Description of the video lesson
Nikolay Vasilievich was born in Ukraine on March 20, 1809 in the village of Sorochintsy, Mirgorod district. Nicholas was named in honor of the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas. Since the first two children were born dead, the mother, Maria Ivanovna, married at the age of 14, prayed to God for a healthy child. Nikolai was very weak from childhood. All his life he was afraid that he would be buried during a lethargic sleep. Since 1821, Nikolai studied at the Nizhyn gymnasium of higher sciences. Mom, who wrote letters to him, often retold Ukrainian legends in them. Their young Gogol copied them into the "Book of all sorts of things." Later, in 1831, the writer published in St. Petersburg a collection of stories "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", which glorified him.
But the path to glory was not easy. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1828, where Nikolai organized a theater, was the author of student plays and the main comedy hero, he and a friend went to conquer St. Petersburg. All his dreams were shattered: Nicholas was waiting for the service of a simple official - a scribe of papers. This is how the image of Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, a tragic little personality in the story "The Overcoat" arose. It was published later, in 1841, in the Nevsky Prospekt collection, and earlier, in 1835, the Mirgorod collection was published. The most amazing work was the story "Taras Bulba". The historical past has always interested Gogol. For some time he even taught history at the Patriot Institute. From childhood, gifted with artistic talent, he wrote plays, he himself played the main roles, created historical images. But especially he was given, according to contemporaries, funny.
Here in front of us Taras Bulba, the historical image of the era of constant dangers:
“This was one of those characters that could have arisen only in the difficult 15th century on a semi-nomadic corner of Europe, when all of southern primitive Russia, abandoned by its princes, was devastated, burned to the ground by indomitable raids of Mongol predators; when, having lost his house and roof, a man became brave here.
This is a patriot who selflessly loves his Motherland, Zaporizhzhya Sich for him is a protest against national oppression, an opportunity to manifest a freedom-loving spirit. Zaporizhzhya Sich is a military republic located beyond the Dnieper rapids, from free people who fled from the oppression of serfdom and for several centuries defended Russia from enemies. Therefore, it was here that Taras Bulba went, where he needed help not only in protecting the Fatherland, but also in establishing the Orthodox faith.
The protagonist had to endure many trials: the betrayal of the youngest son and the execution of the eldest. Andria's father kills with the words: "I gave birth to you, I will kill you." He cannot forgive his beloved son for betraying the Motherland for the sake of love for a Polish girl. The feeling of camaraderie is sacred to the hero:
“There were comrades in other lands, but there were no such comrades as in the Russian land. It happened to you not alone - to disappear a lot in a foreign land; you see - and there are people! Also a man of God, and you will talk with him as with your own; but when it comes to telling a heartfelt word, you see: no, smart people, but not those; the same people, but not the same!
No, brothers, love like the Russian soul—love not so much with the mind or anything else, but with everything that God has given, whatever is in you...
“No, no one can love like that!”
As a father and comrade, Taras Bulba supports Ostap during the execution with approving words. Tied to a tree, devoured by fire, he thinks only of his comrades, trying to shout to them, to tell them the safe way.
In his story Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol presented vivid characters embodying the strongest national traits. The writer did not seek to describe a plausible story, the main thing for him was to create a generalized image of the national heroes of the liberation movement in Ukraine. The exponents of patriotism are Taras Bulba, Ostap and other Cossacks - free and courageous people who are united by love, loyalty to the Motherland and a sense of camaraderie.
In recent years, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol lived mostly abroad due to poor health, but returned to his homeland as soon as possible. Sick, aged, he died on February 17, 1852, the cause of death is still unknown. "I know- said the great writer, - that my name after me will be happier than me.”
"To be in the world and not signify one's existence in any way - that seems terrible to me." N. V. Gogol.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is known to the world as a writer, poet, playwright, publicist and critic. A man of remarkable talent and an amazing master of words, he is famous both in Ukraine, where he was born, and in Russia, where he moved over time.
Especially Gogol is known for his mystical heritage. His stories, written in a unique Ukrainian language, which is not literary in the full sense of the word, convey the depth and beauty of Ukrainian speech, known to the whole world. The greatest popularity of Gogol was given by his "Viy". What other works did Gogol write? Below is a list of works. These are sensational stories, often mystical, and stories from the school curriculum, and little-known works of the author.
In total, Gogol wrote more than 30 works. Some of them he continued to finish, despite the publication. Many of his creations had several variations, including "Taras Bulba" and "Viy". Having published the story, Gogol continued to reflect on it, sometimes adding or changing the ending. His stories often have multiple endings. So, next we consider the most famous works of Gogol. The list is in front of you:
These are published works that Gogol wrote. The works (a list by year, to be more precise) indicate that the writer's talent flourished in 1835-1841. And now let's go through the reviews of Gogol's most famous stories.
