The history of one city is the history of the origin of the city. "About the roots of the origin of the Foolovites"

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Satire by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”

“The only fertile soil for satire,” said Shchedrin, “is the soil of the people, for it alone can be called social in the true and actual meaning of the word. The further the satirist penetrates into the depths of this life, the more weighty his word becomes, the clearer his task is depicted, the more undeniable the meaning of his activity comes to light.”

The first “weighty word” of Saltykov-Shchedrin in Russian literature is the cycle of his “Provincial Sketches,” created in 1856–1857. This book is the fruit of the writer’s long thoughts, the result of his eight-year stay in Vyatka, distant and remote at that time, where he was exiled by Nicholas I in 1848. Saltykov discovered lower, district Rus', became acquainted with the life of petty provincial officials, merchants, peasants, and workers of the Urals, and plunged into the life-giving “element of the most amiable folk dialect.”

Service practice in organizing an agricultural exhibition in Vyatka, studying cases of schism in the Volga-Vyatka region immersed Saltykov-Shchedrin in oral folk art, in the depths of folk religiosity. “I undoubtedly felt that in my heart there was hidden an invisible but hot stream, which, unbeknownst to me, was introducing me to the original and ever-flowing sources of people’s life,” the writer recalled about his Vyatka impressions. The experience of public service in the provinces was a harsh school of life, which opened for the writer “fertile soil” for satire, “folk soil.”

Saltykov now looked at the Russian state system from a popular perspective. He came to the conclusion that “the central government, no matter how enlightened, cannot grasp all the details of the life of a great people; when it wants to control the diverse springs of people’s life with its own means, it is exhausted in fruitless efforts.” The main disadvantage of autocracy is that it “erases all the individuals who make up the state. By interfering in all the petty functions of people’s life, taking upon itself the regulation of private interests, the government thereby frees citizens from all original activities” and puts itself at risk, since “it becomes responsible for everything, becomes the cause of all evils and gives rise to hatred". “Exhausting itself in fruitless efforts,” autocracy produces “a mass of officials, alien to the population both in spirit and in aspirations, not connected with them by any common interests, powerless for good, but in the realm of evil they are a terrible, corrosive force.”

This creates a vicious circle: autocracy kills popular initiative, artificially restrains the civil development of the people, keeps them in “infantile immaturity,” and this immaturity, in turn, justifies and supports bureaucratic centralization. “Sooner or later the people will break this Procrustean bed, which only uselessly tormented them.” But what to do now? How to deal with the anti-people essence of the state system in conditions of passivity and civil underdevelopment of the people themselves?

Saltykov comes to the conclusion that the only way out of the current situation is “honest service”, the practice of “liberalism in the very temple of illiberalism.” In “Provincial Sketches” (1856–1857), the artistic result of the Vyatka exile, such a theory is professed by a fictional character, court adviser Shchedrin, on whose behalf the story is told and who will henceforth become Saltykov’s “double”.

The social upsurge of the 1860s gives Saltykov confidence that the “honest service” of the Christian socialist Shchedrin can push society to deep changes, that a single good can bring noticeable results if the bearer of this good holds a sublime and noble social ideal in mind.

The content of “Provincial Sketches” convinces that the position of an honest official in the conditions of the fictional provincial city of Krutogorsk is not a political program, but an ethical necessity, the only way for Shchedrin so far that allows him to maintain a sense of moral honesty, a sense of fulfilled duty to the Russian people and to himself: “ Yes! I couldn’t live for nothing for so many years, I couldn’t leave no trace behind me! Because even an unconscious blade of grass does not live in vain, and with its life, although imperceptibly, it certainly influences the surrounding nature... Am I really lower, more insignificant than this blade of grass?”

In distant Vyatka, he seeks and finds support for his ideals in the beliefs and hopes of the people. This is where the poeticization of folk religiosity comes from, and this is where the epic scale of Shchedrin’s satire is gaining strength in “Provincial Sketches.” Like Nekrasov in the poem “Silence,” Shchedrin is trying to reach the people through familiarization with their moral shrines. In the middle of the 19th century they were religious. What Shchedrin holds dear among the people is the ethic of self-sacrifice, renunciation of oneself for the sake of the happiness of another, the ethic of service to one’s neighbor, which makes one forget about oneself and one’s sorrows.

Following Turgenev and simultaneously with Tolstoy and Nekrasov, Saltykov-Shchedrin finds in the people's environment what is lost in the world of Krutogorsk bureaucracy, in the world of Russian bureaucracy - human community and sensitivity. Shchedrin's people are wanderers and pilgrims, wandering along Russian roads in a tireless search for brotherhood and truth.

However, Saltykov looks at the peasant not only from a democratic, but also from a historical point of view. Therefore, the image of the people in the “Essays” is twofold. The people are poeticized as “the embodiment of the idea of democracy,” but Shchedrin’s sadly ironic thoughts are evoked by the people-citizens acting in the field of modern Russian history.

The writer depicts situations differently in which people's humility receives ethical justification. The old schismatic woman, driven to death by the tyranny of the dashing mayor, on her deathbed “thanks” her tormentor: “Thank you, your honor, for not leaving me, the old woman, for not depriving me of the martyr’s crown.” In the people's long-suffering, high spirituality is revealed here, a spark of resistance runs through the soulless extortion of the top. The world of folk life in “Provincial Sketches” is thus not without drama: relying on the viable elements of the people’s worldview, Shchedrin separates from them the dead and lifeless elements.

After his release from “Vyatka captivity,” he continued (with a short break in 1862–1864) public service, first in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and then as the Ryazan and Tver vice-governor, earning “Vice Robespierre” in bureaucratic circles. In 1864–1868 he served as chairman of the treasury chamber in Penza, Tula and Ryazan. Administrative practice reveals to him the most hidden sides of bureaucratic power, its entire mechanism hidden from external observation. At the same time, Saltykov-Shchedrin works a lot, publishing his satirical works in Nekrasov’s magazine Sovremennik.

He is gradually losing faith in the prospects of “honest service,” which is increasingly turning into “a pointless drop of good in a sea of bureaucratic arbitrariness.” If in “Provincial Sketches” Shchedrin buries “past times” in the finale, and then devotes the unfinished “Book of the Dying” to them, now the satirist feels the prematureness of hopes for such a funeral. The past not only does not die, but takes root in the present, revealing extraordinary vitality. What feeds the old order of things, why changes do not affect the deep being, the root basis of Russian life?

These reflections lead Saltykov-Shchedrin to the cycle “Pompadours and Pompadours,” in which, based on his own practical experience, the satirist shows how pre-reform orders, slightly modified, come to life and are resurrected in new post-reform times in the images of provincial mayors. The writer calls this cycle “governor’s” for himself. In one of his letters, he reports that a new idea is beginning to take shape in his head, going beyond the “Pompadour” cycle - “Essays on the city of Bryukhov.” The essence of the new idea is its breadth, going beyond provincial boundaries to all-Russian satirical generalizations.

