Interesting facts about famous books ("Two Captains" by V. Kaverin). On the birthday of Veniamin Kaverin. “Two Captains”: the extraordinary story of the creation of a wonderful novel The history of the creation of the novel Two Captains

Executor: Miroshnikov Maxim, student of grade 7 “K”

Supervisor: Pitinova Natalya Petrovna, teacher of Russian language and literature

ANALYSIS OF THE NOVEL BY VENIAMIN KAVERIN

"TWO CAPTAINS"

Preface. Biography of V.A. Kaverin

Kaverin Veniamin Aleksandrovich (1902 - 1989), prose writer.

Born on April 6 (according to NS 19) in Pskov in the family of a musician. In 1912 he entered the Pskov gymnasium. "My older brother's friend Yu. Tynyanov, later famous writer, was my first literary teacher, who inspired me with ardent love for Russian literature", - will write V. Kaverin.

As a sixteen-year-old boy, he came to Moscow and in 1919, graduated here high school. Wrote poetry. In 1920 he transferred from Moscow University to Petrograd University, simultaneously entering the Institute of Oriental Languages, and graduated from both. He remained at the university in graduate school, where he studied for six years scientific work and in 1929 defended his dissertation entitled “Baron Brambeus. The story of Osip Senkovsky." In 1921, together with M. Zoshchenko, N. Tikhonov, Vs. Ivanov was the organizer literary group"Serapion's brothers."

It was first published in the almanac of this group in 1922 (the story “Chronicle of the city of Leipzig for the year 18...”). In the same decade he wrote short stories and novellas: “Masters and Apprentices” (1923), “ Diamond suit"(1927), "The End of Khaza" (1926), the story about the life of scientists "The Scandalist, or Evenings on Vasilyevsky Island" (1929). I decided to become a professional writer, finally devoting myself to literary creativity.

In 1934 - 1936 writes his first novel “Fulfillment of Desires”, in which he set the task not only to convey his knowledge of life, but also to develop his own literary style. It worked, the novel was a success.

The most popular work Kaverin became a novel for youth - "Two captains", the first volume of which was completed in 1938. The outbreak of World War II stopped work on the second volume. During the war, Kaverin wrote front-line correspondence, military essays, and stories. At his request, he was sent to the Northern Fleet. It was there, communicating daily with pilots and submariners, that I realized in which direction the work on the second volume of “Two Captains” would go. In 1944, the second volume of the novel was published.

In 1949 - 1956 worked on the trilogy " Open book", about the formation and development of microbiology in the country, about the goals of science, about the character of a scientist. The book gained enormous popularity among readers.

In 1962, Kaverin published the story “Seven Evil Pairs,” which tells about the first days of the war. In the same year, the story “Slanting Rain” was written. In the 1970s he created the book of memoirs “In the Old House”, as well as the trilogy “Illuminated Windows”, in the 1980s - “Drawing”, “Verlioka”, “Evening Day”.

Analysis of the novel “Two Captains”

With wonderful literary work- I came across the novel “Two Captains” this summer while reading the “summer” literature recommended by the teacher. This novel written by Veniamin Aleksandrovich Kaverin, a wonderful Soviet writer. The book was published in 1944, and in 1945 the writer received the Stalin Prize for it.

Without exaggeration, I can say that “Two Captains” is a cool book for several generations Soviet people. I really liked the novel too. I read it almost in one sitting, and the characters in the book became my friends. I believe that the novel helps the reader resolve many important issues.

In my opinion, the novel “Two Captains” is a book about search - the search for truth, one’s own life path, their moral and moral position. It is no coincidence that its heroes are captains - people who are looking for new paths and leading others!

In Veniamin Kaverin’s novel “Two Captains” stories pass before us two main characters - Sani Grigoriev and Captain Tatarinov.

IN The center of the novel is the fate of captain Sanya Grigoriev. As a boy, fate connects him with another captain - the missing captain Tatarinov, and his family. It can be said that Sanya devotes her entire life to finding out the truth about Tatarinov’s expedition and restoring the defamed name of this man.

In the process of searching for the truth, Sanya matures, learns about life, and has to make fundamental, sometimes very difficult, decisions.

The events of the novel take place in several places - the city of Ensk, Moscow and Leningrad. The author describes the 30s and the years of the Great Patriotic War- the time of Sanya Grigoriev’s childhood and youth. The book is full of memorable events, important and unexpected turns plot.

Many of them are connected with the image of Sanya, with his honest and courageous actions.

I remember the episode when Grigoriev, rereading old letters, learns the truth about Captain Tatarinov: this is exactly what the man committed important discovery- discovered the Northern Land, which he named after his wife - Maria. Sanya also learns about the vile role of captain Nikolai Antonovich’s cousin - he made sure that most of the equipment on Tatarinov’s schooner turned out to be unusable. Almost the entire expedition died due to the fault of this man!

Sanya strives to “restore justice” and tell everything about Nikolai Antonovich. But at the same time, Grigoriev only makes things worse - with his words, he practically kills Tatarinov’s widow. This event alienates Sanya and Katya, Tatarinov’s daughter, with whom the hero falls in love.

Thus, the author of the book shows that there are no unambiguous actions in life. What seems right can turn out to be the opposite at any moment. You need to think carefully about all the consequences before taking any important action.

