Lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky - literary, cinematic, theatrical and humorous (folklore) popular in the USSR and Russia fictional character. Originally - the hero of the play in 2 parts by Alexander Gladkov “A long time ago” (1940).

In the original source - the play - he has both negative (propensity to drink, boasting, swearing), neutral (ability to dance), and positive qualities: courage, dexterity, gullibility, straightforwardness, frankness, ability to handle weapons, love of the homeland, dislike of “light”, reliability, loyalty to duty, word and friends. According to the play and film, Rzhevsky is not a real womanizer (although he boasts of success with women at least twice), but it is the “sexual” theme that is the main component in later jokes, sketches and films about the lieutenant. The lieutenant in modern (1980s - 2010s) Russian folklore is a “brutal” alpha male, a poorly educated womanizer, from whose pressure women are lost.
The lieutenant is a hereditary military man, the nephew of the brigadier (brigade commander) Rzhevsky.
IN classical works(in the play and film) the place of service of Lieutenant Rzhevsky is not directly named. In A. Gladkov’s play, the commander of the partisan detachment, Davyd Vasiliev, says, addressing Rzhevsky: “Your pugnacity, brother, became a proverb long ago in the Akhtyrsky regiment.” This phrase can mean both that Rzhevsky previously served in the Akhtyrsky regiment, and that Lieutenant Colonel Denis Davydov himself actually served in the Akhtyrsky regiment in 1812.
In the film “Hussar Ballad”, the lieutenant is in the uniform of the Mariupol Hussar Regiment, and not the Lubensky, Sumsky or Pavlogradsky, as some sources say - as indicated by the color of the tank (dark blue, the trim or instrument color is yellow), but in the case of his service in The Lubensky regiment has a blue tashka with a white lining. In the Mariupol regiment from January 1808 to April 1811, under the name of cornet Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov, the “cavalry maiden” Nadezhda Andreevna Durova actually served. Thus, the service of the lieutenant in the film in the Mariupol regiment is beyond doubt.
In film " True story Lieutenant Rzhevsky" (2005) a retired lieutenant also in the blue and yellow uniform of the Mariupol Hussar Regiment.
In the film "Rzhevsky against Napoleon" (2012) a lieutenant in the red uniform of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. Contemporary author Dm. Repin in the work “Lieutenant Rzhevsky. The Hussar Poem (2002) also indicates Rzhevsky’s place of service in the Hussar Life Guards Regiment (bright red uniforms; D. Davydov also served in this regiment from July 1806 to February 1807).

In various humorous dramatizations that have nothing to do with history, the lieutenant’s military uniform is usually fantastic - such as is available in the props at hand. Thus, G. Kharlamov in the program “What are our years” is dressed in a blue hussar uniform in the colors of the Grodno Regiment with a yellow trim of the Mariupol Regiment. In two “Town” programs, Rzhevsky is in a fantastic uniform of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment with red and white trousers, in the third - in a strange yellow-blakit separate uniform in the colors of the Mariupol Regiment, in the fourth - in general, in a khaki hussar uniform.
Another character in Gladkov's play, Shura Azarova, wears the green uniform of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment (Rzhevsky says, turning to her: - I see Pavlogradsky in the uniform you are wearing), but in the film she wears the light gray uniform of the Sumy Hussar Regiment, which probably was the reason for the inclusion Lieutenant Rzhevsky himself to this regiment; - a monument to him was even built in Pavlograd.

"Rzhevsky, waiting for the young lady."
The author of the sculpture is the famous Belarusian master Vladimir Zhbanov (01/26/1954 - 01/16/2012).
Some local young women believe that if you touch a hussar’s mustache with your hand, your husband will have a mustache, but if you hold another place, you’ll get pregnant faster.

Rzhevsky himself says in the play: “For me, there is no sweeter blue!”, and the color of the Pavlograd uniform is not blue, but light sand-gray. Another fictional character served in the Pavlograd regiment, but this time by Leo Tolstoy - Nikolai Rostov, the brother of Natasha Rostova, who is usually present in jokes about Rzhevsky along with other characters in the novel “War and Peace”, based on which a film by Sergei Bondarchuk was released in 1967. Since both characters are contemporaries, they are intertwined in folklore.
Nikolai Aseev’s poem “The Blue Hussars”, in particular, talks about their participation in the “Southern Society” of conspirators (1821-1825), which was located in Little Russia. The blue hussars were the Mariupol regiment, in which Rzhevsky served in the film, and the Lubensky hussar regiments stationed there.
The only hussar regiment of the Russian Empire, where in 1812 they wore partly blue military uniform, was the Grodno Hussar Regiment, which distinguished itself in World War II, nicknamed the “blue hussars” in the Russian army for this color. The main color of the uniform of the Lubny regiment is blue, and that of the Mariupol regiment is dark blue. For the campaign of 1812, the Grodno regiment received an award: silver pipes with the inscription “For distinction in the defeat and expulsion of the enemy from the borders of Russia in 1812.” The Mariupol regiment received the same award.
Known in Russia noble family Rzhevskikh, allegedly descended from the legendary Prince Rurik and lost princely title at the end of the 14th century. The Rzhevskys, whose surname is named after the city of Rzhev, are mentioned in the chronicle of 1315 - they were appanage princes in Rzhev. Prince Rodion Fedorovich Rzhevsky was killed in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.

