Description of the heroes of the White Guard Bulgaks. House and City are the two main characters of the novel “The White Guard”

Women's images in the novel, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov attaches special importance, although this is not so easy to notice. All male heroes of The White Guard are in one way or another connected with historical events, unfolding in the City and in Ukraine as a whole, we perceive them as nothing other than active characters civil war. The men of the “White Guard” are endowed with the ability to reflect on political events, take decisive steps, and defend their beliefs with arms in hand. The writer assigns a completely different role to his heroines: Elena Turbina, Julia Reiss, Irina Nai-Tours. These women, despite the fact that death hovers around them, remain almost indifferent to events, and in the novel they actually only engage in personal life. The most interesting thing is that in The White Guard there is, in general, no love in the classical literary sense. Several windy novels unfold before us, worthy of descriptions in “tabloid” literature. Mikhail Afanasyevich portrays women as frivolous partners in these novels. The only exception, perhaps, is Anyuta, but her love with Myshlaevsky also ends quite “tabloid”: as evidenced by one of the options in the 19th chapter of the novel, Viktor Viktorovich takes his beloved away to have an abortion.

Some rather frank expressions that Mikhail Afanasyevich uses in general female characteristics, clearly make us understand the writer’s somewhat disdainful attitude towards women as such. Bulgakov does not make a distinction even between representatives of the aristocracy and workers of the oldest profession in the world, reducing their qualities to one denominator. Here are some general phrases about them we can read: “Cocottes. Honest ladies from aristocratic families. Their tender daughters, pale St. Petersburg libertines with painted carmine lips"; "Prostitutes walked past, in green, red, black and white caps, beautiful as dolls, and cheerfully muttered to the screw: "Did you sniff, y-your mother?" Thus, a reader inexperienced in “women’s” issues, having read the novel, may well conclude that aristocrats and prostitutes are one and the same.

Elena Turbina, Yulia Reiss and Irina Nai-Tours are completely different women in character and life experience. Irina Nai-Tours seems to us to be an 18-year-old young lady, the same age as Nikolka, who has not yet known all the delights and disappointments of love, but has a large supply of girlish flirtation that can charm young man. Elena Turbina, married woman 24 years old, also endowed with charm, but she is simpler and more accessible. In front of Shervinsky, she does not “break” comedies, but behaves honestly. Finally, the most complex woman in character, Julia Reiss, who managed to be married, is a flamboyant hypocrite and selfish person who lives for her own pleasure.

All three women mentioned not only have differences in life experience and age. They represent the three most common types female psychology, which Mikhail Afanasyevich probably encountered

Bulgakov. All three heroines have their real prototypes, with whom the writer, apparently, not only communicated spiritually, but also had affairs or was related. Actually, we will talk about each of the women separately.

The sister of Alexei and Nikolai Turbins, “Golden” Elena, is depicted by the writer, as it seems to us, as the most trivial woman, the type of which is quite common. As can be seen from the novel, Elena Turbina belongs to the quiet and calm “homely” women who, with the appropriate attitude from a man, are capable of being faithful to him until the end of their lives. True, for such women, as a rule, the very fact of having a man is important, and not his moral or physical merits. In a man, they first of all see the father of their child, a certain support in life, and, finally, an integral attribute of the family of a patriarchal society. That is why such women, much less eccentric and emotional, more easily cope with betrayal or the loss of a man for whom they immediately try to find a replacement. Such women are very convenient for starting a family, since their actions are predictable, if not 100, then 90 percent. In addition, being a homebody and caring for offspring largely makes these women blind in life, which allows their husbands to go about their business and even have affairs without much fear. These women, as a rule, are naive, stupid, rather limited and of little interest to men who love thrill. At the same time, such women can be acquired quite easily, since they take any flirting at face value. Nowadays there are a lot of such women, they get married early, and to men older than them, give birth to children early and lead, in our opinion, a boring, tedious and uninteresting lifestyle. These women consider the main merit in life to be the creation of a family, “continuation of the family,” which is what they initially make their main goal.

There is plenty of evidence in the novel that Elena Turbina is exactly as we described. All her advantages, by and large, boil down to the fact that she knows how to create comfort in the Turbins’ house and perform household functions in a timely manner: “The tablecloth, despite the guns and all this languor, anxiety and nonsense, is white and starchy. This from Elena, who cannot do otherwise, this is from Anyuta, who grew up in the Turbins’ house, the floors are shiny, and in December, now, on the table, in a matte, columnar vase, there are blue hydrangeas and two dark and sultry roses, affirming the beauty and strength of life..." . Bulgakov did not have any exact characteristics in store for Elena - she is simple, and her simplicity is visible in everything. The action of the novel White Guard“actually begins with a scene of Thalberg’s waiting: “In Elena’s eyes there is melancholy (not anxiety and worries, not jealousy and resentment, but melancholy - T.Ya.’s note), and the strands, covered with a reddish fire, drooped sadly.”

Even her husband’s rapid departure abroad did not bring Elena out of this state. She showed no emotions at all, she just listened sadly, “she grew old and ugly.” To drown out her melancholy, Elena did not go to her room to sob, fight in hysterics, take out her anger on relatives and guests, but began to drink wine with her brothers and listen to the admirer who appeared instead of her husband. Despite the fact that there were no quarrels between Elena and her husband Thalberg, she still began to respond gently to the attentions shown to her by her admirer Shervinsky. As it turned out at the end of The White Guard, Talberg left not for Germany, but for Warsaw, and not in order to continue the fight against the Bolsheviks, but to marry a certain mutual acquaintance, Lidochka Hertz. Thus, Thalberg had an affair that his wife did not even suspect. But even in this case, Elena Turbina, who seemed to love Talberg, did not make a tragedy, but completely switched to Shervinsky: “And Shervinsky? Oh, the devil knows... That’s punishment with the women. Elena will definitely contact him, absolutely... And What’s good? Except the voice? The voice is excellent, but in the end, you can listen to the voice without getting married, right... However, it doesn’t matter.”

