The first domestic cartoon. Animation in Russia

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The first cartoon appeared in Russia in 1910. It was created by director Vladislav Starevich. This cartoon was about beetles and was not at all like what we were used to seeing. It was filmed from educational goals: the first Russian animator did not intend to entertain young viewers at all, he wanted to create documentary about beetles. However, during filming, he encountered a problem - when he set the right light, the beetles refused to move. Then Vladislav Starevich made stuffed beetles, attached strings to them and shot the film frame by frame. This picture was called the first puppet cartoon. Starevich produced several more similar insect-themed cartoons, but now he used real scripts. These cartoons were very popular among viewers - many did not understand how the pictures were made and were surprised at how the author managed to train the beetles in such a way.

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Real cartoons appeared a few years later in Soviet years. The first cartoon with sound - "Mail" - was based on the work of Samuil Marshak in 1930. The author of the script was Marshak himself. Work with color Soviet animators started in the late 30s. Already the first experiments ended successfully - such color films as “Sweet Pie” (1936), “Little Red Riding Hood” (1937) and “Little Mook” (1939) appeared on the screens of the country.

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IN post-war period Soviet animation not only quickly recovered, but also continued to develop rapidly. At this time, domestic cartoons began to slowly but surely enter the world animation arena. The most notable films of that period are “Sinbad the Sailor”, “The Lost Letter”, “ Spring melodies" and "The Little Humpbacked Horse".

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Creating a cartoon is a long and painstaking work of many people. In the mid-50s, cartoons were made in large groups: About 20-30 people worked on just one 8-minute cartoon. The group was divided into the following categories: -Director (manages the entire project) -Producer (pays expenses) -Scriptwriters (think through every frame of the cartoon) -Artists (make the cartoon beautiful) -Composers (select the music)

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One cartoon took from 3 months to 1 year to create. Any cartoon begins with a script. It takes a long time to write and is difficult, the dialogues change several times, some scenes are thrown out completely. And only when the whole film has been put together on paper can it be drawn.

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What the cartoon characters will look like in profile and from the front, front and back, what they look like in motion is decided by the film's production designer. He has to draw so much that an enormous number of pencils are worn out in a day.

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Then animators join the game, under whose hands the cartoon characters come to life. For example, in order for the hero to raise his hand, animators need to draw a considerable number of frames. There are 25 of them in one second. And if the cartoon lasts an hour and a half, you will need to create 135,000 frames.

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The result of the animators' work is picked up by the rendering artists. As a result, we have a color film. But there are not only heroes on the screen, they are surrounded by trees and cities. All these backgrounds are created by many other artists.

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And the most interesting thing is how the characters talk. The entire dialogue is recorded on a voice recorder. Then they count the time (down to milliseconds) per word in the dialogue. And under each letter you need to draw a mouth. So the characters move their mouths with each word. The actors' voices are recorded before the animators start working, that is, the characters first have voices, and only then they begin to animate them based on their lines. And what would a cartoon be without music and songs?

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The most common technology for creating cartoons is animation. Animation is the magical technology that makes inanimate objects move. For animation, the main thing is to create actions and effects that are impossible in reality. Only in this fairy-tale world can you fly, change your appearance, and recreate yourself. The animation of objects looks magical. It’s amazing how small grains of sand can form a sand castle on their own, or how a pencil can suddenly, without anyone’s influence, begin to draw bizarre images on paper.

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Who in the 1910s in the film studio of A.A. Khanzhonkov developed a special artistic technique and a technique for staging and filming three-dimensional puppet animation. He created the world's first three-dimensional animated films in Russia. So, in 1912, V.A. Starevich released parody animated films “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the war of stags with barbels” and another called “Aviation Week of Insects.”

Vladislav Starevich

Soviet graphic animation arose in 1924-1925. The first films were made by artist A. Bushkin, initially under the direction of famous director and experimenter Dziga Vertov, and then independently.

