The inner world of the personality and its relationship with various aspects of reality according to Yu. Trifonov "Exchange". What comes to the fore in Trifonov's story "The Exchange" when reading it today? and artistic features

In the 1960s and 1970s, a new phenomenon arose in Russian literature, called "urban prose". The term arose in connection with the publication and wide recognition of the stories of Yuri Trifonov. M. Chulaki, S. Esin, V. Tokareva, I. Shtemler, A. Bitov, the Strugatsky brothers, V. Makanin, D. Granin and others also worked in the genre of urban prose. In the works of the authors of urban prose, the heroes were citizens burdened with everyday life, moral and psychological problems, generated, among other things, by the high pace of urban life. The problem of the loneliness of the individual in the crowd, covered by the higher education of the terry philistinism, was considered. The works of urban prose are characterized by deep psychologism, appeal to the intellectual, ideological and philosophical problems of the time, the search for answers to "eternal" questions. The authors explore the intelligentsia stratum of the population, drowning in the "quagmire of everyday life".
The creative activity of Yuri Trifonov falls on the post-war years. Impressions from student life are reflected by the author in his first novel "Students", which was awarded the State Prize. At twenty-five, Trifonov became famous. The author himself, however, pointed out weaknesses in this work.
In 1959, a collection of short stories "Under the Sun" and the novel "Quenching Thirst" were published, the events of which unfolded at the construction of an irrigation canal in Turkmenistan. The writer already then spoke about the quenching of spiritual thirst.
For more than twenty years, Trifonov worked as a sports correspondent, wrote many stories on sports topics: "Games at dusk", "At the end of the season", created scripts for feature films and documentaries.
The stories "Exchange", "Preliminary Results", "Long Farewell", "Another Life" formed the so-called "Moscow" or "city" cycle. They were immediately called a phenomenal phenomenon in Russian literature, because Trifonov described a person in everyday life, and made representatives of the then intelligentsia the heroes. The writer withstood the attacks of critics who accused him of being "small". The choice of the topic was especially unusual against the background of the then existing books about glorious deeds, labor achievements, the heroes of which were ideally positive, purposeful and unshakable. It seemed to many critics a dangerous blasphemy that the writer dared to reveal the internal changes in the moral character of many intellectuals, pointed out the absence of high motives, sincerity, and decency in their souls. By and large, Trifonov raises the question of what intelligence is and whether we have an intelligentsia.
Many heroes of Trifonov, formally, by education, belonging to the intelligentsia, did not become intelligent people in terms of spiritual improvement. They have diplomas, in society they play the role of cultured people, but in everyday life, at home, where there is no need to pretend, their spiritual callousness, thirst for profit, sometimes criminal lack of will, moral dishonesty are exposed. Using the technique of self-characterization, the writer in internal monologues shows the true essence of his characters: the inability to resist circumstances, to defend one's opinion, mental deafness or aggressive self-confidence. As we get to know the characters of the stories, a true picture of the state of mind of Soviet people and the moral criteria of the intelligentsia emerges before us.
Trifonov's prose is distinguished by a high concentration of thoughts and emotions, a kind of "density" of writing, which allows the author to say a lot between the lines behind seemingly everyday, even banal plots.
In The Long Goodbye, a young actress contemplates whether or not she should continue dating a prominent playwright, overpowering herself. In "Preliminary Results" the translator Gennady Sergeevich is tormented by the consciousness of his guilt, having left his wife and adult son, who have long become spiritual strangers to him. Engineer Dmitriev from the story "The Exchange", under pressure from his domineering wife, must persuade his own mother to "move in" with them after the doctors told them that the elderly woman had cancer. The mother herself, not suspecting anything, is extremely surprised by the sudden ardent feelings on the part of her daughter-in-law. The measure of morality here is the vacated living space. Trifonov seems to be asking the reader: “What would you do?”
Trifonov's works make readers take a closer look at themselves, teach them to separate the main thing from the superficial, momentary, show how hard the retribution for neglecting the laws of conscience can be.

It turns out that the moral values ​​and traditions of the protagonist are replaced by prudence and indifference to others.

Victor Dmitriev betrayed his ideals. He did not want to fight with his wife for the right to be "heard" and completely submitted to her "guidance". But most likely, this grain of an “immoral personality” was always in him, and his wife was only a cover.

It is for this reason that Victor suddenly takes a position that a friend of the Dmitriev family was hoping to receive. He "piously believes" that he is doing this for the sake of his family and wife, but in fact, the man deceived his comrade for personal gain.

