My children are caroling in heaven.
This news then raised people all over the world to prayer. From Kyiv to Jerusalem, from Greece to Canada, an astonished “Lord, have mercy!” rushed to the sky. Two little girls, daughters young priest, died in a fire on Christmas Eve, and his house burned to the ground.
“Praise Christ!” - with these words the heart of Father Vasily responded to grief. “I cannot hold back my father’s tears for my children, but I know that they, under the protection of the Mother of God, sing carols for the Newborn God-Infant in heaven. And the awareness of this heals a huge wound in my heart, turning sorrow into joy...” A day after the tragedy, the priest published these lines on his website, which became a real anthem of life for all of us. Archpriest Vasily Romanyuk tells the readers of “The Youth” where he found the strength to endure such a loss, how he explains what happened to himself and with what feeling he continues to live.
From the official message: “On January 4, 2014 at 15:02, the 101 service received a call about a fire in the village of Shpanov, Rivne region. When rescuers arrived, the wooden residential building was completely engulfed in fire. At 15:40 the fire was localized and then extinguished. Two dead children of the owner of the house were found in one of the rooms: girls born in 2006 and 2009. Two more children were able to escape..."
I remember that day very well... My mother and I literally jumped out for half an hour and went to get some cake.
The fact is that our children fast with us. We don’t eat vegetable oil during the week, only on weekends; if a fish, then on the Annunciation and Palm Sunday, on Lazarus Saturday - caviar. And all our posts are so strict. And when you fast, in the end you look forward to the holiday not only with your soul, but also with your body. Anyone who has not fasted will not understand this...
So it is here. The Nativity Fast was ending, and we were slowly preparing for the holiday: we bought sausages, and Mother baked some meat delicacies. We also ordered a cake. The woman who baked it for us called and asked to pick it up. We almost never left the children alone, but here we decided to go quickly while our eldest, Ulyanka, looked after the girls.
As soon as we left and arrived at the parking lot, she called and said that a fire had jumped out of the stove. But I checked before leaving: everything had already burned out, only ashes and one oak log remained, which I deliberately pushed further into the depths...
While we were flying home, it felt as if life had stopped and time had stood still. We were racing at such a speed that I don’t know how we didn’t crash - I jumped through intersections when they turned red, drove into oncoming traffic, and it still seemed like I was going slowly. When suddenly they saw a huge black column of smoke in front of them...
My mother and I cried, prayed, and hoped that the eldest girl brought everyone out. We arrived - Ulyanka is in tears: “Sofia and Veronichka are in the house...”. The eldest, who was twelve at that time, brought out the youngest girl, two-year-old Ustinka. She says that our other two daughters also followed her at first, but then they got scared and ran to another room to hide in the closet. And as soon as she jumped out, the fire became a wall and didn’t let anyone in there.
I asked the firefighters to pour water on me so that I could enter, but it didn’t work. They knocked out a window where the daughters could hide, but the flames were so strong that they made it impossible to get inside.
By the way, “miracles” also happened to firefighters. It took a very long time to get there, all the taps were closed, and the water flowed out along the way. We went to get water to the pond - the car got stuck on dry frozen ground...
And my mother and I no longer had any tears to cry. We walked around and prayed, and asked, and believed that the Lord would miraculously protect our children and keep them alive. But the house continued to burn, and it became clear that nothing could be done. Then I began to ask: “Lord, let ME suffer for my children - so that they don’t feel pain, so that instead of them I feel everything...”. The doctors offered to give me an injection with a sedative, but I did not agree - I wanted to be fully conscious in order to fully experience everything that my children experienced. And, you know, I was either hot or cold. The body was burning with fire: while I was looking for at least a sip of water to drink, at that time frost was already creeping across my skin. All this long time, while the house was burning, I had the feeling that I myself was on fire there.
I believed and had no doubt at all that the Lord and the Mother of God would accept my children. That the Holy Great Martyr Barbara, St. Anastasia the Pattern Maker covered their daughters with their prayers and helped them endure - I felt an unshakable hope for this. But when the firefighters gave up and said that they could not do anything: the fire was so strong that the molten metal flowed like water, and they had to wait for it to burn out - despair and fear set in.
Our house stood next to the church where I serve - in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara. I turned around and slowly walked into the church grounds. After walking about thirty meters, he stopped. There is a fire behind me, to the left is our temple, to the right is the stadium, the road... I raised my head, looked into the sky and suddenly felt hatred enveloping me outside. This feeling was not inside, but it seemed to come from all sides - such inhuman hatred, such hatred does not exist among people.
And as if old friend comes up from the left and gently says: “Well, what are you going to do now?” I am silent, looking at the sky. And then this thought: “You had four daughters, and now you don’t have two. There were two beautiful girls with eyes as blue as the sky. And so they died. What will you do?". I was confused, and this hatred turned to me again: “Two girls are beautiful, like stars in the sky. They are no longer there. But what after death? Nothing, darkness...” I feel overwhelmed by fear, but I don’t understand what to do, I remain silent and only hear: “Your heart is already half dead. But you still have two daughters left, which means the other half of your heart is still alive. So what will you do? Will you continue to love God and serve people?” After these words, I understood what was happening: the enemy was tempting me.
All my thoughts then rushed to the sky and began to ask out loud: “Lord, do not leave my children!” After all, demons have no power over pure souls, and we believe that if a baptized baby dies, the Lord takes him straight to heaven. Likewise, the devil was not able to take my children, but I realized that he could frighten them. I began to pray to the Lord to protect my children and not allow the enemy to cause them any harm.
People look at me talking out loud to myself, they probably thought that the priest had gone crazy with grief... But I feel that I am not worthy to ask the Lord, because I am a very sinner, and then I begin to pray Mother of God: “Most Holy Theotokos, we love You very much, we always pray to You, and my children love You, they never leave You in supplication and praise, do not leave them either!”
But I understand that I am not worthy to ask the Mother of God, I begin to call on all the saints: “Take care of my children so that the enemy cannot cause them any harm, protect them with your prayer!” And I know, I feel that I don’t even dare to ask the saints, then I turn to the departed: “My dead ones, whom I buried, buried - I led more than three hundred of you into eternal life, I pray for everyone at every liturgy. Don’t leave me, don’t leave my children either!”
Apparently, the enemy was trying to sow in my mind the idea that after death there is nothing - darkness, emptiness. He tempted me to start grumbling and reproaching the Lord. However, the Lord enlightened me, I began to pray, and this cloud of hatred around me burst like a bubble. But the devil could tempt both my mother and my eldest daughter, so I immediately ran to them. The two of them sat on a bench, crying. He came up, hugged them and said: “Girls, just don’t complain. No matter how the enemy tempts you, ask the Lord for forgiveness for our sins, pray that He will preserve the souls of Sophia and Veronica. Praise the Lord!
From that moment on, the fire lost strength and began to fade. Just when water was brought in, the rescuers were able to extinguish the fire. Then we began to clear up the fire...
“No one can take away your joy...”
My mother and I had such pain and suffering that we cannot express it. But we accepted everything with faith, did not grumble, just prayed.
The next morning I had to serve the liturgy. It was Sunday, January 5th. I began to prepare and prayed virtually all night. Our neighbors took us in... In the morning I came - the temple was full of people. He stood before the throne, served very hard, cried throughout the service. Fellow priests arrived and everyone supported us very much. My friend, Father Peter, gave me his cassock and cross - after all, absolutely everything was burned.
