And the Tolstoy Magpie's tales summary. Children's literature

Russian folk tales

Biography of Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy born January 10 (December 29), 1883 in the city of Nikolaevsk, Samara province.

Tolstoy's father, Count Nikolai Alexandrovich, was the leader of the Samara district nobility.

His stepfather, Alexey Apollonovich Bostrom, was the chairman of the district zemstvo government.

Tolstoy’s mother, Alexandra Leontievna, née Turgeneva, was the granddaughter of the Decembrist N.I. Turgenev. She was an educated woman who studied literature.

The future writer spent his childhood in the village of Sosnovka, which belonged to his stepfather. Here, under the guidance of a visiting teacher, he received his initial education.

1897 - the Tolstoy family moves to Samara, and Alexey enters a real school.

1901 - after graduating from college, Alexei Tolstoy leaves Samara for St. Petersburg, intending to continue his education. He enters the Institute of Technology to study mechanics. Then he begins to write his first poems.

1905 – industrial practice at the Baltic plant.

1906 – first publication. The Kazan newspaper “Volzhsky Listok” publishes three poems by Alexei Tolstoy.

February - July of the same year - study in Dresden.

1907 - having completed almost the entire course of study at the institute, Tolstoy leaves it without defending his diploma. He intends to devote himself to literature. This year the first book of poems by Alexei Tolstoy, “Lyrics,” is published. His poems and articles are published in the magazines “Luch” and “Education”. The writer himself lives in Paris at this time, where he is preparing a second book of poems for publication.

1908 - return to St. Petersburg. A book of poems “Beyond the Blue Rivers” has been published. Tolstoy tries to work with prose and writes Magpie Tales. Exactly prose works will bring him fame.

1909 - Alexey Tolstoy writes the story “A Week in Turenev” (included in the collection “Trans-Volga Region”), which is published in the magazine “Apollo”. The Rosehip Publishing House is releasing the first book of stories and short stories by Alexei Tolstoy.

1910 - 1914 - two of the writer’s novels, “Cranks” and “The Lame Master,” are published. Critics favorably perceive his works, and M. Gorky himself praises Tolstoy’s works.

1912 – move to Moscow.

1913 - Alexei Tolstoy begins to collaborate with the newspaper “Russian Vedomosti”, publishing his novels and short stories in it.

1914 – the beginning of the First World War. Tolstoy, as a war correspondent for Russian Vedomosti, goes to the Southwestern Front.

1914 - 1916 - the war allows Tolstoy to visit Europe again, he visits France and England. In addition to journalistic work, he is engaged own creativity, writes stories about the war (“Underwater”, “ Beautiful lady", "On the Mountain"), turns to drama (writes the comedies "Killer Whale" and "Evil Spirit").

Beginning of 1917 – February Revolution makes Tolstoy think about Russian statehood, he is interested in the Petrine era. A historical theme gradually comes into the writer’s work.

Alexei Tolstoy does not accept the October Revolution.

1918 - Tolstoy and his family leave for Odessa, from there he goes to Paris.

1918 – 1923 – emigration. Alexei Tolstoy first lives in Paris, and in 1921 he moves to Berlin. Here he enters creative group“On the Eve”, consisting of representatives of the Russian emigrant intelligentsia. Becoming a member of "On the Eve" automatically meant giving up the fight against Soviet power, and therefore accept it. Because of this, many friends turn away from Tolstoy, he is expelled from the Union of Russian Writers in Paris. It is possible to maintain relations only with M. Gorky. Later, in his memoirs, the writer will call emigration the most difficult period in his life.

1920 - the story “Nikita’s Childhood” was written.

1921 - 1923 - the novel “Aelita”, the stories “Black Friday”, “The Manuscript Found Under the Bed” were written.

1923 – return to the USSR.

1925 – 1927 – work on the science fiction novel “Engineer Garin’s Hyperboloid”. During the same period, the story “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio” was written.

1927 - 1928 - Alexei Tolstoy writes the first two parts of the trilogy “Walking through Torment” (“Sisters”, “The Eighteenth Year”).