Also particularly memorable for me, the events in the book were Captain Grigoriev’s discovery, as an adult, of the diary of navigator Tatarinov, which, after many obstacles, was published in Pravda. This means that people learned about the true significance of Tatarinov’s expedition, they learned the truth about this heroic captain.

Almost at the end of the novel, Grigoriev finds the body of Ivan Lvovich. This means that the hero's mission is completed. The Geographical Society hears Sanya's report, where he tells the whole truth about Tatarinov's expedition.

Sanka's whole life is connected with the feat of the brave captain; from childhood he looks up to brave explorer of the North and in adulthood finds the expedition "St. Maria", fulfilling his duty to the memory of Ivan Lvovich.

V. Kaverin did not just invent the hero of his work, Captain Tatarinov. He took advantage of the history of two brave conquerors of the Far North. One of them was Sedov. From another he took the factual history of his journey. It was Brusilov. The drift of “St. Mary” exactly repeats the drift of Brusilov’s “St. Anna”. The diary of navigator Klimov is entirely based on the diary of the navigator of the “St. Anna” Albanov, one of the two surviving participants in this tragic expedition.

So, how did Ivan Lvovich Tatarinov grow up? It was a boy born into a poor fishing family on the shore Sea of ​​Azov (Krasnodar region). In his youth, he worked as a sailor on oil tankers between Batum and Novorossiysk. Then he passed the exam to become a “naval ensign” and served in the Hydrographic Directorate, enduring the arrogant non-recognition of the officers with proud indifference.

Tatarinov read a lot, took notes in the margins of books. He argued with Nansen. Either the captain “completely agreed” or “completely disagreed” with him. He reproached him for the fact that, not having reached the pole some four hundred kilometers, Nansen turned towards the earth. The brilliant idea: “Ice will solve its problem itself” was written down there. On a piece of yellowed paper that fell out of Nansen’s book, it was written in the hand of Ivan Lvovich Tatarinov: “Amundsen wants at all costs to leave behind Norway the honor of discovering the North Pole, and we will go this year and prove to the whole world that the Russians are capable of this feat." He wanted, like Nansen, to go perhaps further north with drifting ice, and then get to the Pole on dogs.

In mid-June 1912, the schooner St. Maria" left St. Petersburg for Vladivostok. At first, the ship followed the planned course, but in the Kara Sea, the “St. Mary” froze and slowly began to move north along with polar ice. Thus, willy-nilly, the captain had to abandon his 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,” he wrote in a letter to his wife. There was ice even in the cabins, and every morning they had to cut it out with an axe. It was a very difficult journey, but all the men carried themselves well and would probably have completed the task if the equipment had not been delayed, and if the equipment had not been so bad. The team owed all its failures to the betrayal of Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov. Of the sixty dogs he sold to the team in Arkhangelsk, most Even on Novaya Zemlya I had to shoot him. “We took a risk, we knew that we were taking a risk, but we did not expect such a blow,” wrote Tatarinov, “The main failure - a mistake for which we have to pay every day, every minute - is that I entrusted the equipment of the expedition to Nikolai ..."

Among the captain's farewell letters were a map of the area filmed and business papers. One of them was a copy of the obligation, according to which the captain renounces in advance all remuneration, all fishing catch upon returning to " Mainland"belongs to Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov, the captain is responsible with all his property to Tatarinov in the event of the loss of the vessel.

But despite the difficulties, he managed to draw conclusions from his observations and formulas, those proposed by him make it possible to subtract the speed and direction of ice movement in any area of ​​the Arctic Ocean. This seems almost incredible if we remember that the relatively short drift of the St. Mary" passed through places that, it would seem, do not provide data for such broad results.

The captain was left alone, all his comrades died, he could no longer walk, he was freezing on the move, at rest stops, he could not warm up even while eating, his feet were frozen. “I’m afraid that we are finished, and I have no hope that you will ever read these lines. We can’t walk anymore, we’re freezing on the move, at rest stops, we can’t even get warm while eating,” we read his lines.

Tatarinov understood that it would soon be his turn, but he was not at all afraid of death, because he did more than he could to stay alive.

His story ended not in defeat and unknown death, but in victory.

At the end of the war, making a report at the Geographical Society, Sanya Grigoriev said that the facts that were established by Captain Tatarinov’s expedition had not lost their significance. Thus, based on a study of drift, the famous polar explorer Professor V. suggested the existence of an unknown island between the 78th and 80th parallels, and this island was discovered in 1935 - and exactly where V. determined its location. The constant drift established by Nansen was confirmed by the voyage of Captain Tatarinov, and the formulas for the comparative movement of ice and wind represent a huge contribution to Russian science.

Photographic films of the expedition, which had lain in the ground for about thirty years, were developed.

On them he appears to us - A tall man in a fur hat fur boots, tied under the knees with straps. He stands with his head stubbornly bowed, leaning on his gun, and a dead bear, paws folded, like a kitten, lies at his feet. This was a strong, fearless soul!

Everyone stood up when he appeared on the screen, and such silence, such solemn silence reigned in the hall that no one dared even breathe, let alone say a word.

“...It saddens me to think about all the things that I could have done if they had not only helped me, but at least not interfered with me. One consolation is that through my labors new vast lands have been discovered and annexed to Russia...”, we read the lines written by the brave captain. He named the land after his wife, Marya Vasilievna.

And in last hours In his life, he did not think about himself, but worried about his family: “My dear Mashenka, somehow you will live without me!”

