The novel The White Guard, analysis of the work. Analysis of M.A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” - analyzing a literary work - analysis in literature lessons - catalog of articles - literature teacher

"White Guard"

It is no coincidence that the author chooses for the epigraph a fragment from “The Captain’s Daughter,” a novel that paints a picture of a peasant revolt. The image of a blizzard symbolizes the whirlwind of revolutionary changes unfolding in the country. The novel is dedicated to the writer’s second wife, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya-Bulgakova, who also lived in Kyiv for some time and remembered those terrible years of constant changes of power and bloody events.

At the very beginning of the novel, the Turbins’ mother dies, bequeathing her children to live. “And they will have to suffer and die,” exclaims M.A. Bulgakov. However, the answer to the question of what to do in difficult times is given by the priest in the novel: “Despondency cannot be allowed... A great sin is despondency...”. “The White Guard” is to a certain extent an autobiographical work. It is known, for example, that the reason for writing the novel was the sudden death of M.A.’s own mother. Bulgakov Varvara Mikhailovna from typhus. The writer was very worried about this event; it was doubly difficult for him because he could not even come from Moscow to the funeral and say goodbye to his mother.

From the numerous artistic details in the novel, the everyday realities of that time emerge. “Revolutionary riding” (you drive for an hour and stand for two), Myshlaevsky’s dirtiest cambric shirt, frostbitten feet - all this eloquently testifies to the complete everyday and economic confusion in people’s lives. Deep experiences of socio-political conflicts were also expressed in the portraits of the novel’s heroes: Elena and Talberg, before separation, even outwardly became haggard and aged.

The collapse of the established way of life of M.A. Bulgakov also shows the example of the interior of the Turbins’ house. Since childhood, the order familiar to the heroes with wall clocks, old red velvet furniture, a tiled stove, books, gold watches and silver - all this turns out to be in complete chaos when Talberg decides to run to Denikin. But still M.A. Bulgakov urges never to pull the lampshade off a lamp. He writes: “The lampshade is sacred. Never run like a rat into the unknown from danger. Read by the lampshade - let the blizzard howl - wait until they come to you.” However, Thalberg, a military man, tough and energetic, is not satisfied with the humble submission with which the author of the novel calls for approaching life's trials. Elena perceives Thalberg's flight as a betrayal. It is no coincidence that before leaving, he mentions that Elena has a passport in her maiden name. He seems to be renouncing his wife, although at the same time he is trying to convince her that he will return soon. As the plot develops further, we learn that Sergei went to Paris and got married again. Sister M.A. is considered the prototype of Elena. Bulgakova Varvara Afanasyevna (married to Karum). Thalberg is a well-known name in the world of music: in the nineteenth century there was a pianist in Austria, Sigmund Thalberg. The writer loved to use the sonorous names of famous musicians in his work (Rubinstein in “Fatal Eggs”, Berlioz and Stravinsky in the novel “The Master and Margarita”).

Exhausted people in the whirlwind of revolutionary events do not know what to believe and where to go. With pain in their souls, the Kiev officer society greets the news of the death of the royal family and, despite caution, sings the forbidden royal anthem. Out of desperation, the officers drink half to death.

A terrifying story about life in Kyiv during the civil war is interspersed with memories of a past life that now look like an unaffordable luxury (for example, trips to the theater).

In 1918, Kyiv became a refuge for those who, fearing reprisals, left Moscow: bankers and homeowners, actors and artists, aristocrats and gendarmes. Describing the cultural life of Kyiv, M.A. Bulgakov mentions the famous theater “Lilac Negro”, cafe “Maxim” and the decadent club “Prah” (in fact it was called “Trash” and was located in the basement of the Continental Hotel on Nikolaevskaya Street; many celebrities visited it: A. Averchenko , O. Mandelstam, K. Paustovsky, I. Ehrenburg and M. Bulgakov himself). “The city swelled, expanded, and rose like sourdough from a pot,” writes M.A. Bulgakov. The motive of escape outlined in the novel will become a cross-cutting motif for a number of the writer’s works. In “The White Guard,” as is clear from the title, for M.A. For Bulgakov, what is important, first of all, is the fate of the Russian officers during the years of the revolution and civil war, which for the most part lived with the concept of officer honor.

The author of the novel shows how people go berserk in the crucible of fierce trials. Having learned about the atrocities of the Petliuraites, Alexei Turbin needlessly offends the newspaper boy and immediately feels shame and absurdity from his action. However, most often the heroes of the novel remain true to their life values. It is no coincidence that Elena, when she learns that Alexei is hopeless and must die, lights a lamp in front of the old icon and prays. After this, the disease recedes. M.A. describes with admiration. Bulgakov is a noble act of Yulia Alexandrovna Reis, who, risking herself, saves the wounded Turbin.

The City can be considered a separate hero of the novel. The writer himself spent his best years in his native Kyiv. The city landscape in the novel amazes with its fabulous beauty (“All the energy of the city, accumulated over the sunny and stormy summer, poured out in the light”), overgrown with hyperbole (“And there were so many gardens in the City as in no other city in the world”), M,A. Bulgakov widely uses ancient Kyiv toponymy (Podol, Khreshcha-tik), and often mentions the sights of the city dear to every Kievite’s heart (Golden Gate, St. Sophia Cathedral, St. Michael’s Monastery). He calls Vladimirskaya Hill with the monument to Vladimir the best place in the world. Some fragments of the city landscape are so poetic that they resemble prose poems: “A sleepy drowsiness passed over the City, a cloudy white bird flew past Vladimir’s cross, fell beyond the Dnieper in the thick of the night and floated along an iron arc.” And immediately this poetic picture is interrupted by the description of an armored train locomotive, wheezing angrily, with a blunt snout. In this contrast of war and peace, the cross-cutting image is the cross of Vladimir - a symbol of Orthodoxy. At the end of the work, the illuminated cross visually turns into a threatening sword. And the writer encourages us to pay attention to the stars. Thus, the author moves from a specific historical perception of events to a generalized philosophical one.

The dream motif plays an important role in the novel. Dreams are seen in the work by Alexey, Elena, Vasilisa, the guard at the armored train and Petka Shcheglov. Dreams help expand the artistic space of the novel, characterize the era more deeply, and most importantly, they raise the theme of hope for the future, that after the bloody civil war the heroes will begin a new life.

M.A. Bulgakov was born and raised in Kyiv. All his life he was devoted to this city. It is symbolic that the name of the future writer was given in honor of the guardian of the city of Kiev, Archangel Michael. The action of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov's "The White Guard" takes place in the same famous house No. 13 on Andreevsky Spusk (in the novel it is called Alekseevsky), where the writer himself once lived. In 1982, a memorial plaque was installed on this house, and since 1989 there has been a Literary and Memorial House-Museum named after M.A. Bulgakov.

It is no coincidence that the author chooses for the epigraph a fragment from “The Captain’s Daughter,” a novel that paints a picture of a peasant revolt. The image of a blizzard symbolizes the whirlwind of revolutionary changes unfolding in the country. The novel is dedicated to the writer’s second wife, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya-Bulgakova, who also lived in Kiev for some time and remembered those terrible years of constant changes of power and bloody events.

At the very beginning of the novel, the Turbins’ mother dies, bequeathing her children to live. “And they will have to suffer and die,” exclaims M.A. Bulgakov. However, the answer to the question of what to do in difficult times is given by the priest in the novel: “Despondency cannot be allowed... A great sin is despondency...”. “The White Guard” is to a certain extent an autobiographical work. It is known, for example, that the reason for writing the novel was the sudden death of M.A.’s own mother. Bulgakov Varvara Mikhailovna from typhus. The writer was very worried about this event; it was doubly difficult for him because he could not even come from Moscow to the funeral and say goodbye to his mother.

From the numerous artistic details in the novel, the everyday realities of that time emerge. “Revolutionary riding” (you drive for an hour and stand for two), Myshlaevsky’s dirtiest cambric shirt, frostbitten feet - all this eloquently testifies to the complete everyday 1 economic confusion in people’s lives. The deep experiences of socio-political conflicts were expressed in the portrait: 1 * the heroes of the novel: Elena and Talberg, before separation, even outwardly became haggard and aged.

The collapse of the established way of life of M.A. Bulgakov also shows the example of the interior of the Turbins’ house. Since childhood, the order familiar to the heroes with wall clocks, old red velvet furniture, a tiled stove, books, gold watches and silver - all this turns out to be in complete chaos when Talberg decides to run to Denikin. But still M.A. Bulgakov urges never to pull the lampshade off a lamp. He writes: “The lampshade is sacred. Never run like a rat into the unknown from danger. Read by the lampshade - let the blizzard howl - wait until they come to you.” However, Thalberg, a military man, tough and energetic, is not satisfied with the humble submission with which the author of the novel calls for approaching life's trials. Elena perceives Thalberg's flight as a betrayal. It is no coincidence that before leaving, he mentions that Elena has a passport in her maiden name. He seems to be renouncing his wife, although at the same time he is trying to convince her that he will return soon. As the plot develops further, we learn that Sergei went to Paris and got married again. Sister M.A. is considered the prototype of Elena. Bulgakova Varvara Afanasyevna (married to Karum). Thalberg is a well-known name in the world of music: in the nineteenth century there was a pianist in Austria, Sigmund Thalberg. The writer loved to use the sonorous names of famous musicians in his work (Rubinstein in “Fatal Eggs”, Berlioz and Stravinsky in the novel “The Master and Margarita”).

Exhausted people in the whirlwind of revolutionary events do not know what to believe and where to go. With pain in their souls, the Kiev officer society greets the news of the death of the royal family and, despite caution, sings the forbidden royal anthem. Out of despair, the officers drink half to death.

A terrifying story about life in Kyiv during the civil war is interspersed with memories of a past life that now look like an unaffordable luxury (for example, trips to the theater).

In 1918, Kyiv became a refuge for those who, fearing reprisals, left Moscow: bankers and homeowners, actors and artists, aristocrats and gendarmes. Describing the cultural life of Kiev, M.A. Bulgakov mentions the famous theater “Lilac Negro”, cafe “Maxim” and the decadent club “Prah” (in fact it was called “Trash” and was located in the basement of the Continental Hotel on Nikolaevskaya Street; many celebrities visited it: A. Averchenko , O. Mandelstam, K. Paustovsky, I. Ehrenburg and M. Bulgakov himself). “The city swelled, expanded, and rose like sourdough from a pot,” writes M.A. Bulgakov. The motive of escape outlined in the novel will become a cross-cutting motif for a number of the writer’s works. In “The White Guard,” as is clear from the title, for M.A. For Bulgakov, what is important, first of all, is the fate of the Russian officers during the years of the revolution and civil war, which for the most part lived with the concept of officer honor.

The author of the novel shows how people go berserk in the crucible of fierce trials. Having learned about the atrocities of the Petliurites, Alexei Turbin needlessly offends the newspaper boy and immediately feels the shame and absurdity of his action. However, most often the heroes of the novel remain true to their life values. It is no coincidence that Elena, when she learns that Alexei is hopeless and must die, lights a lamp in front of the old icon and prays. After this, the disease recedes. M.A. describes with admiration. Bulgakov is a noble act of Yulia Alexandrovna Reis, who, risking herself, saves the wounded Turbin.

The City can be considered a separate hero of the novel. The writer himself spent his best years in his native Kyiv. The city landscape in the novel amazes with its fabulous beauty (“All the energy of the city, accumulated during the sunny and pink summer, poured out in the light), is overgrown with hyperboles (“And there were so many gardens in the City as in no other city in the world”). M.A. Bulgakov widely uses ancient Kiev toponymy (Podol, Khreshchatyk), often mentions the sights of the city dear to every Kievite’s heart (Golden Gate, St. Sophia Cathedral, St. Michael’s Monastery). He calls Vladimirskaya Hill with the monument to Vladimir the best place in the world. Separate fragments of the city landscape so poetic that they resemble prose poems: “A sleepy slumber passed over the City, a cloudy white bird flew past Vladimir’s cross, fell beyond the Dnieper in the thick of the night and sailed along an iron arc.” And immediately this poetic picture is interrupted by a description of an armored train locomotive , angrily wheezing, with a blunt snout 76. In this contrast of war and peace, the cross-cutting image is Vladimir's cross - a symbol of Orthodoxy. At the end of the work, the illuminated cross visually turns into a threatening sword. And the writer encourages us to pay attention to the stars. Thus, the author moves from a specific historical perception of events to a generalized philosophical one.

The dream motif plays an important role in the novel. Dreams are seen in the work by Alexey, Elena, Vasilisa, the guard at the armored train and Petka Shcheglov. Dreams help expand the artistic space of the novel, characterize the era more deeply, and most importantly, they raise the theme of hope for the future, that after the bloody civil war the heroes will begin a new life.

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Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891–1940) - a writer with a difficult, tragic fate that influenced his work. Coming from an intelligent family, he did not accept the revolutionary changes and the reaction that followed them. The ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity imposed by the authoritarian state did not inspire him, because for him, a man with education and a high level of intelligence, the contrast between the demagoguery in the squares and the wave of red terror that swept Russia was obvious. He deeply felt the tragedy of the people and dedicated the novel “The White Guard” to it.

In the winter of 1923, Bulgakov began work on the novel “The White Guard,” which describes the events of the Ukrainian Civil War at the end of 1918, when Kyiv was occupied by the troops of the Directory, who overthrew the power of Hetman Pavel Skoropadsky. In December 1918, officers tried to defend the hetman's power, where Bulgakov was either enrolled as a volunteer or, according to other sources, was mobilized. Thus, the novel contains autobiographical features - even the number of the house in which the Bulgakov family lived during the capture of Kyiv by Petlyura is preserved - 13. In the novel, this number takes on a symbolic meaning. Andreevsky Descent, where the house is located, is called Alekseevsky in the novel, and Kyiv is simply called the City. The prototypes of the characters are the writer’s relatives, friends and acquaintances:

• Nikolka Turbin, for example, is Bulgakov’s younger brother Nikolai
• Dr. Alexey Turbin is a writer himself,
• Elena Turbina-Talberg - Varvara's younger sister
• Sergei Ivanovich Talberg - officer Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888 - 1968), who, however, did not go abroad like Talberg, but was ultimately exiled to Novosibirsk.
• The prototype of Larion Surzhansky (Lariosik) is a distant relative of the Bulgakovs, Nikolai Vasilyevich Sudzilovsky.
• The prototype of Myshlaevsky, according to one version - Bulgakov's childhood friend, Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky
• The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky is another friend of Bulgakov, who served in the hetman’s troops - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky (1898 - 1968).
• Colonel Felix Feliksovich Nai-Tours is a collective image. It consists of several prototypes - firstly, this is the white general Fyodor Arturovich Keller (1857 - 1918), who was killed by the Petliurists during the resistance and ordered the cadets to run and tear off their shoulder straps, realizing the meaninglessness of the battle, and secondly, this is Major General Nikolai of the Volunteer Army Vsevolodovich Shinkarenko (1890 – 1968).
• There was also a prototype from the cowardly engineer Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich (Vasilisa), from whom the Turbins rented the second floor of the house - architect Vasily Pavlovich Listovnichy (1876 - 1919).
• The prototype of the futurist Mikhail Shpolyansky is a major Soviet literary scholar and critic Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (1893 – 1984).
• The surname Turbina is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother.

However, it should also be noted that “The White Guard” is not a completely autobiographical novel. Some things are fictitious - for example, that the Turbins’ mother died. In fact, at that time, the Bulgakovs’ mother, who is the prototype of the heroine, lived in another house with her second husband. And there are fewer family members in the novel than the Bulgakovs actually had. The entire novel was first published in 1927–1929. in France.

About what?

The novel “The White Guard” is about the tragic fate of the intelligentsia during the difficult times of the revolution, after the assassination of Emperor Nicholas II. The book also tells about the difficult situation of officers who are ready to fulfill their duty to the fatherland in the conditions of a shaky, unstable political situation in the country. The White Guard officers were ready to defend the hetman's power, but the author poses the question: does this make sense if the hetman fled, leaving the country and its defenders to the mercy of fate?

Alexey and Nikolka Turbin are officers ready to defend their homeland and the former government, but before the cruel mechanism of the political system they (and people like them) find themselves powerless. Alexei is seriously wounded, and he is forced to fight not for his homeland or for the occupied city, but for his life, in which he is helped by the woman who saved him from death. And Nikolka runs away at the last moment, saved by Nai-Tours, who is killed. With all their desire to defend the fatherland, the heroes do not forget about family and home, about the sister left by her husband. The antagonist character in the novel is Captain Talberg, who, unlike the Turbin brothers, leaves his homeland and his wife in difficult times and goes to Germany.

In addition, “The White Guard” is a novel about the horrors, lawlessness and devastation that are happening in the city occupied by Petliura. Bandits with forged documents break into the house of engineer Lisovich and rob him, there is shooting in the streets, and the master of the kurennoy with his assistants - the “lads” - commit a cruel, bloody reprisal against the Jew, suspecting him of espionage.

In the finale, the city, captured by the Petliurists, is recaptured by the Bolsheviks. “The White Guard” clearly expresses a negative, negative attitude towards Bolshevism - as a destructive force that will ultimately wipe out everything holy and human from the face of the earth, and a terrible time will come. The novel ends with this thought.

The main characters and their characteristics

• Alexey Vasilievich Turbin- a twenty-eight-year-old doctor, a division doctor, who, paying a debt of honor to the fatherland, enters into a battle with the Petliurites when his unit was disbanded, since the fight was already pointless, but is seriously wounded and forced to flee. He falls ill with typhus, is on the verge of life and death, but ultimately survives.
• Nikolai Vasilievich Turbin(Nikolka) - a seventeen-year-old non-commissioned officer, Alexei’s younger brother, ready to fight to the last with the Petliurists for the fatherland and hetman’s power, but at the insistence of the colonel he runs away, tearing off his insignia, since the battle no longer makes sense (the Petliurists captured the City, and the hetman escaped). Nikolka then helps her sister care for the wounded Alexei.
• Elena Vasilievna Turbina-Talberg(Elena the redhead) is a twenty-four-year-old married woman who was left by her husband. She worries and prays for both brothers participating in hostilities, waits for her husband and secretly hopes that he will return.
• Sergei Ivanovich Talberg- captain, husband of Elena the Red, unstable in his political views, who changes them depending on the situation in the city (acts on the principle of a weather vane), for which the Turbins, true to their views, do not respect him. As a result, he leaves his home, his wife and leaves for Germany by night train.
• Leonid Yurievich Shervinsky- lieutenant of the guard, a dapper lancer, admirer of Elena the Red, friend of the Turbins, believes in the support of the allies and says that he himself saw the sovereign.
• Victor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky- lieutenant, another friend of the Turbins, loyal to the fatherland, honor and duty. In the novel, one of the first harbingers of the Petliura occupation, a participant in the battle a few kilometers from the City. When the Petliurists break into the City, Myshlaevsky takes the side of those who want to disband the mortar division so as not to destroy the lives of the cadets, and wants to set fire to the building of the cadet gymnasium so that it does not fall to the enemy.
• crucian carp- a friend of the Turbins, a restrained, honest officer, who, during the dissolution of the mortar division, joins those who disband the cadets, takes the side of Myshlaevsky and Colonel Malyshev, who proposed such a way out.
• Felix Feliksovich Nai-Tours- a colonel who is not afraid to defy the general and disbands the cadets at the moment of the capture of the City by Petliura. He himself dies heroically in front of Nikolka Turbina. For him, more valuable than the power of the deposed hetman is the life of the cadets - young people who were almost sent to the last senseless battle with the Petliurists, but he hastily disbands them, forcing them to tear off their insignia and destroy documents. Nai-Tours in the novel is the image of an ideal officer, for whom not only the fighting qualities and honor of his brothers in arms are valuable, but also their lives.
• Lariosik (Larion Surzhansky)- a distant relative of the Turbins, who came to them from the provinces, going through a divorce from his wife. Clumsy, a bungler, but good-natured, he loves to be in the library and keeps a canary in a cage.
• Yulia Alexandrovna Reiss- a woman who saves the wounded Alexei Turbin, and he begins an affair with her.
• Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich (Vasilisa)- a cowardly engineer, a housewife from whom the Turbins rent the second floor of his house. He is a hoarder, lives with his greedy wife Wanda, hides valuables in secret places. As a result, he is robbed by bandits. He got his nickname, Vasilisa, because due to the unrest in the city in 1918, he began to sign documents in a different handwriting, abbreviating his first and last name as follows: “You. Fox."
• Petliurites in the novel - only gears in a global political upheaval, which entails irreversible consequences.

Subjects

1. Theme of moral choice. The central theme is the situation of the White Guards, who are forced to choose whether to participate in meaningless battles for the power of the escaped hetman or still save their lives. The Allies do not come to the rescue, and the city is captured by the Petliurists, and, ultimately, by the Bolsheviks - a real force that threatens the old way of life and political system.
2. Political instability. Events unfold after the events of the October Revolution and the execution of Nicholas II, when the Bolsheviks seized power in St. Petersburg and continued to strengthen their positions. The Petliurists who captured Kyiv (in the novel - the City) are weak in front of the Bolsheviks, as are the White Guards. “The White Guard” is a tragic novel about how the intelligentsia and everything connected with them perish.
3. The novel contains biblical motifs, and in order to enhance their sound, the author introduces the image of a patient obsessed with the Christian religion who comes to doctor Alexei Turbin for treatment. The novel begins with a countdown from the Nativity of Christ, and just before the end, lines from the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian. That is, the fate of the City, captured by the Petliurists and Bolsheviks, is compared in the novel with the Apocalypse.

Christian symbols

• A crazy patient who came to Turbin for an appointment calls the Bolsheviks “angels,” and Petliura was released from cell No. 666 (in the Revelation of John the Theologian - the number of the Beast, the Antichrist).
• The house on Alekseevsky Spusk is No. 13, and this number, as is known in popular superstitions, is the “devil’s dozen”, an unlucky number, and various misfortunes befall the Turbins’ house - the parents die, the older brother receives a mortal wound and barely survives, and Elena is abandoned and the husband betrays (and betrayal is a trait of Judas Iscariot).
• The novel contains the image of the Mother of God, to whom Elena prays and asks to save Alexei from death. In the terrible time described in the novel, Elena experiences similar experiences as the Virgin Mary, but not for her son, but for her brother, who ultimately overcomes death like Christ.
• Also in the novel there is a theme of equality before God's court. Everyone is equal before him - both the White Guards and the soldiers of the Red Army. Alexey Turbin has a dream about heaven - how Colonel Nai-Tours, white officers and Red Army soldiers get there: they are all destined to go to heaven as those who fell on the battlefield, but God doesn’t care whether they believe in him or not. Justice, according to the novel, exists only in heaven, and on the sinful earth atheism, blood, and violence reign under red five-pointed stars.

Issues

The problematic of the novel “The White Guard” is the hopeless, plight of the intelligentsia, as a class alien to the winners. Their tragedy is the drama of the entire country, because without the intellectual and cultural elite, Russia will not be able to develop harmoniously.

• Dishonor and cowardice. If the Turbins, Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Karas, Nai-Tours are unanimous and are going to defend the fatherland to the last drop of blood, then Talberg and the hetman prefer to flee like rats from a sinking ship, and individuals like Vasily Lisovich are cowardly, cunning and adapt to existing conditions.
• Also, one of the main problems of the novel is the choice between moral duty and life. The question is posed bluntly - is there any point in honorably defending a government that dishonorably leaves the fatherland in the most difficult times for it, and there is an answer to this very question: there is no point, in this case life is put in first place.
• The split of Russian society. In addition, the problem in the work “The White Guard” lies in the attitude of the people to what is happening. The people do not support the officers and White Guards and, in general, take the side of the Petliurists, because on the other side there is lawlessness and permissiveness.
• Civil War. The novel contrasts three forces - the White Guards, Petliurists and Bolsheviks, and one of them is only intermediate, temporary - the Petliurists. The fight against the Petliurists will not be able to have such a strong impact on the course of history as the fight between the White Guards and the Bolsheviks - two real forces, one of which will lose and sink into oblivion forever - this is the White Guard.

Meaning

In general, the meaning of the novel “The White Guard” is struggle. The struggle between courage and cowardice, honor and dishonor, good and evil, God and the devil. Courage and honor are the Turbins and their friends, Nai-Tours, Colonel Malyshev, who disbanded the cadets and did not allow them to die. Cowardice and dishonor, opposed to them, are the hetman, Talberg, staff captain Studzinsky, who, afraid to violate the order, was going to arrest Colonel Malyshev because he wants to disband the cadets.

Ordinary citizens who do not participate in hostilities are also assessed in the novel according to the same criteria: honor, courage - cowardice, dishonor. For example, female characters - Elena, waiting for her husband who left her, Irina Nai-Tours, who was not afraid to go with Nikolka to the anatomical theater for the body of her murdered brother, Yulia Aleksandrovna Reiss - this is the personification of honor, courage, determination - and Wanda, the wife of engineer Lisovich, stingy, greedy for things - personifies cowardice, baseness. And engineer Lisovich himself is petty, cowardly and stingy. Lariosik, despite all his clumsiness and absurdity, is humane and gentle, this is a character who personifies, if not courage and determination, then simply kindness and kindness - qualities that are so lacking in people at that cruel time described in the novel.

Another meaning of the novel “The White Guard” is that those who are close to God are not those who officially serve him - not churchmen, but those who, even in a bloody and merciless time, when evil descended to earth, retained the grains of humanity in themselves, and even if they are Red Army soldiers. This is told in Alexei Turbin’s dream - a parable from the novel “The White Guard”, in which God explains that the White Guards will go to their paradise, with church floors, and the Red Army soldiers will go to theirs, with red stars, because both believed in the offensive good for the fatherland, albeit in different ways. But the essence of both is the same, despite the fact that they are on different sides. But the churchmen, “servants of God,” according to this parable, will not go to heaven, since many of them departed from the truth. Thus, the essence of the novel “The White Guard” is that humanity (goodness, honor, God, courage) and inhumanity (evil, devil, dishonor, cowardice) will always fight for power over this world. And it doesn’t matter under what banners this struggle will take place - white or red, but on the side of evil there will always be violence, cruelty and base qualities, which must be opposed by goodness, mercy, and honesty. In this eternal struggle, it is important to choose not the convenient, but the right side.

M.A. Bulgakov twice, in two different works of his, recalls how his work on the novel “The White Guard” (1925) began. The hero of the “Theatrical Novel” Maksudov says: “It was born at night when I woke up after a sad dream. I dreamed of my hometown, snow, winter, the Civil War... In my dream, a silent blizzard passed in front of me, and then an old piano appeared and near it people who were no longer in the world.” The story “To a Secret Friend” contains other details: “I pulled my barracks lamp as far as possible to the table and put a pink paper cap on top of its green cap, which made the paper come to life. On it I wrote the words: “And the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds.” Then he began to write, not yet knowing very well what would come of it. I remember that I really wanted to convey how good it is when it’s warm at home, the clock chiming like a tower in the dining room, sleepy slumber in bed, books and frost...” With this mood, Bulgakov began to create a new novel.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov began writing the novel “The White Guard,” the most important book for Russian literature, in 1822.

In 1922–1924, Bulgakov wrote articles for the newspaper “Nakanune”, constantly published in the newspaper of railway workers “Gudok”, where he met I. Babel, I. Ilf, E. Petrov, V. Kataev, Yu. Olesha. According to Bulgakov himself, the concept of the novel “The White Guard” was finally formed in 1922. During this time, several important events in his personal life occurred: during the first three months of this year, he received news of the fate of his brothers, whom he never saw again, and a telegram about the sudden death of his mother from typhus. During this period, the terrible impressions of the Kyiv years received additional impetus for embodiment in creativity.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Bulgakov planned to create a whole trilogy, and spoke about his favorite book like this: “I consider my novel a failure, although I distinguish it from my other things, because I took the idea very seriously.” And what we now call the “White Guard” was conceived as the first part of the trilogy and initially bore the names “Yellow Ensign”, “Midnight Cross” and “White Cross”: “The action of the second part should take place on the Don, and in the third part Myshlaevsky will end up in the ranks of the Red Army." Signs of this plan can be found in the text of The White Guard. But Bulgakov did not write a trilogy, leaving it to Count A.N. Tolstoy (“Walking through Torment”). And the theme of “flight”, emigration, in “The White Guard” is only outlined in the story of Thalberg’s departure and in the episode of reading Bunin’s “The Gentleman from San Francisco”.

The novel was created in an era of greatest material need. The writer worked at night in an unheated room, worked impetuously and enthusiastically, and was terribly tired: “The third life. And my third life blossomed at the desk. The pile of sheets kept swelling. I wrote with both pencil and ink.” Subsequently, the author returned to his favorite novel more than once, reliving the past. In one of the entries dating back to 1923, Bulgakov noted: “And I will finish the novel, and, I dare to assure you, it will be the kind of novel that will make the sky feel hot...” And in 1925 he wrote: “It will be a terrible pity, if I’m mistaken and the “White Guard” is not a strong thing.” On August 31, 1923, Bulgakov informed Yu. Slezkine: “I finished the novel, but it has not yet been rewritten, it lies in a heap, over which I think a lot. I’m fixing something.” This was a draft version of the text, which is mentioned in the “Theatrical Novel”: “The novel takes a long time to edit. It is necessary to cross out many places, replace hundreds of words with others. A lot of work, but necessary!” Bulgakov was not satisfied with his work, crossed out dozens of pages, created new editions and variants. But at the beginning of 1924, I already read excerpts from “The White Guard” from the writer S. Zayaitsky and from my new friends the Lyamins, considering the book finished.

The first known mention of the completion of the novel dates back to March 1924. The novel was published in the 4th and 5th books of the Rossiya magazine in 1925. But the 6th issue with the final part of the novel was not published. According to researchers, the novel "The White Guard" was written after the premiere of "Days of the Turbins" (1926) and the creation of "Run" (1928). The text of the last third of the novel, corrected by the author, was published in 1929 by the Parisian publishing house Concorde. The full text of the novel was published in Paris: volume one (1927), volume two (1929).

Due to the fact that “The White Guard” was not completed publication in the USSR, and foreign publications of the late 20s were not readily available in the writer’s homeland, Bulgakov’s first novel did not receive much attention from the press. The famous critic A. Voronsky (1884–1937) at the end of 1925 called The White Guard, together with Fatal Eggs, works of “outstanding literary quality.” The response to this statement was a sharp attack by the head of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP) L. Averbakh (1903–1939) in the Rapp organ - the magazine “At the Literary Post”. Later, the production of the play “Days of the Turbins” based on the novel “The White Guard” at the Moscow Art Theater in the fall of 1926 turned the attention of critics to this work, and the novel itself was forgotten.

K. Stanislavsky, worried about the censorship of “The Days of the Turbins,” originally called, like the novel, “The White Guard,” strongly advised Bulgakov to abandon the epithet “white,” which seemed openly hostile to many. But the writer treasured this very word. He agreed with the “cross”, and with “December”, and with “buran” instead of “guard”, but he did not want to give up the definition of “white”, seeing in it a sign of the special moral purity of his beloved heroes, their belonging to the Russian intelligentsia as parts of the best stratum in the country.

"The White Guard" is a largely autobiographical novel based on the writer's personal impressions of Kyiv at the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919. The members of the Turbin family reflected the characteristic features of Bulgakov’s relatives. Turbiny is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother on his mother’s side. No manuscripts of the novel have survived. The prototypes of the novel's heroes were Bulgakov's Kyiv friends and acquaintances. Lieutenant Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky was copied from his childhood friend Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky.

The prototype for Lieutenant Shervinsky was another friend of Bulgakov’s youth, Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer (this quality passed on to the character), who served in the troops of Hetman Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky (1873–1945), but not as an adjutant. Then he emigrated. The prototype of Elena Talberg (Turbina) was Bulgakov’s sister, Varvara Afanasyevna. Captain Talberg, her husband, has many similarities with Varvara Afanasyevna Bulgakova’s husband, Leonid Sergeevich Karuma (1888–1968), a German by birth, a career officer who served first Skoropadsky and then the Bolsheviks.

The prototype of Nikolka Turbin was one of the brothers M.A. Bulgakov. The writer’s second wife, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya-Bulgakova, wrote in her book “Memoirs”: “One of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s brothers (Nikolai) was also a doctor. It’s the personality of my younger brother, Nikolai, that I want to dwell on. The noble and cozy little man Nikolka Turbin has always been dear to my heart (especially in the novel “The White Guard”. In the play “Days of the Turbins” he is much more sketchy.). In my life I never managed to see Nikolai Afanasyevich Bulgakov. This is the youngest representative of the profession favored by the Bulgakov family - doctor of medicine, bacteriologist, scientist and researcher, who died in Paris in 1966. He studied at the University of Zagreb and was assigned to the department of bacteriology there.”
The novel was created at a difficult time for the country. Young Soviet Russia, which did not have a regular army, found itself embroiled in the Civil War. The dreams of the traitor hetman Mazepa, whose name was not accidentally mentioned in Bulgakov’s novel, came true. The “White Guard” is based on events related to the consequences of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, according to which Ukraine was recognized as an independent state, the “Ukrainian State” was created led by Hetman Skoropadsky, and refugees from all over Russia rushed “abroad.” Bulgakov clearly described their social status in the novel.

The philosopher Sergei Bulgakov, the writer’s cousin, in his book “At the Feast of the Gods” described the death of his homeland as follows: “There was a mighty power, needed by friends, terrible by enemies, and now it is rotting carrion, from which piece by piece falls off to the delight of the crows that have flown in. In place of a sixth of the world there was a stinking, gaping hole...” Mikhail Afanasyevich agreed with his uncle in many respects. And it is no coincidence that this terrible picture is reflected in the article by M.A. Bulgakov “Hot Prospects” (1919). Studzinsky speaks about this in his play “Days of the Turbins”: “Russia was a great power...” So for Bulgakov, an optimist and talented satirist, despair and grief became the starting points in creating a book of hope. It is this definition that most accurately reflects the content of the novel “The White Guard.” In the book “At the Feast of the Gods,” the writer found another thought closer and more interesting: “What Russia will become depends largely on how the intelligentsia determines itself.” Bulgakov's heroes are painfully searching for the answer to this question.

“You have to love your heroes; if this does not happen, I do not advise anyone to take up the pen - you will get into the biggest troubles, so you know,” says the “Theatrical Novel”, and this is the main law of Bulgakov’s work. In the novel "The White Guard" he talks about white officers and intelligentsia as ordinary people, reveals their young world of soul, charm, intelligence and strength, and shows their enemies as living people.

The literary community refused to recognize the novel's merits. Out of almost three hundred reviews, Bulgakov counted only three positive ones, and classified the rest as “hostile and abusive.” The writer received rude comments. In one of the articles, Bulgakov was called “a new bourgeois scum, splashing poisoned but powerless saliva on the working class, on its communist ideals.”

“Class untruth”, “a cynical attempt to idealize the White Guard”, “an attempt to reconcile the reader with the monarchical, Black Hundred officers”, “hidden counter-revolutionism” - this is not a complete list of characteristics that were given to the “White Guard” by those who believed that the main thing in literature is the political position of the writer, his attitude towards the “whites” and “reds”.

One of the main motives of the “White Guard” is faith in life and its victorious power. Therefore, this book, considered banned for several decades, found its reader, found a second life in all the richness and splendor of Bulgakov’s living word. Kiev writer Viktor Nekrasov, who read The White Guard in the 60s, quite rightly noted: “Nothing, it turns out, has faded, nothing has become outdated. It was as if these forty years had never happened... before our eyes an obvious miracle happened, something that happens very rarely in literature and not to everyone - a rebirth took place.” The life of the novel's heroes continues today, but in a different direction.

An analysis of Bulgakov's "The White Guard" allows us to examine in detail his first novel in his creative biography. It describes the events that took place in 1918 in Ukraine during the Civil War. The story is about a family of intellectuals who are trying to survive in the face of serious social cataclysms in the country.

History of writing

The analysis of Bulgakov's "The White Guard" should begin with the history of the work. The author began working on it in 1923. It is known that there were several variations of the name. Bulgakov also chose between the “White Cross” and the “Midnight Cross”. He himself admitted that he loved the novel more than his other works, promising that it would “make the sky hot.”

His acquaintances recalled that he wrote “The White Guard” at night, when his feet and hands were cold, asking those around him to warm the water in which he warmed them.

Moreover, the beginning of work on the novel coincided with one of the most difficult periods in his life. At that time he was frankly in poverty, there was not enough money even for food, his clothes were falling apart. Bulgakov looked for one-time orders, wrote feuilletons, performed the duties of a proofreader, while trying to find time for his novel.

In August 1923, he reported that he had completed the draft. In February 1924, one can find references to the fact that Bulgakov began reading excerpts from the work to his friends and acquaintances.

Publication of the work

In April 1924, Bulgakov entered into an agreement to publish the novel with the Rossiya magazine. The first chapters were published about a year after this. However, only the initial 13 chapters were published, after which the magazine closed. The novel was first published as a separate book in Paris in 1927.

In Russia, the entire text was published only in 1966. The manuscript of the novel has not survived, so it is still unknown what the canonical text was.

In our time, this is one of the most famous works of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, which has been repeatedly filmed and staged on the stage of drama theaters. It is considered one of the most significant and beloved works by many generations in the career of this famous writer.

The action takes place at the turn of 1918-1919. Their place is an unnamed City, in which Kyiv is guessed. To analyze the novel "The White Guard" it is important where the main action takes place. There are German occupation troops in the City, but everyone is waiting for Petliura’s army to appear; the fighting continues just a few kilometers from the City itself.

On the streets, residents are surrounded by an unnatural and very strange life. There are many visitors from St. Petersburg and Moscow, among them journalists, businessmen, poets, lawyers, bankers, who flocked to the City after the election of its hetman in the spring of 1918.

At the center of the story is the Turbin family. The head of the family is the doctor Alexey, his younger brother Nikolka, who has the rank of non-commissioned officer, his sister Elena, as well as friends of the whole family - lieutenants Myshlaevsky and Shervinsky, second lieutenant Stepanov, whom those around him call Karasem, are having dinner with him. Everyone is discussing the fate and future of their beloved City.

Alexei Turbin believes that the hetman is to blame for everything, who began to pursue a policy of Ukranization, not allowing the formation of the Russian army until the last time. And if If the army had been formed, it would have been able to defend the City; Petliura’s troops would not now be standing under its walls.

Elena’s husband, Sergei Talberg, an officer of the general staff, is also present here, who announces to his wife that the Germans are planning to leave the city, so they need to leave today on the headquarters train. Talberg assures that in the coming months he will return back with Denikin’s army. Just at this time she is going to the Don.

Russian military formations

To protect the city from Petliura, Russian military formations are formed in the City. Turbin Sr., Myshlaevsky and Karas go to serve under the command of Colonel Malyshev. But the formed division disbands the very next night, when it becomes known that the hetman fled from the City on a German train along with General Belorukov. The division has no one left to protect, since there is no legal authority left.

At the same time, Colonel Nai-Tours was instructed to form a separate detachment. He threatens the head of the supply department with weapons, because he considers it impossible to fight without winter equipment. As a result, his cadets receive the necessary hats and felt boots.

On December 14, Petlyura attacks the City. The colonel receives direct orders to defend the Polytechnic Highway and, if necessary, take the fight. In the midst of another battle, he sends a small detachment to find out where the hetman’s units are. The messengers return with the news that there are no units, machine guns are being fired in the area, and the enemy’s cavalry is already in the City.

Death of Nai-Tours

Shortly before this, Corporal Nikolai Turbin is ordered to lead the team along a certain route. Arriving at their destination, the younger Turbin watches the fleeing cadets and hears Nai-Tours’ command to get rid of shoulder straps and weapons and immediately hide.

At the same time, the colonel covers the retreating cadets to the last. He dies in front of Nikolai. Shocked, Turbin makes his way through the alleys to the house.

In an abandoned building

Meanwhile, Alexey Turbin, who was unaware of the dissolution of the division, appears at the appointed place and time, where he discovers a building with a large number of abandoned weapons. Only Malyshev explains to him what is happening around him, the city is in the hands of Petlyura.

Alexey gets rid of his shoulder straps and makes his way home, encountering a detachment of the enemy. The soldiers recognize him as an officer because he still has a badge on his hat, and they begin to chase him. Alexey is wounded in the arm, he is saved by an unfamiliar woman, whose name is Yulia Reise.

In the morning, a girl takes Turbin home in a cab.

Relative from Zhitomir

At this time, Talberg’s cousin Larion, who had recently experienced a personal tragedy: his wife left him, comes to visit the Turbins from Zhitomir. Lariosik, as everyone is beginning to call him, likes the Turbins, and the family finds him very nice.

The owner of the building in which the Turbins live is called Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich. Before Petlyura enters the city, Vasilisa, as everyone calls him, builds a hiding place in which she hides jewelry and money. But a stranger spied on his actions through the window. Soon, unknown people show up to him, they immediately find a hiding place, and take with them other valuable things from the house management.

Only when the uninvited guests leave does Vasilisa realize that in reality they were ordinary bandits. He runs for help to the Turbins so that they can save him from a possible new attack. Karas is sent to their rescue, for whom Vasilisa’s wife Vanda Mikhailovna, who has always been stingy, immediately puts veal and cognac on the table. The crucian carp eats its fill and remains to protect the safety of the family.

Nikolka with Nai-Tours' relatives

Three days later, Nikolka manages to get the address of Colonel Nai-Tours’ family. He goes to his mother and sister. Young Turbin talks about the last minutes of the officer’s life. Together with his sister Irina, he goes to the morgue, finds the body and arranges a funeral service.

At this time, Alexey's condition worsens. His wound becomes inflamed and typhus begins. Turbin is delirious and has a high temperature. A council of doctors decides that the patient will soon die. At first, everything develops according to the worst scenario, the patient begins to go into agony. Elena prays, locking herself in her bedroom, to save her brother from death. Soon the doctor, who is on duty at the patient’s bedside, reports with amazement that Alexey is conscious and on the mend, the crisis has passed.

A few weeks later, having finally recovered, Alexey goes to Yulia, who saved him from certain death. He gives her a bracelet that once belonged to his deceased mother, and then asks permission to visit her. On the way back, he meets Nikolka, who is returning from Irina Nai-Tours.

Elena Turbina receives a letter from her Warsaw friend, who talks about Talberg's upcoming marriage to their mutual friend. The novel ends with Elena remembering her prayer, which she has addressed more than once. On the night of February 3, Petliura’s troops leave the City. Red Army artillery thunders in the distance. She approaches the city.

Artistic features of the novel

When analyzing Bulgakov's "The White Guard", it should be noted that the novel is certainly autobiographical. For almost all characters you can find prototypes in real life. These are friends, relatives or acquaintances of Bulgakov and his family, as well as iconic military and political figures of that time. Bulgakov even chose the surnames for the heroes, only slightly changing the surnames of real people.

Many researchers have analyzed the novel “The White Guard”. They managed to trace the fate of the characters with almost documentary accuracy. In the analysis of Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard", many emphasize that the events of the work unfold in the scenery of real Kyiv, which was well known to the author.

Symbolism of the "White Guard"

Carrying out even a brief analysis of The White Guard, it should be noted that symbols are key in the works. For example, in the City one can guess the writer’s small homeland, and the house coincides with the real house in which the Bulgakov family lived until 1918.

To analyze the work "The White Guard" it is important to understand even symbols that are insignificant at first glance. The lamp symbolizes the closed world and comfort that reigns among the Turbins, the snow is a vivid image of the Civil War and Revolution. Another symbol important for analyzing Bulgakov’s work “The White Guard” is the cross on the monument dedicated to St. Vladimir. It symbolizes the sword of war and civil terror. Analysis of the images of the "White Guard" helps to better understand what he wanted tell the author of this work.

Allusions in the novel

To analyze Bulgakov's "The White Guard" it is important to study the allusions with which it is filled. Let's give just a few examples. So, Nikolka, who comes to the morgue, personifies the journey to the afterlife. The horror and inevitability of the upcoming events, the approaching Apocalypse to the city can be traced by the appearance in the city of Shpolyansky, who is considered the “forerunner of Satan”; the reader should have a clear impression that the kingdom of the Antichrist will soon come.

To analyze the heroes of The White Guard, it is very important to understand these clues.

Dream Turbine

Turbin's dream occupies one of the central places in the novel. Analysis of The White Guard is often based on this episode of the novel. In the first part of the work, his dreams are a kind of prophecies. In the first, he sees a nightmare that declares that Holy Rus' is a poor country, and honor for a Russian person is an exclusively unnecessary burden.

Right in his sleep, he tries to shoot the nightmare that torments him, but it disappears. Researchers believe that the subconscious convinces Turbin to escape from the city and go into exile, but in reality he does not even allow the thought of escape.

Turbin’s next dream already has a tragicomic connotation. He is an even clearer prophecy of future events. Alexey dreams of Colonel Nai-Tours and Sergeant Zhilin, who went to heaven. In a humorous manner, it is told how Zhilin got to heaven on the wagon trains, but the Apostle Peter let them through.

Turbin's dreams acquire key significance at the end of the novel. Alexey sees how Alexander I destroys the lists of divisions, as if erasing from the memory of white officers, most of whom are dead by that time.

Afterwards Turbin sees his own death on Malo-Provalnaya. It is believed that this episode is associated with the resurrection of Alexei, which occurred after an illness. Bulgakov often invested great importance in the dreams of his heroes.

We analyzed Bulgakov's "White Guard". A summary is also presented in the review. The article can help students when studying this work or writing an essay.