A. N. Tolstoy. Peter the First. Text of the work. “Peter the Great” - a novel about a turning point in the life of Russia Nikolai Tolstoy Peter 1 analysis

"Peter the First"

The early 19th-century English writer Walter Scott, the founder of the historical novel genre, created a type of novel that depicts “a historical era developed in a fictional narrative.” A.S. Pushkin in the novel “The Captain's Daughter” gives the story “at home”, making the main character a fictitious person and exploring the history of his private life against the background of historical events.

A.N. Tolstoy wrote a historical novel, which he called Peter the Great. Thus, he placed a historical figure at the center of the story. This is a man whose fate is inseparable from the history of Russia. For him, turning to the Peter the Great era means turning to the personality of the country’s transformer.

In the 1920s and 1930s, historical novels were dominated, on the one hand, by “research novels,” in which social analysis was in the foreground, and artistry was considered only an addition to it; on the other hand, naturalistic works in which they tried to recreate the era through a very detailed description of life, a heap of archaisms.

The author of Peter the Great avoided both extremes. The descriptions in the novel are based on the use of relatively few, but expressive, characteristic details. Social analysis, undoubtedly very important for a writer, does not subjugate the artistic fabric of the work.

Compositionally, real and fictional characters have equal rights. It is easier for the author to show his understanding of events through fictional characters.

"Peter the Great" is a historical novel of a new type, which can be called heroic. At the center of the narrative in such a work is a heroic personality. The first book largely retains the features of a novel in its infancy, traditional in world literature. It is dedicated to the childhood and early youth of Peter the Great. Tolstoy chose this particular period in the life of the future Russian emperor in order to emphasize the scale, grandeur of his personality, and the uniqueness of the path he had traveled.

However, even the first book is not built according to the traditional novel principle. Until the moment when the main character appears (chapter 19), the main plot lines and details have already been introduced into the novel, with the help of which the image of the country is created. The characters in the novel are representatives of different social strata: the Tsar’s relatives, boyars, merchants, peasants, archers, Old Believers, and many foreigners. The novel shows Russia on the eve of change. The formation of a hero ends the moment he realizes that the country needs him as a reformer. (Remember what ways of depicting the hero’s personality are characteristic of a traditional novel.)

The heroic type of historical novel requires unconventional methods of depicting the main character. The love line, the most important for the classic novel, is poorly developed in Peter the Great. The character of the hero is manifested not in love affairs, but in the field of building a new state. Friendly relations are based on unity of goals and interests. Lefort and Menshikov are close and dear to Peter because they fully support his transformative activities.

Gradually, the author narrows the time periods of the narrative, shortens the plot lines (the first book covers the period from 1682 to 1698, the second - about five years, the third - six months). At the same time, more and more attention is paid to Peter’s inner world and his surroundings. The need for change is already obvious; now it is important to understand what the personality of the one who makes them is, and at what cost he achieves his goal.

Peter's path appears as a series of tests that require the utmost effort. These are tests of a personal nature: the death of the mother, misunderstanding on the part of the wife, the betrayal of Anna Monet, the death of Lefort, the constant theft of Menshikov. In grief, Peter is always alone: ​​his wife does not share his grief for his mother, those around him are secretly happy about Lefort’s death. But the main thing is the failures of the state: the defeat at Azov, the Streltsy riot, the so-called “embarrassment,” the resistance of the people who do not want to live by the new laws. Victories come to Peter at the cost of incredible efforts; he literally “grabs” fortune by the hair. It is this interpretation of the image that gives it a heroic character. Tolstoy asserts the omnipotence of man, his ability to change himself and the world, thereby indirectly confirming the thesis of his time about the “new man.”

While working on the novel, A. Tolstoy undoubtedly fulfilled a social order. By creating a heroic image of Peter leading the country along the path of change, he thereby justified the incredible cruelties with which his reforms were associated. It is no coincidence that one of the main ideas of the novel is that the path of European development is necessary for Russia and “the end justifies the means.”

