Nikolai Leskov is a non-lethal head. Nikolai Leskov - non-deadly golovan Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov non-deadly golovaniz of stories about the three righteous men

The work “The Non-Lethal Head”, a brief summary is described below, is a story about a peasant, a simple man who received an unusual nickname. The action took place in the 19th century, in the city of Orel.

“Non-Lethal Golovan”: chapter-by-chapter summary

The story is not just about a person, but about a righteous man who saved lives and helped dying people.

Chapter One: A Special Person
The story of Golovan can be considered a legend. The nickname "non-lethal" was not given to him as a mockery or simply a meaningless set of letters. That’s what people began to call him, singling him out, considering him special, a person who was not afraid of death. In the end, he still died, but again, saving someone’s life. The following chapters describe the fate of this amazing man.

Chapter Two: Description of the “Non-Lethal”
The author describes Golovan. First there is a description of one case when he saved a child from an angry chained dog that had broken loose in its leash. This is followed by a detailed description of Golovan. In short, he had large facial features, 15 inches tall, muscular, broad in the shoulders. Golovan’s face was round, with a large nose and trimmed beard.

It is noted that a smile often played on his lips, his eyes were kind, and his gaze was slightly mocking. Golovan walked quickly and as if with a jump; it seemed that he was jumping with his left leg. He always wore (regardless of the weather) a simple shirt and a long sheepskin coat. It was already blackened and oily from long use. It was belted with a simple strap. Golovan never buttoned the collar of his sheepskin coat; it was open to the waist.

Chapter three: Golovan’s entourage, occupation
The life of the main character, his work, family are described. In short, he lived in Orel, on 3rd Dvoryanskaya Street. The following is a detailed description of the area. Golovan had several cows and a bull of the Ermolov breed. The small herd brought income in the form of milk, cream, and butter. And all this is of the highest quality. Golovan worked tirelessly - from morning to night. He was excellent at telling sacred stories. Many people went to Golovan for advice.

He lived on the outskirts, in a large house, which could rather be called a barn. The following is a detailed description of the main character’s home. Five women lived with him - his mother, three sisters and Pavel. There is a detailed description of her appearance and character. In particular, her meekness, affection and kindness are noted.

Chapter Four: Golovan’s family and love
In Golovan’s family, he was the only one who was ransomed; the rest remained serfs, including his beloved Pavla. He wanted to free them, but this required money, and a lot of it. Therefore, Golovan established his own dairy farm. It quickly began to gain momentum. Over time, Golovan was able to start ransoming the family and freed the women in 6-7 years, but Pavel did not have time - she left with her husband. After some time, she returned to Oryol, and since she had nowhere to live, she came to Golovan.

His sisters were already old and therefore only did housework, spun and made unusual fabrics. This chapter describes in detail Golovan's relationship with his beloved Pavla.

Chapter Five: Epidemic
It tells how the main character got his nickname. They started calling him that the first year he settled in the village. The cause was an epidemic of anthrax or plague. This difficult time for people is described in detail. The disease was highly contagious and was transmitted even to people who simply served food or drink to the sick.

It was at this terrible time that Golovan came to the rescue. He fearlessly entered infected homes, gave the sick water and fresh milk he brought. He marked a cross with chalk when there were no longer any survivors left in the shack.

At the same time, the disease did not take hold of Golovanov; he never became infected. That's why he received the nickname "non-lethal".
Golovan gained universal respect and became a famous person not only in his district, but also in the surrounding areas. In addition, he allegedly took a “healing stone” from a deceased pharmacist, with the help of which, as people said, he was able to cope with the epidemic.

Chapter six: how Golovan stopped the ulcer epidemic
The story is told about a villager - a guy named Panka, a shepherd. At that time, a miracle worker was expected in Orel. One day Panka saw a man walking on water, leaning only on a staff. When he disappeared from sight, he plucked up courage and went to the water, and there he saw Golovan. It turned out that the man did not walk on the water, but simply swam across the river, standing on a makeshift gate.

Panka swam to the other side and hid, afraid that Golovan would discover him. He still noticed him. Then, with his scythe, he cut off a large piece of meat from his leg and threw it into the river. When the people carried Golovan into the house, he ordered that they put a bucket of water and give him a ladle, but that no one else should enter the hut.

So he wanted to eradicate the ulcer by taking the disease upon himself and suffering for everyone at once. People believed that he would survive - and this actually happened. The epidemic has finally stopped. People made him a legendary magician who can cope with any disease.

Chapter Seven: Reasoning about Golovan’s Faith
Golovan believed in God, but this did not prevent him from simultaneously being interested in various sciences, including astronomy. In those days it was not called that yet. People saw witchcraft in many ways.