Films responded to current challenges political propaganda. These were mainly film posters and satirical films.
Animators A. Bushkin and A. G. Ivanov used the very simple but expressive technique of flat puppets to create some films. This method frees artists from the labor-intensive technique of producing a huge number of phase drawings. Flat puppets were cut out of thick paper or cardboard. At joints they were fastened with hinges. The puppet was superimposed either on the glass of the filming table, behind which there was a drawn background or panorama, or directly on the hand-drawn scenery - the scene of action for the characters in the film.
In one year, 1924, at the Kultkino studio, with his small team of artists, he released whole line animated films: "German affairs and affairs", "The story of one disappointment (Boris Savinkov)", " Soviet toys" (dir. D. Vertov, animation by A. Bushkin and A. Ivanov), "An Incident in Tokyo", "Humoresque" (dir. D. Vertov, animation by A. Bushkin and A. Belyakov).
The first period of development of Soviet animation was experimental in nature. Complexity technical performance hand-drawn films led the artist to search for such technical methods that could be within the power of inexperienced artists. One of the methods that has been established long years In the production of cartoons, there was a so-called “landscape” method. All movements necessary for the development of action in the plot were divided into cyclical movements that could be repeated many times. For example, the gait of people or the movements of animals, the flight of birds, the passage of a train, car, etc. Each such cycle of movement was an “album”.

On further development cartoon art big influence was influenced by the creation in Moscow in 1924 of the first experimental animation workshop at the State College of Cinematography, which included young Soviet artists who graduated from VKHUTEMAS (Higher Art and Technical Workshops), (N.P. Khodataev, O.P. Khodataeva, Yu.A. Merkulov, 3.P.Komissarenko, sisters V. and 3.Brumberg,

Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg

L. Blatova, V. G. Suteev, I. P. Ivanov-Vano, operators G. Kabalov and V. Shulman).

Vladimir Suteev

The experimental animation workshop produced its first hand-drawn film in 1925, the political pamphlet China on Fire. In this big teamwork artists acquired the first experience of animating drawings and practically developed the technology for producing hand-drawn films. The film "China on Fire" in many of its components was of low quality, visually diverse and drawn out. Rather, it was a kind of illustration of political events rather than cinematic work. Despite these shortcomings, the film attracted public attention due to both relevant material and new interesting technique, which made the cartoon drawing come to life on the screen.
The era of the country's rapid development required widespread agitation in all sectors of production, Agriculture, cooperation, implementation of government loans, as well as in our everyday life. In this regard, Soviet animation of that time played a great effective role, especially in the field of scientific and educational film, propaganda posters, political cartoons and advertising, where many works, despite the primitiveness of the technology, achieved high artistic quality. A. Bushkin’s works “Nutrition Problems”, “Take Care of Your Eyes”, “Blood Circulation” and others were already a solid contribution to the field of scientific and educational cinematography and played the role of real models for the further development of this type of animation.
In 1926, at the Mezhrabpom-Rus film factory, a team of artists (Yu. Merkulov, D. Cherkes, I. Ivanov-Vano, cameraman L. Kosmatoe)

begins work on the first children's animated film "Senka the African", based on the fairy tales of Korney Chukovsky. The film was released in early 1927. Despite all its shortcomings, the film found a positive response in the press and with great interest looked like a child's viewer. This success encouraged artists to create other children's films. So, in 1927, the painting “Cockroach” was released, made by the artist A.V. Ivanov, also based on a fairy tale by K. Chukovsky. Then comes the painting "The Rink", made in terms of a naive children's drawing(work of artists D. Cherkes and I. Ivanov-Vano). Here the artists deliberately allowed for a convention: all drawings were outlined with a white line on a black background, since such a drawing was less tiring for the child viewer when displayed.

Ivan Ivanov-Vano

In 1928-1929 new films for children are being released: "Samoyed Boy", which in a humorous manner exposes the religious remnants of northern peoples our country (the work of artists N. Khodataev, O. Khodataeva and V. and Z. Brumberg) and “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” - the work of artists D. Cherkes and I. Ivanov-Vano. This is how the new Soviet art of hand-drawn film is gradually born.
At this time, many people began to become interested in animation. theater directors. So, in 1927, a talented director and artistic director Moscow Theater for Children - Natalia Sats introduced for the first time in the play "The Little Negro and the Monkey" animation, which was made by artists N. and O. Khodataevs and V. and Z. Brumberg. For this production, a special screen was installed on the stage. The animation, projected onto him during the performance, transferred the development of the action from the stage to the screen. The play “The Little Negro and the Monkey” was a huge success and did not leave the theater stage for a long time. No less interesting is the second use of animation by Natalia Sats in the play “About Dzyuba”.

