Nikolai Georgievich Mikhailovsky. Garin-Mikhailovsky writer and engineer

Alexey Tolstoy

Peter the First

Novel

Book one

Chapter first

1

Full version 20 hours (≈400 A4 pages), summary 5 minutes.

Heroes of the work

Pyotr Alekseevich (Tsar of the Russian State)

Alexander Danilovich Menshikov (comrade-in-arms of the sovereign, is the son of a court groom, later becomes His Serene Highness Prince)

Franz Lefort (Peter's comrade and general)

Anna Mons (the sovereign's favorite)

Sofya Alekseevna (princess, sister to Peter)

Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn (head of the princess’s government)

Artamon Sergeevich Matveev (boyar)

Patriarch Joachim

Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina (queen)

Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin (brother of the queen)

Dwarf (servant of Ivan Kirillovich)

Alexey Ivanovich Brovkin (Alyoshka) (son of Ivashka Brovkin, friend of Aleksashka)

Ivan Artemich Brovkin (Ivashka Brovkin) (serf, later became a rich merchant, is Alyosha’s father)

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, after the death of the sovereign, a struggle for a place on the throne began in Russia. The archers rebelled, instigated by Sophia and her lover, Prince Golitsyn. Two kings appeared in the capital. These were Ivan and Peter. They were minors, so Sophia stood over them.

At the same time, in a village on the land of the nobleman Volkov, a family of peasants, the Brovkins, lived. Ivashka was the eldest and took his son with him to the capital. There Alyoshka was afraid that he would be punished for missing his harness and ran away. He met Aleksashka, who was his age, began to live independently, and sold pies. Once Aleksashka was fishing on the Yauza and met a boy who was dressed in a non-Russian green caftan. It turned out to be Tsar Peter. Aleksashka showed him a trick by piercing his cheek without a drop of blood. They immediately said goodbye. Little did they know that they would meet again. And they will be together until death.

In Preobrazhenskoye, where he lived future king together with the mother, peace and quiet. Peter languished and found a way out for his own aspirations in the German Settlement. There he met foreigners living in Russia. Among these foreigners was Captain Lefort. Menshikov was in his service at that time. Peter also fell in love with the daughter of the wine merchant Mons. Peter's mother married Evdokia Lopukhina. In Preobrazhenskoe, Peter was engaged in the exercises of the amusing army, which became the prototype of the Russian army. Captain Sommer and other foreigners supported all his endeavors. He appointed Menshikov as his bed-keeper, and he, thanks to his dexterity, agility and thievery, became an intermediary between Peter and the strangers. Aleksashka hired his friend Brovkin as a drummer in a funny army. He helped Alyosha in the future. Alyosha unexpectedly met his own father in the capital and gave him money. Thanks to this money, Ivan Brovkin bought himself out of serfdom and became a merchant. Even the king knew him. Peter gave his daughter as a wife to Vasily Volkov, who used to be the owner of the Brovkins. This was a harbinger of significant changes in the country.

A new revolt of the archers for Sofia began. However, Peter went with his relatives and associates to the Trinity Monastery. The mutiny is over. The instigators and leaders of the riot were terribly tortured and executed. Golitsyn and his family were sent forever to Kargopol. The princess was locked in the Novodevichy Convent. The king gave himself up to revelry. And his wife, pregnant at the time, was tormented by jealousy and practiced divination, thereby trying to destroy her husband’s favorite. The heir to the throne, Alexei, was born. Peter's mother died.

Various rumors circulated among foreigners about the king. Great hopes were placed on Peter. Lefort became necessary to the tsar, like a child needs a mother. The Tsar launched an attack on Crimea. Part of the army was sent to capture the Azov fortress. This campaign did not bring victory. Time passed, the tsar introduced reforms, and the eighteenth century was born with difficulty. Due to enormous hardships, the people began to engage in robbery and go into the forest to join the schismatics. However, even here they were overtaken by the king’s servants. People burned themselves along with their huts and churches, just to avoid ending up in the hands of the Antichrist.

The Tsar began building ships in Voronezh. With the help of the fleet, Azov was captured. However, this caused a clash with the Turkish Empire. I had to go in search of allies in Europe. Peter, in the guise of constable Mikhailov, went to Konigsberg, Berlin, Holland and England. There he lived as a simple artisan and learned the necessary crafts. While he was away, ferment began in the Russian state. They said that Peter had died, the foreigners arranged for a replacement of the king. Sophia again began inciting the archers to start a rebellion. However, this rebellion was suppressed. And when the king returned to the capital, executions and torture began. Peter's wife was sent to the Suzdal monastery. Her place was taken by the king's favorite. Her house in the capital was called the Tsarina's palace. Lefort died, but his work lived on. New ships were built in Voronezh. The flotilla was sent to Crimea, then to the Bosporus. The Turks could not cope with the naval power of the Russians.

Ivan Brovkin carried out deliveries to the army. He had big house. A large number of famous merchants were Ivan's clerks. His sons were also settled. Yakov served in the navy. Gavrila was in Holland. Artamon, who received the best education, remained with his father. Alexandra, his daughter, became a noble lady and dreamed of Paris. Alexey Brovkin fell in love with the Tsar's sister Natalya. The princess also turned out to be partial to him.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, King Charles of Sweden defeated the Russian army near Narva. He considered his own army to be the strongest, and he was dizzy with a premonition of glory. Karl occupied Poland and Livonia and was going to follow Peter to Russia. However, the generals dissuaded him. and Peter again created an army: he built ships, cast cannons from monastery bells. Instead of an army of nobles, they created an army of everyone. The Russian army led by Sheremetyev captured the Marienburg fortress. Among the prisoners, the field marshal saw beautiful girl and took her in as his housekeeper. But Menshikov took it for himself.

Peter found out about the betrayal of his favorite, and Menshikov slipped him Katerina. The king liked the girl. It was future empress Catherine the First. The king began the siege of Narva. General Gorn did not want to give up the city. This caused senseless suffering for the townspeople. Narva was taken by storm. Menshikov was at the center of the battle. Horn gave up. But Peter ordered him to be led around the city on foot so that he could see what he had done.

This novel by Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy is historical, but a simple chronology of events cannot express its even the briefest content. “Peter 1” by Tolstoy is filled with events from life, not only real ones historical figures- Tsar Peter, Menshikov, Lefort, Charles XII and others.

On its pages are characters endowed by the writer with typical features of representatives of various segments of the population of a huge country. They live and die, they speak in a language whose expressiveness can only be appreciated by reading the book page by page.

General structure

The novel consists of three volumes or books. At the center of the story is the autocrat from the Romanov family who was the first to be called the All-Russian Emperor - Peter 1. The summary of the novel is the initial period of his turbulent reign, from the time of his joint coronation with his half-brother Ivan to the first victories in the war with Sweden for access to Baltic Sea.

The events of the first book take place from 1682 to 1698. Summary of “Peter 1” Alexei Tolstoy, book one: The young Tsar Peter Alekseevich understands the need for European-style reforms, wins the struggle for power with his sister Sophia, who relies on the Streltsy regiments.

"Peter 1": summary by chapter

Book I. The first volume has 7 chapters.

A.N. Tolstoy, “Peter 1”, summary of the chapters of the first book:

Chapter 1, parts 1-5: Ivashka Brovkin - a cunning and strong man, on the orders of the master - Vasily Volkov - sends his son Alyoshka with a convoy to Moscow. There Alyoshka is robbed, he gets lost in the capital's suburbs.

Part 6. The king dies of scurvy. His sister Sophia, one of the daughters of the first wife of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Maria Miloslavskaya, claims the kingdom. The boyars who are close to him elect the healthy and lively Peter, the son of Alexei Mikhailovich’s second wife, Natalya Naryshkina, to the kingdom.

Parts 7-18. Alyoshka Brovkin meets a peer - enterprising and smart beyond his years, Aleksashka Menshikov, who ran away from home after being beaten by his father. They are hired by a merchant to sell pies, and then witness an armed uprising of the archers, incited by Sophia’s supporters, who shouted that the Naryshkins killed the heirs of the tsar. Patriarch Joachim shows Peter and Ivan alive, but the demands of the crowd are fulfilled: a joint wedding to the throne of Ivan and Peter, above them - Sophia.

Book I. Chapter 2. Summary of “Peter 1” by A.N. Tolstoy:

Parts 1-3. The schismatics are trying to rouse the archers to revolt “for the old faith,” Sophia gathers the nobles and extinguishes the unrest. Aleksashka meets the boy Peter, and running away from his father, whom he accidentally meets, ends up in the German settlement - Kukui, where he is taken into service. Peter, who has hidden from the boring nannies, also appears in Kukui. Lefort shows the curious king many new and interesting things.

Parts 4-6. Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, a man of progressive views, cannot resist the demands of his mistress, Sophia, to go “to fight the Tatars.” There is no scope for war.

Parts 7-11. Peter, with the help of foreigners, is training the “amusing army”. The Kukui people are impressed by the energy and curiosity of the young Russian monarch.

Peter likes the attitude of the inhabitants of the German settlement to work and fun. He is dizzy by the young beauty Aleksashka was able to become needed by Peter and he is appointed as the king's bed servant.

Book I. “Peter 1”, summary. Chapter 3:

Parts 1-2. The inglorious campaign to the south of Vasily Golitsyn. Suffering from lack of food and extreme heat Russian army finally stops the steppe fire. Ukrainian Hetman Samoilovich is accused of arson. The author of this denunciation, Mazepa, himself becomes the ruler of Ukraine.

Parts 3-5. In Preobrazhenskoye, where Peter and his mother live, the combat effectiveness of the amusing regiments - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky - is increasing, which causes concern in Sophia. Alexashka enjoys Peter's growing confidence and recommends him a new drummer, Alyosha Brovkin. The behavior of the young tsar is condemned by his mother Natalya Kirillovna and her boyar entourage. The Tsarina wants to marry Peter to Vasily's cousin supports Peter's endeavors with words and money.

Part 6. Vasily Golitsyn proposes mutually beneficial cooperation with French merchants to cover the needs of the army, and receives a swaggering refusal.

Parts 7-8. Anna Mons's father dies. Peter agrees to marriage.

1689 Marriage

Book I. A.N. Tolstoy “Peter the Great”, summary. Chapter 4.

Parts 1-5. Alyosha Brovkin, with the help of Menshikov, escapes from the beatings of his father, who brought a food rent to his master, Volkov. Ivan at first does not recognize his son, then pretends to beg him for a huge sum - more than three and a half rubles.

The wedding of Peter and Evdokia takes place according to an ancient ritual, but the day before the young tsar runs away for the night to Anna Mons, and a month later he leaves for the shipyard in Pereslavl. The second Golitsyn ends with heavy losses on both sides.

Parts 6-10. With his son's money, Ivan Brovkin raised his farm and began to get rich. After the war with the Tatars, poverty, robbery and robbery intensified. Everyone wants the matter to be resolved quickly in someone’s favor: Sophia or Peter. The Streltsy chiefs, on the instructions of the ruler, organize a conspiracy to kill Peter and his mother. Uncle Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin comes to Peter and talks about Sophia’s conspiracy, awakening his childhood fears and provoking a convulsive seizure.

