Annotation. The article discusses the problems and system of images of B. Vasiliev’s story “Don’t Shoot White Swans.” Material for teachers on its study, questions and assignments for students are presented.
Key words: man and nature, ecology, artistic image, tradition.
One of the pressing tasks facing literature teachers today is environmental education students. I would like that, when building a system of educational classes and extracurricular educational activities, the literature writer would include in it Boris Vasiliev’s story “Don’t Shoot White Swans” (1973).
As practice shows, it is best to discuss this work in the eighth grade in a detailed conversation. Written in beautiful language, emotionally, openly expressing the author’s position, the novel captivates eighth-graders and awakens high feelings.
The novel "Don't Shoot White Swans" is dedicated to the most pressing problem the relationship between man and nature, the confrontation between good and evil.
The action of the story is associated with the life of nature, which not only serves as the background and place of action, but sometimes becomes a kind of hero of the work. And the forest, and the river, and the Black Lake, and the village dogs, and even a dried tree, transformed by the efforts of the main character of the story, Yegor Polushkin, into a sculpture - all this actively participates in the movement of the plot and in identifying human feelings.
It is the attitude towards nature that divides the characters in the work into two camps: those who understand, love, and protect it, and those who are only capable of dragging, grabbing, killing, spoiling and destroying everything in their path. On those who protect and create beauty, protect nature, and on those who easily, thoughtlessly and mercilessly raise their hands against it for the sake of selfish personal gain.
The dramatic plots of Boris Vasiliev’s works stir the soul and remain in the memory of readers, among whom, perhaps, there is no one indifferent to tragic destinies five girls under the command of Sergeant Major Vaskov (the story “And the dawns here are quiet ...”), nor to the events last day the life of junior police lieutenant Kovalev (p. “The Very Last Day”), nor to the bitter disappointments and losses of the river boat captain Ivan Burlakov from the story “Ivanov’s Boat”. But, perhaps, never before has a writer expressed his author’s attitude to his characters and problems as openly as he did in the story “Don’t Shoot White Swans.”
Cover of the book “Don’t Shoot White Swans” by B. Vasilyev The title itself sounds like a cry, a call and a warning, a spell or a covenant. There is a palpable desire in him to express the inner pathos and meaning of the book.
Immediately after the magazine publication, a heated discussion developed around the story. A number of critics (V. Kardin, I. Dedkov, V. Baranov) saw in the main character, Yegor Polushkin, yesterday’s peasant who moved to live in a small forest village, a “non-resistance”, “blessed”, a person “not of this world”, and the story was criticized for the idea of non-resistance, forgiveness, for the fact that it was written “from the most noble motives, but without due respect for the real complexity of our modern life” (I. Dedkov).
Other critics and writers (L. Uvarova, V. Shaposhnikov, G. Metsinsky), on the contrary,
They considered Vasiliev's story a brilliant work of the second half of the 20th century, and the image of the main character as vital and convincing, carrying a great moral and aesthetic charge.
What is it really like? main character and what issues does the author address?
Man and nature, man and his conscience, the measure of man’s responsibility for everything that happens around him - this is the most important problems, delivered by the author. Yegor Polushkin is one of the people who have the gift of experiencing joy from work, no matter how outwardly prosaic it may be. Whatever Yegor does, wherever he works - as a carpenter in construction team Whether at a boat station or later as a forester, he always works “as his heart dictated.”
Moreover, he works not only earnestly, but also with the consciousness of enormous responsibility for the work. Labor, in his opinion, “will be produced for the joy of people.” A master with golden hands, a skilled craftsman, with which our land is rich, Yegor Polushkin wants to do any business “so that his conscience does not suffer.”
There is one thing Yegor does not know how to do and does not want to do - to settle down in life, to adjust, to make deals with his conscience. So he walks around like a “fool”, a klutz in the eyes of some resourceful neighbors, feeling guilty before his wife, and before his son, and almost all people. But this feeling of guilt comes from a heightened conscience. “He acted not for reasons of reason, but as his conscience dictated,” the author will say about him more than once.
A hard worker and creator, Egor is not only in love with nature, but in his heart he understands the blood indissolubility with it. He is worried about the ever-increasing contradictions between man and nature: “We are orphans: in discord with the mother earth, in a quarrel with the father forest, in a bitter separation with the sister river. There is nothing to stand on, and nothing to lean against,” the students quote from the text.
There is an episode in the story that testifies to the high civic and moral maturity of the hero. We will certainly draw the students’ attention to it. One day, unemployed Yegor saw an advertisement in the office that procurement organizations were accepting money from residents of the village of Lyko.
Taking his son with him, Yegor went into the forest the next day. And then a picture appeared before his eyes, from which a chill went down his skin: “Bare linden trees heavily dropped fading flowers to the ground. The trunks, white, like a woman’s body, glowed dimly in the green dusk, and the ground beneath them was wet from the juices that regularly drove the roots from the depths of the earth to the already doomed peaks.
“They ruined it,” Yegor said quietly and took off his cap, “they ruined it for rubles, for fifty kopecks.”
And Yegor, whose family was left without a penny of money, refuses the right income and returns home, because such “earnings” contradict his moral convictions.
Yegor Polushkin listens sensitively to the life of nature, he sees and understands its beauty, which is dear to him with the ability to elevate human soul. Therefore, he not only admires nature - he “wants to scoop up this untouched beauty with his palms and carefully, without muddying or spilling, bring it to people.”
Preserving this beauty for people is what Egor is concerned about, when he paints animals and birds on pleasure boats instead of numbers, and when he refuses to destroy an anthill when digging ditches for laying pipes, and when he brings from Moscow a couple of swans instead of gifts for the family, so that they can breed again. Black Lake and the lake would become, as before, Swan...
