Mikhail Bulgakov Turbine Days is a play in four acts. turbine days
Reprinted according to the edition indicated.
Bulgakov's handwritten heritage of the 1920s turned out to be extremely scarce: most of his writings of this time have been preserved in printed or typewritten (plays) form. Apparently, the writer himself, being in difficult conditions, did not attach much importance to his draft autographs, and E. S. Bulgakova, who reverently treated the writer’s manuscripts and tried to preserve his every line, was not next to him. Therefore, difficulties often arise when restoring the history of writing essays in the 1920s. The play "Days of the Turbins" ("White Guard") is no exception in this sense: draft autographs have not been preserved. But three of its typewritten editions have survived. It was about the three editions of the play that the author himself spoke in a conversation with P. S. Popov, who documented the content of this and other conversations. So, Bulgakov noted that “the play has three editions. The second edition is closest to the first; the third one is the most different” (OR RSL, f. 218, no. 1269, item 6, sheets 1, 3). Let us remember these author's instructions and move on to a brief history of writing the play.
Bulgakov excellently depicted how the idea of the play arose in Notes of a Dead Man. We will cite only a few lines from this text.
“A blizzard woke me up once. The blizzard was in March and raged, although it was already coming to an end. And again ... I woke up in tears! .. And again the same people, and again a distant city, and the side of the piano, and shots, and another one defeated in the snow.
These people were born in dreams, came out of dreams and firmly settled in my cell. It was clear that they could not be separated from each other. But what to do with them?
At first I simply talked with them, and yet I had to take the book of the novel out of the drawer. Then it began to seem to me in the evenings that something colored was coming out of the white page. Looking closely, squinting, I was convinced that this was a picture. Moreover, this picture is not flat, but three-dimensional. Like a box, and through the lines you can see in it: the light is on and the same figures that are described in the novel are moving in it. Ah, what an exciting game it was... One could play this game all one's life, look at the page... But how to fix these figures?.. And one night I decided to describe this magic camera... Therefore, I am writing: the first picture... For three nights I was busy playing with the first picture, and by the end of that night I realized that I was composing a play. In the month of April, when the snow disappeared from the yard, the first picture was developed ... At the end of April, Ilchin's letter arrived ... "
Perhaps everything was so in reality, but the surviving documents show that Bulgakov made the first draft of the play on January 19, 1925. This is clear from his own handwritten entry in the album on the history of The Days of the Turbins (IRLI, f. 362, No. 75 , sheet 1). And a letter from B. I. Vershilov (Studio of the Art Theater) dated April 3, 1925, Bulgakov received, apparently, not at the end of April, but earlier.
It so happened that two proposals were made to Bulgakov at once to stage the novel The White Guard: from the Art Theater and the Vakhtangov Theater (see: L. Yanovskaya, Mikhail Bulgakov's creative path. M., 1983. P. 141-142). To the chagrin of the Vakhtangovites, Bulgakov chose the Moscow Art Theater, but he consoled the former by writing Zoya's Apartment for them.
Bulgakov worked on the first edition of the play in June-August 1925, but with interruptions (from June 12 to July 7, the Bulgakovs visited the Voloshins in Koktebel). There are colorful author's sketches about this in the same "Notes of the Dead". For example, such: “I don’t remember how May ended. I erased my memory and June, but I remember July. It's been unusually hot. I sat naked, wrapped in a sheet, and composed a play. The further, the more difficult it became ... The heroes grew ... and they were not going to leave, and events developed, but they could not see the end ... Then the heat dropped ... It started to rain, August came. Then I received a letter from Misha Panin. He asked about the play. I plucked up courage and at night stopped the course of events. There were thirteen scenes in the play.
Lacking the necessary dramatic experience and striving to select as much as possible of the most valuable material from the novel, Bulgakov created a very large play, the content of which differed little from the novel. The most difficult moment came - the play had to be thoroughly cut. Let us turn again to the author's text: “... I realized that my play cannot be played in one evening. A night of torment over this issue led me to cross out one picture. This ... did not save the situation ... Something else had to be thrown out of the play, but what is unknown. Everything seemed important to me ... Then I drove one character out, which caused one picture to somehow squint, then completely flew out, and there were eleven paintings. Further ... I could not cut anything ... Having decided that nothing would come of it, I decided to leave the matter to its natural course ... "
On August 15, 1925, the play The White Guard (first edition) was presented to the theater, and in September the first reading took place. However, already in October the situation with the play became more complicated due to the negative feedback received from A. V. Lunacharsky. On October 12, in a letter to V.V. Luzhsky, one of the leading actors and directors of the theatre, he remarks: “I carefully re-read the play The White Guard.” personal opinion. I consider Bulgakov a very talented person, but this play of his is exceptionally mediocre, with the exception of the more or less lively scene of the hetman being taken away. Everything else is either military fuss, or unusually ordinary, dull, dull pictures of useless philistine. In the end, there is not a single type, not a single amusing situation, and the end directly outrages not only with its indeterminacy, but also with its complete inefficiency ... Not a single average theater would accept this play precisely because of its dullness, probably due to complete dramatic weakness or extreme author's inexperience.
This letter requires some explanation, since it played a big role in the further fate of the play. Extremely important is the first phrase of A. V. Lunacharsky that he does not see anything unacceptable in the play from the political point of view. Actually, this is the main thing that the theater required from him - whether the play passes according to political parameters or not. The negative opinion of the people's commissar on this issue immediately closed the way for the play to the stage. And what is important to note, A. V. Lunacharsky did not openly put forward political demands regarding the play, but at the last stage he showed integrity and supported the theater and Stanislavsky in resolving the issue of the play in higher instances.
It was not a formal act of courtesy and his statement that he considers Bulgakov a talented person. Obviously, he was already familiar with many of the writer's stories and stories, including "Fatal Eggs", a story that tested the reader's attitude towards him. As for the “mediocrity” of the play and other harsh remarks by A. V. Lunacharsky, it must be borne in mind that the people’s commissar himself wrote quite a few plays that were staged by some theaters, but were not successful (even Demyan Bedny publicly called them mediocre) . Therefore, an element of predilection was undoubtedly present. But after all, the first edition of the play really suffered from many shortcomings, and above all by its lengthiness, which the author was well aware of.
The theater responded to the People's Commissar's remarks immediately. On October 14, an emergency meeting of the repertoire and art board of the Moscow Art Theater took place, which adopted the following resolution: “To recognize that in order to be staged on the Big Stage, the play must be radically altered. On the Small Stage, a play can go on after relatively minor alterations. Establish that if a play is staged on the Small Stage, it must be performed in the current season; the staging on the Big Stage may be postponed until next season. Discuss the stated resolutions with Bulgakov.
Bulgakov reacted sharply, emotionally and concretely to such a "revolutionary" decision of the theater. The next day, October 15, he wrote a letter to V. V. Luzhsky, which contained ultimatum demands on the theater. However, this letter is so “Bulgakovian” that it is expedient, in our opinion, to reproduce it:
“Dear Vasily Vasilyevich.
Yesterday's meeting, at which I had the honor to be, showed me that the situation with my play was complicated. The question arose about staging on the Small Stage, about the next season, and, finally, about the radical breaking of the play, which, in essence, bordered on the creation of a new play.
While willingly agreeing to some corrections in the process of working on the play together with the director, at the same time I do not feel able to write the play anew.
The deep and sharp criticism of the play at yesterday's meeting made me significantly disappointed in my play (I welcome criticism), but did not convince me that the play should be staged on the Small Stage.
And, finally, the question of the season can have only one solution for me: this season, not the next one.
Therefore, I ask you, dear Vasily Vasilyevich, to urgently put it on discussion in the directorate and give me a categorical answer to the question:
Does the 1st Art Theater agree to include the following unconditional clauses in the contract regarding the play:
1. Staging only on the Big Stage.
2. This season (March 1926).
3. Changes, but not a radical break in the core of the play.
In case these conditions are unacceptable for the Theatre, I take the liberty of asking for permission to consider a negative answer as a sign that the play The White Guard is free” (MXAT Museum, No. 17452).
The reaction of the theater was prompt, because both actors and directors liked the play. On October 16, the repertoire and art board of the Moscow Art Theater made the following decision: “To recognize it as possible to agree to the author’s demand regarding the nature of the revision of the play and that it should go on the Big Stage” (see: Markov P. A. In the Art Theater. The book is covered. M ., 1976. Section "Materials and Documents"). This decision suited both the author and the theatre, because it was a reasonable compromise. In his memoirs, P. A. Markov successfully formulated the problems that arose with the first edition of the play The White Guard: “M. A. Bulgakov, who subsequently built plays with virtuosity, initially blindly followed the novel in the staging of The White Guard, and already in his work with the theater, a harmonious and clear theatrical composition of The Days of the Turbins gradually arose ”(Markov L. A. S. 26) . On October 21, the initial distribution of roles took place ...
Bulgakov was well aware that the play must first of all be changed structurally, "shrink". Losses, of course, could not be avoided. In addition, it was required to remove direct attacks against the living leaders of the state from the text (the name of Trotsky was mentioned too often in the play). It took him more than two months to create a new version of the play - the second. Later, dictating fragmentary biographical notes to P. S. Popov, Bulgakov said something valuable about the work on the play The White Guard, in particular, this: “I merged the figure of Nai-Turs and Alexei in the play for greater clarity. Nai-Tours is a distant, abstract image. The ideal of Russian officers. What a Russian officer should have been like in my mind... I saw Skoropadsky once. This did not affect the creation of the image in the play. In Lariosika, the images of three faces merged. The element of "Chekhovism" was in one of the prototypes ... Dreams play an exceptional role for me ... The scene in the gymnasium (in the novel) was written by me in one night ... I visited the gymnasium building in 1918 more than once. streets of Kyiv. He experienced something close to what is in the novel...” (OR RSL, f. 218, no. 1269, item 6, fol. 3-5).
The intensity with which Bulgakov worked on the second edition of the play can be judged from his letter to the writer S. Fedorchenko dated November 24, 1925: “... I am buried under a play with a sonorous name. There is only one shadow left of me, which can be shown as a free supplement to the aforementioned play” (Moscow, 1987, no. 8, p. 53).
In January 1926, Bulgakov presented the second edition of the play to the Art Theater. The text was revised and significantly reduced, from a five-act play turned into a four-act one. But, as the author himself noted, the second edition was very close to the first in content. According to many experts, it is this edition that should be recognized as canonical, since it most of all corresponded to the author's intentions. But this issue remains quite controversial for many reasons, which are more appropriate to talk about in special studies.
A real theatrical work began with the play, which many of its participants recalled with admiration. M. Yanshin (Lariosik): “All participants in the performance felt the events and life that Bulgakov described so well with their own skin and nerves, the anxious and stormy time of the civil war was so close and vivid in their memory that the atmosphere of the performance, its rhythm, the well-being of each hero the plays were born as if by themselves, born from life itself” (Skill of the director. M., 1956, p. 170). P. Markov: “When you return to the Days of the Turbins and Bulgakov’s first appearance at the Art Theater, these memories remain among the best not only for me, but for all my comrades: it was the spring of the young Soviet Art Theater. To be honest, The Days of the Turbins became a kind of new The Seagull of the Art Theater... The Days of the Turbins were born from the novel The White Guard. This huge novel was filled with the same explosive power that Bulgakov himself was full of.. He not only attended rehearsals - he staged a play "(Memoirs of Mikhail Bulgakov. M., 1988. S. 239-240).
The performance was directed by I. Sudakov. Alexei Turbin was rehearsed by Nikolai Khmelev, whose game Stalin was so keen on later, the role of Myshlaevsky was prepared by B. Dobronravov. Young people were involved in rehearsals (M. Yanshin, E. Sokolova, M. Prudkin, I. Kudryavtsev and others), who later became a brilliant successor to the great generation of actors of the past.
But all this was ahead, in the spring of 1926, after intense rehearsals, the performance (the first two acts) was shown to Stanislavsky. Here are the dry but precise lines from the "Rehearsal Diary":
"TO. S., after watching two acts of the play, said that the play was on the right track: he really liked the "Gymnasium" and "Petlyurov's stage". He praised some performers and considers the work done important, successful and necessary ... K.S. inspired everyone to continue working at a fast, vigorous pace along the intended path ”(Moscow. 1987. No. 8. P. 55). And here is how it all seemed to the then head of the Moscow Art Theater Pavel Markov:
“Stanislavsky was one of the most direct spectators. At the show of the Turbins, he openly laughed, wept, closely followed the action, gnawed his hand as usual, threw off his pince-nez, wiping his tears with a handkerchief - in a word, he completely lived the performance ”(Markov P. A. S. 229).
