Village prose occupies one of the leading places in Russian literature. The main themes touched upon in novels of this genre can be called eternal. These are issues of morality, love of nature, kind attitude towards people and other problems that are relevant at any time. The leading place among writers of the second half of the 20th century is occupied by Viktor Petrovich Astafiev (“The Fish Tsar”, “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”), Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin (“Live and Remember”, “Farewell to Matera”), Vasily Makarovich Shukshin (“Village Residents” ”, “Lubavins”, “I came to give you freedom”) and others.
A special place in this series is occupied by the work of the master of the folk word, a sincere singer native land Vasily Shukshin. The writer was born in 1929, in the village of Srostki Altai Territory. Thanks to its small homeland, Shukshin learned to appreciate the land, human labor on it, learned to understand and feel rural life. From the very beginning creative path Vasily Shukshin finds new ways in depicting a person. His characters are unusual in their own way social status, both in life maturity and moral experience.
The originality of this writer is explained not only by his talent, but also by the fact that he told the simple truth about his fellow countrymen with love and respect. This is probably why Shukshin’s hero turned out to be not only unfamiliar, but also partly incomprehensible.
Shukshin did not invent his hero, he took him from life. That is why he is spontaneous, sometimes unpredictable: he will either unexpectedly accomplish a feat, or suddenly escape from the camp three months before the end of his term. Shukshin himself admitted: “I am most interested in exploring the character of a non-dogmatic person, a person not trained in the science of behavior. Such a person is impulsive, gives in to impulses, and therefore is extremely natural. But he always has a reasonable soul.” The writer's characters are truly impulsive and natural. They react sharply and sometimes unpredictably to the humiliation of man by man. Seryoga Bezmenov cut off two of his fingers when he learned about his wife’s betrayal (“Besfingly”). A bespectacled man was insulted by a boorish salesman in a store, and for the first time in his life he got drunk and ended up in a sobering-up station (“And in the morning they woke up...”). Shukshin’s heroes can even commit suicide (“Suraz”, “The wife saw off her husband to Paris”) because they cannot withstand insults, humiliation, and resentment. Most often, the actions of Shukshin’s heroes are determined by a strong desire for happiness, for the establishment of justice (“In Autumn”).
Vasily Shukshin does not idealize his strange, “eccentric” heroes. But in each of them he finds something that is close to him.
Shukshin's village prose is distinguished by a deep study of the Russian national character, the character of the farmer. He shows that the main thing in him is the attraction to the earth. Shukshin says that the land for a Russian person is both a source of life and a connection between generations; and home, and arable land, and steppe. This is that same small homeland with its rivers, roads, endless expanse of arable land...
For Shukshin, the main character who embodied the Russian national character was Stepan Razin. It is to him, his uprising, that Vasily Shukshin’s novel “I came to give you freedom” is dedicated. The writer believed that Stepan Razin was somehow close to the modern Russian man, that his character was the embodiment national characteristics our people. And Shukshin wanted to convey this important discovery to the reader.
The peasantry has long occupied the most main role in history. Not in terms of power, but in spirit - the peasantry was driving force Russian history. It was from the dark, ignorant peasants that Stenka Razin, and Emelyan Pugachev, and Ivan Bolotnikov came out; it was because of the peasants, or rather because of serfdom, that that cruel struggle took place, the victims of which were both the tsars and part of the outstanding Russian intelligentsia XIX century. Thanks to this, works covering this topic occupy a special place in the literature. Vasily Shukshin managed to create in his prose new image peasant. He is a man with a big soul, he is independent and a little eccentric. These qualities of Shukshin’s heroes captivate us when we read his works. “If we are strong and truly smart in anything, it is in a good deed,” said Vasily Shukshin. The work of the writer himself clearly proves this.
July 25, 1929 – born in the village of Srostki, Altai Territory. July 25, 1929 - born in the village of Srostki, Altai Territory - went to Kaluga, where he worked, 1946 - went to Kaluga, where he worked whatever he had to - a loader, a mechanic. whoever it takes - a loader, a mechanic.
1954 - entered the Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) 1954 - entered the Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) 1958 - acted in films for the first time ("Two Fyodors") - acted in films for the first time ("Two Fyodors") - first publication - "Two on a Cart" – first publication - “Two on a Cart”.