Lena Ivanova intervened in the scandal that arose due to betrayal. The woman told everyone that it was solely her "fault", since it was she who insisted on changing her husband's job. Because of this, his mother and sister Laura condemned Victor very much, calling him "luky".

The Lukyanovs and the Dmitrievs were in conflict. Different views on life, goals and means of achieving them, created a whole abyss of misunderstanding between families. Victor same was as on break. He could not fully accept anyone's side, because it is difficult to choose between his own mother and the mother of his child.

But the man was far from being an exemplary family man. The author notes that while his wife and daughter were on vacation and left the city, Victor started an affair with his colleague Tatyana. The girl fell in love with Victor, and subsequently, because of her feelings, she was forced to divorce her husband. She did not think that Victor, unlike her, could continue to deceive his wife.

But the man was not going to lie. He just left Tatyana upon arrival Lena with his daughter and with a clear conscience "returned" to the family. The poor woman remained to live with the hope that they would someday be together again. She even offered to loan money to her ex-lover when he urgently needed them.

Victor took a certain amount from the woman. Of course, he was going to give them to her, but was there such a need to “drown up the past”? Or maybe he specifically gave her hope ?!

One way or another, he really really needed the funds. The mother, who had recently undergone a major operation, needed treatment. Yes, and Lena, put pressure on him with the inevitable exchange of living space. The woman had planned everything for a long time, and now, having learned about the fatal diagnosis of Ksenia Fedorovna, she decided to act.

This action was blasphemy against Dmitrieva, and the son understood this very well. He even tried to object to the “pressure” of his wife, but gave up after an unsuccessful attempt to “protest”. The arguments of his wife were more weighty than all his arguments and condemnations.

Soon, more recently, the warring parties "reunited", and began to live in one two-room apartment. Ksenia Feodorovna's room was exchanged in addition to a room in Dmitriev's communal flat. Lena has thought of everything here. She knew that her mother-in-law's days were numbered and she would not have to "endure" her for long. Ivanova was right - Victor's mother soon died.

Victor is very ill. It slowly began to dawn on him that the man had really changed, but not for the better ...

– What are your impressions of the poetry of the 1950s and 1990s? Are there any of your favorite poets of this time?

Lesson 79
"Urban Prose in Contemporary Literature".
Yu. V. Trifonov. "Eternal themes and moral
problems in the story "Exchange"

Goals: give the concept of "urban" prose of the twentieth century; consider the eternal problems raised by the author against the backdrop of urban life; to determine the features of Trifonov's work (semantic ambiguity of the title, subtle psychologism).

During the classes

Take care of the intimate, intimate: all the treasures of the world are dearer than the intimacy of your soul!

V. V. Rozanov

I. "Urban" prose in the literature of the XX century.

1. Work with the textbook.

– Read the article (textbook edited by Zhuravlev, pp. 418–422).

– What do you think the concept of “urban” prose means? What are its features?

- Draw up your conclusions in the form of a plan.

Sample Plan

1) Features of "urban" prose:

a) it is a cry of pain for a person "turned into a grain of sand";

b) literature explores the world "through the prism of culture, philosophy, religion."

3) "Urban" prose by Y. Trifonov:

a) in the story "Preliminary results" he reasoned with "empty" philosophers;

b) in the story "Long Farewell" reveals the theme of the collapse of the bright beginning in a person in his concessions to the bourgeoisie.

2. Appeal to the epigraph of the lesson.

II. "Urban" prose of Yuri Trifonov.

1. Life and creative path of Trifonov.

The complexity of the fate of the writer and his generation, the talent for the embodiment of spiritual searches, the originality of manner - all this predetermines attention to the life path of Trifonov.

The writer's parents were professional revolutionaries. Father, Valentin Andreevich, joined the party in 1904, was exiled to administrative exile in Siberia, and went through hard labor. Later became a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee in October 1917. In 1923–1925. Headed the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

In the 1930s, my father and mother were repressed. In 1965, Y. Trifonov's documentary book "The Reflection of the Fire" appeared, in which he used his father's archive. From the pages of the work rises the image of a man who "kindled a fire and himself died in this flame." In the novel, Trifonov for the first time applied the principle of montage of time as a kind of artistic device.

History will disturb Trifonov constantly ("The Old Man", "The House on the Embankment"). The writer realized his philosophical principle: “We must remember - here is hidden the only possibility of competition with time. Man is doomed, time triumphs.

