We had to be delayed because the careless coachman Selifan did not warn in time about the malfunction of the chaise. We had to wait five or six hours for the hastily found blacksmiths to repair it. When the britzka left the city very late, it had to wait out the funeral procession. The prosecutor was carried to the cemetery, whose death was unwittingly caused by Chichikov himself. Now he lowered the curtains on the windows of the carriage and hid until the procession passed by.
Having passed the city barrier, the chaise rolled along the high road. After two lyrical digressions- about this road and about the unpleasant, but always alluring Rus' - Gogol introduces the reader to the biography, explaining the purpose of his purchase of dead serfs.
Chichikov - main character « Dead souls» Gogol
Chichikov's father and mother were poor nobles who owned a single serf family. His sick parent did nothing but just shuffle around the room and tug at his son’s ear. When Chichikov was very young, he was taken from the village to an old relative in the city and sent to school there. The father, parting with his son forever, advised him to please his teachers and bosses and save a penny, because “this thing is more reliable than anything else in the world, you can do everything and ruin everything in the world with a penny.” (See Chichikov's childhood.)
The father's instructions sank into the boy's soul. Although not distinguished by any outstanding talents, young Chichikov became the most exemplary student in his class in terms of behavior. Thanks to ingratiating himself with his teachers, he received an excellent certificate. Already at school, he showed a very inventive acquisitiveness: having bought food at the market, he sat in the class next to those who were richer, and as soon as he noticed that a friend was hungry, he stuck out from under the bench, as if by chance, a corner of a gingerbread or a roll and took it. him money, in accordance with his appetite.
After leaving school, Chichikov entered service in the government chamber. At first he was paid the lowest salary. But Chichikov managed to flatter his elderly boss, who had an ugly, pockmarked daughter. Chichikov pretended that he was ready to marry her. He even moved into his boss’s house and started calling him daddy. The boss got him a promotion, but immediately after that Chichikov skillfully hushed up the matter of the wedding, as if there was no talk of it.
The lively and cunning Chichikov began to quickly rise in rank. Everywhere he mercilessly took bribes, but he did it secretly and cleverly: he never accepted money from a requester himself, but only through subordinate clerks. Having joined the commission for the construction of a government building, Chichikov managed the matter in such a way that the structure did not go beyond the foundation, and he and his comrades acquired beautiful houses of their own.
The authorities, however, perked up and sent them a strict military man as their new chief. Chichikov involuntarily had to leave his bread-and-butter position. He spent some time in low positions, but soon joined the customs office. Here he showed unheard-of efficiency and truly a dog's instincts. No smuggler on the western border could fool him. Chichikov's talents were noticed here too. For a long time he demonstrated complete incorruptibility. But when his superiors, pleased with his success, made him the head of a team to fight against one large smuggling company, he entered into a conspiracy with him and began to facilitate the transportation of illegal goods, earning hundreds of thousands from it.
However, this enterprise of Chichikov was also upset due to the carelessness of one assistant. Having barely escaped criminal trial, Chichikov lost almost everything he had, lost his job, and only with difficulty got a job as an attorney. One day one of his clients, a bankrupt landowner, decided to mortgage his ruined estate to the state guardianship council. The treasury gave money as security to the peasants - two hundred rubles per capita. Chichikov suddenly learned that his client would receive these amounts not only for living serfs, but also for dead ones, because before the financial census (audit) carried out every few years, all peasants were formally listed as alive. A thought flashed through Chichikov’s fraudulent mind: to travel around Russia, buying from landowners cheaply, and where, out of friendship, taking away, for free, dead peasant souls. Then Chichikov hoped to pledge them wholesale, as if they were alive, to the guardianship council and get a rich sum.
Literature lesson in 9th grade
N.V. Gogol. Poem " Dead Souls».
Lesson on the topic: « Chichikov and “Chichikovism”.
