A short retelling of the story in the bad company of Korolenko.

The story “Children of the Underground” by Korolenko (another name is “In Bad Society”) was written in 1885. The work was included in the writer's first book, Essays and Stories. In the story "Children of the Underground" Korolenko touches upon the issues of compassion, empathy, nobility, reveals the topics of fathers and children, friendship, poverty, growing up and becoming a person, which are significant for Russian literature.

main characters

Vasya- the son of a judge, a boy of six who lost his mother. The story is told from his perspective.

Outrigger- a homeless boy of seven or nine years old, son of Tyburtsy, brother of Marusya.

Marusya- a homeless girl of three or four years old, daughter of Tyburtsy, sister of Valek.

Other heroes

Tyburtsy Drab- the leader of the beggars, the father of Valek and Marusya; an educated man who loved his children very much.

Vasya's father- pan judge, father of two children; The loss of his wife was a great tragedy for him.

Sonya- the daughter of a judge, a girl of four years old, Vasya's sister.

1. Ruins.

The main character's mother, Vasya, died when he was 6 years old. The heartbroken father of the boy “as if completely forgot” about the existence of his son and only occasionally took care of his daughter, little Sonya.

Vasya's family lived in the town of Knyazhye-Veno. Beggars lived in the castle outside the city, but the manager drove out all the "unknown personalities" from there. People had to move to the chapel, surrounded by an abandoned cemetery. Chief among the beggars was Tyburtsy Drab.

2. Me and my father

After the death of his mother, Vasya appeared less and less at home, avoiding meeting with his father. Sometimes in the evenings he played with his little sister Sonya, who loved her brother very much.

Vasya was called "a tramp, a worthless boy", but he did not pay attention to this. One day, having gathered a "squad of three tomboys", the boy decides to go to the chapel.

3. I get a new acquaintance

The doors of the chapel were locked. The boys helped Vasya get inside. Suddenly, something dark stirred in the corner, and Vasya's comrades ran away in fright. It turned out that inside the chapel were a boy and a girl. Vasya almost got into a fight with a stranger, but they started talking. The boy's name was Valek, his sister was Marusya. Vasya treated the guys with apples and invited them to visit. But Valek said that Tyburtsiy would not let them go.

4. Acquaintance continues

Vasya began to visit the children often, bringing them treats. He constantly compared Marusya with His sister. Marusya did not walk well and very rarely laughed. Valek explained: the girl is so sad because "the gray stone sucked the life out of her."

Valek said that Tyburtsy was taking care of him and Marus. Vasya answered with chagrin that his father did not love him at all. Valek did not believe him, arguing that, according to Tyburtsy, “the judge is the best person in the city,” since he was able to sue even the count. Valek's words made Vasya look at his father differently.

5. Among the "gray stones"

Valek brought Vasya to the dungeon where he lived with Marusya. Looking at the girl surrounded by gray stone walls, Vasya remembered Valek's words about the “gray stone”, “sucking her fun out of Marusya”. Valek brought Marusa a bun. Having learned that the boy stole it out of desperation, Vasya could no longer play with his friends as serenely.

6. Pan Tyburtsy appears on the stage

Tyburtius returned the next day. The man at first got angry when he saw Vasya. However, when he found out that he became friends with the guys and did not tell anyone about their shelter, he calmed down.

Tyburtsy brought with him food stolen from a priest (priest). Watching the beggars, Vasya understood that "a meat dish was an unprecedented luxury for them." Vasya felt contempt for the poor awakening inside him, but he defended his attachment to friends with all his might.

7. Autumn

Autumn was coming. Vasya could come to the chapel no longer fearing "bad company". Marusya began to get sick, she grew thinner and paler. Soon the girl completely stopped coming out of the dungeon.

8. Doll

To cheer up the sick Marusya, Vasya begged Sonya for a while for a big doll, a gift from his mother. Seeing the doll, Marusya, “it seemed that she suddenly came to life again.” However, soon the girl became even worse. The guys tried to take away the doll, but Marusya did not give the toy away.

The disappearance of the doll did not go unnoticed. Outraged by the disappearance of the toy, his father forbade Vasya to leave the house. A few days later he called the boy to him. Vasya admitted that he took the doll, but refused to answer to whom he gave it. Tyburtius suddenly appeared and brought a toy. He explained to Vasya's father what had happened and said that Marusya had died.

The father asked his son for forgiveness. He let Vasya go to the chapel, handing Tyburtius money.

9. Conclusion

Soon the beggars "scattered in different directions." Tyburtsy and Valek suddenly disappeared somewhere.

Vasya and Sonya, and sometimes even with his father, constantly visited Marusya's grave. When the time came to leave their native city, they "pronounced their vows over a small grave."

conclusions

Using the example of the main character, the boy Vasya, the author showed the reader the difficult path of growing up. Having endured the death of his mother and the cold from his father, the boy learns true friendship. Acquaintance with Valek and Marusya opens up to him the other side of the world - the one where there are homeless children and poverty. Gradually, the main character learns a lot about life, learns to defend what is important to him, and appreciate loved ones.

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Introduction

In our life we meet many people who act "like everyone else", "as is customary." There are other people - there are very few of them, and meetings with them are precious - meetings with people who act as the voice of conscience tells them, never deviating from their moral principles. By the example of the life of such people, we learn how to live. Such an amazing person, the "moral genius" of Russian literature was Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko, who created works that to this day remain permanent textbooks of morality, more than one generation of children grew up on them.

Reading a work of art, we try to understand the main thing that the author wanted to convey to us. Writers introduce us into the world of human relations, they try to awaken in our souls kind and sincere feelings, interest and respect, respect for a person.

Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko, possessing a unique literary talent, managed to penetrate the secrets of the human soul and show that the greatest gift given to a person is a sensitive heart, capable of perceiving the condition of other people, understanding them, penetrating into their inner world, sympathizing with them, sharing with them joy and sorrow. The writer himself possessed such a gift - a sensitive heart. At the heart of his worldview are compassion, sympathy, the feeling of someone else's pain as his own.

"In Bad Society" is one of Korolenko's signature works. The action takes place in an environment where only a very loving heart can reveal glimpses of human consciousness - in a gathering of thieves, beggars and various crazy people sheltering in the ruins of an old castle in one of the Volyn towns. Society is really "bad". The author resisted the temptation to make his outcasts Protestants against public untruth, "humiliated and insulted", although he could do this very easily, having at his creative disposal the colorful figure of Pan Tyburtius, with his subtle wit and literary education. All the gentlemen "from the castle" regularly steal, drink, extort - and, however, the son of the "pan judge", having accidentally become close to the "bad society", did not take anything bad out of him, because he immediately met high examples of love and devotion. Tyburtsiy really did something ugly in the past, and in the present he continues to steal and teach his son the same, but he loves his little daughter, slowly melting in the dungeon. And such is the power of any true feeling that everything bad in the life of a "bad society" bounces off the boy, only the pity of the whole society for Marusa is transmitted to him, and all the energy of his proud nature is directed to alleviate the sad existence of this girl.

Hypothesis: "it is better to have a piece of a human heart in your chest instead of a cold stone"

The purpose of the work: to find evidence in favor of the fact that Vasya changed under the influence of meeting new friends and chose the path of goodness, as well as to find out what moral lessons we can learn by observing the relationship of the hero with representatives of the "bad society".

To achieve our goals and confirm the hypothesis, we put forward the following tasks:

1. Analytical reading of V.G.Korolenko's story "In Bad Society".

2. Compilation of characteristics of the main character and analysis of his behavior in various life circumstances.

3. Revealing the changes that happened to Vasya after meeting new friends.

4. The study of literature on the topic.

5. Generalization and systematization of the material.

1. The story of V.G. Korolenko "In a bad society"

analytical story korolenko hero

The story is told on behalf of the boy Vasya. He is the son of a judge. The judge is perhaps the only representative of the law in a small town, a "town" located in the southwest of the Russian Empire. From the very first pages of the story, the image of the city attracts attention.

"Sleepy, moldy ponds", "gray fences", "blind-sighted huts gone into the ground" - all this creates the image of a town living a small life, in which there are no vivid feelings and events.

And against this background, the story of Vasya unfolds - an unfortunate child who suddenly became lonely and orphaned with a living father.

Vasya's mother died when he was six years old. Since that time, the boy felt constant loneliness. The father loved the mother too much when she was alive, and did not notice the boy because of his happiness. After the death of his wife, the grief of the man was so deep that he withdrew into himself. Vasya felt grief from the fact that his mother had died; the horror of loneliness deepened, because the father turned away from his son "with annoyance and pain." Everyone considered Vasya a tramp and a worthless boy, and his father also got used to this idea.

Why did the boy start to wander? The answer is simple.

The hero "did not meet greetings and affection" at home, but not only this made him leave the house in the morning: he had a thirst for knowledge, communication, goodness. He could not reconcile himself with the musty life of the town: “It always seemed to me that somewhere out there, in this big and unknown light, behind the old fence of the garden, I would find something; it seemed that I had to do something and that I could do something. do something, but he just didn't know what.

In search of this "something" Vasya tried to disappear from the house, the house without love, without participation. It is no coincidence that he compares himself with a "young wolf cub", useless to anyone and only annoying those around him with his unhappy appearance and behavior. Perhaps Vasya's only outlet was his little sister. But communication with her was also limited, because the nanny saw him as a threat and was afraid of his bad influence on the girl.

“Sister Sonya was four years old. I loved her passionately, and she repaid me with the same love; but the established view of me as an inveterate little robber erected a high wall between us. noisily and briskly, the old nurse, always sleepy and always tearing, with her eyes closed, chicken feathers for pillows, immediately woke up, quickly grabbed my Sonya and carried away to her, throwing angry glances at me; in such cases, she always reminded me of a disheveled mother hen, I compared myself with a predatory kite, and Sonya with a little chicken. I became very bitter and vexed. No wonder, therefore, that I soon stopped all attempts to entertain Sonya with my criminal games, and after a while it became crowded in the house and in the kindergarten, where I did not meet with anyone greetings and affection. I began to wander.

How much pain, despair and longing in these words!

However, neither the feeling of loneliness, nor the indifference of his father - nothing could drown out in the boy the thirst for knowledge of life, interest in the world around him, the desire to know its secrets, until this led Vasya to the old chapel, among the ruins of which Vasya found sincere and devoted friends, learned how to To truly love and understand others.

Valek knew Vasya as the son of a judge, considered him a barchuk, touchy and decided to teach him a lesson so that he would lose interest in the chapel forever. But Valek liked Vasya's courage, determination, readiness to accept an open battle, and he did not raise his hand to Vasya. In turn, Vasya was pleased with the appearance of Valek in the chapel: after all, he was a living person, not a ghost. Although Vasya was ready to stand up for himself, at the first opportunity to avoid a fight, he willingly unclenched his fists. Vasya immediately felt sympathy for the tall and thin, like a reed, boy with pensive eyes and for his little sister.

“I moved a little away from the wall and, according to the knightly rules of our bazaar, also put my hands in my pockets. This was a sign that I was not afraid of the enemy and even partly hinted at my contempt for him.

We stood facing each other and exchanged glances. Looking at me from head to toe, the boy asked:

Why are you here?

So, - I answered. - What do you care? My opponent moved his shoulder, as if intending to take his hand out of his pocket and hit me.

