Russian national character as portrayed by N.S. Leskova
Russian image national character in the works of N. S. Leskov
Introduction
It was special person and a special writer
A. A. Volynsky
The problem of the Russian national character became one of the main ones for the literature of the 60-80s of the 19th century, closely connected with the activities of various revolutionaries, and later populists. The writer N.S. also paid attention to her. Leskov.
Leskov belonged to those writers of the second half of the 19th century centuries, which, without a clear progressive worldview, possessed a kind of spontaneous democracy and believed in popular forces.
The period of Leskov’s creativity is characterized by the writer’s desire to find positive ideals in Russian life and contrast them with all forms of personal suppression.
N.S. Leskov wrote: A writer’s voice training lies in the ability to master the language and voice of his hero and not stray from altos to basses. I tried to develop this skill in myself and, it seems, I achieved that my priests speak spiritually, nihilists speak nihilistically, men speak like peasants, upstarts speak with frills, etc. From myself I speak in language old fairy tales and church-folk in purely literary speech. Now you only recognize me in every article, even if I didn’t sign for it. It makes me happy. They say it's fun to read me. This is because we all: both my heroes and myself, have our own voice...
Hard work, high honesty, selflessness are the qualities that distinguish many of Leskov’s heroes. The author's realism at the turn of the 60s and 70s of the 19th century borders on romance: his art world populated by eccentrics, originals, possessing genuine philanthropy, doing good unselfishly, for the sake of good itself. Leskov deeply believes in the spiritual strength of the people and sees in it the salvation of Russia.
The topic of my essay: The portrayal of Russian national character in the works of N. S. Leskov.
The purpose of the work can be seen in the choice of the topic of the essay: to consider the depiction of the Russian national character in the works of N. S. Leskov.
I set myself the following tasks:
- Study the character of the Russian people in the works of N. S. Leskov.
- Learn Leskov's language.
N. S. Leskov worked in literature for 35 years, from 1860 to 1895. We find an interpretation of the essence of the character of a Russian person in many of his works. The period of Leskov’s work in the 70s and mid-80s is characterized by the writer’s desire to find positive ideals in Russian life and contrast them with all forms of personal suppression. Leskov saw good and bright sides in the Russian person. And it's kind of like searching for the perfect wonderful people F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. But, creating his righteous people, Leskov takes them directly from life, does not endow them with any ideas of a previously accepted teaching; they are simply morally pure, they do not need moral self-improvement. His righteous go through difficult life trials and endure many hardships and grief. And even if the protest is not actively expressed, their very bitter fate is a protest.
A righteous man, according to public assessment, is a small man, all of whose property is often in a small shoulder bag, but spiritually, in the reader’s mind, he grows into a legendary epic figure. This is the hero Ivan Flyagin in The Enchanted Wanderer, reminiscent of Ilya Muromets. The conclusion from his life suggested itself to be this: the Russian man can cope with everything.
The most striking work on the theme of the righteous is the Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the steel flea. The righteous charm people with themselves, but they themselves act as if enchanted. Give them a second life, they will live through it too. The tale of Lefty develops this motif.
Leskov is the author of a huge number of works of various genres, an interesting publicist, whose articles have not lost their relevance to this day, an excellent stylist and an unsurpassed expert on the most diverse layers of Russian speech, a psychologist who penetrated into the secrets of the Russian national character and showed the role of national historical foundations in the life of the country, a writer, in the apt expression of M. Gorky, who pierced all of Rus'
I read a lot interesting literature, which helped me better understand Leskov’s personality, character and worldview. The books that made a great contribution to my work were: History of Russian literature of the 19th century century V.I. Kuleshov and the Life of Nikolai Leskov in two volumes by Andrei Leskov, a son’s book about his father. These books became the basis of my work, because they helped me study the life of Leskov and the people who surrounded him down to the smallest detail.
From the cradle to writing. The beginning of a creative journey.
Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was born on February 4 (old style) 1831. in the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province, in the family of a minor judicial official, who came from the clergy and only before his death received documents of personal nobility. Leskov's father, Semyon Dmitrievich, was an assessor of the Oryol Criminal Chamber. According to Leskov, he was distinguished by his religiosity, “wonderful mind,” honesty and “firmness of conviction, which is why he made a lot of enemies.” The son of a priest, Semyon Dmitrievich acquired nobility thanks to his service. Mother, Maria Petrovna (née Alfereva) was a hereditary Oryol noblewoman with family kinship in Moscow
Leskov’s works fascinate the reader, make him think, and become imbued with the most complex issues relating to human soul, features of the Russian national character. Leskov's heroes can be different - strong or weak, smart or not very smart, educated or illiterate. But each of them has some amazing qualities, elevating these heroes above many of those around them.
At first glance, Leskov in his works talks about the most ordinary, one might say, ordinary people. But by the end of almost every story, every short story or novel, it turns out that the hero, who clearly enjoys the author’s sympathy, has all the qualities of an exceptional person in moral terms.
Leskov is a realist writer. He paints life as it is, without embellishing it. However, in his works life, even without embellishment, is full of amazing events that force a person to discover hidden sides of your nature. Leskov is an excellent psychologist. He skillfully shows the most intimate sides of the human soul. And that is why the heroes of his works seem “real” to us - they lived and worked once upon a time.
Leskov brilliantly reveals the peculiarities of the Russian national character. Re-reading the pages of many of his works, you involuntarily think about the wealth, originality and originality of the mysterious Russian soul. It is especially noteworthy that Russian character is revealed in the most difficult conditions. The contradiction between a person’s internal aspirations and his forced actions often pushes heroes to commit crimes.
If all the Russian classics of the last century, already during their lifetime or soon after their death, were recognized by literary and social thought in this capacity, then Leskov was “ranked” among the classics only in the second half of our century, although Leskov’s special mastery of language was undeniable, they did not talk about him only fans of his talent, but even his ill-wishers noted. Leskov was distinguished by his ability to always and in everything go “against the current,” as a biographer called a later book about him. If his contemporaries (Turgenev, Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky) were concerned primarily with the ideological and psychological side of their works, looking for answers to the social needs of the time, then Leskov was less interested in this, or he gave answers that, having offended and outraged everyone, they rained down critical thunder and lightning on his head, plunging the writer into disgrace for a long time among critics of all camps and among “advanced” readers.
The problem of our national character became one of the main ones for the literature of the 60-80s, closely connected with the activities of various revolutionaries, and later populists.
