White Guard literary movement. Encyclopedia of Literary Works

The events of the Civil War at the end of 1918 are described; The action takes place in Ukraine.

The novel tells the story of a family of Russian intellectuals and their friends who are experiencing the social cataclysm of the civil war. The novel is largely autobiographical; almost all the characters have prototypes - relatives, friends and acquaintances of the Bulgakov family. The setting of the novel was the streets of Kyiv and the house in which the Bulgakov family lived in 1918. Although the manuscripts of the novel have not survived, Bulgakov scholars have traced the fate of many prototype characters and proved the almost documentary accuracy and reality of the events and characters described by the author.

The work was conceived by the author as a large-scale trilogy covering the period of the Civil War. Part of the novel was first published in the magazine "Russia" in 1925. The entire novel was first published in France in 1927-1929. The novel was received ambiguously by critics - the Soviet side criticized the writer’s glorification of class enemies, the emigrant side criticized Bulgakov’s loyalty to Soviet power.

The work served as a source for the play “Days of the Turbins” and subsequent several film adaptations.

Plot

The novel takes place in 1918, when the Germans who occupied Ukraine leave the City and it is captured by Petliura’s troops. The author describes the complex, multifaceted world of a family of Russian intellectuals and their friends. This world is breaking under the onslaught of a social cataclysm and will never happen again.

The heroes - Alexey Turbin, Elena Turbina-Talberg and Nikolka - are involved in the cycle of military and political events. The city, in which Kyiv is easily recognizable, is occupied by the German army. As a result of the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, it does not fall under the rule of the Bolsheviks and becomes a refuge for many Russian intellectuals and military personnel who are fleeing Bolshevik Russia. Officer military organizations are created in the city under the patronage of Hetman Skoropadsky, an ally of the Germans, Russia's recent enemies. Petlyura's army is attacking the City. By the time of the events of the novel, the Compiegne Truce has been concluded and the Germans are preparing to leave the City. In fact, only volunteers defend him from Petlyura. Realizing the complexity of their situation, the Turbins reassure themselves with rumors about the approach of French troops, who allegedly landed in Odessa (in accordance with the terms of the truce, they had the right to occupy the occupied territories of Russia as far as the Vistula in the west). Alexey and Nikolka Turbin, like other residents of the City, volunteer to join the defenders’ detachments, and Elena protects the house, which becomes a refuge for former officers of the Russian army. Since it is impossible to defend the City on its own, the hetman’s command and administration abandon him to his fate and leave with the Germans (the hetman himself disguises himself as a wounded German officer). Volunteers - Russian officers and cadets unsuccessfully defend the City without command against superior enemy forces (the author created a brilliant heroic image of Colonel Nai-Tours). Some commanders, realizing the futility of resistance, send their fighters home, others actively organize resistance and die along with their subordinates. Petlyura occupies the City, organizes a magnificent parade, but after a few months is forced to surrender it to the Bolsheviks.

The novel “The White Guard” took about 7 years to create. Initially, Bulgakov wanted to make it the first part of a trilogy. The writer began work on the novel in 1921, moving to Moscow, and by 1925 the text was almost finished. Once again Bulgakov ruled the novel in 1917-1929. before publication in Paris and Riga, reworking the ending.

The name options considered by Bulgakov are all connected with politics through the symbolism of flowers: “White Cross”, “Yellow Ensign”, “Scarlet Swoop”.

In 1925-1926 Bulgakov wrote a play, in the final version called “Days of the Turbins,” the plot and characters of which coincide with the novel. The play was staged at the Moscow Art Theater in 1926.

Literary direction and genre

The novel “The White Guard” was written in the tradition of realistic literature of the 19th century. Bulgakov uses a traditional technique and, through the history of a family, describes the history of an entire people and country. Thanks to this, the novel takes on the features of an epic.

The work begins as a family novel, but gradually all events receive philosophical understanding.

The novel "The White Guard" is historical. The author does not set himself the task of objectively describing the political situation in Ukraine in 1918-1919. The events are depicted tendentiously, this is due to a certain creative task. Bulgakov’s goal is to show the subjective perception of the historical process (not revolution, but civil war) by a certain circle of people close to him. This process is perceived as a disaster because there are no winners in a civil war.

Bulgakov balances on the brink of tragedy and farce, he is ironic and focuses on failures and shortcomings, losing sight of not only the positive (if there was any), but also the neutral in human life in connection with the new order.

Issues

Bulgakov in the novel avoids social and political problems. His heroes are the White Guard, but the careerist Talberg also belongs to the same guard. The author's sympathies are not on the side of the whites or the reds, but on the side of good people who do not turn into rats running away from the ship and do not change their opinions under the influence of political vicissitudes.

Thus, the problem of the novel is philosophical: how to remain human at the moment of a universal catastrophe and not lose yourself.

Bulgakov creates a myth about a beautiful white City, covered with snow and, as it were, protected by it. The writer asks himself whether historical events, changes in power, which Bulgakov experienced in Kyiv during the civil war 14, depend on him. Bulgakov comes to the conclusion that myths rule over human destinies. He considers Petliura to be a myth that arose in Ukraine “in the fog of the terrible year of 1818.” Such myths give rise to fierce hatred and force some who believe in the myth to become part of it without reasoning, and others, living in another myth, to fight to the death for their own.

Each of the heroes experiences the collapse of their myths, and some, like Nai-Tours, die even for something they no longer believe in. The problem of the loss of myth and faith is the most important for Bulgakov. For himself, he chooses the house as a myth. The life of a house is still longer than that of a person. And indeed, the house has survived to this day.

Plot and composition

In the center of the composition is the Turbin family. Their house, with cream curtains and a lamp with a green lampshade, which in the writer’s mind has always been associated with peace and homeliness, looks like Noah’s Ark in the stormy sea of ​​life, in a whirlwind of events. Invited and uninvited, all like-minded people, come to this ark from all over the world. Alexei's comrades in arms enter the house: Lieutenant Shervinsky, Second Lieutenant Stepanov (Karas), Myshlaevsky. Here they find shelter, table, and warmth in the frosty winter. But the main thing is not this, but the hope that everything will be fine, so necessary for the youngest Bulgakov, who finds himself in the position of his heroes: “Their lives were interrupted at dawn.”

The events in the novel take place in the winter of 1918-1919. (51 days). During this time, the power in the city changes: the hetman flees with the Germans and enters the city of Petliura, who ruled for 47 days, and at the end the Petliuraites flee under the cannonade of the Red Army.

The symbolism of time is very important for a writer. Events begin on the day of St. Andrew the First-Called, the patron saint of Kyiv (December 13), and end with Candlemas (on the night of December 2-3). For Bulgakov, the motive of the meeting is important: Petlyura with the Red Army, past with future, grief with hope. He associates himself and the world of the Turbins with the position of Simeon, who, having looked at Christ, did not take part in the exciting events, but remained with God in eternity: “Now you release your servant, Master.” With the same God who at the beginning of the novel is mentioned by Nikolka as a sad and mysterious old man flying into the black, cracked sky.

The novel is dedicated to Bulgakov’s second wife, Lyubov Belozerskaya. The work has two epigraphs. The first describes a snowstorm in Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter, as a result of which the hero loses his way and meets the robber Pugachev. This epigraph explains that the whirlwind of historical events is as detailed as a snowstorm, so it is easy to get confused and go astray, not to know where the good person is and where the robber is.

But the second epigraph from the Apocalypse warns: everyone will be judged according to their deeds. If you chose the wrong path, getting lost in the storms of life, this does not justify you.

At the beginning of the novel, 1918 is called great and terrible. In the last, 20th chapter, Bulgakov notes that the next year was even worse. The first chapter begins with an omen: a shepherd Venus and a red Mars stand high above the horizon. With the death of the mother, the bright queen, in May 1918, the Turbins' family misfortunes began. He lingers, and then Talberg leaves, a frostbitten Myshlaevsky appears, and an absurd relative Lariosik arrives from Zhitomir.

Disasters are becoming more and more destructive; they threaten to destroy not only the usual foundations, the peace of the house, but also the very lives of its inhabitants.

Nikolka would have been killed in a senseless battle if not for the fearless Colonel Nai-Tours, who himself died in the same hopeless battle, from which he defended, disbanding, the cadets, explaining to them that the hetman, whom they were going to protect, had fled at night.

Alexei was wounded, shot by the Petliurists because he was not informed about the dissolution of the defensive division. He is saved by an unfamiliar woman, Julia Reiss. The illness from the wound turns into typhus, but Elena begs the Mother of God, the Intercessor, for her brother’s life, giving her happiness with Thalberg for her.

Even Vasilisa survives a raid by bandits and loses her savings. This trouble for the Turbins is not a grief at all, but, according to Lariosik, “everyone has their own grief.”

Grief comes to Nikolka too. And it’s not that the bandits, having spied Nikolka hiding the Nai-Tours Colt, steal it and threaten Vasilisa with it. Nikolka faces death face to face and avoids it, and the fearless Nai-Tours dies, and Nikolka’s shoulders bear the responsibility of reporting the death to his mother and sister, finding and identifying the body.

The novel ends with the hope that the new force entering the City will not destroy the idyll of the house on Alekseevsky Spusk 13, where the magic stove that warmed and raised the Turbin children now serves them as adults, and the only inscription remaining on its tiles says in the hand of a friend that tickets to Hades (to hell) have been taken for Lena. Thus, hope in the finale is mixed with hopelessness for a particular person.

Taking the novel from the historical layer to the universal one, Bulgakov gives hope to all readers, because hunger will pass, suffering and torment will pass, but the stars, which you need to look at, will remain. The writer draws the reader to true values.

Heroes of the novel

The main character and older brother is 28-year-old Alexey.

He is a weak person, a “rag”, and caring for all family members falls on his shoulders. He does not have the acumen of a military man, although he belongs to the White Guard. Alexey is a military doctor. Bulgakov calls his soul gloomy, the kind that loves women’s eyes most of all. This image in the novel is autobiographical.

Alexey, absent-minded, almost paid for this with his life, removing all the officer’s insignia from his clothes, but forgetting about the cockade, by which the Petliurists recognized him. The crisis and death of Alexei occurs on December 24, Christmas. Having experienced death and a new birth through injury and illness, the “resurrected” Alexey Turbin becomes a different person, his eyes “have forever become unsmiling and gloomy.”

Elena is 24 years old. Myshlaevsky calls her clear, Bulgakov calls her reddish, her luminous hair is like a crown. If Bulgakov calls the mother in the novel a bright queen, then Elena is more like a deity or priestess, the keeper of the hearth and the family itself. Bulgakov wrote Elena from his sister Varya.

Nikolka Turbin is 17 and a half years old. He is a cadet. With the beginning of the revolution, the schools ceased to exist. Their discarded students are called crippled, neither children nor adults, neither military nor civilian.

Nai-Tours appears to Nikolka as a man with an iron face, simple and courageous. This is a person who neither knows how to adapt nor seek personal gain. He dies having fulfilled his military duty.

Captain Talberg is Elena’s husband, a handsome man. He tried to adapt to rapidly changing events: as a member of the revolutionary military committee, he arrested General Petrov, became part of an “operetta with great bloodshed,” elected “hetman of all Ukraine,” so he had to escape with the Germans, betraying Elena. At the end of the novel, Elena learns from her friend that Talberg has betrayed her once again and is going to get married.

Vasilisa (houseowner engineer Vasily Lisovich) occupied the first floor. He is a negative hero, a money-grubber. At night he hides money in a hiding place in the wall. Outwardly similar to Taras Bulba. Having found counterfeit money, Vasilisa figures out how he will use it.

Vasilisa is, in essence, an unhappy person. It is painful for him to save and make money. His wife Wanda is crooked, her hair is yellow, her elbows are bony, her legs are dry. Vasilisa is sick of living with such a wife in the world.

Stylistic features

The house in the novel is one of the heroes. The Turbins’ hope to survive, survive and even be happy is connected with it. Talberg, who did not become part of the Turbin family, ruins his nest by leaving with the Germans, so he immediately loses the protection of the Turbin house.

The City is the same living hero. Bulgakov deliberately does not name Kyiv, although all the names in the City are Kyiv, slightly altered (Alekseevsky Spusk instead of Andreevsky, Malo-Provalnaya instead of Malopodvalnaya). The city lives, smokes and makes noise, “like a multi-tiered honeycomb.”

The text contains many literary and cultural reminiscences. The reader associates the city with Rome during the decline of Roman civilization, and with the eternal city of Jerusalem.

The moment the cadets prepared to defend the city is associated with the Battle of Borodino, which never came.

The novel has a ring composition. It begins and ends with ominous premonitions of the apocalypse. The novel contains a motif of diabolism. It is associated with such details as the underworld, hell, where Nikolka and her sister Nai-Turs descend in search of his body, the “devil’s doll” Talberg, the devil in a cassock on the bell tower of the cathedral, the demon - Shpolyansky, the demon - Shervinsky...

The entire novel is permeated with the symbolism of the apocalypse; the bloody revolutionary events are depicted as the Last Judgment. However, the apocalypse in the novel is not only death, but also salvation, light. The writer shows that the main goal of human existence means nothing. It seemed like the end of the world had come. But the Turbin family continues to live in the same time dimension.

Bulgakov carefully describes all the household little things kept in the family: the stove (the focus of all life), the service, the lampshade (a symbol of the family hearth), cream curtains that seem to close the family, saving it from external events. All these details of everyday life, despite external shocks, remain the same as they were. Life in the novel is a symbol of existence. When everything around collapses, values ​​are revalued, but life is indestructible. The sum of the little things that make up the life of the Turbins is the culture of the intelligentsia, the foundation that keeps the characters’ characters intact.

The world in the novel is shown as a devilish carnival, a farce. Through theatrical and farcical images, the author shows the chaos of history. The story itself is shown in theatrical style: the toy kings change repeatedly, Thalberg calls the story an operetta; many characters change clothes. Talberg changes clothes and runs, then the hetman and other whites, then the flight takes over everyone. Shpolyansky is similar to the opera Onegin. He is an actor who constantly changes masks. But Bulgakov shows that this is not a game, but real life.

Turbines are given by the author at the moment when a family suffers a loss (the death of the mother), when the beginnings of chaos and discord that are alien to it invade the house. The new face of the City becomes their symbolic embodiment. The city appears in the novel in two time coordinates - past and present. He is not hostile to the house in the past. The city, with its gardens, steep streets, Dnieper steeps, Vladimir Hill with the statue of St. Vladimir, preserving the unique appearance of Kiev, the foremother of Russian cities, appears in the novel as a symbol of Russian statehood, which is threatened to be destroyed by waves of rapid decline, Petliurism, and “gnarly peasant wrath.”

Current events are included at great length by the author. Bulgakov often reveals tragic episodes in the flow of history to the heroes through dreams. Prophetic dreams in the novel are one of the ways to reflect the depths of the characters’ subconscious. Correlating reality with ideal ideas, they reveal the universal truth in symbolic form. Thus, reflecting on what is happening in the light of the problems of existence, Alexei Turbin reads the phrase from “the first book he came across” (“Demons” by Dostoevsky), “senselessly returning to the same thing”: “For a Russian man, honor is just an extra burden... .” But reality flows into a dream, and when Alexey falls asleep in the morning, in a dream a “short nightmare in large check trousers” appears to him, saying: “You can’t sit on a hedgehog with your naked profile!.. Holy Rus' is a wooden, poor country. and... dangerous, but for a Russian person honor is just an extra burden.” "Oh you! - Turbin cried out in his sleep. “G-reptile, I’ll tell you...” In his sleep, Turbin reached into the desk drawer to take out a Browning gun, sleepily took it out, wanted to shoot at the nightmare, chased after it, and the nightmare disappeared.” And again the dream flows into reality: “For two hours a cloudy, black, dreamless dream flowed, and when it began to dawn pale and softly outside the windows of the room overlooking the glassed-in veranda, Turbin began to dream of the City,” - this is how the third chapter ends.

In dreams that interrupt the narrative, the author's position is expressed. The key is Alexey Turbin’s dream, when he imagines a paradise in which there is Nai-Tours and Sergeant Zhilin. A paradise in which there is a place for both reds and whites, and God says: “You are all the same to me, killed on the battlefield.” Both Turbin and the nameless Red Army soldier have the same dream.

The writer shows the collapse of the old, familiar life through the destruction of the house, in the traditions of Bunin (“Antonov Apples”) and Chekhov (“The Cherry Orchard”). At the same time, the Turbins’ house itself - a quiet “harbour” with cream-colored curtains - becomes a kind of center of the author’s moral and psychological stability.

The city in which the main events unfold is a border zone between a quiet “harbour” and the bloody outside world, from which everyone is running. The running motif, which originates in this “external” world, gradually deepens and permeates the entire action of the book. Thus, in “The White Guard” three interconnected and interpenetrating spatio-temporal, plot-event and cause-and-effect circles are formed: the Turbins’ house, the City and the world. The first and second worlds have clearly defined boundaries, but the third is limitless and therefore incomprehensible. Continuing the traditions of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Bulgakov shows that all external events are reflected in the life of the house, and only the house can serve the heroes as a moral support.

Based on some of the realities outlined in the novel, one can understand that the action takes place in Kyiv. In the novel it is designated simply as the City. Thus, the space expands, transforming Kyiv into a city in general, and the city into the world. The events taking place are taking on a cosmic scale. From the standpoint of human values, the significance of a person’s belonging to a social group is lost, and the writer evaluates reality from the position of eternal human life, not subject to the destructive purpose of time.

Epigraphs to the novel have a special meaning. The novel is preceded by two epigraphs. The first roots what is happening in Russian history, the second correlates it with eternity. Their presence serves as a sign of the type of generalization chosen by Bulgakov - from the image of today to its projection onto history, onto literature in order to reveal the universal meaning of what is happening.

