Like a gypsy camp they settled down by the road. Online reading of the book To the End of the World by Ivan Bunin

Boris Stepanovich Zhitkov
Compass
It was a long time ago, perhaps thirty years ago. The port was packed with steamships - there was nowhere to stay.
When the steamer arrives, the whole crew pours ashore, and only the captain and his assistant, the mechanics, remain on the ship.
It was the sailors who went on strike: they demanded the establishment of a union and that their salaries be increased.
But the steamers didn’t give up - if you starve, you’ll probably ask to come back!
The sailors have been on strike for thirty days now. The committee was chosen. The committee ran around, getting support and collecting money. The sailors sat half-starved and did not give up.
We were young guys, about twenty years old each, and the devil was no brother to us.
So we were sitting one day, drinking tea without sugar and arguing: whose will take it?
Alyoshka Tishchenko says:
- No. The steamers will not give up, nothing will take them. They have bags full of money. We're drinking empty tea, and they...
He thought and said:
- And they are lemonade.
And Seryozhka the Gorilla growls:
- If only their belly didn’t swell from this lemonade. The boys held out for thirty days, five thousand people on the boulevard wiped all the grass with their backs.
And Tishchenko has his own:
- What do they need? Should I graze cows on your boulevard? Scared me with something!
And he picks at the table with a knife out of anger.
Then a guy flies in.
Sweaty, disheveled.
He spat on the floor, slammed his cap there, and shouted:
- They are drinking tea here!..
- Should we drink lemonade, or what? - says Tishchenko and looked at him like a wolf.
And he shouts in a woman’s voice:
- They are drinking tea, but smoke is coming from the Jupiter!
Tishchenko:
- Let it burn, "Jupiter", do you feel sorry?
“From the chimney,” he shouts, “smoke is coming from the chimney!”
Then we all stood up, and Earring the Gorilla said:
- This is not smoke coming, but a provocation.
The boy is crying:
- Black! There, the wipers under the boilers are moving. Went!
We jumped out and went to "Jupiter".
That’s right, black smoke was coming from the steamer’s chimney, and all around—on the gangplank, on the pier, and on the deck—were gentlemen in black jackets. The sleeves are trimmed with the Russian flag, and there are revolvers on the belt. Don't come.
“Allies of the Russian people,” the boy explains.
As if we don’t know what the “Union of the Russian People” is - a police breed.
When we arrived at the boulevard, all we could talk about was Jupiter. There are people standing and everyone is looking at the smoke.
The captain and the janitors decided to go on a voyage to disrupt the sailors' strike. The captain is from the “Russian people”, and he was given security: twenty-five people. The wipers are not wipers, but they move the coal great. The captain will put assistants on the steering wheel and mechanics on the car...
“It’s very simple that they will withdraw,” says Tishchenko, “and in Varna they will take a foreign team - and off they go.”
Seryozhka suddenly bared his teeth and said:
- We won't let you in!
“You put salt on his stern,” Tishchenko laughs.
“We know how to annoy you,” says Seryozhka. - Let's go... - And he pushes me in the side.
We left the crowd.
Serezhka tells me:
- Aren't you a coward?
“Coward,” I say.
He paused and said:
- So, come today at eleven o’clock to Ugolnaya, I’ll be waiting for you near the gangway. And nothing to anyone.
He waved his finger and walked away.
Oddball!
I arrive at Coal Wharf at eleven. The electric lights are on, and a thick shadow falls on the water from the pier - you can’t see anything under the wall. I reached the ladder, and Seryozhka the Gorilla was sitting on the steps. I sat down next to him.
“What,” I ask, “are you thinking, fool?”
“Climb,” he says, “into the tuzik over there by the raft, we’ll brain you on the way.”
I looked around and saw a raft and a tug.
I walked along the raft, but I couldn’t see where the raft ended. He stepped on the water as if on a board and flew into the water. It’s funny to me: my overcoat floats like a halo around me, and I feel like I’m in a socket.
And the spring water is cold.
I'm in ace. By the time I got out, I got pretty wet.
I stripped down to my underwear - it was both cold and funny. I started rowing and warmed up.
“Well,” says Seryoga, “it’s a good start.” And here's what we'll do: on the Jupiter, I'll unscrew the directional compass from the binnacle and lower it to you in a bag.
- How will we approach? Will you ask the guards?
“No,” he says, “there’s a coal barge standing against the side with him, we’ll make some fool.”
“Let’s go,” I say.
And I felt happy. I’m rowing and I keep thinking what kind of fool we’re going to play there. Somehow I forgot that the “allies” were there with revolvers.
And Seryozhka is twisting the bag and preparing the rope.
We went around the pier. Here it is, “Jupiter”, and the wooden barge took a nap next to it. Coal miner.
I row boldly towards the ship.
Suddenly a voice came from there:
- Who's going?
Well, I think it’s the coastal one, - the naval one would shout: “Who’s rowing?”
And I answer in a rough voice:
- But it’s not up to you, to your grandfather.
- What grandfather is there? - a different voice asks.
But on such a barge there is no housing, no grandfathers, and every Havana person knows this.
And I row and shout grumpily:
- Which grandfather? To Opanas, onto the barge, and I squeeze the ace between the barge and the steamer.
Seryozhka calls out:
- Opanas! Opanas!
Help from the ship:
- Grandfather, we have come to see you!
I climbed onto the barge, jumped from the side onto the coal and went to the bow. And the bow is covered with a deck.
And I say loudly:
- Grandfather, grandfather, it’s us. What the hell kind of watchman are you! I can’t lift you with a stick, so I stir the coal with my foot.
I look and Seryozhka is climbing towards me.
He struck a match. And I mumble in an old man’s voice:
- Don’t light a fire, you’ll cause a fire, fool with you.
Seryozhka, fool, laughs. And from the ship they say:
- Yes, yes, don’t light matches, we’ll give you a lantern now.
And they stomped on the deck.
Serezhka tells me:
- You’re a fool, grandfather, by God, you’re a fool!
I looked out from below the deck. I see that the lantern is already being dragged.
I'll go to them quickly.
Coal stuck to wet laundry - the most suitable look It happened to me, I already noticed it with a flashlight.
We sit below deck with a lantern and talk in low voices.
I keep mumbling.
“Climb,” Seryoga whispers, “into the ace, and when they leave the side, hit the side a little with an oar.”
I went for the ace.
Suddenly Seryoga says loudly:
- So, you say there is water left in your nose, grandfather?
And I know that he is the only one there, and I answer from the ace:
- There is water in the nose, there is water in the nose!
- Shut it up so it doesn’t leak! They’re not asking you,” says Seryoga.
They laughed on board. And Seryoga walked across the coal towards the stern. Then he returned. Again he walked to the stern, and everything fell silent.
I looked - only one person remained at the side.
“Hey,” he says, “bring back the lantern later.”
And he walked away. It became quiet.
I waited about five minutes and hit the barge with my oar.
Carefully, but clearly: knock!
And then my heart started pounding.
I listened with all my ears, but I heard nothing except my heart.
I looked up - a lantern was shining through the cracks in the barge.
A man walked along the deck.
He leaned over the side and asked how the boss was:
- What kind of boat is this?
And I feel that if I say a word, my voice will break. I'm silent.
Him again. Already shouted:
- What kind of boat is this? Hey, you!
Then one of them answered him:
- It’s here, on the barge, to the old man, that our people came.
“Yeah,” he said and walked away.
It became quiet again. I don’t look up, I look along the side of the ship.
Suddenly something gray is crawling down the black side.
I froze. It reached the water - it became.
Bag.
All my strength returned to me.
I didn’t blurt out, I didn’t knock. He reached forward along the board with his ace, grabbed the bag - very heavy - and carefully lowered it into the ace.
At this time the ace swung; I looked - Seryozhka was already standing at the stern.
He followed the same rope of tears on which he lowered the bag.
I took hold of the oars and began to slowly row forward.
At this time, someone shouted from the ship:
- Hey, grandfather, give me a lantern! Asleep?
And we heard someone jump onto the barge.
I leaned in a little harder.
The lantern began to rush around the barge.
On the ship they screamed and began to shout.
Bang, bang! - two shots clicked.
- Oh, come on!
We were already rounding the pier.
Seryozhka looked around and said:
- The boat is behind us - pile on!
I pulled once, twice, and the right oar cracked, and I fell off the can.
I jumped up and looked - Seryozhka was rowing like an Indian with a broken oar; I still don’t understand how he managed to grab a piece of the oar with a monkey’s grip at such a move.
We turned behind the pier into a dark strip under the wall and hid between a large steamer and the pier, like a cockroach in a crevice.
We saw a white boat fly out from behind the pier.
Four rowed. Rowed randomly, stupidly.
They shouted and shot.
Half an hour later we crept under the wall to our pier.
The next morning Seryoga and I came to the boulevard.
"Jupiter" began to smoke even more.
“The anathema is lifted, lifted,” says Tishchenko. - The captain is neat there - everything is in order.
And then they add on the side:
- It's hard trouble to start - all the ships will get out. They'll recruit Arabs, set up guards, and off they go. Stop it!
Then someone jumped up on a bench and began:
- Comrades! No need to panic. A hundred araps do not make spring, - and he went and went.
And Seryozhka and I look at each other.
"Jupiter" was filmed. Left the port.
Well, I think in half an hour the captain will go to give a course and look at the navigation compass...
The people hummed and became despondent. They sat down on the ground and rubbed the backs of their heads with their hats. Everyone is annoyed.
Seryozhka and I left without saying a word to anyone.
We went into the tavern and rinsed ourselves with tea.
The squad passed through the formation that was guarding the ship.
They walk seriously, looking around like wolves.
Three hours have passed.
Suddenly a howl from the boulevard, what a howl! Well, we think the police are operating on the boulevard.
They started running.
We look - everyone is standing, looking out to sea and yelling.
And this is the Jupiter heading back to port. The people saw him and raised a howl.
And Seryoga tells me:
- Look, no boom-boom, no one doing anything!
I have remained silent until now.
Well, now we can say...