Therefore, many avoided the coppersmith Anton, but Golovan was friends with him, and they often looked at the sky through a special pipe. Because of this, people could not understand what faith he belonged to. Golovan himself always answered that he believes in one god - the creator-father.

Chapter Eight: The Great Sacred Procession to the Relics
Many people headed from Orel to the great celebration (sacred procession). Some - for the sake of trade, others - to kiss holy relics, etc. Among the people were a merchant with his wife and a melancholy daughter, who had been treated unsuccessfully for a long time in various ways. They traveled in the hope that a new cure would be found. One merchant promised to put them at the very beginning of the procession, for which he asked for payment. The godly family had to agree.

Chapter Nine: Miracle Healing, Photeus
The place where the poor people stayed is described in detail. The merchant, his wife and daughter were forced to declare the “mute and sick” swindler Photeus their relative. Then he was taken to the holy relics for healing.
They carried him into the temple, and he came out of it on his own feet. After this, Fotei and his “relatives” left for Oryol. However, the merchant decided to “lose” his newly-made relatives along the way. However, Photei was brought to Oryol by other compassionate people.

Chapter Ten: Persecution of Golovan by Photei
There he meets Golovan. He immediately saw his true nature, but when he wanted to bring Photey out into the open, he did not allow him to say anything, slapping him in the face. Golovan tolerated this and did not respond in kind. For people, this behavior remains truly a mystery. They decided that Golovan was afraid of the miraculously healed man.
People were also surprised by the impudence with which Foteya later treated the milkman. He demanded money from him if he thought it was not enough - he could throw coins into the mud, throw stones at his acquaintance. Despite all this, Golovan endured it without complaint, paid Fotei on demand and remained silent. This aroused people’s curiosity and strengthened their confidence that there was something connecting the healed man and the magician milkman.

Chapter Eleven: The Death of Golovan
After some time, a big fire broke out in Orel. Golovan also died in it. According to people’s stories, while saving people, he fell into a deep hole in which he “cooked.” Even after many years, Golovan was not forgotten. Some began to call him a legend, others to claim that everything said about him was true.

Chapter Twelve: The Truth About “Non-Lethal”
During his lifetime, Golovan was friends with a woman of steadfast faith - Akilina (Alexandra Vasilyevna). She was very smart, although illiterate. Upon arrival in Orel, I often communicated with the cathedral’s father, Peter.

Akilina told one of her relatives that Golovan did not have any magic stone. People came up with this, but the milkman simply did not argue. When he cut off a piece of meat from his leg, he removed a plague pimple, but then he really miraculously recovered.

There were many rumors among people about the intimate relationship between Pavla and Golovan, but Aquilina dispelled them. It turns out that the milkman remained a virgin until his death. Golovan’s love with Pavla was platonic, “angelic”. It turns out that her husband was precisely the swindler Fotey, who escaped from military service.

Because of his love for Pavle, Golovan suffered all the insults and could not marry his beloved. Although legally the soldier Fraposhka, hiding under the name Photey, did not exist, marriage was not available to lovers according to the law of conscience. There is righteous and sinful happiness. In the first case, it will never step over people, in the second - vice versa. Pavla and Golovan chose the first, righteous option.

This is how the story ends about Golovan, a “non-lethal” man who always helped people even in the most difficult times. He was a righteous man and even his love became “angelic.”

“Non-lethal Golovan” summary of the work

Nikolay Leskov

Non-lethal Golovan

(From the stories of the three righteous men)

Perfect love casts out fear.

Chapter first

He himself is almost a myth, and his story is a legend. To talk about it, you have to be French, because some people of this nation manage to explain to others what they themselves do not understand. I say all this with the aim of asking my reader forbearance for the comprehensive imperfection of my story about a person, the reproduction of which would cost the work of a much better master than me. But Golovan may soon be completely forgotten, and that would be a loss. Golovan is worth attention, and although I do not know him enough to be able to draw a complete picture of him, I will, however, select and present some features of this low-ranking mortal man who managed to become known as "non-lethal".

The nickname “non-lethal” given to Golovan did not express ridicule and was by no means an empty, meaningless sound - he was nicknamed non-lethal due to the strong conviction that Golovan was a special person; a person who is not afraid of death. How could such an opinion be formed about him among people who walk under God and always remember their mortality? Was there a sufficient reason for this, developed in a consistent convention, or was this nickname given to him by simplicity, which is akin to stupidity?

It seemed to me that the latter was more likely, but how others judged it - I don’t know, because in my childhood I didn’t think about it, and when I grew up and could understand things, the “non-lethal” Golovan was no longer in the world. He died, and not in the most tidy way: he died during the so-called “big fire” in the city of Orel, drowning in a boiling pit, where he fell while saving someone’s life or someone’s property. However, “a large part of him, having escaped from decay, continued to live in grateful memory,” and I want to try to put on paper what I knew and heard about him, so that in this way his noteworthy memory would continue in the world.

