"The Tale of Captain Kopeikin"
Censored Edition
“After the campaign of the twelfth year, my judge, - so began the postmaster, despite the fact that there was not one sir, but as many as six in the room, - after the campaign of the twelfth year, Captain Kopeikin was sent along with the wounded. like the devil, he visited the guardhouses and under arrest, tasted everything. Under Krasny, or near Leipzig, you can only imagine, his arm and leg were torn off.
this some kind of invalid capital was already started up, you can imagine, in some way after. Captain Kopeikin sees: it would be necessary to work, only his hand, you know, is his left. I was about to visit my father's house, my father says: "I have nothing to feed you, I - you can imagine - I can hardly get bread myself." Now my captain Kopeikin decided to set off, my sir, to
Petersburg, to bother with the authorities, will not there be some kind of help ...
Somehow there, you know, with wagons or state-owned wagons - in a word, my sir, he somehow managed to drag himself to Petersburg. Well, you can imagine: some kind of, that is, captain Kopeikin, and suddenly found himself in the capital, which, so to speak, does not exist in the world! Suddenly in front of him is a light, relatively to say, a certain field of life, a fabulous Scheherazade, you know, such.
Suddenly, you can imagine some kind of Nevsky prospect, or there, you know, some kind of Gorokhovaya, devil take it, or some kind of Liteiny there; there is some sort of spitz in the air; the bridges hang there like a devil, you can imagine, without any, that is, touch, - in a word, Semiramis, sir, and full of it! I had the urge to rent an apartment, but it all bites terribly: curtains, curtains, devilry, you know the carpets - Persia, my sir, is so ... in a word, relatively so to speak, you trample capital with your foot. We walk along the street, and the nose hears that it smells of thousands; and Captain Kopeikin will wash the entire bank note, you see, out of ten blue and silver coins. Well, you can't buy a village for that, that is, you can buy it, maybe if you put in forty thousand, but forty thousand you need to borrow from the French king. Well, somehow he took refuge in a Revel tavern for a ruble a day; lunch - cabbage soup, a piece of beef ... Sees: there is nothing to heal. I asked where to go. Well, where to go? Saying: there are no higher authorities in the capital now, all this, you say, in Paris, the troops did not return, but there is, say the temporary commission. Try it, maybe there is something there. “I’ll go to the commission,” says Kopeikin, and I’ll say: so and so, shed, in some way, blood, relatively to say, sacrificed his life. ” Here, sir, getting up early, he scratched his beard with his left hand, because paying the barber would be, in a way, a bill, dragged a uniform over himself and, you can imagine, went to the commission on his piece of wood. I asked where the boss lives. There, they say, is a house on the embankment: a hut, you know, a man's:
glass beads in the windows, you can imagine, one and a half-seated mirrors, marmors, varnishes, my sir ... in a word, the mind is darkened! Some kind of metal handle at the door is the comfort of the first property, so first, you know, you need to run into the shop, and buy soap for a penny, and, in some way, rub your hands with it for about two hours, and after that you really can take it ...
One doorman on the porch, with a mace: some kind of count's physiognomy, cambric collars, like some fat, fat pug ... My Kopeikin got up somehow with his piece of wood into the waiting room, pressed himself into the corner there so as not to nudge with your elbow, you can yourself submit any
America or India - a kind of gilded, relatively speaking, porcelain vase. Well, of course, he drank enough there, because he came back at a time when the boss, in some way, barely got out of bed and the valet brought him some silver tub for various, you know, such washing. My Kopeikin is waiting for four hours, when the officer on duty comes in, says: "The chief will be out now." And in the room there is already an epaulette and an excelbow, to the people - like beans on a plate. Finally, my sir, the boss comes out. Well ... you can imagine: the boss! in the face, so to speak ... well, in accordance with the rank, you know ... with the rank ... such an expression, you know. In all the metropolitan behavior; approaches one, to another: "Why are you, why are you, whatever you want, what is your business?" Finally, my sir, to Kopeikin. Kopeikin: “So and so, he says, he shed blood, lost, in some way, arms and legs, I can’t work, I dare to ask if there will be some kind of assistance, some kind of orders about, so to speak, remuneration, pension, or something, you know. " The chief sees: a man on a piece of wood and an empty right sleeve fastened to his uniform. "Okay, he says, look around one of these days!"
