It became a famous work. In terms of its scale, it ranks next to Evgeny Onegin. Getting acquainted with the poem, where the author uses apt figurative language, you become engrossed in the adventures of Chichikov. And now, having reached chapter 10, we are faced with such a technique as plug-in design. The author inserts a story about Captain Kopeikin into his work, thereby taking the reader’s attention away from the main plot. Why does the writer introduce a story about Captain Kopeikin in Dead Souls, what is the role of this story and what plot is described in Captain Kopeikin, which may well be a separate story? We will talk about this in, revealing the meaning of the story, as well as answering questions about who told about the captain and how the short story about Kopeikin is included in the plot of the poem.

The Tale of Captain Kopeikin summary

The story about the captain is introduced by the author unexpectedly for the reader. It is akin to a joke that one of the characters wanted to tell. She appears when officials are trying to unravel the mystery of Chichikov’s presence in their city. And it was the postmaster, inspired by what was happening, who shouted out that Chichikov was Captain Kopeikin. Then the author tells a story that introduces us to Kopeikin’s life.

If you stop at the story about Captain Kopeikin, then the essence of the plot will be as follows.

Kopeikin was a soldier who fought for his Motherland in the war against the French. There he loses his leg and arm, becoming disabled. And at the end of the war, the soldier returns home, to where he is no longer needed. Even his parents cannot accept him, since they themselves have nothing to eat. The soldier would be happy to earn money, but there is no way. So he goes to the sovereign so that he allocates funds for his maintenance. Further, the author describes how the soldier toiled in the general’s reception room, awaiting the king’s mercy. At first, it seemed to Kopeikin that a decision had been made in his favor, but when he visited the reception the next day, he realized that there would be no help. The general only advises going to the village and waiting for a decision there. That's how the soldier was brought to the village at government expense. Next we learn that a gang of robbers began to operate in the forests, and the ataman was none other than... Then we can only guess that it was Kopeikin who led the robbers. As we continued reading, we saw no sympathy from the officials, nor was there any indignation about the bureaucracy. They only doubted that Chichikov was the same Kopeikin.

The role of the Tale of Captain Kopeikin

Now I would like to dwell on the role of the story in the poem Dead Souls. As we see, the author, almost at the very end, makes an insert about the captain, when we have already become acquainted with their heroes, their rotten souls, the slavish position of the peasants, the harmful nature of officials, and have become acquainted with the acquirer Chichikov.

Captain Kopeikin - the hero of a short story about an officer, a hero Patriotic War 1812, who lost his leg and arm on it and became a robber due to lack of money. In versions of the “Tale,” K.K.’s flight to America was assumed, from where he sent a letter to Alexander I about the fate of the wounded and received a gracious rescript from the sovereign. The short story (in his “fairy-tale”, comically verbose style) is narrated in the 10th chapter of the poem by postmaster Ivan Andreich.

The reason for the story is simple. City officials, puzzled by rumors about Chichikov, a buyer of dead souls, are discussing who he might be. Suddenly, after everyone’s long bickering, the Postmaster exclaims with inspiration: “This, gentlemen, my sir, is none other than Captain Kopeikin!” - and offers to listen to a story about him, which, “in a way, is a whole poem.” Gogol's novel is also named as a poem; so the Postmaster unwittingly parodies the author of “Dead Souls” himself, and his “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” is the novel as a whole. But this is a special parody, funny and serious at the same time; it ties into a single literary knot all the topics discussed by officials - about murder, about a counterfeiter, about a runaway robber - and in many ways serves as the key to the entire text of Dead Souls.

It turns out that K.K. was wounded near Krasny or near Leipzig (i.e. in one of the key battles great war) and became disabled until the post-war orders of Alexander I on the fate of the wounded. Father cannot feed K.K.; he goes to seek royal favor in St. Petersburg, which, in the Postmaster’s description, acquires semi-fairy-tale features - “the fabulous Scheherazade”, “Semiramis”. In the description of the royal luxury of St. Petersburg, shown through the eyes of the hero who first saw it (“a noticeable bustle flies by, like some thin ether”), and especially in the description of the government building on Palace Embankment, the image of St. Petersburg and the Palace, as Vakula the Blacksmith sees them in story "The Night Before Christmas". But if there the hero had truly fabulous luck, then here a visit to the “minister or nobleman,” in whom the features of Count Arakcheev can easily be discerned, gives K.K. only false hope.