I didn't blink an eye.

I'll show you! he threatened. I pushed my chest forward.

Well, hit ... try! ..

The moment was critical; the nature of further relations depended on it. I waited, but my opponent, giving me the same searching look, did not move.

I, brother, and myself ... too ... - I said, but more peacefully.

Meanwhile, the girl, resting her little hands on the floor of the chapel, also tried to climb out of the hatch. She fell, got up again, and finally moved with unsteady steps towards the boy. Coming close, she grabbed hold of him tightly and, clinging to him, looked at me with surprised and somewhat frightened eyes.

This decided the matter; it became quite clear that in this position the boy could not fight, and I, of course, was too generous to take advantage of his uncomfortable position.

Mutual sympathy grows when Vasya cordially invites them to his home, expresses sincere surprise at the impossibility of being friends and, most importantly, his firm intention to keep the secret revealed to him. Vasya likes Valek's independence and the way the children treat each other: Marusya, going up to Valek, tightly grabbed him, pressed herself against the tenderness. Valek stood stroking the girl's blond head with his hand.

For Valek and Marusya, who felt rejected, friendship with Vasya was a great joy of life. Vasya not only constantly gave them delicacies, which she had never seen, but, most importantly, he brought great animation to their boring, joyless existence. Vasya started funny games, laughed out loud, told Marusa fairy tales.

The girl was very happy with Vasya and his gifts: her eyes lit up with a spark of delight; her pale face... flashed with a blush, she laughed... For Valek, Vasya was the only comrade with whom he could talk, play, and make bird traps. He valued his friendship with Vasya so much that he was not even afraid of the wrath of Tyburtius, who forbade initiating anyone into the secret of the dungeon.

Vasya also appreciated the resulting friendship. In his life he really lacked friendly attention, spiritual intimacy, real friends. Comrades in the street at the first check turned out to be cowardly traitors who left him without any help. Vasya, by nature, was a kind and faithful person. When he felt that he was needed, he wholeheartedly responded to it. Valek helped Vasya get to know his own father better. In friendship with Marusya, Vasya invested that feeling of an older brother, that care that at home prevented him from showing towards his sister. It’s still difficult for Vasya to understand why Marusya is so strikingly different from his sister Sonya in appearance and behavior, and Valek’s words: “The gray stone sucked the life out of her” do not clarify, they only exacerbate the feeling of regret felt by Vasya even more. towards friends.

Behind the epithets and comparisons that characterize Marusya, we feel the emotional power of the artistic word, we see Vasya's excitement, his feelings. In the portrait of Marusya, the most important emotional elements are easily detected; a pale, tiny creature, like a withered flower grown without the rays of the sun; she walked ... badly, stepping uncertainly with crooked legs and staggering like a blade of grass; her hands were thin and transparent; the head swayed on a thin neck, like the head of a field bell; almost never ran and laughed very rarely; her laughter sounded like the smallest silver bell; her dress was dirty and old; the movements of her thin hands were slow; the eyes were a deep blue in the pale face.

The touching tenderness of the narrator, which comes through in every word about the girl, draws attention to itself, sad admiration of her beauty (blond thick hair, turquoise eyes, long eyelashes), bitter regret about the bleak existence of the child.

Sonya was the exact opposite of Marusa. Comparing the appearance of Marusya and Sonya, who was round like a donut and elastic like a ball, ran briskly, laughed loudly, wore beautiful dresses, you come to the conclusion about the cruel injustice of the laws that reigned in life, dooming the innocent and defenseless.

The whole atmosphere of the dungeon made a painful impression on Vasya. He was not so much struck by the very spectacle of the gloomy underground crypt, but by the fact that people live in it, while everything testifies to the impossibility of human stay in the dungeon: the light that barely breaks through, the walls of stone, wide columns, closing up with a vaulted ceiling. But the saddest thing in this picture was Marusya, barely standing out against the background of the gray stone as a strange and small misty speck that seemed about to blur and disappear. All this amazes Vasya, he clearly imagines how cruel, cold stones, closing in strong hugs over the tiny figure of a girl, suck the life out of her. Having witnessed the unbearable living conditions of a poor girl, Vasya finally fully realizes the terrible meaning of Tyburtsy's fatal phrase. But it seems to the boy that it is still possible to fix it, to change it for the better, one has only to leave the dungeon: "Let's go ... let's get out of here ... Take her away," he persuades Valek.

After meeting Valek and Marusya, Vasya felt the joy of a new friendship. He liked to talk with Valek and bring gifts to Marusya. But at night, his heart sank from the pain of regret, when the boy thought about the gray stone that sucks life out of Marusya.

Vasya fell in love with Valek and Marusya, missed them when he could not come to them on the mountain. Not seeing friends was a great deprivation for him.

When Valek told Vasya directly that they were beggars and they had to steal in order not to die of hunger, Vasya went home and wept bitterly from a feeling of deep grief. His love for his friends did not diminish, but was mixed with "a sharp stream of regret, reaching the point of heartache."

At first, Vasya was afraid of Tyburtsy, but after promising not to tell anyone about what he saw, Vasya saw a new person in Tyburtsy: "He gave orders like the owner and head of the family, returning from work and giving orders to the household." Vasya felt like a member of a poor but friendly family and stopped being afraid of Tyburtsy.

Under the influence of new friends, Vasya's attitude towards his father also changed.

Let us recall the conversation between Valek and Vasya (chapter four), Tyburtsiy's statement about the judge (chapter seven).

The boy believed that his father did not love him, and considered him bad. The words of Valek and Tyburtsy that the judge is the best person in the city made Vasya take a fresh look at his father.

Vasya's character and his attitude to life after meeting with Valek and Marusya have changed a lot. Vasya learned to be patient. When Marusya could not run and play, Vasya patiently sat next to her and brought flowers. The character of the boy showed compassion and the ability to alleviate the pain of others. He felt the depth of social differences and realized that people do not always do bad things (for example, steal) because they want to. Vasya saw the complexity of life, began to think about the concepts of justice, loyalty and human love.

This rebirth of the hero is especially clearly seen in the chapter "Doll"

In the episode with the doll, Vasya appeared before us as a person full of kindness and compassion. He sacrificed his peace and well-being, incurring suspicion so that his little friend could enjoy a toy - for the first and last time in her life. Tyburtsy saw this kindness of the boy and himself came to the judge's house at a time when Vasya was especially ill. He could not betray his comrades, and Tyburtius, as a man of insight, felt this. Vasya sacrificed his peace for the sake of Marusya, and Tyburtsy also sacrificed his secret life on the mountain, although he understood that Vasya's father was a judge: "He has eyes and a heart only as long as the law sleeps on his shelves ..."

The more significant are the words of Tyburtsy addressed to Vasya: "Maybe it's good that your path ran through ours"?

If a child from a wealthy family learns from childhood that not everyone lives well, that there is poverty and grief, then he will learn to sympathize with these people and pity them.

Tyburtsiy Drab was an unusual person in the small town of Knyazhie-Veno. Where he came from in the town, no one knew. In the first chapter, the author describes in detail the "appearance of Pan Tyburtsiy": "He was tall, his large features were roughly expressive. Short, slightly reddish hair stuck out apart; a low forehead, a slightly protruding lower jaw and strong facial mobility monkey; but the eyes, sparkling from under the overhanging eyebrows, looked stubbornly and gloomily, and sharp insight, energy and intelligence shone in them, along with slyness. The boy felt a constant deep sadness in the soul of this man.

Tyburtsy told Vasya that once upon a time he had "a certain clash with the law ... that is, you understand, an unexpected quarrel ... oh, fellow, it was a very big quarrel!" We can conclude that Tyburtsiy inadvertently broke the law, and now he and his children (his wife apparently died) are outside the law, without documents, without the right to reside and without means of subsistence. He feels like "an old toothless beast in his last lair", does not have the opportunity and means to start a new life, although it is clear that he is an educated person and he does not like such a life.

Tyburtius and his children find shelter in an old castle on the island, but Janusz, a former servant of the count, together with other servants and descendants of servants, drives out strangers from his "family nest". The exiles settle in the dungeons of the old chapel in the cemetery. To feed themselves, they engage in petty theft in the city.

Despite the fact that he has to steal, Tyburtius keenly feels injustice. He respects Vasya's father, who does not make a difference between rich and poor and does not sell his conscience for money. Tyburtsy respects the friendship that began between Vasya, Valek and Marusya, and at a critical moment comes to Vasya's aid. He finds the right words to convince the judge of the purity of Vasya's intentions. With the help of this person, the father looks at his son in a new way and begins to understand him.

"He quickly came up to me and put a heavy hand on my shoulder";

"Let the boy go," repeated Tyburtsiy, and his broad palm lovingly stroked my lowered head";

"I again felt someone's hand on my head and shuddered. It was my father's hand, gently stroking my hair."

With the help of the selfless act of Tyburtius, the judge saw not the image of a tramp son, to which he was accustomed, but the true soul of his child:

"I raised my eyes inquiringly at my father. Now another person was standing in front of me, but in this particular person I found something dear, which I had been looking for in vain in him before. He looked at me with his usual thoughtful look, but now there was a shade in this look surprise and as if a question. It seemed that the storm that had just swept over both of us had dispelled the heavy fog hanging over the soul of my father. And only now my father began to recognize in me the familiar features of his own son. "

Tyburtsy understands that the judge, as a representative of the law, will have to arrest him when he finds out where he is hiding. In order not to put the judge in a false position, Tyburtsy and Valek disappear from the town after the death of Marusya.

Friendship with disadvantaged children helped Vasya's best inclinations, kindness, returned good relations with his father, played a major role in choosing a life position

Conclusion

Vasya lives according to the laws of his heart, and he responds to the heartfelt participation, warmth and attention of those who are called "bad society." However, the social status of these people does not close their spiritual qualities from him: sincerity, simplicity, kindness, striving for justice. It is here, in "bad company", Vasya finds real friends and goes through the school of true humanism.

The story of a boy's friendship with the children of the underground is the story of his inner rebirth. After the death of his mother, Vasya's life in his home became difficult. The boy moved away from everyone, became isolated, "grew like a wild tree in the field." His life completely changed after meeting Valek and Marusya. In the soul of the child woke up love, responsiveness, compassion, the ability to be caring. For the first time, Vasya learned what hunger is, how hard it is to live without your own home, how scary it is when you are despised.

He did not condemn his friends for stealing. The boy realized that this was the only way for them not to die of hunger. Thanks to Valek, Vasya changed his mind about his father, became proud of him. And the story with the doll not only showed all the best qualities of the boy, but also helped to destroy the barrier between him and his father.

It is no coincidence that Tyburtsy remarked: "Maybe it's good that your path ran through ours." Vasya also realized how much his acquaintance with the children of the dungeon gave him. Therefore, he did not forget Marusya, he constantly visits her grave.

The story of VG Korolenko is a lesson of mercy and love for people. The author tells readers: "Look around! Help those who are in trouble! And then our world will become a better place."

Vasya and Sonya came to the grave of Marusya, because for them the image of Marusya became a symbol of love and human suffering. Maybe they made a vow to always remember about little Marusa, about human grief and help this grief wherever it occurs, to change the world for the better with their deeds.

The story of V. G. Korolenko "Children of the Underground" teaches each of us to put ourselves in the place of another person, to see the world through the eyes of other people, to understand it in the same way as they do. One must be able to sympathize with a person, sympathize with him, be tolerant towards other people.