The first epigraph is Pushkin’s, from “The Captain’s Daughter”: “Fine snow began to fall and suddenly fell in flakes. The wind howled; there was a snowstorm. In an instant, the dark sky mixed with the snowy sea. Everything has disappeared. “Well, master,” the coachman shouted, “trouble: a snowstorm!” This epigraph conveys not only the emotional tone of the “time of troubles,” but is also perceived as a symbol of the moral stability of Bulgakov’s heroes at the tragic turning point of the era.

The key words of Pushkin’s text (“snow”, “wind”, “blizzard”, “blizzard”) are reminiscent of the indignation of the peasant element, of the peasant’s account of the master. The image of the raging elements becomes one of the cross-cutting ones in the novel and is directly related to Bulgakov’s understanding of history, which has a destructive nature. By the very choice of the epigraph, the author emphasized that his first novel is about people who were initially tragically lost in the iron storm of the revolution, but who found their place and path in it. With the same epigraph, the writer also pointed out his uninterrupted connection with classical literature, in particular with the traditions of Pushkin, with “The Captain’s Daughter” - the great Russian poet’s wonderful reflection on Russian history and the Russian people. Continuing the traditions of Pushkin, Bulgakov achieves his artistic truth. Thus, in “The White Guard” the word “Pugachevism” appears.

The second epigraph, taken from the “Revelation of John the Theologian” (“And the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to their deeds...”), reinforces the sense of crisis of the moment. This epigraph emphasizes the point of personal responsibility. The theme of the apocalypse constantly appears on the pages of the novel, not allowing the reader to forget that the reader is presented with pictures of the Last Judgment, reminding that this Judgment is carried out “in accordance with deeds.” In addition, the epigraph emphasizes a timeless point of view on the events taking place. It is noteworthy that in the next verse of the Apocalypse, although it is not included in the text of the novel, the following is said: “... and each was judged according to his deeds.” So, in the subtext, the motive of the trial enters into the fate of each of the heroes of the novel.

The novel opens with a majestic image of 1918. Not by the date, not by the designation of the time of action, but precisely by the image: “Great was the year after the birth of Christ, 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution. It was full of sun in summer and snow in winter, and two stars stood especially high in the sky: the shepherd star - evening Venus and red, trembling Mars. Time and space of the “White Guard” symbolically intersect. Already at the very beginning of the novel, the line of biblical times (“And the dead were judged...”) crosses the synchronic space of formidable events. As the action develops, the intersection takes the form of a cross (especially expressive at the end of the novel), on which Rus' is crucified.

The satirical characters of the novel are united by the motif of “running”. The grotesque picture of the City highlights the tragedy of the honest officers. Using the motif of “running,” Bulgakov shows the scale of panic that gripped different segments of the population.

Color schemes become a symbolic attribute of the events depicted in the novel. The tragic reality (cold, death, blood) is reflected in the contrast of the peaceful snow-covered City and red and black tones. One of the most common colors in the novel is white, which, according to the author, is a symbol of purity and truth. In the author’s perception, the white color has not only a political connotation, but also a hidden meaning, symbolizing the position “above the fray.” Bulgakov associated his ideas about the Motherland, home, family, and honor with the white color. When all this is threatened, black (the color of evil, sorrow and chaos) absorbs all other colors. For the author, the color black is a symbol of a violation of harmony, and the contrasting combination of white and black, black and red, red and blue emphasizes the tragedy of the characters and conveys the tragedy of events.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891–1940) - a writer with a difficult, tragic fate that influenced his work. Coming from an intelligent family, he did not accept the revolutionary changes and the reaction that followed them. The ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity imposed by the authoritarian state did not inspire him, because for him, a man with education and a high level of intelligence, the contrast between the demagoguery in the squares and the wave of red terror that swept Russia was obvious. He deeply felt the tragedy of the people and dedicated the novel “The White Guard” to it.

In the winter of 1923, Bulgakov began work on the novel “The White Guard,” which describes the events of the Ukrainian Civil War at the end of 1918, when Kyiv was occupied by the troops of the Directory, who overthrew the power of Hetman Pavel Skoropadsky. In December 1918, officers tried to defend the hetman's power, where Bulgakov was either enrolled as a volunteer or, according to other sources, was mobilized. Thus, the novel contains autobiographical features - even the number of the house in which the Bulgakov family lived during the capture of Kyiv by Petlyura is preserved - 13. In the novel, this number takes on a symbolic meaning. Andreevsky Descent, where the house is located, is called Alekseevsky in the novel, and Kyiv is simply called the City. The prototypes of the characters are the writer’s relatives, friends and acquaintances:

• Nikolka Turbin, for example, is Bulgakov’s younger brother Nikolai
• Dr. Alexey Turbin is a writer himself,
• Elena Turbina-Talberg - Varvara's younger sister
• Sergei Ivanovich Talberg - officer Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888 - 1968), who, however, did not go abroad like Talberg, but was ultimately exiled to Novosibirsk.
• The prototype of Larion Surzhansky (Lariosik) is a distant relative of the Bulgakovs, Nikolai Vasilyevich Sudzilovsky.
• The prototype of Myshlaevsky, according to one version - Bulgakov's childhood friend, Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky
• The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky is another friend of Bulgakov, who served in the hetman’s troops - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky (1898 - 1968).
• Colonel Felix Feliksovich Nai-Tours is a collective image. It consists of several prototypes - firstly, this is the white general Fyodor Arturovich Keller (1857 - 1918), who was killed by the Petliurists during the resistance and ordered the cadets to run and tear off their shoulder straps, realizing the meaninglessness of the battle, and secondly, this is Major General Nikolai of the Volunteer Army Vsevolodovich Shinkarenko (1890 – 1968).
• There was also a prototype from the cowardly engineer Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich (Vasilisa), from whom the Turbins rented the second floor of the house - architect Vasily Pavlovich Listovnichy (1876 - 1919).
• The prototype of the futurist Mikhail Shpolyansky is a major Soviet literary scholar and critic Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (1893 – 1984).
• The surname Turbina is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother.