1964 – makes the film “There Lives a Guy Like This” – makes the film “There Lives a Guy Like This” – the film “Your Son and Brother” was released 1965 – the film “Your Son and Brother” was released 1967 – awarded the Order of the Red Labor Banner 1967 – awarded the Order of the Red Labor Banner
1971 – awarded the USSR State Prize 1971 – awarded the USSR State Prize 1972 – the film “Stoves and Benches” was released – the film “Stoves and Benches” was released.
1973 - the collection "Characters" was published - the collection "Characters" was published - the film "Kalina Krasnaya" was released, the book "Conversations under the Full Moon" was released - the film "Kalina Krasnaya" was released, the book "Conversations under the Full Moon". On October 2, 1974, he died suddenly during the filming of the film “They Fought for the Motherland.” On October 2, 1974, he died suddenly during the filming of the film “They Fought for the Motherland,” on the ship “Danube.” on the motor ship "Danube". V.M. Shukshin was posthumously awarded the Lenin Prize.
"Village Prose". In the 1960s, when the writer’s first works appeared in literary periodicals, criticism hastened to classify him as a group of “village” writers. There were reasons for this. In the 1960s, when the writer’s first works appeared in literary periodicals, criticism hastened to classify him as a group of “village” writers. There were reasons for this. Shukshin really preferred to write about the village, the first collection of his stories was called that - Shukshin really preferred to write about the village, the first collection of his stories was called “Village Residents”. However, the ethnographic signs of rural life, the appearance of people from the village, landscape sketches did not particularly interest the writer - if all this was discussed in the stories, it was only incidentally, cursorily, in passing. There was almost no poeticization of nature, the author's thoughtful digressions, or admiration of the “harmony” of people's life. "Villager". However, the ethnographic signs of rural life, the appearance of people from the village, landscape sketches did not particularly interest the writer - if all this was discussed in the stories, it was only incidentally, cursorily, in passing. There was almost no poeticization of nature, the author's thoughtful digressions, or admiration of the “harmony” of people's life.
Stories. The writer focused on something else: his Writer focused on something else: his stories showed a string of life episodes, dramatized scenes, outwardly reminiscent of Chekhov’s early stories with their simplicity, brevity (“shorter than a sparrow’s nose”), and the element of good-natured laughter. Shukshin’s characters were the inhabitants of the rural periphery, humble people who had not become “people” - in a word, those who, in appearance and in their position, were quite consistent with those familiar in their XIX literature V. like " little man". the stories presented a string of life episodes, dramatized scenes, outwardly reminiscent of Chekhov's early stories with their simplicity, brevity ("shorter than a sparrow's nose"), the element of good-natured laughter. Shukshin's characters were the inhabitants of the rural periphery, humble people who did not become "people" - in a word, those who, in appearance and in their position, fully corresponded to the type of “little man” familiar from the literature of the 19th century.
Collection "Village People". The collection “Village People” is not only the beginning of a creative journey, but also a big theme - love for the countryside. The collection “Village People” is not only the beginning of a creative journey, but also a big theme - love for the countryside. It is on the pages of this collection that we meet Gleb Kapustin, a fierce debater, Vasily Knyazev, better remembered as Chudik, and the incredible inventor Bronka Pupkov. we meet Gleb Kapustin - a fierce debater, Vasily Knyazev, better remembered as Chudik, and the incredible inventor Bronka Pupkov.
How Shukshin understood the story. “What do you think a story is? A man walked: “What do you think a story is? A man was walking down the street, saw an acquaintance and told him about it, along the street, saw an acquaintance and told, for example, about how just around the corner an old woman fell onto the pavement, and some big drayman burst out laughing. And then he immediately felt ashamed of his stupid laughter, walked up and picked up the old woman. And he looked around the street to see if anyone had seen him laugh. That's all." for example, about how an old woman just around the corner crashed onto the pavement, and some big drayman burst out laughing. And then he immediately felt ashamed of his stupid laughter, walked up and picked up the old woman. And he looked around the street to see if anyone had seen him laugh. That's all."
Slide 2
Village prose is a trend in Russian literature of the 1950-1980s, associated with an appeal to traditional values in the depiction of modern village life.
Slide 3
Although individual works critically reflecting on the collective farm experience began to appear already in the early 1950s (essays by Valentin Ovechkin, Alexander Yashin, Anatoly Kalinin, Efim Dorosh), it was only by the mid-1960s that “ village prose"has reached such a level of artistry as to take shape in a special direction ( great importance had for this purpose the story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn “Matryonin’s Dvor”). It was then that the term itself arose.
