Last year's snow was falling, New Year's scene. Fairy tale - Last year's snow fell

01 September 2017

The famous cartoon by Alexander Tatarsky turns 34 this year. The phrases of the stupid peasant who went into the forest to get a Christmas tree went “to the people,” and the cartoon itself became an attribute of the New Year celebration in our country.

Still from the film

the site learned about “encrypted messages”, about Dostoevsky’s contribution to the creation of the cartoon, and something else about this plasticine fairy tale.

In Soviet times, artists had to defend almost every idea they had. In the case of the cartoon “Last Year's Snow Was Falling,” the censors did not appreciate Alexander Tatarsky’s absurdist humor and at first did not give him the opportunity to start working at all. When the cartoon was ready, they found some “encrypted messages” in the hilarious remarks of the main character.

The director was very nervous about this. Well, after being accused of disrespecting a Russian person, he generally went to bed with a heart attack.

Still from the film

When the question arose about who should voice the cartoon, Tatarsky’s assistants suggested Rina Zelenaya and Liya Akhedzhakova. After the test recording, the director ordered to continue the search.

Stanislav Sadalsky and Alexander Tatarsky were introduced by Lyudmila Kopteva, who worked on the production team. Sadalsky coped well with all the tasks assigned to them, the cartoon was released, but his name disappeared from the final credits. What happened?

Source: globallookpress.com

The fact is that Sadalsky grew up in an orphanage and was looking for loved ones for a long time. In the mid-70s, he was able to contact his grandmother, who had lived in Germany since 1917. For communicating with his foreign relative, the artist was banned from traveling abroad. And it was because of his grandmother that his name was removed from the end credits of the cartoon “Last Year’s Snow Was Falling.” However, the country knew its heroes: even without captions, which most often no one reads, the audience was aware of whose voice the narrator and the peasant were speaking.

Still from the film

The main character of the cartoon, finding himself at the epicenter of magical events, remained a realist until the very end. He refused to believe what was happening and from time to time said: “Oh, these storytellers!” Tatarsky borrowed this famous phrase from Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky - it is the epigraph of the writer’s debut novel “Poor People”.

Alexander Tatarsky, during a discussion of the final musical theme with composer Grigory Gladkov, uttered the phrase: “They will bury us to this melody.” In 2007, the director passed away and, according to his wishes, music from our favorite cartoon was played at his funeral.

Last year's snow was falling...

The plasticine cartoon was shot by film director Alexander Tatarsky from a script by Sergei Ivanov in 1983. The composer of the cartoon “Last Year’s Snow Was Falling” Grigory Gladkov said that a similar New Year’s story can happen to anyone.

According to composer Grigory Gladkov during his performance in the humorous program “Around Laughter,” the cartoon “Last Year’s Snow Was Falling” had the original working title “Fir-trees, sticks, dense forest,” and the main character in it was the janitor from “The Plasticine Crow.” Then the visual concept of the main character was finalized, as was the title of the film.

From its very first broadcast on Central Television, the cartoon acquired cult status. The aphoristic remarks of the characters, full of absurdist humor, turned into popular sayings.

Already at the beginning, Tatarsky was not allowed to start working on the cartoon, forcing him to shoot a cartoon about pioneers collecting scrap metal. The director unsuccessfully tried to push his script through scandals. In the end, he went for the trick - but announced that he would make a film about Lenin, and he sought the right to make a cartoon about Vladimir Ilyich for two weeks, adding at the same time that the film would be based on Zoshchenko’s work. Under such peremptory pressure, the officials gave up and agreed to the original script, just so as not to touch on the forbidden topic.

Initially, Rina Zelenaya and Liya Akhedzhakova were invited to voice the cartoon. Akhedzhakova even voiced the cartoon, but Tatarsky didn’t like it. Then editor Lyudmila Kopteva proposed the candidacy of Stanislav Sadalsky, with whom Tatarsky subsequently became friends.

Interestingly, his name is missing from the end credits. Before submitting the cartoonChairman of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Sergei Lapin received information that Sadalsky was detained in the restaurant of the Cosmos Hotel with a foreign citizen. As a punishment for communicating with foreigners, the actor's last name was removed from the credits.

Based on the cartoon, there are two computer games of the same name, which tell the story of the new adventures of the Man. Both games were voiced by Sadalsky.

According to Gladkov, the characteristic “quack” sound in some of the cartoon’s compositions was created using a musical instrument from the class of horns called a kazoo.