Kalinina Irina Borisovna
teacher of Russian language and literature, Municipal Educational Institution "Secondary School No. 54", Orenburg
The purpose of this lesson is to create conditions for understanding the main character traits of Chichikov as a socio-psychological generalization, as well as the timeless essence of “Chichikovism”.
Equipment: multimedia projector; computer, the local network, Internet.
During the classes.
Check: "Who is this hero?" (presentation).
Each slide is an illustration of one of the heroes and is accompanied by reading a description of this hero. The task of the students is to find out what kind of hero this is.
Subject today's lesson: “Chichikov and “Chichikovism”. You and I have to find out who he is, Chichikov, and what is the meaning of the concept of “Chichikovism”.
Analysis of the image of Chichikov.
Let's summarize everything we've learned about this hero.
? How is the hero similar to those with whom he deals with buying peasants?
Chichikov may be more delicate than Manilov, capable of saving more stubbornly than Korobochka, can live in grand style no worse than Nozdryov, he is tight-fisted and businesslike, like Sobakevich, and is not inferior to Plyushkin in frugality.
? Are there any traits in Chichikov’s character that distinguish him from the rest?
Let's try to draw an image of Chichikov,Let's try to answer this question:“Who is he? So, a scoundrel? ( A schematic image of a person is used, who, as Chichikov’s biography is discussed, is surrounded on all sides by words denoting character traits. All this is reflected in the presentation).
Group work .
Let's break into groups and discuss for 3-4 minutes, using the material you collected at home in the form of a double diary, what traits manifest themselves in Chichikov's character throughout his life:
Group 1 – childhood;
Group 2 – service in the government chamber;
Group 3 - construction commission and customs;
Group 4 – new way enrichment;
Group 5 – search for the definition of “Chichikovism” on the Internet.
5. Chichikov's childhood years. Studying at school. (Group 1).
What Gogol says about the origin and
Chichikov's childhood?
What advice did he receive from his father when entering college?How did you use it?
How were his school years?
(He bad friend, does everything for profit, pleases teachers,
The episode with the teacher testifies to Chichikov’s spiritual meanness.
INstepping into life, Chichikov set himself the goal ofenrichment,worship of the penny).
Conclusion: Already in childhood and adolescence, Chichikov developed such character qualities as:the ability to achieve a goal at any cost, a manner of pleasing, finding benefits for oneself in everything, spiritual meanness, etc. .
The central place in Chichikov’s biography is occupied by a description of his career.(Group 2) Service in the treasury chamber.
How did Chichikov's career begin?
What means does he choose to make a career?
(Chichikov’s career began in the government chamber, where he was assigned immediately after graduating from college. “Getting around” the police officer was the first and most difficult obstacle that he managed to cross. As in the story with the old teacher, when Chichikov refused to help him, it convinced him that success in life can be achieved the sooner and easier the faster a person frees himself from the principles of morality, honor, decency that fetter him, that these principles hinder and harm those who are determined to win their place in the sun.)
Conclusion: we see that the same qualities that were discussed above were not only not lost, but also developed.
7. Participation in the construction commission. Customs service.
Where did Chichikov move from the government chamber?
What have you achieved in your new place?
Why did he have to resign from the commission for the construction of a government building?
How did his career as a customs official develop?
Why did it end in failure?
(The next stage of Chichikov’s career was participation in the commission for the construction of a state-owned building. It brought him substantial acquisitions, significantly exceeding the income that he had while occupying a “grain place” in the state chamber. But unexpectedly, a new boss was appointed to the commission, who announced a decisive war of bribery and embezzlement. Chichikov had to look for a new place. The catastrophe that struck him almost completely destroyed the fruits of his “labor”, but did not force him to retreat).
Arriving at the customs, as before, Chichikov begins here by ingratiating himself with the authorities, showing extraordinary “quickness, insight and perspicacity. For a short time the smugglers could not live from him.” Having thus lulled the vigilance of those around him, even having received a new rank, he again turns to fraudulent operations, and they bring him a fortune of half a million. However, fate prepared a new blow: Chichikov quarreled with his accomplice, and he wrote a denunciation against him. And again he had to lose everything.
