Kaverin two captains main idea. Two captains: the main characters of the novel by Benjamin Kaverin

17.10.2021

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Two captains: the main characters of the novel by Benjamin Kaverin

Veniamin Kaverin owns, perhaps, one of the key novels of the adventure genre, which children of the Soviet era were read to. The novel was written in the 1940s, but the popularity and relevance of the novel continues today. We are talking about a cult thing - about the novel "Two Captains", the main characters of which are complex and vivid images.

"Fight and seek, find and not give up"

These words, as if cut out of the poem Ullis (Odysseus) by Alfred Tennyson, are the motto of Kaverin's novel. The work begins surprisingly: not with its own memory, but with someone else's memory. In the city of Ensk, located on the periphery of Russia, the body of a deceased postman was found. He had a bag with him, and in the bag - letters. The main character lives on the first pages of the novel with these letters, and especially the young man remembers the lines associated with polar expeditions, with travels to the north ... And the novel “Two Captains”, the main characters of which fight, seek, find and do not give up, is imbued with the spirit of adventure. Therefore, the work, like the nautical novels of Fenimore Cooper and Raphael Sabatini, occupies one of the main places on the shelf of young readers.

Since you are with us, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with Veniamin Kaverin.

It is curious that the lines that the writer made the motto of the novel are at the same time taken as an epitaph. The words are engraved on a cross commemorating Robert Falcon Scott's polar expedition that never returned home.

Thus, the work of Benjamin Kaverin is dedicated to the topic of searches. If the French writer Marcel Proust's heroes are looking for lost time, here the heroes are looking for a lost polar expedition ... and love.

Heroes of the novel "Two Captains"

The classification of the characters in the work is traditional: here the figures of the first plan and figures of the second plan stand out, the main characters and, accordingly, the secondary characters. First, let's talk about who plays the main role in this literary scene.

main characters

Alexander Grigoriev

The name of Alexander in the novel most often appears in an affectionate form - Sanya. Of course, Sanya is a positive character. The young man, like other heroes of the first plan, has a difficult fate and many trials. The young man's first test is of a physiological nature - it is dumbness. One day Sani's father is accused of murder and is arrested. Little Sanya is the only one who knows the name of the real criminal, but the boy cannot give the name, since he cannot speak. In the future, Sanya will recover from a strange sound ailment, but by that time his father will have already died in custody.

Sanya's mother will marry again, and her stepfather, as befits a plot in works of this kind, will turn out to be a bad person - tough, callous, mean and selfish. Later, Sanya also experiences the death of his mother. He is left with Aunt Dasha - the one who read letters to the boy from the bag of the deceased postman. But the aunt decides that Sanya and her sister should live in an orphanage. Then Sanya and the boy's close friend (Peter) flee - first to Moscow, and then to Turkestan. Adventures begin in the capital ... Moscow presents its friends not with gifts, but with the latest cruelties of "adult" life.

Escaping to Moscow, Sanya plans to stay for the first time with his friend's uncle, but Petya's relative, as it turned out, was called up to the front. Ungrateful work and a game of hide and seek with checks in the capital await young guys. During one of these checks, Sana is unable to hide, and the boy is sent to a school for street children ...

The novel covers many years, and these years, in all situations described in the novel, Sanya appears as a noble, purposeful, strong person - in spirit and body. When, visiting a friend, through the fault of Sanya, the lactometer - a device for checking the composition of milk - accidentally breaks down - Katya, the boy's friend, wants to protect her comrade, but Sanya does not allow the girl to take the blame. In this case, the hero shows nobility. Alexander is close to the fight for justice, the young man is also courageous and proud. However, pride is not characteristic of the character. Sanya sincerely believes in his ideals and follows his principles. He is loyal and capable of desperate love. Meanwhile, rationality is not alien to the young man either: in many situations Sanya shows real analytical thinking.

After a falling out with Katya - already during his teenage years - Sanya is attending a summer school and preparing to fulfill his childhood dream - to find out what happened to the polar expedition, which he read about as a child, in strange letters half tainted by sea water.

Ekaterina Tatarinova

Katya is Sanya's friend, whom we have already mentioned above. The house of her parents becomes for Sani a whole "brave new world", similar to Ali Baba's cave. The apartment seems to the hero as a strange world, full of mysteries and dangers.

Katya is the daughter of Captain Tatarinov. However, the story of this captain Sanya will hear from his friend not now, but after 4 years. Then the heroes will meet again, recognize each other. Sanya will tell Katya that she is going to become a pilot, and Katya will tell him the story of her family.

In 1912, in June, Captain Tatarinov left for an expedition (the captain went from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok) on the ship "Saint Mary", but before that he came briefly to the already familiar Ensk to say goodbye to his family. After that, the captain and the expedition disappeared. The captain's wife repeatedly turned to the emperor with a request for help in finding a husband, but it was believed that the captain could die: if this is so, and Tatarinov died, it was only because of her own negligence and negligence in relation to state property.

Once again, Sanya got the opportunity to reread the letters that he had heard from his aunt as a child. Suddenly the young man realized: these letters are about Captain Tatarinov and the expedition.

Nikolay Antonovich Tatarinov

In his apartment (and he was the head of the school where Sanya was sent in Moscow) the Tatarinov family lived, including Katya, Sanya's friend. Nikolai was Katya's uncle. The man did not feel affection and sympathy for the girl's father, that is, for his cousin, since, firstly, he was in love with his brother's wife, Marya Vasilievna, and secondly, he considered him ungrateful.

Sanya considered Nikolai Antonovich as the main "danger" of the Tatarinovs' apartment. Once Nikolai acts meanly: Marya Vasilievna did not feel reciprocity towards him, but the woman, meanwhile, was sympathetic to the geography teacher - a certain Korablev. Sometimes he came to visit, and one day he made a marriage proposal. Marya refused. But, despite this, in the mind of Nikolai Antonovich, an insidious plan still arose - to make sure that Korablev did not come anymore, and for this - to interfere with his work, so that he was limited in teaching geography. Sanya told the teacher about everything, and therefore Nikolai drove the young man out of the house. Katya, not believing Sanya and his story about her uncle's meanness, takes offense at her friend for a long time.

However, this was not the most despicable act of Nikolai Antonovich. The worst thing was that the expedition was lost precisely through his fault - for the most part. Nikolai was responsible for the equipment of the polar explorers who went on the expedition, and through his fault this equipment was completely unusable. Sanya cannot prove it, because the facts were carried away by the salt water, which washed out the words in the letters. But the young man remembers what was written there.

Subsequently, Katya becomes Sanya's lover. Realizing the truth, the girl will leave the Tatarinovs' house: at that time Katya will already be a respected person, a geologist, the head of the expedition. Nikolai Antonovich will receive his own: the scoundrel will be exposed, and he will be forced to leave, disgraced and humiliated.

And although Nikolai Antonovich is rather a minor character, we introduced him into this description in order to impart integrity to the characterization. Now, however, let's move on to the next figures in the novel.

Supporting characters

Marya Vasilievna Tatarinova

We have already begun the story about Marya Vasilievna. The woman is very unhappy: firstly, Marya loses her husband, secondly, the heroine loses the company of her likable Korablev, and thirdly, she is forced to marry a man whom she does not love.

As you might guess, Marya Vasilievna becomes the wife of Nikolai Antonovich. This is because the woman felt guilty and that she was supposedly indebted to Nicholas for the care given to her, mother and daughter. But one day Marya Vasilievna learns from Sanya about what a "terrible person" Nikolai Antonovich was. The young man did not know that the latter had already become the husband of a poor woman.

Marya Vasilievna felt guilty before her husband (captain), felt like a traitor. In the end, the heroine breaks down and commits suicide: the woman was poisoned, and the doctors could not help her in time and save her.

Here the reader again encounters a drama in the relationship between Sanya and Katya: at her mother's funeral, Katya does not want to talk to Sanya, because Nikolai managed to convince the girl that Sanya was to blame for the death of Marya Vasilyevna, and the letters were about a completely different person.

In the end, Nikolai Antonovich will still be exposed. Sanya will do it, but only after the end of the war.

Romashov / Chamomile

We encounter this hero when, while reading the book, we come to the story with Korablev. After all, Grigoriev told the young man what he had heard from Nikolai Tatarinov, and then considered Korablev a traitor, who reported everything to Tatarinov.

But the traitor in this situation was not Korablev at all, but Romashov, nicknamed Daisy.

Chamomile is an exclusively and completely negative character. Vile, cowardly, capable only of low and vile deeds. Since childhood, Chamomile has been interested in her own benefit, and for her sake the hero can even go to blackmail friends and relatives.

The worst thing is that one day Sanya will find out: Daisy entered the Tatarinovs' house, got into trust and, it seems, will marry Katya a little more. The girl did not immediately understand that Chamomile was only familiar with betrayal, and he himself was a two-faced and morally dirty person. It is Romashka who will be Nikolai's accomplice in denigrating the name of Sani Grigoriev, when Sanya wants to present materials about the fate of the captain of the missing expedition ...

However, falling in love with Katya will play a cruel joke with Camomile: he will offer Sanya services in exposing Nikolai's guilt. Payment - Sanya's refusal to be with Katya. However, Grigoriev turned out to be more noble: Sanya talks about the proposal of Camomile to Nikolai Antonovich. However, he could no longer play against the former accomplice.

When Sanya and Katya's trip to the north to search for the missing expedition fails, and Sanya goes to the front - to the war with Spain, Katya will meet her old "friend" again. Chamomile will convince the girl that he saved Sanya, who was wounded, but Grigoriev died tragically. However, now the girl will not believe it. Chamomile, in fact, lied: Romashov did not save Alexander at all, but betrayed him, taking away his things. As a result, justice will prevail, and Chamomile will be condemned.

Ivan Pavlovich Korablev

We go back again to study in more detail the already familiar personality of the geography teacher. Often Ivan takes the position of a victim, because Korablev is unfairly tortured at school - because of his love for Marya Vasilievna, Sanya accuses him of betraying his trust ...

In fact, Korablev embodies such traits as kindness, sincerity, naivety and simplicity, honesty, openness and fairness. The teacher loves his job, work, worries about the children he teaches.

Ivan Pavlovich will play an important role in the relationship between Sanya and Katya: Korablev will help lovers many times.

