Contents of the White Guard in parts. White Guard (novel)

In the work “The White Guard,” a summary conveys the main essence of the work, concisely shows the characters and their main actions. Reading the novel in this form is recommended for those who want to get acquainted with the plot superficially, but do not have time for the full version. This article will help in this regard, because the main events in the story are presented here in the most accessible way.

First two chapters

The summary of “The White Guard” begins with the fact that grief happened in the Turbins’ house. The mother died and before that she told her children to live together. It was the beginning of the cold winter of 1918. The older brother Alexey is a doctor by profession, and after the funeral the guy goes to the priest. The father says that we need to strengthen ourselves, because it will only get worse.

The second chapter begins with a description of the Turbins' apartment, in which the stove is the source of heat. The youngest son Nikolka and Alexei sing, and sister Elena is waiting for her husband Sergei Talberg. She tells alarming news that the Germans are abandoning Kyiv, and Petlyura and his army are already very close.

The doorbell soon rang, and an old family friend, Lieutenant Viktor Myshlaevsky, appeared on the threshold. He talks about the cordon around his squad and the long changing of the guard. A day in the cold ended in death for two fighters, and the same number lost their legs due to frostbite.

The man warms up the family with his efforts, and Talberg soon arrives. Elena’s husband, in the summary of “The White Guard,” speaks of a retreat from Kyiv, and that he leaves his wife with the troops. He does not dare to take her with him in an unknown direction; the moment of farewell comes.

Continuation

The work “The White Guard” in its summary further tells about the Turbins’ neighbor Vasily Lisovich. He also learned about the latest news and decided to devote the night to hiding all his treasures in secret places. A man from the street is watching his activity through an inconspicuous crack, but the man did not see the unknown guy.

During the same period, the Turbins’ apartment was replenished with new guests. Talberg left, after which Alexei’s comrades from the gymnasium came to see him. Leonid Shervinsky and Fedor Stepanov (nickname Karas) occupy the positions of lieutenant and second lieutenant, respectively. They came with booze, and therefore soon all the men's minds begin to cloud.

Viktor Myshlaevsky feels especially bad, and therefore they begin to give him various medications. Only with the arrival of dawn did everyone decide to go to bed, but Elena did not support the initiative. A beautiful woman feels abandoned and cannot hold back her tears. The thought was firmly lodged in her head that Sergei would never come to her again.

That same winter, Alexei Turbin returned from the front, and Kyiv was flooded with officers. Some also returned from the battlefields, and many moved from Moscow, where the Bolsheviks had already begun to restore order.

Cycle of events

At night, Alexey Turbin has a dream about how Colonel Nai-Tours and the leaders of other detachments find themselves in paradise after a skirmish. After this, the hero hears the voice of God, who speaks of the equality of all fighters on both sides of the barricades. Then the Father said that after the death of the Reds on Perekop, he would send them to beautiful barracks with appropriate symbols.

Alexey spoke with sergeant Zhilin and even managed to convince the commander to take him into his squad. A summary of Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The White Guard” in the sixth chapter will tell how the fate of everyone who was with the Turbins the previous night was determined. Nikolka went ahead of everyone else to sign up for the volunteer squad, and Shervinsky left the house with him and went to headquarters. The remaining men went to the building of their former gymnasium, where a division of volunteers was being formed to support the artillery.

At headquarters, Colonel Malyshev placed all three under the command of Studzinsky. Alexey is glad to put on his military uniform again, and Elena sewed on him other shoulder straps. Colonel Malyshev that same evening ordered the complete disbandment of the train, since every second volunteer did not know how to handle weapons properly.

The end of the first part and the beginning of the second

At the end of the first part, a brief summary of Bulgakov’s “White Guard” tells about the events on Vladimirskaya Gorka. Kirpaty, together with his comrade nicknamed Nemolyaka, cannot get into the lower part of the village due to German patrols. They see how in the palace they wrap a man with a face like a fox in bandages. The car takes the man away, and the next morning news comes about the escaped hetman and his comrades.

Simon Petlyura will soon be in the city, the troops are breaking their guns and hiding cartridges. The electrical panel in the gymnasium was damaged as a sabotage. In the novel “The White Guard” by Mikhail Bulgakov, a summary at the beginning of the second part tells about the maneuver of Colonel Kozyr-Leshko. The commander of the Petliurites changes the deployment of the army so that the defenders of Kyiv think about the main offensive from Kurenevka. Only now the central breakthrough will be made near Svyatoshino.

Meanwhile, the last people from the hetman's headquarters are fleeing, including Colonel Shchetkin. Bolbotun is standing on the outskirts of the city, and he decides that he shouldn’t wait for orders from headquarters. The man begins to attack, which was the beginning of hostilities. Hundred Galanba on Millionnaya Street collides with Yakov Feldman. He is looking for a midwife for his wife, because she will give birth any minute. Galanba demands identification, but instead Feldman gives a certificate of supply for an armor-piercing battalion. Such a mistake ended in death for the failed father.

Fights in the streets

The chapter-by-chapter summary of “The White Guard” details the offensive of Bolbotun. The colonel advances towards the center of Kyiv, but suffers losses due to the resistance of the cadets. On Moskovskaya Street an armored car blocks their way. Previously, the hetman's engine squad had four cars, but Mikhail Shpolyansky's command over the second vehicle changed everything for the worse. Armored cars were breaking down, drivers and soldiers constantly began to disappear.

That night, the former writer Shpolyansky went on reconnaissance along with the driver Shchur and did not return. Soon the commander of the entire division, Shlepko, disappears. Further, in the summary of the novel “The White Guard”, chapter by chapter, it is told about what kind of person Colonel Nai-Tours is. The man made a powerful impression and always achieved his goal. For the sake of felt boots for his squad, he threatened the quartermaster with a Mauser, but achieved his goal.

His group of fighters collides with Colonel Kozyr-Leshko near the Polytechnic Highway. The Cossacks are stopped by machine guns, but there are also huge losses in the Nai-Tours detachment. He orders a retreat and finds that there is no support on either side. Several wounded soldiers are sent on carriages to headquarters.

Around this time, Nikolka Turbin, with the rank of corporal, became the commander of a detachment of 28 cadets. The guy receives an order from headquarters and takes his guys to positions. Alexey Turbin arrives at the gymnasium building at two o’clock in the afternoon, as Colonel Malyshev said. He finds him in the headquarters building and is advised to take off his uniform and leave through the back door. Meanwhile, the commander himself is burning important papers. The eldest of the Turbin family understands what is happening only at night, then he gets rid of the form.

Continuation of hostilities in Kyiv

A brief summary of Bulgakov's "White Guard" shows events on the streets of the city. Nikolka Turbin took a place at the intersection, where he discovered cadets running from a nearby alley. Colonel Nai-Tours flies out from there and gives the order to everyone to run faster. The young corporal tries to resist, for which he receives a butt in the face. At this time, the commander loads a machine gun, and Cossacks jump out from the same alley.

Nikolka begins to feed ribbons to the weapon, and they fight back, but fire is opened on them from a nearby street, and Nai-Tours falls. His last words were an order to retreat and not try to be a hero. Nikolka hides with the colonel's pistol and runs home through the courtyards.

Alexey never returned, and the girls are all sitting in tears. The guns began to roar, but the Cossacks were already operating the batteries. The defenders fled, and whoever decided to stay was already dead. Nikolka fell asleep dressed, and when he woke up, he saw a relative of Larion Surzhansky from Zhitomir. He came to the family to heal the wounds from his wife’s betrayal. At this time, Alexey, wounded in the arm, returns. The doctor sews it up, but parts of the overcoat remain inside.

Larion turned out to be a kind and sincere person, although too clumsy. The turbines forgive him everything, because he is a good man, and also rich. Alexei becomes delirious due to his wound and is given an injection of morphine. Nikolka is trying to cover up all traces in the house that indicate their affiliation with the service and officer ranks. The elder brother is attributed to typhus in order to hide his participation in hostilities.

The Adventures of Alexey

The man did not go home immediately. He was interested in the events in the center, and he went there on foot. Already on Vladimirskaya Street he was met by Petlyura’s fighters. Alexey takes off his shoulder straps while walking, but forgets about his cockade. The Cossacks recognize the officer and open fire to kill. He is hit in the shoulder and is saved from a quick death by an unknown woman. In the courtyard she picks him up and leads him through a long series of streets and gates.

The girl, whose name was Yulia, threw away the bloody clothes, bandaged it and left the man with her. The next day she brought him home. The summary of the chapters of Bulgakov’s “The White Guard” tells further about Alexei’s illness. Stories about typhus have become true and, to support the eldest of the Turbin brothers, all old acquaintances come to the house. The men spend the night playing cards, and the next morning a telegram arrives warning about the arrival of a relative from Zhitomir.

Soon there was a vigorous knock on the door, and Myshlaevsky went to open it. A neighbor from below, Lisovich, who was in a state of great fright, rushed into his arms right out of the door. The men don’t understand anything, but they help him and listen to his story.

Events in Lisovich's house

The man lets in three unknown people who present a vague document. They claim that they are acting on orders from headquarters and must conduct a search in the house. The robbers, in front of the frightened head of the family, completely ransack the house and find the hiding place. They take all the goods from there and exchange their tattered rags for more attractive clothes on the spot. At the end of the robbery, they force Vasily to sign a receipt for the voluntary transfer of property to Kirpatom and Nemolyaka. After several threats, the men disappear into the darkness of the night. Lisovich immediately rushes to the neighbors and tells this story.

Myshlaevsky goes down to the crime scene, where he examines all the details. The lieutenant says that it is better not to tell anyone about this, because it is a miracle that they were left alive. Nikolka realizes that the robbers took the weapons from the place outside the window where he hid the pistols. A hole in the fence was discovered in the yard. The robbers managed to remove the nails and gain access to the building. The next day the hole is boarded up with boards.

Plot twists and turns

The summary of the novel “The White Guard” in the sixteenth chapter tells how prayers took place in the St. Sophia Cathedral, after which the parade began. Soon a Bolshevik agitator climbed onto the high fountain and spoke about revolution. The Petliurites wanted to sort it out and arrest the culprit of the unrest, but Shpolyansky and Shchur intervened. They cleverly accused the Ukrainian activist of theft, and the crowd immediately rushed at him.

At this time, the Bolshevik man quietly disappears from sight. Shervinsky and Stepanov saw everything from the side and were delighted with the actions of the Reds. The summary of “The White Guard” by M. Bulgakov further tells about Nikolka’s campaign to the relatives of Colonel Nai-Tours. For a long time he could not decide to visit with terrible news, but was able to get ready and go to the indicated address. In the house of the former commander, Turbin sees his mother and sister. By the appearance of the unknown guest, they understand that Nai-Tours is no longer alive.

Together with her sister named Irina, Nikolka goes to the building where the morgue has been set up. He identifies the body, and the relatives bury the colonel with full honors, after which they thank the younger Turbin.