There are an extremely large number of characters and storylines in Peter the Great. With so many characters, a mosaic of the image is inevitable. The traditional plot becomes impossible. And the author’s desire to explore the processes that took place in Russia during the time of Peter the Great requires a different compositional solution. Therefore, the basis of the composition is the chapters, each of which, dedicated to one event, is structurally and meaningfully completed. The chapters are loosely connected to each other. The characters for the most part have no backstory, their appearance is not motivated by plot. Even if the author constantly monitors the fate of his heroes (which does not always happen), their fragmentation is still noticeable.

The organizing point of the novel “Peter the Great” is not the plot, but the system of characters. Peter is at the center of the story, all the other characters are grouped around him. Tolstoy believed that composition is “the establishment of a goal, a central figure, and then the establishment of the main characters, who are located in a descending ladder around this figure.” Therefore, the most detailed storylines of the characters located at the very top steps of the “ladder”, that is, those close to Peter. When characters lose touch with the main character, they disappear from the pages of the novel. This happens with Sophia, Vasily Golitsyn, Anna Monet and others.

The character system represents those who are comparable to Peter. These are either rulers: Sophia, Augustus, Charles the Twelfth, the Turkish Sultan, or reformers: Golitsyn, Natalya. Crown bearers are needed not only to depict a historical situation, but also as artistic images. Each of them represents a certain character and type of government. In the novel, not a single autocrat can compare with Peter in terms of personality scale and breadth of views, for whom concern for the state is above all. He becomes the image of the most progressive ruler.

The contrast between Peter and Golitsyn is carried out due to plot parallels (Golitsyn’s campaign in the Crimea - Peter’s campaigns, the struggle for power, plans for reforms). This allows us to imagine two types of reformers.

Peter's sister Natalya is not opposed to the main character, but compared with him. She carries out reforms in everyday life, supports her brother in his endeavors, which is especially difficult for a woman. It operates in the cultural sphere.

Back at the end of 1916, as we remember, while working on the story “The Day of Peter”, A. Tolstoy read historical documents of the late 16th - early 17th centuries. The language of that time, and most often the “mean” speech, is used by Tolstoy in the novel. In the first book, the author's language is stylistically combined with the speech of the characters, and the “joints” between them are almost not felt. In the third and partly in the second book, the author deliberately contrasts himself with the characters. He evaluates Peter's actions, so the narrator's speech differs from the characters' language.

Creating images of historical and fictional persons, Tolstoy achieved a special effect of authenticity thanks to the “theory of gesture” used. Instead of internal monologues and self-analysis of the characters, the author resorts to constant recording of gestures, facial expressions, details of costume and appearance, indicating the state of mind. In this case, the observer is most often not the author, but the characters surrounding the hero.

In addition to his creative work, A. Tolstoy was also involved in social activities: “I spoke abroad five times at anti-fascist congresses. He was elected a member of the Leningrad City Council, then a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, then a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.”

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, the writer finished the novel “Gloomy Morning” - the third part of the epic “Walking in Torment”: “The trilogy was written over the course of twenty-two years. Its theme is returning home, the path to the homeland. And the fact that the last lines, the last pages of “Gloomy Morning” were written on the day when our homeland was on fire, convinces me that the path of this novel is the right one.”

During the Great Patriotic War, A. Tolstoy wrote a number of articles, but he considered the drama “Ivan the Terrible” to be his most important work. It is no coincidence that during the days of the war he again turns to the historical topic. The drama, he later wrote, was his “response to the humiliations inflicted on my homeland by the Germans. I called the great passionate Russian soul, Ivan the Terrible, from oblivion to life in order to arm my “furious conscience.”

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy did not live just a few months before the Victory. He died on February 23, 1945.