The story "Viy" tells about the recently deceased lady, the centurion's daughter, who, as the whole village knows, was a witch. The centurion, at the request of his beloved daughter, forces the funeral worker Khoma Bruta to be read over her. The witch, who died through the fault of Khoma, dreams of revenge...
Reviews of the work "Viy" - continuous praise for the writer and his talent. It is impossible to discuss the list of Nikolai Gogol's works without mentioning everyone's favorite Viy. Readers note bright characters, original, unique, with their own characters and habits. All of them are typical Ukrainians, cheerful and optimistic people, rude but kind. It is impossible not to appreciate the subtle irony and humor of Gogol.
They also highlight the unique style of the writer and his ability to play on contrasts. During the day, the peasants walk and have fun, Khoma also drinks, so as not to think about the horror of the upcoming night. With the advent of evening, a gloomy, mystical silence sets in - and Khoma again enters the circle outlined in chalk ...
A very short story keeps you in suspense until the last page. Below are stills from the 1967 film of the same name.
The Nose is an amazing story, written in such a satirical form that at first it seems fantastic absurdity. According to the plot, Platon Kovalev, a public person and prone to narcissism, wakes up in the morning without a nose - it is empty in its place. In a panic, Kovalev begins to look for his lost nose, because without it you won’t even appear in a decent society!
Readers easily saw the prototype of Russian (and not only!) society. Gogol's stories, despite being written in the 19th century, do not lose their relevance. Gogol, whose list of works for the most part can be divided into mysticism and satire, very subtly felt modern society, which has not changed at all over the past time. The rank, the external gloss are still held in high esteem, but the inner content of a person is of no interest to anyone. It is Plato's nose, with an outer shell, but without inner content, that becomes the prototype of a man richly dressed, rationally thinking, but soulless.
"Taras Bulba" is a great creation. Describing the works of Gogol, the most famous, the list of which is provided above, it is impossible not to mention this story. In the center of the plot are two brothers, Andrei and Ostap, as well as their father, Taras Bulba himself, a strong, courageous and utterly principled man.
Readers especially emphasize the small details of the story, on which the author focused, which enlivens the picture, makes those distant times closer and more understandable. The writer studied the details of the life of that era for a long time, so that readers could more vividly and vividly imagine the events taking place. In general, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, whose list of works we are discussing today, has always attached particular importance to trifles.
Charismatic characters also made a lasting impression on readers. The tough, merciless Taras, ready to do anything for the sake of the Motherland, the brave and courageous Ostap and the romantic, selfless Andrey - they cannot leave readers indifferent. In general, the famous works of Gogol, the list of which we are considering, have an interesting feature - an amazing, but harmonious contradiction in the characters' characters.
Another mystical, but at the same time funny and ironic work by Gogol. The blacksmith Vakula is in love with Oksana, who promised to marry him if he gets her little slippers, like the queen herself. Vakula is in despair... But then, quite by chance, he comes across evil spirits, having fun in the village in the society of a witch. It is not surprising that Gogol, whose list of works contains numerous mystical stories, involved a witch and a devil in this story.
This story is interesting not only for the plot, but also for the colorful characters, each of which is unique. They, as if alive, appear before the readers, each in his own way. Gogol admires some with slight irony, he admires Vakula, and teaches Oksana to appreciate and love. Like a caring father, he chuckles good-naturedly at his characters, but it all looks so soft that it causes only a gentle smile.
The character of the Ukrainians, their language, customs and foundations, so clearly described in the story, could only be described in such detail and lovingly by Gogol. Even joking about the "Muscovites" looks cute in the mouths of the characters in the story. This is because Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, whose list of works we are discussing today, loved his homeland and spoke of it with love.
Sounds mystical, right? However, in reality, Gogol did not resort to mysticism in this work and looked much deeper - into human souls. The main character Chichikov seems to be a negative character at first glance, but the more the reader gets to know him, the more positive features he notices in him. Gogol makes the reader worry about the fate of his hero, despite his hard-hitting actions, which already says a lot.
In this work, the writer, as always, acts as an excellent psychologist and a real genius of the word.
Of course, these are not all the creations that Gogol wrote. The list of works is incomplete without the continuation of Dead Souls. It was his author who allegedly burned it before his death. Rumor has it that in the next two volumes, Chichikov was supposed to improve and become a decent person. Is it so? Unfortunately, now we will never know for sure.
The story "Taras Bulba" is completely devoted to the historical theme. There are historical motifs in “Evenings...” - descriptions of Vakula's flight to St. Petersburg during the time of Catherine II, but in general it would be wrong to call “Evenings ...” a work on a historical theme.