Parts 11-15. During a church service, Peter comes into open conflict with Sophia, who, during the religious procession, undertook to carry the icon, which should only have been done by a male royal. Golitsyn's entourage encourages him to take decisive action against the inhabitants of Preobrazhensky, but he hesitates. The royal steward Vasily Volkov, sent by Peter on reconnaissance, was captured by the archers and brought for questioning to Sophia. By obeying the king's order to remain silent, he aroused the wrath of Sophia, who ordered his head to be cut off. But there was no volunteer executioner among the archers, and Volkov was secretly released. The Streltsy commanders schedule a performance at midnight, and a group of guard Streltsy, not believing in success, decide to send two messengers to Peter to warn of the danger.

Part 16. Peter and his entourage understand that if the entire Streltsy army rises, the forces of the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments will not be enough. It was decided to go to the Trinity Lavra under the protection of the monastery walls and the patriarch. Peter's nerves are on edge. As soon as the archers enter with a warning about the coming alarm, he jumps into Trinity in a panic, undressed.

Parts 17-19. Sophia fails to ring the alarm. Almost all of her supporters go over to Peter’s side, but she herself is not allowed into the Trinity. Following Lefort's instructions, Peter behaves in accordance with his mother's wishes, earning the approval of Natalya Kirillovna and her entourage.

Parts 20-23. Sophia suffers a complete defeat. She was transported from the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Convent, her most ardent supporters were executed and tortured. Vasily Golitsyn, who was saved from execution by his brother Boris, was sent into exile to the north. Peter's associates were rewarded with money and lands. Everyone is waiting for executions, but the young autocrat did not chop off heads.

Beginning of one-man rule

Book I. A.N. Tolstoy “Peter the Great”, summary by chapter. Chapter 5.

Parts 1-5. Lefort becomes a true friend and chief adviser to Peter. Peter hears from foreigners about the inability of Russians to conduct business, about the savagery of their customs.

Parts 6-7. Patriarch Joachim demands that Peter defend the Orthodox faith from foreign heretics and expel the Germans from Russian soil. The king surprises him with his firmness and asks him not to interfere with his plans. Evdokia reproaches her husband for his relationship with Anna Mons, they quarrel.

Parts 8-12. The runaway slave Gypsy and the blacksmith Kuzma Zhemov asked to “join the artel” with the same homeless sufferers - Ovdokim and Judas, in order to earn food by right or wrong. Like them, many people went into the forests to rob or hid from the authorities, clinging, like schismatics, to the old faith.

Parts 13-16. Peter not only indulges in revelry, but continues to build a new country. In Arkhangelsk, where there have long been settlements of overseas merchants, he sees with his own eyes the difference in the standard of living of foreigners and Russians, and starts a serious conversation with Lefort about the main goals for the future. He hears from him about going beyond the Azov and Black Seas, about the war with Sweden for access to the Baltic. In everyday affairs: complaints about robbery, bribery and the first Russian “kommertsienrat” - an organization of merchants for international trade.

Part 17. Natalya Kirillovna, Peter’s mother, dies. Having quarreled with his wife, he seeks consolation from Anna Mons.

Parts 18-21. Ovdokim's artel, having plundered on the Tula roads, disintegrated, and Tsygan and Zhemov ended up in hard labor at a weapons factory. War in the south is becoming inevitable - foreign allies and internal forces. The Duma called for the formation of a militia.

Part 22. Ivan Brovkin’s life has changed dramatically: former relatives and his fellow villagers became dependent on him, he was given a contract for oats and hay for the army, his daughter Sanka came to woo the former master - Vasily Volkov - Tsar Peter himself.

Book I. Summary, “Peter 1” by A.N. Tolstoy: Chapter 6.

In February 1695, a campaign began to the lower reaches of the Dnieper and to the Azov fortress. At the head was the governor Boris Petrovich Sheremetyev, and the tsar walked with the army as a bombardier Pyotr Alekseev. Prince Caesar Fyodor Romodanovsky, who was feared, remained in the capital to rule. The army descended to the lower reaches of the Volga, where it was supposed to replenish supplies. Due to the theft of contractors, this was difficult - only Brovkin fulfilled his obligations as needed. It was not possible to take Azov in a rush; the Russians suffered heavy losses. A long siege with digging began. The Turks received support from the sea, where they were in charge - troops and supplies were delivered, so the siege failed. An open assault was also repulsed. Lefort and other military advisers considered it necessary to postpone military company on next year. But Peter insisted on a second assault from land and sea. Only when he was repulsed and lost two-thirds of the army, it was decided to retreat - this is how the first Azov campaign ended ingloriously.

1696 Capture of the Azov fortress

Book I. Summary, “Peter 1”, A. Tolstoy: Chapter 7.

Part 1. Two years later, a lot has changed in the country, but most importantly, its king has matured. After the “Azov failure,” he immediately left for Voronezh, where the construction of new ships began. The fleet was built at a huge cost. In May, Azov was besieged and captured two months later. After triumphant return Peter to the capital, the Boyar Duma could only meekly approve new royal decrees on the construction of a fleet, on digging the Volga-Don canal, on the education of noble children abroad, etc.

Part 2. Peter decides to go to Europe for support for his policies and for new knowledge. He travels as part of a large embassy under the name of Pyotr Mikhailov. The departure was delayed by the defeat of the Cossack conspiracy led by Sophia's former ally, Colonel Tsykler.

1697-1698. Grand Embassy

Parts 3-7. As part of the embassy, ​​Peter visits Konigsberg, where he enters into an alliance with the Elector of Brandenburg, inspects iron factories and workshops, and receives a certificate of artillery training. He is amazed by the reasonable and neat way of life, he dreams of introducing a similar prosperous way of life in Russia.

Part 8. Peter and his companions make a strong impression at the reception organized by the Elector's wife and his daughter. They amaze German women with their energy, curiosity and rude manners.

Parts 9-11. In Holland, Peter works at a shipyard in the town of Saardam, lives with a carpenter whom he knew in Voronezh, and leads the simplest lifestyle, although he does not remain incognito for long. He is interested in everything, he goes everywhere - both in the tavern and in the anatomical theater. In England, he studies mathematics, learns to draw ship plans, and hires maritime specialists. A lot of money is spent on weapons, tools and various curiosities. Meanwhile, rumors appear in Moscow about the death of the Tsar abroad and his replacement. In the rifle regiments stationed on the northern and southern borders, letters from Sophia appear demanding that they go to the capital to establish her as king.

Parts 12-13. Peter realizes the duplicity of European politics, and in Moscow Ivan Brovkin brings Prince Caesar Romodanovsky news of the Streltsy regiments approaching the capital.

Parts 14-17. The Streltsy, lacking unity in their plans, were shot from cannon by battalions loyal to the Tsar. Peter, interrupting his voyage, returns to the capital.

1698 Streletsky riot

Parts 18-21. After returning, Peter organizes a demonstrative shaving of the boyars' beards, without meeting his wife, and goes to the German Settlement to see Anna Mons. The terrible torture and execution of participants in the Streltsy Troubles lasted a long time. Byzantine Rus' was ending.

In 1698 - 1703, the action of the second book “Peter the Great” takes place. Summary of the second volume.

With the help of numerous human supporters simple origin Peter is building a new industry, a new fleet, a new trade. The war for access to the Baltic begins with brutal defeats.

Book II. “Peter the Great”, summary by chapter: Chapter 1.

Parts 1-2. It’s gloomy in Moscow, there’s no trade, schismatics are prophesying troubles, calling for people to go north to monasteries or to the Don, to prepare a new turmoil.

Parts 3-4. Prince Buynosov is one of those who do not like new customs, new clothes, new nobility - without clan and tribe.

Sanka Brovkina - Alexandra Ivanovna Volkova - teaches his daughters politeness, and they envy her.

1699 Death of Lefort

Parts 5-7. Peter lost true friend: Franz Lefort died. At a magnificent funeral, some are sad, others are gloating.

Parts 8-9. Peter teaches the merchants how to organize trading in a new way; the schismatics want to live in the old way.

Parts 10-12. The construction of a large fleet is being completed at the Voronezh shipyards. Peter works as both a blacksmith's apprentice and a carpenter. The idea of ​​the need for peace with the Turks and the inevitability of war in the Baltic is growing stronger. The conclusion of peace with the Sultan is helped by the unexpected appearance for the Turks on the Black Sea of ​​the Russian fleet, which passed through the shallow waters of Azov.

A.N. Tolstoy, “Peter the Great”, summary by volume: Book II. Chapter 2.

Part 1. Lieutenant Alexey Brovkin and his detachment gather people from the White Sea monasteries for the sovereign’s service.

Part 2. At a social reception at Anna Mons, Peter is told about the young Swedish king Charles. He is assured of an easy victory.

Part 3. Ivan Brovkin’s house is built in a foreign style. The assembled guests are discussing secular news and rumors of a future war with the Swedes.

Part 4. The Swedish ambassadors did not wait for Peter to confirm the peace treaty. The Russian Tsar sends a secret proposal to the Polish King for a military alliance against Charles.

Part 5. Young Charles sends his mistress Atalia to spy on the Polish King Augustus.

Part 6. Peter woos the younger Brovkin to Princess Buinosova from an ancient noble family. He is surprised at Artamon’s education. Alexandra Volkova and her husband travel to Europe, surviving an attack by robbers along the way.

Part 7. In Moscow, foreign officers are preparing a regular army from recruited peasants.

Part 8. Alexey Brovkin gathers recruits from the northern hermitages. The schismatic elders are ready to burn people so that they do not serve the Antichrist Tsar.

Entering the Julian calendar

Part 9. By decree of Peter, a new chronology is introduced, the beginning of the new year 1700 is celebrated.

A.N. Tolstoy, “Peter 1”, summary by parts and chapters: Book II. Chapter 3.

Part 1. The entire court and noble people go to Voronezh for the ceremonial launching of the new huge ship “Predestination” and the whole flotilla. At the height of the holiday, news came about the beginning of the Polish-Swedish war.

Part 2. The Volkovs, on their way to Paris, stay late visiting first the Polish gentlemen, then King Augustus. Alexandra has big success. The Polish king starts a war and asks Volkov to convey a request to Peter for military assistance. Volkov goes to the Tsar. Alexandra remains to wait at the Polish court.

Part 3. Atalia informs Karl about the difficult situation of the Polish king and calls on him to military exploits. Karl begins the war with enthusiasm: with the support of the Anglo-Dutch fleet, he attacks Copenhagen.

Part 4. Peter reads petitions about widespread bribery and theft of government officials. Menshikov is beaten for poor-quality cloth for uniforms. He gives Ural factories to Demidov, demanding in return high-quality and inexpensive weapons.

Northern War with Sweden

Book II. A.N. Tolstoy, “Peter the Great”, summary in parts. Chapter 4.

Parts 1-2. Peace with the Turks was signed with the loss of some Azov conquests, and a royal decree on war with Sweden was announced in Moscow.

Part 3. The war began with the siege of Narva. During the hike, poor preparation became visible. Only the soldiers of Alexei Brovkin’s company treated their commander well. Foreign commanders and soldiers hated each other. The long shelling of the fortress did not bring success. Soon a large army arrived, led by Charles. Peter leaves his commander in his place and goes to Novgorod to prepare the rear. The Swedes win.

Part 4. Peter learns about the embarrassment, demands funds from merchants for new guns and equipment for the army, from monasteries and parishes - people for the defense of Novgorod, brutally punishes the careless and bribe-takers.