The main cross-cutting theme of Leskov’s works is possibilities and mysteries of the Russian national character. He looked for the distinctive properties of the Russian person in all estates and classes. Early stories Leskova (Life of a Woman, Warrior, Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district) are based on plots and images drawn from folk love songs and ballads.
Leskov introduced unexpected and, for many critics and readers, undesirable accents into solving the problem of the Russian national character. That's the story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District.” Mtsensk merchant Katerina Izmailova is one of eternal types world literature - a bloody and ambitious villainess, whose lust for power led her into the abyss of madness. But she is naive and trusting in her feelings, like many Russian women who learned for the first time how to love. Katerina does not hear falsehoods in speeches and is not able to understand that her lover is deceiving her. But Katerina bright, strong, brave and desperate Russian woman. A young, strong, passionate woman is forced to eke out a miserable existence in a rich merchant's house. She yearns, languishes, dreaming of real passion and being content with a rather strained relationship with her husband.
Approaching the end of the work, you involuntarily ask the question: is it possible to condemn Katerina Lvovna for the atrocities she committed. Not only is it possible, but it is also necessary. But what about the Christian commandment: “Judge not, lest ye be judged”? Katerina Lvovna’s actions were partly dictated by the instinct of self-preservation, partly by the desire to receive at least a small fraction of simple female happiness, which she was deprived of and which she had dreamed of for so long.
The heroine is able to evoke admiration from the reader despite all her atrocities. The character of Katerina Lvovna is certainly extraordinary. If she had found herself in different conditions, perhaps a more worthy use of her physical and spiritual powers would have been found. However, the environment described by Leskov turns Katerina into a real monster. She mercilessly sends not only her father-in-law and then her husband to the next world, but also destroys an innocent child. The heroine’s fault lies primarily in the fact that she did not try to resist the circumstances. And at the same time, she appears worthy of regret. In the Russian national character, risk-taking and resourcefulness often go hand in hand with both villainy and nobility. The fate of the merchant's wife Katerina Lvovna testifies to how easy it is to give up all the riches of your soul for the sake of an evil cause. But this is not always the case.
Over the years, the writer has become increasingly attracted to people living according to the laws of conscience and heart. His favorite character is type of Russian righteous man . Leskov, according to Gorky, begins to create for Russia iconostasis of its saints and righteous people. This is a new variety little man - little great people , which represent the creative forces of the Russian people. In creating such heroes, the author relied on ancient Russian literature. As exponents of the author's ideas about an ideal personality, whose morality is determined by faith in Christ, Leskov's righteous people are close goodies Dostoevsky. But Leskov poeticizes the active personality and religiosity of his heroes This is practical Christianity.
In the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" (1873) the writer is more interested in not piety, but heroism Russian person. Ivan feels the spell of providence on himself, and is therefore enchanted. According to Leskov, Russian people are not characterized by systematic rationality, which does not indicate his spiritual poverty.
In the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” (1873), Leskov, without idealizing the hero or simplifying him, creates whole, but contradictory, unbalanced character. Ivan Severyanovich can also be wildly cruel, unbridled in his seething passions. But his nature is truly revealed in kind and knightly unselfish deeds for the sake of others, in selfless deeds, in the ability to cope with any task. Innocence and humanity, practical intelligence and perseverance, courage and endurance, a sense of duty and love for the homeland - these are the remarkable features of Leskov’s wanderer. Positive types depicted by Leskov opposed the “mercantile age”, affirmed by capitalism, which brought devaluation of the individual common man. Leskov means fiction resisted the heartlessness and selfishness of the people of the "banking period", the invasion of the bourgeois-philistine plague, which kills everything poetic and bright in a person.
IN " Lefty"(1881) in the form of a legend-anecdote, Leskov captured the exceptional talent of Russian artisans. The talent and originality of the Russian person not just a gift, but a consequence of the noble habit of hard and varied work that fosters courage and perseverance of the creative spirit. Regarding Lefty, Leskov himself admitted that where Lefty stands, one must read the Russian people and that he had no intention of either flattering the people or belittling them. Leskov draws attention not only to talent, but also to tragic fate Russian man: his talent is wasted on trifles. Gorky saw distinctive feature thin Leskov's style is that he does not sculpt images plastically, but creates them skillful weaving of colloquial lace. Leskov's narration is most often told in the first person. This narrative style define by the concept tale .
Perhaps the main thing in N. S. Leskov’s work was his creation of bright national characters, remarkable for their moral purity and universal charm. The writer knew how to find bright Russian characters hidden in different corners home country, people with a heightened sense of honor, consciousness of their duty, irreconcilable to injustice and inspired by philanthropy. He painted those who stubbornly, selflessly bear the “burden of life”, always strive to help people and are ready to stand up for the truth.
His heroes are far from the turbulent clashes of the century
. They live and operate in their native wilderness, in the Russian province, most often on the periphery public life. But this did not mean at all that Leskov was moving away from modernity. How acutely the writer felt the urgent moral problems! And at the same time, he was convinced that a person who knows how to look forward without fear and not melt in indignation at either the past or the present deserves to be called the creator of life. “ These people, he wrote, standing apart from the main historical movement... make history stronger than others
" Such people were portrayed by Leskov in “Musk Ox” and “Soboryans”, in “The Sealed Angel” and “A Seedy Family”, in “Lefty” and many other stories and tales. Surprisingly different from each other, they are united by one, for the time being hidden, but unchanging thought about the fate of their homeland.
The thought of Russia, of the people, at turning points of spiritual quest, awakens with aching force in their consciousness, elevating their humble deeds in life to epic greatness. All of them are “loyal to their Fatherland,” “committed to their homeland.” In the depths of Russia, at the edge of the world, the love for native land. The thoughts of the rebellious archpriest Tuberozov (“Soborians”) are addressed to her, passionately blaming the townsfolk for their great loss of concern for the good of their homeland. In the speeches of the hero, removed from the storms of the capital, words coming from immeasurable love are heard: “O soft-hearted Rus', how beautiful you are!” And it is not humble, servile meekness that delights the rebellious archpriest, no: he is completely under the charm of a modest, but great power good selflessness, ready for heroism and resistance to evil.
And the archpriest dreams of some new wonderful temple in Rus', where his grandchildren will breathe freely and sweetly. The “black earth philosopher” Chervev also thinks about the happiness of the people in his own way; “Don Quixote” Rogozhin (“A Seedy Family”) also wishes this happiness for his compatriots: in a feverish delirium he dreams of freeing hundreds of thousands of people in Russia... “I really want to die for the people,” says the enchanted wanderer Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin. And this “black earth Telemachus” deeply worries about his involvement in his native land. What a great feeling is contained in his simple story about loneliness in Tatar captivity: “... there is no bottom to the depths of melancholy... You look, you don’t know where, and suddenly in front of you, out of nowhere, a monastery or temple is indicated, and you remember the baptized land and you will cry.”