In conclusion, I want to quote the wonderful words of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy: "Mercy consists not so much in material benefits as in spiritual support. Spiritual support consists primarily in non-judgment of one's neighbor and respect for his human dignity."

Bibliography

1. Byaly G.A. "V.G. Korolenko". - M., 1999

2. Korolenko V.G. "Stories and Essays". - M., 1998

3. Fortunatov N.M. "V.G. Korolenko". - Gorky, 1996

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5th grade

Lessons on the story of V. Korolenko "In a bad society"

Lesson 1 Korolenko: the childhood of the writer, the beginning of literary activity. "In Bad Society"

I. Program edited by V.Ya. Korovina refers to the work of V.G. Korolenko only once: in the 5th grade. With this in mind, we offer the teacher to tell in detail, but at a level accessible to fifth graders, about this wonderful writer and person.

Teacher's word.(Used materials of the article: Guskov S.N..: Russian writers. XX century // Biobibliographic Dictionary. M .: Education, 1998. Part I. S. 665–670.)

In our life we meet many people who act “like everyone else”, “as is customary”. There are other people - there are very few of them, and meetings with them are precious - meetings with people who act as the voice of conscience tells them, never deviating from their moral principles. By the example of the life of such people, we learn how to live. Such an amazing person, the “moral genius” of Russian literature was Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko.

Korolenko was born in 1853 in Zhitomir. His father, a county judge, was known for his crystal honesty. Mother was very impressionable and religious. Korolenko knew Russian, Polish and Ukrainian, visited Orthodox and Catholic churches. His father died when Vladimir was only thirteen years old, and the family was left without a livelihood. Soon the family moved to the city of Rovno, where Korolenko began to study at a real gymnasium (there was no other gymnasium in Rovno).

In those days, there were two types of gymnasiums in the Russian Empire: real and classical. In the classical gymnasium, ancient languages were studied - ancient Greek and Latin - and in order to enter the university it was necessary to take exams in these languages. After a real gymnasium, it was impossible to enter the university: a graduate could only count on receiving a “real” education: engineering, agriculture.

Korolenko graduated from high school with a silver medal and came to St. Petersburg to study. Financial difficulties interfered with this: I had to earn money by odd jobs. Korolenko colored botanical atlases, proofread and translated. In 1874, Korolenko moved to Moscow, which was not then the capital, and entered the forestry department of the Petrovsky Academy (now the Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Timiryazev).

Strict police orders were established at the academy: after the Paris Commune of 1871, workers and socialist parties arose all over the world, the First International, the International Association of Workers, was operating, and the tsarist government was afraid that communist ideas from Western Europe would penetrate into Russia. Special people reported on everything that was being done at the academy, whose students traditionally went on internships abroad.

The students were unhappy with the police order at the academy. Korolenko attended meetings of revolutionary-minded youth in Moscow. In 1876, he submitted a collective petition on behalf of seventy-nine students to abolish the police order at the academy and was sent into exile for a year in the Vologda province. A year later, Korolenko again became a student and was again expelled. Then Korolenko began working as a proofreader in a newspaper, where the first note of the future writer was published.

The tsarist government considered Korolenko "a dangerous agitator and revolutionary", and in 1879 Korolenko was arrested on false suspicion and exiled to the Vyatka province. There he made friends with the peasants and six months later he was sent to a new place - "for rapprochement with the peasant population and for generally harmful influence."

Korolenko wrote his first serious work - the essay "Wonderful" - on the way to another exile in the Vyshnevolotsk political prison.

In 1881 Emperor Alexander II was assassinated. All residents of Russia had to take an oath of allegiance to the new Emperor Alexander III. It was a formal procedure, but Korolenko was a man who could not go against his conscience in anything, and refused to swear allegiance to the new emperor. He wrote: “I personally experienced and saw so much untruth from the existing system that I cannot give a promise of loyalty to the autocracy.” For this, he was sent to the most difficult and longest exile - to Yakutia, to the settlement of Amga. It was there, in distant Yakutia, that Korolenko became a real writer, and it was there that he created the story “In Bad Society”.

Returning to Central Russia, Korolenko quickly became a famous writer, collaborated with many magazines and newspapers, then he himself became a co-publisher of the Russian Wealth magazine. Until the end of his life, Korolenko remains a defender of justice, in his works always speaking on the side of those who are unhappy. This loyalty to the truth and the voice of one's conscience contained the uniqueness of Korolenko's personality, whose steadfastness and courage surprised his contemporaries and can serve as an example for you and me.

II. "In bad society." We will strive to ensure that the text of the story is heard as often as possible in the lesson. In the 5th grade, when the range of reading interests of children is just being formed, the perception of a work and interest in the work of its creator depend on how emotional and personally motivated the first acquaintance with the work was. We believe that acquaintance with most of the works included in the curriculum in the 5th grade should begin in the classroom with an emotional upsurge. Good teacher reading will captivate children and encourage them to further active reading of software and other works.

Reading the first three chapters of the work takes (depending on the pace of reading) 25-30 minutes. With the help of intonation, the teacher will be able to convey Vasya's rejection of the scene of expulsion of unwanted people from the castle, the complexity of Vasya's relationship with his father. The scene of Vasya's first acquaintance with Valek and Marusya in the chapel, which is the beginning of the work, will interest the children and encourage them to read the story to the end at home.

Lesson 2

I. Starting the lesson, ask the children about their impressions of the story. After listening to the children's statements, ask:

Do you think the work we read is a story or a story? Why?

Let's read the definition of the story (p. 42 of the textbook) and write it out in our notebook.

The story is one of the types of epic work.

The story is a small form: one storyline, one main character.

The story is an average form: two or three storylines, two or three main characters.

The novel is a large form: several storylines, a large number of characters.

Why can we call "In Bad Society" a story? How many main characters are in this story? Name them.

What is a plot?

Let's remember that plot is a series of events underlying the work.

How do you understand what a "storyline" is?

Story line- a series of events that occur with one hero.

How many storylines can be identified in Korolenko's work?

The answer to this question will be quite difficult for children. Let's single out Vasya's lifeline(note the problem of Vasya's relationship with his father) and the lifeline of the Tyburtsia family. The intersection of these lines leads to a change in Vasya's life and in the life of this family.

For further work, we need a good knowledge of the content of the story, so we propose to draw up a complex plan for the story, highlighting the boundaries of the episodes. In the course of the work, the teacher will comment on places that are incomprehensible to the students, find out what problems turned out to be relevant for the children.

II. The image of a gray, sleepy city. Vasya's relationship with his father.

Conversation

On whose behalf is the story being told?

Vasya is the son of a judge. The judge is perhaps the only representative of the law in a small town, a "town", located in the south-west of the Russian Empire.

“Sleepy, moldy ponds”, “gray fences”, “sleepy, sunken huts” - all this creates the image of a town living a shallow life, in which there are no vivid feelings and events.

What prompted old Janusz to drive some of the residents out of the castle? Whom did they dislike?

“But Janusz and the old witches, shouting and cursing, chased them from everywhere, threatening them with pokers and sticks, and a silent watchman stood aside, also with a heavy club in his hands.” Budochnik is a policeman, which means that the expulsion was carried out with the knowledge and under the auspices of the police.

How was Vasya's relationship with his father?

Let us be careful when discussing this issue: many students in families do not have well-being, and one must be attentive to the feelings of children so as not to injure them. Let's pay attention to Vasya's desire to get closer to his father, to his father's deep grief after the death of his beloved wife.

Vasya's mother died when he was six years old. Since that time, the boy felt constant loneliness. The father loved the mother too much when she was alive, and did not notice the boy because of his happiness. After the death of his wife, the grief of the man was so deep that he withdrew into himself. Vasya felt grief from the fact that his mother had died; the horror of loneliness deepened because the father turned away from his son “with annoyance and pain.” Everyone considered Vasya a tramp and a worthless boy, and his father also got used to this idea.

Why did the boy start wandering?

The hero “did not meet with greetings and affection” at home, but not only this made him leave the house in the mornings: he had a thirst for knowledge, communication, goodness. He could not reconcile himself with the musty life of the town: “It seemed to me that somewhere out there, in this big and unknown light, behind the old fence of the garden, I would find something; it seemed that I had to do something and could do something, but I just didn’t know what it was.”

III. Characteristics of the hero.

At the end of the lesson, the teacher will divide the class into several groups and explain how to do the homework: write a story about the hero.

What does a hero look like?

What family is he from? From what society?

What actions does he do?

What qualities of the hero are manifested in these actions?

Homework. Compose stories about Vasya; about Valek; about Marus (compare with Sonya); about Tyburtsia.

Lesson 3. The life of children from prosperous and disadvantaged families. Vasya, Valek, Marusya, Tyburtsy. Vasya's path to truth and goodness

At the lesson, we talk about the main characters of the story, listen to the stories of the students prepared at home about the heroes of the story: Vasya, Valek, Marus, Tyburtsia. We ask students to confirm their statements with quotes, retell the relevant episodes of the story. After the speech of one person, others who prepared the same topic supplement his answer. We draw conclusions, briefly write them down on the board and in notebooks. We examine the illustrations, determine which episodes the artist depicted.

Why is the story called "In Bad Society"? Who in the story says this expression?

The story is called "In Bad Society" because it tells about the son of a judge who makes friends with poor children. It is not the boy himself who calls Pan Tyburtsy's company "bad society", but old Janusz, who was once one of the count's petty servants.

The story is told on behalf of Vasya, so there is no direct description of Vasya in the story. Vasya was a brave boy, honest, kind, he knew how to keep his word. In the year this story took place, he was seven or eight years old.

Valek was about nine years old. He was bigger than Vasya, “thin and thin, like a reed. He was dressed in a dirty shirt, his hands were in the pockets of his tight and short trousers. Dark curly hair ruffled over black thoughtful eyes. Valek behaved solidly and inspired Vasya with respect “by his manners of an adult”.

Marusya, Valek's sister, was a thin little girl of four. “It was a pale, tiny creature, resembling a flower that grew without the rays of the sun,” writes Korolenko in the chapter “The Acquaintance Continues.” - Despite her four years, she still walked poorly, stepping uncertainly with crooked legs and staggering like a blade of grass; her hands were thin and transparent; the head swayed on a thin neck, like the head of a field bell...”

Vasya compared Marusya with his sister Sonya, who was also four years old: “... my Sonya was round, like a donut, and elastic, like a ball. She ran so briskly when she used to play out, she laughed so loudly, she always wore such beautiful dresses, and every day the maid wove a scarlet ribbon into her dark braids. Sonya grew up in prosperity, she was looked after by a maid. Marusya grew up in poverty and was often hungry. Her brother Valek looked after her.

What did friendship with Valek and Marusya bring to Vasya?

Vasya fell in love with Valek and Marusya, missed them when he could not come to them on the mountain. Not seeing friends was a great deprivation for him.

What bitter discovery did Vasya make when he became friends with Valek?

When Valek told Vasya directly that they were beggars and they had to steal in order not to die of hunger, Vasya went home and wept bitterly from a feeling of deep grief. His love for his friends did not diminish, but was mixed with "a sharp jet of regret, reaching to the point of heartache."

How did Vasya meet Tyburtsy?

At first, Vasya was afraid of Tyburtsy, but after promising not to tell anyone about what he saw, Vasya saw a new person in Tyburtsy: “He gave orders, like the owner and head of the family, returning from work and giving orders to the household.” Vasya felt like a member of a poor but friendly family and stopped being afraid of Tyburtsy.

How and when did Vasya's opinion change from his father?

Let's read with the students the conversation between Valek and Vasya (chapter four), the statement of Tyburtsy about the judge (chapter seven).

The boy believed that his father did not love him, and considered him bad. The words of Valek and Tyburtsy that the judge is the best person in the city made Vasya take a fresh look at his father.

How did Vasya's character change during his friendship with Valek and Marusya?

Tyburtsiy Drab was an unusual person in the small town of Knyazhie-Veno. Where he came from in the town, no one knew. In the first chapter, the author describes in detail the “appearance of Pan Tyburtsy”: “He was tall, his large features were rudely expressive. Short, slightly reddish hair stuck out; a low forehead, a slightly protruding lower jaw, and a strong mobility of the face resembled something of a monkey; but the eyes that flashed from under the overhanging eyebrows looked stubbornly and gloomily, and sharp insight, energy and intelligence shone in them, along with slyness. The boy felt a constant deep sadness in the soul of this man.

Tyburtsiy told Vasya that he had “some clash with the law a long time ago... that is, you understand, an unexpected quarrel... oh, fellow, it was a very big quarrel!” We can conclude that Tyburtsiy inadvertently broke the law, and now he and his children (his wife apparently died) are outside the law, without documents, without the right to reside and without means of subsistence. He feels like “an old toothless beast in his last lair”, does not have the opportunity and means to start a new life, although it is clear that he is an educated person and he does not like such a life.

Tyburtius and his children find shelter in an old castle on the island, but Janusz, a former servant of the count, together with other servants and descendants of servants, drives out strangers from his “family nest”. The exiles settle in the dungeons of the old chapel in the cemetery. To feed themselves, they engage in petty theft in the city.

Korolenko's story "In Bad Society" was illustrated by the artist G. Fitingof. Consider his illustrations with the children. Did the artist manage to convey the special atmosphere of the events of the story?

Homework. Complete the 12th task in writing (p. 42): explain the listed words and expressions using the selection of synonyms and interpretation of the meaning.

Individual task. Prepare an expressive reading of the chapters "Doll" and "Conclusion".

Lesson 4 Simplicity and expressiveness of the language of the story. Preparation for composition (Speech development lesson)

I. Chapter "Doll" - the culmination of the story.

The chapters "Doll" and "Conclusion" must be read aloud in the lesson. Before we start reading, let's find out:

What role does old Janusz play in the development of the plot?

What did Janusz say to Vasya's father when they met in the garden? Why did the father send Janusz away?

When Vasya was carrying the doll to Marusya, old Janusz saw him. What were the consequences of this meeting?

The chapter is read by a teacher or a pre-prepared student.

Conversation

How does Vasya appear before us in the episode with the doll?

In the episode with the doll, Vasya appeared before us as a person full of kindness and compassion. He sacrificed his peace and well-being, incurring suspicion so that his little girlfriend could enjoy a toy - for the first and last time in her life. Tyburtsy saw this kindness of the boy and himself came to the judge's house at a time when Vasya was especially ill. He could not betray his comrades, and Tyburtius, as a man of insight, felt this. Vasya sacrificed his peace for the sake of Marusya, and Tyburtsy also sacrificed his secretive life on the mountain, although he understood that Vasya’s father was a judge: “He has eyes and a heart only as long as the law sleeps on his shelves ...”

How do you understand the words of Tyburtsy addressed to Vasya: “Maybe it’s good that your path ran through ours”?

If a child from a wealthy family learns from childhood that not everyone lives well, that there is poverty and grief, then he will learn to sympathize with these people and pity them.

What do you think Tyburtsiy said to Vasya's father? How has the relationship between father and son changed?

The students will make assumptions about Tyburtsiy's conversation with the judge. Let's compare the phrases:

“He quickly came up to me and put a heavy hand on my shoulder”;

“- Let the boy go,” repeated Tyburtsiy, and his wide palm lovingly stroked my lowered head”;

“I again felt someone's hand on my head and shuddered. It was my father's hand gently stroking my hair.

With the help of the selfless act of Tyburtius, the judge saw not the image of a tramp son, to which he was accustomed, but the true soul of his child:

“I looked up at my father questioningly. Now another person stood in front of me, but in this particular person I found something dear, which I had searched in vain for before. He looked at me with his usual pensive look, but now there was a hint of surprise and, as it were, a question in this look. It seemed as if the storm that had just swept over both of us had dispelled the heavy fog hanging over my father's soul. And my father only now began to recognize in me the familiar features of his own son.

Why did Vasya and Sonya come to Marusya's grave?

II. Simplicity and expressiveness of the language of the story.

The students say that the story is written in simple language, mostly as if the boy really tells what he saw. But behind this narration on behalf of Vasya, we hear the voice of a kind and wise adult. The language of the story is simple and at the same time expressive.

When checking homework assignments (12th assignment, p. 42), let's pay attention to whether the students used dictionaries in preparation for the lesson.

The expression "wild tree in the field" suggests that the boy grew up without supervision.

Korolenko, describing the town, speaks of "gray fences, wastelands with heaps of rubbish." The fences are gray because they are wooden and unpainted. At the same time, this word also appears in a figurative sense, creating a special mood.

asylum- this is a place where you can hide, find salvation from something.

Word huddle means to fit in a small space, to have a shelter in a cramped room.

Shelter- a word of high style, means a dwelling, a shelter.

Descendant- a person in relation to his ancestors. Korolenko writes about the “descendants of the servants of the count family,” that is, about the children and grandchildren of those who once served the count.

Expression "bad reputation" They use it when they want to say that a lot of bad things are being said about someone or something. Korolenko writes: "The mountain, riddled with graves, was notorious."

stern face- sullen, angry face.

strife- disagreements, quarrels, enmity.

sullen man- a gloomy, unfriendly person.

Tolerate the insults means to get used to the fact that you express their disapproval or accusations. Vasya got used to reproaches, that is, he got used to and stopped paying attention to accusations that he was a vagabond.

"Grey stone"- it's limestone. Korolenko uses this expression when he wants to say that Marusya is being killed by poverty and a joyless life.

“Ghosts of the old castle”- these are former county employees and their descendants who have lost the meaning of existence and live like ghosts.

"Bad Society"- a society of people committing reprehensible, immoral actions from the point of view of the prevailing morality.

III. Preparation for writing.

Theme of the essay: "Vasya's path to truth and goodness."

A similar theme of the essay - “Vasina's road to truth and goodness” - is offered by the group of authors: O.B. Belomestnykh, M.S. Korneeva, I.V. Zolotareva ( Belomestnykh O.B., Korneeva M.S., Zolotareva I.V. Pourochnye developments in literature. 5th grade. M.: VAKO, 2002. S. 321–322).

They write:

“When thinking about a topic, we discuss every word.

Vasina- it means that we will be interested in the fate of this particular hero. What is interesting about this character? It is he who is shown in movement - internal movement.

Road- it is necessary to trace the stages of this movement, its direction.

To truth and goodness“The changes that happened to Vasya turned him towards people, turned him from a tramp into a kind and compassionate person.”

This quote well shows the importance of working with the formulation of the topic of the essay, but even for the sake of a clearer designation of the topic, one cannot say that Vasya turned from a vagabond into a kind person, thereby arguing that, being a vagabond, he was neither kind nor compassionate. It would be correct if we say that during his friendship with disadvantaged children, Vasya was able to realize that vague “something” that he aspired to, and to show the best human qualities. Already at the very beginning of the story, we see in Vasya a desire to understand his father, love for his younger sister, compassion for people who are driven out of the castle, attention and love for nature (“I liked meeting the awakening of nature”), courage (the first climbed into the chapel), nobility (did not fight with Valek when he saw Marusya), loyalty to his word.

The authors of the cited manual highlight the idea of the essay in this way: "... friendship with disadvantaged children helped Vasya's best inclinations, kindness, returned good relations with his father." To say “returned good relations with his father” means to assert that these relations used to be, then, through Vasya’s fault, they changed, and only friendship with the children of the dungeon returned him good relations with his father. We read the text of the story: “He loved her too much when she was alive, not noticing me because of his happiness. Now I was shielded from him by heavy grief.” It would be correct to say that the story of Tyburtsy changed the father's attitude towards his own son.

Denote essay idea so: Vasya's friendship with Valek and Marusya helped Vasya's best qualities to manifest, played a major role in choosing a life position.

Essay plan

Depending on the level of the class, the students will independently or collectively draw up and discuss an essay plan. The teacher may suggest questions to guide the development of the plan:

What do we learn about Vasya at the beginning of the story? Who is he, what does he look like, where does he live?

What actions does he perform, what qualities does he show at the moment of meeting Valek and Marusya; during friendship with children; during a critical conversation with his father?

What role did Vasya's friendship with disadvantaged children play in his life?

Let's make a list of human qualities that Vasya shows: love for relatives, desire to understand people, attention and love for nature, courage, nobility, loyalty to one's word, honesty, compassion, kindness, mercy.

The teacher, depending on the resources of time and the level of the class, will determine whether the essay will be class or homework. If the essay is given at home, then we will devote the speech development lesson to detailed work on errors and teaching children how to edit their own texts, paying special attention to various categories of errors: factual, lexical, stylistic, speech. As a rule, most punctuation errors occur where there are speech errors. Working on the ability to express your thoughts correctly is a good prevention of punctuation errors.

Chapter 1. Ruins.
The first chapter tells the story of the ruins of an old castle and a chapel on an island near Knyazh-gorodok, where the main character, a boy named Vasya, lived. His mother died when the boy was only six years old. The father, heartbroken, did not pay any attention to his son. He only occasionally caressed his younger sister Vasya, because she looked like a mother. And Vasya was left to himself. He spent most of his time outdoors. The ruins of the old castle beckoned him with their mystery, as scary stories were told about him.

This castle belonged to a wealthy Polish landowner. But the family became impoverished, and the castle fell into disrepair. Time has destroyed it. They said about the castle that it stands on the bones of the captured Turks who built it. Not far from the castle was an abandoned Uniate chapel. Once upon a time, townspeople and residents of neighboring villages gathered in it for prayer. Now the chapel was falling apart like the castle. For a long time, the ruins of the castle served as a haven for poor people who came there in search of a roof over their heads, because it was possible to live here for free. The phrase "Lives in a castle!" denoted the extreme need of an impoverished person.

But the time has come, and changes have begun in the castle. Janusz, who long ago served the old count, the owner of the castle, somehow managed to get himself a so-called sovereign charter. He began to manage the ruins and made changes there. That is, old men and old women, Catholics, remained in the castle, they expelled everyone who was not a “good Christian”. Screams and shrieks of driven people were carried around the island. Vasya, who watched these changes, was deeply struck by human cruelty. Since then, the ruins have lost their appeal to him. Once Janusz led him to the ruins by the hand. But Vasya broke free and burst into tears and ran away.

Chapter 2. Problematic natures.
For several nights after the beggars were expelled from the castle, the city was very restless. Homeless people roamed the streets of the city in the rain. And when spring fully came into its own, these people disappeared somewhere. At night there were no more barking dogs, and there was no more banging on the fences. Life has taken its toll. The inhabitants of the castle again began to go from house to house for alms, as the locals believed that someone should receive alms on Saturdays.

But the beggars expelled from the castle did not find sympathy among the townspeople. They stopped wandering around the city at night. In the evening, these dark figures disappeared at the ruins of the chapel, and in the morning they crawled out from the same side. It was said in the city that there were dungeons in the chapel. It was there that the exiles settled. Appearing in the city, they aroused indignation and hostility among the locals, as they differed in their behavior from the inhabitants of the castle. They did not ask for alms, but preferred to take what they needed themselves. For this, they were severely persecuted if they were weak, or they themselves made the townspeople suffer if they were strong. They treated the inhabitants with contempt and wariness.

Among these people were remarkable personalities. For example, "professor". He suffered from idiocy. He was nicknamed "Professor" because, as they said, he was once a tutor. He was harmless and meek, walked the streets and constantly muttered something. The townsfolk used this habit of his for entertainment. Having stopped the "professor" with some question, they amused themselves by the fact that he could talk for hours without a break. The inhabitant could fall asleep under this muttering, wake up, and the "professor" just stood over him. And for some unknown reason, the "professor" was terribly afraid of any piercing and cutting objects. When the layman got tired of muttering, he shouted: “Knives, scissors, needles, pins!” The “professor” clutched at his chest, scratched it and said that they hooked a hook to the heart, to the very heart. And hurried away.

The beggars expelled from the castle always stood up for each other. When the bullying of the "professor" began, Pan Turkevich or the bayonet junker Zausailov flew into the crowd of townsfolk. The latter was of enormous stature, with a blue-purple nose and bulging eyes. Zausailov has long been openly at war with the inhabitants of the town. If he found himself next to the pursued "professor", then his cries were heard through the streets for a long time, because he rushed around the town, destroying everything that came to hand. The Jews especially got it. Junker bayonet organized Jewish pogroms.

The townsfolk also often had fun over the drunken former official Lavrovsky. Everyone still remembered the time when Lavrovsky was addressed as "pan clerk." And now he presented a rather pitiful sight. The fall of Lavrovsky began after an escape with a dragoon officer, the daughter of the innkeeper Anna, with whom the official was in love. Gradually he drank himself, and he could often be seen somewhere under a fence or in a puddle. He made himself comfortable, stretched out his legs and poured out his grief to the old fence or birch, that is, he talked about his youth, which was completely ruined.

Vasya and his comrades often witnessed the revelations of Lavrovsky, who accused himself of various crimes. He said that he killed his father, killed his mother and sisters and brothers. The children believed his words, and were only surprised that Lavrovsky had several fathers, since he pierced the heart of one with a sword, poisoned another with poison, drowned the third in the abyss. Adults denied these words, saying that the official's parents died of starvation and disease.

Thus, muttering, Lavrovsky fell asleep. Very often it was wet with rain, covered with dust. Several times he almost froze under the snow. But he was always pulled out by the cheerful pan Turkevich, who took care of the drunken official as best he could. Unlike the "professor" and Lavrovsky, Turkevich was not an unrequited victim of the townspeople. On the contrary, he called himself a general, and forced everyone around him to call himself that with his fists. Therefore, he always walked importantly, his eyebrows were sternly frowning, and his fists were ready for a fight. The general was always drunk.

If there was no money for vodka, then Turkevich went to local officials. First of all, he approached the house of the secretary of the county court and, in front of a crowd of onlookers, played a whole performance on some well-known case in the town, portraying both the plaintiff and the defendant. He knew the court proceedings very well, so soon the cook came out of the house and gave the general money. This happened at every house where Turkevich came with his retinue. He ended his campaign at the house of the mayor Kots, whom he often called his father and benefactor. Here he was presented with a gift, or the butar Mikita was called, who quickly dealt with the general, carrying him on his shoulder to the jail.

In addition to these people, many different dark personalities huddled in the chapel, hunting for petty theft. They were united, and they were led by a certain Tyburtsy Drab. Who he was and where he came from, no one knew. He was a tall, round-shouldered man with large and expressive features. With a low forehead and protruding lower jaw, he resembled a monkey. But Tyburtius's eyes were extraordinary: they sparkled from under overhanging eyebrows, shone with extraordinary intelligence and insight.

Everyone was struck by the erudition of Pan Tyburtsy. He could read Cicero, Xenophon, Virgil by heart for hours. There were various rumors about the origin of Tyburtius and his education. But this remained a mystery. Another mystery was the appearance of children in Drab, a boy of about seven and a girl of three. Valek (that was the name of the boy) sometimes wandered around the city idle, and the girl was seen only once, and no one knew where she was.

Chapter 3. Me and my father.
This chapter deals with the relationship between father and son. Old Yanush often told Vasya that he was in bad company, since he could be seen either in the retinue of General Turkevich, or among Drab's listeners. Since Vasya's mother died, and his father stopped paying attention to him, the boy was almost never at home. He avoided meeting his father, because his face was always stern. Therefore, early in the morning he went to the city, climbing out the window, and returned late in the evening, again through the window. If the little sister Sonya was still awake, then the boy would sneak into her room and play with her.

Early in the morning Vasya left the city. He loved to watch the awakening of nature, wandered in a suburban grove, near the city prison. When the sun rose, he went home, as hunger made itself felt. Everyone called the boy a tramp, a worthless boy. My father believed in this. He tried to raise his son, but all his attempts ended in failure. Seeing the stern face of his father with traces of great grief from the loss, Vasya became shy, lowered his eyes and closed himself. If the father had caressed the boy, then everything would have been completely different. But the man was looking at him with misty eyes.

Sometimes the father asked if Vasya remembered his mother. Yes, he remembered her. How he clung to her arms at night, how she sat sick. And now he often woke up at night with a smile of happiness on his lips from the love that crowded in the child's chest. He stretched out his hands to accept the caresses of his mother, but remembered that she was no more, and wept bitterly from pain and grief. But the boy could not tell his father all this because of his constant sullenness. And he just cringed even more.

The gap between father and son grew wider. The father decided that Vasya was completely spoiled and that he had a selfish heart. One day the boy saw his father in the garden. He walked along the alleys, and there was such an agony on his face that Vasya wanted to throw herself on his neck. But the father met his son severely and coldly, asking only what he needed. From the age of six, Vasya learned the whole "horror of loneliness." He loved his sister very much, and she answered the same. But as soon as they started playing, the old nanny would take Sonya away and take her to her room. And Vasya began to play less often with his sister. He became a vagabond.

For days on end, he wandered around the city, watching the life of the townspeople. Sometimes some pictures of life made him stop with a painful fright. Impressions fell on his soul like bright spots. When there were no unexplored places left in the city, and the ruins of the castle lost their attractiveness for Vasya after the beggars were expelled from there, he often began to walk around the chapel, trying to detect human presence there. The idea came to him to inspect the chapel from the inside.

Chapter 4. I make a new acquaintance.
This chapter tells how Vasya met the children of Tyburtsy Drab. Gathering a team of three tomboys, he went to the chapel. The sun was setting. There was no one around. Silence. The boys were scared. The chapel door was boarded up. Vasya hoped to climb with the help of his comrades through the window, which was high above the ground. First he looked inside, hanging on the window frame. He felt like there was a deep hole in front of him. There was no sign of human presence. The second boy, who was tired of standing below, also hung on the window frame and looked into the chapel. Vasya suggested that he go down to the room on his belt. But he refused. Then Vasya himself went down there, tying two belts together and hooking them to the window frame.

He was terrified. When there was a roar of crumbling plaster and the sound of the wings of an awakened owl, and in a dark corner some object disappeared under the throne, Vasya's friends ran headlong, leaving him alone. Vasya's feelings are impossible to describe, it seemed to him that he had landed in the next world. Until he heard a quiet conversation between two children: one very small and the other Vasya's age. Soon a figure appeared from under the throne.

It was a dark-haired boy of about nine, thin in a dirty shirt, with dark curly hair. At the sight of the boy, Vasya cheered up. He became even more calm when he saw a girl with blond hair and blue eyes, who was also trying to get out of the hatch in the floor of the chapel. The boys were ready to fight, but the girl, having got out, went up to the dark-haired man and clung to him. This decided everything. The children got to know each other. Vasya found out that the boy's name was Valek, and the girl's name was Marusya. They are brother and sister. Vasya pulled apples out of his pocket and treated his new acquaintances.

Valek helped Vasya to get back through the window, and he went out with Marusya in a different way. They saw off the uninvited guest, and Marusya asked if he would come again. Vasya promised to come. Valek allowed him to come only when the adults were not in the chapel. He also took a promise from Vasya not to tell anyone about a new acquaintance.

Chapter 5. Acquaintance continues.
This chapter tells how Vasya became more and more attached to his new acquaintances, visiting them every day. He wandered the streets of the city with only one purpose - to see if the adults had left the chapel. As soon as he saw them in the city, he immediately went to the mountain. Valek met the boy with restraint. But Marusya happily clasped her hands at the sight of the gifts that Vasya brought for her. Marusya was very pale, small for her age. She walked badly, staggering like a blade of grass. Thin, thin, she sometimes looked very sad, not childish. Vasya Marusya reminded her mother in the last days of her illness.

The boy compared Marusya with his sister Sonya. They were the same age. But Sonya was a plump, very lively girl, always dressed in beautiful dresses. But Marusya almost never frolicked, she also laughed very rarely and quietly, like a silver bell ringing. Her dress was dirty and old, and her hair was never braided. But the hair was more luxurious than Sonya's.

At first, Vasya tried to stir up Marusya, started noisy games, involving Valek and Marusya in them. But the girl was afraid of such games and was ready to burst into tears. Her favorite pastime was to sit on the grass and sort through the flowers that Vasya and Valek picked for her. When Vasya asked why Marusya was like that, Valek replied that it was from a gray stone that sucked life out of her. So Tyburtius told them. Vasya did not understand anything, but, looking at Marusya, he realized that Tyburtsy was right.

He became quieter around the children, and they could lie on the grass for hours and talk. Vasya learned from Valek that Tyburtsy was their father and that he loved them. Talking with Valek, he began to look at his father differently, because he learned that he was respected by everyone in the city for his crystal-clear honesty and justice. A filial pride woke up in the boy's soul, and at the same time bitterness from the realization that his father would never love him the way Tyburtius loves his children.

Chapter 6
In this chapter, Vasya learns that Valek and Marusya belong to "bad society", they are beggars. For several days he could not go to the mountain, because he did not see any of the adult inhabitants of the chapel in the city. He wandered around the city, looking for them and missing them. One day he met Valek. He asked why he didn't come anymore. Vasya said the reason. The boy was delighted, because he decided that he was already bored with the new society. he invited Vasya to his place, but he himself lagged behind a little.

Valek caught up with Vasya only on the mountain. In his hand he held a bun. He led the guest through the passage used by the inhabitants of the chapel, into the dungeon where these strange people lived. Vasya saw the "professor" and Marusya. The girl, in the light reflected from the old tombs, almost blended into the gray walls. Vasya remembered Valek's words about the stone sucking the life out of Marusya. He gave Marusa apples, and Valek broke off a piece of bread for her. Vasya was uncomfortable in the dungeon, and he suggested that Valek take Marusya out of there.

