Ideological and genre originality of “History of one city. Ideological and artistic features of the history of one city Artistic originality of the satire of the history of the city
THE ORIGINALITY OF SATIRE OF SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN. In 1780 Saltykov-Shchedrin's History of a City was published. It is very difficult to determine the genre of this work at first glance. This is most likely a historical chronicle with elements of fantasy, hyperbole, artistic allegory. This is a brilliant example of socio-political satire, the relevance of which over the years has become more and more acute and brilliant.
“He knows his native country better than anyone,” I. S. Turgenev wrote about Shchedrin, and it is very remarkable that these words were evoked in him precisely by the “History of a City”. The book begins with the fact that the ancient chronicler, "having said a few words in praise of his modesty," continues: "There was ... in ancient times a people called bunglers." These same bunglers devastated their lands, quarreled with their neighbors and "teared the bark from the last pine tree into cakes." Then "they decided to look for a prince." Thus, they no longer became bunglers, but Foolovites, and their city began to be called Foolov. The narrative itself is preceded by a "list of mayors" in the amount of 21 copies. And the collection of biographies of Foolov's mayors begins with Dementy Valamovich Brudasty. In his head, a huge mechanism was operating, playing two words-shouts: "I will not tolerate" and "razor". According to the satirist, Brudust embodies the type of an extremely simplified administrative leader, arising from the very nature of totalitarianism. The chronicle continues with "The Tale of the Six Mayors", evoking in the reader's memory the atrocities of favoritism in the era of palace coups in Russia. Amalka Stockfim overthrew Clementine de Bourboni and put her in a cage. Then Nelka Lyakhovskaya overthrew Amalka and locked her in the same cage with Klemantinka. The next morning, there was “nothing but stinking bones in the cage.” This is how the writer played up the meaning of the figurative expression "ready to eat each other." And the stories go on
about other city governors, of which one is more disgusting than the other. And this description ends with the image of Gloomy-Burcheev. This is where the despotic nature of absolutism and its “bridling possibilities” are fully revealed. Gloomy grumbling is a brilliant satirical generalization of all regimes and traditions based on one-man command. But then a downpour, or a tornado, flew into the city of Foolov, and "the former scoundrel instantly disappeared, as if melted in the air." The chronicle ends with the enigmatic words: "History has stopped its course." The entire population of Glupov is united by awe, submission to the curbing "measures" of the authorities. The Foolovites are almost always shown en masse: the Foolovites rush to the mayor's house in droves, throw themselves on their knees in droves, flee the villages in droves, and even die together. Sometimes, however, they grumble, even rebel. But this is a “rebellion on its knees”, with the screams of the hewn, screams and groans of the distraught hungry crowd, as it was in a lean year.
Such is the ending, equally bitter for all Foolovites. Saltykov-Shchedrin liked to repeat that the Russian muzhik is poor in all respects, and above all in the consciousness of his poverty. Bearing in mind this poverty, passivity and humility of the peasant, the satirist bitterly exclaims on behalf of the people: “We endure cold, hunger, every year we all wait: maybe it will be better ... How long?”
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826 - 1889)
Literature:
E. Pokusaev. Revolutionary satire of S-Shchedrin.
E. Pokusaev. M.E. Satykov-Shchedrin. (Essay on creativity). M., 1965.
E. Pokusaev. Lord Golovlev.
A.S. Bushmin M. S-Shchedrin.
A.S. Bushmin. The artistic world of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Bazanov. Tales of St. Shchedrin.
Nikolaev. Life and work of S-Shchedrin.
Saltykov-Shchedrin in the memoirs of contemporaries.
S-Shchedrin entered literature not only as a writer, but also as a denouncer of social and human vices, a master of socio-political satire. Sechenov called S-Shchedrin "a diagnostician of our social evils and ailments." The life and work of S-Sch covers almost the entire 19th century. He was born a month after the Decembrist uprising, and died 10 years before the end of the century. S-Shch witnessed all the major events and phenomena in Russian life. He adopted the traditions of Gogol and Turgenev and at the same time opened up the possibilities of satire and grotesque for Russian literature. The life of the writer turned out in such a way that from childhood he took out the most difficult memories of the peasants: “serfdom, heavy and rough in its forms, brought me closer to the forced masses. Only by experiencing it, I could come to a complete, conscious and passionate denial of it. Studied S-Sch at the Tsarsko-Selsky Lyceum. And the lyceum was famous for its democratic tendencies. He graduated from the Noble Institute of St. Petersburg, where student secret circles were organized.