"Taras Bulba" is included in the collection written by Gogol after "Evenings ...". - "Mirgorod" (1835).
At the beginning of the 19th century, European and Russian readers were struck by the novels of Walter Scott. Russian society doubted: is it possible to create such a work based on the material of Russian history? Gogol proved that this is possible, but did not become a second Walter Scott: he created a unique work based on historical material.
N.V. Gogol, while working on the story, was seriously engaged in history, read chronicles and historical acts. But in the story, he did not describe specific historical events and battles in which the Cossacks participated in the 16th-17th centuries. Another thing was important for him: to convey the living spirit of that rebellious time. how this spirit was conveyed by folk songs performed by bandura players traveling around Ukraine. In the article “On Little Russian Songs” (published in “Arabesques”), Gogol wrote: “The historian should not look in them for indications of the day and date of the battle or for an exact explanation of the place, the correct relation: in this respect, few songs will help him. But when he wants to know the true way of life, the elements of character, all the twists and shades of feelings, excitement, suffering, joys of the depicted people, when he wants to experience the spirit of the past century ... then he will be completely satisfied; the history of the people will be revealed before him in clear majesty.”
One of the ancient meanings of the noun "cut" is a notch, a blockage of trees that served as a fortification. From the name of such a fortification came the name of the center of the organization of Ukrainian Cossacks; Zaporizhzhya Sich. The main fortification of the Cossacks was located beyond the Dnieper rapids, often on the island of Khortitsa, which is now within the city of Zaporozhye. The island is large in area, its shores are rocky, steep, in some places about forty meters high. Khortytsya was the center of the Cossacks.
The Zaporozhian Sich is an organization of Ukrainian Cossacks that originated in the 16th century. When the Tatars ravaged Kievan Rus, the northern territories began to unite under the rule of the Moscow princes. The princes of Kyiv and Chernigov were killed in fierce battles, and the central lands of the former Kievan Rus were left without power. The Tatars continued to ravage rich lands, later they were joined by the Ottoman Empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then Poland. The inhabitants who inhabited these lands, unlike the Tatars, Muslim Turks and Catholic Poles, professed Orthodoxy. They sought to unite and protect their land from the attacks of predatory neighbors. In this struggle, the Ukrainian nationality took shape in the central lands of the former Kievan Rus.
Zaporizhzhya Sich was not a state organization. It was created for military purposes. Until 1654, that is, before the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, the Sich was a Cossack "republic": the main issues were decided by the Sich Rada. The Sich was headed by a kosh ataman and was divided into kurens (a kuren is a military unit and its living quarters). At different times, there were up to thirty-eight kurens.
The Sich was at war with the Crimean Khan, the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Ukrainian authorities.
The folk character of the story was manifested in the fact that its theme was the story of the Cossack Taras Bulba and his sons; many scenes of the story are similar in content to Ukrainian folk historical songs; the heroes of the story are Cossacks who defend the independence of their native land from Polish rule
When reading some episodes (descriptions of battles), one gets the impression that we have before us not a prose text, but a heroic song performed by folk storytellers.
Gogol creates the image of a narrator-storyteller, who, together with the heroes, seems to experience all the changes in the course of the battle and on whose behalf regrets and exclamations sound: “Cossacks, Cossacks! don't give out the best color of your troops!" It would be wrong to consider these lines as statements on behalf of the author.
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Ninaarc
Gogol gives the Cossack heroes a resemblance to epic heroes: the Cossacks fight for their native land, for the Christian faith, and the author describes their exploits in an epic style: and put"; “Where the Nemaynovites passed - so there is the street, where they turned - so there is the lane! So you can see how the ranks thinned and the Poles fell in sheaves! “And so they cut themselves! Both the shoulder pads and the mirrors bent from the blows on both of them.
The folklore character is given to the scene of the second battle by the triple exclamation of Taras Bulba, the chief ataman: “Is there still gunpowder in the powder flasks? Has the Cossack strength weakened? Aren't the Cossacks bending?" The Cossacks answer him: “There is still gunpowder in the powder flasks, father.”
“Be patient, Cossack, you will be an ataman!” Taras Bulba addresses these words to Andriy, who was “noticeably bored” during the siege of the city of Dubno.
“What, son, did your Poles help you?” - Taras says to Andriy, who betrayed the Cossacks.
All these expressions have become aphorisms in our time. The first we say when we talk about the high morale of people; the second - when we call on someone to endure a little for the sake of achieving a big goal; the third we turn to the traitor, who was not helped by his new patrons.