After the service, they took the girls from the morgue, bought coffins, and brought them to the temple. We served a memorial service and began to read the Psalter. My children were in church all day. A lot of people came: almost all the priests came to support, our locals, all denominations. I only asked that they not bring artificial flowers: “The Lord lives, and my children are alive with the Lord...”. And people brought only fresh flowers.
At night, one priest, my friend, says: “Lie down, maybe you’ll fall asleep.” I lay down on the floor right in the altar, but could not sleep, I got up and went on to serve the litia between kathismas. Mother and I needed to prepare for Communion, but neither she nor I had the strength to pray.
Then I went out onto the sole and knelt in front of the icon of the Mother of God in the iconostasis. I look in front of me and see the Royal Doors. And suddenly a terrible darkness appears before my eyes. This probably happens to a person because of his sins - nothing on earth can frighten as much as this darkness. And as soon as fear began to overcome me, I suddenly felt that I was moving away from the darkness, rising mentally upward. It wasn’t scary, on the contrary, it felt like someone close to me. Probably my Guardian Angel.
I see the sky, the red sun, and above all this is a flower arch. In the distance, a light flickers and suddenly begins to approach me, grows, becomes like a candle flame. I looked: “Yes, this is the Mother of God!” In a fiery radiance, as on the Pochaevskaya icon, She is depicted, stands the beautiful Holy Mother of God and holds my girls by the hands: right hand- Sofia, with the left - Veronica. They both smiled at me and seemed to be jumping up and down near the Mother of God, so joyful, so beautiful! I look at them, and it feels so easy and good...
And they turned their backs to me and went back to the arch decorated with flowers. The Mother of God again became like a light, and such a bright light poured from the arch that it illuminated everything around...
I believe that it was the Lord who allowed my girls to say goodbye to me, and showed that the enemy had no power over my children, did not frighten them, because the Mother of God Herself led them through, and the Lord accepted them into His Heavenly Abodes.
...After this I felt such a surge of energy that my strength was completely renewed. He entered the altar, kissed the throne, began to pray and praise God. When he came out, he crossed himself and told about everything he had just seen. And I was not the only one who accepted this grace - and my mother felt heavenly joy.
The two of us stood near the children, prayed, and read all the canons for Communion in one breath. And then I went into the altar and wrote Christmas message our Rivne youth. Thoughts came to mind on their own, these were not my words - the Lord gave them. The fact that the flesh of my children is now going into the ground, because it was taken from the ground, and the spirit is sent to the Newborn, and they will sing to the Lord already in Heaven. But we learned new carols for Christmas - a whole program!
...When the priests, my brothers, went to the funeral, they did not know how to console us. But I had such joy in my soul that I consoled everyone myself. Although, when the burial was performed, I could not hold back my tears, I cried a lot, but the joy that the children were with the Lord did not leave me for a minute.
It so happened that my children have two graves. They were buried in the cemetery outside the village. And then... In the house where they were found, there remained the ashes of burnt arms and legs. I realized that it was not good to leave it like that. Therefore, we collected everything and buried it on the territory of our temple. I always wanted to erect some kind of monument on the hill near the church - in honor of the Mother of God or the Lord's feast day. But it turned out that here now my daughters are in the ground, and above them is a monument...
***
We loved life very much, the whole family constantly went into the forest for a walk, to bake meat or fish kebab, to play, to run with the children, to lie in the grass. Now our family is divided, but the task of those who remain is to come to the Lord, to live in such a way as to have a crown - the Kingdom of God.
I remember there was a moment when I prayed at the throne: “Lord, don’t leave me here, take me to my girls! I will protect them, they won’t be afraid with me.” Suddenly my heart caught fire, beat quickly, and I heard the answer: “Those two are with the Lord in paradise, and all the saints are with them. And who will you leave these to?” And I realized that this was God’s will, and I accepted everything as it was.
ILLUSTRATION. Engraving by N. Utkin based on the portrait of V. Borovikovsky “Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park”
“THE CAPTAIN’S DAUGHTER” - “WHY NOT TELL THE TRUTH?”
And the distance of a free romance
Me through a magic crystal
I couldn't discern it clearly yet.
A.S. Pushkin. Eugene Onegin. Ch. 8:Art. L
THE PATH TO FORM. " Captain's daughter"(1836) A.S. Pushkin still makes one argue: is it a very small novel or a big story? Is this work written in the spirit of a historical novel? The form of European historical novel that we know today was created by Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), whose novels were translated into more than ten languages with enviable speed. What was the secret of such phenomenal success? Instead of a great or demonic personality (similar to Onegin’s favorite novel, “Melmoth the Wanderer” of 1820, Maturin), an unknown, inexperienced young man in life is placed at the center of the story. Through his eyes, the author freely assessed events and people outside the accepted cliches and criticized the imperfection of laws. The hero's ordinariness allowed the reader to experience interesting adventures with him.
“Walter Scott is food for the soul!” (A.S. Pushkin - L.S. Pushkin, November 1828), - and Pushkin borrowed part of the plot from Scott’s “Rob Roy” (contrary to the law, the human relations of a highlander robber and a nobleman) and “Edinburgh Dungeon”: the heroine goes to London, to ask the Queen for pardon for her sister, who was sentenced to death. Slandered and forced to flee to Scotland, the hero of Rob Roy, Francis, unwittingly witnesses the beginning of the Jacobite uprising of 1715 against the royal house of Hanover in favor of the overthrown Stuarts. The hero sees the severe oppression of the Scots by the English government and the retaliatory cruelty of the highlanders. Both sides consider their work to be serving the truth. There are mutual calls from the British and Scots to defend national honor: but what is honor then and who is right?!
Francis, who does not want to thoughtlessly shed blood on someone else’s orders, has to urgently rethink the standard concepts: honor and truth are when obligations and oaths are not fulfilled blindly - not at the expense of humanity. And then the hero in trouble is suddenly helped by the formidable Scottish robber Rob Roy, who owes nothing to him, only because he “likes young freedom-loving ardor, who knows no other defender than a naked blade.” “This hand is guilty of shed Christian blood. But I destroyed the enemy, not the guest; at a free crossroads, but in a dark forest, not at home, sitting behind the stove; with a flail and a butt, and not with a woman’s slander,” - one could replace the stream of eloquence of the Scottish robber with the words of Pushkin’s comrade-in-arms Pugachev.
A robber and a young man of noble birth are two in no way similar in origin, upbringing or morality, but based on internal concepts of human honor, they feel a spiritual kinship. Deeply touched by the sad fate of the “proud, strong in spirit... person” Rob Roy Francis would like, but cannot help him make peace with the law. After all, for this it is necessary not only to reconcile England with Scotland, but also to change human nature.
Pushkin's only novel was allegedly written according to this ready-made scheme of the father of the historical novel, Scott. With an increased degree of pathos, Pushkin transferred the scene of sympathy for the robber directly into “The Captain’s Daughter”: “I cannot explain what I felt when parting with this terrible man, a monster, a villain for everyone except me. WHY NOT TELL THE TRUTH? At that moment, strong sympathy attracted me to him. I ardently wanted to snatch him from among the villains whom he led, and save his head...” One could continue further in the spirit of plot coincidences with a famous contemporary, but the lot of an imitator is not for a genius. Pushkin’s only novel was written as if on top of the copybook of Scott’s novel, in a uniquely original handwriting.