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov himself, although he objectively assessed the life credo of his wives, always focused on precisely this type of woman as the one described by Elena Turbina. Actually, in many ways this was the writer’s second wife, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, who considered her given “from the people.” Here are some characteristics dedicated to Belozerskaya that we can find in Bulgakov’s diary in December 1924: “My wife helps me a lot with these thoughts. I noticed that when she walks, she sways. This is terribly stupid given my plans, but it seems I’m in love with her. But one thought interests me: Would she adapt just as comfortably or is it selective, for me?” " Terrible condition I'm falling more and more in love with my wife. It’s such a shame - I’ve been denying my own for ten years... Women are like women. And now I humiliate myself even to the point of slight jealousy. Something cute and sweet. And fat.” By the way, as you know, Mikhail Bulgakov dedicated the novel “The White Guard” to his second wife, Lyubov Belozerskaya.

The dispute about whether Elena Turbina has her own historical prototypes, has been going on for a very long time. By analogy with the parallel Talberg - Karum, a similar parallel Elena Turbina - Varvara Bulgakova is drawn. As you know, Mikhail Bulgakov’s sister Varvara Afanasyevna was really married to Leonid Karum, depicted in the novel as Talberg. The Bulgakov brothers did not like Karum, which explains the creation of such an unpleasant image of Thalberg. In this case, Varvara Bulgakova is considered the prototype of Elena Turbina only because she was Karum’s wife. Of course, the argument is weighty, but Varvara Afanasyevna’s character was very different from Elena Turbina. Even before meeting Karum, Varvara Bulgakova could well have found a mate. Nor was it as accessible as the Turbine. As you know, there is a version that because of her, Mikhail Bulgakov’s close friend Boris Bogdanov, a very worthy young man, committed suicide at one time. In addition, Varvara Afanasyevna sincerely loved Leonid Sergeevich Karum, helped him even during the years of repression, when it was worth caring not about her arrested husband, but about her children, and followed him into exile. It is very difficult for us to imagine Varvara Bulgakova in the role of Turbina, who, out of boredom, does not know what to do with herself, and after her husband leaves, starts an affair with the first man she comes across.

There is also a version that all of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s sisters are in one way or another connected with the image of Elena Turbina. This version is based mainly on the similarity of the name younger sister Bulgakov and the heroine of the novel, as well as some other external signs. However, this version, in our opinion, is erroneous, since Bulgakov’s four sisters were all individuals who, unlike Elena Turbina, had their own oddities and quirks. Mikhail Afanasyevich’s sisters are in many ways similar to other types of women, but not like the one we are considering. All of them were very picky in choosing a mate, and their husbands were educated, purposeful and enthusiastic people. Moreover, all the husbands of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s sisters were associated with the humanities, which even in those days, in the gray environment of domestic scum, were considered the lot of women.

To be honest, it is very difficult to argue about the prototypes of Elena Turbina’s image. But if we compare the psychological portraits of literary images and women surrounding Bulgakov, we can say that Elena Turbina is very similar... to the writer’s mother, who devoted her entire life only to her family: men, everyday life and children.

Irina Nai-Tours also has a fairly typical for 17-18 year old representatives of the female half of society psychological picture. In the developing novel between Irina and Nikolai Turbin, we can notice some personal details, taken by the writer, probably from the experience of his early love affairs. The rapprochement between Nikolai Turbin and Irina Nai-Tours occurs only in a little-known version of the 19th chapter of the novel and gives us reason to believe that Mikhail Bulgakov still intended to develop this theme in the future, planning to finalize The White Guard.

Nikolai Turbin met Irina Nai-Tours when Colonel Nai-Tours’ mother was notified of his death. Subsequently, Nikolai, together with Irina, made a rather unpleasant trip to the city morgue to search for the colonel’s body. During the New Year celebration, Irina Nai-Tours appeared at the Turbins’ house, and Nikolka then volunteered to accompany her, as a little-known version of the 19th chapter of the novel tells:

“Irina shrugged her shoulders chillily and buried her chin in the fur. Nikolka walked alongside, tormented by a terrible and insurmountable problem: how to offer her his hand. And he just couldn’t. It was as if a two-pound weight had been hung on his tongue. “You can’t walk like that.” Impossible. How can I say?.. Let me... No, she might think something. And maybe it’s unpleasant for her to walk with me on my arm?.. Eh!..”

“It’s so cold,” Nikolka said.

Irina looked up, where there were many stars in the sky and to the side on the slope of the dome the moon above the extinct seminary on the distant mountains, she answered:

Very. I'm afraid you'll freeze.

“On you. On,” Nikolka thought, “not only is there no question of taking her arm, but she’s even unpleasant that I went with her. Otherwise, there’s no way to interpret such a hint...”

Irina immediately slipped, shouted “ouch” and grabbed the sleeve of her overcoat. Nikolka choked. But I still didn’t miss such an opportunity. After all, you really have to be a fool. He said:

Let me take your hand...

Where are your pigtails?.. You will freeze... I don’t want to.

Nikolka turned pale and firmly swore to the star Venus: “I will come and immediately

I'll shoot myself. It's over. A shame".

I forgot my gloves under the mirror...

Then her eyes appeared closer to him, and he was convinced that in these eyes there was not only blackness. starry night and already fading mourning for the burry colonel, but slyness and laughter. She took it with her right hand right hand, pulled it through her left one, put his hand into her muff, laid it next to hers and added mysterious words, which Nikolka thought about for twelve whole minutes until Malo-Provalnaya:

You need to be half-hearted.

“Princess... What do I hope for? My future is dark and hopeless. I’m awkward. And I haven’t even started university yet... Beauty...” thought Nikol. And Irina Nay was not a beauty at all. An ordinary pretty girl with black eyes. True, she is slender, and her mouth is not bad, it is correct, her hair is shiny, black.

At the outbuilding, in the first tier of the mysterious garden, they stopped at a dark door. The moon was cut out somewhere behind a tangle of trees, and the snow was patchy, sometimes black, sometimes purple, sometimes white. All the windows in the outbuilding were black, except for one, glowing with a cozy fire. Irina leaned against the black door, threw her head back and looked at Nikolka, as if she was waiting for something. Nikolka is in despair that he, “oh, stupid,” for twenty minutes failed to say anything to her, in despair that now she will leave him at the door, at this moment, just when some important words formed in his useless head, became emboldened to the point of despair, he himself put his hand into the muff and looked for a hand there, in great amazement realizing that this hand, which had been in a glove all the way, was now without a glove. There was complete silence all around. The city was sleeping.

