Good characters in literature. The most famous book characters

(Guillermo Erades)

And also about why Russian women understand: you shouldn’t count on “happily ever after”

After the BBC's recent adaptation of War and Peace, many TV viewers dusted off their old copies of Tolstoy's masterpiece and went for a fresh start. Those who are especially daring, perhaps under the impression of the magnificent Natasha Rostova, will want to plunge into the vast world of Russian literature in search of equally memorable female images. Where to start? You have found what you need. Here's your guide to selected heroines of Russian literature.

We all know that all happy heroines are equally happy, and each unhappy heroine is unhappy in her own way. But here’s what’s interesting: in Russian literature, happy heroes are rare. In fact, Russian heroines tend to complicate their lives. And it works because much of the charm of these characters comes from their suffering and tragic destinies. With the fact that they are Russian.

The narrator in my first novel, Back to Moscow, is working—or pretending to be working—on a dissertation on female characters in Russian literature. He tries to build relationships with women who come his way, based on the lessons he learned from Russian classics. He soon realizes that modern Russia is no longer the country that Tolstoy and Chekhov described in their books. And Moscow at the dawn of the 21st century is a hectic metropolis, experiencing rapid and profound changes, and women in this city very rarely behave the way they are described in books.

One thing worth remembering about Russian heroines is that their stories are not about overcoming obstacles on the way to a happy ending. As guardians of long-respected national values, they know that there is more to life than happiness.

Tatyana Larina - Evgeny Onegin

Unlike the cynical reveler Onegin, corrupted by the influence of European values, Tatyana embodies the purity and very essence of the Mysterious Russian Soul, including the readiness for self-sacrifice and the ability to despise happiness - these qualities of hers are obvious, it is worth remembering the famous scene in which she refuses her beloved man .

Anna Karenina

Her main mistake was not that she had an affair or abandoned her child. Anna's sin, from which her tragedy was born, lies elsewhere - in a "selfish" desire to satisfy her romantic and sexual desires, she forgot about the lesson of the selfless Tatiana: if you see the light at the end of the tunnel, cool down and step aside - it could be an approaching train .

Sonya Marmeladova - Crime and Punishment

Natasha Rostova - War and Peace

For the first time on the pages of the novel, Natasha appears as a charming teenager, full of joy and love of life. As the story progresses, she matures, learns life lessons, tames her fickle heart, and gains depth and wisdom. Moreover, this woman, which is so uncharacteristic of Russian literature, is still smiling after a thousand pages.

Irina Prozorova - Three sisters

In the images of Irina and her sisters, Chekhov shows life as a series of dull episodes, which are only occasionally interrupted by random flashes of joy. Like Irina, we all live our lives, constantly distracted by the unimportant, dreaming of a better future, gradually realizing the insignificance of our own existence.

Lisa Kalitina - Noble Nest

Her decision shows that the desire for melancholic sadness is the same life path, like any other. In the finale, Lisa renounces her love and goes to a monastery, choosing the path of self-denial and deprivation. “Happiness did not come to me,” she says, as if explaining herself, “even when I had hopes for happiness, my heart still ached.” She's lovely.

Margarita - The Master and Margarita

Olga Semyonovna - Darling

In his review of “Darling,” Tolstoy wrote that Chekhov, intending to make fun of this simple-minded woman, unexpectedly portrayed an unusually sweet heroine. Tolstoy went further, accusing Chekhov of being too harsh towards Olga, of judging her by her intelligence, and not by her spiritual qualities. According to Tolstoy, Olga embodies the Russian woman’s ability to unconditional love- a virtue unfamiliar to man.

Mrs. Odintsova - Fathers and Sons

In contrast to other female characters in the novel, who submit to the demands placed on them by society, Odintsova, a widow without children and without a mother, stubbornly defends her independence, refusing, like Pushkin’s Tatyana, the only opportunity to experience true love.

Nastasya Filippovna - Idiot

In the traditional manner of Russian literature, life confronts the heroine with a difficult choice - mainly the choice of a man. And within the framework of the same tradition, it turns out to be unable to do right choice, but instead submits to fate and ultimately allows it to carry him towards a tragic ending.

Russian literature has given us a cavalcade of both positive and negative characters. We decided to remember the second group. Beware, spoilers.

20. Alexey Molchalin (Alexander Griboedov, “Woe from Wit”)

Molchalin is the hero “about nothing”, Famusov’s secretary. He is faithful to his father’s behest: “to please all people without exception - the owner, the boss, his servant, the janitor’s dog.”

In a conversation with Chatsky, he sets out his life principles, consisting in the fact that “at my age I should not dare to have my own judgment.”

Molchalin is sure that you need to think and act as is customary in “Famus” society, otherwise people will gossip about you, and, as you know, “evil tongues are worse than pistols.”

He despises Sophia, but in order to please Famusov, he is ready to sit with her all night long, playing the role of a lover.

19. Grushnitsky (Mikhail Lermontov, “Hero of Our Time”)

Grushnitsky has no name in Lermontov's story. He is the “double” of the main character - Pechorin. According to Lermontov’s description, Grushnitsky is “... one of those people who have ready-made pompous phrases for all occasions, who are not touched by simply beautiful things and who are importantly draped in extraordinary feelings, sublime passions and exceptional suffering. Producing an effect is their pleasure...”

Grushnitsky loves pathos very much. There is not an ounce of sincerity in him. Grushnitsky is in love with Princess Mary, and at first she responds to him with special attention, but then falls in love with Pechorin.

The matter ends in a duel. Grushnitsky is so low that he conspires with his friends and they do not load Pechorin’s pistol. The hero cannot forgive such outright meanness. He reloads the pistol and kills Grushnitsky.

