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White Guard. The originality of the ideological and compositional structure of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov's "The White Guard" (conceptual triad of house-city-space) The ideological essence of the novel Bulgakov's White Guard

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891–1940) - a writer with a difficult, tragic fate that influenced his work. Coming from an intelligent family, he did not accept the revolutionary changes and the reaction that followed them. The ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity imposed by the authoritarian state did not inspire him, because for him, a man with education and a high level of intelligence, the contrast between the demagoguery in the squares and the wave of red terror that swept Russia was obvious. He deeply felt the tragedy of the people and dedicated the novel “The White Guard” to it.

In the winter of 1923, Bulgakov began work on the novel “The White Guard,” which describes the events of the Ukrainian Civil War the end of 1918, when Kyiv was occupied by the troops of the Directory, who overthrew the power of Hetman Pavel Skoropadsky. In December 1918, officers tried to defend the hetman's power, where Bulgakov was either enrolled as a volunteer or, according to other sources, was mobilized. Thus, the novel contains autobiographical features - even the number of the house in which the Bulgakov family lived during the capture of Kiev by Petlyura is preserved - 13. In the novel, this number takes on a symbolic meaning. Andreevsky Descent, where the house is located, is called Alekseevsky in the novel, and Kyiv is simply called the City. The prototypes of the characters are the writer’s relatives, friends and acquaintances:

Nikolka Turbin, for example, is younger brother Bulgakova Nikolay
Dr. Alexey Turbin is a writer himself,
Elena Turbina-Talberg - Varvara's younger sister
Sergei Ivanovich Talberg - officer Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888 - 1968), who, however, did not go abroad like Talberg, but was ultimately exiled to Novosibirsk.
The prototype of Larion Surzhansky (Lariosik) is a distant relative of the Bulgakovs, Nikolai Vasilyevich Sudzilovsky.
The prototype of Myshlaevsky, according to one version - Bulgakov's childhood friend, Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky
The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky is another friend of Bulgakov, who served in the hetman’s troops - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky (1898 - 1968).
Colonel Felix Feliksovich Nai-Tours is a collective image. It consists of several prototypes - firstly, this is the white general Fyodor Arturovich Keller (1857 - 1918), who was killed by the Petliurists during the resistance and ordered the cadets to run and tear off their shoulder straps, realizing the meaninglessness of the battle, and secondly, this is Major General Nikolai of the Volunteer Army Vsevolodovich Shinkarenko (1890 – 1968).
There was also a prototype from the cowardly engineer Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich (Vasilisa), from whom the Turbins rented the second floor of the house - architect Vasily Pavlovich Listovnichy (1876 - 1919).
The prototype of the futurist Mikhail Shpolyansky is a major Soviet literary scholar and critic Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (1893 – 1984).
The surname Turbina is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother.

However, it should also be noted that “The White Guard” is not a completely autobiographical novel. Some things are fictitious - for example, that the Turbins’ mother died. In fact, at that time, the Bulgakovs’ mother, who is the prototype of the heroine, lived in another house with her second husband. And there are fewer family members in the novel than the Bulgakovs actually had. The entire novel was first published in 1927–1929. in France.

About what?

The novel "The White Guard" - about tragic fate intelligentsia during the difficult times of the revolution, after the assassination of Emperor Nicholas II. The book also tells about the difficult situation of officers who are ready to fulfill their duty to the fatherland in the conditions of a shaky, unstable political situation in the country. The White Guard officers were ready to defend the hetman's power, but the author poses the question: does this make sense if the hetman fled, leaving the country and its defenders to the mercy of fate?

Alexey and Nikolka Turbins are officers ready to defend their homeland and the former government, but in front of a cruel mechanism political system they (and people like them) find themselves powerless. Alexei is seriously wounded, and he is forced to fight not for his homeland or for the occupied city, but for his life, in which he is helped by the woman who saved him from death. And Nikolka runs away at the last moment, saved by Nai-Tours, who is killed. With all their desire to defend the fatherland, the heroes do not forget about family and home, about the sister left by her husband. The antagonist character in the novel is Captain Talberg, who, unlike the Turbin brothers, leaves his homeland and his wife in difficult times and goes to Germany.

In addition, “The White Guard” is a novel about the horrors, lawlessness and devastation that are happening in the city occupied by Petliura. Bandits with forged documents break into the house of engineer Lisovich and rob him, there is shooting in the streets, and the master of the kurennoy with his assistants - the “lads” - commit a cruel, bloody reprisal against the Jew, suspecting him of espionage.

In the finale, the city, captured by the Petliurists, is recaptured by the Bolsheviks. “The White Guard” clearly expresses a negative, negative attitude towards Bolshevism - as a destructive force that will ultimately wipe out everything holy and human from the face of the earth, and a terrible time will come. The novel ends with this thought.