Go,” Irina Nay said very quietly, “go, otherwise the Petlyugists will persecute you.”

Well, so be it,” Nikolka answered sincerely, “so be it.”

No, don't let it. Don't let it. - She paused. - I will be sorry...

What a pity?.. Eh?.. - And he squeezed his hand in the muff tighter.

Then Irina freed her hand along with the muff, and put it on his shoulder with the muff. Her eyes became extremely large, like black flowers, as it seemed to Nikolka, she rocked Nikolka so that he touched the velvet of his fur coat with the buttons with eagles, sighed and kissed him right on the lips.

Maybe you are smart, but so slow...

Then Nikolka, feeling that he had become incredibly brave, desperate and very agile, grabbed Nai and kissed her on the lips. Irina Nay insidiously threw her right hand back and, without opening her eyes, managed to ring the bell. And that hour the mother’s steps and cough were heard in the outbuilding, and the door shook... Nikolka’s hands unclenched.

Go away tomorrow,” Nai whispered, “everyday.” Now go away, go away..."

As we see, the “insidious” Irina Nai-Tours, probably more sophisticated in life’s issues than the naive Nikolka, completely takes into her own hands the emerging personal relationship between them. By and large, we see a young coquette who loves to please and make men dizzy. Such young ladies, as a rule, are able to quickly “inflame” with love, achieve the favor and love of a partner, and just as quickly cool down, leaving a man at the height of his feelings. When such women want to gain attention, they act as active partners, taking the first step towards meeting, as happened in the case of our heroine. We, of course, do not know how Mikhail Bulgakov planned to end the story with the naive Nikolka and the “insidious” Irina, but, according to the logic of things, the younger Turbin should have fallen completely in love, and Colonel Nai-Tours’ sister, having achieved her goal, should have cooled down .

Literary image Irina Nai-Tours has its own prototype. The fact is that in The White Guard, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov pointed out the exact address Nai-Tursov: Malo-Provalnaya, 21. This street is actually called Malopodvalnaya. At the address Malopidvalnaya, 13, next to number 21, lived the Syngaevsky family, friendly to the Bulgakovs. The Syngaevsky children and the Bulgakov children were friends with each other long before the revolution. Mikhail Afanasyevich was a close friend of Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky, some of whose features were embodied in the image of Myshlaevsky. There were five daughters in the Syngaevsky family, who also attended Andreevsky Spusk, 13. It was with one of the Syngaevsky sisters, most likely, that one of the Bulgakov brothers had an affair at school age. Probably, this novel was the first of one of the Bulgakovs (who may have been Mikhail Afanasyevich himself), otherwise it is impossible to explain the naivety of Nikolka’s attitude towards Irina. This version is also confirmed by the phrase Myshlaevsky said to Nikolka before Irina Nai-Tours arrived:

"- No, I’m not offended, I’m just wondering why you were jumping up and down like that. You’re a little too cheerful. You put your cuffs out... you look like a groom.”

Nikolka blossomed with crimson fire, and his eyes drowned in a lake of embarrassment.

“You go to Malo-Provalnaya too often,” Myshlaevsky continued to finish off the enemy with six-inch shells, this, however, is good. You need to be a knight, support the Turbino traditions."

In this case, Myshlaevsky’s phrase could well have belonged to Nikolai Syngaevsky, who was hinting at the “Bulgakov traditions” of alternately courting the Syngaevsky sisters.

But perhaps the most interesting woman The novel "The White Guard" is Yulia Alexandrovna Reiss (in some versions - Yulia Markovna). The real existence of which is not even in doubt. The characterization given by the writer to Yulia is so exhaustive that her psychological portrait is clear from the very beginning:

“Only in the hearth of peace, Julia, an egoist, a vicious, but seductive woman, agrees to appear. She appeared, her leg in a black stocking, the edge of a black fur-trimmed boot flashed on the light brick staircase, and the gavotte splashing with bells answered the hasty knock and rustle from there, where Louis XIV luxuriated in a sky-blue garden by the lake, intoxicated by his fame and the presence of charming women of color."

Yulia Reiss saved the life of the White Guard hero Alexei Turbin when he was running from Petliurists along Malo-provalnaya Street and was wounded. Julia led him through the gate and the garden and up the stairs to her house, where she hid him from his pursuers. As it turned out, Julia was divorced and lived alone at that time. Alexey Turbin fell in love with his savior, which is natural, and subsequently tried to achieve reciprocity. But Julia turned out to be too ambitious a woman. Having experience of marriage, she did not strive for a stable relationship, and in resolving personal issues she saw only the fulfillment of her goals and desires. She did not love Alexei Turbin, which can be clearly seen in one of the little-known versions of the 19th chapter of the novel:

"Tell me, who do you love?

“No one,” answered Yulia Markovna and looked so that the devil himself could not tell whether it was true or not.

Marry me... come out,” said Turbin, squeezing his hand.

Yulia Markovna shook her head negatively and smiled.

Turbin grabbed her by the throat, choked her, hissed:

Tell me, whose card was this on the table when I was wounded with you?.. Black sideburns...

Yulia Markovna’s face became flushed with blood, she began to wheeze. It's a pity - the fingers unclench.

This is my second... second cousin.

Left for Moscow.

Bolshevik?

No, he's an engineer.

Why did you go to Moscow?

It's his business.

The blood drained, and Yulia Markovna’s eyes became crystalline. I wonder what can be read in crystal? Nothing is possible.

Why did your husband leave you?

I left him.

He's trash.

You are trash and a liar. I love you, you bastard.

Yulia Markovna smiled.

So are the evenings and so are the nights. Turbin left around midnight through the multi-tiered garden, his lips bitten. He looked at the holey, ossified network of trees and whispered something.

Need money…"

The above scene is completely complemented by another passage related to the relationship between Alexei Turbin and Yulia Reiss:

“Well, Yulenka,” said Turbin and took Myshlaevsky’s revolver, rented for one evening, from his back pocket, “tell me, please, what is your relationship with Mikhail Semenovich Shpolyansky?”

