White guard genre. Analysis of the work "The White Guard" (M

Events are described civil war at the end of 1918; The action takes place in Ukraine.

The novel tells about 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 characters have prototypes - relatives, friends and acquaintances of the Bulgakov family. The scenery 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 been preserved, the Bulgakov scholars 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 Rossiya magazine in 1925. The novel in its entirety was first published in France in 1927-1929. Criticism of the novel was perceived ambiguously - the Soviet side criticized the writer's glorification of class enemies, the emigrant side criticized Bulgakov's loyalty to the Soviet government.

The work served as a source for the play "Days of the Turbins" and several subsequent screen adaptations.

Plot

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

Heroes - Alexei Turbin, Elena Turbina-Talberg and Nikolka - are involved in the cycle of military and political events. The city, in which Kyiv is easily guessed, is occupied by the German army. As a result of the signing of the Brest Peace, it does not fall under the rule of the Bolsheviks and becomes a refuge for many Russian intellectuals and military men who flee from Bolshevik Russia. Officer combat organizations are being created in the city under the auspices of Hetman Skoropadsky, an ally of the Germans, recent enemies of Russia. Petliura's army advances on the City. By the time of the events of the novel, the Compiègne truce has been concluded and the Germans are preparing to leave the City. In fact, only volunteers defend him from Petliura. Realizing the complexity of their situation, the Turbins console themselves with rumors about the approach of French troops, who allegedly landed in Odessa (in accordance with the terms of the armistice, they had the right to occupy the occupied territories of Russia up to the Vistula in the west). Alexei and Nikolka Turbins, like other residents of the City, volunteer to join the defenders, and Elena guards 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 leave it to its 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 Colonel Nai-Turs). Some commanders, realizing the futility of resistance, send their fighters home, others actively organize resistance and perish along with their subordinates. Petlyura occupies the City, arranges a magnificent parade, but after a few months he is forced to surrender it to the Bolsheviks.

An analysis of Bulgakov's "White Guard" allows us to examine in detail his first novel in creative biography. It describes the events that took place in 1918 in Ukraine during the Civil War. It tells about a family of intellectuals who are trying to survive in the face of serious social upheavals in the country.

History of writing

The analysis of Bulgakov's "White Guard" should begin with the history of writing the work. The author began working on it in 1923. It is known that there were several variants of the name. Bulgakov also chose between the White Cross and the Midnight Cross. He himself admitted that he loved the novel more than his other things, promised that "the sky would get hot" from him.

His acquaintances recalled that he wrote "The White Guard" at night, when his legs and arms were getting cold, he asked those around him to warm the water in which he warmed them.

At the same time, the beginning of work on the novel coincided with one of the most difficult periods in his life. At that time, he was frankly in poverty, there was not enough money even for food, his clothes crumbled. Bulgakov was looking for one-time orders, wrote feuilletons, performed the duties of a proofreader, while trying to find time for his novel.

In August 1923, he reported that he had finished a draft. In February 1924, one can find references to the fact that Bulgakov began to read excerpts from the work to his friends and acquaintances.

Publication of the work

In April 1924, Bulgakov entered into an agreement on the publication of the novel with the magazine Rossiya. The first chapters were published about a year after that. At the same time, only the initial 13 chapters were published, after which the magazine closed. The novel was first published as a separate book in Paris in 1927.

In Russia, the entire text was published only in 1966. The manuscript of the novel has not survived, so it is still unknown what the canonical text was.

Nowadays it is one of the most famous works Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, which was repeatedly filmed, was staged on stage drama theaters. It is considered one of the most significant and loved by many generations of works in the career of this famous writer.

The action takes place at the turn of 1918-1919. Their place is an unnamed City, in which Kyiv is guessed. For the analysis of the novel "The White Guard" it is important where the main action takes place. German occupation troops are standing in the City, but everyone is waiting for the appearance of Petlyura's army, the fighting continues just a few kilometers from the City itself.

On the streets, residents are surrounded by an unnatural and very strange life. There are many visitors from St. Petersburg and Moscow, among them journalists, businessmen, poets, lawyers, bankers, who rushed to the City after the election of a hetman in it in the spring of 1918.

In the center of the story is the Turbin family. The head of the family is doctor Alexei, his younger brother Nikolka, who has the rank of non-commissioned officer, is having dinner with him. Native sister Elena, as well as friends of the whole family - lieutenants Myshlaevsky and Shervinsky, second lieutenant Stepanov, who is called Karasem by those around him. Everyone is discussing the fate and future of their beloved City.

Aleksey Turbin believes that the hetman is to blame for everything, who began to pursue a policy of ukranization, preventing the formation of the Russian army until the last. And if if the army had been formed, then it would have been able to defend the City, Petliura's troops would not be standing under its walls now.

Elena's husband, Sergei Talberg, an officer of the general staff, is also present here, who announces to his wife that the Germans plan to leave the city, so they need to leave today on the staff train. Talberg assures that in the coming months he will return with Denikin's army. Just at this time she is going to the Don.

