The history of the creation of the novel is a sad detective story. "Tsar Fish" and "The Sad Detective": Analysis of Astafiev's Works

Sad detective
V. P. Astafiev
Sad detective

Forty-two-year-old Leonid Soshnin, a former operative of the criminal investigation department, returns home from a local publishing house, to an empty apartment, in the worst mood. The manuscript of his first book “Life is the most precious thing” after five years of waiting is finally accepted for production, but this news does not please Soshnin. A conversation with the editor, Oktyabrina Perfilyevna Syrokvasova, who tried to humiliate the author-policeman who dared to call herself a writer with arrogant remarks, unraveled Soshnin's already gloomy thoughts and feelings. “How in the world to live? Lonely? - he thinks on the way home, and his thoughts are heavy.

He served his time in the police: after two wounds, Soshnin was sent to a disability pension. After another quarrel, his wife Lerka leaves him, taking his little daughter Svetka with her.

Soshnin remembers all his life. He cannot answer his own question: why is there so much place in life for grief and suffering, but always close to love and happiness? Soshnin understands that, among other incomprehensible things and phenomena, he will have to comprehend the so-called Russian soul, and he needs to start with the closest people, with the episodes that he witnessed, with the fate of the people with whom his life collided ... Why are Russian people ready to regret a bone breaker and a bloodletter and not notice how a helpless war invalid dies nearby, in a neighboring apartment? Why does a criminal live so freely and arrogantly among such a kind-hearted people?

In order to distract himself from gloomy thoughts for at least a minute, Leonid imagines how he will come home, cook a bachelor's dinner for himself, read, sleep a little so that he has enough strength for the whole night - to sit at the table, over a blank sheet of paper. Soshnin especially loves this night time, when he lives in some kind of isolated world created by his imagination.

Leonid Soshnin's apartment is located on the outskirts of Veisk, in an old two-story house where he grew up. From this house my father left for the war, from which he did not return, here, by the end of the war, my mother also died from a severe cold. Leonid stayed with his mother's sister, aunt Lipa, whom he used to call Lina from childhood. Aunt Lina, after the death of her sister, went to work in the commercial department of the Wei railway. This department was "argued and jailed at once." My aunt tried to poison herself, but she was rescued and after the trial she was sent to a colony. By this time, Lenya was already studying at the regional special school of the Internal Affairs Directorate, from where he was almost expelled because of his convicted aunt. But the neighbors, and mainly Father Lavr's brother-soldier, a Cossack, interceded for Leonid with the regional police authorities, and everything worked out.

Aunt Lina was released under an amnesty. Soshnin had already worked as a district police officer in the remote Khailovsky district, from where he also brought his wife. Before her death, Aunt Lina managed to babysit Leonid's daughter, Sveta, whom she considered her granddaughter. After Lina's death, the Soshnins passed under the patronage of another, no less reliable aunt named Granya, a switchman on a shunting hill. Aunt Granya took care of other people's children all her life, and even little Lenya Soshnin learned the first skills of brotherhood and hard work in a kind of kindergarten.

Once, after returning from Khailovsk, Soshnin was on duty with a police squad at a mass celebration on the occasion of the Day of the Railwayman. Four guys drunk to the point of loss of memory raped Aunt Granya, and if it weren’t for a patrol partner, Soshnin would have shot these drunken fellows sleeping on the lawn. They were convicted, and after this incident, Aunt Granya began to avoid people. Once she expressed the terrible thought to Soshnin that, having condemned the criminals, they thereby ruined young lives. Soshnin yelled at the old woman for pitying non-humans, and they began to avoid each other ...

In the dirty and spit-stained entrance of the house, three drunkards pester Soshnin, demanding to say hello, and then to apologize for their disrespectful behavior. He agrees, trying to cool their ardor with peaceful remarks, but the main one, the young bull, does not calm down. Flushed with alcohol, the guys pounce on Soshnin. He, having gathered his strength - the wounds, the hospital "rest" affected - defeats the hooligans. One of them, when falling, hits his head on the heating battery. Soshnin picks up a knife on the floor, staggers, goes to the apartment. And he immediately calls the police, reports a fight: “He split the head of one hero on the battery. If so, they didn’t look for it. The villain is me."

Coming to his senses after what happened, Soshnin again recalls his life.

He and his partner were chasing a drunk who stole a truck on a motorcycle. With a deadly ram, the truck raced through the streets of the town, having already cut off more than one life. Soshnin, the patrol leader, decided to shoot the criminal. His partner fired, but before his death, the truck driver managed to push the motorcycle of the pursuing policemen. On the operating table, Soshnin was miraculously saved from amputation of her leg. But he remained lame, and learned to walk for a long time. During his recovery, the investigator tormented him for a long time and stubbornly with the investigation: was it lawful to use weapons?