It was a short happy time of the inner creative life of the Art Theatre. K. S. Stanislavsky enthusiastically took part in the rehearsals of the play, and some scenes of the play were staged on his advice (for example, the scene in the Turbinsky apartment, when the wounded Nikolka reports the death of Alexei). The great director remembered the time of joint work with Bulgakov for a long time and then often characterized him as an excellent director and potential actor. So, on September 4, 1930, he wrote to Bulgakov himself: “Dear and dear Mikhail Afanasyevich! You have no idea how happy I am for you to join our theatre! (This was after the massacre organized by the writer in 1928-1930! - V.L.). I had to work with you only at a few rehearsals of the Turbins, and then I felt in you - a director (or maybe an artist ?!) ”The same days Stanislavsky, pointing to Bulgakov, the then director of the Moscow Art Theater , prompted: "A director can come out of him. He is not only a writer, but he is also an actor. I judge by the way he showed the actors at the rehearsals of the Turbins." Actually - he staged them, at least gave those sparkles that sparkled and created a success for the performance. And a few years later, Stanislavsky, in a letter to the director V. G. Sakhnovsky, claimed that the entire “internal line” in the play “Days of the Turbins” belongs to Bulgakov (see: Bulgakov M. Diary. Letters. 1914-1940. M., 1997. P. 238; Yanovskaya L. Creative way of Mikhail Bulgakov. M., 1983. P. 167-168).
And it is impossible not to note one more extremely important fact in the writer's creative biography, about which for some reason nothing has been written anywhere. In March 1926, the Art Theater entered into an agreement with Bulgakov to stage The Heart of a Dog! Thus, the Moscow Art Theater decided to stage two plays by Bulgakov at the same time, the content of which was the sharpest for that time. It can be assumed that it was this fact (an agreement to stage a banned unpublished story!) that attracted the attention of the political investigation and ideological control bodies, and from that moment they began to interfere in the process of creating the play "The White Guard" (the agreement to stage "Heart of a Dog" was canceled by mutual agreement of the author and the theater; that the reason for this was politically motivated - there is no doubt).
On May 7, 1926, the OGPU officers searched the Bulgakovs' apartment and seized the manuscripts of The Heart of a Dog (!) and the writer's diary, which was called Under the Heel. The search was preceded by extensive undercover work, as a result of which Bulgakov was recognized as an extremely dangerous figure from a political point of view.
In this regard, the task was set to prevent the staging of Bulgakov's plays in the theaters of Moscow and, above all, of course, his "White Guard" in the Art Theater (see: the volume "Diaries. Letters" present. Collected Works).
Pressure was exerted both on Bulgakov (search, surveillance, denunciations) and on the theater (demands by political detectives through the RepertCom to stop rehearsals of The White Guard). Meetings of the repertoire and art board of the Moscow Art Theater resumed again, at which questions about the title of the play, the need for new abbreviations, etc. began to be debated. the following content:
“I have the honor to inform you that I do not agree to the removal of the Petliura scene from my play The White Guard.
Motivation: The Petlyura scene is organically connected with the play.
Also, I do not agree that when the title is changed, the play should be called "Before the End".
I also do not agree with the transformation of a 4-act play into a 3-act one.
I agree, together with the Theater Council, to discuss a different title for the play The White Guard.
If the Theater does not agree with what is stated in this letter, I ask you to remove the play The White Guard as a matter of urgency” (Museum of the Moscow Art Theater, No. 17893).
Obviously, the leadership of the Art Theater was already aware of the political terror that had begun against Bulgakov (for now!) (the writer’s statement to the OGPU about the return of his manuscripts and diary to him remained unanswered, which was a bad omen) and such a harsh letter was taken rather calmly. V. V. Luzhsky answered the writer in detail and in a friendly tone (an undated letter):
“Dear Mikhail Afanasyevich!
What is it, what kind of fly, excuse me, has bitten you yet ?! Why, how? What happened after yesterday's conversation in front of K.S. and me ... After all, yesterday we said and we decided that no one throws out the "Petliura" scene yet. You yourself gave your consent to the marking of two scenes of Vasilisa, to the alteration and combination of two gymnasiums into one, too, to the parade parade of Petliurovsky (!) with Bolbotun, you did not raise any big objections!(highlighted by us. - V. L.) And suddenly come on! Your title remains “The Turbin Family” (in my opinion, it’s better than the Turbins ...). How will the play become three-act? - four!..
What are you, dear and our Moscow Art Theater Mikhail Afanasyevich? Who turned you on so much?..” (IRLI, f. 369, no. 48).
But soon the whole theater had to “wind up”, and first of all, all those who participated in the production of the play. On June 24, the first closed dress rehearsal took place. The head of the theatrical section of the Repert Committee, V. Blum, and the editor of this section, A. Orlinsky, who were present at it, expressed their dissatisfaction with the play and declared that it could be staged that way "in five years." The next day, at a “conversation” held at the Repert Committee with representatives of the Moscow Art Theater, art officials formulated their attitude towards the play as a work that “represents a continuous apology for the White Guards, starting from the scene in the gymnasium and up to the scene of Alexei’s death, inclusive,” and she “absolutely unacceptable, and in the interpretation given by the theater, it cannot go. The theater was required to make the scene in the gymnasium in such a way that it would discredit the White movement and that the play should contain more episodes that humiliate the White Guards (introduce servants, porters and officers acting as part of Petliura's army, etc.). Director I. Sudakov promised the Repert Committee to more clearly show the "turn towards Bolshevism" that was emerging among the White Guards. Ultimately, the theater was asked to finalize the play (see: Bulgakov M.A. Plays of the 20s. Theatrical Heritage. L., 1989. P. 522).
Characteristically, Bulgakov responded to this clearly organized pressure on the theater from the Repert Committee (actually from the OGPU, where the "Bulgakov case" grew by leaps and bounds) with a repeated statement addressed to the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (June 24) demanding that the diary and manuscripts seized be returned to him. employees of the OGPU (there was no answer).
The play and its author gradually began to attract more and more attention from both its opponents and supporters. On June 26, Bulgakov's friend N. N. Lyamin wrote an emotional letter to the playwright, in which he asked him not to concede anything else, since "the theater had already distorted the play enough", and begged him not to touch the stage in the gymnasium. “Do not agree to sacrifice her for any good of the world. It makes an amazing impression, it makes all the sense. The image of Alyosha cannot be modified in any way, it is blasphemous to touch it ... ”(Creativity of Mikhail Bulgakov. St. Petersburg, 1995. Book 3. P. 208).
Nevertheless, the theater understood perfectly well (and the author, too, with great irritation) that in order to save the play, alterations were necessary. In a letter to the director A. D. Popov (the director of Zoya's Apartment at the Vakhtangov Theatre), Bulgakov touched on the problems of the Moscow Art Theater in passing: “There really is overwork. In May, all sorts of surprises not related to the theater (the search was closely “connected with the theater.” - V.L.), in May, the Guards race at the 1st Moscow Art Theater (viewed by the authorities!), In June, continuous work ( perhaps Bulgakov shifts time somewhat due to forgetfulness. - V. L.) ... In August, everything at once ... "
On August 24, with the arrival of Stanislavsky, rehearsals of the play resumed. A new plan for the play, insertion and alteration was adopted. On August 26, in the "Diary of rehearsals" it was written:, "M. A. Bulgakov wrote a new text for the gymnasium according to the plan approved by Konstantin Sergeevich. The play was called "Days of the Turbins". The scene with Vasilisa was removed, and two scenes in the gymnasium were combined into one. Other significant amendments were also made.
But the opponents of the play increased the pressure on the theater and on the author of the play. The situation became tense and became extremely nervous. After another rehearsal for the Repert Committee (September 17), its management stated that “the play cannot be released in this form. The issue of permission remains open. Even Stanislavsky could not stand it after that and, meeting with the actors of the future performance, said that if the play was banned, he would leave the theater.
On September 19, the dress rehearsal of the performance was canceled, new lines were introduced into the text of the play, and then, to please the Repert Committee and A. V. Lunacharsky, the scene of the torture of a Jew by the Petliurists was filmed ... with this decision for many years), and already on September 22 he was summoned for interrogation at the OGPU (interrogation protocol, see: present meeting, vol. 8). Of course, all these actions were coordinated: the OGPU and the Repertoire Committee insisted on removing the play. Bulgakov was intimidated during interrogation: after all, a dress rehearsal was scheduled for September 23.
The general rehearsal went well. In the "Diary of rehearsals" it was written: "A full general meeting with the public ... Representatives of the USSR, the press, representatives of the Glavrepertkom, Konstantin Sergeevich, the Supreme Council and the Director's Office are watching.
At today's performance, it is decided whether the play is going on or not.
The performance goes on with the latest blotches and without the "Jew" scene.
After this dress rehearsal, Lunacharsky declared that in this form the performance could be allowed to be shown to the audience.
But the ordeal with the play not only did not end there, but entered a decisive phase. On September 24, the play was allowed at the collegium of the People's Commissariat for Education. A day later, the GPU banned the play (here it is, the real Cabal!). Then A.V. Lunacharsky turned to A.I. Rykov with the following telegram:
“Dear Alexei Ivanovich.
At a meeting of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Education with the participation of the Repertoire Committee, including the GPU, it was decided to allow Bulgakov's play to only one Art Theater and only for this season. At the insistence of the Glavrepertkom, the collegium allowed him to produce some banknotes. On Saturday evening the GPU informed the People's Commissariat of Education that it was banning the play. It is necessary to consider this issue in the highest instance or confirm the decision of the board of the People's Commissariat for Education, which has already become known. The cancellation of the decision of the board of the People's Commissariat for Education of the GPU is extremely undesirable and even scandalous.
On September 30, this issue was decided at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The following decision was made: "Do not cancel the decision of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Education on Bulgakov's play." (Literary newspaper. 1999. July 14-20).
This was the first decision of the Politburo on Bulgakov's play, but by no means the last.
The then well-known German correspondent Paul Schaeffer wrote in the Riga newspaper Segodnya (November 18, 1926): “While members of the party majority (meaning Stalin, Voroshilov, Rykov. - V. L.) , the opposition acted as a resolute opponent of it.
Below we publish this particular version of the play (third edition), which passed through so many trials, but was played by the brilliant troupe of the Art Theater from 1920 to 1941.
Michael Bulgakov
Days of the Turbins
A play in four acts
Characters
Turbine A leksey V a s i l ' y e vich - colonel-artilleryman, 30 years old.
Turbin Nikolay - his brother, 18 years old.
T a l berg Elena V a s i l e vna – their sister, 24 years old.
Tal'berg Vladimir R obertovich - Colonel of the General Staff, her husband, 38 years old.
Myshlaevsky Viktor Viktorovich – staff captain, artilleryman, 38 years old.
Shervinsky Leonid Yuryevych - lieutenant, personal adjutant of the hetman.
Studzinskiy Aleksandr Bronislavovich – captain, 29 years old.
L a r i o s i k - Zhytomyr cousin, 21 years old.
Hetman in all of Ukraine.
B o l b o t u n - commander of the 1st Petlyura Cavalry Division.
Galanba - Petliurist centurion, former uhlan captain.
Hurricane.
K and rp a t y.
F o n Sh r a t t is a German general.
F o n D u s t is a German major.
Doctor of the German Army.
D e s e r t i r-s e c h e v i k.
Man
C a m e r l a k e y.
M a k s i m - gymnasium pedel, 60 years old.
Gaidamak - telephone operator.
F irst officer.
Second officer.
T r e t i y o f ic e r.
F irst Junker.
The second junker.
T r e t i y y n k e r.
Y n kera i g a i d a m a k i.
The first, second and third acts take place in the winter of 1918, the fourth act in early 1919.
The place of action is the city of Kyiv.
Act one
Picture one
Turbin's apartment. Evening. Fire in the fireplace. At the opening of the curtain, the clock strikes nine times and the minuet of Boccherini gently plays.
Alexei bent over the papers.
N and to about l to and (plays guitar and sings).
Worse rumors every hour:
Petliura is coming at us!
We loaded the guns
We fired at Petliura,
Machine gunners-chiki-chiki...
Doves-chiki...
You rescued us, well done.