During the war, Yuri Trifonov was evacuated to Central Asia, worked at an aircraft factory in Moscow. In 1944 he entered the Literary Institute. Gorky.

The memoirs of his contemporaries help to visibly present the writer: “He was over forty. A clumsy, slightly baggy figure, short black hair, in some places in barely visible lamb curls, with rare threads of gray hair, an open wrinkled forehead. From a wide, slightly swollen pale face, through heavy horn-rimmed glasses, intelligent gray eyes looked at me shyly and unprotectedly.

The first story "Students" is the diploma work of a novice prose writer. The story was published by A. Tvardovsky's Novy Mir magazine in 1950, and in 1951 the author received the Stalin Prize for it.

It is generally accepted that the main theme of the writer is everyday life, being dragged into everyday life. One of the well-known researchers of Trifonov’s work, N. B. Ivanova, writes: “At the first reading of Trifonov, there is a deceptive ease of perception of his prose, immersion in familiar situations close to us, collisions with people and phenomena known in life ...” This is true, but only when reading superficially.

Trifonov himself claimed: “Yes, I do not write life, but life.”

Critic Yu. M. Oklyansky rightly asserts: “The test of everyday life, the imperious force of everyday circumstances and the hero, one way or another romantically opposing them ... is a through and title theme of the late Trifonov ...”.

2. Problems of the story by Y. Trifonov "Exchange".

1) - Remember the plot of the work.

The family of Viktor Georgievich Dmitriev, an employee of one of the research institutes, lives in a communal apartment. Daughter Natasha - a teenager - behind the curtain. Dmitriev's dream of moving in with his mother did not find support from Lena, his wife. Everything changed when the mother was operated on for cancer. Lena herself started talking about the exchange. The actions and feelings of the heroes, manifested in the solution of this everyday issue, which ended in a successful exchange, and soon the death of Ksenia Feodorovna, constitute the content of a short story.

- So, the exchange is the plot core of the story, but can we say that it is also a metaphor that the author uses?

2) The protagonist of the story is a representative of the third generation of the Dmitrievs.

Grandfather Fyodor Nikolaevich is intelligent, principled, humane.

What can you say about the hero's mother?

Find the characteristic in the text:

“Ksenia Fedorovna is loved by friends, respected by colleagues, appreciated by neighbors in the apartment and in the pavlinovskaya dacha, because she is friendly, compliant, ready to help and take part ...”

But Viktor Georgievich Dmitriev falls under the influence of his wife, "gets sloppy." The essence of the title of the story, its pathos, the author's position, as it follows from the artistic logic of the story, are revealed in the dialogue between Xenia Fyodorovna and her son about the exchange: “I really wanted to live with you and Natasha ... - Ksenia Fyodorovna paused. “But now, no.” “Why?” – “You have already exchanged, Vitya. The exchange has taken place."

– What is the meaning of these words?

3) What makes up the image of the main character?

Description of the image based on the text.

- How does the emerging conflict with your wife over the exchange end? (“...He lay down in his place against the wall and turned to face the wallpaper.”)

- What does this pose of Dmitriev express? (This is a desire to get away from the conflict, humility, non-resistance, although in words he did not agree with Lena.)

- And here is another subtle psychological sketch: Dmitriev, falling asleep, feels his wife’s hand on his shoulder, which at first “lightly strokes his shoulder”, and then presses “with considerable weight”.

The hero realizes that his wife's hand is inviting him to turn around. He resists (this is how the author depicts the internal struggle in detail). But ... "Dmitriev, without saying a word, turned on his left side."

- What other details indicate the subordination of the hero to his wife, when we understand that he is a follower? (In the morning, the wife reminded her to talk to her mother.

“Dmitriev wanted to say something,” but he “took two steps after Lena, stood in the corridor and returned to the room.”)

This detail - "two steps forward" - "two steps back" - is a clear evidence of the impossibility for Dmitriev to go beyond the limits imposed on him by external circumstances.

- Whose rating does the hero get? (We learn his assessment from his mother, from his grandfather: “You are not a bad person. But not amazing either.”)

4) The right to be called a person Dmitriev was denied by his relatives. Lena was denied by the author: “... she bit into her desires like a bulldog. Such a pretty bulldog woman ... She did not let go until the desires - right in her teeth - did not turn into flesh ... "

Oxymoron * cute female bulldog further emphasizes the negative attitude of the author to the heroine.