Sanka jumped off the stove and hit the jammed door with her back. Yashka, Gavrilka and Artamoshka quickly climbed down behind Sanka: suddenly everyone was thirsty, and they jumped into the dark entryway following a cloud of steam and smoke from the sour hut. A slightly bluish light shone through the window through the snow. Studeno. A tub of water became iced over, and a wooden ladle became iced over.

The children were jumping from foot to foot - everyone was barefoot, Sanka had a scarf tied around her head, Gavrilka and Artamoshka were wearing only shirts, up to their navels.

- The door, the catechumens! - the mother shouted from the hut.

Mother stood by the stove. The torches on the pole lit up brightly. The mother's wrinkled face lit up with fire. Most terribly of all, from under the torn cloth, the tear-stained eyes flashed, like on an icon. For some reason Sanka got scared and slammed the door with all her might. Then she scooped up the fragrant water, took a sip, bit into an ice cube and gave it to her brothers to drink. She whispered:

- Are you cold? Otherwise, we’ll run into the yard and see – Dad is harnessing the horse...

Outside, my father was harnessing the sleigh. A quiet snow was falling, the sky was snowy, jackdaws were sitting on the high tyne, and it was not as cold here as in the entryway. On the bat, Ivan Artemich - that’s what his mother called him, and people and he himself in public - Ivashka, nicknamed Brovkin - a high cap pulled down over his angry eyebrows. The red beard was not combed from the very cover... The mittens stuck out behind the bosom of the homespun caftan, belted with a low bast, the bast shoes squealed angrily in the dung snow: the father had trouble with the harness... The harness was rotten, only knots. Out of frustration, he shouted at the black horse, the same as his father, short-legged, with a swollen belly:

- Pamper, unclean spirit!

The children relieved themselves at the porch and huddled on the icy threshold, although the frost was biting. Artamoshka, the smallest one, barely said:

- Never mind, we’ll warm up on the stove...

Ivan Artemich harnessed and began to water the horse from the tub. The horse drank for a long time, puffing out his shaggy sides: “Well, feed him from hand to mouth, I’ll drink plenty”... Dad put on his mittens and took a whip from the sleigh, from under the straw.

- Run to the hut, I’ll get you! - he shouted to the children. He fell sideways onto the sleigh and, rolling outside the gate, trotted past tall spruce trees covered with snow to the estate of the son of the nobleman Volkov.

“Oh, it’s cold, bitterly cold,” said Sanka.

The children rushed into the dark hut, climbed onto the stove, chattering their teeth. Warm, dry smoke curled under the black ceiling and escaped through the little window above the door: the hut was heated in black. Mother was making dough. The yard was still prosperous - a horse, a cow, four chickens. They said about Ivashka Brovkin: strong. The embers of the torch fell from the light into the water, hissing. Sanka pulled a sheepskin coat over herself and her brothers, and under the sheepskin coat she again began to whisper about various passions: about those, never mind, who rustle underground at night...

- Just now, my eyes burst out, I got scared... There is rubbish at the threshold, and on the rubbish there is a broom... I look from the stove - the power of the cross is with us! From under the broom - shaggy, with a cat's mustache...

“Oh, oh, oh,” the little ones were afraid under the sheepskin coat.

The slightly beaten path led through the forest. Centuries-old pines covered the sky. Windbreaks and thickets are difficult places. The year before last, Vasily, the son of Volkov, was seized from this land by his father, a Moscow serving nobleman. The local order imposed four hundred and fifty dessiatines on Vasily, and thirty-seven souls and families were assigned to them as peasants.

Vasily set up an estate, but he wasted money; half of the land had to be mortgaged to the monastery. The monks gave me money at a high rate - twenty kopecks per ruble. But according to the layout, it was necessary to be in the sovereign service on a good horse, in armor, with a saber, with a arquebus, and to lead with him warriors, three men, on horses, in tegileys, in sabers, in saadaks... I barely raised it with monastic money He's such a weapon. How about living on your own? How about feeding the servants? What about the increase in pay to the monks?

