The books of Vladimir Soloukhin have always been a classic example of Russian prose. Written in living language, devoted to relevant topics, they attracted the attention of contemporaries. All this applies to the work called "Black Boards."
Soloukhin tells a lot of interesting things to his readers. "Blackboards" (a brief summary of this work we will consider in this article) are one of the most important works of the writer.
In his story, the author draws attention to the fact that in the Soviet era, as a result of the ideological struggle, priceless monuments of ancient Russian art, icons of ancient writing, were of great importance, were destroyed or oblivious.
What does Blackboard tell about? Chapter Summary
In this short prose, the author talks about the fact that once in his life came a passion for collecting. However, this was not a simple collection of stamps or coins; he collected the works of masters of ancient Russia in order to convey to the new generation the traditional folk outlook and the beauty of religious products.
The work was published in 1969. It consists of 15 parts, an afterword of the author and notes.
The content of the first part of the work
Vladimir Soloukhin reveals many interesting things to readers. "Black Boards" (a brief summary of the first part will be discussed below) is a story about how one person tries to preserve the unique heritage of Ancient Russia.
The story is preceded by a kind of lyrical introduction. The author recalls stories of collectors and collectors - strange, in general, people who lived and live in our world.
Everyone knows stamp collectors or philatelists, but their occupation seems boring to the author, because a stamp is just a piece of paper, often of no artistic value. Often people play with brands a certain game, paying fabulous money for rare ones.
We examined the first part of Blackboards (short summary). Soloukhin in this introductory part calls himself a collector, a man whose soul is permeated with love for the beautiful. Therefore, he is looking for his treasure in old and often useless things. Let it be an old postcard or a manuscript book, etc. The writer himself admits that in childhood, his passion was the gathering of eggs of wild birds. Now Soloukhin is interested in Russian icons of the ancient style of writing.
The author of his unusual gathering
In the second part, the author says that in his childhood there were often massive burning of icons as alien ideological artifacts. Pioneers who secretly burned home icons from their parents were even praised at school as heroes. However, according to the writer, the icons are not only an image of religious worship, but also a work of ancient Russian art, which simply needs to be treated very carefully. The author tells in detail about the work of two of his friends, restorers, who returned to their black boards, which survived during the destruction of the icons, their original appearance. And what kind of beauty it was when the black layer of soot and dirt was removed from the icons and the faces of the 16th or even 15th century looked at the restorers!
The contents of the work in the 4th and 5th chapters
Vladimir Soloukhin hurries to share many stories with readers. “Blackboards” (a brief summary of the chapters is brought to your attention in this article) is a holistic work on how the writer began to collect his first icons - the very blackened boards from time from his fellow villagers. In the third chapter, he describes in detail all five of the first icons of his future collection.
In the fourth chapter, the writer talks about how he began to look for icons in the ancient village of Snegirev, which once belonged to the princes Saltykov. To do this, he visited the old village church. Father John served in this church - a respected and strong-willed man. Even in the 30s of the last century, he did not abandon the priesthood, although he was forced to do this, but along with the icons he kept a portrait of Stalin on the wall, sincerely honoring this earthly leader along with God revered by him. By the time Soloukhin began to collect the icons, the priest had long been buried, but his granddaughter continued to live in the village, from whom the author intended to ask for the old icons. In addition to the icons, the priest’s granddaughter managed to take for a while two reference books that were devoted to describing the temples of the central provinces of the Russian Empire.
Organization of a rescue expedition: a review of the 5th and 6th chapters
The stories understandable to readers are told by Soloukhin. "Black Boards" (a summary of the next part called "Stavrovo" is considered by us below) is a hymn to old Russian life.
After a short introduction, the author in the fifth chapter tells of a village located under the city of Vladimir. In Greek, "stavros" is a cross, hence the name of this place. This village is unusual in that since the 17th century it belonged either to royal persons or to a church, so two large and beautiful churches with everything necessary for church services were built here. However, much has changed since then: during the Soviet era, both churches began to be used for agricultural purposes, as a result of such use one of the churches was destroyed, and the other turned into a miserable sight.
In the fifth chapter, Soloukhin tells how he, together with his artist friend, decided to organize expeditions to different villages in order to save ancient icons. He himself called these expeditions rescue.
In the sixth chapter, the author continues his story. He says that a rescue expedition led him to the village where the monastery stood for many years. In the village, they went with a friend to the chairman of the collective farm and announced to him that they were collecting everything old. They began to bring a lot of things, including black boards of icons.
Overview of the 7th, 8th and 9th chapters
Many Russian icons of ancient writing were collected by Soloukhin. “Black Boards” (a brief summary of the 7th, 8th and 9th chapters of the work is presented below) is a book about how everyone can fulfill their dream. The writer's dream was gathering.
In confirmation of this, the story follows in the work that the author became more and more attached to his hobby. He already at night thought about ancient icons and made plans for their salvation. However, not everything was simple. Often, mantid people were afraid to show and give to the hands of the author and his friend the icons that they saved with great difficulty from destruction.
In the eighth chapter, the author continues the story that church people, like an old deaf and blind watchman of a ruined but not demolished church, are afraid to talk about old icons, believing that they want to destroy them.
Soloukhin describes his visit to one of the abandoned churches, in which many icons were kept, which became completely unusable and rotted. The abomination of desolation causes him the most sad thoughts.
In chapter nine, Soloukhin continues the story of his adventures. This time, he decided to enter a closed church, whose parishioners, fearing its ruin, deliberately hid the keys from her. With great difficulty, the author managed to persuade pious women to show him the contents of the church.
The author sums up the work
So, we got acquainted with the work "Black Boards". Summary (Soloukhin called his book a return to the roots) of this story was considered by us in this article.
In the last chapters of his work, the author summarizes the story. So, in the 10th chapter, he talks about his journey for the ancient icons to the old nun, who took on the role of their guardian. In the 11th chapter, Soloukhin, making a digression, tells readers about the features of ancient Russian icon painting, listing the most famous images. In the 12th chapter, the author describes the sad results of his searches, which once again ended to no avail, because the icons that he found in the farmyard of one of the collective farms died from mold and dampness. In chapter 13, Soloukhin recalls with sad laughter how the village women were afraid to give him icons, believing that he would take them for reproach. In the 14th chapter, the author tells how he tried to save the icon, which was nailed in the hut like an ordinary board, and the harsh hostess did not want to give it away for anything. In chapter 15, he describes his salvation of the last icon - “The Savior is in power” - and the restoration of its ancient appearance.
Soloukhin, “Black Boards”: a summary. Afterword
The afterword is the compositional ending of the work in which the author, addressing the readers for the last time, reiterates the key points of his story.
We have studied the work "Black Boards" (summary). Soloukhin Vladimir Alekseevich in the afterword says that times are gradually changing, and people stop throwing or burning icons, seeing them as artistic value. And this inspires some optimism, which allows us to hope that the art of ancient icon painters will be at least partially preserved.