My Kopeikin is delighted: well, he thinks it's done. In the spirit, you can imagine, bouncing like this on the sidewalk; I went to the Palkinsky tavern to drink a glass of vodka, had lunch, my sir, in London, ordered myself to serve a cutlet with capers, a poulard with various finterleys, asked for a bottle of wine, in the evening went to the theater - in a word, he was full, so to speak. On the sidewalk, he sees some slender Englishwoman walking, like a swan, you can imagine, such. My Kopeikin - the blood, you know, was playing out - he was running after her on his piece of wood: trick-trick followed, -
"Yes, no, I thought, for a while, to hell with red tape, even if later, when I get my pension, now I’m a little too different." And meanwhile, please note, he wasted almost half the money in one day! Three or four days later, he appears, my judge, to the commission, to the chief. "He came, he says, to find out: so and so, because of possessed diseases and wounds ... shed, in a way, blood ..." - and the like, you know, in the official style. “And what,” says the chief, “first of all I must tell you that we cannot do anything about your case without the permission of the higher authorities. You can see for yourself what time it is now. Military operations, so to speak, have not yet completely ended. the arrival of the minister, be patient. Then be sure - you will not be left behind. And if you have nothing to live with, so here you are, he says as much as I can ... "Well, you know, I gave him - of course, a little, but with moderation would stretch to further permissions there. But my Kopeikin didn't want that. He already thought that tomorrow he would be given a thousandth of some kind of jackpot:
to "you, darling, drink and have fun; but wait instead. And, you know, he has an Englishwoman in his head, and souplets, and all kinds of cutlets. So he came out of the porch with an owl like a poodle, which the cook doused with water," - and his tail between his legs, and his ears drooped. Petersburg life had already picked him up, he had already tried something. And here God knows how, no sweets, you know. , the appetite is just wolfish.
He passes by some kind of restaurant: a chef there, you can imagine, a foreigner, a Frenchman with a kind of open physiognomy, his underwear is Dutch, an apron, whiteness equal, in some way, to snow, works some kind of fepzeri, cutlets with truffles, - in a word, a ration-delicacy such that I would simply eat myself, that is, from my appetite.
Whether it passes by the Milyutin shops, there looks out of the window, in some way, a kind of salmon, cherries - five rubles each, a huge watermelon, a stagecoach like that, leaned out of the window and, so to speak, looking for a fool who would pay a hundred rubles - in a word , at every step, the temptation, so to speak, drools, and he wait. So imagine his position here, on the one hand, so to speak, salmon and watermelon, and on the other hand - he is served a bitter dish called "tomorrow." "Well, he thinks how they want for themselves, and I will go, he says, I will raise the entire commission, I will tell all the chiefs: as you want." And in fact: the person is annoying, nayan is a kind of sense, you know, there is no sense in the head, but there is a lot of lynx. He comes to the commission:
"Well, they say, why else? After all, you've already been told." to the theater, you know. "-" Well, - say the chief, - I'm sorry. On this account, there is, in a way, patience. , as follows: for there has not yet been an example that in our Russia a person who brought, so to speak, services to the fatherland, was left without charity. In this case, look for your own means, try to help yourself. " But my Kopeikin, you can imagine, doesn’t blow his mustache.
These words to him are like peas against the wall. The noise raised such, fluffed everyone up! All these secretaries there, all of them began to split off and nail: yes vm, he says, then he says! yes you, he says, it, he says! Yes, he says, you don’t know your duties! Yes, you, he says, law sellers, he says! Spanked everyone. There, some official, you know, turned up from some even completely extraneous department - he, my judge, and his! A riot raised one like this. What do you want to do with such a devil? The boss sees: it is necessary to resort, so to speak, to measures of severity. “Well, he says, if you don’t want to be content with what they give you and wait calmly, in some way, here in the capital of the decision of your fate, so I will escort you to your place of residence. Call, he says, the courier, to escort him to your place of residence. ! " And the courier is already there, you know, behind the door and stands:
A three-yard peasant, you can imagine, by his very nature it is arranged for the coachmen - in a word, a dentist of some kind ... Here is him, God's servant, in a cart and with a courier. Well, Kopeikin thinks, at least there is no need to pay runs, thanks for that too. He goes, my sir, on a courier, and when he goes on a courier, in a way, so to speak, he reasons to himself: “Well, he says, here you are, they say, you are saying that I should look for funds for myself and help; well, he says , I, he says, will find the means! " Well, how they brought him to the place and where exactly they brought him, none of this is known. So, you see, the rumors about Captain Kopeikin have sunk into the river of oblivion, into some kind of Lethe, as the poets call it. But excuse me, gentlemen, this is where, one might say, the thread of the plot of the novel begins. So where Kopeikin went is unknown; but, can you imagine, two months have not passed since a gang of robbers appeared in the Ryazan forests, and the chieftain of this gang was, my sir, no one else ... "
Nikolai Gogol - The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, read text
See also Nikolai Gogol - Prose (stories, poems, novels ...):
The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich
Chapter I IVAN IVANOVICH AND IVAN NIKIFOROVICH Glorious bekesha at Ivan Ivanov's ...
Auditor 01 - Introduction
Comedy in five acts Characters Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmu ...
Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" tells about Chichikov's swindle, about petty intrigues and sweet lies this low man. And suddenly the reader comes to "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin." It would seem that this story has nothing to do with the action of the poem. And the action of the poem takes place in the provincial town of NN and in the nearby landowners' estates, and the action of "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" takes place in St. Petersburg. But there is undoubtedly a connection.
The postmaster tells this story to the officials at the moment when they decide who Chichikov is. He tells them with an obvious desire to convince them that Chichikov is Kopeikin. This is the most visible thread connecting The Tale of Captain Kopeikin with the action of the poem. If you remove this story from the work, it would seem that nothing will change. But it was not in vain that Gogol introduced this tale into his poem.
The reader is distracted from the story for a moment, and one impression is replaced by another. Gogol breaks the connection of events, the story of buying and selling "dead souls" is broken, but at the end of the story you realize that the writer has continued the main theme of the poem about the frozen, dead human soul. At this point, the theme has become clearer and brighter.
Captain Kopeikin was a participant in the 1812 war, lost an arm and a leg in that war, and arrived in St. Petersburg to beg for a pension. This is what Gogol's Petersburg is like: “Well, you can imagine: some kind of, that is, captain Kopeikin, and suddenly found himself in the capital, which, like, so to speak, does not exist in the world! Suddenly there is a light in front of him, so to speak, a certain field of life, a fabulous Scheherazade ... the bridges there hang like a devil, you can imagine, without any, that is, touch, - in a word, Semiramis ... ". He got a job in an inexpensive tavern, since he had very little money to live on, and decided that he would go to a noble nobleman for a reception. Here Gogol, with his characteristic brilliance, tells and in a grotesque manner ridicules the luxury and wealth of the higher officials: them hands, but then he already decided to grab hold of it ... "or else:" the hut, you know, a man's: little glass in the windows, half-seated mirrors, so that the vases and everything in the rooms seem as if outwardly, precious marbles on the walls! oh, metal haberdashery ... ".
It was there that Kopeikin got to the reception and even got hope for a solution to his case: “… no doubt, you will be rewarded properly; for there has not yet been an example that in our Russia a person who brought, so to speak, services to the fatherland, was left without charity! " But with each arrival, his hope melted away, until he himself was expelled from the city. Kopeikin, a disabled war veteran, pushes the thresholds of a high commission, asking for a pension, and never gets it. The captain faced the dull indifference of officials, with indifference to his fate. These "dead souls" do not want to see him as a person who suffered in the war, patient, unpretentious and honest: "It is impossible, does not accept, come tomorrow!" Driven to despair, Kopeikin decides: "When the general says that I should look for the means to help myself ... well, I will find the means!" Less than two months later, a gang of robbers appeared in the Ryazan forests "and the chieftain of this gang was, my sir, no one else" - it is easy to guess that this is Captain Kopeikin. With the help of this story, Gogol, as if through a magnifying glass, showed us the cruelty and callousness of those in power, the latter's unwillingness to see the pain and sorrow of the common people, and revealed to us the rotten essence of the bureaucratic apparatus.
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" is a kind of mystery inside " Dead souls". It is felt latently by everyone. The first feeling the reader experiences when meeting her is a feeling of bewilderment: why did Gogol need this rather lengthy and, apparently, in no way connected with the main action of the poem "anecdote" told by the hapless postmaster? Is it really only to show the absurdity of the assumption that Chichikov is "none other than Captain Kopeikin"?
Usually, researchers consider the Tale as a "plug-in novella" needed by the author to denounce the city authorities, and explain its inclusion in "Dead Souls" by Gogol's desire to expand the social and geographical framework of the poem, to give the depiction of "all Russia" the necessary completeness. "... The story of Captain Kopeikin<...>outwardly almost not connected with the main plot line of the poem, - writes S.O. Mashinsky in his commentary. - Compositionally, it looks like a plug-in novel.<...>The story, as it were, crowns the whole terrible picture of the local-bureaucratic-police Russia, painted in Dead Souls. The embodiment of arbitrariness and injustice is not only the provincial government, but also the capital's bureaucracy, the government itself. " According to Yu. V. Mann, one of the artistic functions of the Tale is "interrupting the" provincial "plan of the Petersburg, capital, the inclusion in the plot of the poem of the highest metropolitan spheres of Russian life."
This view of the Tale is generally accepted and traditional. In the interpretation of E. N. Kupreyanova, the idea of her as one of Gogol's "Petersburg stories" is brought to its logical end. The story, the researcher believes, "was written as an independent work and only then was it inserted into Dead Souls." However, with such an "autonomous" interpretation, the main question remains unclear: what is the artistic motivation for including the Tale in the poem? In addition, the "provincial" plan is "interrupted" in "Dead Souls" by the capital city constantly. Gogol doesn’t need to compare the thoughtful expression on Manilov’s face with the expression that can be found “unless some too clever minister”, to note in passing that “even a state person, but in fact a perfect Korobochka comes out,” go from Korobochka to her “sister” is an aristocrat, and from the ladies of the city of NN to the ladies of St. Petersburg, etc. etc.