Probably, in “The Enchanted Wanderer,” more than in any other work by Leskov, the intricate worldview that is characteristic of the Russian person is highlighted. The whole appearance of the sincere hero is remarkable: irrepressible strength of spirit, heroic mischief, ineradicable vitality and excessiveness in hobbies, alien to the moderation of a virtuous bourgeois and submissive meekness, and the breadth of his soul, responsiveness to the grief of others.
A deep sense of moral beauty “overwhelms the spirit” of Leskov’s righteous people. “The righteous have not been transferred here, and the righteous will not be transferred,” - this is how the story “Cadet Monastery” begins, in which “tall people, people of such intelligence, heart and honesty that it seems there is no need to look for the best” appear in their arduous everyday life- educators and mentors of young cadets. Their unconventional, deeply wise attitude to education contributed to the formation in the pupils of that spirit of camaraderie, the spirit of mutual assistance and compassion, which gives any environment warmth and vitality, with the loss of which people cease to be people.
Among Leskova's heroes is the famous Lefty - the embodiment of natural Russian talent, hard work, patience and cheerful good nature. “Where “Lefty” stands,” notes Leskov, emphasizing the general idea of his work, “one must read “Russian people.”
To understand and appreciate the true scale of the artist’s talent, his contribution to literature, one must proceed from what he said new about life and man, how his vision of the world relates to the moral and aesthetic ideals and tastes of the people [Kurlyandskaya 2004: 14].
The topic of Russian national character was addressed in different times many writers: A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, N.A. Nekrasov, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.M. Karamzin, N.V. Gogol, M. Gorky, S.A. Yesenin, V .Sholokhov, A.Tvardovsky and others.
A.S. Pushkin in his works glorified the life of his native country, showed the inexhaustible spiritual wealth of the Russian people, their great creative power. Remembering Patriotic War with Napoleon, the poet wrote:
Be afraid, O army of foreigners!
The sons of Russia moved;
Both old and young have risen, they fly on the daring,
Their hearts are kindled with vengeance.
Pushkin saw the strength of the Russian people primarily in patriotic feelings. The poet was admired by the courage, courage, self-sacrifice, contempt for death characteristic of the Russian people. In every warrior of Russia, Pushkin saw a hero whose goal is “either to win or to fall in the heat of battle.” Pushkin is proud of his people, who gave a crushing rebuff to the foreign conqueror and defended the honor and independence of their fatherland. But the poet also acted as a defender of the oppressed people, an exposer of the “savage lordship”, the “violent” who appropriated “the labor, property, and time of the landowner.” Not being a revolutionary poet, Pushkin spoke out against inhuman tyranny:
Tyrants of the world, tremble!
And you take courage and listen,
Arise, fallen slaves!
In Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" the theme of Russian folk character occupies one of the leading places. The author shows a bleak picture of the life of the serf peasantry. The landowners ruthlessly exploit them, treat them as their slaves, and can buy and sell them like things. “Bludge-headed” Box, afraid to sell it cheap dead souls, complains to the guest: “...it has never happened to me to sell dead people. I gave up the living ones, so the archpriest gave two girls for a hundred rubles each...” Peasants are obliged to fulfill all the whims of their masters. The author presents a terrifying picture of the life and back-breaking work of the people, their patience and courage, outbursts of protest. But the author paints not only terrible pictures of the people’s fate. Gogol shows how talented and rich in soul Russian people are. These people were used to working well and knew their craft. Ingenuity and resourcefulness are emphasized in the image of Eremey Sorokollekhin, who “traded in Moscow, bringing in one rent for five hundred rubles.” The efficiency of ordinary peasants is recognized by the gentlemen themselves: “Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.” Love for the working people, the breadwinner, can be heard in every author’s word. Gogol writes with great tenderness about the “efficient Yaroslavl peasant” who brought together the Russian troika, about the “lively people”, “the lively Russian mind” [Lebedev 2000: 121].
N. Nekrasov wonderfully conveyed the character traits of a Russian person in his poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” In the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov we see collective image revolutionary intelligentsia, fighter for peasant interests, for all the “offended” and “humiliated”. He does not need wealth and is alien to concerns about personal well-being. The Nekrasovsky revolutionary is not afraid of the upcoming trials, because he believes in the triumph of the cause to which he devoted his whole life. He sees that the people of many millions themselves are encouraging him to fight. Grigory Dobrosklonov is the future leader of the peasantry, an exponent of their anger and reason. his path is hard, but also glorious; only “strong, loving souls” enter it; true happiness awaits a person there, because the greatest happiness, according to Nekrasov, lies in the struggle for the freedom of the oppressed [Lebedev 2000: 118].
M. Gorky depicted the Russian national character in his work in a completely special way. Gorky's heroes are gifted freedom lovers, prone to thinking about their fate or the fate of similarly disadvantaged people. These are “restless” and at the same time “thoughtful” people who are alien to acquisitiveness, petty-bourgeois complacency, and the desire for peace. Dissatisfaction with one's life, a sense of self-worth that does not allow one to put up with the lot of slaves - this is what, first of all, is characteristic of Gorky's Russian man. Spontaneous protest often leads them to break with their environment. They became vagabonds, tramps, proudly declaring: “Even if you’re hungry, you’re free!” [Gracheva 2008: 15].
M. Gorky has his essays and stories from folk life, in which he, by his own admission, wanted to depict “certain properties of the Russian psyche and the most typical moods of the Russian people,” form a cycle called “Across Rus'.” What is characteristic and deeply conscious of the author here is his ardent love for the people. The most fruitful aspects of his worldview are expressed “in philosophical idea a human creator, in the understanding of labor as the highest value" [Gracheva 2008: 21].
S.A. Yesenin was always concerned with such philosophical and ideological problems as Man and the universe, Man and nature, Man and the world of his earthly deeds, joys, passions, anxieties, his love and hatred, his loyalty to the Motherland, his life and death:
How beautiful the earth is
And there is a man on it...
M. Sholokhov is one of the few who managed to truthfully portray the Russian character. In the story "The Fate of Man" he explores great secret Russian soul. Andrei Sokolov reflected, as the writer himself later noted, “one of the best features of the Russian people - the constant and immediate readiness to defend the Motherland” [Bugrov 2000: 281]. There is a sense of genuine moral greatness in him, a pure and noble soul, a huge soul, enormous strength will, remarkable self-control, high self-esteem, excellent understanding of his soldier’s duty to the Motherland. The image of Andrei Sokolov is Sholokhov's solution to the problem of the Russian national character. The story evokes pride in the Russian people, admiration for his strength, the beauty of his soul, and gives rise to faith in the immense possibilities of man. This short work is a symbol of perseverance, courage, self-sacrifice and humanism, reflects true values national identity.