Yulia backed away, bumped into the table, the lampshade clinked... ding... For the first time, Yulia's face became genuinely pale.

Alexey... Alexey... what are you doing?

Tell me, Yulia, what is your relationship with Mikhail Semenovich? - Turbin repeated firmly, like a man who has finally decided to pull out the rotten tooth that has tormented him.

What do you want to know? - Yulia asked, her eyes moved, she covered the barrel with her hands.

Only one thing: is he your lover or not?

Yulia Markovna's face came to life a little. Some blood returned to the head. Her eyes sparkled strangely, as if Turbin’s question seemed to her an easy, not at all difficult question, as if she was expecting the worst. Her voice came to life.

You have no right to torment me... you, - she spoke, - well, okay... in last time I'm telling you - he was not my lover. Was not. Was not.

Swear it.

I swear.

Yulia Markovna's eyes were as clear as crystal.

Late at night, Doctor Turbin knelt in front of Yulia Markovna, burying his head in his knees, and muttered:

You tortured me. Tormented me, and this month that I recognized you, I don’t live. I love you, I love you... - passionately, licking his lips, he muttered...

Yulia Markovna leaned towards him and stroked his hair.

Tell me why did you give yourself to me? Do you love me? Do you love? Or

“I love you,” answered Yulia Markovna and looked at the back pocket of the man on his knees.

We will not talk about Julia’s lover, Mikhail Semenovich Shpolyansky, since we will devote a separate section to him. But it would be quite appropriate to talk about a real-life girl with the last name Reis.

Since 1893, the family of Colonel of the General Staff of the Russian Army Vladimir Vladimirovich Reis lived in the city of Kyiv. Vladimir Reis was a participant Russian-Turkish War 1877–1878, honored and combat officer. He was born in 1857 and came from a Lutheran family of nobles in the Kovno province. His ancestors were of German-Baltic origin. Colonel Reis was married to the daughter of British citizen Peter Theakston, Elizabeth, with whom he came to Kyiv. Elizaveta Thixton's sister Sofia soon moved here too, and settled in the house on Malopodvalnaya, 14, apartment 1 - at the address where our mysterious Julia Reiss from the White Guard lived. The Reis family had a son and two daughters: Peter, born in 1886, Natalya, born in 1889, and Irina, born in 1895, who were raised under the supervision of their mother and aunt. Vladimir Reis did not take care of his family because he suffered from mental disorders. In 1899, he was admitted to the Psychiatric Department of a military hospital, where he remained almost all the time until 1903. The disease turned out to be incurable, and in 1900 the military department sent Vladimir Reis into retirement with the rank of major general. In 1903, General Reis died in the Kiev military hospital, leaving the children in the care of their mother.

The theme of Julia Reiss's father appears several times in the novel The White Guard. Even in his delirium, as soon as he gets into an unfamiliar house, Alexey Turbin notices a mourning portrait with epaulettes, indicating that the portrait depicts a lieutenant colonel, colonel or general.

After death, the entire Reis family moved to Malopodvalnaya Street, where Elizaveta and Sofia Thixton, Natalya and Irina Reis, as well as General Reis’ sister Anastasia Vasilievna Semigradova now lived. Pyotr Vladimirovich Reis was studying at the Kiev Military School by that time, and therefore a large gathering gathered at Malopodvalnaya women's company. Peter Reis would later become a colleague of Leonid Karum, Varvara Bulgakova’s husband, at the Kyiv Konstantinovsky Military School. Together they will walk the roads of the civil war.

Irina Vladimirovna Reis, the youngest in the family, studied at the Kiev Institute of Noble Maidens and the Catherine Women's Gymnasium. According to Kyiv Bulgakov scholars, she was familiar with the Bulgakov sisters, who could even bring her to the house on Andreevsky Spusk, 13.

After the death of Elizaveta Thixton in 1908, Natalya Reis got married and settled with her husband at 14 Malopodvalnaya Street, and Yulia Reis came under the guardianship of Anastasia Semigradova, with whom she soon moved to 17 Trekhsvyatitelskaya Street. Soon Sofia Thixton left, and therefore to Malopodvalnaya Natalia was left alone with her husband.

We don’t know when exactly Natalya Vladimirovna Reis divorced her marriage, but after that she was left completely alone in the apartment. It was she who became the prototype for creating the image of Julia Reiss in the novel “The White Guard”.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov saw his future wife Tatyana Lappa only after a long break - in the summer of 1911. In 1910 - early 1911, the future writer, who was then 19 years old, probably had some novels. At the same time, Natalia Reis, 21 years old, had already divorced her husband. She lived opposite the Bulgakovs' friends - the Syngaevsky family, and therefore Mikhail Afanasyevich could actually meet her on Malopodvalnaya Street, where he often visited. Thus, we can safely say that the described romance between Alexei Turbin and Yulia Reiss actually took place between Mikhail Bulgakov and Natalia Reiss. Otherwise there is no way for us to explain detailed description Yulia's address and the path that led to her house, the coincidence of the last name, the mention of a mourning portrait of a lieutenant colonel or colonel with epaulets from the 19th century, a hint of the existence of a brother.

So, in the novel "The White Guard" Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, in our deep conviction, described Various types the women he had to deal with most in his life, and also talked about his novels that he had before his marriage to Tatyana Lappa.

In the novel “The White Guard” the writer addresses many serious and eternal themes. From the very first pages of the novel, the themes of family, home, faith, moral duty - as the beginning of all beginnings, the source of life and culture, the guarantee of preservation - sound at all times. best traditions and moral values.

Bulgakov happened to live in difficult times for Russia. The revolution, and then the Civil War, forced people to rethink all previously acquired values. The writer had a hard time experiencing the events taking place and tried with all his soul to understand the reality around him. And he realized that the main trouble in Russia was the decline in the level of morality, lack of culture and ignorance, which, in his opinion, was associated with the destruction of the intelligentsia, which for a long time acted as the main bearer of moral values.