Courageous and clear character, purity of thought, clarity of purpose - all this reveals a man of great soul.

And Captain Tatarinov was buried like a hero. Ships entering the Yenisei Gulf see his grave from afar. They pass by her with flags at half-mast, and the funeral salute roars from cannons. The grave is built of white stone, and it sparkles dazzlingly under the rays of the never-setting polar sun. The following words are carved at the height of human growth: “Here lies 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 he discovered in June 1915. “Fight and search, find and don’t give up!”- this is the motto of the work.

That is why all the heroes of the story consider I.L. Tatarinov is a hero. Because he was a fearless man, he fought against death, and despite everything he achieved his goal.

In the end, the truth triumphs - Nikolai Antonovich is punished, and Sanya’s name is now inextricably linked with the name of Tatarinov: “Such captains move humanity and science forward”.

And, in my opinion, this is absolutely true. Tatarinov's discovery was very important for science. But the act of Sanya, who devoted many years to restoring justice, can also be called a feat - both scientific and human. This hero always lived according to the laws of goodness and justice, never resorted to meanness. This is precisely what helped him survive in the most difficult conditions.

We can say the same thing about Sanya's wife - Katya Tatarinova. In terms of strength of character, this woman is on a par with her husband. She went through all the trials that befell her, but remained faithful to Sanya and carried her love to the end. And this despite the fact that many people sought to separate the heroes. One of them is Sanya’s imaginary friend “Romashka” - Romashov. This man had a lot of meanness on his record - betrayals, betrayals, lies.

As a result, he is punished - he is sent to prison. Another villain is also punished - Nikolai Antonovich, who is expelled from science in disgrace.

Conclusions.

Based on what I said above, we come to the conclusion that “Two Captains” and its heroes teach us a lot. “In all trials, you must maintain your dignity and always remain human. Under any circumstances, you need to be faithful to goodness, love, light. Only then is it possible to cope with all the trials,” says writer V. Kaverin.

And the heroes of his book show us that we need to look life in the face and meet any difficulties halfway. Then you are guaranteed interesting life, full of adventures and real actions. A life that one will not be ashamed to remember in old age.

Bibliography.

“I never forgot about Pskov.

I have happened to mention him more than once in essays and stories.

In the novel Two Captains, I called him Anscom. Like a close, beloved person,

I thought a lot about him during the war years, during the Leningrad siege, in the Northern Fleet"

Kaverin V.A., 1970

We invite you to make an amusing trip through a city straight out of the pages of the novel Two Captains.”

Remembering my childhood, main character Sanya Grigoriev describes the city where it took place. We see the city of Ensk through the eyes of a boy.

The novel begins with Sanya’s words: I remember a spacious, dirty yard and low houses surrounded by a fence. The yard stood right next to the river, and in the spring, when the low water subsided, it was strewn with wood chips and shells, and sometimes with other, much more interesting things...”

“...As a boy I visited the Cathedral Garden a thousand times, but then it never occurred to me that it was so beautiful. It is located high on a mountain above the confluence of two rivers: Peshinka and Tikhaya, and is surrounded by a fortress wall.”

“...On this day, my mother took us with her, me and my sister. We went into the presence” and carried the petition. Presence - it was dark building behind the Market Square, behind a high iron fence"

“...The shops were closed, the streets were empty, we didn’t meet a single person behind Sergievskaya”

“The governor’s garden in which I rode a tricycle remains in my memory little son fat bailiff"

and the Cadet Corps.

“...we agreed to go to the city museum. Sanya wanted to show us this museum, which Ensk was very proud of. It was located in the Pagankin Chambers, an old merchant building, about which Petya Skovorodnikov once said that it was filled with gold, and the merchant Pagankin himself was walled up in the basement...”

“The train starts moving, and the dear Ensky station leaves me. Everything is faster! Another minute and the platform ends. Goodbye Ensk!

Literature used in preparing the material:

• Kaverin, V.A. Two captains.
• Levin, N.F. Pskov on old postcards / N.F. Levin. - Pskov, 2009.

One day in the city of Ensk, on the river bank, a dead postman and a bag of letters were found. Aunt Dasha read one letter out loud to her neighbors every day. Sanya Grigoriev especially remembered the lines about long-distance polar expeditions...

Sanya lives in Ensk with her parents and sister Sasha. By an absurd accident, Sanya's father is accused of murder and arrested. Only little Sanya knows about the real killer, but because of muteness, from which he will only be saved later. wonderful doctor Ivan Ivanovich, he can’t do anything. The father dies in prison, after some time the mother gets married. The stepfather turns out to be a cruel and vile man who tortures both his children and his wife.

After the death of her mother, Aunt Dasha and neighbor Skovorodnikov decide to send Sanya and her sister to an orphanage. Then Sanya and his friend Petya Skovorodnikov flee to Moscow, and from there to Turkestan. “Fight and seek, find and not give up” - this oath supports them on their journey. The boys get to Moscow on foot, but Petka’s uncle, whom they were counting on, went to the front. After three months of almost free work for speculators, they have to hide from inspection. Petka manages to escape, and Sanya ends up first in a distribution center for street children, and from there to a commune school.

Sanya likes it at school: he reads and sculpts with clay, he makes new friends - Valka Zhukov and Romashka. One day, Sanya helps carry a bag to an unfamiliar old woman who lives in the apartment of the head of the school, Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov. Here Sanya meets Katya, a pretty, but somewhat prone to “wondering” girl with pigtails and dark, lively eyes. After some time, Sanya again finds himself in the familiar house of the Tatarinovs: Nikolai Antonovich sends him there for a lactometer, a device for checking the composition of milk. But the lactometer explodes. Katya is going to take the blame on herself, but proud Sanya does not allow her to do this.

The Tatarinovs’ apartment becomes for Sanya “something like Ali Baba’s cave with its treasures, mysteries and dangers.” Nina Kapitonovna, whom Sanya helps with all the housework and who feeds him dinner, is a “treasure”; Marya Vasilievna, “neither a widow nor a husband’s wife,” who always wears a black dress and often plunges into melancholy, is a “mystery”; and the “danger” is Nikolai Antonovich, as it turns out, Katya’s cousin. The favorite topic of Nikolai Antonovich's stories is his cousin, that is, Marya Vasilievna's husband, whom he “took care of all his life” and who “turned out to be ungrateful.” Nikolai Antonovich has been in love with Marya Vasilievna for a long time, but while she is “merciless” towards him, her sympathy is rather aroused by the geography teacher Korablev, who sometimes comes to visit. Although, when Korablev proposes to Marya Vasilievna, he is refused. On the same day, Nikolai Antonovich gathers the school council at home, where Korablev is sharply condemned. It was decided to limit the activities of the geography teacher - then he would be offended and leave. Sanya informs Korablev about everything he heard, but as a result, Nikolai Antonovich kicks Sanya out of the house. Offended Sanya, suspecting Korablev of betrayal, leaves the commune. After wandering around Moscow all day, he becomes completely ill and ends up in the hospital, where Doctor Ivan Ivanovich saves him again.

Four years have passed - Sanya is seventeen years old. At school there is a performance of the staged “trial of Evgeniy Onegin”, it is here that Sanya meets Katya again and reveals to her his secret: he has been preparing to become a pilot for a long time. Sanya finally learns from Katya the story of Captain Tatarinov. In June '12, he stopped by Ensk to say goodbye to his family and left on the schooner "St. Maria" from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. The expedition did not return. Maria Vasilievna unsuccessfully sent a request for help to the tsar: it was believed that if Tatarinov died, it was through his own fault: he “carelessly handled government property.” The captain's family moved to Nikolai Antonovich. Sanya often meets with Katya: they go to the skating rink together, to the zoo, where Sanya suddenly runs into her stepfather. At the school ball, Sanya and Katya are left alone, but their conversation is interrupted by Romashka, who then reports everything to Nikolai Antonovich. Sanya is no longer accepted by the Tatarinovs, and Katya is sent to her aunt in Ensk. Sanya beats Romashka, it turns out that in the story with Korablev it was he who played fatal role. And yet Sanya repents of his action - with heavy feelings he leaves for Ensk.

IN hometown Sanya finds Aunt Dasha, old man Skovorodnikov, and sister Sasha, he finds out that Petka also lives in Moscow and is going to become an artist. Once again Sanya re-reads the old letters - and suddenly realizes that they directly relate to the expedition of Captain Tatarinov! With excitement, Sanya learns that none other than Ivan Lvovich Tatarinov discovered the Northern Land and named it in honor of his wife Marya Vasilievna, which was precisely the fault of Nikolai Antonovich, this “ scary person", most of the equipment turned out to be unusable. The lines in which Nikolai’s name is directly mentioned are blurred by water and are preserved only in Sanya’s memory, but Katya believes him.

Sanya firmly and decisively denounces Nikolai Antonovich in front of Marya Vasilievna and even demands that she be the one to “bring charges.” Only later does Sanya realize that this conversation completely defeated Marya Vasilievna, convinced her of the decision to commit suicide, because Nikolai Antonovich was already her husband by that time... The doctors fail to save Marya Vasilievna: she is dying. At the funeral, Sanya approaches Katya, but she turns away from him. Nikolai Antonovich managed to convince everyone that the letter was not about him at all, but about some “von Vyshimirsky” and that Sanya was guilty of the death of Marya Vasilyevna. Sanya can only intensively prepare for admission to flight school in order to someday find the expedition of Captain Tatarinov and prove that he is right. Last time Having seen Katya, he leaves to study in Leningrad. He attends a flight school and at the same time works at a factory in Leningrad; Both sister Sasha and her husband Petya Skovorodnikov study at the Academy of Arts. Finally, Sanya achieves an appointment to the North. In the city of the Arctic, he meets with Doctor Ivan Ivanovich, who shows him the diaries of the navigator “St. Mary" by Ivan Klimov, who died in 1914 in Arkhangelsk. Patiently deciphering the notes, Sanya learns that captain Tatarinov, having sent people to search for land, himself remained on the ship. The navigator describes the hardships of the campaign and speaks of his captain with admiration and respect. Sanya understands that traces of the expedition must be looked for in the Land of Mary.

From Valya Zhukov, Sanya learns about some Moscow news: Romashka has become “the closest person” in the Tatarinovs’ house and, it seems, is “going to marry Katya.” Sanya constantly thinks about Katya - he decides to go to Moscow. In the meantime, he and the doctor receive an assignment to fly to the remote settlement of Vanokan, but find themselves in a snowstorm. Thanks to a forced landing, Sanya finds a hook from the schooner "St. Maria". Gradually, a coherent picture is being formed from the “shards” of the captain’s story.

In Moscow, Sanya plans to give a report about the expedition. But first it turns out that Nikolai Antonovich had already partly preceded him by publishing an article about the discovery of Captain Tatarinov, and then the same Nikolai Antonovich and his assistant Romashka published slander against Sanya in Pravda and thereby sought to cancel the report. Ivan Pavlovich Korablev helps Sanya and Katya in many ways. With his assistance, mistrust disappears in the relationship between the young people: Sanya understands that they are trying to force Katya into a marriage with Romashka. Katya leaves the Tatarinovs' house. Now she is a geologist, the head of the expedition.

The insignificant, but now somewhat “settled down” Romashka is playing a double game: he offers Sanya evidence of Nikolai Antonovich’s guilt if he refuses Katya. Sanya informs Nikolai Antonovich about this, but he is no longer able to resist the clever “assistant”. With the help of a Hero Soviet Union pilot Ch. San still receives permission for the expedition; Pravda publishes his article with excerpts from the navigator’s diary. In the meantime, he returns to the North.

They are again trying to cancel the expedition, but Katya is determined - and in the spring she and Sanya must meet in Leningrad to prepare for the search. The lovers are happy - on white nights they walk around the city, all the time preparing for the expedition. Sasha, Sanya's sister, gave birth to a son, but suddenly her condition deteriorates sharply - and she dies. The expedition is canceled for some unknown reason - Sanya is given a completely different assignment.

Five years pass. Sanya and Katya, now Tatarinova-Grigorieva, live on Far East, then in Crimea, then in Moscow. They eventually settle in Leningrad with Petya, his son and Katya's grandmother. Sanya takes part in the war in Spain and then goes to the front. One day Katya meets Romashka again, and he tells her about how, while rescuing the wounded Sanya, he tried to get out of the German encirclement and how Sanya disappeared. Katya does not want to believe Romashka; in this difficult time she does not lose hope. And indeed Romashka is lying: in fact, he did not save, but abandoned the seriously wounded Sanya, taking away his weapons and documents. Sanya manages to get out: he is treated in a hospital, and from there he goes to Leningrad in search of Katya.

Katya is not in Leningrad, but Sanya is invited to fly to the North, where battles are already taking place. Sanya, having never found Katya either in Moscow, where he simply missed her, or in Yaroslavl, thinks that she is in Novosibirsk. During the successful completion of one of the combat missions, Grigoriev’s crew makes an emergency landing not far from the place where, in Sanya’s opinion, they need to look for traces of Captain Tatarinov’s expedition. Sanya finds the captain's body, as well as his farewell letters and reports. And returning to Polyarny, Sanya also finds Katya at Dr. Pavlov’s.

In the summer of 1944, Sanya and Katya spend their vacation in Moscow, where they see all their friends. Sanya needs to do two things: he gives testimony in the case of the convicted Romashov, and in the Geographical Society with great success His report about the expedition, about the discoveries of Captain Tatarinov, about who caused this expedition to die. Nikolai Antonovich is expelled from the hall in disgrace. In Ensk, the family gathers around the table again. Old man Skovorodnikov in his speech unites Tatarinov and Sanya: “such captains move humanity and science forward.”

Famous novel by Veniamin Kaverin deservedly loved by more than one generation of readers. In addition to almost ten years (from the mid-1930s to 1944) painstaking work and writing talent, a special spirit was invested in this novel - the spirit of the era of stormy and often tragic exploration of the Far North.

The author never hid the fact that many of his characters have quite real prototypes, and their words sometimes contain the true words of some Arctic explorers. Kaverin himself has repeatedly confirmed that, for example, the image of Captain Tatarinov was inspired by reading books about the expeditions of Georgy Brusilov, Vladimir Rusanov, Georgy Sedov and Robert Scott.

Indeed, it is enough to look a little more closely at the plot of the novel, as the figure of the polar explorer Lieutenant appears behind the literary character Ivan Lvovich Tatarinov Georgy Lvovoch Brusilov , whose expedition to schooner "St. Anna" (in the novel "Saint Mary") set off in 1912 from St. Petersburg along the Northern Sea Route to Vladivostok.

Lieutenant G. L. Brusilov (1884 - 1914?)

The schooner was not destined to arrive at its destination - the ship, frozen in the ice, drifted far to the north.

Schooner "Saint Anna" on the Neva before the start of the expedition
Lieutenant Brusilov (1912)

You can learn about the ups and downs of this tragic voyage, about the failures that plagued the expedition, about the strife and conflicts between its participants from the navigator’s diary Valerian Ivanovich Albanov , who in April 1914, together with ten crew members, with the permission of the captain, left the St. Anne in the hope of reaching Franz Josef Land on foot.

Polar navigator V. I. Albanov (1882 - 1919)

Only Albanov himself and one of the sailors survived this trip on the ice.

The diary of navigator Albanov, who was the prototype of the character in Kaverin’s novel, navigator Klimov, was published as a book in Petrograd in 1917 under the title “South to Franz Josef Land!”

Map of the expedition area of ​​Lieutenant Brusilov
from the book of navigator Albanov

There is no one to confirm or refute the version of the history of this expedition outlined by the navigator - “St. Anna” disappeared without a trace.
Letters from expedition members entrusted to Albanov could have brought some clarity, but they too disappeared.

In the novel by Veniamin Kaverin, the “polar” mail from “St. Mary”, which played a decisive role in the fate of not only Sanya Grigoriev, but also other heroes of the book, ended up in the bag of a drowned letter carrier and helped shed light on a lot. IN real life The letters could not be found, and in the history of the voyage of "St. Anna" many unanswerable questions remained.

By the way, it is also interesting that the motto of the novel is "Fight and search, find and not give up" - this is not a boyish oath invented by V. Kaverin, but the final line from a textbook poem by his beloved poet british queen Victoria Lord Alfred Tennyson's "Ulysses" (original: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" ).

This line is also engraved on the cross in memory of Robert Scott's lost expedition to South Pole, on Hill Observer in Antarctica.

It is possible that English polar explorer Robert Scott also served as one of the prototypes for Captain Tatarinov. For example, Farewell letter to the wife of this character in Kaverin’s novel begins in the same way as Scott’s similar letter: "To my widow...".

Robert Scott (1868 - 1912)

But the appearance, character, some episodes of the biography and views of Captain Ivan Tatarinov were borrowed by Veniamin Kaverin from the fate of the Russian polar explorer Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov , whose expedition to schooner "Saint Foka" to the North Pole, which also began in 1912, ended in complete failure, primarily due to the fact that it was completely disgracefully prepared.

Senior Lieutenant G. Ya. Sedov (1877 - 1914)

Thus, the ship itself - the old Norwegian fishing barque "Geyser" built in 1870 - was clearly not suitable for long-term voyages in high polar latitudes, so most of the most necessary members of Sedov's crew (captain, mate, navigator, mechanic and his assistant, boatswain) , quit on the eve of the expedition - more precisely, three days before it began (August 27, 1912 according to the new style).

Schooner of the expedition of G. Ya. Sedov "Saint Foka"
wintering near Novaya Zemlya (1913?)

The expedition leader had difficulty recruiting a new team, and the radio operator could not be found. It is especially worth remembering the story of the sled dogs, which were caught for Sedov right on the streets of Arkhangelsk and sold at an inflated price (ordinary mongrels, of course), with poor-quality provisions supplied to the St. Phocas in a hurry, which local merchants did not take advantage of.

Isn’t it true that all this has direct parallels with the plot of Kaverin’s novel, in which one of the main reasons for the failure of the St. Mary’s expedition in the letters of Captain Tatarinov is called a supply disaster (as far as I remember, dogs were also discussed there)?

Scheme of Sedov's expedition in 1912 - 1914.

And finally, another possible prototype of Captain Tatarinov - Russian Arctic explorer Vladimir Alexandrovich Rusanov.

V. A. Rusanov (1875 - 1913?)

The fate of V. A. Rusanov’s expedition, which also began in 1912 on a sail-motor boat "Hercules" , still remains completely unclear. Both the leader himself and all its participants went missing in 1913 in the Kara Sea.

Boat "Hercules" of the expedition of V. A. Rusanov.

The searches of Rusanov's expedition, undertaken in 1914 - 1915. maritime ministry Russian Empire, did not bring any results. It was never possible to find out where exactly and under what circumstances “Gekrules” and his crew died. Well, then, in connection with the global and civil wars, and the devastation that followed, there was simply no time for that.

Only in 1934, on an unnamed island (now called Hercules) off the western coast of Taimyr, a pillar dug into the ground with the inscription “HERCULES. 1913”) was discovered, and on another nearby island - the remains of clothes, cartridges, a compass, a camera, a hunting knife and some other things that apparently belonged to members of Rusanov’s expedition.

It was at this time that Veniamin Kaverin began work on his novel “Two Captains”. Most likely, it was the discovery of 1934 that served as the real basis for the final chapters of the book, in which Sanya Grigoriev, who became a polar pilot, accidentally (although, of course, not at all by accident) discovered the remains of Captain Tatarinov’s expedition.

It is possible that Vladimir Rusanov became one of Tatarinov’s prototypes also because the real polar explorer had a long (since 1894) revolutionary past, and associated himself not with any Socialist Revolutionaries, but as a convinced Marxist, with the Social Democrats. Still, one must also take into account the time in which Kaverin wrote his novel (1938 - 1944).

At the same time, for supporters of accusing Soviet writers of constantly glorifying Stalin, who contributes to the formation of a “cult of personality,” I note that in Kaverin’s entire rather voluminous novel, the name of the General Secretary is mentioned only once, which did not prevent the writer from receiving the Stalin Prize in 1946 precisely for “Two captain", being Jewish by origin, in the midst of the struggle with the "cosmopolitans".

Veniamin Kaverin (Veniamin Abelevich Zilber)
(1902 - 1989)

By the way, if you carefully read the science fiction novel by V. A. Obruchev “Sannikov’s Land,” written by him in 1924, then in it you can find prototypes of V. Kaverin’s book (not real ones, but literary ones). It is worth recalling that your literary activity Kaverin began in the 1920s as an author fantasy stories, and it is unlikely that he did not experience a certain influence of Obruchev.

So, despite the title of Veniamin Kaverin’s novel, it does not feature two captains at all, but at least six: Ivan Tatarinov and Sanya Grigoriev (as fictional literary characters), as well as the prototypes of Captain Tatarinov - polar explorers - Lieutenant Brusilov, Senior Lieutenant Sedov, English officer Scott and enthusiast Rusanov. And this is not counting navigator Klimov, whose prototype was navigator Albanov.
However, Sanya Grigoriev also had a prototype. But it’s better to talk about this separately.