The first work of S-Sch. in 1947-48. the story "A Tangled Case" and "Contradiction". Despite the low artistic merit, these works raised acute social issues, for which their author was exiled to Vyatka, to an administrative exile, where he served as an official. S-Sch later called it "the experience of the great school of life." He perfectly studied the life of officials, the bureaucracy and the state structure. This further determined the theme of his works.
The first major work of S-Sch was the cycle "Provincial Essays". The essays were a cycle of works of various genre forms. They depicted the life of a provincial town, its various classes. Thematically and artistically, the essays are connected with Gogol's Dead Souls. They begin and end with the image of the road, i.e. the conditional narrator arrives in the city, lives there for some time and leaves (ring composition). The writer consciously strives for publicism in order to convince the reader of the authenticity of what is depicted (this is a bad trick that helps to create a closed bad time and space). There is no further road, in the city itself time has stopped. This technique allows, firstly, to create a conditional model of a provincial town; secondly, to identify the most characteristic features of provincial Russian life; thirdly, to generalize the life of one city to the scale of the whole of Russia.
The first essay ("Introduction") is written in the genre of idyll. The narrator himself calls it "Bukolica". But behind the apparent idyllicness lies a sharp satire. The main artistic technique that S-Sch uses in the cycle and in subsequent works is grotesque - bringing to the point of absurdity, in order to show the illogicality of life situations. In combination with the sublime pathos of the idyll, this creates a comic effect. Moreover, the author's irony is directed both against officials, merchants, and against the gullible inhabitants of the city of Krutogorsk. The author's position can be characterized as a technique of "imaginary solidarity" - the effect of the discrepancy between high and low. Despite the outward resemblance of the "Provincial Essays" with the works of Gogol and "Notes of a Hunter" by Turgenev, the works of S-Sch have specific features. In Gogol, the narrator is an outside observer. In Turgenev, he is a protagonist, but in relation to the heroes, he is a representative of a different social environment (looks down). In S-Sch, the narrator is an ordinary resident of Krutogorsk, “his own” in the described environment. This gives the essays credibility and documentary quality. The cycle consists of several parts: "Past Times" about the high society of the city; "My Acquaintances" about individual representatives of the Krutogorsk world, etc.
A feature of the satirical method of S-Sch is that its characters expose themselves to the reader. In the essays 1st and 2nd story of the clerk, the author gives the floor to the characters themselves, who present bribery, malfeasance, deceit as the ability to live. This technique has led many critics to conclude that S-Sch avoids authorial judgments. However, even in early Christian literature, the idea of hidden ideal , to which the writer leads the reader by the method of contradiction.
S-Shchedrin's laughter, like Gogol's laughter, signifies the death of the old and the birth of the new. It is no coincidence that the “Provincial Essays” end with a funeral scene: old times are being buried. In this cycle, S-Sch uses another original technique: the revival of literary characters. The first of the heroes - Porfiry Porfiryevich - belongs to the Chichikov family. The section "Talented natures" depicts modern Pechorins, disillusioned, cynical, irritated - provincial Mephistopheles, showing their complete failure.
The cycle ends with the essay "Road". The narrator leaves Krutogorsk. On the way he meets a funeral procession: old times are being buried. The main characters of the essays among the funeral procession. The composition of the essay closes, and the theme of the road comes to the fore. This theme for the literature of the 19th century becomes the main and cross-cutting one. The road is understood symbolically: as a path of search, loss and gain, the life path of a person and the whole country. This is how the road was understood in ancient times. In Chinese poetry, the frenzied chariot ride over the abyss is a metaphor for the path of life. In Russian folklore, every road is a path from birth to death. At the beginning of the 19th century, Pushkin returned to the image of the road its mythological meaning. ( Shchepanskaya's work "The Road in Russian Culture").In his poem "Demons", a traveler lost in the steppe in a snowstorm symbolizes the constant quest of a person and his fate. A person who has gone astray finds himself in the power of demons, i.e. temptations.
The image of the road begins and ends the “provincial essays”, gives them not only a socially critical and satirical meaning, but makes them a philosophical reflection on the fate of Russia, the Russian people and the Russian people.
The next works were the cycle of essays “Lords of Tashkent” and the cycle of stories “Pompadours and Pompadours”.