Slide 4
The largest representatives, “patriarchs” of the movement are considered to be Fyodor Abramov, Vasily Belov, Valentin Rasputin. A bright and original representative of the “village prose” of the younger generation was the writer and film director V. M. Shukshin. The semi-official organ of rural writers was the magazine “Our Contemporary”. V. M. Shukshin V. G. Rasputin
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Vasily Makarovich Shukshin (July 25, 1929, the village of Srostki, Biysk district, Biysk district, Altai Territory - October 2, 1974, the village of Kletskaya, Volgograd region) - Soviet film director, actor, writer, screenwriter. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1969). Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1976, posthumously), the USSR State Prize (1971) and the State Prize of the RSFSR. Vasiliev brothers (1967). Member of the CPSU since 1955.
Slide 6
Vasily Shukshin was born on July 25, 1929 into a peasant family. His father, Makar Leontyevich Shukshin (1912-1933), was arrested and executed in 1933, during collectivization, and was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956. Mother, Maria Sergeevna (nee Popova; in her second marriage - Kuksina) (1909 - January 17, 1979) took upon herself all the care of the family. Sister - Natalya Makarovna Shukshina (November 16, 1931 - July 10, 2005). After his father’s arrest and before receiving a passport, Vasily Makarovich was called Vasily Popov by his mother’s name.
Slide 7
In 1954, Shukshin went to Moscow to enroll in VGIK. To raise money for the journey, his mother sold a cow. At first, Shukshin applied to the screenwriting department, but then decided to enter the directing department and graduated in 1960 (workshop of M.I. Romm). While studying at VGIK, on the advice of Romm, Shukshin began sending his stories to metropolitan publications. In 1958, his first story, “Two on a Cart,” was published in the Smena magazine.
Slide 8
In 1956, Shukshin made his film debut: in the film by S. A. Gerasimov “ Quiet Don"(second series) he played in a tiny episode - he portrayed a sailor peeking out from behind a fence. The cinematic fate of Shukshin the actor began with this sailor. While studying at VGIK in 1958, Shukshin starred in his first leading role in the film “Two Fyodors” by M. M. Khutsiev. In his diploma work“They report from Lebyazhye” Shukshin acted as a screenwriter, director and leading actor. His acting career was going quite well; Shukshin had no shortage of offers from leading directors. In 1963, Shukshin began working as a director at the TsKDYuF.
Slide 9
The years 1973-1974 became very fruitful for Shukshin. His film “Kalina Krasnaya” was released and received the first prize at the All-Russian Film Festival. A new collection of short stories, “Characters,” has been published. On the stage of LABDT, director G. A. Tovstonogov was preparing to stage the play “Energetic People”. In 1974, Shukshin accepted an invitation to star in a new film by S. F. Bondarchuk. But Vasily Shukshin had long been tormented by attacks of stomach ulcers, which had haunted him since his youth, when he suffered from an addiction to alcohol. Last years After the birth of his daughters, he did not touch alcohol, but the disease progressed. Even on the set of “Kalina Krasnaya” he had difficulty recovering from severe attacks.
Slide 10
The beginning of Perestroika was marked by an explosion of public interest in new works by the most prominent of them (“Fire” by Rasputin, “ Sad detective"Viktor Astafiev, "Everything is Ahead" by Belov), but the change in the socio-political situation after the fall of the USSR led to the fact that the center of gravity in literature shifted to other phenomena, and village prose fell out of the number of works of the popular genre. Meanwhile, these works are of great importance for the preservation of national Russian culture and historical memory. It was the village writers who depicted the tragedy of collectivization (“Men and Women” by Boris Mozhaev). Boris Mozhaev
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Significant works of village prose "Essays on collective farm life" by V. V. Ovechkin (1953) "Brothers and Sisters" by F. A. Abramov (1957) "Matryonin's Yard" by A. I. Solzhenitsyn (1963) "On the Irtysh" S. P. Zalygin (1965) “Business as usual” V. I. Belov (1966) “Alive” B. A. Mozhaev (1966) “Lubavins” V. A. Shukshin (1966) “Farewell to Matera” "V. G. Rasputin (1976) "Tsar Fish" V. P. Astafiev (1976) "Water of Life" V. N. Krupin (1982)
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Famous film adaptations “Farewell” is a 1981 Soviet two-part film based on the story “Farewell to Matera” by Valentin Rasputin. Conceived and started by Larisa Shepitko, the film was shot after her tragic death by her husband, film director Elem Klimov. He changed the name: “Farewell to Matera” became simply “Farewell”.