Possible prototypes of the hero.

The Rzhevskys lived in nine Russian provinces: Voronezh, Kursk, Tula, Moscow, Oryol, Ryazan, St. Petersburg, Tambov, Tver.
In St. Petersburg there really was a Russian captain Imperial Army Rzhevsky, from whose surname the name of the Rzhevskaya Sloboda, which he owned, and the city district (then suburb) Rzhevka came from. This land the captain sold it to the naval department, and the Rzhev artillery range was set up there. Nowadays, this toponym has been preserved in the name of the railway station of the same name, as well as the nearby Rzhevka-Porokhovye residential area.
The first Rzhevsky to hold the rank of lieutenant was Yuri Alekseevich, who studied maritime affairs at the beginning of the 18th century in Italy by decree of Peter the Great. Lieutenant Yuri Alekseevich Rzhevsky was the great-great-grandfather of A.S. Pushkin, after which he was appointed to the rank of lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. His descendant Nikolai Rzhevsky, brother of A.S. Pushkin in the sixth generation, studied with Pushkin at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.
In the Venevsky district of the Tula province in the mid-19th century there lived a nobleman, second lieutenant Sergei Semyonovich Rzhevsky, who “became outrageous,” often quite vulgarly, and whose jokes often shocked noble society. Stories about the adventures of the “Venev scoundrel” were described in the Moscow tabloid press. He served in the army for only a year and three months, after which he was expelled from service. He did not participate in the Patriotic War of 1812 because he was not yet born. This is stated in the memoirs of his niece Nadezhda Petrovna Rzhevskaya (nee Volkonskaya), published by Tulsky local history museum. From the real adventures of Lieutenant Rzhevsky, described by the princess and published in the newspapers:
Once for a masquerade, Rzhevsky dressed up as a stove. He stuck his head into the pipe and made holes for the legs at the bottom of the stove. He stripped naked and climbed naked into the stove, which was made of cardboard. There was a flood in front, an vent in the back. Around both of the currently closed holes there were large inscriptions: “Do not open the stove, there is fumes in it.” In the masquerade everyone behaved very freely, and such an inscription encouraged everyone to open the stove and look into it. Everyone saw the man's bare members, front and back. Some spat, others laughed, but the whole hall became noisy and crowds began to gather. Sergei Semenovich wanted only this. The police showed up and he was led out in triumph.
Two Rzhevsky brothers took part in the Patriotic War of 1812, but there was no lieutenant among them and they are not prototypes of the hero.
In the memoirs of hussar Lieutenant Colonel Denis Davydov there is a participant Patriotic War Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Rzhevsky, who is also not the prototype of Dmitry Rzhevsky.
Volgograd writer Yuri Voitov believes that the prototype of Rzhevsky “could have been a native of Tsaritsyn, Nikolai Ashinov, who was widely known at the end of the 19th century. Ashinov was a desperate adventurer and an equally ardent patriot. It was necessary to think of this - to land a Cossack force on the territory of what is now African Somalia more than a hundred years ago, to found there “African Cossacks with the village of Moskovskaya” and to declare that from now on these lands are under the jurisdiction of the Russian crown. Only the true... Lieutenant Rzhevsky could have done this.”
Jokes about Rzhevsky appeared in the USSR after the release of the film “The Hussar Ballad” and became widespread by the 1980s. Rzhevsky is one of the three most popular joke heroes in the USSR/Russia who came from cinema; the others are Chapaev and Stirlitz. In total, more than four hundred “classic” jokes are known this topic. Most often in jokes, in addition to Lieutenant Rzhevsky himself, his fellow hussars, Natasha Rostova and cornet Obolensky from the 20th century act.

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In 1912, Russia grandly celebrated the centenary of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. This was on the day of the Battle of Borodino - August 26. Another 100 years have passed since then. In 2012, therefore, the 200th anniversary of this event was celebrated.

Although the image of a brutal and witty military man in any circumstances has existed in Russian jokes since the War of 1812, it has nothing to do with Lieutenant Rzhevsky. Dmitry Rzhevsky - a bully, a bully, a gambler, a lover of chasing young ladies and a drunkard, but at the same time a great patriot and a very brave man - did not take part in the War of 1812. He couldn't do it. Because the figure is fictitious. And fictional many years after the heroic events of the summer of 1812. Who was his prototype? And did this prototype really exist?

To understand who Lieutenant Rzhevsky is, and how he managed to make his way into Russian jokes, let’s first find out who the lieutenants are and where the Rzhevskys came from. And then I will move on to the stated topic.

Lieutenant in the Russian army -

This military rank junior officers, which corresponds to the modern rank of senior lieutenant: commission officer, guarantor. Very the right person. Must be a crafty person, know and be able to do a lot.

The origins of the Rzhevsky family, which is quite understandable, must be sought in Rzhev, a city located on the banks of the Volga. The lieutenant's ancestors - the Rzhev appanage princes - were first mentioned in Russian chronicles in 1315. The Rzhevskys always led a military life and useful for their Fatherland. The details of this life can be found in the book of Rzhev journalist Oleg Kondratyev, “Lieutenant Rzhevsky and Others,” published in 1999.

1. The first Rzhevsky to hold the rank of lieutenant was the great-grandfather of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - Yuri Alekseevich Rzhevsky, who in early XVIII century, by order of Peter I, he studied maritime affairs in Italy, and upon returning home he was appointed lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. However, he was not the prototype of the lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky known to us.