Conclusion: The stages of Chichikov’s career are the story of his ups and downs, but for all that, it reveals such traits of his character asenergy, efficiency, enterprise, tirelessness and perseverance, prudence, cunning. (Slide with a person)
8. Invention of a new method of enrichment.
How did he come up with the idea of acquiring “dead souls”?
What character traits allow you to win over officials and landowners?
(In search of new profits, being an insignificant attorney, he discovered the possibility of profitable transactions with “ dead souls"When he was trying to mortgage the estate of a bankrupt landowner into the treasury.)
Conclusion: “Here is our hero, as he is!”desire for enrichment, dishonesty in relationships with people, enterprise, perseverance, ability to please, insensitivity, , immorality, prudence, cunning, tirelessness, determination - these are the traits that form Chichikov’s character. ( Final slide with a person)
9. The concept of "Chichikovism".
Let's turn to our experts and ask them to give us the definition of “Chichikovism” that they found using Internet resources. NO!
Have you come across the use of this word in printed articles? YES. Read the fragments.
What do we mean when we talk about “Chichikovism”?
Let's define this term ourselves.
Chichikovshchina - the desire for enrichment, behind which decency, compassion, warmth are forgotten, and prudence, cunning, unscrupulousness, satisfaction by any means of selfish interests, covered by the most decent arguments and explanations, come to the fore.
10. Chichikovshchina today
Do you think there is a place for Chichikovism in our lives? (Chichikovism is also characteristic of modern society, The Chichikovs are thriving today, and the blame for everything is acquisition).
Homework: Some critics, Gogol's contemporaries, reproached him for laughing at the Russian people in the poem. Prove the injustice of this reproach, give examples from the text.
Composition
Subject: Biography, studies, service and career of Chichikov (Dead Souls)
Biography Chichikova By origin, Chichikov is a nobleman: “...The origins of our hero are dark and modest. His parents were nobles, but they were nobles or private - God knows...” His father is a sick and poor man. We know nothing about the mother: “... the father, a sick man [...] sighed incessantly, walking around the room, and spitting in the sandbox that stood in the corner...” The father and little Pavlusha live in a simple peasant hut: "... A small house with small windows that did not open either in winter or in summer..."
Chichikov's studies Chichikov goes with his father to the city to study at the city school. He settles with some old relative: “...He was supposed to stay here and go to classes at the city school every day...” His father leaves back to the village, and Chichikov never sees him again: “... his father broke up with son and dragged himself home again on his forty, and since then he has never seen him again...” At the school, Chichikov is a diligent and diligent student. He has no special talents. But on the other hand, he is a practical and patient child: “... He did not have any special abilities for any science; he distinguished himself more by diligence and neatness...” While still at school, Chichikov begins to earn money: “... he molded it out of wax bullfinch, painted it and sold it very profitably..." "... finally achieved the point that the mouse stood on its hind legs, lay down and stood up according to orders, and then sold it also very profitably..." Chichikov is in good standing at school. He behaves exemplary and diligently. He graduates from the school as an exemplary student: “During his entire stay at the school, he was in excellent standing and upon graduation received full honors in all sciences, a certificate and a book with golden letters for exemplary diligence and trustworthy behavior.” At this time, Chichikov's father dies. He sells the house and land. For them he receives 1000 rubles - his initial capital: "... At this time his father died [...] Chichikov immediately sold the dilapidated little yard with an insignificant plot of land for a thousand rubles..."