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Afrikanich 1970, USSR, Melodrama, Soviet cinema, 68 minutes Soviet black and white melodrama based on Vasily Belov’s story “A Business as Usual.” You can watch the movie “Afrikanych” online. The main character Afrikanich lives in the village with his beloved wife Ekaterina, with whom they are raising several children together. After the birth of her next baby, Katerina falls ill, and Afrikanych decides to go to work far from home. However, on the way, he realizes that he cannot live without his beloved and hurries to return home. A film with a touch of light sadness about love and loved ones, devotion, fidelity and family. The role of Africanych in the film was played by Nikolai Trofimov, known for his role as Lev Gurych Sinichkin in the film of the same name, the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, and also Mr. Pickwick in the theater and television production of Georgy Tovstonogov. Pickwick Club" The role of Afrikanich’s wife Katerina went to Irina Bunina, People’s Artist of Ukraine.
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Drama based on Shukshin's novel "The Lyubavins". Filmed by director Leonid Golovnya in 1971 in the USSR.
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Melodrama-parable based on the novel by V. Astafiev “The Fish Tsar” (based on the chapter “Dream of the White Mountains”). The taiga hunter Akim unexpectedly finds in his own winter hut a dying girl, whom the “free man” and consummate ladies' man Goga took with him, but he himself could not stand the test of the king-fish. Reminiscent of a hermit monk who feels good only far from civilization, the illiterate Akim shows miracles of ingenuity to save the uninvited guest from death. He stoically nurses her, making it very difficult for himself to meet production targets. But what are they compared to the heartache that comes to Akim when the beautiful Elya comes to her senses! And this man is incredibly sweet to her, but, unfortunately, they are representatives of different “galaxies”... Uninhibited, somewhat shocking for its time, but deep, humane and very sensual cinema, which clearly stood out from the flow of Soviet films and remains underrated.
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Village prose is one of the trends in Russian literature last century. It originated in the 50s. The works of representatives of this movement have been studied by schoolchildren in Russian literature classes for decades. Many stories and stories by "village" writers have been filmed by both Soviet and Russian filmmakers. The work of the brightest representatives of village prose is the topic of the article.
Features of village prose
Valentin Ovechkin is one of the first prose writers to glorify the life of the Russian hinterland on the pages of his works. The very definition of village prose did not immediately enter literary criticism. The affiliation of the authors, who today are commonly called "village writers", to a certain direction in prose for a long time was questioned. Nevertheless, over time, the term gained its right to exist. And this happened after the publication of Solzhenitsyn’s story “ Matrenin Dvor" Village prose began to be understood not just as works dedicated to village residents, but also as a complex of artistic and stylistic features. What are they?
Writers-"villagers" in their works raised issues of ecology and the preservation of national Russian traditions. talked about history, culture, moral aspects in the life of the inhabitants of the outback. One of the brightest representatives of village prose is F. Abramov.
In his small, succinct works, he was able to show the life of an entire generation, whose representatives, as we know, especially experienced the consequences historical events 20s of the last century, the hardships of the post-war period. But the work of this prose writer will be briefly discussed below. First, it’s worth giving a list of “village” writers.
Representatives of village prose
At the origins literary direction F. Abramov stood. V. Belov and V. Rasputin are also placed on a par with this writer. It would be impossible to explore the theme of Russian village prose without mentioning such works as “The Fish Tsar” by Astafiev, “Water of Life” by Krupin and, of course, “Matrenin’s Dvor” by Solzhenitsyn. Vasily Shukshin made an important contribution to the development of village prose. A bright rustic flavor is present on the pages of Vasily Belov’s books. The list of writers who dedicated their works to the morals and traditions of the Russian village also includes N. Kochin, I. Akulov, B. Mozhaev, S. Zalygin.
Interest in “village” writers was observed in the 80s. However, with the collapse of the USSR, other genres became popular. Today, the books of Vasily Belov, Fyodor Abramov, Valentin Rasputin, and the stories of Alexander Solzhenitsyn have become new life. They are regularly republished and filmed based on them. art films(films “Live and Remember” 2008, “Matrenin’s Dvor” 2013).
