What is a "Hamburg account"? "Hamburg account": the meaning of phraseology and origin.

What is a Hamburg account? If you don't know real history the appearance of this catchphrase in Russian, then you can put forward as much as you like various versions, and none of them will be correct. Meanwhile, the verbal turnover, firmly established in our speech, was born relatively recently. This is the rare case when we are able to name the exact date the emergence of phraseology.

The origin of phraseology

The expression "Hamburg account" came into everyday use thanks to the Soviet writer and publicist Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky. In 1928, a collection of essays and notes was published, where the author, as a literary critic, analyzes creative activity his contemporaries - fellow writers. The writer evaluates the works of Yu. Olesha, M. Gorky, Vs. Ivanov, V. Khlebnikov, M. Zoshchenko, O. Mandelstam, M. Bulgakov, S. Yesenin, A. Tolstoy, V. Mayakovsky and many others.

Shklovsky's book The Hamburg Account contains a parable about Russian athletes performing in the circus arena. To please the public, the fights in classical or, as it was also called, French wrestling were short and planned in advance, were more demonstrative and artistic than sporting in nature. But once a year, athletes traveled to German Hamburg, where competitions were held in one of the taverns closed to spectators in order to identify the real champion. Obviously, the meaning of the phraseological unit "Hamburg account" corresponds to such synonyms as "a fair alignment" or "unadorned reality".

Artistic allegory

Modern researchers suggest that historical fact, described by Shklovsky, did not exist in reality, and this author's fiction was created in order to become a platform for playful ranking of writers of the first half of the 20th century. Shklovsky, subtly owning literary word and possessing an inexhaustible sense of humor, with a certain amount of sarcasm, continued the story of identifying the winners among the wrestlers: "The Hamburg account is necessary in literature."

Further, the writer arranges his colleagues on the imaginary steps of the literary Olympus, which, in his opinion, they deserve. The championship title goes to Velimir Khlebnikov, and Bulgakov turns out to be the red-haired clown at the carpet. It will probably be interesting for current school graduates to reveal the topic of the Hamburg account in an essay on the Unified State Examination. Moreover, the story invented by Shklovsky is distinguished not only by beauty and conciseness. She got some interesting facts. It was said that Mikhail Bulgakov was offended by this critical attack and for some time did not shake hands with its author. However, the phrase instantly gained popularity among writers, and then went beyond the writing environment.

Meaning and examples of the use of the idiom

Hamburg account ... We have already figured out what this short phrase means. Its meaning is interpreted quite simply: the true alignment, the real state of affairs, a truthful assessment. Often this expression is used in various areas of life. For example, you watched a film that, despite its external beauty, does not carry any artistic value, or you simply did not like it. Here it is possible to syronize: "By and large, the Hamburg account, that is, to be honest, this motion picture is not worth a penny." And it does not matter whether this opinion is strictly objective or based on one's own, individual vision. This expression has long lost its fundamental meaning and is used with a touch of light, gentle humor.

Doubt in competence and well-deserved approval

Phraseologism is applicable to assess professional or personal characteristics man: "He is, of course, a good guy, but judging by the Hamburg account, he cannot be trusted with a serious matter." Most often, uttering this phrase, they try to reveal some shortcomings of an animate or inanimate object, event, phenomenon. Less often, praise can sound here: “The work was done excellently, even according to the Hamburg bill.” The value invested in this verbal turnover serves as a kind of measure of quality. the highest standard on the infinite scale of human values.

Fixed exchange rate

Let's try to figure out whether this phrase existed outside of Shklovsky's work, does the writer own the palm in its creation? In the financial and credit sphere, there is such a thing as "banko", denoting the established rate at which the purchase and sale is made. valuable papers. According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, this term was first introduced by the Hamburg Bank at the beginning of the 18th century. As you know, until the 19th century, Germany was an imperial union of many sovereign states, each of which had its own currency. Not only did gold thalers wear out with long use, they lost their original weight, but they were not always accepted for settlements in neighboring lands.