When the children went upstairs, a conversation took place between the boys, which greatly shocked Vasya. The boy found out that Valek did not buy the roll, as he thought, but stole it, because he did not have money to buy it. Vasya said that stealing is bad. But Valek objected that there were no adults, and Marusya wanted to eat. Vasya, who never knew what hunger was, looked at his friends in a new way. He said that Valek could tell him and he would bring the bun from home. But Valek objected that you can’t get enough of all the beggars. Struck to the core, Vasya left his friends because he could not play with them that day. The realization that his friends were beggars aroused in the boy's soul a regret that reached the point of heartache. At night he cried a lot.

Chapter 7 Pan Tyburtsy appears on the stage.
This chapter tells how Vasya meets Pan Tyburtsiy. When the next day he came to the ruins, Valek said that he no longer hoped to see him again. But Vasya resolutely replied that he would always come to them. The boys began to make a trap for sparrows. The thread was given to Marusa. She pulled it when a sparrow, attracted by the grain, flew into the trap. But soon the sky frowned, rain gathered, and the children went into the dungeon.

Here they began to play hide-and-seek. Vasya was blindfolded, and he pretended that he could not catch Marusya in any way, until he stumbled upon someone's wet figure. It was Tyburtsiy, who lifted Vasya by the leg above his head and frightened him, terribly rolling his pupils. The boy tried to escape and demanded to let him go. Tyburtsy sternly asked Valek what it was. But he had nothing to say. Finally, the man recognized the son of the judge in the boy. He began to ask him how he got into the dungeon, how long he had been coming here, and to whom he had already told about them.

Vasya said that he had been going to them for six days already and had not told anyone about the dungeon and its inhabitants. Tyburstius praised him for this and allowed him to continue to come to his children. Then the father and son began to cook dinner from the products brought by Tyburtius. At the same time, Vasya drew attention to the fact that Pan Drab was very tired. This became another of the revelations of life, which the boy learned a lot by communicating with the children of the dungeon.

During dinner, Vasya noticed that Valek and Marusya were eating a meat dish with greed. The girl even licked her greasy fingers. Apparently, they did not see such luxury very often. From the conversation between Tyburtsiy and the "professor" Vasya realized that the products were obtained dishonestly, that is, they were stolen. But hunger pushed these people to steal. Marusya confirmed her father's words that she was hungry, and meat is good.

Returning home, Vasya reflected on what he had learned about life. His friends are beggars, thieves who have no home. And with these words, the contemptuous attitude of others is always associated. But at the same time, he was very sorry for Valek and Marusya. Therefore, his affection for these poor children only increased as a result of the “mental process”. But the consciousness that stealing is not good also remained.

In the garden, Vasya stumbled upon his father, whom he had always been afraid of, and now that he had a secret, he was even more afraid. When asked by his father where he was, the boy lied for the first time in his life, answering that he was walking. Vasya was terrified by the thought that his father would find out about his connection with "bad company" and forbid him to meet with friends.

Chapter 8
This chapter says that with the approach of autumn, Marusya's illness worsened. Vasya could now freely come to the dungeon, without waiting for the adult inhabitants to leave. He soon became one of their own among them. All the inhabitants of the dungeon occupied one larger room, and Tyburtius with the children another smaller one. But in this room there was more sun and less dampness.

In a large room there was a workbench, on which the inhabitants made various crafts. On the floor there were shavings, scraps. Everywhere was dirt and disorder. Tyburtius sometimes forced the inhabitants to clean up everything. Vasya did not often go into this room, as there was musty air and the gloomy Lavrovsky lived there. One day the boy watched as a drunken Lavrovsky was brought into the dungeon. His head was dangling, his feet were pounding on the steps, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. If on the street Vasya would have been amused by such a spectacle, then here, "behind the scenes", the life of beggars without embellishment oppressed the boy.

In autumn, it became more difficult for Vasya to escape from the house. Coming to his friends, he noticed that Marusa was getting worse and worse. She was more in bed. The girl became dear to Vasya, like sister Sonya. Moreover, no one here grumbled at him, did not reproach him for his depravity, and Marusya was still happy about the appearance of the boy. Valek hugged him like a brother, even Tyburtsy sometimes looked at all three with strange eyes, in which a tear shone.

When good weather returned for a few days, Vasya and Valek carried Marusya upstairs every day. Here she seemed to come to life. But this did not last long. Clouds were also gathering over Vasya. One day he saw old Janusz talking to his father about something. From what Vasya heard, he realized that this concerned his friends from the dungeon, and maybe even himself. Tyburtsiy, to whom the boy told about what he had heard, said that pan judge is a very good person, he acts according to the law. Vasya, after the words of Pan Drab, saw his father as a formidable and strong hero. But this feeling was again mixed with bitterness from the realization that his father did not love him.

Chapter 9
This chapter tells how Vasya brought Marusa's sister's doll. The last good days are over. Marcus got worse. She no longer got out of bed, was indifferent. Vasya first brought her his toys. But they did not entertain her for long. Then he decided to ask his sister Sonya for help. She had a doll, a gift from her mother, with beautiful hair. The boy told Sonya about the sick girl and asked for the doll for a while for her. Sonya agreed.

The doll really had an amazing effect on Marusya. She seemed to come to life, hugging Vasya, laughing and talking to the doll. She got out of bed and led her little daughter around the room, sometimes even running around. But the doll gave Vasya a lot of anxiety. When he was carrying her up the mountain, he met with old Janusz. Then Sonya's nanny discovered the missing doll. The girl tried to appease her nanny, saying that the doll had gone for a walk and would return soon. Vasya expected that his act would soon be revealed, and then his father would find out everything. He already suspected something. Janusz came to him again. Father forbade Vasya to leave the house.

On the fifth day, the boy managed to sneak away before his father woke up. He came to the dungeon and found out that Marusa became even worse. She didn't recognize anyone. Vasya told Valek about his fears and the boys decided to take the doll from Marusya and return it to Sonya. But as soon as the doll was taken from under the hand of the sick girl, she began to cry very quietly, and an expression of such grief appeared on her face that Vasya immediately put the doll back in its place. He realized that he wanted to deprive his little friend of the only joy in life.

At home, Vasya was met by his father, an angry nanny and tearful Sonya. The father again forbade the boy to leave the house. For four days he languished in anticipation of the inevitable retribution. And that day has come. He was called to his father's office. He was sitting in front of a portrait of his wife. Then he turned to his son and asked if he had taken the doll from his sister. Vasya admitted that he took it, that Sonya allowed it to be done. Then the father demanded to know where he took the doll. But the boy flatly refused to do so.

It is not known how all this would have ended, but then Tyburtsy appeared in the office. He brought the doll, then asked the judge to come out with him to tell him all about the incident. father was very surprised, but obeyed. They left, and Vasya was alone in the office. When my father returned to the study, his face was bewildered. He put his hand on his son's shoulder. But now it was not the same heavy hand that had been gripping the boy's shoulder with force a few minutes ago. The father stroked his son's head.

Tyburtsy put Vasya on his knees and told him to come to the dungeon, that his father would allow him to do this, because Marusya had died. Pan Drab left, and Vasya was surprised to see the changes that had taken place with his father. his gaze expressed love and kindness. Vasya realized that now his father would always look at him with such eyes. Then he asked his father to let him go up the mountain to say goodbye to Marusya. The father immediately agreed. And he also gave Vasya money for Tyburtsy, but not from the judge, but on his behalf, Vasya.

Conclusion
After Marusya's funeral, Tyburtsy and Valek disappeared somewhere. The old chapel collapsed even more over time. And only one grave was still green every spring. It was the grave of Marusya. Vasya, his father and Sonya often visited her. Vasya and Sonya read together there, thought, shared their thoughts. Here they, leaving their native city, made their vows.

Current page: 1 (the book has 6 pages in total)

Vladimir Korolenko

In a bad society

From childhood memories of my friend

I. Ruins

My mother died when I was six years old. Father, completely surrendering to his grief, seemed to have completely forgotten about my existence. Sometimes he caressed my little sister and took care of her in his own way, because she had the features of a mother. I grew up like a wild tree in a field - no one surrounded me with special care, but no one hampered my freedom.

The place where we lived was called Knyazhye-Veno, or, more simply, Prince-Gorodok. It belonged to a seedy but proud Polish family and represented all the typical features of any of the small towns of the Southwestern Territory, where, amid the quietly flowing life of hard work and petty fussy Jewish gesheft, the miserable remnants of the proud panorama grandeur live out their sad days.

If you drive up to the town from the east, the first thing that catches your eye is the prison, the best architectural decoration of the city. The city itself is spread out below, over sleepy, moldy ponds, and you have to go down to it along a sloping highway, blocked by a traditional "outpost". A sleepy invalid, a red-haired figure in the sun, the personification of a serene slumber, lazily raises the barrier, and you are in the city, although, perhaps, you do not notice it right away. Gray fences, wastelands with heaps of all sorts of rubbish are gradually interspersed with blind-eyed huts that have sunk into the ground. Further on, the wide square yawns in different places with the dark gates of Jewish "visiting houses", state institutions are depressing with their white walls and barracks-smooth lines. The wooden bridge thrown over a narrow stream grunts, shuddering under the wheels, and staggers like a decrepit old man. Behind the bridge stretched a Jewish street with shops, benches, shops, tables of Jewish money changers sitting under umbrellas on the sidewalks, and with awnings of kalachniks. Stink, dirt, heaps of kids crawling in the street dust. But here's another minute and - you're out of town. The birch trees whisper softly over the graves of the cemetery, and the wind stirs the grain in the fields and rings a dull, endless song in the wires of the roadside telegraph.

The river, over which the said bridge was thrown, flowed out of the pond and flowed into another. Thus, from the north and south, the town was protected by wide water surfaces and swamps. The ponds grew shallow from year to year, overgrown with greenery, and tall, thick reeds rippled like the sea in the vast swamps. In the middle of one of the ponds is an island. There is an old, dilapidated castle on the island.

I remember with what fear I always looked at this majestic decrepit building. There were legends and stories about him, one more terrible than the other. It was said that the island was built artificially, by the hands of captured Turks. “An old castle stands on the bones of men,” the old-timers used to say, and my childish frightened imagination drew thousands of Turkish skeletons underground, supporting the island with its bony hands with its tall pyramidal poplars and the old castle. This, of course, made the castle seem even more terrible, and even on clear days, when, encouraged by the light and the loud voices of birds, we came closer to it, it often inspired fits of panic horror in us - the black cavities of the long-beaten out windows; in the empty halls there was a mysterious rustle: pebbles and plaster, breaking away, fell down, waking up a booming echo, and we ran without looking back, and behind us for a long time there was a knock, and a clatter, and a cackle.

And on stormy autumn nights, when the giant poplars swayed and hummed from the wind blowing from behind the ponds, horror spread from the old castle and reigned over the whole city. "Oh-wey-peace!" - the Jews said fearfully; God-fearing old philistine women were baptized, and even our closest neighbor, a blacksmith, who denied the very existence of demonic power, going out into his courtyard at these hours, made the sign of the cross and whispered to himself a prayer for the repose of the departed.