Chichikov's service and career: Chichikov is a real careerist, purposeful and persistent. Chichikov does not start a family and does not have children. First, Chichikov wants to provide his “offspring” with a decent future. Read also: “Chichikov’s Service” Chichikov’s career has always been easy and simple. He works hard and tries hard. Chichikov's service has its ups and downs. During his life, he manages to work in different places - and even in different cities. In general, Chichikov begins his service with a simple position in the treasury chamber: “...with great difficulty he decided to join the treasury chamber...” Then Chichikov gets a place in a more profitable place. Here he earns capital from bribes. But a new boss comes and reveals the thefts. So Chichikov loses everything that he had acquired dishonestly: “... everything was fluffed up, and Chichikov more than others...” After this, Chichikov serves in another city in some miserable positions. Finally, he gets a place at customs: “... finally moved to the customs service...” At customs, Chichikov receives a promotion, as well as the rank of collegiate adviser: “... He received a rank and promotion...” Having become a boss , Chichikov enters into a conspiracy with a criminal group of smugglers. Chichikov earns hundreds of thousands of rubles from this “unclean” business. But the case is revealed. Chichikov loses his place and his acquired money: “...The officials were put on trial, confiscated, everything they had was described...” So Chichikov is again left with nothing. He has about 10 thousand rubles left, a chaise and two serfs - Selifan and Petrushka. Chichikov again starts his career from scratch. He works as an attorney (self-taught lawyer) in a variety of cases. Then it occurs to him to buy dead serfs for himself in order to get rich.
In the poem "Dead Souls" Gogol touches on Chichikov's career only at the end of the work. At the beginning, Chichikov appears before readers as some mysterious person, about the origin of which nothing is known. Considering that Chichikov is the main character of the poem, there is a danger that readers will begin to treat him as positive hero, despite the clearly fraudulent nature of its activities. Gogol himself felt this danger, and in the 11th chapter he begins to reduce the image of Chichikov: “It is very doubtful that the readers will like the hero we have chosen. The ladies will not like him, this can be said affirmatively, for the ladies demand that the hero be decisive perfection, and if there is any mental or physical blemish, then disaster!... But the virtuous person is still not taken as a hero... No, it’s time to finally hide the scoundrel too. So, let’s harness the scoundrel!” Further, the author writes about the origin of the hero and his career: “After leaving school, he did not even want to rest: his desire was so strong to get down to business and service. However, despite the commendable certificates, with great difficulty he decided to join the government ward". However, Chichikov could vegetate in this ward until the end of his life, because... “He got an insignificant place, a salary of thirty or forty rubles a year.” Some decisive step had to be taken.
“Finally, he sniffed out his (his boss’s - author’s note) home, family life, found out that he had a mature daughter, with a face that also looked like it was threshing peas at night. he came up with an idea to launch an attack. He found out which church she came to. Sundays, stood opposite her every time, cleanly dressed, his shirt front heavily starched - and the business was a success: the stern police officer staggered (in the old days - the official in charge of office work in court - author's note) and invited him to tea! And before the office had time to look back, things had worked out in such a way that Chichikov moved into his house, became necessary and necessary person, bought flour and sugar, treated his daughter like a bride, called the police officer daddy and kissed his hand; Everyone in the ward decided that there would be a wedding at the end of February before Lent. The stern police officer even began to lobby his superiors for him, and after a while Chichikov himself became a police officer in one vacant position that had opened up. This seemed to be the point the main objective his connections with the old police officer, because he immediately sent his chest secretly home and the next day he found himself in another apartment. The police officer stopped calling him daddy and no longer kissed his hand, and the matter of the wedding was hushed up, as if nothing had happened at all. However, when meeting him, he always affectionately shook his hand and invited him to tea, so that the old police officer, despite his eternal immobility and callous indifference, shook his head every time and said under his breath: “You cheated, you cheated, you damn son !"
This was the most difficult threshold he crossed. From then on things went easier and more successfully. He became a remarkable person."