* * * *
And we don’t read our books...
But where are they? Let's get them!
...Our poets translate,
But there is no prose...
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A.S. Pushkin. From the draft stanzas to Onegin
Walter Scott drew on a rich national literary tradition. In the young - 300 younger than European - Russian literature, its own novel tradition has not yet developed: “Our hitherto proud language is not accustomed to postal prose,” - it was necessary to show Russian prose both a path recognizable in Europe and an original one. And Pushkin creates a novel - a parable, the heroes of which seem to be carried out by a wave of folk songs and proverbs. The character is deliberately left undeveloped for the reader to fill in.
“Take care of your honor from a young age” (proverb); “Old people, my father” (Nedorosl) - and all other epigraphs from folk songs and proverbs suggest not linear, but generic time and the generic experience of ancestors. So if Pugachev immediately represents the element of the people, then after meeting with an unknown “peasant” - a counselor in a snowstorm for less than 17 years, the undergrowth Petrusha also turns into a kind of mature personification of noble honor in in the best sense. The hero is both a person and a mirror, where the past is reflected along with the present. And Petrusha is no longer an undergrowth, but Pyotr Grinev is forced into earthly - stereotyped class! – combine the concept of honor with the highest truth. Doesn't the name "Peter" confirm this?
When carefully reading into the text, the hero's pedigree goes back - no more, no less! - to the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The name of the hero “Peter” is also symbolic: Jesus called the fisherman Simon “Peter”, which means “rock”: “I tell you: you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it...” (Matt. 16:18). Also, the “building” of the “Captain’s Daughter” is based on Peter Grinev: Peter Andreevich (Apostle Andrew the First-Called, Peter’s brother). And Grinev’s father, on the contrary, is Andrei Petrovich. The chain of continuity stretches into the past beyond history - into the space of truth. This is the basis of family noble honor, highly valued by Pushkin himself.
Here is Grinev - the father at the end of the novel learns that “the empress, out of respect for the merits and advanced years of her father, decided to pardon her criminal son and, sparing him from a shameful execution, only ordered him to be exiled to the remote region of Siberia”: “Righteous God, how am I lived! The Empress spares him from execution! Does this make it any easier for me? It is not execution that is terrible: my ancestor died on the execution site, defending what he considered sacred in his conscience... But for a nobleman to betray his oath, to unite with robbers... Shame and disgrace to our family!..”
FROM HERE YOUNG GRINEV PERSONALIZES:
1. Continuity of Christian conscience and honor from the entire Russian nobility;
2. Through Scott, continuity with the whole European galaxy of nobles literary heroes. After this, the hero can undergo any character transformations.
3. On the road in a wagon, during a blizzard personifying the uncertainty of the path of all of Russia, in Petrusha’s prophetic dream Pugachev is called his planted father (the named father at the wedding): aren’t the Russian people and nobles of the same blood - of the same family?!
Paired plot role: Pugachev and Grinev are like two mirrors of each other: if one disappears, the image of the second will also fade. Grinev without Pugachev is just a very young man lost in a snowstorm. Pugachev without Grinev is simply the historical leader of the rebels, the most successful of the many impostors to the Russian throne named after Peter III.
SO, Pugachev - Grinev - a pair of mirror images. Represented by folk proverbs, songs, fairy tales and some kind of naively childish faith in the justice of what he is doing as the restoration of justice, Pugachev is the same generic and poetic personification of the people as Grinev is of noble honor. In a dream, mother asks Petrusha: ““This is your imprisoned father; kiss his hand, and may he bless you.” I did not agree,” - the path of unity will apparently still be long.
4. The apostolic name “Peter” refers to the Savior’s New Testament call for mercy and throwing off masks “be like children...” A noble ignoramus in “vague feelings” accidentally behaves like a sage. The circle is closed: historical time extended to the New Testament and flowed back into the novel.
Whether the hero personifying the entire clan is wise by experience or not, by the power of the experience accumulated by the clan, he is doomed to bright actions in circumstances when the everyday way of life and the very existence of the clan fluctuates. And what the hero should do or what he shouldn’t do depends on the individual. Gender is an Old Testament concept. This is not enough to indicate the future path: some kind of indicator of the further path is needed. Besides, a noble hero definitely needs a heroine. Why avoid this winning novel tradition?
Any novel
Take it and find it right
Her (sweet heroine) portrait...
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A.S. Pushkin. Onegin. Chapter 2: XXIII
THE PHENOMENON OF THE HEROINE. The heroine - half of the hero's soul - is the captain's daughter Marya Ivanovna. In the correct speech of an educated noblewoman of Russia, Marya Ivanovna would be “the captain’s daughter.” In popular parlance, she is the “captain’s daughter” - initially Grinev is closer to the people. However, the literary pedigree of this heroine also has European novel roots! Actively intervening in the plot and fearlessly jumping in a man's suit in the thick of the uprising, Francis's beloved Diana Vernon (like the goddess Diana) in Russia during Pugachev's time is unthinkable. But another heroine of Scott influenced the image of the object of Grinev’s love. Let's compare! Masha is “a girl of about eighteen, chubby, ruddy, with light brown hair combed smoothly behind her ears.” Does appearance predict possible behavior here? God knows.
Now the heroine of “The Edinburgh Dungeon” (1818) is the daughter of a Scottish peasant, Ginny Deans: “Ginny’s appearance was nothing special... She had... blond hair and a round, good-natured face... The only truly charming thing about her was her serene expression. meekness is a consequence of a clear conscience, kindness... and consciousness of duty.” In principle, the actions of the bearer of such a portrait are predictable.
To ward off a truly innocent but frivolous sister
the death sentence for Ginny's infanticide only needs to be lied a little at trial. The kindly judge agrees in advance with this, under oath, but in the name of philanthropy, a reasonable lie. Ginny loves her younger sister, but does not even think of actions outside the truth of the Gospel: before God, is it really possible to “turn a lie into truth”? Such external salvation will be spiritual destruction. And without lying in court, honest Ginny goes on foot to London to ask the Queen of England to pardon the convicted woman. That through the eyes of a simple-minded girl and supposedly without any criticism allows the author to depict cruel and cruelly executed laws that embitter people, with the highest truth of which there are hardly comparable laws.
Hesitating, the English queen wonders how in the distant province of her country, outside the royal court, in the villages, they deal with women who have violated morality? “They are put on the shameful chair of repentance,” Ginny replies. The point of the situation is that, by the will of fate, the lady-in-waiting, the mistress of the queen’s husband, has to listen to the story of the village simpleton, and Her Majesty cannot get rid of her for political reasons. Having enjoyed the humiliation of her blushing rival, the queen pays - it would even be rude for Her Majesty not to pay for such pleasure with a pardon. And the crafty author does not forget to add that the meeting with the queen later seemed to Ginny as if in a dream - in “vague feelings” from which one cannot demand accuracy.