The royal treasury knows no mercy. Every year there is a new order, new money - feed, travel, tribute and quitrents. Will you lose too much? And everyone asks the landowner why he is so lazy to extract rent. But you can’t take more than one skin off a man. The state under the late Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was exhausted from wars, from unrest and riots. As the anathema thief Stenka Razin walked the earth, the peasants forgot God. If you press a little tighter, they bare their teeth like a wolf. Out of hardship they flee to the Don, where they can’t be obtained with either a letter or a saber.

The horse trudged along at a road trot and was completely covered with frost. The branches touched the arc and sprinkled snow dust. Clinging to the trunks, fluffy-tailed squirrels looked at the passerby - this squirrel was dying in the forests. Ivan Artemich lay in the sleigh and thought - the peasant had only one thing to do: think...

“Well, okay... Give me this, give me that... Pay this, pay that... But - a breakthrough - such a state! -Will you feed it? We don’t run away from work, we endure. And in Moscow, the boyars began to ride in golden carts. Give it to him for the cart, the well-fed devil. Well, okay... You force it, take what you need, but don’t be mischievous... And this, guys, is to tear two skins - mischief. The sovereign's people are now divorced - spit, and there is a clerk, or a clerk, or a kisser, sitting, writing... And there is only one man... Oh, guys, I'd better run away, the beast will break me in the forest, death is sooner than this mischief... So you'll be with us for a long time don't feed yourself..."

Ivashka Brovkin thought, maybe so, maybe not so. A Gypsy (by his nickname), a Volkovsky peasant, a black, gray-haired man, rode out of the forest onto the road, kneeling in a sleigh. For fifteen years he was on the run, wandering around the yard. But a decree was issued: to return all fugitives to the landowners without a statute of limitations. The gypsy was taken near Voronezh, where he was a peasant, and returned to Volkov Sr. He was about to sharpen his bast shoes again - they caught him, and they ordered Gypsy to be beaten with a whip without mercy and kept in prison - on Volkov's estate - and when the skin healed, he was taken out, in another row they were to beat him with a whip without mercy and again throw him into prison, so that he, the rogue, the thief, would not be allowed to run around in the future. The only way the gypsy got out was that he was sent to Vasilyev’s dacha.

“Great,” said the Gypsy to Ivan and got into his sleigh.

- Great.

- Can not hear anything?

– It’s as if we haven’t heard anything good...

The gypsy took off his mitten, unfolded his mustache and beard, hiding his slyness:

– I met a man in the forest: the king, he said, was dying.

Ivan Artemich stood up in the sleigh. It’s creepy... “Whoa”... He pulled off his cap and crossed himself:

-Who will they say is king now?

“Apart from that,” he says, there is no one like the boy, Pyotr Alekseevich. And he barely dropped a tit...

- Well, boy! – Ivan pulled his cap down, his eyes turned white. - Well, guy... Now wait for the boyar kingdom. We'll all fall apart...

– We’ll disappear, or maybe nothing – that’s it. – The gypsy stuck his head in close. Winked. - This man said - there will be turmoil... Maybe we’ll live a little longer, chew bread, tea - we’ll be experienced. - The gypsy bared his lesh teeth and laughed, coughing for the whole forest to hear.

The squirrel rushed from the trunk, flew across the road, snow began to fall, and sparkled with a column of needles in the slanting light. A large crimson sun hung at the end of the road over a hillock, above the high palisades, steep roofs and smoke of the Volkov estate...

Ivashka and Gypsy left their horses near the high gate. Above them, under a gable roof, is an image of the Holy Cross. Further on, a non-climbable tyn stretched around the entire estate. At least meet the Tatars... The men took off their hats. Ivashka took hold of the ring in the gate and said as expected:

- Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us...

Averyan, the watchman, came out of the gate, creaking his bast shoes, and looked through the crack - his own. He said: Amen, and began to open the gate.

