The Tale of Captain Kopeikin where is located. "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin": Folklore Sources and Meaning

It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that The Tale of Captain Kopeikin is a kind of mystery within Dead Souls. Underneath it is felt by everyone. The first feeling that the reader experiences when meeting her is a feeling of bewilderment: why did Gogol need this rather lengthy and, apparently, in no way connected with the main action of the poem, the “joke” told by the unlucky postmaster? Is it really only to show the absurdity of the assumption that Chichikov is “no one else but Captain Kopeikin”?

Usually, researchers consider the Tale as an “inserted novella” needed by the author to denounce the city authorities, and explain its inclusion in Dead Souls by Gogol’s desire to expand the social and geographical scope of the poem, to give the image of “all Rus'” the necessary completeness. “... The story of Captain Kopeikin<...>outwardly almost unrelated to the main storyline of the poem, writes S. O. Mashinsky in his commentary. - Compositionally, it looks like an insert novel.<...>The story, as it were, crowns the whole terrible picture of the local-bureaucratic-police Russia, painted in Dead Souls. The embodiment of arbitrariness and injustice is not only the provincial government, but also the metropolitan bureaucracy, the government itself. According to Yu.V. Mann, one of the artistic functions of the Tale is “interrupting the “provincial” plan with the Petersburg, capital ones, including the higher metropolitan spheres of Russian life in the plot of the poem” .

This view of the Tale is generally accepted and traditional. In the interpretation of E. N. Kupreyanova, the idea of ​​​​it as one of Gogol's "St. Petersburg stories" is brought to its logical end. The story, the researcher believes, “was written as an independent work and only then was inserted into Dead Souls” . However, with such an “autonomous” interpretation, the main question remains unanswered: what is the artistic motivation for including the Tale in the poem? In addition, the "provincial" plan is "interrupted" in the "Dead Souls" by the capital constantly. It costs nothing for Gogol to compare the thoughtful expression on Manilov’s face with the expression that can be found “unless on some too smart minister”, to remark in passing that some “even a statesman, but in reality it turns out a perfect Korobochka”, from the Korobochka go to her "sister" - an aristocrat, and from the ladies of the city of NN to the ladies of St. Petersburg, etc. and so on.

Emphasizing the satirical nature of the Tale, its critical orientation towards the “tops”, researchers usually refer to the fact that it was banned by censorship (this, in fact, largely owes its reputation as a sharply accusatory work). It is generally accepted that under the pressure of censorship, Gogol was forced to muffle the satirical accents of the Tale, weaken its political tendency and sharpness - “throw away all the generals”, make the image of Kopeikin less attractive, etc. At the same time, one can come across the assertion that the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee "demanded to make significant corrections" to the Tale. “At the request of censorship,” writes E. S. Smirnova-Chikina, “the image of a heroic officer, a rebel-robber was replaced by the image of an impudent brawler ...” .

This, however, was not entirely the case. The censor A. V. Nikitenko in a letter dated April 1, 1842, informed Gogol: “The episode of Kopeikin turned out to be completely impossible to miss - no one’s power could protect him from his death, and you yourself, of course, will agree that I had nothing to do here” . In the censored copy of the manuscript, the text of the Tale is crossed out from beginning to end in red ink. Censorship banned the whole story, and no one made demands to remake it to the author.

Gogol, as you know, attached exceptional importance to the Tale and perceived its ban as an irreparable blow. “They threw away a whole episode of Kopeikin from me, which is very necessary for me, even more than they think (the censors. - V.V.). I decided not to give it away in any way, ”he informed N. Ya. Prokopovich on April 9, 1842. From Gogol's letters it is clear that the Tale was important to him not at all for what the St. Petersburg censors attached importance to. The writer does not hesitate to remake all the alleged "reprehensible" passages that might cause displeasure of the censors. Explaining in a letter to A. V. Nikitenko dated April 10, 1842, the need for Kopeikin in the poem, Gogol appeals to the artistic instinct of the censor. “... I confess that the destruction of Kopeikin confused me a lot. This is one of the best places. And I am unable to patch up the hole that is visible in my poem. You yourself, gifted with aesthetic taste<...>You can see that this piece is necessary, not to connect events, but in order to distract the reader for a moment, so that one impression can be replaced by another, and whoever is an artist in his soul will understand that without him a strong hole remains. It occurred to me that perhaps the censorship was afraid of the generals. I remade Kopeikin, I threw out everything, even the minister, even the word "excellency". In St. Petersburg, in the absence of all, only one temporary commission remains. I emphasized the character of Kopeikin more strongly, so that now it is clear that he himself is the cause of his actions, and not the lack of compassion in others. The head of the commission even treats him very well. In a word, everything is now in such a form that no strict censorship, in my opinion, can find reprehensible in any respect” (XII, 54-55).

Trying to reveal the socio-political content of the Tale, the researchers see in it a denunciation of the entire state machine of Russia up to the highest government spheres and the Tsar himself. Not to mention the fact that such an ideological position was simply unthinkable for Gogol, the Tale stubbornly "resists" such an interpretation.