Taras Bulba is the main character of the story. The author describes Taras in this way: “Bulba jumped on his Devil, who recoiled furiously, feeling a twenty-pound burden on himself, because Bulba was extremely heavy and fat.” He is a Cossack, but not a simple Cossack, but a colonel: “Taras was one of the indigenous, old colonels: he was all created for abusive anxiety and was distinguished by the rude directness of his temper. Then the influence of Poland was already beginning to appear on the Russian nobility. Many already adopted Polish customs, started luxury, magnificent servants, falcons, hunters, dinners, courtyards. Taras didn't like it. He loved the simple life of the Cossacks and quarreled with those of his comrades who were inclined towards the Warsaw side, calling them serfs of the Polish lords. Restless forever, he considered himself the legitimate defender of Orthodoxy.
At the beginning we meet him on his own farm, where he lives in a house with his wife and servants. His house is simple, decorated "in the taste of that time." However, Taras Bulba spends most of his life in the Sich or in military campaigns against the Turks and Poles. He calls his wife the word "old" and scorns all manifestations of feelings, except for courage and prowess. He says to his sons: “Your tenderness is an open field and a good horse: here is your tenderness! See this sword! here's your mother!"
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Ninaarc
10/20/2017 left a comment:
Taras Bulba feels like a free Cossack and behaves as ideas about free life dictate to him: having drunk, he breaks dishes in the house; without thinking about his wife, he decides the very next day after the arrival of his sons to take them to the Sich; at will, without need, he begins to incite the Cossacks to go on a campaign.
The main values in his life are the struggle for the Christian faith and comradeship, the highest rating is “a good Cossack”. He builds his attitude towards his sons on this basis: he admires the actions of Ostap, who was elected ataman, and kills Andriy, who betrayed the Cossacks.
The Cossacks appreciate Taras, respect him as a commander, and after the division of the Cossack army, they choose him as the "Ataman". The character and views of Taras are most clearly manifested when he speaks about camaraderie before the battle, when he encourages the Cossacks to fight and rushes to the aid of his son Ostap. At the tragic moment of Ostap's execution, he finds an opportunity to help him, to raise his spirit, answering him: "I hear!" And then, when the Poles decide to burn him, he tries to help his comrades who got out of the encirclement, shouting that they take the canoes and escape from the chase.
Talking about the life and death of Taras Bulba, the author reveals his main idea: it was these people who defended the independence of the Russian land, and their main strength was love for their land and faith in camaraderie, the brotherhood of Cossacks.
Ostap and Andrey are two sons of Taras Bulba. With each episode, their characters are drawn brighter, and we see the difference between the sons, which we did not notice before.
Antithesis is the main compositional technique of Taras Bulba. First, the author contrasts the share of an unfortunate woman and the cruel age that forms the rough characters of men, while the brothers are described almost the same, only a slight difference in their characters is outlined. In the second chapter, this difference appears with even greater force when describing the life of the brothers in the bursa. Bursa is the name of a religious school or theological seminary. Bursa graduates usually became priests. Gogol does not emphasize this, but we remember that the main subject studied in the bursa is the Law of God.
Describing the life of the brothers in the Sich, the author tells us that Andria was shocked by the execution, determined for murder. We see in him a soul capable of various strong feelings. Ostap's soul is coarser, simpler.
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Ninaarc
10/20/2017 left a comment:
The author tells us about the brothers from the point of view of Taras Bulba. The father is proud of his eldest son. “It seemed to Ostap that the battle path and the difficult knowledge of doing military affairs were written in the family.” Composure, confidence, prudence, the inclinations of the leader - these are the qualities that Taras rejoices at. Ostap seems to merge with the mass of the Cossacks, standing out from it only by a high degree of qualities respected by the Cossacks.
The insane courage of Andriy is opposed to the composure and reasonable actions of his brother. This is a man of the elements; for him, the war is full of "charming music of bullets and swords", he is under the spell of the romantic aura of the struggle for a just cause and, probably, does not realize that he is sowing death.
It is very important to understand that the tendency to introspection, to reflect on one's feelings, on the motives of one's own actions, is largely an achievement of the 19th and 20th centuries. In our time, people are long and consciously developing the ability to understand themselves, to control their feelings. At the time described in the story, people did not analyze their feelings: the ray of reason was directed outward, as, for example, with Ostap, and not inward. It was not the man who controlled his feelings, but the feeling controlled the man, captured him completely. A person became like a slave to his impulse, not understanding what made him change his behavior.
Ostap was kept by his composure and tradition. Andriy was not cold-blooded: his emotionality, irascibility, explosive, choleric temperament, as psychologists would say, dictated to him a different line of behavior.
When the army surrounded the city and a long siege began, the Tatar woman conveys the pannochka's request for a piece of bread for her old mother: “... because I don’t want to see my mother die in my presence. Let me be better before, and she after me.
Compassion, sympathy, pity, love are those feelings that are blessed by the Gospel. Andriy swears by the holy cross that he will not reveal the secret of the existence of the underground passage.