The image of a simple Russian warrior was captured in his work by A. Tvardovsky. “Vasily Terkin” is a book about a fighter. Terkin appears on the first pages of the poem as an unassuming joker soldier who knows how to amuse and amuse the soldiers on a campaign and at a rest stop, innocently laughing at the mistakes of his comrades. But his joke always contains a deep and serious thought, the hero reflects on cowardice and courage, loyalty and generosity, great love and hatred. However, the poet saw his task not only in truthfully drawing the image of one of the millions of people who took on their shoulders the entire burden of the fight against the enemy. Gradually, Terkin’s image increasingly acquires generalized, almost symbolic features. The hero personifies the people:
Into battle, forward, into utter fire
He goes, holy and sinful,
Russian miracle man.
The poet, without embellishing, but also without downgrading the hero, embodied in him the fundamental moral qualities of the Russian people: patriotism, consciousness of responsibility for the fate of the Motherland, readiness for selfless feats, love of work [Samsonov 1999: 112].
Whatever work of V. Shukshin we take, in each of them we feel alive Russian word and the soul of the Russian person. He created the whole world folk characters and he did it generously and talentedly. V.M.Shukshin with sensitivity great artist caught the growing protest against homogenization, schematism, and emasculation of life among the people and reflected it in a peculiar tragicomic manner. However, neither anecdotal incidents nor the eccentric behavior of the characters prevent the writer from discerning the main thing in them - the people's thirst for justice, concern for human dignity, craving for a meaningful life. V. Shukshin's heroes are truly impulsive and extremely natural. They have a heightened reaction to the humiliation of man by man, which takes on the most various shapes and sometimes leads to the most unexpected results. V. Shukshin’s heroes are maximalists, and this is their desire to outgrow themselves, to grow from the growth that is predetermined for them by circumstances, and not by hidden “talent,” their greatness. Pain and anxiety of thought are the most human torment, evidence of the intense life of the soul, rising above pragmatic concerns.
Close attention to the people, deep interest in their destinies and the fate of their individual representatives, the humanism and democracy inherent in these writers bring them closer to a certain extent to I. A. Turgenev. main topic their creativity is a demonstration of the spiritual wealth of the Russian people, the originality of the national character.
The problem of our national character became one of the main ones for the literature of the 60-80s, closely connected with the activities of various revolutionaries, and later populists. Leskov also paid attention to her (and quite widely). We find the essence of the character of a Russian person revealed in many of his works: in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer”, in the novel “The Cathedral People”, in the stories “Lefty”, “Iron Will”, “The Sealed Angel”, “Robbery”, “Warrior” and others. Leskov introduced unexpected and, for many critics and readers, undesirable accents into solving the problem. This is the story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” which clearly demonstrates the writer’s ability to be ideologically and creatively independent of the demands and expectations of the most advanced forces of the time.
N. S. Leskov. “The Enchanted Wanderer” is a story-narration by Ivan Flyagin about his life and destiny. He was destined to become a monk. But another force - the power of the charm of life - forces him to follow the roads of wanderings, hobbies, and suffering. In his early youth he kills a monk. Then he steals horses for gypsies, becomes a nanny for a little girl, is captured by the Tatars, then he is returned to the landowner, who orders him to be flogged, he becomes a coneser for the prince, is enchanted by the gypsy Grusha, and then throws her away, abandoned by the prince, according to her request, into the river, becomes a soldier, becomes an officer and Knight of St. George, retires, plays in the theater and, finally, enters a monastery as a novice. But even in the monastery he has no peace: he is overcome by “demons and imps.” Put in a hole, he begins to “prophesy” about an imminent war and finally goes on a pilgrimage to Solovki.
Leskov describes him as a simple-minded Russian hero, reminiscent of Ilya Muromets. Ivan Flyagin’s “fascination” can be understood in different ways: fascination with incomprehensible forces, witchcraft, the influence of the mysterious principles of existence that sent the hero on his way; fascination with the beauty and poetry of the world; artistic character; period of “sleep of the soul”.
The special character properties of the hero are self-esteem. Fearlessness, absolute freedom from the fear of death.
Flyagin's life story bizarrely combines both the life of the great martyr and a farce. The author defines the genre of the story as “tragicomedy”.
Leskov introduced unexpected and, for many critics and readers, undesirable accents into solving the problem. This is the story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” which clearly demonstrates the writer’s ability to be ideologically and creatively independent of the demands and expectations of the most advanced forces of the time. Written in 1864, the story is subtitled “Essay.” But he should not be trusted literally. Of course, Leskov’s story is based on certain life facts, but this designation of the genre rather expressed the aesthetic position of the writer: Leskov contrasted the poetic fiction of modern writers, a fiction that often tendentiously distorted the truth of life, with the essayistic, newspaper-journalistic accuracy of his life observations. The title of the story, by the way, is very capacious in meaning, leads directly to the problem of the Russian national character, the Mtsensk merchant Katerina Izmailova is one of the eternal types of world literature - a bloody and ambitious villainess, whom the lust for power led along the steps from corpses to the radiance of the crown, and then mercilessly threw off into the abyss of madness. There is also a polemical aspect to the story. The image of Katerina Izmailova argues with the image of Katerina Kabanova from “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky. At the beginning of the story, an inconspicuous but significant detail is reported: if Katerina Ostrovsky before her marriage was the same rich merchant daughter as her husband, then Leskov’s “lady” was taken into the Izmailovo family from poverty, perhaps not from the merchant class, but from the philistinism or peasantry. That is, Leskov’s heroine is an even greater commoner and democrat than Ostrovsky’s. And then there is the same thing as in Ostrovsky: a marriage not for love, boredom and idleness, reproaches from the father-in-law and husband, that he is “not a relative” (there are no children), and, finally, first and fatal love. Leskov’s Katerina was much less lucky with her heart-loving chosen one than Katerina Kabanova with Boris: her husband’s clerk Sergei is a vulgar and selfish man, a boor and a scoundrel. And then a bloody drama unfolds. For the sake of uniting with a loved one and elevating him to merchant dignity, the chilling details of murders (father-in-law, husband, young nephew - the legal heir of Izmailovo's wealth), a trial, a journey along a convoy to Siberia, Sergei's betrayal, the murder of a rival and suicide in the Volga waves.