The heroes of the novel “The White Guard,” like the writer himself, are representatives of the intelligentsia. Not all of the Russian intelligentsia accepted and understood the great achievements of October. Fears for the fate of the country's culture played an important role in the rejection of these achievements, the path to achieving which was difficult and often contradictory. The main theme of the novel, which is usually associated with the tragic motive of disappointment of the heroes, with the need they feel to break with their past, is revealed in a new way. The past, in which the heroes’ happy childhood remains, not only does not disappoint them, but is preserved by them in every possible way in a situation when it seems that “everything is destroyed, betrayed, sold.”

The entire novel is permeated with a sense of disaster. The heroes still sing the hymn “God Save the Tsar” and make a toast to the health of the now non-existent monarch, but this shows their despair. Everything that happens to them appears as a tragedy of people who faithfully and truly served this system, which suddenly revealed all its inconsistency, hypocrisy, and falsehood. The position of Bulgakov's heroes could not be different, because the writer himself did not feel nostalgia for the old, bourgeois Russia, its monarchical past.

House and City are the two main characters of the novel. The Turbins' house on Alekseevsky Spusk, depicted with all its features family idyll, crossed out by war, breathes and suffers like a living being. When it’s frosty outside, anxious and scary, there’s an intimate conversation going on in the house, warmth emanates from the tiles of the stove, you can hear the tower clock striking in the dining room, the strumming of a guitar and the familiar voices of Alexey, Elena, Nikolka and their cheerful guests. And the City, tormented by endless battles and shelling, filled with crowds of soldiers, also lives its own life. “Beautiful in frost and fog...” - this epithet opens the narrative about the City and becomes dominant in its depiction. The image of the City emits an extraordinary light - the light of life, which is truly unquenchable. Bulgakov’s City is under God’s protection: “But the electric white cross sparkled best of all in the hands of the enormous Vladimir on Vladimirskaya Hill, and it was visible far away, and often... they found by its light... the way to the City...”

In the morning Turbin began to dream about the City. It is not called Kiev anywhere, although its signs are clear, it is just a City, but with capital letters, as something generalized, eternal. It is described in detail in the dreams of Alexei Turbin: “Like a multi-tiered honeycomb, the City smoked and made noise and lived. Beautiful in the frost and fog on the mountains, above the Dnieper. The streets were smoking with haze, the downed giant snow creaked... The gardens stood silent and calm, weighed down by white, untouched snow. And there were so many gardens in the City as in no other city in the world... In winter, like in no other city in the world, peace fell on the streets and alleys of both the upper City, on the mountains, and the lower City, spread out in the bend of the frozen Dnieper.. The City played with light and shimmered, glowed and danced and shimmered at night until the morning, and in the morning it faded, covered in smoke and fog.” This symbolic picture combines the memories of youth, the beauty of the City and anxiety for its future, for the fate of everyone.

The “Eternal Golden City” is contrasted with the City of 1918, the existence of which brings to mind the biblical legend of Babylon. Confusion and turmoil reign in the city, which the writer often emphasizes by repeating the words: “Germans!! Germans!! Germans!!,” “Petlyura. Petliura. Petliura. Petliura”, “Patrols, patrols, patrols”. The author cannot remain indifferent to what is happening in the City (mobilization, rumors, the hetman, the proximity of Petliura, theft, murder, stupid orders of the bosses, deception, mysterious Moscow in the northeast, the Bolsheviks, close shooting and constant anxiety). Thanks to the expressive author's characteristics, the reader finds himself at the mercy of a unique effect of presence: he breathes the air of the City, absorbs its anxieties, hears the voices of the cadets, feels Elena's fear for her brothers.

With the beginning of the war, a diverse audience flocked under the shadow of the Vladimir Cross: aristocrats and bankers who fled from the capital, industrialists and merchants, poets and journalists, actresses and cocottes. Gradually, the appearance of the City loses its integrity and becomes shapeless: “The City swelled, expanded, and climbed like sourdough from a pot.” The natural course of life is disrupted, the usual order of things disintegrates. Almost all the townspeople find themselves drawn into a dirty political show.

The theme of saving spiritual, moral and cultural traditions runs through the entire novel, but most clearly it is embodied in the image of a house. Life in this house goes against the surrounding unrest, bloodshed, destruction, and cruelty. The mistress and soul of the house is Elena Turbina-Talberg - “beautiful Elena”, the personification of beauty, kindness, and Eternal Femininity. The two-faced opportunist Talberg leaves this house. And the Turbins’ friends find shelter here, healing their wounded bodies and souls in it. And even the opportunist and coward Lisovich seeks protection here from robbers.

The Turbins' house is depicted in the novel as a fortress that is under siege, but does not surrender. The author gives his image a tall, almost philosophical meaning. According to Alexey Turbin, home is the highest value of existence, for the sake of which a person “fights and, in essence, should not fight for anything else.” The only purpose that allows one to take up arms, in his opinion, is to protect “human peace and hearth.”

Everything in the Turbins’ house is beautiful: old red velvet furniture, beds with shiny cones, cream curtains, a bronze lamp with a lampshade, books in chocolate bindings, a piano, flowers, an icon in an ancient setting, a tiled stove, a clock with a gavotte; “the tablecloth, despite the guns and all this languor, anxiety and nonsense, is white and starchy... The floors are shiny, and in December on the table in a matte vase there are blue hydrangeas and two gloomy and sultry roses, affirming the beauty and strength of life.” The atmosphere of the house is inspired by music and ever-living art. Cousin Lariosik from Zhitomir, who has found shelter in the Turbins’ house, blesses the family comfort with a simple-minded confession: “Lord, cream curtains... you can rest your soul behind them... But our wounded souls are so thirsty for peace...” The Turbins and their friends read from in the evenings and sing with a guitar, play cards, love and worry, and sacredly preserve family traditions.

For each of the novel's heroes, the war becomes a test, a test moral principles personality. It is no coincidence that in the epigraph to the novel Bulgakov places the famous lines from the Apocalypse: “and everyone will be judged in accordance with their deeds.” The main topic The novel becomes the theme of retribution for one’s actions, the theme of moral responsibility for the choices that every person makes.

