We are a cadet's story. Depiction of army life in Kuprin's stories "junkers", "cadets"

“Junker” by Kuprin A.I.

Like other major Russian writers who, finding themselves in a foreign land, turned to the genre of artistic autobiography (I. A. Bunin, I. S. Shmelev, A. N. Tolstoy, B. K. Zaitsev, etc.), Kuprin devotes his youth The most significant thing is the novel "Junker". In a certain sense, it was a summing up. ““Junker,” the writer himself said, “is my testament to Russian youth.”

The novel recreates in detail the traditions and life of the Third Alexander Junker School in Moscow, talks about the teachers and officer-educators, classmates of Aleksandrov-Kuprin, talks about his first literary experiences and the hero’s youthful “mad” love. However, “Junkers” is not just a “home” story of the cadet school on Znamenka. This is a story about the old, “appanage” Moscow - the Moscow of the “forty and forty”, the Iveron Chapel of the Mother of God and the Catherine Institute of Noble Maidens, on Tsaritsyn Square, all woven from fleeting memories. Through the haze of these memories, familiar and unrecognizable silhouettes of the Arbat, Patriarch's Ponds, and Zemlyanoy Val emerge. “What is amazing in The Junkers is precisely this power of Kuprin’s artistic vision,” wrote prose writer Ivan Lukash, responding to the appearance of the novel, “the magic of reviving memories, his mosaic work of creating from “shards” and “specks of dust” an airy beautiful, light and bright Moscow - frescoes full of absolutely living movement and absolutely living people from the time of Alexander III.”

“Junker” is both a human and artistic testament of Kuprin. The best pages of the novel include those where the lyrics most powerfully find their inner justification. Such, in particular, are the episodes of Alexandrov’s poetic passion for Zina Belysheva.

And yet, despite the abundance of light, music, festivities - “a furious funeral service for the passing winter”, the thunder of a military orchestra at parades, the splendor of a ball at the Catherine Institute, the elegant life of the Alexander cadets (“Kuprin’s novel is a detailed story about the bodily joys of youth, about the ringing and seemingly weightless feeling of life of youth, vigorous, pure,” Ivan Lukash said very accurately), this is a sad book. Again and again, with “indescribable, sweet, bitter and tender sadness,” the writer mentally returns to Russia. “You live in a beautiful country, among smart and kind people, among monuments of the greatest culture,” Kuprin wrote in his essay “Motherland.” “But it’s all just make-believe, it’s like a movie unfolding.” And all the silent, dull grief is that you no longer cry in your sleep and do not see in your dreams either Znamenskaya Square, or Arbat, or Povarskaya, or Moscow, or Russia.”

Like other major Russian writers who, finding themselves in a foreign land, turned to the genre of artistic autobiography (I. A. Bunin, I. S. Shmelev, A. N. Tolstoy, B. K. Zaitsev, etc.), Kuprin devotes his youth The most significant thing is the novel “Junker”. In a certain sense, it was a summing up. ““Junker,” the writer himself said, “is my testament to Russian youth.”
The novel recreates in detail the traditions and life of the Third Alexander Junker School in Moscow, talks about the teachers and officer-educators,

classmates of Aleksandrov-Kuprin, talks about his first literary experiences and the youthful “mad” love of the hero. However, “Junkers” is not just a “home” story of the cadet school on Znamenka. This is a story about the old, “appanage” Moscow - the Moscow of the “forty and forty”, the Iverskaya Chapel of the Mother of God and the Catherine Institute of Noble Maidens, which is on Tsaritsyn Square, all woven from fleeting memories. Through the haze of these memories, familiar and unrecognizable silhouettes of the Arbat, Patriarch's Ponds, and Zemlyanoy Val emerge. “What’s amazing about “Junkers” is