What worried and worried everyone for so long was finally resolved: the Great Transport was immediately half empty.

Many white and blue huts were orphaned on this summer evening. Many people have left their native village forever - its green alleys between the gardens, the dusty market pasture, where it is so fun on a sunny Sunday morning, when there is talk all around, the tavern is buzzing with curses and disputes, traders shout out, beggars sing, the violin squeals, the lyre hums melancholy, and important oxen, covering their eyes from the sun, sleepily chew hay to these discordant sounds; left the colorful vegetable gardens and thick willows with matte-pale long foliage above the spring, on the descent to the backwater of the river, where on quiet evenings in the water something groans dully and monotonously, as if blowing into an empty barrel; left her homeland forever for the distant Ussuri lands and went “to the ends of the world”...

When the village, located in the valley, was covered by a wide cool shadow from the mountain covering the west, and in the valley, towards the horizon, everything turned red with the glow of sunset, the groves glowed with red, the bends of the river flared up with a scarlet sheen, and beyond the river the plains of sand sparkled like gold, the people, full of bright, festive outfits, he gathered on the green levada, to the white ancient church, where the Cossacks and Chumaks prayed before their long campaigns.

There, under open air, between the loaded carts, a prayer service began, and dead silence reigned in the crowd. The priest’s voice sounded distinct and separate, and every word of prayer penetrated to the depths of every heart...

Many tears fell at this place in days gone by. “Knights” once stood here, equipped for a long journey. They, too, said goodbye, as before their death, both to their children and to their wives, and in more than one heart there sounded in advance a majestic and sad “thought” about how “on the Black Sea, on a broken stone, a clear sokil-bilozirets sits, pitifully writhing.” curse..." What awaited many of them were “Turkish kayadans, Busurman penal servitude”, and “blue fogs” on the road, and lonely death under a steppe mound, and flocks of blue-winged eagles that would “step on the black hair, and see the Cossack eyes from the forehead...”. But then the proud Cossack will hovered over everyone. And now there stands a gray crowd, which is forever driven to the ends of the world not by the whim of the Cossacks, but by poverty, by these yellow sands that sparkle across the river. And as if at a great funeral service, ordered for itself, the people stood quietly at the prayer service with bowed, naked heads. Only the swallows chirped loudly above them, flying and drowning in the evening air, in the deep blue sky...

And then the screams started. And amid guttural talking, crying and screams, the convoy moved along the road up the mountain. IN last time The Great Transport appeared in its native valley - and disappeared... And the convoy itself finally disappeared behind the grain, in the fields, in the brilliance of the low evening sun...

The mourners returned home.

Crowds of people poured down the hill towards the huts. There were also those who just sighed and went home hastily and carelessly. But there were few of them.

Silently, humbly bent over, old men and women walked; the stern economic men frowned; children cried, dragged by their little hands by their fathers and mothers; young women and girls shouted loudly.

Here are two going downhill, along a rocky road. One, strong, short, frowns and absentmindedly looks with her black, serious eyes somewhere into the distance, along the valley. The other, tall, thin, is crying... Both are dressed up for the holidays, but how bitterly one cries, pressing the sleeve of her shirt to her eyes! Morocco boots stumble, onto which the snow-white hem falls so beautifully from under the plank... She sang loudly, with uncontrollable joy, until late at night, running to the river with buckets, when Yukhym’s father firmly said that he would not go to new places! And then…

“We’ve lost our minds,” Yukhym said in confusion, “we’ve lost our minds, Zinka, it seems: “We’re going to resettle!” - “It’s so true, tattoo, you said...” - “Hi, it seems like I’m dreaming...”

But on the mountain, near the mills, old Vasil Shkut stands in a crowd of old people. He is tall, broad-shouldered and stooped. His whole figure still exudes the power of the steppe, but what a mournful face he has! He's about to go to his grave, and he'll never hear again native word and he will die in someone else’s house, and there will be no one to close his eyes. Before his death, he was torn away from his family, from his children and grandchildren. He would have made it, he is still strong, but where can he get these seventy rubles, which were not enough for permission to go to new lands?

