Walking in agony read short. Alexey nikolaevich tolstoy - walking through the throes. The history of the creation of the novel

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Alexey Tolstoy
The Road to Calvary
Trilogy

"The Road to Calvary"
Introductory article by V. Shcherbina

A. N. Tolstoy is an outstanding Soviet writer, one of the largest contemporary artists of the word. In his best works, realistic truthfulness, the breadth of coverage of the phenomena of life, the large scale of historical thinking are combined with vivid verbal skill, the ability to embody material in monumental artistic forms. The trilogy "Walking through the agony", as well as a number of other works of the writer received well-deserved recognition, became the favorite books of millions of readers, entered the classics, the golden fund of Soviet literature.

A vivid and broad reproduction of the life of our country at the turn of two eras, sharp changes under the influence of the revolution of the spiritual world of people constitute the main content of the epic.

A. N. Tolstoy wrote the trilogy "Walking through the agony" for more than twenty years. When he, in exile in 1919, began work on the first book of the trilogy, the novel Sisters, he did not think that the work would unfold into a monumental epic. The stormy course of his life led him to the conviction of the need to continue working. It was impossible to put an end to and leave their heroes off-road.

In 1927-1928, the second book of the trilogy, the novel "The Eighteenth Year", was published. On June 22, 1941, on the first day of the Great Patriotic War, the last page of the novel Gloomy Morning was completed.

A. N. Tolstoy lived with his heroes for more than twenty years, he went with them a long, difficult path. During this time, there have been changes not only in the fate of the heroes, but also in the fate of the author, who felt a lot and changed his mind.

Already in the process of working on the novel "Sisters" the writer, striving for the truthfulness of the reconstruction of history, despite his temporary delusions, realized the doom and falsity of the existence of the ruling classes of old Russia. The desire to understand the reasons that caused the cleansing explosion of the socialist revolution helped the writer to make the right choice, to go with the Motherland.

According to Tolstoy, the work on the trilogy "Walking through the agony" was for him a process of learning life, "getting used to" a complex historical era full of contradictions, figurative comprehension of the dramatic experience of his life and the life of his generation, a generalization of the historical lessons of the terrible years of the revolution and civil war , in search of the right civic and creative path.

The characteristic instructive features of the formation of the work of A.N. Tolstoy and other outstanding Soviet writers of the older generation were emphasized by K.A.Fedin. “Soviet art,” said K. A. Fedin, “was not born in the office of a clerk or in a hermit's cell. Senior and then not old Russian writers in the terrible years of the civil war found themselves faced with a choice: which side of the barricade to take? And they made their choice. And if they made a mistake in their choice and found the strength to correct the error, they corrected it. The remarkable Soviet writer Alexei Tolstoy left us a sternly enthusiastic testimony in the stories of such agonizing delusions. And in the early twenties he plucked out a hymn to his newfound reader: “A new reader is one who felt himself the master of the Earth and the City. Someone who has lived ten lives in the last decade. This is the one who has the will and courage to live ... “Tolstoy argued that the writer, in the secret of his heart, heard the call of this new reader, which read:“ You want to throw the magic arc of art to me - write: honestly, clearly, simply, majestically. Art is my joy.

... Every experience is made up of pluses and minuses. The experience of the destinies of senior writers, the experience of tragedies, as lessons of life, were assimilated by Soviet writers along with the greatest historical lesson that they drew from the bubbling thick of their revolutionary people. " 1
Pravda, 1963, June 22.

The realistic depiction of the life of Russian society in the pre-revolutionary period in the first novel of the Sisters trilogy presents a strikingly convincing picture of venality, corruption, deceit, falsity of the entire existence of the social elite. All this contributed to the growth and extreme aggravation of social contradictions, inevitably leading to a revolutionary explosion. The general mood of the novel "Sisters" is characterized by motives of the doom of the bourgeois-intellectual environment, the historical pattern of the death of the old system, the premonition of the inevitability of "terrible revenge", "cruel retribution", "world fire", "end of the world." The motive for the inevitability of the collapse of the tsarist empire in the first edition of the novel was largely vague. The presentiment of the "end of the world", as is known, in pre-revolutionary Russian literature had a very different, extremely differentiated character. If the writers of the revolutionary camp saw in the doom of the bourgeois-intellectual way of life a consequence of real social processes, irreconcilability and exacerbation of class contradictions, then decadent literary trends proclaimed the “end of the world” from reactionary mystical positions that obscured the true conflicts of life. A. N. Tolstoy was far from mystical concepts that asserted the doom of the world, the inevitability of its end. The writer, at first still vaguely understanding the goals of the socialist revolution, nevertheless figuratively showed its reasons, which are rooted in real social conditions, in the hatred of the masses towards the decayed privileged circles of society. In the last novels of the trilogy, the motive of the predetermined end of the old world gains a consistently realistic sound; the reasons that caused the revolutionary outbreak, the collapse of the tsarist empire, are elucidated here more deeply and accurately, in accordance with historical truth.

The first part of the trilogy attracts readers with the plasticity of paintings, verbal art. The artistic merit of this wonderful Russian novel is enormous. As if alive, its main characters stand before us - Katya, Dasha, Telegin, Roshchin. However, the strength of this work is not only in its artistic, realistic skill. The novel "Sisters" is distinguished by deep realism in depicting the collapse of the old noble-bourgeois society and the crisis of the paths of the intelligentsia. Truthfully, in broad typical generalizations, the face of the elite of tsarist Russia is shown here, the alienation of the people of the decadent decayed intelligentsia. Here, the images and pictures are fully realistic and convincing. The novel creates a sense of the grandeur and decisiveness of historical transformations, makes us worry with excitement the painful fate of its heroes. The fate of the heroes is especially interesting and instructive due to the fact that the novel is imbued with the pathos of solving the main historical question - the question of the meaning of the revolutionary transformation and the future fate of our country, posed by the artist with great force and sincerity. This is one of the sources of the significance of The Sisters. During the creation of this work, the author did not have a clear idea of the future path of Russia, he had not yet solved the difficult task - to correctly see the era and find himself in it. Painful reflections and searches permeate the novel, create its basic tone.

Against the background of huge social events, in anticipation of future changes, A. N. Tolstoy paints his heroes lonely and helpless. Confusion reigns in their minds, they are still powerless to solve the questions posed by life. Inclusion in the struggle pushes the boundaries of their worldview, raises them to the realization of the general connections between the individual and society, to the understanding of the movement of time as history, that is, it leads to a holistic knowledge of the laws of the era. A. N. Tolstoy stressed many times that "Sisters" is not a historical novel. The writer created it as a work about the fate of his generation. In the last books of the trilogy, a concrete image of living history is already emerging. The life experience of the heroes of the trilogy becomes immensely richer, generalizes not only the observations of one social stratum, but is multiplied by the experience of history, the struggle of the people, the experience of the revolutionary era.

The comprehension of the essence of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the heroism of the building of socialism made a decisive turning point in the literary life of A. Tolstoy. The revolutionary worldview, the ideas of Soviet patriotism immeasurably elevated his work, spiritualized him with new pathos and goals. Historical events that seemed known to him earlier appear in a completely different light; he delves deeper into the meaning of the people's struggle for a new life. Now he looks at the world differently, sets himself other creative tasks, first of all - the embodiment of the greatness of the revolutionary people.