Here the animation was shown directly on the stage decorations, illustrating at the right moment the dreams and imagination of the boy Dzyuba. Thanks to this, the performance immediately created the atmosphere of a fairy tale, the charm of which was helped by the talented music of composer Leonid Polovinkin, used in sync with the animation. Thus, the rhythmic fusion of animation with music and even with the action of an actor on stage was carried out much earlier than the birth of sound cinema, where this method of clearly synchronizing the action of a drawn character with sound created a great sensation in its time.
The cadre of Soviet animation workers is gradually replenished. The artist V. Levandovsky begins to engage in animation at the Odessa film studio. In 1927, the first Ukrainian animated film "The Tale of straw bull", staged by V. Levandovsky based on the famous folk tale. In 1928, his second film, “The Tale of the Mistress Squirrel and the Villainous Mouse,” was released, which he made at the newly organized film studio in Kyiv. In addition to its high visual qualities, this film was particularly notable for the fluidity and expressiveness of the characters' movements.
In Leningrad, in the field of hand-drawn films, in addition to the artists A. Presnyakov and I. Sorokhtin, the artist V. Grigoriev began working at the Sovkino factory, who in 1927 released two films “Hold Chubarovets” and “Two Rickshaws” based on the script by N. Agnivtsev, text of poems by V. Volzhenin. Around the same time, the artist M. Tsekhanovsky began working in the field of animation,

Mikhail Tsekhanovsky

A little later artists M. Pashchenko, V. Syumkin and A. Sinitsyn. In Moscow - artists L. Atamanov,

Lev Atamanov

L. Amalrik, P. Mizyakin, A. Belyakov, D. Babichenko, P. Nosov, P. Sazonov, Y. Popov and others. Soviet animation is being enriched with new talented directors and artists. This period is interesting in the artists’ search for new technological techniques in the art of animation and their desire to create a permanent hero in a hand-drawn film.

Leonid Amalrik

Director A.V. Ivanov, using a special method of combined photography developed by designer N. Zhelinsky, released several animated films in 1928 with the participation of the drawn black character Tip-Top. This is how the permanent cartoon character Tip-Top appeared, who, acting in real-life shots, travels with the visiting foreign delegation around Moscow. In parallel with him, another cartoon character Bratishkin, created by the artist Yu. Merkulov, begins to work on the screens, who participates in various propaganda posters and instructional films: Bratishkin joins Osoaviakhim, Bratishkin brings books to the village, Bratishkin fights for cleanliness at the factory, etc.
Leningrad artists A. Presnyakov and I. Sorokhtin created the character Buzilka, who first appeared in 1928 in the film “The Whisperers”, in 1929 in the film “Buzilka Against Marriage” and then moved on to other propaganda films. The desire of our artists to create the image of a permanent cartoon character did not bring any effective results. These characters were not successful and disappeared from the screen relatively quickly. And not only because from the external, purely pictorial side, they were made in an uninteresting way. They were inexpressive mainly because, in essence, they did not represent anyone, they did not have certain characteristics of representatives of any segment of society, they were outside the environment: however, the black Tip-Top was given a pioneer tie, and Buzilka was given a large wrench, which he constantly carried with him - however, this was only an external characteristic of the characters in the film - a “sign”, but not their internal content.
Published in 1928 A film for children“Offended Letters” based on the script by Agnivtsev (artists A. Presnyakov, I. Sorokhtin, S. Zhukov and V. Kuklina), in which hand-drawn animation, like that of director A. V. Ivanov, is combined with location photography. In this combined film, offended letters go to complain about lazy children to the People's Commissariat for Education, walk through the streets, overcome a number of obstacles, end up in the correspondence bureau, where they create a commotion among the typists, and finally safely make their way into the People's Commissar's office, climb onto his desk and hand it to Comrade Lunacharsky your petition. The viewer in these combined animated shots was amazed by the novelty of the technique; he was unexpectedly surprised by such a technical trick, when a drawn character acted in a natural environment, next to a live actor.
Already in this early period Soviet animation manifested itself in a variety of genres, with the search for new visual solutions not only in cinema, but also in the theater. Widely experimenting in animation, both in the field of technology and in the field of various topics, in search of various genres, animator artists in those years mastered, acquired and accumulated production and creative experience of this new type of cinematography, which subsequently led to a significant rise in art hand-drawn film in our country.