What did the Cossacks fight for? - complex issue.
Let us recall the words of one of the Cossack messengers: "Such a time has now begun that the holy churches are no longer ours." The Cossacks went to Poland in order to "avenge all the evil and shame of the faith and Cossack glory, collect booty from the cities, set fire to the villages and bread, and spread glory about themselves far across the steppe." The main commandment of Christ is “Thou shalt not kill”, the Lord teaches mercy and compassion. The war turns towards Andriy not as a romantic, but as a cruel, predatory side.
Andriy sees the Cossacks sleeping carelessly, having eaten enough porridge at a time, which would be enough for “a good three times”, and people dying of starvation. And indignation, protest against this side of the war fills his heart. As before, he was completely covered by the intoxication of battle, so now his soul is captured by compassion, pity and love. The picture of the world in the mind of the hero has completely changed. Andriy, as in a battle, cannot stop to figure out what he is experiencing, and the whole stream of his experiences and sensations pours into a ready-made, familiar form - the form of love passion.
When Taras kills Andriy, he stands in front of his father without moving. What is going on in his soul? Two opposite pictures of the world - with completely different, incompatible values - stand before his eyes. He can no longer choose the first one, to choose the second one means raising a hand against his father, but Andriy cannot do this either and dies by his hand.
An interesting statement by V.G. Belinsky about "Taras Bulba". The critic called Gogol's story "a poem about love for the motherland." This, of course, is true, but one must understand that love for the motherland takes on different forms at different historical times.
Once it is war and battles, once it is peaceful construction, economic development, improvement of the state system, development of the arts.
What works of Gogol are devoted to historical themes? Gogol himself carefully studied history, lectured on history. Tell us about one of the works of the writer, thematically related to the history of Ukraine or Russia.
The story "Taras Bulba" is completely devoted to the historical theme. There are historical motifs in “Evenings…” – descriptions of Vakula’s flight to Petersburg during the time of Catherine II, but in general it would be wrong to call “Evenings…” a work on a historical theme.
"Taras Bulba" is included in the collection written by Gogol after "Evenings ...". - "Mirgorod" (1835).
At the beginning of the 19th century, European and Russian readers were struck by the novels of Walter Scott. Russian society doubted: is it possible to create such a work based on the material of Russian history? Gogol proved that this is possible, but did not become a second Walter Scott: he created a unique work based on historical material.
N.V. Gogol was seriously engaged in history during the period of work on the story. read chronicles and historical acts. But in the story he did not describe specific historical events and battles. in which the Cossacks participated in the XV-XVII centuries. Another thing was important for him: to convey the living spirit of that rebellious time, as this spirit was conveyed by folk songs performed by bandura players traveling around Ukraine. In the article “On Little Russian Songs” (published in “Arabesques”), Gogol wrote: “The historian should not look in them for indications of the day and date of the battle or for an exact explanation of the place, the correct relation: in this respect, few songs will help him. But when he wants to know the true way of life, the elements of character, all the twists and shades of feelings, excitement, suffering, joys of the depicted people, when he wants to experience the spirit of the past century ... then he will be completely satisfied; the history of the people will be revealed before him in clear majesty.”
One of the ancient meanings of the noun “cut” is a notch, a blockage of trees that served as a fortification. From the name of such a fortification came the name of the center of the organization of Ukrainian Cossacks: Zaporizhzhya Sich. The main fortification of the Cossacks was located beyond the Dnieper rapids, often on the island of Khortitsa, which is now within the city of Zaporozhye. The island is large in area, its shores are rocky, steep, in some places about forty meters high. Khortytsya was the center of the Cossacks.
The Zaporozhian Sich is an organization of Ukrainian Cossacks that originated in the 16th century. When the Tatars ravaged Kievan Rus, the northern territories began to unite under the rule of the Moscow princes. The princes of Kyiv and Chernigov were killed in fierce battles, and the central lands of the former Kievan Rus were left without power. The Tatars continued to ravage rich lands, later they were joined by the Ottoman Empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then Poland. The inhabitants who inhabited these lands, unlike the Tatars, Muslim Turks and Catholic Poles, professed Orthodoxy. They sought to unite and protect their land from the attacks of predatory neighbors. In this struggle, the Ukrainian nationality took shape in the central lands of the former Kievan Rus.
Zaporizhzhya Sich was not a state organization. It was created for military purposes. Until 1654, that is, before the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, the Sich was a Cossack "republic": the main issues were decided by the Sich Rada. The Sich was headed by a kosh ataman and was divided into kurens (a kuren is a military unit and its living quarters). At different times, there were up to thirty-eight kurens. The Sich was at war with the Crimean Khan, the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Ukrainian authorities.