Valentin (Valya) Zhukov

As we know, the theme of friendship occupies a particularly important place in the novel "Two Captains", the main characters of the work constantly find themselves in situations where friendship and betrayal collide with each other in an unequal struggle. According to the laws of the genre, at first it will seem to the reader that evil is victorious, but then the good will definitely prevail.

So, Valya Zhukov is Sani's comrade. At first, Sanya was also friends with Petya (Peter Skovorodnikov). Together the boys fled to the capital, but then they parted ways. Petya managed to escape during the check, and subsequently Grigoriev learned that Peter was still in Moscow and was engaged in art. Also, within the walls of the Academy of Arts, Alexandra (Sasha) Grigorieva, Sanya's sister, who eventually became Petya's wife, studied.

Valya Zhukov and Romashka are comrades who appeared at Sania's while studying at a school for street children. Valya is the antipode of Chamomile. Valya is an intelligent, honest, fair, responsible and reliable, wonderful and loyal friend. Zhukov becomes the husband of Katya's best friend, Kira, and the young man also has a career as a prominent scientist.

Sasha Grigorieva

Sister Sani is an artist and the wife of his friend Petit. Events are developing, and later Sana will manage to publish an article about the polar expedition and about Captain Tatarinov ... Sasha will by that time live in Moscow, raise his son. But then the girl exudes illness. It is not possible to recover: Sasha will die.

Nina Kapitonovna

For Grigoriev, the old woman was a treasure in the "Ali Baba's cave", because she always treated him to goodies. Nina Kapitonovna introduces Sanya to the circle of the Tatarinov family: once, Sanya helped a woman carry heavy bags ... Nina is Marya Vasilyevna's mother.

Ivan Ivanovich

This is a doctor who was able to cure Sanya from dumbness. But this was not the only meeting of our characters. Further, fate confronts them at a time when Sanaa managed to get him assigned to the North. Here, in the Zapolyarny Territory, Ivan Ivanovich gives Sana'a notes from the navigator of the “Saint Mary” ship. The navigator, as it turned out, died in 1914, but from those letters Sanya learned about the fate of the missing captain.

Decrypting letters, love

The young man, carried away by the ideas of finding polar explorers, is studying at the Leningrad summer school, reading and sorting out difficult letters of letters. The diligent young man learns that the captain, Katya's father, has released his companions so that they look for a new land and develop it. The captain himself, Katya's father, did not leave the ship. Mary's Land is the place that Sani's investigation points to, there may be traces of a lost expedition.

Grigoriev will make great strides in this endeavor. Later, the desire to find traces of the expedition again brings the young man to Katya. However, the expedition will not take place this time….

The reader will again encounter the characters when 5 years have passed for them: Sanya returns, having managed to escape after the war with Spain, but Katya is no longer in Moscow ...

We see how hard fate throws the heroes. Now Sanya is forced to go on a personal "expedition" - in search of lost love. Grigoriev is looking for a wife in Moscow, then he goes to Yaroslavl, and then to Novosibirsk ... During his travels, Sanya manages - by pure chance (due to the need to make an emergency landing) - to find the remains of the ship "Holy Mary", the body of the deceased captain and his records ... In Polyarny - a town not far from this place - Sanya meets Katya.

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Introduction

mythological novel image

"Two captains" - adventure novel Soviet the writer Veniamin Kaverin, which was written by him in the years 1938-1944. The novel has gone through more than a hundred reprints. Kaverin was awarded for him Stalin Prize second degree (1946). The book has been translated into many foreign languages. First published: the first volume in the magazine "Koster", №8-12, 1938. The first separate edition - V. Kaverin. Two captains. Drawings, binding, flyleaf and title of Yu. Syrnev. Frontispiece by V. Konashevich. M.-L. Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, publishing house of children's literature 1940 464 p.

The book tells about the amazing fate of a mute from a provincial town Enska, who honorably goes through the trials of war and homelessness in order to win the heart of his beloved girl. After the unfair arrest of his father and the death of his mother, Alexander Grigoriev was sent to an orphanage. Having escaped to Moscow, he finds himself first in a distribution center for street children, and then in a commune school. He is irresistibly attracted by the apartment of the school director Nikolai Antonovich, where the latter's cousin, Katya Tatarinova, lives.

Katya's father, Captain Ivan Tatarinov, who in 1912 led an expedition that discovered the Northern Land, disappeared without a trace several years ago. Sanya suspects that Nikolai Antonovich, in love with Katya's mother, Maria Vasilievna, contributed to this. Maria Vasilievna believes Sanya and commits suicide. Sanya is accused of slander and kicked out of the Tatarinovs' house. And then he takes an oath to find an expedition and prove his case. He becomes a pilot and collects information about the expedition bit by bit.

After the start Great Patriotic War Sanya serves in Air force... During one of the sorties, he discovers a ship with Captain Tatarinov's reports. The finds become the final touch and allow him to shed light on the circumstances of the death of the expedition and to justify himself in the eyes of Katya, who had previously become his wife.

The motto of the novel - the words "Fight and seek, find and not give up" - this is the final line from the textbook poem Lord Tennyson « Ulysses" (in original: To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield). This line is also engraved on the cross in memory of the deceased. expeditions R. Scott to the South Pole, on the Observation Hill.

The novel was screened twice (in 1955 and in 1976), and in 2001 the musical "Nord-Ost" was created based on the novel. The heroes of the film, namely the two captains, were given a memorial "yatnik in the writer's homeland, in Psokov, which is referred to in the novel as the city of Ensk. In 2001, a museum of the novel was created in the Psokov children's library."

In 2003, the main square of the city of Polyarny in the Murmansk region was named the Square of Two Captains. It was from this place that the expeditions of the navigators Vladimir Rusanov and Georgy Brusilov set out on a voyage.

The relevance of the work. The theme “Mythological basis in V. Kaverin’s novel“ Two Captains ”” was chosen by me because of the high degree of its relevance and significance in modern conditions. This is due to the wide public response and active interest in this issue.

To begin with, it should be said that the topic of this work is of great educational and practical interest to me. The problematic of the issue is very relevant in modern reality. From year to year, scientists and experts are paying more and more attention to this topic. Here it is worth noting such names as Alekseev D.A., Begak B., Borisova V., who made a significant contribution to the study and development of conceptual issues of this topic.

The amazing story of Sani Grigoriev, one of the two captains in Kaverin's novel, begins with an equally amazing find: a bag full of letters. However, it turns out that these "worthless" foreign letters are still quite suitable for the role of a fascinating "epistolary novel", the content of which soon becomes a common achievement. The letter, telling about the dramatic history of the Arctic expedition of Captain Tatarinov and addressed to his wife, acquires fateful significance for Sani Grigoriev: his entire further existence turns out to be subordinated to the search for the addressee, and subsequently to the search for the missing expedition. Guided by this high aspiration, Sanya literally bursts into someone else's life. Having turned into a polar pilot and a member of the Tatarinov family, Grigoriev essentially replaces and displaces the deceased hero-captain. So, from the appropriation of someone else's letter to the appropriation of someone else's fate, the logic of his life unfolds.

The theoretical basis of the course work served as monographic sources, materials of scientific and industry periodicals directly related to the topic. The prototypes of the heroes of the work.

Object of study: plot and images of heroes.

Subject of study: mythological motives, plots, symbols in creativity in the novel "Two Captains".

Purpose of the study: complex consideration of the question of the influence of mythology on the novel by V. Kaverin.

To achieve this goal, the following were set tasks:

Reveal the attitude and frequency of Kaverin's appeal to mythology;

To study the main features of mythological heroes in the images of the novel "Two Captains";

Determine the forms of penetration of mythological motives and plots into the novel "Two Captains";

Consider the main stages of Kaverin's appeal to mythological subjects.

To solve the set tasks, methods are used such as: descriptive, historical-comparative.

1. The concept of nro mythological themes and motives

The myth stands at the origins of verbal art, mythological representations and plots occupy a significant place in the oral folklore tradition of various peoples. Mythological motives played a large role in the genesis of literary plots, mythological themes, images, characters are used and reinterpreted in literature almost throughout its history.

In the history of the epic, military strength and courage, the "fierce" heroic character completely overshadow witchcraft and magic. Historical tradition is gradually pushing back the myth, the mythical early time is transformed into the glorious era of the early powerful statehood. However, some features of the myth can be preserved in the most developed epics.

Due to the fact that in modern literary criticism there is no term "mythological elements", at the beginning of this work it is advisable to define this concept. For this, it is necessary to turn to works on mythology, which present opinions about the essence of the myth, its properties, functions. It would be much easier to define mythological elements as constituent parts of one or another myth (plots, heroes, images of animate and inanimate nature, etc.), but when giving such a definition, one should also take into account the subconscious appeal of the authors of works to archetypal constructions (as V. N. Toporov, “some features in the work of great writers could be understood as sometimes an unconscious appeal to elementary semantic oppositions, well known in mythology,” B. Groys says about “archaic, about which we can say that it is also at the beginning of time , as well as in the depths of the human psyche as its unconscious beginning. "

So, what is the myth, and after it - what can be called mythological elements?

The word "myth" (mkhYuipzh) - "word", "story", "speech" - comes from ancient Greek. Initially, it was understood as a set of absolute (sacred) value-worldview truths opposed to everyday empirical (profane) truths expressed by an ordinary "word" (eTrpzh), notes prof. A.V. Semushkin. Since the V century. BC, writes J.-P. Vernan, in philosophy and history, the "myth" opposed to the "logos" with which they initially coincided in meaning (only later did logos begin to mean the ability to think, reason), acquired a derogatory connotation, denoting a fruitless, unfounded statement, devoid of support on strict evidence or reliable evidence (however, even in this case, he, disqualified from the point of view of truth, did not apply to the sacred texts about gods and heroes).

The predominance of mythological consciousness refers mainly to the archaic (primitive) era and is associated primarily with its cultural life, in the system of semantic organization of which myth played a dominant role. The English ethnographer B. Malinovsky gave the myth primarily the practical functions of maintaining

However, the main thing in the myth is the content, and not at all the correspondence with the historical evidence. In myths, events are viewed in a time sequence, but often the specific time of the event does not matter and only the starting point for the beginning of the story is important.

