The story is autobiographical in nature and is based on the author's memories of his own childhood. The narration is told in third person.

In winter, Nikita was given a bench to ride down the mountain, and in the morning the boy wanted to run away to the steep river banks, but he was caught by his teacher Arkady Ivanovich, an “amazingly efficient and cunning” man. Nikita had to wash up, have breakfast and do first arithmetic, then penmanship.

While writing penmanship, Nikita was lucky - they brought mail. Arkady Ivanovich, who was waiting for a letter, got distracted, and the boy slipped away. Approaching the Chagra River, Nikita saw his friends - boys from “our end” of the village of Sosnovka. A little further their enemies could be seen, the “Konchanskys” - guys from the far end of the village.

Nikita did not manage to ride to his heart's content - Arkady Ivanovich quickly overtook him and reported that a letter had arrived from his father in Samara. He promised to send Nikita a gift so large that it would require a separate cart, and for Christmas his mother’s friend Anna Apollosovna Babkina and her children would come to them. Arkady Ivanovich also received a letter from his fiancee, a Samara teacher.

Nikita tried to find out about the gift from his friend from the men's room. Mishka Koryashonok did not know anything, but he reported about the upcoming battle between “ours” and “Konchanskys”. Nikita promised to participate.

At night, Nikita dreamed that the cat wanted to stop the pendulum of the large clock that hung in the hall on the summer half of the house. The boy knew: if the pendulum stopped, “everything would crack, split, ring and disappear like dust,” but he could not move. Suddenly Nikita made a desperate effort of will and took off. He saw that there was a bronze vase on the watch case and wanted to take what was there, but the evil old woman from the portrait grabbed him with her thin hands, and the evil old man from the next picture hit him on the back with a long smoking pipe.

Nikita fell and woke up - Arkady Ivanovich woke him up and informed him that the Christmas holidays began today.

Fourteen of his own days fell on Nikita - do what you want.

On the same day, a battle took place between “ours” and “Konchanskys”. Under the pressure of the “Konchanskys,” “ours” trembled and ran. Nikita felt offended, and with all his might he hit the leader of the “Konchanskys” Styopka Karnaushkin, who, as Mishka claimed, had a charmed fist.

This turned the tide of the battle - “ours” rushed at the “Konchanskys” and drove them into five yards. Styopka respected Nikita so much that he invited him to “be friends,” and the former enemies exchanged valuable gifts.

It was boring in the evening. The wind howled in the attic. Nikita imagined how the Wind, “shaggy, covered in dust and cobwebs, sits quietly” and howls from boredom. The melancholy was interrupted by the arrival of Anna Apollosovna with her son Victor, a second-grade student at the gymnasium, and her unusually pretty nine-year-old daughter Lilya.

Nikita was fascinated by Lily's beauty. When the bull Buyan attacked the boys walking in the yard in the morning, Victor fell to the ground in fear, and Nikita stopped the ferocious animal. Lilya watched this feat through the window, which made the boy very happy.

A day later, a convoy arrived at the estate, which contained the gift promised to Nikita - a two-oared boat. Several evenings before Christmas, children glued decorations for the Christmas tree from colored paper. Then they put a huge tree up to the ceiling in the living room and decorated it with stars, gingerbread cookies, apples and candles.

In the evening, Nikita, Victor, Lilya and the children from Sosnovka were allowed into the living room to the Christmas tree.

She stood like a fiery tree, shimmering with gold, sparks, and long rays. The light coming from her was thick, warm, smelling of pine needles, wax, tangerines, and honey gingerbread.

The children sorted out the gifts and the holiday began. Nikitin’s mother Alexandra Leontievna played the piano, and Arkady Ivanovich led round dances with the children around the Christmas tree. During this fuss, Nikita managed to stay alone with Lilya and kiss her. After tea, Nikita went to see off the satisfied and tired guests. His soul was light and happy.

Nikita preferred to stay at home with Lilya, while Victor became friends with Mishka Koryashonok. They built a snow fortress on a ditch behind the pond and challenged the “Konchanskys” to a fight. The walls of snow did not help: the “Konchanskys” launched an attack, and soon “the defenders of the fortress ran through the reeds on the ice of the pond.”

Nikita didn’t understand why he was bored playing with the boys. Looking at Lilya, he felt happiness, “as if somewhere inside him a music box was spinning, playing gently and cheerfully.”

The boy told Lila his dream, and the girl wanted to know if there was actually a bronze vase on the clock, and what was in it. On the mahogany clock in my grandfather’s office there really was a vase in which Nikita found “a thin ring with a blue stone.” The boy immediately put this ring on Lily's finger.

The guests were about to leave. Lilya promised to write, and it seemed to Nikita “that everything in the world was over,” and he would never again see the shadow of Lilya’s huge bow on the wall of the room.

After the Babkins left, Nikita's vacation ended. Arkady Ivanovich introduced a new subject - algebra, which turned out to be more boring and drier than arithmetic. The boy’s father, Vasily Nikitievich, who was waiting in Samara to receive an inheritance, wrote that the matter was delayed, he would have to “go to Moscow to work” and he would only be home for Lent.

The letter upset Alexandra Leontyevna. Vasily Nikitievich had not been home for a long time, and she was afraid that Nikita would completely forget his father. Nikita knew that he would always remember this cheerful, red-cheeked man, a little careless and frivolous. Getting carried away, Vasily Nikitievich could spend his last money on a completely unnecessary thing, which sometimes brought his wife to tears.