Yes, Trifonov clearly defined his position. This is contradicted by the statement of N. Ivanova: "Trifonov did not set himself the task of either condemning or rewarding his heroes: the task was different - to understand." This is partly true...

It seems that another remark of the same literary critic is more justified: “...behind the external simplicity of presentation, calm intonation, designed for an equal and understanding reader, is Trifonov's poetics. And - an attempt at social aesthetic education.

- What is your attitude to the Dmitriev family?

– Would you like life to be like this in your families? (Trifonov managed to draw a typical picture of family relations of our time: the feminization of the family, the transition of the initiative into the hands of predators, the triumph of consumerism, the lack of unity in raising children, the loss of traditional family values. The desire for peace as the only joy makes men put up with their secondary importance in the family. They lose their firm masculinity, the family is left without a head.)

III. Summary of the lesson.

– What questions did the author of the story “The Exchange” make you think about?

– Do you agree that B. Pankin, speaking about this story, calls a genre that combines a physiological sketch of modern urban life and a parable?

Homework.

“The exchange saw the light in 1969. At that time, the author was criticized for reproducing "a terrible mud of trifles", for the fact that in his work "there is no enlightening truth", for the fact that in Trifonov's stories spiritual dead roam, pretending to be alive. There are no ideals, man has been crushed and humiliated, crushed by life and his own insignificance.

- Express your attitude to these assessments by answering the questions:

џ What comes to the fore in the story when we perceive it now?

џ Does Trifonov really have no ideals?

џ In your opinion, will this story remain in literature and how will it be perceived in another 40 years?

Lessons 81-82
The life and work of Alexander Trifonovich
Tvardovsky. The originality of the lyrics

Goals: consider the features of the lyrics of the largest epic poet of the twentieth century, noting the sincerity of the confessional intonation of the poet; to study traditions and innovation in Tvardovsky's poetry; develop the skills of analyzing a poetic text.

Course of lessons

It is impossible to understand and appreciate Tvardovsky's poetry without feeling to what extent all of it, to its very depths, is lyrical. And at the same time, it is wide, wide open to the world around and everything that this world is rich in - feelings, thoughts, nature, life, politics.

S. Ya. Marshak. For life on earth. 1961

Tvardovsky, as a person and an artist, never forgot about his fellow citizens ... he was never a poet only “for himself” and “to himself”, he always felt his debt to them; he would only take up a pen if he believed that he could say the most important thing about life, that which he knew better, more detailed, and more reliably than anyone else.

V. Dementiev. Alexander Tvardovsky. 1976

And I'm just a mortal. For your own in the answer,

I'm worried about one thing in life:

A. T. Tvardovsky

I. Biographical origins of Tvardovsky's work.

Being a reader of poetry is a rather delicate and aesthetically delicate matter: the direct meaning of a poetic statement does not lie on the surface, it is most often made up of the totality of its artistic elements: words, figurative associations, musical sound.

Tvardovsky's poems reflect what determined the content of his spiritual life, "the measure of personality," as the poet himself said. His lyrics require concentration, reflection, emotional response to the poetic feelings expressed in the poem.

– What do you know about the life and work of Alexander Tvardovsky?

Perhaps the message of a trained student on the topic "The main stages of the life and work of A. T. Tvardovsky."

II. The main themes and ideas of Tvardovsky's lyrics.

1. After listening to the lecture, write it down in the form of a plan, listing the main themes and ideas of the poet's lyrics.

Among the poets of the twentieth century, A. T. Tvardovsky occupies a special place. His lyrics attract not only figurative accuracy, mastery of the word, but also the breadth of topics, the importance and enduring relevance of the issues raised.

A large place in the lyrics, especially in the early ones, is occupied by the "small motherland", the native Smolensk land. According to Tvardovsky, the presence of "a small, separate and personal homeland is of great importance." With native Zagorye “all the best that is in me is connected. Moreover, this is me as a person. This connection is always dear to me and even painful.

In the works of the poet, memories of childhood and youth often appear: the forest side of Smolensk, the farmstead and the village of Zagorye, the conversations of peasants at the father's forge. From here came the poetic ideas about Russia, here, from the father's reading, the lines of Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy were memorized. I began to compose myself. He was captivated by "songs and fairy tales that he heard from his grandfather." At the beginning of the poetic path, M. Isakovsky, who worked in the regional newspaper "Working Way", provided assistance - he published, advised.