The story “The Enchanted Wanderer” was written by Leskov in 1873, during the most productive period of his work. This is a programmatic work, that is, it contains something that is later implemented in other works. Along with “The Councilors” and “The Sealed Angel,” “The Enchanted Wanderer” can be called a masterpiece of Russian novella of the 19th century. In one work, the author showed the most different areas Russian life: here is the serf life on the count’s estate, and the southern steppe, of which the hero of the story became a captive, and here is a striking depiction of the relationship between animal and human. This is life rolling on a roller: childhood, youth, territorial movements, fantastic elements, suffering, love stories, man and animal. And the special mission of the hero, Ivan Severyanich, is the atonement of his own sin. A chain of adventures and fatality. “The Enchanted Wanderer” is one of those stories that cannot be abandoned halfway thanks to the manner of storytelling when facts and characters cling to each other. And the whole story is presented in an elementary, frivolous form.
Maybe some researchers are right to some extent: “The Enchanted Wanderer” absorbed a lot from the adventurous story of the West and Russia. The hero's childhood is extraordinary: he was promised to God, but this promise does not come true. A boy, trying to establish justice in the animal world, gets pigeons. He accomplishes the feat of saving the count's couple while riding mad horses, and then flees from the count's house in protest against the injustice of the punishment. Meeting with a gypsy. Deceived by him, without money, without a home, thrown overboard of life, he ends up in the police, where he is deceived again. Next - the way to the fair and fascination with horses. Shocked by the beauty of the horse, which will go to the winner of a unique whip fight,
Ivan, essentially still a boy, whips his opponent. According to Tatar custom, he is now the owner of a horse, a wife, and a respected person by all. But according to our laws, he is a “murderer” and worthy of hard labor. The Tatars save him and take him to the ulus. Now he is a prisoner: “Yakshi Urus, you will live with us. Treat horses. You will have everything - wives, horses, everything. We’ll just trim the skin on the heels and put bristles there so that he doesn’t run away...”
Leskov can convey heat, heated air and complete silence - Asian peace, completely inaccessible to Europeans. Steppe. A Russian person is placed here, he adapts to these conditions: he begins to understand Tatar language. All day long he looks at the hot Asian sky, at its transitions from blue to dark purple, until night falls and the stars light up. His short life is all before him. Memory takes him back to the count's estate, and the decision to run away grows stronger in his soul. That's Lucky case- Russian missionaries visit the ulus to convert the infidels. However, they refuse his request: you cannot interfere in the internal life of the people, if you are captured - be patient, it is God’s will. In addition, one missionary was beheaded, and the second disappeared to an unknown location... Aching melancholy does not leave our hero. And here are the new missionaries, these are Buddhists. The fate of their predecessors frightens them. Having hastily shown the Golden Serpent to the infidels, they left the dangerous limits, forgetting in their haste the box with pyrotechnics. Ivan Severyanych’s practical mind immediately turned on, he gave the Tatars such a fiery feast that they lay down on the ground and began to wait for the end. He was running (he dealt with the stubble in his heels himself). The count's estate, flogging and again a fair where horses are traded. Human. Freedom. Horses. Element. Finding will. And again unity with the horse.
There is something eternally poetic in the communication between a Russian man and a horse: he rides on it and plows, they feed each other, the horse carries it out of battle, out of the fire, and will not leave you in trouble. A man rides around a horse. For Ivan Severyanych, this is his whole life. Where did Leskov get the horse-beast from? From fairy tales, epics, songs? No, this is just the background. This horse is both the reality that surrounded Leskov and the creation of his poetic imagination, thirsting for shocks.
There is no similar image of a horse in Russian literature; it is almost a humanization of the animal: grace, beauty, variety of “characters” revealed in communication with a person - all this is described in detail. Ivan Severyanych Flyagin is an equestrian, or rather, an equestrian poet. He spends the best part of his life among horses and finds a response to his spiritual impulses in them. The animal always helps him out. This is a completely different world - the world of man and animal. Here, man is also an animal, they merge, they have the same character, habits, perception of the world.
The meeting with the prince is the next stage in the hero's life. Although he lived spontaneously, he lived in a special world - in an enchanted one. And he himself had a special attractive force; everyone, everyone wanted him to work for them. The prince is not overjoyed at his “coneser”. If Ivan Severyanych buys a horse, then it will be a horse for all horses. And yet, a new element bursts into the life of our hero and captures him.
Ivan Severyanych is a huge baby, a man with a child’s soul and heroic strength. He went through all the trials: fire, war, love. But what kind of love is this? The beginning of the spree is a meeting with a magnetizer. Gypsies, Grushenka. Her voice, hands, hair, thin parting, touch. “It’s as if it touches your lips with a poisonous brush and burns pain all the way to your very heart.” What other people's money is that! The prince's "swans" swarmed in flocks at Grushenka's feet. She is a deity, Madonna. This is not an adventurous story, there are no such motives as renunciation of earthly happiness, reverence, admiration for feminine beauty. A special world opened up to Ivan Severyanich - an unprecedented world of the first feeling, where earthly passion merged with the unearthly, painfully beautiful. Leskov was extremely successful in describing rampant force platonic love hero, as if he himself was captured by this gypsy.
But the author slowed down in time and gave a trivial outcome with drawn cloth: delirium tremens, a conversation with the prince. Passion is curbed, it begins new topic- affinity of souls, new stage relations between Ivan Severyanych and Grusha. She set the Prince on edge. He marries money, neglecting dignity and decency.
The prince is a whistler, a mercantilist, a vile little soul. Leskov gave a distorted, vile Pechorin. Pechorin has nobility, the prince does not. Pechorin can kill Grushnitsky, the prince cannot, but he can deceive everyone. This is not a story, it is an insert element. Leskov does not make rude attacks against modern authorities. This is not Dostoevsky (who called Prince Myshkin Lev Nikolaevich to annoy Tolstoy, and called the novel “The Idiot”; you can’t say it to his face, but in a novel you can). Leskov will not allow this rude ridicule, but he shows Pechorin’s degeneration with pleasure.
Flyagin, returning from a trip on princely affairs, encounters Grusha, who is equally close to suicide and murder, and carries it out last will, in order to prevent her from committing a sin - like a gypsy, with a knife, to deal with a completely innocent homewrecker. He pushes her off a cliff into the river.