Explaining to the composer what the final musical theme should be, Tatarsky said: “They will bury us to this melody!” And so it happened: the theme from the cartoon “Last Year’s Snow Was Falling” was played at the director’s funeral.

The cartoon “Last Year's Snow Was Falling” could not escape the close attention of censors. “At the delivery of “Snow,” I was in a pre-heart attack state,” recalled the cartoon director Alexander Tatarsky. “They told me that I was disrespectful to the Russian people: you have only one hero - a Russian man, and he’s an idiot!..”

The main character of the cartoon is a man, stupid, cunning, lazy and greedy. He loves to drink beer and constantly gets into stupid situations. Fortunately, he has a wife - “strict and authoritative.”

The adventures of the main character begin with his wife sending him to bring a Christmas tree from the forest for the New Year. But the New Year's forest is a fabulous place, full of unexpected events and transformations. Having become entangled in miracles, having repeatedly lost and regained his own appearance, the man returns home with nothing.

Usually, plasticine heroes are static, but director Alexander Tatarsoky’s plasticine is always alive. Characters are sculpted, appear and disappear.

Grigory Gladkov said that the main character comes from the people and it is because of this that he gained popularity. “Although, the censors considered him a fool, an imbecile, and the cartoon a mockery of the Russian people, well, at the same time, of the Ukrainian and Tatar people, because the director is from Kiev, and his last name is Tatarsky. The officials mixed Ukrainians, Tatars and Russians in their heads,” the composer noted.

The phrase “Oh, these storytellers” is the epigraph of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s first novel “Poor People,” which in turn is a quote from the story of Prince V. F. Odoevsky “The Living Dead.”

The aphoristic remarks of the characters, full of absurdist humor, turned into popular sayings...

--- I already sent it, so I sent it!.. Go, he says, and don’t come back without a Christmas tree. But come back with the Christmas tree, he says!
--- It won't be enough!

--- Who is the ultimate king here? No one? So I'll be the first!

--- Auntie, let me go! I know the magic word: “Please”!

“The first thing I’ll do is become a king... so what’s the first thing?” Ah, the piano! What kind of life is this without a piano?

Oh, how I really love and respect this wealth!

This is my size!

--- If I am such a merchant here, then what do I need this thin wife?! It will be too small!

--- There are many Christmas trees and there are many of you! But it won’t be of much use!

--- But here’s a hare, a runaway hare.

--- Noble beast!.. Fur! Meat! I'll fry the crackling!...

--- We, the boyars, are hard-working people! Such is our boyar lot...

--- Look what they're kicking out!

--- Oh, what a good rug!.. It was...

--- Oh, these fairy tales! Oh, these storytellers!

--- I'll go to the market! There are a lot of fools there, but there are few hares!

--- Such a pleasant flexibility has formed in the body.

--- I don’t understand anything!..

--- Once upon a time there was a male eagle. Well tailored, deftly sculpted - well, the spitting image of me in my youth.

--- When the acorn is ripe, every pig will eat it!
--- Hey, there was a house right here!

--- Lifesaver, come here!

--- Eh, Christmas tree sticks... where have you all gone?
--- Shut up, bore!

--- What kind of life is this - even without a piano!

--- Oh, what a joy to live!

Last year's snow was falling (HD)

Once upon a time, in one very plasticine area, there lived a male eagle, and one day on New Year’s Eve his wife sent him for a Christmas tree...

Grigory Gladkov remembered how he wrote music for the cartoon. “Grishka, our cartoon is funny, but at the end there should be a sad melody. It needs to be like Fellini’s, it needs to be a lot of fun, and at the end there’s such a sad melody that they’ll bury you and me,” the director told Gladkov.

The composer composed such a melody. “We were at Uspensky’s dacha, laughing, joking, and at the end of the evening I sat down at the piano, imagined that it was snowing and such a melody was born. Tatarsky was buried to the final music from this cartoon,” said Grigory Gladkov. Many phrases from the cartoon have become catchphrases, for example, “it won’t be enough” and “well, I sent it, so I sent it.” The composer admitted that his favorite phrase is “the end, the end, the ends in the water.”