The main characters and their characteristics

Alexey Vasilievich Turbin- a twenty-eight-year-old doctor, a division doctor, who, paying a debt of honor to the fatherland, enters into a battle with the Petliurites when his unit was disbanded, since the fight was already pointless, but is seriously wounded and forced to flee. He falls ill with typhus, is on the verge of life and death, but ultimately survives.
Nikolai Vasilievich Turbin(Nikolka) - a seventeen-year-old non-commissioned officer, Alexei’s younger brother, ready to fight to the last with the Petliurists for the fatherland and hetman’s power, but at the insistence of the colonel he runs away, tearing off his insignia, since the battle no longer makes sense (the Petliurists captured the City, and the hetman escaped). Nikolka then helps her sister care for the wounded Alexei.
Elena Vasilievna Turbina-Talberg(Elena the redhead) is a twenty-four-year-old married woman who was left by her husband. She worries and prays for both brothers participating in hostilities, waits for her husband and secretly hopes that he will return.
Sergei Ivanovich Talberg- captain, husband of Elena the Red, unstable in political views, which changes them depending on the situation in the city (acts on the principle of a weather vane), for which the Turbins, true to their views, do not respect him. As a result, he leaves his home, his wife and leaves for Germany by night train.
Leonid Yurievich Shervinsky- lieutenant of the guard, a dapper lancer, admirer of Elena the Red, friend of the Turbins, believes in the support of the allies and says that he himself saw the sovereign.
Victor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky- lieutenant, another friend of the Turbins, loyal to the fatherland, honor and duty. In the novel, one of the first harbingers of the Petliura occupation, a participant in the battle a few kilometers from the City. When the Petliurists break into the City, Myshlaevsky takes the side of those who want to disband the mortar division so as not to destroy the lives of the cadets, and wants to set fire to the building of the cadet gymnasium so that it does not fall to the enemy.
crucian carp- a friend of the Turbins, a restrained, honest officer, who, during the dissolution of the mortar division, joins those who disband the cadets, takes the side of Myshlaevsky and Colonel Malyshev, who proposed such a way out.
Felix Feliksovich Nai-Tours- a colonel who is not afraid to defy the general and disbands the cadets at the moment of the capture of the City by Petliura. He himself dies heroically in front of Nikolka Turbina. For him, more valuable than the power of the deposed hetman is the life of the cadets - young people who were almost sent to the last senseless battle with the Petliurists, but he hastily disbands them, forcing them to tear off their insignia and destroy documents. Nai-Tours in the novel is the image of an ideal officer, for whom not only the fighting qualities and honor of his brothers in arms are valuable, but also their lives.
Lariosik (Larion Surzhansky)- a distant relative of the Turbins, who came to them from the provinces, going through a divorce from his wife. Clumsy, a bungler, but good-natured, he loves to be in the library and keeps a canary in a cage.
Yulia Alexandrovna Reiss- a woman who saves the wounded Alexei Turbin, and he begins an affair with her.
Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich (Vasilisa)- a cowardly engineer, a housewife from whom the Turbins rent the second floor of his house. He is a hoarder, lives with his greedy wife Wanda, hides valuables in secret places. As a result, he is robbed by bandits. He got his nickname, Vasilisa, because due to the unrest in the city in 1918, he began to sign documents in a different handwriting, abbreviating his first and last name as follows: “You. Fox."
Petliurites in the novel - only gears in a global political upheaval, which entails irreversible consequences.

Subjects

Subject moral choice. The central theme is the situation of the White Guards, who are forced to choose whether to participate in meaningless battles for the power of the escaped hetman or still save their lives. The Allies do not come to the rescue, and the city is captured by the Petliurists, and, ultimately, by the Bolsheviks - a real force that threatens the old way of life and political system.
Political instability. Events unfold after the events October revolution and the execution of Nicholas II, when the Bolsheviks seized power in St. Petersburg and continued to strengthen their positions. The Petliurists who captured Kyiv (in the novel - the City) are weak in front of the Bolsheviks, as are the White Guards. "White Guard" is tragic romance about how the intelligentsia and everything connected with it are dying.
The novel contains biblical motifs, and in order to enhance their sound, the author introduces the image of a patient obsessed with the Christian religion who comes to doctor Alexei Turbin for treatment. The novel begins with a countdown from the Nativity of Christ, and just before the end, lines from the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian. That is, the fate of the City, captured by the Petliurists and Bolsheviks, is compared in the novel with the Apocalypse.

Christian symbols

A crazy patient who came to Turbin for an appointment calls the Bolsheviks “angels,” and Petliura was released from cell No. 666 (in the Revelation of John the Theologian - the number of the Beast, the Antichrist).
The house on Alekseevsky Spusk is No. 13, and this number, as is known in popular superstitions, is the “devil’s dozen”, an unlucky number, and various misfortunes befall the Turbins’ house - the parents die, the older brother receives a mortal wound and barely survives, and Elena is abandoned and the husband betrays (and betrayal is a trait of Judas Iscariot).
The novel contains the image of the Mother of God, to whom Elena prays and asks to save Alexei from death. In the terrible time described in the novel, Elena experiences similar experiences as the Virgin Mary, but not for her son, but for her brother, who ultimately overcomes death like Christ.
Also in the novel there is a theme of equality before God's court. Everyone is equal before him - both the White Guards and the soldiers of the Red Army. Alexey Turbin has a dream about heaven - how Colonel Nai-Tours, white officers and Red Army soldiers get there: they are all destined to go to heaven as those who fell on the battlefield, but God doesn’t care whether they believe in him or not. Justice, according to the novel, exists only in heaven, and on the sinful earth godlessness, blood, and violence reign under red five-pointed stars.