The creative ideas of A.N. Tolstoy are becoming bolder, broader, more significant. He makes ever more stringent demands on himself, strives to create an extensive epic dedicated to Russian society during the years of the revolution and civil war. The writer perfectly understood the complexity and responsibility of this task. “The revolution cannot be understood or embraced by one gut,” he wrote. - It's time to start studying the revolution, - for an artist to become a historian and thinker. The task is enormous, to be sure, a lot of people will fail on it, perhaps - but we cannot have another task, when before our eyes, in our face - the bulk of the Revolution, covering the sky ”. 2
A.N. Tolstoy, Poln. collection cit., vol. 13, p. 296.

Creating the subsequent books of the trilogy - the novels "The Eighteenth Year" and "Gloomy Morning", A. N. Tolstoy already set himself a new goal - "to arrange, put in order, revive the huge, still smoking past", 3
Ibid, p. 563.

artistically capture the grandiose events of the socialist revolution and civil war.

In the novels "The Eighteenth Year" and "Gloomy Morning" the writer refers to the broad embodiment of the life of the whole people at a turning point in its development, which determines the future history of the entire country. Another, incommensurably broader meaning, in unity with the subsequent parts of the trilogy, acquired the novel "Sisters", which became an organic part of the monumental epic work.

The novels "The Eighteenth Year", "Gloomy Morning" show that it was socialist art that renewed realism, revived the ability to recreate a comprehensive picture of society in its various contradictions, interests, events and characters. The first two novels of the trilogy are characterized by the perception of the socialist revolution as a mighty raging element. Undoubtedly, it was a consequence of the ambiguity of the ideas of certain circles of the old intelligentsia about the driving forces and the meaning of the accomplished coup. Nevertheless, the "spontaneous" ideas about the revolution in the years of the birth of Soviet literature were far from homogeneous, they expressed various, often contradictory tendencies. For some writers, spontaneity expressed a lack of understanding of the true character of the revolution, rejection of its class character, a tendency to "dissolve" it in universal extra-social definitions. For other writers, in particular for A. N. Tolstoy, the idea of the revolution as a mighty raging element changed in its content. In the novel "The Eighteenth Year" it is already a form of affirming greatness, historical regularity, the inevitability and inevitability of the revolution, its national character. In the novel Gloomy Morning, the author seeks to show the organized, guiding and active forces of the revolutionary era.

The broad introduction of the theme of popular movement as the main force of history determined not only the originality of the ideological concept, but also the entire compositional and plot structure of the trilogy. The content of "Walking on Pain" is embodied in the capacious and free forms of modern realistic literature. The complex multifaceted structure of this work is caused by the breadth of the depicted historical events, the severity of class conflicts, and the richness of characters.

The appeal of A.N. Tolstoy and other Soviet writers to the capacious monumental form of the epic novel was determined by life itself, the grandeur of the events, the demand for a broad and truthful embodiment of a radical historical turning point in the life of the masses, who became the main, defining social force.

First of all, two major, closely related themes stand out in the trilogy. The first and foremost is the story of the events of the civil war; the second, closely related to the writer's spiritual biography, is the history of the Russian intelligentsia, its path to revolution. “The fact is,” the writer said, “that the feeling of homeland at the turn of the First World War and even during the First World War among the intelligentsia was weakened. And only during these 25 years of new life, and especially on the eve of the Second World War, a deep feeling of connection, an inextricable connection with their native land began to emerge in front of each person. We came to the feeling of homeland through deep suffering, through struggle. Never, for perhaps a whole century, has there been such a deep and acute feeling of the homeland as it is now. All this I could not have understood in 1927, when I wrote The Eighteenth Year.

“Walking in agony” is the author’s walking through suffering, hopes, delights, falls, despondency, ups - the feeling of a whole huge era that begins on the eve of the First World War and ends on the first day of the Second World War ”. 4
A.N. Tolstoy, Poln. collection cit., vol. 14, p. 378.

The last book of the trilogy, the novel Gloomy Morning, was created by the artist on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. This work is imbued with the desire to comprehend the historical experience of the life of the people, the deepest transformations that have taken place in our country; to speak out loudly about the inexhaustibility of creative forces, the invincibility of the socialist homeland.

The novel was written in anticipation of great world events. “I think,” A. N. Tolstoy expressed his thoughts at the time, “that this summer Europe will be an arena of inexplicable horrors, and if America gets involved, the whole world will crackle. One thing is clear, the old world is over, it crosses a huge bloody river with all the consequences of such a mythical transition ... I am working a lot on the third part of "Walking in Torment", it is going well, but tightly: the first is the increased demands that I place on this novel, the second - the difficulty of the topic, the third - the change of grandiose events that invade life ... " 5
A. N. Tolstoy, Letter to N. V. Krandievskaya, 1940, IMLI archive.

The breath of these grandiose events permeates the novel, makes it deeply in tune with the sacred struggle of the Soviet people against German fascism.

In the novel "Gloomy Morning" we again see pictures of battles, major victories of the Red Army, the collapse of the White Guards. The civil war is not over yet, but the contours of victories are already clear. "Live a winner or die with glory" - these words are the epigraph to the third part of the trilogy.

Before the creation of the trilogy "Walking through the agony" and after its appearance in print, many major literary works about the revolution and the civil war were written. And yet the trilogy of A. N. Tolstoy belongs to the best. For the first time, the theme of the civil war was presented with such an epic breadth, with such a sharpness of the "Russian question", the problem of the intelligentsia and the people. The trilogy convinced and excited people so much because the theme and idea are expressed in it not in an abstract way, but in living images, in living human destinies.

The writer drew a multicolored panorama of his native country, engulfed in the flames of a civil war. He reproduced the most important historical facts, combat episodes. The action is rapidly transferred to huge distances. The rapid change of facts, events, people, sometimes giving the impression of a broken composition, is dictated by the very nature of the era. When creating the last two books of the trilogy, A.N. Tolstoy made extensive use of archival materials and documents. This gives the trilogy a great educational value. But the writer did not want to create a historical chronicle. All the time he tried to subordinate the abundant and diverse documentary material to a strictly thought out creative plan, to reflect history in its most characteristic processes, in living images.

The genre of the trilogy is often described as a confession novel. Undoubtedly, such a definition is narrow, does not take into account the enormous epic content of the work. At the same time, the reader feels the author's subjectivity all the time. This confession is associated with the autobiographical line of the work, primarily with the theme of the lost and returned homeland. In the polemic between Telegin and Roshchin, we feel a clash of different points of view. Hence, it should be concluded that attempts to present one of the named heroes as the embodiment of the writer's quest are unjustified. The views of A. N. Tolstoy are not personified in the views of any one of the heroes of the trilogy. They are presented in a holistic concept of the work, in the struggle of different worldviews, in the lessons of the heroes' lives.

The veracity of the reconstruction of history in the trilogy of A. N. Tolstoy is fused with the creative power of art, with the brightness of the depiction of individual life.

The main characters of the trilogy begin their journey with the search for personal happiness. In the first book of the trilogy, Telegin, Dasha, Roshchin and Katya are in many ways reminiscent of the old goodies of Tolstoy. They are just as honest and responsive, to the same extent they rely on the almighty power of love. History here is only a background against which the personal fates and experiences of the heroes of the novel unfold, apolitical, still naively hoping that the storm of the revolutionary movement will pass by, by them. Their introduction to the fighting revolutionary people destroys the contradictions between the personal and the public, harmoniously merging in the concept and feeling of the Motherland.

