem of bureaucracy, the fate of young bureaucrats, leaders of the "new time", as well as the question of the international significance of the Russian administrative system. Pomyalovsky, who "plunged" the conflict common in Russian tales since the 1940s, into a peculiarly illuminated and understandable moral world of the bureaucratic-philistine environment, against its background considered those real, new paths that young people are trying to blaze in the old, established society.
The relationship between Elena and Insarov is in many ways "ideal". The writer draws heroes flying like moths to the light to fight, not seeing and not recognizing the "small" obstacles in their path, ignoring them. There is still not that decisive rejection of the old society and its morality, that war with them, which was declared in "What is to be done?"
We see that in "On the Eve" Turgenev consistently debunked three ideals, in the formation and strengthening of the influence of two of which on society he played an important role. Turgenev contributed to the establishment among Russian readers of the authority of the personality of the artist, poet, whose activities can be opposed to participation in the practical affairs of the upper classes of society. The ideal of learning was also no stranger to Turgenev. Indeed, quite shortly before "On the Eve" - in "Noble Nest" - he internally opposed Lavretsky, striving for "positive knowledge", to his former heroes - "pure theoreticians", abstract "dreamy" thinkers. Soon, in the novel Fathers and Sons, he will again write about learning and faith in science as the most important features of a new type of people, the most modern, in a sense, ideal exponents of society's aspirations.
Turgenev did not put his hand to the assertion of the ideal of bureaucratic "state" reformism. In Turgenev's system of artistic images, the liberal bureaucrat-reformer is always a negative figure, although Turgenev understood that this type could have its ideal expression in the minds of his contemporaries. The peculiarity of Turgenev's artistic debunking of ideals was that he, "revitalizing" them, giving them the structural form of a living human character, an individual endowed with a certain worldview and style of behavior, reduced them to a type. The ethical ideal, the social decision, born of the seeking minds of the era, received a real, life embodiment, realization and thus revealed their social and temporal limitations. Turgenev showed that this ideal had already "materialized", and often the fact that humanity had already passed the stage of its embodiment in its path.
The idea of the ideal for him was inseparable from the idea of the most modern, most progressive human character, ultimately from the idea of history and time. This trait, inherent in Turgenev to the highest degree, was also characteristic of other writers of the 60s, especially those of them who passed through the school of the 40s with its historical philosophism. A. N. Ostrovsky in the 70s wrote about the ability to destroy old ideals as an obligatory trait of a true artist: “Every time has its own ideals, and the duty of every honest writer (in the name of eternal truth) is to destroy the ideals of the past when they have become obsolete ... ".
It was already noted above that the liberation movement in Europe is viewed in "On the Eve" as the beginning of a revolutionary situation in a number of countries, as a possible prologue to a change in the political climate in Russia. Insarov utters words that immediately attracted the attention of readers and still make the interpreters of the novel think: “Note: the last man, the last beggar in Bulgaria and I - we wish the same thing. We all have one goal. Understand what confidence and strength this gives! " (VIII, 68). These words are seen as an expression of the thought "about the need to unite all the advanced forces of Russian society to fight for reforms" and as a political lesson for revolutionary democrats, preaching that "only the struggle for" national "interests gives birth to heroes."
Without denying the possibility of some political and didactic meaning, contained both in this phrase of Insarov and in the very depiction in the novel of the national liberation struggle uniting the nation, it should be noted, however, that for Turgenev, no less, and perhaps more important, was the other side of the matter. In "On the Eve", despite the fact that this novel by its very structure is perhaps the most "rational", journalistic of the writer's novels, the lyrical element is unusually strong. The form of expression of a new ideal and a new one that replaces the recent depression, social revival is the general tone of cheerfulness, energy, inspiration, which is felt in the moods of the main characters and, as it were, illuminates other characters in the novel with a reflected light.
Describing the position of a person in different periods of the life of society and under different political conditions, Herzen wrote about the revolutionary situation: “There are epochs when a person is free in a common cause. The activity to which every energetic nature strives then coincides with the striving of the society in which it lives. At such times - also quite rare - everything rushes into the cycle of events, lives in it, suffers, enjoys, perishes ... Even those individuals who are at enmity against the general stream are also carried away and satisfied in a real struggle ... At such a time, no the need to talk about self-sacrifice and devotion — all this is done by itself and is extremely easy. - Nobody backs down because everyone believes. In fact, there are no victims, the viewers seem to be victims of such actions that constitute a simple execution of the will, a natural way of behavior ”(VI, 120-121).