this power of Kuprin’s artistic vision,” wrote prose writer Ivan Lukash, responding to the appearance of the novel, “the magic of reviving memories, his mosaic work of creating from “shards” and “motes of dust” an airy beautiful, light and bright Moscow fresco, full of absolutely living movement and completely living people from the time of Alexander III.”
“Junker” is both a human and artistic testament of Kuprin. The best pages of the novel include those where the lyrics most powerfully find their inner justification. Such, in particular, are the episodes of Alexandrov’s poetic passion for Zina Belysheva.
And yet, despite the abundance of light, music, festivities - “a furious funeral service for the passing winter”, the thunder of a military orchestra at divorces, the splendor of a ball at the Catherine Institute, the elegant life of the Alexander cadets (“Kuprin’s novel is a detailed story about the bodily joys of youth, about the ringing and seemingly weightless feeling of life of youth, vigorous, pure,” Ivan Lukash said very accurately), this is a sad book. Again and again, with “indescribable, sweet, bitter and tender sadness,” the writer mentally returns to Russia. “You live in a beautiful country, among smart and kind people, among monuments of the greatest culture,” Kuprin wrote in his essay “Motherland.” “But it’s all just make-believe, it’s like a movie unfolding.” And all the silent, dull grief is that you no longer cry in your sleep and do not see in your dreams either Znamenskaya Square, or Arbat, or Povarskaya, or Moscow, or Russia.”

Other works on this topic:

1. In this novel, Kuprin describes the traditions of the Alexander 3rd Junker School. The young guy entered the infantry school and decides to become an officer. Kuprin writes that before leaving...
2. Kuprin A.I. At the very end of August, Alyosha Alexandrov’s cadet adolescence ended. Now he will study at the Third Junker Infantry School named after Emperor Alexander II....
3. At the very end of August, Alyosha Alexandrov’s cadet adolescence ended. Now he will study at the Third Junker Infantry School named after Emperor Alexander II. This morning he...
4. What is the theme of A. I. Kuprin’s story “The Duel”? A. Life of a landowner's estate b. Morals of the military environment c. The life of peasants - In the image of which hero of the story...
5. A. I. Kuprin’s story “The Golden Rooster” is a typical example of this writer’s lyrical sketches. Through all his work runs the image of nature, which in the artistic world of Kuprin...
6. The story “Gambrinus” is one of the most famous works of Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin. This is a powerful hymn to internationalism. Kuprin wholeheartedly denied national discord. In his life the writer...
7. A. Kuprin's neorealism grew on the basis of traditions: the grotesque of N. Gogol, the lyricism of I. Turgenev, the realism of F. Dostoevsky, the “dialectics of the soul” of L. Tolstoy. Taking over from A. Chekhov “simplicity...

The very end of August; the number must be the thirtieth or thirty-first. After a three-month summer vacation, cadets who have completed the full course come together for the last time to the building where they studied, played pranks, sometimes sat in a punishment cell, quarreled and made friends for seven whole years in a row.

The time and time for reporting to the building are strictly defined. And how can you be late? “Now we are not some semi-civilian cadets, almost boys, but cadets of the glorious Third Alexander School, in which strict discipline and precision in service are in the foreground. It’s not for nothing that in a month we will swear allegiance under the banner!”

Alexandrov stopped the cab driver at the Red Barracks, opposite the building of the fourth cadet corps. Some secret instinct told him to go to his second corps not by a straight road, but by a circuitous route, along those former roads, along those former places that had been traveled and avoided many thousands of times, which would remain etched in memory for many decades, right up to death itself, and which now blew over him with an indescribable sweet, bitter and tender sadness.

To the left of the entrance to the iron gate is a stone two-story building, dirty yellow and peeling, built fifty years ago in the Nicholas soldier style.

Corps educators lived here in government apartments, as well as Father Mikhail Voznesensky, a teacher of the law and rector of the church of the second building.