Only in the bank of Hamburg it was possible to deposit the currency of any of the German states into the account. One conditional coin (banko mark) had a denomination of 528 as of pure gold. From 1763, the Hamburg account was adopted financial institutions many countries of the world. Coins were minted in England, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, accepted in Dutch, Italian, German and other banks. With the introduction of the metric system, such a settlement mechanism gradually began to lose its position, and in the territory of united Germany it was abolished in 1873.

The most accurate way to bank payments

Phraseologism "Hamburg account", according to historians, most likely originated in the accounting field and was known to a narrow circle of professionals. At a time when there was no complex computer science, and all mathematical calculations were made manually, the so-called Hamburg method was in use, which made it possible to obtain the most accurate results.

This method of bringing together bank balance sheets was considered laborious, so it was used only in special cases. It must be assumed that in the 20s of the last century, when Shklovsky wrote the note that became famous, the main instrument of a financial worker was an abacus with wooden knuckles. Information about a special ultra-precise technique could be heard.

How legends are born

It is likely that Viktor Shklovsky could have known both about the existence of the Hamburg settlement system and about the universal currency of European banks. But, you see, the legend that tells about wrestling competitions looks much more romantic and attractive to readers than plunging into the wilds of financial office work. Apparently, Shklovsky was guided by these considerations when creating his note.

If the writer had not clothed this expression in an artistic shell, it would hardly have become known to a wide circle of the reading public and went out to the people. An indisputable fact: many proverbs and sayings that are considered folk are actually lines from author's works. Suffice it to recall the phrase "stay at broken trough", which came out of Pushkin's fairy tale "About the Goldfish", or the wonderful expression " happy hour do not observe”, donated to us by A. S. Griboyedov. Today, catch phrases enter our speech thanks to the outstanding work of filmmakers, the skill of actors, the ingenuity of artists conversational genre, the talent of songwriters and even the not always coherent speeches of some politicians.

A term adopted in social psychology

Interestingly, the phrase "Hamburg account" is now a semi-official term used in social psychology to determine the true status of an individual in society. The real position of the individual, according to the findings of individual studies, often does not correspond to her formal position on the step of the social ladder assigned to her. To find out the actual status of a subject, experts resort to a method conventionally called the Hamburg account. This verbal expression is present in the professional slang of practicing psychologists and is even used in thematic reports and publications. Allowing myself to joke a little, let's say that Viktor Shklovsky not only enriched his native speech with a beautiful catchphrase, but also made a contribution to modern science.

Film by German filmmakers

Many times I have heard the statement that the phraseological unit “Hamburg account” exists only in Russian. But in 1999 came out Feature Film produced in Germany, in the title of which this verbal turnover appears. What does it mean? Did the director Sönke Wortmann, who made a story about the events of Friday night in one of the areas of the port city, know our idiom?

The issue is resolved quite simply. The original title of the film is "Night in St. Pauli" (St. Pauli Nacht). And the film was renamed “Hamburg Account” for Russian distribution according to the plan of domestic translators, since the plot develops precisely in Hamburg. It definitely turned out well. In any case, capacious and recognizable. But, unfortunately, this film has nothing to do with the works of Viktor Shklovsky, the work of Russian writers and the legend of athletes.

The expression "Hamburg account", or "according to the Hamburg account", linguists refer to the category of such phraseological units, the meaning of which is not equal to the sum of the meanings of words. In other words, knowing what is "Hamburg" and what is "account" will not shed light on the meaning of this phrase.

Intuitive understanding of an expression based on context

However, the expression "Hamburg account", or "according to the Hamburg account", is usually intuitive from the context and is often equated with the phraseological unit "by and large". In general, this is true, but only an intuitive understanding of a phraseological unit usually does not make it possible to freely use it in one's own speech, since the boundaries of the meaning are not entirely clear, and secondly, there is always a doubt about whether it is understood correctly and what it has relation to the city of Hamburg.

To understand the nuances of the meaning and the specifics of the use of this expression will help to know what the “Hamburg account” is, as well as what is the history of the origin of the phraseological unit.

Viktor Shklovsky on the etymology of the expression "Hamburg account"

The origin of phraseology is closely connected with the name of the famous literary critic and critic Viktor Shklovsky. His book is called The Hamburg Account. The meaning of the phraseological unit becomes clear after getting acquainted with the parable told by Shklovsky and explaining the title of the book.