The collective image of Captain Tatarinov in Kaverin’s novel “Two Captains” is, in my opinion, remarkable literary monument to everyone who, at the beginning of the twentieth century, believing in a bright future for humanity, sought to bring it closer by setting off on often hopeless expeditions on fragile boats to explore the Far North (or the Far South, in the case of Robert Scott).

The main thing is that we all do not forget these, albeit somewhat naive, but completely sincere heroes.

Perhaps the conclusion of my post will seem overly pretentious to you.
As you please. You can even consider me a “scoop”!
But I really think so, because in my soul, fortunately, the romantic impulse has not yet died. And Veniamin Kaverin’s novel “Two Captains” is still one of my favorite books that I read in childhood.

Thank you for attention.
Sergey Vorobiev.

“Two Captains” is the most famous novel of the Russian Soviet writer Veniamin Aleksandrovich Kaverin. The work was created between 1938 and 1944. For this novel the author was awarded the most prestigious Stalin Prize.

Despite the fact that the work was created in Soviet era, it seems to be outside of time, because it tells about the eternal - love, friendship, determination, faith in a dream, devotion, betrayal, mercy. Two storylines– adventure and love complement each other and make the novel more realistic, because, you see, a person’s life cannot consist only of amorous experiences or only work. Otherwise, it is incomplete, which cannot be said about Kaverin’s work.

Part one “Childhood”

Sanya Grigoriev lives in the small river town of Ensk. He is not the only one in the world, he has a family - father, mother and sister Sasha (yes, what a coincidence!) Their house is small, with a low ceiling, walls with newspapers instead of wallpaper and a cold gap under the window. But Sanya likes this small world, because it is his world.

However, everything in him changed dramatically when one day the boy secretly went out to the pier to catch crayfish.

Little Sanya witnessed the murder of a postman. In his haste, he lost his father’s knife, which he took with him, at the crime scene, and dad was sent to prison. Sanya was the only witness to the crime, but he could not speak in court in defense of his father - Sanya was mute from birth.

The mother is having a hard time with her husband’s imprisonment, her chronic illness is worsening, and Sanya and Sasha are sent to the village, where they spend the winter in their father’s dilapidated house under the supervision of the equally dilapidated old woman Petrovna. Sanya makes a new friend - Doctor Ivan Ivanovich, who teaches him to speak. The boy begins to utter his first hesitant words - the doctor explains that his muteness is psychological. The terrible news that his father died in prison becomes a heavy blow for Sanya, he falls into a fever and begins to speak... however, it’s too late - now there is no one to testify in court.

The mother is getting married soon. The stepfather turns out to be a despotic and cruel person. He brings his mother, who is in poor health, to death. Sanya hates her stepfather and runs away from home with her friend Petka Skovorodnikov. The guys give each other an oath “Fight and search, find and not give up,” which will become their motto for the rest of their lives, and go to warm Turkestan. Months of wandering almost cost two street children their lives. By the will of fate, the friends part, and Sanya ends up in a Moscow commune school with Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov.

Part two “Something to think about”

Sanya's life began to improve little by little - no more hunger strikes or overnight stays. open air, school also turned out to be quite interesting. The boy made new friends - Valka Zhukov and Mikhail Romashov, nicknamed Romashka. He also met an old woman whom he helped carry her bags home. Her name was Nina Kapitonovna, and it was she who introduced Sanya into the Tatarinov family.

The Tatarinovs’ apartment seemed like “Ali Baba’s cave” to a boy from seedy Ensk, there were so many “treasures” there - books, paintings, crystal and various other unknown things. And in this “treasury” lived Nina Kapitonovna, her grandmother, Marya Vasilievna, her daughter, Katya, her granddaughter, the same age as Sanya, and... Nikolai Antonovich. The latter was Katya's cousin on her father's side. He was passionately in love with Maria Vasilievna, but she did not reciprocate his feelings. She was generally strange. Despite her beauty, she always wore black, studied at the institute, spoke little, and sometimes sat for a long time in a chair with her feet up and smoked. Then Katya said that “mom is sad.” They said about her husband and Katya’s father, Ivan Lvovich, that he either went missing or died. And Nikolai Antonovich often recalled how he helped cousin, how he brought him into the public eye, helped him become a sailor, and provided him with brilliant career sea ​​captain.

In addition to Sanya, whom Nikolai Antonovich clearly disliked, there was another frequent guest in the Tatarinovs’ apartment - geography teacher Ivan Pavlovich Korablev. When he crossed the threshold, Maria Vasilievna seemed to come out of her dream, put on a dress with a collar, and smiled. Nikolai Antonovich hated Korablev and removed him from lessons for too obvious signs of attention.

Part three “Old letters”

Next time we meet with the matured seventeen-year-old Sanya. He takes part in a school skit based on “Eugene Onegin”, which Katya Tatarinova also came to. She is no longer as badass as when she was a child, and she has also become very beautiful. Little by little, a feeling flares up between the young people. Their first explanation took place at the school dance. Romashka, secretly in love with Katya, overheard him and reported everything to Nikolai Antonovich. Sanya was no longer allowed into the Tatarinovs' house. In a fit of anger, he beat the vile Romashka, whom he had previously considered a friend.

