Turbine days year. Read the book Turbine Days

The post was inspired by reading Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov’s play “Days of the Turbins”. This play was either part of school curriculum, or was recommended as extracurricular reading, but I didn’t read it at school, although I heard about it. I just got my hands on it now.

Brief summary of the play "Days of the Turbins" by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov
The play takes place in Ukraine in 1918. Ukraine is in the hands German troops and Hetman Skoropadsky. The White movement in Ukraine is an ally of the Germans and the Hetman. In connection with Germany's withdrawal from the war, the hetman's position becomes precarious, as Petliura's well-armed and numerous troops are approaching Kyiv. Shortly before the capture of Kyiv by Petliura, abandoning everything, the hetman fled to Germany. Vladimir Robertovich Talberg, the husband of Elena Vasilievna Talberg, runs with him. Elena Vasilievna's brothers, Colonel Alexey Turbin and Nikolai, together with their colleagues and friends Captain Myshlaevsky, Lieutenant Shervinsky, Captain Studzinsky are fragments white movement in Ukraine, and after the flight of the hetman - practically the only, albeit very small, force opposing the Bolsheviks.

The unit commanded by Colonel Alexey Trubin moves out and prepares for defense against Petliura’s troops. Shortly before the enemy arrives, Alexei Trubin gives the command to take off his shoulder straps and hide, because he does not understand who he should protect now. He himself dies while covering the retreat of his comrades; his brother Nikolai is seriously wounded, but survives.

Two months later, the Bolsheviks drive Petlyura’s troops out of Kyiv, and the lives of the main characters again take a sharp turn: Elena Vasilyevna decides to divorce her husband who fled and marry Shervinsky, who became a singer. Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky are thinking about what to do next and whose side to take. One thing is clear to everyone: life will never be the same again.

Meaning
"Days of the Turbins" by Mikhail Bulgakov shows the collapse of the old life for several not the worst representatives of the old tsarist regime, now White Guards. Not wanting to have anything to do with the Bolsheviks, they become allies with the Germans and the hetman, but even there they quickly discover that they have nothing to defend, and that their lives will never be the same.

Conclusion
I do not recommend reading the play “Days of the Turbins” by M.A. Bulgakov, because:
- the topic of the Civil War is not close to me, because almost a hundred years have passed (of course, if the topic is close to you, then read on);
- I am not a fan of plays;
- I don’t particularly like M.A.’s work. Bulgakov (especially "The Master and Margarita").

The tragedy of the civil war is one of the most important themes in Russian literature of the 20th century. Bulgakov did not ignore her either. The "Great Schism," the breaking apart of a nation into warring camps, was often depicted in the 1920s and 1930s. through family breakdown. For example, in “Don Stories” and “ Quiet Don» M.A. Sholokhov, the civil war separates brothers, fathers and their children into different warring camps. And yet, home and family remain for most writers the main hope for a return to normal life and for the preservation of culture. A man and a formidable era that breaks his fate - these are the two conflicting sides in the drama “The Days of the Turbins” (1926, published in 1955).

A similar conflict - the conflict between a private, normal, harmonious life and the impersonal, harsh Time - determined both the figurative structure and the genre features of the play. Bulgakov’s focus is not just on the civil war, but on the way of life it exploded, on people deprived of the world that was familiar and dear to them. The tragic leitmotif in “Days of the Turbins” is the theme of uselessness, “lostness” of an honest, intelligent, strong man - Alexei Turbin.

House and City - traditional components of Bulgakov's art world. Just as it will be in the writer’s prose - “ Heart of a Dog" and "The Master and Margarita" - the space of "Days of the Turbins" consists of two qualitatively different spheres. The first is the Turbins' Kyiv apartment. The most important components of this space are comfort, harmony, spirituality, and divine warmth. In the center of this world is a beautiful woman, Alexei’s sister Elena. Cream curtains, a snow-white tablecloth, flowers, the gentle music of an ancient clock and, of course, a fireplace with its gentle, even warmth - these are the objective components of Turbino life. This way of life is not just a comfortable environment for pampered nobles. He is the condition of their spiritual life, their existence. Here witty dialogues flare up, the characters’ experiences are deep, but not forced: psychologism is fused with light acting, with artistry, with panache of style. Existence, that is, a life filled with high meaning, is unthinkable without culture, including without the culture of everyday life and without the culture of speech. The spirituality of those who are deprived of a normal life: their home, their family, their music, their language is questionable.

The Turbin family is an island of culture in the raging elements of lack of culture, anger and meanness. The City, the second spatial sphere of the play, is captured by such an element. The time of action, the playwright indicates, is “a terrible year”, around the Turbino house - “ winter night" What is there, outside the cozy Turbino “harbour”? There, according to Alexei, is the “damn comedy” of the hetman, there is the “black fog” of Petliurism, there is the meaningless existence of the “coffee army,” as Turbin ironically calls his fellow officers. The three scenes of the play immediately following the opening scene of dinner at the Turbins' house are in a tragicomic tone. The playwright's sarcasm is personified in the grotesque images of the Germans von Schratt and von Dust, in the farcical figure of the hetman, in the personas of the operetta villains-Petliurists.

The behavior of the cadets subordinate to Turbin is not without farce: the romance “The night breathed with the delight of voluptuousness” sounds extremely ridiculous in their mouths; the gymnasium guard Maxim calls them “Tatars” after they break desks and light a fire in the school lobby.