Emphasizing the satirical nature of the Tale, its critical orientation towards the "top", researchers usually refer to the fact that it was banned by the censorship (this, in fact, it largely owes its reputation to an acutely accusatory work). It is generally accepted that under the pressure of censorship, Gogol was forced to muffle the satirical accents of the Tale, to weaken its political tendency and acuteness - "to throw out all the generals", to make Kopeikin's image less attractive, and so on. At the same time, one can come across an assertion that the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee "demanded that significant corrections be made" to the Tale. “At the request of the censorship,” writes E.S. Smirnova-Chikina, “the image of a heroic officer, a rebel-robber was replaced by the image of an insolent brawler ...”.
This, however, was not quite the case. The censor A. V. Nikitenko, in a letter dated April 1, 1842, informed Gogol: "The episode of Kopeikin turned out to be absolutely impossible to pass - nobody's power could protect him from his death, and you yourself, of course, will agree that I had nothing to do here." ... In the censored copy of the manuscript, the text of the Tale is crossed out from beginning to end in red ink. The censorship banned the entire Story, and no one made any demands on the author to remake it.
Gogol, as you know, attached exceptional importance to the Tale and perceived its prohibition as an irreparable blow. “They threw away from me a whole episode of Kopeikin, which is very necessary for me, more even than they think (censors - V.V.). I decided not to give it up in any way, ”he informed N. Ya. Prokopovich on April 9, 1842. It is clear from Gogol's letters that the Story was not at all important to him to what the St. Petersburg censors attached importance to. The writer does not hesitate to remake all the supposed "reprehensible" passages that might annoy the censorship. Explaining the need for Kopeikin in the poem in a letter to A. V. Nikitenko dated April 10, 1842, Gogol appeals to the artistic instinct of the censor. “... I confess that the destruction of Kopeikin confused me a lot. This is one of best places... And I am not able to patch the hole that is visible in my poem. You yourself, gifted with aesthetic taste<...>You can see that this piece is necessary, not for the connection of events, but in order to distract the reader for a moment, so that one impression can be replaced by another, and whoever is an artist in his soul will understand that without him there is a strong gap. It occurred to me: maybe the generals were frightened by the censorship. I changed Kopeikin, I threw out everything, even the minister, even the word "excellency." In St. Petersburg, in the absence of all, there is only one temporary commission. I expressed Kopeikin's character more strongly, so now it is clear that he himself is the cause of his actions, and not a lack of compassion in others. The head of the commission even treats him very well. In a word, everything is now in such a form that no strict censorship, in my opinion, can find anything reprehensible in any respect ”(XII, 54-55).
Trying to identify the socio-political content of the Tale, researchers see in it an exposure of the entire state machine of Russia, up to the highest government spheres and the Tsar himself. Not to mention the fact that such an ideological position was simply unthinkable for Gogol, the Story stubbornly “resists” such an interpretation.
As has been noted more than once in the literature, Gogol's image of Captain Kopeikin goes back to a folklore source - the folk robber songs about the thief Kopeikin. Gogol's interest and love for folk songwriting is well known. In the aesthetics of the writer, songs are one of three sources of the originality of Russian poetry, from which Russian poets should draw inspiration. In "Petersburg Notes of 1836", calling for the creation of a Russian national theater, the portrayal of characters in their "nationalized form," Gogol expressed his opinion on the creative use of folk traditions in opera and ballet. “Guided by subtle legibility, the ballet creator can take from them (folk, national dances. - V.V.) as much as he wants to determine the characters of his dancing heroes. It goes without saying that, having grasped the first element in them, he can develop it and fly away incomparably higher than his original, like a musical genius from a simple song heard on the street creates a whole poem ”(VIII, 185).
“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”, literally growing out of the song, was the embodiment of this Gogolian thought. Guessing the "element of character" in the song, the writer, in his own words, "develops it and flies away incomparably higher than his original." Here is one of the songs in the cycle about the robber Kopeikin.
Going thief Kopeikin
On the glorious Karastan estuary.
He went to bed since the evening, thief Kopeikin,
By midnight the thief Kopeikin was up,
He washed himself with morning dew,
I wiped myself with a taffeta handkerchief,
I prayed to God on the eastern side.
“Get up, brothers are amicable!
It's not good for me, brothers, I had a dream:
As if I, a good fellow, walk along the edge of the sea,
I AM right foot stumbled
For a spongy tree, for a buckthorn.