Part 5. The Tsar wants to take bells from the monasteries for cannons and money for the war. Prince Caesar Fyodor Romodanovsky instead opens to him a secret vault with treasures that Peter's father, Alexei Mikhailovich, collected. They were kept in case of military need. “But I’ll still take the bells...”

Book II. A.N. Tolstoy, “Peter the Great”, summary in parts and chapters. Chapter 5.

Part 1. Charles was dizzy with success; his army became one of the best in Europe. He defeated the troops of Augustus. He left Schlippenbach's corps on the Russian border. Peter strengthened the fortresses, armed and trained the army all winter. The new fortress in Arkhangelsk repelled the Swedish fleet in the summer, and the ship was captured. Sheremetyev, at the head of the new army, defeated Schlippenbach in winter quarters near Dorpat, and six months later - at Hummelshof, and there was no one to guard the Swedish coastal cities.

Part 2. After the capture of the Marienburg fortress, Field Marshal General Sheremetyev bought the captured girl Katerina from the sergeant and made him his housekeeper.

Parts 3-4. There was confusion among the people - some hid from military duties and military recruitment in monasteries and forests, while other schismatics themselves proposed to Peter to establish ore mining and iron production. Canals are being built connecting rivers and seas for the passage of ships. After a fierce battle, Russian troops captured the fortress at the source of the Neva - Noteburg-Oreshek. Koenigsek, Anna Mons's lover, died accidentally, and Peter found evidence of his betrayal.

Part 5. Ivan Brovkin rejoices at the children’s success. There is another fire in Moscow. Peter plans to build a new capital on the banks of the Neva. He finally breaks with Mons. Menshikov tells him about Katerina, whom he bought from Sheremetyev.

1703 Founding of St. Petersburg

Parts 6-7. Factories are being developed where work is hard bondage. Construction of a new capital begins. Peter meets Katerina.

The events of the final book of the novel cover the period from 1703 to 1704. Summary of Tolstoy, “Peter 1”, book three.

The young Russian autocrat shows extraordinary talent as a commander and wins a number of victories over the best army of that time - the army of Charles XII.

Book III. "Peter 1" summary by chapter. Chapter 1.

Parts 1-5. Peter's beloved sister, Natalya Alekseevna, supports her brother with all her might. She is engaged in the education of his favorite Katerina, she wants to do Imperial Courtyard truly European. The Tsar's other sisters - Masha and Katka - disgrace their brother with stupidity and dissipation. Prince Caesar Romodanovsky found their connection with Peter's main enemy, Sophia.

Book III. Summary. Tolstoy "Peter 1". Chapter 2.

Parts 1-4. All three Brovkin brothers gathered at Alexey Brovkin’s place in St. Petersburg. They command the construction of a new capital and a new fleet. The brothers talk about different things. Gavrila talks about a meeting with the Tsar's sister Natalya. The fact that Karl, taking advantage of European civil strife, is ruining Poland and threatening Russia. Menshikov arrived and invited him to his governor’s palace, where Peter soon arrived. At the table where his companions have gathered, the king talks about the need for a new assault on Narva.

Parts 5-6. Peter goes out to the workers and sees how hard they live, how poorly they eat. One of them, Andrei Golikov, shows his work - a charcoal image of a naval battle. The Tsar decides to order a portrait of Katerina for him and then send him to study abroad.

Book III. A.N. Tolstoy, “Peter the Great”, summary by chapter. Chapter 3.

Parts 1-3. The Russian army led by the Tsar advances to Narva. King Charles chases King Augustus throughout Poland, listens to compliments about his invincibility and learns about the Russian advance from the envoy of the Polish king, who is waging a strange war between feasts and love pleasures, with the goal of pitting Charles and Peter against each other.

Book III. Summary of “Peter 1”, Alexey Tolstoy. Chapter 4.

Parts 1-3. The commandant of Narva Horn is not going to give up, hoping for Schlippenbach's detachment and the Swedish fleet to come to the rescue. But the Swedish ships were scattered by a strong storm and the supply of the fortress stopped. Menshikov lured out of the fortress by cunning and destroyed about a third of the army.

Parts 4-6. King Augustus, using the reinforcement of the Russian army, goes to Warsaw against Stanislav, the new king appointed by the Sejm. Karl gives chase. The main thing for both kings is to take possession of the treasury.

Book III. A.N. Tolstoy, “Peter the Great”, summary. Chapter 5.

Parts 1-6. Gavrila Brovkin gallops to Moscow with Peter’s letter to Prince Caesar and with the artist Andrei Golikov. In Brovkin's house they see a portrait of Alexandra Volkova in the form of Venus. Prince Romodanovsky, looking for a conspiracy, tortures a former priest who knew the dissolute royal sisters Katka and Masha. Natalya Alekseevna asks Katerina about her life. They meet with Gavrila and arrange a merry feast with the mummers. After the feast, Natalya and Gavrila are left alone.

Book III. Brief summary of “Peter 1” by Tolstoy. Chapter 6.

Parts 1-7. Another victory was won - Yuryev was captured. The assault was difficult, Sheremetyev, who commanded it, suddenly lost energy, and came to life again when the Tsar himself arrived. Peter calls Katerina to him. Menshikov defeats Schlippenbach's detachment, which was going to the aid of Narva.

1704 Capture of Narva

Commandant Gorn is called upon by his family and the starving residents of Narva to surrender, but he wants to fight. The disposition for capturing the fortress was written by Field Marshal Ogilvy, who, in a conversation with the Tsar, calls the Russian soldier an uncouth man with a gun. Peter does not object, but says that the Russian peasant is both dexterous and smart. He makes his own amendments to the battle plan, which lead to a quick victory. Peter reproaches the surrendered commandant for stupid stubbornness and unnecessary sacrifices.

An unfinished epic

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy worked on the book “Peter the Great” for about 15 years. A summary of his working materials spoke of grandiose plans to create an even larger-scale chronicle of that era. But what the master managed to do has become a true classic of Russian literature.

Summary of the novel by A.N. Tolstoy "Peter the Great" for a reader's diary.

