Tolstoy's novel resurrection. Leo Tolstoyresurrection

PART ONE

Matt. Ch. XVIII. Art. 21. Then Peter came to Him and said: Lord! How many times should I forgive my brother who sins against me? up to seven times? 22. Jesus says to him: I do not say to you, until seven, but until seventy times seven.

Matt. Ch. VII. Art. 3. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye?

John. Ch. VIII. Art. 7....he who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

Luke. Ch. VI. Art. 40. A student is never higher than his teacher; but having been perfected, everyone will be like his teacher.

I

No matter how hard people tried, having gathered several hundred thousand in one small place, to disfigure the land on which they huddled, no matter how hard they stoned the ground so that nothing would grow on it, no matter how much they cleared away any growing grass, no matter how much they smoked coal and oil, no matter how they trimmed the trees and drove out all the animals and birds, spring was spring even in the city. The sun warmed, the grass, coming to life, grew and turned green wherever it was not scraped off, not only on the lawns of the boulevards, but also between the slabs of stones, and birches, poplars, bird cherry blossomed their sticky and odorous leaves, lindens inflated their bursting buds; jackdaws, sparrows and pigeons were already happily preparing their nests in spring, and flies were buzzing near the walls, warmed by the sun. The plants, birds, insects, and children were cheerful. But people - big, grown people - did not stop deceiving and torturing themselves and each other. People believed that what was sacred and important was not this spring morning, not this beauty of God’s world, given for the good of all beings - a beauty conducive to peace, harmony and love, but what was sacred and important was what they themselves invented in order to rule over each other. friend.

Thus, in the office of the provincial prison, it was considered sacred and important not that all animals and people were given the tenderness and joy of spring, but it was considered sacred and important that the day before a document was received with a number with a stamp and heading that by nine o’clock in the morning On this day, April 28, three prisoners under investigation were delivered to the prison - two women and one man. One of these women, as the most important criminal, had to be brought in separately. And so, on the basis of this order, on April 28, the senior warden entered the dark, smelly corridor of the women’s department at eight o’clock in the morning. Following him, a woman with an exhausted face and curly hair entered the corridor. gray hair, dressed in a jacket with sleeves trimmed with braid and belted with a belt with blue piping. It was the matron.

- Do you want Maslova? - she asked, approaching with the guard on duty to one of the cell doors that opened into the corridor.

The warden, rattling the iron, unlocked the lock and, opening the cell door, from which air flowed even more stinking than in the corridor, shouted:

- Maslova, go to court! – and closed the door again, waiting.

Even in the prison yard there was fresh, life-giving air from the fields, carried by the wind into the city. But in the corridor there was a depressing typhoid air, saturated with the smell of excrement, tar and rot, which immediately made every new person who came in despondent and sad. This was experienced by the matron who came from the yard, despite her habit of bad air. She suddenly, entering the corridor, felt tired and wanted to sleep.

- Live up, or something, turn around there, Maslova, I say! – the senior guard shouted at the cell door.

About two minutes later, a short and very full-breasted young woman in a gray robe, wearing a white blouse and a white skirt, came out of the door with a cheerful step, quickly turned around and stood next to the warden. The woman had linen stockings on her legs, sharp crampons on her stockings, and her head was tied with a white scarf, from under which ringlets of curly black hair were evidently deliberately released. The woman's whole face was of that special whiteness that happens on the faces of people who have spent for a long time locked up, and which resembles potato sprouts in the basement. The same were small, wide arms and a white, full neck, visible from behind the large collar of the robe. What was striking about this face, especially given the matte pallor of the face, was its very black, shiny, somewhat swollen, but very animated eyes, one of which was slightly squinting. She stood very straight, exposing her full breasts. Going out into the corridor, she, throwing her head back a little, looked straight into the eyes of the warden and stopped, ready to do everything that was asked of her. The warden was about to lock the door when the pale, stern, wrinkled face of a plain-haired, gray-haired old woman stuck out. The old woman began to say something to Maslova. But the warden pressed the door on the old woman's head, and the head disappeared. A woman's voice laughed in the cell. Maslova also smiled and turned to the small barred window in the door. The old woman on the other side clung to the window and said in a hoarse voice:

“Most of all, don’t say too much, stay on one thing, and get on with it.”

“Well, sure enough, it can’t get any worse,” Maslova said, shaking her head.

“It is known that there is one thing, not two,” said the senior guard with commanding confidence in his own wit. - Follow me, march!

The old woman’s eye, visible in the window, disappeared, and Maslova went out into the middle of the corridor and followed the senior guard with quick small steps. They went down the stone stairs, passed by even more smelly and noisy men's cells than the women's, from which they were followed everywhere by eyes in the door windows, and entered the office, where two guard soldiers with guns were already standing. The clerk sitting there gave one of the soldiers a paper soaked in tobacco smoke and, pointing to the prisoner, said:

The soldier - a Nizhny Novgorod man with a red, pockmarked face - put the paper in the cuff of his overcoat and, smiling, winked at his comrade, a wide-cheeked Chuvash, at the prisoner. The soldiers and the prisoner descended the stairs and went to the main exit.

A gate opened in the door of the main exit, and, stepping over the threshold of the gate into the courtyard, the soldiers and the prisoner left the fence and walked through the city in the middle of the cobbled streets.

Cab drivers, shopkeepers, cooks, workers, officials stopped and looked at the prisoner with curiosity; others shook their heads and thought: “This is what bad behavior, not like ours, leads to.” The children looked at the robber in horror, calming down only by the fact that the soldiers were following her, and now she would not do anything. One village man, who had sold coal and drunk tea in a tavern, came up to her, crossed himself and handed her a penny. The prisoner blushed, bowed her head and said something.

Feeling the gazes directed at her, the prisoner imperceptibly, without turning her head, glanced askance at those who were looking at her, and this attention directed at her amused her. The clean spring air, compared to prison, also cheered her, but it was painful to step on the stones with feet unaccustomed to walking and shod in clumsy prison boots, and she looked at her feet and tried to step as lightly as possible. Passing by a flour shop, in front of which pigeons, not offended by anyone, were walking, pumping, the prisoner almost touched one of the bluebirds with her foot; the dove fluttered and, fluttering its wings, flew right past the prisoner’s ear, blowing the wind over her. The prisoner smiled and then sighed heavily, remembering her situation.

II

The story of the prisoner Maslova was very ordinary story. Maslova was the daughter of an unmarried courtyard woman who lived with her mother, a cowgirl, in the village with two sisters, young ladies of landowners. This unmarried woman gave birth every year, and, as is usually done in villages, the child was baptized, and then the mother did not feed the unwanted child who appeared unwanted and interfered with her work, and he soon died of hunger.

Five children died this way. They were all baptized, then they were not fed, and they died. The sixth child born from a passing gypsy was a girl, and her fate would have been the same, but it so happened that one of the two old ladies went into the cattle barn to reprimand the cowgirls for the cream that smelled like cow. In the barn lay a mother in labor with a beautiful, healthy baby. The old lady reprimanded him both for the cream and for allowing the woman who had given birth into the barn, and was about to leave when, seeing the baby, she was touched by him and volunteered to be his godmother. She baptized the girl, and then, feeling sorry for her goddaughter, she gave milk and money to her mother, and the girl remained alive. The old ladies called her “saved.”

The child was three years old when her mother fell ill and died. The cowgirl grandmother was burdened by her granddaughter, and then the old ladies took the girl in with them. The black-eyed girl came out unusually lively and pretty, and the old ladies were consoled by her.

There were two old ladies: the younger, kinder one, Sofya Ivanovna, who baptized the girl, and the older, stricter one, Marya Ivanovna. Sofya Ivanovna dressed up, taught the girl to read and wanted to make a pupil out of her. Marya Ivanovna said that the girl should be made into a worker, a good maid, and therefore she was demanding, punished and even beat the girl when she was out of sorts. Thus, between two influences, the girl, when she grew up, became half-maid, half-educated. She was called by her middle name - not Katka or Katenka, but Katyusha. She sewed, cleaned rooms, chalked icons, fried, ground, served coffee, did small laundry, and sometimes sat with the young ladies and read to them.