Among the defenders of the monarchy were different people. Bulgakov hates high-ranking officials who think not about saving the Fatherland, but about saving their own skin. He does not hide his attitude towards the opportunist Talberg with “double-layer eyes”, the cowardly and greedy engineer Lisovich, and the unprincipled Mikhail Semenovich Shpolyansky.

But if Thalberg is “a damn doll, devoid of the slightest concept of honor,” running away from a sinking ship, abandoning his brothers and wife, then the main characters of the novel are the embodiment of the best knightly qualities. Ordinary participants in the white movement, according to the author, are the heirs of the military glory of the Fatherland. When the Mortar Regiment, formed to protect the City, marched along the corridors of the Alexander Gymnasium, in the vestibule right in front of it, it was as if “the sparkling Alexander flew out,” pointing to the Borodino field. The song that was played to the words of Lermontov's "Borodino", according to the author, is a symbol of valor, courage, honor, that is, everything that distinguishes the Turbins, Myshlaevsky, Malyshev from other "gentlemen officers".

Officer's honor required the protection of the white banner, loyalty to the oath, the fatherland and the tsar. In a situation where it seems “everything is destroyed, betrayed, sold,” Alexey Turbin asks himself with bewilderment and pain: “We need to protect now... But what? Emptiness? The sound of footsteps? And yet he is not able to stay away from terrible events, to violate his duty as an officer, and rushes to those who are trying to save the Fatherland without giving its fate into the unclean hands of Petliura or Hetman Skoropadsky. Nai-Tours also follows the laws of honor and nobility. Covering the cadets, he entered into an unequal duel, left alone with his machine gun in front of the advancing cavalrymen. Colonel Malyshev is also a man of honor. Realizing the futility of resistance, he makes the only correct decision in the current situation - he dismisses the cadets to their homes. These people are ready to be with Russia in its troubles and trials, ready to defend the Fatherland, City and Home. Meeting new guests of the City, each of them sacrifices his life. The Almighty Himself takes them under His protection. With slight irony, Bulgakov depicted in the novel the kingdom of God, where the Apostle Peter receives the dead. Among them is Colonel Nai-Tours in a luminous helmet, chain mail, and a knight’s sword from the times of the Crusades. Next to him is Sergeant Zhilin, who died in the First world war, and the Bolsheviks from Perekop, and many others who grabbed “each other by the throat”, and now calmed down, having fought for their faith. The Lord God utters prophetic words: “All of you with me... are the same - killed in the battlefield.” Rising above the battle, the author sincerely mourns for all those who died: “Will anyone pay for the blood? No. Nobody. The snow will simply melt, the green Ukrainian grass will sprout, weave the ground... lush shoots will come out... the heat will tremble under the fields and there will be no traces of blood left. Cheap blood is on the fields of hearts, and no one will buy it back. Nobody".

Bulgakov believed in the natural human order on earth: “Everything will be right, the world is built on this.” In the novel “The White Guard,” the writer showed how terrible and irreversible the consequences of deviation from the accepted norms of good and bad, consecrated by more than one millennium of human culture. In this retreat the writer saw the greatest danger of humanity. He calls on his readers to remain faithful to the main principles of humanity, devotion to the ideals of Justice, Goodness and Beauty.

M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” was written in 1923-1925. At that time, the writer considered this book to be the main one in his destiny, he said that this novel “will make the sky hot.” Years later he called him "a failure." Perhaps the writer meant that that epic in the spirit of L.N. Tolstoy, which he wanted to create, did not work out.

Bulgakov was a witness revolutionary events in Ukraine. He outlined his view of his experiences in the stories “The Red Crown” (1922), “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Doctor” (1922), “ Chinese history"(1923), "Raid" (1923). Bulgakov’s first novel with the bold title “The White Guard” became, perhaps, the only work at that time in which the writer was interested in the experiences of a person in a raging world, when the foundation of the world order is collapsing.

One of the most important motives of M. Bulgakov’s work is the value of home, family, and simple human affections. The heroes of The White Guard are losing the warmth of their home, although they are desperately trying to preserve it. In her prayer to the Mother of God, Elena says: “You are sending too much grief at once, intercessor mother. So in one year you end your family. For what?.. My mother took it from us, I don’t have a husband and never will, I understand that. Now I understand very clearly. And now you’re taking away the older one too. For what?.. How will we be together with Nikol?.. Look what is happening around, look... Intercessor Mother, won’t you have mercy?.. Maybe we are bad people, but why punish like that? -That?"

The novel begins with the words: “The year after the Nativity of Christ 1918 was a great and terrible year, the second from the beginning of the revolution.” Thus, as it were, two systems of counting time, chronology, two systems of values are proposed: traditional and new, revolutionary.

Remember how at the beginning of the 20th century A.I. Kuprin portrayed in the story “The Duel” Russian army- decayed, rotten. In 1918, the same people who made up the pre-revolutionary army found themselves on the battlefields of the Civil War, in general Russian society. But on the pages of Bulgakov’s novel we see not Kuprin’s heroes, but rather Chekhov’s ones. Intellectuals, who even before the revolution were yearning for a bygone world and understood that something needed to be changed, found themselves in the epicenter of the Civil War. They, like the author, are not politicized, they live their own lives. And now we find ourselves in a world in which there is no place for neutral people. The Turbins and their friends desperately defend what is dear to them, singing “God Save the Tsar,” tearing off the fabric hiding the portrait of Alexander I. Like Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, they do not adapt. But, like him, they are doomed. Only Chekhov's intellectuals were doomed to vegetation, and Bulgakov's intellectuals were doomed to defeat.

Bulgakov likes the cozy Turbino apartment, but everyday life is not valuable for a writer in itself. Life in the “White Guard” is a symbol of the strength of existence. Bulgakov leaves the reader no illusions about the future of the Turbin family. Inscriptions from the tiled stove are washed away, cups are broken, and the inviolability of everyday life and, therefore, existence is slowly but irreversibly destroyed. The Turbins' house behind the cream curtains is their fortress, a refuge from the blizzard, the blizzard raging outside, but it is still impossible to protect yourself from it.