Early poems "Harvest", "Haymaking", "Spring Lines" and the first collections - "Road" (1938), "Village Chronicle" (1939), "Zagorye" (1941) are connected with the life of the village. The poems are rich in signs of the times, generously filled with specific sketches of the life and way of life of the peasants. This is a kind of painting with a word. Poems are most often narrative, plot, with colloquial intonation. Whose poetic traditions resemble this (remember the features of Nekrasov's poetry)?

The author succeeds in colorful peasant types (“humpbacked peasant”, “Ivushka”), genre scenes, humorous situations. The most famous - "Lenin and the stove-maker" - a story in verse. Early poems are full of youthful enthusiasm, the joy of life.

Pillars, villages, crossroads,

Bread, alder bushes,

Plantings of the current birch,

Cool new bridges.

The fields run in a wide circle,

The wires sing lingeringly,

And the wind rushing into the glass with an effort,

Thick and strong like water.

In the military and post-war collections "Poems from a Notebook" (1946), "Poems from a Notebook" (1952), the main place is occupied by the patriotic theme - in the most important and lofty sense of the word: military everyday life, long-awaited victory, love for the motherland, memory of the experience , the memory of the dead, the theme of immortality, the anti-militarist appeal - these are the modestly outlined circle of problems. In form, the verses are diverse: these are sketches from nature, and confession-monologues, and solemn hymns:

Stop, show off in the lightning

And the lights of celebration

Mother dear, capital,

Fortress of Peace, Moscow!

The theme of war is one of the central ones in Tvardovsky's work. Those who died in the war did everything to liberate their homeland (“Having given everything, they left nothing / Nothing with them”), therefore they were given the “bitter”, “terrible right” to bequeath to those who remained to keep the past in memory, complete the long journey in Berlin and never forget , at what cost the long-awaited victory was won, how many lives were given, how many destinies were destroyed.

A. T. Tvardovsky writes about the great brotherhood of soldiers, born in the years of trials. The magnificent image of Vasily Terkin accompanied the fighters on the front roads. Life-affirming sounds the idea of ​​the need to "be happy" for all those of the warrior brothers who remained alive in this war.

We can say that the memory of the war lives in one way or another in every post-war poem. She became part of his worldview.

The student reads by heart.

I know it's not my fault

The fact that others did not come from the war,

The fact that they - who is older, who is younger -

Stayed there, and it's not about the same thing,

That I could, but could not save, -

It's not about that, but still, still, still ...

- What gave the literary critic the right to say that the memory of the war in the poem “I know, no fault of mine ...” “comes out with a huge, piercing force of pain, suffering and even some kind of own guilt before those who forever remained on the distant shore of death "? Please note that there is no high vocabulary in the poem itself, and there is no “distant shore of death”, which the researcher writes about.

In the works about the war, A. T. Tvardovsky pays tribute to the share of widows and mothers of dead soldiers:

Here is the mother of the one who fell in battle with the enemy

For life, for us. Hats off, people.

In the late works of A. T. Tvardovsky, one can see a number of topics that are commonly called “philosophical”: reflections on the meaning of human existence, old age and youth, life and death, the change of human generations and the joy of living, loving, working. Much in the heart of a person, in his soul is laid down in childhood, in his native land. One of the poems dedicated to the motherland begins with a word of gratitude:

Thank you, my dear

Earth, my father's house,

For everything I know about life

What I carry in my heart.

Tvardovsky is a subtle lyric landscape painter. Nature in his poems appears at the time of the awakening of life, in motion, in vivid memorable images.

The student reads by heart:

And, sleepy, melted, And soft green with the wind

The earth will hardly wilt, Alder pollen,

Foliage stitching old, From childhood reported,

He's going to cut the grass. Like a shadow touches the face.

And the heart will feel again

That the freshness of any pore

Not only was, but sunk,

And there is and will be with you.

"The snows will darken blue", 1955

– “The sweetness of a life of suffering”, light and warmth, goodness and “bitter evil” are perceived by the poet as enduring values ​​of being, filling every hour lived with meaning and meaning. Inspirational work gives a person, according to Tvardovsky, a sense of dignity, an awareness of one's place on earth. Many lines are devoted to writing: friends and enemies, human virtues and vices, opening up in a difficult time of historical timelessness. As a truly Russian poet, Tvardovsky dreams of free creativity, independent of politicians, cowardly editors, double-minded critics.

... For his answer,

I am concerned about one thing during my lifetime;

About what I know best in the world,

I want to say. And the way I want.

