The novel "The Captain's Daughter" as a historical canvas. Captain's daughter: artistic features

"The Captain's Daughter" is the last major work of A. S. Pushkin on a historical theme. The theme of the novel - the peasant uprising of 1773-1775 - is just as natural and important in the ideological and creative evolution of the poet as the theme of Peter I and the theme of 1812. But, unlike "Arap Peter the Great" and "Roslavlev", "The Captain's Daughter" was finished: Pushkin's interest in the problem of the peasantry turned out to be more stable.

The content of the novel was not immediately determined, and the original idea, which was based on the historical fact of the participation of the Guards officer Shvanvich in the Pugachev uprising, underwent an almost complete change. The plot of The Captain's Daughter, which combined a historical co-existence - the Pugachev uprising - with a chronicle of one noble family, took shape only in 1834, after Pushkin's journey to the Volga and the Urals and the end of Pugachev's History. In November 1836, the novel appeared in the pages of Sovremennik.

Despite the small volume, The Captain's Daughter is a work of wide thematic scope. It vividly reflects the life of the people, images of peasants and Cossacks, landlord life, provincial society and the life of a fortress lost in the steppes, the personality of Pugachev and the court of Catherine II. The novel depicts faces representing different strata of Russian society, revealing the mores and life of that time. "The Captain's Daughter" gives a wide historical picture, covering the Russian reality of the era of the Pugachev uprising.

The problems of The Captain's Daughter are extremely acute and varied. The position and demands of the people, the relationship between the landowners and the peasantry and the problems of state domestic policy, serfdom and the moral and everyday aspects of the life of the nobility, the obligations of the nobility to the people, the state and their estate - these are the main questions raised by Pushkin in novel. The most important of these is the question of the historical and political meaning and significance of peasant uprising.

A historical novel about the 18th century, at the same time it is a political novel of the 1830s. The image of the struggle of the people against the nobility - the peasant uprising - is given in The Captain's Daughter in the most expanded form. Contradictions within the nobility itself attract attention in much lesser degree. Pushkin seeks to reveal and show the totality of the phenomena associated with the uprising of the peasantry. The wide spread of the movement, its causes, the origins and beginning of the uprising, its course, the social and national composition of the participants in the movement, the rank and file of the rebels and their leaders, the rights of the landlords and the attitude of the rebels towards civilians, the psychology of the peasants Yang masses, the policy of the noble monarchy and the noble massacre of the peasantry - all this is reflected in the novel.

The social orientation of the movement, the hatred of the people for the nobility, Pushkin, despite censorship, shows quite clearly. At the same time, he reveals another side of the Pugachev movement - the humanity inherent in the participants in the uprising in relation to the "common people". When taking the Belo-Gorsk fortress, the Cossacks take away only "officers' apartments." Terrible is the anger of Pugachev himself at Shvabrin, who oppresses an orphan from the people (Masha Mironova). And at the same time, the author says in the “Missed Chapter”: “The heads of separate detachments sent in pursuit of Pugachov ... autocratically punished both the guilty and the innocent.” Pushkin was impartial, painting a historically correct picture of the peasant uprising, showing purely feudal methods of reprisal against the serfs. The fact that the peasants, at the first approach of the Pugachev detachments, instantly “drunk” with hatred for the landlords, is shown by Pushkin astonishingly true.

The people depicted in The Captain's Daughter are not a faceless mass. With his characteristic artistic laconicism, Pushkin showed the serf peasantry in an individualized way. At the same time, he did not draw pictures of the everyday life of the peasantry, their way of life. In the foreground were the themes of the uprising and reprisals against the landowners, therefore Pushkin individualized the images of the peasants in the aspect of their political consciousness, their attitude towards the landowners and Pugachev as the leader of the movement.

Pushkin characterizes the political consciousness of the insurgent peasantry as spontaneous. A typical side, the basis of this consciousness, however, is a clear understanding by each participant in the movement of his social orientation. Pushkin shows this very clearly in the scene of Grinev's arrival at Berdskaya Sloboda. The sentry peasants capture Grinev and, without thinking about the reasons for the strange phenomenon, how the voluntary arrival of an officer to Pugachev should have seemed to them, they do not doubt that “now” or in the “light of God”, but the “father” will order to hang nobles-on-landowners. But this is typical different strength logic and action appears at the Berdsky sentry, at the peasant at the outpost in the "Missed Chapter", at Andryushka - Zemsky, at the Belogorsk Cossacks, at the closest assistants of Pugachev. Pushkin shows the various stages of this consciousness and thus achieves the individualization of images. At the same time, a single image of the insurgent people is being created.

In the image of Pushkin, the people are an elemental, but not a blind, non-reasoning force. Although its consciousness is immature, the people are not wax, from which the leaders mold what they please. The image of the people as a passive mass, submissive to their noble leaders, was given, for example, in the historical novel of Pushkin's contemporary, the writer Zagoskin. Pushkin, on the contrary, shows that the attitude of the people towards Pugachev is the result of the understanding by the masses of the people of the social, anti-serf orientation of the uprising. The image of the people and the image of its leader merge into one in the novel, reflecting the historical truth.

Pushkin emphasized the lack of idealization, the realism in the image of Pugachev, the artistic and historical fidelity of the image. The image of Pugachev is revealed in all the complexity and inconsistency of his personality, which combines the qualities of an outstanding person, the leader of a mass popular movement with the features of a dashing byv-logo Cossack, who wandered a lot around the world. First and main feature Pushkin's Pugacheva - his deep connection with the people. Genuine realism manifests itself in all its strength in the typical opposition of the attitude of the nobility and the people to Pugachev.

In the motif of the "hare sheepskin coat" some critics saw a purely formal device for the successful deployment of the plot. There is no doubt that this motive is deeply meaningful, revealing in the image of Pugachev the features of natural nobility and generosity.