The parable says that professional wrestlers never fight honestly, their task is to perform on order. They must lose (lie down on their shoulder blades) when the entrepreneur tells them. This scam is for making money. However, every year in one of the taverns in Hamburg, wrestlers gather for a fair fight. Their struggle takes place without spectators, from whom the struggle itself is hidden, and how long, unaesthetic and difficult it really is for the wrestlers. At this unspectacular event, it turns out which of the wrestlers is stronger and which is weaker.

This is done in order to find out the real value of each wrestler, no matter what place he occupies in the open arena.

"Hamburg account" in literature

It is this struggle, hidden from everyone, in which official titles and titles are not important, that Shklovsky calls the “Hamburg account”. important in relation to literature, or rather, to what place a particular writer occupies in the literary arena. What the phraseologism “Hamburg account” means for Viktor Shklovsky becomes clear from the use of the expression “according to the Hamburg account” in the text of his short article. “According to the Hamburg account, there are no Se-rafi-movie-cha and Ve-res-ev. They don’t reach the city, ”the author writes and then continues his allegory, saying that in Hamburg, that is, at hidden competitions where the true strength of a wrestler is revealed, Bulgakov would have ended up at the carpet, Isaac Babel would act as a lightweight wrestler, the strength of Maxim Gorky would be doubtful, since this “athlete” is not always in shape, but Velimir Khlebnikov would be a champion.

One of the areas of use of the expression "Hamburg account" is economic. The etymology and meaning of the phraseological unit are such that it can be used in the sense that they are built on honest, open principles, when all parties to the contract are equal both formally and in essence.

"Hamburg account" in literary criticism

As can be seen from the retelling of a short article by Shklovsky, in literature, as in sports, the Hamburg account is important. The meaning of phraseology in context literary criticism lies in the fact that in literature, as in wrestling, any figure can be evaluated according to two systems. For the first, the official "alignment" of forces is important, and for the second, the real one. In the first case, formal indicators of the success of the author and the work are important in literature, and in the second case, his real scale of talent.

Of course, in literature, it is much more difficult to find out which of the writers “does not reach the city” and who is the champion is much more difficult than in sports. Ultimately, according to the Hamburg account, only time can evaluate a writer and a work, but what is meant is that when evaluating a literary phenomenon, it is important not to follow momentary criteria, but to look at it as if it existed outside of time.

"Hamburg account" in various fields of culture and art

Since the time of Shklovsky (and his book was written in 1928), the expression "Hamburg account" has become familiar in many areas of culture. The meaning of phraseologism has expanded. Most often, the assessment "according to the Hamburg account" means the assessment of a cultural phenomenon or cultural figure, regardless of any opinions, official recognitions, awards, awards, popularity and notoriety.

So, a scientist, by coincidence, may not have a high scientific rank - not be an academician or even a professor, but only an associate professor, not occupy leadership positions, not participate in official events, however, "according to the Hamburg account", that is, in reality, to be an interesting scientist whose thoughts, works and achievements are really important for science.

This approach to evaluation is possible not only in relation to a person, but also, for example, to a book. One book can be published by the largest publishing house with a circulation of ten thousand copies, widely known to readers, have a lot of fans, it can be made into a TV series, but according to the Hamburg account, this is just a commercial project or a temporary, momentary phenomenon. Another book may be published by a small provincial publishing house with a circulation of five hundred copies and known only to a small circle of readers, receive negative reviews from critics, but according to the Hamburg account, this may turn out to be a really talented work.

The allegorical meaning of the expression "Hamburg account"

However, this is not all possible meanings of the expression "Hamburg account". The meaning of phraseologism in modern language even wider. It is used when they want to talk about the real, honest price of something, about the true state of things. You can judge, evaluate by the Hamburg account not only phenomena and cultural figures, but also your actions, family relationships, relationships between people, events in the country, etc. - in a word, everything that can have a formal, official side and a real one, true.