However, it should also be noted that “The White Guard” is not a completely autobiographical novel. Some things are fictitious - for example, that the Turbins’ mother died. In fact, at that time, the Bulgakovs’ mother, who is the prototype of the heroine, lived in another house with her second husband. And there are fewer family members in the novel than the Bulgakovs actually had. The entire novel was first published in 1927–1929. in France.

About what?

The novel “The White Guard” is about the tragic fate of the intelligentsia during the difficult times of the revolution, after the assassination of Emperor Nicholas II. The book also tells about the difficult situation of officers who are ready to fulfill their duty to the fatherland in the conditions of a shaky, unstable political situation in the country. The White Guard officers were ready to defend the hetman's power, but the author poses the question: does this make sense if the hetman fled, leaving the country and its defenders to the mercy of fate?

Alexey and Nikolka Turbin are officers ready to defend their homeland and the former government, but before the cruel mechanism of the political system they (and people like them) find themselves powerless. Alexei is seriously wounded, and he is forced to fight not for his homeland or for the occupied city, but for his life, in which he is helped by the woman who saved him from death. And Nikolka runs away at the last moment, saved by Nai-Tours, who is killed. With all their desire to defend the fatherland, the heroes do not forget about family and home, about the sister left by her husband. The antagonist character in the novel is Captain Talberg, who, unlike the Turbin brothers, leaves his homeland and his wife in difficult times and goes to Germany.

In addition, “The White Guard” is a novel about the horrors, lawlessness and devastation that are happening in the city occupied by Petliura. Bandits with forged documents break into the house of engineer Lisovich and rob him, there is shooting in the streets, and the master of the kurennoy with his assistants - the “lads” - commit a cruel, bloody reprisal against the Jew, suspecting him of espionage.

In the finale, the city, captured by the Petliurists, is recaptured by the Bolsheviks. “The White Guard” clearly expresses a negative, negative attitude towards Bolshevism - as a destructive force that will ultimately wipe out everything holy and human from the face of the earth, and a terrible time will come. The novel ends with this thought.

The main characters and their characteristics

• Alexey Vasilievich Turbin- a twenty-eight-year-old doctor, a division doctor, who, paying a debt of honor to the fatherland, enters into a battle with the Petliurites when his unit was disbanded, since the fight was already pointless, but is seriously wounded and forced to flee. He falls ill with typhus, is on the verge of life and death, but ultimately survives.
• Nikolai Vasilievich Turbin(Nikolka) - a seventeen-year-old non-commissioned officer, Alexei’s younger brother, ready to fight to the last with the Petliurists for the fatherland and hetman’s power, but at the insistence of the colonel he runs away, tearing off his insignia, since the battle no longer makes sense (the Petliurists captured the City, and the hetman escaped). Nikolka then helps her sister care for the wounded Alexei.
• Elena Vasilievna Turbina-Talberg(Elena the redhead) is a twenty-four-year-old married woman who was left by her husband. She worries and prays for both brothers participating in hostilities, waits for her husband and secretly hopes that he will return.
• Sergei Ivanovich Talberg- captain, husband of Elena the Red, unstable in his political views, who changes them depending on the situation in the city (acts on the principle of a weather vane), for which the Turbins, true to their views, do not respect him. As a result, he leaves his home, his wife and leaves for Germany by night train.
• Leonid Yurievich Shervinsky- lieutenant of the guard, a dapper lancer, admirer of Elena the Red, friend of the Turbins, believes in the support of the allies and says that he himself saw the sovereign.
• Victor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky- lieutenant, another friend of the Turbins, loyal to the fatherland, honor and duty. In the novel, one of the first harbingers of the Petliura occupation, a participant in the battle a few kilometers from the City. When the Petliurists break into the City, Myshlaevsky takes the side of those who want to disband the mortar division so as not to destroy the lives of the cadets, and wants to set fire to the building of the cadet gymnasium so that it does not fall to the enemy.
• crucian carp- a friend of the Turbins, a restrained, honest officer, who, during the dissolution of the mortar division, joins those who disband the cadets, takes the side of Myshlaevsky and Colonel Malyshev, who proposed such a way out.
• Felix Feliksovich Nai-Tours- a colonel who is not afraid to defy the general and disbands the cadets at the moment of the capture of the City by Petliura. He himself dies heroically in front of Nikolka Turbina. For him, more valuable than the power of the deposed hetman is the life of the cadets - young people who were almost sent to the last senseless battle with the Petliurists, but he hastily disbands them, forcing them to tear off their insignia and destroy documents. Nai-Tours in the novel is the image of an ideal officer, for whom not only the fighting qualities and honor of his brothers in arms are valuable, but also their lives.
• Lariosik (Larion Surzhansky)- a distant relative of the Turbins, who came to them from the provinces, going through a divorce from his wife. Clumsy, a bungler, but good-natured, he loves to be in the library and keeps a canary in a cage.
• Yulia Alexandrovna Reiss- a woman who saves the wounded Alexei Turbin, and he begins an affair with her.
• Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich (Vasilisa)- a cowardly engineer, a housewife from whom the Turbins rent the second floor of his house. He is a hoarder, lives with his greedy wife Wanda, hides valuables in secret places. As a result, he is robbed by bandits. He got his nickname, Vasilisa, because due to the unrest in the city in 1918, he began to sign documents in a different handwriting, abbreviating his first and last name as follows: “You. Fox."
• Petliurites in the novel - only gears in a global political upheaval, which entails irreversible consequences.

Subjects

1. Theme of moral choice. The central theme is the situation of the White Guards, who are forced to choose whether to participate in meaningless battles for the power of the escaped hetman or still save their lives. The Allies do not come to the rescue, and the city is captured by the Petliurists, and, ultimately, by the Bolsheviks - a real force that threatens the old way of life and political system.
2. Political instability. Events unfold after the events of the October Revolution and the execution of Nicholas II, when the Bolsheviks seized power in St. Petersburg and continued to strengthen their positions. The Petliurists who captured Kyiv (in the novel - the City) are weak in front of the Bolsheviks, as are the White Guards. “The White Guard” is a tragic novel about how the intelligentsia and everything connected with them perish.
3. The novel contains biblical motifs, and in order to enhance their sound, the author introduces the image of a patient obsessed with the Christian religion who comes to doctor Alexei Turbin for treatment. The novel begins with a countdown from the Nativity of Christ, and just before the end, lines from the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian. That is, the fate of the City, captured by the Petliurists and Bolsheviks, is compared in the novel with the Apocalypse.

Christian symbols

• A crazy patient who came to Turbin for an appointment calls the Bolsheviks “angels,” and Petliura was released from cell No. 666 (in the Revelation of John the Theologian - the number of the Beast, the Antichrist).
• The house on Alekseevsky Spusk is No. 13, and this number, as is known in popular superstitions, is the “devil’s dozen”, an unlucky number, and various misfortunes befall the Turbins’ house - the parents die, the older brother receives a mortal wound and barely survives, and Elena is abandoned and the husband betrays (and betrayal is a trait of Judas Iscariot).
• The novel contains the image of the Mother of God, to whom Elena prays and asks to save Alexei from death. In the terrible time described in the novel, Elena experiences similar experiences as the Virgin Mary, but not for her son, but for her brother, who ultimately overcomes death like Christ.
• Also in the novel there is a theme of equality before God's court. Everyone is equal before him - both the White Guards and the soldiers of the Red Army. Alexey Turbin has a dream about heaven - how Colonel Nai-Tours, white officers and Red Army soldiers get there: they are all destined to go to heaven as those who fell on the battlefield, but God doesn’t care whether they believe in him or not. Justice, according to the novel, exists only in heaven, and on the sinful earth godlessness, blood, and violence reign under red five-pointed stars.

Issues

The problematic of the novel “The White Guard” is the hopeless, plight of the intelligentsia, as a class alien to the winners. Their tragedy is the drama of the entire country, because without the intellectual and cultural elite, Russia will not be able to develop harmoniously.

• Dishonor and cowardice. If the Turbins, Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Karas, Nai-Tours are unanimous and are going to defend the fatherland to the last drop of blood, then Talberg and the hetman prefer to flee like rats from a sinking ship, and individuals like Vasily Lisovich are cowardly, cunning and adapt to existing conditions.
• Also, one of the main problems of the novel is the choice between moral duty and life. The question is posed bluntly - is there any point in honorably defending a government that dishonorably leaves the fatherland in the most difficult times for it, and there is an answer to this very question: there is no point, in this case life is put in first place.
• The split of Russian society. In addition, the problem in the work “The White Guard” lies in the attitude of the people to what is happening. The people do not support the officers and White Guards and, in general, take the side of the Petliurists, because on the other side there is lawlessness and permissiveness.
• Civil War. The novel contrasts three forces - the White Guards, Petliurists and Bolsheviks, and one of them is only intermediate, temporary - the Petliurists. The fight against the Petliurists will not be able to have such a strong impact on the course of history as the fight between the White Guards and the Bolsheviks - two real forces, one of which will lose and sink into oblivion forever - this is the White Guard.

Meaning

In general, the meaning of the novel “The White Guard” is struggle. The struggle between courage and cowardice, honor and dishonor, good and evil, God and the devil. Courage and honor are the Turbins and their friends, Nai-Tours, Colonel Malyshev, who disbanded the cadets and did not allow them to die. Cowardice and dishonor, opposed to them, are the hetman, Talberg, staff captain Studzinsky, who, afraid to violate the order, was going to arrest Colonel Malyshev because he wants to disband the cadets.

Ordinary citizens who do not participate in hostilities are also assessed in the novel according to the same criteria: honor, courage - cowardice, dishonor. For example, female characters - Elena, waiting for her husband who left her, Irina Nai-Tours, who was not afraid to go with Nikolka to the anatomical theater for the body of her murdered brother, Yulia Aleksandrovna Reiss - this is the personification of honor, courage, determination - and Wanda, the wife of engineer Lisovich, stingy, greedy for things - personifies cowardice, baseness. And engineer Lisovich himself is petty, cowardly and stingy. Lariosik, despite all his clumsiness and absurdity, is humane and gentle, this is a character who personifies, if not courage and determination, then simply kindness and kindness - qualities that are so lacking in people at that cruel time described in the novel.

Another meaning of the novel “The White Guard” is that those who are close to God are not those who officially serve him - not churchmen, but those who, even in a bloody and merciless time, when evil descended to earth, retained the grains of humanity in themselves, and even if they are Red Army soldiers. This is told in Alexei Turbin’s dream - a parable from the novel “The White Guard”, in which God explains that the White Guards will go to their paradise, with church floors, and the Red Army soldiers will go to theirs, with red stars, because both believed in the offensive good for the fatherland, albeit in different ways. But the essence of both is the same, despite the fact that they are on different sides. But the churchmen, “servants of God,” according to this parable, will not go to heaven, since many of them departed from the truth. Thus, the essence of the novel “The White Guard” is that humanity (goodness, honor, God, courage) and inhumanity (evil, devil, dishonor, cowardice) will always fight for power over this world. And it doesn’t matter under what banners this struggle will take place - white or red, but on the side of evil there will always be violence, cruelty and base qualities, which must be opposed by goodness, mercy, and honesty. In this eternal struggle, it is important to choose not the convenient, but the right side.

Relevance of the pedagogical project: the main theme of the novel is the tragic fate of the Russian intelligentsia during the years of the revolution and the Civil War using the example of the Russian officers - the White Guard.

The project is designed to help students uncover the main problems raised by the author in the novel.

Download:

Preview:

Municipal educational institution

Municipal educational institution "Secondary school No. 103", Saratov

Pedagogical project:

teacher of Russian language and literature

Saratov 2013

1. Explanatory note.
2. Introduction
3. The ideological and thematic originality of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The White Guard"

1. Author's position.
2. The originality of the solution to the topic.
3. The theme of the valor of Russian officers.
4. Symbolism of the novel.

1. Conclusion
2. Literature

Application:

Lesson-discussion on the novel by M.A. Bulgakov “The White Guard” on the theme “Man. Family. Story"

1. Explanatory note

The author places in the epigraph the famous lines from the Apocalypse, according to which “everyone will be judged according to his deeds.” The theme of retribution for what has been done, the theme of moral responsibility for one’s actions, for the choices that a person makes in his life, is the leading theme of the novel. Such framing of the work with the words of the Bible gives it the breath of eternity, connects human destinies into a single chain, which is nourished from the depths of centuries and becomes history.

A personality at a sharp turn in history, a person in a whirlpool of events, the image of Time and moral responsibility for choice at the moment of a tragic breakdown - that’s what worried the writer in the novel.

The relevance of the pedagogical project: the main theme of the novel is

The tragic fate of the Russian intelligentsia during the years of the revolution and the Civil War using the example of the Russian officers - the White Guard.

The project is designed to help students uncover the main problems raised by the author in the novel.

Justification for the project: preservation of the cultural heritage of the past, issues of duty, honor, human dignity.

Goal: to show, using the example of the Russian intelligentsia, the tragedy of people who became victims of history.

Objectives: to understand how a person reveals himself in a situation of choice.

1. Introduction

Interest in the work of M. Bulgakov has not subsided for several decades, and this is evidenced by hundreds of literary, biographical, and methodological works devoted to the writer. However, modern Bulgakov studies are characterized not only by an increase in the number of monographs and articles, but also by the updating of new aspects of the interpretation of the works of this author.

Researchers of M. Bulgakov’s works of the 60-80s often assessed the writer’s works from an ideological point of view, emphasizing socio-historical issues and leaving religious, philosophical and ontological problems without due attention. This somewhat superficial interpretation led to a distortion of the artistic world of M. Bulgakov.

Over the past twenty years, the point of view of researchers of M. Bulgakov’s work on his works has changed. Many people emphasize in their works one of the features of the writer’s creative method, which has become the methodological principle of all Bulgakov studies in recent years: a look at human life and historical events from the position of timeless values.

The methodological basis of the study was the works of Russian philosophers at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, I. Ilyin, M. Gershenzon, N. Trubetskoy, P. Struve, P. Florensky. The literary base is the theoretical principles of M.M. Bakhtina, E.M. Meletinsky, Yu.M. Lotman, V.N. Toporova, B.M. Gasparova, V.E. Khalizeva, E.B. Skorospelova. The study used biographical, system-integral methods, elements of motive, mythopoetic, intertextual analysis, and the method of religious and philosophical interpretation of texts.

Research methods: analysis of methodological and fiction literature.

3. Ideological and thematic originality of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The White Guard"

M. A. Bulgakov’s appeal to the traditional in the 1920s. The theme of revolution and Civil War was reflected in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” (1925) and the play “Days of the Turbins” (1926). The author's interpretation of the events depicted placed emphasis differently than was customary in the official literature of the “new society”: the White Guard does not appear as negative characters. In the play, which has undergone more than one revision, the author paid special attention to the Turbin family, about which P. S. Popov, a friend of M. A. Bulgakov, wrote: “The Days of the Turbins” is one of those things that somehow moves into one’s own life and become an era unto itself. You can throw away style, embodiment, acting, social significance, ideological sharpness, historical flavor, you can weigh and measure all these ingredients, and yet on top of everything there remains one more zest, which is “all the salt.” Whether it is embodied in the symbol of cream curtains, a Christmas tree or a heavenly curtain strewn with stars that envelop the world, there is an all-conquering stimulus of life here, and it appears so powerfully that it pulls all the parts together.” The writer in the novel, and then in its dramatic adaptation, showed the tragedy of people who became victims of history.

M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” is a book of path and choice, a book of insight. But the author’s main idea is in the following words of the novel: “Everything will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, famine and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our deeds and bodies will not remain on the earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our gaze to them? Why?" And the entire novel is the author’s call for peace, justice, truth on earth.

3.2.The originality of the solution to the topic.

Almost all the characters in the novel had their own prototypes, and The White Guard itself was written on an autobiographical basis. In essence, M.A. Bulgakov creates a hymn of loyalty to his duty, the nobility of the Russian army, which is unable to save their lives at the cost of betraying what they believed in all their lives. A blizzard, a blizzard, is rising across the country, behind which the road is not visible, the future is not visible. It is no coincidence that the writer takes words from A. S. Pushkin’s story “The Captain’s Daughter” as an epigraph. And everyone determines the path themselves, in accordance with their life values. The original composition of the novel is also subordinated to the solution of the author's problem. The chronicle style of narration gives particular facts a more generalized sound and epic depth.

3.3. The theme of the valor of the Russian officers.

The image of the Turbin House becomes the main one in the structure of the novel and opposes the symbolic image of the City. M. A. Bulgakov himself noted that the novel is “a depiction of an intellectual-noble family thrown into the camp of the White Guard during the Civil War.” It is not the clash of the masses that the writer depicts in the novel, but the tragedy of specific people. The Turbin family finds itself in the center of events; the author did this intentionally, because... considered “the Russian intelligentsia to be the best layer in our country.” The Russian officers, betrayed by the generals and used as bargaining chips in political games, have always remained a symbol of valor and noble service to their people, their Fatherland, such are the images in the novel of military doctor Alexei Turbin, his younger brother cadet Nikolka, Lieutenant Myshlaevsky, Colonel Nai-Turs.

3.4. Symbolism of the novel.

In the space of the House there remains an island of a past life with its touching attributes: cream curtains, a green lampshade, a stove with tiles, etc. Outside the windows of the House, the blizzard of the City is howling, there history is being decided, there the measured world is collapsing, there the possible fate of Russia is being decided. According to M. Voloshin, M. Bulgakov was among the first Russian writers who “captured the soul of Russian strife.”

4. Conclusion

It is not external events that convey the course of the revolution and the Civil War, not a change in power, but moral conflicts and contradictions that drive the plot of The White Guard. Historical events are the background against which human destinies are revealed. Bulgakov is interested in the inner world of a person caught in such a cycle of events when it is difficult to maintain his face, when it is difficult to remain himself. If at the beginning of the novel the heroes try to brush aside politics, then later, in the course of events, they are drawn into the very thick of revolutionary clashes.