The folk character of the story was manifested in the fact that its theme was the story of the Cossack Taras Bulba and his sons; many scenes of the story are similar in content to Ukrainian folk historical songs; The heroes of the story are the Cossacks who defend the independence of their native land from Polish rule.
When reading some episodes (descriptions of battles), one gets the impression that we have before us not a prose text, but a heroic song performed by folk storytellers.
Gogol creates the image of a narrator - a storyteller who, together with the heroes, seems to be experiencing all the changes in the course of the battle and on whose behalf regrets and exclamations sound: “Cossacks, Cossacks! don't give out the best color of your troops!" It would be wrong to consider these lines as statements on behalf of the author.
Gogol gives the Cossack heroes a resemblance to epic heroes: the Cossacks fight for their native land, for the Christian faith, and the author describes their exploits in an epic style: and put"; “There, where the Nemaynovites passed - so there is the street where they turned - so there is the lane! So you can see how the ranks thinned and the Poles fell in sheaves! “And so they cut themselves! Both the shoulder pads and the mirrors bent from the blows on both of them.
The folklore character is given to the scene of the second battle by the triple exclamation of Taras Bulba, the chief ataman: “Is there still gunpowder in the powder flasks? Has the Cossack strength weakened? Are the Cossacks bending? The Cossacks answer him: “There is more, dad. gunpowder in powder flasks.
“Be patient, Cossack, you will be an ataman!” - Taras Bulba addresses these words to Andriy, who was “noticeably bored” during the siege of the city of Dubna.
“What, son, did your Poles help you?” - Taras says to Andriy, who betrayed the Cossacks.
All these expressions have become aphorisms in our time. The first we say when we talk about the high morale of people; the second is when we call on someone to endure a little in order to achieve a big goal; the third we turn to the traitor, who was not helped by his new patrons.
Taras Bulba is the main character of the story. The author describes Taras in this way: “Bulba jumped on his Devil, who recoiled furiously, feeling a twenty-pound burden on himself, because Bulba was extremely heavy and fat.” He is a Cossack, but not a simple Cossack, but a colonel: “Taras was one of the indigenous, old colonels: he was all created for abusive anxiety and was distinguished by the rude directness of his temper. Then the influence of Poland was already beginning to appear on the Russian nobility. Many already adopted Polish customs, started luxury, magnificent servants, falcons, hunters, dinners, courtyards. Taras didn't like it. He loved the simple life of the Cossacks and quarreled with those of his comrades who were inclined towards the Warsaw side, calling them serfs of the Polish lords. Restless forever; he considered himself the legitimate defender of Orthodoxy.
At the beginning we meet him on his own farm, where he lives in a house with his wife and servants. His house is simple, decorated "in the taste of that time." However, Taras Bulba spends most of his life in the Sich or in military campaigns against the Turks and Poles. He calls his wife the word "old" and scorns all manifestations of feelings, except for courage and prowess. He says to his sons: “Your tenderness is an open field and a good horse: here is your tenderness! See this sword! here's your mother!"
Taras Bulba feels like a free Cossack and behaves as ideas about free life dictate to him: having drunk, he breaks dishes in the house; without thinking about his wife, he decides the very next day after the arrival of his sons to take them to the Sich; at will, without need, he begins to incite the Cossacks to go on a campaign.
The main values in his life are the struggle for the Christian faith and comradeship, the highest rating is “a good Cossack”. He builds his attitude towards his sons on this basis: he admires the actions of Ostap, who was elected ataman, and kills Andriy, who betrayed the Cossacks.
The Cossacks appreciate Taras, respect him as a commander, and after the division of the Cossack army, they choose him as the "Ataman". The character and views of Taras are most clearly manifested when he speaks about camaraderie before the battle, when he encourages the Cossacks to fight and rushes to the aid of his son Ostap. At the tragic moment of Ostap's execution, he finds an opportunity to help him, to raise his spirit, answering him: "I hear!" And then, when the Poles decide to burn him, he tries to help his comrades who got out of the encirclement, shouting that they take the canoes and escape from the chase.
Talking about the life and death of Taras Bulba, the author reveals his main idea: it was these people who defended the independence of the Russian land, and their main strength was love for their land and faith in camaraderie, the brotherhood of Cossacks.
Ostap and Andrey are two sons of Taras Bulba. With each episode, their characters are drawn brighter, and we see the difference between the sons, which we did not notice before.
Antithesis is the main compositional technique of Taras Bulba. First, the author contrasts the share of an unfortunate woman and the cruel age that forms the rough characters of men, while the brothers are described almost the same, only a slight difference in their characters is outlined. In the second chapter, this difference appears with even greater force when describing the life of the brothers in the bursa. Bursa is the name of a theological school or theological seminary. Bursa graduates usually became priests. Gogol does not emphasize this, but we remember that the main subject studied in the bursa is the Law of God.