Severe frosts hit. Nikita was rarely allowed into the yard. The boy walked around bored and remembered Lila. Noticing this, Alexandra Leontyevna decided that her son was sick. Nikita's algebra classes were canceled, they started giving him castor oil and sending him to bed early. Nikita became happier three weeks later, when a strong damp wind blew from the south.

Following the wind, rooks flew to the old nests, and spring began. Nikita walked around sleepy, stupefied by the wind and the cry of rooks, and was tormented by ominous premonitions. One day, having climbed into the Plugar booth, Nikita began to ask God that everything would be fine, and that he would feel at ease again. The prayer helped: mother looked at him not strictly, as in the last days, but tenderly and affectionately, as before.

There was a heavy downpour at night, and the next morning a spring flood began. During the day, Nikita was frightened by the news that Vasily Nikitievich was drowning in a ravine filled with melt water.

In the evening, the happily rescued Vasily Nikitievich drank tea at home and told how he got home on a newly purchased thoroughbred stallion, was unable to cross a ravine filled with water and actually almost drowned, but the men arrived in time - they pulled both him and the horse out. Alexandra Leontyevna was so happy that she didn’t even get angry with her husband for a completely unnecessary purchase.

Vasily Nikitievich had a fever for three days, but there was no time to be sick for a long time - he had to prepare for sowing. Alexandra Leontievna started a big spring cleaning of the house. Then eggs were painted and Easter cakes were baked at the estate. During the week, Nikita's parents were so tired that they did not go to stand the Great Matins, and Arkady Ivanovich, who had not received a letter from the bride, was in a gloomy mood.

Nikita was released alone for matins in Kolokoltsevo, ordered to stay with his father’s old friend Pyotr Petrovich Devyatov. Nikita quickly became acquainted with the six sons and daughter of Pyotr Petrovich. The brothers vied with each other to complain to Nikita about their sister Anna, a terrible sneak.

After matins and the Easter treat, Anna followed Nikita on his heels. The boy was uncomfortable and ashamed, and the Devyatov brothers began to laugh at him. Finally, Nikita understood: Anna felt the same for him as he did for Lila, but still rejected the girl’s friendship.

With no one, only with Lily alone, he could have those strange words, special looks and smiles. And with the other girl - it was a betrayal and a shame.

Spring came, blackbirds ran between the trees, and a cuckoo began to crow in the forest. One day Vasily Nikitievich asked his son which horse from the herd he liked best. Nikita pointed to the meek, dark red gelding Klopik and thought that this conversation was not without reason.

On Nikita's birthday, the eleventh of May, a new boat was launched onto the water of the pond. Then Vasily Nikitievich proclaimed Nikita the “frog admiral” and raised on the flagpole the admiral’s standard with the image of a frog standing on its hind legs.

One day Nikita found a yellow-throated birdling that had fallen out of the nest and took it into the house. The boy named the chick Zheltukhin, built him a house, fed him worms and protected him from the house cat. At first Zheltukhin was afraid of Nikita and thought that he would certainly eat him, then he got used to it, learned to fly and became a member of the family along with the cat Vasily Vasilich and the hedgehog Ahilka.

Zheltukhin lived with Nikita until the fall and learned to speak Russian. All day the starling flew around the garden, and in the evening he returned to his house on the windowsill. In the fall, Zheltukhin was lured into a flock of migrating starlings.

The free days between spring field work and mowing have arrived. Mishka Koryashonok was put in charge of grazing the horses, and Nikita went to him for the whole day - he learned to ride a horse. Alexandra Leontievna was afraid that her son would break his arms and legs, but Vasily Nikitievich did not want his son to become “some unfortunate Slyuntyai Makaronych” and gave him Klopik. Nikita learned to care for a horse and from that day on he rode only on horseback.

When the time came for the grain to ripen, a drought came to the estate. Nikita's parents walked around with worried faces.

One more day of this damned heat, and here you have a hungry winter, typhus, cattle are dying, children are dying...

Arkady Ivanovich was also sad - his bride could not come to Sosnovka due to her mother’s illness and now she will see her groom only in the fall, in Samara.

After lunch, when Nikita’s parents lay down to rest, Zheltukhin flew into the room. Nikita poured water into a saucer for him, the starling drank, bathed, and then sat on the barometer and said in a “gentle voice”: “Burrya.” And then Nikita saw how the barometer needle moved from the “very dry” mark to the “storm” sign. In the evening a terrible thunderstorm began with heavy rain. The harvest was saved.

Nikita has a new responsibility - to ride Klopik to the neighboring village to get the mail. The evil drunkard postmaster never gave away newspapers and magazines until he read them himself. Six times a year he drank, and then it was better not to enter the post office at all.

This time Nikita again received only letters. One of them was from Lily. The girl wrote that she remembers Nikita and has not yet lost his ring. The boy smelled the memories of Christmas and his heart began to beat joyfully.

Nikita's parents had been quarreling for three days already. Vasily Nikitievich wanted to go to the fair to sell the restive mare, but Alexandra Leontievna did not let her husband in - she was afraid that he would spend too much money. Finally, the couple came to an agreement: Vasily Nikitievich promised his wife “not to spend crazy money at the fair,” for which he came up with the idea of ​​​​selling a cart of apples there.

As a result, the apples remained unsold; they had to be given in addition to the mare. Vasily Nikitievich, hiding his eyes, told Nikita that he had bought a batch of camels quite by accident and “terribly inexpensively”, and tomorrow he would go to see a trio of gray, dapple-colored horses - he would still get it at home for nuts.