Book One Chapter I
Sanka got off the stove, followed by her younger brothers: Yashka, Gavrilka, Artamoshka. Everyone was thirsty. The hut was heated black, it was smoky.
The family was strong - a horse, a cow, four chickens. They said about Ivashka Brovkin: “Strong.”
Vasily Volkov was granted 450 acres of land. He built an estate and pledged half of the land to the monastery.
Brovkin rode and grieved: how to live when everything is beaten out of a man? On the way, I met the serf Volkov, an old Gypsy, who said that the old tsar was dying in Moscow. Ivan Artemyevich is sure: “Now wait for the boyar kingdom. We'll all fall apart." Because, except for little Peter, there is no one to take over the kingdom.
Ivashka and Gypsy arrived at Volkov’s compound. They were called to take warriors to Moscow. The yard girl told them to spend the night here. Brovkin in the servants' room saw his son Alyoshka, whom last fall he had given to the boyar into eternal bondage. Brovkin asked his son to go to Moscow instead of his father, who already has a lot to do. The son agreed.
Vasily Volkov's neighbor, Mikhailo Tyrtov, stayed overnight. Tyrtov complained: there are fourteen children in the family, and he will get “a burnt-out village, a swamp with frogs... How to live?” Tyrtov complained that without a bribe there was no way. Volkov dreamed of overseas service in Venice, Rome or Vienna.
Alyoshka went to take the warriors away. He walked next to a sleigh on which sat three serfs in military service - warriors of Vasily Volkov. Vasily and Mikhail are riding in the Gypsy sleigh, with slaves leading their horses behind. Everyone heads to Lubyanka Square for layout and re-layout. As we drove into the Myasnitsky Gate, Alyoshka was beaten with whips by those around him until he bled; there was a stampede there. As soon as we reached Lubyanka Square, we pushed our way to the table where the boyars and clerks were sitting. “So, according to an old custom, every year before the spring campaigns there was a review of the sovereign’s service people - the noble militia.”
While Alyoshka was running after pies, the bow, reins, and whip were stolen from his sleigh. Vasily cursed Alyosha. Alyoshka walked and cried: no hat, no harness. But then Mikhailo Tyrtov called him and sent him to beat Danila Menshikov, let him give him a horse for the day. “Tell me - I’ll serve, and if you come without a horse,” Mikhaile threatened, “I’ll drive you into the ground up to your shoulders...”
Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich dies in a low, hotly heated room. Standing near the wall is Tsarina Marfa Matveevna, she is only seventeen, she was taken into the palace from the poor Apraksin family for her beauty. In another corner, the large royal family is whispering. Among them, Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn stands out. The decisive hour has come: “a new king must be named.” Peter or Ivan? Peter is hot and strong. Ivan is weak-minded and sick. Golitsyn is advised to name Peter, because Ivan is frail. "We need strength."
After the death of the king, the patriarch went out onto the porch, blessed the crowd of thousands and asked who they wanted to see as king. Most named Peter.
Alyoshka came to Danila Menshikov at the moment when he was beating his son. Alyosha got it too: he was mistaken for a horse thief. Danila was distracted by Alyoshka, and his son ran away, and then Alyoshka was thrown out of the hut.
Rolling off the porch, Alyoshka found himself next to the boy whom Danila was beating. The guys met and started talking. Aleksashka Menshikov complained that his father flogs him two or three times a day: “On my ass there are only bones left, all the meat has been torn off.” Alyoshka said that his father sold him into bondage, and when he lived at home, he was also beaten.
Aleksashka persuades Alyoshka to run away, he outlines a plan: “Now we’ll have cabbage soup, they’ll call me upstairs to read prayers, then flog me. Then I'll be back. Let's go to bed. And as soon as it’s light we’ll run China town, let’s run across the Moscow River and take a look around... I would have run away long ago, I didn’t have a comrade...” Alyoshka dreams of getting hired by a merchant to sell pies.
On Varvarka, a low hut with six windows is the “tsar’s tavern.” The pub is crowded. The Sagittarius, who did not fit into the tavern, look into the windows. The archers brought a half-dead man. You can hear shouts: “Why are the Germans beating our people?” Under the late tsar there was no such outrage. Ovsey Rzhov predicts even worse times. Boyar Matveev returns from exile. “His heart was filled with anger. He will swallow all of Moscow..."
The archers conspire: “Give us time to deal with the colonels... And then we’ll get to the boyars... We’ll ring the alarm bell on Moscow. All plantings are for us. You, merchants, will only support us..."
After the evening spanking, Aleksashka barely crawled to the basement. He scolds his father. “To break this father on a wheel...” In the morning he is going to run away from home. Early in the morning the boys left the yard. They walked along the Kremlin wall, and Alyoshka was timid, but Aleksashka reassured his friend: “Don’t be afraid of anything with me, you fool.”
Only the boys and the beaten townsman remained in the square. Aleksashka invited the beaten man to take him home: “We feel sorry for you.” On the way we learned that his name was Fedka Zayats. Arriving home, he told the guys: “You guys helped me out. Now, ask for whatever you want...” Aleksashka replied: there is no need for a reward, let Fedka allow him to spend the night at his place. Later he told Alyosha that tomorrow they would go sell pies instead of the sick Fedka.
Tyrtov wandered around Moscow for the third week: no work, no money. On Lubyanka Square he was disgraced and ordered to come “next year, but without stealing - on a good horse.”
Mikhailo wandered around the taverns for a week and pawned his belt and saber. He remembered Styopka Odoevsky and went to his yard. Styopka greeted Mikhail condescendingly, and he asked to teach him some sense. Stepan advised to take away the village you liked from your neighbor: “Look at the village, and slander that landowner. Everyone does this...” When Mikhail asked how to slander, Stepan advised him to write a denunciation. But Mishka did not agree: “According to the judges, I’m not experienced...” Stepan took Mikhail into his service.
Sophia returned from mass tired. “The girl, the Tsar’s daughter, is doomed to eternal virginity, black skuf... From the room there is one door - to the monastery.” Golitsyn entered the room. He said that Ivan Mikhailovich Miloslavsky and Ivan Andreevich Khovansky came to her with urgent news. Miloslavsky informed the princess that Matveev was already at Trinity, the monks were greeting him as a king. Miloslavsky said: they threaten Golitsyn with death. Sophia decided to wage a mortal war against the queen: “... if Natalya Kirillovna wanted blood, there will be blood for her... Either you all keep your heads off, and I’ll throw myself into the well...” Golitsyn is pleased with such speeches. He said that all the Streltsy regiments, except Stremyanny, were for the princess.
Aleksashka and Alyoshka have eaten their fill of pies over the spring. The hare once beat them up. Aleksashka told his friend that he had gotten away from his father’s beating, and even more so from the Hare. The street was crowded that day. Spontaneous crowds appeared all around. Moscow was frightened by the boyar Matveev. “We must rebel now, tomorrow it will be too late.” Unexpectedly, Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy rode up with the news that the boyars and Naryshkins had strangled Tsarevich Ivan; If you don’t have time, they will strangle Peter too.
The archers rushed to the Palace of Facets, wanting to rush inside to prevent the murder of Peter.
The queen was afraid of this rebellion, she was afraid that she and her son Peter would be killed. Patriarch Joachim entered. Matveev suggested: the main thing is to remove the Streltsy from the Kremlin, and then we’ll deal with them. Sophia, Golitsyn, and Khovansky quickly entered the room. Sophia said: the people are demanding that the queen and her brothers come out onto the porch; the archers say they are sure that the children were killed. The Patriarch stopped the dispute by ordering the children to be shown to the archers.
The copper doors opened on the Red Porch and the queen appeared in the widow's room. mourning clothes. She placed her son on the porch railing. Matveev said that the archers were deceived, the tsar and prince “are alive by God’s grace.” But the archers do not disperse, demanding that Naryshkin be handed over to them. They began to shout out that they wanted Queen Sophia. “We want a pillar on Red Square, a memorial pillar, so that our will will be eternal...”
Chapter II
“The archers made some noise. They exterminated the boyars: the Tsarina’s brothers Ivan and Afanasy Naryshkin, princes Yuri and Mikhail Dolgoruky, Grigory and Andrey Romodanovsky, Mikhail Cherkassky, Matveev, Peter and Fyodor Saltykov, Yazykov and others - of worse birth.”
There were two kings in Moscow - Ivan and Peter, and above them - Princess Sophia.
The Streltsy were again troubled for not overthrowing the Nikonian patriarch. The archers again moved to the Kremlin, demanding the return of the old faith. Sophia threatened the rebels that the natural kings would leave Moscow. The archers were afraid that the militia would move against them. The archers decided to attack. “The great ones in those days were massacres.” Sophia took refuge in Kolomenskoye, sending for the militia.
Stepan Odoevsky and his detachment attacked the archers. Tyrtov twisted Khovansky and tied him to the saddle. Khovansky was later executed. The Streltsy got scared and locked themselves in the Kremlin, preparing for a siege, but then they sent petitioners to Trinity. “The people have become quieter than the grass.”
Aleksashka and Alyoshka lived, although from hand to mouth, but cheerfully. They were well known in the settlements and were warmly allowed to spend the night. One day, on the opposite bank of the Yauza, they saw a boy sitting with his chin propped up. Alexashka began to bully him. In response, the boy threatened to order his head to be cut off. Alyoshka realized that this was the king. But Aleksashka was not afraid. He asked why he didn’t respond when they were looking for him. Peter replied that he was sitting, hiding from the women.
Spring has come.
Many told Alexashka that his father was looking for him and threatening to kill him. And then, out of the blue, he jumped in. Aleksashka is running from last bit of strength, his father was about to catch up, but then a carriage turned up, Aleksashka hung on the axle of the rear wheels, and from there climbed onto the heels of the carriage. Trying to get away from his father, Aleksashka ended up in Kukui. It was Franz Lefort's carriage. Lefort took him into the service.
The queen stood up for Peter, who was supposedly tired of studying, and he instantly ran away from the room, barely having time to thank his mother, who freed him from the boring task of reading the Apostle. Peter ran to the amusing fortress, where he taught the men to take and defend the fortress, not to give up and fight to the last.
Peter dictates to Nikita a decree on allocating one hundred good, young men under the leadership of the Tsar, instead of the current old and stupid ones, for military fun. Moreover, Peter demands muskets and gunpowder for them, cast iron cannons so that they can shoot real cannonballs, and not turnips.
In Preobrazhenskoe live noble children from small estates, noble-born, assigned by Sophia to Peter. Vasily Volkov is here too.
In the evening there was a commotion in Preobrazhenskoye, and they could not find Peter until dark. Volkov found a tsar among the Germans. Lefort brought Peter to Kukui. On Kukui, everything is curious and new to the Tsar, and the Germans speak approvingly of him: “Oh, young Pyotr Alekseevich wants to know everything, this is commendable...”
The Poles came to call the Russians as allies to beat the Turks. But Golitsyn set the condition for the return of Kyiv to Russia, and only after that he agreed to give troops. The Poles were forced to agree.
Golitsyn spoke in Latin with the foreigner de Neuville, who had arrived from Warsaw. Golitsyn philosophically discussed how Rus' should be enriched: the peasants should be freed from serfdom, the wastelands should be given to them for rent, so that they would become richer and the state would become richer, and the nobles should be served.
But the conversation was interrupted: Sophia secretly came to Golitsyn. Her love for Golitsyn was “restless, beyond the measure of her years: it’s good to love like that for a seventeen-year-old girl, with eternal anxiety, hiding, thinking incessantly, burning in bed at night.” She conveyed rumors to Golitsyn that they were weak to rule, saying that “we don’t see great things coming from us.” Sophia tells Golitsyn to go “to fight Crimea.” Sophia recalled that the tsar was growing up in Preobrazhenskoe, “he is already fifteen years old.”
Golitsyn refuses to fight. Sophia does not want to understand him. Natalya Kirillovna scolds Nikita Zotov: Peter ran away again in the morning. If Zotov went to look for the tsar, then Nikita “was taken prisoner and tied to a tree so that he would not bother him with requests - to go to mass or listen to a boyar visiting from Moscow.” And so that Nikita would not be bored, a glass of vodka was placed in front of him. So soon Zotov himself began to ask to be “captured under the birch tree.”
In Kukui there were often conversations about Tsar Peter.
In the morning, Peter dressed carefully. Dressing Nikita Zotov in an inverted hare sheepskin coat, putting him in a carriage drawn by wild boars, Peter drove Nikita to Kukui as a coachman. Lefort was the birthday boy. The king went to congratulate him. He gave the carriage with pigs as a gift to Lefort. He appreciated the king’s joke: “We thought of teaching him funny jokes, but he will teach us how to joke.”
Aleksashka Menshikov helped Peter get to Preobrazhensky. Peter did not let Aleksashka go. The Tsar appointed Menshikov as a bed servant.
Chapter III
The noble militia gathered all winter. “At the end of May, Golitsyn finally set out with a hundred thousand army to the south and on the Samara River united with the Ukrainian hetman Samoilovich.” Then the Tatars set fire to the steppe. It became clear that it was impossible to go forward: the steppe ahead lay black and dead. “Retreat to the Dnieper without delay.” This is how the Crimean campaign ended ingloriously.
On the Yauza, below the Preobrazhensky Palace, the old fortress was rebuilt: fortified with piles, cannons, covered with sandbags. The fortress is amusing, but “on occasion one could sit out in it.”
From morning to night, exercises of two regiments - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky - took place on a mown meadow. Even Peter, now a non-commissioned officer, stood up and rolled his eyes with fear as he passed by Sommer.
The fortress was named "Preshburg".
Aleksashka Menshikov remained at Peter's court. He sometimes gave good advice. If he was sent to Moscow for something, he got everything out of the blue. Aleksashka was promoted to orderly. Lefort spoke highly of him: “The boy will go far, loyal as a dog, smart as a demon.” One day Menshikov introduced Peter to Alyosha Brovkin, the most skilled drummer.
Peter enlisted him in the first company as a drummer.
The queen decided to marry Peter so that he would not drag himself to the German settlement, but would settle down. The queen's younger brother advised her to marry Peter to Evdokia Lopukhina.
Unexpectedly, Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn returned to Moscow. He looked pitiful. Golitsyn said that the army had not been paid for three months. The army was worn out. He walks in bast shoes, but in February he has to go on a hike.
Unexpectedly, from a blow, old Monet died. The widow and children were left with an austeria (tavern) and a house.
Natalya Kirillovna called Peter to her and announced that she was going to marry him. “Well, it’s necessary, then get married... I have no time for that...” Peter responded and ran away.
Chapter IV
Ivashka Brovkin brought a table rent to Volkov to Preobrazhenskoye. Tom didn't like the products that were too bad. He began to beat his slave. Son Alyosha, who was nearby and recognized his father, stood up for Ivashka.
In Preobrazhenskoe, preparations were underway for Peter's wedding. Peter demands to take him to Kukui for at least an hour. Aleksashka objects: you can’t, “don’t even think about Monsikh right now,” but Peter insists on his own.
The wedding took place in Preobrazhenskoye. Peter's wedding only irritated him.
At the end of February, the Russian army again moved to the Crimea. The cautious Mazepa advised to go along the banks of the Dnieper, building siege cities, but Golitsyn did not want to hesitate, he needed to get to Perekop as soon as possible and wash away the ignominy in battle. Evdokia wrote a letter to Peter, who had gone to Lake Pereyaslavl. Every day, Peter received letters, either from his wife or from his mother, calling him back. And not only do he have time to answer, he has no time to read them. Ships were built on the lake; one has been launched, and two are almost ready. A new flag was invented for the fleet - a tricolor with stripes: white, blue, red.
From Crimean campaign Gypsy, Brovkin’s neighbor, returned and told how hard they fought, they laid down twenty thousand of their own near Perekop. Then he disappeared. Nobody saw Gypsy again.
The Sagittarius gathered in a tavern and started talking about rumors that they wanted to be removed from Moscow and sent to different cities. But they refused.
Tyrtov was sent to shout that the famine in Moscow was due to the queen and her relatives, they were casting spells so that the bread would disappear. But Tyrtov, even without this cry, was almost torn to pieces by the hungry crowd.
Lev Kirillovich (Peter's uncle) came to the shore of Lake Pereyaslavl. He saw four ships reflected in the water of the lake. Peter slept in the boat.
The boyars openly said that Peter should be exiled to a monastery. When Peter woke up, his uncle told him about the Moscow turmoil. Peter promised to be in Moscow soon.
The boyars looked at Peter as he appeared in the Assumption Cathedral with displeasure: “An evil, proud eye... And - everyone can see - there is no piety in his thoughts.”
Shaklovity and Sylvester Medvedev are sitting in Golitsyn’s bedchamber. The owner lies on a bench under a bear skin. He has a fever. Medvedev insists that it is necessary to send Peter an “avenger” (killer), but Golitsyn is against it.
The Streltsy Pentecostals - Kuzma Chermny, Nikita Gladky and Obrosim Petrov - continued to trouble the Streltsy, but they, “like damp firewood, hissed and did not catch fire - the glow of rebellion did not take over.”
It's alarming in Moscow. The people tried to go destroy Preobrazhenskoye, but the road was blocked by armed soldiers.
Peter, who returned from the lake, changed. There was no trace left of the former fun.
Volkov was stopped by the archers, knocked off his horse and dragged to the Kremlin. There Shaklovity and Sophia began to interrogate him, but Volkov answered all questions with silence, as ordered by Peter.
August was beginning. In Moscow it was ominous, in Preobrazhenskoe - everyone was in fear, on guard... Alexashka advised Peter to ask the Roman Caesar for an army. But Peter didn’t want to listen.