1928 - the Tolstoy family moves to Detskoye Selo near Leningrad.

1929 - work began on historical novel"Peter I". Tolstoy would write it for 16 years, until the end of his life, but the work would remain unfinished. The finished chapters of the novel are published by the New World magazine.

1931 - the novel “Black Gold” was written.

1932 – travel to Italy, meeting in Sorrento with M. Gorky.

1934 - Tolstoy takes an active part in the preparation and holding of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers.

1937 – the writer was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

1938 - Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy was awarded the Order of Lenin for the script for the film “Peter I”.

1939 - Tolstoy becomes an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

1940 - 1941 - Alexei Tolstoy writes the third part of “Walking Through Torment” “Gloomy Morning”.

During the Great Patriotic War Tolstoy writes many articles, stories and essays. Creates the duology “Ivan the Terrible”.

January 10, 1943 - Alexei Tolstoy turns 60 years old. In connection with this event, by Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the writer was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

March 19 of the same year - award to Tolstoy Stalin Prize first degree (100 thousand rubles) for the novel “Walking Through Torment”. The prize was donated by the writer for the construction of the Grozny tank.

June 1944 - doctors discover a malignant tumor in the writer’s lung.

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy an amazing and capable writer of rare talent, he created numerous novels, plays and stories, wrote scripts, fairy tales for children. Due to the fact that A.N. Tolstoy took the most effective and active part in the creation (at that time) Soviet literature for children, could not escape the close attention of the writer and works of Russian folklore, oral folk art, namely Russian folk tales, which on his behalf underwent some processing and retelling.

Alexey Nikolaevich sought to reveal to young readers, to show them the enormous ideological, moral and aesthetic richness, which permeates the works of Russian oral folk art. Carefully selecting and sifting the hosts folklore works, as a result, he included in his collection of Russian folk tales 50 fairy tales about animals and about seven children's fairy tales.

According to Alexei Tolstoy recycling folk tales was long and challenging task. If you believe his words, then from the numerous variations of Russian and folk tale he selected the most interesting tales, enriched with truly folk language expressions and amazing plot details, that could be useful for children and parents in mastering Russian folk culture, her stories.

To children's literature Tolstoy A.N. contributed his book, affectionately called “ Magpie Tales", which was prepared in 1910. Fairy tales from this book, thanks to diligence and perseverance Tolstoy, were often published in children's anti-corruption magazines of that time, such as “Galchonok”, “Tropinka” and many others. Works from his book are also widely used today.

Of course, it is necessary to note Tolstoy’s inexhaustible contribution to Russian children’s literature. It was Alexei Nikolaevich who translated, expanded and wrote the wonderful fairy tale in Russian “”. Subsequently, he used the text of this wonderful fairy tale to create a film script and play of the same name for children's puppet theater. The history of this tale is very interesting, it began shortly before the return of A.N. Tolstoy from emigration, then the initial translation of the story by the Italian writer (C. Lorenzini) C. Collodi The Adventures of Pinocchio was published in a Berlin magazine, essentially this was the first adaptation of the well-known literary work. From this time began a long, lasting more than ten years, painstaking work Tolstoy's story-fairy tale for children, which later became known as The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio. The long and thorny work on this wonderful children's work was finally completed only in 1936.

They did not shy away from the writer’s attention (as noted above) and Russian folk tales, Tolstoy made retellings and adaptations of the texts of the most memorable folklore works that he loved. Already from his first steps in domestic and world literature, Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy set himself a goal: to be a passionate adherent of his native folklore, Russian folklore, close to him from childhood. oral creativity; The late period of the writer’s work is marked by grandiose folkloristic ideas. Tolstoy’s interest in folklore was genuinely broad, but at that time, in literature and pedagogy in general, the following phenomenon was observed as “a fierce struggle with fairy tale“and this may probably be the reason for the forced emigration of A.N. Tolstoy abroad, and at the same time his original Russian patriotism. After all, in those days, fairy tales were categorically denied as a genre of children’s literature; fairy tales were persecuted and destroyed by, for example, the Kharkov pedagogical school, which even allowed itself to release and popularize in every possible way a collection of articles called “We are against the fairy tale.” Pedagogical and Rappian criticism not only of the Russian fairy tale, but also of folk tales in general, were very strong and fully supported by numerous corrupt officials, who pictured the future of literature as completely sterilized from fairy tales, cleansed of cultural heritage past and his historical roots. Even after many decades, we can observe this picture of adherents of this ideology who continue to persecute and desecrate fairy tales in our days. These individuals are easy to find and read their “works”, which are written (or retold) today, in our days, for example, on behalf of the journalist Panyushkin and some others.