August has arrived. Vasily Nikitievich and his son spent whole days on the threshing machine and himself fed the sheaves into its “dusty depths.” Nikita liked to return home on a cart full of fresh, golden straw.

The Milky Way is spread out with a luminous fog. On a cart, as if in a cradle, Nikita sailed under the stars, calmly looking at distant worlds.

Autumn came. Vasily Nikitievich again left for Samara and a week later reported that “the matter with the inheritance... has not advanced a single step.” He did not want to live a second winter apart, asked Alexandra Leontyevna to move to the city and threatened to buy “two amazing Chinese vases.”

Alexandra Leontyevna did not like the city, but the news of the purchase of unnecessary vases prompted her to get ready in three days. Arkady Ivanovich, on the contrary, was happy and looked forward to meeting his bride.

In a white one-story house, two Chinese vases and Anna Apollosovna were waiting for Alexandra Leontyevna, and an angry Lilya was waiting for Nikita. She demanded her letter back, and Nikita remembered with horror that he had never answered it. The boy began to make excuses, and Lilya forgave him for the first time.

For Nikita, the freedom of the countryside ended and city life began in seven uninhabited and cramped rooms. The boy felt like a prisoner - the same as Zheltukhinn in the first days. A week later, Nikita passed the exams and entered the second grade of the gymnasium.

All-Russian scientific and practical video conference

“The Theme of Childhood in World Literature”

Section: literary studies

Research

Formation of Nikita's character

(based on A.N. Tolstoy’s story “Nikita’s Childhood”)

Completed by: Polina Grishina,

9th grade student

Oryol region; Livny

Scientific supervisor: Svechnikova O.N.,

Oryol region; Livny

MBOU "Lyceum named after. S. N. Bulgakov"

2012

Content

№	Name	page
Chapter 1.	Autobiographical story about the childhood of A.N. Tolstoy	3-5
Chapter 2.	The formation of Nikita’s character in the story “Nikita’s Childhood.”	5-13
§ 2.1.	Parental love is the basis of raising a child.-	5-7
§ 2.2.	Friendship with village children -	8-9
§ 2.3.	Harmony with nature-	9-11
§ 2.4.	The first love in Nikita's life.	11-12
	Conclusion	12-14
	List of used literature.	15

Chapter 1. Autobiographical story about the childhood of A.N. Tolstoy

Story by A.N. Tolstoy's The Childhood of Nikita (originally titled A Tale of Many Excellent Things) was first published in a separate edition in 1922. The story was written in 1919–1920. In the fall of 1918, he emigrated abroad. In 1920, the writer was still in exile and was very homesick for Russia. Living in Paris and Berlin, Tolstoy alienated the emigrant environment and began to delve more deeply into the meaning of historical events. Memories of the homeland, of the irrevocable days of childhood, of Russian nature caused the appearance of the story. “Nikita’s Childhood” is a work full of captivating lyricism, irresistible charm and truth, high poetry of folk life, a vivid perception of nature, and the beauty of the native language. The author devotes all his attention to the embodiment of the poetic principles of the charm of the irrevocable time of childhood. The writer said: “I will give all my previous novels and plays for this book! The book is Russian and written in Russian!” The story was written for the Parisian magazine “Green Stick” - for emigrant children who, like the son of A.N. Tolstoy's Nikita, to whom the work is dedicated and after whom the main character is named, was in dire need of Russian impressions. He was interested in real life, he wanted to rely on the experience of his personal observations: “I began - and it was as if a window opened into the distant past with all the charm, gentle sadness and acute perceptions of nature that occur in childhood” (Complete collected works, vol. 13, p. 563). Unlike most of A. Tolstoy’s works, the plot, the sequential chain of events, plays almost no role here, because everything in the world is excellent. Children's writer K. Chukovsky wrote about this in 1924: “This is the Book of Happiness, it seems, the only Russian book in which the author does not preach happiness, does not promise it in the future, but immediately exudes it from himself.”

"Nikita's Childhood" is an autobiographical story. The location of the action quite accurately reproduces the setting of the small estate of the writer’s stepfather A. A. Bostrom, where Tolstoy grew up. Even the name of the estate is preserved in the story - Sosnovka. Childhood impressions and A. Tolstoy’s memories of his early life in the Samara province were included in the content of his work. In one of his autobiographical notes, A. Tolstoy wrote about himself this way: “I grew up alone, in contemplation, in dissolution, among the great phenomena of earth and sky. July lightning over a dark garden; autumn mists like milk; a dry twig sliding in the wind on the first ice of the pond; winter blizzards covering the huts with snowdrifts; the sound of the spring waters; the cry of rooks flying to last year’s nests; birth and death, like the rising and setting of the sun, like the fate of animals and birds; ; boogers with red faces living in the cracks of the earth; the smell of a ripe apple, the smell of a fire in a twilight hollow; my friend Mishka Koryashonok and his stories; , pp. 557–558). Pictures of the Russian winter, vast snowy plains, ringing spring days, summer harvest, golden autumn replace one another naturally, like the movement of time itself, conveyed in living images. The change of seasons is depicted not as a passive contemplative movement, but as an active one, affecting all aspects of people’s existence and activity. It is in such an atmosphere that the little hero of A. Tolstoy’s story, Nikita, grows and is formed. Nikita's parents largely repeat the real traits of the writer's stepfather and mother. Nikita's mother's name is the same as the writer's mother - Alexandra Leontyevna. For the image of the teacher, the prototype was a seminarian-tutor, Arkady Ivanovich Slovokhotov, who prepared the future writer for admission to a secondary educational institution. Nikita's relationship with the village children - Mishka Koryashonok and Styopka Karnaushkin, their friendship and friendly games are also autobiographical, as well as a number of other details. It should be noted that the narration is not told in the first person, which gives the author the opportunity to really, after many years, evaluate the happy time of his childhood.
Chapter 2. Formation of Nikita’s character in the story “Nikita’s Childhood”
§ 2.1. Parental love is the basis of raising a child
“Nikita’s Childhood” tells about the childhood of a Russian boy from a noble landowner family, once rich and noble, but already on the verge of ruin, living out his last days in the village. In depicting the development of the character of the main character A.N. Tolstoy puts the reality surrounding the child in the first place.