It is no coincidence that images of swans appear in the work and are even included by the author in its title. This image has a rich tradition of poetic and historical-mythological interpretations. IN ancient mythology the swan acted as a symbol of the poet; this bird was dedicated to Apollo, the patron of the arts. In Russian literature, it is present in the poetry of G. Derzhavin (“The Swan”), V. Zhukovsky (“The Tsarskoye Selo Swan”), in Pushkin’s Lyceum cycle, in the lyrics of Annensky (“Mikulich”), N. Gumilyov (“In Memory of Annensky”) and other poets.
By integrating his work into this literary tradition, Vasiliev emphasizes the poetic nature, moral strength the main character is a person endowed with a subtle sense of beauty, a guardian and defender of nature.
Having become a forester of the reserve, Polushkin behaves as a friend and ally of nature. He “ecstatically cleared the forest, cut through overgrown clearings, pulled dead wood and dead wood into piles... He worked with passion, with exhausting, almost sensual pleasure, and, falling asleep, he always managed to think what a happy person he was.”
A high poetic gift lives in Yegor’s soul. He knows how not only to love nature and take care of it, but also to create beautiful things for the joy of people. In a broken linden tree, he notices a harmony hidden from others and carves out of it a sculpture - an elegant figure of a maiden combing her hair.
With his attitude to life, Yegor Polushkin resembles Turgenev’s Kalinich. But unlike Turgenev’s hero, he is not just an enthusiastic dreamer, but an active person, he is a citizen. The writer carefully traces the spiritual evolution of his hero. At the beginning of the story, he preaches passive kindness: “I want kindness to be given to everyone, both bad and good people,” he forgives tourists for the senseless, out of boredom, burning of an anthill (“and if they burned an anthill, then God be with you”).
However, over time, Yegor becomes more and more convinced that evil must be actively resisted; this is the only way to defeat it. Resist both in word and - most importantly - in deed. Genuine love for nature requires active actions aimed at protecting and preserving it - this is one of the important thoughts of the story. This is where the author leads his readers. When, having become a forester, Yegor finds the cutters, his former friends, in the forest, he no longer persuades them to stop destroying trees, but demands: “I, as the official forester of the local area, officially demand...”
Egor Polushkin is contrasted in the story with people like his brother-in-law Fyodor Buryanov. The writer shows the contrast of the moral principles of these characters by drawing them different attitude to nature. Fedor is an outright grabber, the main thing in his nature is predation. Taking advantage of his position, he steals protected forest, poaches on the lake, carries carts of bast for sale, mercilessly destroying the forest.
Profit is his passion, he subordinated his whole life to it. Egor, on the contrary, is a moneyless person who can, without hesitation, give away his last. Fedor is always and in everything a destroyer. Egor is a creator, guardian, protector.
Life pits him against people of not the best moral standards. But he is convinced: good people more. Such as the teacher Nonna Yuryevna, the forester Yuri Petrovich Shuvalov, who takes an active part in the fate of Yegor, appointing him the guardian of the protected forest. In this post, Polushkin appears to us as a whole, deep, strong nature.
At the end of the work, Yegor protects nature from poachers who killed the swans that he brought to Black Lake from the Moscow Zoo, and, brutally beaten by Fyodor Buryanon and his cronies, dies. But from this unequal duel with brutal poachers, he emerges as a moral winner, turning from Yegor the Poor Bearer, as he was dubbed in the village due to life’s troubles, into St. George the Victorious.
Drawing the scene of Polushkin’s death, the author uses an important iconographic allegory. In Yegor’s fading consciousness, the image of his heavenly patron appears from the famous icon “The Miracle of St. George on the Serpent,” in which the Great Martyr St. George the Victorious slays the serpent, personifying evil, with a spear. In his dying vision, a red horse appears to Yegor and calls with an inviting neigh “to gallop to where the endless battle is going on” and “where the black creature, writhing, still spews out evil.”
Despite the death of the main character, the ending of the story cannot be called hopeless and gloomy. Yegor Polushkin has successors and heirs. Having carried through all the hardships, he bequeaths his reverent perception of the beauty of nature and his love for his native land to his son Kolka.
Yegor dies, but Kolka, the “clean-eyed boy” who inherited his kind, generous heart from his father, remains alive. skillful hands and, like his father, loving all living things. Having chosen, like his father, the uncompromising path of affirming goodness, he will continue everything that Yegor did not manage to complete.
Character formation, family education, continuity of generations... The author pays considerable attention to these problems. How Egor Polushkin and his antipode Fyodor Buryanov contrast in their views on life, people, nature. The moral principles of their children, cousins Kolya and Vovka, are so opposite.
If Yegor Polushkin teaches his son kindness by his example, then Fyodor Buryanov also teaches his son personal example- cruelty. The author talks in detail about what “lessons” his father gives to the younger Buryanev. “Vovka’s dogs were never transferred. Before Fyodor Ipatych has time to shoot one, he immediately starts another... A dog is not a toy, a dog requires expenses and, therefore, must justify itself.
Well, if you’ve grown old, lost your sense of smell, or lost your anger, then don’t blame me: why feed you? Fyodor Ipatych personally shot her with a gun in his own garden... He gave the skin to dog owners (they paid sixty kopecks!), and buried the carcass under an apple tree. The apple trees were fruitful, you can’t say anything.”
Such “lessons” do not pass unnoticed for my son. If Kolka Polushkin knew how and loved to dream, and his dream “was different every day about travel, about animals, about space,” then Vovka “had one for all days: if only he could open some kind of hypnosis so that everyone would fall asleep. Well, that's it! And then I would take a ruble from everyone!”
The writer contrasts such predators and money-grubbers as Fyodor Buryanov, as visiting tourists-poachers, with the moral beauty of people like Yegor Polushkin. In lyrical comments woven into the artistic fabric of the story, he speaks of the immortality and ineradicability of people like Yegor: “When I enter the forest, I hear Yegor’s life. In the busy babble of aspen trees, in pine sighs, in the heavy swing of spruce paws... She calls me quietly and shyly.”
With his novel “Don’t Shoot White Doves,” B. Vasiliev awakens high feelings in the reader’s soul. And this is his undeniable moral strength.