18. Afanasy Totsky (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Idiot”)

Afanasy Totsky, having taken Nastya Barashkova, the daughter of a deceased neighbor, as his upbringing and dependent, eventually “became close to her,” developing a suicidal complex in the girl and indirectly becoming one of the culprits of her death.

Extremely averse to the female sex, at the age of 55 Totsky decided to connect his life with the daughter of General Epanchin Alexandra, deciding to marry Nastasya to Ganya Ivolgin. However, neither one nor the other case burned out. As a result, Totsky “was captivated by a visiting Frenchwoman, a marquise and a legitimist.”

17. Alena Ivanovna (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)

The old pawnbroker is a character who has become a household name. Even those who have not read Dostoevsky’s novel have heard about it. Alena Ivanovna, by today’s standards, is not that old, she is “about 60 years old,” but the author describes her like this: “... a dry old woman with sharp and angry eyes with a small pointed nose... Her blond, slightly gray hair was greasy with oil. Around her thin and long neck, similar to a chicken leg, there was some kind of flannel rag tied ... "

The old woman pawnbroker is engaged in usury and makes money from people's grief. She takes valuable things at huge interest rates, bullies her younger sister Lizaveta, and beats her.

16. Arkady Svidrigailov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)

Svidrigailov is one of Raskolnikov’s doubles in Dostoevsky’s novel, a widower, at one time he was ransomed by his wife from prison, he lived in the village for 7 years. A cynical and depraved person. On his conscience is the suicide of a servant, a 14-year-old girl, and possibly the poisoning of his wife.

Due to Svidrigailov's harassment, Raskolnikov's sister lost her job. Having learned that Raskolnikov is a murderer, Luzhin blackmails Dunya. The girl shoots at Svidrigailov and misses.

Svidrigailov is an ideological scoundrel, he does not experience moral torment and experiences “world boredom,” eternity seems to him like a “bathhouse with spiders.” As a result, he commits suicide with a revolver shot.

15. Kabanikha (Alexander Ostrovsky, “The Thunderstorm”)

In the image of Kabanikha, one of central characters Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" reflected the outgoing patriarchal, strict archaism. Kabanova Marfa Ignatievna, “a rich merchant’s wife, widow,” mother-in-law of Katerina, mother of Tikhon and Varvara.

Kabanikha is very domineering and strong, she is religious, but more outwardly, since she does not believe in forgiveness or mercy. She is as practical as possible and lives by earthly interests.

Kabanikha is sure that the family way of life can only be maintained through fear and orders: “After all, out of love your parents are strict with you, out of love they scold you, everyone thinks to teach you good.” She perceives the departure of the old order as a personal tragedy: “This is how the old times come to be... What will happen, how the elders will die... I don’t know.”

14. Lady (Ivan Turgenev, “Mumu”)

We all know the sad story about how Gerasim drowned Mumu, but not everyone remembers why he did it, but he did it because a despotic lady ordered him to do so.

The same landowner had previously given the washerwoman Tatyana, with whom Gerasim was in love, to the drunken shoemaker Capiton, which ruined both of them.
The lady, at her own discretion, decides the fate of her serfs, without regard at all to their wishes, and sometimes even to common sense.

13. Footman Yasha (Anton Chekhov, “The Cherry Orchard”)

Footman Yasha in Anton Chekhov's play " Cherry Orchard" - an unpleasant character. He openly worships everything foreign, while he is extremely ignorant, rude and even boorish. When his mother comes to him from the village and waits for him in the people’s room all day, Yasha dismissively declares: “It’s really necessary, she could come tomorrow.”

Yasha tries to behave decently in public, tries to seem educated and well-mannered, but at the same time alone with Firs he says to the old man: “I'm tired of you, grandfather. I wish you would die soon.”

Yasha is very proud that he lived abroad. With his foreign polish, he wins the heart of the maid Dunyasha, but uses her location for his own benefit. After the sale of the estate, the footman persuades Ranevskaya to take him with her to Paris again. It is impossible for him to stay in Russia: “the country is uneducated, the people are immoral, and, moreover, boredom...”.

12. Pavel Smerdyakov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”)

Smerdyakov is a character with a telling surname, according to rumors, the illegitimate son of Fyodor Karrmazov from the city holy fool Lizaveta Stinking. The surname Smerdyakov was given to him by Fyodor Pavlovich in honor of his mother.

Smerdyakov serves as a cook in Karamazov’s house, and he cooks, apparently, quite well. However, this is a “foulbrood man.” This is evidenced at least by Smerdyakov’s reasoning about history: “In the twelfth year there was a great invasion of Russia by Emperor Napoleon of France the First, and it would be good if these same French had conquered us then, a smart nation would have conquered a very stupid one and annexed it to itself. There would even be completely different orders.”

Smerdyakov is the killer of Karamazov's father.

11. Pyotr Luzhin (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)

Luzhin is another one of Rodion Raskolnikov’s doubles, a business man of 45 years old, “with a cautious and grumpy physiognomy.”

Having made it “from rags to riches,” Luzhin is proud of his pseudo-education and behaves arrogantly and primly. Having proposed to Dunya, he anticipates that she will be grateful to him all her life for the fact that he “brought her into the public eye.”

He also wooes Duna out of convenience, believing that she will be useful to him for his career. Luzhin hates Raskolnikov because he opposes his alliance with Dunya. Luzhin puts one hundred rubles in Sonya Marmeladova's pocket at her father's funeral, accusing her of theft.

10. Kirila Troekurov (Alexander Pushkin, “Dubrovsky”)

Troekurov is an example of a Russian master spoiled by his power and environment. He spends his time in idleness, drunkenness, and voluptuousness. Troekurov sincerely believes in his impunity and limitless possibilities (“This is the power to take away property without any right”).

The master loves his daughter Masha, but marries her to an old man she doesn’t love. Troekurov's serfs are similar to their master - Troekurov's hound is insolent to Dubrovsky Sr. - and thereby quarrels old friends.