They asked her to marry her, but she didn’t want to marry anyone, feeling that her life was with those working people who wooed her will be difficult for her, spoiled by the sweetness of the master's life.

She lived like this until she was sixteen. When she was sixteen years old, their student nephew, a rich prince, came to visit her young ladies, and Katyusha, not daring to admit it to him or even to herself, fell in love with him. Then, two years later, this same nephew stopped by his aunts on the way to the war, stayed with them for four days, and on the eve of his departure he seduced Katyusha and, slipping her a hundred-ruble note on the last day, left. Five months after he left, she probably found out that she was pregnant.

From then on, she became disgusted with everything, and she only thought about how she could get rid of the shame that awaited her, and she began not only to serve the young ladies reluctantly and badly, but, she herself did not know how it happened, - suddenly it burst. She said rude things to the young ladies, which she later repented of, and asked for payment.

And the young ladies, very dissatisfied with her, let her go. From them she became a maid for the chief, but could only live there for three months, because the chief, a fifty-year-old man, began to pester her, and once, when he became especially enterprising, she boiled over, called him a fool and an old devil, and pushed him like that. in the chest that he fell. She was kicked out for being rude. There was no point in enrolling, she had to give birth soon, and she settled with a village widow-midwife who sold wine. The birth was easy. But the midwife, who was attending to a sick woman in the village, infected Katyusha with childbed fever, and the child, a boy, was sent to an orphanage, where the child, as the old woman who took him said, died immediately upon arrival.

All the money Katyusha had when she settled with the midwife was one hundred and twenty-seven rubles: twenty-seven from her wealth and one hundred rubles that her seducer gave her. When she left her, she had only six rubles left. She did not know how to save money and spent it on herself and gave to everyone who asked. The midwife took from her for living expenses - for food and tea - forty rubles for two months, twenty-five rubles went for sending the child, forty rubles the midwife asked for a loan for a cow, twenty rubles were spent like that - for dresses, for gifts, so, When Katyusha recovered, she had no money and had to look for places. The place was found by the forester. The forester was a married man, but, just like the forester, from the very first day he began to pester Katyusha. Katyusha was disgusted with him, and she tried to avoid him. But he was more experienced and cunning than she, the main thing was that he was the master who could send her wherever he wanted, and, after waiting a minute, he took possession of her. The wife found out and, once she found her husband alone in the room with Katyusha, rushed to beat her. Katyusha did not give in, and a fight broke out, as a result of which she was kicked out of the house without paying what she had earned. Then Katyusha went to the city and stayed there with her aunt. The aunt’s husband was a bookbinder and had previously lived well, but now he had lost all his suppliers and was a drunkard, drinking everything he could get his hands on.

My aunt ran a small laundry establishment and thus supported her children and supported her missing husband. The aunt invited Maslova to join her as a laundress. But, looking at the hard life that the women washerwomen who lived with her aunt led, Maslova hesitated and looked for a place as a servant in the offices. And a place was found with a lady who lived with her two high school sons. A week after her admission, the older, mustachioed, sixth-grade high school student quit studying and haunted Maslova, pestering her. The mother blamed Maslova for everything and disappointed her. A new place did not work out, but it so happened that, having arrived at the office that supplied servants, Maslova met there a lady wearing rings and bracelets on her plump bare hands. This lady, having learned about the situation of Maslova, who was looking for a place, gave her her address and invited her to her place. Maslova went to her. The lady received her kindly, treated her to pies and sweet wine, and sent her maid somewhere with a note. In the evening a tall man with long graying hair and a gray beard entered the room; This old man immediately sat down next to Maslova and began, with sparkling eyes and a smile, to examine her and joke with her. The hostess called him into another room, and Maslova heard the hostess say: “Fresh, rustic.” Then the hostess called Maslova and said that this is a writer who has a lot of money and who will not regret anything if he likes her. She liked her, and the writer gave her twenty-five rubles, promising to see her often. The money came out very soon to pay off the aunt’s living expenses and to buy a new dress, hat and ribbons. A few days later the writer sent for her another time. She went. He gave her another twenty-five rubles and offered to move to a separate apartment.

Living in an apartment rented by the writer, Maslova fell in love with a cheerful clerk who lived in the same yard. She herself announced this to the writer, and she moved to a separate small apartment. The clerk, who promised to marry, left without telling her anything and, obviously, abandoning her in Nizhny, and Maslova was left alone. She wanted to live alone in an apartment, but she was not allowed. And the police officer told her that she could live like this only by receiving a yellow ticket and submitting to inspection. Then she went again to her aunt. Aunt seeing her fashionable dress, cape and hat, accepted her with respect and no longer dared to offer her to become a laundress, considering that she had now become a highest level life. And for Maslova now there was no longer a question of whether or not to become a laundress. She now looked with sympathy at the hard life that pale, thin-armed washerwomen, some of whom were already consumptive, led in the first rooms, washing and ironing in a thirty-degree soapy steam with the windows open in summer and winter, and was horrified by the thought that and she could have entered this penal servitude.

And at this time, especially disastrous for Maslova, since not a single patron came across, Maslova was found by a detective who supplied girls for the brothel.

Maslova had been smoking for a long time, but in Lately her connection with the clerk, and after he abandoned her, she became more and more accustomed to drinking. Wine attracted her not only because she thought it was delicious, but it attracted her most of all because it gave her the opportunity to forget all the hard things she had been through, and gave her a swagger and confidence in her dignity that she did not have without wine . Without wine she always felt sad and ashamed.

The detective made a treat for her aunt and, having given Maslova a drink, invited her to enter a good, best institution in the city, exposing her to all the benefits and advantages of this position. Maslova was faced with a choice: either the humiliating position of a servant, in which there would probably be persecution by men and secret temporary adultery, or a secure, calm, legalized position and obvious, legal and well-paid permanent adultery, and she chose the latter. In addition, she thought in this way to repay both her seducer, and the clerk, and all the people who had done evil to her. Moreover, it seduced her and was one of the reasons final decision that the detective told her that she could order whatever dresses she wanted - velvet, failles, silk, ball gowns with bare shoulders and arms. And when Maslova imagined herself in a bright yellow silk dress with a black velvet trim - neckline, she could not resist and gave up her passport. That same evening, the detective took a cab and took her to the famous Kitaeva house.

And from then on began for Maslova that life of chronic transgression of Divine and human commandments, which is carried out by hundreds and hundreds of thousands of women not only with permission, but under the patronage government authority, concerned with the welfare of its citizens, and ends for nine out of ten women with painful illnesses, premature senility and death.

In the morning and afternoon, heavy sleep after an orgy of the night. In the third and fourth o'clock, tired getting up from a dirty bed, seltzer water from a binge, coffee, lazy wandering around the rooms in negligees, jackets, dressing gowns, looking out of the windows from behind the curtains, sluggish squabbles with each other; then washing, smearing, smothering the body, hair, trying on dresses, arguing about them with the hostess, looking at oneself in the mirror, tinting the face, eyebrows, sweet, fatty foods; then dressing in a bright silk dress that reveals the body; then exit into a decorated, brightly lit hall, the arrival of guests, music, dancing, candy, wine, smoking and adultery with young, middle-aged, half-children and crumbling old people, single, married, merchants, clerks, Armenians, Jews, Tatars, rich, poor , healthy, sick, drunk, sober, rude, gentle, military, civilian, students, high school students - of all possible classes, ages and characters. And screams and jokes, and fights and music, and tobacco and wine, and wine and tobacco, and music from evening until dawn. And only in the morning there is liberation and heavy sleep. And so every day, all week. At the end of the week, a trip to government agency- area where those located on public service officials, doctors - men, sometimes seriously and sternly, and sometimes with playful gaiety, destroying the shame given by nature to protect not only people but also animals from crime, examined these women and issued them a patent to continue the same crimes that they committed with his accomplices for a week. And again the same week. And so every day, in summer and winter, on weekdays and on holidays.