Having happily dined at the tavern, just like “in London” (vodka, cutlets with capers, poulard) and having spent almost all the money, K.K. again comes to the Palace for the promised help - to hear what from now on he will hear every day: wait . With one “blue” in his pocket, desperate, humiliated, as only a beggar in the midst of universal luxury can be humiliated, K.K. “an obsessive devil” breaks through to the Noble Minister and boldly demands to provide help. In response to this, “he, the servant of God, was seized, my sir, in a cart” - and with a courier he was sent out of the capital. Delivered to his distant province, K.K., according to the Postmaster, exclaimed: “I will find the means!” - and sank into “a kind of oblivion.” And two months later, a gang of robbers appeared in the Ryazan forests, whose chieftain was none other... - and here the narrator is reminded that Chichikov has both arms and legs in place. The postmaster slaps his hand on his forehead, calls himself a veal, unsuccessfully tries to wriggle out (in England the mechanics are so perfect that wooden legs can do it) - all in vain. The story about K.K. seems to disappear into the sand, without clarifying anything about the question of who Chichikov is.

But the image of K.K. only seems random, “lawless,” inserted, and the legend about him is in no way plot-motivated.
The theme of a poor nobleman, a cash-strapped captain, who “got it from God knows where”, appears already in the 6th chapter, where the greedy Plyushkin complains to Chichikov about his neighbor-captain, who likes to come and visit. “A relative says: “There’s probably nothing at home, so he’s staggering.” But even earlier, Chichikov himself, leaving Nozdryov, mentally “finds off” him, just as a rogue coachman gets trimmed by “some well-travelled, experienced captain.” Later, in Chapter 10, during his illness, Chichikov will grow a beard, like K.K., in Chapter 11, K.K.’s name seems to accidentally “come back” in the life instruction of Chichikov’s father: “save a Kopek.” As for the image of the “robber,” even in the 9th chapter, “just a pleasant lady” and “a lady pleasant in all respects” suggest in Chichikov someone “like Rinald Rinaldin,” the famous hero of X. Vulpius’s novel about robber.

The military rank of captain according to the table of ranks corresponded to the civilian rank of titular adviser, and this at the same time unites the unfortunate K.K. with other “humiliated and insulted” characters in Gogol’s socio-fantasy stories, titular advisers Poprishchin (“Notes of a Madman”) and Akakiy Akakievich Bashmachkin (“Overcoat”), and contrasts it with them. At least - "Bash-Machkin. For in the civil service this rank did not give nobility, and in the military nobility was ensured by the first chief officer rank. The fact of the matter is that, unlike its folklore prototype, the hero songs about “thief Kopeikin”, and from numerous disabled characters of Russian post-war prose and poetry, and from their common literary predecessor - the Soldier from S. Gesner’s idyll “The Wooden Leg” - K.K. nobleman, officer If he is a robber, then noble. This detail sharply enhances the tragedy of his story; it connects the image of K.K. with Pushkin’s ideas about the “Russian Pelham”, about the gentleman robber (“Dubrovsky”). common denominator all the many literary associations that surround the novel image of Chichikov.

In the story about K.K., as if in a trick, too diverse rumors about Chichikov converge; but new, even more incredible versions of what happened emanate from it. Officials are wondering whether Chichikov is Napoleon, deliberately released by the British from St. Helena Island to outrage Russia. (Again, the Postmaster, who served in the campaign of 1812 and “saw” the French emperor, assures his interlocutors that Napoleon’s height is “in no way taller than Chichikov” and his figure is no different from him.) A natural semantic progression follows from Chichikov-Napoleon to the theme of Chichikov-Antichrist; The officials stop there and, realizing that they lied, they send for Nozdryov.