The nobility and humanity of Pugachev are opposed to the cruelty and selfishness of the "enlightened" nobleman Shvabrin. The image of Pugachev is revealed in the relationship with Grinev. The author quite fully invests in Grinev's ideas about Pugachev the official interpretation of the leader of the peasant uprising: a monster, a villain, a murderer. Throughout the novel, Pushkin shows the opposite - Pugachev's humanism, his ability to show mercy and justice in relation to the kind and honest people. This was by no means an idealization of the peasant leader. Pushkin was interested in the activities of Pugachev as the leader of the uprising. Pushkin's Pugachev is talented, talented as a military leader, and is opposed in this regard to the mediocre and cowardly Orenburg governor.

Many times in the novel, Pushkin emphasizes the inquisitiveness, intelligence, sharpness of Pugachev, the absence of traits of slavish humiliation in him. All these features reveal the appearance of the true Pugachev. For Pushkin, they expressed at the same time the national character of the Russian people.

But for all that, the image of Pugachev and his closest associates also shows the weakness of the movement, its political immaturity. monarchical form political program Pugachev, his whole image of the tsar-father was rooted in the mood of the people themselves, in their aspirations of the "people's tsar". Pugachev is characterized by distrust and ill-will towards any "master". Pugachev's good-heartedness and simple-heartedness are also traits of the people's character. Leading in this image is the greatness, heroism, which impresses Pushkin so much. This is expressed in the symbolic image of the eagle, which the fairy tale speaks of, in the image in which Pushkin also shows the tragedy of Pugachev's fate.

Pushkin endows Savelich with some features and characteristics characteristic of a part of the serf peasantry. This is a type that reflected one of the aspects of feudal reality, which depersonalized the peasant.

The image of Shvabrin depicts the typical features of the "golden" noble youth of Catherine's time, who perceived Voltairianism only as a basis for cynical skepticism and for a purely selfish and crudely Epicurean attitude to life. The character and behavior of Shvabrin also contain features of that adventurous noble officer corps, which carried out palace coup 1762. He is full of indifference and contempt for simple and honest small-serving people, the sense of honor in him is very poorly developed. External education and brilliance combined in Shvabrin with internal moral emptiness.

Great importance in ideological content novel has the image of Catherine II. Drawing the image of Catherine N, Pushkin reveals the connection that really existed between the "Kazan landowner" and wide circles of the nobility. This connection is shown with the help of such a detail as Catherine's high assessment of the personality of Captain Mironov. In the change in Catherine's face when reading the request for clemency from Grinev, who was friends with Pugachev, in her cold, calm refusal, the tsarina's ruthlessness towards the popular movement is revealed. Without denouncing Catherine directly, Pushkin simply painted the image of the autocrat precisely as a "Kazan landowner", historically truthful. Pushkin showed what was really essential in the policy of Catherine II at the time of the Pugachev uprising and in her attitude towards the rebels.

With his "History of the Pugachev rebellion" and "The Captain's Daughter", the poet raises the "question of questions" - about the past, present and future of the people, the enlightened nobility, the authorities; much less often, one, special reason for these searches was considered: the influence of Pushkin's own internal, personal motives on the formation of his heroes. Pugachev's time, undoubtedly, gave Pushkin more scope for archival research, general historical reasoning, than recent modernity. Moreover, Pushkin's "Shakespearean" historicism was resolutely disgusted by the allusion method, when the story of the uprisings in the 1770s would be entirely reduced to straightforward allusions to the last riots: it is important for the poet that there was a real, not speculative historical connection ; the continuity of those and these events, when the interaction of the past and the present is revealed as if by itself.

A novel whose core is love story Masha Mironova and Pyotr Grinev, turned into a wide historical narrative. This principle - from private destinies to the historical destinies of the people - permeates the plot of The Captain's Daughter, and it can be easily seen in every significant episode.

"The Captain's Daughter" a true piece of history saturated with modern social content. Heroes and secondary persons are displayed in Pushkin's work as multilateral characters. Pushkin does not have only positive or only negative characters. Everyone acts as a living person with his inherent good and bad features, which are manifested primarily in actions. fictional heroes associated with historical figures and included in the historical movement. It was the course of history that determined the actions of the heroes, forging their difficult fate.

Thanks to the principle of historicism (the unstoppable movement of history, striving towards infinity, containing many trends and opening up new horizons), neither Pushkin nor his heroes succumb to despondency in the most gloomy circumstances, they do not lose faith in either personal or general happiness. Pushkin finds the ideal in reality and thinks of its realization in the course of historical process. He dreams that in the future there will be no social stratification and social discord. This will become possible when humanism, humanity will be the basis of state policy.

Pushkin's heroes appear in the novel from two sides: as people, that is, in their universal human and national qualities, and as characters playing social roles, i.e. in their social and social functions.

Grinev is both an ardent young man who received a patriarchal upbringing at home, and an ordinary undergrowth, who gradually becomes an adult and courageous warrior, and a nobleman, officer, "servant of the king", faithful to the laws of honor; Pugachev - and an ordinary peasant, not alien to natural feelings, in the spirit folk traditions defending an orphan, and cruel leader of a peasant revolt, hating nobles and officials; Catherine II - and an elderly lady with a dog walking in the park, ready to help an orphan if she was treated unfairly and offended, and an autocratic autocrat, ruthlessly suppressing the rebellion and creating a harsh court; Captain Mironov is a kind, inconspicuous and accommodating man, who is under the command of his wife, and an officer devoted to the empress, without hesitation resorting to torture and reprisals against the rebels.

In each character, Pushkin discovers the truly human and social. Each camp has its own social truth, and both these truths are irreconcilable. But each camp is characterized by humanity. If a social truths separate people, humanity unites them. Where the social and moral laws of any camp operate, the human disappears.

If temporarily Pugachev, a man, with his pitiful soul, sympathizing with the offended orphan, did not prevail over Pugachev, the leader of the rebellion, then Grinev and Masha Mironova would certainly have died. But if in Catherine II, when meeting with Masha Mironova, human feeling had not won instead of social benefit, then Grinev would not have been saved, delivered from the court, and the union of the lovers would have been postponed or not taken place at all. Therefore, the happiness of heroes depends on how people are able to remain people, how human they are. This is especially true for those who have power, on whom the fate of subordinates depends.