Ideological and artistic features of the novel "The History of a City"
The first major work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was the novel "The History of a City" (1869 - 1870). The idea of the novel matured with the writer gradually. Back in the early 1860s, a cycle of essays "Essays on the City of Bryukhov" was conceived. Then the city was renamed into Foolov. And the first essays on the life of the city of Glupov appeared in the press. A story about a governor with a stuffed head was published, which entered the novel almost unchanged. Already in these individual essays and stories, the ideological and thematic orientation and poetics of the novel took shape. The city of Foolov embodied the entire autocratic-bureaucratic Russia. The history of the city is a history of oppression and tyranny. Almost every gradonalnik has features of real historical figures, but the writer himself objected to the search for prototypes of his heroes. His characters are not portraits of specific individuals, but the most typical features of entire social groups, historical eras, human characters.
The narrator presents his work as the notebooks found in the archives of the chronicler of the city of Glupov, who allegedly lived in the 18th century. He assigned himself the role of a publisher. Russian literature has already encountered this technique more than once. This allows you to: 1) move away from events, look at them from the outside; 2) create the appearance of reliability; 3) lull the vigilance of censorship; 4) create and show different t. sp. to the world, different voices. It is no coincidence that the writer chooses the genre of chronicle. This makes it possible to objectify the narrative to the utmost, to make it supposedly documentary. The novel is preceded by a preface from the publisher, which contains a number of supporting thoughts - the leitmotifs of the entire story.
2. "Even from these meager facts, it is possible to catch the physiognomy of the city and track the changes that are simultaneously taking place in the higher spheres." This is how the satirical pathos of the novel is determined, its accusatory orientation, the purpose of this accusation, as well as typification as a feature of generalization.
3. "All of them (mayors) flog the townsfolk, but in different ways." This is how the problematics of the novel, the relationship between power and people, is defined. And at the same time a characteristic of the authorities and the people.
4. The chronicle covers the period from 1731 to 1825. This is how the artistic time of the novel and its correlation with real historical time is determined.
The artistic time of the novel is conditional. Chronological boundaries have a symbolic meaning. In 1725, Peter I died. And after several years of fighting for the throne, Anna Ioannovna of Courland (Peter's niece) became queen. The era of timelessness has come, a rollback from Peter's reforms, the strengthening of absolutism and the enslavement of the peasants. Anna Ioannovna destroyed the germs of liberalism. During the reign of Catherine II, the final enslavement of the peasants took place. She freed the nobles from public service, which caused a large-scale civil war that lasted almost until the Decembrist uprising in 1825. S-Sch understood the inevitability of the Decembrist uprising, but did not see its results and probably doubted its usefulness, because the novel ends with the phrase "history has stopped its flow."
5. “As for the content of the “chronicler”, it is predominantly fantastic and in some places even incredible. This is how the conventionally fantastic, grotesque character of the depicted is determined.
« The whole work of the publisher, - writes S-Sch, - is that he corrected the spelling of syllables. So the writer has indicated his position, he is removed from the story and brings his novel out of the wrath of censorship. The novel is being republished even in the darkest years of the reaction. Thus, the preface from the publisher is of fundamental importance for the understanding of the novel and creates a setting for perception. Even the following preface from the chronicler, which contains an appeal to the reader from the last archivist. It parodies the main features of chronicle writing: the self-abasement of the chronicler and the exaltation of the object of the image.
If in ancient Russian literature this technique gradually began to be perceived as a convention and a tribute to tradition, then in S-Sh it is filled with comic content. From the point of view of history, the chronicler is a figure of great importance, equal in merit to the object of the image.
The narrative of the "History of a City" is based on the technique of parody: "The Tale of Bygone Years" and "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" are parodied, N. Karamzin's work "History of the Russian State" is parodied.
Thanks to Pushkin, the figure of the chronicler became poeticized. The tragedy "Boris Godunov" begins with a scene in a cell in the Miracle Monastery, where Pimen talks with Otrepiev. The monumental image of Pimen gives the events a timeless, philosophical meaning. He is above ordinary human fuss, he is a mediator between people and God. Thus, creating his own chronicler, S-Sch parodies not only the DRL, but also the modern literary tradition. His chronicler is a petty official, uneducated, not seeing beyond his own nose, possessed by an impulse of servility. So Pushkin's tradition merges with Gogol's (with the "little man").