As has been noted more than once in the literature, Gogol's image of Captain Kopeikin goes back to a folklore source - folk robber songs about the thief Kopeikin. Gogol's interest and love for folk songwriting is well known. In the aesthetics of the writer, the song is one of the three sources of originality of Russian poetry, from which Russian poets should draw inspiration. In "Petersburg Notes of 1836", calling for the creation of a Russian national theater, the depiction of characters in their "nationally poured out form", Gogol expressed his opinion about the creative use of folk traditions in opera and ballet. “Guided by subtle intelligibility, the ballet creator can take from them (folk, national dances. - V.V.) as much as he wants to determine the characters of his dancing heroes. It goes without saying that, having grasped the first element in them, he can develop it and fly incomparably higher than his original, just as a musical genius creates an entire poem from a simple song heard on the street” (VIII, 185).

"The Tale of Captain Kopeikin", literally growing out of a song, was the embodiment of this Gogol's thought. Guessing the "element of character" in the song, the writer, in his own words, "develops it and flies incomparably higher than his original." Here is one of the songs of the cycle about the robber Kopeikin.

The thief Kopeikin is going

On the glorious at the mouth of Karastan.

In the evening, the thief Kopeikin, he went to bed,

By midnight the thief Kopeikin was rising,

He washed himself with morning dew,

He wiped himself with a taffeta handkerchief,

On the east side, he prayed to God.

“Get up, brothers of love!

It’s not good for me, brothers, I had a dream:

As if I, a good fellow, walk along the edge of the sea,

I stumbled with my right foot

For a big tree, for a buckthorn.

Isn't it you, crusher, who crushed me:

Sorrow-woe dries and destroys good fellow!

You rush, rush, brothers, into light boats,

Row, kids, don't be shy,

Under the same mountains, under the Serpents!

Not a fierce snake hissed here,

The plot of the robber song about Kopeikin was recorded in several versions. As is usually the case in folk art, all known samples help to understand the general nature of the work. The central motif of this song cycle is the prophetic dream of Ataman Kopeikin. Here is another version of this dream, foreshadowing the death of the hero.

Like I was walking to the end blue sea;

How blue the sea all stirred up,

Everything mixed with the yellow sand;

I stumbled with my left foot,

He grabbed a small tree with his hand,

For a small tree, for a buckthorn,

For the very top:

The top of the buckthorn broke off,

The ataman of the robbers Kopeikin, as he is depicted in the folk song tradition, "stumbled with his foot, grabbed a large tree with his hand." This symbolic detail painted in tragic tones is the main distinguishing feature of this folklore image.

Gogol uses the poetic symbolism of the song in describing the appearance of his hero: "his arm and leg were torn off." Creating a portrait of Captain Kopeikin, the writer gives only this detail, which connects the character of the poem with his folklore prototype. It should also be emphasized that in folk art, tearing off someone's arm and leg is revered as a "joke" or "pampering." Gogol's Kopeikin does not at all evoke a compassionate attitude towards him. This face is by no means passive, not passive. Captain Kopeikin is, first of all, a daring robber. In 1834, in the article “A Look at the Compilation of Little Russia,” Gogol wrote about the desperate Zaporozhye Cossacks, “who had nothing to lose, for whom life is a penny, whose violent will could not tolerate laws and authorities<...>This society retained all those features with which they paint a gang of robbers...” (VIII, 46-48).

Created according to the laws of tale poetics (orientation to a living colloquial language, direct appeal to the audience, the use of common expressions and narrative techniques), Gogol's Tale also requires an appropriate reading. Its skaz form is also clearly manifested in the merging of the folk-poetic, folklore beginning with the real-event, concrete-historical. The folk rumor about the robber Kopeikin, which goes deep into folk poetry, is no less important for understanding the aesthetic nature of the Tale than the chronological attachment of the image to a certain era - the campaign of 1812.

In the presentation of the postmaster, the story of Captain Kopeikin is least of all a retelling of a real incident. Reality here is refracted through the consciousness of the hero-narrator, who embodies, according to Gogol, the peculiarities of folk, national thinking. Historical events, which have state, national significance, have always given rise to all kinds of oral stories and legends among the people. At the same time, they were especially actively creatively rethinking and adapting to new historical conditions traditional epic images.

So, let's turn to the content of the story. The postmaster’s story about Captain Kopeikin is interrupted by the words of the police chief: “Just allow me, Ivan Andreevich, because Captain Kopeikin, you yourself said, without an arm and leg, but Chichikov has ...” To this reasonable remark, the postmaster “clapped his hand on his forehead with all his might , calling himself publicly in front of everyone veal. He could not understand how such a circumstance had not come to him at the very beginning of the story, and he confessed that the saying was absolutely true: a Russian man is strong in his hindsight” (VI, 205).