Questions and assignments for students:
1, What place does the story “Don’t Shoot White Swans” occupy in the creative
biography of B. Vasiliev?
2. What is the meaning of its name?
3. What do you think is the main idea of this work? What is the author rebelling against and defending?
4. Tell us about the main character of the story, Yegor Polushkin. What is most valued in
Is he the author?
5. How do critics - participants in the discussion on the story “Don’t Shoot White Swans” evaluate the image of Yegor Polushkin?
6. Who is Yegor Polushkin: winner or loser?
7. Who helps Egor protect nature?
8. Who opposes Yegor in the story? How are these characters drawn by the author?
9. What is the meaning of the opposition in the story of two young heroes: Kolya Polushkina and Vovka Buryanov? Which side do you sympathize with?
10. Can we say that Vasiliev’s story is optimistic? What do you see as its educational significance?
11. Write an essay on one of the topics: “Who, from your point of view, is the main character of the story: Egor the Poor-Bearer or St. George the Victorious?”; “The moral evolution of Yegor Polushkin”; “He who does not love nature does not love man.” How is this idea of F.M. Dostoevsky realized in Vasiliev’s story “Don’t Shoot White Swans”?”
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In the evenings the small village hospital is quiet. A sister will silently glide along the corridor, carrying thermometers. The wizened old lady grunts and the door creaks behind the motorman from the Bystroy, who comes out to smoke in the cold entryway.
And today the silence was broken by the heavy steps of the doctor, the running of the nurses, and the alarming creaking of the stretcher.
The mechanic ran out into the corridor:
- Nikiforov was taken from Ivanov’s boat to the operating room.
“Drown!..” gasped the grandmother.
- No, grandma, he fell overboard...
During their conversations, they did not notice how two people walked along the corridor past the chambers; one was limping, leaning tightly on a stick.
He was not young. Due to lameness in his left leg, he stooped slightly and, when walking, habitually brought his right shoulder forward. Wrinkles furrowed his tanned face to blackness, and especially many of them appeared near the eyes, as if this man had been looking into the wind all his life.
He walked, trying to set down the stick without knocking, and his sister-girl silently flew ahead, twisting the toes of her cloth slippers from the overflowing energy, ballet-style. Stopped at the operating room:
- Sit down.
She slid sideways through the door, and he carefully sat down on the edge of the chair, placing a stick between his legs.
Like all healthy people, he was a little frightened by the hospital silence: he was embarrassed to sit down more comfortably, creak the chair, or straighten the tight robe that was slipping off his shoulder. He was ashamed of his health, his worn-out shoes made of rough leather and heavy hands completely covered with abrasions and cuts.
- Ivan Trofimych?.. - The mechanic climbed out into the corridor again.
- Peter? – Ivan was surprised in a whisper. - Why are you here?
“The appendix was cut out,” the mechanic said, not without pride, sitting down next to him. - Phlegmonous.
“What a problem with Fyodor...” Ivan sighed.
- And what happened?
“The flood at Semyonov’s ravine broke in the morning. I don’t know where the water came from, but the cable just snapped and carried the forest into the Volga. And here is the wind, the wave. There is a crashing sound - no voice can be heard. Well, everyone goes everywhere: you can’t joke with the forest.
“Ah-ah-ah!..” the motorman said sadly. - And how much did it take?
- No, not much. We carefully led the cart towards, to hitch it to “Nemda”. All saw logs, two hundred and forty meters. Well, I saw: the forest was coming head-on...
- Tug with an ax and to the shore! - said the mechanic. - It will be rubbed with logs - you won’t have time to say “mother”.
Ivan smiled.
– But I thought differently. The raft is only solid, the cables are good, and the width in this place is small: it turned around, handed over the stern to the Old Mill - there were stones there, it was firmly wounded. And he hid his boat behind the toe. Do you know where the raspberries are?
- Well, he held back the forest, didn’t let him into the Volga, into the open space.
- Look, I figured it out! – the mechanic sighed enviously. - There will be a reward, gratitude...
“There may be gratitude, but there won’t be an assistant,” Ivan sighed. “When the first portion hit us, the ropes began to sing, and Fyodor was thrown onto the logs.” They caught him, and his hand was hanging from the veins.
“It’ll get better,” the mechanic said confidently. - The man is healthy. And the doctor is great: he plastered me - at any cost.
It was dark when the doctor came out of the operating room. Seeing him, the engine mechanic cowardly darted into the room. Ivan stood up to meet him, creaking his chair, but the doctor sat down next to him, and Ivan, after standing for a while, also sat down. He was embarrassed to start a conversation, but the doctor remained silent, slowly kneading the cigarette in his fingers.
“Spinal fracture,” he said, lighting a cigarette and taking a deep drag. - Bad business, captain.
- How long will it last? – Ivan asked quietly, having little idea what this meant.
- All life. “The doctor smoked greedily, occasionally dispersing the gray clouds of smoke with his hand. - All my life, captain, what kind of life remains...
“Three children...” I involuntarily burst out.
“Three children,” Ivan repeated and stood up again. – The eldest is twelve, no more...
The doctor was silent. The flashes of the cigarette illuminated his haggard face and beads of sweat on his forehead.
– Can he have some fish?
- Fish? – the doctor asked. - Some fruit would be nice. Vitamins, you know?
And he fell silent again. Ivan stood for a while and, quietly saying goodbye, limped towards the locker room.
In the locker room he handed over his robe and in exchange received a tattered work jacket. The elderly cloakroom attendant was curious about Nikiforov, and he told her that Fyodor’s business was bad and that he had three children. The wardrobe attendant, sighing and lamenting, unlocked the doors that had already been locked at night, and he went out into the dark outlying street of the village.
He habitually turned down towards the piers, but after walking a little, he stopped. He looked at his watch and, quickly throwing his stick, walked along the narrow steep path from the corner and loudly tapped the locked gate with his stick.