The poet emphasized his unity with all people:

Simply - everything that is dear to me is dear to people,

Everything that is dear to me, I sing.

So A. T. Tvardovsky remained until the last, “control” hour of his life.

2. Read the article "Lyrics" in the textbook (p. 258-260), supplement your plan with material.

3. Checking and discussion of the resulting lecture plans.

The story "Exchange" was written by Trifonov in 1969 and published in the "New World" in the same year in the last issue. She opened the cycle of "Moscow stories" about the pressing problems of Soviet citizens.

Genre originality

In the foreground in the story are family and everyday problems that expose the philosophical questions of the meaning of human life. This is a story about a worthy life and death. In addition, Trifonov reveals the psychology of each character, even minor ones. Each of them has their own truth, but the dialogue does not work.

Issues

Trifonov addresses the topic of confrontation between two families. Victor Dmitriev, having married Lena Lukyanova, could not convey to her the values ​​of the Dmitriev family: spiritual sensitivity, gentleness, tact, intelligence. On the other hand, Dmitriev himself, in the words of his sister Laura, “became lukewarm”, that is, he became pragmatic, striving not so much for material wealth as for being left alone.

Trifonov raises important social problems in the story. The modern reader does not understand the problem of the protagonist. The Soviet man, as if having no property, did not have the right to live in a normal apartment with rooms for spouses and a child. And it was completely wild that the mother’s room after death could not be inherited, but would go to the state. So Lena tried to save the property in the only possible way: by exchanging two rooms in a communal apartment for a two-room apartment. Another thing is that Ksenia Fedorovna immediately guessed about her fatal illness. It is in this, and not in the exchange itself, that the evil emanating from the insensitive Lena lies.

Plot and composition

The main action takes place on an October afternoon and the next morning. But the reader gets acquainted not only with the whole life of the protagonist, but also learns about the families of the Lukyanovs and Dmitrievs. This Trifonov achieves with the help of retrospection. The protagonist reflects on the events happening to him and his own actions, remembering the past.

The hero faces a difficult task: to inform the terminally ill mother, who is unaware of the seriousness of her illness, and her sister that Lena's wife is planning an exchange. In addition, the hero needs to get money for treatment for his sister Laura, with whom her mother lives now. The hero solves both tasks brilliantly, so the former lover offers him money, and by moving to his mother, he supposedly helps his sister leave on a long business trip.

The last page of the story contains the events of six months: there is a move, the mother dies, the hero feels miserable. The narrator adds on his own behalf that Dmitriev's childhood home was demolished, where he was never able to convey family values. So the Lukyanovs defeated the Dmitrievs in a symbolic sense.

Heroes of the story

The protagonist of the story is 37-year-old Dmitriev. He is middle-aged, plump, with an eternal smell of tobacco from his mouth. The hero is proud, he takes the love of his mother, wife, mistress for granted. Dmitriev's life credo is "I got used to it and calmed down." He comes to terms with the fact that his loving wife and mother do not get along.

Dmitriev defends his mother, whom Lena calls a hypocrite. The sister believes that Dmitriev has gone rogue, that is, he betrayed his high spirit and disinterestedness for the sake of the material.

Dmitriev considers peace to be the most valuable thing in life and protects it with all his might. Another value of Dmitriev and his consolation is that he has "everything like everyone else."

Dmitriev is helpless. He cannot write a dissertation, although Lena agrees to help in everything. Especially revealing is the story of Levka Bubrik, whose father-in-law, at the request of Lena, found a good place in GINEGA, where Dmitriev himself eventually went to work. And Lena took all the blame. Everything was revealed when Lena, at Ksenia Fedorovna's birthday, said that it was Dmitriev's decision.

At the end of the story, Dmitriev's mother explains the subtext of the exchange made by the hero: having exchanged true values ​​for momentary gain, he lost his emotional sensitivity.

Dmitriev's wife Lena is smart. She is a specialist in technical translation. Dmitriev considers Lena selfish and callous. According to Dmitriev, Lena notes some spiritual inaccuracy. He throws an accusation in his wife's face that she has a mental defect, underdevelopment of feelings, something subhuman.

Lena knows how to get her way. Wanting to exchange an apartment, she cares not about herself, but about her family.

Dmitriev's father-in-law, Ivan Vasilyevich, was a tanner by profession, but he was advancing along the trade union line. Through his efforts, a telephone was installed in the dacha six months later. He was always on the alert, he did not trust anyone. The father-in-law's speech was full of clericalism, which is why Dmitriev's mother considered him unintelligent.