9. Sergei Talberg (Mikhail Bulgakov, “The White Guard”)

Sergei Talberg is the husband of Elena Turbina, a traitor and an opportunist. He easily changes his principles and beliefs, without much effort or remorse. Talberg is always where it is easier to live, so he runs abroad. He leaves his family and friends. Even Talberg’s eyes (which, as you know, are the “mirror of the soul”) are “two-story”; he is the complete opposite of Turbin.

Thalberg was the first to wear the red bandage at the military school in March 1917 and, as a member of the military committee, arrested the famous General Petrov.

8. Alexey Shvabrin (Alexander Pushkin, “The Captain's Daughter”)

Shvabrin is the antipode of the main character of Pushkin’s story “The Captain’s Daughter” by Pyotr Grinev. He was exiled to the Belogorsk fortress for murder in a duel. Shvabrin is undoubtedly smart, but at the same time he is cunning, impudent, cynical, and mocking. Having received Masha Mironova’s refusal, he spreads dirty rumors about her, wounds him in the back in a duel with Grinev, goes over to Pugachev’s side, and, having been captured by government troops, spreads rumors that Grinev is a traitor. In general, he is a rubbish person.

7. Vasilisa Kostyleva (Maxim Gorky, “At the Depths”)

In Gorky's play "At the Bottom" everything is sad and sad. This atmosphere is diligently maintained by the owners of the shelter where the action takes place - the Kostylevs. The husband is a nasty, cowardly and greedy old man, his wife Vasilisa is a calculating, resourceful opportunist who forces her lover Vaska Pepel to steal for her sake. When she finds out that he himself is in love with her sister, he promises to give her up in exchange for killing her husband.

6. Mazepa (Alexander Pushkin, “Poltava”)

Mazepa is a historical character, but if in history Mazepa’s role is ambiguous, then in Pushkin’s poem Mazepa is unambiguous negative character. Mazepa appears in the poem as an absolutely immoral, dishonest, vindictive, evil person, as a treacherous hypocrite for whom nothing is sacred (he “does not know the sacred,” “does not remember charity”), a person accustomed to achieving his goal at any cost.

The seducer of his young goddaughter Maria, he puts her father Kochubey to public execution and - already sentenced to death - subjects her to cruel torture in order to find out where he hid his treasures. Without equivocation, Pushkin denounces and political activity Mazepa, which is determined only by the lust for power and thirst for revenge on Peter.

5. Foma Opiskin (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants”)

Foma Opiskin is an extremely negative character. A hanger-on, a hypocrite, a liar. He diligently pretends to be pious and educated, tells everyone about his supposedly ascetic experience and sparkles with quotes from books...

When he gains power, he shows his true nature. “A low soul, having come out from under oppression, oppresses itself. Thomas was oppressed - and he immediately felt the need to oppress himself; They broke down over him - and he himself began to break down over others. He was a jester and immediately felt the need to have his own jesters. He boasted to the point of absurdity, broke down to the point of impossibility, demanded bird's milk, tyrannized beyond measure, and it got to the point where good people, not having yet witnessed all these tricks, but listening only to tales, they considered it all a miracle, an obsession, crossed themselves and spat on it...”

4. Viktor Komarovsky (Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago)

Lawyer Komarovsky is a negative character in Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago. In the destinies of the main characters - Zhivago and Lara, Komarovsky is an “evil genius” and a “gray eminence”. He is guilty of the ruin of the Zhivago family and the death of the protagonist's father; he cohabits with Lara's mother and Lara herself. Finally, Komarovsky tricks Zhivago into separating him from his wife. Komarovsky is smart, calculating, greedy, cynical. Overall, a bad person. He understands this himself, but this suits him quite well.

3. Judushka Golovlev (Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, “The Golovlev Lords”)

Porfiry Vladimirovich Golovlev, nicknamed Judas and Blood Drinker, is “the last representative of an escapist family.” He is hypocritical, greedy, cowardly, calculating. He spends his life in endless slander and litigation, drives his son to commit suicide, and at the same time imitates extreme religiosity, reading prayers “without the participation of the heart.”

Toward the end of his dark life, Golovlev gets drunk and runs wild, and goes into the March snowstorm. In the morning, his frozen corpse is found.

2. Andriy (Nikolai Gogol, “Taras Bulba”)

Andriy is the youngest son of Taras Bulba, the hero of the story of the same name by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Andriy, as Gogol writes, from early youth began to feel the “need for love.” This need fails him. He falls in love with the lady, betrays his homeland, his friends, and his father. Andriy admits: “Who said that my homeland is Ukraine? Who gave it to me in my homeland? The Fatherland is what our soul is looking for, what is dearer to it than anything else. My fatherland is you!... and I will sell, give away, and destroy everything that I have for such a fatherland!”
Andriy is a traitor. He is killed by his own father.

1. Fyodor Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”)

He is voluptuous, greedy, envious, stupid. By maturity he became flabby, began to drink a lot, opened several taverns, made many fellow countrymen his debtors... He began to compete with his eldest son Dmitry for the heart of Grushenka Svetlova, which paved the way for the crime - Karamazov was killed by his illegitimate son Pyotr Smerdyakov.

Men are attracted primarily to masculine characters, while women are attracted to both male and female characters.

In the Year of Literature, the Reading Section of the RBA held an Internet campaign “Monument to a Literary Hero,” inviting readers of different generations to talk about literary traditions and literary preferences.

From January 15 to March 30, 2015, a questionnaire was published on the RBA website with the possibility of reprinting it. Colleagues from many libraries, regional centers books and readings, educational institutions, The media supported the action by posting a questionnaire on their resources.

