"Days of the Turbins": the history of creation and description of the play from the encyclopedia. Mikhail Bulgakov - Turbine Days Bulgakov's Dramaturgy Turbine Days

"Days of the Turbins" - a play by M.A. Bulgakov. The writer's materials contain evidence that on January 19, 1925, he "began sketching" a play based on the novel The White Guard, which at that time was published by the Rossiya magazine. Bulgakov made these first sketches on his own initiative, i.e. before in April 1925 he receives an offer from the Art Theater to write a drama based on the novel. The first edition of the play was completed in September of the same year and was called, like the novel, The White Guard. In January 1926, Bulgakov completed the second edition; in August-September of the same year, a third one was created, which became final. This edition arose in the process of rehearsals, when the author's text was subjected to numerous corrections. According to the memoirs of P.A. Markov, head of the Moscow Art Theater, the replicas of the play were completed by "at least 15 persons." The title of the play, similar to the novel, was rejected on ideological grounds. The final name was chosen from many options discussed during the production: "White December", "1918", "The Capture of the City", "White Snowstorm", "The Turbin Family".

Premiere of the production directed by I.Ya. Sudakov under the direction of K.S. Stanislavsky, took place on October 5, 1926. The first performers of the main roles were N.P. Khmelev, V.V. Sokolova, B.G. Dobronravov, M.I. Prudkin, M.M. Yanshin and others. The first edition of the play appeared in Germany - translated into German (1927). In the Soviet Union, The Days of the Turbins were first published only in 1955.

The writer's early dramatic experiences date back to 1920-1921, when he, while living in Vladikavkaz, wrote several plays for the local theater. However, it was in the "Days of the Turbins" that Bulgakov the playwright was born. It took place in the process of working on the play, as the cumbersome staging of the novel, which almost literally followed the plot of the original source, turned into an original dramatic work.

In the course of creating the play Days of the Turbins, Bulgakov experienced double pressure: from the side of the Glavrepertkom, who saw the play as a “continuous apology for the White Guard”, and from the Mkhatovites, who sought to make the play more scenic in their terms and bring it closer to the theater-like aesthetics of Chekhov’s drama. As a result, the original author's text was covered with extraneous layers. To this day, the question remains how organic the final version was for Bulgakov, what was brought into the play from the outside, and what was the result of the inner impulse of the writer, who mastered the aesthetics of dramatic art.

The novel and the play are connected by the place and time of the action - Kyiv in "the terrible year after the Nativity of Christ 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution." The fall of the hetman's government, the capture of the city by the Petliurists, the offensive of the Red Army constitute the historical outline of both works. Against this background, the drama of the Turbin family unfolds. However, the plot and images of the novel in the play have undergone significant changes. The lyrical epic nature of the narrative disappears, and with it Bulgakov's lyrical hero, Dr. Turbin, a chronicler and observer of unfolding events, in many respects close to the main character of Notes of a Young Doctor. In The Days of the Turbins, the reflective intellectual, who has become a victim of circumstances, is replaced by the tragic hero, Colonel Turbin, on whose decision the fate of the officers and cadets entrusted to him depends, forced to make a choice, more moral than political, a hero whose death is inevitable for the author. This person is acting, literally-stage and plot. The most active people in the war are the military. Those who act on the side of the vanquished are the most doomed. That is why Colonel Turbin dies - Dr. Turbin survived.

In the artistic world of the novel and the play, the central place is occupied by the image of the family hearth, the Turbins' house with cream-colored curtains on the windows. The whirlwind of revolutionary events takes people away, but the house remains. It remains the only place where you can warm yourself from the cold near the blazing tiled stove, where behind the "cream curtains" you can hide from the onslaught of events that break lives and destinies. This utopia at home will be continued in the finale of the novel The Master and Margarita, in the form of an "eternal shelter" in which Bulgakov's heroes found peace.

In the process of creating the play, from one edition to another, many characters left the plot, new ones appeared, focused on traditional stage masks and roles: for example, a simpleton (Lariosik), a rogue (Shchervinsky). In the third edition (compared to the first), the layer of literary reminiscences and historical and cultural associations has decreased; the genre and style structure of the work has changed significantly. If in the first version the genre of the play gravitated toward the tragic farce, then in the final version, the everyday psychological drama - “family drama” prevails. Some important features of Bulgakov's poetics were lost in the play, which later became vividly manifested in the drama "Running" (1926-1928), whose "eight dreams" tell about the fate of the white movement: mystical coloring, the ghostly atmosphere of phantasmagoria and sleep, the symbols of which permeate reality and are often indistinguishable from it. In the borderline situation between sleep and wakefulness, there are other heroes of Bulgakov (Maksudov "Notes of the Dead", Master).

The playwright's concessions, the director's tricks (remarks: "The people are not with us. They are against us"; the International, which rumbled in the finale) did not protect the play and the performance from the attacks of "left" criticism: about three hundred abusive reviews against one or two sympathetic ones, according to his own calculations. Bulgakov. A.V. Lunacharsky, although he did not interfere with the production, nevertheless assessed the play as "politically incorrect." Newspapers in 1926 were full of headlines "Bulgakov winks at the remnants of the White Guard", "To repulse Bulgakov". The author was accused of philistinism (“the desire for a cozy drink”); playwright Kirshon saw in the play "a mockery of the Russian chauvinist over the Ukrainians." Severe opponents of the play were V.E. Meyerhold, A.Ya. Tairov, V.V. Mayakovsky. The latter in the comedy The Bedbug (Scene of the Future) included the playwright's name in the dictionary of dead words: "Bohemia, bagels, booza, Bulgakov", and in the play "Banya" he mentioned a certain "Uncle Turbins" - a hint at the play "Uncle Vanya", an echo the opinion of the "left" that Bulgakov's drama was written "according to Chekhov's stamp".