Leonid also recalls how he met his future wife, saving her from hooligans who tried to remove jeans from the girl right behind the Soyuzpechat kiosk. At first, their life with Lerka went on in peace and harmony, but gradually mutual reproaches began. His wife especially did not like his studies in literature. “What a Leo Tolstoy with a seven-shot pistol, with rusty handcuffs in his belt ...” she said.

Soshnin recalls how one "took" a stray guest performer, a recidivist Demon, in a hotel in the town.

And finally, he recalls how Venka Fomin, who had drunk and returned from prison, put an end to his career as an operative ... in the barn of old women and threatens to set fire to them if they do not give him ten rubles for a hangover. During the detention, when Soshnin slipped on the manure and fell, the frightened Venka Fomin put a pitchfork into him ... Soshnin was barely taken to the hospital - and he barely passed certain death. But the second group of disability and retirement could not be avoided.

At night, Leonid is awakened from his sleep by the terrible scream of the neighbor girl Yulka. He hurries to the apartment on the ground floor, where Yulia lives with her grandmother Tutyshikha. After drinking a bottle of Riga balsam from the gifts brought by Yulia's father and stepmother from the Baltic sanatorium, grandmother Tutyshikha is already in a dead sleep.

At the funeral of grandma Tutyshikha, Soshnin meets his wife and daughter. At the wake, they sit side by side.

Lerka and Sveta stay with Soshnin, at night he hears his daughter sniffing behind the partition, and feels his wife sleeping next to him, timidly clinging to him. He rises, approaches his daughter, straightens her pillow, presses his cheek against her head and is forgotten in some kind of sweet grief, in resurrecting, life-giving sadness. Leonid goes to the kitchen, reads "Proverbs of the Russian people" collected by Dahl - the section "Husband and Wife" - and is surprised at the wisdom contained in simple words.

“Dawn, a damp, snowball, was already rolling in through the kitchen window, when, having enjoyed peace among a quietly sleeping family, with a feeling of confidence unknown to him for a long time in his abilities and strengths, without irritation and longing in his heart, Soshnin clung to the table, placed a clean sheet of paper in a spot of light. and froze over him for a long time.

The novel "The Sad Detective" by Astafiev was written in 1986. The work describes the difficult, full of hardships, the life path of a Soviet policeman. Having lost the meaning of life, he analyzes the past years, trying to understand where and when he made mistakes.

main characters

Leonid Soshnin- a middle-aged man, a Soviet policeman, forced to retire due to disability.

Other characters

Lerka- Leonid's wife, an unimportant mistress, demanding of her husband, a superficial woman.

Svetka- daughter of Leonid and Svetka.

Lina and Granya- Leonid's aunts, who raised him after the death of his mother.

Fedor Lebeda- Soshnin's partner, operative.

Venka Fomin- a criminal, a drunkard, from whom the inhabitants of a small village suffered.

Tutyshikha- a neighbor's old woman who died, wrote out a bottle of Riga Balsam.

Chapter 1

Forty-two-year-old Leonid Soshnin, a former criminal investigation operative, "returned home in the worst possible mood." His book entitled "Life is more precious than everything" after a long wait was finally allowed to print. However, the joy of this news was spoiled by an unpleasant conversation with an arrogant editor. On the way home, he was tormented by heavy thoughts, the main one of which was one - “How can a lonely person live in the world?”.

After two wounds, Soshnin was forced to leave the police service and retire due to disability. Lera's wife left him after another quarrel, taking her little daughter Svetka with her.

Chapter 2

Leonid slowly walked home, remembering his life. After the death of his mother, he stayed with his aunt Lina, who was soon convicted and sent to a colony. No less beloved was Aunt Granya, who worked with children all her life.

Once, when Soshnin was already working in the police, Aunt Granya was "raped for something" by four guys who had drunk themselves unconscious. A strict and fair judge determined "all four voluptuous people for eight years of strict regime." But the most surprising thing was that Aunt Granya felt sorry for the criminals, and believed that she had ruined their young lives.

Chapter 3

Already at the entrance to Soshnin, a drunken company stuck. The man tried to settle the conflict peacefully, but the guys, heated by wine vapors, longed for a different outcome. One of them demanded that Soshnin apologize to them "as it should: clearly, abruptly, distinctly." However, the former policeman was not going to endure the humiliation of the local punks, and, despite old injuries, he deftly defeated three hooligans. Soshnin then called the police and reported the fight.