Issues

The problematic of the novel “The White Guard” is the hopeless, plight of the intelligentsia, as a class alien to the winners. Their tragedy is the drama of the entire country, because without the intellectual and cultural elite, Russia will not be able to develop harmoniously.

Dishonor and cowardice. If the Turbins, Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky, Karas, Nai-Tours are unanimous and are going to defend the fatherland to the last drop of blood, then Talberg and the hetman prefer to flee like rats from a sinking ship, and individuals like Vasily Lisovich are cowardly, cunning and adapt to existing conditions.
Also, one of the main problems of the novel is the choice between moral duty and life. The question is posed bluntly - is there any point in honorably defending a government that dishonorably leaves the fatherland in the most difficult times for it, and there is an answer to this very question: there is no point, in this case life is put in first place.
The split of Russian society. In addition, the problem in the work “The White Guard” lies in the attitude of the people to what is happening. The people do not support the officers and White Guards and, in general, take the side of the Petliurists, because on the other side there is lawlessness and permissiveness.
Civil War. The novel contrasts three forces - the White Guards, Petliurists and Bolsheviks, and one of them is only intermediate, temporary - the Petliurists. The fight against the Petliurists will not be able to have such a strong impact on the course of history as the fight between the White Guards and the Bolsheviks - two real forces, one of which will lose and sink into oblivion forever - this is the White Guard.

Meaning

In general, the meaning of the novel “The White Guard” is struggle. The struggle between courage and cowardice, honor and dishonor, good and evil, God and the devil. Courage and honor are the Turbins and their friends, Nai-Tours, Colonel Malyshev, who disbanded the cadets and did not allow them to die. Cowardice and dishonor, opposed to them, are the hetman, Talberg, staff captain Studzinsky, who, afraid to violate the order, was going to arrest Colonel Malyshev because he wants to disband the cadets.

Ordinary citizens who do not participate in hostilities are also assessed in the novel according to the same criteria: honor, courage - cowardice, dishonor. For example, female characters - Elena, waiting for her husband who left her, Irina Nai-Tours, who was not afraid to go with Nikolka to the anatomical theater for the body of her murdered brother, Yulia Aleksandrovna Reiss - this is the personification of honor, courage, determination - and Wanda, the wife of engineer Lisovich, stingy, greedy for things - personifies cowardice, baseness. And engineer Lisovich himself is petty, cowardly and stingy. Lariosik, despite all his clumsiness and absurdity, is humane and gentle, this is a character who personifies, if not courage and determination, then simply kindness and kindness - qualities that are so lacking in people at that cruel time described in the novel.

Another meaning of the novel “The White Guard” is that those who are close to God are not those who officially serve him - not churchmen, but those who, even in a bloody and merciless time, when evil descended to earth, retained the grains of humanity in themselves, and even if they are Red Army soldiers. This is told in Alexei Turbin’s dream - a parable from the novel “The White Guard”, in which God explains that the White Guards will go to their paradise, with church floors, and the Red Army soldiers will go to theirs, with red stars, because both believed in the offensive good for the fatherland, albeit in different ways. But the essence of both is the same, despite the fact that they are on different sides. But the churchmen, “servants of God,” according to this parable, will not go to heaven, since many of them departed from the truth. Thus, the essence of the novel “The White Guard” is that humanity (goodness, honor, God, courage) and inhumanity (evil, devil, dishonor, cowardice) will always fight for power over this world. And it doesn’t matter under what banners this struggle will take place - white or red, but on the side of evil there will always be violence, cruelty and base qualities, which must be opposed by goodness, mercy, and honesty. In this eternal struggle, it is important to choose not the convenient, but the right side.

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What is the theme and idea in the novel The White Guard? and got the best answer