The old men, absently talking, each with his own thoughts, stand on the mountain. They all look in the direction where their fellow countrymen have departed.

It’s been a long time since the last cart was visible. The steppe is empty. The larks sing cheerfully and meekly, and the larks trill. A clear day is burning peacefully and calmly. The grain and grass all around are freely green, the mounds darken far, far away; and behind the mounds the horizon stretches in an immense semicircle; between the earth and the sky, a strip of bluish airy abyss covers the steppe, like a strip of a distant sea.

“What is it, this Ussuri region?” - old people think, covering their eyes from the sun, and strain their imagination to imagine this fairyland at the end of the world and that huge space that lies between it and the Great Transport, mentally see how a long convoy, loaded with goods, women and children, stretches, the wheels slowly creak, dogs run and walk behind the convoy on the soft dusty road, warmed by the dying sun, “guys” in wide trousers.

Probably they all look into this mysterious bluish distance:

“What is it, this Ussuri region?”

And old Shkut, leaning on a stick, with his hat pulled down on his forehead, imagines his son’s cart and mutters with a submissive smile:

- I’ll give you a saw and a jointer... and now I know how to build a hut... You won’t be lost!

– A lot of people died! - others say without listening to him. - Rich, rich!

It gets dark and a strange silence reigns in the village.

Warm southern twilight softens the evening blue of the deep valley with an unclear haze, obscuring this huge picture of a wide lowland with dark thickets of coastal groves, with dimly shining bends of the river, with lonely poplars that turn black above the valley. The ancient Great Perevoz looks gray with its crowded huts in a hollow at the foot of a rocky mountain. Vaguely, like stripes of ripe rye, the sands across the river turn yellow. Behind the sands, it is no longer clear at all, the forests are darkening. And the distance becomes smoky purple and merges with the twilight skies.

Everything, as always, happened in this peaceful valley in the summer twilight... But no, not everything! There are a lot of dark, crammed and silent huts...

Almost everyone has already gone home. The road is empty. Several people slowly walk along it, accompanying the settlers to the nearest intersection.

They feel that sudden emptiness in their hearts and the incomprehensible silence around them that always covers a person after a wire alarm, when returning to an empty house. Going down the mountain, they look at the village with different eyes than before, as if after a long absence...

Here the fragrant smoke spreads over someone’s hut... calm and everyday...

Here, like a red star, among the dark gardens, among the crowded courtyards, a light lit up...

Looking at the lights and into the valley, the old people slowly disperse, and on the mountain, near the road, only dark windmills with motionlessly outstretched wings remain.

Silently walking down the mountain, smiling his strange smile of senile grief, Vasil Shkut. Slowly he put the gate aside, slowly walked through the courtyard and disappeared into the hut.

The hut is dear. But Shkut is no longer the master of it. Strangers bought it and only allowed him to “live out” in it. This needs to be done quickly...

In the warm and stuffy darkness of the hut, a cricket plays expectantly from behind the stove... as if listening... Sleepy flies buzz on the ceiling... The old man, bent over, sits in darkness and silence.

Is he thinking something? Maybe about how somewhere out there, along a vaguely white road, a convoy convoy quietly creaks? - Eh, what to think about that!

Oh, come on, come on,

The month is clear!

Deep silence. Southern night sky with large pearly stars. Dark silhouette a motionless poplar is drawn against the background of the night sky. Below him the roof turns black, the walls of the hut turn white. The stars shine through the leaves and branches...

And they are still not far away.

They spend the night in the steppe, under their native sky, but it already seems to them that they are a thousand miles away from everything familiar and familiar.

How gypsy camp, they settled down by the road. They unharnessed the horses, cooked dinner; Sometimes they had restless conversations, sometimes they were sullenly silent and avoided each other...

Finally everything became quiet.

IN starlight the randomly crowded carts darkened, the figures of lying people and horses bent towards the grass were visible. The guards, with whips in their hands, sleepily huddled near the carts, yawned and looked longingly into the dark steppe...

But with what joy they perked up when they heard the creaking of a passing cart! Countryman! They surrounded him, smiled and shook his hand, as if they had not seen each other for many, many years.

Awakened by the conversation, others also rose from the ground and, shyly hiding their joy, also crowded around the cart of a passer-by, lit their pipes and were ready to talk even until daylight...

Then everything became quiet again.

Excited by the meeting, they fell asleep, covering their heads with scrolls, and everyone thought about one thing - about a distant unknown country at the end of the world, about roads and big rivers on the way, about my abandoned native village...

It was getting colder. Everything was fast asleep - people, roads, boundaries, and dewy grain.

The crow of a rooster was barely audible from a distant farmstead. The crescent of the moon, dull red and drooping to one side, appeared at the edge of the sky. There was almost no light. Only the sky near him took on a greenish tint, the steppe turned black from the horizon, and something dark appeared on the horizon. These were mounds. And only the stars and mounds listened to the dead silence on the steppe and the breathing of people who had forgotten their grief and distant roads in their sleep.

But what do they, these centuries-old silent mounds, care about the grief or joy of some creatures that will live a moment and give way to others of the same kind - to worry and rejoice again and just disappear from the face of the earth without a trace? Many convoys and camps spent the night in the steppe, many people, many sorrows and joys saw these mounds.

Some stars, perhaps, know how sacred human grief is!

Everything was as usual in this peaceful valley in the summer twilight... But no, not everything! There are a lot of dark, crammed and silent huts...

Almost everyone has already gone home. The road is empty. Several people slowly walk along it, accompanying the settlers to the nearest intersection.

Here the fragrant smoke spreads over someone’s hut... calm and everyday...

Here, like a red star, among the dark gardens, among the crowded courtyards, a light lit up...

Looking at the lights and into the valley, the old people slowly disperse, and on the mountain, near the road, only dark windmills with motionlessly outstretched wings remain.

Silently walking down the mountain, smiling his strange smile of senile grief, Vasil Shkut. Slowly he put the gate aside, slowly walked through the courtyard and disappeared into the hut.

The hut is dear. But Shkut is no longer the master of it. Strangers bought it and only allowed him to “live out” in it. This needs to be done quickly...

Is he thinking something? Maybe about how somewhere out there, along a vaguely white road, a convoy convoy quietly creaks? - Eh, what to think about that!

Oh, come on, come on,

The month is clear!

Deep silence. Southern night sky with large pearly stars. The dark silhouette of a motionless poplar is drawn against the background of the night sky. Below him the roof turns black, the walls of the hut turn white. The stars shine through the leaves and branches...

And they are still not far away.

They spend the night in the steppe, under their native sky, but it already seems to them that they are a thousand miles away from everything familiar and familiar.

Like a gypsy camp, they settled down by the road. They unharnessed the horses, cooked dinner; Sometimes they had restless conversations, sometimes they were sullenly silent and avoided each other...

Finally everything became quiet.

In the starlight, the randomly crowded carts darkened, the figures of lying people and horses bent towards the grass were visible. The guards, with whips in their hands, sleepily huddled near the carts, yawned and looked longingly into the dark steppe...

But with what joy they perked up when they heard the creaking of a passing cart! Countryman! They surrounded him, smiled and shook his hand, as if they had not seen each other for many, many years.

Awakened by the conversation, others also rose from the ground and, shyly hiding their joy, also crowded around the cart of a passer-by, lit their pipes and were ready to talk even until daylight...

Then everything became quiet again.

Excited by the meeting, they fell asleep, covering their heads with scrolls, and everyone was thinking about one thing - about a distant unknown country at the end of the world, about roads and big rivers on the way, about their abandoned native village...

It was getting colder. Everything was fast asleep - people, roads, boundaries, and dewy grain.

But what do they, these centuries-old silent mounds, care about the grief or joy of some creatures who will live a moment and give way to others of the same kind - to worry and rejoice again and just as completely disappear from the face of the earth? Many convoys and camps spent the night in the steppe, many people, many sorrows and joys saw these mounds.

Some stars, perhaps, know how sacred human grief is!

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich
To the edge of the world
Ivan Bunin
To the edge of the world
I
What worried and worried everyone for so long was finally resolved: the Great Transport was immediately half empty.
Many white and blue huts were orphaned on this summer evening. Many people have left their native village forever - its green alleys between gardens, the dusty market pasture, where it is so fun on a sunny Sunday morning, when there is talk all around, the tavern is buzzing with curses and disputes, traders shout out, beggars sing, the violin chirps, the lyre hums melancholy, and important oxen, covering their eyes from the sun, sleepily chew hay to these discordant sounds; left the colorful vegetable gardens and thick willows with matte-pale long foliage above the spring, on the descent to the backwater of the river, where on quiet evenings in the water something groans dully and monotonously, as if blowing into an empty barrel; left her homeland forever for the distant Ussuri lands and went “to the ends of the world”...
When the village, located in the valley, was covered by a wide cool shadow from the mountain covering the west, and in the valley, towards the horizon, everything turned red with the glow of sunset, the groves glowed, the bends of the river flared up with a scarlet sheen, and beyond the river the plains of sand sparkled like gold, the people, motley in bright, festive attire, he gathered on the green levada, to the white old church, where the Cossacks and Chumaks prayed before their long campaigns.
There, in the open air, between loaded carts, a prayer service began, and a dead silence reigned in the crowd. The priest's voice sounded distinct and separate, and every word of prayer penetrated to the depths of every heart...
Many tears fell at this place in days gone by. “Knights” once stood here, equipped for a long journey. They, too, said goodbye, as before their death, both to their children and to their wives, and in more than one heart there sounded in advance a majestic and sad “thought” about how “on the Black Mopi, on a white stone, a clear sokil-bilozirets sits, pitifully writhing - prokvilyae..." What awaited many of them were “Turkish kaidans, Busurman hard labor”, and “heavy fog” on the road, and lonely death under a steppe mound, and flocks of blue-winged eagles that would “step on the black hair, from the foreheads of the Cossack eyes…”. But then the proud Cossack will hovered over everyone. And now there stands a gray crowd, which is forever driven to the ends of the world not by the whim of the Cossacks, but by poverty, by these yellow sands that sparkle across the river. And as if at a great funeral service, ordered for itself, the people stood quietly at the prayer service with bowed, naked heads. Only the swallows chirped loudly above them, flying and drowning in the evening air, in the deep blue sky...
And then the screams started. And amid guttural talking, crying and screams, the convoy moved along the road up the mountain. For the last time, the Great Transport appeared in its native valley - and disappeared... And the convoy itself finally disappeared behind the grain, in the fields, in the brilliance of the low evening sun...
II
The mourners returned home.
Crowds of people poured down the hill towards the huts. There were also those who just sighed and went home hastily and carelessly. But there were few of them.
Silently, humbly bent over, old men and women walked; the stern economic men frowned; children cried, dragged by their little hands by their fathers and mothers; young women and girls shouted loudly.
Here are two going downhill, along a rocky road. One, strong, short, frowns and absentmindedly looks with her black, serious eyes somewhere into the distance, along the valley. The other, tall, thin, is crying... Both are dressed up for the holidays, but how bitterly one cries, pressing the sleeves of her shirt to her eyes! Morocco boots stumble, onto which the snow-white hem falls so beautifully from under the plank... She sang loudly, with uncontrollable joy until late at night, running to the river with buckets, when Yukhym’s father firmly said that he would not go to new places! And then...
“We’ve lost our minds,” Yukhym said in confusion, “we’ve lost our minds, Zinka, it seems: “We’re going to the resettlement!” - “It’s so true, tattoo, you said...” - “Hi, it seems, I’m dreaming...”
But on the mountain, near the mills, old Vasil Shkut stands in a crowd of old people. He is tall, broad-shouldered and stooped. His whole figure still exudes the power of the steppe, but what a mournful face he has! He is about to go to his grave, and he will never hear his native word again and will die in someone else’s house, and there will be no one to close his eyes. Before his death, he was torn away from his family, from his children and grandchildren. He would have made it, he is still strong, but where can he get these seventy rubles, which were not enough for permission to go to new lands?
The old men, absently talking, each with his own thoughts, stand on the mountain. They all look in the direction where their fellow countrymen have departed.
It’s been a long time since the last cart was visible. The steppe is empty. The larks sing cheerfully and meekly, and the larks trill. A clear day is burning peacefully and calmly. The grain and grass all around are freely green, the mounds darken far, far away; and behind the mounds the horizon stretches in an immense semicircle; between the earth and the sky, a strip of bluish airy abyss covers the steppe, like a strip of a distant sea.
“What is it, this Ussuri region?” - the old people think, shielding their eyes from the sun, and strain their imagination to imagine this fairy-tale country at the end of the world and the enormous space that lies between it and the Great Transport, to mentally see how a long convoy stretches, loaded with goods, women and children, slowly creaking wheels, dogs running and following the convoy along a soft dusty road, warmed by the dying sun, “guys” in wide trousers.
Probably they all look into this mysterious bluish distance:
“What is it, this Ussuri region?”
And old Shkut, leaning on a stick, with his hat pulled down on his forehead, imagines his son’s cart and mutters with a submissive smile:
- I yomu, bachite, I saw and gave a jointer... I how to build a hut, now I know... You won’t be lost!
- A lot of people died! - others say without listening to him. - Rich, rich!
III
It gets dark - and a strange silence reigns in the village.
Warm southern twilight softens the evening blue of the deep valley with an unclear haze, obscuring this huge picture of a wide lowland with dark thickets of coastal groves, with dimly shining bends of the river, with lonely poplars that turn black above the valley. The ancient Great Perevoz looks gray with its crowded huts in a hollow at the foot of a rocky mountain. Vaguely, like stripes of ripe rye, the sands across the river turn yellow. Behind the sands, it is no longer clear at all, the forests are darkening. And the distance becomes smoky purple and merges with the twilight skies.
Everything was as usual in this peaceful valley in the summer twilight... But no, not everything! There are a lot of dark, crammed and silent huts...
Almost everyone has already gone home. The road is empty. Several people slowly walk along it, accompanying the settlers to the nearest intersection.
They feel that sudden emptiness in their hearts and the incomprehensible silence around them that always covers a person after a wire alarm, when returning to an empty house. Going down the mountain, they look at the village with different eyes than before, as if after a long absence...
Here the fragrant smoke spreads over someone’s hut... calm and everyday...
Here, like a red star, among the dark gardens, among the crowded courtyards, a light lit up...
Looking at the lights and into the valley, the old people slowly disperse, and on the mountain, near the road, only dark windmills with motionlessly outstretched wings remain.
Silently walking down the mountain, smiling his strange smile of senile grief, Vasil Shkut. Slowly he put the gate aside, slowly walked through the courtyard and disappeared into the hut.
The hut is dear. But Shkut is no longer the master of it. Strangers bought it and only allowed him to “live out” in it. This needs to be done quickly...
In the warm and stuffy darkness of the hut, a cricket plays expectantly from behind the stove... as if listening... Sleepy flies buzz on the ceiling... The old man, bent over, sits in darkness and silence.
Is he thinking something? Maybe about how somewhere out there, along a vaguely white road, a convoy convoy quietly creaks? - Eh, what to think about that!
A clear girlish voice fades across the river:
Oh, come on, come on,
The month is clear!
Deep silence. Southern night sky with large pearly stars. The dark silhouette of a motionless poplar is drawn against the background of the night sky. Below him the roof turns black, the walls of the hut turn white. The stars shine through the leaves and branches...
IV
And they are still not far away.
They spend the night in the steppe, under their native sky, but it already seems to them that they are a thousand miles away from everything familiar and familiar.
Like a gypsy camp, they settled down by the road. They unharnessed the horses, cooked dinner; Sometimes they had restless conversations, sometimes they were sullenly silent and avoided each other...
Finally everything became quiet.
In the starlight, the randomly crowded carts darkened, the figures of lying people and horses bent towards the grass were visible. The guards, with whips in their hands, sleepily huddled near the carts, yawned and looked longingly into the dark steppe...
But with what joy they perked up when they heard the creaking of a passing cart! Countryman! They surrounded him, smiled and shook his hand, as if they had not seen each other for many, many years.
Awakened by the conversation, others also rose from the ground and, shyly hiding their joy, also crowded around the cart of a passer-by, lit their pipes and were ready to talk even until daylight...
Then everything became quiet again.
Excited by the meeting, they fell asleep, covering their heads with scrolls, and everyone was thinking about one thing - about a distant unknown country at the end of the world, about roads and big rivers on the way, about their abandoned native village...
It was getting colder. Everything was fast asleep - people, roads, boundaries, and dewy grain.
The crow of a rooster was barely audible from a distant farmstead. The crescent of the moon, dull red and drooping to one side, appeared at the edge of the sky. There was almost no light. Only the sky near him took on a greenish tint, the steppe turned black from the horizon, and something dark appeared on the horizon. These were mounds. And only the stars and mounds listened to the dead silence on the steppe and the breathing of people who had forgotten their grief and distant roads in their sleep.
But what do they, these centuries-old silent mounds, care about the grief or joy of some creatures who will live a moment and give way to others of the same kind - to worry and rejoice again and just as completely disappear from the face of the earth? Many convoys and camps spent the night in the steppe, many people, many sorrows and joys saw these mounds.
Some stars, perhaps, know how sacred human grief is!