Already from the first pages of the story, we see what a friendly, normal atmosphere surrounded Nikita, how his first ideas about life took shape. “It was so quiet in the warm office that a barely audible ringing began in my ears. What extraordinary stories could be invented alone, on the sofa, to the sound of this ringing. White light poured through the frozen glass. Nikita was reading Cooper...” So we plunge into the world of Nikita’s childhood, into a world surrounded by books, classes with a teacher, in an atmosphere of kindness and care for a nine-year-old boy. Nikita's relationships with his mother, father, and teacher are of such a nature that they instill in the boy a sound mind, directness and honesty.

Nikita's family and the home environment in the house were always very kind and dear; it was clear how all family members took care of Nikita and everyone tried to give a piece of their love to the boy, to raise him as a good person. All family members are very different in character, temperament, many have different views on life, but despite this, this is a friendly, loving family. Using the example of Nikita’s parents, who sincerely love each other, one can see how much family upbringing means for the formation of a child’s character. Nikita's father is cheerful, with a subtle sense of humor, combined with extraordinary intelligence, kindness and spiritual nobility, happy with his wife, who is very different from him. She is a well-mannered, intelligent, stately woman with gentle beauty, who, in the spirit of folk traditions, embodies the image of the keeper of the family hearth. The prototype of this image was A. Tolstoy’s mother. Nikita's mother misses her husband very much when he leaves, worries about him with all her heart and is worried that Nikita might forget him. One day, my father’s life hung in the balance when he almost died in a ravine during a spring flood. This misfortune showed the cohesion of the family, caring for each other, the common thing that unites a real family - love. Sometimes conflicts arose between the boy’s parents over the extravagance of her husband, sometimes there were disagreements in Nikita’s upbringing, the mother was very kind to her son and was too worried about him and saw him only as a little boy, while the father insisted on raising the child as a man - brave, strong , hardened. But at the same time, they met each other halfway and found a common solution that did not harm Nikita, but, on the contrary, developed it. For example, the episode with Klopik. His mother was very afraid that it was too early for Nikita to ride a horse on his own: he might crash, he might not be able to cope with an unbroken horse. My father, on the contrary, was convinced that only in this way, by introducing Nikita to independence, closeness to the life of the people, and participation in the common cause, could a strong, strong man be raised.

Nikita's family was always very hospitable and happy to have guests. One of these visits of guests became a real event in Nikita’s life, then he met his first love. The house has always loved holidays. One of the brightest was the wonderful New Year. In the description of preparations for the holiday, homemade crafts, decorations, long-awaited pine needles, waiting for long-awaited gifts, a lush table with treats, round dances around the Christmas tree with invited village children, one can feel the author’s love for the traditions of the ancient noble way of life. So brightly, visibly noticed by A.N. Thick details of children's preparations for the New Year.

In this house, even simple workers are treated very well, despite the fact that there are masters and peasants. Nikita's father is a very simple person in communication and behavior, he was friendly towards the servants, and they respected their owners, tried to please them, and paid them with loyalty and care. The carpenter Pakhom, who makes Nikita’s bench, the sensible boy, the assistant shepherd Mishka Koryashonok, and the teacher Arkady Ivanovich evoke sympathy. Nikita considers Mishka Koryashonka, a shepherd who works in the barnyard, to be the most authoritative person. This is a serious and reasonable guy who, in imitation of adults, speaks with feigned indifference. "Nikita looked at Koryashonok with great respect." Although Mishka is small, the Russian mentality and Russian character are already clearly visible in his comments, advice and actions. Another acquaintance of Nikita is the curly-haired, snub-nosed and large-mouthed Styopa Karnaushkin with a “charmed fist”. Nikita's company of village friends is completed by Semka, Lenka, Artamoshka the smaller, Nil, Vanka Black Ears and Bobylev's nephew Petrushka. All day long Nikita spins around in the yard, at the well, in the carriage house, in the servants' room, on the threshing floor... For him, Mishka Koryashonok's judgments are most understandable. But less important is what the carpenter Pakhom, the worker Vasily, and the stooped Artem said or did. Nikita is curious about the life of the village, peasant children, peasant activities, not understanding the difficulties and hardships of village life, but at the same time spontaneously, instinctively, not separating himself from it, feeling himself somehow inextricably linked with the village.

§ 2.2. Friendship with village children

Nikita communicated with the village children, and in the traditions of village childhood there was always confrontation between one courtyard and another, fights, snow battles, games of war - all this also made up his childhood, a happy childhood, it strengthened his character and subjected him to tests.

Nikita never had problems communicating due to his different social status; on the contrary, he believed that his village friends would never replace a single noble boy for him, which he was convinced of after communicating with a second-grade high school student, Victor, who was visiting Nikita on Christmas. Victor also made friends with the villagers, tried to be one of them, but never did. But Nikita was one of the guys, he was not afraid to go to fights and tease the villagers on the other side. Of great importance to him was his friendship with the shepherd boy Mishka Koryashonok, whose resourcefulness and courage had a special meaning, since he had to support himself. Therefore, Nikita even imitates Mishka and tries to surpass him in prowess. Nikita managed to defeat even the “bewitched” first strongman Styopka Karnaushkin, from whom the others backed away, after which both boys exchanged gifts in a friendly manner - a knife and a lead. Nikita's character is especially revealed in the scene with a bull, which from the herd suddenly rushed at a trot at him and at the second-grade schoolboy Victor, who was visiting them. Clapping his whip like a gun, Mishka Koryashonok managed to shout: “Be careful, Nikita!” Nikita, in turn, shouted: “Viktor, run!” But the schoolboy Victor screamed, fell and covered his head with his hands. Nikita rushed to the rescue and began hitting the bull in the face with his hat. Mishka ran up and drove the bull away with a whip. In this scene, the relationship between the three characters is clearly outlined. The high school student Victor, who boasted of his courage, made fun of Nikita, who looked too much at his little sister Lilya, with blue eyes, an upturned nose, curls and a lush bow on the top of her head: “... you only need to play with the girls,” - now he has lost a lot in Nikita’s eyes . Victor could not stand any comparison with his village friends. And Nikita in this scene showed himself to be an adult boy, he was not at a loss, but saved his comrade. Observing the life of the servants and connecting with the people helped him in this.

§ 2.3. Harmony with nature – formation of the child’s spiritual world

Okay, Nikita? – his cheerful father asks the boy.

Wonderful! - Nikita answers.

All images and events in this joyful book are marked with the word wonderful...

Every day of Nikita is constant discoveries and filling with happiness. Everything is good, everything makes you happy: spring rain, the spill of water, the onset of summer, “the smells of moisture, rain, rain and grass,” the sun, water, and sky take on the meaning of spiritualized essences of existence. The boy is connected by spiritual threads with the sacraments of all living things. The story has already begun: “Through the frosty patterns on the windows, through the wonderfully painted silver stars and palmate leaves, the sun was shining. The light in the room was snowy white. A bunny slipped from the wash cup and trembled on the wall” prepares us for the perception of something kind, fairy-tale, for the perception of a carefree childhood.

The story of “Nikita’s Childhood” reflected the main result of childhood years - the harmonious unity of all facets of existence: plants, animals, people, life and death, the relationship between the life of a ten-year-old child and the life of nature creates a unique lyrical flavor of the story: “Nikita swam under the stars, calmly looking at distant worlds." “All this is mine,” he thought, “someday I’ll board an airship and fly away...” This is how a boy perceives nature when he rides on a cart in the summer after threshing; Nikita is close to her, dissolves in the world around him. The author often animates natural phenomena; he creates poetic images of a starling, a cat, a horse, a hedgehog, and an oriole. “Zheltukhin sat on a bush of grass, in the sun, in the corner between the porch and the wall of the house and looked with horror at the approaching Nikita” - this description of the starling is given both by the author’s softly smiling gaze, and by some kind of intuitive poeticized vision of Nikita, and by the humanized perception of Zheltukhin.

Nikita’s close attention to everything that surrounds him is understandable; Nikita learns to understand the world around him and himself in it. It is nature that enriches Nikita’s spiritual work and develops in him the need for spiritual kinship with all living things. The author often animates natural phenomena; he creates poetic images of a starling, a cat, a horse, a hedgehog, and an oriole. Nikita's feelings for nature were especially heightened by her love for a girl with a blue bow. After the New Year's party, Nikita returns home alone, seeing off the children who were invited to visit: “It seemed to Nikita that he was walking in a dream, in an enchanted kingdom. Only in an enchanted kingdom can it be so strange and so happy in the soul.” Unity with nature, the feeling of being an integral part of it, creates in the boy’s soul an almost constant expectation of happiness, wonderful, fantastic.

Nikita's vision of the real echoes his fantastic ideas, coming from the boy's dreams, from the desire to poeticize the world around him. He infects others with this desire. So, Lilya and him are looking for a vase that Nikita once dreamed about. And in fact, this vase was found by the children on the clock in a dark room, and there was a ring in it, Nikita says with confidence: “It’s magical.” And the story is about two people who are depicted in family portraits, visible through an open door in a dimly lit suite of neighboring rooms. One is “a stern old man with a sharp nose and hawk-like, piercing eyes.” Another portrait depicts “a young woman about 25 years old... she holds a rose in her hand, but this rose does not at all suit her proud half-turn pose towards the viewer, her arrogant smile and large, cheerful, defiant eyes. The flame slides along her white dress, bare shoulders, plays on her face.” The old man and the proud beauty, “coming to life in the portraits,” ruined each other...” This story awakened Nikita’s imagination and attracted him with its mystery; it seemed to him that the beauty looked mysteriously and saw Nikita. This is how the fantastic mixes with the real, shows the development of Nikita’s spiritual world, his fantasies, inventions, daydreaming develop the imagination, softness and sensitivity of Nikita’s nature.

§ 2.4. The first love in Nikita's life

The happiest, most touching pages of Nikita's childhood are associated with Christmas, with the first love in Nikita's life. Lilya, Nikita's beloved, a nine-year-old girl, Victor's sister. Lily had long curly locks and a big blue bow. Nikita immediately fell in love with his shining blue eyes and loud, playful laugh. She was very reserved and did not show her interest in Nikita. Nikita's first love, one might even say, love at first sight, pure, childish, innocent. The first kiss, which Nikita was very afraid of, Lily's response. Very touching, a little naive, but it is said simply and wonderfully:

You are a good boy, I didn’t tell you this so that no one would find out, but it’s a secret.

Nikita was very shy and constantly blushed when talking to her, afraid of saying something wrong. When Lilya was visiting, Nikita’s every day was filled with happiness and joy, Nikita told her stories, and Lilya listened to him carefully, not missing a single word. After Lily left, Nikita thought about her every day, the days dragged on, gloomy, boring, his heart and soul were warmed by memories of the girl, he saw her image before his eyes: her big blue bow, blue eyes. Nikita's growing up begins with his first love; his sometimes causeless sadness and the change in weather caused a feeling of change, a desire to hurry up time. And the letter that Nikita received from Lily! The long-awaited letter that Lilya sent with an invitation to stay with them in the summer was another happy moment in life. The ring with a blue stone given to Lilia by Nikita reminded her of him. It was such happiness that Nikita on his horse seemed to be flying home with the wind.

Lilya transformed Nikita's childhood, made him even happier, gave him priceless memories of his first kiss, his ring, his first poem, the forest, and an unforgettable Christmas Eve. She enriched his inner world and became his ideal, giving him her tenderness, casual glances, ringing laughter. Nikita even composed a poem - he was so overwhelmed with feelings of something unusual and happy.

The happy time of childhood in the steppe estate ends very prosaically. The family moves to a city where everything is not so simple, sweet and easy, and everyone is in a hurry somewhere, busy with their own affairs. Nikita feels like a stranger here, a “captured prisoner,” just like Zheltukhin.

After the words “A week later Nikita passed the entrance exam and entered the second grade,” there was also this final phrase that completed the entire story: “This event ends his childhood.”

Conclusion

The wonderful story "Nikita's Childhood", which completes the cycle of autobiographical works by A.N. Tolstoy about the life of the nobility, is rightfully considered one of the best Russian books for children. At first glance, “Nikita’s Childhood” resembles old noble family chronicles, but the story is different from them. The exciting image of the homeland, the hot breath of living poetry, the plasticity of visual means, deep lyricism and realistic colorfulness place “Nikita’s Childhood” among the best works of A.N. Tolstoy.

The unfading vitality of Tolstoy’s story is still determined by the writer’s ability to “address a person, whom it is impossible to understand without understanding the earth and the sun,” without understanding nature. A. Tolstoy’s story “Nikita’s Childhood” (in the first editions “A Tale of Many Excellent Things”) introduces the reader to the circle of unclouded, joyful impressions of a nine-year-old child. In the work of A.N. Tolstoy’s “Nikita’s Childhood” one can feel an atmosphere of love for everything around him, and the hero himself represents a kind of generalized image of a happy child, a symbol of a happy childhood. The life of the boy Nikita, growing up on a free steppe noble estate, takes place against the background of a measured, strong landowner-village life, in direct communication with the lush steppe nature. Sleigh rides from the mountains, studying with a tutor, the caresses of a loving mother, games and fights with village children, preparations for the Christmas tree and meeting guests, first love - this is what shapes the character of the main character of the story. An independent, courageous, very sensitive and impressionable boy who lives in harmony with nature and loved ones. The writer's bright memories of childhood are permeated with a lyrical image of his beloved Motherland, which appears in everything: in descriptions of the nature and life of the Sosnovka farm, in stories about village children, in the pure, beautiful Russian language of the story. This is its main educational value.

“Nikita’s Childhood” is a story about the first years of human formation. The reader is presented with a chronicle of the main events in the boy’s life during the last year before the start of his studies.“Nikita’s Childhood” reflected the wonderful art of transforming the writer into a child, it was reflected in free breathing, the extraordinary relief of each thing shown, it was reflected in a passionate and restrained love for nature, for all living things, an accurate adult knowledge of them and their exact childish perception, comprehension of a child’s character.

Bibliography

1. 
   Ivanov N.N. Dialectics of the child’s soul in the works of A.N. Tolstoy // Materials of the IX All-Russian scientific and methodological conference “World literature for children and about children”. – Issue 9, 2004. – P.27-31.
2. 
   Alpatov A. Nikita’s childhood // Children’s literature. – No. 5, 1936. – P.23-25.
3. 
   Smirnova V. The Third Tolstoy in Children's Literature // Children's Literature. - No. 2, 1966. – P.17-20.

“Nikita’s Childhood” is a story by A. N. Tolstoy, published in 1922. The story is inspired by the writer's memories of his distant childhood. He named the main character Nikita after his son. This story is dedicated to his son.

Plot of the story

It can be noted that there is no plot as such in the story. The work is autobiographical, the writer recalls the years of his childhood and shares these memories with readers. The real name of Tolstoy's estate, where he lived as a child, is also Sosnovka.

The images of Nikita's mother and father almost exactly repeat the real parents of A. Tolstoy himself. Nikita’s friends also resemble real children, the author’s friends.

Third-person narration allows you to step back a little and evaluate the time of your own childhood. The author evaluates it as an absolutely happy, serene and calm time.

A receptive and inquisitive child, Nikita explores the world around him with interest, not only the world of the estate, but also the village, forest, and all the surrounding nature.

He was very fond of Russian nature, its discreet beauty, he noticed any changes, the change of seasons.

Nikita spent a lot of time in nature: in the forest or by the river, observing the living world around him. But this in some way interfered with his studies: Nikita was more interested in walking and running in nature than sitting in the room and doing homework.