Alas, the comedy of situations and the grotesque confusion of languages (Russian with German or Russian with Ukrainian) not only do not relieve the severity of the conflict, but, on the contrary, contrast with the tragedy of the situation in which the Turbins and their friends find themselves. Farcical elements give the depicted era a devilish, demonic, infernal flavor. What is happening around the House is an orgy of violence provoked by the revolution. Cowardice, betrayal and the other side of these qualities - predation and banditry - reign in the “new” world. In this world, Bulgakov believes, man cannot survive. To survive, you need to lose, as Alexander Blok would say, “part of the soul” - lose comfort, music, creativity, love. That is why he goes to his death, essentially committing suicide, main character dramas Alexey Turbin. The era of culture is ending, and Nikolka and Studzinsky speak about this in the last lines of the play. The time experienced by the heroes is a prologue to life without culture and an epilogue to life in “ nightingale garden“culture, comfort, humanity.

In the genre form of tragic farce, Bulgakov embodied in “Days of the Turbins” the idea of farewell to the “cherry orchard” of Russian culture, to the former Russia, which was lost by the Turbins forever.

Mikhail Bulgakov

Days of the Turbins

Play in four acts

Characters

TUR BIN ALEKSEY VASILIEVICH – artillery colonel, 30 years old.

T u r b i n N i k o l a i - his brother, 18 years old.

TALBERG ELENA VASILEVNA – their sister, 24 years old.

T a l b erg Vladimir R o b e r t o v i c h - Colonel of the General Staff, her husband, 38 years old.

Myshlaevskiy Viktor Viktorovich – staff captain, artilleryman, 38 years old.

Shervinsky Leonid Yuryevich - lieutenant, personal adjutant of the hetman.

Studzinskiy A l e x a n d r B r o n i s l a v o v i c h – captain, 29 years old.

L ari o s i k - Zhytomyr cousin, 21 years old.

Hetman of Ukraine.

Bolbotun - commander of the 1st Petlyura Cavalry Division.

Galanba is a Petliurist centurion, a former Uhlan captain.

U r a g a n.

K ir p a t y.

Von Schratt - German general.

F o n D u s t - German major.

GERMAN DOCTOR.

D e s e r t i r -s e c h e v i k.

HUMAN BASKET.

C a m e r l a k e y.

M aks i m - gymnasium teacher, 60 years old.

Gaidamak is a telephone operator.

FIRST OFFICER.

SECOND OFFICER.

T h i r d o f i c e r.

F irst junkers.

Second junker.

T h i r d u n k e r.

Y u n k e r a i g a i d a m a k i.

The first, second and third acts take place in the winter of 1918, the fourth act in early 1919.

The location is the city of Kyiv.

Act one

Scene one

Turbins' apartment. Evening. There's a fire in the fireplace. When the curtain opens, the clock strikes nine times and Boccherini's minuet is played tenderly.

Alexey bent over the papers.

N i k o l k a (plays guitar and sings).

Worse rumors every hour:
Petlyura is coming at us!
We loaded the machine guns,
We fired at Petliura,
Machine gunners-chick-chick...
Darlings...
You helped us out, well done.

A l e k s e y. God knows what you're eating! Cook's songs. Sing something decent.

N i k o l k a. Why cooks? I composed this myself, Alyosha. (Sings.)

Sing whether you like or not,
Your voice is not like that!
There are such voices...
Your hair will stand on end...

A l e k s e y. This is exactly what your voice is about. N i k o l k a. Alyosha, this is in vain, by God! I have a voice, although not the same as Shervinsky’s, but still quite decent. Dramatic, most likely a baritone. Helen, oh Helen! What kind of voice do you think I have?

Elena (from his room). From whom? At your place? There is none.

N i k o l k a. She was upset, that’s why she answered like that. And by the way, Alyosha, my singing teacher told me: “You,” he says, “Nikolai Vasilyevich, in essence, could sing in opera, if not for the revolution.”

A l e k s e y. Your singing teacher is a fool.

N i k o l k a. I knew it. A complete breakdown of nerves in the Turbine house. The singing teacher is a fool. I don’t have a voice, and yesterday I still had one, and I’m generally pessimistic. And I am by nature more inclined to optimism. (Touches the strings.) Although you know, Alyosha, I’m starting to worry myself. It’s already nine o’clock, and he said he’ll come in the morning. Has something happened to him?

A l e k s e y. Keep your voice down. Understood?

N i k o l k a. Here is the commission, creator, to be a married sister's brother.

Elena (from his room). What time is it in the dining room?

N i k o l k a. Uh... nine. Our hours are ahead, Lenochka.

Elena (from his room). Please don't make it up.

N i k o l k a. Look, he's worried. (Humming.) Foggy... Oh, how foggy everything is!..

A l e k s e y. Don't break my soul, please. Sing merry.

N i k o l k a (sings).

Hello, summer residents!
Hello, summer residents!
We started filming a long time ago...
Hey, my song!.. Beloved!..
Glug-glug-glug, bottle
State wine!!.
Ton caps,
Shaped boots,
Then the cadet guards are coming...

The electricity suddenly goes out. Outside the windows a military unit passes by singing.

A l e k s e y. The devil knows what it is! It goes out every minute. Helen, please give me some candles.

Elena (from his room). Yes!.. Yes!..

A l e k s e y. Some part has passed.