Exercise 23. Add missing punctuation marks. Analyze the combination of definitions. Are they homogeneous or heterogeneous? Justify your opinion.

1. From the village, standing high on a steep bank, its [bridge] lattice frame was visible, and in foggy weather and on quiet winter days, when its thin iron rafters and all the forests around were covered with frost, it presented a picturesque and even fantastic picture (Ch.). 2. Moonlight frosty evening. I got there, stood there and could barely catch my breath. All around there is wilderness and silence, an empty moonlit lane... Even further to the left, behind the house, there is a garden, and above it the fabulously charming winter stars quietly playing with multi-colored rays (Bun.). 3. Tchaikovsky’s symphony (Paust.) burst into the wild, icy night, like a flock of fluttering birds. 4. The walls of the ancient round forts were cut diagonally by shadow and sun (Paust.). 5. Blue warships moored more firmly to the red floating barrels (Paust.). 6. Twice the sound of a gigantic, deep, hidden melancholy breathed upon Sanya, and it seemed to him that he involuntarily recoiled and leaned back in the wake of this exalted, God knows how, call - he recoiled and immediately leaned back, as if something had entered him and something came out of it, but entered and left, so that, having swapped places, they could then communicate without interference (Disp.). 7. In the gray and languid morning twilight, when there was no light or shadow, the crowd really seemed huge (Disp.). 8. The train moved slowly and unevenly, supporting an old creaking carriage that had served five terms, the likes of which have not been seen on through lines for a long time. And only here they still serve, surprising the visiting person with what is, in our opinion, rude, looking shabby: heavy wooden shelves, small, weak-sighted, like in a winter hut, framed windows, narrow passages with protruding corners (Disposition). 9. Grandfather Sanaev steps from foot to foot, smearing dirt with dry bast shoes on the yellow painted floor (Lip.). 10. Then he disappeared for a long time, looking for some country of Belovodye, where it is as if spring is eternal and the birds of paradise are forever singing, where white milky rivers flow (Lip.). 11. The heavy damp wall of the pine tree does not move, is silent (Lip.). 12. Southern incoming winds disturb Victor and Boris - the winds were brought from another dissimilar world (Lip.). 13. From the school sports section they brought to production a special sports spirit, friendship, tested on the ski track and hurdles (Lip.). 14. Damp, heavy branches gently touch the face (Lip.). 15. The road through the cedar forest is good, but soon, after four kilometers, a bare, wind-blown space begins (Lip). 16. They walk endlessly moonlit path(Lip.). 17. In the Russian poetic heritage, Pushkin’s note is the purest and most sonorous (Geich.). 18. But it becomes especially clear what great spiritual power is hidden in the true poetic word, in those days when great misfortune befalls the country and people (Geych.).

Exercise 24. Explain why in some cases a comma is placed between the highlighted definitions, and in others - not.