2. In the Patriotic War of 1812, the real Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Rzhevsky, awarded many orders and golden weapons, bravely fought with the French. He went down in history on his own, and not as someone else’s prototype.

3. In the Tula province in the middle of the 19th century there lived a nobleman, second lieutenant Sergei Semyonovich Rzhevsky, who was expelled from the army for his disgrace. His adventures were often described in the Moscow tabloid press. However, such a “warrior” simply could not become the prototype of a person who sacredly revered military honor.

4. The name of Dmitry Rzhevsky became famous in 1940, after playwright Alexander Konstantinovich Gladkov wrote the heroic comedy in verse “A Long Time Ago” (originally called “Pets of Glory”) and its radio show in 1941.

This play about the hussars and the events of 1812 was created by Gladkov under the influence of two books he read in childhood - “Children of Captain Grant” and “War and Peace”. The playwright really wanted the play to be fun and bright. She even had an epigraph - “Revel in luxury, cheerful crowd, in lively and fraternal self-will!” These are lines from a poem by Denis Davydov. But in the summer of 1941, another war began and changed the direction of the play. Gladkov removed the epigraph.

It is in this play that Lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky first appears on the threshold of the house of retired Major Azarov. And he says words by which we can easily recognize the hero of well-known jokes:

It would be nice to have a snack on the way,
Or fall in love on an empty stomach
I'm somehow not used to it.

5. According to Alexander Gladkov, he borrowed the character of Lieutenant Rzhevsky from Denis Davydov’s poem “Decisive Evening,” written by the poet in 1816 to his then-fiancée, Sofya Nikolaevna Chirkova:

I'll see you tonight,
Tonight my lot will be decided,
Today I will get what I want -
Il abshid to rest!

And tomorrow - damn it! - I’ll stretch myself like crazy,
On the troika I’ll fly like a wild arrow;
Having slept until Tver, I’ll get drunk again in Tver,
And drunk I’ll gallop to St. Petersburg for drunkenness!

But if happiness is destined by fate
To someone who has been unfamiliar with happiness for a whole century,
Then... oh, and then I'll get drunk like a pig
And with joy I will drink the runs with my wallet!

6. Anecdotes about Lieutenant Rzhevsky began to appear in 1962 after Eldar Ryazanov’s film “The Hussar Ballad,” based on Gladkov’s play for the 150th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812.

The main character of these anecdotes, Natasha Rostova, made Russian folklore happy with her presence several years later thanks to the success of Sergei Bondarchuk’s film “War and Peace.”

7. In the 1970-1980s, many more films about brave hussars appeared in cinema. This contributed to the fact that the following became an integral part of Soviet life:

What distinguished and distinguishes these jokes now? Violation of all rules and decency. Rzhevsky, their main character, - what a piece of fruit... He doesn’t know how to carry on small talk, he’s ignorant, boorish, every now and then he talks about what is not customary to talk about, and takes everything literally.

“Around the World” journalist Alexandra Arkhipova writes that “only the Soviet culture of jokes was able to give birth to an obscene series about Lieutenant Rzhevsky, which opposed all manifestations of officialdom - from high literature to the moral code of the builder of communism. And if you come across crude anecdotes about Rzhevsky, then this is not the real Rzhevsky” (“Around the World”, 2012, No. 9, p. 46).

After reading this conclusion, I involuntarily remembered Rzhevsky “himself”:

- Cornet, listen to the poem I composed: “Eat passion fruit, it benefits the body!”

- Lieutenant, where is the rhyme?

- Cornet, you too. First you provoke him to rhyme, and then you tell everyone what a vulgar Rzhevsky is, sir!

But really: why - like Rzhevsky, so he must be vulgar, sir, obscene? And if it’s not obscene, then it’s not real?

Critics, meanwhile, note that Gladkov’s play, therefore the real Rzhevsky, is characterized by both negative (propensity to drink, boasting, swearing), neutral (the ability to dance), and positive traits: courage, dexterity, gullibility, straightforwardness, frankness, ability to handle weapons, love of country, reliability, loyalty to duty, word and friends.

Then how does it happen: real only if he’s vulgar?..

I remembered the joke again:

Lieutenant Rzhevsky was nice and cultured person. But one day, at a reception with the old countess, he took the wrong fish fork... Since then, all sorts of nasty things have been circulating about him.

And further. Critics are critics, but even if they didn’t say anything good about Rzhevsky, there is a primary source - anecdotes. And from them it follows that the lieutenant, despite a certain obscenity, was still efficient and, most importantly, - a good man. Because he:

WAS A REAL PATRIOT:

Lieutenant Rzhevsky is sitting, writing something. Colonel enters:

- Lieutenant, what are you writing?

- Yes, I’m composing the anthem of our regiment.

- Well, why... Here, in the second line, the word “banner”...

STUDYING WELL AT SCHOOL:

- Tell me, lieutenant, what is a monarchy?

- This is when a king rules the country.

- What if the king dies?

- Then the queen.

- What if the queen dies?

THINKING STRATEGICALLY:

Lieutenant Rzhevsky is going to a ball and puts a banana in his right pocket. The orderly asks:

- Why do you, lieutenant, have a banana in your right pocket?