1. Literature

1. Boborykin V.G. Mikhail Bulgakov: Book. for students of Art. classes. M.: Education, 1991.
2. Bogdanova, O.Yu. Interpretation of the text of the novel “The White Guard” // Lit. at school - M., 1998. - N 2.
3. Buznik, V.V. Return to yourself: About the novel by M.A. Bulgakov “The White Guard” // Lit. at school - M., 1998. - No. 1
4. Memories of Mikhail Bulgakov. M.: Soviet writer, 1988.
5. Gutkina, N.D. Russian history as a “known order of things”: Shchedrin’s traditions in M. Bulgakov’s “The White Guard” // Rus. literature. - M., 1998. - N 1.
6. Lopatina, T.V. M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” (1923-1924): Prayer for Home // Russian literature of the first half of the twentieth century. - Ekaterinburg, 2002.
7. Lurie, Y. Historical issues in the works of M. Bulgakov: (M. Bulgakov and “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy) // M.A. Bulgakov - playwright and artistic culture of his time. - M., 1988
8. Petrov, V.B. Moral values ​​in the crucible of Russian strife: Through the pages of Mikhail Bulgakov’s “White Guard” // Lit. at school - M., 2003. - N 3.

Application

Lesson-discussion on the novel by M.A. Bulgakov “The White Guard” on the theme “Man. Family. Story".

During the classes

1. Introduction.

Why are we turning to the novel by M.A. Bulgakov's "White Guard"?

What thoughts come to us as a result of reading the novel?

(Students say that Bulgakov’s novel is one of the few works that talks about the vision of the Civil War by white officers. It raises complex universal problems, one of which is the problem of moral choice in difficult historical times. The role of the family in resolving them is especially interesting .)

Which lesson form is best to choose?

(Students propose a lesson-discussion form.)

Let's remember the rules for conducting a discussion lesson.

(Eleventh graders should be familiar with these, but pre-prepared printouts can be provided.)

2. Determining the topic of discussion, the main problems on which we will work. We will offer students statements from researchers of Bulgakov’s work and the writer himself.

“From his youth, Bulgakov looked at moving history as part of a biography, and at his own destiny as a certain particle of history” (V. Lakshin).

“Paying so much attention to depicting the life of the Turbins’ house, Bulgakov defends eternal, enduring values ​​in his novel: home, homeland, family” (I. Podkhvatlin).

“And, finally, my last features in the ruined plays - “Days of the Turbins”, “Running” and the novel “The White Guard” - a persistent portrayal of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country. In particular, the image of a Russian intellectual-noble family, by the will of an immutable historical fate, thrown into the camp of the White Guard during the Civil War” (from a letter from M.A. Bulgakov to I.V. Stalin).

3. Identifying and recording discussion topics and issues for further research.

As a result of the exchange of opinions, we come to the topic “Man. Family. History" and the following problems for research:

a) “person-person” relationships;

b) relationships “person - family - home” (relationships, interpenetration);

c) the relationship “man - time - war” (man is a piece of history);

d) the relationship “family - time - war” (the importance of family in troubled times);

e) the relationship “person - family - eternity”. (How to survive? What is salvation?)

4. Students are asked to choose an aspect of the problem that interests them and divide into groups to work.

5. Work in groups: accumulation of material, analysis of information, preparation for presentation and opposition. (Be sure to remember the rules for working in groups.)

6. The actual discussion (exchange of opinions).

a) Relationships “person - person”. The speakers note that for the Turbins and their friends, the main thing in relationships between people is sincerity, truth, and honor. The relationships between the Turbins and Talberg, Nikolka and the Nai-Tours family, the Turbins and the Lisovichs are of interest.

b) Relationships “person - family - home”. First of all, the very concept of “home” is explained. A house is a dwelling, a house is family foundations, a house is traditions, a house is the spiritual world, a house is the fatherland, a house is the universe. The features of the Turbins' house (love, comfort, peace, traditions, most importantly - spiritual values, faith and hope) attract people to it.

c) The relationship “man - time - war”. The issue of protecting the city, the Germans, and the Petliurists is discussed. Turbines at war. Why are they actually going to die? Alexey, Nikolka, and their friends come to the defense, first of all, of eternal values: home, homeland, family.

There is a conversation about the officers of the White Guard, “shown not in the “poster mask of the enemy,” but as ordinary people - good and bad, tormented, deluded, smart and limited, shown from the inside, and the best in this environment - with obvious sympathy” (B. Myagkov). Nai-Tours and Malyshev are especially noted. Special mention is made of the horror of fratricidal war.

d) Relationships “family - time - war”. The speakers come to the conclusion that for Bulgakov, as for L.N. Tolstoy, family and historical scenes are “equal” in their significance. Critics also noted this. What do Turbines bring to the outside world? And what does the world give them?

Students pay special attention to Elena, her attitude towards her brothers, husband, and friends. Elena's prayer. Alexey's dream. A dream of peace, a peaceful life. The turbines are looking for an explanation for this historical disaster, they feel that this is “inevitable retribution for the long indifference of the well-fed” (B. Myagkov).

e) Historical time and eternity. Particular attention is paid to epigraphs associated with the past (memories), the present (only a moment) and the future (eternity). The beginning and end of the novel - what belongs to these layers? The last note on the stove: “I took a ticket to Aida.” Why? (The eternal value of human life is the soul nourished by beauty and love.)

Next we talk about the symbols of the novel. Saint Vladimir with a cross. (Orthodox faith, with which there is no break and one does not feel complete loyalty to it. The cross is a symbol of martyrdom, repentance, atonement. “Who will answer for the blood?”) The star is a symbol of hope. Symbols of color.

The main question: what does Bulgakov see as salvation? (In love and spirituality.)

The ending of the novel is open - it invites the reader to further reflection.

7. Conclusion.

Question for the class. The next work we will study is the novel “The Master and Margarita”. What does it inherit from the novel “The White Guard”? (“The question of light and peace. The theme of the house. The connection between a private person and history. And the connection between heaven and earth.” I. Zolotussky.)

8. Reflection.