Retelling plan
1. Meeting travelers. Ivan Severyanych begins the story of his life.
2. Flyagin finds out his future.
3. He runs away from home and ends up as a nanny to the daughter of a master.
4. Ivan Severyanych finds himself at the auction of horses, and then in Ryn-Peski, captured by the Tatars.
5. Release from captivity and return to native city.
6. The art of handling horses helps the hero get a job with the prince.
7. Flyagin's acquaintance with Grushenka the gypsy.
8. The fleeting love of the prince for Grushenka. He wants to get rid of the gypsy.
9. Death of Grushenka.
10. The service of the hero in the army, in the address table, in the theater.
11. Life of Ivan Severyanych in the monastery.
12. The hero discovers in himself the gift of prophecy.
retelling
Chapter 1
On Lake Ladoga, on the way to the island of Valaam, several travelers meet on a ship. One of them, dressed in a novice cassock and looking like a "typical hero" - Mr. Flyagin Ivan Severyanych. He is gradually drawn into the conversation of passengers about suicides and, at the request of his companions, begins a story about his life: having God's gift to tame horses, he “died and could not die in any way” all his life.
Chapters 2, 3
Ivan Severyanych continues the story. He came from a kind of courtyard people of Count K. from the Oryol province. His "parent" coachman Severyan, Ivan's "parent" died after giving birth because he "was born with an unusually large head", for which he received the nickname Golovan. From his father and other coachmen, Flyagin "learned the secret of knowledge in the animal", from childhood he became addicted to horses. He soon got used to it so much that he began to "show postatory mischief: to pull out some oncoming peasant with a whip on his shirt." This mischief led to trouble: one day, returning from the city, he accidentally kills a monk who fell asleep on a wagon with a whip. The next night, the monk appears to him in a dream and reproaches him for taking his life without repentance. Then he reveals that Ivan is the son "promised to God." “But,” he says, “it’s a sign for you that you will die many times and you will never die until your real“ death ”comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and go to blacks.” Soon Ivan and his hosts go to Voronezh and on the way save them from death in a terrible abyss, and fall into mercy.
Upon returning to the estate after some time, Golovan breeds pigeons under the roof. Then he discovers that the owner's cat is carrying chicks, he catches her and cuts off the tip of her tail. As punishment for this, he is severely flogged, and then sent to the "English garden for the path to beat stones with a hammer." The last punishment “tormented” Golovan and he decides to commit suicide. From this fate he is saved by a gypsy, who cuts the rope prepared for death and persuades Ivan to run away with him, taking his horses with him.
Chapter 4
But, having sold the horses, they did not agree on the division of money and parted. Golovan gives the official his ruble and silver cross and receives a holiday form (certificate) that he is a free man, and goes around the world. Soon, trying to get a job, he gets to one gentleman, to whom he tells his story, and he begins to blackmail him: either he will tell the authorities everything, or Golovan goes to serve as a "nanny" to his little daughter. This gentleman, a Pole, convinces Ivan with the phrase: “After all, you are a Russian person? A Russian person can handle everything.” Golovan has to agree. He does not know anything about the mother of a girl, a baby, he does not know how to deal with children. He has to feed her goat's milk. Gradually, Ivan learns to take care of the baby, even to treat him. So he imperceptibly becomes attached to the girl. Once, when he was walking with her by the river, a woman approached them, who turned out to be the girl's mother. She begged Ivan Severyanych to give her the child, offered him money, but he was inexorable and even got into a fight with the lady's current husband, a lancer officer.
Chapter 5
Suddenly Golovan sees an angry owner approaching, he feels sorry for the woman, he gives the child to his mother and runs with them. In another city, an officer soon sends the passportless Golovan away, and he goes to the steppe, where he ends up at the Tatar auction of horses. Khan Dzhangar sells his horses, and the Tatars set prices and fight for horses: they sit opposite each other and whip each other with whips.
Chapter 6
When a new handsome horse is put up for sale, Golovan does not hold back and, speaking for one of the repairmen, traps the Tatar to death. “Tatarva - they’re nothing: well, he killed and killed - there were such conditions for that, because he could detect me, but his own, our Russians, even annoyingly don’t understand this, and got angry.” In other words, they wanted to hand him over to the police for murder, but he ran away from the gendarmes to Rynpeski itself. Here he gets to the Tatars, who, so that he does not run away, "bristle" his legs. Golovan serves as a Tatar doctor, moves with great difficulty and dreams of returning to his homeland.
Chapter 7
Golovan has been living with the Tatars for several years, he already has several wives and children “Natasha” and “Kolek”, whom he regrets, but admits that he could not love them, “he did not honor them for his children”, because they are “unbaptized” . He is more and more homesick for his homeland: “Ah, sir, how all this memorable life from childhood will go to be remembered, and will press on the soul that where you disappear, you are excommunicated from all this happiness and have not been in the spirit for so many years, and you live unmarried and die inveterate, and melancholy will seize you, and ... wait until night, crawl out slowly behind the headquarters, so that neither your wife, nor children, and no one from the filthy ones would see you, and you will begin to pray ... and you pray ... you pray so much that even the snow of the indus will melt under the knees, and where tears fell, you will see grass in the morning.
Chapter 8
When Ivan Severyanych was already completely desperate to get home, Russian missionaries came to the steppe "to set their faith." He asks them to pay a ransom for him, but they refuse, claiming that before God "everyone is equal and it's all the same." Some time later, one of them is killed, Golovan buries him according to the Orthodox custom. He explains to the listeners that "an Asian must be brought to faith with fear," because they "will never respect a humble God without a threat."
Chapter 9
Somehow, two people from Khiva came to the Tatars to buy horses in order to “make war”. Hoping to intimidate the Tatars, they demonstrate the power of their fiery god Talafy. But Golovan discovers a box of fireworks, introduces himself as Talafoy, frightens the Tatars, converts them to the Christian faith and, having found “caustic earth” in the boxes, heals his legs and runs away. In the steppe, Ivan Severyanych meets a Chuvash, but refuses to go with him, because he simultaneously honors both the Mordovian Keremeti and the Russian Nicholas the Wonderworker. Russians also come across on his way, they cross themselves and drink vodka, but drive away the passportless Ivan Severyanych. In Astrakhan, the wanderer ends up in prison, from where he is taken to his hometown. Father Ilya excommunicates him for three years from communion, but the count, who has become devout, releases him "for quitrent".
Chapter 10
Golovan is arranged for the horse part. He helps the peasants to choose good horses, he is famous as a sorcerer, and everyone demands to tell the "secret". One prince takes him to his post as koneser. Ivan Severyanych buys horses for the prince, but from time to time he has drunken "outputs", before which he gives the prince all the money for safekeeping.
Chapter 11
Once, when the prince sells a beautiful horse to Dido, Ivan Severyanych is very sad, “makes a way out”, but this time he keeps the money to himself. He prays in church and goes to a tavern, from where he is expelled when, having drunk, he begins to argue with a “most empty” person who claimed that he drinks because he “voluntarily took on weakness” so that it would be easier for others, and Christian feelings do not allow him to stop drinking. They are kicked out of the restaurant.
Chapter 12
A new acquaintance imposes "magnetism" on Ivan Severyanych in order to free him from "zealous drunkenness", and for this he gives him extra water. At night, when they are walking along the street, this man leads Ivan Severyanych to another tavern.
Chapter 13
Ivan Severyanych hears beautiful singing and goes into a tavern, where he spends all the money on the beautiful songstress gypsy Grushenka: “you can’t even describe her as a woman, but as if like a bright snake, she moves on her tail and bends all over, and from her black eyes it burns fire. Curious figure! “So I became mad, and all my mind was taken away.”
Chapter 14
The next day, having obeyed the prince, he learns that the owner himself gave fifty thousand for Grushenka, bought her out of the camp and settled her in his country estate. And Grushenka drove the prince crazy: “That’s what’s sweet to me now that I turned my whole life upside down for her: I retired, and mortgaged the estate, and from now on I’ll live here, not seeing a person, but only everything I will look her in the face."