Not only for little ones, but also for adult viewers. Drawn fairy-tale heroes come to life on the screens, luring you into a world of exciting adventures. In life, moving things do not occur. But animations allow you to turn a set of static pictures into a moving image.

The art of cartoonists gives the viewer the opportunity to temporarily forget that he is not dealing with reality, but with a fairy tale.

Since ancient times, animators have used a variety of images to obtain the desired effects, with the help of which puppet or painted images came to life. Technology is definitely important. But the artist’s intention, script and idea have much more to do with it. Ultimate character animated film is born when animators endow it with individuality and character. These principles, which originated at the dawn of hand-drawn cinema, are also characteristic of modern animation.

Animation masters see their task as conveying to the audience eternal concepts that, unlike technologies, do not change over time. Heroes whose behavior is driven by the desire for justice and goodness still look at the viewer from television screens. Evil must be defeated, and love and friendship will surely triumph.

Features of modern animation

Today, almost every creation in the world of animation is the result of using computer technology. Very rarely are characters now sculpted from or drawn on transparent film. The use of computer animation allows us to create characters with extremely high image clarity. Such heroes are able to move like a person. Plastic movements and special effects bring animated films closer to reality.

One of the strongest trends in animated films is the desire for extreme naturalization. But some animation masters believe that the desire to give the film the utmost verisimilitude is a dead end, because the viewer perceives not so much the realism of the details of the picture, but artistic image, created on the screen. It is the fairy-tale, unreal world that attracts the attention of young viewers.

Over the past two decades, three-dimensional animation has emerged and developed. The use of 3D technologies in the production of cartoons became possible only after the release computer equipment to a new level.

Images that create the illusion of a three-dimensional world allow you to create a holistic image that strives for extreme realism.

And yet, today's animation masters very often strive to deliberately stylize 3D graphics under hand-drawn. This can be explained by the confrontation of two trends, one of which represents the old school of animation, and the second expresses

Soviet animation is precisely that part of mass culture that the USSR could rightfully be proud of.

The history of domestic animation began in St. Petersburg, at the beginning of the 20th century, when in 1908 the choreographer had his first “experience” Mariinsky Theater Mr. Shiryaev. His puppet cartoons are still a mystery to art critics; the figures against the background of motionless scenery not only move, but also jump.

Pioneer of Russian animation for a long time was considered the world-famous biologist Viktor Starevich. In 1912-1913, he made a series of puppet cartoons “featuring” insects. His most famous cartoon is “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the War of the Barbels with the Horned Horns.” After the revolution, Starevich left the country, and animation in the USSR found its use only in the early 20s in propaganda cartoon videos.

The first hand-drawn Soviet animation appeared in the mid-20s. And by the end of the 20s - early 30s, graphic artists at the Kultkino studio were producing the most memorable Soviet animated films of that period. The works of animators Ivanov-Vano “Rink” (1927) and Khodateev “Organchik” (1933) are the first serious sources of Soviet animation.

Of course, director Alexander Ptushko is considered a recognized master artist standing at the origins of Soviet animation. He gained worldwide fame in 1935 after filming the first full-length cartoon in the USSR “New Gulliver”, which successfully combines animation and feature films. Soon Ptushko headed the first Soviet animation studio, Soyuzdetmultfilm. Even when he devoted himself entirely to cinematography, he used animation in films for special effects.