Chapter 4

The hero recalled how once, together with his partner, he was chasing a drunkard who stole a truck on a motorcycle. As it turned out later, the hijacker arrived in their town from the Far North with an impressive amount of money. He "got drunk with joy, he wanted feats - and took the dump truck away", crippling human lives along the way. All police forces were thrown to capture him, public transport stood up to help. They clamped down on the hijacker as best they could, hoping that he would crash into some kind of fence. No one dared to "shoot the criminal - the people are all around", they only shouted through a megaphone, warning people about the danger.

They managed to drive the truck onto a country road, but it turned out to be no easier there - four funeral processions near the cemetery and a large construction site. “What could a hijacker do here - it’s scary to think”, and Soshnin ordered his partner Fyodor Lebed to shoot him. Before his death, the hijacker managed to push the motorcycle, and Soshnin was seriously injured - his leg was kept "on one skin and on a sinew." Amputation was avoided, but the man remained lame for life.

Chapter 5

Leonid was covered with memories of how he met his wife. Twenty-two-year-old Lerka, a pharmaceutical student, was a big fashionista, and wore "tight, tight jeans and a puffy Garibaldian scarf." Once she was attacked by hooligans, and they began to pull off the ill-fated jeans right behind the kiosk. Soshnov "beat off the young lady", and soon married her.

As long as there was mutual passion, the young lived well. Then "the child, loved by everyone and the only one, Svetka, for some time united the family." But soon mutual recriminations devoured the family from within, already flimsy, and the couple fled.

Chapter 6

Soshnin also remembered the incident that put an end to his career as a policeman. Once Leonid brought his daughter to his wife's parents, who lived in a small village. He learned that local residents were terrorized with impunity by the drunken criminal Venka Fomin. He bullied lonely, defenseless old women, took away the pennies hidden for the funeral, and with this money he “feasted and went wild with his friends”.

During the detention of Venka, Fomin “snatched a pitchfork with a broken handle from the hay”, and with all his strength he pushed them into Soshnin, who unsuccessfully slipped and fell. The wounded policeman barely managed to get to the hospital, where he was saved from certain death. The second group of disability put an end to Soshnin's further career, and he retired.

Chapter 7

Soshnin recalled completely wild cases from his practice, analyzed the fate of his acquaintances. He sadly stated the fact that "life is diverse, and you can live in it in a variety of ways."

Out of anguish, Soshnin called his wife, with whom relations began to gradually improve for the better. Lerka suggested that he take a first-grader Svetka for the weekend - "to disperse the merehlyundia." Lerka herself was in a hurry to meet with a bulldozer neighbor who “makes four hundred a month”.

Chapter 8

Soshnin witnessed the great joy of the neighbor girl Yulka, whom her parents from Riga brought fashionable new clothes: a velvet suit, a snow-white turtleneck, shoes, a wig. Leonid involuntarily frowned - "again paid off from his own child."

Yulia lived with her grandmother while her parents went to work. Julia ran to her friends in the hostel to show off new clothes. Grandmother Tutyshikha offered Soshnin the expensive Riga Balsam, which she had already drunk in joy. Leonid politely refused, "went up to his room - almost two o'clock in the morning."

Chapter 9

Leonid woke up from Yulka's heart-rending scream. He hurried to the neighbors, and found a frightened girl over the body of her grandmother - Tutyshikha, having drunk the entire bottle of Riga Balsam in joy, went to another world.

At the magnificent funeral of Tutyshikha, Soshnin met Lerka and his daughter, who stayed with him to spend the night. Sveta whistled softly in her sleep with her cold nose, "timidly clinging to him, Lerka slept." For the first time in a long time, Leonid felt peaceful, happy. He realized that "you need to somehow improve your life, understand it."

Conclusion

In his work, Astafiev reflects on human actions, analyzes the intricate paths along which one or another character came to such a life. At a turning point in his life, the main character is trying to find answers to important questions, and eventually finds them.

After reading the brief retelling of The Sad Detective, we recommend that you read the work in its full version.

Novel test

Check the memorization of the summary with the test:

Retelling rating

Average rating: 4.3. Total ratings received: 44.

Year of writing:

1985

Reading time:

Description of the work:

Victor Astafiev is an outstanding literary figure, he wrote novels, short stories and plays. One of his short stories is called The Sad Detective, which he wrote in 1985. We invite you to read the summary of the story "The Sad Detective".

Astafiev became popular due to the lively literary language and realistic depiction of rural and military life. His books gained popularity both in Soviet Russia and abroad.