At one time I had the opportunity to witness a similar turn in the fate of one person. Let's call him Pyotr Olegovich. He was a graduate student at that time. The term of graduate school was approaching the end. This graduate student came from a small town. After graduating from graduate school, he was faced with a dilemma: to return to his homeland, which he apparently really did not want, or to do something to stay in Moscow. And staying in Moscow in those days (80s) was very, very difficult. The only legal way is to marry a Muscovite. Our graduate student chose this path. Events unfolded rapidly (there was little time left before defense). At some conference he met a girl. She was vertically challenged and completely inconspicuous. "But what can you do - love!" - the department staff said. Two weeks before the defense, a wedding was scheduled. Afterwards the young people went to Honeymoon. “What is Petya thinking?!” - his leader was indignant. Anyone familiar with the dissertation defense process knows that last month before defense - the most intense. But Petya drove off with his young wife, and seemed to have forgotten about everything. But, thank God, everything worked out. Petya returned, the defense was successful. But what do we hear a month later? Petya is getting a divorce! In his way, he acted nobly. He did not apply for living space. He only needed Moscow registration. Subsequently, he exchanged his apartment in a provincial town for one in Moscow and moved with his mother to Moscow. It was very gentle, loving, caring son. Only when his mother died did he get married, this time for real. What was he thinking when he got married for the first time? After all, for his first wife it was a tragedy: to find her love, and then lose it, to understand that she had been deceived, taken advantage of to achieve her goals. How did her life turn out next? Perhaps Petya was thinking: “Yes, I will do a bad thing, marry a girl I don’t love, in the name of my goals. But then throughout my life I will behave honestly and atone for my meanness.” Isn't it all very familiar? Raskolnikov adhered to the same philosophy, but as a result he failed. After all, this is a novel, some will say. In life, everything can be different. In life, scoundrels live to old age and die in their bed, surrounded by loved ones. Is it so? This story is not over yet, and we will probably still have to find out how it ends.
Let us, however, continue the theme of Chichikov’s career: “Everything turned out to be in him that is needed for this world: pleasantness in turns and actions, and agility in business affairs. With such means, he obtained in a short time what is called a grain place, and took advantage of them in a great way."
“Bread places” still exist today. Let me give you one more memory. There was one employee working in our laboratory. One day she announced that she was leaving, found a job in government (in the mayor's office or in the council - I don't remember now). Somehow she opened up and, without any hesitation, said that this was a grain-producing place, where you could take bribes. Moreover, she said this completely without embarrassment, honestly and openly. Apparently, she believed that this went without saying, and that others did not take bribes only because they were not given bribes.
Gogol further writes: “You need to know that at the same time the strictest persecution of all kinds of bribes began; he was not afraid of the persecution and immediately turned them to his advantage, thus showing directly Russian ingenuity, which appears only during squeezes.” It turns out that there have already been campaigns against bribes in Russia. How did they end? Maybe we overcame this disease a long time ago and have been living in an honest country for a long time? I'm afraid that the reader will say: stop being ironic. Of course that's enough. Everyone knows that we are currently conducting a similar campaign; hundreds of officials are being imprisoned. How many officials do we have in Russia? Maybe we shouldn’t plant hundreds, but half of them should be replanted?
Such memories were generated by reading “Dead Souls” (even re-reading, because we all studied this poem by Gogol at school). It will soon be 170 years since the creation of this masterpiece, but the problems, heroes, people that were there remain the same. Maybe they are immortal?
Corruption in our state is eternal and, it seems, ineradicable. So, in “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol there is wonderful description Chichikov’s career in customs (by the way, the first edition of the first volume of “Dead Souls” turns 180 this year). Read, maybe you will recognize our modern officials:
...but our hero endured everything, endured it strongly, endured it patiently, and finally transferred to the customs service.
It must be said that this service had long been a secret subject of his thoughts. He saw what dandy foreign things the customs officials had, what porcelains and cambrics they sent to gossips, aunts and sisters. More than once, long ago, he said with a sigh: “If only there was somewhere to move to: the border is close, and enlightened people, and what thin Dutch shirts you can get!” It should be added that at the same time he was also thinking about a special type of French soap, which imparted extraordinary whiteness to the skin and freshness to the cheeks; God knows what it was called, but, according to his assumptions, it was certainly located on the border.
