In April 1925, Bulgakov received an offer to stage the novel The White Guard for the Art Theatre. By the gathering of the troupe - August 15 - the author presented the play. It was a dramatization that kept intact the main events of the novel and its characters. In the course of numerous alterations, which the author undertook both on his own initiative and on the initiative of the theater, out of 16 paintings in the play, called “Days of the Turbins”, only 7 were left.

THE PLAY "THE DAYS OF THE TURBINS" AND THE NOVEL "THE WHITE GUARD". The novel The White Guard covers the period from December 1918 to February 1919. The events selected for the play The Days of the Turbins coincide in duration with the novels: the first, second and third acts take place in the winter of 1918, the fourth act at the beginning 1919 Ho in the stage version, this period is compressed to about three days, or rather, to three evenings and one morning, which corresponds to four acts of the drama.

At the moment chosen by Bulgakov for the image, the Germans with the hetman and white detachments were holding out in Kyiv, peasant masses led by Petliura were advancing on Kyiv, the Bolsheviks were in the north, and Denikin was on the Don. The playwright dwelled on the events connected with the flight of the hetman and the coming of Petliura, which was most acceptable from the censorship point of view: - Kiev.

The novel did not cover the entire panorama of historical events: the action was concentrated in the City and on the outskirts of it. Nevertheless, a mass of named and unnamed heroes was introduced into the novel, crowds of people, troops on the streets, skirmishes of units loyal to the hetman with Petliur's troops were depicted. The chosen spatial composition made it possible to feel the reasons for the mass disappointment of the average military intelligentsia in their leaders.

In the play, the historical panorama was replaced by two scenes of the second act - a scene in the hetman's office in the palace and a scene at the headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Division. The play, thus, retained the signs of a historical chronicle, but the house of the Turbins became its compositional center.

To highlight the special place house of the Turbins in the dramatic space of the play, Bulgakov refused to introduce the Lisovich family into the play. In a sense, Lisovich, with his dull pettiness, was replaced by Colonel Thalberg. If in the novel the careerist beginning was emphasized in the behavior of the latter, then in the play, philistine grumbling was added to this. “Not a house, but an inn,” he angrily reprimands Elena, dissatisfied with the arrival of Myshlaevsky and the arrival of Lariosik. The successfully found plot device (the return at the time of the announcement of the divorce and the upcoming wedding of Elena and Shervinsky) contributed to the disgrace of Talberg and at the same time enlarged his line, making the presence of the Lisovich duplicating line in the play unnecessary.

So, the stage space of the play is given over to history and the house of the Turbins, historical chronicle and psychological drama. DRAMATURGICAL CONFLICT OF “TURBINE DAYS”, ITS UNIQUENESS. Bulgakov and Chekhov. The Moscow Art Theater perceived Bulgakov's play in the context of the related Chekhovian drama. Bulgakov's love for the details of everyday life (cream-colored curtains, a lamp under a green shade, notes on the piano, flowers), the young playwright's ability to create an image of a mood that colors a scene or even a whole act and is enhanced with the help of sound or musical accompaniment was inclined to this. The similarity touched on deeper levels of the drama (conflict, stage action, the way the stage unity was created), but it was a similarity-overcoming that led to the creation of a different type of drama.

Let's start with conflict. As you know, clashes between characters in Chekhov's plays do not lead to a dramatic conflict. And with Bulgakov, the hostility between the Turbins and Talberg, even the outcome of the relationship between Elena and Talberg or Elena and Shervinsky, does not acquire paramount importance in the play.

Defining the originality of the conflict in Chekhov's drama, the well-known researcher of the art of drama V.E. Khalizev points out that Chekhov bases his mature plays “not on traditional external conflicts and clashes between the oppressors and their victims, attackers and defenders, not on the vicissitudes of the struggle between the characters, but on long-term, fundamentally unchanging unfavorable situations in their lives. .. Chekhov's appeal to a new type of dramatic conflict is ultimately connected with the fact that he considers the characters and fates of his heroes and heroines ... in relation not so much to the surrounding social environment, but to the “general state of the world” - to the social situation in country as a whole."

With Bulgakov, this “general state of the world” takes on the appearance of History, intrudes into the stage space and translates the problem of a tragic collision with fate from a symbolic into a real plane, forcing the heroes to direct participation, to a choice, to an act, which is not typical for Chekhov’s heroes.

In Bulgakov's play, the characters manifest themselves primarily in their deeds, starting from the proposal that Shervinsky makes to Elena and ending with the heroic death of Alexei Turbin. The presence in the system of characters of a typically Chekhovian hero, Lariosik, only emphasizes Bulgakov's deviation from the Chekhovian path.

No less interesting in the play (and in this Bulgakov follows the Chekhovian tradition) is the ability to reveal the characters' characters through everyday well-being. actors, their emotionally colored reflections.