Through the hysterical barking of the dog, a voice, hoarse from sleep, was heard:
– Who is not easy?
- It's me, Burlakov. Open up, Stepanych, the matter is for you.
“Get in your place, parasite!..” A dignified figure appeared through the crack of the slightly open gate. - What's the matter?
- Do you have any apples, Stepanych?
“Apples?..” The owner suddenly laughed thinly. – What kind of apples do you like in July, old stump?
– You see, Nikiforov is in the hospital. The doctor ordered fruit...
– In the hospital?.. – The owner thought about it. – In the hospital it’s a different matter. - He opened the gate. - Walk, Trofimych. Be careful, there's an attack here.
Following Stepanych, Ivan climbed onto the porch and walked into the dark entryway. The owner flipped the switch; a bare light bulb illuminated a spacious room littered with wicker baskets, bags and boxes.
- Fruit is a great thing. “Stepanich pulled a holey bag out of the corner and unfolded it: at the bottom lay broken green apples. - First harvest. I would eat it myself, but for the sake of such a thing...
- Sour, go ahead.
- What are you doing? Padding, first grade. Look... - The owner took the apple and began to chew it with a crunch, smacking his lips with pleasure. – Eight kilograms, just estimate at the steelyard.
- Why?
- Well, as for a patient - a ruble.
- You're taking it cool, Stepanych...
“I’m tearing the first ones away from myself.”
Ivan silently counted out the money and shouldered the bag. The owner led him to the gate, out of inertia praising the already sold goods:
– There are loads of vitamins in these apples! The prosecutor is purchasing a kindergarten from me for his sick wife. Strength apples: a special variety... Happy Trofimych! Come in if you need anything. First of all, for you...
Ivan walked down a steep path to the piers and immediately saw posters with a catchy inscription: “Heroes of our backwater.” It would be impossible to recognize the heroes if the artist had not signed each portrait: “Captain Ivan Burlakov”, “Assistant to Captain Fyodor Nikiforov”, “Sailor Elena Lapushkina”. All three looked sternly into the distance...
The boats were parked behind a half-submerged barge. They were same size, shapes, decorations, were equally illuminated by signal lanterns, and only at the farthest, in a completely homely way, was laundry drying on a line.
Ivan jumped onto the boat, slamming his crutch on the iron deck. At the noise, a thin young woman in a faded chintz dress looked out of the control room; her head was tied with a towel.
- You, Ivan Trofimych?
- Why are you wearing a towel?
- Washed my hair. How is Fedor?
He sat down, stretching out his sore leg, lit a cigarette and told what the doctor had said and how he had gone to Stepanych for apples.
- It’s bad, Elenka.
“He fed six souls,” she sighed. - Six souls, the seventh himself...
“The seventh himself,” Ivan repeated, persistently looking at the light of the cigarette.
They fell silent again. Elenka stood, looking sad like a woman, drooping her thin shoulders, barely covered by a light dress, and he smoked leisurely, out of habit holding the cigarette with the fire in his palm.
“They will send someone instead of Fyodor,” she either asked or said.
Ivan threw the cigarette overboard and stood up:
- Let's go to the cockpit. You'll freeze.
They descended along an iron ladder into a cramped, low cockpit. Four sofas surrounded a small table attached to the floor; three of them were covered. In the corner near the ladder there was a stove built into an iron cabinet; As it cooled, it crackled occasionally. In the opposite corner there was a wardrobe and another small hanging cabinet in which ship documents, statements, binoculars and other valuable property were kept.
Vasiliev wrote the novel “Don’t Shoot White Swans” in 1973. The central theme of the work is the theme of man and nature. The novel belongs to the works of village prose.
In the novel, nature is not just the background of events, but also a separate hero of the story: through landscapes and descriptions of natural phenomena, the general mood of the episodes is conveyed, and the feelings of the characters are emphasized.
Main characters
Egor Savelich Polushkin– carpenter, loved nature and treated it with care; often got into trouble and received the nickname “poor bearer” (although he was named after St. George the Victorious). He had two children - Kolka and little Olya.
Buryanov Fedor Ipatych– brother-in-law of Yegor, married to Kharitina’s sister Marya, forester in the security area near Black Lake
Kolka- a 10-year-old boy, Polushkin’s son, a “clean-eyed little man”, loved nature and reading books.
Other characters
Yuri Petrovich Chuvalov- a new forester, respected Polushkin, fell in love with Nonna Yuryevna.
Nonna Yurievna- a 23-year-old girl, Kolka’s teacher, fell in love with Chuvalov.
Kharitina Makarovna- wife of Yegor, mother of Kolka and little Olya.
Yakov Prokopych- Polushkin’s boss at the boat station.
Filka, Skull- the men with whom Yegor drank and had sex.
From the author
“When I enter the forest, I hear Egor’s life.” Yegor always remained himself, acted “as his conscience commanded.”
Chapter 1
“Egor Polushkin was called the poor bearer in the village.” Everyone in the village laughed at them. Fyodor Ipatych, Yegor's brother-in-law, was a forester and constantly took advantage of his position. Buryanov condemned and instructed Yegor.
When the Polushkins moved to the city, Buryanov gave them his an old house, although he had previously removed the floor and logs from the cellar. For this, Yegor built his brother-in-law a five-walled house made of branded logs with a carved rooster weathervane.
Chapter 2
The son of Yegor and Kharitina Kolka was very simple-minded, he believed in everything, so he, like his father, was often mocked. The boy knew his way around the forest well and knew how to calm down angry dogs.
Chapter 3
“Yegor Polushkin’s usual job in a new place did not work out.” While Buryanov was working, everything was going well - he did not rush him. But in carpentry teams it was necessary to do things quickly, not efficiently, so he didn’t last long anywhere.
Yegor got a job as a boatman at the boat station for Yakov Prokopych. Polushkin was supposed to take care of the boats and the pier, and transport tourists.