Alexei. God knows what you're eating! Cook's songs. Sing something decent.
N and to about l to and. Why cooks? I composed this myself, Alyosha. (Sings.)
Do you want to sing, do not sing,
Your voice is not like that!
There are voices...
Hair will stand on end...
Alexei. It's just about your voice. N and to about l to and. Alyosha, you are in vain, by God! I have a voice, though not the same as Shervinsky's, but still quite decent. Dramatic, most likely - a baritone. Lenochka, and Lenochka! How do you think I have a voice?
Elena (from his room). Who? By you? I don't have any.
N and to about l to and. She was upset, that's why she answers. And by the way, Alyosha, my singing teacher told me: "You," he says, "Nikolai Vasilievich, in essence, could sing in the opera, if it weren't for the revolution."
Alexei. Your singing teacher is a fool.
N and to about l to and. I knew it. Complete breakdown of nerves in the turbine house. The singing teacher is a fool. I don’t have a voice, but yesterday I still had it, and in general pessimism. I tend to be more optimistic by nature. (Pulls the strings.) Although you know, Alyosha, I'm starting to worry myself. It's already nine o'clock, and he said that he would come in the morning. Has something happened to him?
Alexei. You speak softer. Understood?
N and to about l to and. Here is the commission, the creator, to be a married brother sister.
Elena (from his room). What time is it in the dining room?
N and to about l to and. Er... nine. Our clock is ahead, Lenochka.
Elena (from his room). Please don't compose.
N and to about l to and. Look, he's worried. (Sings.) Foggy ... Oh, how foggy everything is! ..
Alexei. Please don't break my soul. Sing merry.
N and to about l to and (sings).
Hello summer folks!
Hello gardeners!
Filming has already begun...
Hey, my song!.. Beloved!..
Bul-boo-boo, bottle
Treasury wine!!.
Peakless caps,
shaped boots,
Then the cadets of the guards are coming ...
The electricity suddenly goes out. Outside the windows with the song is a military unit.
Alexei. The devil knows what it is! It fades every minute. Lenochka, give me candles, please.
Elena (from his room). Yes Yes!..
Alexei. Some part is gone.
Elena, leaving with a candle, listens. A distant gunshot.
N and to about l to and. How close. The impression is that they are shooting near Svyatoshyn. I wonder what's going on there? Alyosha, maybe you will send me to find out what's the matter at the headquarters? I would go.
Alexei. Of course, you are still missing. Please sit still.
N and to about l to and. Listen, Mr. Colonel... I, in fact, because, you know, inaction... somewhat insulting... People are fighting there... At least our division was more likely to be ready.
Alexei. When I need your advice in preparing the division, I will tell you myself. Understood?
N and to about l to and. Understood. I'm sorry, Colonel.
Electricity flashes.
Elena. Alyosha, where is my husband?
Alexei. Come, Lenochka.
Elena. But how is it? He said that he would come in the morning, but now it is nine o'clock, and he is still missing. Has something already happened to him?
Alexei. Lenochka, well, of course, this cannot be. You know that the line to the west is guarded by the Germans.
Elena. But why is it still not there?
Alexei. Well, obviously, they stand at every station.
N and to about l to and. Revolutionary riding, Lenochka. You drive for an hour, you stop for two.
Well, here he is, I told you! (Runs to open the door.) Who's there?
N and to about l to and (let Myshlaevsky into the hall). Is that you, Vitenka?
M yshlaevsk and y. Well, I, of course, to be crushed! Nicol, take the rifle, please. Here, the devil's mother!
Elena. Victor, where are you from?
M yshlaevsk and y. From under the Red Inn. Hang carefully, Nicol. A bottle of vodka in my pocket. Don't break it. Allow me, Lena, to spend the night, I won’t get home, I’m completely frozen.
Elena. Oh, my God, of course! Go quickly to the fire.
They go to the fireplace.
M yshlaevsk and y. Oh oh oh...
Alexei. Why couldn't they give you felt boots, or what?
M yshlaevsk and y. Felt boots! They are such bastards! (Rushes towards the fire.)
Elena. Here's what: the bath is heating up there now, you undress him as soon as possible, and I'll prepare his underwear. (Exits.)
M yshlaevsk and y. Baby, take it off, take it off, take it off...
N and to about l to and. Now. (Takes off Myshlaevsky's boots.)
M yshlaevsk and y. Easier, brother, oh, easier! I would like to drink vodka, vodka.
The first, second and third acts take place in the winter of 1918, the fourth act in early 1919. The place of action is the city of Kyiv.
Characters
Turbin Aleksey Vasilievich - colonel-artilleryman, 30 years old.
Turbin Nikolay - his brother, 18 years old.
Talberg Elena Vasilievna - their sister, 24 years old.
Talberg Vladimir Robertovich - Colonel of the General Staff, her husband, 38 years old.
Myshlaevsky Viktor Viktorovich - staff captain, artilleryman, 38 years old.
Shervinsky Leonid Yurievich - lieutenant, personal adjutant of the hetman.
Studzinsky Alexander Bronislavovich - captain, 29 years old.
Lariosik - Zhytomyr cousin, 21 years old.
And also: Hetman of All Ukraine, Von Schratt - a German general, Von Doust - a German major, Bolbotun - commander of the 1st Petliura cavalry division, Galanba - a Petliura centurion, a former lancer captain, Maxim - a gymnasium pedel, 60 years old, officers, cadets .
Act one
Picture one
Evening. Turbin's apartment. There is a fire in the fireplace, the clock strikes nine times. Alexei Turbin bent over the papers, Nikolka plays the guitar and sings: “The rumors are getting worse every hour. Petlyura is coming at us!” Aleksey asks Nikolka not to sing "the cook's songs". Nikolka says:
Complete breakdown of nerves in the Turbinsky house and pessimism in general. Alyosha, I'm starting to worry. Talberg said that he would come in the morning, it was already nine o'clock, but he was still not there ...
The electricity suddenly goes out, a military unit passes through the windows with a song and a distant cannon blow is heard. Electricity flashes again. Elena begins to seriously worry about her husband, Alexei and Nikolka reassure her: “You know that the line to the west is guarded by the Germans. And it takes a long time, because they stand at every station. Revolutionary riding: you ride for an hour, you stop for two.
The bell rings and Myshlaevsky enters, completely frozen, almost frostbitten, in the pocket of his greatcoat is his bottle of vodka. Myshlaevsky says that he came from under the Red Traktir, all the peasants of which went over to the side of Petliura. Myshlaevsky himself almost miraculously ended up in the city - the transfer was organized by staff officers, for whom Myshlaevsky made a terrible scandal. Alexey gladly accepts Myshlaevsky in his unit, located in the Alexander Gymnasium.
Myshlaevsky warms himself by the fireplace and drinks vodka, Nikolka rubs his frostbitten feet, Elena prepares a hot bath. When Myshlaevsky goes to the bathroom, a continuous bell rings (the bell button has sunk). Lariosik enters with a suitcase and a bundle. Lariosik joyfully greets those present, not noticing at all that no one will recognize him (despite my mother's 63-word telegram!). Only after Lariosik introduces himself ("Larion Larionovich Surzhansky"), the misunderstanding is resolved. It turns out that Lariosik is a cousin from Zhytomyr who came to enter Kyiv University.
Lariosik is a sissy, a ridiculous, unadapted young man, a "terrible loser", living in his own world and time. He traveled from Zhytomyr for 11 days, on the way they stole a bundle of linen from him, left only books and manuscripts (however, the shirt in which Lariosik wrapped Chekhov's collected works survived). Elena decides to put her cousin in the library.
When Lariosik leaves, the bell rings - Thalberg, Elena's long-awaited husband, has come. Elena happily talks about the arrival of Myshlaevsky, Lariosik. Thalberg is unhappy. He talks about the bad state of affairs: the city is surrounded by Petliurists, the Germans leave the hetman to his fate, and no one knows about it yet, not even the hetman himself. Thalberg, a person too prominent and well-known (after all, assistant to the Minister of War), is going to flee to Germany. One, because the Germans do not take women. The train leaves in an hour and a half, Talberg seems to be consulting with his wife, but in fact he confronts her with the fact of his “business trip” (colonels of the General Staff do not run). Talberg nicely argues that he is only going for two months, the hetman will definitely return, and then he will return, and Elena, in the meantime, will take care of their rooms. Talberg severely punishes Elena not to accept the annoying suitor Shervinsky and not to cast a shadow on the name Talberg.
Elena leaves to pack her husband's suitcase, and Alexei enters the room. Thalberg briefly informs him of his departure. Alexei is in a cold rage, he does not accept Thalberg's handshake. Talberg announces that Alexei will have to answer for his words when ... when Talberg returns. Nikolka enters, he also condemns the cowardly and petty Thalberg ("bargaining with a cab"), calling him a "rat". Thalberg leaves...
Picture two
A little while later. The table is set for dinner, Elena sits at the piano and takes the same chord. Suddenly Shervinsky enters with a huge bouquet and presents it to Elena. Shervinsky delicately looks after her, says compliments.
Elena told Shervinsky about Thalberg's departure, Shervinsky is happy with the news, as now he has the opportunity to court him openly. Shervinsky boasts of how he once sang in Zhmerinka (he has a wonderful operatic voice): "... "La" held nine ... seven measures."
Enter Alexei Turbin, Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky, Lariosik and Nikolka; Shervinsky and Lariosik introduce each other. Elena invites everyone to the table - this is the last dinner before the performance of the division of Alexei Turbin. The guests eat together, drink to Elena's health, and scatter compliments in front of her. Shervinsky says that everything is going well with the hetman, and one should not believe the rumors that the Germans are leaving him to his fate.
Everyone is drinking to the health of Alexei Turbin. Intoxicated, Lariosik suddenly says: “... cream curtains ... behind them you rest your soul ... you forget about all the horrors of the civil war. But our wounded souls are so thirsty for peace ... ”, causing friendly banter with this statement. Nikolka sits down at the piano and sings a patriotic soldier's song, and then Shervinsky announces a toast in honor of the hetman. The toast was not supported, Studzinsky announced that "he will not drink this toast and does not advise other officers." An unpleasant situation is brewing, against the background of which Lariosik suddenly speaks inopportunely with a toast “in honor of Elena Vasilievna and her husband, who has left for Berlin.” The officers enter into a fierce discussion about the hetman and his actions, Alexei very sharply condemns the hetman's policy:
If your hetman, instead of breaking this damn comedy with Ukrainization, would begin the formation of officer corps, because Petliura would not smell of spirit in Little Russia. But this is not enough: we would have swatted the Bolsheviks in Moscow like flies.
- The Germans would not allow the formation of an army, - Shervinsky objects, - they are afraid of it.
- No, - Alexei answers, - they needed to explain that we are not dangerous to them. And now it's too late, now our officers have turned into cafe regulars. Cafe Army! So he will go to war. He, the bastard, has currency in his pocket, with which he speculates ... They gave the division: go, Petlyura is coming! ... And yesterday I looked at the junkers - at a hundred junkers - one hundred and twenty students, and they are holding a rifle like a shovel. And yesterday on the parade ground ... It's snowing, fog ... I imagined, you know, a coffin ... In Russia, gentlemen, there are two forces: the Bolsheviks and us. Yes, we will not keep Petlyura. But he won't be here for long. But the Bolsheviks will come for him. And when we meet with them, things will be more fun. Either we will bury them, or rather they will bury us.
Lariosik, meanwhile, sits down at the piano and sings, everyone chaotically picks up. The drunken Myshlaevsky draws a Mauser and is about to go shoot the commissars, he is calmed down. Shervinsky continues to defend the hetman:
Hetman will do just as you suggest. That's when we manage to fight off Petlyura and the allies help us defeat the Bolsheviks, that's when the hetman will put Ukraine at the feet of His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich ...
“The Emperor has been killed…” Nikolka remarks.
- No, - Shervinsky objects, - this is invented by the Bolsheviks.
And he tells the legendary story of Nicholas II, allegedly now at the court of the German Emperor Wilhelm. Other officers object to him. Myshlaevsky cries:
Is it the people? After all, they are bandits. Professional union of regicides! He remembers Emperor Peter III, Paul I and Alexander I, who were killed by their subjects. Then Myshlaevsky becomes ill, Studzinsky, Nikolka and Alexei take him to the bathroom.