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Magpie Tales

On Baba Yaga's hut, on a wooden shutter, nine cockerels are carved. Red heads, golden wings.

Night will come, the woodies and kikimoras will wake up in the forest, start hooting and fussing, and the cockerels will also want to stretch their legs.

They jump off the shutter into the damp grass, bend their necks and run around. They pluck grass and wild berries. The goblin gets caught, and the goblin gets pinched on the heel.

Rustle, running through the forest.

And at dawn, Baba Yaga will rush in like a whirlwind on a mortar with a crack and shout to the cockerels:

Take your place, slackers!

The cockerels don’t dare disobey and, even though they don’t want to, they jump onto the shutter and become wooden, as they were.

But at dawn Baba Yaga did not appear - the stupa got stuck in the swamp along the way.

Radekhonki cockerels; They ran to a clear patch and flew up onto a pine tree. They took off and gasped.

Wonderful wonder! The sky is burning like a scarlet stripe over the forest, flaring up; the wind runs through the leaves; dew sets.

And the red stripe spreads and becomes clearer. And then the fiery sun rolled out.

It’s light in the forest, the birds are singing, and the leaves are rustling on the trees.

The cockerels took their breath away. They flapped their golden wings and sang - crow! With joy.

And then they flew for dense forest to an open field, away from Baba Yaga.

And since then, at dawn, the cockerels wake up and crow:

Kukureku, Baba Yaga has disappeared, the sun is coming!

Behind Kalinov bridge, on the raspberry bush there were honey rolls and gingerbread cookies with filling. Every morning a white-sided magpie would fly in and eat gingerbread.

He eats, cleans his sock and flies off to feed the children gingerbread.

Once a tit bird asks a magpie:

Where, auntie, do you carry gingerbread cookies with filling? My children would love to eat them too. Show me this good place.

“And the devil is in the middle of nowhere,” answered the white-sided magpie, who deceived the bird.

“You’re not telling the truth, auntie,” the titmouse squeaked, “the devil has only pine cones lying around in the middle of nowhere, and even those are empty.” Tell me - I'll track you down anyway.

The white-sided magpie got scared and became greedy. She flew to the raspberry bush and ate honey rolls and gingerbread cookies with filling, all clean.

And the magpie’s stomach hurt. I dragged myself home by force. She pushed the magpies, lay down and groaned...

What's wrong with you, aunty? - asks the titmouse bird. - Or what hurts?

“I worked,” the magpie groans, “I’m tired, my bones hurt.

Well, that’s it, but I was thinking something else, for something else I know a remedy: the herb Sandrit, it heals all ailments.

Where does Sandrit grass grow? - the white-sided magpie begged.

“And the devil is in the middle of nowhere,” answered the titmouse bird, covering the children with her wings and falling asleep.

“The devil has nothing but pine cones in his cots,” thought the magpie, “and even those are empty,” and she became sad: the white-sided one had a very bad stomach.

And out of pain and anguish, the feathers on the magpie’s belly all came out, and the magpie became bare-faced.

From greed.

Vaska the cat

Vaska the cat's teeth were broken from old age, and Vaska the cat was a great hunter at catching mice.

He lies all day on the warm stove and thinks about how to straighten his teeth...

And he made up his mind, and having made up his mind, he went to the old witch.

Grandma,” the cat purred, “give me teeth, but I broke off the sharp, iron, and bone teeth long ago.”

