The history of the creation of “The Captain's Daughter”. The history of the creation of the story The Captain's Daughter The history of the name of the story The Captain's Daughter

The history of the creation of "The Captain's Daughter" may be of interest to anyone who has read this historical novel by Pushkin or in its entirety.

"The Captain's Daughter" writing history

From the middle 1832 A.S. Pushkin begins work on the history of the uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev. The king gave the poet the opportunity to familiarize himself with secret materials about the uprising and the actions of the authorities to suppress it. Pushkin turns to unpublished documents from family archives and private collections. His “Archival Notebooks” contain copies of Pugachev’s personal decrees and letters, extracts from reports on military operations with Pugachev’s detachments.

IN 1833 year, Pushkin decides to go to those places in the Volga and Urals regions where the uprising took place. He looks forward to meeting eyewitnesses of these events. Having received permission from Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin leaves for Kazan. “I’ve been in Kazan since the fifth. Here I tinkered with the old people, my hero’s contemporaries; I traveled around the outskirts of the city, examined the battle sites, asked questions, wrote down notes, and was very pleased that it was not in vain that I visited this side,” he writes to his wife Natalya Nikolaevna on September 8. Next, the poet goes to Simbirsk and Orenburg, where he also visits the sites of battles and meets with contemporaries of the events.

From materials about the riot, “The History of Pugachev” was formed, written in Boldin in the fall of 1833. This work of Pushkin was published in 1834 entitled “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion”, which was given to him by the emperor. But Pushkin conceived the idea of a work of art about the Pugachev uprising of 1773–1775. The plan of the novel about a renegade nobleman who found himself in Pugachev’s camp changed several times. This is also explained by the fact that the topic that Pushkin addressed was ideologically and politically acute and complex. The poet could not help but think about the censorship obstacles that had to be overcome. Archival materials, stories of living Pugachevites, which he heard during a trip to the site of the uprising of 1773–1774, could be used with great caution.

According to the original plan, he was supposed to become a nobleman who voluntarily went over to Pugachev’s side. His prototype was second lieutenant of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment Mikhail Shvanovich (in the plans of the novel Shvanvich), who “preferred a vile life to an honest death.” His name was mentioned in the document “On the death penalty for the traitor, rebel and impostor Pugachev and his accomplices.” Later, Pushkin chose the fate of another real participant in Pugachev’s events - Basharin. Basharin was captured by Pugachev, escaped from captivity and entered the service of one of the suppressors of the uprising, General Mikhelson. The name of the main character changed several times until Pushkin settled on the surname Grinev. In the government report on the liquidation of the Pugachev uprising and the punishment of Pugachev and his accomplices dated January 10, 1775, Grinev’s name was listed among those who were initially suspected of “communication with the villains,” but “as a result of the investigation they turned out to be innocent” and were released from arrest. As a result, instead of one hero-nobleman in the novel, there were two: Grinev was contrasted with a nobleman-traitor, the “vile villain” Shvabrin, which could make it easier to carry the novel through censorship barriers.

Working on historical novel, Pushkin relied on the creative experience of the English novelist Walter Scott (among his many admirers in Russia was Nicholas I himself) and the first Russian historical novelists M.N. Zagoskin, I.I. Lazhechnikov. “In our time, the word novel means a historical era developed in a fictional narrative” - this is how Pushkin defined the main genre feature of the novel in historical topic. The choice of era, heroes, and especially the style of “fictional narrative” made “The Captain’s Daughter” not only the best among the novels of V. Scott’s Russian followers. According to Gogol, Pushkin wrote “a one-of-a-kind novel” - “in its sense of proportion, in its completeness, in its style and in its amazing skill in depicting types and characters in miniature...” Pushkin the artist became not only a rival, but also a “winner” of Pushkin -historian. As the outstanding Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky noted, “The Captain’s Daughter” has “more history than “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion,” which seems like a long explanatory note to the novel.”