In the middle of the night they were raised by Alyosha Brovkin, and two archers who had come running from Moscow were dragged in. They screamed that a countless army was coming to Preobrazhenskoye to kill Peter. Peter, together with Aleksashka and Alyosha, rode to Trinity.
Sophia was unable to gather the archers. And the royal court moved to Trinity, and the regiment of archers of Lavrenty Sukharev followed them. The boyars also flocked to Trinity. An order came from Trinity for all the archers to appear before the king, and whoever does not appear will be executed. Sophia was left alone. On August 29, she went to Trinity with the girl Verka.
Peter obeyed his mother and patriarch in everything. And in the evenings he talked with Lefort, who taught the tsar “not to rush into a fight - everyone is tired of fighting now - but under the blessed ringing of the Lavra” to promise peace and prosperity to the Moscow people. Lefort advised Peter to be quiet and meek, let Boris Golitsyn shout. Vasily Vasilyevich, seeing Sophia’s futile attempts to retain power, could neither help her nor leave her. Arriving in the Kremlin, Sophia gathered people and began to scare them that the regiments would soon move to Moscow. The people swore that they would protect Sophia and Ivan.
Soon the patriarch congratulated Peter on the end of the troubles.
Sophia was transported to the Novodevichy Convent at night. Her accomplices had their heads cut off, and the rest of the thieves were beaten with a whip. All boyars and military officials loyal to Peter, right down to ordinary archers, were given money and lands.
Everyone, especially foreigners, had high hopes for Peter.
Chapter V
After the Trinity campaign, Lefort became big man, was awarded the rank of general; Peter needs him, “like a smart mother to a child.” In the Faceted Chamber, Natalya Kirillovna and the patriarch were waiting for Peter. He soon appeared and, sitting on the throne, began to listen to the elder’s reading about the unrest in Moscow, “about the disasters happening everywhere.” The Patriarch demanded cleansing from heretical foreigners. Peter replied that he did not interfere in the affairs of Orthodoxy, therefore the patriarch should not interfere in politics and should not interfere with strengthening the state.
Ovsey Rzhov and his brother got rich and became a strong owner. A gypsy (Brovkin’s former neighbor) showed up in Moscow.
In the spring, Peter began to seriously train soldiers; “war was declared between two kings: the Polish and the king of the capital city of Preshpurga.” Romodanovsky was appointed king, and Buturlin was appointed king of Poland.
The Brovkins, thanks to their son Alyosha, who became the senior scorer, rose to the occasion.
In the spring, Peter went to Arkhangelsk to look at real sea vessels. Traveling north, Peter saw for the first time such expanses of deep rivers, such the power of boundless forests. In Arkhangelsk, Peter saw how “the rich and important, threatening with gold and cannons, the European coast with contemptuous bewilderment has been looking at the eastern coast for more than a century, as if at a slave.”
Peter decided to surprise the foreigners, he, “the captain of the Pereyaslavl fleet, will behave like this: we, they say, are working people, poor and smart, we came to you with a bow from our poverty, - please teach us how to hold an ax.” He immediately decided to establish two shipyards in Arkhangelsk.
Lefort approved of Peter's decision to buy two ships in Holland and build his own.
Peter worked as a carpenter and blacksmith at the shipyard, fought and swore if necessary.
Peter's mother died. On the third day after the funeral, Peter left for Preobrazhenskoye. Evdokia arrived later and did not support conversations about her mother. Peter went to Kukuy. The table was set for five people. At the table: Peter, Lefort, Menshikov, Prince-Papa (Zotov), ​​later Ankhen Monet came. Anna sympathized with Peter: “I would give everything to comfort you...”
IN deep forests beyond the Oka, Ovdokim picked up a gang of robbers of about nine people. They lived in a swamp. Peter in Preobrazhenskoye was preparing for war in full swing, building ships. Ivan Artemich Brovkin was starting a big deal. Through Alyosha he got to Menshikov, and then to Lefort, where he received “a letter for the supply of oats and hay to the army.”
The Tsar, Lefort and Alyosha came to Brovkin to marry their daughter Sashka to the boyar Volkov. “We’ll return from the hike,” said Peter, “I’ll take Sanka to the yard.”
Chapter VI
In February 1695, the Kremlin announced the gathering of the militia and a campaign against the Crimea under the command of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev. By August, Kizikerman and two other cities were taken.
In Tsaritsyn, Peter learned that the thieving contractors had supplied rotten bread, rotten fish, and no salt at all. Only the oats and hay supplied by Brovkin were good. Peter went and carried out reprisals, giving all the contracts to Brovkin.
They tried to take Azov. Autumn came, the cold began, but there was no warm clothes. But Peter did not lift the siege.
On August 25, they broke through the wall, and the Butyrites launched an assault. Three days later the siege was lifted. One third of the army remained. “So the first Azov campaign ended without glory.”
Chapter VII
Two years have passed. Shipyards began to be built in the forests near Voronezh and on the Don. And then they laid down two ships, twenty-three galleys and four fireships. “All of Russia resisted - the times of the Antichrist had truly come: the old hardships, bondage and corvée were not enough, now they were being dragged to a new, incomprehensible job... It started out difficult new Age. And yet, by spring the fleet was built. Engineers and regimental commanders have been discharged from Holland.” Azov was taken. In honor of this victory, a Triumphal Arch was erected at the entrance to the Stone Bridge. Returning to Moscow, Peter announced to the boyars that they should equip the captured Azov, rebuild the new Taganrog fortress, and populate them with troops in order to ensure peace in the south.
Leaving Moscow to Lev Kirillovich, Streshnev, Apraksin, Troekurov, Boris Golitsyn and clerk Vinius, and the thieves and robber orders to Romodanovsky, Peter went abroad. He wrote to Vinius in sympathetic ink, since “there were many curious people.”
The Russian embassy moved in with unprecedented pomp. It concluded with Frederick not a military, but a friendly alliance. Then everyone left through Berlin, Brandenburg, Holberstadt to the iron factories in Ilsenburg.
Peter hated Moscow - it was a barn, so he would have burned it down. He promised that after his return he would knock the spirit out of Moscow. In Koppenburg they were divided: the great ambassadors went to Amsterdam, and Peter sailed through the canals to the desired Holland. In Holland he lived under the name Pyotr Mikhailov, but he lasted only a week incognito.
In January, Peter moved to England and settled three miles from London, at the Deptford shipyard, where he saw “ship art according to all the rules of science, or the geometric proportion of ships.” I studied mathematics and drawing ship plans there for two months. To found a navigation school in Moscow, he hired mathematics professor Andrei Ferganson and lock master John Perry to construct the Volga-Don canal.
A new turmoil was beginning in Moscow. Sophia called the archers to stage a coup. Peter was sorry to interrupt his useful European trip, but it was necessary to return to Russia. “There were tortures and executions all winter. In response, riots broke out in Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, on the Don and in Azov. The dungeons were filled, and new thousands of corpses were rocked by the blizzard on the Moscow walls. The whole country was gripped by horror. The old stuff was hidden in dark corners. Byzantine Rus' was ending. In the March wind, the ghosts of merchant ships could be seen beyond the Baltic coasts.”
Book two
Chapter I
Moscow became impoverished, and after the Streltsy executions there was devastation. In the fall, the legitimate Queen Evdokia was taken on a simple sleigh to the Suzdal monastery “forever - to shed tears.”
Roman Borisovich Buynosov, a well-born boyar, was not in a good mood in the morning. He did not like the Tsar's innovations: German clothes, a wig and a shaved chin. Buynosov believed that the end of the world was coming.
“Lefort died. Out of joy in Moscow they didn’t know what to do. The end is now of foreign power - Kukuy Sloboda.” Everyone was sure that he was drugging the king with a love potion. But Peter said: “There will be no other friend like him.”
In the fall, in a German settlement, they began to build a large stone house with eight windows for Anna Ivanovna Monet, her mother and younger brother Willim. The king often came here openly and stayed overnight.
Peter gathered merchants in the Kremlin and began to teach that they needed to trade together and create kuppanstvos (companies).
The fleet was launched in the spring. What remained was the Fortress ship, finished with special care. The admiral's flag should be raised on it. On August 14, the fleet went to sea, and on August 17, the minarets of Taman and Kerch appeared. The Russians prepared to sail to Constantinople.
The Russians arrived on the Turkish admiralty ship. Admiral Cornelius Kreis rose, accompanied by two oarsmen - Peter and Aleksashka. They were met by Hassan Pasha. While the admirals were talking, Peter and Aleksashka looked with all their eyes, climbed onto the yards and the lower deck.
Chapter II
On a September day, barge haulers were pulling a heavy barge loaded with bread north. Fourteen people walked from Yaroslavl itself. Among the barge haulers was Andryushka Golikov, walking on a vow. Returning from the Black Sea, Peter did not refuse Anna Mona anything.
Every Sunday, Ivan Artemich Brovkin’s daughter Alexandra and her husband dined at Ivan Artemich Brovkin’s new house on Ilyinka. Peter ordered thirteen regiments to be recruited, and Brovkin was appointed chief provisions officer. His younger sons(Yakov served in Voronezh, Gavrila studied in Holland, Artamon was in his twelfth year, he was a scribe for his father, he knew German) they were smart, and Artamon was pure gold.
Sanka, who arrived, complained about her husband: he did not want to take her to Paris, but she would go anyway, as the Tsar ordered. Then Sanka started talking about the Buinosovs. She offered to marry Artamon Brovkin to Natalya Buinosova, an intelligent and educated girl. She said that the king also approved of this wedding. Later, Sanka introduced Artamon to the Buynosov girls.
The next day, the ambassadors of Charles XII were received in the Kremlin.
On a foggy November morning, Menshikov brought Pyotr Karlovich and Patkul to Preobrazhenskoye. They showed a treatise on entering the war with the Swedes in Livonia and Poland, and no later than April 1700 and Russia. This treaty stipulated joint actions of the allies and prohibited separate negotiations. People were brought to Moscow every day for the regular army: some by force, others went voluntarily. Lieutenant Alexei Brovkin recruited five hundred recruits into the regiments, sent them to Moscow, and he himself moved further north.
By royal decree it was ordered to count the years not from the Creation of the world, but from the Nativity of Christ. And count the New Year not from September, but from January 1700. It was ordered to decorate courtyards and houses spruce branches, burn tar, and shoot cannons in rich yards. There were many different rumors circulating around Moscow: about the end of the world, about the ban on speaking Russian, about the burning on Vyg Lake.
Chapter III
There was a commotion in the Buinosovs' house, and throughout Moscow too. According to the tsar's decree, all nobles had to go with their wives and children to Voronezh for the launching of the ship "Predestination*". They again began to prepare for war with the Turks. The double-decker, fifty-gun ship Predestination stood on the stocks, ready to be launched. The most eminent Russian and foreign ambassadors gathered on the shore.
Peter thought about European politics: Augustus rashly got involved in the war. Charles attacked Denmark. No one could have imagined that this pampered young man would show the intelligence and courage of a true commander. The ambassadors asked Peter, without waiting for peace with the Turks, to enter the war with the Swedes. But Peter knew for sure: you cannot go to war with the Swedes “while the Crimean Khan is hanging on your tail.” Peter gathered for Kukui.
Chapter IV
The Great Embassy of Ukraintsev received an order from the Tsar to cede everything to the Turks, not to give up only Azov, but to conclude peace. Finally, peace with the Turks was signed. There were preparations for the war with the Swedes.
From November 5 to 15, Narva was bombed without interruption. Two weeks of bombing of Narva produced nothing: the walls were not destroyed, the city was not burned. The generals did not dare to attack. And Karl quickly moved with his troops near Narva. The Russians found themselves in a vice: on the one hand, the guns of Narva, and on the other, Karl was approaching with his troops. Sheremetev's regiment arrived in Narva, having fled from the Swedes from near Piganki, fearing encirclement.
Four thousand Swedish grenadiers crushed Golovin's regiments, and they, in turn, fleeing, carried away Sheremetev's regiments. A disorderly flight began. The Swedish cavalry rushed into the gap and captured the “Lion” and “Bear” mortars, cutting down the servants.
The Russian camp was in dire straits. “At dawn, the remnants of the forty-five thousand strong Russian army - barefoot, hungry, without commanders, without formation - moved back the other way.” The news of the Narva embarrassment overtook Peter in Novgorod. The Tsar ordered Menshikov to prepare Novgorod for defense.
Chapter V
“In Europe they laughed and soon forgot about the king of the barbarians, who almost frightened the Baltic peoples - his lousy army scattered like ghosts.” Charles decided whether to direct his blow against Peter or Augustus.
Peter spent the entire winter between Moscow, Novgorod and Voronezh, where the construction of the Black Sea Fleet was underway. Ninety thousand pounds of bell copper were brought to Moscow.
By the New Year, Novgorod, Pskov and the Pechersky Monastery were fortified. In the north they fortified Kholmogory and Arkhangelsk, and at the mouth of the Dvina they built the stone fortress of Novo-Dvinka. All summer there were skirmishes between the advanced detachments of Sheremetev and Schlippenbach.
The Russians quickly recovered from the defeat at Narva and “even excelled in the art of war and weapons,” according to Schlippenbach. This is how things went until December 1701. Having learned that Schlippenbach had stopped for winter quarters, Sheremetev attacked his camp and completely defeated the Swedes. Schlippenbach himself barely left on horseback for Revel. Moscow celebrated this victory magnificently. In the spring of 1702, ten locksmiths arrived from Holland in Russia to supervise the construction of the Volga-Don canal. In September, three Russian troops united on the banks of the Nazin River near the Noteburg fortress. At dawn, the Russians took the Swedish trenches (advanced fortifications) in battle. On the same day, the bombing of Noteburg began. The fortress was taken. Now Peter's thoughts were aimed at mastering the Neva. Apraksin, the admiral's son, successfully fought against the Swedes and drove them back across the Neva. Peter returned to Moscow. They gave him a grand reception. Moscow feasted for two weeks until a big fire occurred. Peter personally extinguished it, but nothing could be done. The Kremlin burned to the ground, except for the Zhitny Dvor and the Kokoshkin mansion. They barely had time to save Princess Natalya and Tsarevich Alexei. Peter told Brovkin that he wanted to rebuild a city on the Neva so that Ivan Artemich would drive lumberjacks there. After Christmas, a new recruitment began for the army. And in all the cities, the royal recruiters recruited carpenters, masons, and diggers.
Book three
Chapter I
It's boring in Moscow. Only stray dogs roam the deserted streets. Everyone works in newly established factories and forges. Princesses Catherine and Marya, after Sophia’s imprisonment in the Novodevichy Convent, were evicted to Pokrovka.
Chapter II
The three Brovkin brothers - Alexey, Yakov and Gavrila - were sitting at the table. Now it is ordered to build barns (tseykhgauzes) on the left bank of the Neva, build piers near the water and secure the entire bank with piles, and prepare for the arrival of the fleet, which was being built at Ladeinoye Pole on the Svir. There they built twenty-gun frigates, shniavs, brigantines, buers, galleys and shmaks.
As soon as the tsar got out of the leather cart, guns near Menshikov’s house and from the bastions of the Peter and Paul Fortress saluted him. Peter said that below Shlisselburg they almost drowned. Peter is sure: “without Piterburg we are like a body without a soul.”
At Menshikov’s table sat “new people” - those who, according to Peter’s instructions, considered “their nobility according to their suitability” - with their talent alone they had escaped from the smoking hut, changed their bast shoes to blunt-toed yuft shoes with buckles. “Peter Alekseevich was pleased today both with the fact that Danilych built such a good house, with Neptune and the sea maiden on the roof, to spite the Swedes, and with the fact that all his people were sitting at the table and arguing and getting excited about a big deal, without thinking about how dangerous it was and whether it will succeed... and the fact that distant plans and difficult undertakings converged here...” Peter said that the defeat at Narva benefited the Russians.
Chapter III
The campaign to Kexholm was interrupted at the very beginning. Before Peter’s boat had even gone half way to Shlisselburg, he was intercepted by Peter Matveevich Apraksin’s adjutant, Pashka Yaguzhinsky. He gave Peter a letter from his closest steward Apraksin to the bombardier Peter Alekseevich. In the letter, Apraksin reported: in the spring he arrived with three infantry regiments at the mouth of Narva. Soon five Swedish ships arrived there. They attacked the Russian convoy. But thanks to field guns, the Russians defeated the Swedish frigate and drove the remaining ships from the mouth of the river. Apraksin, patrolling the shore, did not allow the Swedes to unload.
Chapter IV
Peter and his troops arrived at Narva. Having toured the fortress, Peter told Menshikov that Narva was the key to the entire war. Aleksashka promised to figure out how to take Narva by evening. Russian troops besieged Narva and Ivan-Gorod. Russian troops destroyed the Narva garrison.
Chapter V
Gavrila Brovkin was traveling to Moscow, carrying the sovereign's mail and an instruction to Prince Caesar to hasten the delivery of any iron product to St. Petersburg. Gavrila marveled at the poverty of the villages, the absence of people who most likely fled from the tsar’s decrees to the Urals, Don, and Vyga. The state is huge, but there are few people - hence poverty.
Chapter VI
On one stormy night, the Russians boarded a Swedish squadron that had entered the mouth of the Embach River. Now Peter was sailing on one of the two-masted boats, the Katerina. Peter himself stood at the helm. He sailed to Narva in victory. He was carrying Swedish banners taken during the assault on Yuryev.