Fedorov Abramov
One of the most famous representatives of village prose was born in the Arkhangelsk region, but spent most of his life in Leningrad. Abramov volunteered for the front in 1941 and went through the entire war. And only after its completion was I able to receive higher education at the Faculty of Russian Philology.
Abramov is called the patriarch of village prose for the scrupulousness with which he tried to comprehend the causes of the tragedy of the peasantry and the social characteristics of the village. Addressing this topic put Abramov on a par with the most significant figures in Soviet literature of the sixties and seventies.
Why were so many forced to leave their homes in the 50s and go to the city? Abramov, along with Shukshin and Rasputin, tries to answer this question in his works, which have long become classics of Russian prose. At the same time, the fate of the hero who left the village is always tragic. Abramov's style, like the style of other country writers, is not characterized by grotesqueness or imagery. The most significant work in the work of this prose writer is the novel “Brothers and Sisters”.
Vasily Belov
This writer is a native of the village of Timonikha, Vologda region. Belov knew firsthand about the hardships of village life. His father died during the Second World War, his mother, like millions Soviet women, was forced to raise the children on her own. And she had five of them. In one of his works, “Years of No Return,” the writer told about the life of his relatives - village residents.
Belov lived for many years in Vologda, not far from his small homeland, from which he drew material for literary creativity. The story “An Ordinary Business” brought wide fame to the writer. And it was this work that secured him the title of one of the representatives of village prose. In Belov's stories and stories there are no sharp plot twists, there are few events in them and there is almost no intrigue. Belov's advantage is the ability to masterfully use vernacular, create vivid images villagers.
Valentin Rasputin
A famous prose writer once said that it was his duty to talk about the village and glorify it in his works. He, like other writers about whom we're talking about in this article, grew up in the village. Graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology. His debut in literature was the publication of the story “The Edge Near the Sky.” “Money for Maria” brought fame.
In the seventies, the books of Rasputin Valentin Grigorievich enjoyed considerable popularity among the Soviet intelligentsia. The most famous works- “Farewell to Matera”, “Live and Remember”. It was they who put the prose writer among the best modern Russian writers.
Other Valentin Grigorievich - collections that included the stories “The Last Term”, “Ivan’s Daughter, Ivan’s Mother”, “Fire” and the stories “Bonfires of New Cities”, “Siberia, Siberia”. More than once, filmmakers have turned to the work of this writer. In addition to “Live and Remember,” it is worth mentioning other films created based on the works of Rasputin. Namely: “Vasily and Vasilisa”, “Meeting”, “Money for Maria”, “Rudolfio”.
Sergey Zalygin
This author is often considered a representative of rural prose. Sergei Pavlovich Zalygin held the position of editor of Novy Mir for several years. Thanks to him and some other writers, publication resumed in the late 80s. As for the work of Zalygin himself, he created such stories as “Oskin Argish”, “To the Mainland”, “Morning Flight”, “Ordinary People”.
Ivan Akulov
“Kasyan Ostudny” and “Tsar Fish” are stories included in the list of the most significant works of village prose. Their author, Akulov Ivan Ivanovich, was born into a peasant family. The future writer lived in the village until he was nine years old. And then the family moved to the city of Sverdlovsk. Ivan Akulov went through the war and was demobilized in 1946 with the rank of captain. His creative path began in the 50s. But, oddly enough, he did not start writing about the war. In his literary works, he recreated the images that he remembered in his childhood - images of simple villagers who endured a lot of adversity, but did not lose strength and faith.
Vasily Shukshin
It is worth telling about this writer, known not only as a representative of rural prose, but also as a director and screenwriter, possessing a rare original talent. Vasily Shukshin was from the Altai region. The theme of a small homeland ran like a red thread in his work. The heroes of his books are contradictory; they cannot be classified as either negative or positive characters. Shukshin’s images are alive and real. After the end of the war, the future writer and director, like many young people, moved to the big city. But the image of the village remained in his memory, and later such works of short prose as “Cut”, “Mother’s Heart”, “Kalina Krasnaya” appeared.
"Matrenin's Dvor"
Solzhenitsyn cannot be considered a representative of village prose. Nevertheless, the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” is one of best works, reflecting the life of rural residents. The heroine of the story is a woman devoid of self-interest, envy, and anger. The components of her life are love, compassion, work. And this heroine is by no means the author’s invention. Solzhenitsyn met the prototype of Matryona in the village of Miltsevo. The heroine of Solzhenitsyn's story is an illiterate village resident, but she attracts the attention of readers, as Tvardovsky said, no less than Anna Karenina.