By the end of December, Alexei had stopped regaining consciousness, and his condition was only getting worse. Doctors conclude that the case is hopeless and there is nothing they can do. Elena spends a long time in prayer to the Mother of God. She asks not to take her brother away, because their mother has already left them, and her husband will not return to her either. Soon Alexey managed to return to consciousness, which was considered a miracle.

Latest chapters

A brief summary of the parts of “The White Guard” at the end tells how Petliura’s troops retreat from Kyiv in February. Alexey is getting better and even returning to medicine. A patient, Rusakov, comes to him with syphilis, who is obsessed with religion, and constantly reproaches Shpolyansky for something. Turbin prescribes him treatment and also advises him to focus less on his ideas.

After this, he visits Julia, to whom he gives his mother’s valuable bracelet as a token of gratitude for saving her. On the street he runs into his younger brother, who again went to Nai-Tursa's sister. That same evening Vasily brings a telegram, which surprised everyone due to the inoperability of the post office. In it, familiar people from Warsaw are surprised at Elena’s divorce from her husband, because Talberg married again.

The beginning of February was marked by the withdrawal of Petliura’s troops from Kyiv. Alexey and Vasily are tormented by terrible dreams about past events. The last chapter shows the dreams of different people about future events. Only Rusakov, who joined the Red Army, does not sleep, and spends his night time reading the Bible.

In a dream, Elena sees Lieutenant Shervinsky attaching a large red star to an armored train. This picture is replaced by the bloody neck of Nikolka’s younger brother. Five-year-old Petka Shcheglov also has a dream, but it is many times better than that of other people. The boy ran through the meadow, where a diamond ball appeared. He ran up and grabbed the object, which began to spew spray. From this picture the boy began to laugh through his dreams.

The action of the novel takes place in the winter of 1918/19 in a certain City, in which Kyiv is clearly visible. The city is occupied by German occupation forces, and the hetman of “all Ukraine” is in power. However, any day now Petlyura’s army may enter the City - fighting is already taking place twelve kilometers from the City. The city lives a strange, unnatural life: it is full of visitors from Moscow and St. Petersburg - bankers, businessmen, journalists, lawyers, poets - who have flocked there since the election of the hetman, since the spring of 1918.

In the dining room of the Turbins' house at dinner, Alexey Turbin, a doctor, his younger brother Nikolka, a non-commissioned officer, their sister Elena and family friends - Lieutenant Myshlaevsky, Second Lieutenant Stepanov, nicknamed Karas, and Lieutenant Shervinsky, adjutant at the headquarters of Prince Belorukov, commander of all military forces of Ukraine , - excitedly discussing the fate of their beloved City. The elder Turbin believes that the hetman is to blame for everything with his Ukrainization: until the very last moment he did not allow the formation of the Russian army, and if this had happened on time, a selected army of cadets, students, high school students and officers, of whom there are thousands, would have been formed. and not only would they have defended the City, but Petliura would not have been in spirit in Little Russia, moreover, they would have gone to Moscow and saved Russia.

Elena's husband, Captain of the General Staff Sergei Ivanovich Talberg, announces to his wife that the Germans are leaving the City and he, Talberg, is being taken on the headquarters train leaving tonight. Talberg is confident that within three months he will return to the City with Denikin’s army, which is now forming on the Don. In the meantime, he cannot take Elena into the unknown, and she will have to stay in the City.

To protect against the advancing troops of Petlyura, the formation of Russian military formations begins in the City. Karas, Myshlaevsky and Alexey Turbin appear to the commander of the emerging mortar division, Colonel Malyshev, and enter service: Karas and Myshlaevsky - as officers, Turbin - as a division doctor. However, the next night - from December 13 to 14 - the hetman and General Belorukov flee the City on a German train, and Colonel Malyshev dissolves the newly formed division: he has no one to protect, there is no legal authority in the City.

By December 10, Colonel Nai-Tours completes the formation of the second department of the first squad. Considering waging war without winter equipment for soldiers impossible, Colonel Nai-Tours, threatening the head of the supply department with a Colt, receives felt boots and hats for his one hundred and fifty cadets. On the morning of December 14, Petlyura attacks the City; Nai-Tours receives orders to guard the Polytechnic Highway and, if the enemy appears, to take the fight. Nai-Tours, having entered into battle with the advanced detachments of the enemy, sends three cadets to find out where the hetman’s units are. Those sent return with the message that there are no units anywhere, there is machine-gun fire in the rear, and the enemy cavalry is entering the City. Nai realizes that they are trapped.

An hour earlier, Nikolai Turbin, corporal of the third section of the first infantry squad, receives an order to lead the team along the route. Arriving at the appointed place, Nikolka sees with horror the fleeing cadets and hears the command of Colonel Nai-Tours, ordering all the cadets - both his own and those from Nikolka’s team - to rip off their shoulder straps, cockades, throw away their weapons, tear up documents, run and hide. The colonel himself covers the retreat of the cadets. Before Nikolka's eyes, the mortally wounded colonel dies. Shocked Nikolka, leaving Nai-Tours, makes his way through courtyards and alleys to the house.

Meanwhile, Alexey, who was not informed about the dissolution of the division, having appeared, as he was ordered, at two o’clock, finds an empty building with abandoned guns. Having found Colonel Malyshev, he receives an explanation of what is happening: The city was taken by Petliura’s troops. Alexey, having torn off his shoulder straps, goes home, but runs into Petlyura’s soldiers, who, recognizing him as an officer (in his haste, he forgot to take off the badge from his hat), pursue him. Alexei, wounded in the arm, is hidden in her house by a woman unknown to him named Yulia Reise. The next day, after dressing Alexei in civilian dress, Yulia takes him home in a cab. At the same time as Alexey, Talberg’s cousin Larion comes to the Turbins from Zhitomir, who has experienced a personal drama: his wife left him. Larion really likes it in the Turbins' house, and all the Turbins find him very nice.

Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich, nicknamed Vasilisa, the owner of the house in which the Turbins live, occupies the first floor of the same house, while the Turbins live on the second. On the eve of the day when Petlyura entered the City, Vasilisa builds a hiding place in which she hides money and jewelry. However, through a crack in a loosely curtained window, an unknown person is watching Vasilisa’s actions. The next day, three armed men come to Vasilisa with a search warrant. First of all, they open the cache, and then take Vasilisa’s watch, suit and shoes. After the “guests” leave, Vasilisa and his wife realize that they were bandits. Vasilisa runs to the Turbins, and Karas goes to them to protect them from a possible new attack. The usually stingy Vanda Mikhailovna, Vasilisa’s wife, does not skimp here: there is cognac, veal, and pickled mushrooms on the table. Happy Crucian dozes, listening to Vasilisa’s plaintive speeches.

Three days later, Nikolka, having learned the address of Nai-Turs’s family, goes to the colonel’s relatives. He tells Nai's mother and sister the details of his death. Together with the colonel's sister Irina, Nikolka finds Nai-Turs's body in the morgue, and that same night the funeral service is held in the chapel at the Nai-Turs anatomical theater.

A few days later, Alexei’s wound becomes inflamed, and in addition, he has typhus: high fever, delirium. According to the conclusion of the consultation, the patient is hopeless; On December 22, the agony begins. Elena locks herself in the bedroom and passionately prays to the Most Holy Theotokos, begging her to save her brother from death. “Let Sergei not return,” she whispers, “but do not punish this with death.” To the amazement of the doctor on duty with him, Alexey regains consciousness - the crisis is over.

A month and a half later, Alexey, who has finally recovered, goes to Yulia Reisa, who saved him from death, and gives her his late mother’s bracelet. Alexey asks Yulia for permission to visit her. After leaving Yulia, he meets Nikolka, returning from Irina Nai-Tours.

Elena receives a letter from a friend from Warsaw, in which she informs her about Talberg's upcoming marriage to their mutual friend. Elena, sobbing, remembers her prayer.

On the night of February 2-3, the withdrawal of Petliura’s troops from the City began. You can hear the roar of Bolshevik guns approaching the City.

Although the manuscripts of the novel have not survived, Bulgakov scholars have traced the fate of many prototype characters and proved the almost documentary accuracy and reality of the events and characters described by the author.

The work was conceived by the author as a large-scale trilogy covering the period of the Civil War. Part of the novel was first published in the magazine "Russia" in 1925. The entire novel was first published in France in 1927-1929. The novel was received ambiguously by critics - the Soviet side criticized the writer’s glorification of class enemies, the emigrant side criticized Bulgakov’s loyalty to Soviet power.

The work served as a source for the play “Days of the Turbins” and subsequent several film adaptations.

Plot

The novel takes place in 1918, when the Germans who occupied Ukraine leave the City and it is captured by Petliura's troops. The author describes the complex, multifaceted world of a family of Russian intellectuals and their friends. This world is breaking under the onslaught of a social cataclysm and will never happen again.

The heroes - Alexey Turbin, Elena Turbina-Talberg and Nikolka - are involved in the cycle of military and political events. The city, in which Kyiv is easily guessed, is occupied by the German army. As a result of the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, it does not fall under the rule of the Bolsheviks and becomes a refuge for many Russian intellectuals and military personnel who are fleeing Bolshevik Russia. Officer military organizations are created in the city under the patronage of Hetman Skoropadsky, an ally of the Germans, Russia's recent enemies. Petlyura's army is attacking the City. By the time of the events of the novel, the Compiegne Truce has been concluded and the Germans are preparing to leave the City. In fact, only volunteers defend him from Petliura. Understanding the complexity of their situation, the Turbins reassure themselves with rumors about the approach of French troops, who allegedly landed in Odessa (in accordance with the terms of the truce, they had the right to occupy the occupied territories of Russia up to the Vistula in the west). Alexey and Nikolka Turbin, like other residents of the City, volunteer to join the defenders’ detachments, and Elena protects the house, which becomes a refuge for former officers of the Russian army. Since it is impossible to defend the City on its own, the hetman’s command and administration abandon him to his fate and leave with the Germans (the hetman himself disguises himself as a wounded German officer). Volunteers - Russian officers and cadets unsuccessfully defend the City without command against superior enemy forces (the author created a brilliant heroic image of Colonel Nai-Tours). Some commanders, realizing the futility of resistance, send their fighters home, others actively organize resistance and die along with their subordinates. Petlyura occupies the City, organizes a magnificent parade, but after a few months is forced to surrender it to the Bolsheviks.

The main character, Alexei Turbin, is faithful to his duty, tries to join his unit (not knowing that it has been disbanded), enters into battle with the Petliurists, is wounded and, by chance, finds love in the person of a woman who saves him from being pursued by his enemies.

A social cataclysm reveals characters - some flee, others prefer death in battle. The people as a whole accept the new government (Petlyura) and after its arrival demonstrate hostility towards the officers.