Maslova lived like this for seven years. During this time, she changed two houses and was in the hospital once. In the seventh year of her stay in the brothel and in the eighth year after her first fall, when she was twenty-six years old, something happened to her for which she was sent to prison and was now being led to trial, after six months in prison with murderers and thieves .

III

While Maslova, exhausted by the long march, was approaching the building of the district court with her guards, the same nephew of her teachers, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, who had seduced her, was still lying on his high, spring mattress with a down mattress, rumpled bed and, having unbuttoned the collar of a clean Dutch nightgown with ironed folds on the chest, and was smoking a cigarette. He looked ahead with fixed eyes and thought about what he had to do today and what happened yesterday.

Remembering yesterday evening spent with the Korchagins, rich and famous people, whose daughter everyone expected him to marry, he sighed and, throwing away the cigarette he had smoked, wanted to take another from the silver cigarette case, but thought better of it and, lowering his smooth white legs from the bed, He found shoes with them, threw a silk robe over his full shoulders and, stepping quickly and heavily, went to the restroom next to the bedroom, all saturated with the artificial smell of elixirs, cologne, fixatives, perfumes. There he cleaned his teeth, which were filled in many places, with a special powder, rinsed them with a fragrant rinse, then began to wash himself on all sides and dry himself with different towels. Having washed his hands with fragrant soap, carefully brushed his nails and washed his face and thick neck at the large marble washbasin, he went to the third room near the bedroom, where a shower was prepared. Having washed his muscular, fat-covered white body there with cold water and dried himself with a shaggy sheet, he put on clean, ironed linen, like a mirror, cleaned shoes and sat down in front of the toilet, combing with two brushes his small black curly beard and the thinning curly hair on the front of his head.

All the things he used - toilet accessories: linen, clothes, shoes, ties, pins, cufflinks - were of the very first, expensive type, inconspicuous, simple, durable and valuable.

Having chosen from a dozen ties and brooches the first ones that came to hand - once it was new and funny, now it was completely all the same - Nekhlyudov dressed in a dress that had been cleaned and prepared on a chair and went out, although not quite fresh, but clean and fragrant, into a long dining room with parquet floor polished yesterday by three men, with a huge oak buffet and an equally large sliding table, which had something solemn in its carved legs widely spaced in the shape of lion paws. On this table, covered with a thin starched tablecloth with large monograms, stood: a silver coffee pot with fragrant coffee, the same sugar bowl, a creamer with boiled cream and a basket with fresh rolls, crackers and biscuits. Near the device lay the received letters, newspapers and a new book “Revue des deux Mondes”. Nekhlyudov was just about to take up his letters when a plump elderly woman in mourning, with a lace tattoo on her head that hid her parted parting, emerged from the door leading into the corridor. It was the maid of the deceased, recently in this very apartment of Nekhlyudov’s deceased mother, Agrafena Petrovna, who now remained with her son as a housekeeper.

Agrafena Petrovna about ten years old different time spent time abroad with Nekhlyudov’s mother and had the appearance and manners of a lady. She had lived in the Nekhlyudovs’ house since childhood and had known Dmitry Ivanovich since Mitenka.

- WITH Good morning, Dmitry Ivanovich.

– Hello, Agrafena Petrovna. What's new? – Nekhlyudov asked jokingly.

- A letter, from the princess, or from the princess. The maid brought it a long time ago, she’s waiting for me,” said Agrafena Petrovna, handing over the letter and smiling significantly.

“Okay, now,” Nekhlyudov said, taking the letter, and, noticing Agrafena Petrovna’s smile, he frowned.

Agrafena Petrovna's smile meant that the letter was from Princess Korchagina, whom, according to Agrafena Petrovna, Nekhlyudov was going to marry. And this assumption, expressed by Agrafena Petrovna’s smile, was unpleasant to Nekhlyudov.

“Then I’ll tell her to wait,” and Agrafena Petrovna, grabbing a brush that was lying out of place for sweeping off the table and moving it to another place, floated out of the dining room.

Nekhlyudov, having opened the odorous letter given to him by Agrafena Petrovna, began to read it.

“Fulfilling the responsibility I have taken upon myself to be your memory,” it was written on a sheet of gray thick paper with uneven edges in sharp but accelerating handwriting, “I remind you that today, on April 28, you must be in the jury trial and therefore cannot in any way to come with us and Kolosov to look at the pictures, as you, with your characteristic frivolity, promised yesterday; à moins que vous ne soyez disposé à payer à la cour d"assises les 300 roubles d"amende, que vous vous refusez pour votre cheval, for not showing up on time. I remembered this yesterday, you had just left. So don't forget.

Book M. Korchagina."

On the other side it was added:

"Maman vous fait dire que votre couvert vous attendra jusqu"à la nuit. Venez absolument à quelle heure que cela soit.

M.K."

Nekhlyudov winced. The note was a continuation of the skillful work that Princess Korchagina had been doing on him for two months now and consisted in the fact that with imperceptible threads it more and more connected him with her. Meanwhile, in addition to that usual indecisiveness before the marriage of people not in their first youth and not passionately in love, Nekhlyudov also had important reason, on which he, even if he had decided, could not now make an offer. This reason was not that ten years ago he seduced Katyusha and abandoned her, this was completely forgotten by him, and he did not consider this an obstacle to his marriage; this reason was that at that very time he had a relationship with a married woman, which, although it was now broken on his part, was not yet recognized as broken by her.

Nekhlyudov was very timid with women, but it was precisely this timidity that aroused in this married woman the desire to conquer him. This woman was the wife of the leader of the district in whose elections Nekhlyudov went. And this woman drew him into a relationship that every day became more and more exciting for Nekhlyudov and at the same time more and more repulsive. At first Nekhlyudov could not resist the temptation, then, feeling guilty before her, he could not break this connection without her consent. This was the reason why Nekhlyudov considered himself not entitled, even if he wanted it, to propose to Korchagina.

There was just a letter on the table from this woman’s husband. Seeing this handwriting and stamp, Nekhlyudov blushed and immediately felt that rise of energy that he always experienced when danger approached. But his excitement was in vain: his husband, the leader of the nobility of the very district in which Nekhlyudov’s main estates were, informed Nekhlyudov that an emergency zemstvo meeting had been appointed at the end of May and that he was asking Nekhlyudov to come without fail and donner un coup d’épaule in the coming important issues at the zemstvo meeting about schools and access roads, in which strong opposition from the reactionary party was expected.

The leader was a liberal man, and he, together with some like-minded people, fought against the offensive under Alexander. III reactions and was completely absorbed in this struggle and knew nothing about his unhappy family life.

Nekhlyudov remembered all the painful minutes he had experienced in relation to this man: he remembered how once he thought that his husband had found out and was preparing for a duel with him, in which he intended to shoot into the air, and about that terrible scene with her when In desperation, she ran out into the garden to the pond with the intention of drowning herself, and he ran to look for her. “I can’t go now and I can’t do anything until she answers me,” thought Nekhlyudov. A week ago, he wrote her a decisive letter in which he admitted himself guilty, ready for any kind of atonement for his guilt, but still considered, for her own good, their relationship to be over forever. This is the letter he was waiting for and did not receive an answer. The fact that there was no answer was partly good sign. If she had not agreed to the break, she would have written long ago or even come herself, as she did before. Nekhlyudov heard that there was now some officer there who was caring for her, and this tormented him with jealousy and at the same time pleased him with the hope of liberation from the lies that tormented him.