Tanya is Dmitriev's former mistress, with whom he got together 3 years ago for one summer. She is 34 years old, she looks sickly: thin, pale. Her eyes are big and kind. Tanya is afraid for Dmitriev. After a relationship with him, she stayed with her son Alik: her husband quit his job and left Moscow, because Tanya could no longer live with him. Her husband really loved her. Dmitriev thinks that Tanya would be the best wife for him, but leaves everything as it is.

Tatyana and Ksenia Fedorovna are nice to each other. Tatyana pities Dmitriev and loves him, while Dmitriev pities her only for a moment. Dmitriev thinks that this love is forever. Tatyana knows many poems and reads them by heart in a whisper, especially when there is nothing to talk about.

Mother Dmitrieva Ksenia Fedorovna is an intelligent, respected woman. She worked as a senior bibliographer in one of the academic libraries. The mother is so simple-hearted that she does not understand the danger of her illness. She made peace with Lena. Ksenia Fedorovna is "benevolent, compliant, ready to help and takes part." Only Lena does not appreciate this. Ksenia Fedorovna is not inclined to lose heart, she communicates in a joking manner.

Mother loves selflessly to help distant acquaintances and relatives. But Dmitriev understands that the mother is doing this in order to be known as a good person. For this, Lena called Dmitriev's mother a hypocrite.

Dmitriev's grandfather is the keeper of family values. Lena called him a well-preserved monster. Grandfather was a lawyer who graduated from St. Petersburg University, in his youth he was in a fortress, was in exile and fled abroad. Grandfather was small and shrunken, his skin was tanned, and his hands were clumsy and disfigured by hard work.

Unlike the daughter, the grandfather does not despise people if they belong to a different circle, and does not condemn anyone. He lives not in the past, but in his short future. It was the grandfather who gave a well-aimed description of Victor: “You are not a bad person. But not amazing either."

Laura, Dmitriev's sister, is middle-aged, with gray-black hair and a tanned forehead. She spends 5 months in Central Asia every year. Laura is cunning and perspicacious. She did not come to terms with Lena's attitude towards her mother. Laura is uncompromising: “Her thoughts never bend. Always sticking out and pricking.

Artistic originality

The author uses details instead of lengthy characteristics. For example, the sagging belly of his wife, seen by Dmitriev, speaks of his coldness towards her. Two pillows on the matrimonial bed, one of which, stale, belongs to the husband, indicate that there is no true love between the spouses.

In the 1950s and 1980s, the genre of so-called "urban" prose flourished. This literature primarily addressed the individual, the problems of everyday moral relations.

The culminating achievement of "urban" pro-se were the works of Yuri Trifonov. It was his story "The Exchange" that marked the beginning of the cycle of "urban" stories. In the "urban" stories, Trifonov wrote about love and family relationships, the most ordinary, but at the same time complex, about the clash of different characters, different life positions, about the problems, joys, anxieties, hopes of an ordinary person, about his life.

In the center of the story "The Exchange" is a rather typical, ordinary life situation, which nevertheless reveals very important moral problems that arise when it is resolved.

The main characters of the story are engineer Dmitriev, his wife Lena and Dmitrieva's mother Ksenia Fedorovna. They have a rather complicated relationship. Lena never loved her mother-in-law; moreover, the relationship between them "was minted in the form of ossified and enduring enmity." Previously, Dmitriev often started talking about moving in with his mother, an elderly and lonely woman. But Lena always violently protested against this, and gradually this topic arose less and less in the conversations of husband and wife, because Dmitriev understood that he could not break Lena's will. In addition, Ksenia Fedorovna became a kind of instrument of enmity in their family skirmishes. During quarrels, the name of Xenia Fedorovna was often heard, although it was not at all that she served as the beginning of the conflict. Dmitriev mentioned his mother when he wanted to accuse Lena of selfishness or callousness, and Lena talked about her, trying to put pressure on the patient or just sarcastically.

Speaking of this, Trifonov points to the flourishing of hostile, hostile relations where, it would seem, there should always be only mutual understanding, patience and love.