Elena, coming out with a candle, listens. Distant cannon strike.

N i k o l k a. How close. The impression is as if they were shooting near Svyatoshin. I wonder what's going on there? Alyosha, maybe you’ll send me to find out what’s going on at headquarters? I would go.

A l e k s e y. Of course, you are still missing. Please sit still.

N i k o l k a. I’m listening, Mr. Colonel... Actually, because, you know, inaction... it’s a little offensive... People are fighting there... At least our division was more ready.

A l e k s e y. When I need your advice in preparing a division, I will tell you myself. Understood?

N i k o l k a. Understood. It's my fault, Colonel.

Electricity flashes.

Elena. Alyosha, where is my husband?

A l e k s e y. He'll come, Lenochka.

Elena. But how can this be? He said he would come in the morning, but now it’s nine o’clock and he’s still not there. Has something already happened to him?

A l e k s e y. Helen, well, of course, this can’t be. You know that the line to the west is guarded by the Germans.

Elena. But why is he still not there?

A l e k s e y. Well, obviously, they are at every station.

N i k o l k a. Revolutionary riding, Lenochka. You drive for an hour and stand for two.

Well, here he is, I told you so! (Runs to open the door.) Who's there?

N i k o l k a (let Myshlaevsky into the hallway). Is it you, Vitenka?

Myshlaevsky. Well, of course I would be crushed! Nikol, take the rifle, please. Behold, mother of the devil!

Elena. Victor, where are you from?

Myshlaevsky. From under the Red Tavern. Hang it carefully, Nikol. There is a bottle of vodka in my pocket. Don't break it. Let me spend the night, Lena, I won’t make it home, I’m completely frozen.

Elena. Oh, my God, of course! Go quickly to the fire.

They go to the fireplace.

Myshlaevsky. Oh... oh... oh...

A l e k s e y. Why couldn’t they give you felt boots, or what?

Myshlaevsky. Felt boots! These are such bastards! (Rushes towards the fire.)

Elena. Here's what: the bathtub is heated now, you undress him as quickly as possible, and I'll prepare his underwear. (Leaves.)

Myshlaevsky. Darling, take it off, take it off, take it off...

N i k o l k a. Now, now. (Takes off Myshlaevsky’s boots.)

Myshlaevsky. Easier, brother, oh, easier! I should like to drink some vodka, some vodka.

The play “Days of the Turbins” was created on the basis of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”, but in the course of the work the author was forced, given the conventionality of the stage and censorship requirements, to compress the action and the number of characters to a minimum and abandon many of his favorite ideas and images. As in the novel, in the play Bulgakov turns to the depiction of a family during the tragic days of the Civil War and, following Tolstoy’s traditions, contrasts the chaos of war with everyday pictures of life in the Turbino house. The play consists of four acts and has a ring composition: the ending echoes the beginning. The events of the first three acts of “Days of the Turbins” relate to the winter of 1918, the fourth - to the beginning of 1919. From the first act of the play, the playwright lovingly creates the image of a House, which is made up of everyday
realities that are important to the author himself: a fire in the fireplace, a clock that gently plays a Boccherini minuet, a piano, cream curtains. From the first scene it becomes clear that in this house there is an atmosphere of warmth, friendship, attention and sympathy for each other, an atmosphere of love. The house is inhabited by Alexey, Nikolka, Elena Turbins, but here they find a warm welcome, clean linen and a hot bath for the frostbitten Myshlaevsky, a friend of the house, and the Zhytomyr cousin, whom no one expected, Lariosik, a poet and touching little man. Despite the troubling times, there is a place for friends on this island of fading family life. Only Talberg, Elena’s husband, is a foreign phenomenon here. He grumbles: “Not a house, but an inn.” And it is the careerist Talberg who flees, abandoning Elena to the mercy of fate, from this house, like a rat from a ship, fleeing from a doomed city and country.

In the scene of Alexei's farewell to Talberg, the main conflict of the play is outlined: between decency, loyalty to duty and honor of the defenders of the House, representatives of the “White Guard,” on the one hand, and meanness, betrayal, cowardice and selfishness of the “staff bastard” fleeing the country at the pace of a rat. ", on the other. Alexey does not shake hands with Talberg, showing his rejection of his behavior, and is ready to answer for this in a duel of honor. This is how conflict arises in the family line. The beginning of a love affair also appears, which does not play a decisive role in the conflict of the play, but the flight of Elena’s husband allows her to decide her fate on her own and later accept Shervinsky’s offer. All the men of the Turbin house, except Lariosik,
white army officers. They face a deliberately doomed attempt to defend the city from Petliura. Tragic predestination can be heard in Alexei’s monologue during the “last supper of the division.” He anticipates a mortal battle with the Bolsheviks,
is indignant that the hetman did not begin in time the formation of officer corps that would have slammed not only Petliura, but also the Bolsheviks in Moscow. And now the officers have turned into cafe regulars. “He’s sitting in a coffee shop on Khreshchatyk, and with him all this guards staff horde.” In Colonel Turbin’s division, “for every hundred cadets there are one hundred and twenty students, and they hold a rifle like a shovel.” Anticipating his own death, Alexey still goes to defend the city (I’m in trouble, but I’ll go!), He cannot do otherwise. Just like other officers: Myshlaevsky, Studzinsky and his younger brother Nikolka.

War breaks into the Turbins' house, bringing chaos. The familiar world is collapsing, the favorite march to Pushkin’s poems “Song of prophetic Oleg“We have to sing without “seditious” words, in people’s moods we can feel brokenness and confusion, but still the first
the action ends with a lyrical scene of Elena’s explanation with Shervinsky. As in: throughout the play, in this scene the tragic is successfully intertwined with the comic: the lovers’ kiss is interrupted by the drunken Lariosik’s remark: “Don’t kiss, otherwise I’ll feel sick.”

In the second act, the plot goes beyond the Turbino house, introducing the family line to the historical one. Bulgakov shows the hetman’s headquarters, where Shervinsky went on duty, the Germans taking the hetman with them, then the Headquarters 1st Cavalry divisions
Petliurists engaged in outright robbery. Flight of the disguised hetman, staff officers and commander-in-chief volunteer army, leaving the defenders of the city without leadership, shamefully betraying them, forces Colonel Turbin to disband the division. Warned by Shervinsvim in time, Alexey decides to take on this responsibility in order to save the lives of young volunteers in: officers. The scene in the lobby of the Alexander Gymnasium is the climax for the entire play and for both
their storylines. Alexey does not immediately meet with understanding from his division. There is a commotion, someone is crying, someone is threatening the colonel with a revolver, demanding that he be arrested. Then Turbin asks main question: “Who do you want to protect? "There is no longer an answer to this question. Used to be, now instead great Russia and the armies - the “staff bastard” and the coffee army. The same on the Don, everywhere. “The White movement... is over... The people carried us. He is against us." In this context, the death of Alexei, who embodies the image of a noble, uncompromising, honest officer and person, is symbolic. Having disbanded the division, Turbin remains to wait for the outpost, and in the opinion of Nikolka, who did not abandon his brother, despite all the threats, to wait for “death from shame,” which was not slow to appear. Alexey is dying, the white movement in Ukraine is dying. Nikolka was wounded, but escaped, and he has to inform Elena that “the commander was killed.” Again the action moves to the Turbins' house, which has suffered a tragic loss. All the officers have returned, except Alexei, and Elena, who has lost her head with grief, blames them, adding a sense of guilt to the pain of loss.
Studzinski cannot stand these accusations and tries to shoot himself. Elena still finds the courage to retract her words: “I said it out of grief. My head went blank. Give me the revolver!” And Studzinski’s hysterical cry: “No one dares to reproach me! Nobody! Nobody! I carried out all the orders of Colonel Turbin!” — they are preparing Elena’s reaction to Nikolka’s last confession about Alexei’s death and her fainting. Even in unbearable grief, these people retain their nobility and generosity.

The last action takes place on Epiphany Eve, which occurred two months after the events described. “The apartment is lit. Elena and Lariosik are cleaning up the Christmas tree.” Bulgakov, creating a realistic and historically verified work, for the first time violated historical chronology, moving the departure of the Petliurites from Kyiv two weeks ahead, it was so important for him, by his own admission, to use the Christmas tree in the last act. The image of a Christmas tree shining with lights returned comfort to an orphaned house,
childhood memories, fenced off from war and chaos and, most importantly, gave hope. For some time, the world returned behind the cream curtains with its holiday (Baptism of what?), the confusion of relationships, the triumph of friendship. Lariosik declares his love to Elena, Elena and Shervinsky announce their engagement, and Talberg unexpectedly returns.

From the point of view of the logic of character, this return is not justified: the coward Talberg could not decide on such a risky undertaking - to stop by Kyiv besieged by the Reds on the way to the Don. However, to end the main conflict, as well as the love one, it was necessary to deal with Vladimir Robertovich completely, and in his person - with all the “staff bastard”. The main accusation against him is the death of Alexei. There is no longer the same leniency towards Talberg as towards friends who have done everything in their power: he is a traitor.
The Turbino House has again gathered a warm circle of friends at the table, but Alexei is not there, and Nikolka is a cripple, outside the window the orchestra is playing “The Internationale. And the Bolshevik guns salute. The future is worrying and unclear. To summarize the writer trusts par excellence
to the military man Myshlaevsky and the non-military man Larnosik. Viktor Myshlaevsky drives Talberg away, and he takes upon himself the responsibility to say what Alexey would say if he were alive. Myshlaevsky refuses to go to the Don, under the command of the same generals. He refuses to flee Russia: “I won’t go, I’ll be here in Russia. And whatever happens to her!” It is obvious that all the heroes of “Days of the Turbins” will share the fate of the fatherland, as the noble people of that time did, as a rule, dooming themselves to death or suffering. Myshlaevsky also expressed the belief that Russia has a future. “There will be no old one, there will be a new one. The victory march sounds again and again: “We have won, and the enemy is running, running, running!” The social enemy is on the doorstep, but the Christmas tree is on fire in the house, Lariosik makes a speech: “We are all together again.” Lariosin generously wishes his beloved woman happiness with another and quotes Chekhov: “We will rest, we will rest.” And then a new historical play. War and peace, chaos and a quiet “harbour with cream curtains”, decency and betrayal, history and the private life of a family are components of the conflict of the play, its eternal universal context. Bulgakov had to change a lot under pressure from the General Repertoire Committee and add a “red” accent. However, the play has retained its attractive power - the exceptional charm of the heroes, the image of the House-ship that has survived the fight against the elements, unshakable even in this time of troubles values: love for the motherland, for women, for family, friendship not subject to ideological differences, loyalty to honor and duty.

On October 5, 1926, the premiere of M.A.’s play took place on the stage of the Moscow Art Academic Theater (MKhAT). Bulgakov "Days of the Turbins".

Perhaps, in the history of Russian-language drama of the 20th century, it is difficult to find a play with a more dramatic but interesting fate. None of M.A.’s works Bulgakov during the author’s lifetime did not receive such wide fame or public recognition as “Days of the Turbins”. The Moscow Art Theater performance experienced full houses and a storm of applause. The little-known playwright in 1926 suffered real persecution. However, while professional literary critics and ideologically savvy censors bombarded the play with abusive reviews, seeking its immediate ban, the audience truly lived the life of its characters. Sincerely empathizing with the events on stage, the audience gave free rein to their emotions, cried and laughed, thought, following Bulgakov, about difficult destinies of your country.

History of the play

April 3, 1925 M.A. Bulgakov received an invitation from the Moscow Art Theater director B.I. Vershilov to come to the theater, where he was offered to write a play based on the just published novel “The White Guard.”

By that time, only the first part of the work had been published, but the theater needed a modern play. At this moment, the author already had a plan for such a play - he seemed to continue Bulgakov’s early play “The Turbine Brothers”. The autobiographical characters of the work (Turbina is the maiden name of Bulgakov's grandmother on his mother's side) were transferred to the times of the 1905 revolution. As the head of the literary section of the arts department, M. A. Bulgakov staged the production of “The Turbin Brothers” in Vladikavkaz (1920). According to the author himself, the play was “crude” and the performance was not particularly successful. Vershilov's proposal forced Mikhail Afanasyevich to once again turn to the memorable events in Kyiv at the turn of 1918-1919. He began work on the first edition of the new play “The White Guard” in July 1925, and in September he had already read it original version. The reading in the theater was attended by Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (Alekseev), Vershilov and other leading directors and actors of the Moscow Art Theater. In the first edition almost all of them were repeated storylines novel and its main characters are preserved. Alexey Turbin was still a military doctor, among characters Colonels Malyshev and Nai-Tours were present. This option did not satisfy the Moscow Art Theater because of its “romantic” protractedness and the presence of overlapping characters.

In the next edition, which Bulgakov read to the Moscow Art Theater troupe at the end of October 1925, Nai-Tours was eliminated and his remarks were transferred to Colonel Malyshev. And by the end of January 1926, when the final distribution of roles in the future performance was made, Bulgakov also removed Malyshev, turning Alexei Turbin into a career artillery colonel, a real exponent of the ideology of the white movement. Now it was Turbin, and not Nai-Tours and Malyshev, who died in the gymnasium, covering the retreat of the cadets, and the intimacy of Turbin’s house exploded with the tragedy of the death of its owner.

Due to censorship requirements, the text of the play suffered significant losses. A scene was filmed at the Petliura headquarters, because the Petliura freemen in their cruel element were very reminiscent of the Red Army. The name “White Guard” raised objections. It seemed too provocative. K. S. Stanislavsky, under pressure from the General Repertoire Committee, proposed replacing it with the title “Before the End,” which Bulgakov categorically rejected. In August 1926, the parties agreed on the name “Days of the Turbins” (the “Turbin Family” appeared as an intermediate option). On September 25, 1926, the “Days of the Turbins” were permitted by the Main Repertoire Committee only at the Moscow Art Theater. IN last days Before the premiere, a number of changes had to be made, especially to the finale, where the growing sounds of the “Internationale” appeared, and Myshlaevsky was forced to say a “toast” to the Red Army and express his readiness to serve in it.

Oddly enough, the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, K. E. Voroshilov, played a major role in the negotiations on the permission of the play. On October 20, 1927, Stanislavsky sent him a letter of gratitude: “Dear Klementy Efremovich, allow me to bring you heartfelt gratitude from the Moscow Art Theater for your help in resolving the play “Days of the Turbins” - with which you provided great support at a difficult moment for us.”

Public reaction

"Days of the Turbins" from the premiere performance enjoyed unique success with the public. This was the only play in the Soviet theater where the white camp was shown not as a caricature, but with deep sympathy. The personal decency and honesty of the Bolshevik opponents were not questioned, and the blame for the defeat was placed on the headquarters and generals who failed to propose a political program acceptable to the majority of the population.

During the first season of 1926 - 1927, “Days of the Turbins” were performed 108 times, more than any other performance in Moscow theaters.

Alexey Turbin was brilliantly played by N. Khmelev, Elena by O. Androvskaya (Schultz) and V. Sokolov, Lariosik by M. Yanshin, Myshlaevsky by B. Dobronravov, Shervinsky by M. Prudkin, Nikolka by I. Kudryavtsev. The director was the young director I. Sudakov, the artistic direction was carried out by K. Stanislavsky himself.

“Days of the Turbins” became a landmark production, a kind of “Seagull” for the younger generation of actors and directors of the Art Theater.

The play was loved by the widest sections of the population: both the intelligent non-party public, the military, and even party leaders attended the performance with pleasure.

The second wife of the playwright L. E. Belozerskaya in her memoirs reproduces the story of one friend about the Moscow Art Theater performance:

Play by M.A. Bulgakov’s “Days of the Turbins” was received with a bang by white emigrants. Already in 1927-28, when people abroad still knew nothing about Bulgakov or his novel “The White Guard,” the manuscripts of the play were copied by hand by former white soldiers. In many centers of concentration of Russian emigration: Berlin, Paris, Prague, Belgrade, “Days of the Turbins” were staged by Russian emigrant theaters and amateur groups.

A very emotional correspondence has been preserved between one of the heroes of the play - Hetman Skoropadsky - with the head of the II department of the EMRO (Russian All-Military Union, the largest military organization emigration) Major General A.A. von Lampe. The ex-hetman lived at that time in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. He quickly heard rumors that the Student Assistance Committee, among whom there were many officers of the White armies and cadets, staged M. Bulgakov’s play “The Days of the Turbins” in Berlin. In his diary, General von Lampe, the head of the Russian colony in Berlin, describes the real enthusiasm caused by the “Turbin Days” among emigrant youth. The play was received with delight by both the audience and the leading actors themselves. Only the recent ruler of Ukraine was seriously outraged by its content, as well as the fact that former white soldiers participated in the performance. Skoropadsky made sharp accusations against von Lampe, who allowed the production to take place and himself acted as a military-historical consultant for “this outrage.” As a result, the good personal relationships between the correspondents were put to rest. It almost came to a challenge to a duel, but in his exhaustive answer to Skoropadsky (although never sent to the addressee), the general expressed a common thought for the entire emigration: the play is wonderful, and it must be staged and watched. Von Lampe wrote to Skoropadsky in November 1928:

With his play M.A. Bulgakov achieved, as we see, the impossible: he managed to please both the red military leaders (Stalin, Voroshilov, Budyonny) and the most irreconcilable white generals.

However, the party public sometimes tried to obstruct the “White Guard”. On October 2, 1926, on the day of the public dress rehearsal of the “Days of the Turbins,” a debate “Theatrical Policy of Soviet Power” was organized. Vladimir Mayakovsky, a literary competitor and fierce critic of M. Bulgakov’s work, gave a rather harsh speech in which he proposed not to ban (what will you achieve with bans?), but simply to disrupt Bulgakov’s performance...

True, according to the biographers of Bulgakov and Mayakovsky, the proletarian poet did not make any concrete attempts to disrupt the performance of “Days of the Turbins”. It is still unknown exactly whether V. Mayakovsky even saw this play. His rather prominent figure did not appear at the Moscow Art Theater performances during the 1926-27 season. According to Belozerskaya’s recollections, indignant party spectators often left the performance, but no special excesses were observed on their part in the hall.

An interesting fact: when “Days of the Turbins” was playing in the theater, two ambulances were on duty at once on Kamergersky Lane. People empathized so passionately with what was happening on stage that the doctors did not have to sit idle.

Critic's opinion

Almost all criticism unanimously criticized “Days of the Turbins”. People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky argued (in Izvestia on October 8, 1926) that the play reigns in “the atmosphere of a dog’s wedding around some red-haired friend’s wife,” and considered it “a semi-apology for the White Guard.” Later, in 1933, Lunacharsky called Bulgakov’s play “a drama of restrained, even if you want, crafty capitulation.” Other communist critics and censors also did not mince words. O.S. Litovsky (let us remember his consonant critic Latunsky from “The Master and Margarita”) did a lot to expel Bulgakov’s plays from the theater stage. Here is one of his reviews, given by us in an abbreviated form:

“The utmost sincerity with which the young actors portrayed the experiences of the “knights” of the white idea, the evil punishers, the executioners of the working class, aroused the sympathy of one, the most insignificant part of the audience, and the indignation of another. Whether the theater wanted it or not, it turned out that the performance called on us to take pity, to treat the lost Russian intellectuals in and out of uniform as human beings.

Nevertheless, we could not help but see that a new, young generation of artists from the Art Theater was coming onto the stage, who had every reason to stand on a par with the glorious old men... On the evening of the premiere, all the participants in the performance literally seemed like a miracle: Yanshin, Prudkin, and Stanitsyn, and Khmelev, and especially Sokolova and Dobronravov... Myshlaevsky - Dobronravov was much smarter and more significant, deeper than his Bulgakov prototype. Khmelev in the role of Alexei Turbin was incomparably more tragic than the melodramatic image created by the author. And in general, the theater turned out to be much smarter than the play. And yet I couldn’t overcome it!”

In a letter to the government on March 28, 1930, the playwright noted that his scrapbook had accumulated 298 “hostile and abusive” reviews and 3 positive ones, the vast majority of which were dedicated to “The Days of the Turbins.”

The only positive response to the play was a review by N. Rukavishnikov in Komsomolskaya Pravda on December 29, 1926. This was a response to an abusive letter from the poet Alexander Bezymensky (1898-1973), who called Bulgakov a “new bourgeois brat.” Rukavishnikov tried to convince Bulgakov’s opponents that “on the threshold of the 10th anniversary October Revolution... it’s completely safe to show the viewer real people that the viewer is quite tired of both the shaggy priests from the propaganda and the pot-bellied capitalists in top hats,” but he never convinced any of the critics.

Criticism fell upon Bulgakov for the fact that in “Days of the Turbins” the White Guards appeared as tragic Chekhovian heroes. O. S. Litovsky dubbed Bulgakov’s play “The Cherry Orchard of the White Movement,” asking rhetorically: “What does the Soviet audience care about the suffering of the landowner Ranevskaya, whose cherry orchard is being mercilessly cut down? What does the Soviet audience care about the suffering of external and internal emigrants about the untimely death of the white movement?

A. Orlinsky accused the playwright that “all commanders and officers live, fight, die and get married without a single orderly, without servants, without the slightest contact with people from any other classes and social strata.”

On February 7, 1927, at a debate at the Meyerhold Theater, Bulgakov answered the critics: “I, the author of this play “Days of the Turbins,” who was in Kyiv during the Hetmanate and Petliurism, who saw the White Guards in Kyiv from the inside behind cream curtains, claim that orderlies in Kyiv that time, that is, when the events took place in my play, was worth its weight in gold.”

“Days of the Turbins” was to a much greater extent a realistic work than its critics admitted, who, unlike Bulgakov, presented reality in the form of given ideological schemes.

Heroes and prototypes of the play “Days of the Turbins”

TALBERG

The play depicts not only the best, but also the worst representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. Among the latter is Colonel Talberg, who is concerned only with his career. In the second edition of the play “The White Guard,” he quite selfishly explained his return to Kyiv, which the Bolsheviks were about to occupy: “I am perfectly aware of the matter. The Hetmanate turned out to be a stupid operetta. I decided to return and work in contact with the Soviet authorities. We need to change political milestones. That's all."

Talberg based his prototype on Bulgakov's son-in-law, the husband of Varya's sister, Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888-1968). Personnel officer tsarist army, despite his previous service with Hetman Skoropadsky and in the white armies of General Denikin, he became a teacher at the Red Army rifle school. Because of Talberg, Bulgakov quarreled with the Karum family. However, for censorship, such an early “change of leadership” of such an unsympathetic character turned out to be unacceptable. In the final text, Talberg had to explain his return to Kyiv by a business trip to the Don to General P. N. Krasnov. This looks strange: why did Thalberg, who was not distinguished by courage, choose such a risky route? The city was still occupied by Petliurists hostile to the whites and was about to be occupied by the Bolsheviks. Bulgakov needed the return of the deceived husband right before Elena’s wedding with Shervinsky to create comic effect and the final disgrace of Vladimir Robertovich.

The image of Talberg in The Days of the Turbins came out much more repulsive than in the novel The White Guard. L.S. Karum wrote about this in his memoirs “My Life. A novel without lies":

“...Bulgakov could not deny himself the pleasure so that someone would not hit me in the play, and his wife would marry someone else. Only Talberg (a negative type) goes to Denikin’s army, the rest disperse, after the capture of Kyiv by the Petliurists, in all directions. I was very excited because my acquaintances recognized the Bulgakov family in the novel and play and should have known or suspected that Talberg was me. This trick of Bulgakov also had an empirical and practical meaning. He strengthened the conviction about me that I was a hetman’s officer, and the local Kyiv OGPU... I wrote an excited letter to Moscow to Nadya (M.A. Bulgakov’s sister - E.Sh.), where I called Mikhail “a scoundrel and a scoundrel” and asked to hand over the letter Mikhail... And, by the way, I regret that I didn’t write a short story in Chekhov’s style, where I would talk about marrying for money, and about choosing the profession of a venereal doctor, and about morphinism and drunkenness in Kyiv, and about the lack of cleanliness in money attitude..."

By marrying for money here we mean Bulgakov’s first marriage - with T.N. Lappa, the daughter of an actual state councilor. Also, according to Karum, the future writer chose the profession of a venereal doctor solely for material reasons. As a zemstvo doctor in the Smolensk province, Bulgakov became addicted to morphine. In 1918, in Kyiv, he managed to overcome this illness, but, according to Karum, he became addicted to alcohol. Perhaps alcohol replaced Bulgakov’s drug for some time and helped him escape from the turmoil caused by the collapse of his former life.

Karum, naturally, did not want to admit that he was a negative character. But in many ways, Colonel Thalberg, who was copied from him, was one of the strongest, although very repulsive, images of the play. In the opinion of the censors, it was absolutely impossible to bring such a person into service in the Red Army. Therefore, Bulgakov had to send Talberg on a business trip to the Don to Krasnov.

MYSHLAEVSKY

Under pressure from the General Repertoire Committee and the Moscow Art Theater, a significant evolution towards change of leadership and willing acceptance Soviet power the handsome captain Myshlaevsky suffered. In the novel "The White Guard" this character had a very real prototype - the Bulgakovs' neighbor and friend, a certain Viktor Syngaevsky. However, in the play, the slob and drunkard, but honest little Myshlaevsky, “ages” by ten years and takes on completely different features. To develop the image, the author used a literary source - the novel by Vladimir Zazubrin (Zubtsov) “Two Worlds” (1921). His hero, lieutenant of Kolchak’s army, Ragimov, explained his intention this way. go to the Bolsheviks: “We fought. They cut it honestly. Ours doesn't take it. Let's go to those whose beret... In my opinion, both the homeland and the revolution are just a beautiful lie with which people cover up their selfish interests. This is how people are designed, that no matter what meanness they do, they will always find an excuse.”

Myshlaevsky in the final text speaks of his intention to serve the Bolsheviks and break with the white movement: “Enough! I have been fighting since nine hundred and fourteen. For what? For the fatherland? And this is the fatherland, when they abandoned me to shame?! And go to these lordships again?! Well no! Have you seen it? (Shows shish.) Shish!.. What am I, an idiot, really? No, I, Viktor Myshlaevsky, declare that I no longer have anything to do with these scoundrel generals. I’m finished!..”