The human, says Pushkin, is higher than the social. It is not for nothing that his heroes, due to their deep humanity, do not fit into the play of social forces. Pushkin finds an expressive formula to designate, on the one hand, social laws, and, on the other hand, humanity.

In his contemporary society, there is a gap, a contradiction between social laws and humanity: what corresponds to the social interests of one or another class suffers from insufficient humanity or kills it. When Catherine II asks Masha Mironova: “You are an orphan: you are probably complaining about injustice and resentment?”, The heroine replies: “No way, sir. I came to ask for mercy, not justice.” Mercy, for which Masha Mironova came, is humanity, and justice is social codes and rules adopted and operating in society.

According to Pushkin, both camps - both the noble and the peasant - are not humane enough, but for humanity to win, it is not necessary to move from one camp to another. Need to rise above social conditions, interests and prejudices, rise above them and remember that the title of a person is immeasurably higher than all other ranks, titles and ranks. For Pushkin, it is quite enough that the heroes within their environment, within their class, following their moral and cultural tradition, will retain honor, dignity and will be true to universal values. Grinev and captain Mironov remained devoted to the code of noble honor and oath, Savelich - to the foundations of peasant morality. Humanity can become the property of all people and all classes.

Pushkin, however, is not a utopian; he does not portray the matter as if the cases he described have become the norm. On the contrary, they did not become a reality, but their triumph, even in the distant future, is possible. Pushkin refers to those times, continuing the important theme in his work of mercy and justice, when humanity becomes the law of human existence. In the present tense, a sad note sounds, amending the bright story. Pushkin's heroes- as soon as big events leave the historical stage, the cute characters of the novel become invisible, getting lost in the flow of life. They touched historical life only for a short time. However, sadness does not wash away Pushkin's confidence in the course of history, in the victory of humanity.

In The Captain's Daughter, Pushkin found a convincing artistic solution to the contradictions of reality and all of life that confronted him.

Along with historicism, beauty and perfection of form, the measure of humanity became an integral and recognizable feature of Pushkin's universal realism, which absorbed both the strict logic of classicism and the free play of the imagination brought into literature by romanticism.

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"The Captain's Daughter" is a work of wide thematic coverage. It vividly reflects the life of the people, the images of peasants and Cossacks, landlord life, provincial society and the life of a fortress lost in the steppes, the personality of Pugachev and the court of Catherine II. The novel depicts faces representing different strata of Russian society, revealing the mores and life of that time. "The Captain's Daughter" gives a broad historical picture, covering the Russian reality of the era of the Pugachev uprising.

The problems of The Captain's Daughter are extremely acute and varied. The position and demands of the people, the relationship between the landowners and the peasantry and the problems of state domestic policy, serfdom and the moral and everyday aspects of the life of the nobility, the obligations of the nobility to the people, the state and their estate - these are the main questions raised by Pushkin in the novel. The most important of these is the question of the historical and political meaning and significance of the peasant uprising.

A historical novel about the 18th century, at the same time it is a political novel of the 1830s. The image of the struggle of the people against the nobility - the peasant uprising - is given in The Captain's Daughter in the most expanded form. Contradictions within the nobility itself attract much less attention. Pushkin seeks to reveal and show the totality of the phenomena associated with the uprising of the peasantry. The wide spread of the movement, its causes, the origins and beginning of the uprising, its course, the social and national composition of the participants in the movement, the ordinary mass of the rebels and their leaders, the massacre of the landowners and the attitude of the rebels towards civilians, the psychology of the peasant masses, the policy of the noble monarchy and the noble reprisals against peasantry - all this is reflected in the novel.

The social orientation of the movement, the hatred of the people for the nobility, Pushkin, despite censorship, shows quite clearly. At the same time, he reveals another side of the Pugachev movement - the humanity inherent in the participants in the uprising in relation to the "common people". When taking the Belo-Gorsk fortress, the Cossacks take away only "officers' apartments." Terrible is the anger of Pugachev himself at Shvabrin, who oppresses an orphan from the people (Masha Mironova). And at the same time, the author says in the “Missed Chapter”: “The heads of separate detachments sent in pursuit of Pugachev ... autocratically punished both the guilty and the innocent.” Pushkin was impartial, painting a historically correct picture of the peasant uprising, showing purely feudal methods of reprisal against the serfs. The fact that the peasants, at the first approach of the Pugachev detachments, instantly "drunk" with hatred for the landowners, is shown by Pushkin astonishingly true.

The people depicted in The Captain's Daughter are not a faceless mass. With his characteristic artistic laconicism, Pushkin showed the serfs in an individualized way. At the same time, he did not draw pictures of the daily life of the peasantry, their way of life. In the foreground were the themes of the uprising and reprisal against the landlords, so Pushkin individualized the images of the peasants in terms of their political consciousness, their attitude towards the landowners and Pugachev as the leader of the movement.

Pushkin characterizes the political consciousness of the insurgent peasantry as spontaneous. A typical side, the basis of this consciousness, however, is a clear understanding by each participant of the movement of its social orientation. Pushkin shows this very clearly in the scene of Grinev's arrival at Berdskaya Sloboda. The sentry peasants capture Grinev and, without thinking about the reasons for the strange phenomenon that the officer’s voluntary visit to Pugachev should have seemed to them, they have no doubt that “now” or in the “light of God”, but the “father” will order the noble landowner to be hanged. But this typical with different strengths of logic and action appears in the Berd guard, in the peasant at the outpost in the “Missed Chapter”, in Andryushka - Zemsky, in the Belogorsk Cossacks, in the closest assistants of Pugachev. Pushkin shows the various stages of this consciousness and thus achieves the individualization of images. At the same time, a single image of the insurgent people is being created.

In Pushkin's depiction, the people are an elemental, but not a blind, non-reasoning force. Although its consciousness is immature, the people are not wax, from which the leaders mold what they please. Pushkin, on the contrary, shows that the attitude of the people towards Pugachev is the result of the understanding by the masses of the people of the social, anti-serf orientation of the uprising. The image of the people and the image of its leader merge together in the novel, reflecting the historical truth.