The expansion of the spiritual range of the heroes of the trilogy, the socialist transformation of their inner essence is most clearly seen in the immeasurable enrichment of the perception of the concept of "Motherland", which is most dear to them. In the light of the socialist revolution, the concept of "Motherland" in Telegin and Roshchin appears immeasurably brighter and deeper, acquires a new meaning. For them, the limitations of their previous ideas about the Motherland become clear: this word is replenished with a new, high humanistic content, includes the immense expanses of the country, is inspired by the ideal of revolutionary service to the masses. This process of enrichment of a person's consciousness in the fire of revolution and civil war is most vividly expressed in the inner biography of Roshchin, a pure, sincere man, but much delusional. Earlier, for him, an officer who came from a poor noble family, the concept of the Motherland, love for it was limited to a narrow circle of familiar traditional ideas. “You tell me what your homeland is for,” Roshchin asks himself in the most intense time of his searches, which were extremely aggravated by the irreconcilability of the class battles of the revolutionary era. - June day in childhood, bees are buzzing on flax, and you feel happiness pouring into you like a stream of honey. Didn't I love that? "

The movement of history, the development of the revolution and civil war, bitter life experience revealed to Roshchin the narrowness of his usual idea of the Motherland, forever merged with the life of the people. The harsh lessons of wrestling led Roshchin to the conclusion: “It turned out that the homeland is not the same, the homeland is different ... This is them. They are a working people who have begun to create their future with arms in hand. "

The trilogy reproduces the drama of the clash of the heroes' illusions with the harsh reality of the formidable years of the revolution and civil war, the transformation of the entire structure of their feelings in violent social conflicts. Directly drawn into the whirlpool of the class struggle, feelings of friendship, love, humanity, the desire for good are transformed, replenished with new content. The organic entry of history into souls not only transforms consciousness, but also introduces new features into universal human feelings and aspirations.

The development of the consciousness of the heroes of the trilogy - Telegin, Roshchin, Katya and Dasha - takes place in painful reflections, in internal contradictions and conflicts. Overcoming obsolete ideas under the influence of reality for them often takes place in an acute internal struggle, in clashes of conflicting points of view. The primary source of such experiences of A. N. Tolstoy's heroes are always real facts, inexorably breaking their former fragile chamber performances and dreams.

The revolution has affected all aspects of human existence. Katya and Dasha's naive dreams of happiness do not come true soon. For many years, their personal life has been unsuccessful. They do not soon find a place in society. Sometimes it seemed that everything was crumbling, and then moments of despair came, but again the will to live prevailed and forced Katya and Dasha - weak and defenseless - to make their way. They often seem to be pitiful leaves, torn from the tree - Motherland, home, family - carried away by the whirlwind of terrible and incomprehensible events. However, sincerity and striving for the truth conquer all, and they are looking for a way out of the most hopeless situations at first glance.

As life has shown, the heroes' dream of a small personal happiness isolated from society, happiness in spite of all wars, revolutions, in spite of all the upheavals of mankind, turns out to be illusory. A small, secluded prosperity could not survive in the grandiose revolutionary breakdown of social relations, withstand historical storms. The personal happiness of Telegin and Dasha, Roshchin and Katya is under attack. They are forced to part for a long time. Only when they find their way in life do they find their love.

The feelings of the heroes of the trilogy are enriched, deeper and stronger. Previously, love forced them to isolate themselves from people, to be afraid of storms and unrest, which seemed to them such a merciless and inhospitable life. Now their feelings are elated with confidence in the future.

The personal in the representation of the heroes of the trilogy no longer opposes the public, but, on the contrary, the personal - love - flourishes even more, illuminated by the patriotic feeling of the citizens of a free country.

The power of A. N. Tolstoy's talent manifested itself in its entirety both in wide epic paintings and in the reproduction of the most subtle intimate experiences. The love story of Telegin and Dasha is imbued with genuine poetry. The writer makes us vividly feel the subtlety and complexity of the most intimate human feelings. In terms of the depth of transmission of the spiritual life of the heroes, Tolstoy's novel is one of the best works of Soviet literature. A. N. Tolstoy, revealing the inconsistency of the attempts of his heroes-intellectuals in a harsh revolutionary era to hide from the storms of history, to isolate himself within the limits of his modest personal happiness, shows the organic relationship of man with time. The dramatic development of the biographies of the main characters of the trilogy clearly, with a subtle penetration into the depths of the human soul, reveals the complex process of introducing a person to history, thereby liberating his spiritual capabilities. The life experience of Telegin, Roshchin, Dasha and Katya visibly testifies to the fact that it is the inclusion of history in the soul of a person that enriches the spiritual content of a person, makes it possible to most fully reveal individual properties.

The trilogy "Walking in agony" can be perceived as a kind of creative synthesis based on the new experience of the revolutionary era of all the previous searches of the author, as a result of his artistic biography. Problems that worried the writer all his life are finding a completely new solution. A. N. Tolstoy had never before shared the decadent views that affirmed the doom of man, his inability to spiritual development and improvement. The theme of spiritual renewal, purification, elevation of man is one of the main themes in his pre-revolutionary work. If decadent writers concentrated their attention on the fall, the dark sides, painful pathological instincts of the personality, then Tolstoy is characterized by the desire to embody the inner revival, the moral purification of the heroes. Nevertheless, the depiction of the spiritual renewal of a person in the pre-revolutionary works of the writer bore the character of an abstract, closed, inner self-improvement. Constant for A. N. Tolstoy, the theme of the ongoing spiritual progress of the individual receives a new, historically substantiated light in the trilogy. The introduction of the writer to the ideas of socialism, the artistic embodiment of the experience of the revolution and the civil war gave a solid, vital basis for a comprehensive renewal, transformation and improvement of the heroes. Their life is imbued with truly great, lofty, at the same time real ideals, inspired by great goals.

In connection with the theme of the comprehensive "renewal" and progress of the individual in many of Tolstoy's works, the classical theme of the heroes' search for truth, worthy foundations and goals of life, has found wide development. The motive of "truth-seeking", which was widely embodied in Russian classical literature of the last century, found its development in the work of A. N. Tolstoy. However, in the novel "Sisters" it still bears a speculatively abstract character, it still remains aloof from real, historically based social ideals, does not coincide with the true highest socialist truth of the era, which motivates millions of people to fight.

The motive of the search for truth, worthy of the foundations and goals of being, receives a new solution in the trilogy, organically merges with the struggle of the entire people for a new life. Persistent searches by the heroes of the work of true justice are crowned with success, receive an unshakable life foundation, merging with the real course of development of society, with the ideas of revolution and the establishment of socialism.

The artist depicted in vivid images an unprecedented collision of forces between old and new Russia.

A. N. Tolstoy deeply felt and conveyed the heroic pathos of the era, the acuteness of the social conflicts of this critical time, the unprecedented rise of human heroism, the melting down of human characters in the fire of the revolution. A distinctive feature of this period is that it breaks down the most complex orders and relationships, rebuilds the beliefs and characters of many people, makes them look at reality in a new way, look for a new place in life and struggle. In this light, the transition of the intellectuals - the heroes of the novel by A. N. Tolstoy - to the side of the revolution seems justified and natural.

One of the main themes of the trilogy "Walking through the agony" is the person and the people, the relationship between the individual and society. The nature of its artistic illumination most clearly reveals the innovation of Soviet literature.