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Novel "Peter the Great"

Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich, Russian writer. An extremely versatile and prolific writer who wrote in all kinds and genres (two collections of poems, more than forty plays, scripts, adaptations of fairy tales, journalistic and other articles, etc.), primarily a prose writer, a master of captivating storytelling.

He grew up on the Sosnovka farm near Samara, on the estate of his stepfather, zemstvo employee A. A. Bostrom. Happy rural childhood determined by Tolstoy's love of life, which always remained the only unshakable basis of his worldview. He studied at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and graduated without defending his diploma (1907). I tried painting. He published poetry from 1905 and prose from 1908. He became famous as the author of short stories and tales of the “Trans-Volga” cycle (1909-1911) and the adjacent short novels “Cranks” (originally “Two Lives”, 1911), “The Lame Master” (1912 ) - mainly about the landowners of his native Samara province, prone to various eccentricities, about all sorts of extraordinary, sometimes anecdotal incidents. Many characters are portrayed humorously, with slight mockery.

During the First World War, the writer was a war correspondent. The impressions from what he saw turned him against the decadence that had influenced him from a young age, which was reflected in the unfinished autobiographical novel “Yegor Abozov” (1915). The writer enthusiastically greeted February revolution. “Citizen Count A.N. Tolstoy,” who was then living in Moscow, was appointed “Commissioner for Press Registration” on behalf of the Provisional Government. The diary, journalism and stories of the end of 1917-1918 reflect the anxiety and depression of the apolitical writer by the events that followed October. In July 1918, he and his family went on a literary tour to Ukraine, and in April 1919 he was evacuated from Odessa to Istanbul.

Two emigrant years were spent in Paris. In 1921, Tolstoy moved to Berlin, where more intensive connections were established with writers who remained in his homeland. But the writer was unable to settle down abroad and get along with the emigrants. During the NEP period he returned to Russia (1923). However, the years of living abroad turned out to be very fruitful. Then, among other works, such wonderful ones appeared as autobiographical story“Nikita’s Childhood” (1920-1922) and the first edition of the novel “Walking Through Torment” (1921). The novel, covering the time from the pre-war months of 1914 to November 1917, included the events of two revolutions, but was dedicated to the fate of individual - good, although not outstanding - people in a catastrophic era; the main characters, sisters Katya and Dasha, were depicted with a convincingness rare among male authors, so that the title “Sisters” given in Soviet editions of the novel corresponds to the text. In a separate Berlin edition of “Walking Through Torment” (1922), the writer announced that it would be a trilogy. In essence, the anti-Bolshevik content of the novel was “corrected” by shortening the text. Tolstoy was always inclined to rework, sometimes repeatedly, his works, changing titles, names of characters, adding or removing entire storylines, sometimes fluctuating between the poles in the author’s assessments. But in the USSR this quality of his too often began to be determined by the political situation. The writer always remembered the “sin” of his count-landowner origin and the “mistakes” of emigration; he sought justification for himself in the fact that he became popular with the widest reader, the like of which had not existed before the revolution.

In 1922-1923, the first Soviet science fiction novel, “Aelita,” was published in Moscow, in which the Red Army soldier Gusev organizes a revolution on Mars, albeit an unsuccessful one. In Tolstoy’s second science fiction novel, “Engineer Garin’s Hyperboloid” (1925-1926, later revised more than once) and the story “Union of Five” (1925), maniacal power-hungers try to conquer the whole world and exterminate most people using unprecedented technical means, but they are also unsuccessful. The social aspect is everywhere simplified and coarsened in the Soviet way, but Tolstoy predicted space flights, capturing voices from space, the “parachute brake,” the laser, and fission of the atomic nucleus.

Speaking as a politicized writer, Tolstoy, who was a spontaneous, organic artist, a master of depiction, and not of philosophizing and propaganda, showed himself much worse. With the plays “The Conspiracy of the Empress” and “Azef” (1925, 1926, together with the historian P.E. Shchegolev), he “legitimized” the openly tendentious, caricatured depiction of the last pre-revolutionary years and the family of Nicholas II. The novel “The Eighteenth Year” (1927-1928), the second book of “Walking Through Torment,” Tolstoy oversaturated with tendentiously selected and interpreted historical materials, brought together fictional characters with real-life persons and densely equipped the plot with adventurousness, including motives for cross-dressing and meetings “arranged” by the author (which could not but weaken the novel).