And the plot is still winding. The hero, by the will of the author, has to go to military service instead of peasant son inconsolable parents, distinguish themselves there by performing a heroic act in the war, and receive a promotion. Ivan Severyanych became a nobleman because he wears the St. George Cross. But what kind of nobleman is this - a thousand responsibilities and no rights! Then he will have to go to “fita”, take monastic vows (here unfolds epic story about life in a monastery), and there, to his own and everyone’s surprise, he began to prophesy. We tried to wean him off the harmful misfortune with severity - it helped, but not for long. Then, on the advice of the doctor, they sent him to travel. Ivan Severyanych sets off for Holy Rus'. So he’s sailing on a boat to Solovki, and if there’s a war, he’ll change his “hood” to an “amunichka” and lay down his belly for the fatherland. This is how the story ends, told by the hero himself at the request of the passengers of the ship. The beginning and end of the story are closed.
“The Enchanted Wanderer” is the life of one person. Before us is a whole chain of completed stories told by the hero himself. He captivated the audience: at first they listened in disbelief, then they were fascinated by his story, and finally they were enchanted. “He confessed the stories of his past with all the frankness of his simple soul.” This story could very well be a novel; it contains romantic elements. But there is no novel here. Some researchers compare it with an adventure novel: murders, romantic love, geographical movement, elements of mystification or mysticism, typical heroes- adventurers of various stripes. But this is purely external.
Ivan Severyanich is a simple Russian man. This is not a hero, not a knight. This is a knight every day, he is not looking for adventure, but they are looking for him. He is not St. George the Victorious, but he wins all the time. Murders, if you try to classify them, are as follows: the murder of a monk - out of stupidity, out of mischief; killing a Tatar - in a competition, a fair fight; Pears - at her request. We have to acquit this man of all murders except the first case. On the other hand, the main feature of the hero is his sacrifice: he saved the count and countess, saved the girl, because he felt sorry for the mother. He cannot survive the murder of Grusha, he feels like a sinner (he leaves without looking and not knowing where). He becomes a soldier instead of a recruit - in the name of atonement for his sin. And in this, an adventurous story of a European type does not stand up to opposition.
The trait of sacrifice and repentance is generally characteristic of the Russian national character. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Goncharov - they all have repentance.
In the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” this trait has a dominant meaning. This makes us think that this is not an adventurous story for which there is no equivalent in European literature. All the moments are there, but there is no remorse. Last time I presented material related to the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” solely in order to crystallize the national character of the hero. The elements of criminality in this story are not leading. The unusual character is a striking feature. Everything revolved around him. Ivan Severyanych Flyagin became for us the only point on which all our attention was concentrated. Leskov likes to give an image that is not ideal, but real, even overly real. In terms of his mental abilities, Ivan Severyanych is a person “a little of that”; he is not a rationalist, a dreamer. He is an artist at heart. As if somewhat silly and at the same time unusually practical, he is at peace ordinary people a kind of unique person, capable of feeling extraordinary strength. By nature, Ivan Severyanich is an artist. He understands a lot not through consciousness, but through sensation and intuition. Leskovsky’s hero knows, that is, he feels, what needs to be done, what to say, what to answer, he never thinks (except for an intellectual hero, which is Tuberozov). But Leskov never has a work with one hero; his hero is always surrounded by an environment, or, as we would say now, a team, which forces him to reveal himself fully. In “The Enchanted Wanderer,” this particular technique of revealing the character of the main character is used. Not just a description of him, not just his characterization or portrait - all this is there, but that’s not the main thing. The main thing is that Ivan Severyanich Flyagin is placed in a series of circumstances that themselves force him to open up, in these circumstances he acts completely differently, in a unique way, I would say, in an original way. And the reader gradually forgets that this is a story, that he is dealing with literary work. He is simply carried away by one, two, three adventures that befall Leskov’s hero. That is why many researchers consider the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” as an adventure story. But this is the only work of its kind. "The Enchanted Wanderer". Think about this name. We can talk for a long time about the poetics of the titles of Leskov’s works. Ostrovsky, for example, often used sayings as the titles of his plays. Leskov never, it’s different for him. The title is the thesis of the entire work. The names of his pieces play on various facets of the meaning of the work. “The Enchanted Wanderer”... This title is the key to the story. Wandering poetic soul, unconsciously drawn to beauty, capable of feeling its perfection - and the person is in the grip of a spell, bewitched. Dependent on charm, unable to control himself due to his endless impressionability, weak despite all his epic heroic strength. How can you blame him?
But another name is “Sealed Angel”... There is both an angel and a seal. And the ethereal ideal beginning - and the soullessness, the mechanical blasphemy of the state machine, capable of making holes in a masterpiece and putting a stamp on the face of the Archangel. Here is the impressionability of a seeking soul, gravitating towards spiritual perfection, defenseless. There is great skill here - the ability to capture the ideal.
When you read Leskov, you are so captivated by the text that it is impossible to imagine that the author did not experience what he writes so fascinatingly about. There are very few writers who describe what they have not seen. This is the strength of the artist’s conviction: we accept Kutuzov as he is described by Tolstoy, and Richelieu as he is described by Dumas. In Leskov’s story “At the End of the World,” the nature of the North is described very accurately. But Leskov was not there, but he conveyed the feeling of frosty air, breathtaking. This is the gift of insight. He discovered this gift in The Sealed Angel.
Leskov wrote the story “The Captured Angel” (1873), one of his brightest and most perfect works, based on a thorough study of scientific and documentary materials, representing two layers of knowledge: the life of schismatics and art history - ancient Russian icon painting of the 15th-17th centuries. Leskov prepares material of two levels: historical and scientific-educational - for the series of essays “With People of Ancient Piety” (1863). And then he creates the story “The Captured Angel,” where scientific material becomes the subject of artistic interpretation. He reincarnates this material and gives a second life to a work that already exists, but which he changes. And one gets the impression that in the story he writes about the environment that he knows. This world fascinates him. This is a special world of ideas, skills, ways of different cities: Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Volga region, Zhostovo. The writer is interested in how life is reflected in art: the world of isographers, the composition of paints, the style of painting, the character of the painters. Many pages are devoted specifically to this world of art and concern everything: from the characters of the icon painters to the composition of the gesso. The subject of the image becomes the very material of the icon painter.
But Leskov is not creating an art criticism treatise; there must be a narrative plot, intrigue. Therefore, here the artist becomes twice an artist. Leskov describes adventures in unusual world from art historical and everyday points of view. It starts with a story, but it turns into action and the narrator disappears.