Answer from Alexey Khoroshev[guru]
M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” is dedicated to the events of the Civil War. “The year 1918 was a great and terrible year after the birth of Christ, and from the beginning of the second revolution...” - this is how the novel begins, which tells about the fate of the Turbin family. They live in Kyiv, on Alekseevsky Spusk. Young people - Alexey, Elena, Nikolka - were left without parents. But they have a House that contains not just things - a tiled stove, a clock playing a gavotte, beds with shiny cones, a lamp under a lampshade - but a structure of life, traditions, inclusion in national life. The Turbins' house was built not on sand, but on the “stone of faith” in Russia, Orthodoxy, the Tsar, and culture. And so the House and the revolution became enemies. The revolution came into conflict with the old House in order to leave children without faith, without a roof, without culture and destitute. How will Turbins, Myshlaevsky, Talberg, Shervinsky, Lariosik - everyone involved in the House on Alekseevsky Spusk - behave? A serious danger looms over the City. (Bulgakov does not call it Kiev; it is a model for the whole country and a mirror of the split.) Somewhere far away, beyond the Dnieper, Moscow is, and in it are the Bolsheviks. Ukraine declared independence by proclaiming a hetman, in connection with which nationalist sentiments intensified, and ordinary Ukrainians immediately “forgot how to speak Russian, and the hetman forbade the formation of a voluntary army from Russian officers.” Petliura played on the peasant instincts of property and independence and went to war against Kyiv (an element opposed to culture). The Russian officers turned out to be betrayed by the Russian High Command, who swore allegiance to the emperor. A heterogeneous riffraff, having escaped from the Bolsheviks, flocks to the City and introduces debauchery into it: shops, pate houses, restaurants, and night hangouts have opened. And in this noisy, convulsive world, a drama unfolds.
The plot of the main action can be considered two “appearances” in the Turbins’ house: at night, a frozen, half-dead, lice-infested Myshlaevsky came, talking about the horrors of trench life on the outskirts of the City and the betrayal of the headquarters. That same night, Elena’s husband, Talberg, showed up to change clothes, cowardly leave his wife and the House, betray the honor of the Russian officer and escape in a saloon car to the Don through Romania and Crimea to Denikin. The key problem of the novel will be the attitude of the heroes towards Russia. Bulgakov justifies those who were part of a single nation and fought for the ideals of officer honor and opposed the destruction of the Fatherland. He makes it clear to the reader that in a fratricidal war there is no right or wrong, everyone is responsible for the blood of their brother. The writer united with the concept “White Guard” those who defended the honor of the Russian officer and man, and changed our ideas about those who, until recently, were evilly and pejoratively called “White Guards”, “counter”. Bulgakov wrote not a historical novel, but a socio-psychological canvas with access to philosophical issues: what is the Fatherland, God, man, life, feat, goodness, truth. The dramatic climax is followed by a development of action that is very important for the plot as a whole: will the heroes recover from the shock; Will the House on Alekseevsky Spusk be preserved? Alexey Turbin, who was running away from the Petliurists, was wounded and, once in his home, remained for a long time in a borderline state, hallucinating or losing his memory. But it was not a physical illness that “finished off” Alexei, but a moral one: “Unpleasant... oh, unpleasant... in vain I shot him... I, of course, take the blame... I am a killer! "(let's remember Tolstoy's heroes, who also take the blame upon themselves). Another thing tormented me: “There was peace, and now this world was killed*. Turbin thinks not about life, he remained alive, but about the world, for the Turbin breed has always carried within itself a conciliar consciousness. What will happen after the end of Petlyura? The Reds will come... The thought remains unfinished. The Turbins' house withstood the tests sent by the revolution, and evidence of this is the undefiled ideals of Goodness and Beauty, Honor and Duty in their souls. Fate sends them Lariosik from Zhitomir, a sweet, kind, unprotected big baby, and their Home becomes his Home.

White Guard. Historical truth in the novel

According to researcher V. Lakshin, Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” is “something... genuine, charming and original.” What comes to the fore in the novel is not the class principle, but the human one. The author's position is on the side of eternity, which lifts him above the fray. “The White Guard” is a lyrical confessional novel about Russian history, which, according to the author, revealed “those secret bends along which the human soul runs and hides.”

The main theme of the novel is the fate of post-revolutionary Russia, its culture and intelligentsia. The story centers on the fate of the Turbin family and the Russian Civil War. But there were many books about the revolution and the Civil War at that time. Therefore, the position from which the novel is written is of great importance. The author himself, when starting to create the work, set the goal of “a persistent portrayal of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country. In particular, the depiction of an intellectual-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.”

During interrogation at the OGPU, which Bulgakov was subjected to because of his novel, the writer said: “I am keenly interested in the life of the Russian intelligentsia, I love it, I consider it, although a weak, but very important layer in the country. Her fate is close to me, her experiences are dear.” However, in his novel, Bulgakov was able to evaluate this “weak” layer as a talented continuer of the traditions of the school of L.N. Tolstoy.

By calling the stratum of the intelligentsia “the best,” Bulgakov did not at all mean that it was better and higher than everyone else and could decide the destinies of those below. In "The White Guard" the author self-critically discusses the tragedy of the Russian intelligentsia, condemning much of it, mainly its love for the people. It is no secret that representatives of the intelligentsia adored the entire people as an abstract concept, and considered each of its specific representatives to be a boor and a thief. Bulgakov’s notes contain an open challenge to the educated class: “It is painful to think that in the country that gave Pushkin and Gogol, there are tens of millions of people who have never heard of them.”

In The White Guard, Bulgakov showed that part of the intelligentsia that, through its own fault, found itself in a historical impasse. Its representatives, wittingly or unwittingly, contributed to the destruction of the state and culture. Through her fault, many honest people died. The author of the novel and his relatives were convinced from their own experience that the blow that fell on the intelligentsia was planned and calculated in advance. The writer witnessed how the ranks of the intelligentsia, thinned from the exhausting struggle either with the Red or the White Terror, from hunger and disease, sought to emigrate.

The writer in the novel acts not only as a lawyer for the intelligentsia, but also as a prosecutor. Pseudo-intellectuals like Shpolyansky, Talberg and Lisovich played, in Bulgakov’s opinion, a fatal role in the history of the Russian Troubles. The role of the people in this novel is also ambiguous; on the one hand, the human masses are compared to the “Black Sea”, to the “Black River”, and on the other hand, Bulgakov reflects on the pages of the novel the eternal feelings of justice and kindness of the people. Thus, Sergeant Zhilin, who was killed in the First World War, appears in Alexei Turbin’s dream as a “luminous knight.”

