Positive type of Russian person in the works of Leskov. Russian national character in the image of Leskov Other characters of the story

The tale of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov "Lefty" is a work of amazing fate. Many critics believed that Leskov was laughing at the Russian people in it, that he simply collected the stories of Tula artisans into one work. This suggests that Leskov knew very well the life of the people, their character, speech and customs. Leskov invented this work himself - he was such a wonderful writer.
In his work, Leskov shows us a simple craftsman from Tula, who in fact turns out to be not at all simple. He has golden hands, he can do anything. This Lefty looks like Lefty from folk tale who shoed the flea, but everything ends badly with Leskov. Tula Lefty can shoe a flea, but he broke the mechanism. This makes both the author and the reader sad.
Leskov knew the Russian soul very well. He also loved the Russian people very much, rooted for them with all his heart. He treats his hero with warmth and compassion, it hurts him because he was not appreciated in Russia. It seems to me that "Lefty" is a sad tale, because there is a lot of unfairness in it. After all, it is unfair that an English skipper is greeted with love and joy, but his Lefty, who was so eager to go home and was not tempted by English money, is not greeted like that. Nobody even said "thank you" to him. But there was a reason - Lefty found out the most important English secret. But he is arrested because he has no documents, they undress him. When he was being dragged, they dropped him on the parapet and smashed the back of his head. From this he died, and also from the fact that they could not find a doctor, because no one gives a damn about a man from the people. And he loved his homeland so much that he did not even take money from the British.

In general, Leskov shows that his hero loves his Motherland very much and is ready to perform a feat for her. He does his amazing things and discovers the secret of cleaning a gun not for fame, but in order to make things better in Russia. The secret was that the guns do not need to be cleaned with bricks - this causes them to break. He told this secret before his death, but not a single general believed him. After all, Lefty is a representative of the people, and the people should be silent. In Leskov, the people speak in their own special speech. His words are well-aimed, biting, only the people can speak like that. Leskov gives his voice in defense of the Russian people, but he does not do it directly, but on behalf of the Englishman who has arrived: “He has a sheepskin coat, but a human soul.”
I know that now the work of N.S. Leskova is not very popular. It seems to me that it is very important for modern Russian people, because it makes you think about the Russian character, about our life, about why everything is so strange in our country. Reading Leskov, you understand that a true patriot loves his homeland no matter what, always stays with her in difficult times. This is the main moral lesson Leskov's works.

Of course, many will agree that the prose of the talented Russian writer Nikolai Leskov is unusual: it contains elements of a fairy tale, in which the tragic and the comic are simultaneously intertwined. All of this is to a large extent reflected in famous work the above master of the word called "Lefty".

It must be emphasized that the main characters of Leskov's "Lefty" received ambiguous assessments from the writer.

The image of the Tula "craftsman"

So, the main characters of "Lefty" Leskov. In their chain, the Tula peasant plays a key role. The writer in the work emphasizes his unique skill that he possesses. Lefty is not just an ordinary gunsmith, he is a "talent". At the same time, the author does not try to create an ideal image of him, saying that science was given to the Tula peasant "with difficulty."

So what did he do that was so unique that the other main characters of Leskov's "Lefty" couldn't? He goes abroad at the request of officials, namely to England, where he succeeds. And here the writer wants to emphasize how skillful and talented a Russian person can be. And to possess the above qualities, it is not at all necessary to know the technical sciences perfectly.

Of course, against the background of the "Tula" craftsman, the other main characters of Leskov's "Lefty" are perceived by the reader as "unremarkable", since the writer endows them with negative qualities.

At the same time, the gunsmith from Tula, despite the persuasion of the British, no longer wants to visit foreigners and returns home. He cannot be bribed with any money, he feels like a “small” person compared to “statesmen”. Confident in the quality of his work, he is not afraid to go to an appointment with the Russian sovereign.

Lefty - a collective character

Nikolai Leskov wants to demonstrate to the reader that a Russian person can do anything to show his devotion to the cause, if the interests of the Fatherland are “at stake”. He goes to foreigners hungry, without any documents - and all this in order to show his ingenuity and talent to the British.

These are the amazing qualities that Nikolai Leskov endowed his character with. Lefty, the main characters of this wonderful story taken from to give the product credibility.

Other characters in the story

Here are the images of the sovereign Alexander Pavlovich, who believed that equal to the British in technical sciences simply not, Emperor Nicholas I, who, on the contrary, liked to declare that a Russian person is the most talented in the world. The writer also introduces the reader to Matvey Ivanovich Platov, who heads the Don Cossacks, he accompanies the tsar on a trip to the British and is also supportive of Lefty. Skobelev and Kleinmichel are also historical figures, which are known to almost everyone who is interested in the past of Russia.