Summary of the novel
Sad detective

Forty-two-year-old Leonid Soshnin, a former operative of the criminal investigation department, returns home from a local publishing house, to an empty apartment, in the worst mood. The manuscript of his first book “Life is the most precious thing” after five years of waiting is finally accepted for production, but this news does not please Soshnin. A conversation with the editor, Oktyabrina Perfilyevna Syrokvasova, who tried to humiliate the author-policeman who dared to call herself a writer with arrogant remarks, unraveled Soshnin's already gloomy thoughts and feelings. “How in the world to live? Lonely? - he thinks on the way home, and his thoughts are heavy.

He served his time in the police: after two wounds, Soshnin was sent to a disability pension. After another quarrel, his wife Lerka leaves him, taking his little daughter Svetka with her.

Soshnin remembers all his life. He cannot answer his own question: why is there so much place in life for grief and suffering, but always close to love and happiness? Soshnin understands that, among other incomprehensible things and phenomena, he will have to comprehend the so-called Russian soul and he needs to start with the closest people, with the episodes that he witnessed, with the fate of the people with whom his life collided ... Why are Russian people ready to pity the bone breaker and a bloodletter and not notice how nearby, in the next apartment, a helpless veteran of the war dies? .. Why does a criminal live so freely and courageously among such kind-hearted people? ..

In order to distract himself from gloomy thoughts for at least a minute, Leonid imagines how he will come home, cook a bachelor's dinner for himself, read, sleep a little so that he has enough strength for the whole night - to sit at the table, over a blank sheet of paper. Soshnin especially loves this night time, when he lives in some kind of isolated world created by his imagination.

Leonid Soshnin's apartment is located on the outskirts of Veisk, in an old two-story house where he grew up. From this house my father left for the war, from which he did not return, here, by the end of the war, my mother also died from a severe cold. Leonid stayed with his mother's sister, aunt Lipa, whom he used to call Lina from childhood. Aunt Lina, after the death of her sister, went to work in the commercial department of the Wei railway. This department was "argued and jailed at once." My aunt tried to poison herself, but she was saved and after the trial was sent to a colony. By this time, Lenya was already studying at the regional special school of the Internal Affairs Directorate, from where he was almost expelled because of his convicted aunt. But the neighbors, and mainly Father Lavr's brother-soldier, a Cossack, interceded for Leonid with the regional police authorities, and everything worked out.

Aunt Lina was released under an amnesty. Soshnin had already worked as a district police officer in the remote Khailovsky district, from where he also brought his wife. Before her death, Aunt Lina managed to babysit Leonid's daughter, Sveta, whom she considered her granddaughter. After Lina's death, the Soshnins passed under the patronage of another, no less reliable aunt named Granya, a switchman on a shunting hill. Aunt Granya spent her whole life taking care of other people's children, and even little Lenya Soshnin learned the first skills of brotherhood and hard work in a kind of kindergarten.

Once, after returning from Khailovsk, Soshnin was on duty with a police squad at a mass celebration on the occasion of the Day of the Railwayman. Four guys drunk to the point of loss of memory raped Aunt Granya, and if it weren’t for a patrol partner, Soshnin would have shot these drunken fellows sleeping on the lawn. They were convicted, and after this incident, Aunt Granya began to avoid people. Once she expressed the terrible thought to Soshnin that, having condemned the criminals, they thereby ruined young lives. Soshnin yelled at the old woman for pitying non-humans, and they began to avoid each other ...

In the dirty and spit-stained entrance of the house, three drunkards pester Soshnin, demanding to say hello, and then to apologize for their disrespectful behavior. He agrees, trying to cool their ardor with peaceful remarks, but the main one, the young bull, does not calm down. Flushed with alcohol, the guys pounce on Soshnin. He, having gathered his strength - the wounds, the hospital "rest" affected - defeats the hooligans. One of them, when falling, hits his head on the heating battery. Soshnin picks up a knife on the floor, staggers, goes to the apartment. And he immediately calls the police, reports a fight: “He split the head of one hero on the battery. If so, they didn’t look for it. The villain is me."

Coming to his senses after what happened, Soshnin again recalls his life.

He and his partner were chasing a drunk who stole a truck on a motorcycle. With a deadly ram, the truck raced through the streets of the town, having already cut off more than one life. Soshnin, the patrol leader, decided to shoot the criminal. His partner fired, but before his death, the truck driver managed to push the motorcycle of the pursuing policemen. On the operating table, Soshnin was miraculously saved from amputation of her leg. But he remained lame, and learned to walk for a long time. During his recovery, the investigator tormented him for a long time and stubbornly with the investigation: was it lawful to use weapons?

Leonid also recalls how he met his future wife, saving her from hooligans who tried to take off the girl's jeans right behind the Soyuzpechat kiosk. At first, their life with Lerka went on in peace and harmony, but gradually mutual reproaches began. His wife especially did not like his studies in literature. “What a Leo Tolstoy with a seven-shot pistol, with rusty handcuffs in his belt! ..” - she said.