Pushkin continued to work on this work in 1834. In 1836 he reworked it. October 19, 1836 year – the date of completion of work on “The Captain’s Daughter”. “ Captain's daughter” was published in the fourth issue of Pushkin’s Sovremennik at the end of December 1836, a little over a month before the poet’s death.

Now you know the history of the writing and creation of Pushkin’s novel “The Captain’s Daughter” and can understand the entire historicism of the work.

From mid-1832, A.S. Pushkin began work on the history of the uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev. The king gave the poet the opportunity to familiarize himself with secret materials about the uprising and the actions of the authorities to suppress it. Pushkin turns to unpublished documents from family archives and private collections. His “Archival Notebooks” contain copies of Pugachev’s personal decrees and letters, extracts from reports on military operations with Pugachev’s detachments.

In 1833, Pushkin decides to go to those places in the Volga and Urals regions where the uprising took place. He looks forward to meeting eyewitnesses of these events. Having received permission from Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin leaves for Kazan. “I’ve been in Kazan since the fifth. Here I was busy with old people, contemporaries of my hero; I traveled around the outskirts of the city, examined the battle sites, asked questions, wrote down notes, and am very pleased that I did not visit this side in vain,” he writes to his wife Natalya Nikolaevna on September 8. Next, the poet goes to Simbirsk and Orenburg, where he also visits the sites of battles and meets with contemporaries of the events.

The “History of Pugachev”, written in Boldin in the fall of 1833, was formed from materials about the riot. This work of Pushkin was published in 1834 under the title “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion”, which was given to him by the emperor. But Pushkin conceived the idea of a work of art about the Pugachev uprising of 1773–1775. It arose while working on Dubrovsky in 1832. The plan of the novel about a renegade nobleman who found himself in Pugachev’s camp changed several times. This is also explained by the fact that the topic that Pushkin addressed was ideologically and politically acute and complex. The poet could not help but think about the censorship obstacles that had to be overcome. Archival materials, stories of living Pugachevites, which he heard during a trip to the site of the uprising of 1773–1774, could be used with great caution.

According to the original plan, the hero of the novel was to be a nobleman who voluntarily went over to Pugachev’s side. His prototype was second lieutenant of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment Mikhail Shvanovich (in the plans of the novel Shvanvich), who “preferred a vile life to an honest death.” His name was mentioned in the document “On the death penalty for the traitor, rebel and impostor Pugachev and his accomplices.” Later, Pushkin chose the fate of another real participant in Pugachev’s events - Basharin. Basharin was captured by Pugachev, escaped from captivity and entered the service of one of the suppressors of the uprising, General Mikhelson. The name of the main character changed several times until Pushkin settled on the surname Grinev. In the government report on the liquidation of the Pugachev uprising and the punishment of Pugachev and his accomplices dated January 10, 1775, Grinev’s name was listed among those who were initially suspected of “communication with the villains,” but “as a result, turned out to be innocent” and were released from arrest. As a result, instead of one hero-nobleman in the novel, there were two: Grinev was contrasted with a nobleman-traitor, the “vile villain” Shvabrin, which could make it easier to carry the novel through censorship barriers.

Pushkin continued to work on this work in 1834. In 1836 he reworked it. October 19, 1836 is the date of completion of work on The Captain's Daughter. “The Captain’s Daughter” was published in the fourth issue of Pushkin’s Sovremennik at the end of December 1836, a little over a month before the poet’s death.

What is the genre of The Captain's Daughter? Pushkin wrote to the censor, handing over the manuscript: “The name of the girl Mironova is fictitious. My novel is based on legend...” Pushkin explained what a novel is: “In our time, by the word novel we mean a historical era developed in a fictional narrative.” That is, Pushkin considered his work a historical novel. And yet, “The Captain’s Daughter”, a small work, is more often called a story in literary criticism.

