Description of the fairy tale by Saltykov Shchedrin, the wise gudgeon. Analysis of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin - writer, journalist, critic. Literary work combined with public service: V different time Vice-Governor of Ryazan and Tver, headed the State Chambers in the cities of Penza, Tula and Ryazan.

Mikhail Evgrafovich perfectly mastered a formidable weapon - the word. Life observations formed the basis of his creations; from the pen of the genius of journalism, many texts appeared on the topic of the day. Today we will get acquainted with the work that Saltykov created, " The wise minnow". A summary will be presented in this article.

Preface

Work " The wise minnow" (V modern interpretation- “The Wise Minnow”), which is included in the cycle “Fairy Tales for Children of considerable age", was first published in 1883. It ridicules cowardice and touches on the age-old philosophical question about what the meaning of life is.

Here is summary"The wise minnow." It is worth noting that reading the original will not take much time and will bring a lot of aesthetic pleasure, since it was written by a real master of the word, so do not limit yourself to getting to know the “reworked” work.

Once upon a time there was a gudgeon, he was lucky with his parents, they were smart and gave the right life guidelines. Long years("arid eyelids") they lived, avoiding numerous dangers that may await small representatives underwater world. The father, dying, instructed his son - in order to live a long life, you need to keep your eyes open and not yawn.

The gudgeon himself was not stupid, or rather, he was “smart.” I decided that the surest recipe for longevity is not to provoke trouble, to live without anyone noticing. For a year, he dug a hole with his nose, just large enough for himself to fit in, exercised at night, and at midday, when everyone was full and hiding from the heat, he ran out in search of food. He didn’t get enough sleep at night, the wise minnow wasn’t eating enough, he was afraid... Every day he shook with fear that he would gape and not be able to save his precious life, as his father punished. What did Shchedrin want to say with this work?

"The Wise Minnow": summary - main idea

Having lived “more than a hundred years,” the gudgeon at his deathbed asked himself the question of what would happen if everyone, like him, led a smart life? And he made a disappointing conclusion - the gudgeon race would have been interrupted. No family, no friends... Only impartial epithets: dunce, fool and disgrace - that's all he deserved for his hermit life. He lived and trembled - that’s all, not a citizen, a useless unit who only takes up space for nothing... This is how the author spoke about his hero in the text.

The wise gudgeon died, disappeared, and how this happened - whether naturally or who helped, no one noticed, and no one was interested in it.

This is the summary of “The Wise Minnow” - a fairy tale that the author wrote, ridiculing the mores of society of bygone times. But it has not lost its relevance in our time.

Afterword

Representative of the fishing community main character, having abandoned blessings, left behind him the glory of a trembling creature. The gudgeon, whom the author satirically called wise, chose a meaningless life, filled only with fear and deprivation, and as a result, for a criminally ineffective life lived, punishment followed - death in the insight of his worthlessness and uselessness.

We hope that the summary of “The Wise Minnow” in this presentation will be useful to you.

History of creation and publication

Written in December 1882 - the first half of January 1883. First published in September 1883 in No. 55 of the emigrant newspaper “Common Cause” (Geneva), pp. 2-4, as the first issue along with fairy tales “ Selfless hare" and "Poor Wolf", under the editorial heading "Fairy tales for children of a fair age", without a signature. In Russia for the first time - in the journal “Domestic Notes” No. 1, 1884, p. 275-280 (January 16). As a book publication - the third issue in the publication of the free hectograph “Public Benefit”, under the general title “Fairy Tales” and signed by N. Shchedrin. The Geneva edition was published eight times during 1883 (before the publication of fairy tales in Otechestvennye zapiski) in different formats (six times with an indication of the release date and two times without an indication). The publication was distributed by members of Narodnaya Volya, as evidenced by the seal on a number of surviving copies (“Book Agents of Narodnaya Volya”). One of the editions of the collection with the date of release, unlike all the others, contains only one fairy tale - “The Wise Minnow”.

Criticism

According to commentators and critics, the tale is dedicated to a satirical criticism of the cowardice and cowardice that took over the public mood of part of the intelligentsia after the defeat of the Narodnaya Volya.

Writer and critic K. K. Arsenyev noted that the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” echoes “The Fourth Evening” from “Poshekhonsky Stories”, which appeared in No. 10 “ Domestic notes"for 1883, where the publicist Kramolnikov denounces liberals who are hiding from harsh reality in “holes,” declaring that they will not be able to escape in this way.