And the more ridiculous their comparisons become, the more unthinkable their assumptions and “historical parallels” are, the more clearly the author’s key idea of ​​the 1st volume of “Dead Souls” is revealed. The Napoleonic era was the time of the last triumph of romantic, powerful, impressive evil; the new, “monetary”, “penny” evil of unrighteous acquisition, personified by the emphatically average, “nothing” man Chichikov, may ultimately turn out to be invisible to the crushing world, and therefore a particularly dangerous phenomenon of the Antichrist of the bourgeois era. And this will certainly happen if the moral revival of each person individually and humanity as a whole does not take place.

At a meeting where city officials are trying to guess who Chichikov really is, the postmaster hypothesizes that he is Captain Kopeikin and tells the story of this latter.

Captain Kopeikin took part in the campaign of 1812 and lost an arm and a leg in one of the battles with the French. Unable to find food with such a serious injury, he went to St. Petersburg to ask for the mercy of the sovereign. In the capital, Kopeikin was told that a high commission on such matters, headed by a certain general-in-chief, was meeting in a magnificent house on Palace Embankment.

Kopeikin appeared there on his wooden leg and, huddled in a corner, waited for the nobleman to come out among other petitioners, of whom there were many, like “beans on a plate.” The general soon came out and began to approach everyone, asking why who had come. Kopeikin said that while shedding blood for the fatherland, he was mutilated and now cannot provide for himself. The nobleman treated him favorably for the first time and ordered him to “see him one of these days.”

Illustrations for “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”

Three or four days later, the captain again came to the nobleman, believing that he would receive documents for his pension. However, the minister said that the issue cannot be resolved so quickly, because the sovereign is still abroad with his troops, and orders about the wounded will follow only after his return to Russia. Kopeikin left in terrible grief: he had completely run out of money.

Not knowing what to do next, the captain decided to go to the nobleman for the third time. The general, seeing him, again advised him to “arm yourself with patience” and await the arrival of the sovereign. Kopeikin began to say that due to extreme need he did not have the opportunity to wait. The nobleman walked away from him in annoyance, and the captain shouted: I will not leave this place until they give me a resolution. The general then stated that if it was too expensive for Kopeikin to live in the capital, he would send him away at public expense. The captain was put in a cart with a courier and taken to an unknown destination. Rumors about him stopped for a while, but less than two months passed before a gang of robbers appeared in Ryazan affairs, and its chieftain was no one else...

This is where the postmaster’s story in “Dead Souls” ends: the police chief pointed out to him that Chichikov, who has both arms and both legs intact, cannot possibly be Kopeikin. The postmaster slapped his hand on his forehead, publicly called himself a veal and admitted his mistake.

The short “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” is almost unrelated to the main plot of “Dead Souls” and even gives the impression of an unimportant foreign inclusion. However, it is known that Gogol gave it a very great value. He was very worried when the first version of “Captain Kopeikin” was not passed by the censors, and said: “The Tale” is “one of best places in the poem, and without it, there is a hole that I can’t fill with anything.”

Initially, The Tale of Kopeikin was longer. In its continuation, Gogol described how the captain and his gang robbed only government-owned carriages in the Ryazan forests, without touching private individuals, and how, after many robber exploits, he left for Paris, sending a letter from there to the Tsar with a request not to persecute his comrades. Literary scholars are still arguing why Gogol considered “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” to be very significant for “Dead Souls” as a whole. Perhaps she was directly related to the second and third parts of the poem, which the writer did not have time to complete.

The prototype of the minister who drove Kopeikin away was most likely the famous temporary worker

Working on the poem “Dead Souls,” N. Gogol planned to show all the dark sides of the life of Russian society, including arbitrariness and complete indifference of the authorities to destinies ordinary people. “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” plays a special role in the implementation of the author’s ideological plan.

In which chapter is the topic outlined above stated? It's safe to say that it permeates the entire first volume. The gallery of landowners and vivid images of provincial officials alternately pass before the eyes of the readers; tragic fates peasants, still alive and long dead. And now the purpose of Mr. Chichikov’s visit to the city N is no longer a secret to anyone; it is only unclear who he really is and why he dead souls. It is at this moment that a story about a former participant in the war with the French appears on the pages of the poem, more reminiscent of a parable about a valiant robber.