It should be noted that representatives of the bureaucracy and noble persons, who are the main characters of the story "Lefty", Leskov presented people with a set negative qualities. They are swaggering, sometimes cruel and short-sighted, which once again indicates that the Russian peasant is capable of much to prove his devotion to the Fatherland.

- a work of amazing fate. Many critics believed that he was laughing at the Russian people, that he simply collected the stories of Tula artisans into one work. This suggests that Leskov knew very well the life of the people, their character, speech and customs. Leskov invented this work himself - he was such a wonderful writer.
In his work, Leskov shows us a simple craftsman from Tula, who in fact turns out to be not at all simple. He has golden hands, he can do anything. This Lefty looks like Lefty from a folk tale, who shod a flea, but everything ends badly with Leskov. The Tula Lefty can shoe a flea, but he broke the mechanism. This makes both the author and the reader sad.
Leskov knew the Russian soul very well. He also loved the Russian people very much, rooted for them with all his heart. He treats his hero with warmth and compassion, it hurts him because he was not appreciated in Russia. It seems to me that "Lefty" is a sad tale, because there is a lot of unfairness in it. After all, it is unfair that an English skipper is greeted with love and joy, but his Lefty, who was so eager to go home and was not tempted by English money, is not greeted like that. Nobody even said "thank you" to him. But there was a reason - Lefty found out the most important English secret. But he is arrested because he has no documents, they undress him. When he was being dragged, they dropped him on the parapet and smashed the back of his head. From this he died, and also from the fact that they could not find a doctor, because no one gives a damn about a man from the people. And he loved his homeland so much that he did not even take money from the British.
In general, Leskov shows that his hero loves his Motherland very much and is ready to perform a feat for her. He does his amazing things and discovers the secret of cleaning a gun not for fame, but in order to make things better in Russia. The secret was that the guns do not need to be cleaned with bricks - from this they break. He told this secret before his death, but not a single general believed him. After all, Lefty is a representative of the people, and the people should be silent. In Leskov, the people speak in their own special speech. His words are well-aimed, biting, only the people can speak like that. Leskov gives his voice in defense of the Russian people, but he does not do it directly, but on behalf of the Englishman who has arrived: “He has a sheepskin coat, but a human soul.”
I know that now the work of N.S. Leskova is not very popular. It seems to me that it is very important for modern Russian people, because it makes you think about the Russian character, about our life, about why everything is so strange in our country. Reading Leskov, you understand that a true patriot loves his homeland no matter what, always stays with her in difficult times. This is the main moral lesson of Leskov's works.

In Leskov's story "Lefty", the characters raise the burning topic of patriotism, motherland, faith in Russian folk wisdom. The story is like a fairy tale, because its plot, magical and kind, sings of the mind and originality of the Russian people. “The Tale of the Lefty” is a true reflection of the Russian reality of that time. Uneducated, but talented people have always surpassed others in their strength and wisdom. So accurately and vividly the being of the Russian people could not be described by any author. Leskov is rightfully considered a folk writer.

Characteristics of the main characters of “Lefty”

Main characters

Minor characters

one important thought wanted to convey the author in his work: even smart, talented people subject to vice. Because of a stupid argument with a half-skipper, the most the best master in Rus', drunkenness played a decisive role in his fate. No matter how firm he was in his convictions, when the British cunningly persuaded Lefty to stay abroad, his soul yearned to go home, he did not agree to a new, luxurious life. The main characters of "Levsha" are classic representatives of the Russian people, no matter what rank they are in. The work glorifies their innate patriotism, faith in God, devotion to their sovereign.

According to Leskov's convictions, he was a democrat-educator - an enemy of serfdom and its remnants, a defender of education and popular interests. He considered the main progress - moral progress. “We need good people, not good orders,” he wrote. The writer realized himself as a writer of a new type, his school was not a book, but life itself.