1. To the rhythmic knock of the clock, the husband walked rhythmically from room to room, indifferently waiting for the pawnbrokers, sometimes tearful, sometimes overly cheeky, and with a mysterious grin looked into the office at the iron fireproof cabinet with large iron lumps on the clamps, like big eyes. But sometimes there was complete silence; he stopped the clock, sat down at the huge antique bureau - and only the leisurely and diligent creak of a quill pen was heard in the house (Bun.). 2. He was of average height, but thin and pale - not from nature, like Pyotr Ivanovich, but from continuous emotional unrest; the hair did not grow, like his, in a thick forest over the head and along the cheeks, but went down the temples and the back of the head in long, weak, but extremely soft, silky strands of light color, with a beautiful tint (M. G.). 3. Stormy spring clouds rushed in the sky, and the old, monotonous, like an ancient legend, murmur of the mill awakened the liquid echo of the pine forest (Green). 4. Heavy water drops often flapped as they fell into potholes filled with water (Green.). 5. Shapeless long shadows crossed on the white sand (Green.). 6. Duke retired to his small empty room with deliberately rough wooden furniture - Barnabas provided it to him, and continued to live in the other himself (Green.). 7. It seemed to Margarita that even the massive marble, mosaic and crystal floors in this strange hall were rhythmically pulsating (Bulg.). 8. The moon hung full in the clear evening sky, visible through the branches of the maple (Bulg.). 9. In a deserted, cheerless alley, the poet looked back (Bulg.). 10. In the next room there were no columns, instead there were walls of red, pink, milky white roses (Bulg.). 11. Leaning back on the comfortable, soft back of the chair in the trolleybus, Margarita Nikolaevna rode along the Arbat (Bulg.).

Punctuation marks for homogeneous and heterogeneous applications

An application is a definition expressed by a noun in the same case as the word being defined. Depending on the meaning, applications not connected by conjunctions can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. Applications denoting similar features of an object, characterizing it on the one hand, are homogeneous and separated by commas: Doctor of Philology, Professor S.I. Radzig - academic degree and academic title; Olympic champion, holder of the “golden belt” of European champion, one of the most technical boxers in history - a list of different titles.

If the applications indicate different characteristics of an object, characterize it from different sides, then they are heterogeneous and are not separated by commas: First Deputy Minister of Defense General of the Army NN - position and military rank; chief designer of the design institute for construction mechanical engineering for precast reinforced concrete, engineer NN - position and profession; General Director of the production association Candidate of Technical Sciences NN - position and academic degree.

When combining homogeneous and heterogeneous applications, punctuation marks are placed accordingly: head of the interuniversity department of general and university pedagogy, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor NN; Honored Master of Sports, Olympic champion, two-time World Cup winner, student of the NN Institute of Physical Education; Honored Master of Sports, absolute world champion in 1989, two-time World Cup winner, student at the NN Institute of Physical Education.

In the postposition, the applications, regardless of the meaning they convey (each of them has a logical accent), are separated by commas, and they must also be separated: Lyudmila Pakhomova, Honored Master of Sports, Olympic champion, world champion, multiple European champion, coach; N.V. Nikitin, Doctor of Technical Sciences, laureate of the Lenin Prize and the USSR State Prize, author of the Ostankino television tower project; Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Punctuation marks for repeating sentence parts

A comma is placed between repeated parts of the sentence. Repetition of sentence members is associated with strengthening their meaning. For example, repetition emphasizes the duration of the action taking place: I’m eating, I’m eating in an open field; bell ding-ding-ding... (P.); I waited, waited, and then - at the deadest hour of the night, the sounds began again (Nab.); expresses the persistence of a request, a strong manifestation of a sign: - And I sensed, I sensed death. - She paused again and nodded. - Smelled, smelt (Sp.); points to big number items: Midnight trolleybus, rushing along the street, circling along the boulevards to pick up everyone who was wrecked in the night, wrecked (Ok.); stands for high degree sign: Dear, dear!.. Loved the peasant!.. (V. Sh.); Why are you walking, my son, lonely, lonely? (OK.); It’s scary, scary involuntarily among the unknown plains (P.); reinforces the stated statement (affirmative words yes, yes) or denial ( negative word no): Yes, yes, Maxim (V.Sh.) nodded; No no! Not a word about this today (Cool); strengthens the categoricalness of the statement: Now... all I live is work, work, work... (Am.).

Typically, repeating members of a sentence with particles and conjunctions used in a connecting meaning are separated by a dash: Leave - and leave quickly. In the absence of a sharp pause, a comma is also possible: You, and only you, are capable of this; We need facts, and only facts.

A comma is not placed if a repeating member of the sentence has the particle not or so: Work like this work; No, no; Drive like this; There is no time, but we must do it. Such combinations are perceived as integral figures of speech. However, a repeating predicate with a particle can be thought of in this way and dissected: - Well! - he suddenly exclaims with an unexpected surge of energy. - Gather, gather like that (Kupr.); Well, it will be, thank you! Made friends, so made friends (Chuck).

Repeated members of a sentence can form complex words (usually with one logical stress): - Eh, men, men! - Nazarka said sadly (Cool); Pure, pure I lie in the floods of dawn (Ok.). Such words are written with a hyphen and mean the highest degree of manifestation of the characteristic, the continuity and intensity of the action being performed, etc.: white-white (very white), ran-ran and suffocated (continuously ran), no, no, and he’ll look (from time to time) time, occasionally).

Exercise 25. Find repeating parts of the sentence. Determine the meaning of such repetition. Explain the use of punctuation marks.

Along the Smolensk road - pillars, pillars, pillars.

Above the Smolensk road, like your eyes, -

two evening stars - blue of my destiny.

Along the Smolensk road - a blizzard in the face, in the face,

We are all driven out of the house by business, business, business.

Maybe the ring will be more reliable than your hands -

In short, the road would probably be easier for me.

Along the Smolensk road - forests, forests, forests.

Along the Smolensk road the pillars are buzzing and buzzing.

On the Smolensk road, like your eyes,

two cold blue stars are looking, looking.

(B. Okudzhava)

Punctuation marks for isolated parts of a sentence

Punctuation marks for separate and non-separate agreed definitions

Definitions that are distinguished by meaning and intonation are isolated. The isolation of such sentence members is explained by the fact that they contain an element of additional message and therefore acquire relative independence in the sentence, i.e. greater semantic significance in comparison with non-separate definitions that have only a definitive meaning. The additional nature of the message is formalized through semi-predicative (close to predicative) relations that arise in the sentence in addition to the predicative (predicative) ones conveyed by the main members. The presence of semi-predicative relations between a separate definition and the word being defined is easily confirmed by the possibility of transforming them into predicative ones.

Wed: The pebbles crunched underfoot, with a dull shine reminiscent of the discarded skin of a snake (Leon.). - The pebbles crunched underfoot, their dull shine reminiscent of the discarded skin of a snake; A lonely young man, thin and slender, attracted my attention (Kat). - A lonely young man, who was thin and slender, attracted my attention. As you can see, isolated definitions easily turn into predicates. This is possible precisely because, being isolated, they complicate their defining meaning with a predicate one.

The presence of an additional message element in isolated definitions is best revealed by comparing them with non-separated ones. For example: On the deserted seashore there was nothing left in memory of the little drama that played out between two people (M. G.) - such a participle phrase has only a definitive meaning, not complicated by additional meaning.

Depending on the meaning and location, agreed upon single definitions or attributive phrases - participles and adjectives with dependent words - are isolated or not isolated.