Another letter was from the chief manager of the estates. The manager wrote that he, Nekhlyudov, needed to come himself in order to establish the rights of inheritance and, in addition, to decide the question of how to continue the farm: whether it was the way it was run under the deceased, or how he proposed it to the late princess and now he proposes to the young prince to increase the inventory and cultivate all the land distributed to the peasants themselves. The manager wrote that such exploitation would be much more profitable. At the same time, the manager apologized for being somewhat late in sending the three thousand rubles scheduled for the first day. This money will be sent by next mail. He delayed the expulsion because he could not collect from the peasants, who in their dishonesty had reached such an extent that in order to force them it was necessary to turn to the authorities. This letter was both pleasant and unpleasant for Nekhlyudov. It was pleasant to feel his power over large property, and the unpleasant thing was that during his early youth he was an enthusiastic follower of Herbert Spencer and in particular, being himself a large landowner, was struck by his position in the Social Statics that justice is not allows private land ownership. With the directness and determination of youth, he not only spoke about the fact that the earth cannot be an object private property, and not only wrote an essay about this at the university, but also in fact then gave a small part of the land (which belonged not to his mother, but by inheritance from his father to him personally) to the peasants, not wanting to own the land contrary to his convictions. Now, having become a large landowner by inheritance, he had to do one of two things: either renounce his property, as he did ten years ago in relation to two hundred acres of his father’s land, or by a tacit agreement to recognize all his previous thoughts as erroneous and false.

He could not do the first, because he had no means of subsistence other than land. He did not want to serve, but meanwhile he had already acquired luxurious habits of life, from which he believed that he could not lag behind. And there was no need, since there was no longer that power of conviction, nor that determination, nor that vanity and desire to surprise that were in his youth. Secondly, he could not renounce those clear and irrefutable arguments about the illegality of land ownership, which he then gleaned from Spencer’s “Social Statics” and the brilliant confirmation of which he found later, much later, in the writings of Henry George.

And this made the manager’s letter unpleasant to him.

Novel

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Original language: Date of writing: Date of first publication: Publisher: Text of the work in Wikisource

"Resurrection" - last novel Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, written by him in 1889-1899.

The novel was translated into major languages almost immediately after its publication. European languages. Such success was largely due to the severity of the chosen topic (the fate of a girl seduced and abandoned by an officer, the feeling of guilt before which subsequently becomes the reason for changing the lives of both of them) and the enormous interest in the work of Tolstoy, who did not publish novels after “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” .

1 History of creation
2 Heroes of the novel and their prototypes
- 2.1 Katyusha Maslova
- 2.2 Dmitry Nekhlyudov
3 The central plot line of the novel
4 Responses
5 Direct use in literature close to the novel in time
6 Theater, opera and film productions of the novel
- 6.1 Theater drama productions
- 6.2 Opera productions
- 6.3 Film adaptations
7 Notes
8 Links

History of creation

The novel “Resurrection” was written by the author in 1889-1890, 1895-1896, 1898-1899. Three times a year, with breaks. Initially, the work was written under the title “Konevskaya Tale”, because in June 1887, Anatoly Fedorovich Koni told Tolstoy a story about how one of the jurors during the trial recognized the prostitute accused of theft as the woman he had once seduced. This woman bore the surname Oni, and was a prostitute himself. low category, with a face disfigured by illness. But the seducer, who probably once loved her, decided to marry her and worked hard. His feat was not completed: the woman died in prison.

The tragedy of the situation fully reflects the essence of prostitution and is particularly reminiscent of Guy de Maupassant’s story “The Port” - Tolstoy’s favorite story, which he translated, calling it “Françoise”: A sailor, arriving from long voyage, in the port he found a brothel, took a woman and recognized her as his sister only when she began to ask him if he had seen such and such a sailor at sea, and told him his own name.

Impressed by all this, Leo Tolstoy asked Koni to give the topic to him. He started to unfold life situation into conflict, and this work took several years of writing and eleven years of reflection.

Tolstoy, while working on a novel, in January 1899 visited the warden of the Butyrka prison, I.M. Vinogradov, and asked him about prison life. In April 1899, Tolstoy came to Butyrka prison to walk with convicts sent to Siberia to the Nikolaevsky station, and then depicted this path in the novel. When the novel began to be published, Tolstoy began to revise it and literally the night before the publication of the next chapter “he did not let up: once he began to finish writing, he could not stop; The further he wrote, the more he got carried away, often redoing what he had written, changing it, crossing it out...”

The complete manuscript collection of the novel exceeds 8,000 sheets. For comparison, the manuscript of Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary, which he wrote for 5 years, is 1,788 revised pages (the final version is 487 pages).

Heroes of the novel and their prototypes

Katyusha Maslova

Ekaterina Mikhailovna Maslova is the daughter of an unmarried courtyard woman, adopted from a passing gypsy. Three years after the death of her mother, Katyusha was taken into the manor's house by two old young ladies, landowners, and grew up with them - according to Tolstoy's definition - "half maid, half ward." When she was sixteen years old, Katyusha fell in love with a young student, the nephew of the landowners, Prince Nekhlyudov, who came to visit his aunts. Two years later, on the way to the war, Nekhlyudov again stopped by his aunts and, after staying for four days, on the eve of his departure he seduced Katyusha, slipping her a hundred-ruble note on the last day. Having learned about her pregnancy and having lost hope that Nekhlyudov would return, Maslova said rude things to the landowners and asked for a settlement. She gave birth in the house of a village widow-midwife. The child was taken to an orphanage, where, as Maslova was told, he died immediately upon arrival. Having recovered from childbirth, Maslova found a place in the house of a forester, who, after waiting for the right moment, took possession of her. The forester's wife, once catching him with Maslova, rushed to beat her. Maslova did not succeed and a fight occurred, as a result of which she was kicked out without paying what she had earned.

Then Katyusha moved to the city, where, after a series of unsuccessful attempts to find a suitable place for myself, I ended up in a brothel. To lull her conscience, Maslova created a worldview in which she could not be ashamed of her position as a prostitute. This worldview was that the main benefit of all men, without exception, is sexual intercourse with attractive women. She is an attractive woman, she may or may not satisfy this desire. For seven years, Maslova changed two brothels and was in the hospital once. She was then placed in prison on suspicion of poisoning in order to steal her client's money, where she remained for six months awaiting trial.

The basis of the story of Katyusha’s fall was the fate of Rosalie Oni, told to Tolstoy by the famous Russian public and judicial figure A.F. Koni. novel real story completely rethought. From the very beginning of working on the novel, Tolstoy “brings closer” the material, making it more “personal”, and the characters more understandable to himself. Thus, the scene of Katyusha’s seduction is created by Tolstoy on the basis of personal memories of his youthful relationship with a maid named Gasha, who lived in his aunt’s house. Shortly before his death, Tolstoy told his biographer P.I. Biryukov about the “crime” that he committed in his youth by seducing Gasha: “she was innocent, I seduced her, they drove her away, and she died.”

S.A. Tolstaya also wrote about this in her diaries: “I know, he himself told me in detail that Lev Nikolaevich in this scene describes his relationship with his sister’s maid in Pirogov.”

Dmitry Nekhlyudov

Dmitry Ivanovich Nekhlyudov - prince, a man from high society. Tolstoy characterizes the young Nekhlyudov as an honest, selfless young man, ready to give himself to any good deed and who considered his “real self” to be his spiritual being. Nekhlyudov’s youth, dreaming of making all people happy, thinks, reads, talks about God, truth, wealth, poverty; considers it necessary to moderate his needs; dreams of a woman only as a wife and sees the highest spiritual pleasure in sacrifice in the name of moral requirements. This worldview and actions of Nekhlyudov are recognized by the people around him as strangeness and boastful originality. When, having reached adulthood, he, being an enthusiastic follower of Herbert Spencer and Henry George, gives the estate inherited from his father to the peasants, because he considers land ownership unfair, this act horrifies his mother and relatives, and becomes a constant subject of reproach and ridicule over him all his relatives. At first Nekhlyudov tries to fight, but the fight turns out to be too difficult and, unable to withstand the struggle, he gives up, becoming what those around him want to see and completely drowning out the voice within himself that demands something different from him. Then Nekhlyudov enters military service, which, according to Tolstoy, “corrupts people.” And now, already such a man, on the way to the regiment, he stops by in the village to visit his aunts, where he seduces Katyusha, who is in love with him, and, on the last day before leaving, thrusts a hundred-ruble note into her, consoling himself with the fact that “everyone does this.” Having left the army with the rank of guard lieutenant, Nekhlyudov settles in Moscow, where he leads the idle life of a bored esthete, a refined egoist who loves only his own pleasure.

In the first unfinished draft of the future novel (then still “Konevskaya Tale”) the main character’s name is Valeryan Yushkov, then, in the same draft, Yushkin. Making attempts to “bring closer” the material, Tolstoy initially borrows for his hero the surname of his paternal aunt P. I. Yushkova, in whose house he lived in his youth.

It is generally accepted that the image of Nekhlyudov is largely autobiographical, reflecting a change in the views of Tolstoy himself in the eighties, that the desire to marry Maslova is a moment of the “simplification” theory. And the introduction to the Gospel at the end of the novel is a typical “Tolstoyanism”

It should be noted that in the works of Tolstoy, Dmitry Nekhlyudov from “Resurrection” had several literary predecessors. For the first time, a character with this name appears in Tolstoy back in 1854, in the story “Adolescence” (chapter XXV). In the story “Youth” he becomes the best friend of Nikolenka Irtenyev, the main character of the trilogy. Here, the young Prince Nekhlyudov is one of the brightest characters: smart, educated, tactful. He is several years older than Nikolenka and acts as his older comrade, helping him with advice and keeping him from stupid, rash actions.

Also Dmitry Nekhlyudov - main character Tolstoy's stories "Lucerne" and "Morning of the Landowner"; To these we can add the story “Cossacks”, during the writing of which the surname of the central character - Nekhlyudov - was replaced by Tolstoy with Olenin. All these works are largely autobiographical, and Leo Tolstoy himself can easily be seen in the image of their main characters.

The central plot line of the novel

In the district court, with the participation of jurors, the case of the theft of money and poisoning, which led to the death of the merchant Smelkov, is being heard. Among the three accused of the crime is the bourgeois Ekaterina Maslova, who is engaged in prostitution. Maslova turns out to be innocent, but, as a result of a miscarriage of justice, she is sentenced to four years of hard labor in Siberia.

At the trial, among the jurors, there is Prince Dmitry Nekhlyudov, who recognizes the defendant Maslova as a girl who was seduced and abandoned by him about ten years ago. Feeling guilty before Maslova, Nekhlyudov decides to hire her famous lawyer, submit the case to cassation and help with money.

The injustice in court that struck Nekhlyudov and the attitude of the officials towards this evoke in him a feeling of disgust and disgust towards all the people with whom he has to see that day, after the trial, and especially towards the representatives of the high society that surrounds him. He thinks to quickly get rid of the jury, from the society around him and go abroad. And so, discussing this, Nekhlyudov remembers Maslova; first as a prisoner - as he saw her at the trial, and then, in his imagination, one after another, the minutes he experienced with her begin to appear.

Remembering his life, Nekhlyudov feels like a scoundrel and a scoundrel, and begins to realize that all the disgust for people that he felt all that day was essentially disgust for himself, for the idle and nasty life that he led and, naturally, , found for himself a society of people leading the same life as him. Wanting to break with this life at all costs, Nekhlyudov no longer thinks about going abroad - which would be an ordinary escape. He decides to repent to Katyusha, do everything to make her fate easier, ask for forgiveness “like children ask,” and if necessary, then marry her.

In such a state of moral insight, spiritual uplift and desire to repent, Nekhlyudov comes to the prison on a date with Katyusha Maslova, but, to his surprise and horror, he sees that the Katyusha whom he knew and loved died long ago, she “wasn’t there, and there was only Maslova” - a street girl who looks at him with shining “bad sparkle” eyes, as if at one of her clients, asks him for money, and when he hands it over and tries to express the main thing he came with, she does not listen to him at all, hiding the money he took from the warden in his belt.

“After all, this is a dead woman,” Nekhlyudov thinks, looking at Maslova. In his soul, for a moment, the “tempter” awakens, who tells him that he will not do anything with this woman and he just needs to give her money and leave her. But this moment passes. Nekhlyudov defeats the “tempter”, remaining firm in his intentions.

Having hired a lawyer, Nekhlyudov draws up a cassation petition to the Senate and leaves for St. Petersburg to be present at the consideration of the case. But, despite all his efforts, the cassation appeal is rejected, the votes of the senators are divided and the court verdict remains unchanged.

Returning to Moscow, Nekhlyudov brings with him, for Maslova’s signature, a petition for pardon on “ highest name“, in the success of which he no longer believes and, a few days later, following the party of prisoners with whom Maslova is being transported, he goes to Siberia.

While moving through the stages, Nekhlyudov manages to secure Maslova’s transfer from the department of criminal prisoners to political prisoners. This transfer improves her position in all respects, and the rapprochement with some of the political prisoners has a “decisive and most beneficial influence” on Maslova. Thanks to her friend Marya Pavlovna, Katyusha realizes that love does not consist of “sexual love” alone, but charity is necessary for a person“habit”, “effort”, which should constitute the “work of life”.

Throughout the entire narrative, Tolstoy gradually “resurrects” the souls of his heroes. Leads them up the steps moral improvement, reviving the “spiritual being” in them and raising it above the “animal”. This “resurrection” opens up a new understanding of the world for Nekhlyudov and Maslova, making them sympathetic and attentive to all people.

At the end of the novel, Maslova’s party, having traveled about five thousand miles, arrives at a large Siberian city, with a large transit prison. the post office of this city collected all the mail that came from the center of Russia to Nekhlyudov (being in constant movement step by step, he simply could not receive letters). While sorting through the mail, Nekhlyudov finds a letter from his friend from his youth, Selenin. Along with the letter, Selenin sends Nekhlyudov a copy of the official paper pardoning Maslova, according to which hard labor is replaced by a settlement in Siberia.

With the news of the pardon, Nekhlyudov comes to meet Maslova. On this date, he tells her that as soon as the official paper arrives, they can decide where to live. But Maslova refuses Nekhlyudov. During his stay with political prisoners, she became closely acquainted with Vladimir Simonson, exiled to the Yakut region, who fell in love with her. And, despite the fact that Nekhlyudov was and remained the only man whom she truly loved, Maslova, no longer wanting Nekhlyudov’s sacrifice and fearing that she would ruin his life, chooses Simonson.

Having said goodbye to Maslova, Nekhlyudov goes around the prison cells of the prison together with the traveling Englishman, as his translator, and only late in the evening, in a tired and depressed state, does he return to his hotel room. Left alone, Nekhlyudov recalls everything he has seen in the past. recent months: that “terrible evil that he saw and recognized in the offices of officials, in courts, in prisons, etc.; the evil that “triumphant, reigned, and there was no possibility of not only defeating it, but even understanding how to defeat it " All this now rises in his imagination and requires clarification. Tired of thinking about it, Nekhlyudov sits down on the sofa and “mechanically” opens the Gospel given to him by the Englishman.

Reading the Gospel, Nekhlyudov does not sleep all night, “like a sponge water,” absorbing “the necessary, important and joyful things that were revealed to him in this book” and finding for himself answers to all the questions that tormented him. Thus, finishing his novel, in its last chapter, Leo Tolstoy, through the lips of Dmitry Nekhlyudov, expresses his view of Christian teaching.

In the evangelical understanding of Tolstoy ““Resurrection”<…>the rise of love from the grave of the body,” “from the grave of one’s personality.”

Responses

According to Lenin, in this work Leo Tolstoy “attacked with passionate criticism all modern state, church, social, economic orders, expressed a direct and sincere protest against a society of lies and falsehood.”