At first creative activity Leskov wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. The pseudonymous signature "Stebnitsky" first appeared on March 25, 1862 under the first fictional work - "Extinguished Case" (later "Drought"). She held out until August 14, 1869. At times, the signatures “M.S.”, “C”, and finally, in 1872, slipped. "L.S.", "P. Leskov-Stebnitsky" and "M. Leskov-Stebnitsky. Among other conditional signatures and pseudonyms used by Leskov, the following are known: “Freishits”, “V. Peresvetov”, “Nikolai Ponukalov”, “Nikolai Gorokhov”, “Someone”, “Dm. M-ev”, “N.”, “Member of the Society”, “Psalm Reader”, “Priest. P. Kastorsky”, “Divyank”, “M.P.”, “B. Protozanov”, “Nikolai - ov”, “N.L.”, “N.L. - in”, “Lover of antiquities”, “Traveler”, “Lover of watches”, “N.L.”, “L.” Actually writer's biography Leskov begins in 1863, when he published his first stories (The Life of a Woman, The Musk Ox) and began publishing the "anti-nihilistic" novel Nowhere (1863-1864). The novel opens with scenes of unhurried provincial life, outraged by the advent of "new people" and fashionable ideas, then the action is transferred to the capital.

The satirically depicted life of the commune organized by the "nihilists" is contrasted with modest work for the benefit of people and Christian family values, which should save Russia from the disastrous path of social upheavals, where her young demagogues are dragging her. Then came Leskov's second "anti-nihilistic" novel, On Knives (1870-1871), which tells of a new phase revolutionary movement when the former "nihilists" are reborn as ordinary swindlers. In the 1860s, he strenuously seeks his own special path. Based on the canvas of popular prints about the love of the clerk and the master's wife, the story “Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district”(1865) about fatal passions hidden under the cover of provincial silence. In the story "Old Years in the Village of Plodomasovo" (1869), which depicts the serf customs of the 18th century, he approaches the chronicle genre.

In the story "The Warrior" (1866), fairy tale forms of narration appear for the first time. Elements of the tale that later glorified him are also found in the story “Kotin Doilets and Platonida” (1867).

A characteristic feature of Leskov's work is that he actively uses the tale form of narration in his works. The story in Russian literature comes from Gogol, but in particular skillfully developed by Leskov and glorified him as an artist. The essence of this manner is that the narration is conducted, as it were, not on behalf of a neutral, objective author. The story is told by a narrator, usually a participant in the reported events. Speech artwork imitates live speech of an oral story.

He tries his hand at dramaturgy: in 1867 on stage Alexandrinsky Theater they stage his drama from the merchant's life "The Spender". Search goodies, the righteous, on whom the Russian land rests (they are also in the "anti-nihilistic" novels), a long-standing interest in marginal religious movements - schismatics and sectarians, in folklore, ancient Russian literature and iconography, in all the "variegated flowers" folk life accumulated in the stories "The Captured Angel" and "The Enchanted Wanderer" (both 1873), in which Leskov's style of narration fully revealed its possibilities. In The Sealed Angel, which tells of a miracle that led the schismatic community to unity with Orthodoxy, there are echoes of ancient Russian “walking” and legends about miraculous icons.

The image of the hero of The Enchanted Wanderer Ivan Flyagin, who went through unthinkable trials, recalls epic Ilya Muromets and symbolizes the physical and moral stamina of the Russian people in the midst of the suffering that falls to their lot.

In the second half of the 1870s-1880s, Leskov created a cycle of stories about the Russian righteous, without which "there is no city of standing." In the preface to the first of these stories, Odnodum (1879), the writer explained their appearance as follows: “terrible and unbearable” to see one “rubbish” in the Russian soul, which has become the main subject new literature, and “I went to look for the righteous, but wherever I turned, everyone answered me in the same way that they did not see the righteous people, because all people are sinners, and so, they both knew some good people. I started writing it down."

Such " good people» turn out to be the director cadet corps(“The Cadet Monastery”, 1880), and a semi-literate tradesman, “who is not afraid of death” (“Not a Deadly Golovan”, 1880), and an engineer (“Unmercenary Engineers”, 1887), and a simple soldier (“A Man on hours”, 1887), and even a “nihilist” who dreams of feeding all the hungry (“Sheramur”, 1879), etc. The famous “Lefty” (1883) and the previously written “The Enchanted Wanderer” also entered this cycle. In essence, the characters of the stories "At the End of the World" (1875-1876) and "The Unbaptized Priest" (1877) were the same Leskovian righteous people.

Responding in advance to critics on accusations of some idealization of his characters, Leskov argued that his stories about the "righteous" were mostly in the nature of memories (in particular, what his grandmother told him about Golovan, etc.), tried to give the narrative a background of historical authenticity , introducing descriptions of real people into the plot.

In the 1880s, Leskov also created a series of works about the righteous of early Christianity: the action of these works takes place in Egypt and the countries of the Middle East. The plots of these narratives were, as a rule, borrowed by him from the "prologue" - a collection of the lives of saints and edifying stories compiled in Byzantium in X-XI centuries. Leskov was proud that his Egyptian studies "Pamfalona" and "Azu".