Pushkin emphasized the lack of idealization, the realism in the image of Pugachev, the artistic and historical fidelity of the image. The image of Pugachev is revealed in all the complexity and inconsistency of his personality, combining the qualities of an outstanding person, the leader of a mass popular movement with the features of a dashing, experienced Cossack who wandered around the world a lot. The first and main feature of Pushkin's Pugachev is his deep connection with the people. Genuine realism manifests itself in all its strength in the typical opposition of the attitude of the nobility and the people to Pugachev.

In the motif of the "hare sheepskin coat" some critics saw a purely formal device for the successful deployment of the plot. Undoubtedly, this motive is deeply meaningful, revealing in the image of Pugachev the features of natural nobility and generosity.

The nobility and humanity of Pugachev are opposed to the cruelty and selfishness of the "enlightened" nobleman Shvabrin. The image of Pugachev is revealed in his relationship with Grinev. The author quite fully invests in Grinev's ideas about Pugachev the official interpretation of the leader of the peasant uprising: a monster, a villain, a murderer. Throughout the novel, Pushkin shows the opposite - Pugachev's humanism, his ability to show mercy and justice in relation to kind and honest people. This was by no means an idealization of the peasant leader. Pushkin was interested in the activities of Pugachev as the leader of the uprising. Pushkin's Pugachev is talented, talented as a military leader, and is opposed in this regard to the mediocre and cowardly Orenburg governor.

Many times in the novel, Pushkin emphasizes the inquisitiveness, intelligence, sharpness of Pugachev, the absence of traits of slavish humiliation in him. All these features reveal the face of the true Pugachev. For Pushkin, they expressed at the same time the national character of the Russian people.

But for all that, the image of Pugachev and his closest associates also shows the weakness of the movement, its political immaturity. The monarchical form of Pugachev's political program, his entire image of the tsar-father, was rooted in the mood of the people themselves, in their aspirations of the "people's tsar". Pugachev is characterized by distrust and hostility towards any "master". The good nature and simplicity of Pugachev are also character traits of the people. Leading in this image is the greatness, heroism, which impresses Pushkin so much. This is expressed in the symbolic image of the eagle, which the fairy tale speaks of, in the image in which Pushkin also shows the tragedy of Pugachev's fate.

Pushkin endows Savelich with some characteristic features and characteristics of a part of the serf peasantry. This is a type that reflected one of the aspects of feudal reality, which depersonalized the peasant.

The image of Shvabrin depicts the typical features of the "golden" noble youth of Catherine's time, who perceived Voltairianism only as a basis for cynical skepticism and for a purely selfish and crudely Epicurean attitude to life. The character and behavior of Shvabrin also contain features of that adventurous noble officers who carried out the palace coup of 1762. He is filled with indifference and contempt for simple and honest small-serving people, the sense of honor in him is very poorly developed. External education and brilliance combined in Shvabrin with internal moral emptiness.

Of great importance in the ideological content of the novel is the image of Catherine II. Drawing the image of Catherine N, Pushkin reveals the connection that really existed between the "Kazan landowner" and wide circles of the nobility. This connection is shown with the help of such a detail as Catherine's high assessment of the personality of Captain Mironov. In the change in Catherine's face when reading the request for clemency from Grinev, who was friends with Pugachev, in her cold, calm refusal, the tsarina's ruthlessness towards the popular movement is revealed. Without denouncing Catherine directly, Pushkin simply painted the image of the autocrat precisely as a "Kazan landowner", historically truthful. Pushkin showed what was really essential in the policy of Catherine II at the time of the Pugachev uprising and in her attitude towards the rebels.

With his "History of the Pugachev rebellion" and "The Captain's Daughter", the poet raises the "question of questions" - about the past, present and future of the people, enlightened nobility, power; much less often, one, special reason for these searches was considered: the influence of Pushkin's own internal, personal motives on the formation of his heroes. Pugachev's time, undoubtedly, gave Pushkin more scope for archival research, general historical reasoning than recent modernity. Moreover, Pushkin's "Shakespearean" historicism was resolutely disgusted by the allusive method, when the story of the uprisings in the 1770s would be entirely reduced to straightforward allusions to the last riots: it is important for the poet that there was a real, not speculative historical connection; the continuity of those and these events, when the interaction of the past and the present is revealed as if by itself.

The peculiarities of the genre should also include the presence in the novel of two points of view, two views on what is happening: Grinev and the author. Grinev sees the Pugachev uprising from the point of view of a private person, an individual who is directly involved in the events. Pushkin, on the other hand, looks as if from above, trying to evaluate objectively; thanks to him, the fate of the characters in the novel develops only in this way, and not otherwise, because, according to the writer, this is exactly what the natural process of historical development looks like.

Since the novel is written in the first person, it takes the form of a memoir. A feature of the memoirs is not just autobiographical, but also the confessional nature of the narrative. That is, Grinev's point of view prevails here. The main text of the novel consists of Grinev's "notes", only in the afterword the "publisher" says how he got the "manuscript": it was given to him by Grinev's grandson, who learned that the "publisher" was engaged in "labor related to the times described by his grandfather." "Publisher" - Pushkin's literary mask, "labor" means "History of Pugachev". The afterword also indicates the degree of participation of the "publisher" in the work on the manuscript: he decided "to publish it separately, finding a decent epigraph for each chapter and allowing himself to change some of his own names."

It is worth noting that epigraphs, by the way, have a special meaning: they not only indicate the theme of each chapter and determine its narrative tone, briefly hinting at the events that will take place in this chapter. Epigraphs are signs of the author's "presence" in the text of the novel. They are correlated with the content of the chapters, and also to a certain extent have a subjective author's coloring: they reveal the author's attitude to Grinev's story. In other words, epigraphs can be called "summaries" of chapters.