Other characters in the poem are endowed with “radical Russian virtue” - a back, “reckless”, repentant mind, but above all Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov himself. Gogol had his own special attitude to this proverb. Usually it is used in the sense of "he caught it, but it's too late" and the fortress is regarded in hindsight as a vice or a disadvantage. IN explanatory dictionary V. Dahl we find: “The Rusak is strong in the back (hind mind)”; "Smart, but backwards"; "In hindsight, quick-witted." In his “Proverbs of the Russian people” we read: “Everyone is smart: who is first, who is after”; “You can’t fix things with hindsight”; “If only I had that mind in advance that comes after.” But Gogol knew another interpretation of this proverb. So, the well-known collector of Russian folklore of the first half of the 19th century, I. M. Snegirev, saw in it an expression of the mindset characteristic of the Russian people: “That a Russian can catch on and come to his senses even after a mistake, his own proverb says about it:“ A Russian is strong in hindsight. ; “So in the Russian proverbs proper, the mindset characteristic of the people, the way of judgment, the peculiarity of the view are expressed.<...>Their fundamental basis is centuries-old, hereditary experience, this back mind, which is strong Russian ... ".

Gogol showed a constant interest in the writings of Snegirev, which helped him to better understand the essence of the national spirit. For example, in the article “What, finally, is the essence of Russian poetry ...” - this peculiar aesthetic manifesto of Gogol - the nationality of Krylov is explained by the special national-original mindset of the great fabulist. In the fable, writes Gogol, Krylov "knew how to become a people's poet. This is our strong Russian head, the same mind that is akin to the mind of our proverbs, the same mind that makes a Russian person strong, the mind of conclusions, the so-called hindsight” (VI, 392).

Gogol's article on Russian poetry was necessary for him, as he himself admitted in a letter to P. A. Pletnev in 1846, "in explaining the elements of a Russian person." In Gogol's reflections on the fate of his native people, its present and historical future, "the hindsight or the mind of final conclusions, which the Russian person is predominantly endowed with over others," is that fundamental "property of Russian nature" that distinguishes Russians from other peoples. With this property of the national mind, which is akin to the mind folk proverbs, "who knew how to draw such great conclusions from the poor, insignificant of their time<...>and which speak only of what enormous conclusions the present-day Russian man can draw from the present wide time, in which the results of all centuries are marked ”(VI, 408), Gogol connected the high destiny of Russia.

When the witty guesses and quick-witted assumptions of officials about who Chichikov is (here both the “millionaire”, and the “forgery banknote maker”, and Captain Kopeikin) reach the ridiculous - Chichikov is declared to be Napoleon in disguise - the author, as it were, takes under protection their heroes. “And in the world annals of mankind there are many whole centuries, which, it would seem, were crossed out and destroyed as unnecessary. Many errors have taken place in the world, which it would seem that even a child would not make now ”(VI, 210). The principle of opposing "one's own" and "alien", clearly tangible from the first to the last page of "Dead Souls", is sustained by the author in opposing the Russian hindsight to the mistakes and delusions of all mankind. The possibilities inherent in this "proverb" property of the Russian mind were to be revealed, according to Gogol, in subsequent volumes of the poem.

The ideological and compositional role of this saying in Gogol's conception helps to understand the meaning of The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, without which the author could not imagine the poem.

The story exists in three main editions. The second is considered canonical, uncensored, which is printed in the text of the poem in all modern editions. The original edition differs from the subsequent ones primarily in its finale, which tells about the robbery adventures of Kopeikin, his flight abroad and a letter from there to the Sovereign explaining the motives of his actions. In two other versions of the Tale, Gogol limited himself to only a hint that Captain Kopeikin became the chieftain of a gang of robbers. Perhaps the writer anticipated censorship difficulties. But censorship, I think, was the reason for the rejection of the first edition. In its original form, the Tale, although it clarified the main idea of ​​the author, nevertheless did not fully correspond to the ideological and artistic design of the poem.

In all three known editions of the Tale, immediately after explaining who Captain Kopeikin is, there follows an indication of the main circumstance that forced Kopeikin to earn money for himself: “Well, then, no, you know, such orders had yet been made about the wounded; this kind of disabled capital was already brought in, you can imagine, in a certain way, much later” (VI, 200). Thus, the disabled capital, which provided for the wounded, was established, but only after Captain Kopeikin himself found funds for himself. Moreover, as follows from the original wording, he takes these funds from the “public pocket”. The gang of robbers, led by Kopeikin, is at war exclusively with the treasury. “There is no passage on the roads, and all this, in fact, is, so to speak, aimed at only state-owned. If a traveler for some reason of his own - well, they will only ask: “why?” - and go on your way. And as soon as some kind of state-owned fodder, provisions or money - in a word, everything that bears, so to speak, the name of the treasury - there is no descent! (VI, 829).

Seeing the "omission" with Kopeikin, the Sovereign "issued the strictest order to form a committee solely in order to improve the lot of everyone, that is, the wounded ..." (VI, 830). The highest state authorities in Russia, and first of all the Sovereign himself, are capable, according to Gogol, of drawing the right conclusions, making a wise, fair decision, but only not immediately, but "after". The wounded were provided for as in no other “enlightened states”, but only when the thunder had already struck ... Captain Kopeikin went into the robbers not because of the callousness of high government officials, but because of the fact that this is already the case in Rus' everything is arranged, everyone is strong in hindsight, starting with the postmaster and Chichikov and ending with the Sovereign.