Characters

• Alexey Vasilievich Turbin- doctor, 28 years old.
• Elena Turbina-Talberg- sister of Alexei, 24 years old.
• Nikolka- non-commissioned officer of the First Infantry Squad, brother of Alexei and Elena, 17 years old.
• Victor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky- lieutenant, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei’s friend at the Alexander Gymnasium.
• Leonid Yurievich Shervinsky- former lieutenant of the Life Guards Uhlan Regiment, adjutant at the headquarters of General Belorukov, friend of the Turbin family, friend of Alexei at the Alexander Gymnasium, longtime admirer of Elena.
• Fedor Nikolaevich Stepanov(“Karas”) - second lieutenant artilleryman, friend of the Turbin family, Alexei’s friend at the Alexander Gymnasium.
• Sergei Ivanovich Talberg- Captain of the General Staff of Hetman Skoropadsky, Elena’s husband, a conformist.
• father Alexander- priest of the Church of St. Nicholas the Good.
• Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich(“Vasilisa”) - the owner of the house in which the Turbins rented the second floor.
• Larion Larionovich Surzhansky(“Lariosik”) - Talberg’s nephew from Zhitomir.

History of writing

Bulgakov began writing the novel “The White Guard” after the death of his mother (February 1, 1922) and wrote until 1924.

The typist I. S. Raaben, who retyped the novel, argued that this work was conceived by Bulgakov as a trilogy. The second part of the novel was supposed to cover the events of 1919, and the third - 1920, including the war with the Poles. In the third part, Myshlaevsky went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and served in the Red Army.

The novel could have other names - for example, Bulgakov chose between “Midnight Cross” and “White Cross”. One of the excerpts from an early edition of the novel in December 1922 was published in the Berlin newspaper "On the Eve" under the title "On the night of the 3rd" with the subtitle "From the novel" The Scarlet Mach "." The working title of the first part of the novel at the time of writing was The Yellow Ensign.

It is generally accepted that Bulgakov worked on the novel The White Guard in 1923-1924, but this is probably not entirely accurate. In any case, it is known for sure that in 1922 Bulgakov wrote some stories, which were then included in the novel in a modified form. In March 1923, in the seventh issue of the Rossiya magazine, a message appeared: “Mikhail Bulgakov is finishing the novel “The White Guard,” covering the era of the struggle with whites in the south (1919-1920).”

T. N. Lappa told M. O. Chudakova: “...I wrote “The White Guard” at night and liked me to sit next to me, sewing. His hands and feet were cold, he told me: “Hurry, quickly, hot water”; I was heating water on a kerosene stove, he put his hands in a basin of hot water...”

In the spring of 1923, Bulgakov wrote in a letter to his sister Nadezhda: “... I’m urgently finishing the 1st part of the novel; It’s called “Yellow Ensign.” The novel begins with the entry of Petliura's troops into Kyiv. The second and subsequent parts, apparently, were supposed to tell about the arrival of the Bolsheviks in the City, then about their retreat under the attacks of Denikin’s troops, and, finally, about the fighting in the Caucasus. This was the writer's original intention. But after thinking about the possibilities of publishing a similar novel in Soviet Russia, Bulgakov decided to shift the time of action to an earlier period and exclude events associated with the Bolsheviks.

June 1923, apparently, was completely devoted to work on the novel - Bulgakov did not even keep a diary at that time. On July 11, Bulgakov wrote: “The biggest break in my diary... It’s a disgusting, cold and rainy summer.” On July 25, Bulgakov noted: “Because of the “Beep”, which takes up the best part of the day, the novel is making almost no progress.”

At the end of August 1923, Bulgakov informed Yu. L. Slezkin that he had completed the novel in a draft version - apparently, work on the earliest edition was completed, the structure and composition of which still remain unclear. In the same letter, Bulgakov wrote: “... but it has not yet been rewritten, it lies in a heap, over which I think a lot. I'll fix something. Lezhnev is starting a thick monthly “Russia” with the participation of our own and foreign ones... Apparently, Lezhnev has a huge publishing and editorial future ahead of him. “Russia” will be published in Berlin... In any case, things are clearly moving forward... in the literary publishing world.”

Then, for six months, nothing was said about the novel in Bulgakov’s diary, and only on February 25, 1924, an entry appeared: “Tonight... I read pieces from The White Guard... Apparently, I made an impression in this circle too.”

On March 9, 1924, the following message from Yu. L. Slezkin appeared in the newspaper “Nakanune”: “The novel “The White Guard” is the first part of a trilogy and was read by the author over four evenings in the “Green Lamp” literary circle. This thing covers the period of 1918-1919, the Hetmanate and Petliurism until the appearance of the Red Army in Kyiv... Minor shortcomings noted by some pale in front of the undoubted merits of this novel, which is the first attempt to create a great epic of our time.”

Publication history of the novel

On April 12, 1924, Bulgakov entered into an agreement for the publication of “The White Guard” with the editor of the magazine “Russia” I. G. Lezhnev. On July 25, 1924, Bulgakov wrote in his diary: “... in the afternoon I called Lezhnev on the phone and found out that for now there is no need to negotiate with Kagansky regarding the release of The White Guard as a separate book, since he does not have the money yet. This is a new surprise. That's when I didn't take 30 chervonets, now I can repent. I’m sure that the Guard will remain in my hands.” December 29: “Lezhnev is negotiating... to take the novel “The White Guard” from Sabashnikov and give it to him... I don’t want to get involved with Lezhnev, and it’s inconvenient and unpleasant to terminate the contract with Sabashnikov.” January 2, 1925: “... in the evening... I sat with my wife, working out the text of the agreement for the continuation of “The White Guard” in “Russia”... Lezhnev is courting me... Tomorrow, a Jew Kagansky, still unknown to me, will have to pay me 300 rubles and a bill. You can wipe yourself with these bills. However, the devil only knows! I wonder if the money will be brought tomorrow. I won’t give up the manuscript.” January 3: “Today I received 300 rubles from Lezhnev towards the novel “The White Guard”, which will be published in “Russia”. They promised a bill for the rest of the amount...”

The first publication of the novel took place in the magazine “Russia”, 1925, No. 4, 5 - the first 13 chapters. No. 6 was not published because the magazine ceased to exist. The entire novel was published by the Concorde publishing house in Paris in 1927 - the first volume and in 1929 - the second volume: chapters 12-20 newly corrected by the author.

According to researchers, the novel “The White Guard” was written after the premiere of the play “Days of the Turbins” in 1926 and the creation of “Run” in 1928. The text of the last third of the novel, corrected by the author, was published in 1929 by the Parisian publishing house Concorde.

For the first time, the full text of the novel was published in Russia only in 1966 - the writer’s widow, E. S. Bulgakova, using the text of the magazine “Russia”, unpublished proofs of the third part and the Paris edition, prepared the novel for publication Bulgakov M. Selected prose. M.: Fiction, 1966.

Modern editions of the novel are printed according to the text of the Paris edition with corrections of obvious inaccuracies according to the texts of the magazine publication and proofreading with the author's editing of the third part of the novel.

Manuscript

The manuscript of the novel has not survived.

The canonical text of the novel “The White Guard” has not yet been determined. For a long time, researchers were unable to find a single page of handwritten or typewritten text of the White Guard. At the beginning of the 1990s. An authorized typescript of the ending of “The White Guard” was found with a total volume of about two printed sheets. When conducting an examination of the found fragment, it was possible to establish that the text is the very ending of the last third of the novel, which Bulgakov was preparing for the sixth issue of the magazine “Russia”. It was this material that the writer handed over to the editor of Rossiya, I. Lezhnev, on June 7, 1925. On this day, Lezhnev wrote a note to Bulgakov: “You have completely forgotten “Russia”. It’s high time to submit the material for No. 6 to the typesetting, you need to type the ending of “The White Guard”, but you don’t include the manuscripts. We kindly request you not to delay this matter any longer.” And on the same day, the writer handed over the end of the novel to Lezhnev against a receipt (it was preserved).

The found manuscript was preserved only because the famous editor and then employee of the newspaper “Pravda” I. G. Lezhnev used Bulgakov’s manuscript to paste newspaper clippings of his numerous articles onto it as a paper base. It is in this form that the manuscript was discovered.

The found text of the end of the novel not only differs significantly in content from the Parisian version, but is also much sharper in political terms - the author’s desire to find commonality between the Petliurists and the Bolsheviks is clearly visible. The guesses were also confirmed that the writer’s story “On the Night of the 3rd” is an integral part of “The White Guard”.

Historical outline

The historical events described in the novel date back to the end of 1918. At this time, in Ukraine there is a confrontation between the socialist Ukrainian Directory and the conservative regime of Hetman Skoropadsky - the Hetmanate. The heroes of the novel find themselves drawn into these events, and, taking the side of the White Guards, they defend Kyiv from the troops of the Directory. "The White Guard" of Bulgakov's novel differs significantly from White Guard White Army. The volunteer army of Lieutenant General A.I. Denikin did not recognize the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and de jure remained at war with both the Germans and the puppet government of Hetman Skoropadsky.

When a war broke out in Ukraine between the Directory and Skoropadsky, the hetman had to turn for help to the intelligentsia and officers of Ukraine, who mostly supported the White Guards. In order to attract these categories of the population to its side, Skoropadsky’s government published in newspapers about Denikin’s alleged order to include the troops fighting the Directory into the Volunteer Army. This order was falsified by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Skoropadsky government, I. A. Kistyakovsky, who thus joined the ranks of the hetman’s defenders. Denikin sent several telegrams to Kyiv in which he denied the existence of such an order, and issued an appeal against the hetman, demanding the creation of a “democratic united power in Ukraine” and warning against providing assistance to the hetman. However, these telegrams and appeals were hidden, and Kyiv officers and volunteers sincerely considered themselves part of the Volunteer Army.

Denikin's telegrams and appeals were made public only after the capture of Kyiv by the Ukrainian Directory, when many defenders of Kyiv were captured by Ukrainian units. It turned out that the captured officers and volunteers were neither White Guards nor Hetmans. They were criminally manipulated and they defended Kyiv for unknown reasons and unknown from whom.

The Kiev “White Guard” turned out to be illegal for all the warring parties: Denikin abandoned them, the Ukrainians did not need them, the Reds considered them class enemies. More than two thousand people were captured by the Directory, mostly officers and intellectuals.

Character prototypes

“The White Guard” is in many details an autobiographical novel, which is based on the writer’s personal impressions and memories of the events that took place in Kyiv in the winter of 1918-1919. Turbiny is the maiden name of Bulgakov’s grandmother on his mother’s side. Among the members of the Turbin family one can easily discern the relatives of Mikhail Bulgakov, his Kyiv friends, acquaintances and himself. The action of the novel takes place in a house that, down to the smallest detail, is copied from the house in which the Bulgakov family lived in Kyiv; Now it houses the Turbin House Museum.