Okay,” says the sorceress, “for this you will give me what you catch the first time.”

The cat swore, took the iron teeth, and ran home.

He gets impatient at night, walks around the room, sniffing out mice.

Suddenly something seemed to flash, the cat rushed, but apparently missed.

I went - it rushed again.

“Wait a minute!” - Vaska the cat thinks, he stopped, squinted his eyes and turned around, but suddenly he jumped, spun around like a top and grabbed his tail with his iron teeth.

Out of nowhere an old witch appeared.

Come on, he says, tail by agreement. - The cat purred, meowed, and shed tears. Nothing to do. He gave away his tail. And the cat became scanty. He lies on the stove all day and thinks: “Get lost, iron teeth, lost!”

The drifting snow flies through the snow, sweeping snowdrift onto snowdrift... On the mound a pine tree creaks:

Oh, oh, my old bones, the night has played out, oh, oh.

A hare sits under a pine tree, ears pricked.

Why are you sitting, - the pine tree is moaning, - the wolf will eat you, - he would run away.

Where should I run, everything is white, all the bushes are covered with snow, there is nothing to eat.

And sometimes you scratch it.

There’s nothing to look for,” said the hare and lowered his ears.

Oh, my old eyes, - the pine tree groaned, - someone is running, it must be a wolf, - there is a wolf.

The hare began to rush about.

Hide me, grandma...

Oh, oh, well, jump into the hollow, obliquely.

The hare jumped into the hollow, and the wolf ran up and shouted to the pine tree:

Tell me, old woman, where is the scythe?

How do I know, robber, I’m not guarding the hare, the wind is blowing up, oh, oh...

The wolf threw his gray tail, lay down at the roots, and laid his head on his paws. And the wind whistles in the branches, grows stronger...

I can’t stand it, I can’t stand it,” the pine tree creaks.

The snow began to fall thicker, a shaggy snowstorm blew in, picked up white snowdrifts, and threw them onto the pine tree.

The pine tree sprung, grunted and broke...

The gray wolf, falling, was killed to death...

They were both swept away by the storm.

And the hare jumped out of the hollow and jumped wherever his eyes looked.

“I’m an orphan,” thought the hare, “I had a grandmother, a pine tree, and even that one was covered in snow...”

And trifling bunny tears dripped into the snow.

Gray sparrows sat on a bush and argued about which of the animals was more terrible.

And they argued so that they could shout and fuss louder. The sparrow cannot sit quietly: he is overcome by melancholy.

“There is nothing more terrible than a red cat,” said the crooked sparrow, which the cat scratched once with its paw last year.

“The boys are much worse,” answered the sparrow, “they steal eggs all the time.”

“I already complained about them,” another squeaked, “Semyon promised to gore the bull.”

“What about the boys,” shouted the thin sparrow, “you’ll fly away from them, but if you catch a kite on your tongue, I’m so afraid of it!” - and the sparrow began to clean his nose on a twig.

“But I’m not afraid of anyone,” suddenly a very young sparrow chirped, “neither a cat nor boys.” And I’m not afraid of the kite, I’ll eat them all myself.

And while he was saying this, a large bird flew low over the bush and screamed loudly.

The sparrows fell like peas, and some flew away and some hid, but the brave little sparrow, lowering his wings, ran across the grass. The big bird clicked its beak and fell on the baby sparrow, and he, turning away, unconscious, dived into the hamster hole.

At the end of the hole, in a cave, an old mottled hamster was sleeping, curled up. Under his nose lay a pile of stolen grain and mouse paws, and behind him hung a warm winter fur coat.

“Gotcha,” thought the little sparrow, “I’m dead...”

And knowing that if he didn’t, they would eat him, he fluffed up and, jumping up, pecked the hamster on the nose.

What is it that tickles? - said the hamster, opening one eye slightly and yawning. - And it's you. You're hungry, it's clear, little one, you shouldn't have a bite of grain.

The little sparrow felt very ashamed, he squinted his black eyes and began to complain that the black kite wanted to devour him.