Bulgakov's novel includes the symbol of a blizzard as a sign of the times. For the author of “The White Guard,” the blizzard is a symbol not of the transformation of the world, not of the sweeping away of everything that has become obsolete, but of the evil principle, violence. “Well, I think it will stop, the life that is written about in chocolate books will begin, but not only does it not begin, but it becomes more and more terrible all around. In the north the blizzard howls and howls, but here underfoot the disturbed womb of the earth muffles and grumbles dully.” The blizzard force destroys the life of the Turbin family, the life of the City. White snow Bulgakov does not become a symbol of purification.

“The provocative novelty of Bulgakov’s novel was that five years after the end of the Civil War, when the pain and heat of mutual hatred had not yet subsided, he dared to show the officers of the White Guard not in the poster guise of the “enemy,” but as ordinary, good and bad, tormented and deluded, smart and limited people, showed them from the inside, and the best in this environment - with obvious sympathy. What does Bulgakov like about these stepsons of history who lost their battle? And in Alexey, and in Malyshev, and in Nai-Tours, and in Nikolka, he most of all values courageous straightforwardness and loyalty to honor,” notes literary critic V.Ya. Lakshin. The concept of honor is the starting point that determines Bulgakov’s attitude towards his heroes and which can be taken as a basis in a conversation about the system of images.

But despite all the sympathy of the author of “The White Guard” for his heroes, his task is not to decide who is right and who is wrong. Even Petliura and his henchmen, in his opinion, are not the culprits of the horrors taking place. This is a product of the elements of rebellion, doomed to quickly disappear from the historical arena. Kozyr, who was a bad school teacher, would never have become an executioner and would not have known about himself that his calling was war, if this war had not begun. Many of the heroes’ actions were brought to life by the Civil War. “War is a native mother” for Kozyr, Bolbotun and other Petliurists, who take pleasure in killing defenseless people. The horror of war is that it creates a situation of permissiveness and undermines the foundations of human life.

Therefore, for Bulgakov it does not matter whose side his heroes are on. In Alexey Turbin’s dream, the Lord says to Zhilin: “One believes, the other doesn’t believe, but you all have the same actions: now each other is at each other’s throats, and as for the barracks, Zhilin, then you have to understand this, I have you all, Zhilin, identical - killed on the battlefield. This, Zhilin, must be understood, and not everyone will understand it.” And it seems that this view is very close to the writer.

V. Lakshin noted: “Artistic vision, the mindset of the creative mind always embraces a broader spiritual reality than can be verified by evidence of simple class interest. There is a biased class truth that has its own right. But there is a universal, classless morality and humanism, smelted by the experience of mankind.” M. Bulgakov stood in the position of such universal humanism.

TURBIN is the hero of M.A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” (1922-1924) and his play “Days of the Turbins” (1925-1926). The hero's surname indicates the autobiographical motives present in this image: Turbins are Bulgakov's maternal ancestors. The surname Turbina, combined with the same first name and patronymic (Alexei Vasilyevich), was borne by a character in Bulgakov’s lost play “The Turbine Brothers,” composed in 1920-1921. in Vladikavkaz and staged at the local theater. The heroes of the novel and the play are connected by a single plot space and time, although the circumstances and vicissitudes in which they find themselves are different. The place of action is Kyiv, the time is “the terrible year after the Nativity of Christ 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution.” The hero of the novel is a young doctor, the hero of the play is an artillery colonel. Doctor T. is 28 years old, the colonel is two years older. Both find themselves in the whirlpool of events of the civil war and are faced with a historical choice, which they understand and evaluate rather as personal, relating more to the internal existence of the individual rather than to its external existence. The image of Doctor T. shows the development lyrical hero Bulgakov, as he is presented in “Notes of a Young Doctor” and in other early works. The hero of the novel is an observer, whose vision constantly merges with the author's perception, although not identical to the latter. The novel's hero is drawn into the whirlwind of what is happening. If he participates in events, it is against his will, as a result of a fatal combination of circumstances, when, for example, he is captured by the Petliurists. The hero of the drama largely determines the events. Thus, the fate of the cadets, abandoned in Kyiv to the mercy of fate, depends on his decision. This person is active, literally, stage-wise, and plot-wise. The most active people during war are the military. Those acting on the side of the vanquished are the most doomed. This is why Colonel T. dies, while Doctor T. survives. Between the novel “The White Guard” and the play “Days of the Turbins” there is a huge distance, not too long in time, but very significant in terms of content. An intermediate link on this path was a dramatization presented by the writer to the Art Theater, which was later subjected to significant revision. The process of transforming a novel into a play, in which many people were involved, took place under conditions of double “pressure”: from the “artists” who sought from the writer greater (in their terms) stage presence, and from the censorship, ideological monitoring authorities, who demanded to show the with all certainty “the end of the whites” (one of the variants of the name). The “final” version of the play was the result of a serious artistic compromise. The original author's layer in it is covered with many extraneous layers. This is most noticeable in the image of Colonel T., who periodically hides his face under the mask of a reasoner and, as it were, steps out of his role to declare, addressing the stalls rather than the stage: “The people are not with us. He is against us." In the first production of “The Days of the Turbins” on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater (1926), the role of T. was played by N.P. Khmelev. He remained the only performer of this role for all subsequent 937 performances.

Lit.: Smelyansky A. Mikhail Bulgakov in Art Theater. M., 1989. P. 63-108.

New!
The theme of the civil war appeared in Russian literature in the 20s of the XX century. Understanding of this phenomenon went in two directions. Some writers believed that the Bolsheviks were defending their ideals and a new, just government, and admired their exploits and loyalty...

All will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, famine and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our deeds and bodies will not remain on the earth. M. Bulgakov In 1925, the first two parts of the novel by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov were published in the magazine “Russia”...

New!
M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” is a very bright work, despite the fact that the author depicts an extremely difficult time - a civil war. It was written in 1925. The novel describes the events of the Civil War in the period from 1918 to 1919. In that...

Goals:

continue to get acquainted with the novel, content, main characters and their destinies;
help to comprehend the conflict of the work, to understand the depth of the spiritual tragedy of the main characters; show the inevitability of the tragedy of human fate in turning points
stories; understand how a person reveals himself in a situation of choice;

to develop interest in the novel and the writer’s work. Equipment:

portrait of a writer, candles, sayings on a blackboard.

