An analysis of Bulgakov’s “White Guard” allows a detailed study of his first novel in a creative biography. It describes the events that took place in 1918 in Ukraine during the Civil War. It tells about a family of intellectuals who are trying to survive in the face of serious social cataclysms in the country.
Writing history
Bulgakov’s analysis of the White Guard should begin with the history of the writing of the work. The author began working on it in 1923. It is known that there were several variations of the name. Bulgakov also chose between the White Cross and the Midnight Cross. He himself admitted that he loved the novel more than his other things, and promised that he would "feel the sky".
His acquaintances recalled that he wrote The White Guard at night, when his feet and hands were cold, and asked that people around him warm the water in which he warmed them.
At the same time, the beginning of work on the novel coincided with one of the most difficult periods in his life. At that time, he frankly was in poverty, there was not even enough money for food, his clothes were scattered. Bulgakov looked for one-time orders, wrote feuilleton, performed the duties of a corrector, while trying to find time for his novel.
In August 1923, he announced that he had finished a draft. In February 1924, one can find references to the fact that Bulgakov began to read excerpts from the work to his friends and acquaintances.
Publication of a work
In April 1924, Bulgakov entered into an agreement on the publication of a novel with the journal Russia. The first chapters were published about a year after that. However, only the initial 13 chapters came out, after which the magazine was closed. In a separate book, the novel first appeared in Paris in 1927.
In Russia, the entire text was published only in 1966. The manuscript of the novel has not been preserved, so it is still unknown what the canonical text was.
Nowadays, this is one of the most famous works of Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov, which was repeatedly screened, put on the stage of drama theaters. It is considered one of the most significant and beloved by many generations of work in the career of this famous writer.
Summary
The action takes place at the turn of 1918-1919. Their place is the unnamed City, in which Kiev is guessed. To analyze the novel The White Guard, it is important where the main action unfolds. German occupation troops are in the city, but everyone is waiting for the Petlyura’s army to appear, the fighting continues only a few kilometers from the city itself.
An unnatural and very strange life surrounds the residents' streets. There are many visitors from St. Petersburg and Moscow, among them are journalists, businessmen, poets, lawyers, bankers who rushed to the City after the election of a hetman in it in the spring of 1918.
At the center of the story is the Turbins family. The head of the family is doctor Aleksey, his younger brother Nikolka, who has the rank of non-commissioned officer, their own sister Elena, as well as friends of the whole family, warrant officers Myshlaevsky and Shervinsky, second lieutenant Stepanov, whose name is Karasem, have dinner with him. Everyone is discussing the fate and future of their beloved City.
Alexei Turbin believes that the hetman is to blame for everything, who began pursuing a policy of Ukrainization, not allowing the Russian army to be formed until the last formation. And if the army had been formed, then it would have been able to defend the City, now Petliura’s troops would not have stood under its walls.
Here is Elena’s husband, Sergey Talberg, an officer of the General Staff, who announces to his wife that the Germans plan to leave the city, so they need to leave today by headquarters train. Talberg assures that in the coming months will return back with the army of Denikin. Just at that time she was going to the Don.
Russian military units
To protect the city from Petliura, Russian military formations are formed in the City. Turbine Sr., Myshlaevsky and Karas act under the command of Colonel Malyshev. But the formed division is dissolved the very next night, when it becomes known that the hetman escaped from the City on a German train with General Belorukov. The division has no one else to defend, since there is no legal power left.
At the same time, Colonel Nai-Turs was instructed to form a separate detachment. He threatens with weapons the head of the supply department, since he considers it impossible to fight without winter equipment. As a result, his cadets receive the necessary hats and boots.
On December 14, Petlyura attacks the City. The colonel receives direct instructions to defend the Polytechnic Highway and, if necessary, to accept the battle. In the midst of another battle, he sends a small detachment to find out where the hetman units are. The messengers return with the news that there are no units, in the district they fire from machine guns, and the enemy's cavalry is already in the City.
Death of Nai Tours
Shortly before this, Corporal Nikolai Turbin was ordered to lead the team along a specific route. Arriving at the destination, the younger Turbin watches the running junkers and hears the Nai-Tours command to get rid of epaulettes and weapons, and immediately hide.
At the same time, the colonel covers the retreating junkers to the last. He is dying in front of Nikolai. Shocked by the turbines in the alleys, he gets home.
In an abandoned building
Meanwhile, Alexei Turbin, who was not aware of the dissolution of the division, appears at the appointed place and time, where he discovers a building in which a large number of abandoned weapons. Only Malyshev explains to him what is happening around, the City is in the hands of Petlyura.
Alexei gets rid of epaulettes and makes his way home, meets a detachment of the enemy. The soldiers recognize him as an officer, because he has a cockade on his hat and they begin to pursue him. Alex wounded in the arm, he is saved by an unknown woman, whose name is Julia Reis.
In the morning, a girl in a cab takes Turbine home.
Relative from Zhytomyr
At that time, Talberg's cousin Larion came to visit the Turbins from Zhytomyr, who had recently experienced a personal tragedy: his wife left him. Lariosik, as everyone begins to call him, is liked by the Turbins, and the family finds him very pretty.