Russian military formations

To protect the city from Petlyura, Russian military formations are formed in the City. Turbin Sr., Myshlaevsky and Karas enter to serve under the command of Colonel Malyshev. But the formed division disbands the very next night, when it becomes known that the hetman fled the city on a German train together with General Belorukov. The division has no one else to protect, as there is no legitimate authority left.

At the same time, Colonel Nai-Turs was instructed to form a separate detachment. He threatens the head of the supply department with a weapon, as he considers it impossible to fight without winter equipment. As a result, his junkers receive the necessary hats and felt boots.

December 14 Petliura attacks the City. The colonel receives a direct order to defend the Polytechnic Highway and, if necessary, to take the fight. In the midst of another battle, he sends a small detachment to find out where the hetman's units are. The messengers return with the news that there are no units, machine guns are firing in the district, and the enemy cavalry is already in the City.

Death of Nai-Turs

Shortly before this, Corporal Nikolai Turbin was ordered to lead the team along a certain route. Arriving at their destination, the younger Turbin watches the fleeing junkers and hears the command of Nai-Tours to get rid of shoulder straps and weapons, and immediately hide.

At the same time, the colonel covers the retreating junkers to the last. He dies in front of Nicholas. Shaken, Turbin makes his way home through the lanes.

In an abandoned building

Meanwhile, Aleksey Turbin, who was unaware of the dissolution of the division, arrives at the appointed place and time, where he discovers a building with a large number of abandoned weapons. Only Malyshev explains to him what is happening around him, the city is in the hands of Petliura.

Alexey gets rid of shoulder straps and makes his way home, meets an enemy detachment. The soldiers recognize him as an officer, because there is a cockade on his hat, they begin to pursue him. Alexey is wounded in the arm, he is saved by an unfamiliar woman, whose name is Yulia Reise.

In the morning, a girl in a cab delivers Turbine home.

Relative from Zhytomyr

At this time, Talberg's cousin Larion, who had recently experienced a personal tragedy, came to visit the Turbins from Zhytomyr: his wife left him. Lariosik, as everyone is beginning to call him, likes the Turbins, and the family finds him very nice.

The owner of the building in which the Turbins live is called Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich. Before Petlyura enters the city, Vasilisa, as everyone calls him, builds a hiding place in which he hides jewelry and money. But a stranger spied on his actions through the window. Soon, unknown people come to him, where they immediately find a hiding place, and take away other valuable things of the house manager.

Only when the uninvited guests leave, Vasilisa realizes that in reality they were ordinary bandits. He runs to the Turbins for help so that they save him from a possible new attack. Karas is sent to their rescue, to whom Vasilisa's wife Vanda Mikhailovna, who has always been distinguished by stinginess, immediately puts veal and cognac on the table. The crucian eats its fill and remains to protect the safety of the family.

Nikolka with the relatives of Nai-Tours

Three days later, Nikolka manages to get the address of the family of Colonel Nai-Thurs. He goes to his mother and sister. Young Turbin tells about the last minutes of an officer's life. Together with his sister Irina, he goes to the morgue, finds the body and holds a funeral service.

At this time, Alexei's condition worsens. His wound becomes inflamed and typhus begins. Turbin is delirious, his temperature rises. The council of doctors decides that the patient will soon die. At first, everything develops according to the worst scenario, the patient begins to suffer agony. Elena prays, locking herself in her bedroom, to save her brother from death. Soon the doctor, who is on duty at the bedside of the patient, with amazement reports that Alexei is conscious and on the mend, the crisis has passed.

A few weeks later, having finally recovered, Alex goes to Julia, who saved him from certain death. He hands her a bracelet that once belonged to his dead mother, and then asks for permission to visit her. On the way back, he meets Nikolka, who is returning from Irina Nai-Tours.

Elena Turbina receives a letter from her friend in Warsaw, who talks about forthcoming marriage Thalberg on their mutual friend. The novel ends with Elena recalling her prayer, which she has already addressed more than once. On the night of February 3, Petliura's troops leave the City. In the distance, the artillery of the Red Army rumbles. She approaches the city.

Artistic features of the novel

Analyzing Bulgakov's The White Guard, it should be noted that the novel is, of course, autobiographical. Almost all characters can be found prototypes in real life. These are friends, relatives or acquaintances of Bulgakov and his family, as well as iconic military and political figures of that time. Bulgakov even chose the names for the heroes, only slightly changing the names of real people.

The analysis of the novel "The White Guard" was carried out by many researchers. They managed to trace the fate of the characters with almost documentary authenticity. In the analysis of Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard", many emphasize that the events of the work unfold in the scenery of real Kyiv, which was well known to the author.

Symbolism of the "White Guard"

Carrying out even a brief analysis of the "White Guard", it should be noted that symbols are the key in the works. For example, in the City one can guess small homeland writer, and the house coincides with real home where the Bulgakov family lived until 1918.