Modern bourgeois literature and aesthetics are trying in every possible way to exacerbate the conflict between the individual and society, to elevate it into the eternal law of human existence. According to these views, only in isolation from society does a person receive inner freedom, the ability to fully reveal his individuality. Man and history appear to be eternally hostile, always opposing each other.

A. N. Tolstoy, artistically asserting the revolutionary reality, gives a new, fundamentally different illumination of the problem of the relationship between man and society.

The history of a man who chooses his own path in life in the harsh years of the revolution has received an extremely broad embodiment in literature. The general ideological and artistic concept of the outstanding works of Soviet literature consists in the pathos of achieving the unity of the individual and society, in the arrival of a person to his people. Such, for example, is the life path of the main characters of "Walking through the agony", "Quiet Don" and "Virgin Soil Upturned" by M. Sholokhov, "Sevastopol" by A. Malyshkin, "Cities and Years", "First Joys" and "Unusual Summer" K Fedin, "The Country of Ant" by A. Tvardovsky and many others.

The paths of the heroes of Soviet literature to unity with the people are different. While many of them have emerged from the masses of the working masses, are inseparable from them, or immediately took their leading place in life, others come to the people through a long, sometimes very difficult quest. For them, the path to harmony of interests of the individual and society is not at all easy and simple. To achieve it, you need struggle, courage, the ability to choose the right reference point. For some, this is historically and biographically achieved as a result of a dramatic internal struggle or a series of life lessons and trials.

The fate of the intelligentsia in the revolutionary era occupies a large place in the trilogy "Walking through the agony". But this is not the only, all-determining problem, as stated in a number of critical works.

At the center of the entire work is the all-embracing and all-pervading theme of enrichment, expanding the spiritual horizon of people in the storms of the revolution, in the struggle for its conquests. The merger of the heroes of the trilogy - the intelligentsia - with the life of the people provides a solid foundation for their spiritual uplift. The inner world of the heroes - representatives of the popular masses - also becomes more capacious and wider. The common basis for the ideological growth, transformation and elevation of the consciousness of all the heroes of the work of A. N. Tolstoy is their organic introduction to history, their inclusion in the solution of the main problems of the era, in the conscious creation of a new life.

The promotion in the final part of the trilogy - the novel Gloomy Morning - of communist heroes, revolutionary workers and peasants, solid, purposeful characters, creating a new history of their country in the struggle, introduced new features into the work of A.N. Tolstoy: like an endless ocean, the activity of the masses fills everything.

In the pre-revolutionary works of A. N. Tolstoy, the images of active leaders of the revolution were not embodied. As is known from the biography of the writer, he did not really know people of this type before. In the novel "Sisters" the images of the Bolsheviks are derived. But the writer at this time was far from the correct idea of the appearance of the people who created the revolution. Therefore, the images of people from the revolutionary camp in the first book of the trilogy turned out to be one-line, less convincing than other characters: the Bolsheviks were shown here one-sidedly, only as a force of destruction of the old, the personification of hatred for the bourgeois world. The heroism of the nationwide creation of subsequent years revealed new facets of the face of Soviet people to the writer.

The movement of history, a new worldview introduced into the work of A. N. Tolstoy an enriched recreation of the character of the progressive people of the era - the revolutionaries. A deeper and more faithful reproduction of the images of the heroes-creators of revolutionary history was due to the fact that Soviet reality, which in the second half of the twenties unfolded the creation of a new life, revealed for the writer the essence of heroic characters born of the revolution in a more multifaceted way. The conventional, schematic figure of Vasily Rublev faded into the background when the images of Ivan Gora, Chugai, Agrippina Chebrets, Sharygin, Latugin, Anisya Nazarova appeared in the trilogy. The Bolsheviks already appear to be the embodiment of the most consistent, effective socialist humanism, the embodiment of creative pathos, a wealth of emotions.

A. N. Tolstoy was especially interested in the creation of typical images of people who accomplished the socialist revolution, defended its conquests, and build a new life. First of all, the artist wanted to tell the world about them: “And those new types for whom there is no name in literature, who burned at the stake of the revolution, who are still knocking on the artist's sleepless window with the hand of a ghost - they are all waiting for embodiment. I want to know this new man " 6
A.N. Tolstoy, Poln. collection cit., vol. 13, p. 285.

The Road to Calvary

Book one. Sisters

The beginning of 1914 St. Petersburg, "tortured by sleepless nights, deafening its melancholy with wine, gold, loveless love, overwhelming and powerlessly sensual sounds of tango - the suicide anthem<...> lived as if in anticipation of a fateful and terrible day. "A young, clean girl Daria Dmitrievna Bulavina comes to St. Petersburg for legal courses from Samara and stays with her older sister Ekaterina Dmitrievna, who is married to the famous lawyer Nikolai Ivanovich Smokovnikov. progressive personalities who talk about the democratic revolution, and fashionable people of art, among them - the poet Alexei Alekseevich Bessonov. "Everything died a long time ago - both people and art," Bessonov dully broadcasts. “And Russia is carrion ... And those who write poetry will all be in hell.” The pure and straightforward Daria Dmitrievna is drawn to the vicious poet, but she does not suspect that her beloved sister Katya has already cheated on her husband with Bessonov. Smokovnikov guesses, tells Dasha about this, blames his wife, but Katya convinces both of them that everything is not true.Finally Dasha learns that this is still true, and with all the ardor and spontaneity of youth persuades her sister to obey her husband. Dmitrievna - to France, Nikolai Ivanovich - to the Crimea. And on Vasilievsky Island lives a kind and honest engineer from the Baltic plant Ivan Ilyich Telegin and rents out part of the apartment to strange young people who arrange "futuristic" evenings at home. Daria Dmitrievna gets into "magnificent blasphemy"; she does not like "blasphemy" at all, but she immediately liked Ivan Ilyich. In the summer, Dasha, heading to Samara to see her father, Dr. Dmitry Stepanovich Bulavin, unexpectedly meets on the Volga steamer Ivan Ilyich, who by that time had already been dismissed after working unrest at the plant; their mutual sympathy grows stronger. On the advice of her father, Dasha goes to Crimea to persuade Smokovnikov to make peace with his wife; in the Crimea Bessonov wanders; there Telegin unexpectedly appears, but only so that, having explained his love to Dasha, to say goodbye to her before leaving for the front, the First World War began. "In a few months, the war ended the work of a century." At the front, the mobilized Bessonov absurdly perishes. Daria Dmitrievna and Ekaterina Dmitrievna, who has returned from France, work in an infirmary in Moscow. Smokovnikov, reunited with his wife, brings to the house a thin captain with a shaved skull, Vadim Petrovich Roshchin, sent to Moscow to receive equipment. Vadim Petrovich is in love with Ekaterina Dmitrievna, trying to explain himself, but so far without reciprocity. The sisters read in the newspaper that ensign I.I. Telegin is missing; Dasha is in despair, she does not yet know that Ivan Ilyich escaped from a concentration camp, was caught, transferred to the fortress, alone, then to another camp; when he is threatened with execution, Telegin and his comrades again decide to escape, this time successful. Ivan Ilyich safely gets to Moscow, but meetings with Dasha do not last long, he receives an order to go to Petrograd to the Baltic plant. In St. Petersburg, he becomes a witness of how the conspirators dump the body of Grigory Rasputin, killed by them, into the water. The February revolution begins before his eyes. Telegin goes to Moscow for Dasha, then the young spouses move to Petrograd again. Commissar of the Provisional Government Nikolai Ivanovich Smokovnikov enthusiastically leaves for the front, where he is killed by indignant soldiers who do not want to die in the trenches; his shocked widow is consoled by the faithful Vadim Roshchin. The Russian army no longer exists. There is no front. The people want to divide the land, not fight the Germans. "Great Russia now - manure for arable land," says a career officer Roshchin. ... "On a summer evening in 1917, Katya and Vadim are walking along Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt in Petrograd. "Ekaterina Dmitrievna," Roshchin said, taking her slender hand in his hands ... "Years will pass, the wars will subside, the revolutions will sound off, and only one thing will remain incorruptible - your meek, tender, beloved heart ..." They are just passing by the former the mansion of the famous ballerina, where the headquarters of the Bolsheviks who are preparing to seize power are located.