More than four and a half thousand people from 63 constituent entities of the Russian Federation aged from 5 to 81 took part in the event. In the overall sample, women made up 65%, men – 35%. Answering the question “Which literary hero would you like to see a monument to in the area where you live?”, respondents named 510 heroes from 368 works created by 226 authors. Adults over 18 years old named 395 heroes. Children and teenagers 17 years old and younger – 254 heroes. Adult women named 344 heroes. Men – 145 heroes.

The top ten heroes whose monuments participants would like to see are as follows:

1st place: Ostap Bender - named 135 times (including the joint monument with Kisa Vorobyaninov), 179 mentions;

2nd place: Sherlock Holmes – 96 times (including the joint monument with Dr. Watson), totaling 108 mentions;

3rd place: Tom Sawyer – 68 times (including the joint monument to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn), making 108 mentions;

4th place: Margarita – 63 (including the joint monument with the Master) is 104 mentions;

5th place: Evgeny Onegin – 58 (including the joint monument with Tatiana) is 95 mentions;

6th-7th place was shared by Vasily Terkin and Faust - 91 times each;

8th place: Romeo and Juliet – 86;

9th place: Anna Karenina – 77;

10th place: Stirlitz – 71.

Looking at male and female preferences, it can be said that men are attracted predominantly to masculine characters, while women are interested in both male and female characters. The top ten male preferences are as follows (we consider by analogy with the data for the entire array, taking into account joint monuments): 1) Ostap Bender; 2) Stirlitz; 3) Musketeers; 4-5) Sherlock Holmes and Don Quixote; 6) Margarita; 7) Fedor Eichmanis; 8) Sharikov; 9) Artyom Goryainov; 10-11) shepherd Santiago; Robinson Crusoe. So, in the top ten there is only one female image - Margarita. It should be added that very rarely Galina is present with Artyom Goryainov. Women's preferences look different: 1) Ostap Bender; 2) Tatyana Larina; 3) Anna Karenina; 4-5) Romeo and Juliet; Arseny-Lavr; 6) Sherlock Holmes; 7-8) Cat Hippo; Margarita; 9-10) Strange children; Angie Malone; 11) Mary Poppins.

Survey data provides compelling evidence of intergenerational reading preferences. The top ten preferences of girls 17 years old and younger include (in descending order): Assol, Romeo and Juliet, The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, Snow Maiden, Little Red Riding Hood, Gerda, Mary Poppins, Harry Porter, Alice.

Thus, the majority are female images. At the same time, girls’ orientation toward female images is not as pronounced as their preference male images in boys.

The top ten preferences of boys 17 years old and younger: Tom Sawyer, Vasily Terkin, Robinson Crusoe, D'Artagnan and the Musketeers, Dunno, Sherlock Holmes, Andrei Sokolov, Mowgli, Faust, Hottabych.

Boys, like men, clearly demonstrate a preference for and need for male heroes. Boys in the top twenty heroes have no female characters at all. The first of them appear only in the third ten of the ratings, and even then in company with male heroes: The Master and Margarita; Harry, Hermione, Ron; Romeo and Juliet.

According to the survey, the absolute leader in the number of preferred monuments is Ostap Bender.

A comparison of lists of preferences for different parameters shows that the image of Ostap Bender is the undisputed leader, but he is still closer to men.

Why is this image of a hero-adventurer so attractive to our contemporaries? Analyzing the most numerous and famous monuments to loved ones literary heroes that arose in the post-Soviet era (Ostap Bender, Munchausen, Vasily Terkin, Koroviev and Begemot), M. Lipovetsky notes the common thing that unites them: “Apparently, the fact that they are all to one degree or another, but always quite clearly represent the cultural archetype of the trickster.

Looking back at Soviet culture in its various manifestations, it is not difficult to see that most of the characters that gained mass popularity in Soviet culture represent various versions of this ancient archetype.

Moreover, the author proves that the significance of such images remains in post-Soviet culture. Both men and women are also interested in the image of Sherlock Holmes, who, according to M. Lipovetsky, also belongs to the trickster archetype.

Traditionally, the structure of women's preferences has a higher share of domestic and foreign classics, as well as melodrama. Men, especially young men, have a clear interest in the heroes of adventure literature.

The survey clearly showed other preferences related to the age and gender of readers. Each new generation wants to see its heroes, corresponding to their time, acting in books created at the present time. Thus, “The Home for Peculiar Children” by R. Riggs is of interest mainly to 20-year-olds and mostly girls. Also, mostly 20-year-olds are interested in “A Street Cat Named Bob” by J. Bowen.

According to online stores, both books are in great reader demand. Their high rating among young people is also noted by various online reading communities. And the image of Katerina from the story by V. Chernykh for the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” gathers a female audience aged 40-50 years and is not found among those under 30 and over 60 years old.

The undisputed hero of the older generation is Stirlitz. Among 20-year-olds it is not mentioned once, among 30-year-olds - once, 40-year-olds - 7 times, 50-year-olds - 26 times, among 60-year-olds it is the absolute leader among men, it is also found among women and is the leader overall. V senior group by age. The Yulian Semyonov Cultural Foundation has already conducted an Internet voting “Monument to Stirlitz. What should he be like?

However, a monument to one of the most iconic heroes of Soviet literature and cinema never appeared.

The results of a study by the FOM “Idols of Youth”, conducted in 2008, noted: “It is significant that the relative majority of people who had idols in their youth remain faithful to them throughout adult life: two-thirds (68%) of such people (that’s 36% of all respondents) admitted that they can still call their idol the one who was them in their youth.” Probably, this can partly explain the attitude of older people towards Stirlitz.