Chapter 15
Ivan Severyanych tells the story of his master and Gruni. After some time, the prince gets bored with the “love word”, from the “yakhont emeralds” he gets sleepy, besides, all the money ends. Grushenka feels the prince's cooling, she is tormented by jealousy. Ivan Severyanych “became from that time easily entered by her: when the prince was away, every day twice a day he went to her wing to drink tea and entertained her as much as he could.”
Chapter 16
Once, going to the city, Ivan Severyanych overhears the conversation of the prince with his former mistress Evgenia Semyonovna and learns that his master is going to marry, and wants to marry the unfortunate and sincerely loved Grushenka to Ivan Severyanych. Returning home, Golovan learns that the prince secretly took the gypsy woman to the bee-bee in the forest. But Grusha escapes from her guards.
Chapters 17, 18
Grusha tells Ivan Severyanych what happened while he was gone, how the prince got married, how she was sent into exile. She asks to kill her, to curse her soul: “Become quickly for my soul for the savior; I no longer have the strength to live like this and suffer, seeing his betrayal and desecration of me. Have pity on me, my dear; hit me once with a knife against the heart. Ivan Severyanych recoiled, but she wept and exhorted him to kill her, otherwise she would kill herself. “Ivan Severyanych wrinkled his eyebrows terribly and, biting his mustache, seemed to exhale from the depths of his diverging chest: “She took the knife out of my pocket ... took it apart ... straightened the blade from the handle ... and puts it in my hands ...“ You won’t kill , - she says, - me, I will become the most shameful woman to all of you in revenge. I trembled all over, and ordered her to pray, and I didn’t prick her, but took it from the steep into the river and shoved it ... "
Chapter 19
Ivan Severyanych runs back and meets a peasant wagon along the way. The peasants complain to him that their son is being taken as a soldier. In search of an imminent death, Golovan pretends to be peasant son and, having given all the money to the monastery as a contribution for Grushin's soul, he goes to war. He dreams of dying, but "neither earth nor water wants to accept him." Once Golovan distinguished himself in business. The colonel wants to present him for a reward, and Ivan Severyanych tells about the murder of a gypsy. But his words are not confirmed by the request, he is promoted to officer and dismissed with the Order of St. George. Using the colonel's letter of recommendation, Ivan Severyanych gets a job as a "reference officer" at the address desk, but the service does not go well, and he goes to the artists. But even there he did not take root: rehearsals also take place during Holy Week (sin!), Ivan Severyanych gets to portray the “difficult role” of the demon ... He leaves the theater for the monastery.
Chapter 20
The monastic life does not burden him, he remains there with the horses, but he does not consider it worthy to take the tonsure and lives in obedience. To the question of one of the travelers, he says that at first the demon appeared to him in "seductive female image”, but after fervent prayers, only small demons, children, remained. Once he was punished: they put him in a cellar for the whole summer until frost. Ivan Severyanych did not lose heart there either: “Here you can hear the church bells, and the comrades came to visit.” They saved him from the cellar because the gift of prophecy was revealed in him. They let him go on a pilgrimage to Solovki. The wanderer confesses that he expects imminent death, because the "spirit" inspires to take up arms and go to war, and he "really wants to die for the people."
Having finished the story, Ivan Severyanych falls into quiet concentration, again feeling in himself "the influx of a mysterious broadcasting spirit, which is revealed only to babies."
"The Enchanted Wanderer" is a story by Nikolai Semenovich Leskov, consisting of twenty chapters and created by him in 1872-1873. Written in a simple folk language, it reflects the range of feelings of a Russian person who does not stop before difficulties, but, overcoming them, goes to the intended goal.
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Chapter One: Acquaintance with Ivan Severyanovich
The first chapter tells how a ship is sailing on Lake Ladoga, among the passengers of which a monk, a “hero-Chernorizet”, who knows a lot about horses, is a bright personality. When asked why he became a monk, the man answers as follows: he opposed the fact that he used to do everything according to his parental promise.
Chapter Two: The Murdered Monk's Prophecy
Golovan - such a nickname was given to Flyagin Ivan Severyanovich, because he was born with a big head. The hero's father was a coachman named Severyan, but he does not remember his mother. The story of life, which Ivan tells, evokes mixed feelings, because the evil committed by Flyagin in childhood led to grave consequences. Ivan saw a peacefully sleeping monk, and whipped him with a whip, and he, out of fright, got tangled in the reins and fell under the wheel. And so the poor man died, and then he appeared to Golovan in a dream, prophesying "you will die many times and you will not die until real death comes, and then you will go to blacks."
Not much time passed, and Flyagin found himself in a situation similar to the one in which the monk he had killed was: he hung over the abyss at the end of the drawbar, and then fell down. He remained alive by a miracle, only because he fell on a block of clay, along which he rolled down, like on a sled. At the same time, he saved the owners from imminent death, which earned them their favor.
Chapter Three: Cruel Punishment
On new horses, Ivan returned home to his masters. And the young man wanted to have a dove and a dove in the stable. He rejoiced at the birds, and when they began to bring out the pigeons, the cat began to hunt for them. Vanya got angry and beat the harmful animal, cutting off the tail. The boy acted cruelly, and paid the price for it: he was mercilessly flogged and kicked out of the stable, and besides, he was forced to beat pebbles for the garden path with a hammer. Vanya became so annoyed that he decided to hang himself. It's good that the attempt was unsuccessful - out of nowhere, a gypsy appeared with a knife and cut the rope. The stranger offered Golovan to live with them, although he admitted that they were thieves and swindlers. So the fate of the young man suddenly took a different direction.
Chapter Four: Babysitting
Immediately, the gypsies forced Ivan to steal two horses from the master's stables. The boy did not want to steal, but there was nothing to do - he had to obey, and they raced away on horseback.
But the friendship between Ivan and the gypsy did not last long, they quarreled over money, and Flyagin went his own way. Once at the assessor, he told his story and took advantage of his good advice: for a fee, get yourself a vacation. So the runaway young man got the right to go to the city of Nikolaev and hire someone as a worker.
Ivan had to serve with one master as a nanny, although the boy was completely unprepared for such a position. Surprisingly, Ivan did a good job of taking care of the child (which, by the way, was taken from his mother). But one day the mother herself appeared and tearfully asked to give the little child. Golovan did not agree, however, he allowed her to see the baby every day. This continued until the woman's current husband, an officer, appeared. The mother of the child again began to beg Ivan to take pity on the baby to be with her.
Chapter Five: Golovan gives the child
However, Flyagin was adamant, even began to fight with the officer. And when a gentleman with a pistol appeared on the road, Golovan suddenly changed his mind. “Here you this shot! Only now, I say, take me away, otherwise he will hand me over to justice, ”he said. And he left with new masters. Only the officer was afraid to keep the "passportless" and gave him 200 rubles, sent him home.
Again the boy had to look for a place in the sun. He went into a tavern, drank, and then went to the steppe, where he saw the famous horse breeder Khan Dzhangar, who was selling his best horses. For a white mare, two Tatars even started a duel - whipping each other with whips.
Chapter Six: Duel
The last to be sold was a carrack foal, which cost a lot of money. And Ivan offered to fight for him in a duel with a Tatar named Savakirei, and when he agreed, using cunning, he flogged him to death.
Having escaped punishment for the murder, Flyagin went with the Asians to the steppe, where for ten years he treated both people and animals. The Tatars, so that Ivan would not run away in any case, came up with tricky way to keep him: they cut the skin on the heels and, having covered horse hair, sewed it up. After such an operation, the guy could not walk normally for a long time, but after a while he got used to it.
Chapter Seven: The Captive of the Tatars
Although Ivan did not want to live as a prisoner among the Tatars, he still had to live with Khan Agashimola. He had two wives - Tatars, Natasha, and from both children were born, for whom the hero did not have paternal feelings. He was disturbed by a strong nostalgia for Russia.
Chapter Eight: Requests for Help
The fellow travelers listened to the monk with great interest, and they were especially worried about the question of how he managed to escape from captivity. Ivan replied that at first it seemed completely impossible, but after a while, hope began to glimmer in his soul, especially when he saw Russian missionaries. They just did not want to heed his requests for help to rescue him from captivity. After a while, Flyagin saw one of them dead and buried according to Christian custom.
Chapter Nine: Release from Captivity
One day, people from Khiva came to the Tatars, who wanted to buy horses. In order to intimidate local residents they began to show how powerful their fiery god Talavfa was, and having set fire to the steppe, they disappeared. However, leaving hastily, they forgot to pick up the box where Ivan found ordinary fireworks. A plan for liberation matured in his head: he began to intimidate the Tatars with flames and forced them to accept Christianity. In addition, Golovan found caustic earth, which was how he managed to etch the horsehair on his feet. After that, the hero managed to escape. A few days later he went out to the Russians, but they also did not want to accept a person without a passport. The hero went to Astrakhan, but there he drank the money he earned, after which he ended up in prison, and after that he was sent to his homeland - to the province. At home, the count, who had already been widowed, whipped the wanderer twice and gave him his passport. Finally, Ivan felt himself a free man.
Chapter Ten: Change for the better
Started with Ivan more easy life: he went to fairs, offering peasants his help in choosing a good horse. For this he was thanked with money and treated. Having learned about Ivan's special gift, the prince hired him for three years as a coneser. Life was not bad for Flyagin at that time, only, it’s a pity, sometimes he drank heavily, although he really wanted to leave this vice.
Chapter Eleven: At the Tavern
Often Ivan was drawn to drink. One day, with the prince's money, he went into a tavern, where a man pestered him, who asked for vodka.
By evening, they were both already pretty drunk, despite the assurances of a new drinking buddy that he has magnetism and can get rid of cravings for alcohol. But, in the end, both lovers of fun were kicked out of the tavern.
Chapter Twelve: "Agnitezer"
At that time, Golovan could not even suspect that this was set up on purpose in order to lure money from him. "Magnetizer", meanwhile, tried to put the hero into a state of hypnosis as skillfully as possible, even giving the so-called "magnetic sugar" in his mouth. And he got his way.
Chapter Thirteen: Gypsy Pear
Through the efforts of a new acquaintance on a dark night, Ivan turned out to be near the gypsy house. Golovan sees that the doors are open, and curiosity leapt up in him. Later he regretted that he had entered, but it was too late: a gypsy named Grusha had robbed him to the bone. Ivan was seduced by her charms and beautiful songs, voluntarily gave all the money of the prince.
Chapter Fourteen: Conversation with the Prince
Magnetizer kept his promise: he turned Ivan away from drinking forever. But that day he did not remember how he returned home. Surprisingly, the prince did not strongly scold Golovan for the lost money, because he himself lost. Flyagin admitted that five thousand had all gone to the gypsy, and heard: "I'm just like you, dissolute." It turns out that once the prince gave not five, but fifty thousand for this same gypsy Grusha.
Chapter Fifteen: The History of the Prince
The prince, according to Ivan Severyanych, was a kind man, but very changeable. He zealously tried to get something, and then did not appreciate what he found. For a large ransom, the gypsies agreed to give Grusha to the prince. She lived in the house and sang songs to them with Ivan. But the prince's feelings quickly cooled for the gypsy, unlike this girl, who yearned for him. They hid from the gypsy that the prince had love on the side - Evgenia Semyonovna, who was known throughout the city and played the piano beautifully. From this love, a daughter was born to the prince.
Once Ivan was in the city and decided to call on Evgenia Semyonovna. The prince also unexpectedly arrived there. The woman had to hide Golovan in the dressing room, and he became an involuntary listener to their conversation.
Chapter Sixteen: Ivan is looking for Pear
It was about Yevgenia agreeing to mortgage the house, because the prince, who decided to buy a cloth factory and trade in all kinds of bright fabrics, needed money for this. But the smart lady understood true reason the prince's requests: he wanted to give a deposit in order to win over the leader of the factory and then marry his daughter. The prince admitted that she was right.
After the first, a second question arose: where is the prince going to put the gypsy, to which it was suggested: he will marry the girl with Ivan and build a house for them. However, he did not fulfill his promise, but on the contrary, he hid Grusha somewhere, so that Ivan, already in love with a gypsy, had to search for her for a long time. But suddenly, unexpectedly, happiness smiled at Golovan: after he went out in despair to the river and began to call Grusha, she responded for no reason at all. Ivan did not suspect what bitter consequences this meeting would bring.
Chapter Seventeen: The Gypsy's Despair
Further conversation with Grusha did not bring relief to Ivan. It turned out that she was not herself, and came to the river to die, because she could not bear the betrayal of the prince, who marries another. The frustrated gypsy threatened to kill her rival.
Chapter Eighteen: Pear's Terrible Request
Grusha told Ivan that the prince forced the single-dwelling girls to guard her, but under the pretext of playing hide and seek, she managed to escape from them. So the gypsy ended up by the river, where she met Golovan, and after a short conversation, she suddenly ... asked to kill her, otherwise she would become the most shameful woman. Neither persuasion nor violent resistance helped. In the end, Golovan could not stand such an onslaught and pushed the gypsy off a cliff into the river.
Chapter Nineteen: At War
A sense of guilt for what he had done weighed heavily on Ivan, and when the opportunity arose to help two old men whose son was being recruited, Golovan volunteered to go in his place. And he spent fifteen years in the war. He even received an officer's rank for a feat: Ivan managed to build a bridge across the river, while attempts by other soldiers to do the same ended in death. But this did not bring him the desired joy. After some time, Golovan decided to go to the monastery.
Chapter Twenty: The Monk
So, the ordeal of the wanderer came to an end. The prediction of the deceased monk regarding him was fulfilled. In the monastery, Ivan Severyanych read spiritual books and prophesied about an imminent war. The hegumen sent him to Solovki for Prayer to Zosima and Savvaty. On the way there, Golovan met with those who, throughout their journey, listened to his amazing story.
- Summary
- Summary chapter by chapter
- main characters
Description of the story and main idea
Year: 1873 Genre: story
The story was written in 1872-1873. But still, the idea of writing appeared in 1872, after the writer visited the Valaam Monastery, which is located on Lake Ladoga. The story contains descriptions of the life of saints and folk epos. At its core, the work is a biography of the hero, which consists of several episodes. The Lives of the Saints are also presented as separate fragments. All this is typical for an adventure novel or adventure. The very first name was also stylized
The main character is an ordinary representative of the people and he reveals the full strength of the Russian nation. Shows that a person is able to improve spiritually. With this work, the author affirmed that Russian heroes were born and will be born, who are not only able to perform feats, but also to make self-sacrifice.
Summary Leskov The Enchanted Wanderer
While traveling on Lake Ladoga, travelers started a conversation with an elderly man of high stature and physique, reminiscent of a real hero. By appearance The man is seen to be a monk. His name is Flyagin Ivan Severyanych, he tells about his biography. Ivan was born and lived in the Oryol province in a simple family. Since childhood, he has a good ability to handle horses. But this is not his only talent. Flyagin also talks about his immortality: he does not die in any way.
Once, while still a child, Ivan touched a monk with a whip. The latter died and his soul appeared to Flyagin in a dream. The servant of the monastery foresaw the boy that he would die and not die, and in the end he would become a monk. Soon the boy took the master on business. For no apparent reason, the horses picked up speed, so that Ivan fell into a cliff. But somehow he survived.
Having quarreled with the owners, Flyagin is transferred to another job. Exhausted Ivan decides to commit suicide, but at this time a gypsy appears who saves Flyagin's life. Ivan leaves with the gypsy, leaving his hosts. At the same time, he kidnaps two horses of the master, which he then sells to the gypsies, and does not really share the proceeds with Flyagin. For this reason, Ivan stops traveling with the gypsy. The hero ends up in the city of Nikolaev, where he gets a job as a nanny for a gentleman. The fact is that the lady left her husband and daughter, and she herself went to another. But Ivan allows the mistress to meet with her daughter in secret. The bartender will know about it. And Flyagin has to run away with the mistress.
Ivan leaves the lady with her family, and he goes to Penza. Flyagin fights for the stallion and kills the Tatar. He is imprisoned for five years. Then he is taken prisoner by Agashimola. He is given wives from whom children are born to him. But they are strangers to Flyagin. In his heart he dreams of returning to his homeland.
After ten years in prison, Ivan manages to escape from captivity and return to Astrakhan, and then to his native land.
Flyagin meets a gypsy Grusha, who makes him go crazy. He spends all the money that the prince gave him on a girl and is left with nothing. The prince understands and forgives him, as he admits that he was also in love with her. But now he decided to marry a noble person, a rich girl. Grusha is madly in love with the prince and is jealous of another girl. He runs away from the peasant women who were watching her. Flyagin finds her in the forest. The gypsy begs him to kill her, because she fears that she can commit a sin by killing the prince or his beloved. It ends with Ivan throwing her off a cliff.
The hero goes to other places. Under a false name, he served in the army for about 15 years. During one military operation He miraculously stays alive. Ivan returns to St. Petersburg, where he works as an official. And in the end he leaves to serve as a monk. The servants of the monastery are trying in every possible way to cure the evil spirits from Ivan, but they fail, and then he is sent to holy places.
Summary of the Enchanted Wanderer chapter by chapter in detail
Chapter 1
The ship, which sailed along Lake Ladoga from Kovevets to Valaam, lands at Koralla and from here everyone continues on horseback to this ancient village. Along the way, people argue why they send unwanted people in St. Petersburg to send them to such a distance. After all, there is also a place nearby where apathy will take over a person. And someone says that they once exiled here, but only no one could endure a long stay here. And one of the exiles hanged himself altogether, but one of the passengers said that he had done the right thing. But another passenger, who was a believer, intervened in the conversation, he was outraged "after all, no one can even pray for suicides." But here a man is opposed to these two. He was tall, with thick light-coloured hair, and a swarthy face. He was wearing a novice cassock with a wide belt, and on his head was a high cap made of cloth. He was about 50 years old, but he looks like a real Russian hero and even somewhat resembled Ilya Muromets. You can tell from his appearance that he has seen quite a bit. He was brave and self-confident, he said that there is a man who is able to alleviate the fate of a suicide. His name is popik-drunkard. Because of this, they even wanted to kick him out, but he stopped drinking and wanted to lay hands on himself, so Vladyka took pity on him and his family. And for his daughter to find a groom who will serve instead of him.
But once the bishop lay down after the meal and delayed him, he dreamed that the Monk Sergius came to him and asked him to take pity on the priest. But when he woke up, he decided that it was. And when he went to bed again, he already saw how the army under the dark banners was leading the shadows, who nod their heads and sadly asked to have pity on him, because he was praying for them. Then he called the priest to him and asked if he was really praying for suicides. Then he blesses him and returns him to his place. During the conversation, we learned that this passenger was a monk, but he was a cones. He told that he had experienced a lot, was in captivity, but he came to serve in the monastery not so long ago. Of course, everyone became interested, and they asked to talk about their lives. He agreed and promised to start over.
Chapter 2
Our hero's name is Ivan Severyanych Flyagin. He began to tell from his origin from the palace persons of Count K. from the Oryol province. It so happened that my mother died in childbirth, and his father worked as a coachman and he grew up with him. Most of his life was spent in the stable, which is why he fell in love with horses so much. At the age of eleven, he already served as a postilion, but since he was physically weak, he was tied to a saddle and girths. But it was extremely uncomfortable, and sometimes he even lost consciousness, but then he got used to it. But he had a very bad habit, he beat with a whip those who stood in his way. And somehow he was taking the count to the monastery and thus killed the old man. But the count allowed everything. But this old man appears to Ivan and cries. He tells Ivan that his mother had a praying and promised son.
His mother once promised him to the Lord, saying: “You will die many times and will not die until your time comes, and you remember your mother’s promise, and you will go to blacks.” After some time, the count and his wife are going to take their daughter to Voronezh to see a doctor. On the way, they stopped to feed the horses, but again an old man appeared to Ivan and told him to ask the masters to go to the monastery. But he ignored. Together with their father, they harnessed the horses and drove off, but there was a steep mountain. As they descended, the brake burst, and the horses rushed to the cliff. Father managed to jump, but Ivan hung. The first horses fell off the cliff, and the carriage stopped. Then suddenly he came to his senses and fell down, but remained alive. The count invited Ivan to ask for whatever he wanted, and he asked for an accordion, but also soon abandoned it.
Chapter 3
He got a couple of pigeons in the stable. The chicks appeared. Out of carelessness, he crushed one when he was dragging it, and the second was eaten by a cat. He caught her and cut off her tail. But it turned out that the cat belonged to the countess's maid, for which he was taken to the office to be whipped and forced to beat stones with a hammer for the construction of garden paths. But he could not stand it and decided to hang himself. He went to the forest, taking the rope. He tried to arrange everything, but something went wrong, and he fell off the branch, fell to the ground, and a gypsy was already standing above him and cut off the rope. He called Flyagin with him. Ivan began to ask: "Who are they? Thieves or not? Do they cut people?" But Ivan did not think long and went into the robbers.
Chapter 4
But the gypsy turned out to be cunning, he said everything the guy wanted to hear, because he knew that he worked at the count's stable and would bring out a couple of the best horses for him. They galloped almost all night, then sold their horses. But Ivan did not receive anything, because the gypsies simply deceived him. Then he went to the assessor and told the story of how he was deceived, and he said that for a fee he would make him look like a vacation. Well, Ivan gave everything he had. The guy comes to the city of Nikolaev and went to the place where people who are looking for work gather.
Then a huge gentleman appeared, who just immediately grabbed onto him and led him along. And when he found out that he felt sorry for the pigeons, he was generally delighted, as it turned out, he wanted to hire him to nurse his daughter. The wife ran away from the master and left her little daughter, and he himself cannot look after her, because he works. But Ivan began to worry about how he would cope with this matter. But the master replied that the Russian man could handle everything. So he became a nanny for a little girl, he fell in love with her very much. But the girl's mother comes and asks to return her child, but Ivan does not give it back. When he comes with the child to the estuary, the mother is already sitting, waiting for them and begins to beg again.
And so it went on for a very long time. And here she is last time comes to Ivan and says that a repairman will come. He wants to give him 1,000 rubles in exchange for a child, but Ivan remains unmoved. But when he sees this repairman, the thought flashed through his mind, it would be nice to play with him. But since a disagreement may begin between them, it is possible that a fight will occur, which Ivan really wanted.
Chapter 5
Here Ivan began to figure out how to tease the officer so that he would attack him. And the lady is crying to the officer that they will not give her the child. And he tells her in response that he will only show the money to Ivan and he will immediately exchange the girl. He gives banknotes to Ivan, and he tore them out, spat and threw them on the ground. The repairman was furious and attacked him. But Ivan only pushed him, so he immediately flew off. The repairman turned out to be proud and noble and did not pick them up. He grabbed the child, and Ivan took the girl's second hand, saying: "On whose side it comes off, he will take the child." But the repairman did not do this, spat in Ivan's face and began to lead the mistress away. But then the girl's father runs out of the city with a gun, shoots from it and shouts that he should hold them. But on the contrary, he catches up with the lady and gives her the girl, he only asked to be with them.
They arrived in Penza. But the officer said that he could not keep him with him, as there were no documents, and gave him 200 rubles. Here he decides to go to the police and confess, but first he will go to a tavern to drink. He drinks for a long time, then all the same he went. And having crossed the river, he met carriages, and in them the Tatars. He saw that the people were drowning themselves, and in the center a Tatar in a golden skullcap was sitting on a colored felt mat. He, of course, immediately recognized him - Khan Dzhangar. Despite the fact that the lands are Russian, the khan owned them. Here he was grafted with a white mare and started bargaining. Many offered what they could and even brought them almost to ruin. Then two peasants came out and sat opposite each other, whips were brought to them. They had to whip each other. Who will last longer and take the mare. A man standing nearby told about the intricacies of the competition. He then won the whole bloodied lay on his stomach on a horse and left. Ivan wanted to leave, but he was detained by a new acquaintance.
Chapter 6
Here the bargaining began again, only the carac stallion was already put up. In the crowd, he saw a familiar repairman. Ivan began to flog with him and won the argument, constipating him to death. The passengers were horrified by what they heard, but explained that this Tatar was the first batyr and did not want to yield to Ivan. But he was helped by a penny, which he gnawed so as not to feel pain, and in order not to think, he counted the blows. The Russians wanted to hand him over to the police, but the Tatars helped him escape, so he left with them in the steppes. He stayed there for 11 years. The Tatars did not treat him badly, but so that he would not run away, they cut out the skin on his heels and sewed in chopped horsehair. A person after such procedures cannot step on the heel and is able to crawl only on his knees. But, nevertheless, the attitude was good, they even gave him a wife. And another Khan, who stole him, gave him two wives. Agashimol called Ivan to cure his wife, but he deceived. The passengers listened with their mouths open, and were very much looking forward to the continuation. Ivan continued.
Chapter 7
Of course, Agashimol did not let go, But he gave wives, however, he did not love them. They bore him children, but he did not have paternal feelings for them. Missed Russia. Sometimes I even saw a monastery and baptized land. He told the passengers about the life and life of the Tatars. But everyone was interested in how he coped with his heels and ran away from the Tatars.
Chapter 8
He had lost hope of returning, but once he saw the missionaries. But when I got closer I saw that they were Russians. He began to ask to be taken away from captivity. But they didn't listen to him. But he waited when the priests were left alone and began to ask them again. But they said that they had no right to frighten the infidels and should be polite towards them. And he needs to pray and ask God for help. They said that they care about those who are in darkness, and showed a book with the Tatars, who were attached to Christianity. He left.
Once his son comes and says that a dead man was found on the lake, it turned out to be a preacher. Ivan buried him according to all Christian customs. The Tatars also killed the Jewish missionary. But then his listeners had a question, how did he himself survive. To which he responded with a miracle.
Chapter 9
After the missionaries were killed, a year passed, but soon two more were brought. But they spoke in an incomprehensible language. Both were black with beards, dressed in robes. They began to demand the return of the horses, otherwise the Tatars would recognize the power of Talaf, who promised to burn them. It all happened overnight. The horses rushed forward in fear, and the Tatars, forgetting about fear, ran to catch up. But not here - it was them and the trace caught a cold, they left only the box. When Ivan approached him, he realized that it was just fireworks. He began to let them into the sky and christened all the Tatars in the river. Campaign, he found in them a caustic substance, which he applied to the heels for two weeks, so that the hair came out with pus. So the heels healed, but he pretended that he was even worse and punished that no one should go outside the yurts for three days. Launched a big fireworks and left. Then he met a Chuvash who had five horses. He offered to sit on one of them, but now Ivan did not trust anyone, so he refused.
Here he meets people, but first he checks who it is. He notices that they are being baptized and drinking vodka, which means they are Russians. They were fishermen. They accepted him, and he told them about his life. Then he went to Astrakhan, earned a ruble and took to drink. He woke up in prison, he was sent to his native province, where he was flogged by the police and given to the count, who flogged him twice more and gave him his passport. Now Ivan, after so many years, is a free man.
Chapter 10
He got to the fair and noticed how a gypsy was selling a bad horse to a peasant. So he helped to choose and began to earn in this way. He went to church, and it became much easier.
Chapter 11
Then he went to a tavern to drink tea, but there he met a man whom he seemed to know. He was once an officer, but he squandered everything. And now he sat in taverns and asked someone to treat him with vodka. He also stuck to Ivan, also asked for a treat and said that he would wean him to drink. As a result, they were taken outside, because the time was already approaching to close.
Chapter 12
When Ivan was on the street, he checked the wad of money in his bosom. And immediately calmed down. And then his drinking buddy takes him to a gypsy den, and he leaves. As it turned out later, the gypsies paid him for it. He enters the house to ask for directions to his house.
Chapter 13
Ivan ended up in a large room where a beautiful gypsy named Grusha sang. When she finished singing, she began to go around everyone with a tray and collected money. She went around everyone, but the gypsy told her to go to Ivan. He was fascinated by her beauty and put 100 rubles in her tray. And the gypsy touched his lips. Then Ivan was taken to the front row and robbed to the bone.
Chapter 14
He couldn't even remember how he got home. And in the morning the prince returned from another fair, where he also spent all the money. And he began to beg them from Ivan, but he said that he gave all the money to a gypsy. The prince was at a loss, but did not engage in moralizing, saying that he had once done so himself. Ivan ends up in the hospital with delirium tremens, and when he recovers, he goes to the prince to blame. But he said that when he saw Grusha, instead of 5,000, he gave 50,000 rubles to let her go. The prince changed his whole life for the gypsy: he resigned and mortgaged the estate. She lived in the countryside with him. And when she sang songs with a guitar, the prince simply sobbed.
Chapter 15
But soon she bored the prince. Grusha also began to yearn, she told Ivan that she was tormented by jealousy. The prince became impoverished and looked for different ways to get rich. He often went to the city, and Grusha wondered if he had anyone. And in the city lived the former love of the prince - Evgenia Semyonovna. She had a daughter from him, they had two houses, which he actually bought for them. But one day Ivan came to her, and then the prince drove in. Evgenia Semyonovna hid Ivan in the dressing room, and he heard their entire conversation.
Chapter 16
The prince begged her to mortgage the house in order to find money for him. He said that he wanted to become rich, open a cloth factory and trade in fabrics. But Evgenia immediately realized that he only wanted to give a deposit and pass for a rich man, but in fact to marry the daughter of the leader of the factory and become rich at the expense of her dowry. He quickly confessed. She nevertheless agreed to mortgage the house, but asked what would happen to the gypsy. He said that he would marry them to Ivan. The prince began to work in the factory, and sent Ivan to the fair. Upon returning to the village, Ivan did not see the gypsy again. He could not find a place for himself from longing for her. Once he went to the bank of the river and began to call her, and she appeared.
Chapter 17
She was already pregnant for the last month. She trembled with jealousy and walked around in some rags. She repeated the same thing that she wanted to kill the prince's bride. Although I knew perfectly well that that girl had nothing to do with it either.
Chapter 18
She told Ivan that the prince called her for a walk, he himself brought her to some thicket, saying that she would be here under the supervision of three single-dweller girls. But she was able to escape from there, went to the prince's house, and found Ivan. She asked to be killed, because otherwise they would destroy the bride. She took a knife out of his pocket and put it in his hands. He threw it away in every possible way, but she said that if he did not kill her, he would become the most shameful woman. He pushed her off the cliff and she drowned.
Chapter 19
He ran headlong, and all the time it seemed to him that the soul of Pear was flying nearby. On the way I met an old man with an old woman, they wanted to take their son to the army, he agreed to go instead of him. He fought in the Caucasus for more than 15 years. In one battle, it was necessary to cross to the other side of the river, but all the soldiers died from the bullets of the highlanders. Then he decided to complete this task, and under the bullets he swam across the river and built a bridge. At that moment it seemed to him that Grusha was covering him. For this he was given an officer's rank and was dismissed. But this did not bring prosperity, and he decided to leave for a monastery. There he became a coachman.
Chapter 20
Thus ended all his wanderings and troubles. At first he saw demons, but he fought them by fasting and reciting prayers. And when he began to read books, he began to predict an imminent war. Therefore, he was sent to Solovki. And just he met his listeners on Lake Ladoga. He told them everything honestly and frankly.
The main characters of the story The Enchanted Wanderer Leskov:
Pear is a young gypsy. She is proud and passionate. Moreover, she is very beautiful girl. In the story, she acts as a "enchantress-sorceress" who was able to challenge Flyagin. She is the first woman he fell in love with, but unfortunately she did not reciprocate.
Flyagin Ivan Severyanych is the main narrator. He resembles a hero from fairy tales, who is invulnerable, constantly overcomes all difficulties with ease. He is naive and somewhere even stupid. He saves the life of Count K., his wife and daughters, and for this he takes only an accordion and refuses money and registration in the merchant class. He does not have his own house, he is looking for a better share. He sees the beauty of nature, he has self-esteem, straightforwardness.
Allin is a person who is very unusual, since he is not a realist at all, but rather the opposite. Since he believes in miracles, he believes that in fact there is something more than just people and life on earth.
Shukshin often writes his stories about ordinary village people. This story tells about a simple peasant named Vasily Yegorych, who works as a projectionist in the village, he is not indifferent to dogs and detectives.
Early in the morning, even before the roosters wake up, the village boy Yashka woke up to go fishing.
On the way to Valaam on Lake Ladoga, several travelers meet. One of them, dressed in a novice cassock and looking like a "typical hero," says that, having "God's gift" to tame horses, he, according to his parents' promise, died all his life and could not die in any way. At the request of the travelers, the former coneser (“I am a coneser, sir, I am an expert in horses and was with the repairers to guide them,” says the hero himself) Ivan Severyanych, Mr. Flyagin, tells his life.
Coming from the yard people of Count K. from the Oryol province, Ivan Severyanych has been addicted to horses since childhood and once “for fun” beats a monk to death on a wagon. The monk appears to him at night and reproaches him for taking his life without repentance. He tells Ivan Severyanych that he is the “promised” son of God, and gives a “sign” that he will die many times and will never die before the real “death” comes and Ivan Severyanych goes to Chernetsy. Soon, Ivan Severyanych, nicknamed Golovan, saves his masters from inevitable death in a terrible abyss and falls into mercy. But he cuts off the tail of the owner's cat, which drags pigeons from him, and as punishment he is severely flogged, and then sent to "an English garden for a path to beat stones with a hammer." The last punishment of Ivan Severyanych "tormented", and he decides to commit suicide. The rope prepared for death is cut off by the gypsies, with whom Ivan Severyanych leaves the count, taking horses with him. Ivan Severyanych breaks up with the gypsy, and, having sold a silver cross to an official, he receives a leave of absence and is hired as a "nanny" to the little daughter of a gentleman. For this work, Ivan Severyanych is very bored, leads the girl and the goat to the river bank and sleeps over the estuary. Here he meets the lady, the mother of the girl, who begs Ivan Severyanych to give her the child, but he is relentless and even fights with the current husband of the lady, an officer-lancer. But when he sees the angry approaching owner, he gives the child to his mother and runs with them. The officer sends the passportless Ivan Severyanych away, and he goes to the steppe, where the Tatars drive horse shoals.
Khan Dzhankar sells his horses, and the Tatars set prices and fight for horses: they sit opposite each other and beat each other with whips. When a new handsome horse is put up for sale, Ivan Severyanych does not hold back and, speaking for one of the repairmen, traps the Tatar to death. According to "Christian custom", he is taken to the police for murder, but he runs away from the gendarmes to the very "Ryn-Sands". The Tatars "bristle" Ivan Severyanych's legs so that he does not run away. Ivan Severyanych moves only by crawling, serves as a doctor among the Tatars, yearns and dreams of returning to his homeland. He has several wives "Natasha" and children "Kolek", whom he regrets, but he admits to the listeners that he could not love them, because they are "unbaptized". Ivan Severyanych completely despairs of getting home, but Russian missionaries come to the steppe "to establish their faith." They preach, but refuse to pay a ransom for Ivan Severyanych, arguing that before God "everyone is equal and it's all the same." Some time later, one of them is killed, Ivan Severyanych buries him according to Orthodox custom. He explains to the listeners that "the Asian must be brought to faith with fear," because they "will never respect a humble god without a threat." The Tatars bring two people from Khiva who come to buy horses in order to "make war." Hoping to intimidate the Tatars, they demonstrate the power of their fiery god Talafy, but Ivan Severyanych discovers a box with fireworks, introduces himself as Talafy, converts the Tatars to Christianity and, having found "caustic earth" in the boxes, heals his legs.
In the steppe, Ivan Severyanych meets a Chuvash, but refuses to go with him, because he simultaneously reveres both the Mordovian Keremeti and the Russian Nicholas the Wonderworker. Russians come across on the way, they cross themselves and drink vodka, but drive away the "passportless" Ivan Severyanych. In Astrakhan, the wanderer ends up in prison, from where he is taken to his hometown. Father Ilya excommunicates him for three years from communion, but the count, who has become devout, releases him “for quitrent”, and Ivan Severyanych settles in the horse department. After he helps the men choose good horse, he is famous as a sorcerer, and everyone demands to tell the "secret". Including one prince, who took Ivan Severyanych to his post as a koneser. Ivan Severyanych buys horses for the prince, but from time to time he has drunken “exits”, before which he gives the prince all the money for the purchases to be safe. When the prince sells a beautiful horse to Dido, Ivan Severyanych is very sad, "makes a way out", but this time he keeps the money to himself. He prays in church and goes to a tavern, where he meets an “over-empty-empty” person who claims that he drinks because he “voluntarily took weakness on himself” so that it would be easier for others, and Christian feelings do not allow him to stop drinking. A new acquaintance imposes magnetism on Ivan Severyanych to free him from "zealous drunkenness", and at the same time gives him extra water. At night, Ivan Severyanych finds himself in another tavern, where he spends all his money on the beautiful gypsy singer Grushenka. Having obeyed the prince, he learns that the owner himself gave fifty thousand for Grushenka, bought her out of the camp and settled in his house. But the prince is a fickle person, he gets bored with the “love word”, he gets sleepy from “yakhont emeralds”, besides, all the money ends.
Having gone to the city, Ivan Severyanych overhears the prince's conversation with his former mistress Yevgenia Semyonovna and learns that his master is going to marry, and wants to marry the unfortunate and sincerely loved Grushenka to Ivan Severyanych. Returning home, he does not find the gypsy, whom the prince secretly takes to the forest to the bee. But Grusha escapes from her guards and, threatening that she will become a "shameful woman", asks Ivan Severyanych to drown her. Ivan Severyanych fulfills the request, and in search of an imminent death he pretends to be a peasant son and, having given all the money to the monastery as a “contribution for Grushin’s soul”, goes to war. He dreams of dying, but "neither earth nor water wants to accept", and having distinguished himself in business, he tells the colonel about the murder of a gypsy. But these words are not confirmed by the sent request, he is promoted to an officer and dismissed with the Order of St. George. Using the colonel's letter of recommendation, Ivan Severyanych gets a job as a "reference officer" at the address desk, but falls on the insignificant letter "fit", the service does not go well, and he goes to the artists. But the rehearsals take place during Holy Week, Ivan Severyanych gets to portray the “difficult role” of the demon, and besides, stand up for the poor “gentlewoman”, he “pulls the whirlwinds” of one of the artists and leaves the theater for the monastery.
According to Ivan Severyanych, monastic life does not bother him, he stays there with horses, but he does not consider it worthy to take senior tonsure and lives in obedience. To the question of one of the travelers, he says that at first a demon appeared to him in a “seductive female form”, but after fervent prayers only small demons, “children”, remained. Once Ivan Severyanych kills a demon with an ax, but he turns out to be a cow. And for another deliverance from demons, he is put in an empty cellar for a whole summer, where Ivan Severyanych discovers the gift of prophecy in himself. Ivan Severyanych ends up on the ship because the monks let him go to pray in Solovki to Zosima and Savvaty. The Stranger admits that he expects an imminent death, because the spirit inspires him to take up arms and go to war, and he “wants to die for the people.” Having finished the story, Ivan Severyanych falls into quiet concentration, once again feeling the influx of a mysterious broadcasting spirit, which is revealed only to babies.