The composition of the main part of the novel reproduces the structure of the chronicle. The novel opens with the chapter "On the Root of the Origin of the Foolovists". This chapter parodies epic chronicle stories. Its plot is built according to the type of legend with the addition of elements of a folk fairy tale. In addition to the folklore element, this chapter also parodies Karamzin's work "The History of the Russian State", in particular the story of how, on the advice of the elder Gostomysl, the Novgorodians call the Varangians to their princes. In S-Sh, this role is played by the elder Dobromysl, who advises the bunglers (ancestors of the Foolovites) to look for a ruler.
The satirical intonation is set by the "inventory of mayors." It has a comic effect. The very concept of "inventory" implies a listing of inanimate objects stored in a museum or archive. S-Sch uses the technique of metaphorical reification, the necrosis of heroes. On the other hand, this inventory allows us to show that all the mayors had something in common: inhumanity, heartlessness, bungling.
Further, each chapter tells about some ruler and about the era of his reign. In this case, the writer uses the technique gradations: the build-up of grotesque and satirical elements from the first mayor to the last, from the "organ" chapter to the "Conclusion" chapter. The busty organ and Gloomy-Grumbling became the embodiment of ferocity, lawlessness and soullessness of power. But, if in the image of Brodystoy there are more comical features, then in the image of Grim-Grumbling there are more grotesquely terrifying ones. The desert is the ideal human hostel for him. He dreams of turning the whole world into a barracks. Between these two images are the voluptuary Ferdyshchenko, the "enlightener" Vasilisk Borodavkin, the liberal Pryshch and others. It is with Pimple that Prosperity occurs in the city, but not due to his activity, but because he is simply not capable of any activity, i.e. does not interfere with the natural, natural course of city life. Pimple had a stuffed head and was eaten. This technique is called: “realistic metaphor”: they literally ate it, it was done by the marshal of the nobility.
In the images of the mayors, the features of the satirical manner of S-Shch were manifested to the greatest extent. The writer uses the following techniques:
1. Reification, necrosis, the transformation of a person into a doll, into a mannequin.
2. Providing speaking surnames, as well as surnames-nicknames (Gloomy-Grumbling, Pimple, etc.)
3. The use of Aesopian language and stylization under someone else's literary style (chronicler).
4. In connection with the previous methods, the grotesque comes to the fore.
Grotesque is the ultimate exaggeration, giving the image a fantastic character. The grotesque breaks the boundaries of plausibility, gives the image a convention. The grotesque takes the image beyond the limits of the probable, thereby deforming it. Grotesque is different from hyperbole. Hyperbole is an artistic exaggeration along one line. The grotesque involves the combination in one image of phenomena and objects belonging to different life series (a person with a mechanical or stuffed head); combination of incongruous; incompatible connection. Here the grotesque is closer to an oxymoron.
5. The artistic result of the grotesque is laughter: “nothing discourages vice so much as the consciousness that it has been guessed and laughter has already been heard about it” (S-Sch)
The system of characters in the novel includes not only mayors. The hero is also the people or people (as the narrator calls him) inhabiting the city of Foolov. He is characterized by such traits as passivity, humility, political naivety and love of the boss. The humanism of S-Sh is manifested in sympathy and compassion for the ridiculous, stupid and downtrodden people. This is shown in the chapters "Hungry City" and "Straw City". But the position of the writer diverges from the position of populist literature. He does not idealize the people. The S-Sh satire is directed simultaneously against the authorities and against the political passivity and immorality of the Foolovites.
However, the nature of the satirical image in these cases is different. The inhabitants of the city have real heads and there is not a single frightening figure among them. The image of the people is heterogeneous. This is not a faceless mass. A protest is brewing in the depths of the people. In the chapter "The Hungry City" images of people's protectors-walkers appear, but their fate is tragic. Old Evseich disappeared, "like all the prospectors of the Russian land"; another walker, Pakhomych, began to write papers to the capital, but achieved only that soldiers were sent to pacify the rebellion.
There is one thought in the novel that does not explicitly express, but testifies to the true views of the writer: the road from Glupovo to Umnov lies through Buyanov. Those. only organized resistance to the arbitrariness of power, enlightenment among the people will deliver from slavery.
The purpose of the writer is to awaken the civic consciousness of the people. At the end of the novel, the most terrible mayor, Grim-Grumbling, no longer frightens anyone. Everyone saw that he was an idiot and nothing more.