Chapter two

Non-lethal Golovan was a simple man. His face, with extremely large features, was engraved in my memory from early days and remained in it forever. I met him at an age when they say that children cannot yet receive lasting impressions and make memories from them for the rest of their lives, but, however, it happened differently with me. This incident was noted by my grandmother as follows:

“Yesterday (May 26, 1835) I came from Gorokhov to see Mashenka (my mother), I did not find Semyon Dmitrich (my father) at home, on a business trip to Yelets for the investigation of a terrible murder. In the whole house there were only us, the women and the girl servants. The coachman left with him (my father), only the janitor Kondrat remained, and at night the watchman in the hall came to spend the night from the board (the provincial board, where my father was an adviser). Today, at twelve o'clock, Mashenka went into the garden to look at the flowers and water the canufer and took Nikolushka (me) with her in the arms of Anna (an old woman who is still alive). And when they were walking back to breakfast, as soon as Anna began to unlock the gate, the chained Ryabka fell on them, right with the chain, and rushed straight onto Anna’s chest, but at that very moment, as Ryabka, leaning on his paws, threw himself on Anna’s chest, Golovan grabbed him by the collar, squeezed him and threw him into the graveyard. There they shot him with a gun, but the child escaped.”

The child was me, and no matter how accurate the evidence is that a one and a half year old child cannot remember what happened to him, I, however, remember this incident.

I, of course, don’t remember where the enraged Ryabka came from and where Golovan took her after she wheezed, floundering with her paws and wriggling her whole body in his high-raised iron hand; but I remember the moment... just a moment. It was like the shine of lightning in the middle of a dark night, when for some reason you suddenly see an extraordinary number of objects at once: a bed curtain, a screen, a window, a canary trembling on a perch, and a glass with a silver spoon, on the handle of which magnesium had settled in specks. This is probably the property of fear, which has large eyes. In one such moment, I now see in front of me a huge dog’s muzzle with small speckles - dry fur, completely red eyes and an open mouth, full of muddy foam in a bluish, as if pomaded throat... a grin that was about to snap, but suddenly the upper lip was above it turned out, the cut stretched to the ears, and from below, the protruding neck moved convulsively, like a naked human elbow. Above all this stood a huge human figure with a huge head, and she took and carried the mad dog. All this time the man's face smiled.

The figure described was Golovan. I am afraid that I will not be able to draw his portrait at all precisely because I see him very well and clearly.

It was, like Peter the Great’s, fifteen vershoks; his build was broad, lean and muscular; he was dark-skinned, round-faced, with blue eyes, a very large nose and thick lips. The hair on Golovan’s head and trimmed beard was very thick, the color of salt and pepper. The head was always cropped short, the beard and mustache were also trimmed. A calm and happy smile did not leave Golovan’s face for a minute: it shone in every feature, but mainly played on the lips and in the eyes, smart and kind, but as if a little mocking. Golovan seemed to have no other expression, at least I don’t remember anything else. In addition to this unskillful portrait of Golovan, it is necessary to mention one oddity or peculiarity, which was his gait. Golovan walked very quickly, always as if he was hurrying somewhere, but not smoothly, but with a jump. He did not limp, but, in the local expression, “shkandybal”, that is, he stepped on one, his right leg with a firm step, and jumped on his left. It seemed that his leg did not bend, but had a spring somewhere in a muscle or joint. This is how people walk on an artificial leg, but Golovan’s was not an artificial one; although, however, this feature also did not depend on nature, but he created it for himself, and this was a mystery that cannot be explained immediately.

Golovan dressed like a peasant - always, in summer and winter, in scorching heat and in forty-degree frosts, he wore a long, naked sheepskin sheepskin coat, all oiled and blackened. I never saw him in other clothes, and my father, I remember, often joked about this sheepskin coat, calling it “eternal.”

Golovan was belted around his sheepskin coat with a “checkman” strap with a white harness set, which had turned yellow in many places, and completely crumbled in others and left tatters and holes on the outside. But the sheepskin coat was kept neat from any small tenants - I knew this better than others, because I often sat in Golovan’s bosom, listening to his speeches, and always felt very calm here.

The main character of N. Leskov's story “Non-Lethal Golovan” is an ordinary person, but with an unusual nickname.

The origin of this nickname is explained quite simply. During the anthrax plague that engulfed the Oryol province, only Golovan fearlessly entered the huts of the infected, gave them something to drink, and with his presence brightened up their last minutes. He drew white crosses on the houses of the dead.

People deeply respected Golovan and called him “non-lethal.” But Golovan was unable to avoid infection; an ulcer appeared on his left leg. Then he took radical action: he asked the young mower for a scythe and cut off the affected area from his leg.