The men brought the horses into the yard. They stood without hats, looking askance at the mica windows of the boyars' hut. A porch with a steep staircase led there to the mansion. Beautiful carved wood porch with onion roof. Above the porch there is a roof with a hipped roof, with two half-barrels, and a gilded ridge. The lower housing of the hut - the basement - is made of mighty logs. It was prepared by Vasily Volkov as a storage room for winter and summer supplies - bread, corned beef, pickles, and various pickles. But, the men knew, there were only mice in his pantries. And the porch - God forbid another prince: a rich porch...

The era of Peter I attracted A. Tolstoy with its direct echo of the era of revolutionary transformations in post-October Russia. The author was convinced that the Russian people cannot be studied without their history, without their eventful past. The background to the creation of the great novel were the stories “Obsession”, “The First Terrorists. Extracts from the cases of the Preobrazhensky Order”, “Peter’s Day”, “Martha Rabe”, the play “On the Rack”, etc. The stories, in comparison with the novel, depicted Peter as a lone hero, opposed to the people. In addition, in the stories Peter appeared before the reader as a formed hero – a fanatically cruel ruler who achieves his goal at all costs. The novel allowed the author to rethink and refine his view of the events of Peter the Great’s time.

"Peter the Great" was created in the 1930s. – years of heyday of Marxist ideology; It is no coincidence that A. Tolstoy admitted that he was creating his novel through the prism of modernity. Second half of the 30s. was marked by the strengthening of authoritarian power, violence against the individual, restriction of freedom, repressive transformational methods, etc. To justify the historical expediency of such measures, it was necessary to find an analogy in history. Peter I and his era became such an analogy. Note that the image of Peter I in Tolstoy’s view has undergone some changes, because the author set himself the goal first of all show the transformative, reformative activities of Peter.

A. Tolstoy's novel became innovative in genre: During the trend in writing a documentary novel, the author creates a historical novel, where documentary information is passed through the imagination of the artist. Thanks to this, events appear alive, imaginative, and an entire era is clearly revealed in details and specific cases. The novel features both historical and fictional persons, which allowed the author to express in the novel not only an established historical point of view, but also his own point of view. The author pays tribute to authenticity by depicting the objective realities of Peter the Great's era: architecture, food, clothing, farming in their ethnographic accuracy. Tolstoy did not ignore language of Peter's time: almost without using archaisms, the author conveyed the historical coloring of the speech of the heroes, the element of the folk language.

Interesting and unconventional himself method of transferring epoch in rhomane- not only through the objective realities of time, but also through the action of a strong personality. Every event and character, not excluding the main character, of course, is shown as contradictory; The author, while expressing his point of view, does not impose it, thereby making the novel relevant and easy to understand. An important role in the novel is played by both the collective image of the Russian people and the images of its individual representatives.

Feature of the novel also lies in the fact that the author does not present the Petrine era in isolation; on the contrary, Peter’s transformative activity is perceived by A. Tolstoy as a natural phenomenon, prepared by previous eras. In addition, while recreating Peter’s transformations, the author, although he pays tribute to the merits and achievements of Western sciences and cultures, still pays main attention to the development of the national.

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Novel by A.N. Tolstoy “ Peter the First ”

Shemyakina Lyudmila

11th grade

A.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great” was called “the first” by A.M. Gorky

in our literature a real historical novel, "a book -

for a long time."

Reflecting one of the most interesting eras in the development of Russia -

the era of a radical break in patriarchal Russia and the struggle of the Russian

people for their independence, A.N. Tolstoy's novel "Peter the Great"

will always attract readers with its patriotism, extraordinary

genuine freshness and high artistic skill.

This novel introduces the reader to the life of Russia at the end of the 17th century.

beginning of the 17th century, depicts the struggle of the new young Russia, striving

striving for progress, with Russia old, patriarchal, clinging

for the old, asserts the invincibility of the new. "Peter the Great" is

a huge historical canvas, the broadest picture of morals, but

first of all, this is, according to A.S. Serafimovich, a book about Russian

character.