The novel ends with a universal catastrophe: a tornado flies, and the mayor disappears. This natural disaster is called "it" in the novel. it is not only a natural, but also a social phenomenon.
Many contemporaries saw it as a revolution. However, S-Sch did not go that far. A number of critics accused the writer of mocking the people (Pisare), but Turgenev was the first to notice such a phenomenon in the poetics of Saltykov-Shchedrin as a hidden ideal.
Until now, there are disputes about the genre nature of the novel. Obviously, this is a satirical novel-chronicle. But it is both a parody novel and a fantasy novel. Moreover, the novel contains a warning: this gives reason to interpret its genre as a dystopia.
The artistic method of S-Sch is defined in an unusual way: realistic fiction, i.e. his fiction does not lead away from reality, but serves as a means of depicting and exposing it. Fantasy in the works of S-Sch is always a continuation of reality, it is rational and can be explained.
The main ideological and artistic features of the work are:
- The genre parodies historical chronicles (chronicle). The history of the city of Glupov begins, as it should be, with the history of the tribes that inhabited the vicinity of the future city. Foolov in a parodic vein is compared with Rome, which, on the one hand, helps to remember that Rus' is the “Third Rome”, and also to see the absurdity of the claims of “goons” and other tribes for a special historical role.
- An abundance of folk words and expressions, especially in the part that tells about the wanderings of the future Foolovites before the founding of the city. The so-called "non-event" and "absurdities" are used (a special kind of oral folk art, see the sections on folk poetry and Old Russian literature on the essence of Old Russian laughter).
- Power in the city of Foolovo already begins with all sorts of outrages, and "historical times" - with the cry of the first mayor "I will lock up!", That is, with violence. Thus, it turns out that power is inherently vicious and based on arbitrariness.
- The appearance of the mayors is drawn with the help of a grotesque: a high position and the insignificance of those who occupy it are combined (a combination of incompatible): Lavrokakis is a fugitive Greek who sold soap in the bazaar and was subsequently eaten by clones, “Organchik” is not a person at all, but a mechanism, etc. However, the main evil is the Foolovites themselves, who endure all this and thereby give rise to ever new “monstrous modifications of power” (fear and reverence for the authorities, tenderness at the sight of Ferdyshchenko gorging himself, etc.).
The use of these obviously absurd folk maxims (for example, “The Volga was kneaded with oatmeal, a calf was dragged to a bathhouse, ... then they met a crayfish with a bell ringing, then they drove a pike from eggs, then they went to catch a mosquito eight miles away, and a mosquito sat on the nose of a Poshekhonets ”, etc.) has a dual role: firstly, it succinctly and briefly characterizes the effectiveness of the actions of the Foolovites, and secondly, it implicitly ridicules the very “nationality” that was an integral part of the autocracy-Orthodoxy-nationality triad. Claims to a special historical role (see the previous paragraph) do not allow the Foolovists and the compilers of the "chronicle" to take a sound look at reality. As a result, stupidity and elementary failure are presented as a kind of valor, national identity.
- The part devoted to Ugryum-Burcheev contains an element of negative utopia (dystopia), which describes a variant of the structure of society, regulated to the very last degree by the barracks. In many respects, the features of totalitarian socialism were predicted: the regulation of social and family life, the creation of camps, the militarization of the country, the impoverishment and mass death of people, the “reversal of rivers,” and so on.
- Ways of liberation are also outlined. It comes from below:
- The "unreliable elements" point out that Ugryum-Burcheev is an ordinary idiot and help the Foolovites understand this, that is, to understand the essence of the power that controls them, and to abandon their past stereotype in relation to it.
- The whirlwind carries Gloom-Burcheev away (indignation of the people). “History stops its course”, that is, the vicious circle of this particular story is broken - the story that began with the cry “I’ll screw it up!”
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin is one of the most famous satirists of the 19th century. The writer showed himself in many genres of literature, such as novels, short stories, short stories, and fairy tales.
Almost all the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin have a satirical orientation. The writer was outraged by Russian society, the unfair attitude of the masters towards the slaves, the obedience of the common people to the highest officials. In his works, the author ridiculed the vices and imperfections of Russian society.