Frightened by the real people, divided by different parties, a significant part of the Russian people, bearers of spiritual culture, lost faith in their homeland and the future, realizing that this was a great sin. And representatives of the intelligentsia faced with all the urgency the question that has always been relevant at all times: “What to do?” This question poses Bulgakov to the heroes of his novel.

When creating the novel, Bulgakov tried to convey historical reality as truthfully as possible. Using the example of the Turbins, he showed that a tragic impasse is an inevitable turn of fate, that the Russian intelligentsia needs to give up illusions and dreams of a bright world of social justice and the victory of democracy, face the truth and, trying to get away from despair, try to find a way out of this situation . By the time Bulgakov himself wrote the novel, he had already said goodbye to illusions, which is confirmed by one of his surviving notes: “A new, completely unknown terrible thing is approaching... It’s just that even if you look out the windows, you immediately feel that nothing will happen anymore...” Such same premonitions torment the soul of the young doctor Alexei Turbin. Maybe not right away, but he will understand that there is no turning back. And time itself brings him, like other heroes of the novel, to this conclusion.

The Turbin family, two brothers and a sister, each of whom reflects their family traits in their own way, is trying to solve the question of how to live. The support of the family in the novel is Elena, the embodiment of femininity, comfort, and devotion, who tries in vain to preserve the old moral structure of the house. Against her background, the older brother, Alexey Turbin, who bears the brunt of confusion and confusion, looks like a person who has difficulty in following a certain line of behavior. Eighteen-year-old Nikolka, in contrast, is more actively looking for his place in events and is capable of active independent actions.

The Revolution and Civil War presented the intelligentsia with a choice: “for” or “against”. Therefore, the conflict in the novel "The White Guard" was defined in two ways: the clash of characters with historical reality and the confrontation of eternal concepts - good and evil, humanism and cruelty. The best people of their time, such as Colonel Malyshev and Colonel Nai-Tours, tragically perceive the collapse of ideals. Malyshev, seeing that all attempts to save the City are unsuccessful, understands that there is no one to protect and no one from whom, and disbands the division, thus saving hundreds of young lives. Covering students and cadets, Nai-Tours also perishes. Alexey Turbin experiences all the events that happen with excruciating pain. Having experienced and comprehended everything that was happening, he came to the idea that revolution is not a struggle for a lofty idea people's happiness, but senseless bloodshed. And he’s not the only one who thinks so. “The revolution has already degenerated into Pugachevism,” says engineer Lisovich Karasyu. But Vasilisa sees the main danger for society not so much in the destruction of material values as in the destruction of moral principles: “But the point, my dear, is not just about the alarm! No alarm will stop the collapse and decay that has now built a nest in human souls...”

But despite everything, the author’s position is optimistic. Using the example of the Turbins, he shows that neither war nor revolution can destroy Beauty, because it forms the basis of human existence. The turbines, following Pushkin’s behest, managed to preserve their honor from a young age and therefore survived, losing a lot and paying dearly for mistakes and naivety. The epiphany, albeit later, still came. The life of the wonderful book, its characters and author continued, but, as always, it flowed into a different direction.

The novel has a ring composition. It begins and ends with ominous premonitions of the apocalypse. The novel contains a motif of diabolism. It is associated with such details as the underworld, hell, where Nikolka and her sister Nai-Turs descend in search of his body, the “devil’s doll” Talberg, the devil in a cassock on the bell tower of the cathedral, the demon - Shpolyansky, the demon - Shervinsky...

The entire novel is permeated with the symbolism of the apocalypse; the bloody revolutionary events are depicted as the Last Judgment. However, the apocalypse in the novel is not only death, but also salvation, light. The writer shows that the main goal of human existence means nothing. It seemed like the end of the world had come. But the Turbin family continues to live in the same time dimension.

Bulgakov carefully describes all the household little things kept in the family: the stove (the focus of all life), the service, the lampshade (a symbol of the family hearth), cream curtains that seem to close the family, saving it from external events. All these details of everyday life, despite external shocks, remain the same as they were. Life in the novel is a symbol of existence. When everything around collapses, values are revalued, but life is indestructible. The sum of the little things that make up the life of the Turbins is the culture of the intelligentsia, the foundation that keeps the characters’ characters intact.

The world in the novel is shown as a devilish carnival, a farce. Through theatrical and farcical images, the author shows the chaos of history. The story itself is shown in theatrical style: the toy kings change repeatedly, Thalberg calls the story an operetta; many characters change clothes. Talberg changes clothes and runs, then the hetman and other whites, then the flight takes over everyone. Shpolyansky is similar to the opera Onegin. He is an actor who constantly changes masks. But Bulgakov shows that this is not a game, but real life.