Nikita was friends with the children from the village, even more than with the nobles. He delved into all their affairs and customs, listened to their opinions.

Characteristics of Nikita

1. Nikita was a friendly, sociable, cheerful and happy person.
2. He was a lively and inquisitive child, very smart and quick-witted, with a great sense of beauty.
3. Nevertheless, Nikita was not an assiduous student, because he liked to walk outdoors with friends more than to sit for lessons.
4. However, he was sensible enough to understand the benefits of the teaching and appreciate the advice of his teacher.

Nikita sighed, waking up, and opened his eyes. The sun was shining through the frosty patterns on the windows, through the wonderfully painted stars and palmate leaves. The light in the room was snowy white. A bunny slithered from the wash cup and trembled on the wall.

Opening his eyes, Nikita remembered what the carpenter Pakhom told him last night:

So I’ll lubricate it and water it thoroughly, and when you get up in the morning, sit down and go.

Yesterday evening, Pakhom, a crooked and pockmarked man, made Nikita, at his special request, a bench. It was done like this:

In the carriage house, on the workbench, among the ring-twisted, odorous shavings, Pakhom planed two boards and four legs; the bottom board from the front edge - from the nose - is cut off so that it does not get stuck in the snow; turned legs; There are two cutouts for the legs in the top board to make it easier to sit. The lower board was coated with cow dung and watered three times in the cold - after that it was made like a mirror, a rope was tied to the upper board - to carry the bench, and when going down the mountain, to straighten it.

Now the bench, of course, is ready and stands by the porch. Pakhom is such a person: “If, he says, what I said is the law, I will do it.”

Nikita sat down on the edge of the bed and listened - the house was quiet, no one must have gotten up yet. If you get dressed in a minute, without, of course, washing or brushing your teeth, then you can escape through the back door into the yard, and from the yard - to the river. There are snowdrifts on the steep banks - sit down and fly...

Nikita crawled out of bed and tiptoed across the hot, sunny squares on the floor...

At this time, the door opened slightly, and a head with glasses, protruding red eyebrows, and a bright red beard poked its head into the room. The head winked and said:

Are you getting up, robber?

ARKADY IVANOVICH

The man with the red beard, Nikitin’s teacher, Arkady Ivanovich, got wind of everything in the evening and purposely got up early. This Arkady Ivanovich was an amazingly efficient and cunning man. He entered Nikita's room, laughing, stopped at the window, breathed on the glass, and when it became transparent, he adjusted his glasses and looked out at the yard.

There is, he said, a wonderful bench by the porch.

Nikita remained silent and frowned. I had to get dressed and brush my teeth, and wash not only my face, but also my ears and even my neck. After that, Arkady Ivanovich put his arm around Nikita’s shoulders and led him to the dining room. Mother sat at the table at the samovar in a warm gray dress. She took Nikita by the face, looked into his eyes with clear eyes and kissed him.

Did you sleep well, Nikita?

Then she extended her hand to Arkady Ivanovich and asked affectionately:

How did you sleep, Arkady Ivanovich?

“I slept well,” he answered, smiling for some reason, with a red mustache, sat down at the table, poured cream into the tea, threw a piece of sugar into his mouth, grabbed it with his white teeth and winked at Nikita through his glasses.

Arkady Ivanovich was an unbearable person: he always had fun, always winked, never spoke directly, but in such a way that his heart skipped a beat. For example, my mother seems to have clearly asked: “How did you sleep?” He replied: “I slept well,” which means this needs to be understood: “But Nikita wanted to escape to the river from tea and studies, but yesterday Nikita, instead of translating German, sat for two hours at Pakhom’s workbench.”

Arkady Ivanovich never complained, that’s true, but Nikita had to keep his ear to the ground all the time.

Over tea, mother said that it had been very frosty at night, the water in the tub in the entryway had frozen, and when they went for a walk, Nikita needed to put on a cap.

Mom, honestly, it’s terrible heat,” Nikita said.

I ask you to put on your hood.

My cheeks are stinging and suffocating, I, mother, will catch a worse cold in my head.

Mother silently looked at Arkady Ivanovich, at Nikita, her voice trembled:

I don’t know who you have become unheard of.

“Let’s go study,” said Arkady Ivanovich, stood up decisively and quickly rubbed his hands, as if there was no greater pleasure in the world than solving arithmetic problems and dictating proverbs and sayings that make your eyes stick together.

In a large empty and white room, where a map of the two hemispheres hung on the wall, Nikita sat down at the table, covered in ink stains and drawn faces. Arkady Ivanovich opened the problem book.

“Well,” he said cheerfully, “where did you stop?” - And with a sharpened pencil he underlined the task number.

“The merchant sold several arshins of blue cloth at 3 rubles 64 kopecks per arshin and black cloth...” Nikita read. And now, as always, this merchant from the problem book introduced himself to him. He was in a long, dusty frock coat, with a yellow, sad face, all dull and flat, withered. His shop was as dark as a crack; on a dusty flat shelf lay two pieces of cloth; the merchant stretched out his skinny hands to them, took pieces from the shelf and looked at Nikita with dull, lifeless eyes.

Well, what do you think, Nikita? - asked Arkady Ivanovich. - In total, the merchant sold eighteen arshins. How much blue cloth was sold and how much black cloth?

Nikita wrinkled his face, the merchant completely flattened himself, both pieces of cloth entered the wall and were covered in dust...