Book two. Eighteenth year

"St. Petersburg was terrible at the end of 1917. It was terrible, incomprehensible, incomprehensible." In the cold and hungry city, Dasha (after a night attack by robbers) gave birth prematurely, the boy died on the third day. Family life is going wrong, the non-party Ivan Ilyich goes to the Red Army. And Vadim Petrovich Roshchin - in Moscow, during the October battles with the Bolsheviks, shell-shocked, goes with Ekaterina Dmitrievna, first to the Volga to see Doctor Bulavin to wait out the revolution (by the spring, the Bolsheviks must fall), and then to Rostov, where the White Volunteer Army is being formed. They do not have time - the volunteers are forced to leave the city on their legendary "ice campaign". Suddenly, Ekaterina Dmitrievna and Vadim Petrovich are quarreling on ideological grounds, she remains in the city, he follows the volunteers to the south. White Roshchin is forced to join the Red Guard unit, get with it to the area of the battles with the Volunteer Army, and at the first opportunity he runs over to his own. He fights bravely, but is not pleased with himself, suffers from a break with Katya. Ekaterina Dmitrievna, having received (knowingly false) news of Vadim's death, leaves Rostov for Yekaterinoslav, but does not arrive - the Makhnovists attack the train. At Makhno, she would have had a bad time, but Alexei Krasilnikov, the former messenger of Roshchin, recognizes her and undertakes to take care of her. Roshchin, having received a vacation, rushes after Katya to Rostov, but no one knows where she is. At the Rostov railway station, he sees Ivan Ilyich in a White Guard uniform and, knowing that Telegin is red (which means he is a scout), he still does not betray him. “Thank you, Vadim,” Telegin whispers quietly and disappears. And Daria Dmitrievna lives alone in red Petrograd, an old acquaintance - Denikin's officer Kulichek - comes to her and brings a letter from her sister with false news of Vadim's death. Kulichek, sent to St. Petersburg for reconnaissance and recruitment, draws Dasha into underground work, she moves to Moscow and participates in Boris Savinkov's Union for the Defense of Homeland and Freedom, and spends time in the company of anarchists from the detachment of Mammoth Dalsky for cover; on the instructions of the Savinkovites, she goes to workers rallies, follows the speeches of Lenin (who is being assassinated), but the speeches of the leader of the world revolution make a strong impression on her. Dasha breaks with both the anarchists and the conspirators, goes to her father in Samara. In Samara, however, all in the same White Guard uniform Telegin gets illegally, he runs the risk of turning to Dr. Bulavin for some news from Dasha. Dmitry Stepanovich guesses that there is a "red reptile" in front of him, distracts his attention with an old letter from Dasha and calls counterintelligence by phone. They are trying to arrest Ivan Ilyich, he is

he flees and unexpectedly bumps into Dasha (who, suspecting nothing, was all the time here in the house); the couple have time to explain themselves, and Telegin disappears. Some time later, when Ivan Ilyich, commanding a regiment, was one of the first to burst into Samara, Dr. Bulavin's apartment was already empty, the windows were broken ... Where is Dasha? ..

Book three. Gloomy morning

Night bonfire in the steppe. Daria Dmitrievna and her casual companion bake potatoes; they rode on a train attacked by white Cossacks. The travelers walk across the steppe towards Tsaritsyn and find themselves in the location of the Reds, who suspect them of espionage (especially since Dasha's father, Doctor Bulavin, is a former minister of the white Samara government), but it suddenly turns out that the regiment commander Melshin knows Dasha's husband Telegin well and on the German war, and on the Red Army. At this time, Ivan Ilyich himself was carrying cannons and ammunition along the Volga to Tsaritsyn, which was defending against the whites. During the defense of the city, Telegin was seriously wounded, he lies in the infirmary and does not recognize anyone, and when he comes to his senses, it turns out that the nurse sitting by the bed is his beloved Dasha. Meanwhile, honest Roshchin, already completely disappointed in the white movement, seriously thinks about desertion and suddenly in Yekaterinoslav he accidentally learns that the train in which Katya was traveling was captured by the Makhnovists. Throwing a suitcase at the hotel, ripping off shoulder straps and stripes, he gets to Gulyaypole, where Makhno's headquarters is located, and falls into the hands of the head of the Makhnovist counterintelligence Levka Zadov, Roshchin is tortured, but Makhno himself, who is to negotiate with the Bolsheviks, takes him to his headquarters so that the reds thought he was flirting with whites at the same time. Roshchin manages to visit the farm where Aleksey Krasilnikov and Katya lived, but they have already left to no one knows where. Makhno concludes a temporary alliance with the Bolsheviks for the joint capture of Yekaterinoslav, controlled by the Petliurists. The brave Roshchin takes part in the storming of the city, but the Petliurites take over, the wounded Roshchin is taken away by the Reds, and he ends up in a Kharkov hospital. (At this time, Ekaterina Dmitrievna, freed from Alexei Krasilnikov, who forced her to marry, teaches in a rural school.) After leaving the hospital, Vadim Petrovich is assigned to Kiev, to the headquarters of the cadet brigade, to the commissar Chugai, who was familiar from the battles in Yekaterinoslav. He participates in the defeat of Zeleny's gang, kills Alexei Krasilnikov and searches for Katya everywhere, but to no avail. Once Ivan Ilyich, already a brigade commander, meets his new chief of staff, recognizes him as an old acquaintance of Roshchin and, thinking that Vadim Petrovich is a white intelligence officer, wants to arrest him, but everything is explained. And Ekaterina Dmitrievna returns to hungry Moscow in the old Arbat (now communal) apartment, where she once buried her husband and explained herself with Vadim. She is still a teacher. At one of the meetings, she recognizes Roshchin, whom she considered dead, in speaking to the people, and faints. Dasha and Telegin come to my sister. And here they are all together - in the cold, crowded hall of the Bolshoi Theater, where Krzhizhanovsky makes a report on the electrification of Russia. From the height of the fifth tier, Roshchin points out to Katya that Lenin and Stalin are present here ("... the one who defeated Denikin ..."). Ivan Ilyich whispers to Dasha: "A good report ... I really want, Dasha, to work ..." Vadim Petrovich whispers to Katya: "You understand what meaning all our efforts, shed blood, all the unknown and silent torments acquire ... The world will be us to rebuild for good ... Everyone in this room is ready to give their lives for this ... This is not fiction - they will show you scars and bluish spots from bullets ... And this is in my homeland, and this is Russia ... "

The novel begins with the turbulent times of the First World War. The adorable young Bulavina arrives in St. Petersburg to study law courses and settles with her older sister, who was married to Smokovnikov. In their house they always have guests of different views, including creative personalities. One of them was Alexey Bessonov. After listening to his revolutionary speeches, Dasha was imbued with sympathy for Alexei Alekseevich, unaware that her sister had long been in close relations with him. Nikolai guessed, of course, about this, and reproached his wife for treason. Dasha intervened in the quarrel, trying to prove that all this was not true. Soon she learns that the relative actually cheated on her husband. Katerina and Nikolai decide to live separately from each other.