- I'll go dance with the lady. While dancing, she will lean against my right side, feel something hard, become confused and begin to move towards my left side. And in the middle we will meet her, my dear!

LOVED HORSES AND WOMEN:

- Lieutenant, who do you love more - women or horses?

“You see, gentlemen, if it weren’t for the horses, I wouldn’t have time to see all the ladies with whom I have success, and if there were no ladies, it seems like there’s nowhere to go.”

WAS A WONDERFUL RIDDER:

Rzhevsky went out onto the porch, poised himself, jumped into the saddle and rushed along the road until there was a column of dust. Having galloped two miles, he stopped.

- Honest mother, where is the horse?

Cursing loudly, Rzhevsky galloped back.

SHOOT PERFECTLY:

Lieutenant Rzhevsky is asked:

- Lieutenant, have you ever fought over a woman?

- No. He shot because of a tree, but he didn’t have to shoot because of a woman!

ALWAYS COME TO THE HELP OF THE LADY:

Natasha Rostova dances with Bezukhov at the ball. Natasha's lips are swollen.

- Natasha, what’s wrong with you?

- Yes, just now Mr. Rzhevsky and I were riding a boat, and a bee landed on my lip...

- God! Did she sting you?

- No... I didn’t have time. Mr. Rzhevsky killed her with an oar...

LOVED TO TRAVEL

- Lieutenant, I heard that you are marrying Countess Ligovskaya. Do you know that the whole of Tambov sleeps with her?

- Fi, Tambov... I've been there. Twenty thousand men, no more.

LOVED THE THEATER:

Lieutenant Rzhevsky in the theater. Watching "Othello". Othello tediously asks Desdemona where the handkerchief he gave her is. Rzhevsky gets tired of this, and he shouts from the audience:

“Gentlemen, finally give him a handkerchief, or wipe him with your sleeve, snivel, and don’t interfere with the action!”

MUSICAL:

— Lieutenant, do you play the guitar?

- And on the piano?

- And on the drum?

- Certainly.

- And on the harp, lieutenant?

- Not on the harp - the cards slip through the strings...

HAD EXPERIENCE IN ARTISTIC WHISTLING:

Natasha Rostova:

- Mom mom! Lieutenant Rzhevsky knows vulgar songs.

- Did he sing them in front of you?

- No, he was whistling...

WAS A FRANT:

Lieutenant Rzhevsky is impatiently waiting for Natasha Rostova to get dressed so he can go to the theater with her. Finally he got fed up and shouted:

- Well, how long does it take you to get ready? Look at me: a piece of cotton wool in my ear - and I'm ready!

KNEW A SENSE ABOUT FOOD:

Lieutenant Rzhevsky instructs cornet Obolensky on what can best be served for dinner in order to pleasantly surprise the invited lady:

- And when, cornet, you serve the pig on the table, I recommend that, as a special decoration, you first put a bunch of parsley in each ear, and a fresh apple in the snout.

- For pity’s sake, lieutenant, she won’t even recognize me in this form!

AND JUST BEING A GENTLEMAN:

At the ball, an elderly lady looks in the mirror and says:

- When I was young, I was so ugly...

Rzhevsky, passing by:

- You are perfectly preserved, madam.

And finally, if I haven't convinced you:

The folk-literary image of the immortal lieutenant Rzhevsky is thoroughly national, and every male compatriot of ours, making fun of him, is also proud of the actions and puns of the dashing hussar, involuntarily trying them on for himself and, with surprise and satisfaction, sometimes finding direct parallels in life’s collisions. The era is different, but the character is indestructible.

Vyacheslav Vorobyov is a Rzhev local historian and journalist.

Your Milena Apt, Libelle, Dragonfly - not fond of obscenity, but sympathetic to Rzhevsky.

Lieutenant Rzhevsky. Legendary person

The legendary lieutenant Rzhevsky is one of the most popular heroes of jokes, most of them indecent. In them he appears as a sort of reveler, womanizer and braggart. But where did he come from and why did people love him so much?

Did Rzhevsky have real prototype, or the lieutenant’s personality is, so to speak, synthetic, having absorbed the habits and actions of real hussars XIX century? Let's try to figure this out.

For the first time, Lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky appeared as one of the main characters in the poem in verse “Pets of Glory,” written in 1940 by playwright and screenwriter Alexander Konstantinovich Gladkov. On next year, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, this poem was staged musical performance"A long time ago". The premiere took place on November 7, 1941 in besieged Leningrad at the Musical Comedy Theater. And in 1962, director Eldar Ryazanov filmed it, but under a new title - “The Hussar Ballad”. It was then that the whole country learned about the dashing hussar lieutenant, whose role was brilliantly played by Yuri Yakovlev. At the same time, jokes about Lieutenant Rzhevsky appeared. In them he was portrayed as a rake, a drunkard, a cynic and a braggart. Alexander Gladkov himself said that the idea of ​​such a main character for his future poem came to him after reading the poems of the famous hussar poet, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Denis Vasilyevich Davydov. Indeed, Lieutenant Rzhevsky is somewhat reminiscent of Denis Davydov. The same lover of drinking, carousing, and in terms of the female gender they were somewhat similar. Like Denis Davydov, Gladkov’s hero fought with Napoleon’s troops. But there were also differences between them. Denis Davydov was an educated and well-mannered officer, with a subtle mind and undoubted talent as a military leader. And Lieutenant Rzhevsky is an ordinary dashing slasher, not grabbing stars from the sky, in some ways simple-minded and even narrow-minded.