“The strength of a cartoon is that it shows character. He seems to be such a klutz, in fact he is a normal, wise village peasant, and she is his loving wife. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t run with a rolling pin. And then I was running, searching, worrying. The man found the tree and brought it home, but it was already in April, and he took it back. This is our whole life and our whole character is so unlucky, but we build rockets, and we hold the Olympics, and everything still works out for us. We are simple, we do everything cheerfully and jokingly. The most important thing is that the hero is an inventor, God forbid he lives with boring people,” said Grigory Gladkov.

based on materials: russian.rt.co

livemaster.ru

“Last Year's Snow Was Falling” is an animated film filmed in 1983 by Soviet film director Alexander Tatarsky based on a script by Sergei Ivanov. Made using the plasticine animation technique. The plot is based on a funny New Year's tale about a peasant who goes in search of a Christmas tree.

The cartoon is distinguished by the fact that the aphoristic remarks of the cartoon characters, full of absurdist humor, turned into popular sayings.

The main character is a man, stupid, cunning, lazy, greedy, and also tongue-tied (can’t pronounce “some letters and numbers”). He loves to drink beer and constantly gets into stupid situations. Fortunately, he has a wife - “strict and authoritative.” The whole story begins with the wife sending a man to bring a Christmas tree from the forest for the New Year. But the New Year's forest is a fabulous place, full of unexpected events and transformations. Having become entangled in miracles, having repeatedly lost and regained his own appearance, the man returns home with nothing.

The plot is divided into two connected stories - about a man's dreams and incredible transformations in a magic hut on chicken legs. The first plot is based on a fairy tale, found in many nations of the world, about a greedy man who, seeing a hare in the forest, dreamed of getting rich from the caught animal. As a result, he inadvertently scares the hare with a cry and is left with nothing.

The cartoon ends with the narrator's words about how the man went for the tree for the third time and finally got it, but since it was already spring, he had to take the tree back.

“Last Year’s Snow Was Falling” did not escape the close attention of censors.

Already at the beginning, Tatarsky was not allowed to start working on the cartoon, forcing him to shoot a cartoon about pioneers collecting scrap metal. The director unsuccessfully tried to push his script through scandals. In the end, he resorted to a trick - he announced that he would make a film about Lenin, and for two weeks he sought the right to make a cartoon about Vladimir Ilyich, adding along the way that the film would be based on Zoshchenko’s work. Under such peremptory pressure, the officials gave up and agreed to the original script, just so as not to touch on the forbidden topic.

Despite the desperate resistance of the director and screenwriter, “Last Year’s Snow Was Falling” was sent “for revision.” The cartoon had to be re-edited and re-voiced in places.

As composer Grigory Gladkov mentioned during his performance in the program “Around Laughter,” the cartoon had the original working title “Fir trees, sticks, dense forest,” and the main character in it was the janitor from “The Plasticine Crow.” Then the visual concept of the main character had to be finalized, as well as the name.

Rina Zelyonaya and Liya Akhedzhakova were invited to voice the cartoon. Akhedzhakova even voiced the cartoon, but Tatarsky didn’t like it. Then editor Lyudmila Kopteva proposed the candidacy of Stanislav Sadalsky, with whom Tatarsky subsequently became friends. Interestingly, his name is missing from the end credits. Before the release of the cartoon, the Chairman of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Sergei Lapin received information that Sadalsky was detained in the restaurant of the Cosmos Hotel with a foreign citizen. As a punishment for communicating with foreigners, the actor’s last name was removed from the credits.

Based on the cartoon, there are two computer games of the same name, which tell about the new adventures of the Man. Both games were voiced by Sadalsky.

What you now see in front of you is the script of my favorite cartoon. I accidentally came across it somewhere on the Internet. Now it is on my page.
Read&Enjoy!

fell
last year
snow(Note: A is the author, M is the man)

You can’t say for sure, but a long time ago, back in the Old Clay Times, in one Plasticine Area... well!.. I wanted to tell you about the pike...
You know, in this story, whatever you want happens to you: sometimes it seems to mold, and sometimes it doesn’t mold... Let’s say, once we met two such cute, cute... oh, and these were carried away.
No, here... or here is Melnik: Melnik took it into his head... Now I can tell you THIS about him!..
Or this: one mug was chained forever... however, there’s no point in talking about that.
And... one citizen really loved watermelons... You remind me, I’ll tell you about him tomorrow, okay?
Quiet!!! Quiet, quiet, quiet! It was all a saying; Well, that’s who I’m going to talk about: well-cut, deftly sculpted - well, I’m just like me in my youth!
Oh! Where is he?! I wanted a fairy tale about him... I would have made him a king!
Oh, well, I just ruined the whole mood!.. Here again are these bones, dogs... these circles... and where is the circle??!! What a fairy tale... So here he is! Well, that’s what I’m saying, that a long time ago, in one Very Plasticine Area...