Back in 1857–1859, the satirist was working on the concept of the story “Hegemonies,” which is based on a satirical interpretation of the myth about the calling of the Varangian princes to Rus' to restore “order” in the “great and abundant land.” By “order” Saltykov means autocracy at the top, legalized robbery of the common people. This motif will later go into the chapter of “The History of a City” - “On the Roots of the Origin of the Foolovites.” Later, in the early 1860s, in the essays: “Literary Philistines”, “Foolish Debauchery”, “Slander”, “Our Foolov Affairs”, “To the Reader” - the provincial Krutogorek is replaced by the fictional city of Foolov, the very name of which is symbolic.

“Fools” is a special order of things, which rests on the “yoke of madness” at the top and the complete passivity of the lower classes, the subservient masses patronized by the “rulers.”

In 1867, the satirist announced the idea of a fairy-tale-fiction work - “The Story of the Governor with a Stuffed Head.” This is how the idea of the “Foolish Chronicler” matures and work begins on one of the writer’s pinnacle works – the satirical chronicle “The History of a City.” In 1869, Saltykov-Shchedrin left public service forever and became a member of the editorial board of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, rented by Nekrasov.

If in “Provincial Sketches”, “Pompadours and Pompadours” and other works of the 1850-1860s, the main arrows of satirical denunciation fell on provincial officials, then in “The History of a City” Shchedrin rose to the top of the government: in the center of this work is a satirical image people and authorities, Foolovites and their mayors. The writer is convinced that bureaucratic power is a consequence of the people's “minority” - “stupidity”.

The book satirically covers the history of the fictional city of Foolov, even indicating its exact dates: from 1731 to 1825. In the fantastic characters and events of Shchedrin's book there are echoes of real historical facts of the time period named by the author. But at the same time, the satirist constantly distracts the reader’s attention from direct historical parallels. We are not talking about any specific historical era, but about such phenomena that resist the passage of time and remain unchanged at different stages of national history. The satirist sets himself a dizzyingly bold goal - to create a generalized image of Russia, which synthesizes the centuries-old weaknesses of national history, the fundamental vices of Russian social life worthy of satirical ridicule.

Trying to give characters and events a timeless, generalized meaning, Shchedrin uses anachronism technique- mixing of times. The narration comes from the perspective of fictional provincial archivists from the 18th – early 19th centuries. But their stories are often woven into facts and events of a later time, which these chroniclers could not have known about (Polish intrigue, London propagandists, Russian historians of the mid and second half of the 19th century, etc.). And even Foolov’s mayors generalize the features of various statesmen from different historical eras.

Strange, bizarre image of the city of Foolov. In one place we learn that tribes of blockheads founded it in a swamp, and in another it is stated that “our native city of Foolov... has three rivers and, in accordance with ancient Rome, was built on seven mountains, on which a great many carriages break down during icy conditions... » It is clear that this city absorbs the characteristics of two Russian capitals - St. Petersburg and Moscow. Its social characteristics are also paradoxical. Either it appears before readers in the form of a provincial town, then it will take on the appearance of a provincial town or even a capital one, or suddenly it will turn into a run-down Russian village or a village with its own pasture for livestock. But it turns out that the borders of Foolov’s pasture are adjacent to the borders of the Byzantine Empire.

The characteristics of Foolov’s inhabitants are also fantastic: at times they resemble capital or provincial townspeople, but these “city dwellers” plow and sow, graze cattle and live in village huts. Equally incongruous and bizarre are the faces of Foolov’s authorities: the mayors combine habits typical of Russian tsars and nobles with actions and deeds characteristic of a governor, a district mayor, or even a village elder.

Why did Saltykov-Shchedrin need a combination of the incompatible, a combination of the incompatible? Literary critic D.P. Nikolaev answers this question this way: “In “The History of One City,” as is already clear from the title of the book, we meet one city, one image. But this is an image that absorbs the characteristics of all cities at once. And not only cities, but also villages and villages. Moreover, the characteristic features of the entire autocratic state, the entire country were embodied in him.”

Working on “The History of One City,” Saltykov-Shchedrin mobilizes not only his rich and varied experience of public service, not only his deep knowledge of the works of all Russian historians - from Karamzin and Tatishchev to Solovyov and Kostomarov - the documentary literature of democratic writers comes to the aid of the satirist , his contemporaries, experts on Russian provincial life.

On the pages of Nekrasov’s “Notes of the Fatherland,” in 1868–1869, the writer and ethnographer S. V. Maksimov published the documentary narrative “Siberia and Hard Labor,” and starting in 1869, Saltykov-Shchedrin published “The History of a City” here. A reader who is well acquainted with Maksimov’s book cannot escape the impression that many of the images and motifs of “The History of a City” go back to “Siberia and Hard Labor,” where a unique “epic” of tyranny and excesses of the provincial administration unfolded over almost two centuries .

Don’t you remember, for example, Shchedrin’s “Charter on Respectable Baking Pies” when you read the following lines from Maximov: “Loskutov, the Nizhneudinsk police officer, entered the villages in no other way than with the Cossacks, who were carrying a cart of rods and twigs. Inspecting the huts, he looked into the stoves and closets; being forcibly involved in every detail of domestic life, he mercilessly punished for any deviation from the rules prescribed by him. If the bread was poorly baked, he immediately flogged the hostess with rods; if the kvass was sour or warm in the summer, he flogged the owner too.”

Truly, in the “miracles” of Shchedrin’s book, in the language of its author, “upon careful examination one can notice a rather bright real basis.” This “real basis” was provided by Shchedrin’s fantasies and many other facts collected by Maksimov. The “civilizing” exploits of Shchedrin’s mayors, their mind-blowing “wars for enlightenment” are anticipated, for example, in the autocratic debauchery of the head of the Nerchinsk factories, godson of Catherine II, V.V. Naryshkin.

“This Naryshkin, having started the work, brought five prisoners closer to him, two of whom he made secretaries; for guilt he beat him with a batog and did not say why: “I alone know”; he was not shy about embezzling government money; he did not send a report about it or the money itself to St. Petersburg. When the treasury was short, he took money from the wealthy merchant Sibiryakov, who had some factories on lease. When Sibiryakov refused another time, Naryshkin appeared in front of his house with cannons and threatening to shoot if the merchant did not give what he needed: Sibiryakov went out onto the porch with a silver tray on which the requested five thousand were placed.

He established some new holiday - “Discovery of new grace” - ordered everyone to repent of their sins, destroyed a lot of gunpowder, the very one that is so necessary in mining work. He recruited an army, added a newly organized hussar regiment from the Tungus to it and marched with cannons and bells from the Nerchinsk plant through the city of Nerchinsk, the Bratsk steppe and Verkhneudinsk to Irkutsk.

Along the way, he stopped merchant carts, selected goods, and issued receipts.”