The similarity between Davydov and Rzhevsky can be confirmed by a phrase from the poem: “Your pugnacity, brother, became a proverb long ago in the Akhtyrsky regiment...” The fact is that Denis Davydov himself served in the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment in 1812. True, in Ryazanov’s film the hero Yuri Yakovlev wears the uniform of the Mariupol Hussar Regiment. But here, rather, the point is that the director himself decided what this or that character in his film would look like, based on aesthetic considerations, and not from the point of view of historical accuracy.

Was there actually a lieutenant named Rzhevsky in the Russian army that fought Napoleon in 1812?

The Rzhevsky family is noble and ancient. He traced his origins back to Rurik himself. In the Middle Ages, representatives of this family were Smolensk princes. The clan got its name from the city of Rzhev, once rich and populous, now small district center Tver region. The last prince of Rzhevsky, Fyodor Fedorovich, lived at the beginning XIV century. His descendants no longer bore the princely title.

The first of the Rzhevsky family to receive the rank of lieutenant was Yuri Alekseevich Rzhevsky, who was sent at the beginning XVIII century to Italy by Tsar Peter I for maritime training. By the way, he was the great-great-grandfather of the great Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. And Yuri Rzhevsky’s descendant Nikolai Rzhevsky became Pushkin’s classmate at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.

Two Rzhevsky brothers took part in the Patriotic War of 1812. But they were not lieutenants, and they were not distinguished by extravagant behavior. Denis Davydov’s memoirs mention his fellow soldier Pavel Rzhevsky. But, again, he was not a womanizer, did not abuse alcohol and was distinguished by his modest behavior.

However, one person who bore the surname Rzhevsky could well become the prototype not only of the lieutenant from Gladkov’s poem, but also of the hero of modern jokes. It's about about Sergei Semenovich Rzhevsky, who lived in the middle XIX century and therefore did not participate in the Patriotic War of 1812. He was on military service, however, he did not rise to the rank of lieutenant. For his adventures and actions discrediting the honor of the officer, he was expelled from the army just a year and three months after he was accepted into the army. military service. Sergei Rzhevsky retired with the rank of second lieutenant. He lived on his estate in the Venevsky district of the Tula province. Rzhevsky's neighbors did not know what to do with his very frivolous actions. Some of his jokes often shocked the noble society and even appeared on the pages of the local tabloid press several times. They believe that the stories about Lieutenant Rzhevsky came from so-called army jokes. It’s just that the lieutenant became a hero who was well known and understood by millions of residents of our country. It is quite natural that there were enthusiasts who wanted to perpetuate the image of their favorite hero. The first monument to Lieutenant Rzhevsky was opened in Ukraine, in Pavlograd. This happened in the early 2000s. And this despite the fact that it was not he who served in the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, but, according to the play “A Long Time Ago,” Shurochka Azarov. The monument was made in Belarus by sculptor Vladimir Zhbanov. The same sculptor created a monument to Lieutenant Rzhevsky for the town of Dolgoprudny near Moscow. The sculpture was installed in 2012 on Sobin Square.

But the residents of Rzhev are just planning to erect a monument to their famous fellow countryman. “Shame on you!” - the lieutenant would certainly tell them.

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Who really was Lieutenant Rzhevsky?

Lieutenant Rzhevsky. Still from the film "The Hussar Ballad", 1962, dir. E. Ryazanov

In the string of heroes of folk jokes, Lieutenant Rzhevsky occupies a special place. Rzhevsky intertwined incomparable qualities - irrepressible boasting and loyalty to his word, love for the weaker sex and reckless courage on the battlefield, boundless patriotism and a penchant for gambling, the ability to dance and dislike of high society. But in mass consciousness The brave lieutenant entered only half a century ago, when the 150th anniversary of the victory of the Russian army in the Patriotic War of 1812 was celebrated.

Rzhevsky - entry into folklore

With a high degree of probability, it can be argued that the folklore birth of Lieutenant Rzhevsky occurred in 1962 after the release of Eldar Ryazanov’s comedy “The Hussar Ballad.” The film itself was an adaptation of Alexander Gladkov’s play “A Long Time Ago,” which was first staged in 1941. Playwright Gladkov, who gave Russia an extraordinary folk hero, recalled that he was inspired by a poem by the hero of 1812, hussar Denis Davydov, for the dashing image of Lieutenant Rzhevsky:

* Abshid - resignation.

A few words about the film. Seventeen-year-old Shura, a pupil of a retired major, is engaged in absentia to lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky, whom she has never seen. Rzhevsky himself is not at all happy about the upcoming meeting with his bride, presenting her as a cutesy fashionista who is “fidgety and whiny, smart, but capable of grinding rye with her tongue.” However, Shura is not like that at all - she sits perfectly in the saddle, shoots and knows how to fence. At a masquerade dedicated to her birthday, she puts on a cornet uniform, and the lieutenant mistakes her for a military youth. Rzhevsky, not feeling a catch, pours out his soul to her, complaining about the upcoming wedding. Then Shura meets with the lieutenant in a woman's outfit, feigning cuteness and justifying his worst expectations.