Subsequently, on the basis of this similarity and considering its appearance in Russia in January 1884 as the first publication of the fairy tale, the writer Ivanov-Razumnik concluded that the idea of ​​“Gudgeon” was originally expressed in the third Poshekhon “evening”. In fact, Kramolnikov’s speech in “Poshekhonsky Stories” does not foreshadow, but repeats the idea of ​​the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” that had already been written and published in the foreign “Common Cause.”

Plot

Oh, wise minnows of the notorious progressive “intelligentsia”! The defense of the peaceful renovationists by the intellectual radicals, the turn of the central organ of the Cadets party. to peaceful renewal immediately after the instructions about the forms, these are all typical examples of liberal tactics. The government takes one step to the right, and we take two steps to the right! Look - we are again legal and peaceful, tactful and loyal, we will adapt even without forms, we will always adapt in relation to meanness! This seems like realpolitik to the liberal bourgeoisie.

V.I. Lenin, The Government’s Forgery of the Duma and the Tasks of Social Democracy, PSS V.I.Lenin, vol. 14, p. 199. Archived from the original on November 21, 2012.

According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions,” Shchedrin, under the guise of a minnow, portrayed the Russian liberal intelligentsia, concerned only with survival; in an ironic and allegorical sense, the expression is used to mean: a conformist person, socially or politically passive cowardly man, who elevates his conformism to the rank of philosophy.

Film adaptations

In 1979, director V. Karavaev released a cartoon of the same name based on the fairy tale (Soyuzmultfilm studio, duration 9 minutes 23 seconds).

Illustrations

The tale has been illustrated many times, incl. such artists as Kukryniksy (1939), Yu. Severin (1978), M. Skobelev and A. Eliseev (1973)

Notes

wise gudgeon, wise gudgeon summary
fairy tale/fable

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin

December 1882 - first half of January 1883

newspaper "Common Cause" (Geneva)

(in some modern children's publications - “The Wise Minnow”) - satirical tale from the series “Fairy Tales for Children of a Fair Age” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, published in 1883.

• 1 History of creation and publication
• 2 Criticism
• 3 Plot
• 4 Using an expression
• 5 Film adaptations
• 6 Illustrations
• 7 Notes

History of creation and publication

Written in December 1882 - the first half of January 1883. First published in September 1883 in No. 55 of the emigrant newspaper “Common Cause” (Geneva), p. 2-4, together with the fairy tales “The Selfless Hare” and “The Poor Wolf”, under the editorial heading “Fairy tales for children of a fair age”, without a signature. Russia for the first time - in the journal “Domestic Notes” No. 1, 1884, p. 275-280 (January 16). As a book publication - in the publication of the free hectograph “Public Benefit”, under the general title “Fairy Tales” and under the signature of N. Shchedrin. The Geneva edition was published eight times during 1883 (before the publication of fairy tales in Otechestvennye zapiski) in different formats (six times with an indication of the release date and two times without an indication). The publication was distributed by members of Narodnaya Volya, as evidenced by the seal on a number of surviving copies (“Book Agents of Narodnaya Volya”). One of the editions of the collection with the date of release, unlike all the others, contains only one fairy tale - “The Wise Minnow”.

Criticism

According to commentators and critics, the tale is dedicated to a satirical criticism of the cowardice and cowardice that took over the public mood of part of the intelligentsia after the defeat of the Narodnaya Volya.

Writer and critic Konstantin Arsenyev noted that the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” echoes “The Fourth Evening” from “Poshekhonsky Stories”, which appeared in No. 10 of “Notes of the Fatherland” for 1883, where the publicist Kramolnikov denounces liberals hiding from harsh reality in “ holes,” declaring that they would not be able to escape in this way.

Subsequently, on the basis of this similarity and considering its appearance in Russia in January 1884 as the first publication of the fairy tale, the writer Ivanov-Razumnik concluded that the idea of ​​“Gudgeon” was originally expressed in the third Poshekhon “evening”. In reality, Kramolnikov’s speech in “Poshekhonsky Stories” does not foreshadow, but repeats the idea of ​​the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” that had already been written and published in the foreign “Common Cause.”

Plot

A gudgeon lives in the river. His parents lived through Aredian centuries and are dying a natural death. Before his death, the gudgeon's father tells him to always be careful (after all, there is danger everywhere), and he himself almost got caught in the fish soup. The gudgeon decides to dig a small hole for itself so that no one but him can fit in there, and never leaves the hole during the day, and at night crawls out of it briefly to perform night exercise.

Many years pass like this. The gudgeon is afraid of everything and does not crawl out of its hole. One day he sees in a dream how he wins two hundred thousand rubles in the lottery. The gudgeon lives for a hundred years, sick and old, but is glad that he dies like a father and mother. Having fallen asleep, he sees his old ambitious dreams, as if he had won two hundred thousand and was swallowing the pike himself. Falling asleep, the gudgeon forgets itself, its snout crawls out of the hole, and after that the gudgeon inexplicably disappears. The tale ends with the following assumption:

Most likely, he himself died, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow a sick, dying gudgeon, and a wise one at that?

Using an Expression

The expression “wise minnow” was used as a common noun, in particular, by V.I. Lenin in the fight against Russian liberals, the former “left Octobrists” who switched to supporting the right-liberal model of constitutional democracy after the dissolution of the Duma of the first convocation by Nicholas II:

Oh, wise minnows of the notorious progressive “intelligentsia”! The defense of the peaceful renovationists by the intellectual radicals, the turn of the central organ of the Cadets party. to peaceful renewal immediately after the instructions about the forms, these are all typical examples of liberal tactics. The government takes one step to the right, and we take two steps to the right! Look - we are again legal and peaceful, tactful and loyal, we will adapt even without forms, we will always adapt in relation to meanness! This seems like realpolitik to the liberal bourgeoisie.

V.I. Lenin, Forgery of the Duma by the government and the tasks of social democracy, 1906, PSS V.I. Lenin, vol. 14, p. 199. Archived from the original on November 21, 2012.

According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Catchwords and Expressions, Shchedrin, under the guise of a minnow, portrayed the Russian liberal intelligentsia, concerned only with survival; in an ironic and allegorical sense, the expression is used to mean: a conformist person, a socially or politically passive cowardly person who elevates his conformism to the rank of philosophy.

Film adaptations

In 1979, director V. Karavaev released a cartoon of the same name based on the fairy tale (Soyuzmultfilm studio, duration 9 minutes 23 seconds).

Illustrations

The tale has been illustrated many times, incl. such artists as Kukryniksy (1939), Yu. Severin (1978), M. Skobelev and A. Eliseev (1973)

Notes

1. 1 2 According to 19th-century spelling standards, the word “minnow” in this tale traditionally written with “i” - “p” And scare", including in modern academic (with commentary) publications by Saltykov-Shchedrin. Some children's illustrated non-academic publications call the main character according to modern standards - “p e scarce."
2. 1 2 3 Comments by V. N. Baskakov, A. S. Bushmin on the publication: M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Fairy tales. Motley letters // Collected works in twenty volumes. - Volume 16. - Book 1. - P. 425-435.
3. K. K. Arsenyev. Saltykov-Shchedrin. St. Petersburg, 1906, p. 218-219.
4. M. E. Saltykov (Shchedrin). Soch., vol. V. M. - L., GIZ, 1927, p. 496-497.
5. Quote according to the commentary of T. Sumarokova in: Saltykov-Shchedrin, M. E. History of a city; Fairy tales / Preface. Yu. Kozlovsky; Comment. T. Sumarokova; Il A. Samokhvalova. - M.: Pravda, 1984. - 400 pp., ill. - P. 395.
6. The instructions of the tsarist government prohibiting the issuance of election forms to unlegalized parties were introduced after the dissolution of the Duma of the first convocation by Nicholas II.
7. The wise gudgeon // encyclopedic Dictionary catchwords and expressions / comp. Vadim Serov. - M.: “Locked-Press”, 2003..
8. Kukryniksy, illustration for the fairy tale The Wise Minnow. Archived from the original on November 21, 2012.
9. The Wise Minnow, 1978
10. M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. "The wise minnow." Drawings by M. Skobelev and A. Eliseev. Ed. "Children's Literature", M. - 1973

wise gudgeon, wise gudgeon summary, wise gudgeon read

Wise minnow Information About

The fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” says that in the world there lived a minnow who was afraid of everything, but at the same time considered himself wise. His father told him before he died to be careful and that way he would live. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to chew your life, then keep your eyes open!” Piskar listened to him and began to think about later life. He invented a house for himself such that no one but himself could get into it, and began to think about how to behave the rest of the time.

