Grotesque images of mayors. M.E
Images of mayors in the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City.
Question: have there been examples in history of people giving orders, waging wars and concluding treaties with an empty vessel on their shoulders?
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
In 1870, Saltykov-Shchedrin completed his greatest satirical novel, “The History of a City.” This work is a satire on autocracy, the greatest dystopia on the themes of Russian reality, philosophical novel about the paradoxes of human coexistence.
The city of Foolov is the personification of autocratic Russia; its mayors embody specific features of historically accurate, living people belonging to ruling classes; The story of Foolov in the preface “From the Publisher” is correlated with the history of the Russian state, interest in which revived in the early 60s. Foolov's physiognomy, Shchedrin writes, can be discerned from the various changes that took place in the highest spheres of the autocratic state. “So, for example, the mayors of Biron’s time are distinguished by their recklessness, the mayors of Potemkin’s time by their stewardship, and the mayors of Razumovsky’s time by their unknown origin and knightly courage.”
In “The History of One City” Shchedrin brings out a whole gallery of mayors of the city of Foolov, terrible in their harshness and stupidity: Brudasty (aka Organchik), Pryshch (aka “stuffed head”), Ferdyshchenko, Wartkin, Benevolensky, Negodyaev, Intercept-Zalikhvatsky, Gloomy -Burcheev and others.
The main task that the satirist set for himself, characterizing the types of rulers of Foolov, was to show their complete inability to govern the country, the loss of all human qualities, turning into a machine. This is the only reason why the traits of automatism, mechanicalness, and dull rigidity predominate in their external appearance and internal content.
The most striking, in my opinion, is the image of Gloomy-Burcheev, expressing the essence of autocracy. This is not just Paul I, Nicholas I, Arakcheev (although their features became part of the Gloomy-Burcheev type), this is a symbol of autocracy, a symbol of all oppression and tyranny. He collected many specific features of the anti-people rulers of Russia and Western Europe, thereby becoming a household name for the ruler of the exploitative system in general. Gloomy-Burcheev is a “gloomy idiot”, obsessed with drill and “not pursuing anything except the correctness of constructions.” He completely destroyed the city of Foolov, built barracks in its place, and created companies and battalions from the Foolovites. He even planned to stop the flow of the river-life, but it did not submit to him (nature has its own “laws” and “rules”, and man is not able to subordinate it). Creating an external portrait of Gloomy-Burcheev, the satirist identifies the main features in him: idiocy , senseless rigidity and arbitrariness. This is an iron robot that hates living things, ready to do anything to maintain its power. “He was terrible...” - this is how Shchedrin begins his description of Ugryum-Burcheev’s appearance. “The city archive still has a portrait of Ugryum-Burcheev. This is a man of average height, with a kind of wooden face that has obviously never been illuminated by a smile. Empty, comb-cut and jet black hair covers the conical skull and tightly, like a yarmulke, frames the narrow and sloping forehead... the look is clear, without hesitation;... the jaws are developed, but without an outstanding expression of carnivorousness, but with some inexplicable bouquet of readiness to crush or eat in half. He is dressed in a military-style frock coat, buttoned up with all the buttons, and holds right hand Wartkin’s “Charter on the Steady Cut”... All around is a landscape depicting a desert, in the middle of which there is a prison; above, instead of the sky, hung a gray soldier’s overcoat.”
The ridiculous theory of “levelling”, the theory of turning the world into a terrible barracks, dividing people into companies and battalions was not invented by Ugryum-Burcheev. He repeated only what real rulers tried to implement before him (Paul I, Arakcheev).
Busty - Organ, despite the extreme fantasticality, even fabulousness of his appearance (instead of his head he has a primitive mechanism inserted, with the help of which the mayor shouts out only two words: “I will ruin!” and “I will not tolerate!”), also performs very ordinary, real actions , no different from the actions of rulers who have living heads on their shoulders, not wooden ones. Upon entering the province, he flogs the coachmen, then day and night he writes “more and more new compulsions.” According to his orders, they “grabbed, caught, flogged, flogged, described and sold.” These methods of governing the country have been tested for centuries, and to implement them one could have “an empty vessel instead of a head.” No wonder the superintendent of the public school answered the question of the Foolovites: “Have there been examples in history of people giving orders, waging wars and concluding treaties with an empty vessel on their shoulders?” - answers that this is quite possible, that a certain ruler, Charles the Simple, “who had on his shoulders, although not empty, but still like an empty vessel, and waged wars and concluded treaties.”