Hm,” said the hamster, “oh, he’s a robber!” Well, let’s go, he’s my godfather, let’s catch mice together,” and he climbed forward out of the hole, and the little sparrow, small and unfortunate, didn’t need to be brave at all.

“Come here, come,” the hamster said sternly, crawling out into freedom.

The little sparrow stuck its fidgety head out of the hole and froze: in front of him sat a black bird on two legs, its mouth open. Little Sparrow closed his eyes and fell, thinking that he had already been swallowed. And the black bird croaked cheerfully, and all the sparrows around it fell on their backs with laughter - it was not a kite, but an old auntie crow...

What, boaster, - said the hamster to the little sparrow, - we should whip you, but oh well, go and bring a fur coat and more grains.

The hamster put on a fur coat, sat down and began whistling songs, while sparrows and crows danced in front of the hole in the clearing.

And the little sparrow walked away from them into the thick grass and, out of shame and frustration, gnawed his claws, out of a bad habit.

A mouse runs through the clean snow, behind the mouse is a path where paws have stepped in the snow.

The mouse doesn't think anything, because the brain in its head is smaller than a pea.

A mouse saw a pine cone in the snow, grabbed it with its teeth, scratched it, and kept looking with its black eye to see if there was a ferret.

And the evil ferret crawls along the mouse's tracks, sweeping snow with his red tail.

His mouth gaped - he was about to rush at the mouse...

Suddenly the mouse scratched its nose on a bump, and out of fright it dived into the snow, only wagging its tail. And she doesn't exist.

The ferret even gritted his teeth - what a nuisance. And the ferret wandered and wandered through the white snow. Angry, hungry - better not get caught.

A. N. Tolstoy received his first recognition from readers after the publication of his collection of prose “Magpie Tales” (1909).

In 1923, when re-issuing his early works, Tolstoy identified two cycles: “Mermaid Tales” (with magical-mythological plots) and “Magpie Tales” (about animals).

All these works can be called fairy tales only conditionally: they combine the characteristics of a scary or funny tale, a story and a fairy tale. In addition, the writer freely treated beliefs and fairy tales, sometimes allowing himself to simply invent them and stylize them as a folk tale.

Often the narration in Tolstoy’s fairy tales is conducted in the present tense, thereby emphasizing reality fantastic heroes and events. And what happened in the past, thanks to the clarifying details, seems to be a reliable, recent event (“The neighbor’s stove had a little man living behind his stove,” begins the fairy tale “The King of the Animals”). The action can take place in a hut, in a barn, in a stable, in a forest or field... - where the mermaid, field grass, anchutka, barnyard and other pagan spirits that are so rich in Russian myths live. These creatures are the main characters of fairy tales: helpers and pests for people and pets.

The close proximity of the domesticated world to the mysterious wild nature entails confrontation. The wild chicken, having tested the man, rewards him with ducats (the fairy tale “The Wild Chicken”). The “master” (brownie) scares the horses at night and takes away the black stallion; but the goat - the horse guard - defeats the brownie (fairy tale "The Master"). Sometimes Tolstoy gives detailed portrait mythological hero- as in the fairy tale “The Animal King”: “Instead of hands, the king has burdocks, his legs have grown into the ground, and there are a thousand eyes on his red muzzle.” And sometimes he deliberately omits all the details of the description in order to tease the reader’s imagination; Thus, all that is known about a wild chicken is that it “smells like pine under its wing.” Appearance serves the author only as an additional means of depicting the character of each of the fantasy characters.

The cycle “Magpie Tales” tells mainly about the bird and animal kingdom, although the heroes of some stories are people; there are also tales about ants, mushrooms, and household utensils. The largest fairy tale in the entire collection is “Titmouse”. This is an epically developed narrative, with many historical details. Dramatic story Princess Natalia is a whole canvas in comparison with other sketch fairy tales.