With this tale, the author tried to show the life of officials who did nothing in their lives, but only sat in their “hole” and were afraid of those who were higher in rank. They were afraid of somehow harming themselves if they went outside their “hole.” That, perhaps, there will be some kind of force there that can suddenly deprive them of such a rank. Life without luxury is the same as death for them, but at the same time you have to stay in one place and everything will be fine.

This is precisely what can be seen in the image of the minnow. He appears in the tale throughout the entire story. If before his father’s death the gudgeon’s life was ordinary, then after his death he hid. He trembled every time someone swam or stopped near his hole. He didn’t finish eating, afraid to get out again. And from the twilight that constantly reigned in his hole, the gudgeon was half-blind.

Everyone considered the gudgeon a fool, but he considered himself wise. The title of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” hides obvious irony. “Wise” means “very smart,” but in this fairy tale the meaning of this word means something else - proud and stupid. Proud because he considers himself the smartest, since he found a way to protect his life from an external threat. And he is stupid because he never understood the meaning of life. Although at the end of his life the minnow thinks about living like everyone else, not hiding in his hole, and as soon as he gathers the strength to swim out of the shelter, he again begins to tremble and again considers this idea stupid. “I’ll crawl out of the hole and swim like a goldeneye across the entire river!” But as soon as he thought about it, he became frightened again. And he began to die, trembling. He lived and trembled, and he died - he trembled.”

To more sarcastically show the life of a gudgeon, there is a hyperbole in the fairy tale: “He does not receive a salary and does not keep servants, does not play cards, does not drink wine, does not smoke tobacco, does not chase red girls...”. Grotesque: “And the wise minnow lived in this way for more than a hundred years. Everything was trembling, everything was trembling." Irony: “Most likely he died, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow a sick, dying gudgeon, and a wise one at that?”

Talking animals dominate everyday life folk tales. Since in the fairy tale M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin also has a talking minnow, then his tale is similar to a folk tale.

Saltykov-Shchedrin, “The Wise Minnow”, let’s start the analysis of the fairy tale with the personality of the writer.

Mikhail Evgrafovich was born in 1826 (January) in the Tver province. On his father's side he belonged to a very old and rich family of nobles, and on his mother's side he belonged to the class of merchants. Saltykov-Shchedrin successfully graduated and then took up the post of official in the military department. Unfortunately, the service interested him very little.

In 1847, its first literary works- “Entangled Case” and “Contradictions.” Despite this, it was only in 1856 that people started talking about him seriously as a writer. At this time he began to publish his “Provincial Sketches”.

The writer tried to open the readers' eyes to the lawlessness happening in the country, to ignorance, stupidity, and bureaucracy.

Let's take a closer look at the cycle of fairy tales written by the writer in 1869. This was a kind of synthesis of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s ideological and creative quest, a certain result.

Mikhail Evgrafovich could not fully expose all the vices of society and the failure of management due to the censorship that existed at that time. That is why the writer chose the form of a fairy tale. So he was able to sharply criticize the existing order without fear of prohibitions.

The fairy tale “The Wise Minnow,” which we are analyzing, is quite rich in artistic terms. The author resorts to the use of grotesque, antithesis, and hyperbole. An important role is also played by these techniques that helped to hide true meaning what is written.

The fairy tale appeared in 1883, it is famous to this day, it has even become a textbook. Its plot is known to everyone: there lived a gudgeon who was completely ordinary. His only difference was cowardice, which was so strong that the gudgeon decided to spend his entire life in a hole without sticking his head out of there. There he sat, afraid of every rustle, every shadow. This is how his life passed, no family, no friends. The question arises: what kind of life is this? What good has he done in his life? Nothing. Lived, trembled, died.

That's the whole story, but it's just the surface.

Analysis of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” implies a deeper study of its meaning.

Saltykov-Shchedrin depicts the morals of contemporary bourgeois Russia. In fact, a minnow does not mean a fish, but a cowardly man in the street who fears and trembles only for his own skin. The writer set himself the task of combining the features of both fish and humans.

The fairy tale depicts philistine alienation and self-isolation. The author is offended and bitter for the Russian people.

Reading the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin is not very easy, which is why not everyone was able to comprehend the true intent of his fairy tales. Unfortunately, the level of thinking and development modern people not quite up to par.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the thoughts expressed by the writer are relevant to this day.

Read the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” again, analyze it based on what you have now learned. Look deeper into the intention of the works, try to read between the lines, then you will be able to analyze not only the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” yourself, but also all works of art.