Direct use in literature close to the novel in time

Soon after the novel's publication, its direct influence on world literature. Already in 1903, the Swiss writer Edouard Rod published the novel L’Inutile effort, which uses part of Tolstoy’s plot lines, with the characters discussing Leo Tolstoy’s novel among themselves. The influence of the novel affected the design of Galsworthy's novel The Island Pharisees (1904). In the novel by the Venezuelan writer Rómulo Gallegos “Reynaldo Solar” (El último Solar, 1920), the hero becomes interested in Tolstoy, although following the Count’s ideas - independently cultivating the land and marrying a prostitute - turns out to be ridiculous.

Theatrical, operatic and cinematic productions of the novel

Theater drama productions

Sorry, JavaScript is disabled in your browser or the required player is not available.
You can download the video or download a player to play the video in your browser. Radio show based on the Moscow Art Theater play “Resurrection”, 1936

1930 - Moscow Art Theater (V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko)
1998 - Maly Theater (E. E. Martsevich)

Opera productions

Opera adaptations of the novel include Risurrezione by Italian composer Franco Alfano, Vzkriesenie by Slovak composer Jan Kikker, and Resurrection by American composer Tod Machover.

Film adaptations

1907 - Resurrection / En Opstandelse (Denmark), directed by Viggo Larsen
1909 - Resurrection (USA), director David Griffith, Katyusha Maslova - Florence Lawrence, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Arthur Johnson
1909 - Resurrection - Russia
1910 - Resurrection / Résurrection (France), directors André Calmette, Henri Desfontaines
1914 - Song of Katyusha / Katyusha no uta (Japan)
1914 - Katyusha / Katyusha (Japan), directed by Kiyamatsu Hosoyama
1915 - Resurrection of a Woman / A Woman’s Resurrection (USA), director Gordon Edwards, Katyusha Maslova - Betty Nansen, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - William Kelly
1915 - Katyusha Maslova - Russia, director Pyotr Chardynin, Katyusha Maslova - Natalya Lisenko
1917 - Resurrection / Resurrezione - Italy, director Mario Caserini, Katyusha Maslova - Maria Giacobini, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Andrea Habey
1918 - Resurrection / Resurrection - USA, director Edward Jose, Katyusha Maslova - Pauline Frederick, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Robert Elliott
1923 - Resurrection / Résurrection France. Directed by Marcel L'Herbier
1927 - Resurrection / Resurrection - USA, director Edwin Karev, Katyusha Maslova - Dolores del Rio, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Rod La Rocque,
1931 - Resurrection / Resurrection - USA. Director Edwin Karev, Katyusha Maslova - Lupe Velez, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - John Bowles
1931 - Resurrection / Resurrección - USA, directors Eduardo Arozamena, David Selman. Katyusha Maslova - Lupe Velez, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Gilbert Roland
1934 - We are alive again / We Live Again - USA. Director Ruben Mamulyan, Katyusha Maslova - Anna Stan, Dmitry Nekhlyudov Fredric March
1938 - Resurrection / Duniya Kya Hai - India. Director G.P. Pawar
1943 - Resurrection / Resurrección - Mexico. Directed by Gilberto Martinez Solares
1944 - Resurrection / Resurrezione - Italy. Directed by Flavio Calsavara. Katyusha Maslova - Doris Duranti, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Claudio Gora
1958 - Resurrection / Auferstehung - France, Italy, Germany (FRG). Director Rolf Hansen, Katyusha Maslova - Miriam Bru, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Horst Buchholz
1960 - “Resurrection” - USSR. Directed by Mikhail Shveitser. Katyusha Maslova - Tamara Syomina, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Evgeny Matveev
1965 - Resurrection / Resurrezione - Italy (TV series). Directed by Franco Enriquez
2001 - Resurrection / Resurrezione - Germany, France, Italy. Directed by Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani. Katyusha Maslova - Stefania Rocca, Dmitry Nekhlyudov - Timothy Peach

Notes

Chief Editor- G. P. Shalaeva. Who Is Who in this World.. - Moscow: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2004. - P. 1424. - ISBN 5-8123-0088-7.
V. Shklovsky. Lev Tolstoy. Life Wonderful People. - M.: Young Guard, 1967. - P. 513-530.
Butyrka prison: yesterday, today, tomorrow. Gazeta.ru
Pasternak L. O. How “Resurrection” was created // L. N. Tolstoy in the memoirs of his contemporaries: 2 volumes / Ed. S. A. Makashin. - M.: Artist. lit., 1978. - T. 2 / Comp., prepared. text and comment. N. M. Fortunatova. - pp. 165-172. - (Serial lit. memoirs).
P. I. Biryukov. Biography of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. - M., 1922. - T. 3. - P. 317.
Diaries of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy. 1897 – 1909. - M., 1932. - P. 81.
Leo Tolstoy in the 1880-1900s. About the novel “Sunday”
V. I. Kuleshov \\ Peaks: A book about outstanding works of Russian literature. Moscow: Det.lit, 1983
1 2 3 4 5 6 Edition: L. N. Tolstoy, Complete collection works in 90 volumes, academic anniversary edition, State Publishing House of Fiction, Moscow - 1958. Volume 32. Review of content by chapter. pp. 529-536.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 N. Gudziy and others. L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection.” Moscow. 1964
Tolstoy L.N. Complete. collection cit.: 90 vol., vol. 56, p. 74
Tolstoy L.N. Complete. collection cit.: 90 vol., vol. 56, p. 77
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Sunday (preface to the novel). - M.: Fiction, 1977. - P. 2.
Grigoriev A. L. The novel “Resurrection” abroad \\ Tolstoy L. N. Resurrection. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Ed. prepared N. K. Gudziy, E. A. Maimin. M.: Nauka, 1964. - pp. 552-573

Links

Vladimir Yarantsev. Siberian "Resurrection"
Gornaya V. Z. Foreign contemporaries of L. N. Tolstoy about the novel “Resurrection” // L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection”: Historical and functional research / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of World Lit. them. A. M. Gorky. - M.: Nauka, 1991. - P. 100-165.

Bibliography of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Novels	Family happiness Decembrists War and peace Anna Karenina Resurrection
Stories	(Trilogy) Childhood Adolescence Youth Two Hussars Albert Morning of the Landowner Cossacks Polikushka Canvasser Death of Ivan Ilyich Kreutzer's Sonata The Devil Master and Worker Father Sergius Hadji-Murat
Stories	Sevastopol stories (collection) Raid Marker's notes Forest cutting Blizzard Demoted Lucerne Three deaths Caucasian prisoner God sees the truth, but will not soon tell How much land does a man need Francoise Is it expensive Who is right? After the ball Notes of a madman Fake coupon Alyosha Pot of Roots Vasilyev Berries For what? Divine and human Khodynka What I saw in a dream Accidentally
Dramas	The power of darkness The fruits of enlightenment The living corpse
Educational and methodological manuals	ABC New alphabet Arithmetic The first Russian book for reading The second Russian book for reading The third Russian book for reading The fourth Russian book for reading
Pedagogical articles	ABOUT public education Upbringing and education Progress and definition of education About public education
Journalistic works	About the census in Moscow Confession So what should we do? About life Hunger or not hunger? The kingdom of God is within you
Books and articles about art	Who should learn to write from whom, the peasant children from us or us from the peasant children? A few words about the book “War and Peace” About art What is art? About Shakespeare and drama
Other	Reading Circle

Resurrection (novel) Information About

Tolstoy wrote his last novel, “Sunday,” over the course of 10 years. The work became a kind of creative result, and also opened up new prospects for the further development of art of the 20th century.

Composition

The composition of the work that Tolstoy wrote - "Sunday" - its content is based on a diverse and consistent contrast between the lives of the people and the masters. The author directly contrasts the conditions of existence of Dmitry Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova. Behind every element of the hero’s clothing, furnishings, and household items, there arises an idea of someone else’s labor by which they were obtained, as L.N. notes in his work. Tolstoy ("Sunday"). Brief descriptions of these and others household items The author cites, therefore, not at all by chance.

Nekhlyudov completes the gallery of images created by Tolstoy throughout his work. However, now the hero completely moves away from his environment, society, realizing over time the unnaturalness, abnormality, and cruelty of the world around him. A meeting with Katyusha Maslova awakens a feeling of remorse and a desire to make amends. His entire subsequent life and actions turn out to be correlated with the worlds of the people and the masters - two opposite poles.

Narrative Features

Tolstoy wrote the novel “Sunday” in a unique manner. The narrative is completely devoid of epic calm. Antipathies and likes are expressed openly and clearly. This allows us to talk about some return to the narrative style of War and Peace. One can hear the incorruptible and stern voice of the author-judge, who accuses not specific representatives of society, but the whole world, which has crippled human souls and is also trying to disfigure nature.

This was the last novel that L.N. created. Tolstoy. "Sunday", summary the chapters of which are given in the article are not built on a love plot at all, as it might seem at first glance. The work is determined by social, social issues. The panoramic, panoramic narrative principle is captivating various areas life. One gets the impression of a close connection between all the people and events that are responsible for everything that happens in the world. This principle will be used in Tolstoy's subsequent works.

Book 1

Tolstoy begins his novel “Sunday” with the following events. One spring day, April 28, one of the 1890s, a warden in a Moscow prison unlocks the lock to the cell and calls: “Maslova, to trial!”

The heroine's background

The second chapter tells the story of this prisoner. The prisoner Maslova had a very ordinary life. She was born to two landowner sisters as an unmarried courtyard girl from a passing gypsy in the village. When her mother fell ill and died, Katyusha was only three years old. The old ladies took her in as their maid and pupil. When Katyusha turned 16 years old, a rich prince, the sisters’ nephew, a still innocent young man, a student, Nekhlyudov, came to their village. The girl, not even daring to admit it to herself, fell in love with him.

And this is only the beginning of the events of the novel that Tolstoy wrote - “Sunday”. Their summary is as follows. After several years, Nekhlyudov, having already been promoted to officer and corrupted by service in the army, stopped by the landowners on the way to the war and stayed in their house for 4 days. On the eve of his departure, he seduced Katyusha and left, slipping her a note of one hundred rubles. Five months after his departure, the girl found out for sure that she was pregnant. She asked for a settlement, saying rude things to her sisters, which she later repented of, and they were forced to let her go. Katyusha settled in the same village with a widow midwife who sold wine. The birth was easy. However, the midwife infected the heroine from a sick village woman, and they decided to send the boy, her child, to an orphanage, where he died immediately after his arrival.

That's it for the background. main character Leo Tolstoy does not finish describing the novel. The “Resurrection,” the summary of which we are considering, continues with the following events.

Maslova, who had already replaced several patrons by that time, was found by a detective who delivered girls to brothels. With Katyusha’s consent, she took her to Kitaeva’s house, which was popular at that time. She was sent to prison in her seventh year of work in this institution, and now she is being taken to trial along with thieves and murderers.

Meeting of Nekhlyudov with Maslova

Dmitry Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, the prince, the same nephew of the landowners, at this time, lying in bed in the morning, recalls the events of yesterday evening at the famous and rich Korchagins, whose daughter, as planned and assumed, he should soon marry. A little later, after drinking coffee, he drives up to the court entrance and, putting on pince-nez, as a juror, looks at the defendants in the room, who are accused of poisoning a merchant for the purpose of robbery. Suddenly his gaze stops on one girl. “It can’t be,” Nekhlyudov says to himself. The black eyes that look at him remind the hero of something black and scary. It was she, Katyusha, whom he saw for the first time while still a third-year student, when, while preparing an essay on land ownership, he spent the summer with his aunts. This is the same girl with whom he was once in love, and then in the insanity he seduced, abandoned and never remembered again, since the memory exposed the young man proud of his decency. But he still does not want to submit to the feeling of repentance that has arisen in him. Events seem to be just an unpleasant accident that cannot disrupt today’s happy life.

Court

However, the trial continues, the jury must announce its decision, Tolstoy says. "Sunday", a summary of which you are reading, continues in the following way. Maslova, innocent of what she was suspected of, was found to be so, just like her comrades, although with certain reservations. But even the chairman himself is surprised that, having stipulated the condition “without the intent to rob,” the jury forgets to announce another one—“without the intent to take life.” According to their decision, it turns out that Maslova did not steal or rob, but nevertheless poisoned the merchant without any apparent purpose. As a result of this brutality, she is sentenced to hard labor. Chapters 9 to 11, as well as 19 to 24 of the first book (Leo Tolstoy, “Resurrection”) are devoted to a description of the trial.

Nekhlyudov is disgusted and ashamed after he returned home from his rich fiancée Missy Korchagina (who really wants to get married, and Nekhlyudov is a suitable match), and his imagination very clearly and vividly draws a prisoner with squinting black eyes. The marriage to Missy, which recently seemed so inevitable and close, now seems absolutely impossible to the hero. Nekhlyudov asks the Lord to help in prayer, and the God who lived in him awakens in his consciousness. He feels capable of the best that a person can do. The hero especially likes the idea of sacrificing everything for the sake of his moral satisfaction and marrying Maslova.

Dates with Maslova

Let's continue to talk about the novel that Tolstoy wrote - "Sunday". Its summary is as follows. The young man seeks a meeting with the defendant and, like a lesson learned, without intonation, tells her that he would like to atone for his sin and achieve her forgiveness. Katyusha is surprised: “What happened is past.” The hero expects that, having learned about his repentance and intention to serve her, Maslova will be touched and rejoice. To his horror, he notices that the old Katyusha is not there, but there is only one prostitute Maslova. He is frightened and surprised that she is not only not ashamed of her current position as a prostitute (while the position of a prisoner seems humiliating to her), but is even proud of it as a useful and important activity, because so many men need her services.

The next time, having caught her drunk during a visit to prison, the hero reports that, in spite of everything, he feels obligated to marry her in order to atone for his guilt. Katyusha replies: “I’ll hang myself soon.” So, in chapter 48 of the first book of the novel written by Leo Tolstoy - “Resurrection”, Maslova refuses to get married. But Nekhlyudov decides to serve her and begins to work for correction of the mistake and pardon. He even refuses to exist from now on because he considers the trial to be immoral and useless. The feeling of joy and solemnity of moral renewal disappears. He decides that he will not leave Maslova, will not change his decision to marry her if she wants, but this is painful and difficult for him.

Book 2

We continue to talk about the work that Leo Tolstoy wrote - “Resurrection”. Its summary also includes the second book. The events described in it are as follows. Nekhlyudov goes to St. Petersburg, where Maslova’s case will be considered in the Senate. In case of failure, it is proposed, on the advice of a lawyer, to file a petition addressed to the sovereign. If this does not work, you need to prepare for a trip to Siberia for Maslova. Therefore, the hero goes to the villages that belong to him to regulate relations with the peasants. This was not living slavery, which was abolished in 1861. Not specific individuals, but the general slavery of land-poor and landless peasants in relation to large landowners. Nekhlyudov understands how cruel and unfair this is. While still a student, he gave his father’s land to the peasants, considering its ownership equally grave sin, what serf ownership used to be like. However, the inheritance left by the mother again raises the issue of ownership. Despite the upcoming trip to Siberia, for which he needs money, he decides, to his detriment, to lease the land to the peasants for a small fee, giving them the opportunity not to depend on the landowners at all. However, the hero sees that the peasants expect more, despite words of gratitude. He is dissatisfied with himself. He cannot say what exactly, but for some reason Nekhlyudov is always ashamed and sad.