Turbines are given by the author at the moment when a family suffers a loss (the death of the mother), when the beginnings of chaos and discord that are alien to it invade the house. The new face of the City becomes their symbolic embodiment. The city appears in the novel in two time coordinates - past and present. He is not hostile to the house in the past. The city, with its gardens, steep streets, Dnieper steeps, Vladimir Hill with the statue of St. Vladimir, preserving the unique appearance of Kiev, the foremother of Russian cities, appears in the novel as a symbol of Russian statehood, which is threatened to be destroyed by waves of rapid decline, Petliurism, and “gnarly peasant wrath.”

Current events are included at great length by the author. Bulgakov often reveals tragic episodes in the flow of history to the heroes through dreams. Prophetic dreams in the novel are one of the ways to reflect the depths of the characters’ subconscious. Correlating reality with ideal ideas, they reveal the universal truth in symbolic form. Thus, reflecting on what is happening in the light of the problems of existence, Alexei Turbin reads the phrase from “the first book he came across” (“Demons” by Dostoevsky), “senselessly returning to the same thing”: “For a Russian man, honor is just an extra burden... .” But reality flows into a dream, and when Alexey falls asleep in the morning, in a dream a “short nightmare in large check trousers” appears to him, saying: “You can’t sit on a hedgehog with your naked profile!.. Holy Russia is a wooden, poor country. and... dangerous, but for a Russian person honor is just an extra burden.” "Oh you! - Turbin cried out in his sleep. “G-reptile, I’ll tell you...” In his sleep, Turbin reached into the desk drawer to take out a Browning gun, sleepily took it out, wanted to shoot at the nightmare, chased after it, and the nightmare disappeared.” And again the dream flows into reality: “For two hours a cloudy, black, dreamless dream flowed, and when it began to dawn pale and softly outside the windows of the room overlooking the glassed-in veranda, Turbin began to dream of the City,” - this is how the third chapter ends.

In dreams that interrupt the narrative, the author's position is expressed. The key is Alexey Turbin’s dream, when he imagines a paradise in which there is Nai-Tours and Sergeant Zhilin. A paradise in which there is a place for both reds and whites, and God says: “You are all the same to me, killed on the battlefield.” Both Turbin and the nameless Red Army soldier have the same dream.

The writer shows the collapse of the old, familiar life through the destruction of the house, in the traditions of Bunin (“Antonov Apples”) and Chekhov (“ The Cherry Orchard"). At the same time, the Turbins’ house itself - a quiet “harbour” with cream-colored curtains - becomes a kind of center of the author’s moral and psychological stability.

The city in which the main events unfold is a border zone between a quiet “harbour” and the bloody outside world, from which everyone is running. The running motif, which originates in this “external” world, gradually deepens and permeates the entire action of the book. Thus, in “The White Guard” three interconnected and interpenetrating spatio-temporal, plot-event and cause-and-effect circles are formed: the Turbins’ house, the City and the world. The first and second worlds have clearly defined boundaries, but the third is limitless and therefore incomprehensible. Continuing the traditions of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Bulgakov shows that all external events are reflected in the life of the house, and only the house can serve as a moral support for the heroes.

Based on some of the realities outlined in the novel, one can understand that the action takes place in Kyiv. In the novel it is designated simply as the City. Thus, the space expands, transforming Kyiv into a city in general, and the city into the world. The events taking place are taking on a cosmic scale. From the standpoint of human values, the significance of a person’s belonging to social group is lost, and the writer evaluates reality from the position of eternal human life, not subject to the destructive purpose of time.

Epigraphs to the novel have a special meaning. The novel is preceded by two epigraphs. The first roots what is happening in Russian history, the second correlates it with eternity. Their presence serves as a sign of the type of generalization chosen by Bulgakov - from the image of today to its projection onto history, onto literature in order to reveal the universal meaning of what is happening.

The first epigraph is Pushkin’s, from “The Captain’s Daughter”: “Fine snow began to fall and suddenly fell in flakes. The wind howled; there was a snowstorm. In an instant, the dark sky mixed with the snowy sea. Everything has disappeared. “Well, master,” the coachman shouted, “trouble: a snowstorm!” This epigraph conveys not only the emotional tone of the “time of troubles,” but is also perceived as a symbol of the moral stability of Bulgakov’s heroes at the tragic turning point of the era.

The key words of Pushkin’s text (“snow”, “wind”, “blizzard”, “blizzard”) are reminiscent of the indignation of the peasant element, of the peasant’s account of the master. The image of the raging elements becomes one of the cross-cutting ones in the novel and is directly related to Bulgakov’s understanding of history, which has a destructive nature. By the very choice of the epigraph, the author emphasized that his first novel is about people who were initially tragically lost in the iron storm of the revolution, but who found their place and path in it. With the same epigraph, the writer also pointed out his uninterrupted connection with classical literature, in particular with the traditions of Pushkin, with “The Captain’s Daughter” - the great Russian poet’s wonderful reflection on Russian history and the Russian people. Continuing the traditions of Pushkin, Bulgakov achieves his artistic truth. Thus, in “The White Guard” the word “Pugachevism” appears.