Shervinsky and Elena are left alone. Elena is restless, she tells Shervinsky a dream: “As if we were all on a ship to America and sitting in the hold. And then the storm... The water rises to the very feet... We climb onto some bunk beds. And suddenly rats. So disgusting, so huge…”
Shervinsky suddenly declares to Elena that her husband will not return, and confesses his love. Elena does not believe Shervinsky, reproaches him for impudence, "adventures" with a mezzo-soprano with painted lips; then she admits that she does not love and does not respect her husband, but she really likes Shervinsky. Shervinsky begs Elena to divorce Thalberg and marry him. They kiss.
Action two
Picture one
Night. Hetman's office in the palace. There is a huge desk in the room with telephones on it. The door opens, and the footman Fyodor lets Shervinsky in. Shervinsky is surprised that there is no one in the office, neither on duty nor adjutants. Fyodor tells him that the hetman's second personal adjutant, Prince Novozhiltsev, "deigned to receive unpleasant news" by phone and at the same time "changed a lot in his face", and then "dropped out of the palace altogether", "left in civilian clothes." Shervinsky is perplexed, furious. He rushes to the phone and calls Novozhiltsev, but on the phone, in the voice of Novozhiltsev himself, they answer that he is not there. The chief of staff of the Svyatoshinsky regiment, his assistants are also missing. Shervinsky writes a note and asks Fyodor to hand it over to the orderly, who should receive a package from this note.
The Hetman enters. He is in the richest Circassian coat, crimson trousers and boots without heels of the Caucasian type. Shiny general's epaulettes. Short trimmed, graying mustache, clean-shaven head, about forty-five years old.
The hetman appointed a meeting at a quarter to twelve, at which the high command of the Russian and German armies was to arrive. Shervinsky reports that no one has arrived. He tries to tell the hetman about Novozhiltsev's unworthy behavior in broken Ukrainian, the hetman takes it out on Shervinsky. Shervinsky, now switching to Russian, reports that they called from the headquarters and said that the commander of the volunteer army fell ill and left with the whole headquarters in a German train to Germany. Hetman is amazed:
Are you sane? Do you understand what you reported? Did they run? Disaster, right?
- That's right, a catastrophe, - answers Shervinsky. - At ten o'clock in the evening, Petliur's units broke through the front and Bolbotun's cavalry went into a breakthrough ...
There is a knock on the door, representatives of the German command enter: a gray-haired, long-faced General von Schratt and a purple-faced Major von Dust. The hetman joyfully greets them, tells about the betrayal of the headquarters of the Russian command and the breakthrough of the front by Petliura's cavalry. He asks the German command to immediately send troops to repulse the gangs and "restore order in Ukraine, which is so friendly to Germany."
The generals refuse to help, declaring that all of Ukraine is on the side of Petlyura, and therefore the German command is withdrawing its divisions back to Germany, and offer an immediate "evacuation" of the hetman in the same direction. The hetman begins to get nervous and brag (“I protest… I still have the opportunity to raise an army and defend Kyiv with my own means… The responsibility will fall on the German command…”). In response, the Germans hint that if the hetman is suddenly taken prisoner, he will be hanged immediately. Hetman is broken.
Dust fires his revolver at the ceiling, Schratt hides in the next room. To those who came running to the noise, Dust explains that everything is all right with the hetman, it was General von Schratt who caught a revolver with his trousers and "mistakenly hit his head." A German army doctor enters the room with a medical bag. Schratt hurriedly dresses up the hetman in a German uniform, “as if you are me, and I am the wounded man; we will secretly take you out of the city.”
The field telephone rings, Shervinsky reports to the hetman that two regiments of Serdyuks have crossed over to the side of Petlyura, and enemy cavalry has appeared in the exposed area. The hetman asks to be told to detain the cavalry for at least half an hour (“I must leave!”). Shervinsky turns to Schratt with a request to take him and his fiancee to Germany. Schratt refuses, he says that there are no seats on the evacuation train, and there is already an adjutant there - Prince Novozhiltsev. Meanwhile, the bewildered hetman is disguised as a German general. The doctor tightly bandages his head and puts him on a stretcher. The hetman is carried out, and Schratt leaves unnoticed through the black door.
Shervinsky notices a golden cigarette case, which the hetman forgot. After a little hesitation, Shervinsky hides the cigarette case in his pocket ("Historical Value"). Then he calls Turbin and tells about the betrayal of the hetman, changes into civilian clothes, which the orderly delivered at his request, and disappears.
Picture two
Evening. Empty, gloomy room. Inscription: "Headquarters of the 1st Kinny Division." The standard is blue and yellow, a kerosene lantern at the entrance. Outside the windows, the sound of horse hooves is occasionally heard, the harmonica quietly plays.
A Sich deserter with a bloody face is dragged into the headquarters. Galanba, cold, black, cruelly interrogates the deserter, who in fact turns out to be a Petliurist with frostbite on his feet, making his way to the infirmary. Galanba orders the Sich man to be taken to the infirmary, and after the doctor bandages his legs, bring him back to headquarters and give fifteen ramrods "knowing the wines, how to run from your regiment without documents."
A man with a basket is brought to headquarters. This is a shoemaker, he works at home, and takes the finished goods to the city, to the master's store. Petliurists rejoice - there is something to profit from, they snap up their boots, despite the timid objections of the shoemaker (“I’ll die without these boots ... Here for two thousand rubles ...”). Bolbotun declares that the shoemaker will be given a receipt, and Galanba gives the shoemaker a blow in the ear. The shoemaker runs away.
At this time, an offensive is announced. Outside the window there is a clatter, a whistle, everyone runs out, the harmonica rattles, flying by ...
Act Three
Picture one
Dawn. The lobby of the Alexander Gymnasium. Guns in the goats, boxes, machine guns. Giant staircase, portrait of Alexander I at the top. The division is marching along the corridors of the gymnasium, Nikolka sings romances to the ridiculous tune of a soldier's song, the cadets are deafeningly picked up.
An officer comes up to Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky and says that five cadets ran away from his platoon at night. Myshlaevsky replies that Turbin has left to sort out the situation, and then orders the junkers to go to the classes “break desks, heat stoves!” Maxim appears from the closet and says in horror that
o you can’t heat with desks (“What is being done! Tatars, pure Tatars”), but you have to heat with firewood; but there is no firewood, and the officers wave him off.
Shell explosions are heard very close. Enter Alexei Turbin. He urgently orders the return of the outpost on Demievka, and then addresses the officers and the division:
I order gentlemen officers and the division to listen carefully to what I announce to them. Listen, remember. Remember, execute. During the night, sharp and sudden changes took place in our position ... Therefore, I announce that I am disbanding our division. The fight against Petlyura is over. I order everyone, including officers, to immediately take off their shoulder straps, all insignia and run home. Be silent! Don't argue! Fulfill orders! Alive!
The dead silence explodes with shouts: “Arrest him!”, “What does this mean?”, “Junkers, take him!”, “Junkers, back!”. There is confusion, the officers brandish their revolvers, the cadets do not understand what is happening and refuse to obey the order. Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky stand up for Turbin, who again takes the floor:
I thought that each of you would understand that a misfortune had happened, that your commander did not dare to say shameful things. But you are clueless. Who do you wish to protect? (In response - silence.) Tonight the hetman, leaving the army to the mercy of fate, fled, disguised as a German officer to Germany. At the same time, another scum fled in the same direction - the commander of the army, Prince Belorukov. So, my friends, there is not only no one to protect, but even no one to command us, for the prince's headquarters set in motion with him. (Hum.) I was at the headquarters just now and checked the information. So, gentlemen! Here we are, there are two hundred of us. And the 200,000-strong army of Petliura is on the outskirts of the city! In a word, I will not lead you into battle, because I do not participate in the booth, especially since all of you will absolutely senselessly pay with your blood for this booth! (Hum and roar.) And if you think to go to the Don, then there you will meet the same generals and the same staff horde. They will force you to fight your own people. And when he splits your heads open, they will run away abroad... I know that in Rostov it is the same as in Kyiv. There are divisions without shells, cadets without boots, and officers are sitting in coffee shops ... I was instructed to push you into a fight. I declare that I will not lead you and will not let you in! I tell you: the white movement in Ukraine is over. He is finished everywhere! The people are not with us. He is against us. And here I am, a career officer Alexei Turbin, who endured the war with the Germans, I accept everything on my conscience and responsibility, I warn you and, loving you, I send you home. (Roar of voices. Sudden break.) Tear off your shoulder straps, drop your rifles, and go home immediately!
A terrible turmoil rises in the hall, the cadets and officers scatter. Nikolka hits the box with the switches with his rifle and runs away. The light goes out. Alexey at the stove tears and burns papers. Maxim enters, Turbin sends him home. Maxim replies pitifully:
Your Excellency, where am I going? I can't get away from public property. The desks were broken, they made such a loss ... Who will be responsible? Maxim is responsible for everything. Everyone - for the king and against the king were, frenzied soldiers, but in order to break desks ... - they cross themselves and leave.
A glow breaks through the windows of the gymnasium, Myshlaevsky appears upstairs and shouts that he has lit the storehouse, now he will roll two more bombs into the hay - and go. But when he finds out that Turbin is staying at the gymnasium to wait for the outpost, he decides to stay with him. Turbin is against it, he orders Myshlaevsky to immediately go to Elena and guard her. Myshlaevsky disappears.
Nikolka appears at the top of the stairs and declares that she won't leave without Alexei. Aleksey pulls out a revolver to somehow force Nikolka to run. At this time, the junkers who were in the outpost appear. They report that Petliura's cavalry is following. Alexei orders them to flee, while he himself stays behind to cover the withdrawal of the junkers.
There is a close gap, the windows burst, Alexei falls. With the last of his strength, he orders Nikolka to give up heroism and run. At that moment, the Gaidamaks rush into the hall and shoot at Nikolka. Nikolka crawls up the stairs (“Gallows, don’t give up!”), throws himself off the railing and disappears.
The harmonica hums and hums, the sound of a trumpet is heard, the banners float up the stairs. Deafening march.
Picture two
Dawn. Turbin's apartment. There is no electricity, a candle is burning on the card table. In the room Lariosik and Elena, who is very worried about the brothers, Myshlaevsky, Studzinsky and Shervinsky. Lariosik volunteers to go in search, but Elena dissuades him. She herself is going to meet her brothers (“I am a woman, they will not touch me”). Lariosik started talking about Thalberg, but Elena severely cut him off: “Do not mention the name of my husband in the house anymore. Do you hear?
There is a knock at the door - Shervinsky has come. He brought bad news: the hetman, Prince Belorukov fled, Petlyura took the city. Shervinsky tries to calm Elena, explaining that he warned Alexei, and he will come soon.
Another knock on the door - Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky enter. Elena rushes to them with the question: “Where are Alyosha and Nikolai?” They calm her down.
Myshlaevsky begins to mock Shervinsky, reproaching him for his love for the hetman. Shervinsky is furious (“What does this farcical tone mean?”). Studzinsky tries to end the quarrel. Myshlaevsky softens, asks:
Well, it means that he gave a move in front of you?
- With me, - answers Shervinsky. - Hugs and thanked for faithful service. And he shed a tear ... And he presented a golden cigarette case, with a monogram.
Myshlaevsky does not believe, hints at Shervinsky's "rich imagination", he silently shows the stolen cigarette case. Everyone is amazed.
There is a knock on the window. Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky go up to the window and, carefully pushing the curtain aside, look out and run out. A few minutes later, Nikolka is brought into the room, his head is broken, there is blood in his boot. Lariosik wants to inform Elena, but Myshlaevsky clamps his mouth shut: "Lenka, Lenka must be removed somewhere ...".
Shervinsky comes running with iodine and bandages, Studzinsky bandages Nikolka's head. Suddenly Nikolka comes to his senses, he is immediately asked: "Where is Alyoshka?", but Nikolka only mumbles incoherently in response.
Elena quickly enters the room, and they immediately begin to calm her down: “He fell and hit his head. There is nothing terrible." Elena in alarm interrogates Nikolka: “Where is Alexei?” Myshlaevsky makes a sign to Nikolka - “be quiet”. Elena is hysterical, she guesses that a terrible thing happened to Alexei, and reproaches the survivors:
And you?! senior officers! Everyone came home, but the commander was killed? ...
- Lena, - answers Myshlaevsky, - have pity on us, what are you saying?! We all followed his orders. All!
But the hysteria is spreading, now Studzinsky grabs his revolver:
No, she's absolutely right! I'm all to blame. You couldn't leave him! I am a senior officer, and I will correct my mistake!