The owner of the building in which the Turbines live is called Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich. Before Petliura enters the city, Vasilisa, as everyone calls him, builds a cache in which he hides jewelry and money. But a stranger peered out the window for his actions. Soon, unknown persons with a search warrant were announced to him . They immediately find a hiding place, and take with them other valuable things of home enforcement.
Only when uninvited guests leave, Vasilisa realizes that in reality they were ordinary bandits. He runs for help to the Turbins, so that they save him from a possible new attack. Karas, to whom Vasilisa’s wife Vanda Mikhailovna, who was always distinguished by her avarice, immediately goes to the rescue, immediately puts the veal and cognac on the table. Crucian is full of food and remains to protect the safety of the family.
Nikolka at the relatives of Nai-Tours
Three days later, Nikolka manages to get the address of the family of Colonel Nai-Tours. He goes to his mother and sister. Young Turbin talks about the last minutes of an officer’s life. Together with his sister, Irina goes to the morgue, they find the body and arrange a funeral service.
At this time, Alexei’s condition worsens. His wound becomes inflamed and typhus begins. The turbine is raving, he has a high fever. A consultation of doctors decides that the patient will die soon. At first, everything develops according to the worst-case scenario, the patient begins agony. Elena prays, locking herself in her bedroom to save her brother from death. Soon the doctor, who is on duty at the patient’s bed, amazedly reports that Alexey is conscious and recovering, the crisis has passed.
A few weeks later, having fully recovered, Alexei goes to Julia, who saved him from certain death. He hands her a bracelet that once belonged to his dead mother, and then asks for permission to visit her. On the way back he meets Nikolka, who returns from Irina Nai-Tours.
Elena Turbina receives a letter from her Warsaw friend who talks about Talberg's upcoming marriage to their mutual friend. The novel ends with Elena recalling her prayer, which she has addressed more than once. On the night of February 3, Petliura troops leave the City. In the distance, the artillery of the Red Army rumbles. She goes to the city.
The artistic features of the novel
When analyzing Bulgakov’s “White Guard”, it should be noted that the novel is certainly autobiographical. For almost all characters, you can find prototypes in real life. These are friends, relatives or acquaintances of Bulgakov and his family, as well as iconic military and political figures of that time. Bulgakov even selected surnames for heroes, only slightly changing the surnames of real people.
The analysis of the novel "The White Guard" was carried out by many researchers of Bulgakov's work. They managed to trace the fate of the characters with almost documentary certainty. In the analysis of Bulgakov’s novel "The White Guard", many emphasize that the events of the work unfold in the scenery of real Kiev, which was well known to the author.
Symbolism of the White Guard
Conducting even a brief analysis of the White Guard, it should be noted that the key characters in the works are symbols. For example, in the City, the writer's small homeland is guessed, and the house coincides with the real house in which the Bulgakov family lived until 1918.
To analyze the White Guard, it is important to understand even seemingly insignificant characters. The lamp symbolizes the closed world and cosiness that reigns among the Turbins, snow is a vivid image of the Civil War and Revolution. Another symbol important for the analysis of Bulgakov’s work “The White Guard” is a cross on a monument dedicated to St. Vladimir. It symbolizes the sword of war and civil terror. An analysis of the images of the White Guard helps to better understand what the author wanted to say with this work.
Allusions in the novel
To analyze Bulgakov’s White Guard, it is important to study the allusions with which he is filled. Here are just a few examples. So, Nikolka, who comes to the morgue, personifies a journey into the afterlife. The horror and inevitability of the upcoming events approaching the city of the Apocalypse can be traced by the appearance in the city of Shpolyansky, which is considered the "forerunner of Satan", the reader should have a clear impression that the kingdom of Antichrist will soon come.
To analyze the heroes of the White Guard, it’s very important to understand these tips.
Dream Turbine
One of the central places in the novel is occupied by Turbine's dream. The analysis of the White Guard is often based precisely on this episode of the novel. In the first part of the work, his dreams are a kind of prophecy. In the first, he sees a nightmare that claims that Holy Russia is a poor country, and an honor is an extra burden for a Russian.
In a dream, he is trying to shoot a nightmare that torments him, but he disappears. Researchers believe that the subconscious convinces Turbine to flee the city, go into exile, but in reality he does not even allow the thought of an escape.
The next dream Turbine is already with a tragicomic tinge. He is an even more pronounced prophecy of future events. Alexei is dreaming of Colonel Nai-Tours and Wahmister Zhilin, who went to heaven. In a humorous manner, it is described how Zhilin reached paradise on carts, and the apostle Peter missed them.
Of key importance are the dreams of Turbine in the finale of the novel. Alexei sees how Alexander I destroys the list of divisions, as if erasing from the memory of white officers, most of whom were dead by that time.
After Turbin sees his own death on Little Failure. It is believed that this episode is associated with the resurrection of Alexei, which occurred after the illness. Bulgakov often put great importance in the dreams of his heroes.
We conducted an analysis of the "White Guard" Bulgakov. A summary is also presented in the review. An article can help students learn this work or write an essay.