The personality of Peter and his era excited the imagination of writers,

artists, composers of many generations. From Lomonosov to Na-

These days, the theme of Peter does not leave the pages of artistic literature.

teratures. Pushkin, Nekrasov, L. Tolstoy, Blok and others turned to her.

For over twenty years, the theme of Peter and Alexei Tolstoy was of concern:

The story "The Day of Peter" was written in 1917, the last chapters

you read his historical novel "Peter the Great" - in 1945. Not immediately

A.N. Tolstoy was able to deeply, truthfully and comprehensively draw Petr.

Rovskaya eras, show the nature of Peter’s transformations.

"I had been targeting Peter for a long time, since the beginning of the February

revolution,” wrote A.N. Tolstoy. “I saw all the spots on his stone.”

ashes, - but still Peter stuck out as a mystery in the historical fog."

This is evidenced by his story “The Day of Peter” and the

hedia "On the Rack" (1928).

It is characteristic that A.N. Tolstoy turned to the Petrine era in

1917; in the distant past he tried to find answers to the mu-

questions that haunted him about the fate of his homeland and people. Why exactly

did the writer turn to this era? Peter's era - a time of pre-

educational reforms, a radical overthrow of patriarchal Russia-

was accepted by him as something reminiscent of 1917.

In the story "The Day of Peter" Tolstoy sought to show Peter

The first by a willful landowner who wants to change the life of his family

no country. “Yes, that’s enough,” he writes, did the Tsar want the best for Russia?

Peter? What was Russia to him, the tsar, the owner, who was burning with vexation?

and jealousy: how is it his yard and cattle, farm laborers and all the owners -

Is the property worse, more stupid than the neighbor's? "Negative attitude towards Peter

and his transformative activities were connected, both

researchers say, with rejection and misunderstanding of A.N. Tolstoy in

1917 October Revolution.

The play "On the Rack" gives a broader description of the time

me Peter and his entourage. The era is still given in darkness

different tones. Through a number of episodes the motif of a tragic tragedy runs through

nights of Peter. He is alone in his huge country, for the sake of which

Roy "didn't spare his stomach"; people against the converter. Lonely

Peter and among his “chicks”: Menshikov, Shafirov, Shakhovskoy-

all are liars and thieves. Peter is lonely in his family - he is cheating on him

Catherine. Despite the fact that in the tragedy "On the rack" (on the breath-

All Rus' was raised by Peter) Peter is drawn as a big

a statesman, he still remained for Tolstoy

a mystery - hence the writer’s assertion of his futility

transformative activity and the image of the collapse of all of it

many years of work. The elements defeat Peter, and not vice versa, as

in Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman".

One of the best works of Soviet literature in history

The “excellent” novel, according to A.M. Gorky, became a great theme.

A.N. Tolstoy "Peter the Great".

The beginning of work on this novel coincides with events that are important

important in the life of our country. 1929 is the year of a historical turning point.

It was at this time that Tolstoy again turned to the image

Peter's era. He feels the roll call of distant Petrovsky,

“when the old world cracks and collapses,” with our time, feeling

There is a certain consonance between these two eras.

THE IDEAL CONCEPT OF THE NOVEL "PETER THE FIRST"

1. First of all, the writer needed to determine what would happen

for him, the main thing in the novel, and from these positions select the appropriate

relevant material in the works of historians, historical documents,

memoirs. This main thing for Tolstoy, according to him, was

"the formation of personality in the era." He talked about this in conversation

with the editorial team of the magazine "Smena": "Formation of personality

in a historical era - a very complex thing. This is one of the tasks

my novel."

2. Tolstoy also solves the question of Peter’s transformations differently. All

the course of the narrative, the entire system of artistic images must

were to emphasize the progressive importance of transformative measures

acceptances, their historical pattern and necessity.

3. One of the most important tasks for Tolstoy was to “identify

driving forces of the era" - a solution to the problem of the people, their history

ical role in all transformations of the country, finally, the image

complex relationship between Peter and the people.