The second epigraph, taken from the “Revelation of John the Theologian” (“And the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to their deeds...”), reinforces the sense of crisis of the moment. This epigraph emphasizes the point of personal responsibility. The theme of the apocalypse constantly appears on the pages of the novel, not allowing the reader to forget that the reader is presented with pictures of the Last Judgment, reminding that this Judgment is carried out “in accordance with deeds.” In addition, the epigraph emphasizes a timeless point of view on the events taking place. It is noteworthy that in the next verse of the Apocalypse, although it is not included in the text of the novel, the following is said: “... and each was judged according to his deeds.” So, in the subtext, the motive of the trial enters into the fate of each of the heroes of the novel.

The novel opens with a majestic image of 1918. Not by the date, not by the designation of the time of action, but precisely by the image: “Great was the year after the birth of Christ, 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution. It was full of sun in summer and snow in winter, and two stars stood especially high in the sky: the shepherd star - evening Venus and red, trembling Mars. Time and space of the “White Guard” symbolically intersect. Already at the very beginning of the novel, the line of biblical times (“And the dead were judged...”) crosses the synchronic space of formidable events. As the action develops, the intersection takes the form of a cross (especially expressive at the end of the novel), on which Rus' is crucified.

The satirical characters of the novel are united by the motif of “running”. The grotesque picture of the City highlights the tragedy of the honest officers. Using the motif of “running,” Bulgakov shows the scale of panic that gripped different segments of the population.

Color schemes become a symbolic attribute of the events depicted in the novel. The tragic reality (cold, death, blood) is reflected in the contrast of the peaceful snow-covered City and red and black tones. One of the most common colors in the novel is White color, which, according to the author, is a symbol of purity and truth. In the author’s perception, the white color has not only a political connotation, but also a hidden meaning, symbolizing the position “above the fray.” Bulgakov associated his ideas about the Motherland, home, family, and honor with the white color. When all this is threatened, black (the color of evil, sorrow and chaos) absorbs all other colors. For the author, the color black is a symbol of a violation of harmony, and the contrasting combination of white and black, black and red, red and blue emphasizes the tragedy of the characters and conveys the tragedy of events.

In 1925, the magazine "Russia" published the first two parts of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard", which immediately attracted the attention of connoisseurs of Russian literature. According to the author himself, “The White Guard” is “a persistent depiction of the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country...”, “an image of an intellectual-noble family thrown into the White Guard camp during the Civil War.” The novel tells the story of a difficult time when it was very difficult to give an unambiguous assessment of all the events taking place, and it was impossible to understand everything at once. In his creation, Bulgakov captured personal memories of the city of Kyiv during the Civil War.

There is a lot of autobiography in the novel, but the author set the task not only to describe his life experience during the years of the revolution and the Civil War, but also to penetrate into the universal problems of that time, he sought to affirm the idea that all people, perceiving events differently, strive for the familiar and long-established. This is a book about the fate of classical culture in a formidable era of the breakdown of centuries-old traditions. The problems of the novel are extremely close to Bulgakov; he loved The White Guard more than his other works.

The novel is preceded by an epigraph with a quote from "The Captain's Daughter", with which Bulgakov emphasizes that the novel is about people caught in the storm of revolution. But, despite all the trials that befell them, these people were able to find the right path, maintain courage and a sober view of the world and their place in it. With the second epigraph, which has a biblical character, Bulgakov introduces readers to the zone of eternal time, without introducing any historical comparisons into the novel.

The motif of the epigraphs develops the epic beginning of the novel: “It was a great and terrible year after the birth of Christ 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution. It was full of sun in the summer and snow in the winter, and two stars stood especially high in the sky: the shepherd star Venus and the red, trembling Mars ". The style of the opening is close to biblical, and the associations make one remember the eternal Book of Genesis. Thus, the author materializes the eternal in a unique way, like the image of the stars in the heavens. The specific time of history is, as it were, sealed into the eternal time of existence. The poetic opening of the work contains the seed of social and philosophical problems associated with the opposition between peace and war, life and death, death and immortality. The very choice of stars allows you to descend from the cosmic distance to the world of the Turbins, since it is this world that will resist hostility and madness.

At the center of the story is the intelligent Turbin family, which becomes a witness and participant in important and terrible events. The days of the Turbins absorb the eternal charm of calendar time: “But the days in both peaceful and bloody years fly like an arrow, and the young Turbins did not notice how white, furry December arrived in the bitter frost. Oh, the Christmas tree grandfather, sparkling with snow and happiness! Mom , bright queen, where are you?" Memories of his mother and his former life contrast with the real situation of the bloody year of eighteen. A great misfortune - the loss of a mother - merges with another terrible catastrophe - the collapse of the old, beautiful world that had developed over centuries. Both catastrophes give rise to internal distraction, heartache Turbinykh.

Bulgakov contrasts the house of the Turbins with the external world - “bloody and senseless”, in which destruction, horror, inhumanity, and death reign. But the house is part of the City, just as the city is part of the earthly space. The city, according to Bulgakov’s description, was “beautiful in the frost and fog on the mountains above the Dnieper.” But great events happened, and his appearance changed dramatically. "...industrialists, merchants, lawyers, public figures fled here. Journalists, from Moscow and St. Petersburg, corrupt and greedy, cowardly, fled. Cocottes, honest ladies from aristocratic families..." and many others. And the city began to live a “strange, unnatural life...” The natural course of history was disrupted, and hundreds of people became victims.