Compared to Ragimov, Myshlaevsky was greatly refined in his motives, but the vitality of the image was completely preserved.

After the premiere of the play at the Moscow Art Theater, Bulgakov received a letter signed “Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky.” The fate of an unknown author in civil war completely coincided with the fate of Bulgakov’s hero, and in subsequent years it was just as bleak as that of the creator of “Days of the Turbins.” At the end of this strange letter, a man who introduced himself by the name of Myshlaevsky wrote:

“Lately, either under the influence of a passionate desire to fill the spiritual emptiness, or, indeed, it is so, but sometimes I hear subtle notes of some new life, real, truly beautiful, having nothing in common with either the royal or With Soviet Russia. I am making a great request to you on my own behalf and on behalf, I think, of many others like me, empty-hearted at heart. Tell me from the stage, from the pages of a magazine, directly or in Aesopian language, as you wish, but just let me know if you hear these subtle notes and what they sound about? Or is all this self-deception and the current Soviet emptiness (material, moral and mental) is a permanent phenomenon. Caesar, morituri te salutant! (Caesar, those doomed to death salute you (lat.)."

As an actual response to “Myshlaevsky,” one can consider the play “Crimson Island,” where Bulgakov, turning a parody of Smenovekhovism into an “ideological” play within a play, showed that in modern Soviet life everything is determined by the omnipotence of officials who stifle creative freedom, and there cannot be any new shoots here. In “Days of the Turbins” he still had hopes for some better future, so he introduced the Epiphany tree into the last act as a symbol of hope for spiritual rebirth.

The fate of the play

“Days of the Turbins,” despite unflattering reviews from critics and the excesses of the party public, ran successfully at the Moscow Art Theater for two seasons. In February 1929, playwright V.N. Bil-Belotserkovsky addressed a letter to Stalin regarding permission to stage Bulgakov’s new play “Running.” Stalin, in his response, characterized the new play as an “anti-Soviet phenomenon.” “Days of the Turbins” also suffered:

“Why are Bulgakov’s plays staged so often on stage? - asked the Leader. “Because it must be that there aren’t enough of our own plays suitable for production.” Without fish, even “Days of the Turbins” is a fish.”

In April 1929, “Days of the Turbins,” like all of Bulgakov’s plays, were removed from the repertoire. However, Stalin himself soon admitted that he had overdone it with “Days of the Turbins”. The leader was ready to allow “Run” if the author agreed to make some ideological changes. Bulgakov did not agree. In 1930, he seriously considered emigrating to France to reunite with his family there. (Bulgakov’s two younger brothers lived in Paris at that time).

“Everything is forbidden, I am ruined, hunted, completely alone. Why keep a writer in a country where his works cannot exist?..”

In 1932, Stalin personally considered M. A. Bulgakov’s request to leave the USSR. Instead of permission to leave, the disgraced writer was hired at the Moscow Art Theater. On February 16, 1932, the play “Days of the Turbins” was resumed. In a letter to his friend P. Popov, Bulgakov reported this as follows:

“For reasons that are unknown to me, and which I cannot enter into, the Government of the USSR gave a remarkable order to the Moscow Art Theater: to resume the play “Days of the Turbins”. For the author of this play, this means that he - the author - has been given back a part of his life. That's all."

Of course, the “wonderful order” was given not by the government, but by Stalin. At this time, he watched a performance at the Moscow Art Theater based on Afinogenov’s play “Fear,” which he did not like. The leader remembered Bulgakov and ordered the restoration of “Days of the Turbins” - which was immediately carried out. The performance remained on the stage of the Art Theater until June 1941. In total, the play was performed 987 times between 1926 and 1941. According to surviving information, Stalin watched “Days of the Turbins” at least 20 times. What attracted the leader of peoples so much in Bulgakov’s heroes? Perhaps something that could no longer be found in real life: decency, personal courage, spiritual freedom of those former Russian people who were carefully crushed into powder by the skating rink of Stalinist repressions...

It may very well be that “Turbines” saved the life of Bulgakov himself. If he had been arrested, the performance would have had to be filmed. It is also possible that it was only because Stalin loved the play that the author was not released abroad. If he had stayed with his brother in Paris, the play would have been banned too. Stalin could lose his favorite spectacle.

Neither during the life of Bulgakov, nor during the life of Stalin, the play “Days of the Turbins” was published. It was first published in the Soviet Union only in 1955.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, in the circles of Russian emigration in France and Germany, the play was published only in the form of manuscript scripts. White warriors often subjected her text to “ideological processing” (Myshlaevsky’s final monologue, as a rule, was paraphrased or thrown out altogether, and at the end Studzinsky called on everyone to go to the Don). In 1927, a translation made by K. Rosenberg appeared in Berlin German the second edition of “Days of the Turbins”, which in the Russian original bore the name “White Guard”. The publication had a double title: “Days of the Turbins. White Guard." There were other translations that were distributed in the form of manuscript lists in emigrant circles in the 1930s. In 1934, two translations of the play were published in Boston and New York. English language, made by Y. Lyons and F. Bloch.

In 1976, a three-part series was released in the USSR feature film“Days of the Turbins” (director V. Basov). In the 1990s, the play was revived under the title "The White Guard" in a number of Moscow theaters. The most successful production, in our opinion, by Chomsky at the Mossovet Theater still attracts full houses to this day.