Father Mikhail! Alexandrov’s heart suddenly sank from bright sadness, from awkward shame, from quiet repentance... Yes. Here's how it went:

The drill company, as always, at exactly three o'clock went for lunch to the common corps canteen, going down the wide stone winding staircase. So it remains unknown who suddenly whistled loudly in the ranks. In any case, this time it’s not him, not Alexandrov. But the company commander, Captain Yablukinsky, made a grave mistake. He should have shouted: “Who whistled?” - and the culprit would immediately respond: “I, Mr. Captain!” He shouted angrily from above: “Aleksandrov again? Go to the punishment cell and no lunch.” Aleksandrov stopped and pressed himself against the railing so as not to interfere with the movement of the company. When Yablukinsky, who was going down behind the last row, caught up with him, Alexandrov said quietly but firmly:

- Mr. Captain, it’s not me.

Yablukinsky shouted:

- Be silent! Raise no objection! Don't talk in line. To the punishment cell immediately. And if he’s not guilty, then he was guilty a hundred times over and didn’t get caught. You are a disgrace to the company (the bosses said “you” to the seventh graders) and the entire corps!

Offended, angry, unhappy, Alexandrov trudged to the punishment cell. His mouth felt bitter. This Yablukinsky, whose cadet nickname was Schnaps, or more often Cork, always treated him with pointed distrust. God knows why? Was it because he was simply antipathetic to Aleksandrov’s face, with its pronounced Tatar features, or because the boy, possessing a restless character and ardent ingenuity, was always at the head of various enterprises that disturbed peace and order? In a word, the entire older age knew that Cork was finding fault with Alexandrov...

Quite calmly, the young man came to the punishment cell and put himself in one of the three cells, behind iron bars, on a bare oak bunk, and the punishment cell guy, Kruglov, without saying a word, locked him up.

From afar, Alexandrov heard the dull and harmonious sounds of the pre-dinner prayer, which was sung by all three hundred and fifty cadets:

“The eyes of all trust in You, Lord, and You give them food in good season, opening Your generous hand...” And Alexandrov involuntarily repeated in his thoughts long-familiar words. I didn’t want to eat because of excitement and the tart taste in my mouth.

After the prayer there was complete silence. The cadet’s irritation not only did not subside, but, on the contrary, kept growing. He circled in a small space of four square steps, and new wild and daring thoughts increasingly took possession of him.

“Well, yes, maybe a hundred, maybe two hundred times I’ve been guilty. But when asked, I always confessed. Who broke the tile in the stove with a blow of his fist as a bet? ME: Who smoked in the restroom? Me: Who stole a piece of sodium in the physics room and, throwing it into the washbasin, filled the entire floor with smoke and stench? Me: Who put a live frog in the duty officer’s bed? Again I...

Despite the fact that I quickly confessed, they put me under the lamp, put me in a punishment cell, assigned me to the drummer at dinner, and left me without leave. This, of course, is disgusting. But since it’s your fault, there’s nothing you can do, you have to endure it. And I obediently obeyed the stupid law. But today I am not the least bit guilty. Someone else whistled, not me, but Yablukinsky, “this traffic jam,” attacked me with anger and disgraced me in front of the whole company. This injustice is unbearably offensive. Not believing me, he kind of called me a liar. He is now just as unfair as he was right all the previous times. And therefore - the end. I don't want to sit in a punishment cell. I don't want to and I won't. I won’t and I won’t. Basta!

He heard the afternoon prayer clearly. Then all the companies, with a roar and stomping, began to disperse to their premises. Then everything became quiet again. But Alexandrov’s seventeen-year-old soul continued to rage with redoubled force.

“Why should I be punished if I am not guilty of anything? What do I mean to Yablukinsky? Slave? Subject? Serf? Servant? Or his snotty son Valerka? Let them tell me that I am a cadet, that is, like a soldier, and must unquestioningly obey the orders of my superiors without any reasoning? No! I am not a soldier yet, I have not taken the oath. After leaving the corps, many cadets, at the end of the course, take exams at technical schools, at the survey institute, at the forestry academy, or at another higher school where Latin and Greek are not required. So: I have nothing to do with the building at all and can leave it at any moment.”

His mouth was dry and his throat was burning.