In the 1930s by direct order of the authorities, he wrote the first work about Stalin - the story “Bread (Defense of Tsaritsyn)” (published in 1937), entirely subordinated to Stalin’s myths about the Civil War. It was like an “addition” to “The Eighteenth Year,” where Tolstoy “overlooked” the outstanding role of Stalin and Voroshilov in the events of that time. Some characters from the story migrated to “Gloomy Morning” (finished in 1941), last book trilogy, the work is still more lively than “Bread”, but in adventurism it competes with the second book, and far surpasses it in opportunism. With Roshchin’s pathetic speeches in the unsuccessful, as usual with Tolstoy, fabulously happy ending, he indirectly but definitely justified the repressions of 1937. However, the bright characters, fascinating plot, and Tolstoy’s masterful language for a long time made the trilogy one of the most popular works Soviet literature.

Among the best stories for children in world literature is “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio” (1935), a very thorough and successful adaptation of a fairy tale by an Italian writer of the 19th century. Collodi "Pinocchio".

After the October Revolution, Tolstoy became interested in historical topics. Based on the material of the 17th-18th centuries. written stories and tales “Obsession” (1918), “The Day of Peter” (1918), “Count Cagliostro” (1921), “The Tale of Troubled Times” (1922), etc. In addition to the story about Peter the Great, who builds St. Petersburg, showing monstrous cruelty to people and staying in tragic loneliness, all these works are more or less full of adventures, although in the depiction of the unrest of the early 17th century. one can feel the gaze of a man who has seen the turmoil of the 20th century. After the play “On the Rack,” written in 1928 largely based on “The Day of Peter” and under the influence of the concept of D. S. Merezhkovsky, in the novel “Antichrist (Peter and Alexei)” Tolstoy sharply changes his view of the reformer tsar, feeling that in the next decade the criterion of “class” may be supplanted by the criteria of “nationality” and historical progressiveness, and the figure statesman this level will evoke positive associations.

In 1930 and 1934, two books of a large narrative about Peter the Great and his era were published. For the sake of contrasting the old and new worlds, Tolstoy exaggerated the backwardness, poverty and lack of culture of pre-Petrine Russia, paid tribute to the vulgar sociological concept of Peter’s reforms as “bourgeois” (hence the exaggeration of the role of merchants, entrepreneurs), did not quite proportionately present different social circles (for example, almost no attention was paid to the church), but the objective-historical necessity of the then transformations, as if they were a precedent for socialist transformations, and the means of their implementation were generally shown correctly. Russia in the writer’s depiction is changing, and the heroes of the novel, especially Peter himself, “grow” with it. The first chapter is oversaturated with events, it covers events from 1682 to 1698, which are often given in the very summary. The second book ends with the initial period of construction of St. Petersburg, founded in 1703: serious transformations are underway that require closer attention. The action of the unfinished third book is measured in months. The writer's attention turns to people; long scenes with detailed conversations predominate.

A novel without novelistic intrigue, without a coherent fictional plot, without adventurism, at the same time it is extremely exciting and colorful. Descriptions of life and customs, behavior of the most different characters(there are a lot of them, but they are not lost in the crowd, which is also depicted more than once), the subtly stylized colloquial language makes up a very strengths novel, the best in Soviet historical prose.

The terminally ill Tolstoy wrote the third book of Peter the Great in 1943-1944. It ends with the episode of the capture of Narva, under which Peter’s troops suffered their first heavy defeat at the beginning of the Northern War. This gives the impression of completeness of an unfinished novel. Peter is already clearly idealized, even stands up for the common people; the entire tone of the book was influenced by the national-patriotic sentiments of the Great Patriotic War. But the main images of the novel have not faded, the interest of the events has not disappeared, although in general the third book is weaker than the first two. "Russian writers. Bibliographical Dictionary" Part 2. / Comp. B.F. Egorov, P.A. Nikolaev and others, - M.: Education, 1990.-p.136

The personality of Peter the Great and his era excited the imagination of writers, artists, and composers of many generations. From Lomonosov to the present day, the theme of Peter has not left the pages of fiction. A.S. Pushkin, N.A. Nekrasov, L.N. Tolstoy, A.A. Blok, D.S. Merezhkovsky and others addressed her. The assessment of Peter the Great and his transformations is ambiguous both in the assessment of historians and in fiction.

If Lomonosov and Pushkin perceived Peter’s deeds as a feat (although Pushkin also saw the shortcomings of the tsar-transformer), then L.N. Tolstoy reacted negatively to him. Having conceived a novel from the era of Peter, he gave up writing it because, by his own admission, he hated the personality of the king, “the most pious robber, murderer.” A similar assessment was given to Peter in D.S. Merezhkovsky’s novel “Peter and Alexei” (1905). Without exaggeration, we can say that almost throughout his entire life, starting from 1917, the era of Peter and A. was drawn to itself like a magnet. N. Tolstoy.

“I had my sights set on Peter for a long time,” wrote Tolstoy. “I saw all the spots on his camisole, but Peter still stuck out as a mystery in the historical fog.” Direct, albeit distant approaches to Peter’s theme were the stories “Obsession” (1917), “The Day of Peter” (1917), and the play “On the Rack” (1928), which became, as it were, an overture to the novel about Peter. They show that Tolstoy’s attitude towards Peter’s personality changed.

The story “The Day of Peter” (1917) is deeply pessimistic. By showing the activities of Peter, aimed at transforming the state, the writer shows to all the moves of the narrative the futility of these activities of Peter. The tsar is shown in the story as a cruel, proud, lonely and terrible: “... sitting in the wastelands and swamps, with his one terrible will he strengthened the state, rebuilding the land.” In the tragedy “On the Rack,” in contrast to the story, a broader description of the time of Peter and his environment. But he is again alone in his huge country, for which he “did not spare his life,” and the people are against the transformer, and the elements. The doom of Peter’s cause can be heard in his own words: “I’ve been breaking through the wall for twenty years. For whom is this? I translated millions of people... I shed a lot of blood. If I die, they will rush at the state like vultures.” A. Tarkhov “Historical triptych by A.K. Tolstoy" - M.: Khudozh. lit., 1982.-p.110

Having completed the play, Tolstoy intended to write a story about Peter and, after serious preparation, began writing it in February 1929. The first book of “Peter” was completed on May 12, 1930, and the last, seventh chapter ends with the execution of the archers. The remaining points of the plan made up the contents of the second book, which Tolstoy wrote from December 1932 to April 22, 1934. The writer began working on the third book of the epic on December 31, 1934 and managed to bring it to the sixth chapter. But death prevented the writer from completing his monumental work.

When starting to work on the novel, Tolstoy identifies the main problems. Firstly, this is “first of all a book about the Russian character, its leading features.” Secondly, the image of a historical figure, his formation. Thirdly, the image of the people as driving force stories. The composition of the work is also subject to the solution of these problems. The composition of the novel reflects the writer’s correct understanding of the course of Russian history at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. Pautkin A.I. About the language of A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter I”, 1987.-p.126

The three books of the novel recreate the three most important periods in the development of Peter's Russia.

The first book depicts lagging Muscovite Rus', Peter's youth, the struggle with Sophia for power, Peter's first reforms, the Streltsy revolt and the execution of the rebels. In the first chapters, which are the exposition of the novel, Peter is not yet there. The author, through the author's digressions, through depicting the life of all classes of pre-Petrine Russia, through showing class contradictions, helps to feel the historical need for transformation. “A man with a whipped ass was somehow picking up the hateful soil”; from the unbearable tributes and exactions, the townspeople “howled in the cold courtyard”; the small landed noble was going bankrupt, losing weight, the small merchants were groaning; Even the boyars and eminent merchants groaned. “What kind of Russia is this, a cursed country, when will you move?” The first book ends with Peter’s brutal suppression of the Streltsy rebellion: “All winter there were tortures and executions... The whole country was gripped by horror. The old stuff was hidden in dark corners. Byzantine Rus' was ending. In the March wind, the ghosts of merchant ships could be seen beyond the Baltic coasts.”

Tolstoy himself pointed out that the second book is more monumental. She talks about how Rus' “moved from its place.” There are fewer historical events here, but they are all very important, showing the construction new Russia: preparation for the Northern War, “Narva embarrassment”, construction of factories, founding of St. Petersburg... in the second book with more greater strength the motive of social protest of the people sounds.

The third book of the novel was created in the context of the heroic rise of the Great Patriotic War. The main thing in it is the image creative work of the Russian people, the great exploits of the Russian soldier. Pautkin A.I. About the language of A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter I”, 1987.-p.102

“The third book,” wrote A. Tolstoy, “is the most important part of the novel about Peter...” This is a book about the brilliant victories of the Russians over the troops of Charles XII. It especially clearly shows the image of young Russia, which won a difficult struggle. The versatility of the composition, the contrast of the chapters, the changing author's tone, the abundance of characters, the geographical breadth of what is depicted - allowed the author to show Rus' in the turbulent flow of historical events. However, Tolstoy himself admitted: “In my novel, the center is the figure of Peter the Great.” He reveals himself in all his grandiose, contradictory nature - a generous and cruel, brave and merciless statesman towards his enemies, a brilliant reformer. The rest of the characters group around him. Varlamov.A.N. Alexey Tolstoy. - 2nd ed. - M.: Young Guard, 2008.-p.87

A.N. Tolstoy depicts the process of formation of Peter’s personality, the formation of his character under the influence of historical circumstances. Therefore, it is necessary to trace how Peter’s character developed, what circumstances influenced his formation, and what role the environment played in the formation of Peter’s personality.

Tolstoy shows how events shape Peter the transformer. He actively intervenes in life, changes it, and changes himself. In the Preobrazhensky Palace reigns that antiquity that Peter hates all his life. Boredom, ignorance, monotony. The days are so similar to one another that it is difficult to remember whether the household members had lunch or had already had lunch. The slow pace of life is also indicated by the words Tolstoy successfully found, emphasizing the complete stagnation that prevailed in the palace: “The queen lazily got up and went to the bedchamber. There... on covered chests sat feisty old women, hangers-on... A dwarf with festering eyes crawled out from behind the bed... took a nap at the sovereign’s feet... “Dreams, tell me, you foolish women,” said Natalya Kirillovna. - Has anyone seen the unicorn? The day was ending, the bell struck slowly..."