Soshnin recalls how one "took" a stray guest performer, a recidivist Demon, in a hotel in the town.

And finally, he recalls how Venka Fomin, who had drunk and returned from prison, put an end to his career as an operative ... in the barn of old women and threatens to set fire to them if they do not give him ten rubles for a hangover. During the detention, when Soshnin slipped on the manure and fell, the frightened Venka Fomin put a pitchfork into him ... Soshnin was barely taken to the hospital - and he barely passed certain death. But the second group of disability and retirement could not be avoided.

At night, Leonid is awakened from his sleep by the terrible scream of the neighbor girl Yulka. He hurries to the apartment on the ground floor, where Yulia lives with her grandmother Tutyshikha. After drinking a bottle of Riga balsam from the gifts brought by Yulia's father and stepmother from the Baltic sanatorium, grandmother Tutyshikha is already in a dead sleep.

At the funeral of grandma Tutyshikha, Soshnin meets his wife and daughter. At the wake, they sit side by side.

Lerka and Sveta stay with Soshnin, at night he hears his daughter sniffing behind the partition, and feels his wife sleeping next to him, timidly clinging to him. He rises, approaches his daughter, straightens her pillow, presses his cheek against her head and is forgotten in some kind of sweet grief, in resurrecting, life-giving sadness. Leonid goes to the kitchen, reads "Proverbs of the Russian people" collected by Dahl - the section "Husband and Wife" - and is surprised at the wisdom contained in simple words.

“Dawn, a damp, snowball, was already rolling in through the kitchen window, when, having enjoyed peace among a quietly sleeping family, with a feeling of confidence unknown to him for a long time in his abilities and strengths, without irritation and longing in his heart, Soshnin clung to the table, placed a clean sheet of paper in a spot of light. and froze over him for a long time.

You have read the summary of the novel "The Sad Detective". We also suggest that you visit the Summary section to read the presentations of other popular writers.

Viktor Petrovich Astafiev

"The Sad Detective"

Forty-two-year-old Leonid Soshnin, a former operative of the criminal investigation department, returns home from a local publishing house, to an empty apartment, in the worst mood. The manuscript of his first book “Life is the most precious thing” after five years of waiting is finally accepted for production, but this news does not please Soshnin. A conversation with the editor, Oktyabrina Perfilyevna Syrokvasova, who tried to humiliate the author-policeman who dared to call herself a writer with arrogant remarks, unraveled Soshnin's already gloomy thoughts and feelings. “How in the world to live? Lonely? he thinks on the way home, and his thoughts are heavy.

He served his time in the police: after two wounds, Soshnin was sent to a disability pension. After another quarrel, his wife Lerka leaves him, taking his little daughter Svetka with her.

Soshnin remembers all his life. He cannot answer his own question: why is there so much place in life for grief and suffering, but always close to love and happiness? Soshnin understands that, among other incomprehensible things and phenomena, he will have to comprehend the so-called Russian soul, and he needs to start with the closest people, with the episodes that he witnessed, with the fate of the people with whom his life collided ... Why are Russian people ready to regret a bone breaker and a bloodletter and not notice how a helpless war veteran dies nearby, in a neighboring apartment? .. Why does a criminal live so freely and courageously among such a kind-hearted people? ..

In order to distract himself from gloomy thoughts for at least a minute, Leonid imagines how he will come home, cook a bachelor's dinner for himself, read, sleep a little so that he has enough strength for the whole night - to sit at the table, over a blank sheet of paper. Soshnin especially loves this night time, when he lives in some kind of isolated world created by his imagination.

Leonid Soshnin's apartment is located on the outskirts of Veisk, in an old two-story house where he grew up. From this house, my father went to the war, from which he did not return, here, by the end of the war, his mother also died from a severe cold. Leonid stayed with his mother's sister, aunt Lipa, whom he used to call Lina from childhood. Aunt Lina, after the death of her sister, went to work in the commercial department of the Wei railway. This department was "argued and jailed at once." My aunt tried to poison herself, but she was saved and after the trial was sent to a colony. By this time, Lenya was already studying at the regional special school of the Internal Affairs Directorate, from where he was almost expelled because of his convicted aunt. But the neighbors, and mainly Father Lavr's brother-soldier, a Cossack, interceded for Leonid with the regional police authorities, and everything worked out.