“On vacation in the steppe, huge cauldrons of water were boiling, into which tea and sugar were dumped by the pounds; there were whole barrels of wine, cloth, dab, Chinese, and linen, they took everything for free, without any account. Driving towards Irkutsk, he called the people together by various means, such as, for example, in villages - by ringing bells at churches; with cannon fire and drumming where there were no churches. The people gathered in this way were given wine, forcibly seized from drinking houses, and threw government money into the crowds ... "

In the “exploits” of this zealous boss, one can easily guess the activities of Ugryum-Burcheev, who renamed the city of Glupov to Nepreklonsk and established new holidays, and the “travels” of Ferdyshchenko, who spoke “inappropriate speeches and, pointing to the “wooden cannon,” threatened all his amphitryons burn it out." But aren’t Shchedrin’s Foolovites, free or unwilling henchmen of Ferdyshchenko, behaving “like Maksimov,” who, while waiting for their boss, “knocked on basins, shook tambourines, and even played a violin”? “To the side, cauldrons were smoking, in which so many piglets, geese and other living creatures were boiled and fried that even the priests became envious.” And isn’t Shchedrin’s Vasilisk Wartkin similar to Maksimov’s Naryshkin, making civilizing raids on philistine houses, distributing vodka to all participants in the campaign and ordering them to sing songs?

Even these few facts confirm that Saltykov-Shchedrin’s book grew out of a real, life-based basis, that even its most fantastic images were based on specific historical material.

In constructing “The History of a City,” Saltykov-Shchedrin parodies the official historical monograph. The first part of the book contains general chapters, giving a general outline of Foolov’s history, and the second contains personal chapters devoted to describing the lives of outstanding mayors. This is exactly how sworn historians structured their works: history was written “according to the kings.” Saltykov-Shchedrin’s parody has a dramatic subtext: Foolov’s story cannot be written any other way, it all boils down to a change of tyrant authorities, the masses remain voiceless and submissive to the will of any “bosses.”

Foolov’s state began with a menacing boss shouting “I’ll screw it up!” Since then, the art of managing Foolovites has consisted in a variety of forms of sectioning: some mayors flog Foolovites “absolutely”, others explain this by “the requirements of civilization”, and still others ensure that the townsfolk themselves want to be flogged. In turn, among the masses only the forms of submission change. In the first case, the inhabitants tremble unconsciously, in the second, with the consciousness of their own benefit, and, finally, they rise to awe, filled with trust.

The inventory of mayors provides brief characteristics of Foolov's statesmen and reproduces the satirical appearance of the most enduring features of Russian history, invariably repeated in all eras and at all times. Theophylact Benevolensky and Basilisk Wartkin went down in history with the widespread and forced planting in Foolov of the game of lamush, mustard and bay leaves, Provençal oil and Persian chamomile. Amadeus Clementius glorified himself by diligently forcing ordinary people to cook pasta. Onufriy Negodyaev paved the streets paved by his predecessors and built monuments for himself from the quarried stone. Gloomy-Burcheev destroyed the old city and built another in a new location. Intercept-Zalikhvatsky burned the gymnasium and abolished the sciences. Charters and circulars, the composition of which governors became famous for, bureaucratically regulate the lives of ordinary people down to everyday details, right down to decrees "ABOUT respectable pies and cookies.”

Brudasty opens the biography of Foolov's mayors. In the head of this administrator, instead of a brain, there is something like a barrel organ (“organ”), playing two shout words: “I’ll ruin you!” and “I won’t tolerate it!” It tells how one day the mechanism in Brudasty’s head broke down, how he disappeared from the eyes of ordinary people, retiring to his office. The clerk, who came in in the morning with a report, “saw the following sight: the mayor’s body, dressed in a uniform, was sitting at a desk, and in front of him, on a pile of arrears registers, lay, in the form of a smart paperweight, the completely empty mayor’s head...” While the local master was trying to fix the broken organ, a “rebellion” began in Foolov, the root cause of which was the ineradicable love of the bosses. An enraged crowd ran to the house of the assistant mayor with a heart-rending cry: “Where did you put our priest?!”

This is how Shchedrin ridicules the bureaucratic thoughtlessness of Russian state power. Brudasty is joined by another mayor with an artificial head - Pimple. Pimple has a stuffed head, so he is completely incapable of administering, his motto is “rest, sir.” And although the Foolovites sighed under the new ruler, the essence of life changed little: in both cases, the fate of the city was in the hands of brainless authorities.

When “The History of a City” was published, liberal criticism began to reproach Saltykov-Shchedrin for distorting life, for deviating from realism. But these reproaches were unfounded. Satirical grotesque and fantasy Shchedrin’s works do not distort reality, they only bring to the point of paradox the qualities that the bureaucratic regime conceals. Artistic exaggeration acts like a magnifying glass: it makes the secret obvious, reveals the essence of things hidden from the naked eye, and enlarges really existing evil.

It is impossible not to notice that the basis of Shchedrin’s fantasy and grotesque lies in the folk view of things, that many fantastic images are nothing more than expanded metaphors drawn from Russian proverbs and sayings. Both Brudasty’s “organ” and Pimple’s “stuffed head” go back to popular proverbs, sayings and phraseological expressions: “You can’t fit a hat on a body without a head,” “It’s hard for a head without shoulders, it’s bad for a body without a head,” “You his head is full of dust”, “to lose his head”, “even though his head is thick, his head is empty.” Folk sayings, rich in satirical meaning, without any alteration, fall into the descriptions of Foolov's riots and civil strife.

With the help of the grotesque and fantasy, Shchedrin often gets ahead of himself, diagnoses social diseases that exist in the embryo and have not yet developed all the possibilities and “readiness” contained in them. Bringing these “readinesses” to their logical conclusion, to the size of a public “epidemic,” the satirist acts as a visionary. It is precisely this prophetic meaning that is contained in the fantastic image of Gloomy-Burcheev, which crowns the biographies of Foolov’s city rulers.

What is Foolov’s despotism based on, what aspects of people’s life support and nourish it? Foolov in Shchedrin’s book is a special order of things, the constituent elements of which are not only the administration, but also the people - the Foolovites. “The History of a City” gives an unparalleled satirical picture of the weakest aspects of the people's worldview. Shchedrin shows that the masses of the people are fundamentally politically naive, that they are characterized by inexhaustible patience and blind faith in the authorities, in the supreme power.

“We are ordinary people! - some said, - we can endure. If we now put everyone in a pile and set fire to them at all four ends, we won’t even say the opposite word!” They contrast the energy of administrative action with the energy of inaction, “rebellion” on their knees: “Do whatever you want to us! - some said, - cut it into pieces if you like; Eat it with porridge if you like, but we don’t agree!” “You can’t take anything from us, brother! - said others, - we are not like others who have grown over their bodies! There’s nowhere to prick us, brother!” And they stubbornly stood on their knees.” “You never know there were riots! - Foolov’s old-timers say about themselves with pride. “We, sir, have such a sign about this: if you get whipped, you know it’s a riot!”

When the Foolovites “come to their senses,” then, “according to the seditious custom that has been ingrained since ancient times,” they either send a walker or write petitions addressed to the high authorities. “Look, I trudged along! - the old men said, watching the troika, which was carrying their request into the unknown distance, - now, well done atamans, we won’t have to endure it for long!” And indeed, the city became quiet again; The Foolovites did not undertake any new riots, but sat on the rubble and waited. When passers-by asked: how are you? - they answered: “Now our cause is right! Now, my brother, we have submitted the paper!”

