An outstanding Russian writer Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin dreamed of becoming an officer from childhood. The noble dream of becoming a defender of the Fatherland brought him to the Second Moscow Cadet Corps in 1880, and then to the Alexander Military School in 1887. In 1890, Lieutenant Kuprin took up service in the 46th Dnieper Regiment. And in 1894, with the rank of lieutenant, he resigned and resigned. Obviously, the reason for the dismissal should be sought in bitter disappointment, in the discrepancy between the realities of military garrisons and the ambitious expectations of officers.
Knowing firsthand the ins and outs of the army, thoroughly and truthfully recreates in her work her deep analysis of Kuprin. "Duel" was published in 1905.
The deep crisis of the tsarist army
The tsarist army of the late XIX - early XX centuries was portrayed by court writers embellished. Kuprin, on the other hand, had the courage to show her very wrong side, groomed, indifference of those in power to her problems. On the one hand, the army was disenfranchised soldiers subject to corporal punishment. The commander at the same time possessed sufficient power to bung the soldier to death with rods or to rot on a guardhouse. The officers received a small salary and engaged in a stupid drill of the troops. Kuprin devotes his analysis to the vast picture of the neglect of a huge military economy. The “duel” clearly shows that this flaw was not brought in from the outside, it was laid down initially, organizationally. The regiment commander Shulgovich, in order to manage, himself has to comply with such a deformed army. He, in principle, is a caring commander, but in order to be adequate to the system, he is forced to raise his voice on his subordinates, and at times simply pretend to be an idiot. Drunkenness and rampant cruelty are rampant among officers. The life of military garrisons is isolated from the life of the rest of civil society. The destiny of officer wives is garrison gossip and mouse fuss around the household. Such a hopeless picture is presented to us by the deep social analysis presented in the story. Kuprin "Duel" wrote his own, like an artist, from nature. The city of Proskurov, where the 46th Dnieper Infantry Regiment stood, is shown in detail in it, many of Kuprin’s colleagues were transformed into heroes of the story.
Storyline
“How do the potentially best officers feel in the army?” - Kuprin begins his topical analysis. The “Duel” introduces us to the main character, Lieutenant Georgy Alekseevich Romashov. This is a young officer who does not accept the corrupting garrison spirit that cripples people and kills the best and most sublime in them. Lieutenant Vasily Nilovich Nazansky, who became a drunkard, and Archakovsky, who turned from an officer into a dishonest card cheater, are also disgusting to him. True, Georgy Alekseevich also has a weakness: he twisted an affair with married lady Raisa Alexandrovna Peterson, a lover of adultery. But this is the time to end, as Romashov himself believes. He thinks about what is wrong in the surrounding life, in the idiotic drill? At the same time, he came to the conclusion that a decent occupation for a person is free physical labor, science and art. According to the second lieutenant, the officers are full and unspoken members of society. Even if an unjust war is unleashed, the soldiers and officers of the opposing sides have the right to say: “I do not want to!” - and go home. What is easier, the war will immediately end. It is characteristic that even in the army years he came to these conclusions, having made a similar analysis, Kuprin. “Duel” is a creative space where a classic puts the protagonist into a thoroughly familiar prototype - himself. Romashov has the traits that the classic man most appreciated: "noble silence" and "reckless nobility."
The second lieutenant is a frequent guest with the Nikolaevs, a young family whose head Vladimir Efimovich, with the rank of captain, failed for the second time to enter the General Staff Academy. His wife, Alexandra Petrovna (Shurochka), even more than her husband, sought to break out of the garrison. Shurochka is an educated lady. She has already mastered the sciences better than her husband, in which exams will be passed. Second Lieutenant Romashov likes her. The vengeful Raisa Peterson decides to ruin Georgy Alekseevich's personal life and career by sending anonymous letters to Captain Nikolaev and all garrison officials about the relationship of the second lieutenant and Shurochka.
The service in the garrison is not only nervous and dull, but also frankly cruel. Soldiers who are in the position of disenfranchised slaves, sometimes can not stand bullying. Romashov literally pulls the soldier Khlebnikov, exhausted by mockery, from the rails, who decided to commit suicide.
After a soldier hanged himself in the company of Captain Osadchy, the officers of the regiment washed down. Between mournful speeches interspersed with mats, Captain Nikolaev quarreled with Lieutenant Romashov. Just on the eve of the officers, by decree from above, a duel was allowed as a way to radically eliminate interpersonal contradictions. The captain initiated this action.
The tragic ending was largely determined by the baseness of Shurochka. On the eve of the duel, she secretly met with Romashov, misinformed that the duel would be formal, Vladimir Yefimych would shoot into the air and urged the second lieutenant to do the same. In response to Romashov’s safe shot, Captain Nikolaev, enraged by the anonymous names, mortally wounded him in the stomach.
Why did Kuprin choose “The Duel” for his favorite story? The analysis shows the reason: the worldview conflict of the personality of an educated person and the suffocating atmosphere of a provincial garrison.
conclusions
It is significant that it was after the creation of this work in Russia that the “new” classic “Alexander” Kuprin was “born”. The story “The Duel” was highly appreciated among the officers. The best representatives of this part of Russian society (for example, Lieutenant Schmidt) personally expressed their deep recognition to Kuprin for the deep truthfulness of the story. Maxim Gorky considered the “Duel” the most significant work on the life of the army.
Even as a recognized pen master, Kuprin by his perception of the world remained a noble defender of the Fatherland. His relations with the new Bolshevik power were not smooth. The individual perception of officer honor was not linked to official propaganda. In 1919, with the rank of second lieutenant, a fifty-year-old writer participated in Yudenich’s attack on Petersburg. After the defeat of the Northwest Army, he emigrated to Paris. And only a year before his death, in 1937, at the invitation of the Soviet government, the classic arrived in the USSR to die in his native land. Until the end of his life, as the most expensive relic, he cherished officer shoulder straps.