Didn't you crush me, buckthorn:
Dries and destroys the good of the young man, sorrow-grief!
You throw, throw yourself, brothers, into the light boats,
Row, guys, do not be shy,
Whether under the same mountains, under the Serpents! "
Not a fierce snake here hissed,
The plot of the robber song about Kopeikin was recorded in several versions. As is usually the case in folk art, all known samples help to understand the general nature of the work. The central motive of this song cycle is the prophetic dream of Ataman Kopeikin. Here is another version of this dream, foreshadowing the death of the hero.
As if I was walking along the end of the blue sea;
Everything stirred like a blue sea,
Everything was mixed with yellow sand;
I stumbled with my left leg,
He grabbed hold of a spongy tree with his hand,
For a spongy tree, for a buckthorn,
For the very top:
The top of the buckthorn has broken off,
Ataman of robbers Kopeikin, as he is depicted in the folk song tradition, "stumbled with his foot, grabbed hold of a spongy tree with his hand." This symbolic detail painted in tragic tones is the main distinguishing feature of this folklore image.
Gogol uses the poetic symbolism of the song in describing the appearance of his hero: "his arm and leg were torn off." When creating a portrait of Captain Kopeikin, the writer gives only this detail, which connects the character of the poem with his folklore prototype. It should also be emphasized that in folk art, tearing off someone's arm and leg is considered a "joke" or "self-indulgence." Gogolevsky Kopeikin does not at all evoke a pitying attitude towards himself. This face is by no means passive or passive. Captain Kopeikin is, first of all, a daring robber. In 1834, in his article “A Look at the Compilation of Little Russia,” Gogol wrote about the desperate Zaporozhye Cossacks, “who had nothing to lose, whose life was a penny, whose violent will could not tolerate laws and power<...>This society retained all the features that depict a gang of robbers ... ”(VIII, 46–48).
Created according to the laws of fairy-tale poetics (orientation towards a lively spoken language, direct appeal to listeners, the use of common folk expressions and narrative techniques), Gogol's Tale also requires an appropriate reading. Its fairytale form is clearly manifested in the fusion of the folk-poetic, folklore beginning with the real-event, concrete-historical. The popular rumor about the robber Kopeikin, going deep into folk poetry, is no less important for understanding the aesthetic nature of the Tale than the chronological fixation of the image for a certain era - the 1812 campaign.
In the postmaster's account, the story of Captain Kopeikin is least of all a retelling of a real incident. Reality is here refracted through the consciousness of the hero-storyteller, who embodies, according to Gogol, the peculiarities of folk, national thinking. Historical events of national and national importance have always given rise to all kinds of oral stories and legends among the people. At the same time, traditional epic images were especially actively creatively rethought and adapted to new historical conditions.
So, let's turn to the content of the Tale. The postmaster’s story about Captain Kopeikin is interrupted by the words of the police master: “Just let me, Ivan Andreevich, after all, Captain Kopeikin, you said yourself, without an arm and a leg, but Chichikov’s ...” To this reasonable remark, the postmaster “slapped his forehead with all his might , calling himself publicly veal. He could not understand how such a circumstance did not come to him at the very beginning of the story, and he confessed that the saying is absolutely true: a Russian is strong in hindsight ”(VI, 205).
Other characters in the poem, but above all Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov himself, are in abundance endowed with the "root Russian virtue" - a backward, "reckless", repentant mind. Gogol had his own special attitude to this proverb. Usually it is used in the meaning of "caught on, but late" and the fortress in hindsight is regarded as a vice or defect. V Explanatory dictionary V. Dahl we find: "The Rusak is strong backward (hindsight)"; "Clever, but backwards"; "He is quick-witted in hindsight." In his "Proverbs of the Russian People" we read: "Everyone is smart: some first, some afterwards"; “You can't fix things with hindsight”; "If only I had that mind in advance that comes afterward." But Gogol also knew another interpretation of this saying. Thus, the well-known collector of Russian folklore of the first half of the 19th century, I.M.Snegirev, saw in it an expression of the mentality characteristic of the Russian people: “That a Russian can catch himself and come to his senses after a mistake, this is what his proverb says:“ Russian is strong in hindsight ”” ; “This is how Russian proverbs proper express the mentality characteristic of the people, the way of judgment, the peculiarity of the view<...>Their root basis is the centuries-old, hereditary experience, this hind mind, with which the Russian is strong ... ".
Gogol showed constant interest in the works of Snegirev, which helped him to better understand the essence of the national spirit. For example, in the article "What finally is the essence of Russian poetry ..." - this peculiar aesthetic manifesto of Gogol - Krylov's nationality is explained by the special nationally distinctive mindset of the great fabulist. In the fable, writes Gogol, Krylov “knew how to become a folk poet. This is our strong Russian head, the very mind that is akin to the mind of our proverbs, the very mind with which the Russian person is strong, the mind of conclusions, the so-called back mind ”(VI, 392).