Thus, the novel "The Captain's Daughter" is a complex interweaving of the actual historicism of the era, which aroused Pushkin's genuine interest, fictional characters helping to evaluate this era, descriptions of the fate of the whole family that lived at that time, an example of the growing up of a particular representative of it, as well as the author's view of this era and his understanding of the reasons for what is happening. Above we said that there is a problem of a clear definition of the genre. And on the example of the novel "The Captain's Daughter" we are perfectly convinced of this: the novel turns out to be both historical, and moral, and educational, and family-household, and even to some extent philosophical. And what is surprising - when you read this work, you don’t even think about this genre diversity, it was so unobtrusively and successfully used by Pushkin.

THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER AS A HISTORICAL NOVEL 1. Introduction. The history of Russia is full of memories of popular unrest, sometimes deaf and little known, sometimes bloody and deafening. One of the most famous such events is the uprising of Yemelyan Pugachev. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was seriously interested in Russian history. Among his historical works, the most famous are the History of Peter and materials about the Pugachev region.A. S. Pushkin addressed the personality of Pugachev twice when he was working on the documentary History of the Pugachev rebellion and when he wrote The Captain's Daughter.

It is surprising that the dry and accurate reports of the chroniclers became the basis for creating a rich historical canvas of the famous story. The story was written in 1836, and Pushkin finished the History two years earlier. The poet worked at the highest resolution in closed archives, carefully studied the documents related to the Pugachev rebellion. Pushkin's attitude to spontaneous popular uprisings was complex. Bitter words God forbid to see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless, are worth many volumes of research on the Slavic mentality.

Pushkin shrewdly pointed out two character traits peasant movements lack a long-term goal and bestial cruelty. Lack of rights, underdevelopment, miserable life cannot give rise to organized, planned resistance. The leaders of the people are distinguished by their enterprise, breadth of character, fearlessness. Such is Pushkin's Pugachev, who proclaimed himself Peter III. When warned that cannons are aimed at the rioters, he mockingly replies Are the cannons on kings are pouring in. He attracts the love of the people with his violence and prowess, and most of all with the dream of freedom.

It is not in vain that the gates of the fortress open to meet his army. And next to this cruelty, mass executions, often senseless, the commandant of the fortress Mironov calls him a thief and robber. He has the traits of an adventurer. He does not deceive himself, although he is cunning with those around him, calling himself a king.

And Grinev, who understood him most deeply, says Grishka Otrepyev, after all, he reigned over Moscow. From the Volga robber, Pugachev has a bright, allegorical language, sprinkled with hints, jokes and fables. Most of all, he is attracted by a powerful free nature, which is cramped in the uniform in which fate dressed him. Telling Grinev about the eagle and the raven, he betrays his innermost desire to live a life, at least short, but bright, not eating carrion, but drinking living blood. The real Pugachev was worse.

He could order the peaceful astronomer Lovitz to be hanged closer to the stars, he could hand over his mistress Elizaveta Kharlova and her seven-year-old brother for reprisal, order them to secretly strangle close friend and colleague Lysov after a drunken quarrel. Captured, Pugachev prays to Catherine II for mercy. When Count Panin called him a thief, Pugachev replied I'm not a raven, I'm a crow, a raven still flies. Panin bled his face and tore out a tuft of beard. And Pugachev knelt down and began to ask for mercy.

The people still have a vivid memory of Pugachev the liberator. When he sat in a cage, the soldiers fed him from their hands. Ordinary people brought children to remember they saw Pugachev. Robber or liberator, Pugachev was folk hero. Only such a hero could be produced at that time by the Russian people. 2. Main part. 1. Compositional features of A. S. Pushkin The Captain's Daughter The Captain's Daughter historical novel written in the form of a memoir.

Pushkin refers precisely to the topic of Pugachevism, because for a long time it was considered forbidden, inconvenient, and historians practically did not deal with it, and if they did, they covered it one-sidedly. Initially, he was faced with an almost complete lack of materials. Then he goes to Orenburg region, asks the surviving eyewitnesses and participants, spends a long time in the archives. In fact, Pushkin became the first historian to objectively reflect the events of this harsh era.

If the history of the Pugachev rebellion historical essay, then the Captain's daughter is written in a completely different genre. This is a historical novel. Main principle, which Pushkin uses in his work, is the principle of historicism, since the main storyline was the development of real historical event. Fictional heroes, their fates are closely intertwined with historical figures. In each episode of the Captain's Daughter, one can draw a parallel between the fate of individuals and the fate of the people as a whole.

The form of memoirs chosen by the author speaks of his historical vigilance. In XVII I century it was really possible In a similar way describe Pugachevism in memoirs, for grandchildren. It is no coincidence that the author chose Pyotr Grinev as a memoirist. Pushkin needed a witness who was directly involved in the events, who would be personally acquainted with Pugachev and his entourage. Pushkin deliberately chose a nobleman for this. As a nobleman by his social origin and an officer sworn to pacify the rebellion, he is faithful to his duty.

And we see that Pyotr Grinev really did not drop his officer's honor. He is kind, noble. Grinev firmly refuses Pugachev’s offer to serve him faithfully, since he swore allegiance to the empress. But he also rejects the uprising as a senseless and merciless rebellion, bloodshed. Pyotr Grinev consistently tells us not only about the bloody and cruel massacres, similar to the massacre in the Belogorsk fortress, but also about the just deeds of Pugachev, about his broad soul, peasant ingenuity, and peculiar nobility.

Three times Pyotr Grinev tempted fate, and three times Pugachev spared and pardoned him. The thought of him was inseparable in me with the thought of mercy, says Grinev, given to me by him in one of the terrible moments of his life, and of the deliverance of my bride. Between them there is some difference in beliefs. The old man not only describes, but also evaluates the young man.

Grinev ironically tells about his childhood when describing the episode of flight from the besieged Orenburg, an intonation arises that justifies the reckless act of the hero. The chosen form of narration allows the hero to look at himself from the outside. It was an amazing artistic find. significant place Emelyan Pugachev also occupies the story. His character is revealed gradually in the course of events. The first meeting takes place in the Leader chapter, the next time it is the leader of the rebels. Further, he appears as a generous, just person.