According to the survey, readers would like to erect monuments to heroes of completely different books: including the heroes of Homer and Sophocles, Aristophanes, G. Boccaccio, as well as L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkina, I.S. Turgeneva, N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.A. Goncharova, M.Yu. Lermontov, A.P. Chekhov. Among foreign literature The heroes of the books of G. Hesse, G. García Márquez, R. Bach were named in the 20th century; among domestic ones are the heroes of books by K. Paustovsky, V. Astafiev, B. Mozhaev, V. Zakrutkin, V. Konetsky, V. Shukshin and many others.

If we talk about works latest literature, then the survey participants showed significant interest in the heroes of D. Rubina’s trilogy “Russian Canary” and the heroes of the novel “The Abode” by Z. Prilepin.

It should be noted one more work of modern fiction, which has earned a fairly high reader rating is E. Vodolazkin’s novel “Laurel,” which received the “Big Book” award in 2013. There is one main character– Arseny Laurus, to whom we would like to erect a monument.

Among the works whose heroes would like to have a monument erected, thus, the obvious leaders are noted:

The diversity of the presented literature is noteworthy. The top ten books include Russian and foreign classical literature, classics of world adventure literature, the best Russian literature created during the Soviet period, modern bestsellers.

To the question about which existing monuments to literary heroes do they like and where they are located, 690 people answered, which is 16.2% of the number of participants. In total, 355 monuments were named, dedicated to 194 heroes. These heroes act in 136 works created by 82 authors.

The rating of heroes whose monuments are well known and liked is headed by: The Little Mermaid; Ostap Bender; Pinocchio; White Bim Black Ear; Chizhik-Pyzhik; Baron Munchausen; Mumu; Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson; Bremen Town Musicians...

The overall ranking of monuments is headed by: The Little Mermaid from Copenhagen; White Bim Black Ear from Voronezh; Samara Pinocchio; St. Petersburg Chizhik-Pyzhik, Ostap Bender, Mumu; Baron Munchausen from Kaliningrad; Moscow Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson; The Bremen Musicians from Bremen; monument to the Cat Behemoth and Koroviev from Moscow.

The named monuments are located in 155 cities, including 86 domestic cities (55.5%) and 69 foreign ones (44.5%). Among foreign cities the leaders are: Copenhagen, Odessa, London, Kyiv, Bremen, Kharkov, New York, Osh, Nikolaev. Among domestic ones: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Samara, Kaliningrad, Ramenskoye, Tobolsk, Tomsk. It should be said that in fact two cities in the country top the list in terms of the number of mentions of monuments: monuments in Moscow were named 174 times, and monuments in St. Petersburg - 170 times. In third place is Copenhagen with a single monument to the Little Mermaid - 138 times, in fourth place is Voronezh - 80 times.

During the survey, the participants of the action also named their region of residence. A comparison of the region of residence of the survey participant with the hero to whom they would like to erect a monument (and we were talking specifically about a monument for their place of residence), as well as with those existing monuments that they like, showed that respondents from less than half of the regions named real or desired monuments , where the hero, the author of the work or the location of the action were associated with the place of residence of the participant.

In modern Russia, a tradition has formed of erecting street sculptures of literary heroes, and small-scale architecture is developing. Literary heroes can and do become local cultural symbols.

The social demand for this kind of symbols is quite large. Literary monuments create comfortable conditions for citizens to spend time, are aimed at an emotional response, and form the unity of local self-awareness.

A series of events develops around them, that is, they are included in traditional commemorative or everyday practices, they become accustomed to the urban environment.

The appearance of objects of decorative urban sculpture, monuments to literary heroes, monuments dedicated to books and reading can contribute not only to the aesthetic education of the population, but also to the formation of a personal perception of their small homeland and new traditions.

Sculptures, especially street sculptures that are close to people, play and entertain townspeople, form unofficial practices for handling such an object and a personal attitude towards it.

Filling public spaces with such symbols undoubtedly carries a positive emotional load and contributes to the humanization of the public environment.

Listened to Uzhankov’s lecture about “ The captain's daughter” and comparing the story with “Eugene Onegin”, and the appearance of a positive hero arose, at first vaguely, as Russian writers deduced him.

It is known that Pushkin Grinev is the only truly positive and morally impeccable hero, and at the same time developed in detail. But who is he? – Average abilities, quite limited person, “simple”, close to the people, although a nobleman. Next to him is his uncle Savelich, just as simple, honest, loving, selfless.
Who else does Pushkin have? In Onegin - first of all... Nature! On it, like on four pillars, the entire cosmism of the novel rests. But Nature is essentially God. Yes, He is flawless (!) Who else? Yes, only Tatyana's nanny. Partly Tatyana herself. Partly! But she is by no means mediocre.
In Belkin's stories, the positive hero is exclusively Belkin himself. Again, an insignificant, narrow-minded, quiet, simple and honest person, but he is developed lightly by the author. Stationmaster Samson Vyrin? Yes, a superbly portrayed type of person, simple and moral to the point of stupidity, incapable of assessing the real thoughts and actions of people in real world, and not in the illusory world of morality drilled into him, caretaker Samson Vyrin. By the way, (oh Pushkin’s hidden irony!) when this Samson is deprived of his strength - support in unshakable moral rules, he immediately dies. Because Samson himself is nothing without his moral crutches. Because Samson Vyrin’s support is not in the Living God, but in stupidly accepted rules, albeit with a kind heart.

Lermontov. Of the real heroes, there is only one Maxim Maksimovich, a kind of kind and highly moral mediocrity with an eternal cast-iron teapot.

Gogol. Ostap from Taras Bulba, characterized by his immobile narrow-mindedness and highly moral oakness. Akaki Akakievich from “The Overcoat”? Of course, but only it is completely simple and limited to the point of tragicomism. Well, also the old-world landowners - Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub and his wife Pulcheria Ivanovna, amoebically positive and touching to the point of ridiculousness, which takes them beyond the brink of positivity itself into the realm of Russian denseness. And again - Nature! All-encompassing, all-knowing, all-loving, all-forgiving, that is, God.