Examples of the use of the expression "Hamburg account"

The specificity of a phraseological unit is such that even with a clear understanding of its meaning, its use can cause problems, since samples of grammatical "fitting" of an expression into a phrase are needed. Indeed, there are not so many grammatical and syntactic options:

• Pelevin is a strong satirist and a very successful commercial project, a successful writer, but if according to the Hamburg account, then this is emptiness, like all the phenomena of postmodernism.
• He is very willing to speak the most different topics, but when Ivan Ivanovich falls silent: he understands that, according to the Hamburg account, all his knowledge is superficial.
• I trust this vet. He will never say too much and will not advise if he does not understand the situation. He works on the Hamburg account, his goal is not to pretend that he understands everything, but to save the animal and not harm him.
• Of course, they won this match. But, according to the Hamburg score, they played poorly. They just got lucky. It was their day.

Appropriate and inappropriate contexts

Phraseologism - one that, in the case of transparency of its meaning, is used freely and swiftly in its use. The same thing happens with the expression "Hamburg account": the origin and meaning of the words are transparent. This means that you can safely experiment. However, in this case, one should beware of using the expression even when it is well understood what the Hamburg account is.

The fact is that this expression is itself intended for a conversation “according to the Hamburg account” and resists mundane, everyday, unimportant topics and contexts. It will be inappropriate when talking about whether the birthday went well, whether the cake was a success, or at what level the service in the cafe. In these situations, the expression "Hamburg account" is not redundant only if everyday events for some reason have importance in someone's destiny or significant for the life of a city or country.

The expression "Hamburg account" meant the intention of Russian circus wrestlers late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, to reveal in their midst really the strongest. Usually, in the circus arena, the winner of the fight was determined in advance - by agreement. But once a year, the wrestlers, who allegedly met far from the public and employers in a Hamburg tavern, found out in a fair fight which of them was actually stronger than the others.

The Hamburg score is an extremely important concept.
All wrestlers, when fighting, cheat and lie down on their shoulder blades at the order of the entrepreneur.
Once a year wrestlers gather in a Hamburg tavern.
They fight behind closed doors and curtained windows.
Long, ugly and hard.
Here the true classes of fighters are established - so as not to cheat.
The Hamburg account is necessary in literature.
According to the Hamburg score, there are no Serafimovich and Veresaev.
They don't make it to the city.
In Hamburg - Bulgakov at the carpet.
Babel is a lightweight.
Gorky is doubtful (often out of shape).

Khlebnikov was the champion.

Viktor Shklovsky. Hamburg account. L. 1928

The definition by Viktor Shklovsky of a place “at the carpet” for Mikhail Bulgakov was insulting because of the allusion to the clown who was entertaining the audience at the carpet at the circus. This caused complications in relations between the two writers. It is known that Shklovsky later changed his mind.

There is an assumption that, by association with the "Hamburg account" of Viktor Shklovsky, it became catch phrase"By and large", which appeared later in the novel by Veniamin Kaverin "Fulfillment of desires".

Spreading

The legend of Ivan Poddubny did not find documentary evidence, the historians of Hamburg and the modern owners of restaurants do not know anything about the wrestling competitions held in the Hamburg tavern on turn of XIX and XX centuries. Nevertheless, thanks to the book of the same name by Viktor Shklovsky, the expression "Hamburg account", which became widespread in the Russian language, became winged and popular not only among the writers, but also much wider.

Psychologists use it, in particular, to identify the real, and not the official place of the individual in the status hierarchy.

... First of all, the "Hamburg account" is relevant when working with a social psychologist-practitioner with small groups, determining their current state and development trajectory, identifying the causes of low functionality of both obvious and potential conflicts…

Outside the Russian language, this expression causes difficulties with translation due to the lack of a concept in other languages ​​and the ambiguity of the Russian word " check". Douglas Robinson (English)Russian offers three options: The Hamburg Score/Rankings/Account for the title of Shklovsky's work, noting that the English. score, rankings better describe the allusion to wrestling competitions, but Richard Sheldon used English when translating. account .