Story
Although individual works critically reflecting on the collective farm experience began to appear from the beginning of the 1950s (essays by Valentin Ovechkin, Alexander Yashin, Anatoly Kalinin, Efim Dorosh), only by the mid-1960s did “village prose” reach such a level of artistry as to take shape in a special direction (Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matryonin’s Dvor” was of great importance for this). It was then that the term itself arose.
The largest representatives, “patriarchs” of the movement are considered to be F.A. Abramov, V.I. Belov, V.G. Rasputin. A bright and original representative of the “village prose” of the younger generation was the writer and film director V. M. Shukshin. The semi-official organ of the countryside writers was the magazine “Our Contemporary”.
The beginning of Perestroika was marked by an explosion of public interest in new works by the most prominent of them (“Fire” by Rasputin, “The Sad Detective” by V.P. Astafiev, “Everything Ahead” by Belov), but the change in the socio-political situation after the fall of the USSR led to the fact that the center of gravity in literature has shifted to other phenomena, and, as was believed until recently and continues to be considered by some researchers, village prose has fallen out of current literature.
Significant works of village prose
| Year | Name | Author |
| Essays on collective farm life | Ovechkin, Valentin Vladimirovich | |
| Brothers and sisters | Abramov, Fedor Alexandrovich | |
| Matryonin yard | Solzhenitsyn, Alexander Isaevich | |
| On the Irtysh | Zalygin, Sergey Pavlovich | |
| Business as usual | Belov, Vasily Ivanovich | |
| Alive | Mozhaev, Boris Andreevich | |
| Lubavins | Shukshin, Vasily Makarovich | |
| Farewell to Matera | Rasputin, Valentin Grigorievich | |
| King fish | Astafiev, Viktor Petrovich | |
| Living water | Krupin, Vladimir Nikolaevich |
"Village Prose"
The concept of “village” prose appeared in the early 60s. This is one of the most fruitful directions in our domestic literature. It is represented by many original works: “Vladimir Country Roads” and “A Drop of Dew” by Vladimir Soloukhin, “A Habitual Business” and “Carpenter’s Stories” by Vasily Belov, “Matrenin’s Court” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “The Last Bow” by Viktor Astafiev, stories by Vasily Shukshin, Evgeny Nosov , stories by Valentin Rasputin and Vladimir Tendryakov, novels by Fyodor Abramov and Boris Mozhaev. The sons of peasants came to literature, each of them could say about themselves the very words that the poet Alexander Yashin wrote in the story “I Treat You to Rowan”: “I am the son of a peasant... Everything that happens on this land, on which I am not alone, concerns me he knocked out the path with his bare heels; in the fields that he still plowed with a plow, in the stubble that he walked with a scythe and where he threw hay into stacks.”
“I am proud that I came from the village,” said F. Abramov. V. Rasputin echoed him: “I grew up in the village. She fed me, and it’s my duty to tell about her.” Answering the question why he writes mainly about village people, V. Shukshin said: “I couldn’t talk about anything, knowing the village... I was brave here, I was as independent here as possible.” S. Zalygin wrote in “An Interview with Myself”: “I feel the roots of my nation right there - in the village, in the arable land, in our daily bread. Apparently, our generation is the last that saw with its own eyes the thousand-year-old way of life from which almost everyone came out of. If we don’t talk about him and his decisive alteration within a short period of time, who will say?”
Not only the memory of the heart nourished the theme of “small homeland”, “sweet homeland”, but also pain for its present, anxiety for its future. Exploring the reasons for the acute and problematic conversation about the village that literature had in the 60-70s, F. Abramov wrote: “The village is the depths of Russia, the soil on which our culture grew and flourished. At the same time, the scientific and technological revolution in which we live has affected the village very thoroughly. Technology has changed not only the type of farming, but also the very type of peasant... Together with the ancient way of life, the moral type is disappearing into oblivion. Traditional Russia is turning over the last pages of its thousand-year history. Interest in all these phenomena in literature is natural... Traditional crafts are disappearing, local features of peasant housing that have developed over centuries are disappearing... Language is suffering serious losses. The village has always spoken a richer language than the city, now this freshness is being leached, eroded..."