The venereologist Alexei Turbine is recognizable as Mikhail Bulgakov himself. The prototype of Elena Talberg-Turbina was Bulgakov’s sister, Varvara Afanasyevna.

Many of the surnames of the characters in the novel coincide with the surnames of real residents of Kyiv at that time or are slightly changed.

Myshlaevsky

The prototype of Lieutenant Myshlaevsky could be Bulgakov's childhood friend Nikolai Nikolaevich Syngaevsky. In her memoirs, T. N. Lappa (Bulgakov’s first wife) described Syngaevsky as follows:

“He was very handsome... Tall, thin... his head was small... too small for his figure. I kept dreaming about ballet and wanted to go to ballet school. Before the arrival of the Petliurists, he joined the cadets.”

T.N. Lappa also recalled that the service of Bulgakov and Syngaevsky with Skoropadsky boiled down to the following:

“Syngaevsky and Misha’s other comrades came and they were talking about how we had to keep the Petliurists out and defend the city, that the Germans should help... but the Germans kept scurrying away. And the guys agreed to go the next day. They even stayed overnight with us, it seems. And in the morning Mikhail went. There was a first aid station there... And there should have been a battle, but it seems there was none. Mikhail arrived in a cab and said that it was all over and that the Petliurists would come.”

After 1920, the Syngaevsky family emigrated to Poland.

According to Karum, Syngaevsky “met the ballerina Nezhinskaya, who danced with Mordkin, and during one of the changes in power in Kyiv, he went to Paris at her expense, where he successfully acted as her dance partner and husband, although he was 20 years younger her" .

According to Bulgakov scholar Ya. Yu. Tinchenko, the prototype of Myshlaevsky was a friend of the Bulgakov family, Pyotr Aleksandrovich Brzhezitsky. Unlike Syngaevsky, Brzhezitsky was indeed an artillery officer and participated in the same events that Myshlaevsky talked about in the novel.

Shervinsky

The prototype of Lieutenant Shervinsky was another friend of Bulgakov - Yuri Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, an amateur singer who served (though not as an adjutant) in the troops of Hetman Skoropadsky; he later emigrated.

Thalberg

Leonid Karum, husband of Bulgakov's sister. OK. 1916. Thalberg prototype.

Captain Talberg, the husband of Elena Talberg-Turbina, has many similarities with Varvara Afanasyevna Bulgakova’s husband, Leonid Sergeevich Karum (1888-1968), a German by birth, a career officer who served first Skoropadsky and then the Bolsheviks. Karum wrote a memoir, “My Life. A story without lies,” where he described, among other things, the events of the novel in his own interpretation. Karum wrote that he greatly angered Bulgakov and other relatives of his wife when, in May 1917, he wore a uniform with orders to his own wedding, but with a wide red bandage on the sleeve. In the novel, the Turbin brothers condemn Talberg for the fact that in March 1917 “he was the first - understand, the first - who came to the military school with a wide red bandage on his sleeve... Talberg, as a member of the revolutionary military committee, and no one else, arrested the famous General Petrov." Karum was indeed a member of the executive committee of the Kyiv City Duma and participated in the arrest of Adjutant General N.I. Ivanov. Karum escorted the general to the capital.

Nikolka

The prototype of Nikolka Turbin was the brother of M. A. Bulgakov - Nikolai Bulgakov. The events that happened to Nikolka Turbin in the novel completely coincide with the fate of Nikolai Bulgakov.

“When the Petliurists arrived, they demanded that all officers and cadets gather in the Pedagogical Museum of the First Gymnasium (the museum where the works of gymnasium students were collected). Everyone has gathered. The doors were locked. Kolya said: “Gentlemen, we need to run, this is a trap.” Nobody dared. Kolya went up to the second floor (he knew the premises of this museum like the back of his hand) and through some window he got out into the courtyard - there was snow in the courtyard, and he fell into the snow. It was the courtyard of their gymnasium, and Kolya made his way into the gymnasium, where he met Maxim (pedel). It was necessary to change the cadet clothes. Maxim took his things, gave him to put on his suit, and Kolya got out of the gymnasium in a different way - in civilian clothes - and went home. Others were shot."

crucian carp

“There was definitely a crucian carp - everyone called him Karasem or Karasik, I don’t remember if it was a nickname or a surname... He looked exactly like a crucian carp - short, dense, wide - well, like a crucian carp. The face is round... When Mikhail and I came to the Syngaevskys, he was there often..."

According to another version, expressed by researcher Yaroslav Tinchenko, the prototype of Stepanov-Karas was Andrei Mikhailovich Zemsky (1892-1946) - the husband of Bulgakov’s sister Nadezhda. 23-year-old Nadezhda Bulgakova and Andrei Zemsky, a native of Tiflis and a philologist graduate of Moscow University, met in Moscow in 1916. Zemsky was the son of a priest - a teacher at a theological seminary. Zemsky was sent to Kyiv to study at the Nikolaev Artillery School. During his short leave, the cadet Zemsky ran to Nadezhda - to the very house of the Turbins.

In July 1917, Zemsky graduated from college and was assigned to the reserve artillery division in Tsarskoye Selo. Nadezhda went with him, but as a wife. In March 1918, the division was evacuated to Samara, where the White Guard coup took place. Zemsky's unit went over to the White side, but he himself did not participate in the battles with the Bolsheviks. After these events, Zemsky taught Russian.

Arrested in January 1931, L. S. Karum, under torture at the OGPU, testified that Zemsky was listed in Kolchak’s army for a month or two in 1918. Zemsky was immediately arrested and exiled to Siberia for 5 years, then to Kazakhstan. In 1933, the case was reviewed and Zemsky was able to return to Moscow to his family.

Then Zemsky continued to teach Russian and co-authored a Russian language textbook.

Lariosik

Nikolai Vasilievich Sudzilovsky. Lariosik prototype according to L. S. Karum.

There are two candidates who could become the prototype of Lariosik, and both of them are full namesakes of the same year of birth - both bear the name Nikolai Sudzilovsky, born in 1896, and both are from Zhitomir. One of them is Nikolai Nikolaevich Sudzilovsky, Karum’s nephew (his sister’s adopted son), but he did not live in the Turbins’ house.

In his memoirs, L. S. Karum wrote about the Lariosik prototype:

“In October, Kolya Sudzilovsky appeared with us. He decided to continue his studies at the university, but was no longer at the medical faculty, but at the law faculty. Uncle Kolya asked Varenka and me to take care of him. Having discussed this problem with our students, Kostya and Vanya, we offered him to live with us in the same room with the students. But he was a very noisy and enthusiastic person. Therefore, Kolya and Vanya soon moved to their mother at 36 Andreevsky Spusk, where she lived with Lelya in the apartment of Ivan Pavlovich Voskresensky. And in our apartment the imperturbable Kostya and Kolya Sudzilovsky remained.”

T.N. Lappa recalled that at that time Sudzilovsky lived with the Karums - he was so funny! Everything fell out of his hands, he spoke at random. I don’t remember whether he came from Vilna or from Zhitomir. Lariosik looks like him.”

T.N. Lappa also recalled: “Someone’s relative from Zhitomir. I don’t remember when he appeared... An unpleasant guy. He was kind of strange, there was even something abnormal about him. Clumsy. Something was falling, something was beating. So, some kind of mumble... Average height, above average... In general, he was different from everyone else in some way. He was so dense, middle-aged... He was ugly. He liked Varya right away. Leonid was not there..."

Nikolai Vasilyevich Sudzilovsky was born on August 7 (19), 1896 in the village of Pavlovka, Chaussky district, Mogilev province, on the estate of his father, state councilor and district leader of the nobility. In 1916, Sudzilovsky studied at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. At the end of the year, Sudzilovsky entered the 1st Peterhof Warrant Officer School, from where he was expelled for poor academic performance in February 1917 and sent as a volunteer to the 180th Reserve Infantry Regiment. From there he was sent to the Vladimir Military School in Petrograd, but was expelled from there in May 1917. To get a deferment from military service, Sudzilovsky got married, and in 1918, together with his wife, he moved to Zhitomir to live with his parents. In the summer of 1918, Lariosik's prototype unsuccessfully tried to enter Kiev University. Sudzilovsky appeared in the Bulgakovs' apartment on Andreevsky Spusk on December 14, 1918 - the day Skoropadsky fell. By that time, his wife had already left him. In 1919, Nikolai Vasilyevich joined the Volunteer Army, and his further fate is unknown.

The second likely contender, also named Sudzilovsky, actually lived in the Turbins’ house. According to the memoirs of Yu. L. Gladyrevsky’s brother Nikolai: “And Lariosik is my cousin, Sudzilovsky. He was an officer during the war, then he was demobilized and tried, it seems, to go to school. He came from Zhitomir, wanted to settle with us, but my mother knew that he was not a particularly pleasant person, and sent him to the Bulgakovs. They rented a room to him..."

Other prototypes

Dedications

The question of Bulgakov’s dedication to L. E. Belozerskaya’s novel is ambiguous. Among Bulgakov scholars, relatives and friends of the writer, this question gave rise to different opinions. The writer's first wife, T. N. Lappa, claimed that in handwritten and typewritten versions the novel was dedicated to her, and the name of L. E. Belozerskaya, to the surprise and displeasure of Bulgakov's inner circle, appeared only in printed form. Before her death, T. N. Lappa said with obvious resentment: “Bulgakov... once brought The White Guard when it was published. And suddenly I see - there is a dedication to Belozerskaya. So I threw this book back to him... I sat with him for so many nights, fed him, looked after him... he told his sisters that he dedicated it to me...”

Criticism

Critics on the other side of the barricades also had complaints about Bulgakov:

“... not only is there not the slightest sympathy for the white cause (which would be complete naivety to expect from a Soviet author), but there is also no sympathy for the people who devoted themselves to this cause or are associated with it. (...) He leaves the lust and rudeness to other authors, but he himself prefers a condescending, almost loving attitude towards his characters. (...) He almost does not condemn them - and he does not need such condemnation. On the contrary, it would even weaken his position, and the blow that he deals to the White Guard from another, more principled, and therefore more sensitive side. The literary calculation here, in any case, is evident, and it was done correctly.”

“From the heights from which the whole “panorama” of human life opens up to him (Bulgakov), he looks at us with a dry and rather sad smile. Undoubtedly, these heights are so significant that at them red and white merge for the eye - in any case, these differences lose their meaning. In the first scene, where tired, confused officers, together with Elena Turbina, are having a drinking binge, in this scene, where the characters are not only ridiculed, but somehow exposed from the inside, where human insignificance obscures all other human properties, devalues ​​virtues or qualities , - you can immediately feel Tolstoy.”