Gogol's article on Russian poetry was necessary for him, as he himself admitted in a letter to P. A. Pletnev in 1846, "in explaining the elements of the Russian man." In Gogol's reflections on the fate of his native people, their present and historical future, "the hind mind or the mind of final conclusions, which is predominantly endowed in front of others by a Russian person" is that fundamental "property of Russian nature" that distinguishes Russians from other peoples. With this property of the national mind, which is akin to the mind folk proverbs, “Who knew how to draw such great conclusions from their poor, insignificant time<...>and who only speak about what enormous conclusions can be drawn by today's Russian people from the current wide time in which the results of all centuries are drawn ”(VI, 408), Gogol linked the high destiny of Russia.
When the witty guesses and clever assumptions of officials about who Chichikov is (there is a "millionaire", and a "maker of counterfeit banknotes", and Captain Kopeikin) come to the ridiculous - Chichikov is announced as Napo-Leon in disguise, - the author, as it were, takes under his protection their heroes. “And in the world chronicle of mankind there are many whole centuries, which, it would seem, have been deleted and destroyed as unnecessary. Many delusions have been committed in the world, which, it would seem, even a child would not have done now ”(VI, 210). The principle of opposing "ours" and "others", clearly perceptible from the first to the last page of "Dead Souls", is maintained by the author in the opposition of the Russian hind mind to the mistakes and delusions of all mankind. The possibilities inherent in this "proverbial" property of the Russian mind should have been revealed, according to Gogol, in the subsequent volumes of the poem.
The ideological and compositional role of this proverb in Gogol's idea helps to understand the meaning of the "Tale of Captain Kopeikin", without which the author could not imagine the poem.
The story exists in three main editions. The second is considered canonical, not passed by the censorship, which is printed in the text of the poem in all modern editions. The original edition differs from the subsequent ones primarily in its finale, which tells about Kopeikin's predatory adventures, his flight abroad and a letter from there to the Tsar explaining the motives of his actions. In two other versions of the Tale, Gogol limited himself to only a hint that Captain Kopeikin had become the chieftain of a gang of robbers. Perhaps the writer had a presentiment of censorship difficulties. But censorship, I think, was the reason for the rejection of the first edition. In its original form, the Story, although it clarified the main idea of the author, nevertheless did not fully correspond to the ideological and artistic concept of the poem.
In all three known editions of the Tale, immediately after the explanation of who Captain Kopeikin is, there follows an indication of the main circumstance that forced Kopeikin to raise funds for himself: “Well, then no, you know, such orders have been made about the wounded; this invalid capital was already started up, you can imagine, in a way, much later ”(VI, 200). Thus, the disabled capital, which provided for the wounded, was established, but only after Captain Kopeikin had found the means for himself. Moreover, as follows from the initial edition, he takes these funds from the "state pocket". A gang of robbers, led by Kopeikin, are at war exclusively with the treasury. “There is no passage on the roads, and all this, so to speak, is directed at only the state-owned. If a person passing through for some reason - well, they only ask: “Why?” - and go your own way. And as soon as some government fodder, provisions or money - in a word, everything that bears, so to speak, the name of the treasury - there is no descent! " (VI, 829).
Seeing the "omission" with Kopeikin, the Tsar "issued the strictest order to form a committee solely in order to improve the lot of everyone, that is, the wounded ..." (VI, 830). The highest state authorities in Russia, and first of all the Tsar himself, are capable, according to Gogol, to draw the right conclusions, to make a wise, just decision, but that's just not right away, but "afterward." The wounded were provided as in no other "enlightened states", but only when the thunder had already struck ... Captain Kopeikin went into robbers not because of the callousness of high government officials, but because it is already so in Russia everything is arranged, everything is strong in hindsight, starting with the postmaster and Chichikov and ending with the Emperor.
Preparing the manuscript for publication, Gogol focuses primarily on the "error" itself, and not on its "correction." Having abandoned the final of the original edition, he retained the meaning of the Tale he needed, but changed the accents in it. In the final version, the fortress in hindsight, in accordance with the artistic concept of the first volume, is presented in its negative, ironically reduced form. The ability of a Russian person, even after a mistake, to draw the necessary conclusions and correct himself, should, according to Gogol, be fully realized in subsequent volumes.
In the general concept of the poem, Gogol's involvement in folk philosophy was reflected. Popular wisdom is ambiguous. The proverb lives its real, genuine life not in collections, but in living folk speech. Its meaning can change depending on the situation in which it is used. The truly popular character of Gogol's poem lies not in the fact that it contains an abundance of proverbs, but in the fact that the author uses them in accordance with their existence among the people. A writer 's assessment of this or that "property of Russian nature" entirely depends on the specific situation in which this "property" manifests itself. The author's irony is directed not at the property itself, but at its real being.