The main conflict of the story is connected with the severe illness of Xenia Fedorovna. Doctors suspect "the worst." This is where Lena takes the "bull by the horns". She decides to urgently settle the issue of the exchange, to move in with her mother-in-law. Her illness and, possibly, approaching death become for Dmitriev's wife a way to solve the housing problem. Lena does not think about the moral side of this enterprise. Hearing from his wife about her terrible idea, Dmitriev tries to look into her eyes. Perhaps he hopes to find there doubt, awkwardness, guilt, but he finds only determination. Dmitriev knew that his wife's "spiritual inaccuracy" was exacerbated "when Lena's other, strongest quality came into play: the ability to achieve one's own." The author notes that Lena "bit into her desires like a bulldog" and never retreated from them until they were realized.

Having done the most difficult thing - having said about her plans, Lena acts very methodically. As a subtle psychologist, she "licks" her husband's wound, seeks reconciliation with him. And he, suffering from lack of will, cannot, does not know how to resist it. He perfectly understands all the horror of what is happening, he is aware of the price of the exchange, but he does not find the strength in himself to somehow prevent Lena, just as he once did not find the strength to reconcile her with his mother.

The mission to tell about the upcoming exchange of Ksenia Fedorovna Lena, naturally, entrusted to her husband. This conversation is the most terrible, the most painful for Dmitriev. After the operation, which confirmed the “worst neck”, Ksenia Fedorovna felt better, she gained confidence that she was on the mend. To tell her about the exchange means to deprive her of the last hope for life, because this smart woman could not fail to guess the reason for such loyalty for many years of her daughter-in-law, who was at war with her. The realization of this becomes the most painful for Dmitriev. Lena easily draws up a conversation plan for her husband with Ksenia Fedorovna. "Get it all on me!" she advises. And Dmitriev seems to accept Lenin's condition. His mother is simple-hearted, and if he explains everything to her according to Lenin's plan, she may well believe in the selflessness of exchange. But Dmitriev is afraid of his sister Laura, who is "cunning," shrewd and dislikes Lena very much. Laura has long seen through her brother's wife and will immediately guess what intrigues are behind the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe exchange. Laura believes that Dmitriev quietly betrayed her and her mother, “loked”, that is, he began to live according to the rules that Lena and her mother, Vera Lazarevna, rely on in life, which their father, Ivan Vasilievich, an enterprising man, once established in their family. , a "powerful" person. It was Laura who noticed Lena’s tactlessness at the very beginning of their family life with Dmitriev, when Lena, without hesitation, took all their best cups for herself, put a bucket near Ksenia Fedorovna’s room, and without hesitation took a portrait of her father-in-law with walls of the middle room and outweighed it in the entrance. Outwardly, these are just everyday little things, but behind them, as Laura managed to see, lies something more.

Lena's blasphemy is revealed especially vividly in the morning after the conversation with Dmitriev. She is in a bad mood because her mother, Vera Lazarevna, fell ill. Vera Lazarevna has cerebral spasms. Why not be sad? Of course, the reason. And no foreshadowing of the mother-in-law's death can compare with her grief. Lena is callous in soul and, moreover, selfish.

Not only Lena is endowed with egoism. Dmitriev's colleague Pasha Snitkin is also selfish. The question of his daughter's admission to a music school is much more important to him than the death of a person. Because, as the author emphasizes, the daughter is her own, dear, and a stranger dies.

Lena's inhumanity contrasts with the soulfulness of Dmitriev's former mistress, Tatyana, who, as Dmitriev realizes, "would probably be his best wife." The news of the exchange makes Tanya blush, because she understands everything perfectly, she enters into the position of Dmitriev, offers him a loan and shows all kinds of sympathy.

Lena is also indifferent to her own father. When he lies with a stroke, she only thinks that she has a ticket to Bulgaria, and calmly goes on vacation.

Ksenia Fedorov-na herself is opposed to Lena, whom "friends love, colleagues respect, neighbors in the apartment and in the peacock dacha appreciate, because she is virtuous, compliant, ready to help and take part."

Lena still gets her way. The sick woman agrees to the exchange. She dies soon after. Dmitriyev suffers a hypertensive crisis. The portrait of the hero, who yielded to his wife in this merciless deed, realizing the significance of his act and experiencing mental suffering because of this, changes dramatically at the end of the story. “Not an old man yet, but already elderly, with limp cheeks, an uncle,” this is how the narrator sees him. But the hero is only thirty-seven years old.

The word "exchange" in Trifonov's story takes on a broader meaning. It is not only about the exchange of housing, a “moral exchange” is being made, a “concession to dubious life values” is being made. “The exchange has taken place...,” Ksenia Fedorovna says to her son. - That was a long time ago".