Preparing a manuscript for publication, Gogol focuses primarily on the “mistake” itself, and not on its “correction”. Rejecting the finale of the original edition, he retained the meaning of the Tale he needed, but changed the emphasis in it. In the final version, the fortress in hindsight, in accordance with the artistic concept of the first volume, is presented in its negative, ironically reduced form. The ability of a Russian person to draw the necessary conclusions and correct himself after a mistake, according to Gogol, should have been fully realized in subsequent volumes.

The general idea of ​​the poem was affected by Gogol's involvement in folk philosophy. Popular wisdom is ambiguous. The proverb lives its real, genuine life not in collections, but in a living folk speech. Its meaning may change depending on the situation in which it is used. The truly folk character of Gogol's poem lies not in the fact that it contains an abundance of proverbs, but in the fact that the author uses them in accordance with their existence among the people. The writer's assessment of this or that "property of Russian nature" entirely depends on the specific situation in which this "property" manifests itself. The author's irony is directed not at the property itself, but at its real being.

Thus, there is no reason to believe that, having remade the Tale, Gogol made some significant concessions to censorship. There is no doubt that he did not seek to present his hero only as a victim of injustice. If a “significant person” (minister, general, boss) is to blame for anything before Captain Kopeikin, it is only because, as Gogol said on another occasion, he failed to “understand thoroughly his nature and his circumstances.” One of the distinguishing features of the writer's poetics is the sharp certainty of the characters. The actions and external actions of Gogol's heroes, the circumstances in which they find themselves, are only an external expression of their inner essence, properties of nature, character traits. When Gogol wrote to P. A. Pletnev on April 10, 1842, that he “signified Kopeikin’s character more strongly, so that now it is clear that he himself is the cause of everything and that he was treated well” (these words are almost literally repeated in the quoted letter A V. Nikitenko), he did not mean a radical reworking of the image for the sake of censorship requirements, but the strengthening of those character traits of his hero that were in him from the beginning.

The image of Captain Kopeikin, which, like other Gogol images, has become a household name, has firmly entered Russian literature and journalism. In the nature of its comprehension, two traditions have developed: one in the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and F.M. Dostoevsky, the other in the liberal press. In the Shchedrin cycle “Cultural People” (1876), Kopeikin appears as a limited landowner from Zalupsk: “It is not for nothing that my friend, Captain Kopeikin, writes: “Don’t go to Zalupsk! we, brother, now have so many lean and burnt divorced - our entire cultural club has been defiled! F. M. Dostoevsky also interprets Gogol's image in a sharply negative spirit. In the "Diary of a Writer" for 1881, Kopeikin appears as a prototype of modern "pocket industrialists". “... A lot of captains Kopeikin divorced terribly, in countless modifications<...>And yet they sharpen their teeth for the treasury and for the public domain.

On the other hand, there was a different tradition in the liberal press - "a sympathetic attitude towards the Gogol hero as a person fighting for his well-being with an indifferent bureaucracy indifferent to his needs." It is noteworthy that writers so dissimilar in their ideological orientation, like Saltykov-Shchedrin and Dostoevsky, who, moreover, adhered to different artistic manners, interpret the image of Gogol's captain Kopeikin in the same negative way. It would be wrong to explain the position of the writers by the fact that their artistic interpretation was based on the censored version of the Tale, that Shchedrin and Dostoevsky did not know its original version, which, according to the general opinion of the researchers, is the most socially acute. Back in 1857, N. G. Chernyshevsky, in a review of the posthumous Collected Works and Letters of Gogol, published by P. A. Kulish, completely reprinted the ending of the Tale, published at that time, for the first time, concluding it with the following words: “Yes, be that as it may, but great mind and lofty nature was the one who first introduced us to us in our present form ... ".

The point, apparently, is something else. Shchedrin and Dostoevsky felt in Gogol's Kopeikin those nuances and features of his character that eluded others, and, as happened more than once in their work, "straightened" the image, sharpened its features. The possibility of such an interpretation of the image of Captain Kopeikin lies, of course, in himself.

So, “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”, told by the postmaster, clearly demonstrating the proverb “A Russian man is strong in hindsight”, naturally and organically introduced it into the narrative. With an unexpected change in the narrative manner, Gogol makes the reader seem to stumble on this episode, to keep his attention on it, thereby making it clear that it is here that the key to understanding the poem is.

Gogol's way of creating characters and paintings in this case echoes the words of L. N. Tolstoy, who also highly appreciated Russian proverbs, and, in particular, the collections of I. M. Snegirev. Tolstoy intended to write a story using the proverb as its grain. He talks about this, for example, in the essay “Who should learn to write from whom, our peasant children or our peasant children?”: “For a long time, reading a collection of Snegirev’s proverbs has been one of my favorites - not activities, but pleasures. For each proverb, I see faces from the people and their collisions in the sense of the proverb. Among the unrealizable dreams, I always imagined a number of either stories or pictures written in proverbs.