Petersburg

Let's look at the summary below. Tolstoy's "Resurrection" continues as follows. After a trip to the village, Nekhlyudov is disgusted by the environment in which he has lived until now, which allows the suffering of millions for the pleasure and convenience of a few people. In St. Petersburg, in addition to the concern for Maslova, there are also concerns about some other political and sectarians who want to be exiled to the Caucasus for incorrectly interpreting the Gospel. One day, after numerous visits, Nekhlyudov wakes up feeling as if he was doing something nasty. He begins to be haunted by thoughts that his current intentions: giving the land to the peasants, marrying Katyusha are unrealistic dreams, unnatural, artificial, and he should live as he has always been. However, the hero realizes that the present life is the only possible one for him, and returning to the old means death. Upon arrival in Moscow, he conveys the decision of the Senate to Maslova and informs about the need to prepare for departure to Siberia. The hero himself follows her. The second book is completed, so ends its summary. Tolstoy's "Resurrection" continues in the third book.

Book 3

The party with which the prisoner is traveling has already traveled about five thousand versts. She goes part of the way with criminals, but Nekhlyudov seeks to move to political ones, who have better accommodation, food and are subjected to less rudeness. This transfer also improves Katyusha’s situation in that men stop pestering her and finally have the opportunity to forget about the past, which she was constantly reminded of.

Two politicians walk next to her: Marya Shchetinina, good woman, as well as Vladimir Simonson, exiled to the Yakut region. The fourth chapter of the third book (Tolstoy, “Sunday”) is devoted to the history of this hero. The current life after the luxurious, depraved and pampered life that Katyusha led in recent years in the city, despite difficult conditions she seems better. With good food, transitions physically strengthen her, and communication with friends opens up new interests in life. She could not even imagine such wonderful people.

Maslova's new love

Vladimir Simonson loves Katyusha, and thanks to her feminine instincts, she soon realizes this. The consciousness that she is capable of arousing love in such an extraordinary person raises the heroine to own opinion, makes her strive to be better. Simonson loves her for who she is, just like that, unlike Nekhlyudov, who proposes marriage out of generosity. When the latter brings news of the pardon he has secured, she decides to stay where Vladimir Ivanovich Simonson will be. Maslova’s solution is described in Chapter 25, Chapter 3 “Sunday”).

Nekhlyudov, feeling the need to be alone and think about everything that happened, arrives at one of the local hotels and walks around the room for a long time. Katyusha no longer needs him, the matter is over, but it is not this that torments him, but all the evil that he has seen lately. Nekhlyudov is aware of it, it torments him, it demands activity. However, he does not see the possibility of not only defeating evil, but even learning how to do it. The last, 28th, chapter 3 of the book (the novel “Sunday”, L.N. Tolstoy) is dedicated to Nekhlyudov’s new life. The hero sits down on the sofa and mechanically takes out the Gospel given by a passing Englishman. Matthew 18 opens. From then on, a completely different life began for Nekhlyudov. How this new period for him will end is unknown, since Leo Tolstoy did not tell us about it.

Conclusion

Having read the work that Tolstoy wrote - “Sunday”, its brief content, we can conclude that it is necessary to fundamentally destroy the bourgeois “cannibalistic” system and liberate the people through revolution. However, the writer does not do it, because he did not understand and did not accept the revolution. Tolstoy preached the idea through violence. He wanted to shame the representatives of the ruling classes, to persuade them to voluntarily give up wealth and power.

Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection", a summary of which was presented in this article, ends with the author encouraging Prince Nekhlyudov to seek salvation in the Gospel. However, the entire content of the novel calls for a different conclusion - the destruction of the vicious system of oppression and violence of the people and its replacement with a fair social system, in which all people will be free and equal, strife, poverty and war will disappear, and the exploitation of one person by another will become impossible.

Matt. Ch. XVIII. Art. 21. Then Peter came to Him and said: Lord! How many times should I forgive my brother who sins against me? up to seven times? 22. Jesus says to him: I do not say to you, until seven, but until seventy times seven.

Matt. Ch. VII. Art. 3. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye?

John. Ch. VIII. Art. 7....he who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

Luke. Ch. VI. Art. 40. A student is never higher than his teacher; but having been perfected, everyone will be like his teacher.

No matter how hard people tried, having gathered several hundred thousand in one small place, to disfigure the land on which they huddled, no matter how hard they stoned the ground so that nothing would grow on it, no matter how they cleared away any growing grass, no matter how much they smoked coal and oil. No matter how they trimmed the trees and drove out all the animals and birds, spring was spring even in the city. The sun warmed, the grass, coming to life, grew and turned green wherever it was not scraped off, not only on the lawns of the boulevards, but also between the slabs of stones, and birches, poplars, bird cherry blossomed their sticky and odorous leaves, lindens inflated their bursting buds; jackdaws, sparrows and pigeons were already happily preparing their nests in spring, and flies were buzzing near the walls, warmed by the sun. The plants, birds, insects, and children were cheerful. But people - big, grown people - did not stop deceiving and torturing themselves and each other. People believed that what was sacred and important was not this spring morning, not this beauty of God’s world, given for the good of all beings - a beauty conducive to peace, harmony and love, but what was sacred and important was what they themselves invented in order to rule over each other friend.

Thus, in the office of the provincial prison, it was considered sacred and important not that all animals and people were given the tenderness and joy of spring, but it was considered sacred and important that the day before a document was received with a number with a stamp and heading that by nine o’clock in the morning On this day, April 28, three prisoners under investigation were delivered to the prison - two women and one man. One of these women, as the most important criminal, had to be brought in separately. And so, on the basis of this order, on April 28, the senior warden entered the dark, smelly corridor of the women’s department at eight o’clock in the morning. Following him, a woman with an exhausted face and curly gray hair, dressed in a jacket with sleeves trimmed with braid and belted with a blue edging, entered the corridor. It was the matron.

- Do you want Maslova? - she asked, approaching with the guard on duty to one of the cell doors that opened into the corridor.

The warden, rattling the iron, unlocked the lock and, opening the cell door, from which air flowed even more stinking than in the corridor, shouted:

- Maslova, go to court! – and closed the door again, waiting.

- Live up, or something, turn around there, Maslova, I say! – the senior guard shouted at the cell door.

About two minutes later, a short and very full-breasted young woman in a gray robe, wearing a white blouse and a white skirt, came out of the door with a cheerful step, quickly turned around and stood next to the warden. The woman had linen stockings on her legs, sharp crampons on her stockings, and her head was tied with a white scarf, from under which ringlets of curly black hair were evidently deliberately released. The woman’s whole face had that special whiteness that happens on the faces of people who have been locked up for a long time, and which resembles potato sprouts in a basement. The same were small, wide arms and a white, full neck, visible from behind the large collar of the robe. What was striking about this face, especially given the matte pallor of the face, was its very black, shiny, somewhat swollen, but very animated eyes, one of which was slightly squinting. She stood very straight, exposing her full breasts. Going out into the corridor, she, throwing her head back a little, looked straight into the eyes of the warden and stopped, ready to do everything that was asked of her. The warden was about to lock the door when the pale, stern, wrinkled face of a plain-haired, gray-haired old woman stuck out. The old woman began to say something to Maslova. But the warden pressed the door on the old woman's head, and the head disappeared. A woman's voice laughed in the cell. Maslova also smiled and turned to the small barred window in the door. The old woman on the other side clung to the window and said in a hoarse voice:

“Most of all, don’t say too much, stay on one thing, and get on with it.”

“Well, sure enough, it can’t get any worse,” Maslova said, shaking her head.

“It is known that there is one thing, not two,” said the senior guard with commanding confidence in his own wit. - Follow me, march!

The story of the prisoner Maslova was a very ordinary story. Maslova was the daughter of an unmarried courtyard woman who lived with her mother, a cowgirl, in the village with two sisters, young ladies of landowners. This unmarried woman gave birth every year, and, as is usually done in villages, the child was baptized, and then the mother did not feed the unwanted child who appeared unwanted and interfered with her work, and he soon died of hunger.