- Kruglov! - he called the watchman. - Open it. I want to go to the toilet.

The guy opened the lock and released the cadet. The punishment cell was located on the same upper floor as the combat company. The restroom was shared between the punishment cell and the company dormitory. This was a temporary arrangement while the cell in the basement was being repaired. One of the duties of the punishment guy was to escort the arrested person to the restroom, without letting him go a single step, and vigilantly ensure that he had no contact with his free comrades. But as soon as Aleksandrov approached the threshold of the bedroom, he immediately rushed between the gray rows of beds.

-Where, where, where? – Kruglov clucked helplessly, like a chicken, and ran after him. But where could he catch up?

Having run through the bedroom and the narrow greatcoat corridor, Aleksandrov burst into the duty room with a running start; she was also a teacher. There were two people sitting there: the duty lieutenant Mikhin, who was also Alexandrov’s detached superior, and the civilian teacher Otte, who had come to the evening rehearsal for students weak in trigonometry and the application of algebra, a small, cheerful man, with the body of Hercules and the pitiful legs of a dwarf.

- What it is? What a disgrace? - Mikhin shouted. - Go back to the punishment cell now!

“I won’t go,” Aleksandrov said in a voice inaudible to himself, and his lower lip began to tremble. At that second he himself did not suspect that the furious blood of the Tatar princes, the uncontrollable and indomitable ancestors of his on his mother’s side, was boiling in his veins.

- To the punishment cell! Immediately to the punishment cell! – Mikhin squealed. - Just a second!

- I won’t go and that’s it.

– What right do you have to disobey your direct superior?

A hot wave rushed into Alexandrov’s head, and everything in his eyes turned pleasantly pink. He fixed his firm gaze on Mikhin’s round white eyes and said loudly:

- It’s such a right that I no longer want to study in the second Moscow building, where they treated me so unfairly. From this moment I am no longer a cadet, but a free man. Let me go home now, and I won't come back here again! not for any price. You have no rights over me now. And that's it!

The novel focuses on three moments in the life of Alyosha Alexandrov, a student at the cadet school: emerging youthful love, passion for art, and the everyday life of a closed military educational institution. The novel was published as work on it progressed, chapter by chapter, over a five-year period from 1927 to 1932. Perhaps this is why the chapters, each of which reproduces an episode from the life of a cadet, are loosely connected with each other; their sequence is not always determined by the development of the plot - “the story of the growth and organization of character.”

“Kuprin often “jumped” in the process of writing from chapter to chapter, as if he still had a unclear idea of ​​what place to put each of them - in the middle or at the beginning of the novel,” 20 noted F.I. Kuleshov. Many researchers note that the chapters are not subordinate to each other, they contain unnecessary repetitions, such as, for example, about the company commander of the cadet Alexandrov: “This is the commander of our fourth company, Captain Fofanov, and in our opinion Drozd.” In addition, researchers, and in particular F.I. Kuleshov, note that “the chronology in the novel is arbitrarily shifted” 21. Alyosha’s heartfelt passions and his writing debut are dated back to the first months of the hero’s stay at the military school, and these chapters are overextended, overloaded with minor events, and more important ones are abbreviated. The pages telling about the second year of stay are similar to a chronicle. The third part of the novel is generally less developed than the previous two. One gets the impression that it was written with difficulty, without enthusiasm, as if in order to complete the two-year life of cadet Alexandrov.

But let's take a closer look at what is happening in the Junkers.

Poetry of youthful love

The novel begins with a description of the arrival of cadets who have completed the full course to the corps, for the last time before they become full-fledged cadets. Aleksandrov walks along roads well-trodden and avoided many times and recalls the years that have passed in the corps, the case when he, a generally recognized scoundrel, was sent to a punishment cell by Captain Yablukinsky, but this time undeservedly. Alexandrov’s pride rebelled: “Why should I be punished if I am not guilty of anything? What do I mean to Yablukinsky? Slave? Subject?.. let them tell me that I am a cadet, that is, like a soldier, and must unquestioningly obey the orders of my superiors without any reasoning? No! I am not a soldier yet, I have not taken the oath... So: I am not at all connected with the corps and can leave it at any moment (VIII, 205). And he leaves the punishment cell by deception.