To analyze the work "The White Guard" it is important to understand even seemingly insignificant symbols. The lamp symbolizes the closed world and comfort that reigns in the Turbins, snow is a vivid image of the Civil War and revolution. Another symbol important for the analysis of Bulgakov's work "The White Guard" is the cross on the monument dedicated to St. Vladimir. It symbolizes the sword of war and civil terror. Analysis of the images of the "White Guard" helps to better understand what he wanted say this work is the author.

Allusions in the novel

To analyze Bulgakov's "White Guard", it is important to study the allusions with which it is filled. Here are just a few examples. So, Nikolka, who comes to the morgue, personifies a journey to the afterlife. The horror and inevitability of the upcoming events, the approaching Apocalypse city can be traced by the appearance in the city of Shpolyansky, who is considered the "forerunner of Satan", the reader should have a clear impression that the kingdom of the Antichrist will soon come.

To analyze the heroes of the White Guard, it is very important to understand these clues.

Dream Turbine

One of the central places in the novel is occupied by Turbine's dream. Analysis of The White Guard is often based on this particular episode of the novel. In the first part of the work, his dreams are a kind of prophecy. In the first, he sees a nightmare that declares that Holy Rus' is a poor country, and an honor for a Russian person is an exceptionally extra burden.

Right in a dream, he tries to shoot the nightmare that torments him, but he disappears. Researchers believe that the subconscious convinces Turbine to hide from the city, go into exile, but in reality he does not even allow the thought of escaping.

Turbine's next dream already has a tragicomic tinge. He is an even more explicit prophecy of things to come. Alexei dreams of Colonel Nai-Tours and Warmaster Zhilin, who have gone to heaven. In a humorous manner, it is told how Zhilin got to paradise on the carts, and the apostle Peter missed them.

Turbine's dreams become of key importance at the end of the novel. Alexey sees how Alexander I destroys the lists of divisions, as if erasing white officers from the memory, most of whom are dead by that time.

After Turbin sees his own death at Malo-Provalnaya. It is believed that this episode is associated with the resurrection of Alexei, which came after an illness. Bulgakov often invested great importance in the dreams of their heroes.

We have analyzed Bulgakov's "White Guard". Summary also presented in the review. The article can help students when studying this work or writing an essay.

The history of the creation of Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard"

The novel "White Guard" was first published (not completely) in Russia, in 1924. Completely - in Paris: volume one - 1927, volume two - 1929. "White Guard" - in many ways autobiographical novel, based on the writer's personal impressions of Kyiv in late 1918 - early 1919.

The Turbin family is largely the Bulgakov family. Turbines - maiden name Bulgakov's grandmothers from the mother's side. The "White Guard" was started in 1922, after the death of the writer's mother. The manuscripts of the novel have not survived. According to the typist Raaben, who retyped the novel, The White Guard was originally conceived as a trilogy. As possible titles of the novels of the proposed trilogy appeared "Midnight Cross" and "White Cross". Kyiv friends and acquaintances of Bulgakov became the prototypes of the heroes of the novel.

So, Lieutenant Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky was written off from a childhood friend of Nikolai Nikolaevich Sigaevsky. Another friend of Bulgakov's youth, Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer, served as the prototype for Lieutenant Shervinsky. In The White Guard, Bulgakov seeks to show the people and the intelligentsia in the flames of the civil war in Ukraine. The main character, Aleksey Turbin, although clearly autobiographical, is, unlike the writer, not a zemstvo doctor, only formally listed on military service, but a real military doctor who has seen and experienced a lot during the years of World War II. The novel contrasts two groups of officers - those who “hate the Bolsheviks with a hot and direct hatred, one that can move into a fight” and “who returned from the war to their homes with the thought, like Alexei Turbin, to rest and arrange a new non-military, but ordinary human life.

Bulgakov sociologically accurately shows the mass movements of the era. He demonstrates the centuries-old hatred of the peasants for the landlords and officers, and the newly emerged, but no less deep hatred for the "occupiers. All this fueled the uprising raised against the formation of Hetman Skoropadsky, the leader of the Ukrainian national movement Petliura. Bulgakov called one of the main features of his work in the "White Guard" the stubborn portrayal of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in an impudent country.

In particular, the image of an intelligentsia-noble family, by the will of historical fate thrown into the camp of the White Guard during the Civil War, in the tradition of "War and Peace". “The White Guard” is a Marxist criticism of the 1920s: “Yes, Bulgakov's talent was precisely not as deep as it was brilliant, and the talent was great ... And yet Bulgakov's works are not popular. There is nothing in them that affected the people as a whole. There is a mysterious and cruel crowd.” Bulgakov's talent was not imbued with an interest in the people, in his life, his joys and sorrows cannot be recognized from Bulgakov.