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Notes

Literature

• Walter Harry.// Problems of history, philology, culture. - 2011. - No. 3. - S. 199-204.
• Jutta Limbach. Ausgewanderte Wörter. Eine Auswahl der interessantesten Beiträge zur internationalen Ausschreibung "Ausgewanderte Wörter". In: Deutscher Sprachrat, Goethe-Institut (Hrsg.): Wörter wandern um die Welt. Hueber, Ismaning 2006 (3. Auflage 2008), ISBN 978-3-19-107891-1

Links

• Viktor Shklovsky. Hamburg account. - Leningrad: Writers' Publishing House in Leningrad, 1928. - 247 p. - 4000 copies.
• Viktor Shklovsky. Hamburg account: Articles, memoirs, essays (1914 - 1933). - Moscow: Soviet writer, 1990. - 129 p.
• Social Psychology. Dictionary / Under. ed. M. Yu. Kondratiev // Psychological Lexicon. encyclopedic Dictionary in six volumes / Ed.-comp. L. A. Karpenko. Under total ed. A. V. Petrovsky. - M.: PER SE, 2006. - 176 p.

An excerpt characterizing the Hamburg account

Returning from Prince Andrei to Gorki, Pierre, having ordered the bereator to prepare the horses and wake him up early in the morning, immediately fell asleep behind the partition, in the corner that Boris gave him.
When Pierre woke up completely the next morning, there was no one in the hut. Glass rattled in the small windows. Rector stood pushing him aside.
“Your excellency, your excellency, your excellency ...” the bereytor said stubbornly, without looking at Pierre and, apparently, having lost hope of waking him up, shaking him by the shoulder.
- What? Began? Is it time? Pierre spoke, waking up.
“If you please, hear the firing,” said the bereytor, a retired soldier, “already all the gentlemen have risen, the brightest ones themselves have long passed.
Pierre hastily dressed and ran out onto the porch. Outside it was clear, fresh, dewy and cheerful. The sun, having just escaped from behind the cloud that obscured it, splashed up to half of its rays, broken by a cloud, through the roofs of the opposite street, onto the dew-covered dust of the road, onto the walls of houses, on the windows of the fence and on Pierre's horses standing by the hut. The rumble of cannons was heard more clearly in the yard. An adjutant with a Cossack roared down the street.
- It's time, Count, it's time! shouted the adjutant.
Ordering to lead the horse behind him, Pierre went down the street to the mound, from which he had looked at the battlefield yesterday. There was a crowd of military men on this mound, and the French dialect of the staff was heard, and Kutuzov's gray-haired head was visible with his white cap with a red band and a gray-haired nape sunk into his shoulders. Kutuzov looked through the pipe ahead along the high road.
Entering the steps of the entrance to the mound, Pierre looked ahead of him and froze in admiration before the beauty of the spectacle. It was the same panorama that he had admired yesterday from this mound; but now the whole area was covered with troops and the smoke of shots, and slanting rays bright sun, rising behind, to the left of Pierre, they threw at her in the clear morning air a piercing light with a golden and pink tint and dark, long shadows. The distant forests that complete the panorama, as if carved from some kind of precious yellow-green stone, could be seen with their curved line of peaks on the horizon, and between them, behind Valuev, the big Smolensk road cut through, all covered with troops. Closer, golden fields and copses gleamed. Everywhere - in front, on the right and on the left - troops were visible. All this was lively, majestic and unexpected; but what struck Pierre most of all was the view of the battlefield itself, Borodino and the hollow above Kolochaya on both sides of it.
Above Kolochaya, in Borodino and on both sides of it, especially to the left, where the Voyna flows into Kolocha in the swampy banks, there was that fog that melts, blurs and shines through when the bright sun comes out and magically colors and outlines everything seen through it. This fog was joined by the smoke of shots, and through this fog and smoke lightnings of morning light shone everywhere - now over the water, then over the dew, then over the bayonets of the troops crowding along the banks and in Borodino. Through this fog one could see the white church, in some places the roofs of Borodin's huts, in some places solid masses of soldiers, in some places green boxes, cannons. And it all moved, or seemed to move, because the mist and smoke stretched all over this space. As in this area, the lower parts near Borodino, covered with fog, and outside it, higher and especially to the left along the entire line, through the forests, through the fields, in the lower parts, on the tops of the elevations, were constantly born of themselves, out of nothing, cannon-shaped, then lonely, now lumpy, now rare, now frequent clouds of smoke, which, swelling, growing, swirling, merging, were visible throughout this space.
These gunshot smokes and, strange to say, their sounds produced the main beauty of the spectacle.
Puff! - suddenly one could see round, dense smoke playing with purple, gray and milky white colors, and boom! - the sound of this smoke was heard in a second.
"Poof poof" - two smokes rose, pushing and merging; and "boom boom" - confirmed the sounds that the eye saw.
Pierre looked back at the first smoke that he had left in a rounded dense ball, and already in its place were balls of smoke stretching to the side, and poof ... (with a stop) poof poof - three more, four more, and for each, with the same constellations, boom ... boom boom boom - answered beautiful, solid, true sounds. It seemed that these smokes were running, that they were standing, and forests, fields and shiny bayonets were running past them. On the left side, over the fields and bushes, these large smokes with their solemn echoes were constantly born, and closer still, along the lower levels and forests, small gun smokes, which did not have time to round off, flared up and gave their small echoes in the same way. Fuck ta ta tah - the guns crackled, although often, but incorrectly and poorly in comparison with gun shots.
Pierre wanted to be where these smokes were, these shiny bayonets and cannons, this movement, these sounds. He looked back at Kutuzov and at his retinue in order to check his impression with others. Everyone was exactly the same as he was, and, as it seemed to him, they looked forward to the battlefield with the same feeling. All faces now shone with that hidden warmth (chaleur latente) of feeling that Pierre noticed yesterday and which he fully understood after his conversation with Prince Andrei.
“Go, my dear, go, Christ is with you,” said Kutuzov, without taking his eyes off the battlefield, to the general standing next to him.
Having listened to the order, this general walked past Pierre, to the exit from the mound.
- To the crossing! - the general said coldly and sternly in response to the question of one of the staff, where he was going. “And I, and I,” thought Pierre and went in the direction of the general.
The general mounted a horse, which was given to him by a Cossack. Pierre went up to his bereytor, who was holding the horses. Asking which one was quieter, Pierre mounted the horse, grabbed the mane, pressed the heels of his twisted legs against the horse’s stomach, and, feeling that his glasses were falling off and that he was unable to take his hands off the mane and reins, he galloped after the general, arousing the smiles of the staff, from the mound looking at him.