So, he would have long wanted to go to the customs office, but the current various benefits for the construction commission were withheld, and he reasoned correctly that the customs office, be that as it may, was still nothing more than a pie in the sky, and the commission was already a bird in its hands. Now he decided to get to customs at any cost, and he got there.
He began his service with extraordinary zeal. It seemed that fate itself had destined him to be a customs official. Such efficiency, insight and foresight was not only unseen, but even unheard of. In three or four weeks he had already become so skilled in customs affairs that he knew absolutely everything: he didn’t even weigh or measure, but by the texture he knew how many arshins of cloth or other material there were in a piece; taking the bundle in his hand, he could suddenly tell how many pounds it contained.
As for searches, here, as even his comrades themselves put it, he simply had a dog’s instinct: one could not help but be amazed to see how he had so much patience to feel every button, and all this was done with deadly composure, polite incredibly. And at a time when those being searched were furious, lost their temper and felt an evil urge to beat up his pleasant appearance with clicks, he, without changing either in his face or in his polite actions, said only: “Wouldn’t you like to worry a little and get up?” Or: “Would you like, madam, to be welcomed into another room? there the wife of one of our officials will explain to you.” Or: “Let me, with a knife, I’ll rip open the lining of your overcoat a little,” and, saying this, he would pull out shawls and scarves from there, calmly, as if from his own chest.
Even the authorities explained that it was a devil, not a man: he was looking in wheels, drawbars, horse ears and who knows what places, where no author would ever think of getting into and where only customs officials are allowed to get into. So the poor traveler, who had crossed the border, still could not come to his senses for several minutes and, wiping off the sweat that appeared in small rashes all over his body, only crossed himself and said: “Well, well!” His situation was very similar to that of a schoolboy who ran out of a secret room, where the boss had called him in order to give him some instruction, but instead he was flogged in a completely unexpected way.
For a short time there was no profit from him for the smugglers. This was the storm and despair of all Polish Judaism. His honesty and incorruptibility were irresistible, almost unnatural. He didn’t even make up a small capital for himself from various confiscated goods and selected little things that did not go to the treasury in order to avoid unnecessary correspondence.
Such zealous, selfless service could not help but become the subject of general surprise and finally come to the attention of the authorities. He received a rank and promotion, and after that he presented a project to catch all the smugglers, asking only for the means to carry it out himself. He was immediately given the command and the unlimited right to carry out all sorts of searches. That's all he wanted.
At that time, a strong society of smugglers was formed in a deliberate and correct manner; The daring enterprise promised benefits worth millions. He had already had information about him for a long time and even refused to bribe those sent, saying dryly: “It’s not the time yet.”
Having received everything at his disposal, he immediately let the public know, saying: “Now it’s time.” The calculation was too correct. Here, in one year, he could receive something that he would not have won in twenty years of the most zealous service. Before, he did not want to enter into any relations with them, because he was nothing more than a simple pawn, therefore, he would not have received much; but now... now it’s a completely different matter: he could offer any conditions he wanted.
To make things go more smoothly, he persuaded another official, his comrade, who could not resist the temptation, despite the fact that he was gray. The terms were concluded, and the society began to act. The action began brilliantly: the reader, no doubt, has heard the so often repeated story of the ingenious journey of the Spanish rams, who, having crossed the border in double sheepskin coats, carried under their sheepskin coats a million worth of Brabant lace. This incident happened precisely when Chichikov was serving at customs. If he himself had not participated in this enterprise, no Jews in the world would have been able to carry out such a task.
After three or four sheep trips across the border, both officials ended up with four hundred thousand in capital. Chichikov, they say, even exceeded five hundred, because he was smarter. God knows to what enormous figure the blessed sums would have increased if some difficult beast had not run across everything...