Herzen, who wrote these lines under the direct impression of the revolutionary situation in Europe at the end of the 1940s, speaks of the historical possibility of social unity - even if not unity in worldview and aspirations (cf. the words of Insarov, who argued that all Bulgarians want the same thing), but in activity, in a state of mind that expresses social enthusiasm. It is significant that Herzen writes of reactionary leaders that they are "at enmity against the general stream." The revolutionary situation, in his opinion, covers the entire society, the majority of citizens in one way or another participate in the struggle on the side of progressive forces, since revolutionary changes become a historical necessity. The revolutionary situation in the 60s in Russia made the main mood, the main tone of society, optimism, the pursuit of happiness, faith in the fruitfulness of political creativity, and the revolutionaries, aware of the inevitability of self-sacrifice in the struggle, angrily protested against the concept of “sacrifice”.
Interest in the epochs of popular upsurge, the activity of all members of society, in historical periods when the chorus of collective political action sounded powerfully and each individual (often aimed at achieving private and personal goals) will poured into the mainstream of great historical achievements, embraced Russian literature. Its highest expression was L. Tolstoy's novel War and Peace.
The life of the main character in "On the Eve" is tragic; and, of course, it is no coincidence that Insarov dies without joining the fight of which he dreams, and Elena, preparing to take part in the war, anticipates her imminent end and is looking for it. Turgenev was characterized by an acute awareness of the tragic nature of the course of history. It was reflected in the images of his heroes - the children of their time - and in their fates. Elena, as noted above, is brought closer to Liza Kalitina by a sacrificial impulse. Moreover, the writer connects the dedication of both heroines, their inherent thirst for feat with the traditions of national asceticism (it is not for nothing that the beggar Katya “appears” in her dream, instilling in her the dream of wandering and leaving the family). However, unlike Liza Kalitina, Elena is free from ascetic morality. She is a modern, courageous girl, easily breaking with the oppression of traditions, striving for happiness.
Before joining his life with hers, Insarov introduces his beloved woman into his plans, interests and concludes with her a kind of contract, which presupposes on her part a conscious assessment of their possible future. This is exactly how, according to Chernyshevsky, expressed in the article "Russian people on rendez-vous", a "decent person" would behave when meeting with Asya, Chernyshevsky himself tried to "conclude" such an agreement with his bride. Elena's selfless love and her noble determination destroy Insarov's ascetic isolation and make him happy. Dobrolyubov especially appreciated the pages of the novel, which portrayed the bright and happy love of young people. The novel contains a meaningful conversation between Shubin and Uvar Ivanovich: “... Insarov coughs up blood; this is bad. I saw him the other day ... his face is wonderful, but unhealthy, very unhealthy.
- Fighting ... it's all the same, - said Uvar Ivanovich.
- Fighting is all the same, for sure ... but living is not all the same. But she will want to live with him.
- It's a young business, - Uvar Ivanovich responded.
- Yes, a young, glorious, courageous deed. Death, life, struggle, fall, triumph, love, freedom, homeland ... Good, good. God grant everyone! It's not like sitting up to your neck in a swamp and trying to pretend that you don't care when you really don't really care. And there - the strings are stretched, the links are for the whole world, or they are torn ”(VIII, 141).
Shubin opposes the view of his generation, according to which life, happiness, and struggle are inseparable, against the idea of Uvar Ivanovich, an old man, of struggle as synonymous with death (therefore, it doesn't matter if a healthy or sick person goes to fight). Regardless of whether triumph or death leads the struggle, it makes a person happy ("God grant everyone").
The aspirations and needs of the young "children of the time" were characterized by Turgenev in the novel, and this was its main novelty. In "On the Eve" a hero of the 60s was found, albeit nominally; in fact, it was synthesized from historical needs, emerging ideals, individual observations of the trends in the development of the historical process. Not wanting to pass this hero off as a typical, real rooted phenomenon of Russian life, Turgenev gave his idea the appearance of a life-like, historically concrete hero - a fighter of the national liberation movement. Why this particular type was chosen by the writer as a “substitute” for the Russian revolutionary leader, a “substitute” expressing both the inevitability of such a hero's transformation into the main figure of our time and the incompleteness of the process of his formation, we had the opportunity to say above.
The fundamental feature on which Turgenev built the character of this hero is his active, active nature, his importance as a social engine, a person who is assigned to implement tasks that are at the same time the simplest and most important for a person, people, time.
N. Shchedrin (M.E.Saltykov). Full collection Op. T. XVIII. M., 1937, p. 144.
The clarity and some deliberate sketchiness of both the general structure of the novel and its individual images were noted by contemporary criticism for the writer. See: K. N. Leontiev. A letter from a provincial to Turgenev. - Otechestvennye zapiski, 1860, No. 5, dep. III, p. 21; N.K. Mikhailovsky. Literary critical articles. M., 1957, p. 272.