Aunt Lina was released under an amnesty. Soshnin had already worked as a district police officer in the remote Khailovsky district, from where he also brought his wife. Aunt Lina managed to babysit Leonid's daughter, Sveta, whom she considered her granddaughter before her death. After the death of Lina, the Soshnins came under the patronage of another, no less reliable aunt named Granya, a switchman on a shunting hill. Aunt Granya spent her whole life taking care of other people's children, and even little Lenya Soshnin learned the first skills of brotherhood and hard work in a kind of kindergarten.

Once, after returning from Khailovsk, Soshnin was on duty with a police squad at a mass celebration on the occasion of the Day of the Railwayman. Four guys drunk to the point of loss of memory raped Aunt Granya, and if it weren’t for a patrol partner, Soshnin would have shot these drunken fellows sleeping on the lawn. They were convicted, and after this incident, Aunt Granya began to avoid people. Once she expressed the terrible thought to Soshnin that, having condemned the criminals, they thereby ruined young lives. Soshnin yelled at the old woman for pitying non-humans, and they began to avoid each other ...

In the dirty and spitting entrance of the house, three drunkards pester Soshnin, demanding to say hello, and then apologize for their disrespectful behavior. He agrees, trying to cool their ardor with peaceful remarks, but the main one, the young bull, does not calm down. Flushed with alcohol, the guys pounce on Soshnin. He, having gathered his strength - the wounds, the hospital "rest" affected, - defeats the hooligans. One of them, when falling, hits his head on the heating battery. Soshnin picks up a knife on the floor, staggers, goes to the apartment. And he immediately calls the police, reports a fight: “He split the head of one hero on the battery. If so, they didn’t look for it. The villain is me."

Coming to his senses after what happened, Soshnin again recalls his life.

He and his partner were chasing a drunk who stole a truck on a motorcycle. With a deadly ram, the truck raced through the streets of the town, having already cut off more than one life. Soshnin, the patrol leader, decided to shoot the criminal. His partner fired, but before his death, the truck driver managed to push the motorcycle of the pursuing policemen. On the operating table, Soshnin was miraculously saved from amputation of her leg. But he remained lame, and learned to walk for a long time. During his recovery, the investigator tormented him for a long time and stubbornly with the investigation: was it lawful to use weapons?

Leonid also recalls how he met his future wife, saving her from hooligans who tried to remove jeans from the girl right behind the Soyuzpechat kiosk. At first, their life with Lerka went on in peace and harmony, but gradually mutual reproaches began. His wife especially did not like his studies in literature. “What a Leo Tolstoy with a seven-shooter pistol, with rusty handcuffs in his belt ...” she said.

Soshnin recalls how one "took" a stray guest performer, a recidivist Demon, in a hotel in the town.

And finally, he recalls how Venka Fomin, who had drunk and returned from prison, put an end to his career as an operative ... in the barn of old women and threatens to set fire to them if they do not give him ten rubles for a hangover. During the detention, when Soshnin slipped on the manure and fell, Venka Fomin, frightened, put a pitchfork into him ... Soshnin was barely taken to the hospital - and he barely escaped certain death. But the second group of disability and retirement could not be avoided.

At night, Leonid is awakened from his sleep by the terrible scream of the neighbor girl Yulka. He hurries to the apartment on the first floor, where Yulia lives with her grandmother Tutyshikha. After drinking a bottle of Riga balsam from the gifts brought by Yulka's father and stepmother from the Baltic sanatorium, grandmother Tutyshikha is already in a dead sleep.

At the funeral of grandma Tutyshikha, Soshnin meets his wife and daughter. At the wake, they sit side by side.

Lerka and Sveta stay with Soshnin, at night he hears his daughter sniffing behind the partition, and feels his wife sleeping next to him, timidly clinging to him. He rises, approaches his daughter, straightens her pillow, presses his cheek against her head and is forgotten in some kind of sweet grief, in resurrecting, life-giving sadness. Leonid goes to the kitchen, reads "Proverbs of the Russian people" collected by Dahl - the section "Husband and Wife" - and is surprised at the wisdom contained in simple words.

“Dawn, a damp, snowball, was already rolling in through the kitchen window, when, having enjoyed peace among a quietly sleeping family, with a feeling of confidence unknown to him for a long time in his abilities and strengths, without irritation and longing in his heart, Soshnin clung to the table, placed a clean sheet of paper in a spot of light. and froze over him for a long time.

Leonid Soshnin walked home with his head bowed, immersed in his bleak black thoughts. He recalled his past and tried to understand why at forty-two he remained with nothing, what he deserved such a sad fate. Soshnin felt like an old useless thing that had served its time. Everything is left in the past - both work in the criminal investigation department, and a happy family life with his beloved wife and daughter. No one took the attempts of self-expression of the former operative seriously, the editor Syrokvasova accepted his book “Life is more expensive than everything” for production, but showered the author with humiliating ridicule. According to others, the policeman and the writer could not get along in one person, it simply went beyond their perception of reality.