Epigraph:

The Civil War is an incomparable national tragedy in which there have never been winners...

Civil war is the most criminal, the most senseless and the most cruel of wars. B. Vasiliev

"Days of Repentance"

DURING THE CLASSES

1. Organizational moment Teacher's opening remarks: Good afternoon, Dear friends ! I am glad to welcome you today to our lesson and I want to invite everyone to touch amazing world novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The White Guard". Let it be in memory of this wonderful person

Candles are burning in our lesson.

2. Announcement of the topic and goal setting Teacher's word:
The novel can be called both autobiographical and historical. It is dedicated to the events of the Civil War. “The year 1918 was a great and terrible year since the birth of Christ, but the second since the beginning of the revolution...” - this is how the novel begins, which tells about the fate of the Turbin family. They live in the City (Bulgakov does not call it Kiev, it is a model for the whole country and a mirror of the split), on Alekseevsky Spusk. The Turbin family, a sweet, intelligent family, which suddenly becomes involved in the great events taking place in Russia. The Turbin family is small: Alexey (28 years old), Elena (24 years old), her husband Talberg (31 years old), Nikolka (17 years old)... And also a hanger-on, Anyuta. The inhabitants of the house are devoid of arrogance, stiffness, hypocrisy, and vulgarity. They are welcoming, condescending to the weaknesses of people, but irreconcilable to violations of decency, honor, and justice. Their mother bequeathed to them: “Live together.” This is how the family would have lived calmly and measuredly, if not for the revolution and the Civil War. New people, new characters appear. The family becomes a witness and participant in strange and wonderful things.
So: The main theme of the novel is the tragic fate of the Russian intelligentsia during the years of the revolution and the Civil War on the example of the Russian officers - the White Guard, and in connection with this the problem of preserving the cultural heritage of the past, issues of duty, honor, human dignity.
Through the fate of the Turbin family, the author showed us the tragedy and horror of the fratricidal war.

(Read the statements on the board).

3. Analytical conversation

Activities: portrait characteristics, speech characteristics characters, sketches, questions for reflection, working with text, creative task.

– What moral laws do Turbines live by? (The cult of high Russian culture, spirituality, and intelligence reigns in the family. Russian literature is present in the novel as a full-fledged hero.)

– Let's talk about the fate of the main characters: Alexei, Elena and Nikolka.

(Student presentations using excerpts from the novel)

– What can you say about the fate of Alexei? (“That’s why I’m tormented because I don’t understand where the fate of events is taking us,” he could have subscribed to Yesenin’s phrase. Alexey Turbin, deluded and doubtful, comes to the conviction: it is necessary to “re-arrange the ordinary human life", and not fight, pouring blood native land. Much brings the author closer to his hero.)

– Has Nikolka Turbin stood the test of time? (The younger Turbin owns the words: “... no person should break his words, because it will be impossible to live in the world»)

– What is Elena’s tragedy? What ideological load does this carry? central image in the novel? (It is through her lips that Bulgakov expresses his cherished thoughts: “Never pull the lampshade off the lamp. Doze by the lampshade, read - let the blizzard howl, wait for them to come to you.” It also embodies the religious principle. She asks: “... all of us guilty of blood.")

– Which of the characters, besides the Turbins, preserved their honor, retained their humanity and sense of duty during this Time of Troubles? Nai – Tours, Myshlaevsky, Malyshev. (Doomed to defeat, finding themselves in a tragic situation, Bulgakov’s best heroes retain human dignity, officer’s honor, and a high sense of duty.)

– Which of the heroes did not retain these qualities?
(Thalberg: “A damn doll, devoid of the slightest concept of honor!”; "double-layer eyes"
Homeowner Lisovich:“an engineer and a coward, a bourgeois and unsympathetic.”
Being an irreconcilable opponent of violence, Bulgakov makes an exception in relation to those who have neither honor, nor conscience, nor basic human decency. He punishes Lisovich severely; the janitor trying to detain Nikolka for cowardly anger; poet Rusakova for spiritual decay; another poet Gorbolaz,- for denunciation. The nature of the punishment for each corresponds, according to the will of the author, to the nature of the Fall.)

2. Announcement of the topic and goal setting The storms of the Civil War capture people, drag them along, controlling their destinies. The heroes became toys in the hands of elemental forces; they were whirled around by a blizzard, a blizzard, symbolically foreshadowed by the epigraph from “The Captain’s Daughter.”
Remember Blok - revolution as a force of nature. On the surface of life, political temporary workers and adventurers flicker, replacing each other, and in the depths the rebellious mass of the people wanders.
The death of the white movement is inevitable, and the fall of the kingdom of the hetman, elected ruler of Ukraine, is also inevitable. at the circus. Let's pay attention to this symbolic detail.

- Which moral values does the writer claim in the novel?

(The results are summed up, conclusions are drawn)

4. Summary

– “The White Guard” is not only a historical novel, but also a unique novel - education, where, in the words of L. Tolstoy, family thought is combined with national thought. Many years have passed since the novel was written, but its problems are still relevant today.
Today we all seem to consider ourselves humanists, and no one wants blood, but it is shed, we are all for civil peace, but it collapses here and there.
It turns out that today, as many years ago, it is not easy to find a path of non-violent democratic evolution that would take into account and reconcile the interests of the entire society. And it is necessary …

5. Creative task

– Completing the work in the lesson, I invite you to imagine yourself in the role of specialists who were invited to take part in the development project of a monument to participants of the Civil War of 1918-1920 How would you like to see it?

(Speeches by guys with their projects)

2. Announcement of the topic and goal setting And I imagine it like this...
The mother bent over her dead sons. One of them is in a White Guard overcoat, the other in a Budenovka, but for the mother’s grief it does not matter on which side they fought. Her heart hurts equally.

6. Homework

– Our conversation ends here, but the meeting with M. Bulgakov continues. In the next lesson you will get acquainted with the play “Days of the Turbins” based on the novel.
Think about what kind of poster you would present for this performance.

- Thanks to all!

Ratings.

7. Reflection

Symbolic rating:

A) Take a token of a certain color: