Review of the two-volume book.

Once, at a lecture by a professor on documentary filmmaking, one of the students asked: “Which of the writers, playwrights, documentarians is the strongest and most truthful, based strictly on historical facts contributing author? The professor was silent for a minute and answered: “Trio!” Pikul, Jan, and Radzinsky! There are, of course, others, but these three worked with the State Fund archives the most and most deeply.

A little time passed after that, but the words spoken by the teacher remained in my memory. On winter holidays, before my mother came to visit me, I asked her to bring books by Valentin Pikul from the village. Mom was very happy, because for years these books had been collecting dust on the shelves and no one had time to read them. Thus, rewound with a thick brown thread, in a bag next to your favorite jars of nut jam and eternally dissatisfied gherkins, having traveled halfway across Russia, these books ended up in Vykhino. And then one December evening, when there was light snow falling outside the window, I opened the first page of the book The Favorite... Well, then I disappeared... no, more precisely, I drowned in this book. What is most striking is that Pikul describes Catherine and her favorites Orlov and Potemkin not just as lovers, but as people whose fates were predetermined that they would play a vital role in the history of Russia. But how rich the language of the narrative is, it is simple but beautiful, intelligible, and what a description of those times, starting with the sables on the border with Poland in the bitter winter and ending with the southern borders.

Separately, I would like to note several historical moments that are directly related directly to the main characters, and not to the political life around them.

Fike... 1. Ekaterina, while still a young maid of honor with her mother, upon entering the territory of Russia, notices that the soldiers border troops- around the neck is a valuable sable. This delights them. 2. The fact that Elizabeth emphasizes her torn tights does not break her spirit, but on the contrary makes her stronger. 3. The fact that her mother, seeing so much dowry, steals it, without thinking about the future fate of her daughter, does not break her spirit, but, on the contrary, strengthens her. 4. While still young, he understands a lot of things, sees through palace intrigues, and even skillfully uses them for the sake of his victory. And those years were tough in terms of intrigue. 5. She understands perfectly well that her strength is only the people, no one else. She goes to him, against all odds. 6. She sacrifices a lot... a lot... But overall, this makes her even more purposeful, cunning, courageous and most importantly FAIR! This is a historically recorded fact. 7. Well, the most important thing that could change the course of history by 180 degrees is the game of Friedrich, who thought that by marrying her off, he would get Russia warm and that Fike should follow his instructions. Yeah! Right now! He himself did not understand how he became a hostage to his own game, and the fact that his niece staged the game in such a way that any grandmaster would be jealous. And everything was done exclusively in diplomatic tones, which was a masterpiece!

Well, a lot can be written about the moments in which Pikul describes the emergence of “Grishka Orlov” as a significant figure in the history of Russia. About how Potemkin was born and as a baby his father wanted to drown him in a swamp, but it did not accept him. About that beggar boy who will become the Grand Duke of Tauride and his fate. About Lomonosov, Ushakov, Suvorov, Napoleon.

A gorgeous work that encompasses the entire era of that time, through the hard work of the talented Valentin Pikul, who also left his mark on history.

Name: Favorite. 1998.

The novel depicts major events national history second half of the XVIII centuries. In the center of the story is the image of the favorite of Empress Catherine II Alekseevna, an outstanding statesman, commander Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin. Among characters- Empress Elizaveta Petrovna and Count Alexei Razumovsky, the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov and Count Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Russian national theater Fyodor Volkov and Count Alexander Stroganov, famous fleet admirals Russian Grigory Spiridov and Samuel Greig, the Polish king Stanislav August Poniatovsky and the rebel Emelyan Pugachev.

Pushkin predicted: “...The name of the strange Potemkin will be marked by the hand of history,” and Herzen later wrote that “the history of Catherine the Great cannot be read in front of ladies.” The names of these people, welded together by a single passion and hatred, common victories and defeats, are indissoluble in Russian antiquity. Potemkin would never have become the “Prince of Tauride” if Catherine’s love had passed him by, but she would not have risked being called “Great” if she was not surrounded by Russian people like Potemkin! The chronicle of a court favorite in Russia was often written in tar on lopsided fences. However, in the endless series of courtesans there were also smart people, passionate patriots: they boldly invaded Big Politics, ruling not only the crowned mistress, but the entire state. Among such darlings of happiness, the first place belongs to His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky, and the enormous significance of his activities in the history of the development of our Fatherland is no longer disputed by anyone. Peter I successfully resolved the Baltic problem, Potemkin had the honor of completing the Black Sea problem, It was this man who would become our main character, The novel “The Favorite” is the logical conclusion of my previous historical chronicles “Word and Deed”, “Pen and Sword”, I tried not to repeat himself, and therefore some episodes of the novel are written taking into account the fact that the reader is already familiar with the previous facts, which means he understands the interconnection of events...
There is only one fictional character in this novel, but his image was created based on true facts. All the rest are reliable individuals, and their dialogues are confirmed by correspondence and other documents of that era.

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Valentin Pikul

Pushkin predicted: “...the name of the strange Potemkin will be marked by the hand of history,” and Herzen later wrote that “the history of Catherine the Great cannot be read in front of ladies.” The names of these people, welded together by a single passion and hatred, common victories and defeats, are indissoluble in Russian antiquity. Potemkin would never have become the “Prince of Tauride” if Catherine’s love had passed him by, but she would not have risked being titled “Great” if she had not been surrounded by Russian people like Potemkin!

The chronicle of court favoritism in Russia was often written in tar on lopsided fences. However, in the endless series of courtesans there were also smart people, passionate patriots: they boldly invaded Big Politics, ruling not only the crowned mistress, but the entire state.

Among such darlings of happiness, the first place belongs to His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky, and the enormous significance of his activities in the history of the development of our Fatherland is no longer disputed by anyone.

Peter I successfully resolved the Baltic problem.

Potemkin had the honor of completing the Black Sea problem.

It is this person who will become our main hero.

The novel “The Favorite” is the logical conclusion of my previous historical chronicles “Word and Deed”, “Pen and Sword”. I tried not to repeat myself, and therefore some episodes of the novel were written taking into account the fact that the reader is already familiar with previous facts, which means that he understands the interconnection of events...

There is only one fictional character in this novel, but his image was created based on true facts. All the rest are reliable individuals, and their dialogues are confirmed by correspondence and other documents of that era.

His empress

Happiness is not as blind as people usually think. To better prove this, I will construct the following syllogism:

The first premise is qualities and character.

The second is behavior.

Conclusion - happiness or unhappiness.

From an old maxim

Birth

(instead of prologue)

Gardens and vegetable gardens in Moscow were blooming, it was stuffy.

Bees flew into the windows, buzzing heavily - indicating rain.

In the neighboring courtyard of the Khovansky princes, the washerwomen were scolding each other, lashing each other with ropes of wet linen.

And a paper kite floated in the sky - the kids were playing around.

- Eh! - said the disabled person. - I’ll pour the rest...

Of course, if you are already in your seventh decade, and you have stayed too long in the second majors, then villainous fortune prophesies the obvious: you, good fellow, will not become a general-in-chief. Because of this foresight, the major of the infantry regiments was in a long-standing despondency and deigned to consume vodka, which he snacked on with stewed crucian carp.

The year 1732 was then marked in Rus'...

It has long been known that the army is decorated with disabled people. And when the wounded are no longer bearable, they disperse them to their homes so that, while they rest on their beds, they do not become an eyesore with their ulcers. The major was also called to the military college - for the purpose of conducting a medical examination. And if he is unfit for battle heroism, they will give him abshid without a pension. Having gotten drunk on sour cabbage soup, he dutifully went to present himself to the commission. At the presence table sat some very fierce ranks.

“Identify yourself,” they demanded, “who you are, and tell us about your suffering.” But don’t chatter in vain, but report extractively, because it’s lunch time, and we’ve been sitting here since early morning without drinking or eating - we’re bothering ourselves with various cripples...

The major made a sensible report for the commission:

- My name is Lyaksandr Potemkin, son of Vasilyev; a nobleman of an old family, my estates in the provinces of Penza and Smolensk; I have about fifty serf souls; in marriage - yes! - I’m married, but I don’t remember my wife over the years, and I offended God with my children...

Then, undressing, the major began to visibly boast about his disability: near Azov he was shot in the side with a Tatar bow, near Narva he was hit in the skull with a Swedish butt, at Riga he was badly burned by gunpowder, at Poltava he was brutally chopped with a broadsword, and in the unfortunate Prut campaign the hand is dented by the wheel of the mortar, causing the fingers to bend badly. But then he saw in the ranks of command a “former” soldier who had previously been his subordinate. And now the sneaky soldier, of “vile” origin, himself a major, showed off at the commission table - with a sword and a sword belt with a scarf.

- And you, nit, how did you get involved among the nobles?

To which he was told: not to make any noise, otherwise they would take him out and put him in the protocol. Major Potemkin hastily put on his trousers and quickly buttoned up his uniform:

- And all of you disappear with abshid without a pension! I’d rather rot in the infantry, but I won’t tolerate disgrace to the honor of the nobility...

Two years after this incident, in respect of his disability, Potemkin was finally given his resignation.

“Go,” the leaders ordered, “to your home and sit there quietly.” The time now is such that it is not appropriate to mumble in the corners...

It was the time of the reign of Anna Ioannovna - bloody!

Alexander Vasilyevich left Moscow, but did not turn his horses onto the Smolensky highway to visit his wife, but brought him to the Penza region, to the wretched little estate of Manshino, which lay on the Kyiv road. This is where the evil one misled him!

It’s truly true: gray hair in a beard means a devil in a rib...

Potemkin really forgot his wife Tatyana. From the wedding table they immediately pushed him into the infantry of Peter I, and the youngster tumbled in battles and marches, just have time to turn around. Is this why he, an old man himself, did not go to his native Smolensk region, so as not to see his wife, also old?

And while living in my village, I noticed a young widow among the Skuratov neighbors - Daria Vasilievna, who came from the Kondyrev family (she was thirty years younger than the major). And the disabled man fell in love with visiting the village of Skuratovo. When he arrives, it’s honor with honor, he bows to all the nobles, and to Daria Vasilievna personally:

“Don’t I seem disgusting to you, beauty?”

To which the widow always answered him frankly:

- Yes, sir, you haven’t done anything bad yet, so why would you seem disgusted?

And Potemkin began to seduce the young woman into love.

“Men today,” Daria Skuratova denied, “have become very playful, and I, a widow, need to be afraid of them.”

- So I... also widows, - Potemkin lied to her; He began to caress the Skuratovs, complaining about loneliness that, they say, there was nowhere to lay his head. “If Daria, Vasilievna’s light, brightened up my days,” the major hinted, “then I would carry her in my arms!”

The Skuratovs quickly persuaded their daughter-in-law:

“You fool, don’t cry: you should be promoted from midshipman to the rank of major, and if you don’t agree, we’ll drive you away from our yard...”

Standing before the holy lectern, Potemkin deceived the priest that he had been a widow for a long time. Daria Vasilyevna quickly suffered, only in the sixth month of hardships she accidentally found out that her husband’s wife was alive in the Smolensk region.

The old man stood in front of the icons and apologized.

- That's right! - said. - I don’t remember my first one. You are the only one dear to me... Forgive me - don’t drive me out, crippled and orphaned. I didn’t even have a life: just loud victories and tavern fun...

They collected their belongings, dragged themselves in a cart to Dukhovshchina - they rode and grieved, feeling sorry for each other. The times were harsh, the spiritual Inquisition punished bigamy cruelly. We arrived in Chizhovo, and there the old willows were bent over the dilapidated bathhouses, and hens and chicks scattered clucking along the roadsides from under the cart wheels. Here is the noble estate of the Potemkins - the same hut as the peasants, only wider and more seated...

The wife came out onto the porch. They immediately fell at her feet, begging for forgiveness. Tatyana Potemkina told her husband:

- I’m here for you, Sashenka. gray hair I was waiting. It happened that I would bite into a piece of bread, and then I would cry - are you full, practicing in battles? She kept looking at the road - are you really going? So, in my old age, God granted me the gift: my clear dove flew in, but not alone, but with a young dove... Look how she bulged her belly! You can see right away that the egg will lay soon...

Potemkin looked gloomily at his first wife.

Between them, the second one was lying in the dust, and it would always be there (according to church statutes). illegal while the first wife is alive.

The legal one asked the illegal one:

- So what should I do to improve your happiness? Or should I immediately lay hands on myself?

“Get out... don’t bother me,” Potemkin said gloomily. - Get a haircut. Accept the schema. Then we will be free... that's all.