It is rather difficult to define the genre: the author wrote it in the form of a chronicle, but the events depicted here seem absolutely unreal, the images are fantastic, and what is happening is like some kind of nightmare. In the novel "The History of a City" Shchedrin reflects the most terrible aspects of the life of Russian society. In his work, the writer does not directly talk about the problematic situation in our country. Despite the name behind the image of the people of the city of Glupov, where the life of the main characters passes, the whole country is hiding, namely Russia.
Thus, Saltykov-Shchedrin opens up new techniques and ways of satirical depiction in literature.
Satire is a form of pathos based on a comic plot. The novel "The History of a City" shows the author's sharp negative attitude towards the current situation in society, expressed in malicious mockery. "History of one city" is a satirical work, where the main artistic means in depicting the history of one city of Glupov, its inhabitants and mayors is the grotesque device of combining the fantastic and the real, creating comic situations. Using the grotesque, on the one hand, Saltykov-Shchedrin shows the reader the everyday life of every person, and on the other, a blind, ridiculous fantastic situation, the main characters of which are the townsfolk of the city of Foolov. However, the novel "The History of a City" is a realistic work, Saltykov-Shchedrin used the grotesque to show the ugly reality of modern life. In describing the mayors, the author also used the grotesque. For example, giving a description of one of the mayor-Organchik, the author shows qualities that are not characteristic of a person. The organ had a mechanism in his head and knew only two words - "I will not tolerate" and "I will ruin."
When reading the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin "The History of a City", unlike other satirical works, the reader himself must understand what kind of reality is hidden behind the semi-fantastic world that is shown in the novel. The use by the writer in his works of such a technique of a satirical image as "Aesopian language" confirms that behind the secret that the author wants to hide, his true thoughts are hidden. Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel "The History of a City" is built almost entirely on allegory. For example, under the city of Glupovo, an image of the whole of Russia is hidden. Then, consequently, the question arises: "Who are the Foolovites?" - inhabitants of the provincial town of Glupov. No. No matter how hard it is to admit, the Foolovites are Russians.
In the work "History of a City", when describing the mayors, and throughout the entire novel as a whole, the author shows an exaggeration of certain properties. This is called another way to portray satire as hyperbole.
The fact that one of the mayors turned out to have a stuffed head is an exaggeration of the author. The writer uses hyperbole in the novel to give an emotional mood to the reader.
Exposing vices and showing the absurdity of real life. Saltykov-Shchedrin conveys to the reader a special "evil irony" in relation to his heroes. The writer devoted all his creative activity to the fight against the shortcomings and vices of Russia.
Composition
Speaking about the originality of satire in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, one must understand that his satirical style, his techniques and methods of depicting heroes were formed along with the ideological and creative formation of the writer's views on the people. A man who is vitally and spiritually close to the masses, who grew up among the people, who, as part of his duty, is constantly confronted with the problems of the people, Saltykov-Shchedrin absorbed the people's spirit, his language, his moods. This allowed him already in his early satirical cycles (“Provincial Essays”, “Pompadours and Pompadours”, “Tashkent”, etc.) to very deeply and correctly assess the predatory essence of the feudal lords, the nobility and the emerging bourgeoisie and kulaks.
It was here that the weapon of the satirist began to be honed. ON THE. Dobrolyubov wrote about the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin at that time as follows: “In the mass of the people, the name of Mr. Shchedrin, when it becomes famous there, will always be pronounced with respect and gratitude: he loves this people, he sees many kind, noble, although undeveloped or misdirected instincts in these humble, ingenuous workers. He protects them from all sorts of talented natures and untalented modest ones, he treats them without any denial. In The Bogomoltsy, there is a magnificent contrast between the simple-hearted faith, the lively, fresh feelings of common people and the arrogant emptiness of the general's wife Darya Mikhailovna or the vile bravado of the farmer Khreptyugin. But in these works, Shchedrin still does not have the full satirical palette: the psychological portraits of officials, bribe-takers, bureaucrats, although they are backed up by speaking surnames, like this Khreptyugin, the backbone of the people, still do not bear the seal of evil accusatory laughter, with which the heroes are already branded " History of one city. In general, if the "History of a City" were not such a talented and profound work as it is, it could be used as a textbook on the forms and methods of using satire. There is everything here: the techniques of satirical fantasy, the unbridled hyperbolization of images, the grotesque, the Aesopian language of allegories, a parody of various institutions of statehood and political problems.