Turgenev. Lemme from " Noble nest”, a sentimental German, a mediocre musician, kind, loving and even keen in love, who took root in Russia like a cat takes root in a house. Arkady from Fathers and Sons,” a completely ordinary person in his natural kindness. Nature comes first for Turgenev. She is God, literally and figuratively. Insarov from “On the Eve”? Noble? - Yes. An extraordinary personality? - Yes. But this revolutionary still has plenty to do. The author kills him so as not to think about his future bloody revolutionary exploits (which are well known to us Russians from our further experience!) Elena, although she is secondary, her personality is induced by her love for Insarov.

Dostoevsky. His stubborn, almost obsessive desire to write a truly positive person gave us Prince Myshkin - an idiot. Here, comments are unnecessary, and Myshkin’s often-pedaled allusion to Christ is only possible with a reference to the Gospel texts, where those around him consider Jesus a madman. In other words: Jesus was known as a madman, and Myshkin was one. The heroes of “Poor People” (Makar Alekseevich Devushkin, Varvara Alekseevna Dobroselova) are loving, but limited, low-flying. Of course, Alyosha from The Brothers Karamazov, designed carefully and again with a reference to Christ. And again Katerina Ivanovna angrily calls him a “little holy fool”! Is he wise? No, not on his own, but through Elder Zosima and, ultimately, through Christ. Razumikhin from Crime and Punishment, a desperately limited noble man, the reader cannot even sympathize with him much. Although he may sympathize with the villain (?) Svidrigailov.

Tolstoy. Karl Ivanovich from "Childhood". Captain Tushin and Platon Karataev from War and Peace. Still the same gray, imperceptible, almost unconscious (“the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing”!) kindness. Nikolai Rostov from “War and Peace” is a fundamental mediocrity, who even rose to the point of realizing himself as such, but still remained so. Maria Bolkonskaya, the wife of Nikolai Rostov, is perhaps the only deep positive heroine! Old Prince Bolkonsky is depicted brightly, but schematically. Levin from Anna Karenina. Ivan Ilyich's servant Gerasim from the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." And Nature, Nature, Nature, in which God acts, acts directly, free from the resistance of the evil, sin-corrupted will of people.

In the future, truly goodies our literature did not know. In Chekhov - perhaps the author himself (not the real Anton Pavlovich!) and Nature. Maybe the wife of Misha Platonov? She pronounces a brilliant Christian monologue, but alas, her narrow-mindedness and even stupidity are obvious. So, it is not she who pronounces this monologue, but Christ through her lips... Gorky in general and fundamentally has no positive heroes. This is especially clearly manifested in the great books of Klim Samgin.

Let's summarize our research.
Pushkin: Grinev, Savelich, Tatyana’s nanny, Tatiana, Belkin, Samson Vyrin.
Lermontov: Maxim Maksimovich.
Gogol: Ostap, Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub and his wife Pulcheria Ivanovna.
Turgenev: Lemm, Arkady, Insarov, Elena.
Dostoevsky: Makar Devushkin and Varya Dobroselova, Prince Myshkin, Alyosha Karamazov, Razumikhin.
Tolstoy: Karl Ivanovich, Captain Tushin, Platon Karataev, Nikolai Rostov, Maria Bolkonskaya, Levin, servant of Ivan Ilyich - Gerasim.
For everyone: Nature – Christ – God.

So?
Outstanding individuals are highlighted in bold. There are only three of them. Of these, Insarov is a potential fighter against God. Everyone else is mediocrity, but the Lord speaks through them. This is an unintentional, but natural, sincere, most likely unconscious position of Russian literature: “Where it’s simple, there are a hundred angels!” Is this good or bad? Neither one nor the other. This is us.

I continue the series “Literary Heroes” that I once started...

Heroes of Russian literature

Almost every literary character has its own prototype - a real person. Sometimes it is the author himself (Ostrovsky and Pavka Korchagin, Bulgakov and the Master), sometimes - historical figure, sometimes - an acquaintance or relative of the author.
This story is about the prototypes of Chatsky and Taras Bulba, Ostap Bender, Timur and other heroes of the books...

1.Chatsky "Woe from Wit"

The main character of Griboyedov's comedy - Chatsky- most often associated with a name Chaadaeva(in the first version of the comedy, Griboyedov wrote “Chadsky”), although the image of Chatsky is in many ways a social type of the era, a “hero of the time.”
Petr Yakovlevich Chaadaev(1796-1856) - participant Patriotic War 1812, was on a trip abroad. In 1814 he joined Masonic lodge, and in 1821 he agreed to join a secret society.

From 1823 to 1826, Chaadaev traveled around Europe, comprehending the latest philosophical teachings. After returning to Russia in 1828-1830, he wrote and published a historical and philosophical treatise: “Philosophical Letters.” The views, ideas, and judgments of the thirty-six-year-old philosopher turned out to be so unacceptable for Nicholas Russia that the author of “Philosophical Letters” suffered an unprecedented punishment: by the highest decree he was declared crazy. It so happened that literary character did not repeat the fate of his prototype, but predicted it...

2.Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is written so organically and vividly that the reader cannot leave the feeling of his reality.
But there was a man whose fate was similar to the fate of Gogol’s hero. And this man also had the surname Gogol!
Ostap Gogol born at the beginning of the 17th century. On the eve of 1648, he was the captain of the “panzer” Cossacks in the Polish army stationed in Uman under the command of S. Kalinovsky. With the outbreak of the uprising, Gogol, along with his heavy cavalry, went over to the side of the Cossacks.

In October 1657, Hetman Vygovsky with the general foreman, of which Ostap Gogol was a member, concluded the Korsun Treaty of Ukraine with Sweden.