In the XVII century. English philosopher Francis Bacon in his work "On the Wisdom of the Ancients" argued that myths in poetic form preserve the most ancient philosophy: moral maxims or scientific truths, the meaning of which is hidden under the cover of symbols and allegories. Free fantasy, expressed in myth, according to the German philosopher Herder, is not something absurd, but is an expression of the childhood age of mankind, "the philosophical experience of the human soul, which dreams before waking up."

1.1 Signs and characteristicsmyth

Mythology as a science of myths has a rich and long history. The first attempts to rethink the mythological material were undertaken in antiquity. But until now there has not been a single generally accepted opinion about the myth. Of course, there are points of contact in the writings of researchers. Starting from these points, it seems to us possible to single out the main properties and features of the myth.

Representatives of various scientific schools focus on different aspects of the myth. So Raglan (the Cambridge Ritual School) defines myths as ritual texts, Cassirer (a representative of the symbolic theory) speaks of their symbolism, Losev (the theory of mythopoetism) - on the coincidence in the myth of a common idea and a sensual image, Afanasyev calls myth the most ancient poetry, Barthes - a communicative system ... The existing theories are summarized in Meletinsky's book The Poetics of Myth.

The article by A.V. The Guligs list the so-called "signs of a myth":

1. Merging of the real and the ideal (thought and action).

2. The unconscious level of thinking (mastering the meaning of the myth, we destroy the myth itself).

3. Syncretism of reflection (this includes: the indivisibility of the subject and the object, the absence of differences between the natural and the supernatural).

Freudenberg notes the essential characteristics of myth, giving it a definition in his book "Myth and Literature of Antiquity": "Figurative representation in the form of several metaphors, where there is no our logical, formal logical causality and where a thing, space, time are understood indivisibly and concretely, where a person and the world are subject-objectively united, - this special constructive system of figurative representations, when it is expressed in words, we call a myth. " Based on this definition, it becomes clear that the main characteristics of the myth follow from the peculiarities of mythological thinking. Following the works of A.F. Loseva V.A. Markov argues that in mythological thinking they do not differ: object and subject, thing and its properties, name and object, word and action, society and space, man and the universe, natural and supernatural, and the universal principle of mythological thinking is the principle of participation (“everything there is everything ”, the logic of shapeshifting). Meletinsky is sure that mythological thinking is expressed in an indistinct separation of subject and object, object and sign, thing and word, creature and its name, thing and its attributes, single and multiple, spatial and temporal relations, origin and essence.

In their works, various researchers note the following characteristics of the myth: sacralization of the mythical "time of the first creation", which is the reason for the established world order (Eliade); indivisibility of image and meaning (Potebnya); general animation and personalization (Losev); close connection with the ritual; cyclical time model; metaphorical nature; symbolic meaning (Meletinsky).

In the article "On the interpretation of myth in the literature of Russian symbolism" G. Shelogurova tries to draw preliminary conclusions about what is meant by myth in modern philological science:

1. The myth is unanimously recognized as a product of collective artistic creation.

2. The myth is determined by the nondiscrimination of the plane of expression and the plane of content.

3. The myth is seen as a universal model for constructing symbols.

4. Myths are the most important source of plots and images at all times of the development of art.

1.2 Functions of myth inworks

Now it seems to us possible to define the functions of myth in symbolic works:

1. The myth is used by the Symbolists as a means to create symbols.

2. With the help of the myth, it becomes possible to express some additional ideas in the work.

3. A myth is a means of generalizing literary material.

4. In some cases, the Symbolists use myth as an artistic device.

5. The myth serves as an illustrative, meaningful example.

6. Based on the above, the myth cannot but fulfill a structuring function (Meletinsky: “Mythologism has become a tool for structuring a narrative (using mythological symbolism)”). 1

In the next chapter, we will consider how fair our conclusions are for the lyric works of Bryusov. To do this, we explore the cycles of different times of writing, entirely built on mythological and historical plots: "Lovers of the Ages" (1897-1901), "Eternal Truth of Idols" (1904-1905), "Eternal Truth of Idols" (1906-1908), "Powerful shadows "(1911-1912)," In the mask "(1913-1914).

2. The mythology of the images of the novel

The novel by Veniamin Kaverin "Two Captains" is one of the brightest works of Russian adventure literature of the 20th century. This story of love and loyalty, courage and determination has not left indifferent either an adult or a young reader for many years.

The book was called "a novel of education", "an adventure novel", "an idyllic-sentimental novel", but it was not accused of self-deception. And the writer himself said that "this is a novel about justice and that it is more interesting (and said so!) To be honest and brave than a coward and a liar." And he also said that it was "a novel about the inevitability of the truth."

On the motto of the heroes of the "Two Captains" "Fight and seek, find and not give up!" more than one generation of those has grown up who adequately responded to all sorts of challenges of the time.

Fight and seek, find and not give up. From English: That strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. The primary source is the poem "Ulysses" by the English poet Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), whose 70 years of literary activity are dedicated to the valiant and happy heroes. These lines were carved on the grave of the polar explorer Robert Scott (1868-1912). Eager to reach the South Pole first, he nevertheless came second, three days after the Norwegian pioneer Roald Amundsen visited it. Robert Scott and his companions died on the way back.

In Russian, these words became popular after the publication of the novel "Two Captains" by Veniamin Kaverin (1902-1989). The protagonist of the novel, Sanya Grigoriev, who dreams of polar expeditions, makes these words the motto of his whole life. Quoted as a phrase-symbol of loyalty to their goal and their principles. “Fight” (including with one's own weaknesses) is the first task of a person. To "seek" means to have a humane goal in front of you. "Find" is to make a dream come true. And if there are new difficulties, then "do not give up."

The novel is filled with symbols that are part of mythology. Every image, every action has a symbolic meaning.

This novel can be considered a hymn to friendship. Sanya Grigoriev carried this friendship throughout his life. An episode when Sanya and his friend Petka made a "bloody oath of friendship." The words the boys uttered were: "Fight and seek, find and not give up"; they turned into a symbol of their life as the heroes of the novel, determined their character.

Sanya could have died during the war, his profession itself was dangerous. But in spite of everything, he survived and fulfilled his promise to find the missing expedition. What helped him in life? A high sense of duty, perseverance, perseverance, dedication, honesty - all these character traits helped Sanya Grigoriev survive in order to find traces of the expedition and Katya's love. “You have such love that the most terrible grief will recede before it: it will meet, look into the eyes and retreat. No one else seems to know how to love like that, only you and Sanya. So strong, so stubborn, all my life. Where is there to die when you are so loved? - says Pyotr Skovorodnikov.

In our time, the time of the Internet, technology, speed, such love may seem like a myth to many. And how you want it to touch everyone, provoke them to accomplish feats and discoveries.

Once in Moscow, Sanya meets the Tatarinov family. Why is he drawn to this house, what attracts him? The Tatarinovs' apartment becomes for the boy something like Ali-Baba's cave with its treasures, mysteries and dangers. Nina Kapitonovna, who feeds Sanya with lunches, is a "treasure", Maria Vasilievna, "neither a widow, nor a husband's wife" who always wears black and often sinks into melancholy - "a mystery", Nikolai Antonovich - "danger." In this house he found many interesting books with which he "fell ill" and the fate of Katya's father, Captain Tatarinov, excited and interested him.

It is difficult to imagine how Sani Grigoriev's life would have turned out if an amazing person Ivan Ivanovich Pavlov had not met on his way. One frosty winter evening, someone knocked on the window of the house where two small children lived. When the children opened the door, an exhausted, frostbitten man burst into the room. This was Doctor Ivan Ivanovich, who had escaped from exile. He lived with the children for several days, showed the children tricks, taught them to bake potatoes on sticks, and most importantly, taught the dumb boy to talk. Who could have known then that these two people, a little dumb boy and an adult who was hiding from all people, would be bound by a strong faithful male friendship for life.

Several years will pass, and they will meet again, the doctor and the boy, in Moscow, in the hospital, and the doctor will fight for the boy's life for many months. The new meeting will take place in the Arctic, where Sanya will work. Together they, the polar pilot Grigoriev and Dr. Pavlov, will fly to save a man, fall into a terrible blizzard, and only thanks to the resourcefulness and skill of the young pilot will they be able to land a faulty plane and spend several days in the tundra among the Nenets. Here, in the harsh conditions of the North, the true qualities of both Sani Grigoriev and Doctor Pavlov will manifest themselves.

The three meetings between Sanya and the doctor also have a symbolic meaning. First, three is a fabulous number. This is the first number in a number of traditions (including ancient Chinese), or the first of the odd numbers. Opens a number series and qualifies as a perfect number (an image of absolute perfection). The first number to which the word "everything" is assigned. One of the most positive numbers-emblems in symbolism, religious thought, mythology and folklore. Sacred, lucky number 3. It bears the meaning of high quality or high degree of expressiveness of the action. It shows mainly positive qualities: the sacredness of a perfect deed, courage and tremendous strength, both physical and spiritual, the importance of something. In addition, the number 3 symbolizes the completeness and completeness of a certain sequence that has a beginning, middle and end. The number 3 symbolizes the integrity, the triple nature of the world, its versatility, the trinity of the creative, destructive and preserving forces of nature - reconciling and balancing their beginning, happy harmony, creative perfection and good luck.

Secondly, these meetings changed the life of the protagonist.

As for the image of Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov, it is very reminiscent of the mythological biblical image of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed his mentor, his brother in Christ Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Nikolai Antonovich also betrayed his cousin, sending his expedition to certain death. Portrait and actions of N.A. Tatarinova is also very close to the image of Judas.

None of the disciples noticed when this red-haired and ugly Jew first appeared near Christ, but for a long time he relentlessly walked along their path, intervened in conversations, provided small services, bowed, smiled and cursed. And then he became completely accustomed, deceiving the weary vision, then suddenly he caught his eyes and ears, irritating them, like something unprecedentedly ugly, deceitful and disgusting.

A bright detail in Kaverin's portrait is a kind of accent that helps to demonstrate the essence of the person being portrayed. For example, Nikolai Antonovich's thick fingers resembling "some hairy caterpillars, it seems, cabbage mongrels" (64) - a detail that adds negative connotations to the image of this person, as well as the constantly emphasized in the portrait "a golden tooth, which previously somehow illuminated everything face ”(64), and faded towards old age. The golden tooth will become a sign of the absolute falsity of the antagonist Sani Grigoriev. The permanently "striking" incurable acne on the face of Sani's stepfather is a sign of impurity of thoughts and dishonesty of behavior.