The village seemed to Shukshin, Rasputin, Belov, Astafiev, Abramov as the embodiment of the traditions of folk life - moral, everyday, aesthetic. In their books there is a noticeable need to look at everything connected with these traditions and what broke them.
“Business as usual” is the title of one of V. Belov’s stories. These words can define the internal theme of many works about the village: life as work, life in work is a common thing. Writers depict the traditional rhythms of peasant work, family worries and anxieties, everyday life and holidays. There are many lyrical landscapes in the books. Thus, in B. Mozhaev’s novel “Men and Women,” the description of the “unique in the world, fabulous flooded Oka meadows” with their “free variety of herbs” attracts attention: “Andrei Ivanovich loved the meadows. Where else in the world is there such a gift from God? So as not to plow and sow, but the time will come - the whole world will go out, as if on a holiday, in these soft manes and in front of each other, playfully with a scythe, alone in a week to spread fragrant hay for the whole winter of the cattle... Twenty-five! Thirty carts! If the grace of God was sent down to the Russian peasant, then here it is, here, spread out in front of him, in all directions - you can’t even see it with your eyes.”
In the main character of B. Mozhaev’s novel, the most intimate thing is revealed, what the writer associated with the concept of “call of the earth.” Through the poetry of peasant labor he shows the natural course healthy life, comprehends harmony inner world a person living in harmony with nature, enjoying its beauty.
Here is another similar sketch - from F. Abramov’s novel “Two Winters and Three Summers”: “... Mentally talking with the children, guessing from their tracks how they walked, where they stopped, Anna did not even notice how she went out to Sinelga. And here it is, her holiday, her day, here it is, the hard-earned joy: the Pryaslina brigade at the reaping! Mikhail, Lisa, Peter, Grigory... She got used to Mikhail - from the age of fourteen she mows for a man and now there are no mowers equal to him in all of Pekashin. And Lizka also does the swathing - you’ll be jealous. Not into her, not into her mother, into Grandma Matryona, they say, with a catch. But small, small! Both with scythes, both hitting the grass with their scythes, both with grass falling under their scythes... Lord, did she ever think that she would see such a miracle!”
Writers have a keen sense of the deep culture of the people. Reflecting on his spiritual experience, V. Belov emphasizes in the book “Lad”: “Working beautifully is not only easier, but also more enjoyable. Talent and work are inseparable." And again: “For the soul, for the memory, it was necessary to build a house with carvings, or a temple on the mountain, or to weave such lace that would take the breath away and make the eyes of a distant great-great-granddaughter light up. Because man does not live by bread alone.”
This truth is professed best heroes Belov and Rasputin, Shukshin and Astafiev, Mozhaev and Abramov.
In their works, it is necessary to note the pictures of the brutal devastation of the village, first during collectivization (“Eves” by V. Belov, “Men and Women” by B. Mozhaev), then during the war years (“Brothers and Sisters” by F. Abramov), during the post-war hard times (“Two Winters and Three Summers” by F. Abramov, “Matrenin’s Dvor” by A. Solzhenitsyn, “Business as Usual” by V. Belov).
The writers showed imperfection, disorder Everyday life heroes, the injustice perpetrated against them, their complete defenselessness, which could not but lead to the extinction of the Russian village. “There is neither subtracting nor adding here. This is how it was on earth,” A. Tvardovsky will say about this. The “information for thought” contained in the “Appendix” to Nezavisimaya Gazeta (1998, No. 7) is eloquent: “In Timonikha, the native village of the writer Vasily Belov, the last man, Faust Stepanovich Tsvetkov, died. Not a single man, not a single horse. Three old women."
And a little earlier, Novy Mir (1996, No. 6) published Boris Ekimov’s bitter, difficult reflection “At the Crossroads” with dire forecasts: “The poor collective farms are already eating up tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, dooming those who will live on this land to even greater poverty.” earth after them... The degradation of the peasant is worse than the degradation of the soil. And she is there."
Such phenomena made it possible to talk about “Russia, which we lost.” So the “village” prose, which began with the poeticization of childhood and nature, ended with the consciousness of a great loss. It is no coincidence that the motif of “farewell”, “last bow”, reflected in the titles of the works (“Farewell to Matera”, “The Last Term” by V. Rasputin, “The Last Bow” by V. Astafiev, “The Last Sorrow”, “The Last Old Man of the Village” "F. Abramov), and in the main plot situations of the works, and in the premonitions of the heroes. F. Abramov often said that Russia says goodbye to the village as to its mother.