The “history of Foolov’s liberalism” appears in a satirical light from the pages of Shchedrin’s book in the stories about Ionka Kozyr, Ivashka Farafontyev and Alyoshka Bespyatov. Wonderful daydreaming and ignorance of practical ways to realize their dreams - these are the characteristic signs of all Foolov’s liberals, whose fates take a tragic turn. It cannot be said that the masses of the people did not sympathize with their intercessors. But even in the very sympathy of the Foolovites one can see the same political naivety: “I suppose, Evseich, I suppose! - the Foolovites escort the truth-loving Yevseich to prison, - with the truth you will live well everywhere! “From that moment old Yevseich disappeared, as if he had never existed, disappeared without a trace, as only the “miners” of the Russian land can disappear.”

Upon the publication of “The History of a City,” critic A. S. Suvorin published an article “Historical Satire” in the “Bulletin of Europe”. He accused the writer of mocking the people, of lordly disdainful “slander” of the dark and downtrodden Foolovites. Saltykov-Shchedrin was deeply hurt by this article. He sent a special letter to the editors of the journal “Bulletin of Europe”, in which he made the following explanations: “...my reviewer does not distinguish the historical people, that is, acting in the field of history, from the people as the embodiment of the idea of democracy. The first is evaluated and gains sympathy as he does his deeds. If it produces Wartkins and Gloomy-Burcheevs, then there can be no talk of sympathy... As for the “people” in the sense of the second definition, then one cannot help but sympathize with this people for the sole reason that in it lies the beginning and end of every individual activities."

Note that Shchedrin’s satirical pictures of people’s life differ from the satire on city governors in a slightly different tone. The writer's laughter here becomes bitter, contempt is replaced by secret sympathy. Based on the “folk soil”, Shchedrin strictly respects the boundaries of the satire that the people themselves created on themselves, and makes extensive use of folklore. “In order to say bitter words of reproach about the people, he took these words from the people themselves, from them he received permission to be their satirist,” noted A. S. Bushmin.

The Iskra magazine came out in defense of Saltykov-Shchedrin with an article probably belonging to A. M. Skabichevsky. The critic pointed out that Suvorin wants to blame Shchedrin’s satire on “poor Makar” alone, so as not to see “himself and his brothers” in the Foolovites. The purpose of “The History of a City” “is not at all to ridicule Russian history in general or the customs of any “century” in particular”, but to “expose to view in several historical features of people’s life the glaring social shortcoming of our own time: that outrageous passivity with which our society endures all sorts of outrages and tyranny, treating them not only as a gravitating fate, but also as something due and even highly sacred..."

The meaning of satire is not limited to social issues, it is even broader and deeper. In fact, the writer denounces here not only the deviation in autocracy of the Russian autocracy, but also any godless power that grows on the basis of popular apostasy and general desecration of eternal spiritual truths. The very understanding of “stupidity” has, in addition to its social meaning, a pronounced Christian meaning. In stupidity, the satirist finds all the vices of the fallen, old man: pride, carnality, love of fame, lust, lies, hard-heartedness. “Carnal man,” said St. Tikhon of Zadonsk uses his mind for his own gain or for the ruin of his neighbor, he lives according to the flesh, does carnal deeds, even if he is covered with a cassock and hood or adorned with an outer cross. Christians who live lawlessly do not know God, although they confess His holy name, and pray to Him, and go to church, and partake of the Mysteries of Christ.” This is exactly how the Foolovites and their mayors behave throughout the entire “History...” told by Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Already at the very beginning of the satirical chronicle, in the chapter “On the Roots of the Origin of the Foolovites,” Saltykov-Shchedrin parodies, on the one hand, the historical legend about the calling of the Varangians to the kingdom by Slavic tribes, and on the other, as philologist T. N. Golovina noted, the biblical a story reflected in the First Book of Samuel, when the elders of Israel demanded from their former ruler, the prophet Samuel, that he install a king over them. Confused, Samuel turned to the Lord in prayer and received the following answer from Him: “...They did not reject you, but they rejected Me, so that I would not reign over them.”

In their mayors, the Foolovites see earthly idols, on whose arbitrariness everything depends: the climate, the harvest, and social mores. And the mayors themselves rule like pagan gods. “In the beginning” they also “had a word,” only this word was an animal cry of “I’ll screw it up!” According to the observation of T. N. Golovina, imagining themselves to be the undivided organizers of Foolov’s existence, city governors write their charters and laws in the spirit of those commandments that God gave to Moses in the Tablets of the Law, and in the same biblical language. The law of the 1st mayor Benevolensky says: “Let every person walk dangerously; let the tax farmer bring gifts.” And paragraph four of the “Charter on Respectable Baking of Pies” is written in the solemn style of describing the Gospel bloodless sacrifice: “When removed from the oven, let everyone take a knife in his hand and, having cut out a part from the middle, let him offer it as a gift.”

The lust for power of these “confirmed idiots” is so limitless that it extends not only to the lives of ordinary people, but also to God’s creation itself. Brigadier Ferdyshchenko, for example, undertakes a journey through Foolov’s pasture with the following “demiurgic” goals: “He imagined that the grass would become greener and the flowers would bloom brighter as soon as he left for the pasture. “The fields will become fat, rivers will flow in abundance, ships will float, cattle breeding will flourish, lines of communication will appear,” he muttered to himself and cherished his plan more than the apple of his eye.”

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin

The story of one city

From the publisher

HISTORY OF ONE CITY

Based on original documents, published by M. E. Saltykov (Shchedrin)

For a long time I had the intention of writing the history of some city (or region) in a given period of time, but various circumstances prevented this undertaking. The main obstacle was the lack of material that was at all reliable and plausible. Now, while rummaging through Foolov's city archives, I accidentally came across a rather voluminous bunch of notebooks bearing the general title of "Foolov's Chronicler", and, having examined them, I found that they could serve as an important aid in the implementation of my intention. The content of the Chronicler is rather monotonous; it is almost exclusively exhausted by the biographies of the mayors, who for almost a century controlled the destinies of the city of Foolov, and a description of their most remarkable actions, such as: fast riding on postal vehicles, energetic collection of arrears, campaigns against the inhabitants, the construction and disorder of pavements, the imposition of tribute to tax farmers, etc. etc. Nevertheless, even from these meager facts it turns out to be possible to grasp the physiognomy of the city and keep track of how its history reflected the various changes that were simultaneously taking place in the highest spheres. So, for example, the mayors of Biron’s time are distinguished by their recklessness, the mayors of Potemkin’s times by their stewardship, and the mayors of Razumovsky’s times by unknown origins and knightly courage. All of them flog the townsfolk, but the first flog them absolutely, the second explain the reasons for their management by the requirements of civilization, the third want the townsfolk to rely on their courage in everything. Such a variety of events, of course, could not help but influence the innermost structure of philistine life; in the first case, the inhabitants trembled unconsciously, in the second, they trembled with the consciousness of their own benefit, in the third, they rose to awe filled with trust. Even energetic riding on postal horses was bound to have a certain amount of influence, strengthening the philistine spirit with examples of horse vigor and restlessness.