M.A. Bulgakov twice, in two different works, recalls how his work on the novel The White Guard (1925) began. The hero of the “Theatrical novel” Maksudov says: “It was born at night, when I woke up after a sad dream. I dreamed hometown, snow, winter, the Civil War ... In a dream, a soundless blizzard passed in front of me, and then an old piano appeared and near it people who were no longer in the world. The story “Secret Friend” contains other details: “I pulled my barracks lamp as far as possible to the table and put on a pink paper cap over its green cap, which made the paper come to life. On it I wrote the words: "And the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds." Then he began to write, not yet knowing well what would come of it. I remember that I really wanted to convey how good it is when it's warm at home, the clock that strikes towers in the dining room, sleepy slumber in bed, books and frost ... ”With such a mood, Bulgakov began to create a new novel.

The novel "The White Guard", the most important book for Russian literature, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov began writing in 1822.

In 1922-1924, Bulgakov wrote articles for the newspaper "Nakanune", was constantly published in the railway newspaper "Gudok", where he met I. Babel, I. Ilf, E. Petrov, V. Kataev, Yu. Olesha. According to Bulgakov himself, the idea of ​​the novel The White Guard finally took shape in 1922. During this time there were several important events his personal life: during the first three months of this year, he received news of the fate of the brothers, whom he never saw again, and a telegram about sudden death mothers from typhus. During this period, the terrible impressions of the Kyiv years received an additional impetus for embodiment in creativity.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Bulgakov planned to create a whole trilogy, and spoke about his favorite book like this: “I consider my novel a failure, although I single it out from my other things, because. I took the idea very seriously." And what we now call the "White Guard" was conceived as the first part of the trilogy and originally bore the names "Yellow Ensign", "Midnight Cross" and "White Cross": "The action of the second part should take place on the Don, and in the third part Myshlaevsky will be in the ranks of the Red Army. Signs of this plan can be found in the text of the "White Guard". But Bulgakov did not write the trilogy, leaving it to Count A.N. Tolstoy ("Walking through the torments"). And the theme of "running", emigration, in "The White Guard" is only hinted at in the history of Thalberg's departure and in the episode of reading Bunin's "The Gentleman from San Francisco".

The novel was created in an era of greatest material need. The writer worked at night in an unheated room, worked impulsively and enthusiastically, terribly tired: “Third life. And my third life bloomed at desk. The pile of sheets was all swollen. I wrote with both pencil and ink. Subsequently, the author returned to his favorite novel more than once, reliving the past anew. In one of the entries relating to 1923, Bulgakov noted: “And I will finish the novel, and I dare to assure you, it will be such a novel, from which the sky will become hot ...” And in 1925 he wrote: “It will be a terrible pity, if I am mistaken and the “White Guard” is not a strong thing.” On August 31, 1923, Bulgakov informed Yu. Slezkin: “I have finished the novel, but it has not yet been rewritten, it lies in a pile, over which I think a lot. I'm fixing something." It was a draft version of the text, which is said in the "Theatrical Novel": "The novel must be corrected for a long time. You need to cross out many places, replace hundreds of words with others. Big but necessary work!” Bulgakov was not satisfied with his work, crossed out dozens of pages, created new editions and versions. But at the beginning of 1924, he was already reading excerpts from The White Guard by the writer S. Zayaitsky and his new friends Lyamins, considering the book finished.

The first known reference to the completion of the novel is in March 1924. The novel was published in the 4th and 5th books of the Rossiya magazine in 1925. And the 6th issue with the final part of the novel was not released. According to researchers, the novel The White Guard was completed after the premiere of Days of the Turbins (1926) and the creation of Run (1928). The text of the last third of the novel, corrected by the author, was published in 1929 by the Parisian publishing house Concorde. Full text The novel was published in Paris: volume one (1927), volume two (1929).

Due to the fact that the White Guard was not published in the USSR, and foreign editions of the late 1920s were inaccessible in the writer's homeland, Bulgakov's first novel did not receive much press attention. Noted Critic A. Voronsky (1884-1937) at the end of 1925 called The White Guard, together with The Fatal Eggs, works of "outstanding literary quality." The answer to this statement was a sharp attack by the head Russian Association Proletarian Writers (RAPP) L. Averbakh (1903-1939) in Rapp's organ - the journal "On a literary post". Later, the production of the play Days of the Turbins based on the novel The White Guard at the Moscow Art Theater in the autumn of 1926 turned the attention of critics to this work, and the novel itself was forgotten.

K. Stanislavsky, worried about the passage of the Days of the Turbins, originally called, like the novel, The White Guard, through censorship, strongly advised Bulgakov to abandon the epithet "white", which seemed to many openly hostile. But the writer valued precisely this word. He agreed to “cross”, and “December”, and “blizzard” instead of “guard”, but he did not want to give up the definition of “white”, seeing in it a sign of the special moral purity of his beloved heroes, their belonging to the Russian intelligentsia as parts of the best layer in the country.

The White Guard is largely an autobiographical novel based on the writer's personal impressions of Kyiv in late 1918 - early 1919. The members of the Turbin family reflected character traits Bulgakov's relatives. Turbines is the maiden name of Bulgakov's grandmother on her mother's side. The manuscripts of the novel have not survived. Kyiv friends and acquaintances of Bulgakov became the prototypes of the heroes of the novel. Lieutenant Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky was written off from a childhood friend of Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky.