Shervinsky and Myshlaevsky try to reason with Studzinsky and take away his revolver. Elena tries to soften her reproach: “I said out of grief. My head went haywire… I went mad…” And then Nikolka opens her eyes and confirms Elena’s terrible guess: “They killed the commander.” Elena faints.
Act one
Two months have passed. Epiphany Christmas Eve 1919 arrived. Elena and Lariosik are decorating the Christmas tree. Lariosik scatters compliments in front of Elena, reads poetry to her and admits that he is in love with her. Elena calls Lariosik a "terrible poet" and "a touching person", asks to read poetry, kisses him on the forehead in a friendly way. And then she admits that she has long been in love with one person, moreover, she has an affair with him; and Lariosik knows this man very well... Desperate Lariosik goes for vodka to “drunk himself senseless”, and at the door he runs into the incoming Shervinsky. The one with the nasty hat, tattered coat and blue glasses. Shervinsky tells the news:
Congratulations, Petliura cover! Tonight will be red. And I rented a coat from the janitor. This is a non-party coat - he takes off his coat, hat, galoshes, glasses, and remains in a magnificent tailcoat suit. - Here, congratulations, just from the debut. He sang and was accepted ... Lena, that's all over. Nikolka is recovering... Now a new life begins. It is impossible for us to languish any longer. He won't come. They cut him off, Lena!
Leonid, I will become your wife if you change. And above all, stop lying! Although no, you are not a liar, but God knows you, some kind of empty, like a nut ... It is important that you stop boasting and lying. The only time he told the truth was when he spoke about a cigarette case, and then no one believed it, the proof had to be presented. Fu!… Shame…
About the cigarette case, I just lied to everything. Hetman did not give it to me, did not hug and did not shed a tear. He just forgot it on the table, and I hid it. This is a historical value.
Elena takes the cigarette case from Shervinsky and hides it, then turns back to Shervinsky:
What are we going to do with Thalberg?
- Divorce. Do you know his address? A telegram to him and a letter that it's all over!
- OK then! I'm bored and lonely. It's dreary. Well! I agree!
Shervinsky tears Talberg's portrait from the wall and throws it into the fireplace. They go to Elena's room. The piano is heard, Shervinsky sings.
Nikolka enters, pale and weak, in a black cap and student jacket, on crutches. He notices the torn frame (“Knocked out. I understand. I guessed for a long time ...”) and lies down on the sofa. Lariosik arrives, he just obtained a bottle of vodka on his own, moreover, he carried it unharmed to the apartment, which he is extremely proud of:
I'm walking down the street now - wagons, wagons, and on them these, with tails. It can be seen that the Bolsheviks beat them up nicely. But, nevertheless, I got vodka! For the only time in my life I was lucky! Let Myshlaevsky know what I am capable of. He fell twice, hit the back of his head, but held the bottle in his hands.
Nikolka points to the empty frame of the portrait:
Awesome news! Elena separates from her husband. She will marry Shervinsky. Stunned, Lariosik drops the bottle, which shatters. The bell rings, Lariosik lets in Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky (both in civilian clothes). They vied with each other to report the news:
The Reds defeated Petlyura! Petliura's troops are leaving the city!
- The Reds are already in Slobodka. They'll be here in half an hour.
- Quietly, politely go. And without any fight!
- And most importantly, - adds Lariosik, - everyone rejoices, even the undercut bourgeois. Before that, everyone was tired of Petliura!
“The best thing,” Studzinsky reflects, “is for us to attach ourselves to the wagon train and follow Petlyura to Galicia!” And there on the Don, to Denikin, and fight the Bolsheviks.
- Again, then, to the generals under the command? Myshlaevsky enters into an argument. - It's a pity that Alyoshka is lying in the ground, otherwise he could tell a lot of interesting things about the generals.
Nikolka cries, remembering her brother.
Enough! Myshlaevsky continues. - I have been fighting for the fatherland since 1914... And where is this fatherland when they threw me to shame?! And I again go to these lordships?! Well no. Shish! Yes, if you like, I'm for the Bolsheviks, but only against the Communists... And if it's the same thing, well, then for the Communists... And if the Bolsheviks mobilize, then I'll go and serve. Yes! Because Petliura has two hundred thousand, but they greased their heels with bacon and blow at the mere word "Bolsheviks." Because behind the Bolsheviks there are a cloud of peasants ... And what can I oppose? Leggings with piping? But they can’t see this edge… Red Guards in the front, speculators and all kinds of riffraff with the hetman in the back, and I’m in the middle? No, I'm tired of portraying manure in the hole. Let them mobilize! At least I will know that I will serve in the Russian army. The people are not with us. The people are against us. Alyosha was right!
But what the hell is the Russian army when they finished off Russia?! Yes, they will shoot us anyway! I will fight them!
- You are welcome! Go ahead! Shout to the Bolsheviks: I won't let you in! Nikolka's head has already been thrown off the stairs! And you will be completely torn off. And rightly so. Now things are not ours!
- We had Russia - a great power! ...
- And it will be! ... The former will not be, the new will be. And when you are smashed on the Don - and that you will be smashed, I predict - and when Denikin gives a tear abroad - and I also predict this - then where? Also abroad? Need you there! Wherever you go, they will spit in your mug from Singapore to Paris. I will be here in Russia. And be with her what will be! ...
In the heat of the argument, Shervinsky runs in and announces that Elena is divorcing Talberg and is marrying Shervinsky. Everyone congratulates them. Suddenly the front door opens, Talberg enters in a civilian overcoat, with a suitcase.
Elena asks everyone to leave them alone with Thalberg. Everyone leaves, and for some reason Lariosik is on tiptoe. Elena briefly informs Talberg that Alexei has been killed and Nikolka is a cripple. Talberg declares that the hetmanate "turned out to be a stupid operetta", the Germans deceived them, but in Berlin he managed to get a business trip to the Don, to General Krasnov, and now he has come for his wife. Elena dryly answers Talberg that she is divorcing him and marrying Shervinsky. Talberg is trying to make a scene, but Myshlaevsky comes out and says: “Well? Get out! - hits Thalberg in the face. Talberg is confused, he goes into the hall and leaves ...
Everyone enters the room with the Christmas tree, Lariosik puts out the light and lights the electric bulbs on the Christmas tree, then brings the guitar and hands it to Nikolka. Nikolka sings, and everyone, except Studzinsky, picks up the chorus:
So for the Council of People's Commissars...
We will shout a loud “Hurrah! Hooray! Hooray!"
Everyone asks Lariosik to make a speech. Lariosik is embarrassed, refuses, but still says:
We met at the most difficult and terrible time, and we all experienced a lot ... including myself. My frail ship was rattled by the waves of the civil war for a long time ... Until it was washed up in this harbor with cream curtains, with people that I liked so much ... However, I found drama with them too ... Time turned. Here Petlyura disappeared ... We are all together again ... And even more than that: here is Elena Vasilyevna, she also experienced a lot, a lot and deserves happiness, because she is a wonderful woman.
There were distant cannon shots. But this is not a fight, this is a salute. The International is playing on the street - the Reds are coming. Everyone goes to the window.
Gentlemen, says Nikolka, tonight is a great prologue to a new historical play.
- To whom - a prologue, - Studzinsky answers him, - and to whom - an epilogue.
“DAYS OF THE TURBINS”, a play. The premiere took place at the Moscow Art Theater on October 5, 1926. In April 1929, D.T. the play ran 987 times. During Bulgakov's lifetime it was not published. For the first time: Bulgakov M. Days of the Turbins. Last days (A. S. Pushkin). M .: Art, 1955. In 1934, two translations of D. T. into English by Y. Lyons and F. Bloch were published in Boston and New York. In 1927, a translation into German of the second edition of D.T., made by K. Rosenberg, appeared in Berlin, which in the original Russian bore the name “White Guard” (the publication had a double title: “The Days of the Turbins. The White Guard”). D.T. were written based on the novel The White Guard, and the first two editions of the play had the same name with it. Bulgakov began work on the first edition of the play The White Guard in July 1925. As early as April 3, 1925, he received an invitation from the director of the Moscow Art Theater B.I. Vershilov to come to the theater, where he was offered to write a play based on the novel The White Guard. Bulgakov’s idea for such a play was born as early as January 1925. To some extent, this idea continued the idea realized in Vladikavkaz in his early play “The Turbine Brothers” in 1920. , Anfisa Ivanovna, in marriage - Pokrovskaya) were transferred during the revolution of 1905. In the play "The White Guard", as in the novel, Bulgakov used his own memories of life in Kyiv at the turn of 1918-1919. At the beginning of September 1925, in the presence of Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (Alekseev) (1863-1938), he read the first edition of the play in the theater. Here, almost all the plot lines of the novel were repeated and its main characters were preserved. Aleksey Turbin was still a military doctor, and Colonels Malyshev and Nai-Tours were among the actors. This edition did not satisfy the Moscow Art Theater because of its length and the presence of characters and episodes duplicating each other. In the next edition, which Bulgakov read to the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater at the end of October 1925, Nai-Tours was already eliminated and his remarks were transferred to Colonel Malyshev. And by the end of January 1926, when the final distribution of roles in the future performance was made, Bulgakov also removed Malyshev, turning Alexei Turbin into a career artillery colonel, a true spokesman for the ideology of the white movement. Note that in 1917, as an artillery officer, Mr. the husband of Bulgakov's sister Nadezhda Andrey Mikhailovich Zemsky (1892-1946) served. Perhaps the acquaintance with the son-in-law prompted the playwright to make the main characters of D.T. gunners. Now the hero closest to the author - Colonel Turbin gave the white idea a catharsis with his death. By this point, the play had basically taken shape. Later, under the influence of censorship, a scene was filmed at Petliura's headquarters, for Petliura's freemen in their cruel element very much resembled Red Army soldiers. It should be noted that in early editions, as in the novel, the “turnover” of the Petliurists in red was emphasized by the “red tails” (shanks) on their hats. The name "White Guard" provoked an objection. K. S. Stanislavsky, under pressure from the Glavrepertkom, proposed replacing it with “Before the End”, which Bulgakov categorically rejected. In August 1926, the parties agreed on the name "Days of the Turbins" (the "Turbin Family" appeared as an intermediate option). On September 25, 1926, D.T. were allowed by the Glavrepertkom only in the Moscow Art Theater. In the last days before the premiere, a number of changes had to be made, especially in the finale, where the growing sounds of the “Internationale” appeared, and Myshlaevsky was forced to say a toast to the Red Army and express his readiness to serve in it: “At least I know that I will serve in the Russian army."
A major role in resolving the play was played by the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs K. E. Voroshilov. On October 20, 1927, Stanislavsky sent him a letter of thanks: "Dear Klementy Efremovich, let me bring you heartfelt gratitude from the Moscow Art Theater for your help in resolving the play "Days of the Turbins" - than you provided great support at a difficult moment for us."
D.T. enjoyed unique success with the public. It was the only play in the Soviet theater where the white camp was shown not as a caricature, but with undisguised sympathy, and its main representative, Colonel Alexei Turbin, was endowed with obvious autobiographical features. The personal decency and honesty of the opponents of the Bolsheviks were not questioned, and the blame for the defeat was placed on the headquarters and generals, who failed to offer a political program acceptable to the majority of the population and properly organize the white army. For the first season 1926/27. D.T. was played 108 times, more than any other performance of Moscow theaters. The play was loved by the intelligent non-Party audience, while the Party audience sometimes tried to obstruct it. The second wife of the playwright, L. E. Belozerskaya, in her memoirs, reproduces the story of one friend about the Moscow Art Theater performance: “The 3rd act of“ Days of the Turbins ”was going on ... The battalion (more correctly, the division. - B.S.) was defeated. The city was taken by the Gaidamaks. The moment is tense. There is a glow in the window of the turbine house. Elena and Lariosik are waiting. And suddenly a faint knock... Both are listening... Unexpectedly, an excited female voice from the audience: “Yes, open it! These are theirs!” This is the fusion of theater with life that a playwright, actor and director can only dream of.”
And here is how D.T. was remembered by a person from a different camp - critic and censor Osaf Semenovich Litovsky, who did a lot to expel Bulgakov's plays from the stage: way youth. In Days of the Turbins, Moscow met for the first time such actors as Khmelev, Yanshin, Dobronravov, Sokolova, Stanitsyn - with artists whose creative biography took shape in the Soviet era.