In the 40s and 50s, during the heyday of socialist realism in the USSR, truly masterpieces of hand-drawn animation were produced at Soviet studios. All the cartoons were so realistic that little viewers perceived them as “children's movies.” Soviet animation of that time is not just beautiful, it is highly moral and carries enormous educational power. "Cat house", " ugly duck", "Kashtanka", "Naughty kitten", "Moidodyr", " The Scarlet Flower», « The Snow Queen“- all new generations of children enjoy watching these cartoons, which are in no way inferior to the products of the Disney film studio.

During the thaw period from the mid-50s, Soviet animators devoted themselves to experiments in full. There is a lot of avant-garde, symbolic secular animation coming out. Most famous cartoon, made in a similar manner - “Cloud in Love” (1959), animators Karanovic and Kachanov.

At that time, hand-drawn animation was mixed with cut-out animation in combination with puppet animation. And I must say that this range of technology is somewhat difficult for children to perceive.

In the 60s, the famous Soviet cartoon “Mitten” by Roman Kachanov was released. A puppet cartoon in which a knitted mitten turns into a real puppy, thanks to the love of a little girl, could not leave either children or adults indifferent.

And in 1967, Kachanov made a puppet cartoon about Gena the Crocodile, which literally “exploded” with popularity among the Soviet children’s audience and continues its victorious march to this day. Children of our time love Crocodile Gena and Cheburashka just as much as they did almost 50 years ago.

One of the most outstanding animators Soviet period Fyodor Khitruk is recognized. He worked in different genres and styles, produced cartoons for children and adults and gave many generations of children the inimitable Winnie the Pooh, whose image eclipsed all foreign analogues with its character.

In Soviet animation, the most significant figure is still the artist Yuri Norshtein. His cartoons “Hedgehog in the Fog” (1975) and “The Overcoat” (1981 to this day) are the gold fund of world animation.

And, of course, to this day in domestic animation, having eclipsed all records of popularity in terms of views and circulation, the first place is occupied by the animated series “Well, wait a minute!” (60s-80s), result creative union animator V. Kotenochkin and screenwriters A. Hight and A. Kurlyandsky.

A huge part of the success of Soviet animation is the merit of famous Soviet actors. In the voices of Yanina Zheimo, Andrey Mironov, Anatoly Papanov, Vasily Livanov, Oleg Tabakov, Evgeny Leonov, Alisa Freindlich, Oleg Anofriev, Alexander Kalyagin, Vladimir Vysotsky, Gennady Khazanov, Klara Rumyanova, Olga Arosyeva, Mikhail Kazakov, Vyacheslav Nevinny, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan and others meters national cinema The most notable characters of Soviet animation were voiced.

Victoria Maltseva

History of Russian animation covers several periods, the largest of which was the Soviet one, mainly represented by the Soyuzmultfilm and Ekran studios.

Start

The first Russian animator (1906) was Alexander Shiryaev, choreographer of the Mariinsky Theater, who created the first Russian puppet cartoon, which depicts 12 dancing figures against a background of motionless scenery. The film was shot on 17.5 mm film. It took three months to create it. During creation, Shiryaev rubbed a hole in the parquet floor with his feet, as he constantly walked from the movie camera to the set and back.

These films were discovered in Shiryaev’s archive by film expert Viktor Bocharov in 2009. Several more puppet cartoons were also found there: “Clowns Playing Ball”, “Pierrot Artists” and love drama with happy ending"Harlequin Jokes." Modern animators cannot yet unravel the secrets of the animator, since Shiryaev’s dolls not only walk on the ground, but also jump and spin in the air.

Another specialist of that time was Alexander Ptushko. He was a qualified architect but worked in mechanical engineering early in his career. When he entered Mosfilm's puppet animation department, he found the ideal environment to realize his mechanical as well as artistic ambitions.
He became world famous with the first Soviet full-length animated film, The New Gulliver (1935). This film changed the story of Jonathan Swift's novel in a more communist direction. He mixed in one frame puppet animation And acting. There is something amazing in the film crowd scenes with hundreds of dolls, very expressive facial expressions in the animation, and also very good cinematography. Ptushko became the first director of the newly created Soyuzdetmultfilm studio, but soon left animation to devote himself to feature films. However, even in later films he used volumetric animation for special effects, for example in the film Ilya Muromets (1956).