The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky was another friend of Bulgakov's youth - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer (this quality also passed to the character), who served in the troops of Hetman Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky (1873-1945), but not as an adjutant. Then he emigrated. The prototype of Elena Talberg (Turbina) was Bulgakov's sister, Varvara Afanasievna. Captain Thalberg, her husband, has a lot common features with the husband of Varvara Afanasievna Bulgakova, Leonid Sergeevich Karuma (1888-1968), a German by birth, a career officer who served at first Skoropadsky, and then the Bolsheviks.

The prototype of Nikolka Turbin was one of the brothers M.A. Bulgakov. The second wife of the writer, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya-Bulgakova, wrote in her book “Memoirs”: “One of the brothers of Mikhail Afanasyevich (Nikolai) was also a doctor. It is on the personality of my younger brother, Nikolai, that I would like to dwell. The noble and cozy little man Nikolka Turbin has always been dear to my heart (especially based on the novel The White Guard. In the play Days of the Turbins, he is much more schematic.). In my life, I never managed to see Nikolai Afanasyevich Bulgakov. This is the youngest representative of the profession chosen in the Bulgakov family - a doctor of medicine, bacteriologist, scientist and researcher, who died in Paris in 1966. He studied at the University of Zagreb and was left there at the department of bacteriology.

The novel was created in a difficult time for the country. young Soviet Russia, which did not have a regular army, was drawn into the Civil War. The dreams of the hetman-traitor Mazepa, whose name is not accidentally mentioned in Bulgakov's novel, came true. The "White Guard" is based on the events related to the consequences of the Brest Treaty, according to which Ukraine was recognized as an independent state, the "Ukrainian State" was created, headed by Hetman Skoropadsky, and refugees from all over Russia rushed "abroad". Bulgakov in the novel clearly described their social status.

The philosopher Sergei Bulgakov, the writer's cousin, in his book "At the Feast of the Gods" described the death of the motherland as follows: "There was a mighty power, needed by friends, terrible by enemies, and now it is a rotting carrion, from which piece after piece falls off to the delight of a flying crow. In place of the sixth part of the world, there was a fetid, gaping hole ... ”Mikhail Afanasyevich agreed with his uncle in many respects. And it is no coincidence that this terrible picture is reflected in the article by M.A. Bulgakov "Hot prospects" (1919). Studzinsky speaks about the same in the play “Days of the Turbins”: “We had Russia - a great power ...” So for Bulgakov, an optimist and talented satirist, despair and sorrow became starting points in creating a book of hope. It is this definition that most accurately reflects the content of the novel "The White Guard". In the book “At the Feast of the Gods,” another thought seemed closer and more interesting to the writer: “How Russia will become self-determined largely depends on what Russia will become.” The heroes of Bulgakov are painfully looking for the answer to this question.

In The White Guard, Bulgakov sought to show the people and the intelligentsia in the flames of the Civil War in Ukraine. The main character, Aleksey Turbin, although clearly autobiographical, but, unlike the writer, is not a zemstvo doctor, who was only formally registered in the military service, but a real military doctor who has seen and experienced a lot during the years of the World War. Much brings the author closer to his hero, and calm courage, and faith in old Russia, and most importantly - the dream of a peaceful life.

“Heroes must be loved; if this does not happen, I do not advise anyone to take up the pen - you will get the biggest trouble, just know it, ”the Theater Novel says, and this is the main law of Bulgakov’s creativity. In the novel The White Guard, he speaks of white officers and the intelligentsia as ordinary people, reveals their young world of soul, charm, intelligence and strength, shows enemies as living people.

The literary community refused to recognize the dignity of the novel. Out of almost three hundred reviews, Bulgakov counted only three positive ones, and classified the rest as "hostile and abusive." The writer received rude comments. In one of the articles, Bulgakov was called "a new-bourgeois offspring, splashing poisoned, but impotent saliva on the working class, on its communist ideals."

“Class untruth”, “a cynical attempt to idealize the White Guard”, “an attempt to reconcile the reader with the monarchist, Black Hundred officers”, “hidden counter-revolutionary” - this is not a complete list of characteristics that were given to the White Guard by those who believed that the main thing in literature is political position writer, his attitude to the "whites" and "reds".

One of the main motives of the "White Guard" is faith in life, its victorious power. That is why this book, considered forbidden for several decades, found its reader, found a second life in all the richness and brilliance of Bulgakov's living word. Viktor Nekrasov, a writer from Kiev who read The White Guard in the 1960s, quite rightly remarked: “Nothing, it turns out, has faded, nothing has become outdated. It was as if those forty years had never happened... an obvious miracle happened before our eyes, which happens very rarely in literature and far from everyone - a second birth took place. The life of the heroes of the novel continues today, but in a different direction.