“How to sleep” - this technique helps without violating character historical figure, “attribute” to her an action necessary for the plot. Did George I's wife, Queen Caroline, actually do this? God knows. Could do it: looks plausible. When introducing the powerful of this world into an artistic narrative, you should definitely take care of believability! Oh, by profession, judge Sir Walter Scott knew perfectly well both human psychology, the springs that move the royal court, and the methods of criticism. What about the highest truth? So it’s for her that the novel was written! But this triumph of truth, based on the play of human passions, as a scheme for his own story, ultimately did not suit Pushkin.
Compared to Scott's extensive novels, Pushkin's short novel, assembled from shock scenes and phrases, is like the outline of an epic, where there is a wide scope historical events replaced by the intensity of the relationship between a nobleman and a peasant - and a robber, like an impostor like Grishka Otrepiev. While maintaining the outline of the novel, the author takes a half-hearted step towards a poem or parable. The result is an extremely compressed action, where everything that happens is symbolic and all the characters mirror each other’s actions.
Generic concepts equal to those of the Old Testament are faced with new situations that do not fit into the old framework: tribal honor in the new time needs a new fulcrum - it needs a timely “guide.” And the caring reader would also like to get out of the snowstorm safely together with Grinev.
* * * * *
There is a Book in which every word is interpreted, explained, preached to all ends of the earth, applied to all kinds of circumstances of life and events of the world; from which it is impossible to repeat a single expression that we do not know by heart... This book is called the Gospel - and such is its ever-new charm that if we, satiated with the world or depressed by despondency, If we accidentally open it, we are no longer able to resist its sweet infatuation and are immersed in spirit in its divine eloquence.
______________________________________________________
A.S. Pushkin. About human responsibilities. Essay by Silvio Pellico, 1836
WHEN, armed with a pencil, you emphasize page by page all the contrasting oppositions “truth - not truth”, “mercy, truth - not truth”, “man - wolf, villain, bloodsucker”, the text of “The Captain's Daughter” will be covered with pencil lace. The reader, both verbally and rhythmically at an accelerated pace, is as if instilled with a certain timeless - eternal scheme of further events.
Let's return once again to the beginning of the novel. “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 blizzard!’” – the blizzard is the personification of both rebellion and the position of power in Russia that caused it. Confusion of minds and confusion of moral standards.
Here, lost in a snowstorm, Grinev vaguely sees “a wolf or a man.” "Hey, a kind person! - the coachman shouted to him. “Tell me, do you know where the road is?” - they called him kind and gave him wine to drink; so that he wouldn’t freeze, they gave him a sheepskin coat from the master’s shoulder, and he would repay him with kindness. During the capture of the Belogorsk fortress, a man who was a leader in a blizzard, already in the image of the supposed sovereign Peter III under the gallows, pardons Grinev: “Kiss the hand, kiss the hand!” they said around me. But I would prefer the most brutal execution to such vile humiliation” (the honor of the family!).
And once again, out of a snowstorm, the counselor rescues the nobleman in front of the crowd that is about to be massacred: “His nobility, know, was stupefied with joy...” A man understands a man: you can order an enemy to be hanged, a man cannot take a man’s life! With complete sincerity beyond social masks, especially fateful conversations between two mirror heroes take place without witnesses: “eye to eye” in a room or in a caravan on the road.
Grinev refuses, in violation of the royal oath, to serve Pugachev “faithfully and truly”: “My head is in your power: if you let me go, thank you; if you execute, God will be your judge; and I told you the truth.” My sincerity amazed Pugachev. “So be it,” he said... “Execute like that, execute like that, have mercy like that.” But this is in private. In public, the new sovereign is forced to justify his mercy: “Go to Orenburg this very hour and announce from me to the governor and all the generals to expect me to come to you in a week. Advise them to meet me with childlike love and obedience; otherwise they will not be able to avoid cruel execution. Happy journey, your honor!
While with government troops in Orenburg, besieged by rebels, Grinev receives a letter from Masha with the opportunity of a desperate request for help. Headlong and violating the regulations, Grinev gallops to the Belogorsk fortress. But he was captured by the Pugachevites and brought to their chieftain. The next meeting for Grinev seems to be a sign of fate: “Having once been pardoned by him (Pugachev), I hoped not only for his mercy, but even for help.” - “And you’re right, by God you’re right! - said the impostor.” Pugachev himself, in response to the sincere advice of the nobleman he had benefited from asking for forgiveness - mercy from the empress “with wild inspiration”, tells Grinev a fairy tale about a raven and an eagle: “than to eat carrion for three hundred years, it is better to get drunk with living blood, and then what God will give!” And Pugachev frees Masha from Shvabrin, with a truly royal gesture: “Come out, red maiden; I give you freedom. I am the sovereign."
Grinev thanks from the heart: “I don’t know what to call you, and I don’t want to know... But God sees that with my life I would be glad to pay you for what you did for me. Just don’t demand what is contrary to my honor and Christian conscience. You are my benefactor. Finish as you began: let me go with the poor orphan, where God will show us the way. And we, no matter where you are and no matter what happens to you, every day we will pray to God for the salvation of your sinful soul...” - the man asks the man. According to the New Testament, man helps man.
AGAIN: “I don’t know what to call you, and I don’t want to know...” All social masks have been discarded: nobleman, peasant, impostor, sovereign Pyotr Fedorovich... A man stands in front of a man. A man speaks to a man. Having “flyed” to this level of truth, the novel cannot end any other way: like the “Edinburgh Dungeon”, pardon is not applicable here - it is not suitable. This scene from Pushkin will echo throughout Russian literature: In Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” the cruel French general Davout, looking into the eyes not of the abstract arsonist, but specifically of Pierre Bezukhov, does not shoot the latter. Pontius Pilate will talk “about something unnecessary at the trial” - about the truth with Yeshua... But let’s return to the plot of “The Captain’s Daughter”
It must be said that during military operations, an officer’s voluntary stay in an enemy camp was at all times considered treason. However, much could be attributed to the confusion of the civil war! So, from the point of view of the formal law, the really guilty Grinev was convicted not for this guilt, but according to Shvabrin’s false denunciation that he was Pugachev’s Spy...
Grinev intends to justify himself: “Whatever the accusations that weigh on me, I hope to dispel them with a sincere explanation of the truth”; “I wanted to continue... But suddenly I felt an insurmountable disgust”; “If I name her (Masha), the commission will demand her to answer; and the idea of entangling her name among the vile reports of villains and bringing her herself into a confrontation with them - this terrible thought struck me so much...” - textually at a bet with which villains? Shvabrin or the judges?.. Where does all of Pushkin’s verbal lace lead the reader?
In comparison with the truth required by the author of the novel, the “truth” of Grinev, who remained simple-minded, should be called simply the truth. Since New Testament times, the highest truth more often does not coincide than coincides with the laws. It is not the truth that is usually sought in a worldly court, but villains or enemies of the people. It turns out that in a new novel - a parable, a novel that should show the way for Russian literature before such judges, the bearer of truth should not justify himself over trifles, even if he can.
It would be a different matter if, under the lawyer Pushkin, Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, Walter Scott were sitting at the judge's table... But Grinev's judges are ordinary worldly, and even very biased judges. And in order to maintain the required reverence for the truth, the author seals the hero’s mouth: he “suddenly felt an insurmountable disgust.” By the time of the trial of the hero, Pugachev had already been captured. The silent, convicted Grinev was put in a fortress. Action without a hero is on the verge of collapse - the hero urgently needs to be replaced. And here the Russian Ginny Deans comes to the forefront - until now not particularly noticeable Masha Mironova (both names are in first place in terms of frequency of use).