In general, “magpie” tales are more unpretentious than “mermaid” tales, with a lighter, slightly mocking intonation of the narrator, although the subtext sometimes reveals an “adult” depth of content (for example, in the fairy tales “The Sage”, “Gander”, “Picture”, "Tit"). A significant part of the “magpie” tales is interesting to young readers. Unlike many literary fairy tales, they are not edifying, but only entertaining, but entertaining in a special way: in situations common to fairy tales about animals, inner world heroes. Tolstoy’s dialogues, familiar to folk tales and similar to duels, serve as an occasion to show his mastery of Russian speech.

Taking a fairy tale, invented for fun, too seriously is impossible for Tolstoy with his sensible, realistic attitude towards life. The writer introduces an ironic parody into the stylization of a folk tale, thereby emphasizing the difference between folk tale and your own, author's. His mocking tone even sad endings adds fun. Let's take the fairy tale “The Hare” as an example. Its plot is typically folklore: a hare is saved from a wolf with the help of a kind intercessor - grandmother pine. All three heroes find themselves in a dramatic situation: an old pine tree falls in a snowstorm and kills them to death. gray wolf, and the hare, left alone, grieves: “I’m an orphan,” thought the Hare, “I had a grandmother-pine tree, and even that one was covered in snow...” And trifling hare tears dripped into the snow.” Inner speech, and even psychologically rich, is funny in itself if it is spoken by a hero like a hare. One word “trifling” applies to the whole sad story.

The “triviality” of Tolstoy’s early fairy tales does not prevent them from being useful for children. The writer offered readers the norm of healthy emotional experiences, in simple and pure language he spoke about the fact that nature is naive and wise; a person should be the same.

In addition to the “mermaid” and “magpie” tales, Tolstoy also has fairy tales, as well as stories for children: “Polkan”, “Axe”, “Sparrow”, “Firebird”, “The Gluttonous Shoe”, etc. They are especially interesting children preschool age, because, in addition to the merits of “Magpies” or “Mermaid Tales,” they have specific qualities of literature for children. Birds, animals, toys, drawings are animated and humanized in them as it happens in a child's imagination. Many motives are associated with naive childhood fears. For example, toys are afraid of a scary picture lying under the chest of drawers; The “face with hands” that is drawn on it has run away and is hiding in the room - this makes everyone even more scared (“Gluttonous Shoe”). Criticism of other people's behavior through an emphasized action or gesture is also characteristic of children's thinking. The stupid bird flew away from the princess. The giant chases after her, “climbs through the ravine, and runs up the mountain, puffing, he’s so tired - he stuck out his tongue, and the bird stuck out its tongue.” Meanwhile, Princess Marya “was picky, pouting her lips with a frying pan, spreading her fingers and whining: “I, nanny, don’t want to sleep without the canary bird” (“Firebird”).

These fairy tales and stories are a kind of “representations” that children play (the fairy tale “Snow House”). Perhaps the best “presentation” from an artistic point of view is the story “Fofka”. If in other fairy tales and stories Tolstoy conveyed the point of view of the world of some animal or evil spirits, then here he narrates on behalf of the child. Brother and sister's funny game of scary "fofok" (chickens drawn on a strip of wallpaper) shown from the inside children's world. There is a meaning hidden from adults in the whims of children. The children's room is populated by "fofkas" that come to life at night - so that the children can defeat them by pinning them all with special buttons (bought from "Mrs. Bee"!)

Tales of A.M. Remizov, A.N. Tolstoy and other writers of the turn of the century play a huge role in the synthesis of children's culture and the riches of folklore.

The writer was seriously interested in literature for children and wanted to see it as great literature. He argued: “A book should develop in a child a dream... a healthy creative imagination, give the child knowledge, instill in him emotions of kindness... A children’s book should be kind, teach nobility and a sense of honor.”

These principles underlie his famous fairy tale “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of a Wooden Doll” (1935). The history of “The Golden Key...” began in 1923, when Tolstoy edited the translation of the fairy tale “Pinocchio, or the Adventures of the Wooden Doll” by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi. In 1935, having already returned from emigration, he was forced, due to a serious illness, to interrupt work on the novel “Walking Through Torment” and for mental relaxation he turned to the plot of Pinocchio. According to Marshak, “he seemed to be playing some kind of game with the readers.” fun game, giving pleasure primarily to himself.” As a result, “a novel for children and adults” (according to Tolstoy’s definition) remains one of the favorite books of both children and adults today. In 1939, the Moscow Theater for Children staged the play “The Golden Key”; in the same year, a film of the same name was shot using animation.