Artistic originality"The Tale of Captain Kopeikin", which, according to the postmaster, "is in some way a whole poem", helps to understand the aesthetic nature of "Dead Souls". Creating his creation - a truly folk and deeply national poem - Gogol relied on the traditions of folk poetic culture.

At a meeting where city officials are trying to guess who Chichikov really is, the postmaster hypothesizes that he is Captain Kopeikin and tells the story of this latter.

Captain Kopeikin participated in the campaign of 1812 and lost an arm and a leg in one of the battles with the French. Unable to find food with such a serious injury, he went to Petersburg to ask for the mercy of the sovereign. In the capital, Kopeikin was told that in the magnificent house on the Palace Embankment the highest commission for such matters was sitting, headed by a certain general-in-chief.

Kopeikin appeared there on his wooden leg and, huddled in a corner, waited for the nobleman to come out in the midst of other petitioners, of whom there were many, like "beans on a plate." The general soon came out and began, approaching everyone, asking why someone had come. Kopeikin said that, while shedding blood for the fatherland, he was mutilated and now cannot provide for himself. The nobleman for the first time treated him favorably and ordered "to visit one of these days."

Illustrations for "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin"

Three or four days later, the captain again appeared to the nobleman, believing that he would receive documents for retirement. However, the minister said that the issue could not be resolved so soon, because the sovereign was still abroad with the troops, and orders for the wounded would follow only after his return to Russia. Kopeikin went out in terrible grief: he was already running out of money.

Not knowing what to do next, the captain decided to go to the nobleman for the third time. The general, seeing him, again advised "arm yourself with patience" and wait for the arrival of the sovereign. Kopeikin began to say that, due to extreme need, he had no opportunity to wait. The nobleman moved away from him in annoyance, and the captain shouted: I will not leave this place until they give me a resolution. The general then said that if it was expensive for Kopeikin to live in the capital, then he would send him at public expense. The captain was put into a cart with a courier and taken to no one knows where. Rumors about him stopped for a while, but less than two months later, a gang of robbers appeared in Ryazan affairs, and no one else was its chieftain ...

This is where the postmaster's story in Dead Souls ends: the police chief put it on his face that Chichikov, who has both arms and both legs intact, can in no way be Kopeikin. The postmaster slapped his forehead, publicly called himself a veal and admitted his mistake.

The short "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" is almost not connected with the main plot of "Dead Souls" and even gives the impression of an unimportant foreign inclusion. However, it is known that Gogol gave it a very great importance. He was very worried when the first version of "Captain Kopeikin" was not censored, and said: "The Tale" is "one of the best places in the poem, and without it - a hole that I cannot patch up with anything."

Initially, The Tale of Kopeikin was longer. In continuation of it, Gogol described how the captain and his gang robbed only state-owned carriages in the Ryazan forests, without touching private individuals, and how, after many robbery exploits, he left for Paris, sending a letter from there to the tsar with a request not to persecute his comrades. Literary critics are still arguing why Gogol considered The Tale of Captain Kopeikin to be very significant for Dead Souls as a whole. Perhaps she was directly related to the second and third parts of the poem, which the writer did not have time to complete.

The prototype of the minister who expelled Kopeikin, most likely, served as a well-known temporary worker

find the story of Kapitai Kopeikin, summary!! and got the best answer

Answer from Vakhit Shavaliyev[guru]
At first glance, “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” has nothing to do with N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”: there is no interweaving of plot lines, a style different from the poem, a fabulous manner of narration. But from the history of writing the poem, we know that N.V. Gogol refused to publish Dead Souls without this story. He attached great importance to this "small poem inscribed in the epicenter of a large one." So what is the inner connection of the story with the poem "Dead Souls", a story rewritten three times by the author under the pressure of censorship?
The Tale of Captain Kopeikin tells a dramatic story about a disabled hero Patriotic War, who arrived in St. Petersburg for "monarchal grace." Defending his homeland, he lost an arm and a leg and lost any means of subsistence. Captain Kopeikin finds himself in the capital, surrounded by an atmosphere of hostility to man. We see St. Petersburg through the eyes of a hero: “I was tempted to rent an apartment, only everything bites terribly…” “One doorman is already looking like a generalissimo… like some fat fat pug…” Captain Kopeikin seeks a meeting with the minister himself, and he turns out to be a callous, soulless person. Kopeikin is urged to wait and “visit one of these days.” And now, when the hero’s patience comes to an end, he comes again to the commission with a request to resolve his issue, to which the high boss admonishes the raging Kopeikin: was left untouched." These completely parodic-sounding words are followed by impudent advice: “Look for your own means, try to help yourself.” Kopeikin raises a "revolt" in the presence of the entire commission, all the bosses, and he is expelled from St. Petersburg to his place of residence.
It is not for nothing that Gogol entrusts the story of the heroic captain to the postmaster. The self-satisfied and prosperous postmaster, with his tongue-tied, majestically pathetic speech, even more sets off the tragedy of the story that he tells so cheerfully and ornately. Comparing the images of the postmaster and Kopeikin, two social poles appear old Russia. From the lips of the postmaster, we learn that Kopeikin, riding a courier, reasoned: “Well, he says, here you are, they say, so that I myself would look for funds and help; well, he says, I, he says, will find the means!”
Talking about the fact that the rumors about Captain Kopeikin, after he was expelled from St. Petersburg, have sunk into oblivion, the postmaster then adds an important ambiguous phrase: “But excuse me, gentlemen, this is where, one might say, the plot of the novel begins.” The minister, having expelled Kopeikin from the capital, thought that this was the end of the matter. But it was not there! The story is just beginning. Kopeikin will still show himself and make people talk about him. Under censored conditions, Gogol could not openly talk about the adventures of his hero in the Ryazan forests, but the phrase about the beginning of the novel makes us understand that everything told so far about Kopeikin is only the beginning, and the most important thing is yet to come. But the idea of ​​retribution in “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” does not boil down to revenge for desecrated justice on the part of the captain, who turned his anger on everything “official”.
The story of the heroic defender of the Fatherland, who became a victim of trampled justice, as if crowns the whole terrible picture of the local bureaucratic police Russia, painted in Dead Souls. The embodiment of arbitrariness and injustice is not only the provincial government, but also the metropolitan bureaucracy, the government itself. Through the mouth of the minister, the government renounces the defenders of the Fatherland, from true patriots, and, thereby, it exposes its anti-national essence - this is the thought in Gogol's work.
“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” is the cry of Gogol’s soul, it is a call to universal human values, it is a trial of the “dead souls” of landlords, officials, higher authorities, a world full of indifference.
http://stavcur.ru/sochinenie_po_literature/441.htm

Answer from Marina Safonova[newbie]
no no no

Answer from Arina Kateva[newbie]
Fashion

Answer from Galina Ezhova[newbie]
Thank you. Worthy. The syllable is wonderful. I can use tomorrow

Each of the heroes of the poem - Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, Chichikov - in itself does not represent anything of value. But Gogol managed to give them a generalized character and at the same time create a general picture of contemporary Russia. The title of the poem is symbolic and ambiguous. Dead souls are not only those who ended their earthly existence, not only the peasants who were bought by Chichikov, but also the landowners and provincial officials themselves, whom the reader meets on the pages of the poem. The words "dead souls" are used in the narrative in many shades and meanings. Prosperously living Sobakevich has more dead soul than the serfs whom he sells to Chichikov and who exist only in memory and on paper, and Chichikov himself is a new type of hero, an entrepreneur, in whom the features of the emerging bourgeoisie are embodied.

The chosen plot gave Gogol "complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out a multitude of the most diverse characters." The poem has a huge number of characters, all social strata of serf Russia are represented: the acquirer Chichikov, officials of the provincial city and the capital, representatives of the highest nobility, landowners and serfs. A significant place in the ideological and compositional structure of the work is occupied by lyrical digressions, in which the author touches on the most pressing social issues, and insert episodes, which is typical for the poem as a literary genre.

The composition of "Dead Souls" serves to reveal each of the characters, displayed in the overall picture. The author found an original and surprisingly simple compositional structure, which gave him the widest possibilities both for depicting life phenomena, and for connecting the narrative and lyrical principles, and for poetizing Russia.

The ratio of parts in "Dead Souls" is strictly thought out and subject to creative design. The first chapter of the poem can be defined as a kind of introduction. The action has not yet begun, and the author only outlines his characters in general terms. In the first chapter, the author introduces us to the peculiarities of the life of the provincial city, with city officials, landowners Manilov, Nozdrev and Sobakevich, as well as with the central character of the work - Chichikov, who begins to make profitable acquaintances and prepares for active actions, and his faithful companions - Petrushka and Selifan. In the same chapter, two peasants are described talking about the wheel of Chichikov's chaise, a young man dressed in a suit "with attempts on fashion", a fidgety tavern servant and other "petty people". And although the action has not yet begun, the reader begins to guess that Chichikov came to the provincial town with some secret intentions, which are revealed later.

The meaning of Chichikov's enterprise was as follows. Once every 10-15 years, the treasury conducted a census of the serf population. Between the censuses (“revision tales”), the landlords had a fixed number of serf (revision) souls (only men were indicated in the census). Naturally, the peasants died, but according to the documents, officially, they were considered alive until the next census. For serfs, the landowners paid tax annually, including for the dead. “Listen, mother,” Chichikov explains to Korobochka, “yes, you only judge well: after all, you are ruined. Pay for him (the deceased) as if he were alive.” Chichikov acquires dead peasants in order to pawn them, as if alive, in the Board of Trustees and receive a decent amount of money.

A few days after arriving in the provincial town, Chichikov goes on a journey: he visits the estates of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin and acquires “dead souls” from them. Showing the criminal combinations of Chichikov, the author creates unforgettable images of the landowners: the empty dreamer Manilov, the stingy Korobochka, the incorrigible liar Nozdrev, the greedy Sobakevich and the degraded Plyushkin. The action takes an unexpected turn when, on his way to Sobakevich, Chichikov gets to Korobochka.

The sequence of events makes a lot of sense and is dictated by the development of the plot: the writer sought to reveal in his heroes an increasing loss of human qualities, the death of their souls. As Gogol himself said: "My heroes follow one after the other, one more vulgar than the other." So, in Manilov, beginning a series of landowner characters, the human principle has not yet completely died, as evidenced by his "outbursts" for spiritual life, but his aspirations are gradually dying down. The thrifty Korobochka no longer has even a hint of a spiritual life, everything is subordinated to her desire to sell the products of her natural economy at a profit. Nozdrev completely lacks any moral and moral principles. There is very little human left in Sobakevich, and everything animal and cruel is clearly manifested. Plyushkin completes a series of expressive images of landlords - a person on the verge of mental decay. The images of landlords created by Gogol are typical people for their time and environment. They could have become decent individuals, but the fact that they are the owners of serf souls has deprived them of their humanity. For them, serfs are not people, but things.

The image of landlord Rus' replaces the image of the provincial city. The author introduces us to the world of officials involved in public administration. In the chapters devoted to the city, the picture of noble Russia expands and the impression of its deadness deepens. Depicting the world of officials, Gogol first shows their funny sides, and then makes the reader think about the laws that reign in this world. All officials passing before the mind's eye of the reader turn out to be people without the slightest idea about honor and duty, they are bound by mutual patronage and mutual responsibility. Their life, like the life of the landowners, is meaningless.

The return of Chichikov to the city and the design of the bill of sale fortress is the culmination of the plot. Officials congratulate him on the acquisition of serfs. But Nozdryov and Korobochka reveal the tricks of the "most respectable Pavel Ivanovich", and general merriment gives way to confusion. The denouement is coming: Chichikov hurriedly leaves the city. The picture of Chichikov's exposure is drawn with humor, acquiring a pronounced revealing character. The author, with unconcealed irony, tells about the gossip and rumors that arose in the provincial town in connection with the exposure of the “millionaire”. Overwhelmed by anxiety and panic, officials unwittingly discover their dark illegal deeds.

A special place in the novel is occupied by The Tale of Captain Kopeikin. It is plot-related to the poem and is of great importance for revealing the ideological and artistic meaning of the work. “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” gave Gogol the opportunity to take the reader to Petersburg, create an image of the city, introduce the theme of 1812 into the narrative and tell the story of the fate of the war hero, Captain Kopeikin, while exposing the bureaucratic arbitrariness and arbitrariness of the authorities, the injustice of the existing system. In The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, the author raises the question that luxury turns a person away from morality.

The place of the “Tale…” is determined by the development of the plot. When ridiculous rumors about Chichikov began to spread around the city, officials, alarmed by the appointment of a new governor and the possibility of their exposure, gathered together to clarify the situation and protect themselves from the inevitable "scolds". The story about Captain Kopeikin is not accidentally conducted on behalf of the postmaster. As the head of the postal department, he probably read newspapers and magazines, and could draw a lot of information about the life of the capital. He liked to "show off" in front of the audience, to throw dust in the eyes of his education. The postmaster tells the story of Captain Kopeikin at the moment of the greatest commotion that engulfed the provincial town. "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" is another confirmation that the feudal system is in decline, and new forces, albeit spontaneously, are already preparing to embark on the path of combating social evil and injustice. The story of Kopeikin, as it were, completes the picture of statehood and shows that arbitrariness reigns not only among officials, but also in the upper strata, up to the minister and the tsar.

In the eleventh chapter, which completes the work, the author shows how Chichikov's enterprise ended, talks about his origin, tells how his character was formed, views on life were developed. Penetrating into the spiritual recesses of his hero, Gogol presents to the reader everything that “eludes and hides from the light”, reveals “hidden thoughts that a person does not entrust to anyone”, and we are faced with a scoundrel who is rarely visited by human feelings.

On the first pages of the poem, the author himself describes him somehow vaguely: "...not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin." Provincial officials and landlords, whose characters are revealed in the following chapters of the poem, characterize Chichikov as "well-intentioned", "efficient", "scientist", "the most amiable and courteous person." Based on this, one gets the impression that we are faced with the personification of the "ideal of a decent person."

The whole plot of the poem is built as an exposure of Chichikov, since the scam with the sale and purchase of "dead souls" is at the center of the story. In the system of images of the poem, Chichikov stands somewhat apart. He plays the role of a landowner, traveling according to his needs, and by origin he is, but he has very little connection with the lord's local life. Each time he appears before us in a new guise and always achieves his goal. In the world of such people, friendship and love are not valued. They are characterized by extraordinary perseverance, will, energy, perseverance, practical calculation and tireless activity, they hide a vile and terrible power.