Episode from the film "The Hussar Ballad", 1962, dir. E. Ryazanov

During the ball, couriers arrive at the house with news of the start of the war. The lieutenant, like all military men, quickly leaves - he must return to his regiment. Shura does not intend to stay at home with her needlework and that same night runs away from home in a cornet uniform - to fight for her Motherland.

Actor Yuri Yakovlev, who brilliantly took on the role of the main character, with his magnificent performance created an anecdotal image of Lieutenant Rzhevsky - a dashing braggart, a ladies' man, a rogue, prone to gambling and reckless in battle.

Rzhevsky’s real and fictional contemporaries, who often accompany him in anecdotes, require special attention. The great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin often acts as an adviser to the lieutenant, or makes up puns for him, which he shamelessly misinterprets. Folklore brought Rzhevsky together with the heroes of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace,” since the action of the epic takes place during the heyday of the lieutenant. Rzhevsky is also accompanied by characters from the 20th century - cornet Obolensky and Lieutenant Golitsyn, heroes of the famous romance by Mikhail Zvezdinsky.

Prototypes

As many as nine can compete for the right to be called the homeland of Lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky Russian regions. Nobles with this surname lived in Voronezh, Kursk, Tula, Moscow, Oryol, Ryazan, St. Petersburg, Tambov and Tver provinces. For example, the appanage princes of Rzhev, whose surname is named after the city of Rzhev, are mentioned in the chronicle of 1315. It is known that Prince Rodion Rzhevsky died in the Battle of Kulikovo.

In St. Petersburg lived the captain of the Russian army, Rzhevsky, who owned part of the Rzhevskaya Sloboda. It is believed that the captain sold his lands to the maritime department, which set up the Rzhev artillery range there, which is still operating to this day.

At the beginning of the 18th century, by decree of Peter I, Lieutenant Yuri Rzhevsky was sent to Italy to study maritime affairs. Upon returning to his homeland, the officer was assigned to the Preobrazhensky Regiment. It is noteworthy that Lieutenant Yuri Rzhevsky is the great-great-grandfather of A.S. Pushkin.

It is also known that two Rzhevsky brothers took part in the Patriotic War of 1812, but they can hardly be considered the real prototypes of our hero, since neither of them was a lieutenant.

However, the most realistic prototype of Lieutenant Rzhevsky can be considered the nobleman Second Lieutenant Sergei Rzhevsky, who lived in the mid-19th century in the Venevsky district of the Tula province. According to contemporaries, the young rake “behaved recklessly,” often in very obscene and vulgar ways, and only the police could calm him down. The antics of the Venev reveler often became the property of the Moscow tabloid press. Here are just the most harmless of them, described in the memoirs of his niece Nadezhda Petrovna Rzhevskaya (nee Volkonskaya):

One day the second lieutenant went to mass in a nunnery. He chose a pretty nun and stood so close behind her that, while making a cross and bowing, he hit her forehead with her back. The nun moved away, Rzhevsky approached again. This happened several times until there was nowhere to retreat. The abbess ordered two nuns to take him out. Rzhevsky pressed their hands to his sides and rushed to run with them to the square with a song: “Here comes the daring troika!” The audience applauded, the nuns fell, and he kept dragging them along and singing. The scandal was complete!

Trace in art

In addition to jokes, the name of Lieutenant Rzhevsky is associated with many works of art and show business. As already mentioned, playwright Alexander Gladkov was the first to bring our hero onto the stage on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. By the way, his comedy “A long time ago” is still with great success runs at the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army.

Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army

The image of Rzhevsky is regularly exploited in mass art. Thus, in the well-known film by Dzhanik Fayziev “The Turkish Gambit” the attention of the female audience is focused on Lieutenant Hussar Zurov - a dashing grunt, duelist, gambler and womanizer.

Lieutenant Zurov. Still from the film "The Turkish Gambit", 2005, dir. Janik Fayziev

The adventures of Lieutenant Rzhevsky are a favorite topic of the TV show “Town”. Yuri Stoyanov and Ilya Oleynikov sometimes play out the piquant moments from the lieutenant’s biography in a very original way.

Still from the TV show "Town"

In the comedy by Marius Weisberg “Rzhevsky against Napoleon”, released in February 2012, all the truly “hussar” qualities of the lieutenant are revealed. Rzhevsky, performed by actor Pavel Derevyanko, is the center of debauchery, excitement and brutality. Rzhevsky's rollickingness goes off scale so much that at times it makes even the most hardened TV viewers blush. The absurdity of the plot (Russian generals throw Rzhevsky, dressed as a woman, into Napoleon's headquarters, where the French emperor falls madly in love with a temperamental stranger) reveals new features of Rzhevsky, who managed to step over his principles and enter the role of a temptress for the sake of the glory of the Fatherland.

Lieutenant Rzhevsky, disguised as a woman, seduces Napoleon and thwarts his plans. Still from the film "Rzhevsky against Napoleon", 2012, dir. Marius Weisberg

Rzhevsky, unlike Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev and Stirlitz, became the hero of about 10 full-fledged literary works that were published in 1990-2000. Unlike its cinematic competitors, it boasts baggage in the form of several theatrical productions and even a separate ballet (“Hussar Ballad” by Tikhon Khrennikov).