He was a good manager, and the pupils respected him. They came to him with different proposals, and he listened carefully to them. Sanya Grigoriev also liked it at first. But when he was at their home, he noticed that everyone did not treat him well, although he was very attentive to everyone. With all the guests who came to them, he was kind and cheerful. He did not like Sanya, and every time he visited them, he began to teach him. Despite his pleasant appearance, Nikolai Antonovich was a mean, low man. This is evidenced by his actions. Nikolai Antonovich - he made it so that most of the equipment on the schooner Tatarinov was unusable. Almost the entire expedition perished through the fault of this man! He persuaded Romashov to eavesdrop on everything that was said about him at school and to inform him. He arranged a whole conspiracy against Ivan Pavlovich Korablev, wanting to expel him from school, because the guys loved and respected him and because he asked for the hand of Marya Vasilyevna, whom he himself was deeply in love with and whom he wanted to marry. It was Nikolai Antonovich who was to blame for the death of his brother Tatarinov: it was he who was engaged in equipping the expedition and did everything possible so that it did not come back. He in every possible way prevented Grigoriev from conducting an investigation into the case of the missing expedition. Moreover, he took advantage of the letters that Sanya Grigoriev found, and defended himself, became a professor. In an effort to escape punishment and shame in the event of exposure, he exposed another person, von Vyshimirsky, under attack, when all the evidence proving his guilt was collected. These and other actions speak of him as a mean, mean, dishonorable, envious person. How much villainy he committed in his life, how many innocent people he killed, how many people he made unhappy. He is worthy only of contempt and condemnation.

What kind of person is Chamomile?

Sanya met Romashov at school 4 - a commune, where Ivan Pavlovich Korablev took him. Their beds were side by side. The boys became friends. Sanya did not like in Romashov that he was talking about money all the time, saving it, lending it at interest. Very soon Sanya became convinced of the meanness of this man. Sanya learned that, at the request of Nikolai Antonovich, Romashka overheard everything that was said about the head of the school, wrote it down in a separate book, and then reported it to Nikolai Antonovich for a fee. He also told him that Sanya had heard the conspiracy of the teachers' council against Korablev and wanted to tell his teacher about everything. On another occasion, he dirty gossip to Nikolai Antonovich about Katya and Sanya, for which Katya was sent on vacation to Ensk, and Sanya was no longer allowed into the Tatarinovs' house. The letter that Katya wrote to Sanya before her departure did not reach Sanya either, and this was also the work of Chamomile. Chamomile sank to the point that he rummaged in Sani's suitcase, wanting to find some dirt on him. The older Daisy got, the more his meanness became. He even went so far that he began to collect documents for Nikolai Antonovich, his beloved teacher and patron, proving his guilt in the death of the expedition of Captain Tatarinov, and was ready to sell them to Sanya in exchange for Katya, with whom he was in love. But what to sell important papers, he was ready to kill a childhood friend in cold blood for the sake of fulfilling his dirty goals. All of Chamomile's actions are low, mean, dishonorable.

* What brings Camomile and Nikolai Antonovich closer together, how are they similar?

These are low, mean, cowardly, envious people. To achieve their goals, they commit dishonest acts. They stop at nothing. They have neither honor nor conscience. Ivan Pavlovich Korablev calls Nikolai Antonovich a terrible person, and Romashov a person who has absolutely no morality. These two people stand against each other. Even love doesn't make them prettier. In love, both are selfish. In achieving their goals, they put their interests, their feelings above all else! Disregarding the feelings and interests of the person they love, acting low and mean. Even the war did not change Chamomile. Katya reflected: "He saw death, he became bored in this world of pretense and lies, which was his world before." But she was deeply mistaken. Romashov was ready to kill Sanya, because no one would have known about this and he would have remained unpunished. But Sanya was lucky, fate favored him again and again, giving chance after chance.

Comparing "The Two Captains" with the canonical examples of the adventure genre, we easily find that V. Kaverin masterfully uses a dynamically intense plot for a broad realistic narration, during which the two main characters of the novel - Sanya Grigoriev and Katya Tatarinova - with great sincerity and excitement tell "O time and about myself. " All sorts of adventures here are by no means an end in themselves, for they do not determine the essence of the story of the two captains - these are only the circumstances of the real biography, put by the author as the basis of the novel, eloquently testifying to the fact that the life of Soviet people is full of rich events, that our heroic time is full of exciting romance.

The Two Captains is essentially a novel about truth and happiness. In the fate of the main character of the novel, these concepts are inseparable. Of course, Sanya Grigoriev wins a lot in our eyes because he accomplished many feats during his life - he fought against the Nazis in Spain, flew over the Arctic, fought heroically on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, for which he was awarded several military orders. But it is curious that for all his exceptional perseverance, rare diligence, composure and strong-willed dedication, Captain Grigoriev does not perform exceptional feats, his chest is not decorated with the Hero's Star, as many readers and sincere fans of Sanya would probably like. He accomplishes such feats as can be accomplished by every Soviet person who dearly loves his socialist homeland. Does Sanya Grigoriev lose from this in any way? Of course not!

In the hero of the novel we are conquered not only by his actions, but by his entire emotional makeup, his heroic character in its very inner essence. Have you noticed that O some of the exploits of his hero, accomplished by him at the front, the writer is simply silent. The point, of course, is not the number of feats. Before us is not so much a desperately brave man, a kind of captain "rip his head" - before us, first of all, a principled, convinced, ideological defender of the truth, before us is the image of a Soviet youth, "Shaken by the idea of justice" as the author himself points out. And this is the main thing in the appearance of Sani Grigoriev, which captivated us in him from the very first meeting - even when we knew nothing about his participation in the Great Patriotic War.

We already knew that Sanya Grigoriev would grow up to be a courageous and brave person when we heard the boy's oath "Fight and seek, find and not give up." We, of course, throughout the entire novel are concerned about the question of whether the main character will find the traces of Captain Tatarinov, whether justice will prevail, but we are really captured by himself process achieving the set goal. This process is difficult and complicated, but that is why it is interesting and instructive for us.

For us, Sanya Grigoriev would not be a true hero if we knew only about his exploits and knew little about the formation of his character. In the fate of the hero of the novel, his difficult childhood is also important for us, and his daring clashes during his school years with the scoundrel and self-lover Romashka, with the cleverly disguised careerist Nikolai Antonovich, and his pure love for Katya Tatarinova, and loyalty to no matter what. became a noble boyish oath. And how magnificently the dedication and perseverance of the character of the hero is revealed when we follow step by step how he achieves the implementation of his intended goal - to become a polar pilot in order to be able to fly in the skies of the Arctic! We cannot ignore his passion for aviation and polar travel, which engulfed Sanya while still at school. Therefore, Sanya Grigoriev becomes a courageous and brave man, that he does not lose sight of the main goal of his life for a single day.

Happiness is won by work, truth is affirmed in the struggle - such a conclusion can be drawn from all the trials of life that fell to the lot of Sani Grigoriev. And, frankly, there were quite a few of them. As soon as the homelessness ended, clashes with strong and dodgy enemies began. Sometimes he suffered temporary setbacks, which he had to endure very painfully. But strong natures do not bend from this - they are tempered in severe trials.

2.1 The mythology of the novel's polar discoveries

Any writer has the right to fiction. But where does it go, the line, the invisible line between truth and myth? Sometimes they are so closely intertwined, as, for example, in the novel “Two Captains” by Veniamin Kaverin, a work of fiction that most reliably resembles the real events of 1912 in the development of the Arctic.

Three Russian polar expeditions entered the Northern Ocean in 1912, all three ended tragically: the expedition of V.A. Rusanov. died entirely, the expedition of Brusilov G.L. - almost entirely, and in the expedition of G. Sedov. I killed three, including the head of the expedition. In general, the 20s and 30s of the twentieth century were interesting for through voyages along the Northern Sea Route, the Chelyuskin epic, the heroes of the Papanin people.

The young, but already well-known writer V. Kaverin became interested in all this, became interested in people, bright personalities, whose deeds and characters aroused only respect. He reads literature, memoirs, collections of documents; listens to the stories of N.V. Pinegin, friend and member of the expedition of the brave polar explorer Sedov; sees finds made in the mid-thirties on unnamed islands in the Kara Sea. Also during the Great Patriotic War, he himself, being a correspondent for Izvestia, visited the North.

And in 1944 the novel "Two Captains" was published. The author was literally inundated with questions about the prototypes of the main characters - Captain Tatarinov and Captain Grigoriev. He took advantage of the story of two brave conquerors of the Far North. From one he took on a courageous and clear character, purity of thought, clarity of purpose - everything that distinguishes a person of great soul. It was Sedov. The other has the actual history of his journey. It was Brusilov. " These heroes became the prototypes of Captain Tatarinov.

Let's try to figure out what is true, what is a myth, how the writer Kaverin managed to combine the realities of the expeditions of Sedov and Brusilov in the history of the expedition of Captain Tatarinov. And although the writer himself did not mention the name of Vladimir Alexandrovich Rusanov among the prototypes of the hero of Captain Tatarinov, some facts claim that the realities of Rusanov's expedition were also reflected in the novel "Two Captains".

Lieutenant Georgy Lvovich Brusilov, a hereditary sailor, in 1912 led an expedition on the sailing-steam schooner "Saint Anna". He intended to pass with one wintering from St. Petersburg around Scandinavia and further along the Northern Sea Route to Vladivostok. But "Saint Anna" did not come to Vladivostok either a year later or in subsequent years. On the western coast of the Yamal Peninsula, the ice covered the schooner, she began to drift northward, to high latitudes. The ship failed to escape from the ice captivity in the summer of 1913. During the longest drift in the history of Russian Arctic research (1,575 kilometers in a year and a half), Brusilov's expedition conducted meteorological observations, depth measurements, studied currents and ice regime in the northern part of the Kara Sea, which until that time was completely unknown to science. Almost two years of ice captivity have passed.

On April 23 (10), 1914, when the "Saint Anna" was at 830 north latitude and 60 0 east longitude, with Brusilov's consent, eleven crew members left the schooner, led by navigator Valerian Ivanovich Albanov. The group hoped to reach the nearest coast, to Franz Josef Land, in order to deliver the materials of the expedition, which allowed scientists to characterize the underwater topography of the northern part of the Kara Sea and identify a meridional depression at the bottom about 500 kilometers long (St. Anna Trough). Only a few people reached the Franz Josef archipelago, but only two of them, Albanov himself and the sailor A. Konrad, were lucky to escape. They were accidentally discovered at Cape Flora by members of another Russian expedition under the command of G. Sedov (Sedov himself had already died by this time).