However, this minor meanness could not separate the lovers. They spend time together in Ensk, the hometown of Sanya and Katya. There Grigoriev finds old letters from the postman, which one day washed ashore. Aunt Dasha read them out loud every day, and some so often that Sanya memorized them. Then he understood little in the address of some navigator Klimov to some Marya Vasilievna, but after re-reading these letters many years later, he seemed to see the light - they were addressed to Katya’s mother! They say that Ivan Lvovich’s expedition was ruined while still on land, that the equipment and provisions were unusable and the entire team was sent to certain death. And he was involved in the organization... Nikolai Antonovich. True, the name of the culprit was washed away with water, as was most of the text, but Sanya remembered the letter by heart.

He immediately told Katya about everything and they went to Moscow to see Marya Vasilievna to reveal to her the truth about Nikolai Antonovich. She believed... and committed suicide. Nikolai Antonovich managed to convince everyone that the letters were not talking about him and that Sanya was to blame for the death of Marya Vasilievna, who at that time had already become his wife. Everyone turned away from Grigoriev, even Katya.

To drown out the pain of losing her beloved and unfair slander, Sanya is intensively preparing to enter flight school. Now he has big goal- find the expedition of Captain Tatarinov.

Part four “North”

Having successfully completed flight school, Sanya seeks an appointment to the North. There he finds and deciphers the diaries of the navigator Ivan Klimov, as well as the gaff from the ship “St. Maria”. Thanks to these invaluable finds, he now knows how to find the forgotten expedition and upon returning to Moscow he is going to give a short report.

Meanwhile on “ mainland“sister Sasha marries Petka. They live in St. Petersburg and are studying to become artists. Romashka has become the closest person in the Tatarinov family and is going to marry Katya. Sanya is going crazy about what his meeting with Katya will be like, what if they are never destined to see each other again, and what if she stops loving him. After all, the search for the lost expedition is primarily stimulated by his love for it. Sanya ends her painful mental dialogue on the way to Moscow with the words: “I would not forget you, even if you stopped loving me.”

Part five “For the heart”

The first meeting between Sanya and Katya was tense, but it was clear that their mutual feeling was still alive, that Romashka was simply being forced on her as a husband, that everything could still be saved. Korablev played a big role in their reunion, whose pedagogical anniversary was attended by both Sanya and Romashov. Sanya also learned that Nikolai Antonovich was also preparing a report on the expedition of Captain Tatarinov’s brother and was going to present his truth about the events of the past. It will be difficult for Grigoriev to cope with such an authoritative opponent, but he is not timid, especially since he has the truth on his side.

In the end, Katya and Sanya are reunited, the girl firmly decides to leave home and start working as a geologist. On the last day before Sanin’s departure for the Arctic, Romashov shows up in his hotel room. He offers Grigoriev documents confirming Nikolai Antonovich’s guilt in exchange for Sanya breaking up with Katya, because he, Romashka, loves her so sincerely! Sanya pretends that he needs to think, but he immediately calls Nikolai Antonovich on the phone. Seeing his teacher and mentor, Romashka turns pale and begins to hesitantly deny what was just said. However, Nikolai Antonovich doesn’t care. Only now Sanya noticed how old this man had become, it was difficult for him to speak, he could barely stand on his feet - the death of Marya Vasilievna had completely deprived him of his strength. “Why did you invite me here? – asked Nikolai Antonovich. – I’m sick... You wanted to assure me that he was a scoundrel. This is not news to me. You wanted to destroy me again, but you are unable to do more than you have already done for me - and irreparably.”

Sanya fails to quarrel between Romashka and Nikolai Antonovich, because the latter no longer has the strength to resist, except for the scoundrel Romashov, he has no one else.

Sanya’s article with minor amendments is published in Pravda, he and Katya read it in the train carriage, leaving for new life.

Volume two: parts six to ten (some told from the perspective of Katya Tatarinova)

Sanya and Katya are happily spending time in St. Petersburg with Sasha and Petya, who have just become young parents and have a son. The first terrible omen of future misfortunes is sudden death Sasha from illness.

Sanya has to put aside her dreams of a polar expedition, because the war begins. Ahead lies the front and a long separation from his beloved, at that time his wife. During the war, Katya is in besieged Petersburg, she is starving. She is literally saved by Romashov who suddenly appears. He talks about the horrors of war, about meeting Sanya, about how he pulled him out of the battlefield in his arms, and about how he went missing. This is practically true, except that Romashov did not save Sanya, but rather abandoned the wounded Grigoriev to the mercy of fate, taking away his weapons and documents.

Romashka is convinced that his rival has died and sooner or later he will be able to take possession of Katya, as his mentor Nikolai Antonovich once did in relation to Katya’s mother. However, Katya continues to believe that her husband is alive. Fortunately, this is true - Sanya miraculously managed to escape. After lying in the hospital, he goes in search of his beloved, but they are always warming up.

Sanya is called to the North, where the service continues. After one of air battles Sanya’s plane makes an emergency landing in the place where Tatarinov’s expedition supposedly ended. Having overcome kilometers of snowy desert, Grigoriev finds a tent with the captain’s body, his letters and diaries - the main evidence of Grigoriev’s correctness and Nikolai Antonovich’s guilt. Inspired, he goes to Polyarny to see his old friend Doctor Ivan Ivanovich and, lo and behold (!), Katya is waiting for him there; the lovers will not part again.

Novel “Two Captains”: summary

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