Thus, there is no reason to believe that, having remade the Story, Gogol made any significant concessions to the censorship. There is no doubt that he did not seek to present his hero only as a victim of injustice. If a "significant person" (minister, general, chief) is guilty of something before Captain Kopeikin, then only in the way Gogol said on another occasion, he could not "get a good understanding of his nature and his circumstances." One of distinctive features poetics of the writer is a sharp definiteness of characters. The deeds and external actions of Gogol's heroes, the circumstances in which they find themselves, are only an external expression of their internal essence, the properties of nature, and their temperament. When Gogol wrote on April 10, 1842 to P.A. V. Nikitenko), then he did not mean a radical reworking of the image to please censorship requirements, but the strengthening of those character traits of his hero that were in him initially.
The image of Captain Kopeikin, which, like other Gogol images, has become a household name, has firmly entered Russian literature and journalism. In the nature of his interpretation, two traditions have developed: one in the works of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and F. M. Dostoevsky, the other in the liberal press. In Shchedrin's cycle "Cultured People" (1876) Kopeikin appears as a limited landowner from Zalupsk: “No wonder my friend, Captain Kopeikin, writes:“ Don't go to Zalupsk! we, brother, now have so many lean and hardened divorced - our entire cultural club is spoiled! "". FM Dostoevsky also interprets Gogol's image in a sharply negative spirit. In the "Diary of a Writer" for 1881, Kopeikin appears as a prototype of modern "pocket industrialists". “... Many captains of the Kopeikins were terribly divorced, in countless modifications<...>And they are sharpening their teeth for the treasury and the public domain. "
On the other hand, a different tradition existed in the liberal press - "a sympathetic attitude towards Gogol's hero as a person fighting for his well-being with an inert bureaucracy indifferent to his needs." It is noteworthy that writers so dissimilar in their ideological orientation as Saltykov-Shchedrin and Dostoevsky, who also adhered to a different artistic manner, interpret the image of Gogol's captain Kopeikin in the same negative way. It would be incorrect to explain the position of the writers by the fact that their artistic interpretation was based on a version of the Tale softened by censorship conditions, that Shchedrin and Dostoevsky did not know its original edition, which, according to the general opinion of researchers, is distinguished by the greatest social acuity. Back in 1857, N. G. Chernyshevsky, in a review of the posthumous Collected Works and Letters of Gogol, published by P. A. Kulish, completely reprinted the ending of the Tale for the first time published at that time, concluding it with the following words: “Yes, be that as it may, but great mind and high nature was the one who first introduced us to us in our present form ... ".
The point, most likely, is different. Shchedrin and Dostoevsky sensed in Gogol's Kopeikin those nuances and peculiarities of his character that eluded others, and, as has happened more than once in their work, they "straightened" the image, sharpened its features. The possibility of such an interpretation of the image of Captain Kopeikin lies, undoubtedly, in himself.
So, the "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" told by the postmaster, clearly demonstrating the proverb "The Russian man is strong in hindsight", naturally and organically introduced it into the narrative. By an unexpected change in the narrative manner, Gogol makes the reader, as it were, stumble over this episode, pay attention to it, thereby making it clear that it is here that the key to understanding the poem is.
Gogol's way of creating characters and pictures in this case echoes the words of L.N. Tolstoy, who also highly appreciated Russian proverbs, and, in particular, collections of I.M.Snegirev. Tolstoy intended to write a story using the proverb as its grain. He talks about this, for example, in the essay "Who can learn to write from, to the peasant children with us or we from the peasant children?" For each proverb, I imagine people from the people and their collisions in the sense of the proverb. Among the unrealizable dreams, I always imagined a number of stories, or pictures, written in proverbs. "
Artistic identity"The Tale of Captain Kopeikin", which, according to the postmaster, "in some way a whole poem", helps to understand the aesthetic nature of "Dead Souls". In creating his creation - a truly folk and deeply national poem - Gogol relied on the traditions of folk poetry.
In this story, Gogol tells about the events of 1812. The main character is Captain Kopeikin, a former soldier of the Russian army. In the war, he lost an arm and a leg. Having become disabled, he could not find any job in order to feed at least himself. And then he decides to go to St. Petersburg to beg substantial compensation for the loss of an arm in the war.
He goes to various officials, but no one really can help him. People advise him to wait until the sovereign returns, who went to receive glory after a great battle. But Kopeikin was not able to wait any longer, since he had absolutely no money left to live on. And then Kopeikin decides to get money without anyone's help.
A couple of months later, a group of robbers appeared in Ryazan. Who was the leader? It is not at all difficult to guess that it was Kopeikin himself.