This is especially evident in the scene of Masha's liberation. Pugachev punishes Shvabrin and dismisses Grinev with his bride, saying Execute, so execute, favor, so favor. 2.2. Main characters. Although the Tale of A.S. Pushkin is called The Captain's Daughter, but just Masha Mironova can be called secondary actor. The plot tension of the story rests on three reference points. These are the images of Shvabrin, Grinev and Pugachev, who, by his actions, became a kind of manifestation of the true nature of the characters, the worst features of Shvabrin and the best of Grinev.

Pugachev in The Captain's Daughter is similar to the hero of Cossack songs and epics. He appears at first as a kind of mysterious figure, and then grows and fills the entire space of the narrative. An incomprehensible person conducts mysterious conversations with the owner of the inn, more like a robber's shelter. Either a runaway convict, or a drunkard, he pawned a sheepskin coat at a kisser, that is, for vodka.

But the fiery eyes that attract attention betray an outstanding person. In Grinev's prophetic dream, the reader already gets a hint of the complexity and power of the image of brutality, cunning and unexpected tenderness and breadth of the soul, we will learn about all this later. Pugachev is cruel, ruthless when he orders the execution of the defenders of the fortress, the hacking to death of the commandant's wife. But he remembers the good and appreciates sincerity, truthfulness and fidelity to honor. This is what bribes him in Grinev. He is not vindictive, the only time he frowned when he learned that Grinev deceived him. The naive splendor of the titles that he distributes to his entourage is both calculation and joyful game into power.

In front of Grinev, he does not pretend, almost openly says that he is an impostor, comparing himself with Grishka Otrepyev. Pushkin's Pugachev is a desperate man who would not exchange three months of the tsar's feast for thirty years of heavenly stew. He is an epic hero, a song robber, and a redeemer tsar for the downtrodden people. Russian history is full of legends about a true tsar, about a tsar who escaped death, a real, right tsar who will come at the appointed hour. Pugachev called himself such a king, but people would not have followed him if he had not behaved like a real ruler and deliverer. 2.3. The people in the story of A. S. Pushkin The Captain's Daughter.

In the Captain's daughter, A. S. Pushkin created truly folk characters, truly Russian. He showed that, along with love of freedom and rebelliousness, along with greatness and dignity, humility and obedience are inherent in the national character, qualities formed by centuries of slavery. As an example of such characters in the story, one should consider the images of Savelich and Captain Mironov.

Savelyich is a servant of a young nobleman, Mironov is a former soldier who received an officer rank and the post of commandant of the Belogorsk fortress for his bravery in battle. It would seem that these people may have something in common, but what they have in common is a lack of independence. Both Savelyich and Mironov are accustomed to living according to a long-established charter, unquestioningly obeying and unconditionally fulfilling decrees, the first landowner, the second government.

This way of life seems to them the only possible way their grandfathers lived, this is how they live, and this is the only way their children and grandchildren should live. People like Savelich and Mironov will never be able to oppose the authorities, no matter how hard it is for them. Having escaped from the care of his relatives for the first time, Pyotr Grinev in the very first tavern gets drunk to unconsciousness and, moreover, loses cards to a random person.

For Savelich, this is a blow, because he treats Grinev like his own child, moreover, the owners handed him further fate own son. And Savelyich is accustomed to being very responsible for the task entrusted to him, which is why he tries to convince the young master and his pupil that it is thoughtless to do so. And what does he hear in response? I am your master, and you are my servant. My money. And I advise you not to be smart and do what you are ordered to do. The insult was so severe that Savelich even began to cry.

However, he remembered his duty to restrain the young master, burying his insult, again tried to reason with Grinev, for which he received an even more insulting give money here or I will drive you away. And the episode with the duel. Upon learning of what Grinev and Shvabrin had planned, Savelyich, without hesitation, rushes to the place of the duel in order, if necessary, to shield his master with his own chest. God sees, I ran to shield you with my chest from the sword of Alexei Ivanovich. And as a result, he did not only they could not endure gratitude, and they also accused Grinev Jr. for denunciation, Grinev Sr. for silence.

In this episode, the drama of the situation of a simple person is most clearly and clearly manifested; everyone accuses him, but he is not guilty of anything. And in response to all insults and curses, humility, because this is his lot. And why, for what such a destiny, Savelich does not think. He clarified only one main thing in life - virtue. And he is guided by this alone. Therefore, Savelich is ready to put his head in the noose instead of Grinev. It was only thanks to him that Grinev remained alive, but even here Savelich did not hear words of gratitude from his pupil.

And he took it for granted. Savelich does not accept Pugachev and his brethren, calls him a villain and a robber. He is deaf to the liberties proclaimed by the rebels, he is blind to events and judges them from the standpoint of his masters. From this, Savelyich looks even more pitiful, he is on the side of those who do not put him in a penny. As for Captain Mironov, this honest and kind, modest, ready to obey his wife in everything, the man was a courageous soldier.

He is characterized by a sense of loyalty to duty, word, oath, and, conversely, treason and betrayal are disgusting. It is in these qualities that his Russian nature, Russian character, is manifested. Mironov is bold, but acts unconsciously. Speaking out to fight the rebels, he never once asked himself what kind of struggle this was, where the rebels came from, why the rebels. Mironov received an order and he fulfills it with honor.

True, the nobility of Captain Mironov is worth learning from. last minutes his life is admired, he is firm and unshakable in his answers, he is ready to accept death, but never change his oath and duty. This also shows the true Russian nature of this hero. The story also shows that part of the people that is capable of protest. This is Pugachev and his brethren. Sympathizing with their oppressed and powerless situation, the author, however, as an opponent of all revolutions, does not hide dark sides uprisings and the behavior of rebels, robberies, the cruelty of the people and their leader in the fight against their tormentors, the possibility of betrayal of Pugachev by his own associates.

Thus, in The Captain's Daughter, using the examples of Pugachev and his like-minded people, Savelich and Mironov, Pushkin revealed the deeply dramatic, full of sharp contradictions, fate of the people in an autocratic feudal state. 3. Conclusion. The last meeting between Pugachev and Grinev takes place a minute before the execution of the captive rebel.