1. Common definitions that appear after the word being defined are highlighted (or separated) by commas: To the right lay a plain, as flat and boundless as the sky (Ch.); To the left, parallel to the road, stretched a hill, curly with small bushes (Ch.); The Cossacks of the second platoon, lying under an alder bush in the cold, seeing them, put down their cards and fell silent (Sh.); On the birch tree standing on the edge of the bank, the leaf was completely yellow and small (Disp.).

Common definitions that appear before the noun being defined are not distinguished with a purely attributive meaning: The cheerful evening that had developed without us was in full swing (Kav.); Fedin, in his book “Gorky Among Us,” talked about how a multilateral dispute began that did not quarrel between us (Kav.). When such definitions are complicated by a circumstantial shade of meaning, they become isolated: Immersed in his thoughts, Chechevitsyn did not answer this question (Ch.) (cf.: Because he was immersed in his thoughts...); Knowing real village life well, Bunin literally flew into a rage at the far-fetched, unreliable portrayal of the people (Kr.) (cf.: Since he knew well...).

Separation is also necessary when referring definitions to a personal pronoun: Short, stocky, he had terrible strength in his hands (M. G.). Such definitions are always complicated by circumstantial meaning: Perplexed, puzzled by the antics of my companion, I looked at him and remained silent (M. G.); But, absorbed in his words, I could not think about this riddle (M. G.). The circumstantial meaning can be intensified and emphasized by an adverbial phrase: Touched by the sight of this beautiful group and not wanting to disturb the lovers, I wanted to pass by them (Kupr.).

2. Single definitions following the word being defined are isolated if they are not the logical-semantic center of the statement, i.e. stand out with emphasis along with the defined word, equipped with its own emphasis: I often found notes in my possession, short and alarming (Ch.). The meaning of concretization can contribute to the isolation of a single post-positive definition: My friend is a writer from a small autonomous republic. Like all of us, in the morning he unfolds the local newspaper (Sol.).

If single postpositive definitions become the center of the statement, take on the emphasis, “pulling” it from the noun, then they do not stand apart, since they turn out to be closely fused with the words being defined: He [Bunin] experienced the troubles and tragedies of the people, the Russians, as his own ( Kr.). Concentration of attention precisely on logically distinguishable definitions is facilitated by small semantic significance for a given context of defined nouns. For example: Only by feeling great pain and even guilt, personal responsibility for everything that is happening in the country, a painful desire to help the people, could one write books such as “Village” and “Sukhodol”. Books that are shocking, books that call for the awakening of civil and human self-awareness, books that are angry and mournful at the same time, books that are prophetic, warning, and make you think about the most important thing (Kr.) - the whole meaning of the statement lies here precisely in the definitions, characteristics of the essence of the books, hence - logical stresses: prophetic, warning books; books are angry and sorrowful.

The isolation of postpositive single agreed definitions is mandatory even without the named conditions, if there is already a definition before the word being defined, and, therefore, postpositive definitions to some extent become an additional characteristic, an additional clarification: My first Moscow autumn, warm and welcoming, lasted a long time (Chiv .). It is possible to use a dash before isolated definitions at the end of a sentence: These are many of Bunin’s characters - colorful, bright, original (Kr.); He stood there for a long time - devastated, self-loathing (Exp.); Turning to the window, he looked into the garden - uncomfortable, bare, shaded by fine, dense rain (Ard.).

3. Adjectives or participles, single and common, are not isolated if they are included in the predicate or refer simultaneously to the subject and the predicate: There were enough saffron milk caps for everyone, they were salted for the winter in huge tubs, and this mushroom remains hard and fragrant until spring (Rasp .); Now it [the garden] stood flaccid, frozen (Paust.); Matte, slightly damp in the holes and cracks, the pavement will stretch when washed (Fed.); The weather was just boring (V.Sh.). The same with inversion: He stands in front of me, menacing and pale (M. G.).

Definitions related to nouns that lose meaning when used without them are not isolated: Peremet did not take any part in these negotiations, because in general he was an extremely reserved person and did not like to chat in vain (M.-S.). The same with inversion: What is the village and its inhabitants now for this Nikolai: he is a man separated from it (M. G.).

Single definitions and attributive phrases related to negative, attributive, demonstrative, indefinite, possessive pronouns are not isolated, since they are closely related to them in meaning: Tell me something funny (Ch.); It’s not enough for me that I’m flying, and I want something more (Exp.); A separate essay could be written about each of these green treasures, some surviving, some disappearing, because in each there was something unique, original and valuable (Chiv.); I felt that something had happened in the world that had something to do with me personally (Cat.).

However, in the presence of emphasizing, clarifying, restrictive meanings, which are often expressed in particles, the isolation of definitions is necessary: When people saw this, they again began to judge how to punish him. But now they did not talk for long - the wise one, who did not interfere with their judgment, spoke himself (M. G.); And he, dry, long, bent forward and looking like a bird ready to fly somewhere, looked into the darkness ahead of the boat with hawk eyes (M. G.); I wanted to distinguish myself in front of this person dear to me (M. G.); I have never heard of anyone, even the most desperate, attempting to be rude or capricious in front of her [Natasha] (Exp.).

4. Definitions that are separated from the word being defined (noun or pronoun) are always isolated: The Alexander Garden bloomed late, beautiful and well-groomed (Chiv.); I have an amateur photograph in memory of that visit to Arkhangelsk; I’m slouching on the edge of our group with a volume of Pushkin under my arm, skinny and black with a face frozen in bewilderment (Chiv.); She was thinking about something and, tired, could not understand what (Er.). Wed. a “detached” isolated definition and a non-isolated definition, standing before the word being defined and not complicated by additional shades of adverbial meaning: The time of farewell that came then divided those present into two unequal camps... The crowd parted at the sound of the whistle, Stroganov immediately jumped into his seat. Bent in the wind, gray road weeds moved past (Leon.); In the next small room, on the sofa, covered with a hospital gown, the master (Bulg) lay in deep sleep.

5. Definitions that are part of a sentence with the defined word omitted are separated. Such definitions are always complicated by adverbial meaning and are therefore associated with the predicate verb, and not only with the omitted qualifying word, clear from the previous context: The Tsar with his neighbors, with the prince-pope, the old dissolute Nikita Zotov... toured noble houses. ...Fed up, they still swarmed like locusts, not so much eating as scattering... (A.T.).

Exercise 26. Find consistent definitions - single and forming attributive phrases. Explain the conditions for their isolation or non-isolation. Explain specifically when dashes are used.