The schooner with G. Brusilov himself, the sister of mercy E. Zhdanko, the first woman to participate in the high-latitude drift, and eleven crew members disappeared without a trace.

The geographical result of the campaign of the navigator Albanov's group, which cost the lives of nine sailors, was the assertion that King Oscar and Peterman, previously marked on the maps of the Land, do not actually exist.

We know in general terms the drama of "Saint Anne" and her crew thanks to Albanov's diary, which was published in 1917 under the title "South to Franz Josef Land". Why were only two saved? This is quite clear from the diary. The people in the group that left the schooner were very motley: strong and weak, reckless and weak in spirit, disciplined and dishonest. Those who had the most chance survived. Albanov from the ship "St. Anna" was transferred mail to the mainland. Albanov reached, but none of those to whom they were intended received the letters. Where did they go? This still remains a mystery.

And now let's turn to Kaverin's novel "Two Captains". Of the members of the expedition of Captain Tatarinov, only the navigator of the long voyage I. Klimov returned. This is what he writes to Maria Vasilievna, the wife of Captain Tatarinov: “I hasten to inform you that Ivan Lvovich is alive and well. Four months ago, according to his instructions, I left the schooner and thirteen crew members with me. I will not talk about our difficult journey to Franz Josef Land on floating ice. I will only say that from our group I alone safely (except for the frostbitten legs) reached Cape Flora. The "Saint Foka" of Lieutenant Sedov's expedition picked me up and took me to Arkhangelsk. "Holy Mary" froze in the Kara Sea and since October 1913 has been constantly moving northward along with the polar ice. When we left, the schooner was at latitude 820 55 ". She stands calmly in the middle of the ice field, or rather, stood from the fall of 1913 until I left."

Sanya Grigoriev's senior friend, Doctor Ivan Ivanovich Pavlov, after almost twenty years, in 1932, explains to Sanya that the group photo of the members of the expedition of Captain Tatarinov “was presented by the navigator of the“ St. Mary ”Ivan Dmitrievich Klimov. In 1914 he was brought to Arkhangelsk with frostbitten legs, and he died in a city hospital from blood poisoning. " After the death of Klimov, two notebooks and letters remained. The hospital sent these letters to the addresses, but the notebooks and photographs remained with Ivan Ivanovich. The persistent Sanya Grigoriev once said to Nikolai Antonich Tatarinov, a cousin of the missing captain Tatarinov, that he would find the expedition: "I do not believe that it disappeared without a trace."

And in 1935, Sanya Grigoriev, day after day, parses Klimov's diaries, among which he finds an interesting map - a map of the drift of "St. Mary" "from October 1912 to April 1914, and the drift was shown in those places where the so-called Earth lay. Peterman. “But who knows that this fact was first established by Captain Tatarinov on the schooner“ Saint Mary ”?” - exclaims Sanya Grigoriev.

Captain Tatarinov had to go from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. From the captain's letter to his wife: “About two years have passed since I sent you a letter through a telegraphic expedition to the Yugorsky Shara. We walked freely on the planned course, and since October 1913 we have been slowly moving north along with the polar ice. Thus, willy-nilly, we had to abandon the original intention to go to Vladivostok along the coast of Siberia. But every cloud has a silver lining. A completely different thought now occupies me. I hope she does not seem to you - as some of my companions - childish or reckless. "

What is this thought? Sanya finds the answer to this in the notes of Captain Tatarinov: “The human mind was so absorbed in this task that its solution, despite the harsh grave that travelers for the most part found there, became a continuous national competition. Almost all civilized countries took part in this competition, and only there were no Russians, but meanwhile the ardent impulses of the Russian people for the opening of the North Pole manifested themselves back in the time of Lomonosov and have not faded away to this day. Amundsen wants to leave Norway the honor of discovering the North Pole at all costs, and we will go this year and prove to the whole world that the Russians are capable of this feat. " (From a letter to the head of the Main Hydrographic Directorate, April 17, 1911). So this is where Captain Tatarinov was aiming !. "He wanted, like Nansen, to go as far north as possible with drifting ice, and then get to the pole on dogs."

Tatarinov's expedition failed. Even Amundsen said: "The success of any expedition depends entirely on its equipment." Indeed, his brother Nikolai Antonich rendered a "disservice" in preparing and equipping Tatarinov's expedition. For reasons of failure, Tatarinov's expedition was similar to the expedition of G.Ya. Sedov, who in 1912 tried to penetrate the North Pole. After 352 days of ice captivity off the north-western coast of Novaya Zemlya in August 1913, Sedov took the ship “Holy Great Martyr Fock” out of the bay and sent it to Franz Josef Land. The Foka's second wintering place was Tikhaya Bay on Hooker Island. On February 2, 1914, despite complete exhaustion, Sedov, accompanied by two sailors - volunteers A. Pustoshny and G. Linnik, went to the Pole on three dog sleds. After a severe cold, he died on February 20 and was buried by his companions at Cape Auk (Rudolf Island). The expedition was poorly prepared. G. Sedov was not familiar with the history of the exploration of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, he did not know the latest maps of the ocean section along which he was going to reach the North Pole. He himself did not check the equipment thoroughly. His temperament, desire to conquer the North Pole faster at all costs prevailed over the clear organization of the expedition. So these are important reasons for the outcome of the expedition and the tragic death of G. Sedov.

Earlier, it was already mentioned about the meetings of Kaverin with Pinegin. Nikolai Vasilievich Pinegin is not only an artist and writer, but also a researcher of the Arctic. During Sedov's last expedition in 1912, Pinegin shot the first documentary about the Arctic, the footage of which, combined with the artist's personal memories, helped Kaverin to brighten up the picture of the events of that time.

Let's go back to Kaverin's novel. From a letter from Captain Tatarinov to his wife: “I am writing to you about our discovery: there are no lands to the north of the Taimyr Peninsula on the maps. Meanwhile, being at latitude 790 35 ", east of Greenwich, we noticed a sharp silvery strip, slightly convex, extending from the very horizon. I am convinced that this is land. So far I called it by your name." Sanya Grigoriev finds out that it is was Severnaya Zemlya, discovered in 1913 by Lieutenant B.A.Vilkitsky.

After defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, Russia needed to have its own way of escorting ships to the Great Ocean, so as not to depend on Suez or other channels of warm countries. The authorities decided to create a Hydrographic Expedition and carefully survey the least difficult section from the Bering Strait to the mouth of the Lena, so that it would be possible to pass from east to west, from Vladivostok to Arkhangelsk or St. Petersburg. The head of the expedition was A.I. Vilkitsky, and after his death, since 1913 - his son, Boris Andreevich Vilkitsky. It was he who, during the navigation of 1913, dispelled the legend about the existence of Sannikov Land, but discovered a new archipelago. On August 21 (September 3), 1913, a huge archipelago covered with eternal snow was seen north of Cape Chelyuskin. Consequently, from Cape Chelyuskin to the north is not an open ocean, but a strait, later called the B. Vilkitsky Strait. The archipelago was originally named the Land of Emperor Nicholas II. It has been called the Northern Land since 1926.

In March 1935, pilot Alexander Grigoriev, having made an emergency landing on the Taimyr Peninsula, accidentally discovered an old brass hook, which had turned green with time, with the inscription “Schooner“ Holy Mary ”. Nenets Ivan Vylko explains that a boat with a hook and a man was found by local residents on the coast of Taimyr, the coast closest to Severnaya Zemlya. By the way, there is reason to believe that it was no coincidence that the author of the novel gave the Nenets hero the surname Vylko. A close friend of the Arctic explorer Rusanov, a participant in his 1911 expedition was the Nenets artist Ilya Konstantinovich Vylko, who later became the chairman of the council of Novaya Zemlya ("President of Novaya Zemlya").

Vladimir Alexandrovich Rusanov was a polar geologist and navigator. His last expedition on the motor-sailing vessel "Hercules" sailed to the Arctic Ocean in 1912. The expedition reached the Spitsbergen archipelago and discovered four new coal deposits there. Rusanov then made an attempt to go through the Northeast Passage. Having reached Cape Desire on Novaya Zemlya, the expedition went missing.

It is not known exactly where the Hercules died. But it is known that the expedition not only sailed, but also some part of it went on foot, for "Hercules" almost certainly died, as evidenced by objects found in the mid-30s on the islands near the Taimyr coast. In 1934, on one of the islands, hydrographers discovered a wooden post on which is written "Hercules - 1913". Traces of the expedition were found in the Minin skerries off the western coast of the Taimyr Peninsula and on Bolshevik Island (Severnaya Zemlya). And in the seventies, the search for Rusanov's expedition was conducted by the expedition of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. In the same area, two hooks were found, as if in confirmation of the intuitive guess of the writer Kaverin. According to experts, they belonged to the "Rusanovites".

Captain Alexander Grigoriev, following his motto "Fight and seek, find and not give up", in 1942 nevertheless found the expedition of Captain Tatarinov, or rather, what was left of it. He calculated the path that the captain Tatarinov had to take, if it is considered indisputable that he returned to the Severnaya Zemlya, which he called the "Land of Mary": from 790 35 latitude, between the 86th and 87th meridians, to the Russian Islands and to the Nordenskjold archipelago. Then, probably after many wanderings from Cape Sterlegov to the mouth of the Pyasina, where the old Nenets Vylko found a boat on sledges. Then to the Yenisei, because the Yenisei was for Tatarinov the only hope to meet people and help. He walked along the seaward side of the coastal islands, if possible - straight. Sanya found the last camp of Captain Tatarinov, found his farewell letters, photographic films, found his remains. Captain Grigoriev conveyed to the people the farewell words of Captain Tatarinov: “It’s bitter for me to think about all the deeds that I could have done if they didn’t just help me, but at least not hinder me. What to do? One consolation is that by my labors, vast new lands have been discovered and annexed to Russia. "

In the finale of the novel we read: “Ships entering the Yenisei Gulf from afar see the grave of Captain Tatarinov. They walk past her, flags at half-mast, and a mourning salute thunders from the cannons, and a long echo rolls on incessantly.