A: Wait, just don’t disappear, okay?

Once upon a time there was a male eagle...

M: I don’t understand Niti!

True, he couldn’t pronounce some letters and numbers, and he was a laborer... yeah, that’s it. But he was a great lover of idleness; It’s good that he got a strict and authoritative wife.
Once on New Year's Eve she sent...

Well, in general, I sent him to get the Christmas tree.

M: I sent it, so I sent it. And then he says: “This is for the New Year, and without the Christmas tree, eh?”
A: Why are you climbing here? Why are you trying everything on? They sent it - so cut it!
M: Malavata, panimaes! It will be too small!
A: Oh, well, that’s another matter. Then here's a spruce princess for you, a whole house!

Sneaks...

A: Why are you sneaking?
M: Shh! Shut up! You see the beast, no? Wow, how I smell!..
A: Ish was daydreaming...
M: Reaping beast! Fur! meat! I’ll give you some crackling... No, I’ll just take it down without a fairy tale. There are a lot of fools here, but there are few hares... But who wants a hare?! Hare! Run out! Who wants a hare?!! Freshly caught!!!
M: Whatever you like, it’s too small! It’ll be too small!
M: If I’m all such a merchant, then this thin Zena is a hundred for me? It will be too small! ... Please introduce yourself: my other half.
A: And with such a wife, you probably need a mansion? In! No, no, or in!! No, no, what time!!!
M: Malavata, I say! It will be too small!
A: Would you like white stone chambers? Or “the house is a full cup”?
M: Stop, stop! It's not the same back. I’ll build another house: sure! soundly! Fine! And even if I’m an ass, it’s from the bottom of my heart! Yeah, khoromina! Wow, huge!!! Oh... Yes, and I... yes, with such a fountain!.. I will become a boyar. We, the boyars, are a hard-working people - such is our lot, the boyars' lot... ... It will be too small! This is my size.
A: Listen, haven’t you forgotten about the Christmas tree, oak boyar?
M: When the ash is ripe... ah... every pig... slaps it! With such pigs, you somehow become yourself... And I can even sign up to be a king!.. Yes!.. Who is here... who is here, for example, to be the ultimate king?! No one?!! So I'll be the first... Carriage for me! I understand, ka-re-tu! Well, a palace! Well, good! With swans, with stuffed animals!
M: Oh, how I love and respect this wealth! ... As a king, you know, I’ll take care of myself, first thing... first thing... those first thing? Ah, the piano! And this hundred is for life without a piano? I will throw feasts... Malavata. Let's have a feast!
A: Eh, your luck has flown away...
M: I wish you could fail! ... Oh, boredom! Vtera is a king, today is a king... every day - everything is a king and a king! Malavata. And I... I am kind of small myself... Smallish!!! IT WILL BE SMALL!!!
A: Stop! Wait, wait, come to your senses! Stop growing, you'll burst!
M: Malavata! It will be too small!!! Too small!!!
A: Well, did you get through?
M: Well, bunny! Wait! Wait for it!
A: No Christmas tree, no hare! Nothing! And you sowed the matches in the spring.
M: Uh-ho-ho, piano, piano...
A: Still, I feel sorry for him. Is this really the end?
M: The end, the end... Ends in the water!

His wife didn't let him in. I sent for the Christmas tree again.