SM Petrov rightly writes: “The problem of the social role and significance of the various democratic intelligentsia is posed by Turgenev for the first time not in Fathers and Children, but in On the Eve” (S. M. Petrov. I. S. Turgenev. M. , 1968, p. 167).
V. I. Lenin. Full collection cit., vol. 25, p. 94.
Chernyshevsky in What Is to Be Done ?, speaking about Lopukhov's work at the plant, very closely reproduced the wording of Kurnatovsky's confessions, who asserted that he almost changed his service in the Senate to the position of manager of a large plant in search of a live business. Needless to say, the meaning of Lopukhov's activities at the plant is essentially the opposite of the administrative work that attracts Kurnatovsky, but the willingness of both heroes to abandon office studies (Lopukhov leaves science) for the sake of communicating with the direct producers of material wealth and understanding by them (each in accordance with with his own worldview) the importance of industrial enterprises in society characterizes both of these heroes as figures of a new era. The possibility of a direct polemic by Chernyshevsky (or his hero - Lopukhov) with the understanding of the importance of organizational work at the plant, which is stated in Kurnatovsky's reasoning, is also not excluded.
A. N. Ostrovsky. Full collection Op. T. XV. M., 1953, p. 154.
M.C. Clement. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. L., 1936, p. 123; A. I. Batuto's commentary to "On the Eve" (VIII, 533).
Vladimir Goldin
Heroes in Turgenev's novels. Article 3.
"ONEVER"
The title of the novel itself is intriguing. The day before - What? Each reader who starts reading this novel thoughtfully can answer this question in his own way, and he will be right. So after all, on the eve of what? ..
On a hot summer day, two young men are resting on the banks of the river under a linden tree. Their thoughts and words are commonplace, dreams are standards for young people who are starting their lives. Let's imagine them, following Turgenev: Bersenev, Andrei Petrovich - a university graduate and Shubin, Pavel Yakovlevich - a sculptor. Young people talk about love, about women, about nature, which, as it were, is the connecting principle in all life endeavors.
Shubin lived with a relative of Stakhova, Anna Vasilievna, a wealthy woman, but empty, carried away by various trifles and quickly tired of them. The birth of her daughter upset her health, and after that she did nothing but “she was sad and quietly worried,” she was a stay-at-home, she forgave her husband his male pranks. Stakhov, Nikolai Artemyevich, a retired warrant officer, "picked up" Anna Vasilievna at one of the secular balls, was a fronder.
After lunch, young people Bersenev, Shubin and Elena Nikolaevna, the daughter of the Stakhovs, go to the park for a walk. Here, young people who have reached the age when it is necessary to think about creating a family, when it is necessary to determine the profession of their future adult life, share their desires and dreams. Here, in my opinion, is the first clue to the title of the novel "On the Eve", a moment of life that determines the meaning of all subsequent years of human existence. Bersenyev dreams of becoming a professor of history or philosophy. Shubin still hovers in the space of thoughts between the profession of a sculptor and a womanizer, he likes Elena, he flirts with Zoya, a Russianized German woman in the Stakhovs' house, and is fond of peasant "girls". Elena, a maximalist, speaking in a modern style, did not forgive anyone a lie "forever and ever", as soon as a person lost her respect and he ceased to exist for her. At the same time, she read a lot and longed for active good, gave alms and picked up crippled birds and animals, thought about love, and was surprised that there was no one to love.
Bersenyev goes to the city, where he meets a student friend and invites him to visit his country cottage. Bersenev's friend is a student, a Bulgarian Insarov, Dmitry Nikanorich has limited funds, he accepts the invitation, but on the condition that he will pay for the rented room himself.
The first acquaintance of Elena and Shubin with Insarov did not produce the impression that Bersenev had outlined for them. But if Shubin could be understood immediately - jealousy spoke in him, then Elena's consciousness did not accept Insarov as a hero. The trust in each other of Elena and Insarov developed slowly, but after their meeting in private, these relations began to develop hastily. Who is Insarov, and how does Turgenev present him to the reader?
Insarov is a man of ideas, the idea of liberating Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke. For this, Insarov lives, studies, suffers, suffers hardships, helps compatriots, refuses to love a woman - all for the sake of an idea. But the character of young Elena conquers Insarov. Elena finally falls in love with Insarov after a walk arranged by Stakhova, where Insarov showed himself as a hero, defending the company from the harassment of drunken Germans. Elena in her diary admits to herself that she is in love. Insarov, unable to control his feelings, leaves the dacha and leaves for Moscow.