Despite the sharp attacks of critics, the performance of the Moscow Art Theater was a resounding success. The theatrical fate of the play as a whole turned out to be happy: already in the first season it was played more than a hundred times, the performance that became legendary remained in the repertoire until June 1941, withstanding 987 performances. The stage life of the play resumed with the production of the Drama Theater. K.S. Stanislavsky (1954), carried out by M.M. Yanshin, who played the role of Lariosik in the Moscow Art Theater performance. This role was now played by the young E.P. Leonov. From the 60s. Bulgakov's "Days of the Turbins" become one of the most repertoire works of the Russian theater.

In April 1925, Bulgakov received an offer to stage the novel The White Guard for the Art Theatre. By the gathering of the troupe - August 15 - the author presented the play. It was a dramatization that kept intact the main events of the novel and its characters. In the course of numerous alterations, which the author undertook both on his own initiative and on the initiative of the theater, out of 16 paintings in the play, called “Days of the Turbins”, only 7 were left.

THE PLAY "THE DAYS OF THE TURBINS" AND THE NOVEL "THE WHITE GUARD". The novel The White Guard covers the period from December 1918 to February 1919. The events selected for the play The Days of the Turbins coincide in duration with the novels: the first, second and third acts take place in the winter of 1918, the fourth act at the beginning 1919 Ho in the stage version, this period is compressed to about three days, or rather, to three evenings and one morning, which corresponds to four acts of the drama.

At the moment chosen by Bulgakov for the image, the Germans with the hetman and white detachments were holding out in Kyiv, peasant masses led by Petliura were advancing on Kyiv, the Bolsheviks were in the north, and Denikin was on the Don. The playwright dwelled on the events connected with the flight of the hetman and the coming of Petliura, which was most acceptable from the censorship point of view: - Kyiv.

The novel did not cover the entire panorama of historical events: the action was concentrated in the City and on the outskirts of it. Nevertheless, a mass of named and unnamed heroes was introduced into the novel, crowds of people, troops on the streets, skirmishes of units loyal to the hetman with Petliur's troops were depicted. The chosen spatial composition made it possible to feel the reasons for the mass disappointment of the average military intelligentsia in their leaders.

In the play, the historical panorama was replaced by two scenes of the second act - a scene in the hetman's office in the palace and a scene at the headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Division. The play, thus, retained the signs of a historical chronicle, but the house of the Turbins became its compositional center.

In order to emphasize the special place of the Turbin family in the dramatic space of the play, Bulgakov refused to introduce the Lisovich family into the play. In a sense, Lisovich, with his dull pettiness, was replaced by Colonel Thalberg. If in the novel the careerist beginning was emphasized in the behavior of the latter, then in the play, philistine grumbling was added to this. “Not a house, but an inn,” he angrily reprimands Elena, dissatisfied with the arrival of Myshlaevsky and the arrival of Lariosik. The successfully found plot device (the return at the time of the announcement of the divorce and the upcoming wedding of Elena and Shervinsky) contributed to the disgrace of Talberg and at the same time enlarged his line, making the presence of the Lisovich duplicating line in the play unnecessary.

So, the stage space of the play is given over to history and the house of the Turbins, historical chronicle and psychological drama. DRAMATURGICAL CONFLICT OF “TURBINE DAYS”, ITS UNIQUENESS. Bulgakov and Chekhov. The Moscow Art Theater perceived Bulgakov's play in the context of the related Chekhovian drama. Bulgakov's love for the details of everyday life (cream-colored curtains, a lamp under a green shade, notes on the piano, flowers), the young playwright's ability to create an image of a mood that colors a scene or even a whole act and is enhanced with the help of sound or musical accompaniment was inclined to this. The similarity touched on deeper levels of the drama (conflict, stage action, the way the stage unity was created), but it was a similarity-overcoming that led to the creation of a different type of drama.

Let's start with conflict. As you know, clashes between characters in Chekhov's plays do not lead to a dramatic conflict. And with Bulgakov, the hostility between the Turbins and Talberg, even the outcome of the relationship between Elena and Talberg or Elena and Shervinsky, does not acquire paramount importance in the play.

Defining the originality of the conflict in Chekhov's drama, the well-known researcher of the art of drama V.E. Khalizev points out that Chekhov bases his mature plays “not on traditional external conflicts and clashes between the oppressors and their victims, attackers and defenders, not on the vicissitudes of the struggle between the characters, but on long-term, fundamentally unchanging unfavorable situations in their lives. .. Chekhov's appeal to a new type of dramatic conflict is ultimately connected with the fact that he considers the characters and fates of his heroes and heroines ... in relation not so much to the surrounding social environment, but to the “general state of the world” - to the social situation in country as a whole."

With Bulgakov, this “general state of the world” takes on the appearance of History, intrudes into the stage space and translates the problem of a tragic collision with fate from a symbolic into a real plane, forcing the heroes to direct participation, to a choice, to an act, which is not typical for Chekhov’s heroes.

In Bulgakov's play, the characters manifest themselves primarily in their deeds, starting from the proposal that Shervinsky makes to Elena and ending with the heroic death of Alexei Turbin. The presence in the system of characters of a typically Chekhovian hero, Lariosik, only emphasizes Bulgakov's deviation from the Chekhovian path.

No less interesting in the play (and in this Bulgakov follows the Chekhov tradition) is the ability to reveal the characters' characters through the everyday well-being of the characters, their emotionally colored reflections.

But in Bulgakov's play, these internal reflections are connected not with impressions "from the small events of everyday life", as in Chekhov, but with a reaction to significant historical situations. They take the form of direct reflection (in the monologues of Alexei Turbin, Myshlaevsky). But the main interest of the drama is in the author's desire to show that the reflections, in general, the well-being of the actors, arising in the context of a scene or act, is colored by the awareness of the historical moment, their capture by the historical flow.

In the "White Guard" events raged around the turbine house, and he, in spite of everything, remained an island of comfort. In the play, the turbine house is carried by frenzied waves of events. The fate of the cultural tradition, which has become the life, the air of the turbine house, the essence of those who are involved in this house, is under threat.

The historical and the private are not assigned to certain paintings, but are constantly correlated with each other. History intrudes into the daily life of the Turbins, essentially becoming the main content of this life. As soon as the curtain opens, it makes itself felt with Nikolka’s song (“Worse rumors every hour. / Petlyura is coming at us!”), Cannon shots thumping somewhere near Svyatoshyn, all the time fading electricity, a military unit passing along the street. It penetrates the speech of the characters, determines their behavior, manifests itself in the state of Elena, impatiently waiting for her husband, in the behavior of Talbert, Lariosik, in Myshlaevsky's story about the situation at the front. History is discussed at the “Last Division Dinner”. History changes the turbine world. The measure of these changes determines the system of characters characteristic of the play.

It is no coincidence that such an important place among the characters gets in the play Lariosik - Zhytomyr cousin Larion Surzhansky. From a minor, even tertiary character in the novel, he becomes one of the characters in the first plan in the play.

Introducing the hero into the house of the Turbins already in the first scene of the first act, “as if stitched together from the most common quotations of Russian literature,” Bulgakov, according to A. Smelyansky, creates the “theatrical equivalent” of the Turbins’ former life, their former worldview.

The expansion and deepening of the role of Lariosik with his comically presented reflection, with his helplessness, indecision, defenselessness, awkwardness should have set off the psychological changes in the “Chekhovian” environment, just as the “rat” - Talberg was intended to emphasize the unfailing fidelity of the Turbins to military and family duty.

Describing the system of characters, V. Khodasevich, who saw the Moscow Art Theater performance in Paris, wrote: “From Talberg to Alexei Turbin, there is a whole chain of gradually brightening characters. They can be arranged in a certain sequence. In the first place is Shervinsky. He is not a scoundrel at all, but he is not a man of impeccable honesty either (the story of the cigarette case); he is a dummy and a liar, incapable of direct selfishness, but even less capable of self-sacrifice; he honestly serves the white guard, but will not connect his fate with her and will very easily survive her death. Behind him is Myshlaevsky, an excellent front-line soldier, a good comrade, not a complex person, because he has not yet developed to any complexity; he was crushed by the death of the white army... Captain Studzinsky is a somewhat pale figure - the average type of an honest campaigner and a decent person. Then, finally, Alexei Turbin - a true hero, a man of chivalrous prowess. His younger brother, the cadet, is a wonderful young man who, like Alexei, would not think about sacrificing his life, but fate does not require this from him: the army dies before his heroism has a chance to emerge.

At the center of the system of characters in Days of the Turbins, unlike the novel, were not the young Turbins, but three White Guard officers: Alexei Turbin, Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky, personifying the three possible paths for an officer in a revolution: death, freeing from choice, a step towards Bolsheviks and the third road leading to a dead end. Studzinsky, who chooses her from an episodic character, becomes one of the main characters.

Alexei Turbin, a doctor, a restless intellectual, as he is shown in the novel, turns in the play into a colonel, commander of an artillery battalion, displacing the novel Malyshev. Aleksey also embodies, especially in the last moments of his life, the purity and nobility of Nai-Turs. Colonel Alexei Turbin reacts most consciously and sharply to the situation. He is most worried about the events in Ukraine, he is disappointed in the actions of the hetman, who began to “break this damn comedy with Ukrainization”, he sees the decay of the white officers, led by the “guards headquarters mob”, predicts the death of the White movement. In the last act, Myshlaevsky with his decisive conclusions, as it were, replaces the tragically deceased Colonel Turbin.

PROBLEMS OF THE PLAY AND ITS GENRE ORIGINALITY. Thus, in the play, in contrast to the novel, the idea of ​​the doom of the old world in general and the White Guard movement in the first place sounds. The characters gain confidence in the inevitability of the birth of the “new Russia”. The best representatives of the White Guard recognize the historical correctness of the Bolsheviks. Therefore, it does not seem strange that I. Stalin’s point of view about the fact that “Days of the Turbins” “gives more benefit than harm”, leaving the viewer with an impression “favorable for the Bolsheviks”: “Even if people like the Turbins are forced to lay down their arms ... that means the Bolsheviks are invincible.” Is this how the audience perceived the play? The fact is that the “pro-Soviet” ideological plan, so directly indicated in the play, is softened by its special genre nature, which goes back to Chekhov's innovations. We are talking about pairing the tragic with the comic and lyrical, about the constant adjustment of the ideological principle by the invasion of the comic and lyrical. So, the statement of Alexei Turbin, imbued with tragic pathos, sounds against the backdrop of a drunken feast. The motif of betrayal and flight that arose in the first act (Talberg, the departure of the German troops) is travestyed by the operetta motif of dressing up (the flight of the hetman, who is “carried out” from the palace with a bandaged head and in a German uniform; Shervinsky is dressing up). The tragic beginning reaches its culmination in the first scene of the third act. This is the scene at the Alexander Gymnasium where Alexei Turbin refuses to send people to their deaths. Even before the threat of the death of his ideals and principles, he declares to the junkers: “And here I am, a career officer Alexei Turbin, who endured the war with the Germans, to which captains Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky are witnesses, I accept everything on my conscience and responsibility, I accept everything and, loving you, send home."

Turbin's statement and his act itself appear in the play as the most important moral result of what he experienced. He comes to recognize the inherent value of human life in the face of any idea, no matter how significant it may be.

The situation connected with the fate of the Turbins, which became more and more dramatic as the action developed, in this scene reaches a tragic tension: having recognized the right to life for others, Alexei Turbin cannot recognize such a right for himself. He, as Nikolka suggests, is looking for death, and a stray shell fragment overtakes him.

The tragic fate of Alexei Turbin is the compositional center of the play, but parallel to his line there are lines of a lyrical, comic and tragicomic nature. Bulgakov builds a system of images through a paradoxical mixing of genres; the fates of tragic or lyrical heroes are corrected by comic characters.

The tragicomic beginning is brought into the play by Lariosik, Shervinsky, Myshlaevsky, Nikolka, and the watchman Maxim. All of them are endowed to some extent with naivety of perception, and this gives the author the opportunity, with their help, to constantly shift the tragic and lyrical into a comedic plan. Thus, the tragic theme in the first two films is connected with Alexei Turbin. It occurs against the backdrop of a drunken revel. At the moment when Alexey proclaims a toast to a meeting with the Bolsheviks (“Either we will bury them, or, rather, they will bury us ...”), Lariosik’s inappropriate song (“Thirst for a meeting, / Oath, speech - / Everything in the world / Tryn- grass...”) exacerbates the tragic sound of the episode. But the act ends with a lyrical sienna (an explanation of Elena with Shervinsky), which, in turn, is interrupted by a comedic episode - the awakening of a drunken Lariosik.

The principle of comic reduction is carried out consistently in the most tragic places of the Days of the Turbins. Thus, in the climactic scene of the play, Turbin's heroic deed, which saved the lives of two hundred cadets and students, receives a strange, almost parodic highlight thanks to the tragicomic exit of the gymnasium watchman Maxim, who remained to protect the gymnasium (“I was told by the director ...”).

Of particular importance in the structure of the play are musical commentary and sound symbolism. Constantly not coinciding with the visible plan of action, the musical commentary translates it into the opposite plane, reveals the tragedy in the farce and vice versa. The dispute between the characters often reaches its highest tension not in words, but in musical parts. There is constantly antithesis music - the word. One of the most eloquent examples in this sense is the final scene, where the general feeling of completeness of dramatic events is accompanied by the roar of cannons and “distant dull music” announcing the entry of the Bolsheviks into the city.

The composition of the play is significant in this context. It would seem that the scene in the Alexander Gymnasium is not only the climax, but also the denouement of the action, the finale of the drama. In Bulgakov, after it, another, fourth act appears, reproducing the situation of the first.

The circular composition is one of the signs that Bulgakov's stage action, although it takes the form of a direct collision with History, is also expressed in the sphere of "internal action" to no lesser extent than in Chekhov's.

At the beginning of the play - the eve of the tragic events, Talberg's flight and a desperate feast - the "last dinner of the division" before the fight with the Petliurists, when it turns out that tomorrow they will go into battle, but for whom and for what is unknown.

At the end - Epiphany Christmas Eve of the 19th year, which came two months after the death of Alexei and the wounding of Nikolka, a Christmas tree, again a gathering of friends, the appearance of Talberg and the announcement of the wedding of Elena and Shervinsky - an epilogue of some and the eve of new tragic events, anxious expectation of the arrival of the Bolsheviks.

The beginning and end of the play are intertwined with recurring motifs. First of all, this is the motive for the inevitable meeting with the Bolsheviks. In the 1st act, it is intelligible only to Alexei Turbin: “In Russia, gentlemen, there are two forces: the Bolsheviks and us. We will meet ... When we meet with the Bolsheviks, things will go more cheerfully. Either we will bury them, or, rather, they will bury us. I drink to the meeting, gentlemen!”

In the 4th act, this meeting really looms before everyone, and the attitude towards it is ambiguous: from Myshlaevsky's readiness to go to the Cheka under execution to Studzinsky's intention to go to the Don, to Denikin. Such disagreement in itself speaks of the awakening in the traditional military environment of the need for self-determination. The interweaving of this motif with the motif of dressing up is interesting. He is connected with Shervinsky, for whom the world is a theater, and he himself is an actor who easily passes from play to play (takes off his cloak, remains in a magnificent Circassian coat, changes his Circassian coat for civilian clothes, comes in a “non-party coat” rented from a janitor, takes off him and appears in a magnificent tailcoat).

The motive of the meeting with the Bolsheviks and its transformation are inseparable from the motive of the “God-bearing people”. It is connected with the understanding that, in the end, the outcome of the meeting will depend on the position of “nice peasants from the writings of Leo Tolstoy”. But in the 1st act, a curse sounds against the “dear peasants”, and in the 4th the thought of them turns into a recognition of the inevitability of tomorrow's victory of the Bolsheviks (“behind the Bolsheviks there are a cloud of peasants”).

The motif of intoxicated oblivion, booze (“I would like to drink vodka, vodka” - an everyday detail acquires a symbolic character), penetrating the second picture of the 1st act, having arisen in the 4th, is resolved by another mistake of Lariosik, dropping the bottle - for the benefit of general sobering, not only literally, of course.

But the correlation of the motives of the 1st and 4th acts, the most important for Bulgakov's concept, is connected with the image of the House.

In the perception of Lariosik, the house appears first as the embodiment of peace in a raging world, then as a symbol of a better life to come (“We will rest, we will rest ...”). The references to Chekhov, provoked by the literal reproduction of Chekhov's text, should just draw attention to the discrepancy in the interpretation of the image of the House. For Chekhov's heroes, the House is a closed space, a triumph of everyday life that binds a person. For Bulgakov, the motive of the House in the 1st act is associated with the motive of a sinking ship, chaos that has penetrated into the sacred space (booze party). In the 4th act, the motive of the returned life and indestructible everyday life sounds as the basis of the world order. The idea of ​​the intrinsic value of life, the human right to live in spite of the general catastrophe is affirmed. As in the 1st act, the idea of ​​it is realized in the motive of unsleeping fate (a soldier's march to the words of Pushkin's "Song of the Prophetic Oleg"). This motif tragically frames the celebration of resurgent life, revealing its defenselessness. The thunder of six-inch batteries, under which Lariosik pronounces the classic words in the finale: “We will rest, we will rest ...” becomes the completion, the resolution of the Chekhov theme of the play.

Thus, the image of the mood translates the general impression of the unfolding events into a different register than the thought of the inevitability of the birth of “new Russia”.

So, in the play “Days of the Turbins”, Bulgakov, turning to the image of “Russian strife”, managed to rise above the mood of class strife and affirm the idea of ​​humanity, the inherent value of life, the immutability of traditional moral values. Inheriting the conquests of Chekhov's dramaturgy, Bulgakov created a work that was original in terms of genre, combining historical chronicle with psychological drama, organically including lyrical and tragicomic beginnings.

"Days of the Turbins" connected the dramaturgy of the New Age with the Chekhov era and at the same time revealed the author's desire to write in a new way. The play was a huge success, but in 1929 the performance's opponents ensured that it disappeared from the Moscow Art Theater poster for three years. In February 1932, by decision of the government, the performance was returned to the stage.

Bulgakov as a playwright

Today we will take a closer look at creative activity. Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov- one of the most famous writers and playwrights of the last century. He was born on May 3, 1891 in Kyiv. During his life, great changes occurred in the structure of Russian society, which was reflected in many of Bulgakov's works. It is no coincidence that he is considered the heir to the best traditions of Russian classical literature, prose and dramaturgy. He gained world fame thanks to such works as "The Master and Margarita", "Heart of a Dog" and "Fatal Eggs".

Three works by Bulgakov

A special place in the writer's work is occupied by a cycle of three works: a novel "White Guard" and plays "Run" and "Days of the Turbins" based on real events. Bulgakov borrowed the idea from the memories of the emigration of his second wife, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya. Part of the novel "White Guard" was first published in the magazine "Russia" in 1925.

At the beginning of the work, the events taking place in the Turbin family are described, but gradually, through the history of one family, the life of the whole people and country is revealed, and the novel acquires a philosophical meaning. There is a story about the events of the civil war of 1918 in Kyiv, occupied by the German army. As a result of the signing of the Brest Peace, it does not fall under the rule of the Bolsheviks and becomes a refuge for many Russian intellectuals and military men who flee from Bolshevik Russia.

Aleksey and Nikolka Turbins, like other residents of the City, volunteer to join the defenders, and Elena, their sister, guards the house, which becomes a refuge for former officers of the Russian army. Note that it is important for Bulgakov not only to describe the revolution that took place in history, but also to convey the subjective perception of the civil war as a kind of catastrophe in which there are no winners.

The image of a social cataclysm helps to reveal the characters - someone is running, someone prefers death in battle. Some commanders, realizing the futility of resistance, send their fighters home, others actively organize resistance and perish along with their subordinates. And yet - in times of great historical turning points, people do not stop loving, believing, worrying about loved ones. But the decisions they have to make on a daily basis have a different weight.

Artwork characters:

Alexey Vasilyevich Turbin - doctor, 28 years old.
Elena Turbina-Talberg - Alexei's sister, 24 years old.
Nikolka - non-commissioned officer of the First Infantry Squad, brother of Alexei and Elena, 17 years old.
Victor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky - lieutenant, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei's friend at the Alexander Gymnasium.
Leonid Yuryevich Shervinsky - a former Life Guards Lancers Regiment, lieutenant, adjutant at the headquarters of General Belorukov, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei's comrade at the Alexander Gymnasium, a longtime admirer of Elena.
Fedor Nikolaevich Stepanov (Karas) - second lieutenant artilleryman, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei's comrade at the Alexander Gymnasium.
Nai-Tours - Colonel, commander of the unit where Nikolka serves.

Character prototypes and historical background

An important aspect is the autobiographical nature of the novel. Although the manuscripts have not been preserved, the Bulgakov scholars traced the fate of many characters and proved the almost documentary accuracy of the events described by the author. The prototypes of the main characters in the novel were a relative of the writer himself, and the decorations were the Kyiv streets and his own house, in which he spent his youth.

In the center of the composition is the Turbin family. It is quite widely known that its main prototypes are members of Bulgakov's own family, however, for the purpose of artistic typification, Bulgakov deliberately reduced their number. In the main character, Alexei Turbina, one can recognize the author himself during the years when he was engaged in medical practice, and the prototype of Elena Talberg-Turbina, Alexei's sister, can be called Bulgakov's sister, Elena. It is also noteworthy that the maiden name of Bulgakov's grandmother is Turbina.

Another of the main characters is Lieutenant Myshlaevsky, a friend of the Turbin family. He is an officer devotedly defending his fatherland. That is why the lieutenant is enrolled in the mortar division, where he turns out to be the most trained and tough officer. According to Bulgakov scholar Ya. Yu. Tinchenko, the prototype of Myshlaevsky was a friend of the Bulgakov family, Pyotr Aleksandrovich Brzhezitsky. He was an artillery officer and participated in the same events that Myshlaevsky told about in the novel. The other friends of the Turbins remain faithful to their officer's honor in the novel: Stepanov-Karas and Shervinsky, as well as Colonel Nai-Tours.

The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky was another friend of Bulgakov - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer who served (albeit not as an adjutant) in the troops of Hetman Skoropadsky, he later emigrated. The prototype of Karas is believed to have been a friend of the Syngaevskys.

The three works are connected by the novel "The White Guard", which served as the basis for the play "Days of the Turbins" and several subsequent productions.

"White Guard", "Running" and "Days of the Turbins" on stage

After part of the novel was published in the Rossiya magazine, the Moscow Art Theater invited Bulgakov to write a play based on The White Guard. This is how the "Days of the Turbins" were born. In it, the main character Turbin incorporates the features of three characters from the novel "The White Guard" - Alexei Turbin himself, Colonel Malyshev and Colonel Nai-Tours. The young man in the novel is a doctor, in the play he is a colonel, although these professions are completely different. In addition, one of the heroes, Myshlaevsky, does not hide the fact that he is a professional military man, since he does not want to be in the camp of the defeated. The relatively easy victory of the Reds over the Petliurites makes a strong impression on him: “These two hundred thousand heels have been smeared with lard and are blowing at the very word “Bolsheviks”.” At the same time, Myshlaevsky does not even think about the fact that he will have to fight with his yesterday's friends and comrades in arms - for example, with Captain Studzinsky.

One of the obstacles to accurately conveying the events of the novel is censorship.

As for the play "Running", its plot was based on the story of the escape of the guards from Russia during the Civil War. It all starts in the north of Crimea, and ends in Constantinople. Bulgakov describes eight dreams. This technique is used by him to convey something unreal, something that is hard to believe. Heroes of different classes run from themselves and circumstances. But this is a Run not only from the war, but also to love, which is so lacking in the harsh years of the war...

Screen adaptations

Of course, one could look at this amazing story not only on the stage, but, ultimately, in the cinema. The screen version of the play "Running" was released in 1970 in the USSR. The script was based on the works "Running", "White Guard" and "Black Sea". The film consists of two series, the directors are A. Alov and V. Naumov.

Back in 1968, a film based on the play "Running" was shot in Yugoslavia, directed by Z. Shotra, and in 1971 in France, directed by F. Shulia.

The novel "The White Guard" served as the basis for the creation of the television series of the same name, which was released in 2011. Starring: K. Khabensky (A. Turbin), M. Porechenkov (V. Myshlaevsky), E. Dyatlov (L. Shervinsky) and others.

Another three-part television feature film, Days of the Turbins, was made in the USSR in 1976. A number of location shootings of the film were made in Kyiv (Andreevsky Spusk, Vladimirskaya Gorka, Mariinsky Palace, Sofia Square).

Bulgakov's works on stage

The stage history of Bulgakov's plays was not easy. In 1930, his works were no longer printed, the plays were removed from the theater repertoires. The plays "Running", "Zoyka's Apartment", "Crimson Island" were banned from staging, and the play "Days of the Turbins" was withdrawn from the show.

In the same year, Bulgakov wrote to his brother Nikolai in Paris about the unfavorable literary and theatrical situation and the difficult financial situation. Then he sends a letter to the government of the USSR with a request to determine his fate - either to give the right to emigrate, or to provide the opportunity to work at the Moscow Art Theater. Bulgakov is called by Joseph Stalin himself, who recommends the playwright to apply with a request to enroll him in the Moscow Art Theater. However, in his speeches, Stalin agreed: "Days of the Turbins" - "An anti-Soviet thing, and Bulgakov is not ours".

In January 1932, Stalin again allowed the production of The Days of the Turbins, and before the war it was no longer banned. True, this permission did not apply to any theater, except for the Moscow Art Theater.

The performance was played before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. During the bombing of Minsk in June 1941, when the Moscow Art Theater was on tour in Belarus, the scenery burned down.

In 1968, the director, People's Artist of the RSFSR Leonid Viktorovich Varpakhovsky, staged The Days of the Turbins again.

In 1991, The White Guard, directed by the People's Artist of the USSR Tatyana Vasilievna Doronina, returned to the stage once again. The performance was a great success with the audience. The genuine acting successes of V. V. Klementyev, T. G. Shalkovskaya, M. V. Kabanov, S. E. Gabrielyan, N. V. Penkov and V. L. Rovinsky revealed to the audience of the 1990s the drama of the revolutionary years, the tragedy of ruin and losses. The merciless cruelty of the revolutionary upheaval, general destruction and collapse broke into life.

The "White Guard" embodies nobility, honor, dignity, patriotism and awareness of one's own tragic end.

History of creation

On April 3, 1925, at the Moscow Art Theater, Bulgakov was offered to write a play based on the novel The White Guard. Bulgakov began work on the first edition in July 1925. In the play, as in the novel, Bulgakov based himself on his own memories of Kyiv during the Civil War. The author read the first edition at the theater in early September of the same year, on September 25, 1926, the play was allowed to be staged.

Since then, it has been revised several times. Three editions of the play are currently known; the first two have the same title as the novel, but due to censorship issues it had to be changed. There is no consensus among researchers as to which edition should be considered the last. Some point out that the third appeared as a result of the prohibition of the second and therefore cannot be considered the final manifestation of the author's will. Others argue that it is The Days of the Turbins that should be recognized as the main text, since performances have been staged on them for many decades. No manuscripts of the play have survived. The third edition was first published by E. S. Bulgakova in 1955. The second edition first saw the light in Munich. There is an edition of "Days of the Turbins (White Guard)", published in 1927 and 1929 in Paris by the Concorde publishing house, stored in the Lenin Library (Russian State Library).

Characters

• Turbin Aleksey Vasilievich - colonel-artilleryman, 30 years old.
• Turbin Nikolay - his brother, 18 years old.
• Talberg Elena Vasilievna - their sister, 24 years old.
• Talberg Vladimir Robertovich - Colonel of the General Staff, her husband, 31 years old.
• Myshlaevsky Viktor Viktorovich - staff captain, artilleryman, 38 years old.
• Shervinsky Leonid Yurievich - lieutenant, personal adjutant of the hetman.
• Studzinsky Alexander Bronislavovich - captain, 29 years old.
• Lariosik - Zhytomyr cousin, 21 years old.
• Hetman of All Ukraine (Pavel Skoropadsky).
• Bolbotun - commander of the 1st Petliura Cavalry Division (prototype - Bolbochan).
• Galanba is a Petliurist centurion, a former lancer captain.
• Hurricane.
• Kirpaty.
• Von Schratt is a German general.
• Von Doust is a German major.
• German army doctor.
• Deserter-Sich.
• Man with a basket.
• Camera lackey.
• Maxim - gymnasium pedel, 60 years old.
• Gaydamak is a telephonist.
• First officer.
• Second officer.
• Third officer.
• First Junker.
• Second Junker.
• Third Junker.
• Junkers and Haidamaks.

Plot

The events described in the play take place in late 1918 - early 1919 in Kyiv and cover the fall of the regime of Hetman Skoropadsky, the arrival of Petliura and his expulsion from the city by the Bolsheviks. Against the backdrop of a constant change of power, the personal tragedy of the Turbin family takes place, the foundations of the old life are broken.

The first and second editions had 4 acts each, the third - only 3.

Criticism

Modern critics consider "Days of the Turbins" the pinnacle of Bulgakov's theatrical success, but her stage fate was difficult. First left at the Moscow Art Theater, the play enjoyed great audience success, but received devastating reviews in the then Soviet press. In an article in the New Spectator magazine dated February 2, 1927, Bulgakov wrote out the following:

We are ready to agree with some of our friends that the "Days of the Turbins" is a cynical attempt to idealize the White Guard, but we have no doubt that it is the "Days of the Turbins" that is the aspen stake in its coffin. Why? Because for a healthy Soviet spectator, the most ideal slush cannot present a temptation, but for dying active enemies and for passive, flabby, indifferent townsfolk, the same slush cannot give either an emphasis or a charge against us. Just like a funeral hymn cannot serve as a military march.

In April 1929, The Days of the Turbins were withdrawn from the repertoire. The author was accused of petty-bourgeois and bourgeois mood, propaganda of the white movement. But Bulgakov 's patron turned out to be Stalin himself , who watched the play about twenty times . On his instructions, the performance was restored and entered the classical repertoire of the theater. Stalin's love for the play was perceived by some as evidence of a change of views, a change in attitude towards the traditions of the Russian army (the introduction of insignia, shoulder straps and other attributes of the Russian Imperial Army into the Red Army was also associated with Stalin's personal attitude). However, Stalin himself, in a letter to the playwright V. Bill-Belotserkovsky, indicated that he liked the play on the contrary, due to the fact that it shows the defeat of the whites: “As for the play itself“ Turbin Days ”, it is not so bad, because it does more good than harm. Do not forget that the main impression left by the viewer from this play is an impression favorable to the Bolsheviks: “even if people like Turbins are forced to lay down their arms and submit to the will of the people, recognizing their cause as completely lost, then the Bolsheviks are invincible, nothing can be done about them, the Bolsheviks”, “The Days of the Turbins” is a demonstration of the all-destroying power of Bolshevism.” For Mikhail Bulgakov, who was doing odd jobs, staging at the Moscow Art Theater was perhaps the only way to support his family.

Productions

• - Moscow Art Theater. Director Ilya Sudakov , artist Nikolay Ulyanov , artistic director of the production KS Stanislavsky . Roles played: Alexey Turbin- Nikolai Khmelev, Nikolka- Ivan Kudryavtsev, Elena- Vera Sokolova, Shervinsky— Mark Prudkin, Studzinsky- Evgeny Kaluga, Myshlaevsky- Boris Dobronravov, Thalberg- Vsevolod Verbitsky, Lariosik- Mikhail Yanshin, Von Schratt- Viktor Stanitsyn, Hetman- Vladimir Ershov. The premiere took place on October 5, 1926. After being removed from the repertoire in 1929, the performance was resumed on February 16, 1932 and remained on the stage of the Art Theater until June 1941. In total, in 1926-1941, the play ran 987 times.

Screen adaptations

• - Days of the Turbins, director Vladimir Basov

Notes

Sources

Links

Works by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov
Novels	The White Guard The Life of Monsieur de Molière The Master and Marguerite Theatrical Romance
Tale	Diaboliad Fatal Eggs Heart of a Dog Secret Friend Notes on Cuffs
plays, screenplays, libretto

It exists in three editions.

History of creation

On April 3, 1925, at the Moscow Art Theater, Bulgakov was offered to write a play based on the novel The White Guard. Bulgakov began work on the first edition in July 1925. In the play, as in the novel, Bulgakov based himself on his own memories of Kyiv during the Civil War. The author read the first edition at the theater in early September of the same year, on September 25, 1926, the play was allowed to be staged.

Since then, it has been revised several times. Three editions of the play are currently known; the first two have the same title as the novel, but due to censorship issues it had to be changed. The title "Days of the Turbins" was also used for the novel. In particular, its first edition (1927 and 1929, Concorde Publishing House, Paris) was entitled Days of the Turbins (White Guard). There is no consensus among researchers as to which edition should be considered the last. Some point out that the third appeared as a result of the prohibition of the second and therefore cannot be considered the final manifestation of the author's will. Others argue that it is The Days of the Turbins that should be recognized as the main text, since performances have been staged on them for many decades. No manuscripts of the play have survived. The third edition was first published by E. S. Bulgakova in 1955. The second edition first saw the light in Munich.

In 1927, the rogue Z. L. Kagansky declared himself the copyright holder for translations and staging of the play abroad. In this regard, M. A. Bulgakov on February 21, 1928, applied to the Moscow Council with a request for permission to travel abroad to negotiate the production of the play. [ ]

Characters

• Turbin Aleksey Vasilievich - colonel-artilleryman, 30 years old.
• Turbin Nikolay - his brother, 18 years old.
• Talberg Elena Vasilievna - their sister, 24 years old.
• Talberg Vladimir Robertovich - Colonel of the General Staff, her husband, 38 years old.
• Myshlaevsky Viktor Viktorovich - staff captain, artilleryman, 38 years old.
• Shervinsky Leonid Yurievich - lieutenant, personal adjutant of the hetman.
• Studzinsky Alexander Bronislavovich - captain, 29 years old.
• Lariosik is a cousin from Zhytomyr, aged 21.
• Hetman of All Ukraine (Pavel Skoropadsky).
• Bolbotun - commander of the 1st Petliura Cavalry Division (prototype - Bolbochan).
• Galanba is a Petliurist centurion, a former lancer captain.
• Hurricane.
• Kirpaty.
• Von Schratt is a German general.
• Von Doust is a German major.
• German army doctor.
• Deserter-Sich.
• Man with a basket.
• Camera lackey.
• Maxim - former gymnasium pedel, 60 years old.
• Gaydamak is a telephonist.
• First officer.
• Second officer.
• Third officer.
• First Junker.
• Second Junker.
• Third Junker.
• Junkers and Haidamaks.

Plot

The events described in the play take place in late 1918 and early 1919 in Kyiv and cover the fall of the regime of Hetman Skoropadsky, the arrival of Petliura and his expulsion from the city by the Bolsheviks. Against the backdrop of a constant change of power, the personal tragedy of the Turbin family takes place, the foundations of the old life are broken.