As a summary of the criticism heard from two irreconcilable camps, one can consider I. M. Nusinov’s assessment of the novel: “Bulgakov entered literature with the consciousness of the death of his class and the need to adapt to a new life. Bulgakov comes to the conclusion: “Everything that happens always happens as it should and only for the better.” This fatalism is an excuse for those who have changed milestones. Their rejection of the past is not cowardice or betrayal. It is dictated by the inexorable lessons of history. Reconciliation with the revolution was a betrayal of the past of a dying class. The reconciliation with Bolshevism of the intelligentsia, which in the past was not only by origin, but also ideologically connected with the defeated classes, the statements of this intelligentsia not only about its loyalty, but also about its readiness to build together with the Bolsheviks - could be interpreted as sycophancy. With his novel “The White Guard,” Bulgakov rejected this accusation of the White emigrants and declared: the change of milestones is not capitulation to the physical winner, but recognition of the moral justice of the victors. For Bulgakov, the novel “The White Guard” is not only reconciliation with reality, but also self-justification. Reconciliation is forced. Bulgakov came to him through the brutal defeat of his class. Therefore, there is no joy from the knowledge that the reptiles have been defeated, there is no faith in the creativity of the victorious people. This determined his artistic perception of the winner."

Bulgakov about the novel

It is obvious that Bulgakov understood the true meaning of his work, since he did not hesitate to compare it with “

1918-1919 is the time of action in the novel, when the tense events of the civil war are growing in the country. A certain City, in which Kyiv can be guessed, is occupied by German occupation forces. The confrontation is between them and Petliura’s army, which can enter the city any day now. There is an atmosphere of anxiety and confusion in the city. Since the election of the Hetman of “all Ukraine”, in the spring of 1918, a continuous stream of visitors from Moscow and St. Petersburg rushed to the City: bankers, journalists, lawyers, literary figures.

The action begins in the Turbins’ house, where Alexey Turbin, a doctor, gathered for dinner; Nikolka, his younger brother, non-commissioned officer; their sister Elena and family friends - Lieutenant Myshlaevsky, Second Lieutenant Stepanov, nicknamed Karas, and Lieutenant Shervinsky, adjutant at the headquarters of the commander of all military forces of Ukraine, Prince Belorukov. They are occupied with one single question: “How to live? How to live?”

Alexey Turbin is firmly convinced that his beloved city could have been saved if not for the negligence and frivolity of the hetman. If he had gathered the Russian army in time, Petliura’s army would not have threatened now, but would have been destroyed. And besides, Russia could have been saved if the army had marched on Moscow.

Sergei Ivanovich Talberg, Elena’s husband, speaks of the impending separation from his wife: he should be taken away along with the German army leaving the city. But according to his plans, he will return in three months, because there will be help from Denikin’s emerging army. Elena will have to live in the City during his absence.

The formation of the Russian army that began in the City was completely stopped. By this time, Karas, Myshlaevsky and Alexey Turbin had already joined the military forces. They readily come to Colonel Malyshev and enter the service. Karas and Myshlaevsky were appointed to the position of officers, and Turbin began to serve as a division doctor. But on the night of December 13-14, the hetman and General Belorukov flee the City on a German train. The army is being disbanded. Nikolai Turbin watches with horror the inglorious escape of officers and cadets of the Russian army. Colonel Nai-Tours gives everyone the command to hide as best they can. He orders to tear off shoulder straps, throw away weapons or hide them, and destroy everything that could give away rank or affiliation with the army. Horror freezes on Nikolai's face when he sees the valiant death of the colonel covering the departure of the cadets.

The fact is that on December 10, the formation of the second department of the first squad is completed. With great difficulty, Colonel Nai-Tours obtains uniforms for his soldiers. He understands perfectly well that fighting a war like this, without proper ammunition, is simply pointless. The morning of December 14 does not bode well: Petlyura goes on the attack. The city is under siege. Nai-Tours, by order of its superiors, must protect the Polytechnic Highway. The colonel sends some cadets on reconnaissance: their task is to find out the location of the hetman's units. Intelligence brings bad news. It turned out that there were no military units ahead, and the enemy cavalry had just burst into the city. This meant only one thing - a trap.

Alexey Turbin, who until now did not know about the hostilities and the failure, finds Colonel Malyshev, from whom he learns everything that is happening: The city was taken by Petlyura’s troops. Alexey is trying to hide. He tears off his shoulder straps and strives to break through to his home. However, on the way he comes across the Hetman’s soldiers. They recognize him as an officer, since he completely forgot to take off the badge from his cap. The chase begins. Alexei is wounded. Turbin finds salvation in the house of Yulia Reise. She helps him bandage the wound and changes him into civilian dress the next morning. That same morning, Alexey gets to his home.

At the same time, Talberg’s cousin Larion arrives from Zhitomir. He is looking for salvation from mental anguish, worried about his wife leaving.

In a large house, the Turbins live on the second floor, the first is occupied by Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich. Vasilisa (this is the nickname of the owner of the house) the day before Petliura’s troops arrive in the City, decides to take care of her property. He makes a kind of hiding place where he hides money and jewelry. But his hiding place turns out to be declassified: an unknown person is closely watching his cunning from a crack in the curtained window. And here's a coincidence - the next night they come to Vasilisa with a search. First of all, the searchers open the cache and take away all of Vasilisa’s savings. And only after they leave, the owner of the house and his wife begin to understand that they were bandits. Vasilisa is trying to gain the trust of the Turbins in order to have protection from a possible next attack. Karas undertakes to protect the Lisovichs.

Three days later, Nikolka Turbin goes to look for Nai-Tours’ relatives. He tells the colonel's mother and sister the details of his death. After this, Nikolka makes a painful trip to the morgue, where he finds the body of Nai-Tours, and on the same night the funeral service for the valiant colonel is held in the chapel at the anatomical theater.

And at this time, Alexei Turbin’s condition is deteriorating: the wound becomes inflamed, and to top it off, he has typhus. The doctors gather for a consultation and decide almost unanimously that the patient will soon die. Elena, locked in her bedroom, passionately prays for her brother. To the great surprise of the doctor, Alexey regains consciousness - the crisis is over.

A few months later, Alexei visits Julia Reise and, in gratitude for saving her life, gives her his late mother's bracelet.

Soon Elena receives a letter from Warsaw. It immediately reminds her of her prayer for her brother: “Mother intercessor, beg him. There he is. What is it worth to you? Have pity on us. Have pity. Your days are coming, your holiday. Maybe he will do something good, and you too I beg you for your sins. Let Sergei not return... Take it away, take it away, but don’t punish this with death..." In a letter, a friend reports that Sergei Talberg is getting married. Elena sobs, remembering her prayer.

Soon Petliura’s troops leave the City. The Bolsheviks are approaching the City.

The novel ends with a philosophical discussion about the eternity of nature and the insignificance of man: “Everything will pass. Suffering, torment, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will disappear, but the stars will remain, when the shadow of our bodies and deeds will not remain on earth. There is not a single person , who would not know this. So why don’t we want to turn our attention to them?

"The White Guard", Chapter 1 - summary

The intelligent Turbin family living in Kyiv - two brothers and a sister - finds themselves in the middle of the revolution in 1918. Alexey Turbin, a young doctor - twenty-eight years old, he has already fought in First World War. Nikolka is seventeen and a half. Sister Elena is twenty-four, a year and a half ago she married staff captain Sergei Talberg.

This year, the Turbins buried their mother, who, dying, told the children: “Live!” But the year is ending, it’s already December, and still the terrible blizzard of revolutionary unrest continues. How to live in such a time? Apparently you will have to suffer and die!

White Guard. Episode 1 Film based on the novel by M. Bulgakov (2012)

The priest who performed the funeral service for his mother, Father Alexander, prophesies to Alexei Turbin that it will be even more difficult in the future. But he urges not to lose heart.

"The White Guard", Chapter 2 - summary

The power of the hetman planted by the Germans in Kyiv Skoropadsky staggers. Socialist troops are marching towards the city from Bila Tserkva Petlyura. He is as much a robber as Bolsheviks, differs from them only in Ukrainian nationalism.

On a December evening, the Turbins gather in the living room, hearing through the windows cannon shots already close to Kyiv.

A family friend, a young, courageous lieutenant Viktor Myshlaevsky, unexpectedly rings the doorbell. He is terribly cold, cannot walk home, and asks permission to spend the night. With abuse he tells how he stood in the outskirts of the city on the defensive from the Petliurists. 40 officers were thrown into an open field in the evening, not even given felt boots, and almost without ammunition. Because of the terrible frost, they began to bury themselves in the snow - and two froze, and two more would have to have their legs amputated due to frostbite. The careless drunkard, Colonel Shchetkin, never delivered his shift in the morning. She was brought only to dinner by the brave Colonel Nai-Tours.

Exhausted, Myshlaevsky falls asleep. Elena's husband returns home, the dry and prudent opportunist Captain Talberg, a Baltic by birth. He quickly explains to his wife: Hetman Skoropadsky is being abandoned by German troops, on whom all his power rested. At one o'clock in the morning General von Bussow's train leaves for Germany. Thanks to his staff contacts, the Germans agree to take Talberg with them. He must get ready to leave immediately, but “I can’t take you, Elena, on your wanderings and the unknown.”

Elena cries quietly, but doesn’t mind. Thalberg promises that he will make his way from Germany through Romania to the Crimea and the Don in order to come to Kyiv with Denikin's troops. He busily packs his suitcase, quickly says goodbye to Elena’s brothers, and at one in the morning leaves with the German train.

"The White Guard", Chapter 3 - summary

The turbines occupy the 2nd floor of a two-story house No. 13 on Alekseevsky Spusk, and the owner of the house, engineer Vasily Lisovich, lives on the first floor, whom acquaintances call Vasilisa for his cowardice and womanly vanity.

That night, Lisovich, having curtained the windows in the room with a sheet and blanket, hides an envelope with money in a secret place inside the wall. He does not notice that a white sheet on a green-painted window has attracted the attention of one street passerby. He climbed the tree and through the gap above the upper edge of the curtain saw everything that Vasilisa was doing.

Having counted the balance of Ukrainian money saved for current expenses, Lisovich goes to bed. He sees in a dream how thieves are opening his hiding place, but soon he wakes up with curses: upstairs they are loudly playing the guitar and singing...

It was two more friends who came to the Turbins: staff adjutant Leonid Shervinsky and artilleryman Fyodor Stepanov (gymnasium nickname - Karas). They brought wine and vodka. The whole company, together with the awakened Myshlaevsky, sits down at the table. Karas is encouraging everyone who wants to defend Kyiv from Petliura to join the mortar division being formed, where Colonel Malyshev is an excellent commander. Shervinsky, clearly in love with Elena, is glad to hear about Thalberg’s departure and begins to sing a passionate epithalamium.

White Guard. Episode 2. Film based on the novel by M. Bulgakov (2012)

Everyone drinks to the Entente allies to help Kyiv fight off Petliura. Alexey Turbin scolds the hetman: he oppressed the Russian language, until his last days he did not allow the formation of an army from Russian officers - and at the decisive moment he found himself without troops. If the hetman had begun to create officer corps in April, we would now drive the Bolsheviks out of Moscow! Alexey says that he will go to Malyshev’s division.

Shervinsky conveys staff rumors that Emperor Nicholas is not killed, but escaped from the hands of the communists. Everyone at the table understands that this is unlikely, but they still sing in delight “God Save the Tsar!”

Myshlaevsky and Alexey get very drunk. Seeing this, Elena puts everyone to bed. She is alone in her room, sadly sitting on her bed, thinking about her husband’s departure and suddenly clearly realizing that in a year and a half of marriage, she never had respect for this cold careerist. Alexey Turbin also thinks about Talberg with disgust.

"The White Guard", Chapter 4 - summary

Throughout the last year (1918), a stream of wealthy people fleeing Bolshevik Russia poured into Kyiv. It intensifies after the election of the hetman, when with German help it is possible to establish some order. Most of the visitors are an idle, depraved crowd. Countless cafes, theaters, clubs, cabarets, full of drugged prostitutes, open for her in the city.

Many officers also come to Kyiv - with haunted eyes after the collapse of the Russian army and the soldiers' tyranny of 1917. Lousy, unshaven, poorly dressed officers do not find support from Skoropadsky. Only a few manage to join the hetman's convoy, sporting fantastic shoulder straps. The rest are hanging around doing nothing.

So the 4 cadet schools that were in Kyiv before the revolution remain closed. Many of their students fail to complete the course. Among these is the ardent Nikolka Turbin.

The city is calm thanks to the Germans. But there is a feeling that peace is fragile. News is coming from the villages that the revolutionary robberies of the peasants cannot be stopped.

"The White Guard", Chapter 5 - summary

Signs of imminent disaster are multiplying in Kyiv. In May there is a terrible explosion of weapons depots in the suburb of Bald Mountain. On July 30, in broad daylight, on the street, the Socialist Revolutionaries killed the commander-in-chief of the German army in Ukraine, Field Marshal Eichhorn, with a bomb. And then the troublemaker Simon Petlyura, a mysterious man who immediately goes to lead the peasants rioting in the villages, is released from the hetman’s prison.

A village revolt is very dangerous because many men have recently returned from the war - with weapons, and having learned to shoot there. And by the end of the year, the Germans were defeated in the First World War. They themselves begin revolution, overthrow the emperor Wilhelm. That is why they are now in a hurry to withdraw their troops from Ukraine.

White Guard. Episode 3. Film based on the novel by M. Bulgakov (2012)

...Aleksey Turbin is sleeping, and he dreams that on the eve of Paradise he met Captain Zhilin and with him his entire squadron of Belgrade Hussars, who died in 1916 in the Vilna direction. For some reason, their commander, the still living Colonel Nai-Tours in the armor of a crusader, also jumped here. Zhilin tells Alexei that the Apostle Peter allowed his entire detachment into Paradise, although they took with them several cheerful women along the way. And Zhilin saw mansions in heaven painted with red stars. Peter said that the Red Army soldiers would soon go there and kill many of them under fire. Perekop. Zhilin was surprised that the atheist Bolsheviks would be allowed into Paradise, but the Almighty himself explained to him: “Well, they don’t believe in me, what can you do. One believes, the other doesn’t believe, but you all have the same actions: now you’re at each other’s throats. All of you, Zhilin, are the same - killed on the battlefield.”

Alexey Turbin also wanted to rush into the gates of heaven - but woke up...

"The White Guard", Chapter 6 - summary

Registration for the mortar division takes place in the former Parisian Chic store of Madame Anjou, in the city center. In the morning after a drunken night, Karas, already in the division, brings Alexei Turbin and Myshlaevsky here. Elena baptizes them at home before leaving.

The division commander, Colonel Malyshev, is a young man of about 30, with lively and intelligent eyes. He is very happy about the arrival of Myshlaevsky, an artilleryman who fought on the German front. At first, Malyshev is wary of Doctor Turbin, but is very happy to learn that he is not a socialist, like most intellectuals, but an ardent hater of Kerensky.

Myshlaevsky and Turbin are enrolled in the division. In an hour they must report to the parade ground of the Alexander Gymnasium, where soldiers are being trained. Turbin runs home at this hour, and on the way back to the gymnasium he suddenly sees a crowd of people carrying coffins with the bodies of several warrant officers. The Petliurites surrounded and killed that night an officer detachment in the village of Popelyukha, gouged out their eyes, cut out shoulder straps on their shoulders...

Turbin himself studied at the Aleksandrovskaya Gymnasium, and after the front, fate brought him here again. There are no high school students now, the building stands empty, and on the parade ground young volunteers, students and cadets, run around the scary, blunt-nosed mortars, learning to handle them. The classes are led by senior division officers Studzinsky, Myshlaevsky and Karas. Turbine is assigned to train two soldiers to be paramedics.

Colonel Malyshev arrives. Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky quietly report to him their impressions of the recruits: “They will fight. But complete inexperience. For one hundred and twenty cadets, there are eighty students who do not know how to hold a rifle in their hands.” Malyshev, with a gloomy look, informs the officers that the headquarters will not give the division either horses or shells, so they will have to give up classes with mortars and teach rifle shooting. The colonel orders that most of the recruits be dismissed for the night, leaving only 60 of the best cadets in the gymnasium as a guard for weapons.

In the lobby of the gymnasium, officers remove the drapery from the portrait of its founder, Emperor Alexander I, which had been hanging closed since the first days of the revolution. The Emperor points his hand to the Borodino regiments in the portrait. Looking at the picture, Alexey Turbin remembers the happy pre-revolutionary days. “Emperor Alexander, save the dying house by the Borodino regiments! Revive them, take them off the canvas! They would have beaten Petlyura.”

Malyshev orders the division to reassemble on the parade ground tomorrow morning, but he allows Turbin to arrive only at two o’clock in the afternoon. The remaining guard of cadets under the command of Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky stoked the stoves in the gymnasium all night long with “Notes of the Fatherland” and “Library for Reading” for 1863...

"The White Guard", Chapter 7 - summary

There is indecent fuss in the Hetman's palace this night. Skoropadsky, rushing in front of the mirrors, changes into the uniform of a German major. The doctor who came in tightly bandaged his head, and the hetman was taken away in a car from the side entrance under the guise of the German Major Schratt, who allegedly accidentally wounded himself in the head while discharging a revolver. No one in the city knows about Skoropadsky’s escape yet, but the military informs Colonel Malyshev about it.

In the morning, Malyshev announces to the fighters of his division gathered at the gymnasium: “During the night, sharp and sudden changes occurred in the state situation in Ukraine. Therefore, the mortar division has been disbanded! Take here in the workshop all the weapons that everyone wants, and go home! I would advise those who want to continue the fight to make their way to Denikin on the Don.”

There is a dull murmur among the stunned, uncomprehending young men. Captain Studzinsky even makes an attempt to arrest Malyshev. However, he calms the excitement with a loud shout and continues: “Do you want to defend the hetman? But today, at about four o’clock in the morning, shamefully leaving us all to the mercy of fate, he fled like the last scoundrel and coward, along with the army commander, General Belorukov! Petliura has an army of over one hundred thousand on the outskirts of the city. In unequal battles with her today, a handful of officers and cadets, standing in the field and abandoned by two scoundrels who should have been hanged, will die. And I’m disbanding you to save you from certain death!”

Many cadets are crying in despair. The division disperses, having damaged as many of the thrown mortars and guns as possible. Myshlaevsky and Karas, not seeing Alexei Turbin in the gymnasium and not knowing that Malyshev ordered him to come only at two o’clock in the afternoon, think that he has already been notified of the dissolution of the division.

Part 2

"The White Guard", Chapter 8 - summary

At dawn, December 14, 1918, in the village of Popelyukhe near Kiev, where the ensigns had recently been slaughtered, Petliura’s Colonel Kozyr-Leshko raises his cavalry detachment, 400 Sabeluks. Singing a Ukrainian song, he rides out to a new position, on the other side of the city. This is how the cunning plan of Colonel Toropets, commander of the Kyiv obloga, is carried out. Toropets plans to distract the city defenders with artillery cannonade from the north, and launch the main attack in the center and south.

Meanwhile, the pampered Colonel Shchetkin, leading detachments of these defenders in the snowy fields, secretly abandons his fighters and goes to a rich Kyiv apartment, to a plump blonde, where he drinks coffee and goes to bed...

The impatient Petlyura Colonel Bolbotun decides to speed up Toropets’ plan - and without preparation he bursts into the city with his cavalry. To his surprise, he does not meet resistance until the Nikolaev Military School. Only there are 30 cadets and four officers firing at him from their only machine gun.

Bolbotun's reconnaissance team, headed by the centurion Galanba, rushes along the empty Millionnaya Street. Here Galanba chops with a saber on the head of Yakov Feldman, a famous Jew and supplier of armored parts to Hetman Skoropadsky, who accidentally came out to meet them from the entrance.

"The White Guard", Chapter 9 - summary

An armored car approaches a group of cadets near the school to help. After three shots from his gun, the movement of Bolbotun's regiment completely stops.

Not one armored car, but four, should have approached the cadets - and then the Petliurists would have had to flee. But recently, Mikhail Shpolyansky, a revolutionary ensign awarded personally by Kerensky, black, with velvet tanks, similar to Eugene Onegin, was appointed commander of the second vehicle in the hetman’s armored regiment.

This reveler and poet, who came from Petrograd, squandered money in Kyiv, founded the poetic order “Magnetic Triolet” under his chairmanship, maintained two mistresses, played iron and spoke in clubs. Recently Shpolyansky treated the head of “Magnetic Triolet” in a cafe in the evening, and after dinner the aspiring poet Rusakov, already suffering from syphilis, cried drunkenly on his beaver cuffs. Shpolyansky went from the cafe to his mistress Yulia on Malaya Provalnaya Street, and Rusakov, arriving home, looked at the red rash on his chest with tears and on his knees prayed for the forgiveness of the Lord, who punished him with a serious illness for writing anti-God poems.

The next day, Shpolyansky, to everyone’s surprise, entered Skoropadsky’s armored division, where instead of beavers and a top hat, he began to wear a military sheepskin coat, all smeared with machine oil. Four Hetman armored cars had great success in the battles with the Petliurists near the city. But three days before the fateful December 14, Shpolyansky, having slowly gathered gunners and car drivers, began to convince them: it was stupid to defend the reactionary hetman. Soon both he and Petliura will be replaced by a third, the only correct historical force - the Bolsheviks.

On the eve of December 14, Shpolyansky, together with other drivers, poured sugar into the engines of armored cars. When the battle with the cavalry that entered Kyiv began, only one of the four cars started up. He was brought to the aid of the cadets by the heroic ensign Strashkevich. He detained the enemy, but could not drive him out of Kyiv.