At this terrible moment, Pugachev recognizes the one whom he fell in love with for his honesty, brave and kind heart, and nods to him. A minute later, his head, dead and bloodied, was shown to the people. Pushkin, through the mouth of a hero, laments the shameful end of Emelya Emelya, with annoyance, I thought why you didn’t stumble on a bayonet or turn up on a buckshot You couldn’t think of anything better. The captain's daughter marked the beginning of the Russian historical novel. With his works on historical themes, Pushkin made a contribution of great value to Russian literature.

In his historical works, he recreated the most significant episodes from the life of Russia from ancient times to 1812. The poet is especially attracted to the era of upheavals and crises of the early 17th and 18th centuries. The novel The Captain's Daughter tells about the dramatic events of the 70s of the 18th century, when the discontent of the peasants and residents of the outskirts of Russia resulted in a war led by Emelyan Pugachev. But the novel is not limited to this topic, it is one of many set in this multifaceted and philosophical work.

In parallel, in the novel, Pushkin poses and solves a number of important questions about patriotic education, about love and fidelity, honor and dignity of a person. The form and language of the work are brought to perfection by Pushkin. Behind the seeming simplicity and lightness, the most serious questions of life are hidden. Reading the story of A. S. Pushkin, The Captain's Daughter, we simultaneously follow the plot of an ordinary story and observe the events of a historical novel.

This work is interesting and informative and, according to Belinsky, one of the most the best works Russian literature. In conclusion, I would like to dwell on one more invisible hero of this wonderful story, on the image of the author himself, who, with his secret presence, is constantly watching the events and actions of the heroes. Having chosen Grinev as the narrator, Pushkin does not hide behind him. The position of the writer is very clear. Firstly, it is obvious that Grinev expresses the author's thoughts about the uprising.

Pushkin prefers reforms to revolution. Secondly, Pushkin selects situations in which Grinev behaves at the request of the author. Pushkin managed to convey to us a lot interesting facts from the history of the Pugachev uprising. v Belenky G.I. textbook-reader for grade 8, Mnemosyne, 2000 Part 1 v Belenky G.I. textbook-reader for grade 8 educational institutions, Enlightenment, 2000 v Vvedensky B. A encyclopedic Dictionary in two volumes Soviet Encyclopedia, 1963, volume I. v Pushkin A. S. Captain's daughter collected works in ten volumes, Pravda, 1981, volume V.

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Historical page: the era of Catherine II

In order to understand the novel "The Captain's Daughter", you need to know about the era that existed then.The era that is reflected in the work. 28 June 1762 in St. Petersburg there was a palace coup. The wife of Peter III, the weak, absurd, stupid tsar, was enthroned. The emperor was deposed, imprisoned in the Ropsha Palace (Ropsha is a suburb of St. Petersburg) and killed there. Catherine, in contrast to her husband, was cunning, diplomatic, power-hungry. She wanted to be known as a humane and enlightened monarch, the patroness of science and art, she knew how to charm the people she needed. Pushkin put it this way:Her splendor dazzled, her friendliness attracted, her bounties tied ". But throughout her reign, the “enlightened” empress suppressed free speech, threw people who spread enlightenment into prisons. Catherine, who received the Russian throne thanks to the nobles who served in the guards, showered them with mercy. She gave away palaces and lands with hundreds of serfs, made the most valuable gifts to her favorites, favorites, awarded them orders. Favorites became powerful nobles, the fate of people depended on them. But not all the nobles were supporters of the elevation of Catherine to the Russian throne. Among those who disagreed with her accession was the old Field Marshal Munnich. We will meet with his name on the pages of Pushkin's story. Nobles, supporters of Peter III, were grouped around Minikh, many of them were hidden enemies of Catherine's favorites.

The court of the empress was distinguished by unprecedented luxury, palaces and parks in St. Petersburg and around the capital, in Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, in Oranienbaum were stunning with splendor. The nobles imitated their mistress. Their estates were distinguished by luxury, elegance of architecture, magnificence of decoration. But behind these estates stretched vast expanses, where the villages were wretched and forlorn. The position of the serfs during the reign of Catherine II was terrible. In the second half of the ΧVІІІ century, corvée and monetary dues were increased. Working day at the corvee in summer time serf lasted 14-16 hours. Land allotments were negligible. The peasants were begging. The landlords had the right to sell peasants like cattle, like things. Newspapers were full of advertisements for the sale of serfs. The Empress gave enormous rights to the landowners. In the very first years of her reign, she issued decrees that granted the feudal lords the right to personally, without trial, exile guilty peasants to hard labor and deprived the latter of the right to file complaints. Arbitrariness and lawlessness reigned in the noble estates. Lack of rights, poverty pushed the peasants to open speeches against landlords. Sometimes peasant revolts took on a wide scope: estates burned, the rebels beat and killed the landlords, but these spontaneous outbreaks were brutally suppressed. Frequent riots also took place in the Ural factories; Kalmyks, Bashkirs, Kirghiz were worried. In such an environment, after the death of Peter III, which was sudden and mysterious for the people, rumors spread that the emperor was alive, that someone else had been killed instead of him, and that the tsar had been saved by faithful people and was hiding for the time being, but he would open up to the people and go to take away his rightful throne, drive the illegal queen from the throne, take revenge on the landlords, give the rights to land and land to the peasants. Faith in a good and just king was strong among the people since long time ago, just like the hatred of the landowners. On the distant banks of the Yaik (Ural) River, in the boundless Orenburg steppes, among the Cossacks, in the Ural factories, a legend arose that the tsar was alive and was going to save the people.In 1773, a man appeared there who called himself Peter III . He was bold and daring. He knew how to command, he knew how to kindle hearts. He had military talent. His proclamations, written in a language understandable to the people, inspired hope for liberation from the landlord's oppression. This man's name was E. Ivanovich Pugachev. The people followed him. The uprising covered a vast territory.

Pushkin goes there in 1833. 60 years ago, an uprising raged there. From August 17 to the end of November - a long journey. The trip gave a lot of interesting things:

 ​ Kazan, Orenburg, Uralsk

 ​ Recorded conversations with the elderly, the few surviving eyewitnesses of the uprising

 ​ And also with those who heard the stories of the "older generation" about Pugachev.