The chronicle was kept successively by four city archivists and covers the period from 1731 to 1825. This year, apparently, even for archivists, literary activities have ceased to be accessible. The appearance of the “Chronicle” has a very real appearance, that is, one that does not allow one to doubt its authenticity for a minute; its leaves are just as yellow and speckled with scribbles, just as eaten away by mice and soiled by flies, like the leaves of any monument from the Pogodin ancient repository. One can almost feel how some archival Pimen was sitting over them, illuminating his work with a reverently burning tallow candle and in every possible way protecting it from the inevitable curiosity of the gentlemen. Shubinsky, Mordovtsev and Melnikov. The chronicle is preceded by a special code, or “inventory,” apparently compiled by the last chronicler; In addition, in the form of supporting documents, several children's notebooks are attached to it, containing original exercises on various topics of administrative and theoretical content. Such, for example, are the arguments: “about the administrative unanimity of all mayors”, “about the plausible appearance of mayors”, “about the salutary nature of pacification (with pictures)”, “thoughts when collecting arrears”, “the perverse flow of time” and, finally, a rather voluminous dissertation "about rigor." It can be said affirmatively that these exercises owe their origin to the writings of various mayors (many of them are even signed) and have the precious property that, firstly, they give a completely correct idea of the current situation in Russian orthography and, secondly, they depict their authors much more complete, more conclusive and more imaginative than even the stories of the Chronicler.

As for the internal content of the Chronicler, it is mostly fantastic and in some places even almost incredible in our enlightened times. Such, for example, is a completely incongruous story about a mayor with music. In one place, the Chronicler tells how the mayor flew through the air, in another - how another mayor, whose legs were turned with his feet back, almost escaped from the boundaries of the mayor. The publisher did not, however, consider himself entitled to conceal these details; on the contrary, he thinks that the possibility of similar facts in the past will even more clearly indicate to the reader the abyss that separates us from him. Moreover, the publisher was also guided by the idea that the fantastic nature of the stories does not in the least eliminate their administrative and educational significance and that the reckless arrogance of the flying mayor can even now serve as a saving warning for those modern administrators who do not want to be prematurely dismissed from office.

In any case, in order to prevent malicious interpretations, the publisher considers it his duty to stipulate that all his work in this case consists only in the fact that he corrected the heavy and outdated syllable of the “Chronicle” and had proper supervision over spelling, without in the least affecting the content of the chronicle itself . From the first minute to the last, the publisher was haunted by the formidable image of Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin, and this alone can serve as a guarantee of the respectful trepidation with which he treated his task.

Appeal to the reader from the last archivist-chronicler

If the ancient Hellenes and Romans were allowed to praise their godless leaders and hand over their vile deeds to posterity for edification, will we, Christians, who received light from Byzantium, find ourselves in this case less worthy and grateful? Is it possible that in every country there will be glorious Nero and Caligula, shining with valor, and only in our own country will we not find such? It’s funny and absurd to even think of such a clumsiness, let alone preach it out loud, as some freedom-lovers do, who therefore believe their thoughts are free because they are in their heads, like flies without shelter, flying here and there freely.

Not only the country, but also every city, and even every small city - and that one has its own Achilles, shining with valor and appointed by the authorities, and cannot not have them. Look at the first puddle - and in it you will find a reptile that surpasses and obscures all other reptiles in its wickedness. Look at the tree - and there you will see one branch that is larger and stronger than others, and, consequently, the most valiant. Finally, look at your own person - and there, first of all, you will meet the head, and then you will not leave the belly and other parts without a sign. What, in your opinion, is more valiant: is your head, although filled with a light filling, but also rushing behind all that grief, or striving to ́ lu belly, only suitable for making... Oh, your truly frivolous freethinking!

The idea for the book was formed by Saltykov-Shchedrin gradually, over several years. In 1867, the writer composed and presented to the public a new fairy-tale-fiction “The Story of the Governor with a Stuffed Head” (it forms the basis of the chapter known to us called “The Organ”). In 1868, the author began work on a full-length novel. This process took a little over a year (1869-1870). The work was originally entitled “Foolish Chronicler.” The title “The History of a City,” which became the final version, appeared later. The literary work was published in parts in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski.

Due to inexperience, some people consider Saltykov-Shchedrin’s book to be a story or a fairy tale, but this is not so. Such voluminous literature cannot claim the title of short prose. The genre of the work “The History of a City” is larger and is called a “satirical novel.” It represents a kind of chronological review of the fictional town of Foolov. His fate is recorded in chronicles, which the author finds and publishes, accompanying them with his own comments.

Also, terms such as “political pamphlet” and “satirical chronicle” can be applied to this book, but it only absorbed some features of these genres, and is not their “purebred” literary embodiment.

What is the work about?

The writer allegorically conveyed the history of Russia, which he assessed critically. He called the inhabitants of the Russian Empire “Foolovites.” They are residents of the city of the same name, whose life is described in the Foolov Chronicle. This ethnic group originated from an ancient people called “bunglers”. For their ignorance they were renamed accordingly.

The Headbangers were at enmity with neighboring tribes, as well as with each other. And so, tired of quarrels and unrest, they decided to find themselves a ruler who would establish order. After three years they found a suitable prince who agreed to rule over them. Together with the acquired power, people founded the city of Foolov. This is how the writer outlined the formation of Ancient Rus' and Rurik’s calling to reign.

At first, the ruler sent them a governor, but he stole, and then he arrived in person and imposed strict order. This is how Saltykov-Shchedrin imagined the period of feudal fragmentation in medieval Russia.

Next, the writer interrupts the narrative and lists the biographies of famous mayors, each of which is a separate and complete story. The first was Dementy Varlamovich Brudasty, in whose head there was an organ that played only two compositions: “I won’t tolerate it!” and “I’ll ruin you!” Then his head broke, and anarchy set in - the turmoil that came after the death of Ivan the Terrible. It was his author who portrayed him in the image of Brudasty. Next, identical twin impostors appeared, but they were soon removed - this is the appearance of False Dmitry and his followers.

Anarchy reigned for a week, during which six mayors replaced each other. This is the era of palace coups, when the Russian Empire was ruled only by women and intrigue.

Semyon Konstantinovich Dvoekurov, who established mead making and brewing, is most likely a prototype of Peter the Great, although this assumption runs counter to historical chronology. But the reformist activities and iron hand of the ruler are very similar to the characteristics of the emperor.

The bosses changed, their conceit grew in proportion to the degree of absurdity in the work. Frankly insane reforms or hopeless stagnation were ruining the country, the people were sliding into poverty and ignorance, and the elite either feasted, then fought, or hunted for the female sex. The alternation of continuous mistakes and defeats led to horrific consequences, satirically described by the author. In the end, the last ruler of the Gloomy-Burcheev dies, and after his death the narrative ends, and because of the open ending, there is a glimmer of hope for changes for the better.

Nestor also described the history of the emergence of Rus' in The Tale of Bygone Years. The author draws this parallel specifically to hint who he means by the Foolovites, and who are all these mayors: a flight of fantasy or real Russian rulers? The writer makes it clear that he is not describing the entire human race, but rather Russia and its depravity, reshaping its fate in his own way.

The composition is arranged in chronological sequence, the work has a classic linear narrative, but each chapter is a container for a full-fledged plot, which has its own heroes, events and results.

Description of the city

Foolov is in a distant province, we learn about this when Brudasty’s head deteriorates on the road. This is a small settlement, a county, because they come to take away two impostors from the province, that is, the town is only a small part of it. It doesn’t even have an academy, but thanks to the efforts of Dvoekurov, mead making and brewing are thriving. It is divided into “settlements”: “Pushkarskaya settlement, followed by the settlements Bolotnaya and Negodnitsa.” Agriculture is developed there, since the drought, which occurred due to the sins of the next boss, greatly affects the interests of the residents, they are even ready to rebel. With Pimple, harvests increase, which pleases the Foolovites immensely. “The History of a City” is replete with dramatic events, the cause of which is the agrarian crisis.

Gloomy-Burcheev fought with the river, from which we conclude that the district is located on the shore, in a hilly area, since the mayor is leading the people in search of a plain. The main place in this region is the bell tower: unwanted citizens are thrown from it.

Main characters

The prince is a foreign ruler who agreed to take power over the Foolovites. He is cruel and narrow-minded, because he sent thieving and worthless governors, and then led with only one phrase: “I’ll screw it up.” The history of one city and the characteristics of the heroes began with it.
Dementy Varlamovich Brudasty is a withdrawn, gloomy, silent owner of a head with an organ that plays two phrases: “I won’t tolerate it!” and “I’ll ruin you!” His apparatus for making decisions became damp on the road, they could not repair it, so they sent for a new one to St. Petersburg, but the working head was delayed and never arrived. Prototype of Ivan the Terrible.
Iraida Lukinichna Paleologova is the wife of the mayor, who ruled the city for a day. An allusion to Sophia Paleolog, the second wife of Ivan IIII, grandmother of Ivan the Terrible.
Clémentine de Bourbon is the mother of the mayor, she also happened to rule for one day.
Amalia Karlovna Shtokfish is a pompadour who also wanted to stay in power. German names and surnames of women - the author’s humorous look at the era of German favoritism, as well as a number of crowned persons of foreign origin: Anna Ioanovna, Catherine the Second, etc.
Semyon Konstantinovich Dvoekurov is a reformer and educator: “He introduced mead making and brewing and made it mandatory to use mustard and bay leaves. He also wanted to open the Academy of Sciences, but did not have time to complete the reforms he had begun.
Pyotr Petrovich Ferdyshchenko (a parody of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov) is a cowardly, weak-willed, loving politician, under whom there was order in Foolov for 6 years, but then he fell in love with a married woman Alena and exiled her husband to Siberia so that she would succumb to his onslaught. The woman succumbed, but fate struck a drought on the people, and people began to die of hunger. There was a riot (referring to the salt riot of 1648), as a result of which the ruler’s mistress died and was thrown from the bell tower. Then the mayor complained to the capital, and they sent him soldiers. The uprising was suppressed, and he found himself a new passion, because of which disasters occurred again - fires. But they also dealt with them, and he, having gone on a trip to Foolov, died from overeating. It is obvious that the hero did not know how to restrain his desires and fell into their weak-willed victim.
Vasilisk Semenovich Wartkin, an imitator of Dvoekurov, imposed reforms with fire and sword. Decisive, likes to plan and organize. Unlike my colleagues, I studied the history of Foolov. However, he himself was not far off: he instituted a military campaign against his own people, in the darkness “friends fought with their own.” Then he carried out an unsuccessful transformation in the army, replacing the soldiers with tin copies. With his battles he brought the city to complete exhaustion. After him, Negodyaev completed the plunder and destruction.
Cherkeshenin Mikeladze, a passionate hunter of the female sex, was only concerned with arranging his rich personal life at the expense of his official position.
Feofilakt Irinarkhovich Benevolensky (a parody of Alexander the First) is a university friend of Speransky (the famous reformer), who composed laws at night and scattered them around the city. He loved to be clever and show off, but did nothing useful. Dismissed for high treason (relations with Napoleon).
Lieutenant Colonel Pimple is the owner of a head stuffed with truffles, which the leader of the nobility ate in a hungry fit. Under him, agriculture flourished, since he did not interfere in the lives of his charges and did not interfere with their work.
State Councilor Ivanov is an official who arrived from St. Petersburg, who “turned out to be so small in stature that he could not contain anything spacious” and burst from the strain of comprehending the next thought.
The emigrant Viscount de Chariot is a foreigner who, instead of working, just had fun and threw balls. Soon he was sent abroad for idleness and embezzlement. It was later discovered that he was female.
Erast Andreevich Grustilov is a lover of carousing at public expense. Under him, the population stopped working in the fields and became interested in paganism. But the wife of the pharmacist Pfeiffer came to the mayor and imposed new religious views on him, he began to organize readings and confessional gatherings instead of feasts, and, having learned about this, the higher authorities deprived him of his post.
Gloomy-Burcheev (a parody of Arakcheev, a military official) is a martinet who planned to give the whole city a barracks-like appearance and order. He despised education and culture, but wanted all citizens to have the same homes and families on the same streets. The official destroyed the entire Foolov, moved it to a lowland, but then a natural disaster occurred, and the official was carried away by a storm.

This is where the list of heroes ends. The mayors in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel are people who, by adequate standards, are in no way capable of managing any populated area and being the personification of power. All their actions are completely fantastic, meaningless and often contradict one another. One ruler builds, the other destroys everything. One comes to replace the other, but nothing changes in people's life. There are no significant changes or improvements. The politicians in “The Story of a City” have common features - tyranny, pronounced depravity, bribery, greed, stupidity and despotism. Outwardly, the characters retain an ordinary human appearance, while the inner content of the personality is fraught with a thirst for suppression and oppression of the people for the purpose of profit.

Themes

Power. This is the main theme of the work “The History of a City,” which is revealed in a new way in each chapter. Mainly, it is seen through the prism of a satirical image of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s contemporary political structure in Russia. The satire here is aimed at two aspects of life - to show how destructive autocracy is and to reveal the passivity of the masses. In relation to autocracy, it is a complete and merciless denial, but in relation to ordinary people, its goal was to correct morals and enlighten minds.
War. The author focused on the destructiveness of bloodshed, which only ruins the city and kills people.
Religion and fanaticism. The writer is ironic about the readiness of the people to believe in any impostor and in any idols, just to shift responsibility for their lives onto them.
Ignorance. The people are not educated and not developed, so the rulers manipulate them as they want. Foolov's life is not getting better not only due to the fault of political figures, but also because of the reluctance of people to develop and learn to master new skills. For example, none of Dvoekurov’s reforms took root, although many of them had a positive result for enriching the city.
Servility. The Foolovites are ready to endure any arbitrariness, as long as there is no hunger.