M: Go, he says, and don’t come back without a Christmas tree! But with the Christmas tree, he says, come back!..
M: Hey-hey, he-hea-hey!!! What a forest! Elki-winders, where did you all go?
M: Oh... You remind me of someone... someone, aunt! And it seems like you weren’t here before... E-he-e-e-hey!!! Ugh!
A: Don't spit! Forgot the proverb?
M: Is everything at home? A? Well, okay!
M: Ho! Hoo! Madhouse!.. Malavata!
A: Listen, what are you in charge of here? Were you invited here?
M: Shut up, bore! Look! Hey-hey-hey! Oh... some old scales... some kind of junk. Delicate work, however!.. Beautiful... magical! Oh! Oh! Oh! I don’t understand Niti!
A: I’m cold, honey, sitting in the snow! You can't calculate everything...
My!
A: And your raking hands!..
M: Yes, they're kicking him out, huh!
A: Oh, what a curious nose!..
M: What a good floor mat! Was...
A: And the eyes are insatiable!..
M: Is this a hundred? Looks like wood...
A: This is your wooden head!.. And your wand is magic! Carefully! Yes, greedy guy!..
M: I don’t understand!
A: Now you’ll understand...
M: Come on, grow back! Grow back, I say! Is this a hundred for toys? Oh! guard! Let's get help! Oh, help! I’m dying... Oh, what a thrill!.. ...Well, I’ve already seen that!
A: Shave, don’t shave, but it doesn’t look like a Christmas tree! ... And there are a lot of Christmas trees, and there are a lot of you... but it will be of little use!
M: Oh, now I’ll turn into a hundred hos even without this stick... Such pleasant flexibility has formed in my body... Oh, but I can’t control myself!..
A: Everything is wrong with you!
My! Mother!!! All! That's it, I'm not playing anymore! ... How can I go home? I don’t even have legs... But at home - Zena... Coat! Vyrutyalotka! Come here!.. ...Auntie, let me go! I know the magic word: POZALUSTA! ...Pchhi!
M: Eh, people! This is me! Oh, go away!.. Oh... ... Oh! Where is she? Where is she, I say - there seemed to be a house here? A? Well, what about Moltis?!!
A: I've eaten!
M: Oh, these fairy tales! Oh, these storytellers!.. Eh-ho-ho...

, Boris Savin, Alexander Tatarsky, Vladlen Barbe

Operator Sound engineer

Nelly Kudrina

Studio A country

USSR USSR

Distributor

State Television and Radio of the USSR

Language Duration

19 min 45 sec

Premiere IMDb BCdb Animator.ru

"Last year's snow fell"- Soviet animated film, which was shot in 1983 by director Alexander Tatarsky based on the script by Sergei Ivanov. Made using the plasticine animation technique. The plot is based on a funny New Year's tale about a peasant who goes in search of a Christmas tree.

The cartoon stands out because the aphoristic remarks of the cartoon characters, full of absurdist humor, turned into folk sayings.

The cartoon premiered on December 31, 1983 on the 2nd program of the Central Television of the USSR State Television and Radio, and was subsequently shown also on the 3rd and 5th programs of the Central Television. In the 1990s, the cartoon was shown on RTR, and on other channels it is broadcast annually on New Year's Eve.

Plot

The main character is a little peasant, stupid, cunning, lazy, greedy, and also tongue-tied (can’t pronounce “some letters and numbers”). He loves to drink beer and constantly gets into stupid situations. Fortunately, he has a wife - “strict and authoritative.” The whole story begins with the wife sending a man to bring a Christmas tree from the forest for the New Year. But the New Year's forest is a fabulous place, full of unexpected events and transformations. Having become entangled in miracles, having repeatedly lost and regained his own appearance, the man returns home with nothing.

The plot is divided into two connected stories - about a man's dreams and incredible transformations in a magic hut on chicken legs. The first story is based on a plot found in fairy tales of many peoples of the world - about a greedy man who, seeing a hare in the forest, dreamed of getting rich from the caught animal. As a result, he inadvertently scares the hare with a cry and is left with nothing.

The cartoon ends with the narrator's words about how the man went for the tree for the third time and finally got it, but since it was already spring, he had to take the tree back.

Creators

Scriptwriter: Sergey Ivanov
Director: Alexander Tatarsky
Cinematographer: Joseph Golomb
Production designer: Lyudmila Tanasenko
Composer: Grigory Gladkov
Arranger: Igor Kantyukov
Animators: Alexander Fedulov, Boris Savin, Alexander Tatarsky, Vladlen Barbe
Artists: Elena Kosareva, Ivan Romanov, Irina Cherenkova, Olga Pryanishnikova, O. Tkalenko, Tatyana Kuzmina
Editor: Lyubov Georgieva
Sound engineer: Nelly Kudrina
Editor: Alisa Feodoridi
Director: Zinaida Saraeva
The roles were voiced by Stanislav Sadalsky (uncredited)

Awards

Censorship

“Last Year's Snow Was Falling” did not escape the close attention of censors.

Already at the beginning, Tatarsky was not allowed to start working on the cartoon, forcing him to shoot a cartoon about pioneers collecting scrap metal. The director unsuccessfully tried to push his script through scandals. In the end, he resorted to a trick - he announced that he would make a film about Lenin, and for two weeks he sought the right to make a cartoon about Vladimir Ilyich, adding along the way that the film would be based on the work of Zoshchenko. Under such peremptory pressure, the officials gave up and agreed to the original script, just so as not to touch on the forbidden topic.