In the summer of 1660, Ostap's regiment took part in the Chudnivsky campaign, after which the Slobodishchensky Treaty was signed. Gogol took the side of autonomy within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he was made a gentry.
In 1664, an uprising broke out against the Poles and the hetman in Right Bank Ukraine Teteri. Gogol initially supported the rebels. However, he again went over to the enemy's side. The reason for this was his sons, whom Hetman Potocki held hostage in Lvov. When Doroshenko became hetman, Gogol came under his mace and helped him a lot. When he fought with the Turks near Ochakov, Doroshenko at the Rada proposed recognizing the supremacy of the Turkish Sultan, and it was accepted.
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At the end of 1671, Crown Hetman Sobieski took Mogilev, Gogol's residence. One of Ostap’s sons died during the defense of the fortress. The colonel himself fled to Moldova and from there sent Sobieski a letter indicating his desire to submit.
As a reward for this, Ostap received the village of Vilkhovets. The certificate of the estate's salary served the grandfather of the writer Nikolai Gogol as evidence of his nobility.
Colonel Gogol became Hetman of Right Bank Ukraine on behalf of King John III Sobieski. He died in 1679 at his residence in Dymer and was buried in the Kiev-Mezhigorsky Monastery near Kyiv.
Analogy with the story is obvious: both heroes are Zaporozhye colonels, both had sons, one of whom died at the hands of the Poles, the other went over to the side of the enemy. Thus, a distant ancestor of the writer and was the prototype of Taras Bulba.

3.Plyushkin
Oryol landowner Spiridon Matsnev he was extremely stingy, walked around in a greasy robe and dirty clothes, so that few could recognize him as a rich gentleman.
The landowner had 8,000 peasant souls, but he starved not only them, but also himself.

N.V. Gogol brought this stingy landowner to “ Dead souls"in the image of Plyushkin. “If Chichikov had met him, so dressed up, somewhere at the church door, he would probably have given him a copper penny”...
“This landowner had more than a thousand souls, and anyone else would try to find so much bread in grain, flour and simply in storage, whose storerooms, barns and drying rooms were cluttered with so many linens, cloth, dressed and rawhide sheepskins...” .
The image of Plyushkin became a household name.

4. Silvio
“Shot” A.S. Pushkin

Silvio's prototype is Ivan Petrovich Liprandi.
Pushkin's friend, the prototype of Silvio in "The Shot".
Author of the best memoirs about Pushkin's southern exile.
The son of a Russified Spanish grandee. Participant in the Napoleonic wars since 1807 (from the age of 17). Colleague and friend of the Decembrist Raevsky, member of the Union of Welfare. Arrested in the Decembrist case in January 1826, he was in a cell with Griboedov.

“...His personality was of undoubted interest due to his talents, fate and original way of life. He was gloomy and gloomy, but he loved to gather officers at his place and entertain them widely. The sources of his income were shrouded in mystery to everyone. A book reader and a book lover, he was famous for his brawling, and a rare duel took place without his participation."
Pushkin "Shot"

At the same time, Liprandi turned out to be an employee of military intelligence and the secret police.
Since 1813, the head of the secret political police under Vorontsov’s army in France. He communicated closely with the famous Vidocq. Together with the French gendarmerie, he participated in the disclosure of the anti-government “Pin Society”. Since 1820, the chief military intelligence officer at the headquarters of Russian troops in Bessarabia. At the same time, he became the main theorist and practitioner of military and political espionage.
Since 1828 - head of the Higher Secret Foreign Police. Since 1820 - directly subordinate to Benckendorf. Organizer of provocation in the Butashevich-Petrashevsky circle. Organizer of Ogarev's arrest in 1850. Author of a project to establish a spy school at universities...

5.Andrey Bolkonsky

Prototypes Andrey Bolkonsky there were several. His tragic death was “copied” by Leo Tolstoy from the biography of a real prince Dmitry Golitsyn.
Prince Dmitry Golitsyn was registered for service in the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Justice. Soon Emperor Alexander I granted him the rank of chamberlain cadet, and then actual chamberlain, which was equivalent to the rank of general.

In 1805, Prince Golitsyn entered military service and, together with the army, fought the campaigns of 1805-1807.
In 1812, he submitted a report with a request to enlist in the army, became an Akhtyrsky hussar; Denis Davydov also served in the same regiment. Golitsin took part in border battles as part of the 2nd Russian army of General Bagration, fought at the Shevardinsky redoubt, and then found himself on the left flank of the Russian formations on the Borodino field.
In one of the skirmishes, Major Golitsyn was seriously wounded by a grenade fragment, he was carried from the battlefield. After the operation in the field hospital, it was decided to take the wounded man further east.
"Bolkonsky House" in Vladimir.


They made a stop in Vladimir, Major Golitsyn was placed in one of the merchant houses on a steep hill on Klyazma. But, almost a month after the Battle of Borodino, Dmitry Golitsyn died in Vladimir...
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Soviet literature

6. Assol
The gentle dreamer Assol had more than one prototype.
First prototype - Maria Sergeevna Alonkina, secretary of the House of Arts, almost everyone living and visiting this House was in love with her.
One day, while climbing the stairs to his office, Green saw a short, dark-skinned girl talking with Korney Chukovsky.
There was something unearthly in her appearance: flying gait, radiant look, ringing happy laugh. It seemed to him that she looked like Assol from the story “Scarlet Sails,” which he was working on at that time.
The image of 17-year-old Masha Alonkina occupied Green's imagination and was reflected in the extravaganza story.


“I don’t know how many years will pass, but in Kaperna one fairy tale will bloom, memorable for a long time. You will be big, Assol. One morning, in the distance of the sea, a scarlet sail will sparkle under the sun. The shining bulk of the scarlet sails of the white ship will move, cutting through the waves, straight towards you..."