THE PHENOMENON OF THE HEROINE. “Masha is the empty place of every first love, Ekaterina is the empty place of every author’s non-love...” (M. Tsvetaeva. Pushkin and Pugachev) - no, Marina Tsvetaeva is wrong! Masha refused the lucrative, unlovable groom Shvabrin and refused to marry the sweetheart without the consent of the groom's father. The groundwork is not so poor in nature. Shvabrin certifies Grineva Masha as “a complete fool”: slander out of frustration for refusal! Chapter V “Love” is preceded by an epigraph: “Don’t go, girl, young to get married; You ask, girl, father, mother, Father, mother, family-tribe (Folk song.).” “Without their blessing there will be no... happiness,” - Masha’s subsequent refusal to get married without the blessing of her beloved parents - clan! - affirms her also as a carrier of the ancestral folk wisdom, until the time of passive.
Ancestral, you can call it last blessing the heroine’s father: “Well, Masha, be happy. Pray to God: he will not leave you. If there is a kind person, God give you love and advice. Live as Vasilisa Yegorovna and I lived.” Masha will begin to act actively as soon as the author needs a replacement for the hero who has left the stage.
Well-wishers helped Ginny Deans meet the Queen of England. Having gone to ask for a groom at the court in St. Petersburg, Masha meets the Empress in Tsarskoe Selo, supposedly by chance: fate?! However, the knowledgeable wife of the stationmaster “initiated her into all the mysteries of court life. She told me what time the empress usually woke up, ate coffee, took a walk... Marya Ivanovna listened to her with attention”; “The next day, early in the morning, Marya Ivanovna... quietly went into the garden...” - is this how a simpleton or a very smart girl hopes to meet the empress in the garden? Whatever the reader wants, but the author certainly needs a meeting between the heroine and the empress alone, outside the palace setting.
* * * *
If to reign means to know the weaknesses of the human soul and to use it, in this regard Catherine deserves the surprise of posterity. Her splendor dazzled, her friendliness attracted, her generosity attracted. The very voluptuousness of this cunning woman asserted her dominion.
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A. S. Pushkin. Notes on Russian history of the 18th century.
CATHERINE II - IN HISTORY AND HER ROLE IN THE NOVEL. Pushkin assessed Catherine II extremely negatively both as a person and as a ruler. And it is precisely this “negative”, power-hungry, but allowing herself outbursts of feelings, ruler who could wonderfully “play” the role of the queen from “Edinburgh Dungeon”. But in the novel - a parable for shock realization - the completion of the theme of the highest truth, a completely different role was required: a worthy anointed one or the anointed one of God. During Pugachev's time, the Russian throne was occupied by Catherine II. The circle is closed: if the autocrat did not meet the required role, in the novel it was necessary to “bring” her to the role.
The potential arbiter of truth, the empress in the novel had to be spared and freed from both the author's antipathy and any external criticism. Pushkin draws in detail the appearance of the Empress and the setting of her meeting with Masha from the well-known engraving by N. Utkin of 1827 based on the portrait of V. Borovikovsky “Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park”:
“The morning was beautiful... The wide lake shone motionless. The awakened swans swam importantly from under the bushes that shaded the shore. Marya Ivanovna walked near a beautiful meadow, where a monument had just been erected in honor of the recent victories of Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev. Suddenly a white dog of the English breed barked and ran towards her. Marya Ivanovna got scared and stopped. At that very moment a pleasant female voice was heard: “Don’t be afraid, she won’t bite.” And Marya Ivanovna saw a lady sitting on a bench opposite the monument” - everything is accurate. The socially wide recognition of the image by all readers, including the Empress herself, which the author needed, has been achieved!
Catherine II was very concerned about leaving her magnificent looks for posterity, embodying power and law. Borovikovsky painted an intimate portrait: just some middle-aged, not poor lady on a walk. If the portrait had not been signed, it would have been another “unknown” Borovikovsky brush. Catherine was not too pleased with this portrait. Thus, by using this portrait in the text, the empress is, as it were, presented with her own image of a “simply person” that remained alien to her.
As for the “summary” for the role of “just a person,” so to speak, the prompter of truth, in the case of the empress only a young girl was suitable for this role: man to man. Woman with woman. So, out of necessity for the intended action, having accidentally (!) met the Empress, but not knowing her by sight, Masha asks for help from the lady, “blue eyes and a light smile had an inexplicable charm,” “everything about the unknown lady involuntarily attracted the heart”:
- You are an orphan: probably you complain about injustice and insult?
- No way, sir. I came to ask for mercy, not justice.
...At first she (the lady) read (forgiveness) with an attentive and supportive look; but suddenly her face changed, and Marya Ivanovna... was frightened by the stern expression of that face, which had been so pleasant and calm for a minute.
-Are you asking for Grinev? - said the lady with a cold look. - The Empress cannot forgive him. He stuck to the impostor not out of ignorance and gullibility, but as an immoral and harmful scoundrel.
- Oh, that’s not true! - Marya Ivanovna screamed.
- How untrue! - the lady objected, flushing all over.
- It’s not true, by God it’s not true! ...For me alone, he was exposed to everything that befell him. And if he did not justify himself before the court, it was only because he did not want to confuse me...” - such words are usually not spoken to the empress. The Empress was not used to such words. And in surprise, Catherine “drops” the empress’s mask.
We are thinking: how can Masha, who has not seen Grinev, know his thoughts word for word?! They were put into the mouth of his wife by Grinev, a memoirist: “I did not witness everything that remains for me to notify the reader about; but I have heard stories about it so often that the slightest details are etched into my memory and that it seems to me as if I were there, invisibly present.” And yet the hand of the author of the novel is sufficiently visible: the same hero is the bearer of truth in two persons, male and female.
And again: “How untrue! - the lady objected, all flushed up,” - in combination with the further “by God”, the situation for the last and final time “flies” to the level of “not the truth - the truth before Heaven”, which is not subject to earthly justice, for which one must already be prepared, consciously or subconsciously reader (often repeated and involuntarily imprinted on the consciousness): “It’s not true, by God it’s not true! I know everything, I will tell you everything. He was exposed to everything for me alone... Here she (Masha) passionately told everything that my reader already knows...” - being a witness only to certain events, she could not tell “everything”!
After Masha is released from the hands of Shvabrin, Grinev sends the betrothed bride to her parents on the estate. He himself remains in the government detachment. Then Grinev was arrested and taken to the fortress: at this time Marya Ivanovna could hardly learn anything from the groom. Before that, did she know - was it reasonable for Grinev to talk about his sympathy for the robber to a girl whose parents the robber had brutally killed?! On the other hand, having learned about such illegal sympathy, wouldn’t the empress have considered behavior even more dangerous than treason for profit?! If Marya Ivanovna was not stupid, then even knowing about such sympathy for the robber, she would not have told the Empress about him!
* * * * *
“I’M GLAD THAT I COULD...FULFILL YOUR REQUEST...” – “COME OUT, RED GIRL; I GIVE YOU FREE..."