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Analysis of the work

The White Guard is a work that meant that a new writer had come into literature, with his own style and his own manner of writing. This is Bulgakov's first novel. The work is largely autobiographical. The novel reflects that terrible era in the life of Russia, when the Civil War was a destructive step across the country. Terrifying pictures appear before the reader's eyes: son goes against father, brother against brother. It reveals illogical, brutal rules of war that are against human nature. And in this environment, filled with the most cruel pictures of bloodshed, the Turbin family finds itself. This quiet, calm, pretty family, far from any political upheavals, turns out to be not only a witness to large-scale upheavals in the country, but also an unwitting participant in them, she suddenly found herself in the very epicenter of a huge storm. This is a kind of strength test, a lesson in courage, wisdom, and perseverance. And no matter how hard this lesson was, you can’t get away from it. It must necessarily bring to a common denominator the entire past life to start a new life. And Turbines overcome this with dignity. They make their choice, stay with their people.

The characters in the novel are very diverse. This is the cunning owner of the Vasilisa house, the brave and courageous Colonel Nai-Tours, who sacrificed his life to save young cadets, the frivolous Larion, the brave Yulia Reise, Alexei Turbin, Nikolai Turbin, who remained true to their own rules of life, the principles of humanity and love for man , the principles of human brotherhood, valor, honor. The Turbin family seems to remain on the periphery of the Civil War. They do not take part in bloody skirmishes, and if Turbin kills one of his pursuers, it is only in order to save his own life.

The novel tells of a bloody page Russian history, but its image is complicated by the fact that this is a war of our own against our own. And therefore, the writer faces a doubly difficult task: to judge, to give a sober assessment, to be impartial, but at the same time to empathize passionately, to hurt himself. Historical prose about the Civil War, like about any other, is characterized by heaviness, heavy rethinking. what you write about. Bulgakov brilliantly copes with his task: his style is light, his thought glides correctly, precisely, snatching events from the very thick of it. V. Sakharov wrote about this in the preface to Bulgakov's book. Sakharov speaks of “the amazing spiritual unity of the author with his characters. “Heroes must be loved; if this does not happen, I do not advise anyone to take up the pen - you will get the biggest trouble, just know it.

The writer talks about the fate of Russia, about the fate of millions of her unreasonable children. Bulgakov is having a hard time with this period, he himself, like Alexei Turbin, was mobilized as a doctor, first into the troops of Petliura, from where he escaped, and then ended up with the White Guards. He saw everything with his own eyes, felt the fury and uncontrollability of the Russian storm. However, he remained true to the principles of justice and love for people. In his novel, he goes far beyond the problems associated with the actual war. He thinks about enduring values. He ends his work with the words: “Everything will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our bodies and deeds will not remain on earth. There is not a single person who does not know this. So why don't we want to turn our eyes to them? Why?" The author talks about how insignificant a person is with his petty problems and experiences compared to the eternal and harmonious course of world life. This is a question about the meaning of life. One must live life in such a way as to remain human, not to commit evil, not to envy, not to lie, not to kill. These Christian commandments are the guarantee of true life.

No less interesting are the epigraphs to the novel. There is a deep meaning here. These epigraphs stretch the threads from the novel "The White Guard" to the entire work of Bulgakov, to the problem of creative heritage. “It started to snow lightly, and suddenly it fell in flakes. The wind howled; there was a blizzard. In an instant, the dark sky mingled with the snowy sea. Everything is gone. “Well, sir,” shouted the driver, “trouble: a snowstorm!” This epigraph is taken from "The Captain's Daughter" by A. S. Pushkin. A snowstorm, a storm, is a symbol of the civil war, where everything is mixed up in a furious whirlwind, the road is not visible, it is not known where to go. The feeling of loneliness, fear, the uncertainty of the future and the fear of it are the characteristic moods of the era. The reference to the work of Pushkin also gives a reminder of Pugachev's rebellion. As many researchers aptly noted, the Pugachevs appeared again in the 20th century, only their rebellion is much more terrible and larger.

By mentioning Pushkin, Bulgakov hints at his connection with the creative legacy of the poet. He writes in his novel: “Walls will fall, a falcon will fly from a white mitten, a fire will go out in a bronze lamp, and “ captain's daughter"burned in the oven." The writer expresses great concern about the fate of the Russian cultural heritage. Like many intellectuals, he did not accept the ideas October revolution. The slogan "Throw Pushkin off the ship of modernity" scared him away. He understood that it is much easier to destroy centuries-old traditions, the works of the "golden age" than to build anew. Moreover, it is practically impossible to build a new state, a new bright life on the basis of suffering, war, and bloody terror. What will be left after the revolution, which will sweep everything out of its way? - Emptiness.

No less interesting is the second epigraph: "And the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds." These are words from a book known as the Apocalypse. These are the Revelations of John the Evangelist. The "apocalyptic" theme acquires the significance of a pivotal one. People who lost their way got into the whirlwind of the revolution and the Civil War. And they were very easily won over by smart and insightful politicians, instilling the idea of ​​a brighter future. And justifying this slogan, people went to kill. But is it possible to build the future on death and destruction?