The author tells us about the brothers from the point of view of Taras Bulba. The father is proud of his eldest son. “It seemed to Ostap that the battle path and the difficult knowledge of doing military affairs were written in the family.” Composure, confidence, prudence, the inclinations of the leader - these are the qualities that Taras rejoices at. Ostap seems to merge with the mass of the Cossacks, standing out from it only by a high degree of qualities respected by the Cossacks.
The insane courage of Andriy is opposed to the composure and reasonable actions of his brother. This is a man of the elements; for him, the war is full of "charming music of bullets and swords", he is under the spell of the romantic aura of the struggle for a just cause and, probably, does not realize that he is sowing death.
It is very important to understand that the tendency to introspection, to reflect on one's feelings, on the motives of one's own actions, is largely an achievement of the 19th and 20th centuries. In our time, people are long and consciously developing the ability to understand themselves, to control their feelings. At the time described in the story, people did not analyze their feelings: the ray of reason was directed outward, as, for example, with Ostap, and not inward. It was not the man who controlled his feelings, but the feeling controlled the man, captured him completely. A person became like a slave to his impulse, not understanding what made him change his behavior.
Ostap was kept by his composure and tradition. Andriy was not cold-blooded: his emotionality, irascibility, explosive, choleric temperament, as psychologists would say, dictated to him a different line of behavior.
When the army surrounded the city and a long siege began, the Tatar woman conveys the request of the lady for a piece of bread for the old mother: “... because I don’t want to see how my mother dies with me. Let me be better before, and she after me.
Compassion, sympathy, pity, love are those feelings that are blessed by the Gospel. Andriy swears by the holy cross that he will not reveal the secret of the existence of the underground passage.
What did the Cossacks fight for? - complex issue.
Let us recall the words of one of the Cossack messengers: "Such a time has now begun that the holy churches are no longer ours." The Cossacks went to Poland in order to "avenge all the evil and shame of the faith and Cossack glory, collect booty from the cities, set fire to the villages and bread, and spread glory about themselves far across the steppe." The main commandment of Christ is “Thou shalt not kill”, the Lord teaches mercy and compassion. The war turns towards Andriy not as a romantic, but as a cruel, predatory side.
Andriy sees the Cossacks sleeping carelessly, having eaten enough porridge at a time, which would be enough for “a good three times”, and people dying of starvation. And indignation, protest against this side of the war fills his heart. As before, he was completely covered by the intoxication of battle, so now his soul is captured by compassion, pity and love. The picture of the world in the mind of the hero has completely changed. Andriy, as in a battle, cannot stop to figure out what he is experiencing, and the whole stream of his experiences and sensations pours into a ready-made, familiar form - the form of love passion.
When Taras kills Andriy, he stands in front of his father without moving. What is going on in his soul? Two opposite pictures of the world - with completely different, incompatible values - stand before his eyes. He can no longer choose the first, to choose the second means to raise a hand against his father, but Andriy cannot do this either and dies by his hand.
An interesting statement by V.G. Belinsky about "Taras Bulba". The critic called Gogol's story "a poem about love for the motherland." This, of course, is true, but one must understand that love for the motherland takes on different forms at different historical times.
Once it is war and battles, once it is peaceful construction, economic development, improvement of the state system, development of the arts.
Gogol's interest in historical themes (from the life of the European Middle Ages, the author had an already unfinished drama "Alfred") in the story "Taras Bulba" (1835) is no longer the mythologization of the past, which was a priority phenomenon not only in folklore works, but mainly in literature since romanticism. Actually, the historicism of “Taras Bulba” is only in the heroic and pathos reproduction of the past, in the perception of that romanticism that did not mythologize the tragic past, did not oppose artistic truth to historical truth, approaching a realistic understanding of reality: myth as an aesthetic category was inferior to typification - both images and circumstances.
The main character of the story, Taras Bulba (this figure embodies the best features of the uncompromising people's leaders of the national liberation competitions of the first half of the 17th century - Taras Shaker, Ostryanitsa, Pavlyuk, etc.) is not just a national hero, but a representative of the people's life in the corresponding era with a certain socio-political and spiritual orientation. Gogol's historical story, despite the brief condensedness of events, the clear definiteness of the main storyline, the epic work, primarily due to the scale of the artistic understanding of human destinies or a specific personality against the backdrop of a clash of individual and national, ideological and peacemaking and spiritual and ethical conflicts in the choice of faith and social -moral foundations.
