The creations of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin can be safely put on a par with the works of the largest masters of Russian psychological prose - Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov. Alas, the writer was not allowed to live a long life, the biography of V. M. Garshin breaks off at the number 33. The writer was born in February 1855, and died in March 1888. His death turned out to be just as fatal and tragic as the whole attitude, expressed in short and piercing stories. Acutely sensing the inevitability of evil in the world, the writer created works that were amazing in depth of psychological drawing, experienced them with his heart and mind, and could not defend himself from the monstrous disharmony that prevails in the social and moral life of people. Heredity, a special temperament, a drama experienced in childhood, a keen sense of personal guilt and responsibility for injustice, which actually happened, all led to madness, the point at which, rushing into the flight of stairs, was set by V. M. Garshin himself.
Short biography of the writer. Children's impressions
He was born in Ukraine, in the Yekaterinoslav province, in the estate with the nice name Pleasant Valley. The father of the future writer was an officer, a participant in the Crimean War. Mom was distinguished by progressive views, was fluent in several languages, read a lot and, undoubtedly, managed to instill in her son the nihilistic moods characteristic of the sixties of the 19th century. The woman boldly broke with her family, passionately carried away by the revolutionary Zavadsky, who lived in the family as an educator of older children. Of course, this event was “stabbed” through the small heart of the five-year-old Vsevolod. Partly because of this, the biography of V. M. Garshin is not devoid of gloomy colors. The mother, who was in conflict with her father for the right to raise her son, took him to St. Petersburg and assigned him to the gymnasium. Ten years later, Garshin entered the Mining Institute, but did not receive a diploma, because his studies were interrupted by the Russian-Turkish war of 1877.
War experience
The student on the very first day signed up as a volunteer and in one of the first battles fearlessly rushed to the attack, receiving a minor wound in the leg. Garshin received the rank of officer, but did not return to the battlefield. The impressive young man was shocked by the pictures of the war, he could not accept the fact that people blindly and ruthlessly exterminate each other. He did not return to the institute, where he began to study mining: the young man was imperiously attracted to literature. For some time he attended a lecturer at the philological faculty of St. Petersburg University, and then began to write short stories. Anti-war sentiments and the shock experienced resulted in works that instantly made the beginning writer famous and desired in many editions of that time.
Suicide
The mental illness of the writer developed parallel to his work and social activities. He was treated in a psychiatric clinic. But shortly afterwards (the biography of V. M. Garshin mentions this bright event), his life was illuminated with love. The writer regarded marriage with a novice physician Nadezhda Zolotilova as the best years of his life. By 1887, the writer’s illness was compounded by the fact that he was forced to leave the service. In March 1888, Garshin was going to the Caucasus. Things were already packed and a time set. After a night of tormenting insomnia, Vsevolod Mikhailovich suddenly stepped out onto the landing, went down one flight below and rushed down from a height of four floors. The literary images of suicide, which burned the soul in his short stories, embodied scary and irreparable. The writer was taken to hospital with serious injuries, and six days later he died. The report of V. M. Garshin, of his tragic death, caused great public unrest.
People to say goodbye to the writer on the Literary Bridges of the Volkovsky Cemetery in St. Petersburg (now a museum-necropolis) gathered people of all walks of life and social classes. The poet Pleshcheyev wrote a lyrical obituary in which he expressed a sharp pain that Garshin - a man of a big pure soul - is no longer among the living. The literary heritage of the prose writer still worries the souls of readers and is the subject of research by philologists.
Creativity V. M. Garshin. Anti-Militaristic Theme
The liveliest interest in the inner world of a man surrounded by unmerciful reality is a central theme in the writings of Garshin. This charm of sincerity and empathy in the prose of the author undoubtedly feeds from the source of the great Russian literature, which since the time of the book “The Life of Protopope Habakkuk” has shown a deep interest in the “dialectic of the soul”.
Garshin the narrator first appeared before the reading public with the work "Four Days." So many soldiers lay with broken legs on the battlefield until they were found by fellow soldiers. The story is conducted in the first person and resembles a stream of consciousness of a person exhausted by pain, hunger, fear and loneliness. He hears groans, but realizes with horror that he is moaning. Near it, the corpse of the enemy killed by him decomposes. Looking at this picture, the hero is terrified of the face on which the skin has burst, the skull of his skull is terribly exposed, - the face of war! Other anti-terror pathos breathe similar stories: “Coward”, “Batman and Officer”, “From the Memoirs of Private Ivanov”.
Longing for harmony
With the utmost frankness, the heroine of the story “Occurrence” appears before the reader, earning a living with her body. The narrative is built in the same manner of confession, the ruthless introspection characteristic of Garshin. A woman who has met her “support”, a man who unwittingly put her on the path of choice between a “cheeky, fanned cocotte” and “a legitimate wife and ... a noble parent”, is trying to change her fate. This understanding of the topic of the harlot in Russian literature of the 19th century is, perhaps, the first time. In the story “Artists”, Garshin with new force embodied the idea of ​​Gogol, who firmly believed that the emotional shock produced by art could change people for the better. In the novel “Meeting”, the author shows how cynical the belief that all means are good to achieve well-being takes possession of the minds of seemingly the best representatives of the generation.
Happiness - in a sacrificial act
The story "Red Flower" is a special event that marks the creative biography of V. M. Garshin. He tells the story of a madman who is sure that the “bloody” flower in the hospital garden contains all the untruth and cruelty of the world, and the hero’s mission is to destroy it. Having committed an act, the hero dies, and his dead, brightened face expresses “proud pride”. According to the writer, a person is not able to defeat world evil, but it is a great honor to those people who cannot put up with it and are ready to overcome it and sacrifice their lives.
All the writings of Vsevolod Garshin - essays and short stories - came up with just that, but the shock that his prose caused in the hearts of thoughtful readers is incredibly great.