These are the main problems that Tolstoy was able to solve

approach only in the late 20s. Found the ideological concept of the novel

the corresponding expression in the composition of the work, in all its

components.

COMPOSITION AND PLOT OF THE NOVEL

"A historical novel cannot be written in the form of a chronicle, in the form

history... It is needed first of all, as in any artistic

canvas, - composition, architectonics of the work. What it is -

composition? This is first of all the establishment of a center, a center of vision

artist... In my novel the center is the figure of Peter I."

So, in the center of Tolstoy’s narrative is Peter, the formation of his

personality. However, the novel did not become, albeit masterfully written,

biography of Peter. Why? It was important for Tolstoy to show not only

Peter as a great historical figure, but also an era that

contributed to the formation of this figure.

The formation of Peter’s personality and the image of the era in its history

This movement determined the compositional features of the novel.

Tolstoy is not limited to depicting life and activity

of his hero, he creates a multifaceted composition, which gives him

the opportunity to show the life of the most diverse segments of the Russian population,

life of the masses. All classes and groups of Russian society

presented in the novel: peasants, soldiers, archers, artisans,

nobles, boyars. Russia is shown in a stormy stream of historical

events, in the clash of social forces.

The wide coverage of the events of the Petrine era is striking, the diversity

created characters.

The action is transferred from the poor peasant hut of Ivashka Brov-

kin to the noisy squares of old Moscow; from the powerful room,

predatory princess Sophia - on the Red Porch in the Kremlin, where little

Kiy Peter becomes an eyewitness to the brutal massacre of the Streltsy with Mat-

fan; from Natalya Kirilovna's chambers in the Preobrazhensky Palace -

to the German Settlement, from there to the steppes scorched by the southern sun,

along which Golitsin’s army is slowly moving; from Troitsko-Ser-

Gievsky Lavra, where he fled from the Preobrazhensky Palace at night

Peter, - to Arkhangelsk, near Azov, abroad.

The first chapters of the novel depict a fierce struggle for power between

two boyar groups - the Miloslavskys and the Naryshkins, representing

those who cherish the old, boyar, pre-Petrine Rus'. Neither one nor the other

the group was not interested in either the interests of the state or the fate of the people.

Tolstoy emphasizes this with almost the same type of remarks evaluating

the rule of one and the other. "And everything went as before. Nothing

It happened. Over Moscow, over cities, over hundreds of districts...

sour hundred-year twilight - poverty, servility, idleness" (after

victory of the Miloslavskys); but then the Naryshkins won - “...they began to du-

mother and rule as before. There haven't been any significant changes"

The people themselves understand this: “What is Vasily Golitsyn, what is Boris -

They are one joy."

Tolstoy shows that the people play a decisive role in those

events that are playing out in the Kremlin. Only with support

people, the Naryshkins manage to break the Miloslavskys, etc. Discontent

people's position is manifested in a number of crowd scenes.

From about the fourth chapter of the first book, Tolstoy shows

how relations between the matured Peter become increasingly strained

and Sophia, which subsequently leads to the fall of the former ruler.

Peter becomes an autocratic ruler and with his characteristic

decisively, overcoming the resistance of the boyars, begins the fight

with Byzantine Russia. “All of Russia resisted,” writes Tolstoy.

changes, “they hated the speed and cruelty of what was being introduced not only

boyars, but also local nobility, and clergy, and archers:

“It’s become not the world, but a tavern, everyone is breaking, everyone is being disturbed... They don’t live -

are in a hurry... We are rolling into the abyss..." The people also resisted - "little

there was the same burden - they were dragged to a new, incomprehensible job - to

shipyards in Voronezh." Escape to the dense forests,

on the Don - the people's response to all the hardships of life during the reign

The first book ends with the brutal suppression of Streltsy by Peter

mutiny. It’s better to read its ending out loud: “All winter there was torture and

executions... The whole country was gripped by horror. The old one clogged up

dark corners. Byzantine Rus' was ending. In the March wind

the ghosts of merchant ships were seen beyond the Baltic coasts.”