Understanding the danger posed by people like Chichikov, Gogol openly ridicules his hero, reveals his insignificance. Gogol's satire becomes a kind of weapon with which the writer exposes Chichikov's "dead soul"; says that such people, despite their tenacious mind and adaptability, are doomed to death. And Gogol's laughter, which helps him expose the world of self-interest, evil and deceit, was suggested to him by the people. It is in the soul of the people throughout for long years hatred for the oppressors, for the "masters of life" grew and strengthened. And only laughter helped him to survive in a monstrous world, not to lose optimism and love of life.

1. The place that "The Tale ..." takes in the poem.
2. Social problems.
3. Motives of folk legends.

"The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" at a superficial glance may seem like an alien element in N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". In fact, what does it have to do with the fate of the protagonist? Why does the author assign such a significant place to "The Tale ..."? The postmaster for no reason imagined that Chichikov and Kopeikin were one and the same person: but the rest of the provincial officials resolutely rejected such an absurd assumption. And the difference between these two characters lies not only in the fact that Kopeikin is disabled, but Chichikov has both arms and legs in place. Kopeikin becomes a robber solely out of hopelessness, since he has no other way to get everything he needs to maintain his life; Chichikov consciously strives for wealth, not disdaining any dubious machinations that can bring him closer to the goal.

But despite the huge difference in the fate of these two people, the story of Captain Kopeikin largely explains, oddly enough, the motives for Chichikov's behavior. The position of the serfs is, of course, difficult. But the position of a free man, if he has neither connections nor money, can also turn out to be truly terrible. In The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, Gogol shows the contempt of the state, represented by its representatives, for ordinary people who gave everything to this state. The general-in-chief advises a man with one arm and one leg: "... Try to help yourself for the time being, look for the means yourself." Kopeikin perceives these mocking words as a guide to action - almost like an order from the high command: "When the general says that I should look for the means to help myself - well ... I ... will find the means!"

Gogol shows the huge property stratification of society: an officer who became disabled in the war waged by his country has only fifty rubles in his pocket, while even the doorman of the Generalissimo "looks like a Generalissimo", not to mention the luxury in which he is buried his master. Yes, such a striking contrast, of course, should have shocked Kopeikin. The hero imagines how “he will take some herring, and a pickled cucumber, and bread for two pennies”, in the windows of restaurants he sees “cutlets with truffles”, and in stores - salmon, cherries, watermelon, only all this is unaffordable for a miserable invalid and soon there will be nothing left for bread.

Hence the harshness with which Kopeikin demands a final decision on his issue from the nobleman. Kopeikin has nothing to lose - he is even glad that the general-in-chief ordered him to be expelled from St. Petersburg at public expense: “... at least you don’t have to pay runs, thanks for that too.”

So we see that human life and blood means nothing in the eyes of most influential officials, both military and civilian. Money is what can to a certain extent give a person confidence in the future. It is no coincidence that the main instruction received by Chichikov from his father was the advice to “save a penny”, which “will not give out, no matter what trouble you are in”, which “you will do everything and break everything”. How many unfortunates in Mother Rus' dutifully endure insults, and all because there is no money that would provide these people with relative independence. Captain Kopeikin becomes a robber when, in fact, he already has no other choice - except perhaps starvation. Of course, one can say that Kopeikin's choice makes him an outlaw. But why should he respect a law that did not protect his human rights? Thus, in The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, Gogol shows the origins of that legal nihilism, the finished product of which is Chichikov. Outwardly, this well-intentioned official tries to emphasize his respect for ranks, for legal norms, because in such behavior he sees a guarantee of his well-being. But the old saying "The law of the drawbar: where you turned, it went there", undoubtedly, reflects the essence of legal concepts Chichikov, and not only he himself is to blame for this, but also the society in which the hero grew up and formed. In fact, was Captain Kopeikin the only one who trampled in vain in the reception rooms of high-ranking officials? The indifference of the state in the person of the General-in-Chief turns an honest officer into a robber. Chichikov, on the other hand, hopes that, having accumulated a decent fortune, albeit by fraudulent means, one can eventually become a worthy and respected member of society ...

It is known that initially Gogol did not break off the story about Kopeikin on the fact that the captain became the chieftain of a band of robbers. Kopeikin peacefully released everyone who went about their business, confiscated only state, that is, state property - money, provisions. Kopeikin's detachment consisted of fugitive soldiers: there is no doubt that they also had to suffer in their lifetime both from commanders and from landowners. Thus, Kopeikin appeared in the original version of the poem as a folk hero, whose image echoes the images of Stenka Razin and Emelyan Pugachev. After some time, Kopeikin went abroad - just like Dubrovsky in Pushkin's story of the same name - and from there he sent a letter to the emperor with a request not to persecute the people from his gang who remained in Russia. However, this continuation of The Tale of Captain Kopeikin had to be cut out by Gogol at the request of the censors. Nevertheless, around the figure of Kopeikin, the halo of the “noble robber” was preserved - a man offended by fate and people in power, but not broken and not reconciled.