But feeling wins. Elena and Insarov meet at an abandoned chapel in bad weather. Young people declare their love. For the sake of love, Elena refuses a profitable marriage offered by her father, leaves her home, full of wealth and bliss - goes to Insarov. Elena accepts Insarov's illness as her own, takes care of the patient, then, with an unrecovered Insarov, goes to Europe, with the aim of illegally entering Bulgaria, where the liberation movement flared up with renewed vigor. Insarov dies. Elena, faithful to him and his idea, travels with strangers to Bulgaria. The further fate of Elena is unknown.
The fate of the rest of the main characters of the novel "On the Eve" is interesting. Bersenev, as dreamed of, successfully began to make a career as a university professor, he is abroad and has already published two articles that have attracted the attention of specialists. Shubin's dream also came true, he is in Rome "... all devoted to his art and is considered one of the most remarkable and promising young sculptors." Elena found someone she could love, and fell in love not only with a person with a purposeful character, but also with his idea ... The dreams of the heroes that had developed on the eve of entering an independent adult life came true.
The novel "On the Eve" is multifaceted. Here are the deep thoughts and thoughts of the author. A thoughtful researcher on reading the novel is provided with material for numerous articles: male and female heroes in the novel, landscape and its connection with the thoughts and actions of the heroes, the relationship between the older and incoming generations, and others. Let us not creep our thoughts along the tree here. This is not the purpose of our article.
I would like to dwell once again on the title of the novel “On the Eve”. Dobrolyubov in the article "When Will the Present Day Come?" ran far ahead of real events, seeing in the novel signs of an impending revolution. This speaks of inexperience, intolerance and inability to deeply analyze the historical situation in Europe, and most importantly in Russia. Therefore, it was no coincidence that Turgenev insisted that Dobrolyubov's article not be published in the open press, and when the article was nevertheless published, Turgenev decisively broke off relations with Nekrasov and Dobrolyubov. The strategists of the "advanced thought" turned out to be blind. Nekrasov and Dobrolyubov were simple propagandists of the "revolution" who understood neither the purpose of the revolution, nor its driving forces, nor the program of subsequent actions. For them, the revolution had to take place for the revolution - and only, beyond that, their thoughts did not go. Imagine Barin Nekrasov moving in a whole train to hunt in 1919 !!! How many such revolutionaries have rejected the revolution and condemned it.
Turgenev in this case is more of an analyst and strategist than his compatriots.
Dear reader, pay attention to the dynamics of the actions of the main characters of Turgenev's novels. Rudin is a loner, a man who grew up and matured in the conditions of the noble nobility, at the expense of the labor of serfs. He is a poor nobleman who picked up ideas while traveling around Europe. Remember: "His eloquence is not Russian" !!! He is a fluffy man, lives on debt, and dies senselessly. In the "Noble Nest" Lavretsky strives to find himself in the active management of his household. Mikhalevich is all in search of finding a job for himself in order to be useful, if not to society, then to himself.
Insarov is a completely different person. Insarov is already working with a group of like-minded people, he has connections in Russia and abroad, he is a member of a secret community. A man of ideas for which he gives his life. Insarov is a Bulgarian, on the territory of Russia the leader of some group of possessed people seeking to free their homeland from the Turkish yoke. There were no such groups, formed like-minded people in Russia when Turgenev wrote his novel. There were scattered loners like Rudin and Mikhalevich.
Let's turn to female images. In "Rudin" Natalia understood the character and deeds of her hero and found her "woman's happiness" in marriage. In the "Noble Nest" Elizaveta Mikhailovna could not understand the moral aspects of her admirers and went to a monastery.
In "On the Eve" Elena, on the contrary, chooses from the circle of admirers Insarov - a man of ideas. Elena's act is symbolic in that she chooses a foreigner and his ideology. Here Elena - a woman chooses someone else's ideology, is comparable to the concept of Elena - Russia, which is increasingly moving towards imitation of the West. Elena chose the Western ideology, and it is unknown how she dies. This is where, in my opinion, the answer to the title of the novel "On the Eve" is.
And Elena is also a symbol of the Russian noble intelligentsia, in whose ranks a spontaneous protest against the established foundations is born and begins to develop.
It was the noble intelligentsia that began to excite the minds of the practically absolutely illiterate peasantry, and the nascent illiterate working class.
However, “smart people. Damn them! " they did not understand that the loners of the revolution would not do, for this it was necessary to train cadres. It's easy to build a factory or a ship, but they will not give the estimated economic and other returns if they are run by untrained people, this takes time.
The novel "On the Eve", in my opinion, is a novel a call to all strata of society to reflect on the future development of Russia.