Chapter History

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” had a difficult creative fate. In the plot of “Dead Souls”, according to the author himself, she occupied a very important place and therefore could not be excluded from the work. Meanwhile, the censorship, at the first acquaintance with the text of the poem, considered the publication of the chapter unacceptable. As a result, Gogol had to adjust the content of the story about the captain twice, which emphasizes the significance of the story in the ideological content of the entire poem “Dead Souls.” According to documentary sources, the author was ready to somewhat soften the general tone of the story about Kopeikin, but not allow him to be excluded from the work.

We offer for your acquaintance the third version of the chapter, approved for publication by censorship - the original, by the way, became available to the reader only after 1917.

The history of the appearance of the chapter in “Dead Souls”: a summary

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” is a postmaster’s story, full of various phrases-embellishments, repetitions, sometimes even seeming unnecessary. This conveys the narrator’s attitude towards the whole story: for him it is nothing more than a funny incident that can become the basis for a story or novel. Why postmaster? Compared to other city officials, he was more knowledgeable - he read a lot - and therefore tried to turn the main mystery (who is Chichikov?) into some kind of entertainment. He suddenly decided that the buyer of dead souls and the main character of his story, a disabled person without an arm and a leg, could well be one and the same person. Be that as it may, this story, evoked in the narrator’s memory by the reflections of the officials of the city N about the personality of Chichikov, turned into almost an independent work, which once again emphasizes their callousness - no one sympathized with the captain.

Meet the main character

According to the postmaster, everything happened shortly after the end of the national war. Captain Kopeikin went through a lot in that company, and most importantly, he received serious injuries, as a result of which he lost his leg and right hand. Since no measures to help disabled people had yet been carried out, the former soldier found himself without a livelihood and began to think about what to do next. At first he went to his father, but he replied that he himself had a hard time and had no time for parasites. There was only one thing left to do - try your luck with the officials in St. Petersburg, ask for a well-deserved pension.

Special world

Having reached the capital, Captain Kopeikin was at first amazed at its splendor. It seemed as if pictures from Scheherazade’s fairy tales appeared before him - everything was so unusual and rich. I tried to rent an apartment, but it was too expensive. I had to be content with a ruble tavern, where they served cabbage soup with a piece of beef.

Having settled in, I began to find out where to go. They explained that the bosses were all in France, so they needed to go to the temporary commission. And they pointed to a house located on the embankment.

First trip to an official: summary

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” includes a description of “a peasant’s hut” (the definition of a postmaster). Huge glass and mirrors, marble and varnish, glitter so much that it’s scary to handle. This picture alone caused fear in a simple petitioner. The doorman on the porch was also terrifying: with cambric collars and the face of a count... The captain who entered the reception room hid in a corner, afraid of accidentally breaking some vase. Since the official had just woken up, he had to wait. About four hours later, he was finally informed that the boss would be coming out. By this time there were a lot of people in the reception area. The official began to walk around the visitors and stopped in front of Kopeikin. Their dialogue was short-lived. We'll give you a brief summary of it.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” is the story of a Russian soldier-defender. The hero immediately said that during the war he became disabled and now cannot work, and therefore asks for some kind of pension for himself. The official did not argue and asked to come back in a few days.

Holiday of the soul

This answer inspired the captain, who was convinced that his matter was already decided. Happy, he went into the tavern, where he ordered a glass of vodka, a cutlet, and then went to the theater, and upon returning to the tavern he even tried to hit an Englishwoman walking along the sidewalk, but the bone leg reminded him of his disability. As a result, in a few hours almost half of the money he had was spent. This is how Gogol ends the description of a happy day for the hero.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” continues with the story of the official’s second visit.

Disappointment

Two or three days later, the hero again went to the house on the embankment. He was sure that now he would be given a substantial amount of money - some thousandth pension. Therefore, he again began to tell how heroically he shed blood and received injuries. But the official’s answer was short and categorical: such a matter can only be resolved by the minister, and he is not there yet. And he gave us some money so that we could survive until any measures were taken. The disappointed hero went to his tavern. It seems that this is where the story of Captain Kopeikin should end.

Protest

However, the captain had already tasted the delights of metropolitan life, and therefore this outcome of the matter did not suit him at all. He walks sadly down the street. On the one hand - salmon, cutlet with truffles, cherries, watermelon, and on the other - the promised “tomorrow”. And he decides: he needs to go to the commission again and get his way. Thus, “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” receives a continuation.