The general, behind whom Pierre rode, went downhill, turned sharply to the left, and Pierre, losing sight of him, jumped into the ranks of the infantry soldiers walking ahead of him. He tried to get out of them first to the right, then to the left; but everywhere there were soldiers, with equally preoccupied faces, preoccupied with some invisible, but obviously important matter. Everyone looked with the same dissatisfied questioning look at this fat man in a white hat, for some unknown reason, trampling them with his horse.
- Why does he ride in the middle of the battalion! one shouted at him. Another pushed his horse with the butt, and Pierre, clinging to the pommel and barely holding the shy horse, jumped forward the soldier, where it was more spacious.
There was a bridge ahead of him, and other soldiers were standing by the bridge, firing. Pierre rode up to them. Without knowing it himself, Pierre drove to the bridge over the Kolocha, which was between Gorki and Borodino and which, in the first action of the battle (taking Borodino), was attacked by the French. Pierre saw that there was a bridge ahead of him, and that on both sides of the bridge and in the meadow, in those rows of hay that he noticed yesterday, soldiers were doing something in the smoke; but, in spite of the incessant shooting that took place in this place, he did not think that this was the battlefield. He did not hear the sounds of bullets squealing from all sides, and the shells flying over him, did not see the enemy who was on the other side of the river, and for a long time did not see the dead and wounded, although many fell not far from him. With a smile that never left his face, he looked around him.

The concept of the "Hamburg account", which has become widespread in the Russian language, denotes the identification of the real, and not the official place of the individual in the status hierarchy. The expression "to pay according to the Hamburg bill" means "to pay honestly."