Despite the desperate resistance of the director and screenwriter, “Last Year’s Snow Was Falling” was sent “for revision.” The cartoon had to be re-edited and re-voiced in places. Director Alexander Tatarsky recalled:

At the delivery of “Snow” I was in a pre-heart attack state. They told me that I was disrespectful towards the Russian people: “You have only one hero - a Russian man, and he’s an idiot!..”

As composer Grigory Gladkov mentioned during his performance in the program “Around Laughter,” the cartoon had the original working title “Fir-trees, sticks, dense forest,” and the main character in it was the janitor from “The Plasticine Crow.” Then the visual concept of the main character had to be finalized, as well as the name.
Rina Zelenaya and Liya Akhedzhakova were invited to voice the cartoon. Akhedzhakova even voiced the cartoon, but Tatarsky didn’t like it. Then editor Lyudmila Kopteva proposed the candidacy of Stanislav Sadalsky, with whom Tatarsky subsequently became friends. Interestingly, his name is missing from the end credits. Before the release of the cartoon, the Chairman of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Sergei Lapin received information that Sadalsky was detained in the restaurant of the Cosmos Hotel with a foreign citizen. As a punishment for communicating with foreigners, the actor's last name was removed from the credits.
Based on the cartoon, there are two computer games of the same name, which tell the story of the new adventures of the Man. Both games were voiced by Sadalsky.
According to Gladkov, the characteristic “quack” sound in some of the cartoon’s compositions was created using a musical instrument from the class of horns called kazoo .
Explaining to the composer what the final musical theme should be, Tatarsky said: “They will bury us to this melody!” And so it happened: the theme from the cartoon “Last Year’s Snow Was Falling” was played at the director’s funeral.
The phrase “Oh, these storytellers” is the epigraph of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s first novel “Poor People”, which in turn is a quote from the story of Prince V.F. Odoevsky “The Living Dead”.
The opening theme song was later used in an episode of Brothers Pilot.
A restaurant dedicated to the cartoon called “Zucchini on a Barrel” was opened in Kyiv.

Editions

The cartoon has been repeatedly published on VHS and DVD in cartoon collections:

Collection of cartoons “Video program of the USSR Goskino”, mid-1980s - early 1990s, video cassette “Electronics VK”, SECAM
Collection of cartoons "Electronics Video", late 1980s, early 1990s, video cassette "Electronics VK". First permanent release in the PAL system.
The best Soviet cartoons, Studio PRO Video, mid-1990s, Cartoons on cassette: Plasticine Crow and others...
“Children’s cinema: Koloboks are conducting the investigation” (Collection of cartoons from TO “Ekran”), “Master Tape”, VHS, 2000.
“Last year’s snow was falling. Collection of cartoons (TO “Ekran”)”, “Master Tape”, DVD, 2002. PAL and NTSC.
“The Winter’s Tale” (Collection of cartoons from TO “Ekran”), “IDDK”, DVD, 2002.
"The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree"(Collection of cartoons from TO “Ekran”), DVD Cartoons on disc:

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Notes

Links

"Last Year's Snow Was Falling" (English) on the Internet Movie Database
on "Animator.ru"
on the website "Encyclopedia of Russian Cinema"
on YouTube
Daria Pechorina Article on the website Our film.ru