Tolstoy's merit is that he was able to show the gradual formation of Peter as an outstanding historical figure, and did not immediately paint him as a fully established national figure and commander, as he appears in the third book of the novel. Peter's wise teacher was life itself. Even in Arkhangelsk, Peter realized that for the widespread development of trade, seas were needed, that the country could not exist without them. However, Peter is not yet able to decide on his own about the campaign against Azov, so he listens to what the boyars and people close to him in spirit say. His fear of the upcoming war with the Tatars was reminiscent of a memorable night

flight to Trinity. Peter’s behavior at the first meeting of the boyar duma clearly shows that the young king lacks firmness and determination: “... he was terrified and frightened from a young age. He waited, squinting his eyes.” He returned differently from the Azov campaigns. The fight for Azov is the first serious matter in the life and work of Peter. In the battles near Azov, he learns to fight for real, learns to assess the enemy’s strength, here his will is tempered, and his persistence in achieving his goals becomes stronger. Military failures at first “amazed” Peter, but did not force him to throw down his arms and retreat. On the contrary, he decides to take Azov at any cost, no matter what it costs him, the generals, and the soldiers. His persistence and inflexibility are manifested with great force for the first time here, near Azov. “Peter’s will seemed to be petrified. He became harsh and harsh. He lost so much weight that his green caftan hung on him like on a pole. I quit joking." He himself decides to wage a siege and develops its plan, forces all the people to work with great stress and spends all his days with the soldiers on earthworks, eating simple soldier’s food with them. Tolstoy shows how, in this difficult struggle, Peter is now coming to manhood not for himself (as in the fight with Sophia in his youth), but for his country, for the Sea of ​​Azov, and the soldiers are coming to manhood with him. If earlier, when bombs exploded, “the pale wars were only baptized,” then during the last siege of Azov, soldiers, not paying attention to the whistling of bullets, climbed the ladders to the walls of the fortress. Even the forced retreat of the Russian army, which completed the first Azov campaign without glory, did not shake Peter’s faith in the possibility of taking Azov, did not instill in him pessimism or disbelief in the strength of the Russian soldiers. He does not give up; on the contrary, “failure bridled him with a mad bit. Even those close to me didn’t recognize him - he was a different person: angry, stubborn, businesslike.” Even in Arkhangelsk, Peter felt that the enemy who was preventing Russia from parting with its poverty and squalor was “invisible, incomprehensible, the enemy is everywhere, the enemy is in himself.” This “enemy is in himself” - indifference to state affairs, to the fate of the country, carelessness, and finally, his ignorance. His stay in Arkhangelsk and his participation in the Azov campaign turned Peter’s face to the state and its needs. His inherent energy, willpower, organizational skills and, most importantly, perseverance in fulfilling his goal did their job: the Voronezh fleet was built at the cost of the lives of many hundreds of Russian workers.

Tolstoy shows Peter to be an autocratic sovereign, firmly convinced of the usefulness and necessity of the measures he is carrying out and now not taking into account the opinion of the boyars, at the second meeting of the boyar duma. Now Peter, in a “courageous voice” that does not tolerate objections, tells the boyars about the immediate improvement of the devastated Azov and the Taganrog fortress, about the creation of “kumpan enterprises” for the construction of ships, about the preparation of taxes for the construction of the Volga-Don canal. From the throne he no longer speaks, but “barks cruelly”; The boyars feel that Peter has now “everything decided ahead” and will soon do without even thinking about it. The tasks facing the state become even clearer for Peter: “We must build a fleet in two years, and turn from fools to smart people.”

Peter's love for his homeland first manifests itself in deep pain for his country. “The devil brought me to be born a king in such a country!” - he exclaims bitterly, seeing the poverty, squalor, darkness of his huge country. More than once Peter will think about the reasons for such impoverishment of Russia, such ignorance. “... why is this? We sit in the great open spaces and are beggars...” Peter sees a way out of this situation in the development of industry, trade, and in the conquest of the shores of the Baltic Sea. Peter's desire to eliminate the economic backwardness of the country is manifested, first of all, in the construction of factories, factories, and workshops. To strengthen the power of Russia, it needed its own, Russian cast iron, its own iron, so as not to buy at exorbitant prices abroad. He wants the Russians to take up the development of iron ores and the construction of sawmills, not foreigners. “Why can’t our own people?” - says Peter, addressing the merchants. And therefore, with joy, without hesitation, Peter gives money for the development of ore mining to the enterprising Tula blacksmith Demidov, who decided to “raise the Urals.” So, on the initiative and with the support of Peter, domestic factories are built and grown, providing cast iron and iron for the army. He welcomes the initiative of the Bazhenin brothers, Osip and Fedor, who built a water saw mill on their own, without the help of overseas craftsmen, their desire to build ships and yachts and use them to export boards and other Russian goods overseas. Seeing the “happiness of the country” in the success of maritime trade, Peter does his best to encourage its development. Peter gives full control of three ships to the first “navigator” Ivan Zhigulin, so that he can carry blubber, seal skins, salmon and pearls overseas. But Peter understands perfectly well that the widespread development of trade is possible only if the Russians have access to the Baltic Sea. But it’s not just the country’s economic backwardness that worries Peter. Love for the homeland forces us to fight the ignorance and darkness that reigned in the country, for the development of culture, science, and art. How to “push people apart, open their eyes,” introduce them to culture, instill a love of learning? “Theology has given us lice... Navigation, mathematical sciences. Ore mining, medicine. We need this...”, says Peter in Preobrazhenskoye to generals Patkul and Karlovich.

At the foundry in Moscow, Peter established a school where two hundred and fifty boyars, townspeople, and even young men of “vile” rank (which is very important) studied casting, mathematics, fortification, and history. Russia needed educated people: engineers, architects, diplomats. Peter used the “club” to drive the noble ignoramuses into science. “Inhumanly,” in the words of Peter himself, he fights so that “noble bastards a fathom tall” learn to read and write. “Where do you have to start: az, beeches, lead...,” he says with indignation. But what joy Peter’s eyes sparkle with when he meets a literate, educated Russian person. When Artamon Brovkin, when asked by Peter about whether he knows how to read and write, answers in German, French, and Dutch, Peter is delighted: “Peter Alekseevich began to kiss him, clapped his palm and pulled him towards himself, shaking him. - Well, tell me! Oh, well done..."

It is no coincidence that Peter’s decision to “reward counts for intelligence.” It is not gender, but knowledge that Peter values ​​most of all. Mastery, skill in any matter, golden hands always arouse Peter’s delight and respect for this person. Peter looks with admiration and surprise at Andrei Golikov’s skillful drawing. Not the Dutch, but his own, Russian, icon painter from Palekh on a simple wall, not with paints, but with thin charcoal, drew the Russians boarding two Swedish ships. “Peter Alekseevich squatted down.

Well well! - he said... - So, I’ll probably send you to Holland to study.”

It is necessary to note Peter's foresight, his statesmanship, perseverance in achieving his goals, and finally, his simplicity, manifested both in his dealings with people and in his habits, manners, and tastes.

Peter's statesmanship is manifested in his ability to correctly assess the current political situation and choose the most appropriate strategic moments to start a war with the Swedes. If Karl sees war as a game, entertainment and listens “with rapture” to the sounds of battle, then Peter, as Tolstoy writes, considers war “a difficult and difficult matter, an everyday bloody suffering, a state need.” Peter himself emphasizes more than once that this war with the Swedes does not mean the seizure of foreign lands - this is a war for one’s former fatherland. “It’s impossible for us to give up our fatherland,” he tells the soldiers. The Azov campaigns taught him a lot. The time when Peter did not take into account the strength of the enemy and did not understand the reasons for the defeat of the Russians (there was not enough gunpowder, cannonballs, cannons, food), and did not take into account the mood of his soldiers, is long gone. Thus, near Narva, he immediately understands that the Russians, despite two years of preparation for war, have not yet learned to fight: “For a cannon to fire here, it must be loaded in Moscow.” Pautkin A.I. About the language of A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter I”, 1987.-p.144

We almost never see Peter in royal attire: he is either in the Preobrazhensky caftan, or in “a canvas, stained shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows,” or in a sailor’s jacket and sou'wester.

In the third book of the novel, Tolstoy draws thirty-year-old Peter. It is in this book that his talent as a commander, the wisdom of a statesman and transformer are revealed. Over the years, Peter’s faith in the strength and abilities of the Russian people, in the courage, heroism and endurance of Russian soldiers, for whom “everything is passable,” has become increasingly stronger.

Peter changed himself, learned to restrain his outbursts of anger. In Petra one can feel statesman Responsible for the fate of the country, he is absorbed in the affairs of the state, often immersed in thought, he is no longer attracted by the former “noise.” Peter in Tolstoy's novel is not only the son of his century, but also a man who embodied the best features of the Russian national character. However, noting the progressive nature of Peter’s reforms and their historical pattern, Tolstoy shows their class limitations, for Peter’s transformative activity was based on strengthening serfdom. Bazanova A.E., Ryzhkova N.V. Russian literature XIX and XX centuries - M.: Yurist - 1997.-p.212

Already the first chapters of the novel make us feel that this is a story not only about Peter, but about the entire country, about the life and fate of the people in one of the turning points in Russian history. A whole gallery of people from the people is drawn by Tolstoy in the novel, among them are participants in the Razin uprising: the brave, determined, piebald Ivan and Ovdokim, “tortured, much tormented,” but who did not lose faith in the return of Razin’s time, “boney with anger” Fedka Wash yourself with Mud, talented self-taught inventor Kuzma Zhemov, Russian hero blacksmith Kondraty Vorobyov, Palekh painter Andrei Golikov, brave bombardier Ivan Kurochkin and others. And although each of these heroes participates in two or three episodes, we constantly feel the presence of the people on the pages of the novel. The squares and streets of old Moscow, a noisy tavern, a military camp near Narva - this is where the action of the crowd scenes unfolds. Each crowd scene is of great importance in the novel also because in it, through the mouth of the people, an assessment of this or that event, the situation in the country is given. “The torment of the people” is felt both in individual remarks of people from the crowd, and in the author’s speech, expressing the voice of the people. The brutal exploitation of the peasants, countless taxes, poverty and hunger are not masked by Tolstoy: he shows the serfdom reality of Peter's time deeply and comprehensively. But Tolstoy could not limit himself to depicting people oppressed by serfdom, patiently enduring bondage - this would mean distorting reality. Historical documents and research showed Tolstoy that not all the people bore the yoke meekly and obediently. Some expressed their protest by fleeing from the landowners to the Don, the Urals, and Siberia, while others were preparing for open struggle.

But it is not only the love of freedom of the Russian people that Tolstoy portrays. The Russian people are talented and hardworking. The writer reveals these qualities in the characters of Kuzma Zhemov, Andrei Golikov... Kuzma Zhemov, a talented inventor - self-taught, with a creative attitude to work, a “daring mind”, self-esteem, perseverance in achieving goals. The fate of Kuzma Zhemov is typical for a Russian talented inventor from the people in the conditions of tsarist serfdom in Russia. In the image of the skilled blacksmith Zhemov, Tolstoy affirms the extraordinary talent of the ordinary Russian man, his spiritual wealth. Zhemov is a good blacksmith, his work is known outside of Moscow, as he himself says: “Blacksmith Zhemov! I haven’t yet found a thief who could open my locks... My sickles went all the way to Ryazan. The armor of my work was not pierced by a bullet...” Kuzma is firmly convinced that even here, in these hard labor conditions created for Russian workers, his masterful work will be noted. “They will recognize Kuzma Zhemov...” he says. Pautkin A.I. About the language of A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter I”, 1987.-p.97

Another interesting image of a man from the people - the image of the Palekh icon painter Andrei Golikov - attracts us with his talent, love of art, beauty, ability to understand and feel nature, and the desire to escape from the darkness of life. “It would seem,” the author writes, “that the animal could not bear what Andryushka endured in his short life - they destroyed, beat, tortured, executed him by starvation and cold death,” and yet he retained the deep belief that somewhere... that is, “the bright land where he will eventually come will push through life.”

The people in the novel, especially in the third book, are shown as the creators of history, and although they did not realize their historical role, he realized his strength.

Tolstoy novel creative people