“The problems of political life are those problems, in the artistic interpretation of which Shchedrin abundantly includes hyperbole and fantasy. The more acute the political problems raised by the satirist, the more hyperbolic and fantastic his images are” 2,224. For example, Saltykov-Shchedrin described the stupidity and narrow-mindedness of state officials engaged in robbing the people before, but only in the History of a City does Brodysty appear with his empty head, in which an organ with two romances “I will ruin!” and "I will not stand it!". All the contempt that the author was only able to express for such figures is expressed in this grotesque image, transmitted in a supposedly fantastic plan. But the author's hint that such figures are not uncommon in Russian reality affects public opinion much more sharply. The image of Brodystoy is fantastic and therefore funny. And laughter is a weapon. It helps an intelligent person to correctly evaluate a phenomenon or a person, and figures like Brodyst, recognizing themselves, are also forced to laugh, otherwise everyone would not know about their empty head. Here the author, in addition, uses the technique of giving his characters talking surnames (brudish is a special breed of ferocious shaggy dogs), and here we get Shchedrin's famous character: a stupid, ferocious, overgrown soul with hair.
And then you can imagine what will happen to the people given into the power of such a ruler. “Unheard of activity suddenly boiled up in all parts of the city; private bailiffs galloped; quarterly galloped; the watchmen forgot what it means to eat, and since then they have acquired the pernicious habit of grabbing pieces on the fly. They seize and catch, whip and flog, describe and sell ... and over all this hubbub, over all this confusion, like the cry of a bird of prey, the ominous "I will not tolerate!" 44.20. A characteristic feature of Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire is that he paints portraits of his heroes with special care, with great psychologism, and only then these heroes, as if on their own, starting from the portrait drawn by the author, begin to live and act.
All this is reminiscent of a puppet theater, which the author repeatedly mentioned at different periods of his life, as in the fairy tale "Toy Man's Business": "A living doll tramples on a living person with its heel." Not without reason, the contemporary writer artist A.I. Lebedev, in his caricatured drawing, depicted Shchedrin as a collector of dolls, which he mercilessly pins with his sharp satire to the pages of his books. An example of such living dolls in the "History of a City" can be called the tin soldiers of Borodavkin, who, having entered the robe, filled with blood and ferocity, pounce on the houses of the inhabitants of Foolov and in a few moments destroy them to the ground. A real soldier, in the understanding of Saltykov-Shchedrin, as a native of the same people, called upon to also protect the people from the enemy, cannot and should not oppose the people. Only tin soldiers, dolls are able to forget their roots, bringing pain and destruction to their people 10,19. And yet in the "History of a City" there is one purely fantastic period. This is the period of the reign of the gendarmerie officer - Colonel Pryshch (although in the "Inventory to the Mayors" he is only a major). But even here, Saltykov-Shchedrin remains true to his style: in that Pimple turned out to have a stuffed head, which was bitten off by some voluptuous marshal of the nobility, most likely following Pimple by State Councilor Ivanov, who “died in 1819 from an effort, trying to comprehend some Senate decree” 44,17; there is nothing unusual in this fact for Saltykov-Shchedrin.
The author, even before the "History of a City", displayed images of officials eating each other. Envy and sitting up, right up to palace coups, are such a characteristic feature of Russian reality that, no matter how the author tries to describe in a more natural and plausible way the fantastic eating of the head, poured with vinegar and mustard by the marshal of the nobility, none of the readers have any doubts that speech it is precisely about envy, a vile and dirty feeling that pushes a person to baseness and even to the murder of an opponent that prevents him from taking a tidbit 10.21.
The fantasy of this period lies in something else: how could it happen that during the reign of the gendarme Pimple, the city of Foolov "was brought to such prosperity, which the chronicles from its very foundation had not presented such a thing"
Among the Foolovites, all of a sudden, "it turned out to be two and three times as much as before" 44.107, and Pimple looked at this well-being and rejoiced. Yes, and it was impossible not to rejoice at him, because the general abundance was reflected in him. His barns were bursting with offerings made in kind; the chests could not contain silver and gold, and banknotes simply lay on the floor” 44,105. The fantasticness of such prosperity of the people lies precisely in the fact that in the entire history of Russia there has not been a single period when the people lived calmly and richly. Most likely, Saltykov-Shchedrin, with his characteristic corrosive sarcasm, depicts here the habit that has taken root in Russia to splurge, to build "Potemkin villages"