Chapter 4
Fyodor Ipatych was called to the region by a new forester: he was indignant at why the forest was unorganized and there were no acts for felling. Buryanov brought gifts from the region, and gave Kolka a compass.
At the boat station, Yegor worked as best he could. The only time he angered his boss was when, instead of numbers on the boat, he drew birds, animals and flowers.
Chapter 5
The first tourists arrived. Egor and Kolka took them on a boat to go fishing. Not far from the clearing where the tourists stopped, there was a large anthill. The visitors burned it: “Man is the king of nature.” Yegor and Kolka felt sorry for the ants.
The tourists got Yegor drunk, began to mock him, and forced him to dance. Kolka, with tears in his eyes, asked to stop. The tourists dared Yegor to hit his son. The drunken Polushkin hit Kolka for the first time, and he silently left.
The tourists told Yegor to leave. He still couldn’t sail and capsized the boat. While dragging the overturned boat on a rope, Yegor lost his motor.
Chapters 6–7
At the first meeting, the new forester asked how much it cost Fyodor Ipatych new house, summing up that this is a “criminal matter.” To settle everything for money, Buryanov began looking for ways to make money: for 30 rubles he took tourists fishing to a protected place.
Kolka did not want to return home and spent the night with teacher Nonna Yuryevna.
Egor had to pay 300 rubles for the lost motor. Polushkin killed the pig and took it to the market.
Chapter 8
Polushkin was afraid of the market, so he was easily deceived: they bought a pig for 200 rubles, although it cost 400.
Chapter 9
Yegor failed to make money on the linden bast either - while he was thinking, others had already stripped the trees.
Chapter 10
Polushkin, not seeing any ways to make money, started drinking. He made friends with whom he drank – Filya and Cherepok. Yegor learned how to play tricks.
Kharitina got a job as a dishwasher in the canteen. Sometimes Yegor secretly took her money.
Somehow, Vovka, cousin Kolka tried to drown the puppy. To save the animal, Kolka exchanged the puppy for a compass.
Chapter 11
Nonna Yuryevna received her own housing, but the premises were in in emergency condition. Yegor agreed to repair everything for her.
Chapter 12
“Fyodor Ipatovich paid off all his debts, got all the certificates” and went to the new forester Chuvalov. Yuri Petrovich kept the folder with his documents: Chuvalov did not like Buryanov too much.
Chapter 13
When Yegor and Kolka were renovating Nonna Yuryevna’s home, Chuvalov, who had arrived in the village, came to them.
Chapter 14
Sitting at the table with Yegor, Chuvalov listened to him attentively, calling Polushkin by his first name and patronymic.
Chuvalov took Yegor, Kolka and Nonna Yuryevna with him to Black Lake.
Chapter 15
On the way to the lake, under the leadership of Chuvalov, Kolka conducted a “census of animals.”
Chapter 16
Early in the morning, Yegor saw Nonna Yuryevna swimming naked by the river, admiring it.
In the evening, around the fire, Yegor said that in the old days Black Lake was called Lebyazhye. While the others went around the lake, Yegor carved out the figure of a thin, flexible woman from a linden tree with an ax.
Chapter 17
Having learned that Polushkin and the new forester had gone into the forest, Buryanov decided that Yegor was aiming for his place.
Chapter 18
Yuri Petrovich offered Yegor the position of forester instead of Buryanov. Egor agreed.
“Egor enthusiastically cleared the forest, cut through overgrown clearings, pulled dead wood and dead wood into piles,” and felt happy. Once Polushkin saw that Filya and Cherepok had cut down a tree without permission and demanded that they hand over the axes. Indignant Filya threatened him.
Chapter 19
Nonna Yuryevna left for Leningrad to see Chuvalov again. After the night, Yuri Petrovich said that he was married. The girl immediately packed up and left.
Two years ago, Chuvalov married an intern from Moscow, Marina. Three days after the wedding, she left for Moscow and disappeared. Chuvalov was worried that she had a child from him.
After the incident, Nonna Yuryevna left the village. Chuvalov, who was trying to find her, shared his story with Yegor.
A week later, Polushkin was invited to the All-Union Conference in Moscow.
Chapter 20
Arriving in Moscow, Polushkin, remembering Chuvalov’s story, looked for Marina. She was already married and said that her child was not Chuvalov’s.
At the ministry, Yegor was asked to give a speech. Polushkin spoke about the Black Lake, about the need for such lakes to “become ringing back: Swan or Goose, Crane.” “No man is the king of nature.<…>He is her son, her eldest son.”
With the money of the people of the village, Yegor bought two pairs of swans at the zoo.
Chapter 21
Fyodor Ipatych was summoned to the investigator three times: “it looks like the house will be taken away.”
Polushkin arranged the birds on the Black Lake. One rainy autumn night, Yegor, who was ill, heard blows on Black Lake and immediately hurried there. Those same tourists killed and boiled swans in a saucepan. Polushkin demanded their documents. The tourists severely beat Yegor and abandoned him.
They found Polushkin the next day, and he woke up in the hospital. Buryanov came to Yegor to ask for forgiveness: Fyodor Ipatych was among the poachers. Polushkin did not betray anyone and forgave his brother-in-law. “Egor overcame pain, sadness and melancholy” and died.
From the author
Fyodor Ipatych’s house was taken away, he left with his family.
Chuvalov married Nonna Yuryevna. Behind their apartment stands a white maiden carved from linden by Yegor.
“And the Black Lake remained Black. It must be time for Kolka now.”
Conclusion
Depicting two heroes, Yegor and Fyodor Ipatych, the author shows two opposite attitudes towards nature and the surrounding world: creative and utilitarian. Polushkin believes that everything around needs to be protected, multiplied, he loves and appreciates every tree, every ant. Buryanov only uses the gifts of nature; he doesn’t care what happens after him.
The novel “Don't Shoot White Swans” was filmed in 1980 (directed by R. Nakhapetov).