And in 1921 Green met with Nina Nikolaevna Mironova, who worked for the Petrograd Echo newspaper. He, gloomy and lonely, was at ease with her, he was amused by her coquetry, he admired her love of life. Soon they got married.

The door is closed, the lamp is lit.
She will come to me in the evening
There are no more aimless, dull days -
I sit and think about her...

On this day she will give me her hand,
I trust quietly and completely.
A terrible world is raging around,
Come, beautiful, dear friend.

Come, I've been waiting for you for a long time.
It was so sad and dark
But the winter spring has come,
Light knock...my wife came.

Green dedicated the extravaganza “Scarlet Sails” and the novel “The Shining World” to her, his “winter spring.”
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7. Ostap Bender and the Children of Lieutenant Schmidt

The person who became the prototype of Ostap Bender is known.
This - Osip (Ostap) Veniaminovich Shor(1899 -1979). Shor was born in Odessa, was an employee of the UGRO, a football player, a traveler... Was a friend E. Bagritsky, Y. Olesha, Ilf and Petrov. His brother was the futurist poet Nathan Fioletov.

The appearance, character and speech of Ostap Bender are taken from Osip Shor.
Almost all the famous “Bendery” phrases - “The ice has broken, gentlemen of the jury!”, “I will command the parade!”, “My dad was a Turkish subject...” and many others - were gleaned by the authors from Shor’s vocabulary.
In 1917, Shor entered the first year of the Petrograd Technological Institute, and in 1919 he left for his homeland. He got home almost two years, with many adventures, which I talked about the authors of "The Twelve Chairs".
The stories they told about how he, unable to draw, got a job as an artist on a propaganda ship, or about how he gave a simultaneous game in some remote town, introducing himself as an international grandmaster, were reflected in “12 Chairs” practically unchanged.
By the way, the famous leader of the Odessa bandits, Teddy Bear, which UGRO employee Shor fought, became the prototype Benny Krika, from " Odessa stories" by I. Babel.

And here is the episode that gave rise to the creation of the image "children of Lieutenant Schmidt."
In August 1925, a man with an oriental appearance, decently dressed, wearing American glasses, appeared at the Gomel Provincial Executive Committee and introduced himself Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Uzbek SSR Fayzula Khojaev. He told the chairman of the provincial executive committee, Egorov, that he was traveling from Crimea to Moscow, but his money and documents were stolen on the train. Instead of a passport, he presented a certificate that he was really Khodzhaev, signed by the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Crimean Republic, Ibragimov.
He was received warmly, given money, and began to be taken to theaters and banquets. But one of the police chiefs decided to compare the Uzbek’s personality with the portraits of the chairmen of the Central Election Commission, which he found in an old magazine. Thus, the false Khojaev was exposed, who turned out to be a native of Kokand, traveling from Tbilisi, where he was serving his sentence...
In the same way, posing as a high-ranking official, the former prisoner had fun in Yalta, Simferopol, Novorossiysk, Kharkov, Poltava, Minsk...
It was a fun time - the time of the NEP and such desperate people, adventurers as Shor and the false Khojaev.
Later I will write separately about Bender...
………

8.Timur
TIMUR is the hero of the film script and A. Gaidar’s story “Timur and His Team.” One of the most famous and popular heroes of Soviet children's literature of the 30s - 40s.
Under the influence of the story by A.P. Gaidar “Timur and his team” in the USSR arose among pioneers and schoolchildren in the early years. 1940s "Timurov movement". Timurovites provided assistance to military families, the elderly...
It is believed that the “prototype” of Timurov’s team for A. Gaidar was a group of scouts that operated back in the 10s in a dacha suburb of St. Petersburg.“Timurovites” and “scouts” really have a lot in common (especially in the ideology and practice of children’s “knightly” care for the people around them, the idea of ​​doing good deeds “in secret”).
The story Gaidar told turned out to be surprisingly consonant with the mood of a whole generation of guys: the fight for justice, an underground headquarters, a specific alarm system, the ability to quickly gather “in a chain,” etc.

It is interesting that in the early edition the story was called "Duncan and his team" or “Duncan to the rescue” - the hero of the story was - Vovka Duncan. The influence of the work is obvious Jules Verne: yacht "Duncan""At the first alarm signal I went to the aid of Captain Grant.

In the spring of 1940, while working on a film based on an unfinished story, the name "Duncan" was rejected. The Cinematography Committee expressed bewilderment: “A good Soviet boy. A pioneer. He came up with such a useful game and suddenly - “Duncan”. We consulted with our comrades here - you need to change your name.”
And then Gaidar gave the hero the name of his own son, whom he called “little commander” in life. According to another version - Timur- the name of the neighbor boy. Here's a girl Zhenya received the name from Gaidar’s adopted daughter from his second marriage.
The image of Timur embodies the ideal type of a teenage leader with his desire for noble deeds, secrets, and pure ideals.
Concept "Timurovets" firmly entered into everyday life. Until the end of the 80s, Timurovites were children who provide selfless help to those in need.
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9. Captain Vrungel
From the story Andrey Nekrasov "The Adventures of Captain Vrungel"".
A book about the incredible sea adventures of the resourceful and resilient captain Vrungel, his senior mate Lom and sailor Fuchs.

Christopher Bonifatievich Vrungel- the main character and narrator on whose behalf the story is told. An experienced old sailor, with a solid and prudent character, not lacking in ingenuity.
The first part of the surname uses the word "liar". Vrungel, whose name has become a household name, is the naval equivalent of Baron Munchausen, telling tall tales about his sailing adventures.
According to Nekrasov himself, the prototype of Vrungel was his acquaintance with the surname Vronsky, lover of telling maritime fables with his own participation. His last name was so suitable for the main character that the book was originally supposed to be called " The Adventures of Captain Vronsky", however, for fear of offending a friend, the author chose a different surname for the main character.
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