From the first pages it seems to us that we are in the same situation that was depicted by Kuprin in “Cadets”. But, despite the fact that we are back at the cadet school, we do not recognize it: the colors are not so gloomy, the sharp corners are smoothed out. There was no case in the Cadets when a student was approached with a kind word, advice, trying to help him. But here the situation is different. For example, the civilian teacher Otte is trying to calmly and politely explain the situation to the excited young man and reason with Lieutenant Mikhin. But the boy was again sent to the punishment cell, although the culprit of the whistle confessed, and the company buzzed with displeasure. And here the narrative includes an episode in which two cases of cadet rebellion are told: the first, over a kulebyak with rice, was resolved peacefully, and in the neighboring building, discontent escalated into an uprising and pogrom, which were stopped with the help of soldiers. One of the instigators was given up as a soldier, many students were expelled from the corps. The author concludes: “It’s true: you can’t mess with the people and the boys...” (VIII, 209). Here the intonation of the old Kuprin slips through, and then he again “puts on rose-colored glasses.”

His mother arrives, begins to reproach Alyosha, remembers his escape from the Razumovsky School (I wonder what caused it?). Then a conversation with the priest of the corps church, Father Mikhail, who simply and softly speaks to the teenager about love for his mother, admits Yablukinsky’s injustice, and does not force Alyosha to ask for forgiveness. And this affection and kindness will be remembered by Alexandrov for the rest of his life, and, having already become a famous artist, he will come to the old Father Mikhail for a blessing.

The situation was sorted out, the child was understood, the cadet was pleased with the outcome, and there was clear attention to the teenager’s personality, despite all the “buts.” This is no longer the cadet school where Bulanin studied, although the same characters are found here, for example, Uncle Nonsense.

Alexandrov said goodbye to the school. And here he is five minutes later, a cadet. Here, for the first time, a female image appears on the pages of the novel, and the theme of love becomes one of the leading ones. The pages about the hero's intimate experiences are undoubtedly the best in the novel. His first, summer hobby is Julia, “the incomprehensible, incomparable, unique, delightful, hair-eyed goddess” (VIII, 217). Such epithets are given to her by a cadet in love. And he? He, of course, is insignificant compared to her, ugly and just a boy. Despite the deification of Yulia, Alexandrov does not forget to pay attention to her younger sisters Olga and Lyuba. Suffering, poems dedicated to the lady of the heart, jealousy and a quarrel with the enemy, and then again the resurrection of hope, the first kisses, the first ball at the cadet school, which destroys the hero’s dreams.

Having sent three tickets to the Sinelnikovs, Alexandrov expects the arrival of Yulia and her sisters, but only the younger ones come. Olenka tells him that Yulia is marrying a quite wealthy man who has been courting her for a long time. But Alyosha takes this news calmly and immediately confesses his love to Olga.

The hero constantly feels the need to love someone: his awakened heart can no longer live without love, he needs knightly admiration for a woman. “He falls in love quickly, falls in love with the same naive simplicity and joy with which grass grows and buds bloom,” 22 writes F.I. in his study. Kuleshov.

It is difficult to list his “loved ones.” Aleksandrov could be in love with two or three girls at the same time and was tormented by the question, which one is more? Each time he thought that this was a strong, real feeling that would last a lifetime. But time passed, and there was new love and the words “to the grave.”

It cannot be said that Alexandrov looked like a romantic hero-admirer, a pure, chaste young man. Let us at least remember the adventure in the rye with the peasant woman Dunyasha or the mention of a relationship with the wife of the forester Yegor, Marya, “a beautiful, healthy woman.” But on the other hand, he was not dissolute and morally corrupt, he did not play “Don Juan”. Falling in love, Alexandrov did not think that this was just another affair or adventure. He loved passionately and sincerely.

