M. A

“The White Guard” by Bulgakov M.A.

M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” was written in 1923-1925. At that time, the writer considered this book to be the main one in his destiny, he said that this novel “will make the sky hot.” Years later he called him "a failure." Perhaps the writer meant that that epic in the spirit of L.N. Tolstoy, which he wanted to create, did not work out.

Bulgakov was a witness revolutionary events in Ukraine. He outlined his view of his experience in the stories “The Red Crown” (1922), “ Extraordinary Adventures Doctor" (1922), " Chinese history"(1923), "Raid" (1923). Bulgakov’s first novel with the bold title “The White Guard” became, perhaps, the only work at that time in which the writer was interested in the experiences of a person in a raging world, when the foundation of the world order is collapsing.

One of the most important motives of M. Bulgakov’s work is the value of home, family, and simple human affections. The heroes of The White Guard are losing the warmth of their home, although they are desperately trying to preserve it. In her prayer to the Mother of God, Elena says: “You are sending too much grief at once, intercessor mother. So in one year you end your family. For what?.. My mother took it from us, I don’t have a husband and never will, I understand that. Now I understand very clearly. And now you’re taking away the older one too. For what?.. How will we be together with Nikol?.. Look what is happening around, look... Intercessor Mother, won’t you have mercy?.. Maybe we are bad people, but why punish like that? -That?"

The novel begins with the words: “The year after the Nativity of Christ 1918 was a great and terrible year, the second from the beginning of the revolution.” Thus, as it were, two systems of counting time, chronology, two systems of values ​​are proposed: traditional and new, revolutionary.

Remember how at the beginning of the 20th century A.I. Kuprin portrayed in the story “The Duel” Russian army- decayed, rotten. In 1918, the same people who made up the pre-revolutionary army found themselves on the battlefields of the Civil War, in general Russian society. But on the pages of Bulgakov’s novel we see not Kuprin’s heroes, but rather Chekhov’s ones. Intellectuals, who even before the revolution were yearning for a bygone world and understood that something needed to be changed, found themselves in the epicenter of the Civil War. They, like the author, are not politicized, they live their own lives. And now we find ourselves in a world in which there is no place for neutral people. The Turbins and their friends desperately defend what is dear to them, singing “God Save the Tsar,” tearing off the fabric hiding the portrait of Alexander I. Like Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, they do not adapt. But, like him, they are doomed. Only Chekhov's intellectuals were doomed to vegetation, and Bulgakov's intellectuals were doomed to defeat.

Bulgakov likes the cozy Turbino apartment, but everyday life is not valuable for a writer in itself. Life in “The White Guard” is a symbol of the strength of existence. Bulgakov leaves the reader no illusions about the future of the Turbin family. Inscriptions from the tiled stove are washed away, cups are broken, and the inviolability of everyday life and, therefore, existence is slowly but irreversibly destroyed. The Turbins' house behind the cream curtains is their fortress, a refuge from the blizzard and blizzard raging outside, but it is still impossible to protect themselves from it.

Bulgakov's novel includes the symbol of a blizzard as a sign of the times. For the author of The White Guard, the blizzard is a symbol not of the transformation of the world, not of the sweeping away of everything that has become obsolete, but evil beginning, violence. “Well, I think it will stop, the life that is written about in chocolate books will begin, but not only does it not begin, but it becomes more and more terrible all around. In the north the blizzard howls and howls, but here underfoot the disturbed womb of the earth muffles and grumbles dully.” The blizzard force destroys the life of the Turbin family, the life of the City. White snow in Bulgakov it does not become a symbol of purification.

“The provocative novelty of Bulgakov’s novel was that five years after the end of the Civil War, when the pain and heat of mutual hatred had not yet subsided, he dared to show the officers of the White Guard not in the poster guise of the “enemy,” but as ordinary, good and bad, tormented and deluded, smart and limited people, showed them from the inside, and the best in this environment - with obvious sympathy. What does Bulgakov like about these stepsons of history who lost their battle? And in Alexey, and in Malyshev, and in Nai-Turs, and in Nikolka, he most of all values ​​​​courageous straightforwardness and loyalty to honor,” notes literary critic V.Ya. Lakshin. The concept of honor is the starting point that determines Bulgakov’s attitude towards his heroes and which can be taken as a basis in a conversation about the system of images.