In Russian literature, the genre of village prose is noticeably different from all other genres. What is the reason for this difference? You can talk about this for an extremely long time, but still not come to a final conclusion. This happens because the scope of this genre may not fit within the description of rural life. This genre may also include works that describe the relationship between people in the city and the countryside, and even works in which main character not a villager at all, but in spirit and idea, these works are nothing more than village prose.
IN foreign literature There are very few works of this type. There are significantly more of them in our country. This situation is explained not only by the peculiarities of the formation of states and regions, their national and economic specifics, but also by the character, “portrait” of each people inhabiting a given area. In countries Western Europe, the peasantry played an insignificant role, and all national life was in full swing in the cities. In Russia, since ancient times, the peasantry occupied the most important role in history. Not in terms of power (on the contrary - the peasants were the most powerless), but in spirit - the peasantry was and, probably, remains the driving force of Russian history to this day. It was from the dark, ignorant peasants that Stenka Razin, and Emelyan Pugachev, and Ivan Bolotnikov came out; it was because of the peasants, or rather because of serfdom, that that cruel struggle took place, the victims of which were tsars, poets, and part of the outstanding Russian intelligentsia of the 19th century. Thanks to this, works covering this topic occupy a special place in the literature.
Modern rural prose plays a big role in the literary process these days. This genre today rightfully occupies one of the leading places in terms of readability and popularity. The modern reader is concerned about the problems that are raised in novels of this genre. These are issues of morality, love of nature, good, kind attitude towards people and other problems that are so relevant today. Among contemporary writers who have written or are writing in the genre of village prose, the leading place is occupied by such writers as Viktor Petrovich Astafiev (“The Fish Tsar”, “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”), Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin (“Live and Remember”, “Farewell to Matera” "), Vasily Makarovich Shukshin (“Village Residents”, “Lyubavins”, “I Came to Give You Freedom”) and others.
Vasily Makarovich Shukshin as a representative of “village prose”
Vasily Makarovich Shukshin occupies a special place in this series. His unique creativity has attracted and will continue to attract hundreds of thousands of readers not only in our country, but also abroad. After all, it is rare to meet such a master of the folk word, such a sincere admirer of his native land as this outstanding writer was.
Vasily Makarovich Shukshin was born in 1929, in the village of Srostki, Altai Territory. And through the entire life of the future writer, the beauty and severity of those places ran like a red thread. It was thanks to his small homeland that Shukshin learned to appreciate the land, the work of man on this land, and learned to understand the harsh prose of rural life. From the very beginning of his creative career, he discovered new ways in depicting a person. His heroes turned out to be unusual in their social status, life maturity, and moral experience. Having already become a fully mature young man, Shukshin goes to the center of Russia. In 1958, he made his debut in cinema (“Two Fedoras”), as well as in literature (“A Story in a Cart”). In 1963, Shukshin released his first collection - “Rural Residents”. And in 1964, his film “There Lives Such a Guy” was awarded main prize at the festival in Venice. World fame comes to Shukshin. But he doesn't stop there. Years of intense and painstaking work. For example: in 1965, his novel “The Lyubavins” was published and at the same time the film “There Lives Such a Guy” appeared on the screens of the country. Just from this example alone one can judge with what dedication and intensity the artist worked.
Or maybe it’s haste, impatience? Or the desire to immediately establish oneself in literature on the most solid - “novel” basis? This is certainly not the case. Shukshin wrote only two novels. And as Vasily Makarovich himself said, he was interested in one topic: the fate of the Russian peasantry. Shukshin managed to touch a nerve, penetrate our souls and make us ask in shock: “What is happening to us”? Shukshin did not spare himself, he was in a hurry to have time to tell the truth, and with this truth to bring people together. He was obsessed with one thought that he wanted to think out loud. And be understood! All the efforts of Shukshin, the creator, were aimed at this. He believed: “Art is, so to speak, to be understood...” From his first steps in art, Shukshin explained, argued, proved and suffered when he was not understood. They tell him that the film “There Lives a Guy Like This” is a comedy. He is perplexed and writes an afterword to the film. At a meeting with young scientists, a tricky question is thrown at him, he hesitates, and then sits down to write an article (“Monologue on the Stairs”).