Rzhevsky's folklore heritage cannot be counted. Researchers counted more than 400 jokes about the dashing lieutenant. Naturally, most of them are very difficult to publish without cuts. However, there are exceptions. Thus, critic Pavel Basinsky managed to publish a fairly harmless anecdote on the pages of Literaturnaya Gazeta:

Beautiful sunny morning. Rzhevsky came out onto the porch - ruddy, dashing - and already grunted with pleasure. He jumped into the saddle, galloped a mile, only a pillar of dust. Suddenly he stopped, looked down and slapped himself on the forehead: “Oh my! Where’s the horse?” And he galloped back.

In addition, Lieutenant Rzhevsky is immortalized in painting and sculpture. In 1979, artist Vladimir Ovchinnikov gave the world the painting “Lieutenant Rzhevsky,” and the grateful residents of Pavlograd (Ukraine) erected a real monument to the hero of folk jokes.

Monument to Lieutenant Rzhevsky, Pavlograd, Republic of Ukraine

One way or another, Lieutenant-adventurer Dmitry Rzhevsky took his place in the galaxy folk heroes, V different time who stood up in defense of the Fatherland. And although we have a vague idea about Rzhevsky’s military exploits, his successes in peaceful life undoubtedly improve the mood of many.

“Once, at a dinner party, Lieutenant Rzhevsky took an oyster fork with the wrong hand. “Fi,” said the old countess. Since then they have been telling all sorts of nasty things about the lieutenant.” “Around the World” figured out whether it’s true that...

... jokes about Lieutenant Rzhevsky were told back in the 19th century

Stories about reckless cavalrymen were indeed popular in the century before last, be it the nameless lancer or the famous hussar officer, hero of the war with Napoleon Denis Davydov. Lieutenant Rzhevsky is not mentioned in the anecdotes of that time.

Tula historian Roman Klyanin suggested that since the end of the 19th century, tales about Sergei Rzhevsky from the city of Venev, whose hooligan antics could be the envy of any hussar, could have been preserved in folklore. So, one day he showed up to a masquerade in a cardboard stove costume, worn over his naked body, with doors in the most “interesting” places. There was an inscription on the doors: “Do not open the stove, there is fumes in it”... Newspapers wrote about him, but there is no evidence that stories about this provincial became part of folklore. Moreover, other than a penchant for shocking behavior, he had little in common with the dashing lieutenant. This Rzhevsky didn’t drink, he hated gambling, did not dance and did not know how to look after the ladies - in general, “he turned out to be a shameful guardsman,” his niece summarizes in her memoirs about her uncle’s unsuccessful military career.

Lieutenant Rzhevsky has become the hero of jokes since the 1960s, after the release of Eldar Ryazanov’s film “The Hussar Ballad.” The film takes place in 1812, and the hero - hussar, womanizer and rake Dmitry Rzhevsky - fights the French and wins the heart of the cavalry maiden Shurochka Azarova.

...Lieutenant Rzhevsky first appeared in the cinema

Still from the film “The Hussar Ballad”, 1962. In the role of Lieutenant Rzhevsky - Yuri Yakovlev

Not at all. “The Hussar Ballad” is a film adaptation of Alexander Gladkov’s play “A Long Time Ago.” Lieutenant Dmitry Rzhevsky appears for the first time in it. The play was created in 1940 - early 1941, and the premiere took place on November 7, 1941 in besieged Leningrad. The performance was repeatedly interrupted by an air raid warning; the actors and the audience went down to the bomb shelter and returned to the stage after lights out.

The audience received the play very warmly, it continued to be staged after the war, but it was a phenomenon popular culture Lieutenant Rzhevsky became Lieutenant after the release of The Hussar Ballad. This is not the only case when the hero of a literary work “infiltrated” folklore after a film adaptation: this happened with Stirlitz, Chapaev, Holmes.

...Lieutenant Rzhevsky was a relative of Pushkin

Hussar. Drawing by Alexander Pushkin. 1833

This is true. First ever Russian Empire Lieutenant Rzhevsky named Yuri, who served in the Preobrazhensky Regiment under Peter the Great and then became the Nizhny Novgorod vice-governor, is the poet’s great-great-grandfather.

...the surname Rzhevsky comes from the name of the city of Rzhev

True (although anecdotes offer a version related to what exactly the ancestors of the legendary lieutenant usually did with the ladies in the rye). Noble names often formed from toponyms - by ownership or origin. The first Rzhevskys are mentioned in written sources already in the 14th century, it is believed that they descend from the Smolensk branch of the grand ducal Rurik dynasty. But there were two cities of Rzhev, or Rzhev (in the feminine gender), in Rus' - the Upper Volga, which retained the name, and Rzheva Empty near Pskov, now Novorzhev. However, in the 19th century, numerous Rzhevsky nobles lived not only in the Tver and Pskov provinces.

Anecdote on topic

A bus with tourists approaches the city of Rzhev. Guide:
- And here, gentlemen, Lieutenant Rzhevsky lived and worked.
Curious from the audience:
- Well, he lived - that’s understandable. What, I wonder, was he doing?
Guide:
- Oh, gentlemen, he did such things here...

...Dmitry Rzhevsky had a real prototype

And tomorrow - damn it! - I’ll stretch myself like crazy,
On the troika I’ll fly like a wild arrow;
Having slept until Tver, I’ll get drunk again in Tver,
And drunk I’ll gallop to St. Petersburg for drunkenness!