But despite all the sympathy of the author of “The White Guard” for his heroes, his task is not to decide who is right and who is wrong. Even Petliura and his henchmen, in his opinion, are not the culprits of the horrors taking place. This is a product of the elements of rebellion, doomed to quickly disappear from the historical arena. Trump who was bad school teacher, would never have become an executioner and would not have known about himself that his calling was war, if this war had not begun. Many of the heroes’ actions were brought to life by the Civil War. “War is a native mother” for Kozyr, Bolbotun and other Petliurists, who take pleasure in killing defenseless people. The horror of war is that it creates a situation of permissiveness and undermines the foundations of human life.

Therefore, for Bulgakov it does not matter whose side his heroes are on. In Alexey Turbin’s dream, the Lord says to Zhilin: “One believes, the other doesn’t believe, but you all have the same actions: now each other is at each other’s throats, and as for the barracks, Zhilin, then you have to understand this, I have you all, Zhilin, identical - killed on the battlefield. This, Zhilin, must be understood, and not everyone will understand it.” And it seems that this view is very close to the writer.

V. Lakshin noted: “ Artistic vision, the cast of the creative mind always embraces a wider spiritual reality than can be attested to by evidence of mere class interest. There is a biased class truth that has its own right. But there is a universal, classless morality and humanism, smelted by the experience of mankind.” M. Bulgakov stood in the position of such universal humanism.

From 1917 to 1922, Russia was wracked by a terrible civil war. The number of those killed in battles, executed, died from hunger and epidemics reached 19-21 million people, 12-13% of the population. 2 million emigrated to foreign lands.

The films show us a truly heroic era, selfless commissars and security officers, “boomers” and “elusive avengers.” But legends were created by the victors, in fact, the romantics great tragedy there was little. And even more so in the Red camp.

The 1917 revolution was the result of a dirty conspiracy. Russia's opponent in the World War, Germany, participated in its preparation and financing. Allies also took part: governments, intelligence services and banking circles in England and the USA. Russia was their main competitor in the world economy, and so it was thrown into chaos.

The Bolsheviks, having seized power, showed themselves to be the most cruel and unprincipled of the revolutionary parties. By demagoguery they attracted the mob, selfish people, and criminals to their side. It was proclaimed: “Rob the loot”! Hooligans and boors were given complete permissiveness, setting them against their opponents. The country was overwhelmed by terror, pogroms, and violence. But not all Russian people cowardly tucked their tails between their legs and submitted to the usurpers. The White Guard rose up in opposition to the Reds. And so the best sons of Russia, the most ardent, sincere patriots, ready to sacrifice themselves for the honor and greatness of their homeland: officers, students, high school students, Cossacks, were drawn into its ranks.

Their struggle was the highest feat. They started from scratch, acquiring weapons and ammunition in battles. Hungry and ragged, they performed miracles and defeated hordes of enemies twenty times greater. They liberated province after province, and the inhabitants of the tormented cities met the deliverers ringing bells, were thrown with flowers. In the areas occupied by whites, law and order were established, normal human life. Kiev professor A. Goldenweiser wrote: “The era of volunteers was an era of revival and restoration of everything destroyed by the Soviet regime.”

And yet the White Guards were unable to gain the upper hand. There were too few of them. At the time of their greatest success, in the fall of 1919, their troops numbered 260-270 thousand bayonets and sabers, and the Red Army - 3.5 million. Moreover, the small White Guards were divided into several fronts. When Kolchak advanced from Siberia, Denikin suffered defeats in the south. When Denikin tried to break through to Moscow, and Yudenich to Petrograd, Kolchak had already been defeated.

The White Guards were not united ideologically either. They themselves found themselves infected with all sorts of revolutionary theories and became entangled in politics. They had to fight not only with the Reds, but also with anarchists, with “greens”, with Caucasian and Ukrainian separatists. Whites were able to return to the idea of ​​a monarchy only in exile, after they had tried other ideological fluff on themselves. And during the years of the civil war, they agreed only on the fact that Russia should remain “united and indivisible.” They introduced democratic, liberal orders. But the more democratic the white government was, the faster it died. But the Bolsheviks did not play at democracy, they tightened the screws of dictatorship. They made alliances with anyone, with the Makhnovists, nationalists, as long as they were needed. Then they easily crushed them.

Finally, the White Guards remained chivalrously faithful to their Entente allies - England, France, America. After all, Russia saved them more than once in the First World War, and it was believed that the allies would reciprocate and help free the country from the red “barbarians.” But the Western powers did not at all want the revival of powerful Russia. English Prime Minister Lloyd George openly stated in parliament: “The advisability of assisting Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin is all the more controversial because they are fighting for united Russia. It is not for me to say whether this slogan is consistent with British policy.”
The Whites were given assistance with weapons, but not much - only to make the war flare up more abruptly. And on the sly, the allies did everything to prevent them from winning. At critical moments, assistance was stopped and agreements were broken down. Moreover, stabs were organized in the back of Kolchak, Denikin, and Yudenich. When the defeated remnants of the white armies found themselves in a foreign land, they met with a disgusting reception. They starved and died in refugee camps, scattered around the world in search of work...