A REAL STORY OF MARYA IVANOVNA MIRONOVA. Without a masterly substitution of the author's text, what could Masha really tell, and how to tell it? Her only letter to Grinev: “God was pleased to suddenly deprive me of my father and mother: I have neither relatives nor patrons on earth. I come running to you, knowing that you always wished me well and that you are ready to help anyone. I pray to God that this letter somehow reaches you! .. Alexey Ivanovich is forcing me to marry him... And it would be easier for me to die than to become the wife of such a man... He treats me very cruelly... Father Pyotr Andreich! you are my only patron; intercede for me, poor thing..." - a retroactive version of a sentimental story in the spirit of " Poor Lisa"(1792) N. Karamzin!
Shvabrina was freed from Pugachev’s harassment “Marya Ivanovna told me (Grinev) everything that had happened to her since the capture of the fortress; described to me all the horror of her situation, all the trials to which the vile Shvabrin subjected her,” - not contradicting Scott’s scheme, but a more sentimental story about the love of a poor girl for a noble man and their liberation from the hands of a villain - such a story could be told by Masha Mironova. And any woman, including the empress, would listen with interest to such a pleasantly heart-tugging, almost novel-like story!
The sentimental story, which was popular with European readers, should have also appealed to the real empress, the enlightener, Catherine II. All that was required was to force her to listen to the story, which Masha achieved with her “true is not true.” It is unknown whether Catherine II realized the “truth before heaven” or the difference between worldly truth and above. Touched by the story, the queen could also “pay” for a pleasant time spent on a “beautiful morning” - for foreign readers of Pushkin’s novel the opportunity is left to understand.
Thus, for his own purposes, Pushkin “reversed” the scene of Jeannie Deans’s date with the Queen of England: he revealed the highest truth, and, it seems, left the original Scottian meaning of the scene in the subtext. As they say, the author paid tribute to the literary tradition. And having forced the monarch to carry out the required judgment and the truth, Pushkin did not give the truth itself into the monarch’s hands. Not by her own will, but by the power of this highest truth - by the power of the Gospel truth she administers judgment - this is the only way God’s anointed empress should act. What is being done is not pardon, or even mercy, but mercy and restoration and truth. This is emphasized after this brightly shocking scene by the break in the theatricality of the action. After a meeting in the garden with a pleasant lady, Masha is immediately demanded to the palace to the empress:
“The thought of seeing the Empress face to face frightened her (Masha) so much that she could hardly stand on her feet... (Is it possible after this to demand historical accuracy from her memories?!) The Empress addressed her affectionately, and Marya Ivanovna recognized her to the lady with whom she spoke so frankly a few minutes ago. (Removing the mask: a man helps a man) The Empress called her over and said with a smile: “I am glad that I could... fulfill your request. Your matter is over. I am convinced of the innocence of your fiancé.”
Let’s compare the empress with Pugachev in the role of also a pardoner: “Come out, red maiden; I give you freedom. I am the sovereign..."; “Have it your way!” ...To execute like this, to execute like this, to favor like this: this is my custom. Take your beauty; take her wherever you want, and God give you love and advice!” In poetry, in the colorful liveliness of Pugachev’s language, the empress and enlightener Catherine II clearly loses, but neither of them has the complete truth. If only education could be combined with artless inspiration and, moreover, forever combined with the gospel truth of mercy...
And here is the end of the live stage action: as if the lights on the stage go out and the curtain falls. We briefly learn the next few events, as if from the program of the play: “Having treated the poor orphan, the empress let her go... On the same day, Marya Ivanovna, not curious to look at St. Petersburg, went back to the village... Here the notes of Pyotr Andreevich Grinev stop. From family legends it is known that he was released from prison at the end of 1774, by personal order; that he was present at the execution of Pugachev (1775) who recognized him in the crowd and nodded his head to him, which a minute later, dead and bloody, was shown to the people...” - an end open and openly contradicting the engraving goodness of the empress.
* * * *
WHAT IS THE TRUTH? - Pushkin’s gospel epigraph to his poem “Hero” (1830):
The darkness of low truths is dearer to me
A deception that exalts us...
Leave your heart to the hero! What
Will he be without him? Tyrant...
Pushkin left his heart not only to Pugachev, but also to Catherine II: to her, however, in a truncated form: only in the image of a famous engraving and to the extent of the reader’s mercy! Remember, already under the gallows, it was strange for Grinev, who had been pardoned by Pugachev: “I could not help but marvel at the strange combination of circumstances: a children’s sheepskin coat, given to a tramp, saved me from the noose, and a drunkard, staggering around inns, besieged fortresses and shook the state!” - when according to Shakespeare’s words, something is rotten in the management of the state, then the gift of a hare’s sheepskin coat with “virtue” can outweigh the inhumanity of the laws.
Pugachev is a complex, dual figure: he reflects both a noble hero and, potentially, everyone on the throne against the mercy of erring rulers. Which of the two hypostases was executed? An escaped convict and an impostor who called himself sovereign was executed - a mirror of conspiracy and the murder of the crowned husband of Peter Fedorovich - Peter III, who received the throne of Catherine II: it was the name of the murdered man that Pugachev called himself. A truly Shakespearean ghost threatens the throne of the queen: for now, for a while, she has mastered it. But ghosts rise from their graves.
A chain welded together with blood: the murdered Peter Fedorovich - Catherine II - the executed Pugachev... Considering the naming of Pugachev in the novel with the same name, the chain can be lengthened: from the hand of Boris Godunov, the murdered Tsarevich Dimitri - under the name of Dimitri and the impostor Grigory Otrepyev, in turn also killed - after two more Impostors pretenders to the throne - killed at the hands of his wife Peter III– Catherine II – executed Pugachev...An eye for an eye; tooth for tooth: the most ancient bloody chain! Who will be killed next? - I want to ask.
So who, in a metaphorical sense, was executed: only Pugachev?! One potential tyrant was executed: a similar fate threatens a legitimate tyrant. One mirror is missing, and the other is empty. And a quick-witted, freedom-loving man and a bearer of noble honor will meet again someday: in the non-linear time of truth, everything is possible. To the fullest extent of his genius, Pushkin tried to “inspire” a more peaceful meeting.
The form created by Pushkin based on the real events of the novel - the parable - did not successfully contradict either the traditions of European literature, or history, or the truth before heaven. To create this form, the author of “The Captain’s Daughter” connects its text with the truth of mercy given to people by the New Testament. It is according to this “copybook” of truth applied to specific events that the story is written. To achieve - to comprehend the path indicated by Pushkin, Russian culture was given some time...
The true purpose and purpose of all fine arts is to influence human passions... The noble purpose of art is to serve the people. -- Walter Scott. Diary. 1926
________________________________
God forbid we see a Russian rebellion - senseless and merciless. -- From the chapter removed by the author from The Captain's Daughter
_________________________________________
DOG, HANDKERCHIEF AND MERCY. IN in the highest sense“The Captain's Daughter” is a poetic direction and instruction of the Russian autocracy on the path of truth - the true path of non-violence. And the successor of the Russian royal family and the first critic of Pushkin, Nicholas I, indirectly in the person of his grandmother and as the first censor of Pushkin, personally received a literary lesson in mercy.