But if happiness is destined by fate
To someone who has been unfamiliar with happiness for a whole century,
Then... oh, and then I'll get drunk like a pig
And with joy I’ll drink the runs** with my wallet!

* Abshid - dismissal from service, resignation.

** Runs - pass money issued to officers from the treasury for expenses on travel along postal roads.

...Rzhevsky appears in the same literary work with Natasha Rostova, Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky

Still from the film "War and Peace". 1965–1967 In the role of Andrei Bolkonsky - Vyacheslav Tikhonov (left), in the role of Pierre Bezukhov - film director Sergei Bondarchuk

Schoolchildren of many generations, having heard enough anecdotes about how the lieutenant cared for Natasha Rostova and communicated with Bezukhov and Bolkonsky, searched in vain for mention of the gallant hussar in the novel “War and Peace.” Tolstoy's heroes and the lieutenant are united only by the era Napoleonic Wars and popularity after the release of the famous film adaptation of the novel. The film "War and Peace" by Sergei Bondarchuk, like "The Hussar Ballad", was filmed in the 1960s: in popular consciousness the characters of the epic film found a place next to Rzhevsky.

Anecdote on topic

All jokes are lies! In Natasha Rostova’s life there was only one man who could do whatever he wanted with her. His name was Leo Tolstoy.

... communicated with Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy

Still from the film “Rzhevsky against Napoleon”, 2012. In the role of Rzhevsky - Pavel Derevyanko, in the role of Leo Tolstoy - Mikhail Efremov

Great writers are mainly engaged in jokes by supplying Rzhevsky with obscene puns. In the 19th century famous writers and poets were favorite heroes of jokes, so in the next century they migrated to funny stories about a fictional hussar - their older contemporary.

...loved beer

Anecdotes about the gallant hussar often mention this drink; today in Rzhev the lieutenant’s face adorns the labels of several varieties of local beer. Meanwhile, in Gladkov’s play the hussars mention and use different drinks: vodka, zhzhenka (a hot drink made from alcohol, fruit and burnt sugar), rum, punch, several types of wine, arak (a Caucasian or Central Asian type of strong alcohol), but not a word about beer. Denis Davydov does not pay much attention to beer in his work, although the hussars, of course, drank everything they could. The reason for such neglect is probably not even the reputation of beer as a drink for the common people (art critic Yulia Demidenko argues that beer began to be considered vulgar only end of the 19th century century), but that the hussars preferred something stronger.

...served in the same regiment with Denis Davydov

Portrait of Denis Davydov. George Dow. 1828

“The Poet and the Partisan” Davydov is the prototype of Colonel Davyd Vasiliev, under whose command Rzhevsky fights in the play and film. Vasiliev is listed in the Akhtyrsky regiment, like Davydov in 1812–1814. “Your pugnacity, brother, became a proverb long ago in the Akhtyrsky regiment,” this character says to Rzhevsky in Gladkov’s play. However, the colors of the dolman (uniform cloth jacket) and mentik (outer cape with sleeves) of the Akhtyrtsev are brown, and in the text the lieutenant states: “There is no more beautiful blue!”, referring to his uniform. In 1812, blue trim elements (with dark blue dolmans and menticles) were characteristic of the hussars of the Grodno regiment. In the film “The Hussar Ballad” Rzhevsky is dressed in the colors of the Mariupol Regiment, the dolman and mentik are dark blue. Perhaps the playwright also had in mind the uniform of the Mariupol regiment. True, in the play she “faded”, from blue to blue, in order, probably, to fit into the poetic size.

It is interesting that in the Ukrainian city of Pavlograd a monument to Rzhevsky was erected in 2006, although the lieutenant in the text of the play has nothing to do with the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, he only recognizes its colors on the uniform of Shura Azarova. Moreover, in the film Shura wears the colors of the Sumy Regiment. Director Eldar Ryazanov did not hide the fact that historical accuracy was not important to him: “I came to the conclusion that we will not create a museum of antique furniture, clothing, weapons, mustaches and sideburns on the screen. The main thing is to find a way to truly convey the spirit of the times.”

Anecdote on topic

Lieutenant Rzhevsky says:
- Yesterday I was with Countess N. And her husband unexpectedly returned.
- So what? What have you done?
- Defended the honor of an officer's uniform.
- How?
- Killed all the moths in the closet.

...played in the theater

Scene from Tikhon Khrennikov’s ballet based on Alexander Gladkov’s play “The Hussar Ballad”

In the jokes, Rzhevsky now and then appears on stage in the role of either Chatsky from “Woe from Wit” (by the way, the author of the play, Alexander Griboedov, also served in the hussar regiment), or Othello... but every time he forgets the text and recites something obscene. In fact, it was not appropriate for an officer or nobleman to perform on a professional stage in those days - until the nephew of Emperor Alexander II Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich founded the literary and theater Club at the Life Guards Izmailovsky Regiment. Therefore, Rzhevsky in Gladkov’s play shines only in the theater of military operations. Despite the fact that it was to the theater that he owed his birth.

Photo: Mosfilm / Fotodom.ru, Andrey Butko (CC-BY-sa), Dmitry Neumoin / Lori Photobank, RIA Novosti, Nikolay Naumenkov / TASS Photo Chronicle, Central Partnership Film Company / ITAR-TASS, AGE, Fine Art Images / Legion -Media