The girl meets the respectable engineer Telegin. Their relationship became especially close after meeting on the ship, where, by chance, the girl went to visit her father. Darya Dmitrievna's dad gives advice to go to Crimea, which she does. The girl wants to reconcile her sister with her husband, however, during her stay there she sees Bessonov and Telegin. Ivan Ilyich rushed to her because of leaving for the front and declaring his love to her.

During the fighting in 1914, women work in the hospital. In the newspapers, they learn that Telegin is missing. However, the news turned out to be false. The ensign was in captivity for some time, but then he successfully escaped and returned to Moscow, where he met his beloved for a very short time and went back to Petrograd.

And at this time, an unexpected guest appears in the Smokovnikovs' house, Captain Roshchin, who is madly in love with the elder Bulavina. Dasha, however, accepts Telegin's offer to become his wife, and they go to permanent residence in Petrograd. Katerina's husband was killed in the trenches by disgruntled soldiers, and Vadim Petrovich is with her as a sign of consolation. On the eve of the revolution, the captain confesses his love for her.

Book II. Eighteenth year

The revolution has come. But after that it was scary to be in Petrograd. Robberies were carried out everywhere, everything around was destroyed. Hunger raged.

Dasha was pregnant and had to give birth, but at night she was attacked by robbers, and as a result of a terrible fright, she was resolved ahead of schedule. The child lived only three days. Relations between the spouses go wrong, and Telegin leaves to fight with the Red Army. Katerina and Roshchin leave for Samara to calmly wait out the excitement there. They hoped that the Bolshevik regime would end in the spring. But the newlyweds fight over political differences. After the conflict, the captain leaves with the volunteers to the south, where he then goes to the White Guards. The man is fighting bravely, but his heart is restless because of the quarrel with Katerina Dmitrievna.

The woman receives a letter with false information that Roshchin was killed. She is forced to go to Rostov, but does not get there, as she finds herself in a gang of Makhnovists. And perhaps her fate with the bandits would have been tragic if there had not been a friend of her husband Krasilnikov, who protects her.

Vadim, having recovered from his injury, and having received the long-awaited leave, goes to Rostov, but does not find her there. On the platform, he notices Telegin, disguised as a White Guard, but does not betray him, knowing that he is serving with the Red Army.

At the same time, Dasha, in gloomy and cold Petersburg, is completely entangled in her ideological decisions. She joins the dubious organization Savinkov, where she conducts underground work. Once attending a meeting of the working people and listening to the speech of the leader of the proletariat, she decides to break with all this and leaves to her father. Her husband comes to Dr. Bulavin and asks where his youngest daughter is. However, Dmitry Stepanovich calls counterintelligence officers to arrest him. The spouse manages to escape, but he accidentally notices his wife in the house. They only have time to say a few words to each other. Soon, when the city was liberated from the Whites, the engineer found the Bulavins' house empty and ruined, but his wife was not there.

Book III. Gloomy morning

Further, we see that Daria and her fellow traveler are heading to Tsaritsyn. The train in which she was traveling was fired upon by White Cossacks. After a while, she gets to the Chekists, who consider her a spy. She was lucky that her husband knew the regiment commander Melshin.

Ivan Ilyich was delivering ammunition at this time. During the defense of the city, Ivan Ilyich is wounded, and when he regains consciousness, he sees his wife, who worked as a nurse in the hospital, next to him.

Roshchin, full of disillusionment with the policy of the white movement, wants to defect to the troops of the Red Army. However, he learns that his beloved Katerina is in the hands of bandits led by Makhno. He decides to sneak into the headquarters of the gang leader, but gets to the head of the Makhnovist counterintelligence service, Zadov. Roshchin is being tortured, and Makhno takes him with him to negotiations with the Bolshevik messengers, in order to put the Reds in doubt. However, Vadim visited the place where Katya was being held, but she was not there, and he did not know where his wife was. Later he takes part in the defense of the city of Yekaterinoslav, where he was wounded and picked up by the Bolsheviks. After being discharged from the hospital, Roshchin takes part in the defeat of the bandits, where he kills Krasilnikov, who had been seeking Katya's love for a long time. Vadim has been looking for his wife for a long time, but to no avail.

Katerina Dmitrievna arrives in the destroyed capital and there is a meeting with Telegin, who accuses Vadim of treason. However, she explains everything to him. Soon, unexpectedly, she sees Roshchin at a rally in front of the speakers.

Later, Daria and Ivan Ilyich arrive to them. And they all go to Krzhizhanovsky's report on electrification at the Bolshoi Theater. They are sitting on the fifth row of the upper tier and Ivan Ilyich, pointing at Vladimir Ilyich and Stalin, tells Dasha that the performance was wonderful and he wants to work again. And Roshchin explains to Katya that the people, including him, are ready to give their lives in the name of the Fatherland

The novel teaches us to endure with dignity all the hardships of life, to support loved ones in difficult times.

Picture or drawing Walking through the throes

Sisters

Petersburg, 1914. Daria Bulavina comes to the capital to enroll in law courses. The girl is staying with her married sister Ekaterina Dmitrievna. The elder sister's spouse is a well-known St. Petersburg lawyer Nikolai Smokovnikov. The lawyer's house is often visited by revolutionary-minded guests, among whom Alexey Bessonov is considered the most progressive.

Daria unexpectedly falls in love with the depraved and vicious Alexei. It does not even occur to a young, clean girl that her sister has already managed to cheat on her spouse with the poet. The husband guesses about the betrayal and shares his doubts with Daria. However, the elder sister assures both Nikolai and Daria that their suspicions are unjustified. In the end, the younger sister finds confirmation that Katya really deceived her husband. Daria begs Ekaterina to tell Smokovnikov the truth. As a result, the husband and wife are leaving: Nikolai went to the Crimea, and Catherine to France.

Daria meets engineer Ivan Telegin. The engineer rents out part of the apartment to suspicious young people who like futuristic evenings. Daria Bulavina turned out to be at one of these evenings. The girl did not like the evening, but the landlord makes her sympathetic. Some time later, Telegin finds Dasha to declare his love to her, and then goes to the front. Katya returned from France. The sisters work together in the Moscow hospital. Smokovnikov's lawyer made up with his wife. Soon it becomes known that the poet Bessonov died at the front, where he was mobilized. Telegin is missing.

Captain Roshchin falls in love with Katya. He tries to declare his love to her, but does not find reciprocity. Meanwhile, Ivan Telegin arrives in Moscow to meet with Daria. As it turned out, the young man ended up in a concentration camp, from which he fled. After a while, the lovers were able to get married and move to Petrograd. Smokovnikov goes to the front, and soon Katya becomes a widow. Roshchin remains next to Catherine.