The next day the hero stood in front of the same official and said that he needed to eat well, drink wine, and visit the theater. In response, he heard that he had been given money for food before the special resolution was issued, and if he wanted all sorts of excesses, then he needed to look for funds for himself. But the offended Kopeikin became so angry that he cursed all the officials on the commission. To quiet the noise, we had to apply strict measures to him: escort him to his place of residence. The captain just thought: “Thank you for the fact that you don’t have to pay for the run yourself.” Then he began to reason: “Since I have to look for funds for myself, then well, I’ll find it.”

The Tale of Captain Kopeikin ends with the hero being delivered to his place of residence, after which all rumors about him have sunk into oblivion. And a couple of months later, a band of robbers appeared in the forests in the Ryazan region, led by “none other than...”. At this point the postmaster's story is interrupted.

in the story

In “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” N. Gogol masterfully uses For example, the portrait of the doorman says a lot. He is compared to a generalissimo and at the same time a well-fed pug. Such a soulless person, looking down on those around him, certainly has no time for the problems of the captain and others like him.

Gogol describes in detail the house on the embankment and the reception room into which visitors found themselves. What did one door handle cost? When Kopeikin saw her, the idea occurred to him that he first needed to rub his hands with soap for two hours and only then take it up. And from the luxury and splendor there was such a coldness that it became clear to everyone: there was nothing to expect help here.

It is also noteworthy that the official is not named, and it is difficult to judge his position. And the captain only has a last name. Such a generalization significantly expands the boundaries of the narrative, turning special case to typical.

Features of the first version of “The Tale...”

As already noted, censorship allowed the publication of the third edition of the chapter. The significant difference between the different versions of the story was the ending. In the first version, Gogol focused on what happened to the hero after returning from St. Petersburg. Here is its summary.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” told how the main character began to take revenge. He gathered a whole group of offended soldiers and settled with them in the forests. The gang hunted down everyone whose activities were connected with the treasury. She also appeared in villages where a due date had been set for the payment of quitrents and, ordering the headman to hand over everything that had been demolished, she wrote out a receipt to the peasants that they had paid the taxes. It is quite clear that this option could not suit the authorities, and ultimately, in “The Tale...” there was only one mention of the robbers, who were led by “no one else...”.

The story about the captain ended with unexpected news. Kopeikin went to America, from where he sent letters to the emperor asking him not to touch the people he had involved in the gang. He also called for mercy to be shown to everyone who was wounded in the war. And the king actually decided not to prosecute the perpetrators.

The difference between the different versions of “The Tale...” also concerned the arrangement characters and the phrases they utter. But there have been no big changes here. In the official's final speech, words were rearranged, which, by and large, did not change the ideological meaning. What was more important was that the author somewhat changed the image of Captain Kopeikin. He portrayed the hero as a man who wanted to join the beautiful life of the capital, which was partly the cause of his troubles (meaning the demand for money for wine, delicious food, theaters).

The meaning of “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” is that N. Gogol draws the reader’s attention to the relationship between the government and the people dependent on its will. Main character, who did not receive help in the capital and was forced to look for ways to survive on his own, rebels against the oppression, cruelty and injustice reigning in feudal Russia. It is significant that the robbers robbed only those who were related to the treasury, and did not touch people passing through for their own needs. In this way they tried to get what was rightfully due to them as defenders of the Fatherland. The described situation leads to the idea that the progressive forces of the country, albeit still spontaneously, are already preparing to enter into the fight against the prevailing tyranny. Reminds me of this popular uprisings under the leadership of S. Razin and E. Pugachev, who showed the strength and power of the people.

What is “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” about? As we reflect on this issue, there is one more point to note. N. Gogol, who skillfully depicted a provincial town and its inhabitants in the story “Dead Souls,” in this chapter transfers the action to the capital and creates a contradictory image of St. Petersburg, in which the world of the noble and rich, reminiscent famous fairy tales Scheherazade is contrasted with the world of the humiliated and poor, barely making ends meet. This allowed the author to present the life of Rus' in all its fullness and diversity.