Old, gray-bearded Janusz, who, for lack of an apartment, sheltered in one of the castle cellars, told us more than once that on such nights he clearly heard screams coming from under the ground. The Turks began to tinker under the island, banged their bones and loudly reproached the pans for their cruelty. Then, in the halls of the old castle and around it on the island, weapons rattled, and the pans called the haiduks with loud cries. Janusz heard quite clearly, under the roar and howl of the storm, the clatter of horses, the tinkling of sabers, the words of command. Once he even heard how the late great-grandfather of the current counts, glorified for eternity by his bloody exploits, rode out, clattering with the hooves of his argamak, to the middle of the island and cursed furiously: “Be silent there, laydaki, dog vyara!”

The descendants of this count have long since left the dwelling of their ancestors. Most of the ducats and all sorts of treasures, from which the chests of the counts used to burst, crossed over the bridge, into Jewish shacks, and the last representatives of a glorious family built a prosaic white building for themselves on a mountain, away from the city. There they passed their boring, but nevertheless solemn existence in contemptuously majestic solitude.

Occasionally only the old earl, as gloomy a ruin as the castle on the island, appeared in the city on his old English horse. Next to him, in a black Amazon, majestic and dry, his daughter rode through the city streets, and the master of the horse respectfully followed behind. The majestic countess was destined to remain a virgin forever. Suitors equal to her in origin, in pursuit of money from merchant daughters abroad, cowardly scattered around the world, leaving family castles or selling them for scrapping to the Jews, and in the town, spread out at the foot of her palace, there was no young man who would dare to raise his eyes to beautiful countess. Seeing these three riders, we little guys, like a flock of birds, took off from the soft street dust and, quickly dispersing through the yards, followed the gloomy owners of the terrible castle with frightened and curious eyes.

On the western side, on the mountain, among decayed crosses and collapsed graves, stood a long-abandoned Uniate chapel. It was the native daughter of a philistine city proper spread out in the valley. Once upon a time, at the ringing of a bell, townspeople gathered in it in clean, although not luxurious kuntush, with sticks in their hands instead of sabers, with which the petty gentry rattled, also appearing at the call of the ringing Uniate bell from the surrounding villages and farms.

From here one could see the island and its huge dark poplars, but the castle was angrily and contemptuously closed off from the chapel by dense greenery, and only in those moments when the southwest wind broke out from behind the reeds and flew over the island did the poplars sway resoundingly, and because of windows gleamed from them, and the castle seemed to throw sullen glances at the chapel. Now both he and she were dead. His eyes were dimmed, and the reflections of the evening sun did not sparkle in them; its roof had caved in in some places, the walls were crumbling, and instead of a booming, high-pitched copper bell, owls started their ominous songs in it at night.

But the old, historical strife that separated the once proud pansky castle and the petty-bourgeois Uniate chapel continued even after their death: it was supported by the worms swarming in these decrepit corpses, which occupied the surviving corners of the dungeon, cellars. These grave worms of the dead buildings were people.

There was a time when the old castle served as a free refuge for every poor person without the slightest restriction. Everything that did not find a place for itself in the city, every existence that had jumped out of the rut, that for one reason or another had lost the ability to pay even a miserable penny for shelter and a corner at night and in bad weather - all this was drawn to the island and there, among the ruins, bowed their victorious little heads, paying for hospitality only at the risk of being buried under piles of old garbage. "Lives in a castle" - this phrase has become an expression of extreme poverty and civic decline. The old castle hospitably received and covered both the erratic need, and the temporarily impoverished scribe, and orphan old women, and rootless vagrants. All these creatures tormented the insides of a decrepit building, breaking off ceilings and floors, stoked stoves, cooked something, ate something, in general, sent their vital functions in an unknown way.

However, the days came when among this society, huddled under the roof of gray-haired ruins, division arose, strife began. Then old Janusz, who had once been one of the count's petty "officials", procured for himself something like a charter of sovereignty and seized the reins of government. He began to reform, and for several days there was such a noise on the island, such cries were heard that at times it seemed that the Turks had escaped from underground dungeons in order to take revenge on the oppressors. It was Janusz who sorted the population of the ruins, separating the sheep from the goats. The sheep, still in the castle, helped Janusz drive out the unfortunate goats, who resisted, showing desperate but futile resistance. When, finally, with the tacit, but, nevertheless, rather significant assistance of the watchman, order was again established on the island, it turned out that the coup had a decidedly aristocratic character. Janusz left in the castle only "good Christians", that is, Catholics, and, moreover, mostly former servants or descendants of servants of the count's family. They were all some sort of old men in shabby frock coats and chamarkas, with huge blue noses and gnarled sticks, noisy and ugly old women, but on the last steps of impoverishment they retained their bonnets and coats. All of them constituted a homogeneous, closely knit aristocratic circle, which took, as it were, a monopoly of recognized begging. On weekdays, these old men and women went, with a prayer on their lips, to the homes of the more prosperous townspeople and the middle philistines, spreading gossip, complaining about their fate, shedding tears and begging, and on Sundays they made up the most respectable faces from the public that lined up in long rows. near the churches and majestically accepted handouts in the name of "pan Jesus" and "panna of the Mother of God."

Attracted by the noise and cries that rushed from the island during this revolution, I and several of my comrades made their way there and, hiding behind the thick trunks of poplars, watched how Janusz, at the head of a whole army of red-nosed elders and ugly shrews, drove from the castle the last who were subject to exile, residents. Evening came. The cloud hanging over the high tops of the poplars was already pouring rain. Some unfortunate dark personalities, wrapping themselves in utterly torn rags, frightened, pitiful and embarrassed, poked their way around the island, like moles driven out of their holes by boys, trying again to slip unnoticed into one of the openings of the castle. But Janusz and the shrews, screaming and cursing, chased them from everywhere, threatening them with pokers and sticks, and a silent watchman stood aside, also with a heavy club in his hands, maintaining an armed neutrality, obviously friendly to the triumphant party. And the unfortunate dark personalities involuntarily, drooping, hid behind the bridge, leaving the island forever, and one after another drowned in the slushy twilight of the rapidly descending evening.

Since that memorable evening, both Janusz and the old castle, from which some kind of vague grandeur had previously wafted over me, lost all their attractiveness in my eyes. I used to like to come to the island and, although from a distance, admire its gray walls and old moss-covered roof. When in the morning dawn various figures crawled out of it, yawning, coughing and crossing themselves in the sun, I looked at them with some respect, as at beings clothed with the same mystery that shrouded the whole castle. They sleep there at night, they hear everything that happens there when the moon peeps through the broken windows into the huge halls or when the wind rushes into them in a storm. I loved to listen when Janusz, sitting under the poplars, with the talkativeness of a 70-year-old man, would begin to talk about the glorious past of the deceased building. Before the childish imagination, images of the past arose, reviving, and the soul was filled with majestic sadness and vague sympathy for what the once downcast walls lived, and the romantic shadows of a foreign antiquity ran through the young soul, as the light shadows of clouds run on a windy day over the bright green of pure fields.

But from that evening both the castle and its bard appeared before me in a new light. Meeting me the next day near the island, Janusz began to invite me to his place, assuring me with a satisfied look that now “the son of such respectable parents” can safely visit the castle, as he will find quite decent society in it. He even led me by the hand to the castle itself, but then, with tears, I tore my hand from him and started to run. The castle became disgusting to me. The windows on the top floor were boarded up, and the bottom was in the possession of hoods and salopes. The old women crawled out of there in such an unattractive form, flattering me so cloyingly, cursing among themselves so loudly that I sincerely wondered how this strict dead man, who pacified the Turks on thundery nights, could tolerate these old women in his neighborhood. But the main thing is that I could not forget the cold cruelty with which the triumphant residents of the castle drove their unfortunate cohabitants, and at the memory of dark personalities left homeless, my heart sank.

Be that as it may, on the example of the old castle I learned for the first time the truth that there is only one step from the great to the ridiculous. What was great in the castle was overgrown with ivy, dodder, and mosses, but what was funny seemed disgusting to me, it cut the childish susceptibility too much, since the irony of these contrasts was still inaccessible to me.

II. Problematic natures

Several nights after the described upheaval on the island, the city spent very restless: dogs barked, doors of houses creaked, and the townsfolk, every now and then going out into the street, banged on the fences with sticks, letting someone know that they were on their guard. The city knew that people were wandering along its streets in the rainy darkness of a rainy night, hungry and cold, shivering and wet; realizing that cruel feelings must be born in the hearts of these people, the city became alert and sent its threats towards these feelings. And the night, as if on purpose, descended to the ground in the midst of a cold downpour and left, leaving low running clouds above the ground. And the wind raged in the midst of bad weather, shaking the tops of the trees, banging the shutters and singing to me in my bed about dozens of people deprived of warmth and shelter.

But then spring finally triumphed over the last gusts of winter, the sun dried up the earth, and at the same time the homeless wanderers subsided somewhere. The barking of dogs subsided at night, the townsfolk stopped knocking on the fences, and the life of the city, sleepy and monotonous, went on its own track. The hot sun, rolling into the sky, burned the dusty streets, driving under the awnings the nimble children of Israel, who traded in the city shops; the "factors" lay lazily in the sun, vigilantly looking out at the passers-by; the creak of bureaucratic quills was heard through the open windows of government offices; in the morning the ladies of the city scurried around the bazaar with baskets, and in the evening they solemnly stepped arm in arm with their faithful, raising the street dust with magnificent trains. The old men and women from the castle walked decorously through the houses of their patrons, without violating the general harmony. The layman willingly recognized their right to existence, finding it quite reasonable that someone should receive alms on Saturdays, and the inhabitants of the old castle should receive it quite respectably.

Only the unfortunate exiles did not find their own track even now in the city. True, they did not loiter in the streets at night; they said that they found shelter somewhere on the mountain, near the Uniate chapel, but how they managed to settle down there, no one could say for sure. Everyone saw only that from the other side, from the mountains and ravines surrounding the chapel, the most incredible and suspicious figures descended into the city in the mornings, which disappeared in the same direction at dusk. With their appearance, they disturbed the quiet and dormant course of city life, standing out against a gray background with gloomy spots. The townsfolk glanced at them with hostile anxiety; they, in turn, cast uneasily attentive glances over the philistine existence, from which many became terrified. These figures did not at all resemble the aristocratic beggars from the castle - the city did not recognize them, and they did not ask for recognition; their relationship to the city had a purely militant character: they preferred to scold the layman than to flatter him - to take for themselves than to beg. They either suffered severely from persecution if they were weak, or forced the inhabitants to suffer if they possessed the necessary strength for this. Moreover, as is often the case, among this ragged and dark crowd of unfortunate people there were people who, in intelligence and talents, could have done honor to the chosen society of the castle, but did not get along in it and preferred the democratic society of the Uniate chapel. Some of these figures were marked by features of deep tragedy.