The extreme sincerity with which the young actors portrayed the experiences of the "knights" of the white idea, the evil punishers, the executioners of the working class, evoked sympathy from one, the most insignificant part of the audience, and indignation from another.
Whether the theater wanted it or not, it turned out that the performance urged us to take pity on, humanly treat the misguided Russian intellectuals in uniform and without uniform.
Nevertheless, we could not help but see that a new, young generation of artists of the Art Theater was entering the stage, which had every reason to stand on a par with the glorious old people.
And indeed, soon we had the opportunity to rejoice at the wonderful work of Khmelev and Dobronravov.
On the evening of the premiere, all the participants in the performance seemed like a miracle: Yanshin, and Prudkin, and Stanitsyn, and Khmelev, and especially Sokolova and Dobronravov.
It is impossible to convey how struck by his exceptional simplicity, even for students of Stanislavsky, Dobronravov in the role of captain Myshlaevsky.
Years have passed. Toporkov began to play the role of Myshlaevsky. And we, the audience, really want to say to the participants of the premiere: never forget Myshlaevsky - Dobronravov, this simple, slightly clumsy Russian man, who really deeply understood everything, very simply and sincerely, without any solemnity and pathos, admitted his bankruptcy.
Here he is, an ordinary infantry officer (actually an artillery officer - B.S.), whom we have seen a lot on the Russian stage, doing the most ordinary thing: sitting on a bunk and pulling off his boots, at the same time dropping separate words of recognition of surrender. And behind the scenes - "International". Life goes on. Every day you will need to pull the service, and maybe even the military strap ...
Looking at Dobronravov, I thought: “Well, this one, perhaps, will be the commander of the Red Army, he will even definitely be!”
Myshlaevsky - Dobronravov was much smarter and more significant, deeper than his Bulgakov prototype (and Bulgakov himself was smarter and more significant than his critic Lithuanian. - B.S.).
The stage director of the play was Ilya Yakovlevich Sudakov (1890-1969), and the main director was K. S. Stanislavsky.
Almost all critics unanimously scolded D. T. Thus, the People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky (1875-1933) claimed (in Izvestia on October 8, 1926) that the play is dominated by “the atmosphere of a dog wedding around some red-haired wife friend”, considered it “semi-apology of the White Guard”, and later, in 1933, called D.T. “the drama of restrained, even if you want crafty capitulation”. In an article in the Novyi Spectator magazine dated February 2, 1927, Bulgakov emphasized the following: “We are ready to agree with some of our friends that the Days of the Turbins is a cynical attempt to idealize the White Guard, but we have no doubt that it is the Days of the Turbins that - an aspen stake in her coffin. Why? Because for a healthy Soviet spectator, the most ideal slush cannot present a temptation, but for dying active enemies and for passive, flabby, indifferent townsfolk, the same slush cannot give either an emphasis or a charge against us. Just like a funeral hymn cannot serve as a military march.” The playwright, in a letter to the government on March 28, 1930, noted that 298 “hostile and abusive” reviews and 3 positive ones had accumulated in his scrapbook, and the vast majority of them were devoted to D.T. Almost the only positive response to the play was N. Rukavishnikov’s review in “Komsomolskaya Pravda” of December 29, 1926. This was a response to an abusive letter from the poet Alexander Bezymensky (1898-1973), who called Bulgakov a “new-bourgeois offspring.” Rukavishnikov tried to convince Bulgakov’s opponents that “on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution ... it’s completely safe to show the viewer living people, that the viewer is pretty fed up with both shaggy priests from agitation and pot-bellied capitalists in top hats,” but none of the critics and not convinced.
In D.T. Bulgakov, as in the novel The White Guard, the goal was, in his own words from a letter to the government on March 28, 1930, “to persistently depict the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country. In particular, the image of an intelligentsia-noble family, by the will of an immutable historical fate, thrown into the camp of the White Guard during the Civil War, in the tradition of "War and Peace". Such an image is quite natural for a writer who is closely connected with the intelligentsia.” However, the play depicts not only the best, but also the worst representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. Among the latter is Colonel Thalberg, who is concerned only with his career. In the second edition of the play The White Guard, he quite selfishly explained his return to Kyiv, which the Bolsheviks were about to take: “I am perfectly aware of the matter. The Hetmanate turned out to be a stupid operetta. I decided to return and work in contact with the Soviet authorities. We need to change political milestones. That's all". Talberg had Bulgakov's son-in-law, the husband of Varia's sister, Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888-1968), a regular officer who, despite his previous service, became the hetman Pavel Petrovich Skoropadsky (1873-1945) and General Anton Ivanovich Denikin (1872-1947) as his prototype. ), a teacher at the Red Army rifle school (because of Talberg, Bulgakov quarreled with the Karum family). However, for censorship, such an early “shifting” of such an unsympathetic character as Talberg turned out to be unacceptable. In the final text of D.T., he had to explain his return to Kyiv by a business trip to the Don to General P.N. was still occupied by the Petliurists, hostile to the Whites, and was about to be occupied by the Bolsheviks. The sudden outbreak of love for his wife Elena as an explanation for this act looked rather false, because before, hastily leaving for Berlin, Thalberg did not show concern for his wife, who was leaving. The return of the deceived husband right to the wedding of Elena and Shervinsky was necessary for Bulgakov to create a comic effect and finally shame Vladimir Robertovich.
The image of Talberg, promoted to colonel in D.T., came out even more repulsive than in the novel The White Guard. L.S. Karum wrote about this in his memoir “My Life. A novel without lies”: “Bulgakov remade the first part of his novel into a play called Days of the Turbins. This play was very sensational, because for the first time on the Soviet stage, although not direct opponents of Soviet power, but still indirect ones were brought out. But the "officers-drinking buddies" are somewhat artificially tinted, arouse vain sympathy for themselves, and this caused an objection to staging the play on stage.
The case in the novel and the play is played out in a family whose members serve in the ranks of the Hetman's troops against the Petliurists, so that there is practically no white anti-Bolshevik army.
The play nevertheless suffered a lot of torment until it hit the stage. Bulgakov and the Moscow Art Theater, which staged this play, had to deepen it many times. So, for example, at one party in the house of the Turbins, officers - all monarchists - sing a hymn. The censorship demanded that the officers be drunk and sing the anthem out of harmony, in drunken voices.
I read the novel a very long time ago, I watched the play several years ago (Karum wrote his memoirs in the 60s. - B.S.), and therefore my novel and play merged into one.
I must only say that my likeness is less done in the play, but Bulgakov could not deny himself the pleasure that someone would not hit me in the play, and my wife would marry another. Only Talberg (a negative type) goes to Denikin's army, the rest disperse, after the capture of Kyiv by the Petliurists, who goes where.
I was very excited, because my acquaintances recognized the Bulgakov family in the novel and the play, they should have known or suspected that Thalberg was me. This trick of Bulgakov also had an empirical - practical meaning. He strengthened the conviction about me that I was a hetman's officer, and the local Kyiv OGPU (if the OGPU did not know for some reason that Talberg served Hetman Skoropalsky, then there could be no doubt about his presence in the Denikin and Wrangel armies, and From the point of view of the Soviet government, service in the White Army was a much greater sin than a short stay in the troops of the ephemeral Ukrainian state. - B.S.). After all, "white" officers could not serve in the "red" army. Of course, the writer is free in his work, and Bulgakov could say that he did not mean me: it is free for me to recognize myself, but there are also caricatures where the resemblance cannot be overlooked. I wrote an excited letter to Nadya in Moscow, where I called Mikhail "a scoundrel and a scoundrel" and asked that the letter be delivered to Mikhail. Once I complained about such an act by Mikhail Kostya.
- Answer him the same! Kostya answered.
“Stupid,” I replied.
But, by the way, I regret that I didn’t write a short story in the Chekhovian style, where I would talk about marriage for money, and about choosing the profession of a venereal doctor, and about morphinism and drunkenness in Kyiv, and about insufficient cleanliness in terms of money” .
By marriage for money, here we mean Bulgakov's first marriage - with T. N. Lappa, the daughter of a real state councilor. Also, the profession of a venereal doctor, according to Karum, the future writer chose solely for material reasons. In connection with the First World War and the revolution, a stream of refugees poured into the interior of the country, and then soldiers returning from the front; there was a surge in venereal diseases, and the profession of a venereologist became especially profitable. While still a zemstvo doctor in the Smolensk province, Bulgakov became addicted to morphine. In 1918, in Kyiv, he managed to overcome this disease, but, according to Karum, for some time he became addicted to alcohol. It is possible that alcohol replaced Bulgakov with a drug for some time and helped to distract him from the upheavals caused by the collapse of his former life. And by insufficient cleanliness in money matters, Karum means the case when Bulgakov borrowed money from Varya and did not give it back for a long time. According to T. N. Lappa, Leonid Sergeevich even said to someone about this: “They eat delicacies, but they don’t pay money.”
Karum, of course, did not want to recognize himself as a negative character. But in many ways, Colonel Thalberg, written off from him, was one of the strongest, albeit very repulsive, images of the play. According to the censors, it was impossible to bring such a man to serve in the Red Army. Therefore, instead of returning to Kyiv in the hope of establishing cooperation with the Soviet government, Bulgakov had to send Talberg on a business trip to the Don to Krasnov. On the contrary, under pressure from the Glavrepertkom and the Moscow Art Theater, the sympathetic Myshlaevsky underwent a significant evolution towards Smenovekhism and the willing acceptance of Soviet power. Here, for such a development of the image, a literary source was used - the novel by Vladimir Zazubrin (Zubtsov) (1895-1937) "Two Worlds" (1921). There, the lieutenant of the Kolchak army, Ragimov, explained his intention as follows. go to the Bolsheviks: “We fought. Honestly cut. Ours is not baret. Let's go to those whose bart... In my opinion, both the motherland and the revolution are just a beautiful lie, with which people cover up their selfish interests. People are arranged in such a way that no matter what meanness they do, they will always find an excuse for themselves. Myshlaevsky, in the final text, speaks of his intention to serve the Bolsheviks and break with the white movement: “Enough! I have been fighting since 1914. For what? For the fatherland? And this is the fatherland, when they threw me to shame?! And again go to these lordships?! Well no! Did you see? (Shows a bang.) Shish!.. What am I, an idiot, really? No, I, Viktor Myshlaevsky, declare that I have nothing more to do with these scoundrel generals. I've finished!..” Zazubrinsky Ragimov interrupted the carefree vaudeville song of his comrades with a recitation: “I am a commissar. There's a fire in my chest!" In D. T. Myshlaevsky inserts a toast into the white anthem - “Prophetic Oleg”: “So for the Council of People's Commissars ...” Compared to Ragimov, Myshlaevsky was greatly ennobled in his motives, but the vitality of the image was completely preserved. In the 1926/27 season. Bulgakov at the Moscow Art Theater received a letter signed "Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky". The fate of the unknown author during the civil war coincided with the fate of Bulgakov's hero, and in subsequent years was just as bleak as that of the creator of D.T. The letter said: “Dear Mr. Author. Remembering your sympathetic attitude towards me and knowing how interested you were at one time in my fate, I hasten to inform you of my further adventures after we parted with you. Having waited for the arrival of the Reds in Kyiv, I was mobilized and began to serve the new government not out of fear, but out of conscience, and even fought with the Poles with enthusiasm. It seemed to me then that only the Bolsheviks have that real power, strong by the faith in it of the people, which brings happiness and prosperity to Russia, which will make strong, honest, direct citizens out of the townsfolk and rogue God-bearers. Everything seemed to me so good with the Bolsheviks, so clever, so smooth, in a word, I saw everything in a rosy light to the point that I myself blushed and almost became a communist, but my past saved me - the nobility and officers. But now the honeymoons of the revolution are over. NEP, Kronstadt uprising. I, like many others, pass the frenzy and pink glasses begin to repaint in darker colors ...