And now - a short historical excursion into the area of the Old Believers. It arose in the 17th century in response to the innovations of Patriarch Nikon. Russian life was very colorful then. When Michael sat on the throne, everything depended on his father, the patriarch, who returned from captivity and ruled it. It was harder for his son, Alexei Mikhailovich. The government was supposed to be autocratic, and the ground was shaking underfoot (Polish intervention, Swedish war, civil strife), there was nothing to rely on. No matter what they say, the support for power is always ideology, and from time immemorial it has been in the Russian Orthodox Church. But the disorder in the church was enormous: under the influence of the Poles, Catholicism penetrated, under the influence of the Swedes - Lutheranism, and the Tatars - Muslimization. It's all intertwined. All this had to be neutralized. The Church remained orthodox, but its foundations were shaken. Then Alexey Mikhailovich decides to create a “Circle of Devotees of Piety”, which was supposed to take care of good behavior church service and strict adherence to its sequence. And then the unimaginable happened (and Kurbsky ridiculed this at one time): the service was going on, and someone was immediately singing, another was reading, a third was praying near the icon brought from home. A ban followed: do not wear your icons to church! The service time was limited and simultaneous singing and speaking were abolished.
But life goes on as usual - the old patriarch died, Nikon was elected, a decisive, tough man, a reformer by nature, whom the tsar, distinguished by his gentle and sociable disposition, considered his friend. Nikon initially refused to be a patriarch. Then the king in the Assumption Cathedral, in front of the relics of St. Philip, bowed at Nikon’s feet, begging him to accept the patriarchal rank. And he agreed on the condition that he would be honored as an archpastor and allowed to build a church. The Tsar, and everyone behind him - both the spiritual authorities and the boyars - swore to him of this. Nikon immediately changed everything by order. To return to Byzantine primary sources, you need to re-read all the ancient church books and correct errors! This event was decisive and tragic, and all the misfortunes began with it. The Russian clergy knew Greek very poorly. For three centuries, scribes made mistakes, and those who corrected them introduced new distortions. For example, in the Nomocanon it is written: “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, O God,” but in another copy “Alleluia” is repeated only twice, which means it needs to be corrected. But how many saints prayed from these books! This made them sacred and holy. “What does Byzantium have to do with it? - the supporters of antiquity were angry. “She fell under the sabers of the Turks, was desecrated by Islam, submitted to Mohammed, she cannot instruct us!” Nikon was a very smart and resourceful person, he objected: “And we will take interpreters from Ukraine.” They found specialists in the Mogilev Collegium (Peter Mogila created the Collegium with great difficulty - the Poles did not allow it to be called the Academy; Dmitry Rostovsky and Innokenty came from there), and interpreters poured into Russia. The Holy of Holies - church books were verified with primary sources in ancient Greek and corrected. In the eyes of the supporters of the old order, this was a sacrilegious violation of ancient piety. Nikon announces three-fingered baptism, and the old people contemptuously say: “They sniff tobacco.”
Do you remember the painting “Boyaryna Morozova” by Surikov? There in the background, in the direction of the movement of her hand, there is a small, pointed building - this is a church. In the old architecture there were towers running upward, made of wood. So, Nikon forbade the construction of such churches, ordered the construction of five-domed ones, like those in Byzantium, that were foreign to them. The reform also affected music. They began to sing not according to hooks, but according to notes. Old Believer singing on hooks is very tuneless for unaccustomed ears. Singers appeared in the church, and something like a concert was taking place. Iconography has also changed. It has become more refined, but no longer so penetrating to the soul. The ancient faces with their endless sadness and silence were becoming a thing of the past. The icon combines a human and non-human appearance: big eyes, thin arms, a turn of the body, sadness in the eyes, endless sadness... How to depict God? In the Old Russian icon, everything carnal is lost and the superhuman is left, there is no volume. And there is nothing superhuman in the new images. Gods were made by people, prayers were made into concerts, buildings were not the same. This was the spiritual basis for disagreement and opposition.
But in order to carry out reforms, enormous amounts of money are needed. Patriarch Nikon, as an intelligent man, from the people, a representative of the middle stratum of the clergy, poor priests, knew very well that you couldn’t get much from the boyars and merchants, but the rural priest would take everything he needed from the peasants. He imposed taxes on the church. Now Nikon is like a king, he has his own court. Alexey Mikhailovich cannot ignore him. But the peasants had little regard for him. A rural priests They have already said: “Nikon is a wolf!” And a terrible split occurred between the church and the Old Believers. The state, Alexey Mikhailovich, should have taken Nikon’s side, since this was an advanced direction. Transformations were necessary for Russia.
The split brought ruin to the country. And the clergy languished from taxes, and the men. At the head of the Old Believers was Archpriest Avvakum, an exceptionally interesting personality. His fierce sermons against Patriarch Nikon were heard. “I bark him, he’s the Antichrist!” - wrote Avvakum. And he was eventually burned along with his closest followers in Pustozersk (there is a platform with his name and a cross behind the forest). Whole villages of people went into the forests. The boyars (Urusovs, Morozovs) took part in the schism. Why? And because under Nikon they lost their former political significance, the loss of power offended them. Part of the boyars, offended by court intrigues and having lost their political significance, clutched at the split like a straw.
Habakkuk was destroyed. Later, Nikon is tried and exiled. The new church dispensation was established, but the Old Believers did not lose their vitality. In the 18th century, persecution of Old Believers led to self-immolations: the hut was burning, and they stood inside and sang the canon. What can the authorities do about such disregard for death? Peter I didn’t care about all this - just let them pay. If you want to wear a beard, go ahead (Christ had a beard too!), but just be sure to pay for the beard.
Within the schism there were many sects: Bespopovtsy, Runners (ran from all authority), Jumpers (jumped from officials, police - so to speak, elusive athletes), Khlysty (this was a terrible sect). Something had to be done: sectarianism is a terrible thing.
In the 19th century, the Kiev Metropolitan Platon (in the world Nikolai Ivanovich Gorodetsky) tried to “tame” the Old Believers. He came up with an idea: let the Old Believers remain Old Believers, but it is necessary to introduce common faith. Since the Old Believers did not have a bishop (they elected their own priests, and thus there was no grace for them), Plato suggested to them: “We will give you real priests, they will conduct the service according to your books, the way you need.” The priests were eager and interested in this endeavor, but the Old Believers were not at all interested. Another priest waits, waits for them for the service, and then goes to the neighboring forest and finds them there praying. The most disgusting thing is that the police were involved in this matter. This is exactly the time that Leskov writes about in “The Captured Angel.” Metropolitan Platon saw that you couldn’t convince schismatics so easily, that they were organizing debates, and there you couldn’t beat them, the scolders.