Soshnin could not answer his own questions. He absolutely did not understand why suffering and grief rule the ball in the lives of most people, while love and happiness do not play their roles for long and leave the stage forever.

Leonid liked to sit at night over a blank sheet of paper, mentally creating his own imaginary world. He philosophized and created in an old house on the outskirts of Weisk. His childhood passed there, his mother died of a serious illness there, his father went to war ... Soshnin was left only with his aunt Lina, who was unfairly convicted and sent to a colony. She tried to commit suicide and took poison, but she was pumped out - she could not escape imprisonment. Because of this incident, Soshnin almost flew out of the regional special school of the Internal Affairs Directorate, but a fellow soldier of Father Lavr, the Cossack, saved the situation by putting in a word for him in front of the police authorities of the region. Aunt Granya took care of the orphan, who had been raising other people's children all her life.

Lenya was already working as a district police officer in the Khailovsky district when Lina was released under an amnesty.

Many sad events flashed before the mind's eye of the former operative. Evil fate did not spare even the good old aunt Granya - she was raped by drunk revelers, and Soshnin almost committed lynching of the guilty guys. Despite everything, Leonid always tried to resolve conflicts peacefully, he wanted the triumph of justice, but life did not spare him and presented unpleasant surprises. The criminals rushed at him in the doorways, tried to crush him with a motorcycle on a truck, the operative fought back, but again and again he was seriously injured, “rested” in a hospital bed.

It seemed that fortune finally smiled on Soshnin when he saved his future wife Lera from the rapists. They played a wedding, the young lived in perfect harmony and their daughter Svetlana was born, but joy did not reign in their house for long. The wife could not understand her husband's passion for literature and jokingly called him "Tolstoy with a seven-shot pistol." Gradually, mutual recriminations poisoned family life more and more, and one day Lera took her daughter and left.

Leonid's police career ended with a sad episode: former prisoner Venka Fomin stabbed the operative with a pitchfork, forced him to look death straight in the face. Soshnin miraculously survived, but it was not possible to avoid disability, he had to retire.

At the funeral of a neighbor, Lenya met his wife, sat next to her at the wake. Lerka and her daughter stayed overnight in the old apartment, and Soshnin did not close his eyes, bent over a blank sheet of paper, enjoying the peace of his peacefully sleeping family.

"Cruel" realism by V. Astafiev (based on the story "The Sad Detective")

V. P. Astafiev
Sad detective

Forty-two-year-old Leonid Soshnin, a former operative of the criminal investigation department, returns home from a local publishing house, to an empty apartment, in the worst mood. The manuscript of his first book “Life is the most precious thing” after five years of waiting is finally accepted for production, but this news does not please Soshnin. A conversation with the editor, Oktyabrina Perfilyevna Syrokvasova, who tried to humiliate the author-policeman who dared to call herself a writer with arrogant remarks, unraveled Soshnin's already gloomy thoughts and feelings. “How in the world to live? Lonely? - he thinks on the way home, and his thoughts are heavy.

He served his time in the police: after two wounds, Soshnin was sent to a disability pension. After another quarrel, his wife Lerka leaves him, taking his little daughter Svetka with her.

Soshnin remembers all his life. He cannot answer his own question: why is there so much place in life for grief and suffering, but always close to love and happiness? Soshnin understands that, among other incomprehensible things and phenomena, he will have to comprehend the so-called Russian soul, and he needs to start with the closest people, with the episodes that he witnessed, with the fate of the people with whom his life collided ... Why are Russian people ready to regret a bone breaker and a bloodletter and not notice how a helpless war invalid dies nearby, in a neighboring apartment? .. Why does a criminal live so freely and courageously among such a kind-hearted people? ..

In order to distract himself from gloomy thoughts for at least a minute, Leonid imagines how he will come home, cook a bachelor's dinner for himself, read, sleep a little so that he has enough strength for the whole night - to sit at the table, over a blank sheet of paper. Soshnin especially loves this night time, when he lives in some kind of isolated world created by his imagination.

Leonid Soshnin's apartment is located on the outskirts of Veysk, in an old two-en house where he grew up. From this house my father left for the war, from which he did not return, here, by the end of the war, my mother also died from a severe cold. Leonid stayed with his mother's sister, aunt Lipa, whom he used to call Lina from childhood. Aunt Lina, after the death of her sister, went to work in the commercial department of the Wei railway. This department was "argued and jailed at once." My aunt tried to poison herself, but she was rescued and after the trial she was sent to a colony. By this time, Lenya was already studying at the regional special school of the Internal Affairs Directorate, from where he was almost expelled because of his convicted aunt. But the neighbors, and mainly Father Lavr's brother-soldier, a Cossack, interceded for Leonid with the regional police authorities, and everything worked out.