"The White Guard", Chapter 10 - summary

Hussar Colonel Nai-Tours is a heroic front-line soldier who speaks with a burr and turns his whole body, looking to the side, because after being wounded his neck is cramped. In the first days of December, he recruits up to 150 cadets into the second department of the city defense squad, but demands papas and felt boots for all of them. Clean General Makushin in the supply department replies that he doesn’t have that much uniform. Nye then calls several of his cadets with loaded rifles: “Write a request, your Excellency. Live up. We don’t have time, we have an hour to go. Nepgiyatel under the very godod. If you don’t write, you stupid stag, I’ll hit you in the head with a Colt, you’re dragging your feet.” The general writes on the paper with a jumping hand: “Give up.”

All morning on December 14th, Nye’s detachment sat in the barracks, receiving no orders. Only during the day does he receive an order to go guard the Polytechnic Highway. Here, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Nai sees the approaching Petlyura regiment of Kozyr-Leshko.

By order of Nye, his battalion fires several volleys at the enemy. But, seeing that the enemy has appeared from the side, he orders his soldiers to retreat. A cadet sent to reconnaissance into the city returned and reported that the Petliura cavalry was already on all sides. Nay loudly shouts to his chains: “Save yourself as best you can!”

...And the first section of the squad - 28 cadets, among whom is Nikolka Turbin, languishes idle in the barracks until lunch. Only at three o’clock in the afternoon the phone suddenly rings: “Go outside along the route!” There is no commander - and Nikolka has to lead everyone, as the eldest.

…Alexey Turbin sleeps late that day. Having woken up, he hastily gets ready to go to the division gymnasium, knowing nothing about the city events. On the street he is surprised by the nearby sounds of machine gun fire. Having arrived in a cab to the gymnasium, he sees that the division is not there. “They left without me!” - Alexey thinks in despair, but notices with surprise: the mortars remain in the same places, and they are without locks.

Guessing that a catastrophe has happened, Turbin runs to Madame Anjou's store. There, Colonel Malyshev, disguised as a student, burns lists of division fighters in the oven. “You don’t know anything yet? – Malyshev shouts to Alexey. “Take off your shoulder straps quickly and run, hide!” He talks about the flight of the hetman and the fact that the division was dissolved. Waving his fists, he curses the staff generals.

“Run! Just not out into the street, but through the back door!” - Malyshev exclaims and disappears into the back door. The stupefied Turbin tears off his shoulder straps and rushes to the same place where the colonel disappeared.

"The White Guard", Chapter 11 - summary

Nikolka leads 28 of his cadets through all of Kyiv. At the last intersection, the detachment lies down on the snow with rifles, prepares a machine gun: shooting can be heard very close.

Suddenly other cadets fly out to the intersection. “Run with us! Save yourself, whoever can!” - they shout to the Nikolkins.

The last of the runners appears Colonel Nai-Tours with a Colt in his hand. “Yunkegga! Listen to my command! - he shouts. - Bend your shoulder straps, kokagdy, bgosai oguzhie! Along Fonagny pegeulok - only along Fonagny! - two-wheeler to Gazyezzhaya, to Podol! The fight is over! The staff are stegvy!..”

The cadets scatter, and Nye rushes to the machine gun. Nikolka, who had not run with everyone else, runs up to him. Nai chases him: “Go away, you stupid mavy!”, but Nikolka: “I don’t want to, Mr. Colonel.”

Horsemen jump out to the crossroads. Nye fires a machine gun at them. Several riders fall, the rest immediately disappear. However, the Petliurists lying down further down the street open up hurricane fire, two at a time, at the machine gun. Nai falls, bleeding, and dies, having only managed to say: “Unteg-tseg, God bless you to go gay... Malo-Pgovalnaya...” Nikolka, grabbing the colonel’s Colt, miraculously crawls under heavy fire around the corner, into Lantern Lane.

Jumping up, he rushes into the first yard. Here he is, shouting “Hold him!” Hold the Junkerey!” - the janitor tries to grab it. But Nikolka hits him in the teeth with the handle of a Colt, and the janitor runs away with a bloody beard.

Nikolka climbs over two high walls as she runs, bleeding her toes and breaking her nails. Running out of breath onto Razyezzhaya Street, he tears up his documents as he goes. He rushes to Podol, as Nai-Tours ordered. Having met a cadet with a rifle along the way, he pushes him into the entrance: “Hide. I am a cadet. Catastrophe. Petlyura took the city!

Nikolka happily gets home through Podol. Elena is crying there: Alexey has not returned!

By nightfall, the exhausted Nikolka falls into an uneasy sleep. But the noise wakes him up. Sitting up on the bed, he vaguely sees in front of him a strange, unfamiliar man in a jacket, riding breeches and boots with jockey cuffs. In his hand he has a cage with a kenar. The stranger says in a tragic voice: “She was with her lover on the very sofa on which I read poetry to her. And after the bills for seventy-five thousand, I signed without hesitation, like a gentleman... And, imagine, a coincidence: I arrived here at the same time as your brother.”

Hearing about his brother, Nikolka flies like lightning into the dining room. There, in someone else’s coat and someone else’s trousers, a bluish-pale Alexey is lying on the sofa, with Elena rushing about next to him.

Alexei is wounded in the arm by a bullet. Nikolka rushes after the doctor. He treats the wound and explains: the bullet did not affect either the bone or large vessels, but tufts of fur from the overcoat got into the wound, so inflammation begins. But you can’t take Alexei to the hospital - the Petliurists will find him there...

Part 3

Chapter 12

The stranger who appeared at the Turbins’ place is Sergei Talberg’s nephew Larion Surzhansky (Lariosik), a strange and careless man, but kind and sympathetic. His wife cheated on him in his native Zhitomir, and, suffering mentally in his city, he decided to go and visit the Turbins, whom he had never seen before. Lariosik's mother, warning of his arrival, sent a 63-word telegram to Kyiv, but due to war time it did not arrive.

That same day, turning awkwardly in the kitchen, Lariosik breaks the Turbins’ expensive set. He comically but sincerely apologizes, and then takes out the eight thousand hidden there from behind the lining of his jacket and gives it to Elena for his maintenance.

It took Lariosik 11 days to travel from Zhitomir to Kyiv. The train was stopped by the Petliurites, and Lariosik, who they mistook for an officer, only miraculously escaped execution. In his eccentricity, he tells Turbin about this as an ordinary minor incident. Despite Lariosik's oddities, everyone in the family likes him.

The maid Anyuta tells how she saw the corpses of two officers killed by Petliurists right on the street. Nikolka wonders if Karas and Myshlaevsky are alive. And why did Nai-Tours mention Malo-Provalnaya Street before his death? With the help of Lariosik, Nikolka hides Nai-Tours' Colt and her own Browning, hanging them in a box outside the window that looks out into a narrow clearing covered with snowdrifts on the blank wall of a neighboring house.

The next day, Alexey’s temperature rises above forty. He begins to delirium and at times repeats a woman’s name - Julia. In his dreams, he sees Colonel Malyshev in front of him, burning documents, and remembers how he himself ran out the back door from Madame Anjou’s store...

Chapter 13

Having then run out of the store, Alexei hears shooting very close. Through the courtyards he gets out into the street, and, having turned one corner, he sees Petliurists on foot with rifles right in front of him.

“Stop! - they shout. - Yes, he’s an officer! Call the officer!" Turbin rushes to run, feeling for the revolver in his pocket. He turns into Malo-Provalnaya Street. Shots are heard from behind, and Alexey feels as if someone was pulling his left armpit with wooden pincers.

He takes a revolver out of his pocket, shoots six times at the Petliurists - “the seventh bullet for himself, otherwise they will torture you, they will cut the shoulder straps off your shoulders.” Ahead is a remote alley. Turbin awaits certain death, but a young female figure emerges from the wall of the fence, shouting with outstretched arms: “Officer! Here! Here…"

She is at the gate. He rushes towards her. The stranger closes the gate behind him with a latch and runs, leading him along, through a whole labyrinth of narrow passages, where there are several more gates. They run into the entrance, and there into the apartment opened by the lady.

Exhausted from loss of blood, Alexey falls unconscious to the floor in the hallway. The woman revives him by splashing water and then bandages him.

He kisses her hand. “Well, you are brave! – she says admiringly. “One Petliurist fell from your shots.” Alexey introduces himself to the lady, and she says her name: Yulia Alexandrovna Reiss.

Turbin sees a piano and ficus trees in the apartment. There is a photo of a man with epaulettes on the wall, but Yulia is alone at home. She helps Alexey get to the sofa.

He lies down. At night he starts to feel feverish. Julia is sitting nearby. Alexey suddenly throws his hand behind her neck, pulls her towards him and kisses her on the lips. Julia lies down next to him and strokes his head until he falls asleep.

Early in the morning she takes him out into the street, gets into a cab with him and brings him home to the Turbins.

Chapter 14

The next evening, Viktor Myshlaevsky and Karas appear. They come to the Turbins in disguise, without an officer's uniform, learning bad news: Alexei, in addition to his wound, also has typhus: his temperature has already reached forty.

Shervinsky also comes. The ardent Myshlaevsky curses with his last words the hetman, his commander-in-chief and the entire “headquarters horde.”

Guests stay overnight. Late in the evening everyone sits down to play vint - Myshlaevsky paired with Lariosik. Having learned that Lariosik sometimes writes poetry, Victor laughs at him, saying that out of all the literature he himself recognizes only “War and Peace”: “It was not written by some idiot, but by an artillery officer.”

Lariosik doesn't play cards well. Myshlaevsky yells at him for making wrong moves. In the midst of an altercation, the doorbell suddenly rings. Is everyone frozen, assuming Petlyura’s night search? Myshlaevsky goes to open it with caution. However, it turns out that this is the postman who brought the same 63-word telegram that Lariosik’s mother wrote. Elena reads it: “A terrible misfortune befell my son, period Operetta actor Lipsky...”

There is a sudden and wild knock on the door. Everyone turns to stone again. But on the threshold - not those who came with a search, but a disheveled Vasilisa, who, as soon as he entered, fell into the hands of Myshlaevsky.

Chapter 15

This evening, Vasilisa and his wife Wanda again hid the money: they pinned them with buttons to the underside of the table top (many Kiev residents did this then). But it was not for nothing that a few days ago some passer-by watched from a tree through the window as Vasilisa used her wall hiding place...

Around midnight today, a call comes to his and Wanda’s apartment. “Open up. Don’t go away, otherwise we’ll shoot through the door...” comes a voice from the other side. Vasilisa opens the door with trembling hands.