In complex events of a turning point, in the tragic days of war, a person most often faces the problem of moral choice, and then the character of the hero is revealed especially fully and deeply. This is the situation in the novel by M.A. Bulgakov's "The White Guard", which describes the events of the terrible fratricidal Civil War. Without condemning either the “whites” or the “reds,” the author shows how, even in such a tragic time, people managed to remain faithful to the moral criteria of honor, goodness and justice. Such people in the novel are the Turbins, Colonel Malyshev, Colonel Nai-Tours. But always, at all times, there were people who cared not about the spiritual and not about preserving their unsullied military honor, but about your personal well-being. This is captain Sergei Ivanovich Talberg, the husband of Elena Turbina. This man entered the Turbin family, but he is alien to her in spirit, and the brothers tolerate him only for the sake of Elena. Just to keep her from worrying, the brothers worry about him being late and justify his delay as a “revolutionary ride.” And they feel joy that he has returned only for Elena. Since her marriage, “some kind of crack has formed in the vase of Turbino’s life,” says the author, explaining the reason through the “double-layer eyes” of Captain Thalberg. Already in the portrait of the hero one can feel the insincerity of this person: “two-story eyes” do not express sincere feeling, as well as the “eternal patented smile.” He stands straight and firm, turning like an automaton. “Slowly and cheerfully” he tells the Turbins about the attack on the train that he was escorting, but his self-confidence is false - he skillfully masks his anxiety and only, having called Elena to the bedroom, admits to her the real state of affairs: he needs to escape.

The essence of Sergei Ivanovich Talberg's character lies in the ability to adapt. He changes his beliefs depending on the changing political situation. In March 1917, Thalberg was the first “to come to military school with a wide red bandage on his sleeve,” immediately becoming a member of the military revolutionary committee. When did they arrive? Ukrainian nationalists, “Thalberg became irritable and dryly declared that this is not what is needed, this is a vulgar operetta,” and the roots of these people are in Moscow, “even though these roots are Bolshevik.” He repeats the same words about “operetta” both when the hetman arrives, but referring them to Moscow, and when he leaves German occupation, attributing them to the Hetman's ministry. It’s as if Talberg doesn’t want to notice that this is not just an “operetta”, “but with a lot of bloodshed” - the main thing for him is to join the winners in time. He has not served for two months, saying that the nationalists who came after the Germans “have no roots” - he sees “roots” in the regular German army, well armed and strong. At the same time, he slowly learns Ukrainian grammar and then takes part in the elections of “hetman of all Ukraine.” After this, “the water poured out of the vessel”: the Turbin brothers lost mutual language with Sergei Ivanovich, and Talberg became irritated and “very angry” when Nikolka “tactlessly” reminded him of his previous convictions. People of honor, the Turbins do not change their views under this or that government, but Captain Talberg is not like that, for whom it is important to successfully adapt to this life. Now he must flee: after his articles in the Vesti newspaper, he cannot stay in the City where Petliura’s troops will come. They take him on a train to Germany - “Thalberg found connections...”. But when he leaves, he does not take Elena with him, and this is not a departure, but a hasty flight. The author depicts the chaos of a ruined room, scattered things and considers this unworthy: “never run like a rat into the unknown from danger.” It is more worthy to wait “until they come to you,” even if “a blizzard is howling.” But Talberg flees like a rat from a sinking ship, and actually betrays Elena. He explains this by saying that he cannot take her “on wanderings and the unknown,” and Elena remains silent out of pride. But it is already clear that it is more dangerous not to leave in a German staff carriage to Germany, but to stay in the City, where Petliura’s troops arrive, and then the government will change again, and no one is protected from the violence and bloody tyranny of this element. Thalberg doesn’t even want to tell his brothers that the Germans are leaving the City, leaving this to Elena. Only for a moment did Sergei Ivanovich’s eyes fill with one feeling – tenderness for Elena as they said goodbye. Parting with the Turbins' house, with the immortal "Faust", which Talberg will no longer have to hear performed by Elena, Talberg loses last contact with people of a different spiritual culture, different life principles than himself. Now he has to “politely and ingratiatingly” smile at the German officers, look for a new place in life, winning it at the cost of betrayal.