Socialist realism

1950s (Thaw)

An animated film by Roman Kachanov and Anatoly Karanovitch, Cloud in Love (), is being released. Created in an avant-garde manner that combined the techniques of three-dimensional “translation”, simple “translation”, as well as puppet and hand-drawn animation, the cartoon received wide recognition in the USSR and abroad. Awarded with prizes at foreign film festivals. First of Soviet cartoons, awarded with a prestigious prize International Association FIPRESCI film critics.

1960s

Around 1960, a stylistic change occurred in Soviet animation. Realistic backgrounds and characters began to appear much less frequently, giving way to caricature. Experiments have been carried out with various techniques(translations - The Story of a Crime (1962), glass painting - Song of the Falcon (1967)).

Volumetric animation is gaining momentum. The films of Roman Kachanov - Mitten (1967), Crocodile Gena become classics of domestic and world animation. These films are produced in association puppet films Soyuzmultfilm (formed in 1953).

This period marks the launch of many TV series (Mowgli, Winnie the Pooh, Well, Wait!, etc.) and almanacs (Firefly, Kaleidoscope, Merry Carousel).

Most of the directors of Soyuzmultfilm were animators in the past. They often took part in drawing their own films.

Soviet animation is exhibited at foreign festivals and often occupies top places(Mitten (), Ballerina on a ship (1969), etc.).

1970s

In addition to Soyuzmultfilm, animation in the RSFSR is carried out by the Ekran studio, Sverdlovsk film studio and Saratovtelefilm, Permtelefilm, Volgograd, Gorky and Kuibyshev television and radio broadcasting committees.

The technical pinnacle of Soviet animation of the 1970s is the cartoon Polygon (1977) by Anatoly Petrov.

1980s and early 1990s

Long-form animation occupied a prominent place in animation in the 1980s.

Since the late 1980s, a simplified drawing with rough strokes has prevailed (“Koloboks are conducting the investigation,” “” (1989), etc.). This style can be traced in the works of the early 1990s, especially clearly from the Pilot studio. Gennady Tishchenko is one of the few who avoids this influence, preferring realism (“Vampires of Geons” (1991), “Masters of Geons” (1992), “AMBA” (1994-1995)).

1996 Computer cartoon "Constellation Leo". According to the magazine "Technique of Cinema and Television" in 2003, Yuri Agapov's film "Constellation of the Lion" entered the history of cinema as the first computer film filmed in Russia.

Movie restoration

Now in Russia the film association “Close-up” is engaged in the restoration of domestic films.

Russian animation today

In Russia, an animation festival is held annually in Suzdal (formerly "Tarusa") and every two years the international festival of animated films "Krok" (in other years it is held in Ukraine). There are other festivals of a smaller scale (for example, "Multimatograph"). The works of domestic cartoonists are also successfully exhibited at foreign festivals (for example, “The Old Man and the Sea” (1999), the animated series “Smeshariki”).

Since the late 2000s, the Soyuzmultfilm studio has gradually begun to take on a new life. The management has changed, new employees have appeared, filming of new cartoons has begun, many of which have already received awards at various festivals. Filming of the popular cartoon magazine “Merry Carousel” has also resumed, and the creation of the full-length cartoon “Suvorov” is in full swing.

Music

Soviet cartoons of the 1970s were often accompanied by music created at the Experimental Studio of Electronic Music (Moscow, founded in 1967) by composers such as Eduard Artemyev, Vladimir Martynov, Sandor Kallosh.

Others famous composers there were Gennady Gladkov (musical films “The Town Musicians of Bremen”, “The Blue Puppy”, etc.), Mikhail Meerovich, Vladimir Shainsky, Alexander Zatsepin.

Among modern composers we can highlight Lev Zemlinsky and Alexander Gusev.

Russian animation in Western culture

• In one of the episodes of the American animated series “Family Guy”, a short cartoon “Shoe and Lace” was shown, parodying Soviet cartoons.