The satirist also justifies the extreme poverty of Organchik’s language, in whose vocabulary there are only two words: “I’ll ruin!” and “I won’t tolerate it!” Organchik did not need any other words due to the nature of his activity. This is again a typical feature of representatives of a certain social system, alien to the people. “There are people,” writes Shchedrin, “whose entire existence is exhausted by these two romances.” This is exactly what Organchik-Brudasty is like. Shchedrin generalized and brought the features of automatism to the extreme in his appearance.
The mayor Vasilisk Wartkin, famous for his “wars for enlightenment,” that is, for introducing mustard and Persian chamomile into the life of the Foolovites, is presented as an evil, soulless doll. He wages his wild wars with the help of tin soldiers. In appearance, he himself is the same. But the essence of his behavior, his actions fully corresponds to the specific political system which he represents. Denying the fantastic nature of the image of Wartkin and his tin soldiers, Shchedrin writes: “There are miracles in which, upon careful examination, one can notice a rather bright real basis?”
In the appearance of the mayor Pimple (aka the “stuffed head”), the leading feature is animality, alienation to everything human.
In the works preceding “The History of a City,” Shchedrin wrote that vile pimples appear on the face of a society that is exploitative in nature, personifying its rottenness, its internal disease. The mayor Pimple is the personification of this disease. Appearance it resembles a well-fed, bloated animal: “Dense, stacked... He was ruddy, had scarlet and juicy lips, from behind which a row of white teeth were visible.” His appearance invariably whets the appetite of the leader of the nobility, since the head, stuffed with truffles, spread the smell. In the scene of the leader of the nobility eating the mayor’s head, Pimple finally loses all his human features: “The mayor suddenly jumped up and began wiping with his paws the parts of his body that the leader had poured vinegar on. Then he spun in one place and suddenly his entire body fell to the floor.”
In contrast to the image of Gloomy-Burcheev, Wartkin, Intercept-Zalikhvatsky, in the sketch of Pyshch, Organchik, Grustilov and some others, not only Shchedrin’s flagellating sarcasm sounds, but also irony, even at times funny humor. The scenes related to Organ's head breaking, the precautions Pimple takes to prevent his head from going rotten, the love affairs Grustilov and the stupid projects of Benevolensky. This is triumphant laughter, the laughter of a person at the antics of a doll. But Shchedrin uses humor only when depicting certain specific traits of mayors, not the main traits. When we're talking about about their actions towards the people, they are depicted in Shchedrin’s usual sarcastic and gloomy tone.
Satirical fiction in “The History of a City” only exposes the absurdity of the present and calls for the approach of a reasonable future.
At the beginning of the “History of a City” there is an “Inventory of Mayors”. There were twenty-two of them in total, and each was given a description - extremely laconic, but at the same time, very expressive and funny. What is it worth, for example, to mention that Amadeus Manuilovich Clementy in his homeland, Italy, was known for his skillful cooking of macaroons (obviously, nothing more was required to occupy the position of mayor. He pleased, therefore, some nobleman with his pasta). “Having arrived in Foolov, he not only did not give up his pasta business, but even strongly forced many to do so, which is how he glorified himself.”
And a certain Lamvrokakis, a runaway Greek, “without a name or patronymic and even without a rank,” was caught by Count Kirill Razumovsky in Nizhyn, at the market, where he was selling Greek soap, sponges and nuts. Presumably, this was enough to make Lamvrokakis mayor.
Semyon Konstantinovich Dvoekurov wrote the essay “Biographies of the Most Remarkable Monkeys.” It would be interesting to know how he distinguished the wonderful monkeys from the rest? And Vasilisk Wartkin “applied for the establishment of an academy in Foolov, but, having been refused, built a shelter” (i.e., an ordinary police station).
No matter how outwardly the mayors differ from each other, they are united by one thing: any of their actions is directed against the people. On the very first pages of “The History of a City” it is said: “They all whip ordinary people...” However, their cruelty never led and could not lead to any positive results. Wartkin, fighting against arrears (in other words, against peasants who did not pay taxes on time), burned thirty-three villages “and with the help of these measures, he collected arrears of two rubles and a half.” Ferdyshchenko, called a “fantastic traveler,” generally burned the entire city and starved thousands of Foolovites to death.
Depicting mayors, Shchedrin invariably emphasizes their anti-human essence. Even the nature of their death evokes an ominously comic impression: one was torn to pieces in the forest by dogs, another was eaten by bugs, the third, very different tall, broke in half during a storm, the fourth died from the strain, “striving to comprehend some Senate decree.”
Of course, in all this there is a considerable element of satirical exaggeration, but we must take into account that the writer often only brings to its logical conclusion, sharpens, exaggerates what is recorded in folk art. Sometimes he seems to materialize metaphorical expressions that already exist in the language. Thus, the expression “empty head” gave rise to the creation of the image of a city governor with a small organ in his head (today we would say: a portable tape recorder), which could play only two romances: “Razo-ryu!” and “I won’t tolerate it!” An opportunity arises to play up a grotesque situation: the organ requires repair, etc. Here is another example of playing on a linguistic (“erased”) metaphor. Have you ever heard the expression: someone was “eaten” at work (i.e. kicked out, forced to leave)? Shchedrin returns this familiar metaphor to its original meaning: his mayor Pyshch was eaten in the most literal sense, because his head turned out to be stuffed. Material from the site
Explaining the unusual nature of the narrative in “The History of a City,” Shchedrin wrote: “... the mayor with a stuffed head does not mean a person with a stuffed head, but precisely a mayor who controls the destinies of many thousands of people. This is not even laughter, but a tragic situation.” When some critics accused the satirist of exaggerating and even distorting reality, Saltykov-Shchedrin replied: “If instead of the word “organ” the word “fool” had been put, then the reviewer probably would not have found anything unnatural. .. It’s not that Brudasty had an organ in his head playing romances “I won’t tolerate it!” and “I’ll ruin you!”, but the fact is that there are people whose entire existence is exhausted by these two romances. Are there such people or not? Therefore, the writer persistently reminded that he was not writing “historical satire,” but the most ordinary “satire, directed against those characteristic features of Russian life that make it not entirely comfortable.”
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- Characteristics of the mayor Clementy
- prototypes of mayors in the history of one city
Dementy Varlamovich Brudasty is the eighth mayor appointed to rule the ill-fated city of Foolov. The “Inventory of City Governors” gives a brief but succinct description of him: “He was appointed in a hurry and had some special device in his head... This did not prevent him, however, from putting in order the arrears started by his predecessor.”
These sarcastic words contain both the meaning of the activity of this “great man” and the attitude of the author in this activity.
The silent and gloomy Brudasty knew only one word - “I won’t beat you!” His reign began with the fact that he “crossed a lot of coachmen.” And subsequently Brudasty created the appearance of flurry of activity- he locked himself in his office for days, “scratching something with a pen.” The consequences of this scribbling of paper terrified the entire population of Foolov: “They grab and catch, flog and flog, describe and sell...”
These six verbs contained the essence of Brudasty’s activity, which, however, did not differ from the activities of other mayors. Violence, cruelty, stupidity, inertia, admiration for rank and contempt for the people - these are the features of the rule of all Foolov’s mayors, and Brudasty, in particular.
The image of this character is symbolic. Let us remember that he was nicknamed “Organchik” because instead of a head he had a kind of mechanical device. The head of Brudasty had to be filled with artificial content, otherwise it was simply a shell, devoid of brains: “... the mayor’s body, dressed in a uniform, sat at a desk, and in front of him, on a pile of arrears registers, lay, in the form of a dandy paperweight, completely empty mayor's head..."
Thus, with the help of a capacious image, Shchedrin shows that rulers are just puppets, guided by evil instincts, stupidity, inertia, and prejudices. But even without such leaders the Russian people cannot live. While Brudasty lay headless, waiting for the next organ, anarchy and devastation came to the city. However, soon the Foolovites - “as a reward” for all their suffering - received two rulers at once - with “iron heads”. This ending to Brudasty’s reign once again emphasizes the author’s idea that all Foolov’s rulers are the same - equally insignificant, faceless, and terrible.
The story of one city(summary by chapter)
Contents of the chapter: Inventory for mayors...
This chapter lists Foolov's mayors by name and briefly mentions their “achievements.”
It speaks of twenty-two rulers. So, for example, about one of the city governors the document says: “22) Intercept-Zalikhvatsky, Archangel Stratilatovich, major. I won’t say anything about this. He rode into Foolov on a white horse, burned the gymnasium and abolished the sciences.”
The history of one city (text in full chapters)
Inventory for mayors, in different times, placed in the city of Glupoye by the higher authorities (1731-1826)
1) Clementy, Amadeus Manuilovich. Exported from Italy by Biron, Duke of Courland, for his skillful preparation of pasta; then, having suddenly been promoted to the proper rank, he was sent by the mayor. Arriving in Glupov, he not only did not give up pasta making, but even strongly forced many to do so, which is how he glorified himself. For treason, he was whipped in 1734 and, after his nostrils were torn out, he was exiled to Berezov.
2) Ferapontov, Fotiy Petrovich, foreman*. Former barber of the same Duke of Courland*. He made numerous campaigns against debtors and was so keen on spectacles that he did not trust anyone to flog him without himself. In 1738, while in the forest, he was torn to pieces by dogs.
3) Velikanov, Ivan Matveevich. He imposed a tribute of three kopecks per head on the residents in his favor, having previously drowned the director in the river of economy*. He killed many police captains. In 1740, during the reign of the meek Elizabeth, having been caught in a love affair with Avdotya Lopukhina, she was beaten with a whip* and, after cutting her tongue, was exiled to imprisonment in the Cherdyn prison.
4) Urus-Kugush-Kildibaev, Manyl Samylovich, captain-lieutenant from the Life Campanians*. He was distinguished by his insane courage, and even once took the city of Foolov by storm. Upon being informed of this, he did not receive praise and in 1745 he was dismissed with publication*.
5) Lamvrokakis, a fugitive Greek, without a name or patronymic, and even without rank, caught by Count Kirila Razumovsky in Nizhyn, at the bazaar. He sold Greek soap, sponges and nuts; Moreover, he was a supporter of classical education. In 1756 he was found in bed, eaten by bedbugs.
6) Baklan, Ivan Matveevich*, foreman. He was three arshins and three inches tall, and boasted that he came in a direct line from Ivan the Great (the bell tower famous in Moscow). Broken in half during a storm in 1761.
7) Pfeiffer, Bogdan Bogdanovich, guard sergeant, Holstein native. Having accomplished nothing, he was replaced in 1762 for ignorance*.
8) Brudasty, Dementy Varlamovich*. He was appointed in a hurry and had some special device in his head, for which he was nicknamed “Organchik”. This did not prevent him, however, from putting in order the arrears left behind by his predecessor. During this reign, a disastrous anarchy occurred that lasted seven days, as will be described below.
9) Dvoekurov, Semyon Konstantinich, civilian adviser and gentleman. He paved Bolshaya and Dvoryanskaya streets, started brewing and mead making, introduced mustard and bay leaves into use, collected arrears, patronized the sciences and petitioned for the establishment of an academy in Foolov. Wrote an essay: “Biographies of the Most Remarkable Monkeys.” Being of a strong constitution, he had eight amantas in succession. His wife, Lukerya Terentyevna, was also very lenient, and thus greatly contributed to the splendor of this reign. He died in 1770 by natural causes.
10) Marquis de Sanglot, Anton Protasyevich, French native and friend of Diderot. He was frivolous and loved to sing obscene songs. He was flying through the air in the city garden, and almost flew away completely, when he caught his tails on a spitz, and was removed from there with great difficulty. For this undertaking he was fired in 1772, and the next year, not losing heart, he gave performances at Isler’s mineral waters*.
11) Ferdyshchenko, Petr Petrovich, foreman. Former orderly of Prince Potemkin. Although his mind was not very broad, he was tongue-tied. Launched arrears; loved to eat boiled pork and goose with cabbage. During his leadership, the city suffered famine and fire. He died in 1779 from overeating.
12) Wartkin, Vasilisk Semenovich.* This mayorship was the longest and most brilliant. He led the campaign against arrears, and burned thirty-three villages and, with the help of these measures, collected arrears of two rubles and a half. Introduced the game of lamouche* and Provençal oil; paved the market square and planted the street leading to public places with birch trees; again applied for the establishment of an academy in Foolov, but, having received a refusal, built a house for moving out*. He died in 1798, during execution, with parting words from the police captain.
13) Negodyaev*, Onufriy Ivanovich, former Gatchina stoker. He placed the streets paved with his predecessors and built monuments from the quarried stone*. Replaced in 1802 for disagreement with Novosiltsev, Czartoryski and Strogonov (the famous triumvirate in their time) regarding constitutions, in which the consequences justified him.
14) Mikaladze, Prince Ksavery Georgievich, Cherkashenin, descendant of the voluptuous princess Tamara. He had a seductive appearance, and was so eager for the female sex that he almost doubled the Foolov population. I left a useful guide on this subject. He died in 1814 from exhaustion.
15) Benevolensky*, Feofilakt Irinarkhovich, state councilor, Speransky’s friend at the seminary. He was wise and had a penchant for legislation. He predicted public courts and zemstvo.* He had a love affair with the merchant's wife Raspopova, from whom, on Saturdays, he ate pies with filling. In his free time, he composed sermons for city priests and translated from the Latin works of Thomas a à Kempis. He reintroduced mustard, bay leaf and Provençal oil into use as being beneficial. The first imposed tribute on the farm-out, from which he received three thousand rubles a year. In 1811, for conniving with Bonaparte, he was called to account and exiled to prison.
16) Pimple, Major, Ivan Panteleich. He ended up with a stuffed head, which the local leader of the nobility caught him doing.*
17) Ivanov, state councilor, Nikodim Osipovich. He was so small in stature that he could not accommodate extensive laws. He died in 1819 from strain, trying to comprehend a certain Senate decree.
18) Du Chariot, Viscount, Angel Dorofeevich, French native. He loved to dress up in women's clothes and feast on frogs. Upon examination, she turned out to be a girl. Sent abroad in 1821.
20) Grustilov, Erast Andreevich, state councilor. Karamzin's friend. He was distinguished by his tenderness and sensitivity, his heart*, he loved to drink tea in the city grove, and could not see black grouse mating without tears. He left behind several works of idyllic content and died of melancholy in 1825. The tribute from the farm raised to five thousand rubles a year.
21) Gloomy-Burcheev, a former scoundrel. He destroyed the old city and built another in a new place.
22) Interception-Zalikhvatsky*, Arkhistrateg* Stratilatovich, major. I won’t say anything about this. He rode into Foolov on a white horse, burned the gymnasium and abolished the sciences.
Have you read the summary (chapter) and full text works: The history of one city: Saltykov-Shchedrin M E (Mikhail Evgrafovich).
The entire work is complete and summary(by chapter) you can read, by content on the right.
Classics of literature (satires) from the collection of reading works (stories, novellas) of the best, famous writers satirists: Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin.
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Images of mayors in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
One of the most famous works M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin - “The History of a City.” Despite the title, this work is not an allegorical historical chronicle, but satirical novel, in which the state of society under autocracy found a brilliant embodiment. This condition arose in Russia much earlier than 1731, designated as the beginning of the story, and did not stop in 1825, although the chronicler’s story ends there. The situation in the country did not change at all in the 60s of the 19th century, when the book was written. This situation is typical not only for Tsarist Russia, but also for any society experiencing the yoke of autocracy.