General meetings under the watchful inquisitorial gaze of the local committee. Resolutions and demonstrations under duress. Illiterate bosses, having the appearance of a Votyak god and lusting after every typist (one gets the impression that the author of the letter was familiar with the relevant episodes of Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog", unpublished, but walking in the lists. - B.S.). No understanding of the matter, but a look at everything from the bottom. Komsomol spying with enthusiasm. The workers' delegations are distinguished foreigners, reminiscent of Chekhov's generals at a wedding. And lies, lies without end... Leaders? These are either little men holding on to power and comfort, which they have never seen, or rabid fanatics thinking of breaking through a wall with their foreheads (the latter, obviously, meant, first of all, L. D. Trotsky, who had already fallen into disgrace. - B. S. ). And the very idea! Yes, the idea is wow, quite coherent, but absolutely not put into practice like the teachings of Christ, but Christianity is both clearer and more beautiful (it seems that “Myshlaevsky” was also familiar with the works of Russian philosophers N. A. Berdyaev and S. N. Bulgakov, who argued that Marxism took the Christian idea and simply transferred it from heaven to earth. - B.S.). I am now left with nothing. Not material. No. I serve in modern times - wow, I'm interrupted. But it sucks to live without believing in anything. After all, not to believe in anything and not to love anything is the privilege of the next generation after us, our homeless replacement.
Recently, either under the influence of a passionate desire to fill the spiritual emptiness, or, indeed, it really is, but sometimes I hear subtle notes of some new life, real, truly beautiful, which has nothing to do with either royal or Soviet Russia. I make a great request to you on my own behalf and on behalf of, I think, many others like me, empty-hearted. Tell me from the stage, from the pages of a magazine, directly or in Aesopian language, as you like, but just let me know if you hear these subtle notes and what they sound like?
Or all this is self-deception and the current Soviet emptiness (material, moral and mental) is a permanent phenomenon. Caesar, morituri te salutant (Caesar, those doomed to death greet you (lat. - B.S.) ”.
The words about the Aesopian language indicate the acquaintance of the author of the letter with the feuilleton "Crimson Island" (1924). As an actual answer to “Myshlaevsky”, one can consider the play “Crimson Island”, where Bulgakov, turning a parody of Smenovekhism into an “ideological” play within the play, showed that everything in modern Soviet life is determined by the omnipotence of officials strangling creative freedom, like Savva Lukich, and no there can be no new sprouts here. In D.T., he still harbored hopes for some better future, and therefore introduced the Epiphany tree into the last action as a symbol of hope for spiritual rebirth. For this, the chronology of the play's action was even shifted against the real one. Later, Bulgakov explained this to his friend P. S. Popov: “I attribute the events of the last act to the feast of baptism ... I pushed the dates. It was important to use the Christmas tree in the last action.” In fact, the abandonment of Kyiv by the Petliurists and the occupation of the city by the Bolsheviks took place on February 3-5, 1919, but Bulgakov postponed these events two weeks ahead in order to combine them with the Epiphany holiday.
Criticism fell upon Bulgakov for the fact that in D.T. the White Guards appeared as tragic Chekhov's heroes. O. S. Litovsky dubbed Bulgakov’s play “The Cherry Orchard of the “White Movement”, asking rhetorically: “What does the Soviet audience care about the suffering of the landowner Ranevskaya, whose cherry orchard is mercilessly cut down? What does the Soviet audience care about the suffering of external and internal emigrants about the untimely death of the white movement? A. Orlinsky accused the playwright that “all commanders and officers live, fight, die and marry without a single batman, without servants, without the slightest contact with people from any other classes and social strata.” February 7, 1927 at the debate in the theater Sun. Meyerhold, dedicated to D.T. and “Lyubov Yarovaya” (1926) by Konstantin Andreevich Trenev (1876-1945), Bulgakov answered the critics: “I, the author of this play “Days of the Turbins”, who was in Kyiv during the Hetmanate and Petliurism, saw the White Guards in Kyiv from the inside behind cream curtains, I assert that batmen in Kyiv at that time, that is, when the events in my play took place, could not be obtained worth their weight in gold. D. T. to a much greater extent was a realistic work than his critics allowed, representing reality, unlike Bulgakov, in the form of given ideological schemes.
On October 5, 1926, the premiere of the play by M.A. Bulgakov "Days of the Turbins".
Perhaps, in the history of Russian-language dramaturgy of the 20th century, it is difficult to find a play with a more dramatic, but interesting fate. None of the works of M.A. Bulgakov during the life of the author did not receive such wide popularity or public recognition as "Days of the Turbins". The performance of the Moscow Art Theater survived a full house and a storm of applause. The playwright, little known in 1926, fell to a real persecution. However, while professional literary critics and ideologically savvy censors bombarded the play with abusive reviews, seeking its immediate ban, the audience truly lived the life of its heroes. Sincerely empathizing with the events on the stage, the audience gave vent to their emotions, cried and laughed, pondered, following Bulgakov, about the difficult fate of their country.
The history of the creation of the play
April 3, 1925 M.A. Bulgakov received an invitation from the director of the Moscow Art Theater B. I. Vershilov to come to the theater, where he was offered to write a play based on the newly published novel The White Guard.
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By that time, only the first part of the work had been published, but the theater needed a modern play. At that moment, the author already had an idea for such a play - he, as it were, continued Bulgakov's early play The Turbine Brothers. The autobiographical heroes of the work (Turbina - the maiden name of Bulgakov's grandmother on the mother's side) were transferred during the 1905 revolution. Being the head of the literary section of the sub-department of arts, M. A. Bulgakov staged The Turbin Brothers in Vladikavkaz (1920). According to the author himself, the play was "raw" and the performance was not particularly successful. Vershilov's proposal forced Mikhail Afanasyevich to turn again to the memorable events in Kyiv at the turn of 1918-1919. He began work on the first edition of the new play The White Guard in July 1925, and in September its original version was already read. The reading was attended by Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (Alekseev), Vershilov and other leading directors and actors of the Moscow Art Theater. In the first edition, almost all the plot lines of the novel were repeated and its main characters were preserved. Alexei Turbin was still a military doctor, among the actors were Colonels Malyshev and Nai-Tours. This option did not satisfy the Moscow Art Theater because of its "romantic" protractedness and the presence of characters duplicating each other.
In the next edition, which Bulgakov read to the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater at the end of October 1925, Nai-Tours was eliminated and his remarks were transferred to Colonel Malyshev. And by the end of January 1926, when the final distribution of roles in the future performance was made, Bulgakov also removed Malyshev, turning Alexei Turbin into a career artillery colonel, a true spokesman for the ideology of the white movement. Now it was Turbin, and not Nai-Turs and Malyshev, who perished in the gymnasium, covering the retreat of the junkers, and the intimacy of the turbine house exploded with the tragedy of the death of its owner.
Due to censorship requirements, the text of the play suffered significant losses. A scene was filmed at the Petliura headquarters, because the Petliura freemen in their cruel element very much resembled the Red Army. The name "White Guard" provoked an objection. It seemed too provocative. K. S. Stanislavsky, under pressure from the Glavrepertkom, proposed replacing it with the title “Before the End,” which Bulgakov categorically rejected. In August 1926, the parties agreed on the name "Days of the Turbins" (the "Turbin Family" appeared as an intermediate option). On September 25, 1926, the "Days of the Turbins" were allowed by the Glavrepertkom only in the Moscow Art Theater. In the last days before the premiere, a number of changes had to be made, especially in the finale, where the growing sounds of the “Internationale” appeared, and Myshlaevsky was forced to pronounce the “toast” of the Red Army and express his readiness to serve in it.
Oddly enough, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs K. E. Voroshilov played an important role in the negotiations on the permission of the play. On October 20, 1927, Stanislavsky sent him a letter of thanks: “Dear Klementy Efremovich, let me bring you heartfelt gratitude from the Moscow Art Theater for your help in resolving the play “Days of the Turbins”, which you have provided great support at a difficult moment for us.”
Public reaction
"Days of the Turbins" from the premiere performance enjoyed unique success with the public. It was the only play in the Soviet theater where the white camp was shown not as a caricature, but with deep sympathy. The personal decency and honesty of the opponents of the Bolsheviks were not called into question, and the blame for the defeat was placed on the headquarters and generals, who were unable to offer a political program acceptable to the majority of the population.
During the first season of 1926 - 1927, "Days of the Turbins" were held 108 times, more than any other performance of Moscow theaters.
Alexei Turbin was brilliantly played by N. Khmelev, Elena by O. Androvskaya (Schultz) and V. Sokolov, Lariosik by M. Yanshin, Myshlaevsky by B. Dobronravov, Shervinsky by M. Prudkin, Nikolka by I. Kudryavtsev. The director was the young director I. Sudakov, the artistic direction was carried out by K. Stanislavsky himself.
"Days of the Turbins" became a landmark production, a kind of "The Seagull" for the younger generation of actors and directors of the Art Theatre.
The play was loved by the widest sections of the population: both the intelligent non-party public, the military, and even party leaders attended the performance with pleasure.
The second wife of the playwright L. E. Belozerskaya in her memoirs reproduces the story of one friend about the Moscow Art Theater performance:
A play by M.A. Bulgakov's "Days of the Turbins" was received "with a bang" by white émigrés. Already in 1927-28, when nothing was known abroad either about Bulgakov or about his novel The White Guard, the manuscripts of the play were copied by hand by former white soldiers. In many centers of accumulation of Russian emigration: Berlin, Paris, Prague, Belgrade, The Days of the Turbins were staged by Russian emigre theaters and amateur groups.
A very emotional correspondence of one of the heroes of the play, Hetman Skoropadsky, with the head of the II department of the ROVS (Russian All-Military Union, the largest military organization of emigration), Major General A.A., has been preserved. von Lampe. The ex-hetman lived at that time in the suburb of Berlin Wannsee. Rumors quickly reached him that the Student Aid Committee, among which there were many officers of the White armies and cadets, staged a play by M. Bulgakov "Days of the Turbins" in Berlin. In his diary, General von Lampe - the head of the Russian colony in Berlin - describes the real enthusiasm caused by the "Days of the Turbins" among the emigre youth. The play was received with enthusiasm, both by the audience and by the performers of the main roles. Only the recent ruler of Ukraine was seriously outraged by its content, as well as the fact that former white soldiers participated in the performance. Skoropadsky made harsh accusations against von Lampe, who allowed the staging and himself acted as a military-historical consultant for "this disgrace." As a result, an end was put to good personal relations between correspondents. Things almost came to a challenge to a duel, but in his exhaustive answer to Skoropadsky (though never sent to the addressee), the general expressed the idea common to all emigration: the play is wonderful, and it must be staged and watched. Von Lampe wrote to Skoropadsky in November 1928:
With his play M.A. Bulgakov achieved, as we see, the impossible: he managed to please both the red military leaders (Stalin, Voroshilov, Budyonny), and the most irreconcilable white generals.
However, the party public sometimes tried to obstruct the "White Guard". On October 2, 1926, on the day of the public dress rehearsal of The Days of the Turbins, a debate was organized on Theatrical Policy of the Soviet Power. Vladimir Mayakovsky, a literary competitor and a fierce critic of M. Bulgakov's work, made a rather harsh speech in which he proposed not to ban (what will you achieve with bans?), but simply to disrupt Bulgakov's performance...
True, according to the biographers Bulgakov and Mayakovsky, the proletarian poet did not make any specific attempts to disrupt the performance of The Days of the Turbins. Until now, it is not known exactly whether V. Mayakovsky saw this play at all. At the performances of the Moscow Art Theater, his rather prominent figure did not appear in the 1926-27 season. According to the memoirs of Belozerskaya, indignant spectators-party members often left the performance, but there were no particular excesses on their part in the hall.
An interesting fact: when the “Days of the Turbins” were going on in the theater, two ambulances were on duty at once in Kamergersky Lane. People so passionately empathized with what was happening on the stage that the doctors did not have to sit idle.
Opinion of criticism
Almost all criticism unanimously scolded The Days of the Turbins. People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky claimed (in Izvestia on October 8, 1926) that the play has "the atmosphere of a dog wedding around some friend's red-haired wife", considered it "semi-apology of the White Guard". Later, in 1933, Lunacharsky called Bulgakov's play "a drama of restrained, even if you want crafty capitulation." The rest of the communist critics and censors were also not shy in their expressions. O.S. Litovsky (remember the critic Latunsky from The Master and Margarita, who was consonant with him), did a lot to expel Bulgakov's plays from the stage. Here is an abridged version of one of his reviews:
“The utmost sincerity with which the young actors portrayed the experiences of the “knights” of the white idea, the evil punishers, the executioners of the working class, aroused the sympathy of one, the most insignificant part of the audience, and the indignation of another. Whether the theater wanted it or not, it turned out that the performance urged us to take pity on, humanly treat the misguided Russian intellectuals in uniform and without uniform.