The Hamburg account" is the title of a collection of literary critical articles by Viktor Shklovsky, published in 1928. In a brief programmatic article that opens the collection, the author himself explains the meaning of the book's title in this way: "The Hamburg account is an extremely important concept. All wrestlers, when wrestling, cheat and lie down on the shoulder blades at the order of the entrepreneur. Once a year wrestlers gather in a Hamburg tavern. They fight behind closed doors and curtained windows. Long, ugly and hard. Here the true classes of fighters are established - so as not to cheat. "As A.P. Chudakov reports, the commentator modern edition book, the real basis of this plot was for Shklovsky the oral story of the circus wrestler Ivan Poddubny. However, it is much more likely that the authorship of the expression "Hamburg account" belongs to Shklovsky himself. Immediately becoming a catchphrase, especially fashionable in the literary environment, the expression "Hamburg account" is the equivalent of an impartial assessment of something without discounts and concessions, with the utmost exactingness. It is possible that the no less popular phraseologism "by and large", which has the same meaning, is nothing more than a transformation of Shklovsky's notion. For the first time in literature, the phrase "by and large" is found in the novel "Fulfillment of Desires" (1935), created by Veniamin Kaverin, a writer close to Shklovsky's circle. And today, more and more often in our speech, the expression "according to the Hamburg account" is heard - a contamination of two phraseological units invented by writers.
Critic Irina Rodnyanskaya in the article "The Hamburg Hedgehog in the Fog" (New World. - 2001. - No. 3), devoted to the problems of literary strategies today, remarks: "Shklovsky could be pleased - almost like Dostoevsky, who was proud of the enrichment of the Russian language with the verb" to shade. so long ago even the most colorful Duma deputy publicly threatened to judge someone "according to the big Hamburg score". folk comprehension good to listen. Our character innocently contaminated "Hamburg bill" and "big bill", believing that it lies somewhere nearby. Yes, so long ago it seems not to him alone.

The "Hamburg account" (it has become commonly understood) is a great aesthetic account in literature and art. Identification of the first-second-last places on the scale of the authentic, real. "Big" - because it opposes "small" accounts maintained by officialdom, groupings, parties in the interests of their situational needs. "Big" - because it refers to the "big time", in whose epochal contours the fog will dissipate, burst bubble and everything will fall into place. The connoisseur, who attracts the "Hamburg account", acts as a guesser, an oracle, listening to the noise of great time, checking the signals from there with his aesthetic instrument.

In our life we ​​have to interact with many people. Among them there are both decent and dishonest, dreaming of asserting themselves at the expense of others. So in the text of Viktor Shklovsky we meet the problem of honesty, decency. Is it important to "play fair"? And can justice be done?

The author of the story cites a recollection of one meeting with the legendary strongman Ivan Poddubny. The athlete spoke about a young wrestler who, instead of demonstrating wrestling techniques, tried to put Poddubny on his shoulder blades. He obviously hoped that he would cope with a seventy-year-old strong man who did not expect an attack, and would become famous as a wrestler who defeated Poddubny himself. But great athlete didn't let him do it.

In addition, the author tells about himself - about the unfair accusation against him by the poet Simonov. This accusation led to the fact that Shklovsky was not published for a long time. But the future put everything in its place, and it turned out that the words “Hamburg account” from the story about Poddubny became a folk proverb.

Of course, one cannot but agree with this statement. And in own life, and in the literature we find many examples of how unfair or dishonorable act breaks someone's fate. For example, in M. A. Bulgakov's novel we read about how envious writers and critics literally mixed the Master's novel about Pontius Pilate with mud. Of course, the reason was not only envy, but also fear, because the topic was very topical at a time when non-intervention, “washing hands” could easily cost someone their life. And the dishonest and unfair accusations that rained down on him cost the Master the meaning of life. He burned the novel, broke off relations with Margarita and hid from reality in a lunatic asylum.

Injustice also destroyed the life of Tamara Ivanovna's family from V. Rasputin's story "Ivan's Daughter, Ivan's Mother". The dishonorable behavior of the investigator, who understands that the market trader is guilty of raping and beating Sveta, but is still ready to let him go for a bribe, forced the woman to shoot the criminal. In a world where you will not find justice even in the prosecutor's office, you have to take care of your own safety and the salvation of your children. As a result, Tamara Ivanovna ended up in prison, and her daughter's life will never be happy and cloudless.

Dishonest, dishonorable actions are not just ugly: they are irresponsible in relation to others, as they cripple their destinies. But the future puts everything in its place.