Frame from the film "The Enchanted Wanderer" (1990)
Very briefly
Travelers meet a monk who tells how many adventures, torments and trials he experienced before he ended up in a monastery.
Chapter first
Traveling on Lake Ladoga on a steamboat, travelers, among whom was the narrator, visited the village of Korela. When the journey continued, the companions began to discuss this ancient, but very poor Russian town.
One of the interlocutors, inclined towards philosophy, noted that "uncomfortable people" should be sent not to Siberia, but to Korela - it would be cheaper for the state. Another said that the deacon who lived here in exile did not endure the apathy and boredom reigning in Korel for long - he hanged himself. The philosopher believed that the deacon did the right thing - “he died, and ends in the water,” but his opponent, a religious man, thought that suicides are tormented in the next world, because no one prays for them here.
Unexpectedly, a new passenger, a silent, powerful, gray-haired man of about fifty in the clothes of a novice, stood up for the suicidal sexton.
He was in full sense the words hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-hearted, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the beautiful picture of Vereshchagin.
He spoke about a priest from the Moscow diocese who prays for suicides and by this "corrects their situation" in hell. Because of drunkenness, Patriarch Filaret wanted to cut the priest, but the Monk Sergius himself stood up for him, twice appearing to the bishop in a dream.
Then the passengers began to ask the Chernoriz hero about his life, and found out that he served in the army as a coneser - he chose and tamed army horses, to which he had a special approach. From everything it was clear that the Chernorizet had lived a long and turbulent life. The passengers begged him to tell about himself.
Chapters two - five
Ivan Severyanych Flyagin was born a serf on the estate of a wealthy count from the Oryol province. The count bred horses, and Ivan's father served as a coachman with him. Ivan's mother did not have children for a long time, and the woman begged the child from God, and she herself died in childbirth. The boy was born with a huge head, so the servants called him Golovan.
Ivan spent his early childhood in the stable and fell in love with horses. At the age of eleven, he was placed as a postilion on the six, which was ruled by his father. Ivan had to shout, driving people out of the way. He whipped the gaping ones with a whip.
One day, Ivan and his father were taking the count past the monastery for a visit. The boy whipped the monk who had fallen asleep in the wagon with a whip. He was frightened, fell from the cart, the horses carried, and the monk was crushed by the wheels. At night, a monk killed by him appeared to Ivan, said that Ivan's mother not only begged him, but also promised God, and ordered him to go to the monastery.
You will die many times and you will never die until your real death comes, and then you will remember your mother’s promise for you and go to blacks.
Ivan did not attach any importance to the words of the dead monk, but soon his “first death” happened. On the way to Voronezh, the count's team, together with the crew, almost fell into a deep abyss. Ivan managed to stop the horses, and he himself fell under a cliff, but miraculously survived.
For saving his life, the count decided to reward Ivan. Instead of asking for a monastery, the boy wanted an accordion, which he never learned to play.
Soon Ivan got himself a pair of pigeons, from them chicks went, which the cat got into the habit of carrying. Ivan caught the cat, whipped it, cut off its tail and nailed it over his window. The cat belonged to the Countess's beloved maid. The girl ran to Ivan to swear, he hit her with a “broom on the waist”, for which he was flogged in the stable and exiled to crush stone for garden paths.
Ivan crushed the stone for so long that "the growths went on his knees." He was tired of enduring ridicule - they say, they condemned him for a cat's tail - and Ivan decided to hang himself in the nearest aspen forest. As soon as he hung in a noose, a gypsy who came from nowhere cut the rope and invited Ivan to go with him to the thieves. He agreed.
To prevent Ivan from getting off the hook, the gypsy forced him to steal horses from the count's stables. The horses were sold dearly, but Ivan received only a silver ruble, quarreled with the gypsy and decided to surrender to the authorities. He got to the cunning clerk. For a ruble and a silver pectoral cross, he gave Ivan a pass and advised him to go to Nikolaev, where there was a lot of work.
In Nikolaev, Ivan got to the Pole master. His wife fled with the military, leaving her infant daughter, whom Ivan had to nurse and feed with goat's milk. For a year, Ivan became attached to the child. Once he noticed that the girl's legs "go like a wheel." The doctor said that it was an “English disease” and advised him to bury the child in warm sand.
Ivan began to carry the pupil to the shore of the estuary. There he again dreamed of a monk, called him somewhere, showed him a large white monastery, steppes, "wild people" and said affectionately: "You still have a lot to endure, and then you will achieve." Waking up, Ivan saw an unfamiliar lady kissing his pupil. The lady turned out to be the girl's mother. Ivan did not allow to take the child, but he allowed them to meet at the estuary secretly from the master.
The lady said that her stepmother forced her to marry. She did not love her first husband, but she loves her current one, because he is very affectionate with her. When the time came for the lady to leave, she offered Ivan a lot of money for the girl, but he refused, because he was a “official and faithful” person.
Then the lady's roommate, a lancer, appeared. Ivan immediately wanted to fight him and spat on the money that he gave. “Nothing but bodily distress” for himself, the lancer did not receive, but he did not raise money, and Ivan really liked this nobility. The lancer tried to pick up the child, Ivan at first did not give it, and then he saw how the mother was reaching out to him, and took pity. At that moment, a Pole master appeared with a pistol, and Ivan had to leave with the lady and the lancer, leaving his "lawless" passport with the Pole.
In Penza, the uhlan said that he, a military man, could not keep a runaway serf, gave Ivan money and let him go. Ivan decided to give himself up to the police, but first he went into a tavern, drank tea with pretzels, after which he wandered onto the banks of the Sura. There, Khan Dzhangar, "the first steppe horse breeder" and king, sold marvelous horses. For one mare, two rich Tatars decided to fight.
They look into each other's eyes, their feet rest against their feet with footprints and their left hands press tightly, and they flog with their right hands with whips ...
The acquaintance with whom Ivan drank tea explained to him all the subtleties of the Tatar struggle, and the twenty-three-year-old hero wanted to participate.
Chapters six - nine
The uhlan intervened in the dispute over the next horse. Ivan instead entered into battle with the Tatar and whipped him to death with a whip. After that, the Russians wanted to put Ivan in prison, but the Tatars took pity on him and took him to the steppe.
Ivan lived in the steppe for ten years, was with the Tatars as a doctor - he treated horses and people. Missing his homeland, he wanted to leave, but the Tatars caught him and “buffed” him: they cut the skin on his feet, stuffed chopped horsehair into it and sewed it up. When everything healed, Ivan could not walk normally - the stubble was so prickly, he had to learn to walk "spread", on his ankles, and stay in the steppe.
For several years, Ivan lived in the same horde, where he had his own yurt, two wives, and children. Then the neighboring khan asked to treat his wife and left the doctor at home. There Ivan received two more wives. Ivan did not feel paternal feelings for his numerous children, since they were "unbaptized and not smeared with the world." For ten years he had not got used to the steppes and was very homesick.
Sultry appearance, cruel; space - no edge; <...> and the sun pours down, burns, and the steppe, as if life is painful, no end is foreseen anywhere, and here there is no bottom to the depth of anguish ...
Ivan often remembered the house, festive feasts without the disgusting horse meat, father Ilya. At night, he quietly went to the steppe and prayed for a long time.
Over time, Ivan despaired of returning to his homeland and even stopped praying - “so what ... to pray when nothing comes of it.” One day two priests showed up in the steppes - they came to convert the Tatars to Christianity. Ivan asked the priests to rescue him, but they refused to interfere in the affairs of the Tatars. Some time later, Ivan found one priest dead and buried him in a Christian way, while the other disappeared without a trace.