The problem of feeling and duty is ambiguous in the solution from the point of view of different moral and civil imperatives over many eras (it is in folklore, philosophical, religious treatises, in the works of world classics: V. Hugo, M. Lermontov, T. Shevchenko, G. Staritsky, F. Dostoevsky, revolutionary and post-revolutionary literature - Y. Yanovskiy, B. Lavrenev, G. Kulish, I. Dneprovsky, etc.). In “Taras Bulba” Gogol is resolved unequivocally and uncompromisingly: the world where the spirit of the evil one rules, the world of union and apostasy from the roots of faith brings spiritual and moral devastation and destruction to the Russian people. (“Russian” for the writer is his own Russian, which is associated in the minds of the author, characters, readers with the word “Orthodox”: the key reason for the national liberation movement is the defense of faith and social justice), and therefore betrayal even in the name of the highest manifestations of human feelings has to be punished. The punishing right hand of the father regarding the son of the apostate in "Taras Bulba" is the realization of the punishing right hand of God's Judgment over the trampling of faith and the highest truth in the name of egocentrism, selfishness, selfish interests.
The whole ceremony of admission to the Sich was reduced, first of all, to belonging to the faith, to the conscious defense of the Orthodox faith as a spiritual support, without which the existence of nations is impossible (today's unprincipled and ideological democracy, which is actually mixed up on alien, pseudo-spiritual concepts, stands for this to know), people, families.
* "- Hello! What do you believe in Christ?
* -I believe! - answered the parishioner.
* -Do you believe in the Holy Trinity?
* -I believe!
* Do you go to church? I go!
* -Well, cross yourself! The visitor was baptized.
* -Well, well, - answered the Koschevoi.
* - go to the hut.
This ended the whole ceremony. And the whole Sich prayed in one church and was ready to defend it to the last drop of blood…”. It is characteristic that the concepts of “Russian” and “Orthodox” in Gogol are identical (the word “Ukrainian” was not used even later in the work of T. Shevchenko), and Cossack Ukraine was associated with the region, which was a stronghold of faith and freedom, while the Cossacks were nowhere to be seen. in no case do they oppose the Moscow Movement - they fight the Poles, Turks, Tatars as eternal enslavers (today's effort to make adjustments to history, to force it on one's own, works not just against the classics - Gogol or Shevchenko - but against the people themselves as the main carrier historical memory).
Orthodoxy itself, following Gogol, is a faith that unites and solidarity, is a kind of alternative to individualism, greed, self-centeredness, and thereby opposes alien (primarily Western) values to the Russian soul.
The words of Colonel Taras about the brotherhood and solidarity of the Zaporizhian army. “I would like to tell you, gentlemen, what our partnership is ... There were comrades in the second lands, but there were no such comrades as on the Russian land ...” They express not only pride in those eternal moral foundations on which love is held , family, clan, Fatherland, but also pain for the future, since foreign values, worship of mammon, greed, debauchery, which will primarily contribute to the enslavement of human souls and the family in general, are instilled in the Christian population: ; they only think that they have stacks of grain, stacks and their horse herds, so that their sealed honey would be targets in the cellars.
They adopt the devil knows what infidel customs; they abhor their tongue; he does not want his own with his own, he says; he sells his own, as they sell a soulless creature in a trading market. The mercy of a foreign king, and not a king at all, but the foul mercy of a Polish magnate, who beats their faces with his yellow shoe, is dearer to them than any brotherhood ... "
As you can see, the author's thoughts, put into the mouth of the Cossack winner Taras (defender of sacred values), are directed not only to contemporaries fixated on dubious earthly baits, on worship of other people's "favors". (Later, T.G. Shevchenko will ingeniously debunk his “countrymen of the intelligentsia in the immortal “Message ...” for preventing foreign temptations in the immortal “Message ...”), and to future generations: today’s, in its own way tragic information war, is an irrefutable confirmation of this.
I would like to point out that it was precisely those sacred values that Gogol's Taras Bulba proclaimed that saved our people in the bloody twentieth century, in particular during the Second World War, since, contrary to the foreign ideology imposed by Marxists, the people identified the basic postulates of communism with the national Christian foundations. The anonymous authors of the well-known modern best-selling book Project Russia rightly point out that communism fulfilled the role of Orthodoxy without God, just as, say, today's capitalism is Protestantism without God (at the heart of Protestant theories, luck in enrichment is considered to be God's chosen people.)
The words of Colonel Taras that “there are no ties holier than comradeship” determine the solidarity and spiritual foundations of the Russian people. Own something on which the state monolith of the once powerful Movement could rest. (“... What honor was our land: it let the Greeks know about itself, and took gold pieces from Tsargrad, and took magnificent cities, and temples, and princes. The princes of the Russian family, their prince, and not the Catholic “distrust”, and then fragmented and plundered by foreign expansions: “The busurmans took everything, everything was lost.”