A brief retelling of “Don’t Shoot White Swans” will be of interest to schoolchildren, students and anyone interested in Russian literature.
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“Don't shoot white swans. And the dawns here are quiet...": Mari Book Publishing House; 1982
annotation
"Don't Shoot White Swans" - a novel about modern life. Its theme is the eternal conflict between the forces of good and evil.
Boris Vasiliev
Don't shoot white swans
From the author
When I enter the forest, I hear Egor's life. In the busy babble of aspen trees, in pine sighs, in the heavy swing of spruce paws. And I'm looking for Yegor.
I find him in the redwoods of June - tireless and cheerful. I meet him in the autumn wet weather - serious and disheveled. I'm waiting for him in the frosty silence - thoughtful and bright. I see him in spring bloom- patient and impatient at the same time. And I’m always amazed at how different he was - different for people and different for himself.
And his life was different - life for himself and life for people.
Or maybe all lives are different? Different for yourself and different for people? But is there always a sum in these differences? Whether we appear or be different, are we always one in our being?
Yegor was united because he always remained himself. He did not know how and did not try to seem different - neither better nor worse. And he acted not for reasons of reason, not with an eye, not for approval from above, but as his conscience dictated.
1
Yegor Polushkin was called the poor bearer in the village. When the first two letters were lost, no one remembered this, and even own wife, stunned by chronic bad luck, frantically screamed in a voice as corrosive as a mosquito’s ringing:
- Overseas non-human, my orphan curse, God save and have mercy, you damned poor bearer...
She screamed on one note, as long as she had enough air, and did not use punctuation marks. Yegor sighed sadly, and ten-year-old Kolka, offended for his father, cried somewhere behind the shed. And he cried because even then he understood how right his mother was.
And Yegor always felt guilty from screaming and swearing. Guilty not by reason, but by conscience. And therefore he did not argue, but only was executed.
- People’s men are breadwinners, their house is full, and their wives are like swans!..
Kharitina Polushkina was from Zaonezhye and easily switched from swearing to lamentation. She considered herself offended from the day she was born, having received from a drunken priest a completely impossible name, which the affectionate neighbors shortened to the first two syllables:
- Our Kharya is criticizing her breadwinner again.
And she was also offended that her own sister (well, a tub of a tub, by God!), so her sister Marya swam around the village like a white fish, pursing her lips and rolling her eyes:
- Tina was unlucky with her man. Ah, bad luck, ah!..
This is with her - Tina and her tight lips. And without her - Kharya is mouth to ear. But she herself lured them to the village. She forced me to sell my house, move here, and endure ridicule from people:
- Here, Tina, there is culture. The movie is showing.
The movie was shown, but Kharitina did not go to the club. The household is a mess, my husband is a fool, and there is almost nothing to wear. Showing up in public every day in the same dress - you become familiar. And Maryina (she, therefore, is Kharya, and her sister is Maryitsa, that’s it!), so Maryitsa has five woolen dresses, two cloth suits, and three jersey suits. There is something to look at the culture in, something to show off in, something to put in the chest.
And Kharitina has one reason: Yegor Savelich, dear husband. The spouse is legitimate, although unmarried. Father of an only son. Breadwinner and breadwinner, gore him with a goat.
By the way, he is a friend of a decent person, Fyodor Ipatovich Buryanov, Marya’s husband. Across two alleys is our own house, with five walls. From branded logs: one to one, without a knot, without a hitch. The roof is zinc: it shines like a new bucket. In the yard there are two wild boars, six sheep and Zorka the cow. Milking cow - in the house all year round Maslenitsa. Moreover, there is a rooster on the roof ridge, as if alive. All business travelers were taken to him:
- Local miracle folk craftsman. With one axe, imagine. It was done with one ax, just like in the old days.
Well, the truth is, this miracle had nothing to do with Fyodor Ipatovich: it was only located on his house. And Yegor Polushkin made the rooster. He had enough time for fun, but for something practical...
Kharitina sighed. Oh, the deceased mother did not look after her, oh, her father-father did not leave her reins! Then, you see, she would not have jumped out for Yegor, but for Fedor. I would live like a queen.
Fyodor Buryanov came here to buy rubles back when the forests here were noisy and there was no end in sight. At that time there was a need, and they felled this forest with gusto, with a roar, with progressiveness.
The village was built, electricity was installed, and water supply was installed. How about a branch from railway They made it, and the forest ended all around. Existence, so to speak, at this stage overtook someone’s consciousness, giving birth to a comfortable, but no longer needed village among the stunted remnants of the once ringing red forest. With great difficulty, regional organizations and authorities managed to declare the last area around Black Lake a water protection area, and the work stalled. And since a transshipment base with a sawmill, built with the latest technology, already existed in the village, they now began to transport timber here specifically. They transported, unloaded, sawed and loaded again, and yesterday's lumberjacks became loaders, riggers and workers at the sawmill.
But Fyodor Ipatovich predicted everything exactly to Maryitsa a year in advance:
- Khan to the progressives, Marya: there will soon be nothing to blame. We should find something more capable while the saws are still buzzing in our ears.
And he found it: a forester in the last protected area near Black Lake. Free mowing, plenty of fish, and free firewood. It was then that he built a five-walled house for himself, and stocked up on good things, and organized the household, and dressed the housewife - at any cost. One word: head. Master.
And he kept himself in line: he didn’t squirm, he didn’t make a fuss. And he knew the value of a ruble and a word: if he dropped them, then with meaning. With some people he won’t even open his mouth in the evening, but with others he will teach the mind:
- No, you didn’t turn life back, Egor: it turned you back. Why is this situation? Get into it.
Yegor listened obediently and sighed: ah, he lives badly, ah, badly. He brought his family to the extreme, he brought himself down, he felt shame in front of the neighbors - Fyodor Ipatych says everything is right, everything is right. And I am ashamed in front of my wife, and in front of my son, and in front of good people: No, we must end it, this life. We need to start another: maybe for her, for the future bright and reasonable one, Fyodor Ipatych will pour another glass and add some sweetness?..