The history of the creation of the story "The Captain's Daughter"
Author: Pushkin A.S.
From mid-1832, A.S. Pushkin began work on the history of the uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev. The king gave the poet the opportunity to familiarize himself with secret materials about the uprising and the actions of the authorities to suppress it. Pushkin turns to unpublished documents from family archives and private collections. His “Archival Notebooks” contain copies of Pugachev’s personal decrees and letters, extracts from reports on military operations with Pugachev’s detachments.
In 1833, Pushkin decides to go to those places in the Volga and Urals regions where the uprising took place. He looks forward to meeting eyewitnesses of these events. Having received permission from Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin leaves for Kazan. “I’ve been in Kazan since the fifth. Here I was busy with old people, contemporaries of my hero; I traveled around the outskirts of the city, examined the battle sites, asked questions, wrote down notes, and was very pleased that it was not in vain that I visited this side,” he writes to his wife Natalya Nikolaevna on September 8. Next, the poet goes to Simbirsk and Orenburg, where he also visits the sites of battles and meets with contemporaries of the events.
The “History of Pugachev”, written in Boldin in the fall of 1833, was formed from materials about the riot. This work of Pushkin was published in 1834 under the title “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion”, which was given to him by the emperor. But Pushkin conceived the idea of a work of art about the Pugachev uprising of 1773-1775. It arose while working on Dubrovsky in 1832. The plan of the novel about a renegade nobleman who found himself in Pugachev’s camp changed several times. This is also explained by the fact that the topic that Pushkin addressed was ideologically and politically acute and complex. The poet could not help but think about the censorship obstacles that had to be overcome. Archival materials, stories of living Pugachevites, which he heard during a trip to the site of the uprising of 1773-1774, could be used with great caution.
According to the original plan, the hero of the novel was to be a nobleman who voluntarily went over to Pugachev’s side. His prototype was second lieutenant of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment Mikhail Shvanovich (in the plans of the novel Shvanvich), who “preferred a vile life to an honest death.” His name was mentioned in the document “On the death penalty for the traitor, rebel and impostor Pugachev and his accomplices.” Later, Pushkin chose the fate of another real participant in Pugachev’s events - Basharin. Basharin was captured by Pugachev, escaped from captivity and entered the service of one of the suppressors of the uprising, General Mikhelson. The name of the main character changed several times until Pushkin settled on the surname Grinev. In the government report on the liquidation of the Pugachev uprising and the punishment of Pugachev and his accomplices dated January 10, 1775, Grinev’s name was listed among those who were initially suspected of “communication with the villains,” but “as a result, turned out to be innocent” and were released from arrest. As a result, instead of one hero-nobleman in the novel, there were two: Grinev was contrasted with a nobleman-traitor, the “vile villain” Shvabrin, which could make it easier to carry the novel through censorship barriers.
Pushkin continued to work on this work in 1834. In 1836 he reworked it. October 19, 1836 is the date of completion of work on The Captain's Daughter. “The Captain’s Daughter” was published in the fourth issue of Pushkin’s Sovremennik at the end of December 1836, a little over a month before the poet’s death.
What is the genre of The Captain's Daughter? Pushkin wrote to the censor, handing over the manuscript: “The name of the girl Mironova is fictitious. My novel is based on legend...” Pushkin explained what a novel is: “In our time, by the word novel we mean a historical era developed in a fictional narrative.” That is, Pushkin considered his work a historical novel. And yet, “The Captain's Daughter” - a small work - is more often called a story in literary criticism.

The history of the creation of the story "The Captain's Daughter"

Critic V.G. called it “a miracle of perfection.” Belinsky “The Captain's Daughter” is a novel about the Pugachev rebellion. Turning to history, Pushkin not only comprehended the past and the present day, but also felt personal involvement in the events being recreated.

Thoughts about a historical work, in the center of which would be Pugachev and Pugachevism, matured in Pushkin for a long time. Back in 1826, he told M.N. Volkonskaya before her departure to Siberia to see her husband exiled to hard labor: “I want to write an essay about Pugachev. I will go to the area, cross the Urals, drive further and come to ask you for refuge in the Nerchinsk mines.”