After the first love, the second will follow. (The chapter is called “Second Love”). Alyosha is tormented about which of the Sinelnikov sisters should he fall in love with now: Olenka or Lyubochka? “To Olenka,” he decides and promises to dedicate a “suite” to her, which will soon be published in a magazine. But an unfortunate mistake occurred, and hopes for reciprocity were lost.

The most wonderful and vivid chapters of the novel are dedicated to Alexei’s love for Zina Belysheva (“Catherine’s Hall”, “Arrow”, “Waltz”, “Love Letter”). They describe the surroundings through the prism of the romantic perception of cadet Alexandrov. From the moment of his arrival at the Catherine Institute, impressions overwhelm him. Everything seems fabulously beautiful, from the staircase to the main hall. The descriptions are dominated by such epithets as “amazing”, “unusual”, “magnificent”, “graceful”, “beautiful”. And the girl’s voice that Alexey hears is also “extraordinary sonority,” her figure is “airy,” her face is “unrepeated,” her smile is “affectionate,” her lips are “perfectly shaped.” He already reproaches himself for his past hobbies, calling them fun and games, “but now he loves. Loves!., now a new life begins in the infinity of time and space, all filled with glory, splendor, power, exploits, and all this, together with my ardent love, I lay at your feet, oh beloved, oh queen of my soul! (VIII, 328).

The emergence and development of love feelings, expressed by the sparkle of the eyes, a special look, a gesture and a thousand tiny elusive signs, a change of mood - all this is masterfully depicted by Kuprin, everything - from the first dance to a declaration of love and plans for the future: “You will have to wait for me around three years" (VIII, 382).

This conversation took place in March. And then more than three months pass, and after so many dreams Alexandrov never remembers Zinaida or his vow to marry. Not a single meeting, not a note! Why does the cadet forget about the subject of his passion? And does he forget? Most likely, the writer forgets about her, who strives to finish the story as quickly as possible and negates a wonderful love story without finishing it with at least hints, without motivating such a strange behavior of the cadet. The reader waits until the last pages for a continuation, but is disappointed without seeing it. “The last pages of the novel give rise to a feeling of incompleteness of the plot and patter in the narrative: the story about the hero’s stay within the walls of the school has been exhausted, but there is not even a hint of a possible denouement of his intimate drama,” 23 writes the author of the monograph “The Creative Path of Kuprin” F.I. Kuleshov. And he’s right: the reader, who is accustomed to Kuprin’s brilliant style of writing, to his precision and thoughtfulness, is at a loss: what happened? The author of “The Junkers” is betrayed by his skill: despite the actual completion of the novel, it seems unfinished. But at the same time, we still recognize the former Alexander Ivanovich: true to himself, in “The Junkers” he glorifies sublime earthly love as a wonderful song of humanity, the most magnificent and unique.

At the very end of August, Alyosha Alexandrov’s cadet adolescence ends. Now he will study at the Third Junker Infantry School named after Emperor Alexander II. In the morning he pays a visit to the Sinelnikovs, but he manages to stay alone with Yulenka for no more than a minute.

She is always in the foreground, always in the main place; incomprehensible, unattainable, incomparable, unique, amazing, dizzying - Julia.

The girl invites Alyosha to forget the summer dacha nonsense: both of them have now become adults.

Alyosha appears in the school building with sadness and confusion in his soul. True, he is flattered that he is already a “pharaoh,” as the second-year “chief officers” called the first-year students. Alexander's cadets are loved in Moscow and proud of them. The school invariably participates in all ceremonies. Alyosha will long remember the magnificent meeting of Alexander III in the fall of 1888, when the royal family walked along the line at a distance of several steps and the “pharaoh” fully tasted the sweet, spicy delight of love for the monarch.

However, during their studies, the young men are faced with extra work, cancellation of vacation, and arrest. They love the cadets, but at the school they are mercilessly “warmed” by the platoon officer, course officer and commander of the fourth company, Captain Fofanov, nicknamed Drozd. Daily exercises with heavy infantry berdanks and drills could have caused an aversion to service if not for the patience and stern participation of all the “warm-ups.”

