A brief summary of the "Caucasian Captive" Makanin will allow you to carefully get acquainted with the features of this work, without even reading it. This story, written in 1994, is dedicated to the relationship between a young Chechen fighter and a Russian soldier. To date, it has been reprinted several times, has been translated into several European languages and even filmed. The writer received a state prize in the field of art and literature for him in 1999.
History of creation
Summary of "Caucasian Captive" Makanin will help prepare for the exam or seminar on this work. It is also worth knowing that the story was created in the summer and autumn of 1994, when the Chechen war had not yet begun. So we can say that the author foresaw the impending tragedy.
Makanin himself recalled that he had finished work on December 1, exactly one month before the start of the First Chechen War. In 1995, it was published in the fourth issue of New World magazine. After repeatedly published in numerous collections of the writer, as well as anthologies of modern authors.
Makanin returned to the Chechen topic in the late 2000s, writing the novel Asan. For him, he received the Big Book Award in 2008.
Plot
We will begin by telling the summary of the Caucasian Prisoner Makanin by the fact that the work takes place on the territory of Chechnya on the eve of the war.
Militants block the road to a column of Russian soldiers. An experienced warrior Rubakhin is instructed to find some way out, he takes Vovka-shooter to help. They do not find understanding with Lieutenant Colonel Gurov, since he is busy negotiating with a captive Chechen about exchanging weapons for food for soldiers.
Even in the summary of the "Caucasian captive" Makanin, it is important to note that the Chechen refuses to consider himself captive. Laughing, he declares to Gurov that he is his captive, all his soldiers captured.
After that, Rubakhin takes part in an ambush on militants. Russian soldiers organize everything so that they run along a specially organized corridor for this in the forest. At this point, some of them are being arrested. Rubakhin himself captures a handsome and young Chechen youth. With Vovka the shooter, they lead him into the mountains to exchange for the possibility of passage for a convoy.
Denouement
On the road, the main character begins to feel an unexpected attraction to this young man. He is literally fascinated by his beauty. They stay overnight in the forest, and in the morning, having fallen into the gorge, they hear that there are two detachments of militants on both sides. The culmination of the plot of "Prisoner of the Caucasus" Vladimir Makanin. In order to prevent himself from being discovered, Rubakhin strangles the youth, fearing that he will scream.
At the end of the story, they come back with nothing. They failed to agree on the passage of the convoy of trucks.
Artistic features
The name and content of "Caucasian Captive" Makanin refers us to the works of Russian classics. Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Leo Tolstoy, Sasha Cherny have works with a similar name. Only all of them have the name "Prisoner of the Caucasus".
It is also worth noting that one of the main leitmotifs for this work was Dostoevsky’s words that beauty will save the world. Makanin himself gives a reference to this, mentioning this phrase already in the first sentence of the story. However, in the finale, beauty “does not save,” failing to save the young man from death, and Rubakhin from committing murder.
Reviews
In reviews of Makanin’s “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, critics and readers noted that the author reinterprets Caucasian motifs, well-known for their great Russian classics, in a modern way. In his work, he demonstrates the sound quality of work with the word. At the same time he manages to recall that it will not be easy to unleash the "Caucasian Knot"; this war has been well known to Russians since the 19th century.
It is important that the war in this story is only a trigger for the plot. The narrative is more existential, and the confrontation between friends and foes becomes the main counterpoint. Makanin demonstrates the aggression spilled in the world, she constantly escapes outward with murders and wars. But the story is not only about this. An important place in it is occupied by beauty, capable of truly saving the world. Moreover, it is with these words that the writer begins his story about violence, killings and aggression.
In reviews of Vladimir Makanin’s short story “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, critics noted the symbolic monumentality of this work. The author managed to embody the archeological conflict of the present. This is the mental torment of a person who is doomed to destroy what he loves the most. The motive for the murder turns into a profound parable, an amazingly tense battle story. The cause of the war is not hatred, but undivided, passionate and perverted love.
Analysis of the work
The story "Caucasian Prisoner" V. Makanin was greatly praised in the West. The author refutes the Caucasian myth, depriving him of a romantic halo. His heroes got used to military everyday life, embittered and hardened. They take death for granted, calmly treat corpses, burying them in the ground. Makanin mentions this indifference several times. At the same time, he describes death as terribly and scary as possible so that the reader cannot perceive death indifferently. For soldiers, war turns into work, while the author sets himself the task of preventing this from happening in civilian life.
The temporal and spatial organization of the work is very unusual. There is an unsteady line between the present time and its purpose. In this case, individual time periods are knocked out of the general flow, gaining in the story its own meaning. At the same time, the space itself is divided into separate segments, which, in the end, are repeated and intertwined. There is a persistent feeling that the heroes fell into an intricate maze, there is simply no way out of it. They forever became his captives.
Through the whole work of Makanin Dostoevsky’s statement about beauty passes. But here it takes on a different meaning. The harsh and alien beauty of the Caucasus mountains becomes hostile and alien to the Russian people. Mountains pose a mortal danger to Russian soldiers. At first, the beauty of a Chechen youth awakens new and strong feelings in Rubakhin. There is a feeling that they can play an important role in the life of a Russian soldier, change him, but this beauty does not save anyone. As soon as he has a sense of danger that comes from the prisoner, the main character brutally dealt with him.
Makanin concludes that where there is bitterness and chaos, beauty simply does not have a place. It gains destructive power, its beauty does not save, as in Dostoevsky, but kills.
Innovation and uniqueness
Makanin mercilessly exposes the romantic Caucasian myth, which was created by Russian classics - Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy. The modern author opens his eyes to the true Caucasus, which no longer captivates anyone.
He completely refutes Dostoevsky’s classic phrase, proving that there can be nothing romantic and beautiful in war. Only mutilated corpses, blood and mutilated fates of those who survived are everywhere.
Film adaptation
In 2008, the book "Caucasian Prisoner" by Vladimir Makanin was filmed by director Alexei Uchitel. The filmmaker admitted that he was impressed and hurt by this work. He personally met the author, marveled that a middle-aged man was reasoning very modern and relevant. He clearly assessed the current situation of Russian cinema, moreover, he had a script education. Therefore, Master agreed that he would rework his story for the film.
The picture came out under the name "Prisoner". The main roles were played by Vyacheslav Krikunov, Peter Logachev and Irakli Mskhalaia.
The picture participated in the Kinotavr festival, but did not win any awards. At the competition in Karlovy Vary, the tape won the award for best directing.