The idea of “The Captain's Daughter”, or, more precisely, the plot of the not yet fully developed story about the Pugachev nobleman, was born during the process of Pushkin’s work on “Dubrovsky”. The “robber” novel did not allow us to deeply and accurately comprehend the problem of the peasant revolt and the attitude of the nobility towards it.

Pushkin the historian understood the importance of authentic documents and facts, and worked a lot in archives. In addition, he wanted to visit the scenes. In August 1833, he submitted a request “for leave to go on leave for four months in the provinces of Kazan and Orenburg.” Permission was received, and on September 5, 1833, Pushkin arrived in Kazan - the first point on his route, where the memory of Pugachev was alive.

True, even earlier, in Vasilsursk, he wrote down, from the words of a beggar woman, a local legend about Pugachev, which he used in Chapter VII of “The History of Pugachev.” Near Cheboksary they told him about two young ladies who hid in a hay pile, were discovered and executed by the Pugachevites; near Kazan, the writer examined the Arskoe field - Pugachev’s camp several miles from the city, and talked with the participants in the events. In Pushkin’s papers there is a piece of paper that is commonly called “Kazan notes”. In them, for example, there is evidence of a certain Babin, who as a boy was the lord of Kazan during the time of Pugachev: “The people driven into Pugachev’s camp were placed on all fours in front of the guns, women and children started howling. They were declared the sovereign's forgiveness. Everyone shouted hurray! - and rushed to his headquarters. Then they asked: who wants to serve Tsar Pyotr Fedorovich?

View of Kazan. Unknown artist. 1820s

There were a lot of hunters." Another Kazan old-timer, the merchant Krupenikov, whom Pushkin questioned for an hour and a half, told how he happened to be captured by Pugachev. “The people,” Pushkin wrote, “returned from captivity and found everything upside down. Those who were rich found themselves poor, those who were poor became rich.” All these notes on sheets of paper and in the travel notebook, as well as “notches in memory,” were useful when writing “The Captain’s Daughter.”

The memoirs preserve some additional information about the Orenburg days and the sowing of Berda. For example, this is the story of a local resident: “I don’t remember what year Pushkin came, I only know that the day turned out to be warm and clear. Two gentlemen dressed in civilian clothes were walking down the street... and by the crowbar... our Berdsk Cossack girl Buntova was sitting. I was right there next to the old woman Buntova, who was over sixty years old and who stayed around the house to nurse the children. The civilians approached the old woman, and, probably seeing that she was very ancient, one of them, a curly-haired one, asked Buntova if she knew anything about Pugachev. The old woman replied that she knew everything and even the song that was written about him. The gentlemen asked her to sing. Buntova sang one song for them.” He was in the ancient Cossack village of Berdskaya Sloboda, which Pushkin called “rebellious,” on September 19. Buntova’s own account of this event was also preserved in the recording: “And the women scared me so much. A lot of them came running when that gentleman asked me, and I sang songs to him about Pugach. He showed the portrait: such a beauty is written, “here,” he says, “she will begin to sing your songs.” Only he from the yard, the women all attacked me. Who says that he was sent, that they will put me in prison for my chatter ; who says: “I saw the Antichrist, what kind of claws he has.” And the Scripture says that the Antichrist will love old women, make them sing songs and give them money. I fell ill with fear and ordered the cart to be laid and taken to Orenburg to the authorities. There I say: “Have mercy, protect me if I have put something on my head; I fell ill while thinking." They laugh. “Don’t be afraid,” they say, “it was the Emperor himself who allowed him to ask about Pugachev everywhere.”

In the very fact that they were “under Pugachev,” people felt a certain guilt. No wonder Buntova when Pushkin asked her: “Did Pugacheva know?” - She answered in fright: “I knew it, father, the devil has misled me!” They were afraid to even say his name, but now tell the visiting gentleman! At the end of Chapter IV of “The History of Pugachev”, the author himself emphasized this situation: “To this day, elderly witnesses of the then confusion are reluctant to answer the questions of the curious.” And yet they said they did not shy away from Pushkin. This means he knew how to gain trust.