Nevertheless, we could not help but see that a new, young generation of artists from the Art Theater was entering the stage, which had every reason to stand on a par with the glorious old men ... On the evening of the premiere, all the participants in the performance seemed like a miracle: both Yanshin, and Prudkin, and Stanitsyn, and Khmelev, and in particular Sokolova and Dobronravov ... Myshlaevsky - Dobronravov was much smarter and more significant, deeper than his Bulgakov prototype. Incomparably more tragic than the melodramatic image created by the author was Khmelev in the role of Alexei Turbin. And in general, the theater turned out to be much smarter than the play. And yet he couldn't get over it!
In a letter to the government on March 28, 1930, the playwright noted that his scrapbook had accumulated 298 "hostile and abusive" reviews and 3 positive ones, and the vast majority of them were dedicated to the Turbin Days.
The only positive response to the play was N. Rukavishnikov's review in Komsomolskaya Pravda on December 29, 1926. It was a response to an abusive letter from the poet Alexander Bezymensky (1898-1973), who called Bulgakov a "new-bourgeois offspring." Rukavishnikov tried to convince Bulgakov's opponents that "on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution ... it is completely safe to show the viewer living people, that the viewer is pretty fed up with shaggy priests from agitation and pot-bellied capitalists in top hats," but none of the critics and not convinced.
Criticism fell upon Bulgakov for the fact that in the "Days of the Turbins" the White Guards appeared as tragic Chekhov's heroes. O. S. Litovsky dubbed Bulgakov’s play “The Cherry Orchard of the White Movement”, asking rhetorically: “What does the Soviet audience care about the suffering of the landowner Ranevskaya, whose cherry orchard is mercilessly cut down? What does the Soviet audience care about the suffering of external and internal emigrants about the untimely death of the white movement?
A. Orlinsky accused the playwright that "all commanders and officers live, fight, die and marry without a single batman, without servants, without the slightest contact with people from any other classes and social strata."
On February 7, 1927, at a dispute in the Meyerhold Theater, Bulgakov answered the critics: “I, the author of this play “Days of the Turbins”, who was in Kyiv during the Hetmanate and Petliurism, who saw the White Guards in Kyiv from the inside behind cream curtains, I affirm that orderlies in Kyiv are in that time, that is, when the events in my play took place, could not be obtained worth its weight in gold.
The Days of the Turbins was to a much greater extent a realistic work than its critics allowed, representing reality, unlike Bulgakov, in the form of predetermined ideological schemes.
Heroes and prototypes of the play "Days of the Turbins"
TALBERG
The play depicts not only the best, but also the worst representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. Among the latter is Colonel Thalberg, who is concerned only with his career. In the second edition of the play The White Guard, he quite selfishly explained his return to Kyiv, which the Bolsheviks were about to take: “I am perfectly aware of the matter. The Hetmanate turned out to be a stupid operetta. I decided to return and work in contact with the Soviet authorities. We need to change political milestones. That's all".
Talberg had Bulgakov's son-in-law, the husband of Varya's sister, Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888-1968) as his prototype. A regular officer of the tsarist army, despite his previous service with Hetman Skoropadsky and in the White armies of General Denikin, became a teacher in the Red Army rifle school. Because of Talberg, Bulgakov quarreled with the Karum family. However, for censorship, such an early "shifting" of such an unsympathetic character turned out to be unacceptable. In the final text, Talberg had to explain his return to Kyiv by a business trip to the Don to General P. N. Krasnov. It looks strange: why did Thalberg, who was not known for his courage, choose such a risky route? The city was still occupied by the Petliurists, hostile to the whites, and the Bolsheviks were about to take it. The return of the deceived husband right to the wedding of Elena and Shervinsky was necessary for Bulgakov to create a comic effect and finally shame Vladimir Robertovich.
The image of Thalberg in Days of the Turbins came out much more repulsive than in the novel The White Guard. L.S. Karum wrote about this in his memoir “My Life. A novel without lies":
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“... Bulgakov could not deny himself the pleasure that someone would not hit me on the play, and my wife would marry another. Only Talberg (a negative type) goes to Denikin's army, the rest disperse, after the capture of Kyiv by the Petliurists, who goes where. I was very excited, because my acquaintances recognized the Bulgakov family in the novel and the play, they should have known or suspected that Thalberg was me. This trick of Bulgakov also had an empirical - practical meaning. He strengthened the conviction about me that I was a hetman officer, and at the local Kyiv OGPU ... I wrote an excited letter to Nadia (M.A. Bulgakov’s sister - E.Sh.) in Moscow, where I called Mikhail “a scoundrel and a scoundrel” and asked me to pass the letter Mikhail ... But, however, I regret that I did not write a short story in the Chekhov style, where I would talk about marriage for money, and about choosing the profession of a venereal doctor, and about morphine addiction and drunkenness in Kyiv, and about insufficient cleanliness in money regarding…” |
By marriage for money, here we mean Bulgakov's first marriage - with T. N. Lappa, the daughter of a real state councilor. Also, the profession of a venereal doctor, according to Karum, the future writer chose solely for material reasons. As a zemstvo doctor in the Smolensk province, Bulgakov became addicted to morphine. In 1918, in Kyiv, he managed to overcome this disease, but, according to Karum, he became addicted to alcohol. It is possible that alcohol replaced Bulgakov with a drug for some time and helped to distract him from the upheavals caused by the collapse of his former life.
Karum, of course, did not want to recognize himself as a negative character. But in many ways, Colonel Thalberg, written off from him, was one of the strongest, albeit very repulsive, images of the play. According to the censors, it was impossible to bring such a man to serve in the Red Army. Therefore, Bulgakov had to send Talberg on a business trip to the Don to Krasnov.
MYSHLAEVSKY
Under pressure from the Glavrepertkom and the Moscow Art Theater, the sympathetic captain Myshlaevsky underwent a significant evolution towards Smenovekhism and the willing acceptance of Soviet power. In the novel The White Guard, this character had a very real prototype - a neighbor and friend of the Bulgakovs, a certain Viktor Syngaevsky. However, in the play, the sloven and drunkard, but honest fellow Myshlaevsky "gets old" by ten years and acquires completely different features. To develop the image, the author used a literary source - the novel by Vladimir Zazubrin (Zubtsov) "Two Worlds" (1921). His hero, lieutenant of the Kolchak army Ragimov, explained his intention in this way. go to the Bolsheviks: “We fought. Honestly cut. Ours does not take. Let's go to those whose beret... In my opinion, both the motherland and the revolution are just a beautiful lie with which people cover up their selfish interests. People are arranged in such a way that no matter what meanness they do, they will always find an excuse for themselves.
Myshlaevsky in the final text speaks of his intention to serve the Bolsheviks and break with the white movement: “Enough! I have been fighting since 1914. For what? For the fatherland? And this is the fatherland, when they threw me to shame?! And again go to these lordships?! Well no! Did you see? (Shows a bang.) Shish!.. What am I, an idiot, really? No, I, Viktor Myshlaevsky, declare that I have nothing more to do with these scoundrel generals. I'm done!.."
Compared to Ragimov, Myshlaevsky was greatly ennobled in his motives, but the vitality of the image was completely preserved.
After the premiere of the play at the Moscow Art Theater, Bulgakov received a letter signed "Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky". The fate of the unknown author during the civil war completely coincided with the fate of Bulgakov's hero, and in subsequent years was just as bleak as that of the creator of The Days of the Turbins. At the end of this strange letter, a man who identified himself as Myshlaevsky wrote:
“Recently, either under the influence of a passionate desire to fill the spiritual emptiness, or, indeed, it really is, but sometimes I hear subtle notes of some new life, real, truly beautiful, which has nothing to do with either royal or with Soviet Russia. I make a great request to you on my own behalf and on behalf of, I think, many others like me, empty-hearted. Tell me from the stage, from the pages of a magazine, directly or in Aesopian language, as you like, but just let me know if you hear these subtle notes and what they sound like? Or all this is self-deception and the current Soviet emptiness (material, moral and mental) is a permanent phenomenon. Caesar, morituri te salutant! (Caesar, those doomed to death greet you (lat.)».
As an actual answer to Myshlaevsky, one can consider the play Crimson Island, where Bulgakov, turning a parody of Smenovekhism into an “ideological” play within the play, showed that in modern Soviet life everything is determined by the omnipotence of bureaucrats strangling creative freedom and there can be no sprouts of the new here. maybe. In The Days of the Turbins, he still harbored hopes for some better future, therefore he introduced the Epiphany tree into the last action as a symbol of hope for spiritual rebirth.
The fate of the play
"Days of the Turbins", despite the unflattering reviews of critics and the excesses of the party public, successfully ran in the Moscow Art Theater for two seasons. In February 1929, playwright V.N. Bil-Belotserkovsky wrote to Stalin about permission to stage a new Bulgakov play, The Run. Stalin, in his response, described the new play as an "anti-Soviet phenomenon." The "Days of the Turbins" also got it:
Why are Bulgakov's plays so often staged on stage? the Leader asked. - Because, it must be, that there are not enough of their own plays suitable for staging. In the absence of fish, even "Days of the Turbins" is a fish.
In April 1929, The Days of the Turbins, like all of Bulgakov's plays, were withdrawn from the repertoire. However, soon Stalin himself admitted that he overdid it with The Days of the Turbins. The leader was ready to allow "Running" if the author agreed to make some ideological changes. Bulgakov disagreed. In 1930, he seriously considered emigrating to France to reunite with his family there. (Bulgakov's two younger brothers lived in Paris at the time).
“Everything is forbidden, I am ruined, hunted, all alone. Why keep a writer in a country where his works cannot exist?..”
In 1932, Stalin personally considered the request of M. A. Bulgakov to leave the USSR. Instead of permission to leave, the disgraced writer was hired by the Moscow Art Theater. On February 16, 1932, the play "Days of the Turbins" was resumed. In a letter to his friend P. Popov, Bulgakov reported this as follows:
“For reasons that are unknown to me, and which I cannot enter into consideration, the Government of the USSR gave a wonderful order to the Moscow Art Theater: to resume the play “Days of the Turbins”. For the author of this play, this means that a part of his life has been returned to him - the author. That's all".
Of course, the "wonderful order" was given not by any government, but by Stalin. At this time, he watched a play based on Afinogenov's play "Fear" at the Moscow Art Theater, which he did not like. The leader remembered Bulgakov and ordered to restore the "Days of the Turbins" - which was instantly executed. The performance was kept on the stage of the Art Theater until June 1941. In total, in 1926-1941, the play ran 987 times. According to surviving information, Stalin watched The Days of the Turbins at least 20 times. What so attracted the leader of the peoples in Bulgakov's heroes? Perhaps something that could no longer be found in real life: decency, personal courage, spiritual freedom of those former Russian people who were carefully crushed into powder by the skating rink of Stalinist repressions ...
It may very well be that the "Turbines" saved the life of Bulgakov himself. If he had been arrested, the performance would have had to be cancelled. It is also possible that it was only because of the play that Stalin liked that the author was not released abroad. If he had stayed with his brother in Paris, the performance would also have been banned. Stalin could lose his favorite sight.
Neither during the life of Bulgakov, nor during the life of Stalin, the play "Days of the Turbins" was not published. It was first published in the Soviet Union only in 1955.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, in the circles of Russian emigration in France and Germany, the play was published only in the form of manuscript scripts. White warriors often subjected her text to “ideological processing” (Myshlaevsky’s final monologue, as a rule, was paraphrased or thrown out altogether, and at the end Studzinsky called on everyone to go to the Don). In 1927, a translation into German of the second edition of The Days of the Turbins, made by K. Rosenberg, appeared in Berlin, which in the Russian original was called The White Guard. The publication had a double title: “Days of the Turbins. White Guard. There were other translations that were distributed in the form of manuscript lists in emigre circles in the 1930s. In 1934, two translations of the play into English were published in Boston and New York, by Y. Lyons and F. Bloch.
In 1976, a three-part feature film "Days of the Turbins" (directed by V. Basov) was released in the USSR. In the 1990s, the play was restored under the name The White Guard in a number of Moscow theaters. The most successful, in our opinion, production of Chomsky at the Mossovet Theater collects full houses to this day.
Elena Shirokova
According to materials:
Sokolov B.V. Three Lives of Mikhail Bulgakov. - M.: Ellis Luck, 1997.
GARF.F.5853. (“Major General A.A. von Lampe”) Op.1.D.36. L. 73-79.
Bulgakov Encyclopedia. - Academician. 2009.
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