Was fate playing a joke or chance? Or did contemporaries, in their memoirs, deliberately contrast the real situation with the scene of the meeting in the garden described by Pushkin? By the highest resolution 121 of the Decembrists, the death penalty by beheading was replaced by 20 years of hard labor: “For five people... sentenced to quartering (like Pugachev!), quartering was replaced by hanging. (S.G. Volkonsky. Memoirs. - written after returning from Siberia).
Friend of Pushkin, maid of honor A.O. Smirnova-Rosset (1809 - 1882), years after the events themselves, would write in her memoirs disguised as a diary: “On the day when the decree was pronounced over the accused (July 12) ... the Emperor bathed his terrier in a ditch and threw him a handkerchief. The valet came to tell him that Prince Lopukhin had arrived (he had brought an execution decree for signature)”; The Emperor, excited, quickly walked into the palace and the Hussar followed him; I pulled out a handkerchief...”
About the same thing, apparently, from the words of A.O. Rosset, entry in Pushkin’s Diary: “At noon the sovereign was in Tsarskoye Selo. He stood over the pond behind the Kagul monument (“in honor of the recent victories of Count... Rumyantsev” in the Battle of Kagul), and threw a scarf into the water, forcing his dog to carry it to the shore. At that moment a servant came running to say something in his ear. The king... ran to the palace. The dog, swimming ashore and not finding him, left the scarf and ran after him. The maid of honor raised her handkerchief in memory of the historical day" (March 6, 1834).
Did seventeen-year-old Rosset really witness the scene with the scarf? There were a lot of jokes about Nicholas I: they could have written another one. Or the young maid of honor could “involve” herself in an amusing story, thereby making herself interesting in front of interesting people: even in front of Pushkin... Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna confirms: her father had a poodle at that time. However, the reality of the “anecdote” is not so important: what is important is the public recognition of the image, which was also not quite the usual way of Nicholas I ascending to the throne.
Most likely, from this heard evil “anecdote” and Pushkin’s diary entry, a scene mirroring the “anecdote” was born in “The Captain’s Daughter” - a political allusion: Catherine II’s dog runs out to meet Masha... Readers - the author’s contemporaries - perfectly caught the mirror image of “humanity” - inhumanity":
“It was a beautiful morning...” - the beginning of Catherine II’s date with Masha. “On a wonderful July morning, one lady-in-waiting was walking through Tsarskoe Selo Park...” - how, after the death of Nicholas in 1855, would the Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky, who wrote memoirs, know what kind of morning it was in Tsarskoe Selo in mid-July 1826? Rosset doesn’t mention the weather. Didn’t he “learn” from “The Captain’s Daughter”?..
Let us continue to quote Volkonsky: “One maid of honor, walking through Tsarskoye Selo Park, stopped on the shore of a pond; on the other side, Emperor Nicholas was playing with his poodle: throwing his handkerchief into the water... - “At this time, an adjutant approached the sovereign and reported something... It was reported that that night the death sentence was carried out on five of Decembrists..." (S.G. Volkonsky) - "Don't be afraid, she won't bite" (KD).
But during the capture of the Belogorsk fortress, the self-proclaimed sovereign, Pugachev, carries out reprisals: “The commandant, exhausted from the wound... answered in a firm voice: “You are not my sovereign, you are a thief and an impostor...” Pugachev frowned gloomily and waved his white handkerchief... The old captain was dragged to the gallows” (Chapter VVII. Attack) - “Pugachev waved his handkerchief again, and the good lieutenant hung next to his old boss...”
“Don’t be afraid, she won’t bite”?.. Imagine how pleasant it was for the grandson of Catherine II, who did not pardon the Decembrists, to read in “The Captain’s Daughter” the instructions of the already old Grinev to imaginary descendants: “When I remember that this happened in my lifetime and that I have now lived before the meek reign of Emperor Alexander, I cannot help but marvel at the rapid successes of enlightenment and the spread of the rules of philanthropy. Young man! (Nicholas I was 42 years old in 1836) if my notes fall into your hands, remember that the best and most lasting changes are those that come from improving morals, without any violent upheavals” (Chapter VI. Pugachevism).
Whoever you are, oh my reader,
Friend, foe, I want to be with you
To part now as friends.
Sorry. Why would you follow me
I wasn't looking here...
God grant that in this book you...
Although I could find a grain.
We'll part ways for this, sorry!
________________________________
Pushkin. Eugene Onegin. Chapter 8: XLIX
For a talented author, a political analogy in a literary text appears like a foggy reflection: the analogy is both visible and not directly “one hundred percent” provable. As for genius, his analogies can mysteriously almost predict the future. Afterwards, Pushkin’s story only adds, through the text of “The Captain’s Daughter,” reflections in mirrors “truth is not truth.” Pugachev invited Grinev to serve him:
“So you don’t believe,” he (Pugachev) said, “that I was Tsar Pyotr Fedorovich? Well, good. Isn't there good luck for the daring? Didn’t Grishka Otrepiev reign in the old days? Think what you want about me, but don’t lag behind me. What do you care about other things? Whoever is a priest is a dad. Serve me with faith and truth, and I will make you a field marshal and a prince...” - “You’ll see! Will I still favor you when I get my state!” - in the projection of our entire history, this much promising program makes us shudder! Serving any sovereign “faithfully and truthfully” also presupposes the destruction of the sovereign’s enemies. “Whoever is a priest is a father...” - the hero puts one meaning, the author - another. Is it necessary to be a king in order to tyrannize?
From the events of the novel there is one step to the reader. From the reader to the political scene it is still half a step. In the political arena, who measured the distance from a person to a tyrant?! Brilliant things never get old! Pushkin warned in advance: live like man with man! This depends only on you: on your desire for truth.
Reviews
well, an excellent analysis of "The Captain's Daughter" .... however, I do not agree about the Decembrists ... the Decembrists provoked a rebellion more terrible than the Pugachevism .... after all, they wanted to leave the entire peasantry without communal land by turning them into day laborers ... .in 1861, when serfdom was abolished, from the peasants they took from 20 to 40% of the communal land, depending on fertility and location in the provinces.... it all ended with the revolutions of 1905-07 and 1917 and the destruction of the nobility as a class in the Civil War ....
Sorry for answering late: better late than never. Did I defend the Decembrists? Pushkin also did not agree with their ideas. One of my old university professors used to say: merciful fate allowed the Decembrists to die heroes, and if they had taken power, we would have cursed them as villains. And it’s true! Pestel planned the complete destruction of the Romanov family - right down to the babies. To completely stop the dynasty and deprive foreign relatives of the opportunity to interfere... But, you see, all the extremes of the Decembrists do not make Nicholas 1 merciful. His inner circle, who hated the D-v, said: for mercy, so that the Russians are not called barbarians. For the sake of Russia, one can pardon: a program for the future. Some time before the December uprising, the English king pardoned the person who attempted to assassinate him. Nicholas 1 did not listen - he did not pardon. This led, among other things, to the outwardly justified hatred of the Narodnaya Volya members - to their murder of Alexander 2. As a result, as you rightly write, all this led to the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. And the Decembrists with their ideology are responsible for these revolutions, together with Nicholas 1, who out of fear created a police state that even the revolution could not destroy. He was a very smart man and talented in his own way - Nikolai Palkin. And what a hard worker! But... Tell me honestly, do you like Nicholas 1 as a historical figure?