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Literature

Notes

Links

• - on the website “Movies about cartoons”
• (based on a survey of industry professionals at the 17th Open Russian festival animated film)

An excerpt characterizing the History of Russian animation

The day after his son’s departure, Prince Nikolai Andreich called Princess Marya to his place.
- Well, are you satisfied now? - he told her, - she quarreled with her son! Are you satisfied? That's all you needed! Are you satisfied?.. It hurts me, it hurts. I'm old and weak, and that's what you wanted. Well, rejoice, rejoice... - And after that, Princess Marya did not see her father for a week. He was sick and did not leave the office.
To her surprise, Princess Marya noticed that during this time of illness the old prince also did not allow m lle Bourienne to visit him. Only Tikhon followed him.
A week later, the prince left and began his old life again, being especially active in buildings and gardens and ending all previous relations with m lle Bourienne. His appearance and cold tone with Princess Marya seemed to say to her: “You see, you made it up about me, lied to Prince Andrei about my relationship with this Frenchwoman and quarreled me with him; and you see that I don’t need either you or the Frenchwoman.”
Princess Marya spent one half of the day with Nikolushka, watching his lessons, herself giving him lessons in the Russian language and music, and talking with Desalles; she spent the other part of the day in her quarters with books, an old nanny, and with God's people, who sometimes came to her from the back porch.
Princess Marya thought about the war the way women think about war. She was afraid for her brother, who was there, horrified, without understanding her, by human cruelty, which forced them to kill each other; but she did not understand the significance of this war, which seemed to her the same as all previous wars. She did not understand the significance of this war, despite the fact that Desalles, her constant interlocutor, who was passionately interested in the progress of the war, tried to explain his thoughts to her, and despite the fact that those who came to her God's people Everyone, in their own way, spoke with horror about popular rumors about the invasion of the Antichrist, and despite the fact that Julie, now Princess Drubetskaya, who had again entered into correspondence with her, wrote patriotic letters to her from Moscow.
“I am writing to you in Russian, my good friend, wrote Julie, “because I have hatred for all the French, as well as for their language, which I cannot hear spoken... We in Moscow are all delighted through enthusiasm for our beloved emperor.
My poor husband endures labor and hunger in Jewish taverns; but the news I have makes me even more excited.
You probably heard about the heroic feat of Raevsky, who hugged his two sons and said: “I will die with them, but we will not waver!” And indeed, although the enemy was twice as strong as us, we did not waver. We spend our time as best we can; but in war, as in war. Princess Alina and Sophie sit with me all day long, and we, unfortunate widows of living husbands, have wonderful conversations over lint; only you, my friend, are missing... etc.
Mostly Princess Marya did not understand the full significance of this war because the old prince never talked about it, did not acknowledge it and laughed at Desalles at dinner when he talked about this war. The prince's tone was so calm and confident that Princess Marya, without reasoning, believed him.
Throughout the month of July, the old prince was extremely active and even animated. He also pawned new garden and a new building, a building for courtyard workers. One thing that bothered Princess Marya was that he slept little and, having changed his habit of sleeping in the study, changed the place of his overnight stays every day. Either he ordered his camp bed to be set up in the gallery, then he remained on the sofa or in the Voltaire chair in the living room and dozed without undressing, while not m lle Bourienne, but the boy Petrusha read to him; then he spent the night in the dining room.
On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrei. In the first letter, received shortly after his departure, Prince Andrei humbly asked his father for forgiveness for what he had allowed himself to say to him, and asked him to return his favor to him. The old prince responded to this letter with an affectionate letter and after this letter he alienated the Frenchwoman from himself. The second letter from Prince Andrei, written from near Vitebsk, after the French occupied it, consisted of brief description the entire campaign with the plan outlined in the letter, and with considerations for the further course of the campaign. In this letter, Prince Andrei presented his father with the inconvenience of his position close to the theater of war, on the very line of movement of the troops, and advised him to go to Moscow.
At dinner that day, in response to the words of Desalles, who said that, as heard, the French had already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered Prince Andrei’s letter.