A year later, two appeared in the horde in turbans and bright robes. They came from Khiva to buy horses and turn the Tatars against the Russians. To prevent the Tatars from robbing them and killing them, they began to scare the people fire god Talafoy, who gave them his fire.
One night, strangers staged a fiery light show. The horses got scared and fled, and the adult Tatars rushed to catch them. Women, old people and children remained in the camp. Then Ivan got out of the yurt and realized that the strangers were frightening people with ordinary fireworks. Ivan found a large supply of fireworks, began to launch them, and so frightened the wild Tatars that they agreed to be baptized.
In the same place, Ivan also found "caustic earth", which "scorches the body terribly." He put it on his heels and pretended to be sick. In a few days, the feet corroded, and the stubble sewn into them came out along with pus. When the legs healed, Ivan "for even more warning, let the biggest fireworks go and left."
Three days later, Ivan went to the Caspian Sea, and from there he got to Astrakhan, earned a ruble and drank heavily. He woke up in prison, from where he was sent to his native estate. Father Ilya refused to confess and give communion to Ivan, because he lived with the Tatars in sin. The count, who became devout after the death of his wife, did not want to endure a man excommunicated from communion, flogged Ivan twice, gave his passport and let him go.
Chapters ten - fourteen
Ivan left his native estate and ended up at a fair, where he saw a gypsy trying to sell a worthless horse to a peasant. Being offended by the gypsies, Ivan helped the peasant. From that day on, he began to go to fairs, "lead the poor people" and gradually became a thunderstorm for all gypsies and horse traders.
One prince from the military asked Ivan to reveal the secret by which he chooses horses. Ivan began to teach the prince how to distinguish a good horse, but he could not master the science and called him to serve as a koneser.
For three years Ivan lived with the prince "as a friend and helper", choosing horses for the army. Sometimes the prince lost and asked Ivan to recoup the state money, but he did not give it. The prince was angry at first, and then thanked Ivan for his loyalty. Going on a spree, Ivan gave money to the prince for preservation.
One day the prince went to the fair and soon ordered a mare to be sent there, which Ivan liked very much. From chagrin, he wanted to drink it, but there was no one to leave the state money. For several days, Ivan "was tormented" until he prayed at an early mass. After that, he felt better, and Ivan went to a tavern to drink tea, where he met a beggar "from the noble." He begged the public for vodka and, for fun, ate it with a glass glass.
Ivan took pity on him, gave him a decanter of vodka and advised him to stop drinking. The beggar replied that his Christian feelings did not allow him to stop drinking.
And what do you think if I give up this habit of drinking, and someone picks it up and takes it: will he be happy about it or not?
The beggar showed Ivan his gift for instantly sobering up, which he explained by natural magnetism, and promised to remove his "drunken passion" from him. The beggar forced Ivan to drink glass after glass, making passes over each glass with his hands.
So Ivan was “treated” until the evening, all the time remaining in his right mind and checking whether the state money was intact in his bosom. In the end, the drinking companions quarreled: the beggar considered love a sacred feeling, and Ivan insisted that all this was nothing. They were kicked out of the tavern, and the beggar led Ivan to a "living room" full of gypsies.
In this house, Ivan was fascinated by the singer, the beautiful gypsy Grusha, and he threw all the government money at her feet.
Chapter fifteen - eighteen
Having sobered up, Ivan learned that his magnetizer had died of drunkenness, while he himself remained magnetized and had not taken vodka in his mouth since. He confessed to the prince that he had squandered the treasury on a gypsy, after which he had a delirium tremens.
Having recovered, Ivan learned that his prince had pledged all his property in order to redeem the beautiful Pear from the camp.
A woman is worth everything in the world, because she will inflict such an ulcer that for the whole kingdom you will not be cured of her, and she alone can heal from her in one minute.
Pear quickly fell in love with the prince, and he, having received what he wanted, began to be burdened by an uneducated gypsy and stopped noticing her beauty. Ivan became friends with Grusha and felt sorry for her very much.
When the gypsy became pregnant, the prince began to annoy his poverty. He started one business after another, but all his "projects" brought only losses. Soon, the jealous Grusha suspected that the prince had a mistress, and sent Ivan to the city to find out.
Ivan went to the prince's former mistress, the "secretary's daughter" Evgenia Semyonovna, from whom he had a child, and became an unwitting witness to their conversation. The prince wanted to borrow money from Evgenia Semyonovna, rent a cloth factory, pass for a manufacturer and marry a rich heiress. He was going to marry Grusha to Ivan.
The woman who still loved the prince mortgaged the house he had donated, and soon the prince got married to the leader's daughter. Returning from the fair, where he bought samples of fabrics "from Asians" and took orders, Ivan found that the prince's house was renovated and ready for the wedding, and Pears were nowhere to be found.
Ivan decided that the prince killed the gypsy and buried it in the forest. He began to look for her body and one day he came across a living Pear by the river. She said that the prince locked her in a forest house under the protection of three hefty girls, but she ran away from them. Ivan offered the gypsy woman to live together as a sister and brother, but she refused.
The pear was afraid that she would not stand it, and would destroy an innocent soul - the prince's bride, and made Ivan swear a terrible oath that he would kill her, threatening that he would become "the most shameful woman." Unable to stand it, Ivan threw the gypsy off the cliff into the river.
Chapters nineteen - twenty
Ivan ran away and wandered for a long time, until Pear, who appeared in the form of a girl with wings, showed him the way. On this path, Ivan met two old men, from whom their only son was taken as a soldier, and agreed to serve in his place. The old people sent Ivan new documents, and he became Peter Serdyukov.
Once in the army, Ivan asked to go to the Caucasus in order to “die for the faith rather,” and served there for more than fifteen years. One day, Ivan's detachment was pursuing Caucasians who had gone beyond the Koisu River. Several soldiers died trying to build a bridge across the river, and then Ivan volunteered, deciding that this was the best case, "to end his life." While he was sailing across the river, Grusha protected him in the form of a “lady at about sixteen years old”, protected him from death with her wings, and Ivan came ashore unharmed. After he told the colonel about his life, he sent a paper to find out if the gypsy Grusha was really killed. He was told that there was no murder, and Ivan Severyanych Flyagin died in the house of the Serdyukov peasants.
The colonel decided that Ivan's mind was clouded from danger and icy water, promoted him to an officer, dismissed him and gave a letter "to one big person in Petersburg." In St. Petersburg, Ivan was placed as a “reference officer” at the address desk, but his career did not go well, because he got the letter “fita”, for which there were very few surnames, and there was almost no income from such work.
They did not take Ivan, a noble officer, as a coachman, and he went as an artist in a street booth to portray a demon. There Ivan stood up for a young actress, and he was kicked out. He had nowhere to go, he went to a monastery and soon fell in love with the local way of life, similar to the army. Ivan became the father of Ishmael, and they assigned him to the horses.
Travelers began to ask if Ivan was suffering "from a demon", and he said that he was tempted by a demon pretending to be the beautiful Pear. One elder taught Ivan to drive away the demon with prayer, kneeling down.
A person's knees ‹…› the first tool: as you fall on them, the soul now flutters up…
By prayer and fasting, Ivan coped with the demon, but soon small imps began to bother him. Because of them, Ivan accidentally killed a monastery cow, mistaking her for a devil at night. For this and other sins, the father hegumen locked Ivan in the cellar for the whole summer and ordered him to grind salt.
In the cellar, Ivan read a lot of newspapers, began to prophesy, and prophesied an imminent war. The abbot transferred him to an empty hut, where Ivan lived all winter. The doctor called to him could not understand whether the prophet Ivan or a madman, and advised him to let him "go for a run."
Ivan ended up on the ship, making his way on a pilgrimage. AT future war he firmly believed and was going to join the army in order to "die for the people." Having told all this, the enchanted wanderer fell into thought, and the passengers did not dare to question him anymore, because he told about his past, and the future remains "in the hand of the one who hides his fate from the smart and reasonable and only occasionally reveals them to babies."