1. As if frightened by a fire or a mad dog, he could hardly restrain his rapid breathing and spoke quickly, in a trembling voice (Ch.). 2. A large crescent moon stood motionless above the hill, red, slightly shrouded in fog and surrounded by small clouds (Ch.). 3. She, pale, motionless, like a statue, stands and gazes at his every step (Ch.). 4. The poplar, tall, covered with frost, appeared in the bluish haze, like a giant dressed in a shroud (Ch.). 5. Awakened by the talk, others also rose from the ground and, shyly hiding their joy, also crowded around the visitor’s cart (Bun.). 6. The sky, torn apart by lightning, trembled, and the steppe trembled, now flaring up with blue fire, now plunging into cold, heavy and cramped darkness, terribly narrowing it (M. G.). 7. Shrouded in darkness, their figures were barely visible to Sergei, who looked at them with curiosity through the darkness (M. G.). 8. I was silent, and he spoke with admiration, smacking his lips, about Caucasian life, full of wild beauty, full of fire and originality (M.G.). 9. The miller was sorry to look at him, and at the same time he wanted to say something so sensitive that would pinch the teacher’s heart with the same feeling that filled his, the miller’s, heart (M. G.). 10, It’s pleasant to look at her, calm and strong, like a big full-flowing river (M. G.). 11. Meager batches of rubber, obtained through familiar workers and Komsomol members, poorly covered the need for this material (Mak.). 12. Small eyes peered into the sultry, trembling distance and became gray (Ser.). 13. No talking, no laughter, - a heavy silence floating along with everyone (Ser.). 14. Horses walk dejectedly with their ears hanging limply (Ser.). 15. Healthy, young, strong, they picked up Antipas, almost lifted him into the air and threw him onto the deck (Ser.). 16. The result was something creepy, confused and sharp (Furm.). 17. In the pre-dawn deep darkness I saw someone large and heavy (Sh.) wave over the fence. 18. And here life began - quite concrete, but also completely inexplicable - dear and dear to the brim (V. Sh.). 19. Young Grigory Dumnov, thirty, was elected chairman of the collective farm (V. Sh.). 20. He, three times young, expected everything from life, but he never expected this letter (V. Sh.). 21. Entirely occupied with solving this exciting riddle in his destiny, Vaganov went into the office (V. Sh.). 22. Then I again noticed her glances at me - now inquisitive and insightful, causing anxiety, now absent, with a lost thought, now fast, warily crafty (Resp.). 23. Answering the doctor’s usual questions about my well-being, I slowly watched the girl trying to hide behind his back and couldn’t fit behind her, and I recognized her more and more (Resp.). 24. The sun, which had just been overhead, fell close to sunset (Destination). 25. In the first month of my life in Moscow, I attacked books that were needed according to the program and those that were not at all needed, library and store books (Chiv.). 26. From the beautiful palace, standing on a hill and decorated with dazzling columns, there was a charming view of a clean, well-groomed park, into which you had to go down stone steps (Chiv.). 27. Smelling Soshnin with tobacco, out of breath, she rushed past him along the dark corridor (Ast.). 28. Having never had children of her own, Aunt Granya did not have scientific abilities in raising children (Ast.). 29. Honest, principled, open, he enjoyed fame and authority (gaz.). 30. Choose a book that is necessary, useful (gas).

Exercise 27. Add missing punctuation marks. Determine the conditions for separating or not separating agreed upon definitions.

1. To the left was a large city grove now covered with frost (Ch.). 2. A young guy with blond hair and high cheekbones in a torn sheepskin coat and large black felt boots was waiting while the zemstvo doctor, having finished his appointment, was returning from the hospital to his apartment, and approached him timidly (Ch.). 3. A candle standing on a stool in a crowd of bottles, boxes and jars and a large lamp on the chest of drawers brightly illuminated the whole room (Ch.). 4. He was a tall and thin but well-built man, light on his feet and slender, with a small head thrown back and with turquoise-gray, lively eyes (Bun.). 5. Excited by the meeting, they fell asleep, covering their heads with scrolls (Bun.). 6. Absorbed by his words, I could not think about this riddle (M. G.). 7. From that time on, something amazingly absurd began (M. G.). 8. He wanted to tell her something warm and affectionate, but he couldn’t find the words (Sh.). 9. At dusk, the ship, covered with snow and illuminated by the fire of lanterns, seemed elegant and light even to its own sailors (Paust.). 10. St. Petersburg houses painted lemon green and gray colors seemed porcelain (Paust.). 11. Everywhere you looked, pure colors lay everywhere, either dense or completely transparent, created by the light of the northern sun, snow, and the fire of lanterns (Paust.). 12. The color of the sky and clouds were as if painted by the Venetians, and the horizons, blue from the cool air, were drawn with his unmistakable pencil by Rastrelli (Paust.). 13. Subdued, suppressed by the splendor of the Moscow street, Polya walked in the middle, barely stepping, as if she was afraid of damaging some national property, and trying to remember the details for the evening report to her mother, to Yengu (Leon.). 14. And on the other hand, behind the roofs of the houses, the water rested as an abyss sparkling in the sun (Resp.). 15. The review was uninteresting, one of those that are made up of obliging rubber phrases that are always sticking out at the ready and have an extraordinary ability to be suitable for any reason (Adv.). 16. The potatoes had not yet been planted, and Victor thought with pleasure that today he would not bypass that simple, ingenuous work, just as he would not bypass many other peasant works that were half-forgotten in practice and therefore seem even more attractive (Exp.). 17. The kids now have freedom, but they used to run from the river to the fire built on the shore (Resp.). 18. Scattered along the street were shards of glass, pieces of brick and rotten, shaggy and viscous wood, light and prickly tumbleweed-like balls of blackened fur (Resp.). 19. ...The hosts gave each of us as a farewell gift “Notes of Princess M.N. Volkonskaya" published in Chita. On the plane I opened them. These notes are a true miracle! Restrained and noble, filled with internal drama of moral purity and strength (Chiv.). 20. The Decembrists are not very far from us in time, just as the reasons that prompted the first Russian revolutionaries, who had noble titles and most of them the rank of reward from the estates of beautiful wives, to speak out against autocracy and serfdom (Chiv.) are not far away either. 21. In the huge, extremely neglected front room, dimly lit by a light bulb under a high ceiling black with dirt, a bicycle without tires was hanging on the wall, there was a huge chest upholstered in iron, and on the shelf under the hanger lay a winter hat (Bulg.).

Punctuation marks for inconsistent definitions

Inconsistent definitions, e.g. definitions expressed by the forms of indirect cases of nouns (most often with prepositions), phrases with the form of the comparative degree of the adjective, as well as the infinitive, are isolated or not isolated depending on the conditions of the context: on the way of expressing the word being defined, on the presence or absence of a syntactic connection with the subject being defined and predicate, from the presence of a number of homogeneous members with separate agreed definitions present (or absent) in it, etc.

1. Inconsistent definitions, expressed by nouns in the forms of indirect cases, are isolated when it is necessary to indicate any specific signs of an object, most often of a temporary nature, highlighting the object at the moment: The headman, in boots and a saddle coat, with tags in his hands, noticing from afar priest, took off his red hat (L.T.). Usually these signs characterize an object that is quite specific and already quite well-known: Staff Captain Ryabovich, a small, stooped officer, with glasses and sideburns like a lynx (Ch.), or an object already sufficiently characterized using other definitions, felt most awkward : Uncle Yakov came with a guitar, bringing with him a crooked and bald watchmaker, in a long, black frock coat, quiet, looking like a monk (M. G.). Such definitions are usually included in homogeneous series with agreed definitions: A cloud was rising from the sea - black, heavy, severe in outline, similar to a mountain range (M. G.).