The first edition had 5 acts, while the second and third had only 4.

Criticism

Modern critics consider "Days of the Turbins" the pinnacle of Bulgakov's theatrical success, but her stage fate was difficult. First staged at the Moscow Art Theater, the play enjoyed great audience success, but received devastating reviews in the then Soviet press. In an article in the New Spectator magazine dated February 2, 1927, Bulgakov noted the following:

We are ready to agree with some of our friends that the "Days of the Turbins" is a cynical attempt to idealize the White Guard, but we have no doubt that it is the "Days of the Turbins" that is the aspen stake in its coffin. Why? Because for a healthy Soviet spectator, the most ideal slush cannot present a temptation, but for dying active enemies and for passive, flabby, indifferent townsfolk, the same slush cannot give either an emphasis or a charge against us. It's like a funeral hymn can't serve as a military march.

Stalin himself, in a letter to the playwright V. Bill-Belotserkovsky, indicated that he liked the play, on the contrary, because it showed the defeat of the Whites. The letter was subsequently published by Stalin himself in the collected works after Bulgakov's death, in 1949:

Why are Bulgakov's plays so often staged on stage? Because, it must be, that there are not enough of their own plays suitable for staging. In the absence of fish, even "Days of the Turbins" is a fish. (...) As for the actual play "Days of the Turbins", it is not so bad, because it gives more benefit than harm. Do not forget that the main impression left by the viewer from this play is an impression favorable to the Bolsheviks: “even if people like Turbins are forced to lay down their arms and submit to the will of the people, recognizing their cause as completely lost, then the Bolsheviks are invincible, nothing can be done about them, the Bolsheviks”, “Days of the Turbins” is a demonstration of the all-destroying power of Bolshevism.

Well, we watched "Days of the Turbins"<…>Tiny, from officer meetings, with the smell of "drink and snack" passions, loves, deeds. Melodramatic patterns, a little bit of Russian feelings, a little bit of music. I hear: What the hell!<…>What has been achieved? The fact that everyone is watching the play, shaking their heads and remembering the Ramzin case ...

- “When I will soon die ...” Correspondence of M. A. Bulgakov with P. S. Popov (1928-1940). - M.: EKSMO, 2003. - S. 123-125

For Mikhail Bulgakov, who was doing odd jobs, staging at the Moscow Art Theater was perhaps the only way to support his family.

Productions

• - Moscow Art Theater. Director Ilya Sudakov , artist Nikolay Ulyanov , artistic director of the production KS Stanislavsky . Roles played: Alexey Turbin- Nikolai Khmelev, Nikolka- Ivan Kudryavtsev, Elena- Vera Sokolova, Shervinsky— Mark Prudkin, Studzinsky- Evgeny Kaluga, Myshlaevsky- Boris Dobronravov, Thalberg- Vsevolod Verbitsky, Lariosik- Mikhail Yanshin, Von Schratt- Viktor Stanitsyn, von Dust— Robert Schilling, Hetman- Vladimir Ershov, deserter- Nikolai Titushin, Bolbotun— Alexander Anders, Maksim- Mikhail Kedrov, also Sergey Blinnikov, Vladimir Istrin, Boris Maloletkov, Vasily Novikov. The premiere took place on October 5, 1926.

In the excluded scenes (with a Jew caught by the Petliurists, Vasilisa and Wanda), Iosif Raevsky and Mikhail Tarkhanov were supposed to play with Anastasia Zueva, respectively.

The typist I. S. Raaben (daughter of General Kamensky), who printed the novel The White Guard and whom Bulgakov invited to the performance, recalled: “The performance was amazing, because everything was vivid in people’s memory. There were hysterics, fainting spells, seven people were taken away by an ambulance, because among the spectators there were people who survived both Petlyura and these Kyiv horrors, and in general the difficulties of the civil war ... "

The publicist I. L. Solonevich subsequently described the extraordinary events associated with the production:

... It seems that in 1929 the Moscow Art Theater staged Bulgakov's well-known play Days of the Turbins. It was a story about deceived White Guard officers stuck in Kyiv. The audience of the Moscow Art Theater was not an average audience. It was a selection. Theater tickets were distributed by the trade unions, and the top of the intelligentsia, the bureaucracy and the party, of course, received the best seats in the best theatres. I was among this bureaucracy: I worked in the very department of the trade union that distributed these tickets. As the play progresses, the White Guard officers drink vodka and sing “God save the Tsar! ". It was the best theater in the world, and the best artists of the world performed on its stage. And now - it begins - a little randomly, as befits a drunken company: "God save the Tsar" ...

And here comes the inexplicable: the hall begins get up. The voices of the artists are getting stronger. The artists sing standing up and the audience listens standing up: sitting next to me was my boss for cultural and educational activities - a communist from the workers. He got up too. People stood, listened and cried. Then my communist, confused and nervous, tried to explain something to me, something completely helpless. I helped him: this is a mass suggestion. But it was not only a suggestion.

For this demonstration, the play was removed from the repertoire. Then they tried to stage it again - moreover, they demanded from the director that “God Save the Tsar” was sung like a drunken mockery. Nothing came of it - I don't know why exactly - and the play was finally cancelled. At one time, “all of Moscow” knew about this incident.

- Solonevich I. L. Mystery and solution of Russia. M .: Publishing house "FondIV", 2008. P. 451

After being removed from the repertoire in 1929, the performance was resumed on February 18, 1932 and remained on the stage of the Art Theater until June 1941. In total, in 1926-1941, the play ran 987 times.

M. A. Bulgakov wrote in a letter to P. S. Popov on April 24, 1932 about the resumption of the performance:

From Tverskaya to the Theater, male figures stood and muttered mechanically: "Is there an extra ticket?" The same was true of Dmitrovka.
I was not in the hall. I was backstage and the actors were so excited that they infected me. I began to move from place to place, my arms and legs became empty. There are bells at all ends, then the light will strike in the spotlights, then suddenly, as in a mine, darkness, and<…>it seems that the performance is moving at a head-turning speed...