The family life of Ivan and Dasha is not going well. The couple had their first child. On the third day after birth, the boy died. Ivan decides to join the Red Army. Roshchin and Catherine had a falling out. The captain supports the whites and opposes the Bolsheviks. There is a gap between Katya and the captain. Roshchin achieves his goal and falls into the hands of the White Guards. However, parting with Catherine makes him suffer. Katya received the false news of the captain's death and decided to go to another city. On the way, the Makhnovists attacked the train. Roshchin, having received a vacation, goes for his beloved, but learns that she left Rostov long ago, where they parted. The captain meets Ivan Telegin in a White Guard uniform. Obviously, the Red Army soldier became a spy. But Roshchin does not betray his old acquaintance.

Daria is drawn into underground work, and she moves to Moscow. The girl has to follow Lenin's speeches, go to worker rallies and spend time in the company of anarchists for cover. The sincerity of the leader of the proletariat forces Daria to abandon underground work and communication with the anarchists. The girl goes to her father in Samara. Meanwhile, Ivan is looking for his wife and goes to his father-in-law. Despite the fact that Telegin was dressed in a White Guard uniform, Dr. Bulavin guessed that he was in front of a Red Army soldier. Dasha's father does not support the revolution. Distracting the son-in-law's attention with an old letter from his daughter, Bulavin calls counterintelligence. Fleeing, Telegin meets his wife, who has been in the house all this time. After a while, Ivan returns to his father-in-law's house, but finds it empty.

Gloomy morning

The Telegin spouses meet again in the infirmary. During the defense of Tsaritsyn, Ivan was seriously wounded. When he wakes up in the hospital, he sees his wife near his bed. Roshchin managed to become disillusioned with whites. Now his only goal is to find Katya. Having learned that his beloved was captured by the Makhnovists, the captain goes to rescue her, and then he himself becomes a prisoner. Together with Makhno's adherents, Roshchin participates in the capture of Yekaterinoslav. The wounded captain falls into the hands of the Reds. After leaving the hospital, where he was taken, Roshchin goes in search of Katya. Fate brings him back to Telegin. Ivan takes his acquaintance for a spy, knowing that the captain supported the whites, but soon realizes that he was mistaken.

Ekaterina Dmitrievna returned to her Moscow apartment, which by that time had already become communal. Soon Katya meets Roshchin, whom she considered dead all this time. Lovers reunite. Ivan and Daria come to Ekaterina and Captain Roshchin.

The trilogy was written over 20 years. During this time, the author managed to revise his views. Despite the fact that Tolstoy returned from emigration, he was never able to come to terms with the fact that the country he loved so much had changed beyond recognition. Perhaps the writer did not support the White Guards, but he was extremely suspicious and cautious of the Bolsheviks. This is not hard to see in the first book of the trilogy. Tolstoy is not sure that the new masters of the country will change the life of the people for the better.

In the second book, the author's doubts are already noticeable. The novel "The Eighteenth Year" was written 10-11 years after the October Revolution. During this time, life really did not get better: the country needed to be rebuilt after the civil war. Nevertheless, Tolstoy understands: improvement in such a short time is simply impossible. And this is hindered not only by destruction, but also by the mentality of his fellow citizens that has failed to rebuild.

Many members of the intelligentsia still do not trust the Bolsheviks. Taking advantage of this, the former members of the white movement periodically remind of themselves. Tolstoy himself has already made his choice. His final opinion about the new government has been formed. It is no coincidence that one of the main positive characters of the novel, Ivan Telegin, goes to the Red Army. However, the author is beginning to be tormented by other doubts: will the new regime last long, after all, the supporters of the old one do not want to retreat? The 1920s were indeed very turbulent.

The author's faith in the good of Bolshevism
In the third book, the reader will see nothing but Tolstoy's confidence that the new government has brought only good to the people. The Bolsheviks won, first of all, a moral victory over their opponents. Almost 30 years after the revolutionary upheavals, the author of the trilogy ceases to doubt that the Russian people made the right choice by supporting the Bolsheviks.

Stalin Prize

Already at the height of the Great Patriotic War, A.N. Tolstoy was awarded the Stalin Prize for his trilogy, receiving a monetary reward of 100 thousand rubles. For 1943, this was more than a significant amount. The writer, without hesitation, donated the monetary reward to the Defense Fund. The money went to the construction of the Grozny tank.

Book one SISTERS

The beginning of 1914 St. Petersburg, “tortured by sleepless nights, deafening its melancholy with wine, gold, loveless love, overwhelming and powerlessly sensual sounds of tango - the death anthem<...> he lived as if in anticipation of a fatal and terrible day. " A young, clean girl Daria Dmitrievna Bulavina comes to St. Petersburg for legal courses from Samara and stays with her older sister Ekaterina Dmitrievna, who is married to the famous lawyer Nikolai Ivanovich Smokovnikov. At the Smokovnikovs' home there is a salon; it is visited by various progressive personalities who talk about the democratic revolution, and fashionable people of art, among them the poet Alexei Alekseevich Bessonov. “Everything died a long time ago - both people and art,” Bessonov muffled. "And Russia is a carrion ... And those who write poetry will all be in hell." Pure and straightforward Daria Dmitrievna is drawn to the vicious poet, but she does not suspect that her beloved sister Katya has already cheated on her husband with Bessonov. The deceived Smokovnikov guesses, tells Dasha about this, accuses his wife, but Katya convinces both that everything is not true. Finally, Dasha learns that this is still true, and with all the ardor and spontaneity of youth, she persuades her sister to obey her husband. As a result, the spouses leave: Ekaterina Dmitrievna - to France, Nikolai Ivanovich - to the Crimea. A kind and honest engineer from the Baltic plant Ivan Ilyich Telegin lives on Vasilievsky Island and rents out part of his apartment to strange young people who arrange “futuristic” evenings at home. Daria Dmitrievna falls on one of these evenings, called "Magnificent Blasphemy"; she does not like "blasphemy" at all, but she immediately liked Ivan Ilyich. In the summer, Dasha, heading to Samara to visit her father, Doctor Dmitry Stepanovich Bulavin, unexpectedly meets Ivan Ilyich on the Volga steamer, who by that time had already been dismissed after working unrest at the plant; their mutual sympathy grows stronger. On the advice of her father, Dasha goes to Crimea to persuade Smokovnikov to make peace with his wife; in the Crimea Bessonov wanders; there Telegin unexpectedly appears, but only so that, having explained his love to Dasha, to say goodbye to her before leaving for the front, the First World War began. "In a few months, the war ended the work of a century." At the front, the mobilized Bessonov absurdly perishes. Daria Dmitrievna and Ekaterina Dmitrievna, who has returned from France, work in an infirmary in Moscow. Smokovnikov, reunited with his wife, brings to the house a thin captain with a shaved skull, Vadim Petrovich Roshchin, sent to Moscow to receive equipment. Vadim Petrovich is in love with Ekaterina Dmitrievna, trying to explain himself, but so far without reciprocity. The sisters read in the newspaper that ensign I.I. Telegin is missing; Dasha is in despair, she does not yet know that Ivan Ilyich escaped from a concentration camp, was caught, transferred to the fortress, alone, then to another camp; when he is threatened with execution, Telegin and his comrades again decide to escape, this time successful. Ivan Ilyich safely gets to Moscow, but meetings with Dasha do not last long, he receives an order to go to Petrograd to the Baltic plant. In St. Petersburg, he witnesses how the Conspirators dump the body of Grigory Rasputin, killed by them, into the water. The February revolution begins before his eyes. Telegin goes to Moscow for Dasha, then the young spouses move to Petrograd again. Commissar of the Provisional Government Nikolai Ivanovich Smokovnikov enthusiastically leaves for the front, where he is killed by indignant soldiers who do not want to die in the trenches; his shocked widow is consoled by the faithful Vadim Roshchin. The Russian army no longer exists. there is no front. The people want to divide the land, not fight the Germans. “Great Russia is now - manure for arable land,” says career officer Roshchin. - Everything must be anew: the army, the state, the soul must be squeezed into us ... "Ivan Ilyich objects:" The district will remain from us, and the Russian land will go from there ... "On a summer evening in 1917, Katya and Vadim walk along Kamennoostrovsky avenue in Petrograd. "Ekaterina Dmitrievna," Roshchin said, taking her slender hand in his hands ... "Years will pass, the wars will subside, the revolutions will drown out, and only one thing will remain incorruptible - your meek, tender, beloved heart ..." They are just passing by the former the mansion of the famous ballerina, which houses the headquarters of the Bolsheviks preparing to seize power.