Such fortitude was inherent in the former serf, who managed to buy himself out of captivity and start his own farm. Golovan was distinguished by a powerful physique, two meters tall, a huge head, and his face was always lit up with a smile.

Golovan had a uniform that he wore both in the bitter cold and in the scorching rays of the sun: a long sheepskin sheepskin coat, which was all oily and blackened from constant wear. At the same time, the canvas shirt underneath was always clean as a boil.

He was fantastically hardworking: starting with one cow and a calf, he brought his magnificent herd to 8 heads, including the red Tyrolean bull “Vaska”.

The products he sold were of very high quality: thick cream, the freshest and most aromatic butter, especially large eggs from Dutch chickens. Assistance in the household was provided by Golovan’s three sisters and mother, whom he in turn bought from serfdom and settled in his house.

In one half of the dwelling lived women, who were later joined by Pavel’s young girl, and in the other there were cattle. There was also a sleeping place for Golovan himself.

Pavla was Golovan’s former love, but the master married her to the rider Ferapont, who committed a number of offenses and went on the run. The abandoned Pavla found shelter with Golovan, but the relationship between them was platonic, since these highly moral people could not step over Pavla’s married status. People believed that she was Golovanov’s cohabitant and called her “Golovanov’s sin.”

Soon, one Oryol merchant took his family to another city to view the holy relics. But there was such a crowd of people there that it was not possible to get through to the relics in the front rows, as they wanted. Only sick people on stretchers were allowed into the church without hindrance. There were many thieves and various kinds of swindlers operating in the huge crowd of people. One of these cunning people offered the merchant a win-win option for entering the temple.

A lying mute man of a completely yellow color named Photeus was taken out of some convoy, and six people, including a merchant, carried him to the temple on a stretcher.

There the patient was unexpectedly healed and left the temple on his own feet. True, at the same time, one of the golden cords disappeared from the velvet coverlet near the saint’s coffin.

This falsely ill Photey never left the gullible merchant all the way to Orel. In addition, he turned out to be Pavla’s runaway husband. Golovan and Pavla recognized him, but did not give him away. He, all dirty and in rags, constantly demanded money from Golovan, and instead of gratitude he spat, fought and threw everything that came to hand.

The neighbors were at a loss as to why Golovan was suffering such abuse from some rogue.

Pavla did not live long; she died of consumption. Golovan died during a terrible fire that engulfed the city of Orel. While helping people during a terrible disaster, he did not notice a burning pit under a layer of ash and fell into it.

People kept the memory of this generous and righteous man for a long time, who tried to bring as much benefit as possible to his neighbors. The priest Peter said that his conscience was whiter than snow.

Golovan was nicknamed non-lethal during the anthrax epidemic. Unlike his compatriots, the hero of the story fearlessly entered the houses of the sick and cared for them, although the disease was very contagious, and every sick person died. But this misfortune did not stop Golovan.

Later, the shepherd witnessed how early in the morning on the river bank he snatched a slanting piece from his leg and threw it into the water. Then the pestilence began to subside. People began to say that Golovan bought them back from illness. This incident brought him universal respect. Later we learn that in fact our hero noticed an ulcer on his shin, which was a symptom of a terrible disease. That is why Golovan cut off the affected piece of flesh and threw it into the river. After which he was seriously ill for a long time, but remained alive, only he began to limp.

Golovan was a serf, but due to his zeal he got the opportunity to buy himself off. Having become free, he bought a house, got a cow and started selling cream and milk. Having saved up money, he gradually ransomed his mother and sisters from the fortress. They all lived together, developing their dairy farm; along the way, the women were weaving and selling blankets; they were modest and hardworking.

Another woman lived with them - Pavla. Once Golovan wanted to marry her, but the master married her off to someone else. When our hero was already free, Pavel’s husband left her, and Golovan took her in. This woman worked even more than the sisters of the Non-Lethal, and he in no way singled her out among the women of his house. And yet, Paul received the popular nickname “Golovanov’s sin,” although this did not at all detract from the respect that his fellow citizens had for him. Only after Golovan’s death did it become known for certain that his relationship with Pavla was absolutely pure.

Golovan died in a fire. While rescuing someone's property, he fell into a boiling pit and drowned there.

Golovan’s example teaches us to be modest, hardworking, and honest. And he also teaches us Love. The same one “who does not seek her own,” but “is long-suffering, merciful, covers all things, and endures all things.”

The story “The Non-Lethal Golovan” is included in the cycle of works by Nikol Semenovich Leskov “The Righteous”. The author’s goal in creating this series was to identify and show the reader the presence of the best character traits in Russian people: sacrifice, selflessness, kindness, honesty, etc.

Picture or drawing of a non-lethal head

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