There is no bullying at the school by juniors, which is common in St. Petersburg schools. The atmosphere of knightly military democracy and stern but caring camaraderie prevails here. Everything related to service does not allow for relaxation, even among friends, but outside of this, a friendly address on “you” is prescribed.

After taking the oath, Drozd reminds them that they are now soldiers and for their misconduct they will be sent not to their mother, but as privates in an infantry regiment. And yet, boyishness, which has not been completely eradicated, forces young cadets to give everything around them their own names. The first company is called “stallions”, the second - “animals”, the third - “daubs” and the fourth (Aleshina) - “fleas”.

Each commander, except for the second course officer Belov, also has a nickname. From the Balkan War, Belov brought a Bulgarian wife of indescribable beauty, before whom all the cadets bowed, which is why the personality of her husband is considered inviolable. But Dubyshkin is called Pup, the commander of the first company is Khukhrik, and the battalion commander is Berdi-Pasha. All cadet officers are mercilessly persecuted, which is considered a sign of youth.

However, the lives of eighteen-twenty-year-old boys cannot be entirely absorbed by the interests of service. Alexandrov vividly experiences the collapse of his first love, but is also keenly interested in the younger Sinelnikov sisters. At the December ball, Olga Sinelnikova informs Alyosha about Yulenka’s engagement. Shocked, Alexandrov replies that he doesn’t care. He has loved Olga for a long time and will dedicate his first story to her, which will soon be published by Evening Leisure.

This writing debut of his actually happens, but at the evening roll call Drozd assigns him three days in a punishment cell for publishing without the sanction of his superiors. Alexandrov takes Tolstoy’s “Cossacks” into the cell and, when Drozd asks whether the young talent knows why he is being punished, he cheerfully replies: “For writing a stupid and vulgar essay.”

Alas, the troubles don't end there. In the dedication, a fatal mistake is discovered: instead of “O” there is “U” (such is the power of first love!). Soon the author receives a letter from Olga: “For some reasons, I’m unlikely to ever be able to see you, and therefore goodbye.”

There is no limit to the cadet's shame and despair, but time heals all wounds. Alexandrov attends a ball at the Catherine Institute. This is not part of his Christmas plans, but Drozd stops all Alyosha’s reasoning. For many years, Alexandrov will remember the brilliant entrance of the old house, the marble staircases, the bright halls and the students in formal dresses with a ballroom neckline.

At the ball, Alyosha meets Zinochka Belysheva, from whose mere presence the air itself brightens and sparkles with laughter. True and mutual love arises between them. In addition to her undeniable beauty, Zinochka has something more valuable and rare.

Alexandrov confesses his love to Zinochka and asks him to wait for him for three years. In three months he will graduate from college, and will serve for another two years before entering the General Staff Academy. Then he will pass the exam and ask for her hand. The second lieutenant receives forty-three rubles a month, and he will not allow himself to offer her the pitiful fate of a provincial regimental lady. Zinochka promises to wait.

True love, like gold, never rusts or oxidizes.

Since then, Alexandrov has been trying to get the highest score. With nine points, you can choose a suitable regiment for service. He is only about three tenths short of a nine because of a six in military fortification.

But now all the obstacles have been overcome, Alexandrov receives nine points and the right to choose his first duty station. When Berdi Pasha calls his last name, the cadet, without looking, points his finger at the list and stumbles upon the unknown Undom infantry regiment.

And now a brand new officer’s uniform is put on, and the head of the school, General Anchutin, gives his students farewell. Usually there are at least seventy-five officers in a regiment, and in such a large society, gossip is inevitable, corroding this society.

Having finished his parting words, the General says goodbye to the newly minted officers. They bow to him, and General Anchutin remains “forever in their minds with such firmness, as if he were carved with a diamond on carnelian.”

Retold