M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” is dedicated to tragic events 1918-1919 in Kyiv - hometown writer. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, power in the city changed from 12 to 18 times over the years, and A.M. Bulgakov argued that coups...

To have a complete and deep understanding of some historical era, it is necessary to get acquainted with a variety of, sometimes polar, points of view, which, precisely because of their dissimilarity, will help to better understand this. The revolution of 1917, how...

M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard,” written in 1925 about the Civil War, covers the period from December 1918 to February 1919. Old world collapses, and the heroes of the novel, Russian intellectuals, shocked by events that change the usual way of life...

The son of a professor at the Kyiv Academy, who absorbed the best traditions Russian culture and spirituality, M.A. Bulgakov graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Kyiv, from 1916 he worked as a zemstvo doctor in the village of Nikolskoye, Smolensk province, and then in Vyazma, where he found...

(364 words) Betrayal of the Motherland is not among the seven deadly sins described by Dante Alighieri in “ Divine Comedy", but for most people it is an unforgivable crime. Love for the fatherland is something sublime, pure, and betraying this bright feeling is unacceptable for many, as in real life, and in literature, in which there are many heroes who paid for their actions.

Such an example, undoubtedly, is Andriy from N.V. Gogol’s story “Taras Bulba”. He is a brave Cossack, who meanwhile feels like a stranger in the Zaporozhye Sich. When a beautiful Polish woman turned to him for help, the young man in love without hesitation went over to the side of the enemy. Love for the lady defeated all his other feelings, and he becomes a traitor: he fights against former comrades, father and brother, forgets about his mother and duty to the Fatherland. Andriy paid for his betrayal with his life - Taras himself kills him. The scene of their meeting looks like an execution: the young man instantly loses all his fighting ardor, obediently obeys his father and does not try to save himself. Did death atone for his betrayal? The answer is clear: no. The hero died ingloriously, “like a vile dog,” as Taras says about him, unlike his father and brother, and it is not even known whether the Poles buried him or whether the lady remembers him.

Another example of a person who betrayed his homeland is Sergei Talberg, one of the heroes of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard.” The work describes difficult times for Russia - Civil War. Sergei successfully adapted to each new government, but at some point he made a mistake - those about whom he wrote unflattering remarks in the newspaper would soon take over the city. The hero decides to protect himself and flee the country, while he leaves his wife Elena. If Andriy betrayed his homeland for the sake of love, then Sergei betrays it solely because of his selfishness. It is interesting that Bulgakov clearly expresses his negative attitude towards Thalberg’s act: he compares him to a rat. Subsequently, the reader learns that the traitor is going to marry another girl and leave for Paris. Nothing can atone for such a betrayal - the hero will remain an opportunist, unable to overcome his selfishness.

In difficult times, when the fate of nations is being decided, everyone is free to make their own choice: to become a hero or a traitor? Then it appears true essence a person, his true character. “There is no higher idea than how to donate own life, defending his brothers and his Fatherland...” - believed F. M. Dostoevsky. But, unfortunately, not everyone agrees with him.

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The development of actions in the novel is conveyed through the perception of a real eyewitness to the events of 1918, since the prototype of Alexei Turbin was the author himself, M.A. Bulgakov, who “in conditions of war and permanent shift authorities was called up to serve as a doctor." He writes that hatred and anger controlled people who could not understand the rightness or injustice of the demands of numerous parties, social or class groups, or even just gangs hiding behind revolutionary slogans. There were hungry landless peasants , and there were landowners who took most harvest. By that time, people had accumulated a lot of ammunition, weapons, with the help of which they wanted to win their right to bread and to life.

The situation in the City (meaning Kyiv) had long been tense, and there was little time left before the explosion. At the very center of this explosion were the residents of the City and the officers of the White Guard, who had seen a senseless and endless change of power, but in this situation people behaved differently. So, for example, Alexey Turbin, the eldest of the brothers, was opposed to revolutions and bloodshed, but he understood the men with their “hearts burning with unquenchable anger.” The peasants also hated the German officers, who left their notes on pieces of paper: “Give the Russian pig 25 marks for the pig bought from her.” The men were outraged by the Germans’ bullying of the Ukrainians, but they also saw an enemy in the Ukrainian hetman, under whom “landowners with fat faces” again sat on their necks. The elder Turbin did not condemn ordinary people for their hatred of Russian officers and “Muscovites,” since hostile relationships arose between people because they were “knocked off the screws of life by war and revolution.”