I still remember how merrily the street rumbled when the bent, despondent figure of the old "professor" passed along it. It was a quiet creature, oppressed by idiocy, in an old frieze overcoat, in a hat with a huge visor and a blackened cockade. The academic title, it seems, was awarded to him as a result of a vague tradition that somewhere and once he was a tutor. It is difficult to imagine a creature more harmless and peaceful. As a rule, he wandered quietly through the streets, apparently without any definite goal, with a dull look and a downcast head. Idle inhabitants knew two qualities behind him, which they used in forms of cruel entertainment. The "professor" was always muttering something to himself, but not a single person could make out a word of these speeches. They flowed like the murmur of a muddy stream, and at the same time dull eyes looked at the listener, as if trying to put into his soul the elusive meaning of a long speech. It could be started like a car; for this, any of the factors who were tired of dozing on the streets should call the old man to him and offer a question. The "professor" shook his head, staring thoughtfully at the listener with his faded eyes, and began to mutter something endlessly sad. At the same time, the listener could calmly leave, or at least fall asleep, and yet, waking up, he would see a sad dark figure above him, still quietly mumbling incomprehensible speeches. But, in itself, this circumstance was not yet anything particularly interesting. The main effect of the street brutes was based on another feature of the professor's character: the unfortunate man could not indifferently hear the mention of cutting and piercing tools. Therefore, usually, in the midst of an incomprehensible eloquence, the listener, suddenly rising from the ground, would cry out in a sharp voice: “Knives, scissors, needles, pins!” The poor old man, so suddenly awakened from his dreams, waved his arms like a shot bird, looked around in fright and clutched his chest. Oh, how many sufferings remain incomprehensible to lanky factors only because the sufferer cannot inspire ideas about them by means of a healthy punch! And the poor "professor" only looked around with deep anguish, and inexpressible torment was heard in his voice, when, turning his dull eyes to the tormentor, he said, convulsively scratching his chest with his fingers:

- For the heart, for the heart with a crochet! .. for the very heart! ..

He probably meant to say that these cries tormented his heart, but, apparently, it was precisely this circumstance that was able to somewhat entertain the idle and bored layman. And the poor "professor" hurried away, lowering his head even lower, as if fearing a blow; and behind him thundered peals of contented laughter, and in the air, like blows of a whip, all the same cries lashed:

- Knives, scissors, needles, pins!

It is necessary to do justice to the exiles from the castle: they firmly stood for each other, and if at that time Pan Turkevich, with two or three ragamuffins, flew into the crowd, chasing the "professor", or in particular the retired bayonet junker Zausailov, then many of this crowd comprehended cruel punishment. Junker bayonet Zausailov, who had enormous growth, a bluish-purple nose and ferociously bulging eyes, had long ago declared open war on all living things, recognizing neither truces nor neutralities. Every time after he stumbled upon the pursued "professor", his abusive cries did not stop for a long time; he then rushed through the streets, like Tamerlane, destroying everything that came across in the path of a formidable procession; thus he practiced Jewish pogroms, long before they occurred, on a large scale; He tortured the Jews he captured in every possible way, and committed vile things over Jewish ladies, until, finally, the expedition of the brave Junker bayonet ended at the congress, where he invariably settled after fierce fights with the rebels. Both sides showed a lot of heroism in this.

Another figure, who entertained the townsfolk with the spectacle of his misfortune and fall, was the retired and completely drunk official Lavrovsky. The townsfolk still remembered the recent time when Lavrovsky was called nothing more than “pan clerk,” when he walked around in a uniform with copper buttons, tying delightful colored handkerchiefs around his neck. This circumstance gave even more piquancy to the spectacle of his real fall. The revolution in the life of Pan Lavrovsky took place quickly: for this, it was only necessary for a brilliant dragoon officer to come to Knyazhye-Veno, who lived in the city for only two weeks, but at that time managed to defeat and take away with him the blond daughter of a wealthy innkeeper. Since then, the townsfolk have not heard anything about the beautiful Anna, since she disappeared forever from their horizon. And Lavrovsky was left with all his colored handkerchiefs, but without the hope that used to brighten up the life of a petty official. Now he has been out of service for a long time. Somewhere in a small place, his family remained, for whom he was once a hope and support; but now he didn't care about anything. In the rare sober moments of his life, he quickly walked through the streets, looking down and not looking at anyone, as if overwhelmed by the shame of his own existence; he walked ragged, dirty, overgrown with long, uncombed hair, standing out immediately from the crowd and attracting everyone's attention; but he himself did not seem to notice anyone and heard nothing. From time to time only he cast vague glances around, which reflected bewilderment: what do these strangers and strangers want from him? What did he do to them, why are they pursuing him so stubbornly? Sometimes, in the moments of these glimpses of consciousness, when the name of the lady with the blond plait reached his ears, violent fury rose in his heart; Lavrovsky's eyes lit up with a dark fire on his pale face, and he rushed at full speed into the crowd, which quickly scattered. Such outbursts, though very rare, strangely aroused the curiosity of bored idleness; no wonder, therefore, that when Lavrovsky, looking down, passed through the streets, a bunch of idlers who followed him, trying in vain to bring him out of apathy, began to throw mud and stones at him in annoyance.

When Lavrovsky was drunk, he somehow stubbornly chose dark corners under fences, puddles that never dried out, and similar extraordinary places where he could count on not being noticed. There he sat down, stretching out his long legs and hanging his victorious little head over his chest. Solitude and vodka evoked in him a surge of frankness, a desire to pour out heavy grief that oppresses the soul, and he began an endless story about his young ruined life. At the same time, he turned to the gray posts of the old fence, to the birch tree, condescendingly whispering something above his head, to the magpies, which, with womanish curiosity, jumped up to this dark, only slightly swarming figure.

If any of us little guys managed to track him down in this position, we silently surrounded him and listened with bated breath to long and terrifying stories. Our hair stood on end, and we looked with fear at the pale man who accused himself of all sorts of crimes. If you believe Lavrovsky's own words, he killed his own father, drove his mother into the grave, and killed his sisters and brothers. We had no reason not to believe these terrible confessions; we were only surprised by the fact that Lavrovsky apparently had several fathers, since he pierced the heart of one with a sword, plagued another with slow poison, and drowned the third in some kind of abyss. We listened with horror and sympathy, until Lavrovsky's tongue, becoming more and more slurred, finally refused to utter articulate sounds and a beneficent dream stopped his penitent outpourings. The adults laughed at us, saying that all this was a lie, that Lavrovsky's parents died a natural death, from hunger and disease. But we, with sensitive childlike hearts, heard in his groans sincere spiritual pain, and, taking the allegories literally, were still closer to a true understanding of the tragically crazy life.

When Lavrovsky's head sank even lower and snoring was heard from his throat, interrupted by nervous sobs, then the little children's heads bent over the unfortunate one. We carefully peered into his face, watched how the shadows of criminal deeds ran over him in a dream, how nervously his eyebrows moved and his lips tightened into a pitiful, almost childishly crying grimace.

- Kill me! he suddenly cried out, feeling in his sleep an objectless anxiety from our presence, and then we rushed apart in a frightened flock.

It happened that in such a sleepy position it was flooded with rain, covered with dust, and several times, in autumn, even literally covered with snow; and if he did not die an untimely death, then, no doubt, he owed this to the cares for his sad person of other unfortunates like him, and mainly to the cares of the cheerful pan Turkevich, who, staggering heavily, himself searched for him, disturbed him, put him on his feet and took with him.

Pan Turkevich belonged to the group of people who, as he himself put it, do not allow themselves to spit in the mess, and while the "professor" and Lavrovsky suffered passively, Turkevich showed himself to be a cheerful and prosperous person in many respects. To begin with, without asking anyone about the approval, he immediately promoted himself to the generals and demanded from the townsfolk the honors corresponding to this rank. Since no one dared to challenge his rights to this title, Pan Turkevich soon became completely imbued with faith in his greatness himself. He always spoke very solemnly, knitting his brows menacingly and revealing at any time a complete readiness to crush someone's cheekbones, which, apparently, he considered the most necessary prerogative of the rank of general. If at times his carefree head was visited by any doubts on this score, then, having caught the first inhabitant he met on the street, he would ask menacingly:

- Who am I in this place? a?

- General Turkevich! - humbly answered the inhabitant, who felt himself in a difficult position. Turkevich immediately released him, twirling his mustache majestically.

- That's it!

And since at the same time he still knew how to move his cockroach mustache in a very special way and was inexhaustible in jokes and witticisms, it is not surprising that he was constantly surrounded by a crowd of idle listeners and even the doors of the best "restaurant" were opened to him, in which visitors gathered for billiards landowners. To tell the truth, there were often cases when Pan Turkevich flew out of there with the speed of a man who is not particularly ceremoniously pushed from behind; but these cases, which were explained by the landowners' insufficient respect for wit, had no effect on Turkevich's general mood: cheerful self-confidence was his normal state, as was constant intoxication.

The latter circumstance was the second source of his well-being - it was enough for him to take one glass to recharge himself for the whole day. This was explained by the huge amount of vodka already drunk by Turkevich, which turned his blood into some kind of vodka must; it was now enough for the general to maintain this wort at a certain degree of concentration, so that it played and seethed in him, coloring the world for him in iridescent colors.

But if for some reason the general did not get a single glass for three days, he experienced unbearable torment. At first he fell into melancholy and cowardice; everyone knew that at such moments the formidable general became more helpless than a child, and many were in a hurry to take out their grievances on him. They beat him, spat on him, threw mud at him, and he did not even try to avoid reproach; he only roared at the top of his voice, and tears rolled down his sadly drooping moustaches from his eyes. The poor man turned to everyone with a request to kill him, motivating this desire by the fact that he would still have to die "dog death under the fence." Then everyone backed away from him. In such a degree there was something in the voice and in the face of the general that forced the most daring pursuers to leave as soon as possible so as not to see this face, not to hear the voice of a man who for a short time came to the consciousness of his terrible situation ... A change took place again with the general; he became terrifying, his eyes lit up feverishly, his cheeks sagged, his short hair stood on end on his head. Quickly rising to his feet, he struck his chest and solemnly set off through the streets, announcing in a loud voice:

– I’m coming!.. Like the prophet Jeremiah… I’m coming to denounce the wicked!

This promised the most interesting spectacle. It can be said with certainty that Pan Turkevich at such moments with great success performed the functions of publicity unknown in our town; therefore, it is not surprising if the most respectable and busy citizens abandoned their everyday affairs and joined the crowd that accompanied the newly appeared prophet, or at least followed his adventures from afar. As a rule, he first of all went to the house of the clerk of the county court and opened in front of his windows something like a court session, choosing from a crowd of suitable actors representing the plaintiffs and defendants; he himself spoke for them and answered them himself, imitating with great skill the voice and manner of the accused. Since at the same time he always knew how to give the performance a contemporary interest, alluding to some well-known case, and since, in addition, he was a great connoisseur of judicial procedure, it is not surprising that in a very short time the cook ran out of the secretary's house, that something she shoved into Turkevich's hand and quickly hid, fighting off the courtesies of the general's retinue. The general, having received a gift, laughed angrily and, triumphantly waving a coin, went to the nearest tavern.

From there, having quenched some of his thirst, he led his listeners to the houses of the "criminals", modifying the repertoire according to the circumstances. And since each time he received a performance fee, it was natural that the menacing tone gradually softened, the eyes of the frenzied prophet cajoled, the mustache curled up, and the performance turned from accusatory drama into a merry vaudeville. It usually ended in front of the police chief Kotz's house. He was the most good-natured of the city governors, who had two minor weaknesses: firstly, he dyed his gray hair black and, secondly, he had a predilection for fat cooks, relying in everything else on the will of God and on voluntary philistine "gratitude". Going up to the police station's house, which faced the street, Turkevich winked merrily at his companions, threw his cap up and announced loudly that it was not the chief who lived here, but his own, Turkevich's father and benefactor.