The writer provided the book with a preface, where he reported on his first acquaintance with “Pinocchio...” in childhood. However, this is nothing more than fiction. He couldn't read Collodi's fairy tale as a child because Italian did not own it, and the first Russian translation was made in 1906, when Alexey Nikolaevich was already an adult.

Tolstoy's tale differs from Collodi's edifying tale primarily in its style, in particular, in its ironic attitude towards any moral teaching. Pinocchio, as a reward for finally becoming “good”, turns from a wooden doll into a living boy; Buratino is good as is, and the teachings of Cricket or Malvina are not at all what he needs. It is, of course, made of wood and therefore not very intelligent; but he is alive and capable of quickly growing in intelligence. In the end, it turns out that the seamstress is not stupid - on the contrary, he is smart and quick in decisions and actions. The writer renamed the hero: Pinocchio turned into Pinocchio. This, according to Papa Carlo, lucky name; those who wear it know how to live cheerfully and carefree. The talent to live like this in the absence of everything that usually forms the foundation of well-being - an educated mind, a decent upbringing, wealth and position in society - sets the wooden man apart from all the other heroes of the fairy tale.

It works in the fairy tale a large number of heroes, many events take place. In essence, an entire era is depicted in the history of the puppet-prop Tarabar Kingdom. An adult reader can discern in the depiction of the Country of Fools hints of the Country of Soviets during the NEP.

Theatrical motifs are inspired by Tolstoy's memories of the confrontation between the Meyerhold and Moscow theaters art theater Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, as well as the types that were fashionable at the beginning of the century: the poet - tragic jester (Pierrot), the pampered woman-doll (Malvina), the aesthetic aristocrat (Artemov). It is worth reading the poems of Blok, Vertinsky, Severyanin to be convinced of this. Parodies are drawn in the images of these three dolls, and although, of course, the little reader is not familiar with the history of Russian symbolism, he feels that these heroes are funny differently than Pinocchio. In addition, Malvina is similar to Lilya, the heroine of Nikita's Childhood, which gives her warmth and charm.

Both positive and negative heroes fairy tales are depicted as bright personalities, their characters are clearly defined. Note that the author brings out his “scoundrels” in pairs: Duremar appears next to Karabas Barabas, the fox Alice and the cat Basilio are inseparable.

Heroes are initially conventional, like dolls; at the same time, their actions are accompanied by changeable facial expressions and gestures that convey their psychological life. In other words, while remaining dolls, they feel, think and act like real people. Pinocchio can feel how the tip of his nose turns cold from excitement or how goosebumps run through his (wooden!) body. Malvina throws herself in tears onto the doll's lace bed, like an exalted young lady.

The doll characters are depicted in development, as if they were living children. IN last chapters Pierrot becomes bolder and begins to speak in a “rough voice”; Malvina makes real plans - to work in the theater as a ticket and ice cream saleswoman, and maybe as an actress (“If you find my talent...”). On the first day of his life, Buratino’s thoughts were “small-small, short-short, trivial-trifling,” but in the end adventures and dangers tempered him: “He brought water himself, picked up branches himself and pine cones, he himself lit a fire at the entrance to the cave, so noisy that the branches of a tall pine tree swayed... He himself cooked cocoa in the water.” Having clearly matured at the end of the fairy tale, he nevertheless remains the same mischievous boy at the theater in which he will play himself.

The plot develops rapidly, like in a movie: each paragraph is a finished picture-frame. Landscapes and interiors are depicted as scenery. Against their motionless background, everything moves, walks, runs. However, in this confusion it is always clear which of the heroes the reader should sympathize with and which should be considered an enemy. Good and evil are clearly separated, while the negative characters are also sympathetic; therefore, the irreconcilable conflict between the heroes develops easily and cheerfully.