- Yes, to turn your life around - to become a master: that’s what the old people used to say.
- The truth is yours, Fyodor Ipatych. Oh, really!
- You know how to hold an ax in your hands, I don’t argue. But it's pointless.
- Yeah. That's for sure.
- You need to be led, Yegor.
- It is necessary, Fyodor Ipatych. Oh, we must!..
Yegor sighed and lamented. And the owner sighed and thought. And then everyone sighed. Not sympathizing - condemning. And Yegor lowered his head even lower under their gaze. I was ashamed.
And if you delve into it, then there was nothing to be ashamed of. And Yegor always worked conscientiously, and lived peacefully, without self-indulgence, but it turned out that all around he was to blame. And he did not argue with this, but only grieved greatly, cursing himself for all he was worth.
From the nest they had hatched, where they lived on their native collective farm, if not in wealth, then in respect, they fluttered from this nest overnight. It’s as if they were stupid birds or some kind of bastards who have no stake, no yard, no children, no farm. The eclipse has arrived.
That March - blizzard, chilly - the mother-in-law died, Kharitina and Maryitsa’s dear mother. She passed away right before Evdokia, and for the funeral her relatives gathered in the sledges: cars got stuck in the snow. So Maryitsa arrived: alone, without an owner. They cried for Mama, sang the funeral service, remembered her, and performed the full ceremony. Maryitsa swapped the black scarf for a down shawl and blurted out:
- Are you behind here? cultural life in your manure.
- So how is it? - Yegor didn’t understand.
- There is no real modernity. And Fyodor Ipatych is building a new house for us: five windows onto the street. Electricity, department store, cinema every day.
- Every day - and something new? - Tina was amazed.
- But we won’t go back to the old ways, it’s very necessary. We have this... House of models, manufactured goods from abroad.
Ancient faces looked sternly from a languid corner. And the Mother of God no longer smiled, but frowned, but who had looked at her since the old woman gave up her soul? Everyone looked forward, into what’s his name... modernity.
- Yes, Fyodor Ipatych is putting up a house - picture. And the old one is released: so where does it go? It’s a pity to sell: it’s my darling nest, where Vovochka was crawling on the floor. So Fyodor Ipatych ordered to give it to you. Well, of course, help us install a new one first, as usual. You, Egor, have become keen on carpentry.
They helped. For two months Egor baled with an ax from dawn to dusk. And the dawns are northern: the Lord spread them far apart throughout the day. You'll swing until it's too hot until it gets dark. And then Fyodor Ipatovich helps:
- You still have that corner over there, Egorushka, comfort me. Don’t be lazy, worker, don’t be lazy: I’m giving you a house for free, not a dog kennel.
True, he gave away the house. He just took out everything that the worm had not yet removed from there: he even dismantled the floor in the upper room. And a canopy over the well. And he also rolled out the cellar and dragged it out: the logs there could be used. I started to take on the shed, but then Kharitina couldn’t stand it:
- You snake, underwater bloodsucker, frantic, burning hot!
- Well, quiet, quiet, Kharitina. It’s your own, why make noise? Aren't you offended, Egor? I do it according to my conscience.
- So this... Therefore, it is so, since it is not like that.
- Well, that’s nice. Okay, use the shed. I give it.
And he went away. Nice guy. And his jacket is Boston.
We made peace. They came to visit. Robel Yegor was visiting these, listening to the owner.
- The light, Egor, is on the man. He's a man.
- That's right, Fyodor Ipatych. Right.
- Is there real masculinity in you? Well, tell me, is there?
- So how... There's my woman...
- That’s not what I’m talking about, not about shame! Ugh!..
Laughed. And Yegor and everyone else giggled: why not laugh at a stupid person? You can’t laugh at Fyodor Ipatovich, but at him - hello, dear citizens! With your complete pleasure!..
And Tina just smiled. She smiled with all her might at her dear guests, her dear sister and Fyodor Ipatovich. This one is special: the owner.
- Yes, you need to be guided, Egor, you need to be guided. You can't say anything without instructions. And you can never comprehend life on your own. But not you will understand life- you won’t learn to live. So, Yegor Polushkin, God’s poor bearer, so...
- Yes, it must be so, since it’s not like that...
2
But there was Kolka.
- The clear-eyed little man is growing up, Tinushka. Oh, clean-eyed guy!
“Well, it’s stupid that it’s like that,” Kharitina grumbled (she always grumbled at him. As the chairman of the village council congratulated him on his legal marriage, she grumbled). - At all times, the clear-eyed have one thing to do: plow on themselves instead of a tractor.
- Well, what are you, what are you! In vain, so and so, in vain.
Kolka grew up cheerful and kind. He was drawn to the kids, to the elders. He looked into your eyes, smiled, and believed in everything. No matter what they lie, no matter what they invent, I believed immediately. He blinked and was surprised:
- Well?..
Innocence in this “Well”? It would be enough for half of Russia, if there were a need for it. But there was no demand for innocence yet; there was a demand for something else:
- Kolka, why are you sitting here? Your dad was run over by a dump truck: his guts are sticking out of his mouth!
- A-ah!..
Kolka ran somewhere, screamed, fell, ran again. And the men laughed:
- Where are you going, where? He's alive, your darling. We're joking, man. We're joking, okay?
With happiness that the weight ended well, Kolka forgot to be offended, but was only happy. I was very happy that his dad was alive and well, that there was no dump truck and that his dad’s intestines were in place: in his stomach, where they were supposed to be. And that’s why he laughed loudest of all, with all his heart.
Overall he was a normal kid. I dived into the river from a cliff with both a swallow and a hatchet. I didn’t get lost in the forest and wasn’t afraid. He calmed the most feisty dogs in two words, stroked them, pulled their ears as he wanted. And the chained dog, without dropping the foam from his fangs, caressed him like a lap dog at his feet. The guys were very surprised by this, and the adults explained:
- His father knows a dog’s word.