Issues

Of course, the author touches on issues related to government. The main problem in the novel is the imperfection of power and its political techniques. In Foolov, rulers, also known as mayors, are replaced one after another. But at the same time, they do not bring anything new into the life of the people and into the structure of the city. Their responsibilities include caring only about their well-being; the mayors do not care about the interests of the residents of the county.
Personnel issue. There is no one to appoint to the position of manager: all candidates are vicious and not fit for selfless service in the name of an idea, and not for the sake of profit. Responsibility and the desire to eliminate pressing problems are completely alien to them. This happens because society is initially unfairly divided into castes, and none of the ordinary people can occupy an important position. The ruling elite, feeling the lack of competition, lives in idleness of mind and body and does not work conscientiously, but simply squeezes out of the rank everything that it can give.
Ignorance. Politicians do not understand the problems of mere mortals, and even if they want to help, they cannot do it right. There are no people in power; there is a blank wall between classes, so even the most humane officials are powerless. “The History of a City” is only a reflection of the real problems of the Russian Empire, where there were talented rulers, but due to their isolation from their subjects, they were unable to improve their lives.
Inequality. The people are defenseless against the arbitrariness of managers. For example, the mayor sends Alena’s husband into exile without guilt, abusing his position. And the woman gives up because she doesn’t even expect justice.
Responsibility. Officials are not punished for their destructive acts, and their successors feel safe: no matter what you do, nothing serious will happen for it. They will only remove you from office, and then only as a last resort.
Reverence. The people are a great power; there is no point in it if they agree to blindly obey their superiors in everything. He does not defend his rights, does not protect his people, in fact, he turns into an inert mass and, by his own will, deprives himself and his children of a happy and fair future.
Fanaticism. In the novel, the author focuses on the theme of excessive religious zeal, which does not enlighten, but blinds people, dooming them to idle talk.
Embezzlement. All the prince’s governors turned out to be thieves, that is, the system is so rotten that it allows its elements to carry out any fraud with impunity.

the main idea

The author's intention is to depict a political system in which society comes to terms with its eternally oppressed position and believes that this is in the order of things. The society in the story is represented by the people (the Foolovites), while the “oppressor” is the mayors, who replace each other at an enviable speed, while managing to ruin and destroy their possessions. Saltykov-Shchedrin ironically notes that the residents are driven by the force of “love of authority,” and without a ruler they immediately fall into anarchy. Thus, the idea of the work “The History of a City” is the desire to show the history of Russian society from the outside, how people for many years transferred all responsibility for organizing their well-being onto the shoulders of the revered monarch and were invariably deceived, because one person cannot change the whole country. Change cannot come from outside as long as the people are ruled by the consciousness that autocracy is the highest order. People must realize their personal responsibility to their homeland and forge their own happiness, but tyranny does not allow them to express themselves, and they ardently support it, because as long as it exists, nothing needs to be done.

Despite the satirical and ironic basis of the story, it contains a very important essence. The point of the work “The History of a City” is to show that only if there is a free and critical vision of power and its imperfections, changes for the better are possible. If a society lives by the rules of blind obedience, then oppression is inevitable. The author does not call for uprisings and revolution, there are no ardent rebellious lamentations in the text, but the essence is the same - without popular awareness of their role and responsibility, there is no path to change.

The writer not only criticizes the monarchical system, he offers an alternative, speaking out against censorship and risking his public office, because the publication of “History ...” could lead to not only his resignation, but also imprisonment. He not only speaks, but through his actions calls on society not to be afraid of the authorities and to speak openly to them about painful issues. The main idea of Saltykov-Shchedrin is to instill in people freedom of thought and speech, so that they can improve their lives themselves, without waiting for the mercy of mayors. It fosters an active citizenship in the reader.

Artistic media

What makes the story special is the peculiar interweaving of the world of the fantastic and the real, where fantastic grotesquery and journalistic intensity of current and real problems coexist. Unusual and incredible incidents and events emphasize the absurdity of the depicted reality. The author skillfully uses such artistic techniques as grotesque and hyperbole. In the life of the Foolovites, everything is incredible, exaggerated, funny. For example, the vices of city governors have grown to colossal proportions; they are deliberately taken beyond the scope of reality. The writer exaggerates in order to eradicate real-life problems through ridicule and public disgrace. Irony is also one of the means of expressing the author's position and his attitude to what is happening in the country. People love to laugh, and it is better to present serious topics in a humorous style, otherwise the work will not find its reader. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The History of a City” is, first of all, funny, which is why it was and is popular. At the same time, he is ruthlessly truthful, he hits hard on topical issues, but the reader has already taken the bait in the form of humor and cannot tear himself away from the book.

What does the book teach?

The Foolovites, who personify the people, are in a state of unconscious worship of power. They unquestioningly obey the whims of the autocracy, the absurd orders and tyranny of the ruler. At the same time, they experience fear and reverence for the patron. The authorities, represented by the mayors, use their instrument of suppression to the fullest extent, regardless of the opinions and interests of the townspeople. Therefore, Saltykov-Shchedrin points out that the common people and their leader are worth each other, because until society “grows up” to higher standards and learns to defend its rights, the state will not change: it will respond to primitive demand with a cruel and unfair supply.

The symbolic ending of “The Story of a City,” in which the despotic mayor Gloomy-Burcheev dies, is intended to leave a message that the Russian autocracy has no future. But there is also no certainty or constancy in matters of power. All that remains is the tart taste of tyranny, which may be followed by something new.

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The story describes the life of the city of Foolov for a hundred years until 1825. During this time, the chronicle of the city was kept by four archivists. The history of Foolov is directly related to the period of rule of various mayors. In the first prehistoric chapter, the author examines the question of the origin of the city's population. The people of the bunglers were able to defeat other tribes. The bunglers decided to find a prince to rule them. Many rulers refused to rule over stupid people. One of them agreed, but did not live in the city, leaving in his place a governor, a novotor. The governor turned out to be a thief. The prince sent a noose to the dishonest newcomer. But he did not wait and stabbed himself with a cucumber. After this, the prince appointed several more rulers in his place. But they all stole terribly. The prince himself arrived in Foolov and from that moment a historical period began in the life of the city. Further in the work there is a description of the mayors of Foolov, and the biographies of the most significant ones are told.

Dementy Varlamovich Brudasty was very gloomy and taciturn. He always used two phrases: “I will not tolerate it and I will ruin it.” One day the clerk saw an incredible picture. The busty man was sitting at the table as usual, but his head lay separately and was completely empty. It turned out that the mayor’s head contained only two organs with melodies: I won’t tolerate it and I’ll ruin it. But somehow, due to the dampness, the head became unusable. Watchmaker Baibakov ordered a new head in the capital. But she didn’t come on time, so Brudasty was without a head.

After this, two self-proclaimed bosses found themselves in the city. A messenger from the province quickly picked them up. And Foolov plunged into anarchy. For a week, the city was governed by six female mayors. Residents quickly got tired of such confusion. Semyon Konstantinovich Dvoekurov became the new mayor. His activities for the city had a positive impact; he even dreamed of opening an academy in the city.

Pyotr Petrovich Ferdyshchenko ruled the city very smoothly for the first six years; Foolov flourished during these years. But then the mayor was confused by a demon. He was inflamed with feelings for the coachman's wife Alenka. She refused the mayor. Then Ferdyshchenko exiled her husband to Siberia, and Alenka had to submit. But as punishment for such actions, drought came to the city, followed by famine. Residents then threw Alenka from the bell tower. Ferdyshchenko wrote various letters to his superiors, and a detachment of soldiers even arrived in Glupov. When the mayor fell in love with Domashka again, severe fires began in the city. The ruler got scared and refused Domashka. Ferdyshchenko's power ended during the trip when he died from overeating.

Vasilisk Semyonovich Borodavkin became the new mayor. He considered himself an intelligent ruler and even waged wars to educate the people. During his reign, Foolov began to decline.