The plot of the novel is based not on external events that convey the course of the revolution and the Civil War, but on moral conflicts and contradictions. Historical events are only the background against which human destinies are revealed. The author is interested in the inner world of a person who finds himself in the center of events when it is difficult to remain himself. At the beginning of the novel, the characters do not understand the complexity and contradictory nature of the political situation and try to brush aside politics, but in the course of the story they find themselves in the very center of revolutionary events.

Outside the windows - everything that was valuable and beautiful in Russia has been destroyed, “the eighteenth year is flying to the end and day by day it looks more menacing and bristly.” And with excruciating pain, Alexey Turbin thinks not about his possible death, but about the death of the house: “The walls will fall, the alarmed falcon will fly away from the white mitten, the fire in the bronze lamp will go out, and Captain's Daughter will be burned in the oven." Only love and devotion can save this world. And although the author does not say this directly, the reader believes in it. Because, despite the terrible crimes committed by the Petliurists and Bolsheviks, there are people like Alexei and Nikolka Turbin, capable of resisting evil and violence, not sparing their own lives.

At the end of the novel, a description of the armored train "Proletary" is given. This picture is permeated with horror and disgust: “He was wheezing quietly and angrily, something was oozing from the side walls, his blunt snout was silent and squinting into the Dnieper forests. From the last platform, a wide muzzle was aimed at the heights, black and blue, in a deaf muzzle of versts twenty and straight into the midnight cross." Bulgakov understood what led old Russia to tragedy. But people who shoot at their compatriots are no better than those staff and government traitors who sent the best sons of the Fatherland to certain death.

Time has put everything in its place. The names of murderers, criminals, robbers, traitors of all ranks and stripes are consigned to dishonor and shame. And the Turbins’ house is a symbol of imperishable beauty and truth the best people Russia, its nameless heroes, guardians of goodness and culture - continues to warm the souls of many generations of readers and prove the idea that real man must remain human under any conditions.

In Russia at all times there have been people faithful to duty and honor. For these people, a home is not just walls, but a place where traditions are kept, where the spiritual principle never disappears, the symbol of which is always bookcases filled with books. And just like at the beginning of the novel, in its epilogue, looking at the bright stars in the frosty sky, the author makes readers think about eternity, about the life of future generations, about responsibility to history, to each other: “Everything will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, hunger and pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when even the shadow of our bodies and deeds will not remain on the earth."

E. Mustangova: “At the center of Bulgakov’s work is the novel “The White Guard”... Only in this novel does the usually mocking and sarcastic Bulgakov turn into a soft lyricist. All chapters and passages associated with the Turbins are kept in the tone of a slightly condescending admiration for the characters. To the fore their purely psychological “universal human” traits are put forward. With these human traits, Bulgakov covers the social appearance of his heroes. Through admiring them, he wants to make the reader fall in love with everything with which his heroes are inextricably linked. But, looking more closely, you notice that the gap between the “high” and the "low" heroes of "The White Guard" is purely conventional. The ideology, or rather, the psychology of the author, does not quite coincide with the psychology of his heroes. The author stands above the heroes, and admiring them is an indulgent admiration. Their worries seem a little funny and naive to him, their pathos. They are very nice and very close to him, but the author is smarter than them, because he sees something more important behind the “temporary troubles.”

EL. Yablokov: “The autobiographical character of the novel “The White Guard” is associated with the motive of fatigue and dreams of rest. Having experienced history as chaos, an element, realizing his own inability to influence the course of “big” events, Alexey comes to the idea of a war for home comfort; among the motives of his actions individual and personal factors clearly come to the fore. The narrator comments on this as follows: “Man erected towers, alarms and weapons, without knowing it, for only one purpose - to preserve human peace and hearth. He is fighting because of him, and, essentially speaking, he should under no circumstances be fighting because of anything else." This thought peculiarly echoes the well-known judgment from War and Peace: "The personal interests of the present are so much more significant common interests, that because of them a common interest is never felt (not even noticeable at all). Most people of that time did not pay any attention to the general course of affairs, but were guided only by the personal interests of the present. And these people were the most useful figures of that time.

One of the most important motives of M. Bulgakov’s work is the value of home, family, and simple human affections. The heroes of The White Guard are losing the warmth of their home, although they are desperately trying to preserve it. In a prayer to the Mother of God, Elena says: “You send too much grief at once, intercessor mother. So in one year you end your family. For what? I understand. And now you’re taking the eldest away. For what?. How will Nikol and I be? Is this how to punish?

Love is one of the main motives of the novel. The novel “The White Guard” opens with a majestic image of 1918: “Great and terrible was the year after the birth of Christ, 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution. It was full of sun in summer and snow in winter, and two stars stood especially high in the sky: the shepherd’s star - evening Venus and red, trembling Mars." This introduction seems to warn of the trials that await the Turbins. Stars are not just images, they are symbolic images. Having deciphered them, you can see that already in the first lines of the novel the author touches on the topics that most concern him: love and war.

The novel has a ring composition. It begins and ends with ominous premonitions of the apocalypse. The novel contains a motif of diabolism. Details associated with him are the underworld, hell, where Nikolka and Nai-Turs’ sister descend in search of his body.