Excerpt characterizing Last year's snow was falling

But she had never been so sorry, she had never been so afraid of losing him. She remembered her entire life with him, and in every word and action of his she found an expression of his love for her. Occasionally, between these memories, the temptations of the devil burst into her imagination, thoughts about what would happen after his death and how her new, free life would work out. But she drove away these thoughts with disgust. By morning he calmed down and she fell asleep.
She woke up late. The sincerity that occurs during awakening showed her clearly what occupied her most during her father’s illness. She woke up, listened to what was behind the door, and, hearing his groaning, said to herself with a sigh that it was still the same.
- Why should that happen? What did I want? I want him dead! – she screamed with disgust at herself.
She got dressed, washed, said prayers and went out onto the porch. Horseless carriages were brought to the porch, into which things were packed.
The morning was warm and gray. Princess Marya stopped on the porch, never ceasing to be horrified by her spiritual abomination and trying to put her thoughts in order before entering him.
The doctor came down the stairs and approached her.
“He’s feeling better today,” said the doctor. - I was looking for you. You can understand something from what he says, with a fresher head. Let's go. He is calling you...
Princess Marya's heart beat so hard at this news that she, turning pale, leaned against the door so as not to fall. To see him, to talk to him, to fall under his gaze now, when Princess Marya’s whole soul was filled with these terrible criminal temptations, was painfully joyful and terrible.
“Let’s go,” said the doctor.
Princess Marya entered her father and went to the bed. He lay high on his back, with his small, bony hands covered with lilac knotty veins on the blanket, with his left eye staring straight and his right eye squinted, with motionless eyebrows and lips. He was all so thin, small and pitiful. His face seemed to have shriveled or melted, his features shriveled up. Princess Marya came up and kissed his hand. His left hand squeezed her hand so that it was clear that he had been waiting for her for a long time. He jerked her hand, and his eyebrows and lips moved angrily.
She looked at him in fear, trying to guess what he wanted from her. When she changed her position and moved so that her left eye could see her face, he calmed down, not taking his eyes off her for a few seconds. Then his lips and tongue moved, sounds were heard, and he began to speak, timidly and pleadingly looking at her, apparently afraid that she would not understand him.
Princess Marya, straining all her attention, looked at him. The comic labor with which he moved his tongue forced Princess Marya to lower her eyes and with difficulty suppress the sobs rising in her throat. He said something, repeating his words several times. Princess Marya could not understand them; but she tried to guess what he was saying and repeated the questioning words he said to the elephant.
“Gaga – fights... fights...” he repeated several times. There was no way to understand these words. The doctor thought that he had guessed right, and, repeating his words, asked: is the princess afraid? He shook his head negatively and repeated the same thing again...
“My soul, my soul hurts,” Princess Marya guessed and said. He hummed affirmatively, took her hand and began to press it to various places on his chest, as if searching for the real place for her.
- All thoughts! about you... thoughts,” he then said much better and more clearly than before, now that he was sure that he was understood. Princess Marya pressed her head against his hand, trying to hide her sobs and tears.
He moved his hand through her hair.
“I called you all night...” he said.
“If only I knew...” she said through tears. – I was afraid to enter.
He shook her hand.
– Didn’t you sleep?
“No, I didn’t sleep,” said Princess Marya, shaking her head negatively. Unwittingly obeying her father, she now, just as he spoke, tried to speak more with signs and seemed to also be moving her tongue with difficulty.
- Darling... - or - friend... - Princess Marya could not make out; but, probably, from the expression of his gaze, a gentle, caressing word was said, which he never said. - Why didn’t you come?
“And I wished, wished for his death! - thought Princess Marya. He paused.
“Thank you... daughter, friend... for everything, for everything... forgive... thank you... forgive... thank you!..” And tears flowed from his eyes. “Call Andryusha,” he suddenly said, and something childishly timid and distrustful was expressed in his face at this demand. It was as if he himself knew that his demand made no sense. So, at least, it seemed to Princess Marya.
“I received a letter from him,” answered Princess Marya.
He looked at her with surprise and timidity.
- Where is he?
- He is in the army, mon pere, in Smolensk.
He was silent for a long time, closing his eyes; then in the affirmative, as if in response to his doubts and to confirm that he now understood and remembered everything, he nodded his head and opened his eyes.
“Yes,” he said clearly and quietly. - Russia is dead! Ruined! - And he began to sob again, and tears flowed from his eyes. Princess Marya could no longer hold on and cried too, looking at his face.
He closed his eyes again. His sobs stopped. He made a sign with his hand to his eyes; and Tikhon, understanding him, wiped away his tears.
Then he opened his eyes and said something that no one could understand for a long time, and finally only Tikhon understood and conveyed it. Princess Marya looked for the meaning of his words in the mood in which he spoke a minute before. She thought that he was talking about Russia, then about Prince Andrei, then about her, about his grandson, then about his death. And because of this she could not guess his words.