Three people enter. One has a face with small, deeply sunken eyes, similar to a wolf. The second is of gigantic stature, young, with bare, stubble-free cheeks and womanish habits. The third has a sunken nose, corroded on the side by a festering scab. They poke Vasilisa with a “mandate”: “It is ordered to conduct a thorough search of resident Vasily Lisovich, on Alekseevsky Spusk, house No. 13. Resistance is punishable by rosstril.” The mandate was allegedly issued by some “kuren” of the Petliura army, but the seal is very illegible.

The wolf and the mutilated man take out the Colt and Browning and point it at Vasilisa. He's dizzy. Those who come immediately begin to tap the walls - and by the sound they find the hiding place. “Oh, you bitch tail. Having sealed the pennies into the wall? We need to kill you!” They take money and valuables from the hiding place.

The giant beams with joy when he sees chevron boots with patent-leather toes under Vasilisa’s bed and begins to change into them, throwing off his own rags. “I’ve accumulated things, I’ve stuffed my face, I’m pink, like a pig, and you’re wondering what kind people wear? – the Wolf hisses angrily at Vasilisa. “His feet are frozen, he rotted in the trenches for you, and you played the gramophones.”

The disfigured man takes off his pants and, left in only tattered underpants, puts on Vasilisa’s trousers hanging on the chair. The wolf exchanges his dirty tunic for Vasilisa’s jacket, takes a watch from the table and demands that Vasilisa write a receipt that he gave everything he took from him voluntarily. Lisovich, almost crying, writes on paper from Volk’s dictation: “Things... handed over intact during the search. And I have no complaints.” - “Who did you give it to?” - “Write: we received Nemolyak, Kirpaty and Otaman Uragan from the whole.”

All three leave, with a final warning: “If you attack us, our boys will kill you. Do not leave the apartment until the morning, you will be severely punished for this...”

After they leave, Wanda falls on the chest and sobs. "God. Vasya... But it wasn’t a search. They were bandits!” - “I understood it myself!” After marking time, Vasilisa rushes into the Turbins’ apartment...

From there everyone goes down to him. Myshlaevsky advises not to complain anywhere: no one will be caught anyway. And Nikolka, having learned that the bandits were armed with a Colt and a Browning, rushes to the box that he and Lariosik hung outside his window. It's empty! Both revolvers are stolen!

The Lisovichs beg for one of the officers to spend the rest of the night with them. Karas agrees to this. The stingy Wanda, inevitably becoming generous, treats him to pickled mushrooms, veal and cognac at her home. Satisfied, Karas lies down on the ottoman, and Vasilisa sits down in a chair next to her and mournfully laments: “Everything that was acquired through hard work, one evening went into the pockets of some scoundrels... I do not deny the revolution, I am a former cadet. But here in Russia the revolution has degenerated into Pugachevism. The main thing has disappeared - respect for property. And now I have an ominous confidence that only autocracy can save us! The worst dictatorship!”

Chapter 16

In the Kiev Cathedral of Hagia Sophia there are a lot of people, you can’t squeeze through. A prayer service is held here in honor of the occupation of the city by Petlyura. The crowd is surprised: “But the Petliurites are socialists. What does this have to do with priests? “Give the priests a blue one, so they can serve the devil mass.”

In the bitter cold, the people's river flows in procession from the temple to the main square. The majority of Petliura's supporters in the crowd gathered only out of curiosity. The women scream: “Oh, I want to spoil Petlyura. It seems like the wine is indescribably handsome.” But he himself is nowhere to be seen.

Petlyura’s troops are parading through the streets to the square under yellow and black banners. The mounted regiments of Bolbotun and Kozyr-Leshko are riding, the Sich Riflemen (who fought in the First World War against Russia for Austria-Hungary) are marching. Shouts of welcome can be heard from the sidewalks. Hearing the cry: “Get them!” Officers! I’ll show them off in uniform!” - several Petliurists grab two people indicated in the crowd and drag them into an alley. A volley is heard from there. The bodies of the dead are thrown right on the sidewalk.

Having climbed into a niche on the wall of one house, Nikolka watches the parade.

A small rally gathers near the frozen fountain. The speaker is lifted onto the fountain. Shouting: “Glory to the people!” and in his first words, rejoicing at the capture of the city, he suddenly calls the listeners “ comrades" and calls them: " Let's take an oath that we will not destroy weapons, docs red the ensign will not flutter over the entire working world. The Soviets of workers, villagers and Cossack deputies live..."

Up close, the eyes and black Onegin sideburns of Ensign Shpolyansky flash in the thick beaver collar. One of the crowd screams heart-rendingly, rushing towards the speaker: “Try yoga! This is a provocation. Bolshevik! Moskal! But a man standing next to Shpolyansky grabs the screamer by the belt, and another yells: “Brothers, the clock has been cut!” The crowd rushes to beat, like a thief, the one who wanted to arrest the Bolshevik.

The speaker disappears at this time. Soon in the alley you can see Shpolyansky treating him to a cigarette from a golden cigarette case.

The crowd drives the beaten “thief” in front of them, who sobs pitifully: “You are wrong! I am a famous Ukrainian poet. My last name is Gorbolaz. I wrote an anthology of Ukrainian poetry!” In response, they hit him on the neck.

Myshlaevsky and Karas are looking at this scene from the sidewalk. “Well done Bolsheviks,” says Myshlaevsky to Karasyu. “Did you see how cleverly the orator was melted down?” Why I love you is for your courage, motherfucker’s leg.”

Chapter 17

After a long search, Nikolka finds out that the Nai-Turs family lives on Malo-Provalnaya, 21. Today, straight from the religious procession, she runs there.

The door is opened by a gloomy lady in pince-nez, looking suspiciously. But upon learning that Nikolka has information about Naya, she lets him into the room.

There are two more women there, an old one and a young one. Both look like Naya. Nikolka understands: mother and sister.

“Well, tell me, well...” - the eldest stubbornly insists. Seeing Nikolka’s silence, she shouts to the young man: “Irina, Felix has been killed!” - and falls backwards. Nikolka also begins to cry.

He tells his mother and sister how heroically Nai died - and volunteers to go look for his body in the death chamber. Naya's sister, Irina, says that she will go with him...

The morgue has a disgusting, terrible smell, so heavy that it seems sticky; it seems that you can even see it. Nikolka and Irina hand the bill to the guard. He reports them to the professor and receives permission to look for the body among many brought in the last days.

Nikolka persuades Irina not to enter the room where naked human bodies, male and female, lie in stacks like firewood. Nikolka notices Naya's corpse from above. Together with the watchman, they take him upstairs.

That same night, Nye’s body is washed in the chapel, dressed in a jacket, a crown is placed on his forehead, and a St. George’s ribbon is placed on his chest. The old mother with a shaking head thanks Nikolka, and he cries again and leaves the chapel into the snow...

Chapter 18

On the morning of December 22, Alexey Turbin lies dying. The gray-haired professor-doctor tells Elena that there is almost no hope and leaves, leaving his assistant, Brodovich, with the patient just in case.

Elena, with a distorted face, goes into her room, kneels before the icon of the Mother of God and begins to pray passionately. “Most Pure Virgin. Ask your son to send a miracle. Why are you ending our family in one year? My mother took it from us, I don’t have a husband and never will, I already understand that clearly. And now you’re taking Alexei away too. How will Nikol and I be alone at a time like this?”

Her speech comes in a continuous stream, her eyes become crazy. And it seems to her that next to the torn tomb Christ appeared, risen, gracious and barefoot. And Nikolka opens the door to the room: “Elena, go to Alexei quickly!”

Alexey's consciousness returns. He understands: he has just passed - and did not destroy him - the most dangerous crisis of the disease. Brodovich, agitated and shocked, injects him with medicine from a syringe with a trembling hand.

Chapter 19

A month and a half passes. On February 2, 1919, a thinner Alexey Turbin stands at the window and again listens to the sounds of guns in the outskirts of the city. But now it is not Petliura who is coming to expel the hetman, but the Bolsheviks to Petliura. “The horror will come in the city with the Bolsheviks!” - Alexey thinks.

He has already resumed his medical practice at home, and now a patient is calling him. This is a thin young poet Rusakov, sick with syphilis.

Rusakov tells Turbin that he used to be a fighter against God and a sinner, but now he prays to the Almighty day and night. Alexey tells the poet that he can’t have cocaine, alcohol, or women. “I’ve already moved away from temptations and bad people,” Rusakov answers. - The evil genius of my life, the vile Mikhail Shpolyansky, who persuades wives to debauchery and young men to vice, left for the city of the devil - Bolshevik Moscow, to lead hordes of angels to Kyiv, as they once went to Sodom and Gomorrah. Satan will come for him - Trotsky." The poet predicts that the people of Kiev will soon face even more terrible trials.

When Rusakov leaves, Alexey, despite the danger from the Bolsheviks, whose carts are already thundering through the city streets, goes to Julia Reiss to thank her for saving her and give her his late mother’s bracelet.

At Julia’s house, he, unable to bear it, hugs and kisses her. Having again noticed a photo of a man with black sideburns in the apartment, Alexey asks Yulia who it is. “This is my cousin, Shpolyansky. He has now left for Moscow,” Yulia answers, looking down. She is ashamed to admit that in fact Shpolyansky was her lover.

Turbin asks Yulia for permission to come again. She allows it. Coming out of Yulia on Malo-Provalnaya, Alexey unexpectedly meets Nikolka: he was on the same street, but in a different house - with Nai-Tours’ sister, Irina...

Elena Turbina receives a letter from Warsaw in the evening. A friend, Olya, who has gone there, informs: “your ex-husband Talberg is going from here not to Denikin, but to Paris, with Lidochka Hertz, whom he plans to marry.” Alexey enters. Elena hands him a letter and cries on his chest...

Chapter 20

The year 1918 was great and terrible, but 1919 was worse.

In the first days of February, the Haidamaks of Petliura flee Kyiv from the advancing Bolsheviks. Petlyura is no more. But will anyone pay for the blood he shed? No. Nobody. The snow will simply melt, the green Ukrainian grass will sprout and hide everything underneath...

At night in a Kyiv apartment, the syphilitic poet Rusakov reads Apocalypse, reverently frozen over the words: “...and there will be no more death; There will be no more crying, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things have passed away...”

And the Turbins' house is sleeping. On the first floor, Vasilisa dreams that there was no revolution and that he grew a rich harvest of vegetables in the garden, but round piglets came running, tore up all the beds with their snouts, and then began to jump at him, baring their sharp fangs.

Elena dreams that the frivolous Shervinsky, who is increasingly courting her, joyfully sings in an operatic voice: “We will live, we will live!!” “And death will come, we will die...” Nikolka, who comes in with a guitar, answers him, his neck is covered in blood, and on his forehead there is a yellow halo with icons. Realizing that Nikolka will die, Elena wakes up screaming and sobs for a long time...

And in the outbuilding, smiling joyfully, the little stupid boy Petka sees a happy dream about a big diamond ball on a green meadow...