Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (1797-1837), who took the pseudonym Marlinsky, was undoubtedly a talented and archipopular writer at the time, and later unjustly forgotten. V. Belinsky, who didn’t even love him, called Marlinsky the first Russian narrator and the “instigator” of the domestic story.
Completely unfairly forgotten
It is clear why this writer was not studied in Soviet schools: Belinsky did not like him, who accused the writer of pseudo-romanticism. The work in question is quite voluminous, it contains a lot of copyright digressions. Therefore, we offer you a brief summary. “The Sailor Nikitin” is a story dedicated to ordinary sailors of the Russian North, a vivid testimony to the fact that the writer was not at all alien to realism.
In the best works relating to the mature period of creativity, A. A. Bestuzhev reaches true heights, although he calls himself a beggar, comparing himself with his idol Victor Hugo. The author of the story “The Sailor Nikitin”, the summary of which can be expressed in one phrase - a story about the Russian character, was not at all happy about its amazing popularity. This only testifies in his favor.
Happy self sufficient person
Contemporaries attributed A. A. Bestuzhev to a small number of lucky people who lived in harmony with themselves and the world. He was engaged in his favorite business (which he brilliantly succeeded in), but did not imagine himself to be a man whom the goddess kissed on the spot. Such was the brilliant, well-educated, witty and ironic, desperate optimist Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. The Sailor Nikitin is a story that was first published in the Library for Reading in 1834. The audience enthusiastically accepted it, because it was looking forward to every new work by this author. The novels were not only read to the holes, quotes from them were memorized. And this is absolutely understandable, because, having read this sketch in our time from the life of sailors-merchants of the Russian North, you discover a witty author whose phrases you want to write out right away. He literally a couple of words gives an idea of a hero.
Wonderfully described characters of the story
How good is the captive captain of an English ship, which, going down to the shore of the Arkhangelsk port and going to jail, sings "Rule, Britain, by the seas." Very well described the neighbor of the hero Katerina Petrovna writer Marlinsky. The seafarer Nikitin loved her, and for him she was "charming, like all Katerina together, and pretty, like none of Katerina." Literally in every phrase there is a subtle remark about clothes, mores, the state of the Russian merchant fleet - about everything. And all this is described with love for everything domestic (right at the beginning of the story, the writer openly emphasizes his dislike for everything foreign) and with good irony, and not with poisonous sarcasm.
A good story with a happy ending
It is possible to regret that nowadays, to a full-fledged reading, they increasingly prefer a brief summary. At the same time, the “Sailor Nikitin” loses a lot: the beauty of the work, subtle observations and the wonderful irony of the author disappear. The author himself disappears.
Nevertheless, the summary of the story is as follows. A young, daring, ruddy merchant-seaman fell in love with the “fair-haired” beautiful neighbor, whose father agreed to the wedding only after another successful trip of Savely Nikitin to Solovki - to earn a pretty penny. The groom immediately sets off, but is captured with his comrades by the British, who made a hole in the bottom of the longboat Savely, having previously taken the goods, and left the sailors on the open-air deck. Marlinsky amazingly describes the nature of the North. The night sky above the deck with the prisoners is poetic and unique: opal with barely visible stars, of course, our brief summary will not be able to describe it.
“Sailor Nikitin” ends with four ordinary Russian men capturing an English ship with an overwhelming number (12 people with a captain and a battle boy) of well-trained sailors who were going to capture the Solovetsky fortress. The vessel was deployed to its native shores and brought to the port of Arkhangelsk, where the whole city had already met them with joyful cries. It all ended in a wedding.
Wealth Outside the Summary
This is a summary. “The Sailor Nikitin”, as noted above, is a story. She is full of amazing sketches, which is only a description of the sailor Ivan! You can get acquainted with it and briefly, but it would be better to read in full. After all, the summary does not include the
colloquial speech of Russian sailors, sprinkled with sayings and sayings, nor the description of the historical events that led to the war between England and Russia as a result of Napoleon's policy (the story describes the events of 1811). Funny situations on the ship remain aside, when the captured British had bread and corned beef, and the Russians had a barrel of
fresh water.There is a lot of this, which is why it is simply necessary to read the story: besides joy, it will not bring any other feelings. Moreover, it sounds very modern now. It shows the eternal neglect and underestimation of the Russian "bearded" by the "civilized" Europe. A. A. Bestuzhev tells that our compatriots on fragile little ships covered unthinkable sea distances and did not boast of their exploits, and indeed they were not considered as such. Foreigners, as Marlinsky writes, will sing their every step in poems and poems. This wonderful writer is a true patriot, not angry at his homeland, who had sent him to prison and exile, then to the Caucasus, where he died in a clash with the highlanders. Maybe all his work does not reach the work of N.V. Gogol, but still he is completely unjustly forgotten.