These disputes have existed in our time. Somehow 50 years ago in summer night before the holiday Vladimir icon Mother of God I saw how schismatics and Orthodox Christians converged at Lake Svetloyar Nizhny Novgorod region. Some walked in black, others in white. Both of them carried a log in their hand. Frankly, this puzzled me. People in white with logs and in black with logs were located separate groups. Everyone sang their own psalm. When it got dark, everyone attached a lighted candle to their log and set it floating on the water. The lake is in a hollow, there is no wind. What a beauty it was! For some reason, the logs closed in a circle, and in the middle of the lake two luminous rings from burning candles formed - real and reflected, no less bright. And then they began to sing... A ring of candles and hook singing - fear and delight!
According to legend, the city of Kitezh drowned in Lake Svetloyar, and a pious person, if he walks around the lake, will see that city.
Early Russian capitalism took shape in the Old Believer environment. Since the Old Believers were persecuted people, they needed to be provided with money. Their environment is a world where everyone stands up for each other. Such cohesion helped them survive in the 17th, 18th, and 18th centuries. 19th centuries. From there - the Mamontovs, Alekseevs (Stanislavsky), Shchukins, Morozovs. Our patrons are from the Old Believer environment (Bakhrushin from the tanners, Morozov from the manufacturers). This environment was exceptionally healthy, talented, hard-working, strong in its mutual support and cohesion, rich. They worked conscientiously, without betraying their faith, living an ideally pure family life. (As long as your wife is alive, you don’t dare remarry, otherwise you will be crushed, crushed economically.) The Old Believer could not drink vodka, otherwise he would simply be thrown out of the community and considered a nonentity. He doesn't smoke (it's hard to be an Old Believer!). They built themselves a house on the side, away from the authorities, surrounded by trees, a river, and in the depths of the house - a favorite room in which icons were laid out (they never parted with them). And they live and work with prayer. The Old Believers are, in essence, a strong economic union with the support of religion. The masters have golden hands, the leaders also have clear heads, so they united in an artel, a professional and economic union, sanctified by a single faith. Invincible people! But they had one weak spot...
This vulnerable spot was also present in the team of masons (bridge builders) that Leskov talks about in “The Sealed Angel.” Artel workers are skilled people, but helpless in some things. They needed an intermediary between themselves and the authorities, an organizer who would keep all their documentation, provide them with provisions, and transfer money to their families by mail. Leskov also has such a character. Pimen, of course, is a scoundrel, a “emptiness,” but it’s impossible without him. In appearance, he is handsome, the city authorities like him, he knows how to find a loophole for them, but in essence he is talkative inappropriately, and lies, and is not too honest. Leskov knows how to portray such people; he saw them when he served under A.Ya. Shcott.
An artel of masons erected eight bulls on the Dnieper, and the Old Believers-artel workers lived their usual lives, very happy with their location. There were pointed poplars, and they fascinated them with their resemblance to the drawings in the margins of their prayer books. And they were pleased with how the work progressed, and most importantly, with how nice their favorite icons looked in the secret room - “The Most Holy Lady Praying in the Garden” and “Guardian Angel”, by Stroganov. Peace, silence, cleanliness, everything is decorated with white towels - such grace that you don’t want to leave. And then a misfortune happened: the icon of an angel fell from the lectern. How she fell is unknown, but that’s how it all started.
Leskov said that he was not a writer, but a secretary of life, transmitting and recording facts. In the city, Jews sell contraband, officials go for an inspection. The head of the audit went and really covered everyone up. He gave a seal for a bribe so that the Jews would seal their shops. The traders took out the contraband, waited a day or two and demanded money from him, or else threatened to sue for disruption of commerce. They rushed to the Old Believers for money, but they had nowhere to take it from. This is where everything started to boil down. The inspector’s wife sent gendarmes to the Old Believers, they came and took away the icons, sealing them with sealing wax, and the icon of the angel too: “this divine divine face was red and imprinted, and from under the seal the drying oil, which melted a little from the top under the fire resin, streamed down in two streams, like blood dissolved in a tear...” Then the artel workers decide to replace the icons. And for this you need to find a master, an isographer, who will paint a new icon.
Then the story begins new story. Leskov very often has several stories in one thing. A story for Leskov - main genre, and he almost flaunts them: a story within a story; a story pretending to be history; a story in the nature of a love adventure or tragedy. Sometimes it is difficult for Leskov, he cannot stop: “The Life of a Woman” he writes as his contemporaries wrote - Levitov, Uspensky, Reshetnikov. But they wrote local stories, while Leskov has many pages connected by light bridges that are almost indistinguishable. Researchers compared his stories with the tales of the Arabian Nights.
A new plot twist: the narrator Mark and the youth Levontius go in search of an isographer. Along the way, the Old Believers meet the hermit Pamva. He is a heretic, that is new faith, he cannot have any truth but the narrator's opinion. But “Levontius wants to see what the grace of the dominant church is.” Pamva is not talkative. Pa always answers: “Thank God.” A silent dialogue takes place: Levontii and Pamva say something to each other without words. Mark understands that Pamva will calm the devils even in hell: “he asks to go to hell, he responds to everything with humility, he will turn all the demons to Nog, it’s not for nothing that I feared him.” “This man is irresistible.” The man is devoid of all malice, as if he were not even a man. And Pamva sowed doubt in the soul of the wanderer Mark: “It means that the church is strong if there is such faith.”
The story “The Sealed Angel” delighted everyone until the ending was printed. The ending is unexpected and almost implausible: the revelation of the miracle is unconvincing. The Englishwoman stuck a piece of paper, but it flew off. With Leskov, everything is on the verge of chance. He shows that miracles are only accidents, coincidences, funny and at the same time tragic. The writer does not succeed in miracles: he is a down-to-earth person, despite the poetry of his works. The measure of fiction and the measure of fantasy do not go beyond the scope of reality. The writer himself admitted that he had to redo the ending. This is one of those things in which Leskov could not or did not want to resolve the conflict.
The researcher wants to see a masterpiece in the work being studied. Leskov may have been afraid of this masterpiece. Proseisms are one of best sides his creativity. In “The Captured Angel” there is prosaism on prosaism.
There is one idea in this story - to find the truth. Through what? Through the image of an angel. “They laugh at us, as if an Englishwoman slipped us on a piece of paper under the church. But we do not argue against such arguments: as everyone believes, let him judge, but for us it makes no difference in what ways the Lord seeks a person and from what vessel he gives him to drink, as long as he seeks and quenches his thirst for unanimity with the fatherland.”