Another ruler, Theophylact Irinarkhovich Benevolsky, loved to issue various laws, although he did not have the right to do so. So he dropped out law flyers at night. The mayor was fired for collaborating with Napoleon.

Then Foolov was controlled by Lieutenant Colonel Pyshch. He actually did not participate in the management, but the city surprisingly developed due to excellent harvests. It turned out that Pimple had a stuffed head, which the leader ate, smelling truffles from it.

Under the next mayor - State Councilor Erast Andreevich Grustilov, Glupov did not develop at all. Laziness and debauchery became characteristic features of the Foolovites. The mayor spent all his time at balls. Soon famine came to Foolov. Grustilov was soon removed. Over a hundred-year period of time, the last mayor was Gloomy Burcheev. He was not particularly smart; in fact, he was an idiot. Burcheev decided to completely rebuild the city. Foolov was completely destroyed. The river interfered with new construction, but Burcheev failed to block its channel, although he tried very hard. Therefore, Burcheev led the Foolovites to the lowland, and it was decided to build a city there. But something went wrong. The mayor literally disappeared into thin air and disappeared without a trace. The story ends here.

History of creation

Leaving work on the “Pompadours and Pompadours” series for a while, Saltykov got excited about the idea of creating the novel “The History of a City,” thematically related to “Pompadours and Pompadours.”

In January 1869, the satirist appeared with the first chapters of “Inventory for City Governors” and “Organchik” in the magazine “Domestic Notes” (No. 1), but until the end of the year he suspended work in order to implement the idea of creating fairy tales (“The Tale of How One Man Two fed the generals”, “Conscience is gone”, “Wild landowner”). In addition, the work “Gentlemen of Tashkent” was outlined; it was necessary to bring “Signs of the Times” and “Letters about the Province” to their logical conclusion. Saltykov does not leave work in the magazine: a series of journalistic and literary-critical articles and reviews appears. Over the course of ten literary and literary-critical articles and reviews.

Returning to work on the novel, already in No. 1-4, 9 (“Notes of the Fatherland”) in 1870, he published a continuation of “The History of a City.” In 1870, the book was published as a separate edition entitled “The History of a City.” Based on original documents, it was published by M. E. Saltykov (Shchedrin).

“The History of a City” caused a lot of interpretation and indignation, which forced Saltykov to respond to an article by the famous publicist A. Suvorin. The author of the critical article “Historical Satire,” which appeared in the April issue of the magazine “Bulletin of Europe” for 1871, accused the writer of mocking the Russian people and distorting the facts of Russian history, without penetrating the depth of the plan and the essence of the artistic originality of the work. I. S. Turgenev called the book wonderful and believed that it reflected “the satirical history of Russian society in the second half of the last and the beginning of this century.”

M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin knew that “a writer whose heart has not suffered from all the pains of the society in which he operates can hardly claim in literature a significance above the mediocre and very fleeting.” Nevertheless, the previous interest of the reading public in Saltykov’s work faded somewhat after the publication of the novel.

Plot

The story begins with the words of the author, who introduces himself exclusively as a publisher who allegedly found a real chronicle with a story about the fictional city of Foolov. After a short introduction on behalf of a fictional chronicler, there is a story about “the roots of the origin of the Foolovites,” in which the author gives the first sketches of a satire on historical facts. But the main part itself tells about the most prominent mayors of the city of Foolov.

Dementy Varlamovich Brudasty, the eighth mayor of Foolov ruled for a very short period of time, but left a noticeable mark on the history of the city. He stood out from the others in that he was not an ordinary person, and in his head, instead of a brain, he had a strange device that produced one of several phrases programmed into it. After this became known, civil strife began, leading to the overthrow of the mayor and the beginning of anarchy. In a short period of time, there were six rulers in Foolov, who, under various pretexts, bribed soldiers to seize power. Afterwards he reigned in Foolov for many years Dvoekurov, whose image was reminiscent of Alexander I, because he, scared, did not complete some assignment, because of which he was sad all his life.

Pyotr Petrovich Ferdyshchenko, the former orderly of Prince Potemkin, the mayor “enterprising, frivolous and carried away,” subjected the city to famine, fire, and died of gluttony during his reign when he went on a journey through the lands under his control in order to feel like the emperors who traveled around the country.

But Foolov ruled the longest Vasilisk Semyonovich Wartkin, during his power he subjected the Streletskaya and Dung settlements to destruction.

Satirical focus

In its focus, the story is a satire on many historical figures of the Russian Empire and on some events indicated in Inventory of Mayors era.

Shchedrin himself said:

“If I were really writing a satire on the 18th century, then, of course, I would limit myself to “The Tale of the Six City Leaders””

But besides the obvious parallels in Tales of the Six City Leaders, which contains allusions to the 18th century empresses Anna Ioannovna, Anna Leopoldovna, Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine II and their rise to power through palace coups, the story contains a large number of parodies of other historical figures of that era - Paul I, Alexander I, Speransky, Arakcheev and others. In the cartoon based on the work, the real city of Kostroma appears as the city of Foolov: buildings that exist and existed in the era described (for example, a fire tower) are shown.

Film adaptations

Film "It" by Sergei Ovcharov.
Cartoon “The History of a City. Organic"

Theater productions

Performance “The History of a City”. Director - Boris Pavlovich, play - Maria Boteva. Staged at the Theater on Spasskaya (Kirov State Youth Theater). The premiere took place on July 6, 2012.
The play “The History of the City of Foolov” - director Egorov, Dmitry Vladimirovich. Staged in the theater: Novosibirsk Drama Theater "Red Torch". The premiere took place on December 17, 2011 in Novosibirsk.
Photo gallery of the play “The History of the City of Foolov” on the theater website
Photo report with comments from the dress rehearsal before the premiere of the play “The History of the City of Foolov” on December 17, 2011.

Illustrations

Illustrations for the story “The History of a City,” made by the artist A. N. Samokhvalov, were awarded the Grand Prix at the international exhibition in Paris in 1937.

Notes

Saltykov-Shchedrin
Novels and Chronicles	Messrs. Golovlevs · The story of one city · Poshekhonskaya antiquity · Monrepos Asylum
Fairy tales	Conscience gone · Faithful Trezor · Wild landowner · Crucian idealist · The Tale of a Zealous Boss · Bear in the province · Eagle Patron · The wise minnow · The story of how one man fed two generals · Selfless hare · Poor wolf · Sane Hare · Liberal · Horse · Adventure with Kramolnikov · Christ's night · Christmas tale · Dried roach · Virtues and Vices · The deceiving newspaperman and the gullible reader · Unsleeping Eye · Fool · Ram-Nepomnyashchy · Kissel · Idle talk · Bogatyr · Raven petitioner · Toy business people · Neighbours · Village fire · By the way
Stories	Anniversary · kind soul · Spoiled Children · Neighbours · Chizhikovo Mountain
Essays	In a mental hospital · Gentlemen of Tashkent · Lord Molchalin · Provincial essays · Diary of a provincial in St. Petersburg · Abroad · Letters to Auntie · Innocent stories · Pompadours and pompadours · Satires in prose · Modern idyll · Well-Intentioned Speeches
Comedy	Death of Pazukhin · Shadows