Arkady Ivanovich said: “Ai-ai!” - and began to explain, quickly writing numbers in pencil, multiplying them and dividing them, repeating: “One in the mind, two in the mind.” It seemed to Nikita that during multiplication, “one in the mind” or “two in the mind” quickly jumped from the paper to the head and were tickled there so that they would not be forgotten. It was very unpleasant. And the sun sparkled in the two frosty windows of the classroom, luring: “Let's go to the river.”

While in exile in France and immensely dreaming of returning to his homeland, Count Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy created his most poetic work, “Nikita’s Childhood.”

The idea of ​​an autobiographical work

He lived on the estate of his stepfather A. A. Bostrom, whom he loved like his own father, near Samara, in the Sosnovka estate. The writer endowed the main character, the boy Nikita, with his own rich imagination and impressionability. The writer created the images of his parents based on his own types. Moreover, Nikita’s mother’s name is the same as Alexei Tolstoy’s mother - Alexandra Leontievna. The image of the teacher Arkady Ivanovich was also created based on a real person - the tutor Arkady Slovokhotov. The author, without renaming, introduced into the narrative outline his childhood friends - Mishka Koryashonka and Styopka Karnaushkin. The story "Nikita's Childhood" is rich in various characters. The summary of the work can be expressed very briefly as the reader’s immersion in the fairy-tale world of childhood.

The fascinating world of Nikita

The work gives a detailed description of the house itself, its outbuildings, the barn and stables, the garden, the pond, and the dam.

A child's enthusiastic description of his mysterious rooms and the cramped bindings of ancient books in the library is given. This house keeps family legends about the tormented great-grandfather African African. He, according to Nikolina’s mother, led a strange lifestyle. He read and wrote at night and slept during the day. Grandfather abandoned the farm, the servants fled from him, grass grew in the fields...

The work "Nikita's Childhood" is decorated with many colorful and lush scenes of contemplation of nature. The summary of the story can be reduced to this unity of the boy with nature. He not only feels like a part of it, but also perceives it through the images he has fantasized. For example, the starling in Nikita’s perception is endowed to such an extent that he received the nickname Zheltukhin. The main character calls the cat nothing other than Vasily Vasilich; he waxes poetic about his stepfather’s horses and every bird he sees, be it a bright oriole or a vociferous lark.

The beginning of the story

“Nikita’s Childhood” begins with the chapter “Sunny Morning”. The summary of the story is about games with village children in the midst of the charm of snowdrifts covering the huts right up to the chimneys; a wild stream of spring waters; a dark garden illuminated by July lightning; September fogs as dense as milk. The boy saw how the whole life of people in the midst of this repeating round dance of the seasons passes organically and naturally, and birth and death are like the rising and setting of the sun.

The specific children's logic of the narrative in this work cannot but be noted by the summary we wrote. Tolstoy’s “Nikita’s Childhood,” while working on it, put him in a special enthusiastic and nostalgic mood, which he himself noted in his memoirs. The author very tenderly tells the story of how he, who cared about his sister Lila, together with her discovered in an empty room of the estate a ring that his great-grandfather had once given to his beloved. The ring lay inside a vase with lion heads that had been on the wall clock for several decades. Moreover, Lilya herself (Nikita put a ring on her finger) surprisingly resembled her great-grandmother, whose portrait in a habit with a veil hung on the wall in the secret room. Alexei Tolstoy wrote insightfully about this episode.

A work of autobiographical nature

What will we notice if we extract a concise, brief summary from the author’s narrative about the most romantic year of the protagonist’s life? Tolstoy's "Nikita's Childhood", following the rules of the genre, continued the tradition of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy ("Childhood, adolescence, youth"), M. Gorky ("Childhood", "In People."), S. Aksakov ("Childhood of Bagrov's Grandson" ).

All of these books are valuable reading for adults, especially parents. They are autobiographical and help to understand how a child thinks and explain the motives for his actions. However, if we talk about the author’s style of these artistic autobiographies, it should be pointed out that Alexei Tolstoy is the only one of all the above-mentioned classics who narrated about his childhood in the third person.

A boy's poeticization of the seasons

The description of spring and awakening nature is also included in the summary of the book “Nikita’s Childhood”, since it occupies a significant place in the book. After all, the main character himself identifies himself with nature, sincerely believing, at the behest of his soul, that all the natural resources around him are dear to him. He is delighted by the tens of thousands of streams from the melting snow in the steppe in March. He enjoys breathing deeply the spring “sharp and clean” air. And the icebreaker on the river seemed like something very significant when it showed its violent temper, rising above the dam, and noisily falling into the pools.

And then Alexey Tolstoy writes with childish enthusiasm about the May honey trills of the oriole. Nikita's Childhood tells us about a steppe eagle swimming in the hot summer sky. The very brief content of this work invariably indicates the connection between the developing personality of the protagonist and the world around him. Isn't this the defining feature of childhood? Perhaps Alexei Tolstoy is leading us to realize this nuance?

A boy's need to feel this unity is extremely important to his personality. Therefore, even the teacher Arkady Ivanovich does not scold him when he runs away from class to look at the river. It is no coincidence that the author in the chapter “On the Cart” used such a romantic comparison: “On the cart, as if in a cradle, Nikita sailed under the stars, looking at distant worlds.”

Conclusion

The original title of the work was “A Tale of Many Excellent Things.” It is obvious that it was written by the author in a single creative impulse, on the same inspiration.

The last chapter of the story has a short title - “Departure”. Its ending begins with the message that Nikita managed to pass the exam for admission to the second grade. And the book ends with a sad phrase: “This event ends his childhood.”