Book two EIGHTEENTH YEAR

“Petersburg was terrible at the end of the seventeenth year. Scary, incomprehensible, incomprehensible. " In the cold and hungry city, Dasha (after a night attack by robbers) gave birth prematurely, the boy died on the third day. Family life is going wrong, the non-party Ivan Ilyich goes to the Red Army. And Vadim Petrovich Roshchin - in Moscow, during the October battles with the Bolsheviks, shell-shocked, goes with Ekaterina Dmitrievna, first to the Volga to see Doctor Bulavin to wait out the revolution (by the spring, the Bolsheviks must fall), and then to Rostov, where the White Volunteer Army is being formed. They do not have time - the volunteers are forced to leave the city on their legendary "ice campaign". Suddenly, Ekaterina Dmitrievna and Vadim Petrovich are quarreling on ideological grounds, she remains in the city, he follows the volunteers to the south. White Roshchin is forced to join the Red Guard unit, get with it to the area of the battles with the Volunteer Army, and at the first opportunity he runs over to his own. He fights bravely, but is not pleased with himself, suffers from a break with Katya. Ekaterina Dmitrievna, having received (knowingly false) news of Vadim's death, leaves Rostov for Yekaterinoslav, but does not arrive - the Makhnovists attack the train. She would have had a bad time with Makhno, but Alexei Krasilnikov, a former messenger of Roshchin, recognizes her and undertakes to take care of her. Roshchin, having received a vacation, rushes after Katya to Rostov, but no one knows where she is. At the Rostov railway station, he sees Ivan Ilyich in a White Guard uniform and, knowing that Telegin is red (which means he is a scout), he still does not betray him. “Thank you, Vadim,” Telegin whispers quietly and disappears. And Daria Dmitrievna lives alone in red Petrograd, an old acquaintance - Denikin's officer Kulichek - comes to her and brings a letter from her sister with false news of Vadim's death. Kulichek, sent to St. Petersburg for reconnaissance and recruitment, draws Dasha into underground work, she moves to Moscow and participates in Boris Savinkov's "Union for the Defense of Homeland and Freedom", and for cover she spends time in the company of anarchists from the detachment of Mammoth Dalsky; on the instructions of the Savinkovites, she goes to workers rallies, follows the speeches of Lenin (who is being assassinated), but the speeches of the leader of the world revolution make a strong impression on her, Dasha breaks with both the anarchists and the conspirators, goes to her father in Samara. In Samara, however, all in the same White Guard uniform Telegin gets illegally, he runs the risk of turning to Dr. Bulavin for some news from Dasha. Dmitry Stepanovich guesses that there is a "red reptile" in front of him, distracts his attention with an old letter from Dasha and calls counterintelligence by phone. They try to arrest Ivan Ilyich, he escapes and unexpectedly stumbles upon Data (who, suspecting nothing, was all the time here, in the house); the couple have time to explain themselves, and Telegin disappears. Some time later, when Ivan Ilyich, commanding a regiment, was one of the first to burst into Samara, Dr. Bulavin's apartment was already empty, the windows were broken ... Where is Dasha? ..

Book three Gloomy morning Night fire in the steppe.

Daria Dmitrievna and her casual companion bake potatoes; they rode on a train attacked by white Cossacks. The travelers walk across the steppe towards Tsaritsyn and find themselves in the location of the Reds, who suspect them of espionage (especially since Dasha's father, Doctor Bulavin, is a former minister of the white Samara government), but it suddenly turns out that the regiment commander Melshin knows Dasha's husband Telegin well and on the German war, and on the Red Army. At this time, Ivan Ilyich himself was carrying cannons and ammunition along the Volga to Tsaritsyn, which was defending against the whites. During the defense of the city, Telegin was seriously wounded, he lies in the infirmary and does not recognize anyone, and when he comes to his senses, it turns out that the nurse sitting by the bed is his beloved Dasha. Meanwhile, honest Roshchin, already completely disappointed in the white movement, seriously thinks about desertion and suddenly in Yekaterinoslav he accidentally learns that the train in which Katya was traveling was captured by the Makhnovists. Throwing a suitcase at the hotel, ripping off shoulder straps and stripes, he gets to Gulyaypole, where Makhno's headquarters is located, and falls into the hands of the head of the Makhnovist counterintelligence Levka Zadov, Roshchin is tortured, but Makhno himself, who is to negotiate with the Bolsheviks, takes him to his headquarters so that the reds thought he was flirting with whites at the same time. Roshchin manages to visit the farm where Aleksey Krasilnikov and Katya lived, but they have already left to no one knows where. Makhno concludes a temporary alliance with the Bolsheviks for the joint capture of Yekaterinoslav, controlled by the Petliurists. The brave Roshchin takes part in the storming of the city, but the Petliurites take over, the wounded Roshchin is taken away by the Reds, and he ends up in a Kharkov hospital. (At this time, Ekaterina Dmitrievna, freed from Alexei Krasilnikov, who forced her to marry, teaches in a rural school.) After leaving the hospital, Vadim Petrovich receives an appointment to Kiev, to the headquarters of the cadet brigade, to the commissar Chugai, who was familiar from the battles in Yekaterinoslav. He participates in the defeat of Zeleny's gang, kills Alexei Krasilnikov and searches for Katya everywhere, but to no avail. Once Ivan Ilyich, already a brigade commander, meets his new chief of staff, recognizes him as an old acquaintance of Roshchin and, thinking that Vadim Petrovich is a white intelligence officer, wants to arrest him, but everything is explained. And Ekaterina Dmitrievna returns to hungry Moscow in the old Arbat (now communal) apartment, where she once buried her husband and explained to Vadim.She is still a teacher. At one of the meetings, she recognizes Roshchin, whom she considered dead, in speaking to the people, and faints. Dasha and Telegin come to my sister. And here they are all together - in the cold, crowded hall of the Bolshoi Theater, where Krzhizhanovsky makes a report on the electrification of Russia. From the height of the fifth tier, Roshchin points out to Katya that Lenin and Stalin are present here ("... the one who defeated Denikin ..."). Ivan Ilyich whispers to Dasha: "A good report ... I really want, Dasha, to work ..." us to rebuild for good ... Everyone in this room is ready to give their lives for this ... This is not fiction - they will show you scars and bluish spots from bullets ... And this is in my homeland, and this is Russia ... "

All Russian works in abbreviated alphabetical order:

Writers for whom there are abridged works: