White Guard heroes and their characteristics. White Guard - list of roles and very brief description of characters

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov attaches special importance to female images in the novel, although this is not so easy to notice. All the male heroes of “The White Guard” are in one way or another connected with the historical events unfolding in the City and in Ukraine as a whole; we perceive them as nothing other than active characters in the civil war. The men of the “White Guard” are endowed with the ability to reflect on political events, take decisive steps, and defend their beliefs with arms in hand. The writer assigns a completely different role to his heroines: Elena Turbina, Julia Reiss, Irina Nai-Tours. These women, despite the fact that death hovers around them, remain almost indifferent to events, and in the novel they are actually concerned only with their personal lives. The most interesting thing is that in The White Guard there is, in general, no love in the classical literary sense. Several windy novels unfold before us, worthy of descriptions in “tabloid” literature. Mikhail Afanasyevich portrays women as frivolous partners in these novels. The only exception, perhaps, is Anyuta, but her love with Myshlaevsky also ends quite “tabloid”: as evidenced by one of the options in the 19th chapter of the novel, Viktor Viktorovich takes his beloved away to have an abortion.

Some rather frank expressions that Mikhail Afanasyevich uses in general female characteristics clearly make us understand the writer’s somewhat disdainful attitude towards women as such. Bulgakov does not make a distinction even between representatives of the aristocracy and workers of the oldest profession in the world, reducing their qualities to one denominator. Here are some general phrases about them we can read: “Cocottes. Honest ladies from aristocratic families. Their gentle daughters, pale St. Petersburg libertines with painted carmine lips”; “Prostitutes walked past, in green, red, black and white caps, beautiful, like dolls, and cheerfully muttered to the screw: “Did you smell your mother?” Thus, the reader, inexperienced in “women’s” issues, having read the novel, may well conclude that aristocrats and prostitutes are one and the same.

Elena Turbina, Yulia Reiss and Irina Nai-Tours are completely different women in character and life experience. Irina Nai-Tours seems to us to be an 18-year-old young lady, the same age as Nikolka, who has not yet known all the delights and disappointments of love, but has a large supply of girlish flirtation capable of charming a young man. Elena Turbina, a 24-year-old married woman, is also endowed with charm, but she is simpler and more accessible. In front of Shervinsky, she does not “break” comedies, but behaves honestly. Finally, the most complex woman in character, Julia Reiss, who managed to be married, is a flamboyant hypocrite and selfish person who lives for her own pleasure.

All three women mentioned not only have differences in life experience and age. They represent the three most common types of female psychology, which Mikhail Afanasyevich has probably encountered

Bulgakov. All three heroines have their own real prototypes, with whom the writer, apparently, not only communicated spiritually, but also had affairs or was related. Actually, we will talk about each of the women separately.

The sister of Alexei and Nikolai Turbins, “Golden” Elena, is depicted by the writer, as it seems to us, as the most trivial woman, the type of which is quite common. As can be seen from the novel, Elena Turbina belongs to the quiet and calm “homely” women who, with the appropriate attitude from a man, are capable of being faithful to him until the end of their lives. True, for such women, as a rule, the very fact of having a man is important, and not his moral or physical merits. In a man, they first of all see the father of their child, a certain support in life, and, finally, an integral attribute of the family of a patriarchal society. That is why such women, much less eccentric and emotional, more easily cope with betrayal or the loss of a man for whom they immediately try to find a replacement. Such women are very convenient for starting a family, since their actions are predictable, if not 100, then 90 percent. In addition, being a homebody and caring for offspring largely makes these women blind in life, which allows their husbands to go about their business and even have affairs without much fear. These women, as a rule, are naive, stupid, rather limited and of little interest to men who love thrills. At the same time, such women can be acquired quite easily, since they take any flirting at face value. Nowadays there are a lot of such women, they get married early, and to men older than them, give birth to children early and lead, in our opinion, a boring, tedious and uninteresting lifestyle. These women consider the main merit in life to be the creation of a family, “continuation of the family,” which is what they initially make their main goal.

There is plenty of evidence in the novel that Elena Turbina is exactly as we described. All her advantages, by and large, boil down to the fact that she knows how to create comfort in the Turbins’ house and perform household functions in a timely manner: “The tablecloth, despite the guns and all this languor, anxiety and nonsense, is white and starchy. This from Elena, who cannot do otherwise, this is from Anyuta, who grew up in the Turbins' house. The floors are shiny, and in December, now, on the table, in a matte, columnar vase, there are blue hydrangeas and two gloomy and sultry roses, affirming the beauty and strength of life..." . Bulgakov did not have any exact characteristics in store for Elena - she is simple, and her simplicity is visible in everything. The action of the novel “The White Guard” actually begins with a scene of Thalberg’s waiting: “In Elena’s eyes there is melancholy (not anxiety and worries, not jealousy and resentment, but melancholy - T.Ya.’s note), and the strands, covered with a reddish fire, sadly drooped.” .

Even her husband’s rapid departure abroad did not bring Elena out of this state. She showed no emotions at all, she just listened sadly, “she grew old and ugly.” To drown out her melancholy, Elena did not go to her room to sob, fight in hysterics, take out her anger on relatives and guests, but began to drink wine with her brothers and listen to the admirer who appeared instead of her husband. Despite the fact that there were no quarrels between Elena and her husband Thalberg, she still began to respond gently to the attentions shown to her by her admirer Shervinsky. As it turned out at the end of The White Guard, Talberg left not for Germany, but for Warsaw, and not in order to continue the fight against the Bolsheviks, but to marry a certain mutual acquaintance, Lidochka Hertz. Thus, Thalberg had an affair that his wife did not even suspect. But even in this case, Elena Turbina, who seemed to love Talberg, did not make a tragedy, but completely switched to Shervinsky: “And Shervinsky? Oh, the devil knows... That’s punishment with the women. Elena will definitely contact him, absolutely... And "What's good? Except maybe the voice? The voice is excellent, but in the end, you can listen to the voice without getting married, isn't it... However, it doesn't matter."

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov himself, although he objectively assessed the life credo of his wives, always focused on precisely this type of woman as the one described by Elena Turbina. Actually, in many ways this was the writer’s second wife, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, who considered her given “from the people.” Here are some characteristics dedicated to Belozerskaya that we can find in Bulgakov’s diary in December 1924: “My wife helps me a lot with these thoughts. I noticed that when she walks, she sways. This is terribly stupid given my plans, but it seems "I'm in love with her. But one thought interests me. Would she adapt just as comfortably to anyone, or is it selective, for me?" “It’s a terrible state, I’m falling more and more in love with my wife. It’s such a shame - I’ve been denying my own for ten years... Women are like women. And now I’m even humiliating myself to the point of slight jealousy. She’s somehow sweet and sweet. And fat.” By the way, as you know, Mikhail Bulgakov dedicated the novel “The White Guard” to his second wife, Lyubov Belozerskaya.

The debate about whether Elena Turbina has her historical prototypes has been going on for a very long time. By analogy with the parallel Talberg - Karum, a similar parallel Elena Turbina - Varvara Bulgakova is drawn. As you know, Mikhail Bulgakov’s sister Varvara Afanasyevna was really married to Leonid Karum, depicted in the novel as Talberg. The Bulgakov brothers did not like Karum, which explains the creation of such an unpleasant image of Thalberg. In this case, Varvara Bulgakova is considered the prototype of Elena Turbina only because she was Karum’s wife. Of course, the argument is weighty, but Varvara Afanasyevna’s character was very different from Elena Turbina. Even before meeting Karum, Varvara Bulgakova could well have found a mate. Nor was it as accessible as the Turbine. As you know, there is a version that because of her, Mikhail Bulgakov’s close friend Boris Bogdanov, a very worthy young man, committed suicide at one time. In addition, Varvara Afanasyevna sincerely loved Leonid Sergeevich Karum, helped him even during the years of repression, when it was worth caring not about her arrested husband, but about her children, and followed him into exile. It is very difficult for us to imagine Varvara Bulgakova in the role of Turbina, who, out of boredom, does not know what to do with herself, and after her husband leaves, starts an affair with the first man she comes across.

There is also a version that all of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s sisters are in one way or another connected with the image of Elena Turbina. This version is based mainly on the similarity of the name of Bulgakov’s younger sister and the heroine of the novel, as well as some other external features. However, this version, in our opinion, is erroneous, since Bulgakov’s four sisters were all individuals who, unlike Elena Turbina, had their own oddities and quirks. Mikhail Afanasyevich’s sisters are in many ways similar to other types of women, but not like the one we are considering. All of them were very picky in choosing a mate, and their husbands were educated, purposeful and enthusiastic people. Moreover, all the husbands of Mikhail Afanasyevich’s sisters were associated with the humanities, which even in those days, in the gray environment of domestic scum, were considered the lot of women.

To be honest, it is very difficult to argue about the prototypes of Elena Turbina’s image. But if we compare the psychological portraits of literary images and women surrounding Bulgakov, we can say that Elena Turbina is very similar... to the writer’s mother, who devoted her entire life only to her family: men, everyday life and children.

Irina Nai-Tours also has a psychological portrait that is quite typical for 17-18-year-old representatives of the female half of society. In the developing novel between Irina and Nikolai Turbin, we can notice some personal details, taken by the writer, probably from the experience of his early love affairs. The rapprochement between Nikolai Turbin and Irina Nai-Tours occurs only in a little-known version of the 19th chapter of the novel and gives us reason to believe that Mikhail Bulgakov still intended to develop this theme in the future, planning to finalize The White Guard.

Nikolai Turbin met Irina Nai-Tours when Colonel Nai-Tours’ mother was notified of his death. Subsequently, Nikolai, together with Irina, made a rather unpleasant trip to the city morgue to search for the colonel’s body. During the New Year celebration, Irina Nai-Tours appeared at the Turbins’ house, and Nikolka then volunteered to accompany her, as a little-known version of the 19th chapter of the novel tells:

“Irina shrugged her shoulders chillily and buried her chin in the fur. Nikolka walked alongside, tormented by a terrible and insurmountable problem: how to offer her his hand. And he just couldn’t. It was as if a two-pound weight had been hung on his tongue. “You can’t walk like that.” Impossible. How can I say?.. Let me... No, she might think something. And maybe it’s unpleasant for her to walk with me on my arm?.. Eh!..”

“It’s so cold,” Nikolka said.

Irina looked up, where there were many stars in the sky and to the side on the slope of the dome the moon above the extinct seminary on the distant mountains, she answered:

Very. I'm afraid you'll freeze.

“On you. On,” Nikolka thought, “not only is there no question of taking her arm, but she’s even unpleasant that I went with her. Otherwise, there’s no way to interpret such a hint...”

Irina immediately slipped, shouted “ouch” and grabbed the sleeve of her overcoat. Nikolka choked. But I still didn’t miss such an opportunity. After all, you really have to be a fool. He said:

Let me take your hand...

Where are your pigtails?.. You will freeze... I don’t want to.

Nikolka turned pale and firmly swore to the star Venus: “I will come and immediately

I'll shoot myself. It's over. A shame".

I forgot my gloves under the mirror...

Then her eyes appeared closer to him, and he was convinced that in these eyes there was not only the blackness of a starry night and the already fading mourning for the burry colonel, but slyness and laughter. She herself took his right hand with her right hand, pulled it through her left, put his hand into her muff, laid it next to hers and added mysterious words that Nikolka thought about for twelve whole minutes until Malo-Provalnaya:

You need to be half-hearted.

“Princess... What do I hope for? My future is dark and hopeless. I’m awkward. And I haven’t even started university yet... Beauty...” thought Nikol. And Irina Nay was not a beauty at all. An ordinary pretty girl with black eyes. True, she is slender, and her mouth is not bad, it is correct, her hair is shiny, black.

At the outbuilding, in the first tier of the mysterious garden, they stopped at a dark door. The moon was cut out somewhere behind a tangle of trees, and the snow was patchy, sometimes black, sometimes purple, sometimes white. All the windows in the outbuilding were black, except for one, glowing with a cozy fire. Irina leaned against the black door, threw her head back and looked at Nikolka, as if she was waiting for something. Nikolka is in despair that he, “oh, stupid”, has not been able to tell her anything in twenty minutes, in despair that now she will leave him at the door, at this moment, just when some important words are forming in his mind in a useless head, he became emboldened to the point of despair, he himself put his hand into the muff and looked for a hand there, in great amazement he was convinced that this hand, which had been in a glove all the way, was now without a glove. There was complete silence all around. The city was sleeping.

Go,” Irina Nay said very quietly, “go, otherwise the Petlyugists will persecute you.”

Well, so be it,” Nikolka answered sincerely, “so be it.”

No, don't let it. Don't let it. - She paused. - I will be sorry...

What a pity?.. Eh?.. - And he squeezed his hand in the muff tighter.

Then Irina freed her hand along with the muff, and put it on his shoulder with the muff. Her eyes became extremely large, like black flowers, as it seemed to Nikolka, she rocked Nikolka so that he touched the velvet of his fur coat with the buttons with eagles, sighed and kissed him right on the lips.

Maybe you are smart, but so slow...

Then Nikolka, feeling that he had become incredibly brave, desperate and very agile, grabbed Nai and kissed her on the lips. Irina Nay insidiously threw her right hand back and, without opening her eyes, managed to ring the bell. And that hour the mother’s steps and cough were heard in the outbuilding, and the door shook... Nikolka’s hands unclenched.

Go away tomorrow,” Nai whispered, “everyday.” Now leave, leave..."

As we see, the “insidious” Irina Nai-Tours, probably more sophisticated in life’s issues than the naive Nikolka, completely takes into her own hands the emerging personal relationship between them. By and large, we see a young coquette who loves to please and make men dizzy. Such young ladies, as a rule, are able to quickly “inflame” with love, achieve the favor and love of a partner, and just as quickly cool down, leaving a man at the height of his feelings. When such women want to gain attention, they act as active partners, taking the first step towards meeting, as happened in the case of our heroine. We, of course, do not know how Mikhail Bulgakov planned to end the story with the naive Nikolka and the “insidious” Irina, but, logically, the younger Turbin should have fallen in love, and Colonel Nai-Tours’ sister, having achieved her goal, should have cooled down .

The literary image of Irina Nai-Tours has its own prototype. The fact is that in the White Guard, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov indicated the exact address of Nai-Tours: Malo-Provalnaya, 21. This street is actually called Malopodvalnaya. At the address Malopidvalnaya, 13, next to number 21, lived the Syngaevsky family, friendly to the Bulgakovs. The Syngaevsky children and the Bulgakov children were friends with each other long before the revolution. Mikhail Afanasyevich was a close friend of Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky, some of whose features were embodied in the image of Myshlaevsky. There were five daughters in the Syngaevsky family, who also attended Andreevsky Spusk, 13. It was with one of the Syngaevsky sisters, most likely, that one of the Bulgakov brothers had an affair at school age. Probably, this novel was the first of one of the Bulgakovs (who may have been Mikhail Afanasyevich himself), otherwise it is impossible to explain the naivety of Nikolka’s attitude towards Irina. This version is also confirmed by the phrase Myshlaevsky said to Nikolka before Irina Nai-Tours arrived:

"- No, I’m not offended, I’m just wondering why you were jumping up and down like that. You’re a little too cheerful. You put your cuffs out... you look like a groom.”

Nikolka blossomed with crimson fire, and his eyes drowned in a lake of embarrassment.

“You go to Malo-Provalnaya too often,” Myshlaevsky continued to finish off the enemy with six-inch shells, this, however, is good. You need to be a knight, support the Turbino traditions."

In this case, Myshlaevsky’s phrase could well have belonged to Nikolai Syngaevsky, who was hinting at the “Bulgakov traditions” of alternately courting the Syngaevsky sisters.

But, perhaps, the most interesting woman in the novel “The White Guard” is Yulia Aleksandrovna Reiss (in some versions - Yulia Markovna). The real existence of which is not even in doubt. The characterization given by the writer to Yulia is so exhaustive that her psychological portrait is clear from the very beginning:

“Only in the hearth of peace, Julia, an egoist, a vicious, but seductive woman, agrees to appear. She appeared, her leg in a black stocking, the edge of a black fur-trimmed boot flashed on the light brick staircase, and the gavotte splashing with bells answered the hasty knock and rustle from there, where Louis XIV luxuriated in a sky-blue garden by the lake, intoxicated by his fame and the presence of charming women of color."

Yulia Reiss saved the life of the White Guard hero Alexei Turbin when he was running from Petliurists along Malo-provalnaya Street and was wounded. Julia led him through the gate and the garden and up the stairs to her house, where she hid him from his pursuers. As it turned out, Julia was divorced and lived alone at that time. Alexey Turbin fell in love with his savior, which is natural, and subsequently tried to achieve reciprocity. But Julia turned out to be too ambitious a woman. Having experience of marriage, she did not strive for a stable relationship, and in resolving personal issues she saw only the fulfillment of her goals and desires. She did not love Alexei Turbin, which can be clearly seen in one of the little-known versions of the 19th chapter of the novel:

"Tell me, who do you love?

“No one,” answered Yulia Markovna and looked so that the devil himself could not tell whether it was true or not.

Marry me... come out,” said Turbin, squeezing his hand.

Yulia Markovna shook her head negatively and smiled.

Turbin grabbed her by the throat, choked her, hissed:

Tell me, whose card was this on the table when I was wounded with you?.. Black sideburns...

Yulia Markovna’s face became flushed with blood, she began to wheeze. It's a pity - the fingers unclench.

This is my second... second cousin.

Left for Moscow.

Bolshevik?

No, he's an engineer.

Why did you go to Moscow?

It's his business.

The blood drained, and Yulia Markovna’s eyes became crystalline. I wonder what can be read in crystal? Nothing is possible.

Why did your husband leave you?

I left him.

He's trash.

You are trash and a liar. I love you, you bastard.

Yulia Markovna smiled.

So are the evenings and so are the nights. Turbin left around midnight through the multi-tiered garden, his lips bitten. He looked at the holey, ossified network of trees and whispered something.

Need money…"

The above scene is completely complemented by another passage related to the relationship between Alexei Turbin and Yulia Reiss:

“Well, Yulenka,” said Turbin and took Myshlaevsky’s revolver, rented for one evening, from his back pocket, “tell me, please, what is your relationship with Mikhail Semenovich Shpolyansky?”

Yulia backed away, bumped into the table, the lampshade clinked... ding... For the first time, Yulia's face became genuinely pale.

Alexey... Alexey... what are you doing?

Tell me, Yulia, what is your relationship with Mikhail Semenovich? - Turbin repeated firmly, like a man who has finally decided to pull out the rotten tooth that has tormented him.

What do you want to know? - Yulia asked, her eyes moved, she covered the barrel with her hands.

Only one thing: is he your lover or not?

Yulia Markovna's face came to life a little. Some blood returned to the head. Her eyes sparkled strangely, as if Turbin’s question seemed easy to her, not a difficult question at all, as if she was expecting the worst. Her voice came to life.

You have no right to torment me... you, - she said, - well, okay... for the last time I’m telling you - he was not my lover. Was not. Was not.

Swear it.

I swear.

Yulia Markovna's eyes were as clear as crystal.

Late at night, Doctor Turbin knelt in front of Yulia Markovna, burying his head in his knees, and muttered:

You tortured me. Tormented me, and this month that I recognized you, I don’t live. I love you, I love you... - passionately, licking his lips, he muttered...

Yulia Markovna leaned towards him and stroked his hair.

Tell me why did you give yourself to me? Do you love me? Do you love? Or

“I love you,” answered Yulia Markovna and looked at the back pocket of the man on his knees.

We will not talk about Julia’s lover, Mikhail Semenovich Shpolyansky, since we will devote a separate section to him. But it would be quite appropriate to talk about a real-life girl with the last name Reis.

Since 1893, the family of Colonel of the General Staff of the Russian Army Vladimir Vladimirovich Reis lived in the city of Kyiv. Vladimir Reis was a participant in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878, an honored and combat officer. He was born in 1857 and came from a Lutheran family of nobles in the Kovno province. His ancestors were of German-Baltic origin. Colonel Reis was married to the daughter of British citizen Peter Theakston, Elizabeth, with whom he came to Kyiv. Elizaveta Thixton's sister Sofia soon moved here too, and settled in the house on Malopodvalnaya, 14, apartment 1 - at the address where our mysterious Julia Reiss from the White Guard lived. The Reis family had a son and two daughters: Peter, born in 1886, Natalya, born in 1889, and Irina, born in 1895, who were raised under the supervision of their mother and aunt. Vladimir Reis did not take care of his family because he suffered from mental disorders. In 1899, he was admitted to the Psychiatric Department of a military hospital, where he remained almost all the time until 1903. The disease turned out to be incurable, and in 1900 the military department sent Vladimir Reis into retirement with the rank of major general. In 1903, General Reis died in the Kiev military hospital, leaving the children in the care of their mother.

The theme of Julia Reiss's father appears several times in the novel The White Guard. Even in his delirium, as soon as he gets into an unfamiliar house, Alexey Turbin notices a mourning portrait with epaulettes, indicating that the portrait depicts a lieutenant colonel, colonel or general.

After death, the entire Reis family moved to Malopodvalnaya Street, where Elizaveta and Sofia Thixton, Natalya and Irina Reis, as well as General Reis’ sister Anastasia Vasilievna Semigradova now lived. Pyotr Vladimirovich Reis was studying at the Kiev Military School by that time, and therefore a large group of women gathered at Malopodvalnaya. Peter Reis would later become a colleague of Leonid Karum, Varvara Bulgakova’s husband, at the Kyiv Konstantinovsky Military School. Together they will walk the roads of the civil war.

Irina Vladimirovna Reis, the youngest in the family, studied at the Kiev Institute of Noble Maidens and the Catherine Women's Gymnasium. According to Kyiv Bulgakov scholars, she was familiar with the Bulgakov sisters, who could even bring her to the house on Andreevsky Spusk, 13.

After the death of Elizaveta Thixton in 1908, Natalya Reis got married and settled with her husband at 14 Malopodvalnaya Street, and Yulia Reis came under the guardianship of Anastasia Semigradova, with whom she soon moved to 17 Trekhsvyatitelskaya Street. Soon Sofia Thixton left, and therefore to Malopodvalnaya Natalia was left alone with her husband.

We don’t know when exactly Natalya Vladimirovna Reis divorced her marriage, but after that she was left completely alone in the apartment. It was she who became the prototype for creating the image of Julia Reiss in the novel “The White Guard”.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov saw his future wife Tatyana Lappa again only after a long break - in the summer of 1911. In 1910 - early 1911, the future writer, who was then 19 years old, probably had some novels. At the same time, Natalia Reis, 21 years old, had already divorced her husband. She lived opposite the Bulgakovs' friends - the Syngaevsky family, and therefore Mikhail Afanasyevich could actually meet her on Malopodvalnaya Street, where he often visited. Thus, we can safely say that the described romance between Alexei Turbin and Yulia Reiss actually took place between Mikhail Bulgakov and Natalia Reiss. Otherwise, there is no way for us to explain the detailed description of Yulia’s address and the path that led to her house, the coincidence of the surname, the mention of a mourning portrait of a lieutenant colonel or colonel with epaulets of the 19th century, a hint of the existence of a brother.

So, in the novel “The White Guard,” Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, in our deep conviction, described the various types of women with whom he had to deal most in life, and also talked about his novels that he had before his marriage to Tatyana Lappa.

The novel “The White Guard” was first published (incompletely) in Russia, in 1924. Completely in Paris: volume one - 1927, volume two - 1929. “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 Turbin family is to a large extent the Bulgakov family. Turbiny is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother on his mother’s side. “White Guard” was started in 1922, after the death of the writer’s mother. No manuscripts of the novel have survived. According to the typist Raaben, who retyped the novel, The White Guard was originally conceived as a trilogy. Possible titles for the novels in the proposed trilogy included “The Midnight Cross” and “The White Cross.” The prototypes of the novel's heroes were Bulgakov's Kyiv friends and acquaintances.

So, Lieutenant Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky was copied from his childhood friend Nikolai Nikolaevich Sigaevsky. The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky was another friend of Bulgakov’s youth - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer. In “The White Guard” Bulgakov strives to show the people and intelligentsia in the flames of the civil war in Ukraine. The main character, Alexei Turbin, although clearly autobiographical, is, unlike the writer, not a zemstvo doctor who was only formally listed in military service, but a real military medic who has seen and experienced a lot during the years of the World War. The novel contrasts two groups of officers - those who “hate the Bolsheviks with hot and direct hatred, the kind that can lead to a fight” and “those who returned from the war to their homes with the idea, like Alexei Turbin, to rest and re-establish a non-military, but ordinary human life.”

Bulgakov sociologically accurately shows the mass movements of the era. He demonstrates the centuries-old hatred of the peasants for the landowners and officers, and the newly emerged, but no less deep hatred for the “occupiers.” All this fueled the uprising raised against the rise of Hetman Skoropadsky, the leader of the Ukrainian national movement Petlyura. Bulgakov called one of the main features of his work in “The White Guard” there is a persistent portrayal of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in an impudent country.

In particular, the depiction of an intellectual-noble family, by the will of historical fate, thrown into the camp of the White Guard during the Civil War, in the traditions of “War and Peace”. “The White Guard” - Marxist criticism of the 20s: “Yes, Bulgakov’s talent was not as deep as it was brilliant, and the talent was great... And yet Bulgakov’s works are not popular. There is nothing in them that affected the people as a whole. There is a mysterious and cruel crowd.” Bulgakov's talent was not imbued with interest in the people, in their life, their joys and sorrows cannot be recognized from Bulgakov.

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 railway workers’ newspaper “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”: “We had Russia - 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.

In The White Guard, Bulgakov sought to show the people and intelligentsia in the flames of the Civil War in Ukraine. The main character, Alexei Turbin, although clearly autobiographical, is, unlike the writer, not a zemstvo doctor who was only formally enrolled in military service, but a real military medic who saw and experienced a lot during the years of the World War. There are many things that bring the author closer to his hero: calm courage, faith in old Russia, and most importantly, the dream of a peaceful life.

“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 reviews. 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 attributed 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.

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Essay text:

The novel The White Guard was completed by Mikhail Bulgakov in 1925, and tells about the revolutionary events in Kyiv in the winter of 1918-1919. It was a difficult, alarming time, when Soviet power was difficult to win its right to exist.
Bulgakov in his novel The White Guard truthfully showed the confusion, turmoil, and then the bloody orgy that reigned in Kyiv at that time.
The heroes of the novel are the Turbin family, their friends and acquaintances, that circle of people who preserve the primordial traditions of the Russian intelligentsia. Officers: Alexey Turbin and his brother cadet Nikolka, Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Colonel Malyshev and Nai-Tours were thrown out by history as unnecessary. They are still trying to resist Petliura, fulfilling their duty, but the General Staff betrayed them, led by the hetman, leaving Ukraine, handing over its inhabitants to Petliura, and then to the Germans.
Fulfilling their duty, the officers are trying to protect the cadets from senseless death. Malyshev is the first to learn about the betrayal of the headquarters; he disbands the regiments created from the cadets so as not to senselessly shed blood. The writer very dramatically showed the position of people called upon to defend ideals, the city, the Fatherland, but betrayed and abandoned to their fate. Each of them experiences this tragedy in their own way. Alexei Turbin almost dies from a Petliurite bullet, and only an accident in the person of Reise, a resident of the suburbs who helped him hide and protect himself from the reprisals of bandits, saves him.
Nikolka is saved by Nai-Tours, ordering the cadet to stop shooting and hide, to save his life. Nikolka will never forget this man, a true hero, not broken by the betrayal of the headquarters. Nye fights his battle, in which he dies, but does not give up. Nikolka fulfills her duty to this man by telling his family about the last moments of Tours’ life and burying him with dignity.
It seems that the Turbins and their circle will perish in this whirlwind of revolution, civil war, bandit pogroms, but no, they will survive, since there is something in these people that can protect them from senseless death.
They think, dream about the future, try to find their place in this new world, which so cruelly rejected them. They understand that Motherland, family, love, friendship are enduring values ​​that a person cannot part with so easily.
They hold on to each other, to their cozy home behind cream curtains and a lamp under a green lampshade. But the Turbins understand perfectly well that they cannot sit inside the walls of their apartment. The time described is very difficult for the heroes; they perceive their forced inaction as a respite, a desire to comprehend and understand their place in life.
It is no coincidence that Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Lariosik come to the Turbins. These people have charm, warmth, warmth, which they give to loved ones, receiving sincere love and devotion in return.
There are eternal values ​​that exist outside of time, and Bulgakov was able to talentedly and sincerely talk about them in his novel The White Guard. The author ends his story with prophetic words. His characters are on the eve of a new life; they believe that all the worst is in the past. And together with the author and the heroes, we believe in the good.
All will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, famine and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our bodies will not remain on the earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our gaze to them? Why?

The rights to the essay "SYSTEM OF IMAGES IN THE NOVEL THE WHITE GUARD" belong to its author. When quoting material, it is necessary to indicate a hyperlink to

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 Kiev 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 Kiev 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 godlessness, 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.