In conclusion, we can say about the meaning of the title of the novel. The White Guard is not just actually “white” soldiers and officers, that is, the “white army”, but also all people who find themselves in the cycle of revolutionary events, people trying to find shelter in the City.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891–1940) is 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 an authoritarian state did not inspire him, because for him, a man with an education and high level intelligence, the contrast between the demagogy in the squares and the wave of red terror that swept over Russia was obvious. He deeply experienced the tragedy of the people and dedicated the novel "The White Guard" to it.

From 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 Kiev was occupied by the troops of the Directory, who overthrew the power of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky. In December 1918, the power of the hetman was tried to be defended by officer squads, where he was either signed up as a volunteer, or, according to other sources, Bulgakov was mobilized. Thus, the novel contains autobiographical features - even the number of the house in which the Bulgakov family lived during the years of the capture of Kyiv by Petliura is preserved - 13. In the novel, this figure becomes symbolic meaning. Andreevsky Spusk, where the house is located, is called Alekseevsky in the novel, and Kyiv is simply the City. The prototypes of the characters are the relatives, friends and acquaintances of the writer:

• Nikolka Turbin, for example, is Bulgakov's younger brother Nikolai
• Dr. Alexei Turbin is a writer himself,
• Elena Turbina-Talberg - younger sister barbarian
• Sergey Ivanovich Talberg - officer Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888 - 1968), who, however, did not go abroad like Talberg, but was eventually exiled to Novosibirsk.
• The prototype of Larion Surzhansky (Lariosik) is a distant relative of the Bulgakovs, Nikolai Vasilievich Sudzilovsky.
• The prototype of Myshlaevsky, according to one version - a childhood friend of Bulgakov, 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 junkers to flee and tear off their shoulder straps, realizing the futility of the battle, and secondly, this is Major General of the Volunteer Army Nikolai Vsevolodovich Shinkarenko (1890 - 1968).
• The cowardly engineer Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich (Vasilisa) also had a prototype, from whom the Turbins rented the second floor of the house - architect Vasily Pavlovich Listovnichiy (1876 - 1919).
• The prototype of the futurist Mikhail Shpolyansky is a major Soviet literary critic, critic Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (1893 - 1984).
• The surname Turbina is the maiden name of Bulgakov's grandmother.

However, it should be noted that The White Guard is not a completely autobiographical novel. Something fictional - for example, the fact that the mother of the Turbins died. In fact, at that time, Bulgakov's 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 Bulgakov actually had. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1927-1929. in France.

About what?

The novel "White Guard" - about tragic fate intelligentsia in the difficult times of the revolution, after the assassination of Emperor Nicholas II. The book also tells about the difficult situation of the 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 raises the question - is there any point in this if the hetman fled, leaving the country and its defenders to their fate?

Aleksey and Nikolka Turbins are officers who are ready to defend their homeland and the former government, but they (and people like them) are powerless before the cruel mechanism of the political system. Alexei is seriously wounded, and he is forced to fight not for his homeland and not for the occupied city, but for his life, in which he is helped by a woman who saved him from death. And Nikolka runs at the last moment, saved by Nai-Turs, who is killed. With all the desire to defend the fatherland, the heroes do not forget about the family and home, about the sister left by her husband. The antagonist image in the novel is Captain Talberg, who, unlike the Turbin brothers, leaves his homeland and wife in difficult times and leaves for 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 break into the house of engineer Lisovich with forged documents and rob him, there is shooting in the streets, and the pan kurenny with his assistants - "lads", committed a cruel, bloody reprisal against a 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 eventually wipe out everything holy and human from the face of the earth, and a terrible time will come. With this thought, the novel ends.

Main characters and their characteristics

• Alexey Vasilievich Turbin- a twenty-eight-year-old doctor, a divisional doctor who, paying tribute to the fatherland, enters into a fight with the Petliurists when his unit was disbanded, since the struggle was already meaningless, but is seriously wounded and forced to save himself. 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 the hetman's power, but at the colonel's insistence he runs away, tearing off his insignia, since the battle no longer makes sense (the Petliurists captured the City, and hetman escaped). Nikolka then helps her sister care for the wounded Alexei.
• Elena Vasilievna Turbina-Talberg(Elena redhead) - twenty-four years old married woman left by her husband. She worries and prays for both brothers who are participating in hostilities, she is waiting for her husband and secretly hopes that he will return.
• Sergei Ivanovich Talberg- captain, husband of Elena the redhead, unstable in political views, which 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 the house, his wife and leaves for Germany by night train.
• Leonid Yurievich Shervinsky- a lieutenant of the guard, a dapper lancer, an admirer of Elena the red, a friend of the Turbins, believes in the support of the allies and says that he himself saw the sovereign.
• Viktor 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 ruin the lives of the junkers, and wants to set fire to the building of the cadet gymnasium so that it does not get to the enemy.
• carp- a friend of the Turbins, a restrained, honest officer, who, during the dissolution of the mortar division, joins those who dissolve the junkers, 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 be insolent to the general and dismisses the junkers at the time of the capture of the City by Petliura. He himself dies heroically in front of Nikolka Turbin. For him, more valuable than the power of the overthrown hetman, the life of the junkers - young people who were almost sent to the last senseless battle with the Petliurists, but he hastily dismisses them, forcing them to rip 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 brothers in arms are valuable, but also their lives.
• Lariosik (Lario Surzhansky)- a distant relative of the Turbins, who came to them from the provinces, going through a divorce from his wife. Clumsy, bumbling, but good-natured, loves to be in the library and keeps a kenar in a cage.
• Julia Alexandrovna Reiss- a woman who saves the wounded Alexei Turbin, and he has an affair with her.
• Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich (Vasilisa)- a cowardly engineer, a householder, from whom the Turbines rent the second floor of the house. Hoarder, lives with his greedy wife Wanda, hides valuables in hiding places. As a result, he is robbed by bandits. He got his nickname - Vasilisa, due to the fact that, due to unrest in the city in 1918, he began to sign documents in a different handwriting, shortening his first and last name like this: “You. Fox."
• Petliurists in the novel - only gears in a global political upheaval, which entails irreversible consequences.