So, in Pushkin, the idea of ​​creating a truly realistic image is born, which is born in the struggle with a realistic point of view on the leader of the uprising, under the influence of the people's attitude towards him. But Pushkin not only wrote works on historical topics, he was actually a historian in literally words.

In the 1830s, on behalf of Nicholas I, he worked on the history of Peter the Great, and in 1834 he completed the work The History of Pugachev, which, at the direction of Nicholas I, was published under the title The History of the Pugachev Rebellion. Working on it, Pushkin studies archival documents, goes to where the events unfolded. He visits Kazan, Orenburg, Berda and other villages of the Yaik (Ural) Cossacks. Let's hear what is known about Pushkin's work on materials about the Pugachev uprising.

In this novel, Pushkin returned to those collisions, to those conflicts that disturbed him in Dubrovsky, but resolved them differently.

Now in the center of the novel is a popular movement, a popular revolt led by a real historical figure - Emelyan Pugachev. The nobleman Pyotr Grinev is involved in this historical movement by force of circumstances. If in "Dubrovsky" the nobleman becomes the head of the peasant indignation, then in "The Captain's Daughter" the leader of the people's war is a man from the people - the Cossack Pugachev. There is no alliance between the nobles and the rebellious Cossacks, peasants, foreigners, Grinev and Pugachev are social enemies. They are in different camps, but fate brings them together from time to time, and they treat each other with respect and trust. First, Grinev, not allowing Pugachev to freeze in the Orenburg steppes, warmed his soul with a hare sheepskin coat, then Pugachev saved Grinev from execution and helped him in matters of the heart. So, fictional historical figures are placed by Pushkin in real life. historical painting, became participants in a powerful popular movement and history makers.

Pushkin made extensive use of historical sources, archival documents and visited the places of the Pugachev rebellion, visiting the Trans-Volga region, Kazan, Orenburg, Uralsk. He made his narrative exceptionally reliable by writing documents similar to the real ones and including in them quotations from genuine papers, for example, from Pugachev's appeals, considering them amazing examples of folk eloquence.

A significant role was played in Pushkin's work on The Captain's Daughter and the testimonies of his acquaintances about the Pugachev uprising. Poet I.I. Dmitriev told Pushkin about the execution of Pugachev in Moscow, the fabulist I.A. Krylov - about the war and the besieged Orenburg (his father, a captain, fought on the side of government troops, and he and his mother were in Orenburg), merchant L.F. Krupenikov - about being in Pugachev's captivity. Pushkin heard and wrote down legends, songs, stories from the old-timers of those places through which the uprising swept.

Before the historical movement captured and swirled in a terrible storm of cruel events of the rebellion of the fictional heroes of the story, Pushkin vividly and lovingly describes the life of the Grinev family, the unlucky Beaupre, faithful and devoted Savelich, Captain Mironov, his wife Vasilisa Yegorovna, daughter Masha and the entire population of the dilapidated fortress. The simple, inconspicuous life of these families with their ancient patriarchal way- also Russian history, created invisibly to prying eyes. It is done quietly, "at home". Therefore, it should be described in the same way. Walter Scott served as an example of such an image for Pushkin. Pushkin admired his ability to present history through life, customs, family traditions.

In KD, all Pushkin's illusions about a possible peace between the nobles and peasants collapsed, the tragic situation was exposed with even more obviousness than before. And the more clearly and responsibly the task arose of finding a positive answer, resolving the tragic contradiction. To this end, Pushkin skillfully organizes the plot. The novel, the core of which is the love story of Masha Mironova and Pyotr Grinev, has turned into a broad historical narrative. This principle - from private destinies to the historical destinies of the people - permeates the plot of The Captain's Daughter, and it can be easily seen in every significant episode.

"The Captain's Daughter" has become a truly historical work, saturated with modern social content. Heroes and secondary persons are displayed in Pushkin's work as multilateral characters. Pushkin does not have only positive or only negative characters. Everyone acts as a living person with his inherent good and bad features, which are manifested primarily in actions. Fictional characters are associated with historical figures and are included in the historical movement. It was the course of history that determined the actions of the heroes, forging their difficult fate.

Thanks to the principle of historicism (the unstoppable movement of history, striving towards infinity, containing many trends and opening up new horizons), neither Pushkin nor his heroes succumb to despondency in the most gloomy circumstances, they do not lose faith in either personal or general happiness. Pushkin finds the ideal in reality and thinks of its realization in the course of the historical process. He dreams that in the future there will be no social stratification and social discord. This will become possible when humanism, humanity will be the basis of state policy.

Pushkin's heroes appear in the novel from two sides: as people, that is, in their universal and national qualities, and as characters playing social roles, that is, in their social and public functions.

Grinev is both an ardent young man who received a patriarchal upbringing at home, and an ordinary undergrowth, who gradually becomes an adult and courageous warrior, and a nobleman, officer, "servant of the king", faithful to the laws of honor; Pugachev is both an ordinary peasant, not alien to natural feelings, in the spirit of folk traditions protecting an orphan, and a cruel leader of a peasant rebellion, who hates nobles and officials.

In each character, Pushkin discovers the truly human and social. Each camp has its own social truth, and both these truths are irreconcilable. But each camp is characterized by humanity. If social truths separate people, then humanity unites them. Where the social and moral laws of any camp operate, the human shrinks and disappears.

Pushkin, however, is not a utopian; he does not portray the matter as if the cases he described have become the norm. On the contrary, they did not become a reality, but their triumph, even in the distant future, is possible. Pushkin refers to those times, continuing the important theme in his work of mercy and justice, when humanity becomes the law of human existence. In the present tense, however, a sad note sounds, amending the bright history of Pushkin's heroes - as soon as big events leave the historical stage, the cute characters of the novel become invisible, lost in the flow of life. They touched historical life only for a short time. However, sadness does not wash away Pushkin's confidence in the course of history, in the victory of humanity.