The tomb was built of white stone, and it sparkles dazzlingly under the rays of the unsetting polar sun.

At the height of human growth, the following words are carved:

“The body of Captain I.L. Tatarinov, who made one of the most courageous journeys and died on the way back from the Severnaya Zemlya discovered by him in June 1915. Fight and seek, find and not give up! "

Reading these lines of Kaverin's novel, one involuntarily recalls the obelisk erected in 1912 in the eternal snows of Antarctica in honor of Robert Scott and four of his comrades. There is a gravestone inscription on it. And the final words of the poem "Ulysses" by the classic of British poetry of the 19th century Alfred Tennyson: "To strive, to seek, to find and not yield" (which in English means: "Fight and seek, find and not give up!"). Much later, with the publication of the novel "Two Captains" by Veniamin Kaverin, these very words became the life motto of millions of readers, a loud appeal for Soviet polar explorers of different generations.

Probably, the literary critic N. Likhacheva was wrong, who attacked The Two Captains when the novel was not yet fully published. After all, the image of Captain Tatarinov is generalized, collective, fictional. The right to fiction gives the author an artistic style, not a scientific one. The best traits of the characters of the Arctic explorers, as well as mistakes, miscalculations, historical realities of the expeditions of Brusilov, Sedov, Rusanov - all this is associated with the hero of Kaverin.

And Sanya Grigoriev, like Captain Tatarinov, is an artistic invention of the writer. But this hero also has his own prototypes. One of them is professor-geneticist M.I. Lobashov.

In 1936, in a sanatorium near Leningrad, Kaverin met the silent, always internally focused young scientist Lobashov. “This was a man in whom fervor was combined with straightforwardness, and perseverance with an amazing determination of purpose. He knew how to succeed in any business. A clear mind and the ability to deep feeling were visible in every judgment. " In everything, the character traits of Sani Grigoriev are guessed. And many of the specific circumstances of Sanya's life were directly borrowed by the author from Lobashov's biography. These are, for example, the silence of Sanya, the death of his father, homelessness, the commune school of the 1920s, the types of teachers and students, falling in love with the daughter of a school teacher. Talking about the history of the creation of "Two Captains", Kaverin noticed that, unlike the parents, sister, and comrades of the hero, about whom the prototype of Sanya told, only individual touches were outlined in the teacher Korablev, so that the image of the teacher was completely created by the writer.

Lobashov, who became the prototype of Sani Grigoriev, told the writer about his life, immediately aroused an active interest in Kaverin, who decided not to let his imagination run wild, but to follow the story he had heard. But in order for the hero's life to be perceived naturally and vividly, he must be in conditions that are personally known to the writer. And unlike the prototype, who was born on the Volga, and graduated from school in Tashkent, Sanya was born in Ensk (Pskov), and graduated from school in Moscow, and she absorbed much of what happened at the school where Kaverin studied. And the state of Sanya the youth also turned out to be close to the writer. He was not a member of the orphanage, but in the Moscow period of his life he was left completely alone in a huge, hungry and deserted Moscow. And, of course, I had to spend a lot of energy and will so as not to get lost.

And the love for Katya, which Sanya carries through her whole life, is not invented and embellished by the author; Kaverin is here next to his hero: having married a twenty-year-old boy to Lidochka Tynyanova, he remained faithful to his love forever. And how much in common is the mood of Veniamin Alexandrovich and Sani Grigoriev when they write to their wives from the front, when they are looking for them, taken from besieged Leningrad. And Sanya fights in the North, too, because Kaverin was a military commander of TASS, and then Izvestia in the Northern Fleet and knew firsthand both Murmansk and Polyarnoye, and the specifics of the war in the Far North, and its people.

Another person who was well acquainted with aviation and who knew the North perfectly — the talented pilot S.L. Klebanov, a wonderful, honest man, whose consultations in the study by the author of flying business were invaluable. From the biography of Klebanov, the story of a flight to the remote camp of Vanokan entered the life of Sani Grigoriev, when a disaster broke out on the way.

In general, according to Kaverin, both prototypes of Sani Grigoriev resembled each other not only by their stubbornness of character and extraordinary determination. Klebanov even outwardly resembled Lobashov - short, dense, stocky.

The great skill of the artist lies in creating such a portrait in which everything that is his and everything that is not his becomes his own, deeply original, individual.

Kaverin has a wonderful property: he gives the heroes not only his own impressions, but also his habits, and relatives, and friends. And this cute touch brings the characters closer to the reader. In the novel, the writer endowed Valya Zhukov with the desire of his older brother Sasha to cultivate the power of his gaze by looking at the black circle drawn on the ceiling for a long time. Doctor Ivan Ivanovich, during a conversation, suddenly throws a chair to his interlocutor, which must certainly be caught - this was not invented by Veniamin Alexandrovich: K.I. loved to talk so much. Chukovsky.

The hero of the novel "Two Captains" Sanya Grigoriev lived his own unique life. Readers believed in him seriously. And for more than sixty years now, readers of several generations have understood and loved this image. Readers admire his personal qualities of character: by willpower, thirst for knowledge and search, loyalty to the given word, dedication, perseverance in achieving the goal, love for the homeland and love for his work - all those that helped Sana to reveal the mystery of Tatarinov's expedition.

The beginning of the story

The novel is set in the city of Ensk, where a dead postman is found. With him, a bag full of letters is found that never reached those to whom they were intended. Ensk is a city that is not rich in events, therefore such an incident becomes known everywhere. Since the letters were no longer destined to reach the addressees, they were opened and read by the whole city.

One of these readers is Aunt Dasha, whom the main character, Sanya Grigoriev, listens to with great interest. He is ready to listen for hours to stories described by strangers. And he especially likes stories about polar expeditions written for the unknown Maria Vasilievna.

Time passes, and a black streak begins in Sanya's life. His father is imprisoned for life on murder charges. The guy is sure that his dad is innocent, because he knows the real criminal, but he is unable to speak and can do nothing to help his loved one. The gift of speech will return later with the help of Dr. Ivan Ivanovich, who by the will of fate ended up in their house, but for now the family, consisting of Sanya, his mother and sister, remains without a breadwinner, plunging into ever greater poverty.

The next challenge in the boy's life is the appearance of a stepfather in their family, who, instead of improving their unsweetened life, makes it even more unbearable. The mother dies, and against their will they want to send the children to an orphanage.

Then Sasha, together with a friend named Petya Skovorodnikov escapes to Tashkent having given each other the most serious oath in their life: "Fight and seek, find and not give up!" But the guys were not destined to get to the cherished Tashkent. They ended up in Moscow.

Life in Moscow

Further, the narrator departs from the fate of Petit. The fact is that friends get lost in an unusually huge city, and Sasha ends up in a school-commune alone. At first he is discouraged, but then he realizes that this place can be useful and fateful for him.

And so it turns out... It is in the boarding school that he meets people who are important for later life:

Faithful friend Valya Zhukov;
The real enemy is Misha Romashov, nicknamed Daisy;
Geography teacher Ivan Pavlovich Korablev;
School director Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov.

Subsequently, Sasha meets on the street an elderly woman with obviously heavy bags and volunteers to help her carry her burden home. During the conversation, Grigoriev realizes that the woman is a relative of Tatarinov, the director of his school. At home with a lady, the young man meets her granddaughter Katya, who, although she seems somewhat arrogant, still likes him. As it turned out, it was mutual.

Katya's mother's name is Maria Vasilievna... Sasha is surprised at how sad this woman constantly looks. It turns out that she experienced a great grief - the loss of her beloved husband, who was at the head of the expedition when he disappeared without a trace.

Since everyone considers Katya's mother a widow, the teacher Korablev and the director of the school Tatarinov show interest in her. The latter is also the cousin of Maria Vasilievna's missing husband. And Sasha often begins to appear at Katya's house in order to help with the housework.

Facing injustice

The geography teacher wants to bring something new to the lives of his students and organizes a theatrical performance. A feature of his venture is that the roles were handed out to hooligans, who were subsequently influenced in the best way.

After that, the geographer suggested to Katina mom to marry him. The woman had warm feelings for the teacher, but she could not accept the offer, and it was rejected. The school director, jealous of Korablev for Maria Vasilievna and envying his success in raising children, commits a low act: he convenes a pedagogical council, at which he announces his decision to remove the geographer from classes with schoolchildren.

By coincidence, Grigoriev learns about this conversation and tells Ivan Pavlovich about it. This leads to the fact that Tatarinov summons Sasha, accuses him of snitching and prohibits him from appearing in Katya's apartment. Sanya has no choice but to think that it was the geography teacher who let it slip about who told him about the collective meeting.

Deeply hurt and disappointed, the young man decides to leave the school and the city. But he still does not know that he is sick with the flu, which spills over into meningitis. The disease is so complicated that Sasha loses consciousness and ends up in the hospital. There he meets with the same doctor who helped him start speaking after his father's arrest. Then a geographer visits him. He explains to the student and says that he kept the secret told to him by Grigoriev. So it wasn't the teacher who passed it to the director.

School education

Sasha returns to school and continues to study. Once he was given the task of drawing a poster that would encourage the children to enter the Society of Friends of the Air Force. In the process of creativity Grigoriev the thought came that he would like to become a pilot. This idea absorbed him so much that Sanya began to fully prepare to master this profession. He began to read special literature and prepare himself physically: to temper and play sports.

After some time, Sasha resumes communication with Katya. And then he learns more about her father, who was the captain of the "Saint Mary". Grigoriev compares the facts and understands that it was precisely the letters of Katya's father about polar expeditions that came to Ensk then. It also turned out that it was the school director and part-time cousin of Katya's father who outfitted her.

Sasha understands that he has strong feelings for Katya. At the school ball, unable to cope with the impulse, he kisses Katya. But she does not take this step of his seriously. However, their kiss had a witness - none other than Mikhail Romashov, an enemy of the protagonist. As it turned out, he had been an informer for Ivan Antonovich for a long time and even kept notes about everything that could be of interest to the director.

Tatarinov, who dislikes Grigoriev, again forbids Sasha to appear in Katya's house, and indeed to maintain any kind of communication with her. To surely separate them, he sends Katya to the city of Sasha's childhood - Ensk.

Grigoriev was not going to give up and decided to follow Katya. Meanwhile, the face of the one who was the culprit of his misadventures was revealed to him. Sasha caught Mikhail when he got into the guy's personal belongings. Not wanting to leave this offense unpunished, Grigoriev hit Romashov.

Sasha goes for Katya to Ensk, where he visits Aunt Dasha. The woman saved the letters, and Grigoriev was able to reread them again. Having approached the matter more consciously, the young man understood more new things and was eager to find out how Katya's father disappeared, and what relation the director Tatarinov could have to this incident.

Grigoriev told about the letters and his guesses to Katya, who handed them over to her mother upon her return to Moscow. Unable to survive the shock that their relative Nikolai Antonovich, whom the family trusted, was the culprit in her husband's death, Maria Vasilievna committed suicide. Out of grief, Katya blamed Sanya for the death of her mother and refused to see and talk to him. Meanwhile, the director prepared documents that would justify his guilt in the incident. This evidence was presented to the geographer Korablev.

Sanya is going through hard separation from his beloved. He believes that they are never destined to be together, but he cannot forget Katya. Nevertheless, Grigoriev manages to pass test exams and get the profession of a pilot. First of all, he goes to the place where Katya's father's expedition disappeared.

New meeting

Sanya was lucky, and he found the diaries of Katya's father about the expedition on the "St. Mary". After this, the guy decides to return to Moscow with two goals:

Congratulate your teacher Korablev on his anniversary;
Meet your beloved again.

In the end, both goals were achieved.

In the meantime, things are getting worse for the dastardly director. He is blackmailed by Romashov, into whose hands fall papers testifying to the betrayal of his brother by Tatarinov. With the help of these documents, Mikhail hopes for the following achievements:

Successfully defend a thesis under the guidance of Nikolai Antonovich;
Marry his niece Katya.

But Katya, who forgave Sasha after the meeting, believes the young man and leaves her uncle's house. Subsequently, she agrees to become Grigoriev's wife.

Years of war

The war that began in 1941 separated the spouses... Katya ended up in besieged Leningrad, Sanya ended up in the North. Nevertheless, the loving couple did not forget about each other, continued to believe and love. Sometimes they had the opportunity to receive news about each other that the dearest person was still alive.

However, this time is not in vain for the couple. During the war, Sana manages to find evidence of what he was sure of almost all the time. Tatarinov was indeed involved in the disappearance of the expedition. In addition, Grigoriev's longtime enemy Romashov again showed his meanness, leaving the wounded Sanya to die during the war. For this, Mikhail was brought to trial. At the end of the war, Katya and Sasha finally found each other and reunited so that they would never get lost.

Moral of the book

An analysis of the novel leads to an understanding of the author's main idea that the main thing in life is to be honest and faithful, to find and keep your love. After all, only this helped the heroes to cope with all adversity and find happiness, even if it was not easy.

The above content is a very succinct retelling of a voluminous book, which does not always have enough time to read. However, if this story did not leave you indifferent, reading the full volume of the work will certainly help you to spend time with pleasure and benefit.

"Two Captains" is perhaps the most famous Soviet adventure novel for young people. It was reprinted many times, was included in the famous "Adventure Library", was filmed twice - in 1955 and in 1976. In 1992, Sergei Debizhev filmed the absurd - st-sky musical parody "Two kapi - tana - 2", in the plot that had nothing in common with Kaverin's romance, but exploited its name as well - known.... Already in the XXI century, the novel became the literary basis of the musical "Nord-Ost" and the subject of a special museum exhibition in Pskov, the author's hometown. Monuments are erected to the heroes of "Two Captains" and are named after the square and the street. What is the secret of Kaverin's literary success?

Adventure novel and documentary investigation

Cover of the book "Two Captains". Moscow, 1940 "Detizdat of the Central Committee of the Komsomol"

At first glance, the novel looks like just a socialist realist opus, albeit with a carefully worked out plot and the use of some modernist techniques that are not too familiar for socialist realist literature, for example, such as changing the narrator (two out of ten parts of the novel were written dignity on behalf of Katya). This is not true.--

By the time he started working on The Two Captains, Kaverin was already a fairly experienced writer, and in the novel he managed to combine several genres: an adventure novel-journey, a novel of education, a Soviet historical novel about the recent past (the so-called novel with a key) and, finally, a military melodrama. Each of these genres has its own logic and mechanisms for retaining the reader's attention. Kaverin is an attentive reader of the formalists' works Formalists- scientists representing the so-called formal school in literary studies, which arose around the Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OPOYAZ) in 1916 and existed until the end of the 1920s. The formal school united theoreticians and literary historians, poetry scholars, and lin-guists. Its most famous representatives were Yuri Tynyanov, Boris Ey-khen --- baum and Viktor Shklovsky.- I thought a lot about whether genre innovation is possible in the history of literature. The novel "Two Captains" can be considered the result of these reflections.

Film studio "Mosfilm"

The plot of the investigative journey in the wake of the letters of Captain Tatarinov, about the fate of the expedition of which no one knows anything for many years, Kaverin borrowed from the famous novel by Jules Verne "Children of Captain Grant". Like the French writer, the text of the captain's letters was not completely preserved and the place of the last anchorage of his expedition becomes a mystery, which the heroes have been guessing for a long time. Kaverin, however, reinforces this documentary line. Now we are talking not about one letter, in the footsteps of which searches are being conducted, but about a whole series of documents that gradually fall into the hands of Sana Grigoriev In early childhood, he many times reads the letters of the captain and navigator of "St. Mary" washed ashore in 1913 and literally memorizes them, not knowing that the letters found on the shore in the bag of a drowned postman tell about the same expedition. Then Sanya gets to know the family of Captain Tatarinov, gets access to his books and breaks down notes in letters about the prospects of polar research in Russia and the world. While studying in Leningrad, Grigoriev carefully studied the press of 1912 in order to find out what they wrote at that time about the expedition of "St. Mary". The next stage is the discovery and bloody decryption of the diary of the very storming officer who owned one of the Enskie letters. Finally, in the very last chapters, the protagonist becomes the owner of the captain's suicide letters and the ship's logbook..

"Children of Captain Grant" is a novel about the search for the crew of a sea vessel, the story of a rescue expedition. In The Two Captains, Sanya and Tatarinov's daughter, Katya, are looking for evidence of Tatarinov's death in order to restore a good memory of this man, once not appreciated by his contemporaries, and then completely forgotten. Taking on the reconstruction of the history of Tatarinov's expedition, Grigoriev undertakes to publicly expose Nikolai Antonovich, the captain's cousin, and later Katya's stepfather. Sanya manages to prove its detrimental role in the equipment of the expedition. So Grigoriev becomes, as it were, a living substitute for the deceased Tatarinov (not without allusions to the history of Prince Hamlet). Another unexpected conclusion follows from the investigation of Alexander Grigoriev: letters and diaries need to be written and stored, since this is a way not only to collect and save information, but also to tell later ones that your contemporaries are not yet ready to listen to you. ... Characteristically, at the last stages of his search, Grigoriev himself begins to keep a diary - or, more precisely, to create and store a series of unsent letters to Katya Tatarinova.

Here lies the deep "subversive" meaning of "Two Captains". The novel argued the importance of old personal documents in an era when personal archives were either seized during searches or destroyed by the owners themselves, fearing that their diaries and letters would fall into the hands of the NKVD.

American Slavic scholar Katherine Clarke called her book about the socialist realist novel History as a Ritual. At a time when history appeared on the pages of countless novels as ritual and myth, Kaverin portrayed in his book a romantic hero who restores history as an eternally elusive secret that needs to be deciphered, endowed with personal meaning. Probably, this double perspective was another reason why Kaverin's novel remained popular throughout the twentieth century.

Upbringing romance

A still from the serial film "Two Captains", directed by Yevgeny Karelov. 1976 year Film studio "Mosfilm"

The second genre model used in The Two Captains is an education novel, a genre that emerged in the second half of the 18th century and developed rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries. The focus of the upbringing novel is always the story of the growing up of the hero, the formation of his character and worldview. "The Two Captains" adjoin the kind of genre that tells about the biography of the orphan hero: The Story of Tom Jones, the Foundling by Henry Fielding and, of course, the novels of Charles Dickens, above all "The Adventures of Oli-ve-ra Twist ”and“ The Life of David Copperfield ”.

Apparently, the last novel was of decisive importance for "Two captains": for the first time seeing Sani's classmate, Mikhail Romashov, Katya Tatarinova, as if anticipating his sinister role in his and Sanya's fate, says that he is terrible and looks like Uriah Heep, the main villain from The Life of David Copperfield. Other plot parallels also lead to Dickens's novel: the oppressive stepfather; independent long trip to another city, towards a better life; exposure of the "paper" machinations of the villain.

A still from the serial film "Two Captains", directed by Yevgeny Karelov. 1976 year Film studio "Mosfilm"

However, in the story of Grigoriev's growing up, motives appear that are not characteristic of the literature of the 18th and 19th centuries. Sani's personal formation is a process of gradual accumulation and concentration of will. It all starts with overcoming dumbness Due to an illness suffered in early childhood, Sanya lost his ability to speak. Dumbness actually becomes the reason for the death of Sanya's father: the boy cannot tell who actually killed the watchman and why his father's knife ended up at the scene of the crime. Sanya finds speech thanks to the wonderful doctor - the fugitive convict Ivan Ivanovich: in just a few sessions, he shows his patient the first and most important exercises for training the pronunciation of vowels and short words. Then Ivan Ivanovich disappears, and Sanya makes the further path to gaining speech himself., and after this first impressive act of will, Grigoriev undertakes others. While still in school, he decides to become a pilot and begins to systematically temper and play sports, as well as read books that are directly or indirectly related to aviation and aircraft construction. At the same time, he trains the ability to self-control, as he is too impulsive and impressionable, and this greatly interferes in public speeches and when communicating with officials and bosses.

Aviation biography of Grigoriev demonstrates even greater determination and concentration of will. First, training at a flight school - in the early 1930s, with a shortage of equipment, instructors, flight hours and just money for life and food. Then there was a long and patient wait for the appointment to the North. Then work in civil aviation in the Arctic Circle. Finally, in the final parts of the novel, the young captain fights against external enemies (fascists), and the traitor Romashov, and with illness and death, and with longing for separation. In the end, he emerges victorious from all the tests: he returns to the profession, finds the place of the last stop of Captain Tatarinov, and then Katya, lost in the evacuation perturbations. Romashov was exposed and arrested, and his best friends - Dr. Ivan Ivanovich, teacher Korab-lion, friend Petka - are again nearby.

A still from the serial film "Two Captains", directed by Yevgeny Karelov. 1976 year Film studio "Mosfilm"

Behind this whole epic of the formation of human will, one can read the serious influence of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, assimilated by Kaverin from the original and from indirect sources - the works of authors who had previously been influenced by Nietzsche, for example, Jack London and Maxim Gorky. The main motto of the novel, borrowed from the poem “Ulysses” by the English poet Alfred Tennyson, is also reinterpreted in the same willful Nietzschean key. If Tennyson has the lines "fight and seek, find and do not give up" The original is "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield". describe an eternal wanderer, a romantic traveler, then in Kaverin they turn into the credo of an unyielding and constantly educating warrior.

A still from the serial film "Two Captains", directed by Yevgeny Karelov. 1976 year Film studio "Mosfilm"

The action of "Two Captains" begins on the eve of the 1917 revolution and ends on the same days and months when the last chapters of the novel are written (1944). Thus, we have before us not only the life story of Sani Grigor-ev, but also the history of the country going through the same stages of formation as the hero. Kaverin is trying to show how, after the downtroddenness and "dumbness", the chaos of the early 1920s and the heroic labor impulses of the early 1930s, by the end of the war, she began to confidently move towards a bright future, which Grigor-eva, Katya, should build, their close friends and other unnamed heroes with the same reserve of will and patience.

There was nothing surprising and especially innovative in Kaverin's experiment: the revolution and the Civil War quite early became the subject of historical descriptions in complex synthetic genres, combining, on the one hand, features of a historical chronicle, and on the other, a family saga or even quasi-folklore epic. The process of incorporating the events of the late 1910s - early 1920s into historical fictional narratives began in the second half of the 1920s. For example, "Russia, Washed in Blood" by Artyom Vesely (1927-1928), "Walking Through the Torment" by Alexei Tolstoy (1921-1941) or "Quiet Don" by Sholokhov (1926-1932).... From the genre of the historical family saga of the late 1920s, Kaverin borrows, for example, the motive of the division of the family for ideological (or ethical) reasons.

But the most interesting historical layer in "Two Captains", perhaps, is connected not with the description of the revolutionary Ensk (under this name Kaverin depicted his native Pskov) or Moscow during the Civil War. More interesting here are later fragments describing Moscow and Leningrad in the late 1920s and 1930s. And these fragments reveal the features of another prose genre - the so-called novel with a key.

Romance with a key

A still from the serial film "Two Captains", directed by Yevgeny Karelov. 1976 year Film studio "Mosfilm"

This old genre, which arose in France in the 16th century to ridicule court clans and groupings, suddenly found itself in demand in Soviet literature of the 1920s and 1930s. The main principle roman à clef consists in the fact that real persons and events are encoded in it and displayed under different (but often recognizable) names, which makes it possible to make prose both chronicle and pamphlet at the same time, but at the same time draw the reader's attention to what transformations it is going through "Real life" in the writer's imagination. As a rule, very few people can figure out the prototypes of a novel with a key - those who know these real persons in person or in absentia.

"Goat Song" by Konstantin Vaginov (1928), "Crazy Ship" by Olga Forsh (1930), "Theatrical Novel" by Mikhail Bulgakov (1936), finally, Kaverin's early novel "The Brawler, or Evenings on Vasilyevsky Island" (1928) - all these works represented contemporary events and real persons acting in fictional literary worlds. It is no coincidence that most of these novels are dedicated to people of art and their collegial and friendly communication. In The Two Captains, the basic principles of the novel with the key are not consistently maintained - however, depicting the life of writers, artists or actors, Kaverin boldly uses techniques from the arsenal of the genre he is familiar with.

Remember the scene of the wedding of Petya and Sasha (Grigoriev's sister) in Leningrad, where the artist Filippov is mentioned, who "lined [the cow] into small squares and wrote each square separately"? In Filippov, we can easily recognize his "analytical method". Sasha takes orders in the Leningrad branch of Detgiz, which means that she is collaborating with the legendary Marshakov editorial board, which was tragically destroyed in 1937 Kaverin was clearly at risk: he began writing his novel in 1938, after the editorial office was disbanded and some of its employees were arrested.... The subtexts of theatrical scenes are also interesting - with visits to various (real and semi-fictional) performances.

One can speak of a novel with a key in relation to “Two Captains” rather conditionally: it is not a full-scale use of a genre model, but a translation is a lack of a few techniques; most of the heroes of The Two Captains are not encrypted historical figures. Nevertheless, it is very important to answer the question of why such heroes and fragments were needed in The Two Captains. The genre of a novel with a key presupposes the division of the reader's audience into those who are capable and those who are not able to find the right key, that is, those who are initiated and who perceive the narrative as such, without restoring the real background ... In the "artistic" episodes of "Two Captains" we can observe something similar.

Production novel

A still from the serial film "Two Captains", directed by Yevgeny Karelov. 1976 year Film studio "Mosfilm"

In "Two Captains" there is a hero whose surname is encrypted only by the initial, but any Soviet reader could easily guess it, and no key was required for this. The pilot Ch., Whose successes are watched with bated breath by Grigoriev, and then with some timidity turns to him for help, is, of course, Valery Chkalov. Other "aviation" initials were easily deciphered: L. - Sigismund Levanevsky, A. - Aleksander Anisimov, S. - Mavriky Slepnev. Launched in 1938, the novel was intended to summarize the turbulent Soviet Arctic epic of the 1930s, where polar explorers (land and sea) and pilots were equally active.

Let us briefly reconstruct the chronology:

1932 - icebreaker "Alexander Sibiryakov", the first voyage along the Northern Sea Route from the White Sea to Beringovo in one navigation.

1933-1934 - the famous Chelyuskin epic, an attempt to sail from Murmansk to Vladivostok in one navigation, with the death of a ship, landing on an ice floe, and then rescuing the entire crew and passengers with the help of the best pilots of the country: many years later, the names of these pilots could be recited by heart any Soviet schoolchild.

1937 - Ivan Papanin's first drifting polar station and Valery Chkalov's first non-stop flight to the North American continent.

Polar explorers and pilots were the main heroes of our time in the 1930s, and the fact that Sanya Grigoriev not only chose the aviation profession, but wanted to link his fate with the Arctic, immediately gave his image a romantic halo and great attractiveness.

Meanwhile, if we separately consider the professional biography of Grigor-ev and his steady attempts to achieve the sending of an expedition to search for the crew of Captain Tatarinov, it becomes clear that "Two Captains" contain the features of another type of novel - a production novel, which received widespread -some spread in the literature of socialist realism in the late 1920s, with the beginning of industrialization. In one of the varieties of such a novel, the center was a young hero-enthusiast, who loves his work and country more than himself, ready for self-sacrifice and obsessed with the idea of a “breakthrough”. In his desire to make a "breakthrough" (to introduce some kind of technical innovation or just work tirelessly), he will definitely be hindered by a pest hero The role of such a saboteur can be a bureaucrat leader (of course, a conservative by nature) or several such leaders.... There comes a moment when the main character is defeated and his cause, it seems, is almost lost, but still the forces of reason and goodness win, the state, represented by its most reasonable representatives, intervenes in the conflict, encourages the innovator and punishes the conservative.

"Two Captains" are close to this model of a production novel, which is most memorable to Soviet readers from the famous book by Dudintsev "Not by Bread Alone" (1956). The antagonist and envious of Grigoriev Romashov sends letters to all authorities and spreads false rumors - the result of his activities is the sudden cancellation of the search operation in 1935 and the expulsion of Grigoriev from his beloved North.

A still from the serial film "Two Captains", directed by Yevgeny Karelov. 1976 year Film studio "Mosfilm"

Perhaps the most interesting line in the novel today is the transformation of the civilian pilot Grigoriev into a military pilot, and the transformation of peaceful research interests in the Arctic into military and strategic interests. For the first time, such a development of events is predicted by an unnamed sailor who visited Sanya in a Leningrad hotel in 1935. Then, after a long "exile" in the Volga land reclamation aviation, Grigoriev decides to change his fate on his own and volunteers for the Spanish war. From there he returns as a military pilot, and then his entire biography, like the history of the exploration of the North, is shown as a military one, closely related to the security and strategic interests of the country. It is no coincidence that Romashov turns out to be not just a pest and traitor, but also a war criminal: the events of the Patriotic War become the last and ultimate test for both heroes and antiheroes.

Military melodrama

A still from the serial film "Two Captains", directed by Yevgeny Karelov. 1976 year Film studio "Mosfilm"

The last genre that was embodied in "Two Captains" is the genre of military melodrama, which during the war years could be realized both on the stage and in the cinema. Perhaps the closest analogue of the novel is the play "Wait for Me" by Konstantin Simonov and the film of the same name (1943) based on it. The action of the last parts of the novel unfolds as if following the plot of this melodrama.

In the very first days of the war, the plane of an experienced pilot is shot down, he finds himself in the occupied territory, and then, under unexplained circumstances, disappears for a long time. His wife does not want to believe that he is dead. She changes the old civilian profession associated with intellectual activity to a simple rear one and refuses to evacuate. Bombing, digging trenches on the outskirts of the city - she goes through all these trials with dignity, never ceasing to hope that her husband is alive, and in the end she waits for him. This description is quite applicable to both the film "Wait for Me" and the novel "Two Captains" Of course, there are also differences: Katya Tatarinova in June 1941 did not live in Moscow, like the Simon Liza, but in Leningrad; she has to go through all the tests of the blockade, and after her evacuation to the mainland, Grigoriev cannot get on her trail..

The last parts of Kaverin's novel, written alternately on behalf of Katya and then on behalf of Sanya, successfully use all the techniques of military melodrama. And since this genre continued to be exploited in post-war literature, theater and cinema, “Two Captains” for a long time just fell into the horizon of readers and viewers' expectations Waiting horizon(German Erwartungs-horizont) is the term of the German historian and literary theorist Hans-Robert Jauss, a complex of aesthetic, socio-political, psychological and other ideas that determine the author's attitude to society, and also the attitude of the reader to the product.... Youthful love, which originated in the trials and conflicts of the 1920s and 1930s, passed the last and most serious test of the war.