Subject

1. Subject moral choice. Central theme is the position of the White Guards, who are forced to choose whether to participate in the senseless battles for the power of the runaway hetman or still save their lives. The allies do not come to the rescue, and the city is captured by the Petliurists, and, in the end, the Bolsheviks - a real force that threatens the old way of life and the 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 Petliurites, who captured Kyiv (in the novel - the City), are weak in front of the Bolsheviks, as well as the White Guards. The "White Guard" is tragic romance about how the intelligentsia and everything connected with it is dying.
3. The novel contains biblical motifs, and in order to enhance their sound, the author introduces the image of a mad Christian religion a patient who comes to be treated by Dr. Alexei Turbin. The novel begins with a countdown from the Nativity of Christ, and just before the finale, lines from the Apocalypse of St. John the Evangelist. That is, the fate of the City, captured by the Petliurists and the Bolsheviks, is compared in the novel with the Apocalypse.

Christian symbols

• The mad patient, who came to Turbin for an appointment, calls the Bolsheviks "aggels", 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 you know, is popular superstitions- “devil's dozen”, the number is unlucky, and various misfortunes befall the Turbins' house - parents die, the elder brother receives a mortal wound and barely survives, and Elena is abandoned and betrayed by her husband (and betrayal is a feature of Judas Iscariot).
• In the novel, there is an image of the Virgin, 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, in the end, overcomes death like Christ.
• Also in the novel there is a theme of equality before God's court. Before him, everyone is equal - both the White Guards and the soldiers of the Red Army. Aleksey Turbin sees a dream about paradise - how Colonel Nai-Tours, white officers and Red Army soldiers get there: they are all destined to go to paradise as those who fell on the battlefield, but God does not care if they believe in him or not. Justice, according to the novel, exists only in heaven, and godlessness, blood, and violence reign under the red five-pointed stars on the sinful earth.

Issues

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

• Disgrace and cowardice. If Turbiny, Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Karas, Nai-Tours are unanimous and are going to defend the fatherland until last drop blood, then Talberg and the hetman prefer to flee like rats from a sinking ship, while 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 point-blank - is there any point in honorably defending such a government, which 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 comes first.
• The split of Russian society. In addition, the problem in the work "The White Guard" is the attitude of the people to what is happening. The people do not support the officers and the White Guards and, in general, take the side of the Petliurists, because on the other side there is lawlessness and permissiveness.
• Civil War. Three forces are opposed in the novel - the White Guards, the Petliurists and the Bolsheviks, and one of them is only an intermediate, temporary one - the Petliurists. The struggle against the Petliurists will not be able to have such a strong influence on the course of history as the struggle 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 a struggle. The struggle between courage and cowardice, honor and dishonor, good and evil, god and devil. Courage and honor are the Turbins and their friends, Nai-Tours, Colonel Malyshev, who dismissed the junkers and did not allow them to die. Cowardice and dishonor, opposed to them, is the hetman, Talberg, staff captain Studzinsky, who, fearing to violate the order, was about to arrest Colonel Malyshev because he wants to dissolve the junkers.

Ordinary citizens who do not participate in hostilities are also evaluated according to the same criteria in the novel: honor, courage - cowardice, dishonor. For example, female images- 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 Alexandrovna Reiss - this is the personification of honor, courage, determination - and Wanda, the wife of engineer Lisovich, mean, greedy for things - personifies cowardice, baseness. Yes, and the 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 good-naturedness 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 not those who officially serve him are close to God - not churchmen, but those who, even in a bloody and merciless time, when evil descended on earth, retained the grains of humanity in themselves, and even if they are Red Army soldiers. This is told by the dream of Alexei Turbin - the parable of 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 their own, with red stars, because both of them 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 churchmen, “servants of God”, according to this parable, will not go to heaven, since many of them deviated 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 does not matter under what banner this struggle will take place - white or red, but on the side of evil there will always be violence, cruelty and base qualities that goodness, mercy, honesty must resist. In this eternal struggle, it is important to choose not the convenient, but the right side.

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