Difficult question :-)))) ... before, after a school history course, I didn’t like it ... and I abused chopsticks in the army and lost the Crimean War and the reactionary was what to look for ... but then I found out with great amusement - in the army the service life for soldiers is reduced to 20 years, of which 15 years in the ranks and 5 years on indefinite leave with training for 1.2-2 months per regiment per year, the rest of the time the soldier lived as a civilian, in the guard this period was 13 years in the ranks and 7 years on indefinite leave... this really didn’t happen in the navy... it turned out that England and France in the Crimean War, having decisive technical superiority, achieved the minimum possible military success... and all because the Nikolaev army, where chopsticks were really abused in moral and psychological terms was very stable in battle... Nicholas greatly limited the ability to sell his servants to the nobles... under Nicholas they fought hard against corruption... in general, there were many disadvantages under him, but there were also advantages... by the way, Nikolai himself was educated was a military engineer... he undoubtedly was a patriot of Russia and even died when he was informed that near Evpatoria they could not throw the Angles, Franks and Turks into the sea... I don’t remember that any of the emperors, general secretaries and presidents died after the failures of their country... in general, in history it’s like a joke - the further into the forest, the more firewood :-)))))))
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Then Jesus entered the countries of Tire and Sidon. And so, a Canaanite woman, coming out of those places, shouted to Him: have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is cruelly raging. But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came up and asked Him: let her go, because she is screaming after us. He answered and said: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she, coming up, bowed to Him and said: Lord! help me. He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said: yes, Lord! but the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said to her: O woman! great is your faith; let it be done to you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at that hour.
Today the Lord comforts us with the maternal faith of a woman who belonged to the Canaanites - an unholy race expelled by God from the Promised Land to make room for the Jews - the chosen people.
The Canaanite woman relentlessly follows the Lord, and the disciples say: “Let her go, because she is crying out after us.” And the Lord says that He came to save the children of God - those who believe in the true God, and not those who worship idols, live in wickedness and do not want to repent. The apostles beg that He would have mercy on this woman and let her go, not because they have such love for her, but because, on the contrary, they want her to leave them as quickly as possible and not bother them. The Lord does not intercede for this woman, does not answer either their or her prayers. He wants them to better understand what's going on.
He leads this woman from one understanding to another, even greater one. Her faith grew as she followed Him. First, for her, He is the Son of David, and then the Lord. From a call for help to a great man, she reaches God Himself, without understanding how this happens. “Lord,” she says, “even the dogs eat the grains that fall from the table of their masters!” She is humbled, she is filled with humility to the end, she begins to see everything in its true light. This humility, the acceptance of her cross, like the humility of the prudent thief, who says: “I accept what is worthy according to my deeds,” makes her capable of accepting the gift of God: “O woman, great is your faith, may it be done to you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at that hour.”
Let us note that this woman does not say “have mercy on my daughter,” but “have mercy on me, Lord.” Her daughter is tormented by demons, and she begs the Lord to have mercy on her. This cry of the Canaanite woman should today become the prayer of all mothers whose children are cruelly possessed. Blinded by sin, they do not realize the horror of their condition, as their parents realize it for them.
It is natural for normal parents to experience their children's troubles as if they were their own. Oh, if the Lord would have mercy on all the dissolute children of Russia and all the parents overwhelmed by grief because of them! In this terrible trouble, what mercy of the Lord can comfort their hearts if it is not shown in relation to their children? This sometimes happens to children that unfortunate mothers, coming to church, cannot talk or pray about anything except about their children.
A woman comes up to receive communion, and when the priest says: “The servant of God is taking communion,” she says: “Tatiana,” and then, suddenly, as if coming to her senses, she corrects herself: “Oh, no, Irina.” And to the bewildered look of the priest he replies: “Forgive me, it’s my daughter Tatyana who can’t get out of my head.” Perhaps this Canaanite woman is now asking the Lord to forgive her for failing to raise her daughter and for missing her. Or maybe she realizes that because of her sin, which she will never part with, this evil has come to her daughter. That’s why she says: “Have mercy on me.”
See how need makes a person pray. "God help me! If You, Lord, do not help, no one in the world will help me.” She visited all the doctors, all the psychics and healers, and all in vain. My daughter is still freaking out. But there is, there is one Doctor of all diseases, mental and physical. Let Him not answer and seem not to notice it, even after His companions ask Him for it. She runs ahead, falls to her knees before Him and shouts: “Lord, help me!”
The Lord hears her prayer, but He wants her to see incomparably more in her misfortune and in herself. To find out how terrible eternal death is and how merciful the Lord is. The Lord tells her: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” And she answers: “Yes, Lord. But the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” We know that the Jews abhorred the pagans, calling them dogs, because they abandoned faith in the true God and served demons, magic and debauchery. But the Lord wants to show His apostles, before He sends them after His Resurrection to preach to all nations, how great the faith can be for those who seem to have lost all hope of salvation.
Let us also learn from her the persistence of prayer for our children. Fathers and mothers come to the temple crying and asking what prayers they should pray for their dying daughters and sons. Whatever it is, all prayers are about them. But not in a way that “maybe it will help.” Not reading akathists and canons - but all our grief, all our soul should pour out into them. We cannot, we must not, we cannot be refused by the Lord. So the saint prayed righteous John Kronstadt and Saint John of Shanghai. This is how all mothers should pray with the entire Holy Church. Even though we are in the very midst of troubles, we have been given hope from the Lord that does not despair.
Let the devil be allowed to pervert the meaning of everything, so that they want to turn us into Canaanites and clear the space of Russia for more worthy peoples - God is with us, strict and infinitely merciful. With us - with every dying son and daughter - the prayer of a mother who will reach from the bottom of the sea.
The Lord said to the Canaanite woman: “O woman! Great is your faith; let it be done to you as you wish.” This pagan who becomes a Christian reveals many amazing things in her prayer - wisdom, humility, meekness, patience. But all this is the fruit of her faith. Of all its virtues, Christ singles out faith most of all. For faith brings you closer to God than anything else. Great is her faith. Every person's faith is precious, but not everyone has it equally strong. The greatness of faith lies in the determination to follow Christ, to be filled with complete trust in Him, even if it seems that we do not receive what we ask for. The Light of Christ is revealed to us as we walk in His ways. We, too, sometimes shout: “Help!”, but the Lord does not answer us. But as disciples, we persist until Christ reminds us of His ministry. And the Lord does not reject weak faith, but He expects from us great faith. He heals the woman’s daughter: “Let it be done to you as you wish.” He cannot deny her anything; He gives her what she came to Him for. Overcoming all obstacles, all difficulties, people of great faith can gain everything through their prayer. When our will agrees with the will of Christ’s commandments, His will will be one with the will of our desires. We can, like the Canaanite woman, ask the Lord for anything, and He will give us everything. But it won't be the way we think. It will be the way He wants it. It will be infinitely better. Our joy will be a sharing of the joy of the One who gives. Who wants to give us not part, but all, because He is God. God is God and He leads us beyond everything. We must let Him lead us, open up to Him, and ultimately become wounded by those nails and that spear that He will accept for the salvation of all. So that by His stripes we may be healed and recognize Him as He is. As the One who conquers with love, because God is love.
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