From Orenburg, Pushkin traveled another 300 versts along the “great Ural road” to Uralsk, where he continued his questions, sometimes becoming surprised to see that not only the memory of Pugachev had been preserved, but his love for the people’s leader had not faded. “An old Cossack woman is still alive in Uralsk, wearing boots made by him,” writes Pushkin. To the visitor’s question: “What was Pugachev like?” - she replied: “It’s a sin to say... we don’t complain about him; He didn’t do us any harm.”

Conversations with eyewitnesses and recording their stories helped Pushkin draw the most important conclusion: “All the black people were for Pugachev. The clergy were kind to him.<...>There was one nobility openly on the side of the government. Pugachev and his accomplices first wanted to win over the nobles to their side, but their benefits were too opposite...”

Work “The History of Pugachev” and work of art- the novel “The Captain's Daughter” - were created almost simultaneously, and many materials that were not included in the “History ...” appeared on the pages of the novel.

V.I. Dahl, who accompanied Pushkin, talked about visiting Pugachev’s “golden palace”. In Chapter XI of “The Captain’s Daughter” we read: “We were led straight to a hut that stood at the corner of the intersection.<...>I entered the hut, or the palace, as the men called it. It was lit by two tallow candles, and the walls were covered with gold paper; however, the benches, the table, the washstand on a rope, the towel on a nail, the grabber in the corner and the wide pole covered with pots - everything was like in an ordinary hut.” This vivid impression was reflected in the novel, as well as many other things, including the name of the Belogorsk fortress, which was not invented “just like that”, but goes back to the chalk mountains seen by Pushkin on the banks of the Urals.

Pushkin also introduced individual episodes into the text, information available in “The History of Pugachev.” Thus, in Chapter III of “The History of Pugachev” Pushkin reported: “Pugachev was not autocratic. The Yaik Cossacks, the instigators of the rebellion, controlled the actions of the Nroshlet, who had no other dignity except some military knowledge and extraordinary audacity. He did nothing without their consent; they often acted without his knowledge, and sometimes against his will. They showed him outward respect, followed him around without hats in front of the people and beat him with their foreheads; but in private they treated him like a comrade, and drank together, sitting with him in their hats and shirts and singing barge haulers’ songs. Pugachev missed their care. “My street is cramped,” he said to Denis Pyanov, while feasting at the wedding of his youngest son.”

This material is rethought in “The Captain’s Daughter” and given in Grinev’s perception in Chapter VIII: “At the table<...>Pugachev and about ten Cossack elders were sitting in gangs and colored shirts, hot with wine, with red faces and sparkling eyes... Everyone treated each other like comrades, did not show any special preference to their leader... “Well, brothers,” said Pugachev, let’s sing my favorite song to bedtime. Chumakov! begin!" My neighbor began to sing a mournful barge hauler song in a thin voice, and everyone joined in chorus: "Don't make noise, mother green oak tree...", etc.

From “The History of Pugachev” in this scene of “The Captain’s Daughter” only the final episode is not used: the words of Pugachev spoken at the feast to Denis Pyanov: “My street is cramped.” But they also do not disappear in the novel and appear in Pugachev’s conversation with Grinev in Chapter XI: “Do you think about going to Moscow?” The impostor thought a little and said in an undertone: “God knows. My street is cramped; I have little will. My guys are being smart.” They are thieves."

During the trip of 1833, Pushkin recorded a wonderful Kalmyk fairy tale about the eagle and the raven, which closes the conversation between Pugachev and Grinev about the campaign against Moscow, but the lively stories of the old woman Buntova were restored to the colorful scenes of the oath to Pugachev after the capture of the Belogorsk fortress (Chapter VII), the picture of the distribution of money to the people (Chapter IX) and other historical everyday scenes of the novel.

But the most significant thing is that work on “The History of Pugachev” helped Pushkin finally determine the artistic concept of “The Captain's Daughter.”