Aunt Lina was released under an amnesty. Soshnin had already worked as a district police officer in the remote Khailovsky district, from where he also brought his wife. Before her death, Aunt Lina managed to babysit Leonid's daughter, Sveta, whom she considered her granddaughter. After Lina's death, the Soshnins passed under the patronage of another, no less reliable aunt named Granya, a switchman on a shunting hill. Aunt Granya took care of other people's children all her life, and even little Lenya Soshnin learned the first skills of brotherhood and hard work in a kind of kindergarten.

Once, after returning from Khailovsk, Soshnin was on duty with a police squad at a mass celebration on the occasion of the Day of the Railwayman. Four guys drunk to the point of loss of memory raped Aunt Granya, and if it weren’t for a patrol partner, Soshnin would have shot these drunken fellows sleeping on the lawn. They were convicted, and after this incident, Aunt Granya began to avoid people. Once she expressed the terrible thought to Soshnin that, having condemned the criminals, they thereby ruined young lives. Soshnin yelled at the old woman for pitying non-humans, and they began to avoid each other ...

In the dirty and spit-stained entrance of the house, three drunkards pester Soshnin, demanding to say hello, and then to apologize for their disrespectful behavior. He agrees, trying to cool their ardor with peaceful remarks, but the main one, the young bull, does not calm down. Flushed with alcohol, the guys pounce on Soshnin. He, having gathered his strength - the wounds, the hospital "rest" affected - defeats the hooligans. One of them, when falling, hits his head on the heating battery. Soshnin picks up a knife on the floor, staggers, goes to the apartment. And he immediately calls the police, reports a fight: “He split the head of one hero on the battery. If so, they didn’t look for it. The villain is me."

Coming to his senses after what happened, Soshnin again recalls his life.

He and his partner were chasing a drunk who stole a truck on a motorcycle. With a deadly ram, the truck raced through the streets of the town, having already cut off more than one life. Soshnin, the patrol leader, decided to shoot the criminal. His partner fired, but before his death, the truck driver managed to push the motorcycle of the pursuing policemen. On the operating table, Soshnin was miraculously saved from amputation of her leg. But he remained lame, and learned to walk for a long time. During his recovery, the investigator tormented him for a long time and stubbornly with the investigation: was it lawful to use weapons?

Leonid also recalls how he met his future wife, saving her from hooligans who tried to remove jeans from the girl right behind the Soyuzpechat kiosk. At first, their life with Lerka went on in peace and harmony, but gradually mutual reproaches began. His wife especially did not like his studies in literature. “What a Leo Tolstoy with a seven-shot pistol, with rusty handcuffs in his belt ...” she said.

Soshnin recalls how one "took" a stray guest performer, a recidivist Demon, in a hotel in the town.

And finally, he recalls how Venka Fomin, who had drunk and returned from prison, put an end to his career as an operative ... in the barn of old women and threatens to set fire to them if they do not give him ten rubles for a hangover. During the detention, when Soshnin slipped on the manure and fell, the frightened Venka Fomin put a pitchfork into him ... Soshnin was barely taken to the hospital - and he barely passed certain death. But the second group of disability and retirement could not be avoided.

At night, Leonid is awakened from his sleep by the terrible scream of the neighbor girl Yulka. He hurries to the apartment on the first floor, where Yulia lives with her grandmother Tutyshikha. After drinking a bottle of Riga balsam from the gifts brought by Yulia's father and stepmother from the Baltic sanatorium, grandmother Tutyshikha is already in a dead sleep.

At the funeral of grandma Tutyshikha, Soshnin meets his wife and daughter. At the wake, they sit side by side.

Lerka and Sveta stay with Soshnin, at night he hears his daughter sniffing behind the partition, and feels his wife sleeping next to him, timidly clinging to him. He rises, approaches his daughter, straightens her pillow, presses his cheek against her head and is forgotten in some kind of sweet grief, in resurrecting, life-giving sadness. Leonid goes to the kitchen, reads "Proverbs of the Russian people" collected by Dahl - the section "Husband and Wife" - and is surprised at the wisdom contained in simple words.

“Dawn, a damp, snowball, was already rolling in through the kitchen window, when, having enjoyed peace among a quietly sleeping family, with a feeling of confidence unknown to him for a long time in his abilities and strengths, without irritation and longing in his heart, Soshnin clung to the table, placed a clean sheet of paper in a spot of light. and froze over him for a long time.