When a reading person in our country thinks about the Russian national character, the first writer that comes to his mind is, of course, Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The second portrait that appears in front of the domestic gaze of a national book reader is the face of Leo Tolstoy. But there is one classic who, in this context, is usually forgotten (or not often mentioned) - Nikolai Semenovich Leskov. Meanwhile, his works are also saturated with the âRussian spiritâ, and they also reveal not only the features of the national national character, but also the specifics of the whole Russian life.
In this sense, Leskovâs story âLeft-handedâ stands apart. In it with extraordinary accuracy and depth reproduced all the flaws of the device of domestic life and all the heroism of the Russian people. People, as a rule, now do not have time to read the collected works of Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, but they must find the time to open the book, on the cover of which is written: N. S. Leskov âLeftyâ.
Plot
The story begins presumably in 1815. Emperor Alexander the First, making a voyage to Europe, also visits England. The British really want to surprise the Emperor, and at the same time boast the skills of their masters and drive him to different rooms for several days and show all kinds of amazing things, but the main thing that they have in store for the finale is filigree work: a steel flea that knows how to dance. Moreover, it is so small that without a microscope it can not be seen. Our tsar was very surprised, but his companion, the Don Cossack, had no Platov at all. He, on the contrary, kept bugging all the time, that ours, they say, can be no worse.
Soon Alexander the First died, and Nicholas the First ascended the throne , who accidentally discovered an outlandish thing and decided to test Platovâs words, equipping him to visit the Tula masters. The Cossack arrived, instructed the gunsmiths, and set off home, promising to return in two weeks.
Masters, among whom was Lefty, retired to the house of the protagonist of the tale and did something there for two weeks, until Platov returned. Local residents heard an uninterrupted knock, and the masters themselves during this time never left the house of the Lefthander. They turned into recluses until the work was done.
Arrives Platov. They take out the same flea in the box. In a fury, he throws the first craftsman who fell into the carriage (he was left-handed) into a carriage and goes to St. Petersburg to the tsar "on the carpet." Of course, Lefty didnât get to the tsar right away; he was first beaten and held for a short time in prison.
A flea appears before the monarch's bright eyes. He looks, looks at her and cannot understand what the Tula people did. Both the sovereign and his courtiers were fighting over a secret, then the tsar father ordered him to invite Lefty, and he said to him that they should take and look not at the whole flea, but only at her feet. No sooner said than done. It turned out that the Tula men were shoeing an English flea.
Here the curiosity was returned to the British, and in words it was conveyed approximately the following: "We can do something, too." Here we pause in the narrative presentation and talk about what the image of Lefty is in N. S. Leskovâs tale.
Left-hander: between a gunsmith and a holy fool
The appearance of the Lefthander testifies to his âmeeknessâ: âan oblique left-hander, a birthmark on the cheek , and hairs were torn off at the temples when learningâ. When Lefty arrived to the tsar, he was also dressed in a very peculiar way: âin vaults, one trouser leg in a boot, the other wobbles, and the little old man is clasped, the hooks are not fastened, confused, and the collar is torn.â He spoke with the king as he was, not observing manners and not fawning, if not on equal terms with the sovereign, then certainly without fear of power.
People who are even a little interested in history recognize this portrait - this is a description of the Old Russian holy fool, he never was afraid of anyone, because Christian Truth and God stood behind him.
Dialog Lefty and English. Continuation of the plot
After a short digression, we again turn to the plot, but at the same time we will not forget the image of the Lefthander in Leskov's tale.
The British were so delighted with the work that they demanded that the master apply to them, without hesitation for a second. The king respected the British, equipped Lefty and sent him to the guide. The protagonistâs voyage to England has two important points: a conversation with the British (Leskovâs story âLeftyâ is perhaps the most entertaining in this part) and the fact that Margaret Thatcherâs ancestors , unlike the Russians, donât clean their guns with bricks.
Why did the British want to keep the Lefty?
The Russian land is full of nuggets, and they do not pay much attention, and in Europe they immediately see "rough diamonds." The English elite, once looking at Lefty, immediately realized that he was a genius, and the gentlemen of our man decided to keep, learn, clean, enrich, but it wasnât there!
The lefthander told them that he didnât want to stay in England, he didnât want to learn algebra, he had enough of his education â the Gospel and the Half-Asleep. He does not need money, women, either.
The lefthander was hardly persuaded to stay a little longer and look at Western technologies for the production of rifles and other things. The latest technologies of that time were of little interest to our craftsman, but he was very attentive to the storage of old rifles. Studying them, Lefty realized: the British do not clean the barrel of their guns with bricks, which makes the guns more reliable in battle.
Despite this discovery, the protagonist of the tale was still very homesick and asked the British to send him home as soon as possible. It was impossible to send by land, because Lefty did not know any languages ââother than Russian. It was also unsafe to sail along the sea in autumn, because it was restless at this time of the year. Nevertheless, they outfitted Lefty, and he sailed on a ship to the Fatherland.
During the trip, he found a drinking companion, and they drank with him all the way, but not out of fun, but out of boredom and fear.
How bureaucracy killed a man
When friends on the ship were put ashore in St. Petersburg, the Englishman was sent to where all foreign citizens should be â to the âmessenger houseâ, and the Lefty was let in sick condition in the bureaucratic circles of hell. They couldnât attach him to any hospital in the city without documents, except the one where they brought him to die. Not only that, various officials said that Levsha should be helped, but the trouble is: no one is responsible for anything and no one can do anything. So the left-hander died in the hospital for the poor, and on his lips he had only one phrase: âTell the king-priest that the guns cannot be cleaned with bricks.â He nevertheless told her to one of the sovereign's servants, but she never reached the Almighty. Guess why?
This is almost all on the topic "N.S. Leskov âLeftyâ, the content is short. â
The image of the Lefthander in the tale of Leskov and the model of the fate of a creative person in Russia
After reading the work of the Russian classic, the conclusion involuntarily suggests itself: there is simply no hope for a creative, ingenious person in Russia. Either the non-Christ bureaucrats torture him, or he will destroy himself from within, and not because he has some unresolved psychological problems, but because the Russian person is not able to just live, his share is to die, burning in life, like a meteorite in the atmosphere of the earth. Here is such an image of Lefthander in Leskovâs tale that is contradictory: on the one hand, a genius and a craftsman, and on the other hand, a person with a serious destructive element inside, capable of self-liquidation in conditions when you least expect it.