“Put on your white dress, I love it,” he said.
Realizing these words, Princess Marya began to sob even louder, and the doctor, taking her by the arm, led her out of the room onto the terrace, persuading her to calm down and make preparations for departure. After Princess Marya left the prince, he again started talking about his son, about the war, about the sovereign, twitched his eyebrows angrily, began to raise a hoarse voice, and the second and final blow came to him.
Princess Marya stopped on the terrace. The day had cleared up, it was sunny and hot. She could not understand anything, think about anything and feel anything except her passionate love for her father, a love that, it seemed to her, she did not know until that moment. She ran out into the garden and, sobbing, ran down to the pond along the young linden paths planted by Prince Andrei.
- Yes... I... I... I. I wanted him dead. Yes, I wanted it to end soon... I wanted to calm down... But what will happen to me? “What do I need peace of mind when he’s gone,” Princess Marya muttered aloud, walking quickly through the garden and pressing her hands on her chest, from which sobs were convulsively escaping. Walking around the garden in a circle that led her back to the house, she saw M lle Bourienne (who remained in Bogucharovo and did not want to leave) and an unfamiliar man coming towards her. This was the leader of the district, who himself came to the princess in order to present to her the necessity of an early departure. Princess Marya listened and did not understand him; she led him into the house, invited him to have breakfast and sat down with him. Then, apologizing to the leader, she went to the door of the old prince. The doctor with an alarmed face came out to her and said that it was impossible.
- Go, princess, go, go!
Princess Marya went back into the garden and sat down on the grass under the mountain near the pond, in a place where no one could see. She didn't know how long she was there. Someone's running female steps along the path made her wake up. She got up and saw that Dunyasha, her maid, who was obviously running after her, suddenly, as if frightened by the sight of her young lady, stopped.
“Please, Princess... Prince...” Dunyasha said in a broken voice.
“Now, I’m coming, I’m coming,” the princess spoke hastily, not giving Dunyasha time to finish what she had to say, and, trying not to see Dunyasha, she ran to the house.
“Princess, God’s will is being done, you must be ready for anything,” said the leader, meeting her at the front door.
- Leave me. It is not true! – she angrily shouted at him. The doctor wanted to stop her. She pushed him away and ran to the door. “Why are these people with frightened faces stopping me? I don't need anyone! And what are they doing here? “She opened the door, and the bright daylight in this previously dim room terrified her. There were women and a nanny in the room. They all moved away from the bed to give her way. He was still lying on the bed; but the stern look of his calm face stopped Princess Marya at the threshold of the room.
“No, he’s not dead, that can’t be! - Princess Marya said to herself, walked up to him and, overcoming the horror that gripped her, pressed her lips to his cheek. But she immediately pulled away from him. Instantly, all the strength of tenderness for him that she felt in herself disappeared and was replaced by a feeling of horror at what was in front of her. “No, he is no more! He is not there, but there is right there, in the same place where he was, something alien and hostile, some terrible, terrifying and repulsive secret... - And, covering her face with her hands, Princess Marya fell into the arms of the doctor who supported her.
In the presence of Tikhon and the doctor, the women washed what he was, tied a scarf around his head so that his open mouth would not stiffen, and tied his diverging legs with another scarf. Then they dressed him in a uniform with orders and placed the small, shriveled body on the table. God knows who took care of it and when, but everything happened as if by itself. By nightfall, candles were burning around the coffin, there was a shroud on the coffin, juniper was strewn on the floor, a printed prayer was placed under the dead, shriveled head, and a sexton sat in the corner, reading the psalter.
Just as horses shy away, crowd and snort over a dead horse, so in the living room around the coffin a crowd of foreign and native people crowded - the leader, and the headman, and the women, and all with fixed, frightened eyes, crossed themselves and bowed, and kissed the cold and numb hand of the old prince.

Bogucharovo was always, before Prince Andrei settled there, an estate behind the eyes, and the Bogucharovo men had a completely different character from the Lysogorsk men. They differed from them in their speech, clothing, and morals. They were called steppe. The old prince praised them for their tolerance at work when they came to help with cleaning in the Bald Mountains or digging ponds and ditches, but did not like them for their savagery.
Prince Andrei's last stay in Bogucharovo, with its innovations - hospitals, schools and ease of rent - did not soften their morals, but, on the contrary, strengthened in them those character traits that the old prince called savagery. There were always some vague rumors going around between them, either about the enumeration of all of them as Cossacks, then about the new faith to which they would be converted, then about some royal sheets, then about the oath to Pavel Petrovich in 1797 (about which they said that back then the will came out, but the gentlemen took it away), then about Peter Feodorovich, who will reign in seven years, under whom everything will be free and it will be so simple that nothing will happen. Rumors about the war in Bonaparte and his invasion were combined for them with the same unclear ideas about the Antichrist, the end of the world and pure will.