The historical novel “Peter I” is an inexhaustible source of detailed and very interesting information about Peter’s time, about social conflicts, state and cultural reforms, about life, customs and people of that turbulent era. And most importantly, it is a source of figurative ideas about a long-gone life, revived by generous and cheerful talent. The stamp of the writer’s unique talent lies on the entire narrative about the era of Peter, therefore, together with historical knowledge and direct artistic impressions of the novel, we develop a vivid idea of ​​the writer himself, his creative personality, and the peculiarities of his approach to life.

Continuing the traditions of great Russian literature, Alexey Tolstoy creates a historical novel that organically combines historical truth (facts, events, true heroes of stories) with artistic fiction. The fate of a fictional hero, an ordinary person of the depicted era, expresses its main conflicts, the spirit of social struggle, and the content of ideological life. Depicting the life behavior and inner world of this hero, the writer most fully and reliably conveys the spirit of the times.

Historical truth and the writer’s powerful fantasy, when combined, create the illusion of a full life in a time long past. Peter's personality turned out to be extraordinary and in itself began to influence the era. Peter becomes the center of the application of current forces, finds himself at the head of the struggle between the local nobility and the emerging bourgeoisie. The era needs a man like Peter, and he himself sought to use his powers. There was interaction here.

Of course, he alone could not do anything; forces were accumulating around him. The action of the novel takes place over a vast space: this is Russia from Arkhangelsk to the Black Sea, from the western borders to the Urals, and these are the European cities where Peter visited. The narrative covers an entire era limited by the activities of the main character of the novel, Peter.

The writer shows Peter for 25 years. The novel depicts the main events of that time: the uprising in Moscow in 1682, the reign of Sophia, the campaign of the Russian army in the Crimea, Peter's flight to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the fall of Sophia, the fight for Azov, Peter's journey abroad, the Streltsy riot, the Mahalovka with the Swedes, foundation of St. Petersburg. The historical fate of the main character determined the structure of the novel. However, even before the appearance of Peter, we peer into pictures of life in pre-Petrine Rus'.

The historical inevitability of transformations is obvious. Everyone is waiting for fundamental changes in life. This is felt primarily in the deep discontent of the peasants, the small nobility, the boyars, and the streltsy detachments. The question arises: who will be able to move the centuries-old foundations of Russian antiquity? Neither Sophia, nor Tsarevich Ivan, nor Vasily Golitsyn are capable of this. Particularly significant, from the point of view of artistic disclosure of the role of the individual in history, is the opposition of Vasily Golitsin to Peter. An enlightened dreamer, Golitsyn, in his works about the ideal state and social structure, anticipated many of Peter's ideas. In constant contrast to Golitsyn and Sophia, the writer depicts Peter, growing up and maturing in the games of an amusing regiment in a remote corner of the suburban Preobrazhensky Palace. The writer shows how history “chooses” Peter, how historical circumstances shape those qualities of his personality that are necessary for a figure influencing the course of historical events.

The writer reproduces the vital connections and contradictions of all classes of society. Peasants, boyars, merchants, opposition archers, schismatics and soldiers, clergy and courtiers of Peter's time come to life under the pen of a remarkable artist. The center of a kind of attraction is Peter and his closest associates: Prince Romodanovsky, merchants Brovkin, Elgulin, Admiral Golovnin, Alexander Menshikov, Lefort and others. But the ordinary person, the working man, does not escape the writer’s field of vision. The writer shows the creative genius of the Russian people, without which no transformations would be possible. Reproducing the appearance of the Peter the Great era, the writer does not limit himself to generalizing pictures of the life, work and suffering of the people. The role of the people in Peter's transformations is revealed in the novel in a much deeper and more multifaceted way. In the crowd of numerous characters, the images of ordinary people from the people, craftsmen, and workers are not lost.