“I received it from Prince Andrei today,” he said to Princess Marya, “didn’t you read it?”
“No, mon pere, [father],” the princess answered fearfully. She could not read a letter that she had never even heard of.
“He writes about this war,” said the prince with that familiar, contemptuous smile with which he always spoke about the real war.
“It must be very interesting,” said Desalles. - The prince is able to know...
- Oh, very interesting! - said Mlle Bourienne.
“Go and bring it to me,” the old prince turned to Mlle Bourienne. - You know, on small table under a paperweight.
M lle Bourienne jumped up joyfully.
“Oh no,” he shouted, frowning. - Come on, Mikhail Ivanovich.
Mikhail Ivanovich got up and went into the office. But as soon as he left, the old prince, looking around restlessly, threw down his napkin and went off on his own.
“They don’t know how to do anything, they’ll confuse everything.”
While he walked, Princess Marya, Desalles, m lle Bourienne and even Nikolushka silently looked at each other. Old Prince He returned with a hasty step, accompanied by Mikhail Ivanovich, with a letter and a plan, which he, not allowing anyone to read during dinner, placed next to him.
Going into the living room, he handed the letter to Princess Marya and, laying out the plan of the new building in front of him, which he fixed his eyes on, ordered her to read it aloud. After reading the letter, Princess Marya looked questioningly at her father.
He looked at the plan, obviously lost in thought.
- What do you think about this, prince? – Desalles allowed himself to ask a question.
- I! I!.. - the prince said, as if awakening unpleasantly, without taking his eyes off the construction plan.
- It is quite possible that the theater of war will come so close to us...
- Ha ha ha! Theater of war! - said the prince. “I said and say that the theater of war is Poland, and the enemy will never penetrate further than the Neman.
Desalles looked with surprise at the prince, who was talking about the Neman, when the enemy was already at the Dnieper; but Princess Marya, who forgot geographical position Nemana thought that what her father was saying was true.
- When the snow melts, they will drown in the swamps of Poland. “They just can’t see,” said the prince, apparently thinking about the campaign of 1807, which seemed so recent. - Bennigsen should have entered Prussia earlier, things would have taken a different turn...
“But, prince,” Desalles said timidly, “the letter talks about Vitebsk...
“Ah, in the letter, yes...” the prince said dissatisfied, “yes... yes...” His face suddenly took on a gloomy expression. He paused. - Yes, he writes, the French are defeated, which river is this?
Desalles lowered his eyes.
“The prince doesn’t write anything about this,” he said quietly.
- Doesn’t he write? Well, I didn’t make it up myself. - Everyone was silent for a long time.
“Yes... yes... Well, Mikhaila Ivanovich,” he suddenly said, raising his head and pointing to the construction plan, “tell me how you want to remake it...”
Mikhail Ivanovich approached the plan, and the prince, after talking with him about the plan for the new building, looked angrily at Princess Marya and Desalles, and went home.
Princess Marya saw Desalles' embarrassed and surprised gaze fixed on her father, noticed his silence and was amazed that the father had forgotten his son's letter on the table in the living room; but she was afraid not only to speak and ask Desalles about the reason for his embarrassment and silence, but she was afraid to even think about it.
In the evening, Mikhail Ivanovich, sent from the prince, came to Princess Marya for a letter from Prince Andrei, which was forgotten in the living room. Princess Marya submitted the letter. Although it was unpleasant for her, she allowed herself to ask Mikhail Ivanovich what her father was doing.
“They’re all busy,” said Mikhail Ivanovich with a respectfully mocking smile that made Princess Marya turn pale. – They are very worried about the new building. “We read a little, and now,” said Mikhail Ivanovich, lowering his voice, “the bureau must have started working on the will.” (IN Lately One of the prince’s favorite pastimes was working on the papers that were to remain after his death and which he called his will.)
- Is Alpatych being sent to Smolensk? - asked Princess Marya.
- Why, he’s been waiting for a long time.

When Mikhail Ivanovich returned with the letter to the office, the prince, wearing glasses, with a lampshade over his eyes and a candle, was sitting at the open bureau, with papers in his far-off hand, and in a somewhat solemn pose, he was reading his papers (remarks, as he called them), which were to be delivered to the sovereign after his death.
When Mikhail Ivanovich entered, there were tears in his eyes, memories of the time when he wrote what he was now reading. He took the letter from Mikhail Ivanovich’s hands, put it in his pocket, put away the papers and called Alpatych, who had been waiting for a long time.