There was truth here: the dogs didn’t touch Yegor either.
And Kolka grew patient. Somehow he fell from a birch tree (he was hanging a birdhouse, but the branch broke), he went straight through all the branches to the ground, and his leg fell to the side. Well, they straightened it out, of course, they put stitches on his side, smeared him with iodine from head to toe - he just groaned. Even the doctor was surprised:
- Look, a little man!
And then, when everything had grown together and healed, Egor in the yard heard: his son was roaring in the shed (Kolka was sleeping there when his little sister was born. The loud-mouthed one was born - all like his mother). He looked in: Kolka was lying on his stomach, only his shoulders were shaking.
- What are you doing, son?
Kolka raised his roaring face: his lips were jumping.
- Uncas...
- What?
- Uncas was killed. With a knife in the back. Is it possible - in the back?
- What Un... Uncas?
- The last of the Mohicans. The very last one, daddy!..
The next night, father and son did not sleep. Kolka walked around the barn and wrote poetry:
- Uncas pursued the enemy, ready to fight him. He caught up and began to fight...
Further poetry did not work out, but Kolka did not give up. He rushed about in the narrow passage between the woodpile and the trestle bed, muttering various words and waving his arms. Behind the plank wall, a pig grunted with interest.
And Yegor sat in the kitchen in long johns and a calico shirt and, moving his lips, read a book about the Indians. Familiar pines rustled above the strange names, the same fish darted under the mysterious pie, and with a tomahawk one could easily stab splinters into the samovar. And so it already seemed to Yegor that this story took place not in distant America, but here, somewhere on Pechora or Vychegda, and the cunning names were invented simply to make it more enticing. The night chill was coming from the hallway, Yegor swung his frozen legs and read, carefully running his finger along the lines. And a few days later, having finally mastered this thickest book of his life, he said to Kolka:
- A good book.
Kolka sobbed suspiciously, and Yegor clarified:
- About good men.
In general, Kolka’s tears were hidden not far away. He cried from other people's grief, from women's songs, from books and from pity, but he was very embarrassed by these tears and therefore tried to cry alone.
But Vovka, a young cousin, just roared with insult. Not from pain, not from pity - from resentment. He roared loudly, to the point of shaking. And he was often offended. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, I would get offended.
Vovka didn’t like to read books: they gave him money for movies. He loved movies very much and watched everything, and if about spies, then three times, and he said:
- And he’s a crap, a crap! Yes, screw it, screw it!..
- It hurts, go ahead! - Kolka sighed.
- Stupid! These are spies.
And Vovka also had a dream. Kolka, for example, had a different dream every day, but Vovka had one for all days:
- I wish we could open up hypnosis so that everyone would fall asleep. Well, that's it! And then I would take a ruble from each of them.
- Why only a ruble?
- And so that no one notices. Each one has a ruble - wow! Do you know how much? Two thousand, probably.
Since Kolka had never had any money, he didn’t even think about it. And that’s why his dreams were moneyless: about travel, about animals, about space. The dreams were light, weightless.
- It would be nice to see a live elephant.
1.) Portrait characterization (use of text)
2.) Social origin (use of text)
3.) Education (use of text)
4.) Language features(use of text)
5.) Life interests (use of text)
6.) Attitude to the peasantry, to land issues, to life and political examples (use of text + own conclusions)
7.) Attitude to love, friendship (use of text + own conclusions)
8.) The author’s attitude towards the characters of the novel (use of text + own conclusions)
9.) Your attitude towards the characters in the novel (your own conclusions)
I would be very grateful and grateful for complete answers! :)
I Literature of the 19th century.
1. Name the literary trends of the 19th century.
2. What world events and Russian history created the preconditions
for the emergence of romanticism in Russia?
3. Name the founders of Russian romanticism.
4. Who stood at the origins of Russian realism?
5. Name the main thing literary direction second half of the 19th century
century.
6. What task did A.N. Ostrovsky set for himself in the play “The Thunderstorm”?
7. Express the philosophy of the writer A.N. Ostrovsky as an example
plays "The Thunderstorm".
8. What task did I.S. set for himself? Turgenev in the novel “Fathers and
children"?
9. Why is the novel by I.S. Critics called Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons"
anti-noble?
10.Express the main ideas of the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and
punishment".
11.Formulate the basic principles of F.M.’s philosophy. Dostoevsky and
the main character of the novel, Rodion Raskolnikov.
12. Why, in your opinion, was the novel “War and Peace” criticized?
called “an encyclopedia of Russian life”?
13.What distinguishes the positive heroes of L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and
world"?
14.Name the stages of spiritual evolution of one of the characters in the novel: Andrei
Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova.
15.What do the destinies of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov have in common?
II Literature of the 20th century.
1. What phenomena social life Russia influenced the development
literature of the 20th century?
2. What name did the literature of the turn of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries receive?
3. What are the main literary movements of this time?
4. What is the philosophy of I. Bunin’s story “Cold Autumn”?
5. What unites the stories of I. Bunin “Cold Autumn” and A.
Kuprin “Garnet Bracelet”?
6. “What you believe in, that is.” Which hero of M. Gorky's work
do these words belong? Explain his philosophy.
7. What is Satin’s role in the play “At the Bottom”?
8. Image civil war in the stories of M. Sholokhov “Birthmark”
and "Food Commissioner".
9. What are the features of the Russian character in the story by M. Sholokhov
"The Fate of Man"?
10.What kind of village did you see in A.I.’s story? Solzhenitsyn "Matryonin"
yard"?
11.What philosophical and moral problems does the author raise in
story?
12.Which plot episode is the climax in the story “Matryonin”
yard"?
13. What unites the characters of Andrei Sokolov (“The Fate of a Man”) and
Matryona Vasilievna (“Matryonin’s Dvor”)?
14.Which of the Russian writers was awarded Nobel Prize for his contribution to
world literature?