So, power and people - this is the cardinal problem that is the internal core of the book and makes it whole, despite the external independence of the chapters.
All chapters, except the first - “On the roots of the origin of the Foolovites” - are devoted to the life of the people under the yoke of autocracy. Moreover, each of them reveals some new facet of the embodiment of arbitrariness and violence against people. No matter what measures the autocrat carried out, no matter what intentions he was guided by, the result was always the same: endless fear of the inhabitants and new disasters and misfortunes falling on their heads.
Foolov's power is represented in the book by a whole gallery of mayors. The satirist introduces the reader to the diversity of persons who “ruled Foolov at different times” in the chapter “Inventory of mayors.” Brief characteristics The rulers listed in it are truly impressive. Who didn’t control the fate of the Foolovites! And Amadeus Manuilovich Klementy, taken from Italy by Biron “for his skillful preparation of pasta,” and promoted to the proper rank; and Lamvrokakis - “a runaway Greek, without a name or patronymic and even without a rank, caught by Count Kirila Razumovsky in Nizhyn, at the bazaar”; and Pyotr Petrovich Ferdyshchenko - the former orderly of Prince Potemkin; and Onufriy Ivanovich Negodyaev, a former Gatchina stoker...
The biographies of many of the city rulers may seem implausible. Meanwhile, they reflect the real state of affairs. Under an autocratic system, completely random people often found themselves at the top of power. But somehow the emperor or his entourage “liked” them. So, for example, Biron, who took Clementius out of Italy, was himself taken out of Courland by Empress Anna Ioannovna and received unlimited power during her reign. And Kirill Razumovsky, who allegedly caught Lamvrokakis, became a count and even the ruler of all of Ukraine only thanks to his brother Alexei, the favorite of Elizabeth I. As for Ferdyshchenko and Negodyaev, their rise resembles some actual facts. Suffice it to say that Catherine II bestowed the title of count on her hairdresser, and Paul I elevated his valet to the title of count. Therefore, the writer sometimes did not even need to resort to exaggeration: reality gave him a lot of material.
And yet there is a lot in “The History of a City” that is frankly fantastic in nature. The mayor with an organ instead of a head... The mayor with a stuffed head... Tin soldiers, filled with blood and frantically destroying huts...
Why does a writer need these and other similar examples? How to understand all these “inconsistencies”? The satirist himself said: “There are miracles in which, upon careful examination, one can notice a fairly clear real basis.”
Indeed, with the help of the image of the mayor Brudasty, whose activities are described in the chapter “Organchik,” the satirist shows: in order to rule Foolov, it is not at all necessary to have a head. To do this, it is enough to have a simple mechanism capable of reproducing just two phrases - “I’ll ruin you!” and “I won’t tolerate it!” Busty represents, as it were, the very essence of “government,” “cleared of everything extraneous.” With the help of the grotesque, Shchedrin makes it extremely clear what is characteristic of all “city governors” in general, regardless of their personal inclinations, character, and beliefs.
There were different governors in Glupovegrad: “active” and “inactive”, liberal and conservative, who introduced enlightenment and who eradicated it. However, all their diverse “projects” and endeavors ultimately boiled down to one thing: to extract “arrears” and suppress “sedition.”
The gallery of mayors begins with Brudasty, who is a kind of “ common denominator all mayors,” and ends with Gloomy-Burcheev, who is a more significant figure, and therefore more ominous. The prototype of Ugryum-Burcheev was Arakcheev. But it would be wrong to limit the broad generalizing meaning of this figure. It concentrates and sharpens the features characteristic of a special type of ruler. For what type?
Gloomy-Burcheev surpassed all his predecessors with boundless idiocy and inexhaustible energy. But this energy was aimed at turning the city, or rather the whole country, into a barracks and forcing people to march from morning to evening. His ideals are “a straight line, the absence of diversity, simplicity taken to the extreme.” The anti-human essence of autocracy is shown here by Shchedrin with stunning force.
It is thanks to such extraordinary images of city leaders that “The History of a City” lives on today. This wonderful book is known not only in our country, but throughout the world and hardly stands firmly greatest achievements world satire.