At this moment, Gogol does not condemn the protagonist at all. On the contrary, it even justifies it. After all, only his desperate situation could force a person to go to robbery.
Updated: 2017-06-16
Attention!
Thank you for your attention.
If you notice an error or typo, select the text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thus, you will be of invaluable benefit to the project and other readers.
1. The place that the "Story ..." occupies in the poem.
2. Social problems.
3. Motives of folk legends.
The "Tale of Captain Kopeikin" at a superficial glance may seem like an alien element in Nikolai Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". In fact, what does it have to do with the fate of the protagonist? Why does the author assign such a significant place to The Tale ...? The postmaster suddenly imagined that Chichikov and Kopeikin were one and the same person: but the rest of the provincial officials resolutely rejected such an absurd assumption. And the difference between these two characters lies not only in the fact that Kopeikin is disabled, but Chichikov has both arms and legs in place. Kopeikin becomes a robber solely out of despair, since he has no other way to get everything he needs to support his life; Chichikov deliberately strives for wealth, not disdaining any dubious machinations that can bring him closer to his goal.
But despite the huge difference in the fate of these two people, the story of Captain Kopeikin largely explains, oddly enough, the motives behind Chichikov's behavior. The position of the serfs is, of course, difficult. But the position of a free person, if he has neither connections nor money, can also turn out to be truly terrible. In The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, Gogol shows the state’s disdain for ordinary people, who gave everything to this state, in the person of its representatives. The general-in-chief advises a man with one arm and one leg: "... Try to help yourself for the time being, look for the means yourself." Kopeikin perceives these mocking words as a guide to action - almost like an order from the high command: "When the general says that I should look for the means to help myself - well ... I ... will find the means!"
Gogol shows the enormous property stratification of society: an officer who became disabled in the war waged by his country has only fifty rubles in his pocket, while even the doorman of the general-in-chief “looks like a generalissimo,” not to mention the luxury in which he is drowning his master. Yes, such a striking contrast, of course, should have shaken Kopeikin. The hero imagines how "he will take some herring, but a salted cucumber, and bread for two pennies", in the windows of restaurants he sees "cutlets with truffles", and in shops - salmon, cherries, watermelon, but all this unfortunate disabled person cannot afford , but soon there will be nothing left for bread.
Hence the sharpness with which Kopeikin demands from the grandee a final decision on his issue. Kopeikin has nothing to lose - he is even glad that the general-in-chief ordered to expel him from St. Petersburg at public expense: "... at least you don’t need to pay the passes, thanks for that."
So, we see that human life and blood do not mean anything in the eyes of most influential officials, both military and civilian. Money is what can, to a certain extent, give a person confidence in the future. It is no coincidence that the main instruction Chichikov received from his father was advice to "save a penny", which "will not give out, no matter what trouble you are," to which "you will do everything and knock everything through." How many unfortunate people in Mother Russia humbly endure insults, and all because there is no money that would provide these people with relative independence. Captain Kopeikin becomes a robber when, in fact, he already has no other choice - except to starve to death. Of course, we can say that Kopeikin's choice makes him a person outside the law. But why should he respect a law that did not protect his human rights? Thus, in The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, Gogol shows the origins of that legal nihilism, the finished product of which is Chichikov. Outwardly, this well-meaning official tries to emphasize his respect for the ranks, for the legal norms, because in such behavior he sees a guarantee of his well-being. But the old saying “The law is like a drawbar: where he turned, it went there”, undoubtedly, perfectly reflects the essence of Chichikov's legal concepts, and not only he himself is to blame for this, but also the society in which the hero grew up and formed. Indeed, was it only Captain Kopeikin who trampled in the reception rooms of high-ranking officials in vain? The indifference of the state in the person of the general-in-chief turns an honest officer into a robber. Chichikov hopes that, having accumulated a decent fortune, albeit in a fraudulent way, over time you can become a worthy and respected member of society ...
It is known that initially Gogol did not interrupt the story of Kopeikin on the fact that the captain became the chieftain of a robber gang. Kopeikin peacefully released everyone who went about their business, confiscated only state, that is, state property - money, provisions. Kopeikin's detachment consisted of fugitive soldiers: there is no doubt that they, too, had to endure in their lifetime both from the commanders and from the landlords. Thus, Kopeikin appeared in the original version of the poem as folk hero, whose image echoes the images of Stenka Razin and Emelyan Pugachev. After some time, Kopeikin went abroad - just like Dubrovsky in Pushkin's novel of the same name - and from there he sent a letter to the emperor asking him not to persecute people from his gang who remained in Russia. However, this sequel to "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" Gogol had to cut out to the requirement of censorship. Nevertheless, around Kopeikin's figure, the aura of a “noble robber” has been preserved - a man offended by fate and people in power, but not broken and resigned.