“In the fire of revolutions,” each person made his own moral choice. When the Turbin brothers and their comrades sought to fulfill their duty by defending the City, engineer Lisovich, the Turbins' neighbor, and others like him arranged their own, personal affairs. Staff officer Shchetkin, who turned himself into a civilian, went to his cozy apartment and, having drunk coffee, fell asleep sweetly: he was not going to save anyone. And at this time, the cadets, led by Nai-Tours, had to “twirl under the shrapnel sky,” protecting the townspeople, among whom were the staff officer Shchetkin, and the layman Lisovich, who diligently and inventively arranged new hiding places for the money looted and accumulated under all the authorities. Lisovich was never bothered by thoughts about decency, honor or civic consciousness: “He carefully put aside counterfeit (money) intended for the cab driver and the market.” Fraud, deceiving people is a long-standing talent of this opportunist, who lives quietly without convictions, without a sense of duty to people and the Fatherland. For him in Time of Troubles One thing is important: to learn how to reliably hide “katerinkas” and “petrovkas”, gold and silver.

Both White Guard officers and insufficiently trained cadets participated in the defense of the City. The younger Turbin, Nikolai, was about to die while Lisovich was counting and hiding the money. Everyone saw their place in this “fire” in their own way. " Folk teachers, paramedics, Ukrainian seminarians who, by the will of fate, became warrant officers, hefty sons of beekeepers, staff captains with Ukrainian surnames... everyone speaks Ukrainian, everyone loves Ukraine,” ... and everyone is armed. When those same Muscovite officers (White Guard) died for Ukraine, they were considered enemies by some representatives of the Ukrainian nation, sometimes by former colleagues. For example, after participating in the First World War, the village teacher Kozyr became a colonel in the Petliura army; he now fought against tsarist army. An explanation for this can be found: “...war for Kozyr was a calling, and teaching was just a long and major mistake.” Who to serve and who to kill was not important to him, as long as his military career was going well. People like Kozyr cannot understand why one of the commanders, seeing how his four officers and two cadets died under the blows of a hundred cavalry, shot himself in the mouth, saying before that: “Staff bastard. I understand the Bolsheviks very well.” He was a man with the highest sense of responsibility for the lives of his subordinates, faithful to the oath and duty of the defender of the Fatherland.

Deeply decent and an honest man, with a high sense of duty, loyalty to the oath, and a sense of self-esteem, there was such a representative of the White Guard as Colonel Malyshev. He turned out to be a far-sighted military leader who managed to discover that the hetman and his entourage had shamefully fled abroad, like the army commander. Therefore, Malyshev saves his “foolish children” from death, who wanted to lay down their heads while protecting the City and its inhabitants from the Petliurites. Deceived, drawn into the adventure, people could be killed in a massacre with Petlyura’s well-armed troops, twenty times larger than their number. Colonel Malyshev took responsibility for deciding the fate of the soldiers and officers of the division entrusted to him. He ordered them to take off their shoulder straps, go home and not take unnecessary risks.

M.A. Bulgakov reflected in the novel the harsh, cruel truth of History, showed different tempers, fate, moral choice of people in the most difficult circumstances of the era of wars and destruction. Some heroes (for example, Turbins, Nai-Tours, Malyshev) remained faithful to such moral values, as honest service to society and the country, selflessness, decency, patriotism and courage, and were ready to die without betraying their principles. Other characters, like Lisovich, accumulated wealth, others, like Kozyr, made military career, used the war to improve their own well-being. Or, for example, staff officer Sergei Talberg, who neglected even such a feeling as love for to a loved one. He betrays his friends, his wife and, acting in personal interests, secretly prepares to flee abroad, making his choice in accordance with his own convictions. Thalberg does not suffer from remorse about duty or responsibility to people and country.

Probably, a person has the right to choose: to stay alive or “burn in the fire of revolutions.” But it is difficult to agree that all means are good, and therefore it is impossible to forgive meanness, dishonesty, greed for blood, betrayal. One cannot but agree with the point of view of M. Bulgakov, who recalled the well-known truths: there is nothing higher eternal values, that is, life itself, love for each other, loyalty and decency.

Reviews

You, as always, are smart. Try to compare and isolate what is essential in a fierce struggle, while remaining outside the framework of predilections. It seems to me that you succeed in this for one simple reason: you are smart.

And I have one serious complaint against you. Namely. Reading your talented critical articles, I don’t dare fish mine out of the table. I'm afraid I'll make a fool of myself: the bar you've set is high.
As for your ill-wishers, become a camel. Let them bark. And you spit. And publish again. If you really get it, then share it. Since childhood and to this day, I fight seriously, both virtually and in reality.
Low bow.