But in Bulgakov's play, these internal reflections are connected not with impressions "from the small events of everyday life", as in Chekhov, but with a reaction to significant historical situations. They take the form of direct reflection (in the monologues of Alexei Turbin, Myshlaevsky). But the main interest of the drama is in the author's desire to show that the reflections, the well-being of the characters in general, arising in the context of a scene or act, is colored by the awareness of the historical moment, their capture by the historical flow.

In the "White Guard" events raged around the turbine house, and he, in spite of everything, remained an island of comfort. In the play, the turbine house is carried by frenzied waves of events. The fate of the cultural tradition, which has become the life, the air of the turbine house, the essence of those who are involved in this house, is under threat.

The historical and the private are not assigned to certain paintings, but are constantly correlated with each other. History intrudes into the daily life of the Turbins, essentially becoming the main content of this life. As soon as the curtain opens, it makes itself felt with Nikolka’s song (“Worse rumors every hour. / Petlyura is coming at us!”), Cannon shots thumping somewhere near Svyatoshyn, all the time fading electricity, a military unit passing along the street. It penetrates the speech of the characters, determines their behavior, manifests itself in the state of Elena, impatiently waiting for her husband, in the behavior of Talbert, Lariosik, in Myshlaevsky's story about the situation at the front. History is discussed at the “Last Division Dinner”. History changes the turbine world. The measure of these changes determines the system of characters characteristic of the play.

It is no coincidence that important place among the actors in the play gets Lariosik - Zhytomyr cousin Larion Surzhansky. From a minor, even tertiary character in the novel, he becomes one of the characters in the first plan in the play.

Introducing the hero into the house of the Turbins already in the first scene of the first act, “as if stitched together from the most common quotations of Russian literature,” Bulgakov, according to A. Smelyansky, creates the “theatrical equivalent” of the Turbins’ former life, their former worldview.

The expansion and deepening of the role of Lariosik with his comically presented reflection, with his helplessness, indecision, defenselessness, awkwardness should have set off the psychological changes in the “Chekhovian” environment, just as the “rat” - Talberg was intended to emphasize the unfailing fidelity of the Turbins to military and family duty.

Describing the system of characters, V. Khodasevich, who saw the Moscow Art Theater performance in Paris, wrote: “From Talberg to Alexei Turbin, there is a whole chain of gradually brightening characters. They can be arranged in a certain sequence. In the first place is Shervinsky. He is not a scoundrel at all, but he is not a man of impeccable honesty either (the story of the cigarette case); he is a dummy and a liar, incapable of direct selfishness, but even less capable of self-sacrifice; he honestly serves the white guard, but will not connect his fate with her and will very easily survive her death. Behind him is Myshlaevsky, an excellent front-line soldier, a good comrade, not a complex person, because he has not yet developed to any complexity; he was crushed by the death of the white army... Captain Studzinsky is a somewhat pale figure - the average type of an honest campaigner and a decent person. Then, finally, Alexei Turbin - a true hero, a man of chivalrous prowess. His younger brother, the cadet, is a wonderful young man who, like Alexei, would not think about sacrificing his life, but fate does not require this from him: the army dies before his heroism has a chance to emerge.

At the center of the system of characters in Days of the Turbins, unlike the novel, were not the young Turbins, but three White Guard officers: Alexei Turbin, Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky, personifying the three possible paths for an officer in a revolution: death, freeing from choice, a step towards Bolsheviks and the third road leading to a dead end. Studzinsky, who chooses her from an episodic character, becomes one of the main characters.

Alexei Turbin, a doctor, a restless intellectual, as he is shown in the novel, turns in the play into a colonel, commander of an artillery battalion, displacing the novel Malyshev. Aleksey also embodies, especially in the last moments of his life, the purity and nobility of Nai-Turs. Colonel Alexei Turbin reacts most consciously and sharply to the situation. He is most worried about the events in Ukraine, he is disappointed in the actions of the hetman, who began to “break this damn comedy with Ukrainization”, he sees the decay of the white officers, led by the “guards headquarters mob”, predicts the death of the White movement. In the last act, Myshlaevsky with his decisive conclusions, as it were, replaces the tragically deceased Colonel Turbin.

PROBLEMS OF THE PLAY AND ITS GENRE ORIGINALITY. Thus, in the play, in contrast to the novel, the idea of ​​the doom of the old world in general and the White Guard movement in the first place sounds. The characters have confidence in the inevitability of birth “ new Russia". The best representatives of the White Guard recognize the historical correctness of the Bolsheviks. Therefore, Stalin’s point of view does not seem strange that The Days of the Turbins “provide more benefit than harm”, leaving the viewer with an impression “favorable for the Bolsheviks”: “Even if people like the Turbins are forced to lay down their arms ... that means the Bolsheviks are invincible.” Is this how the audience perceived the play? The fact is that the “pro-Soviet” ideological plan, so directly indicated in the play, is softened by its special genre nature, which goes back to Chekhov's innovations. We are talking about pairing the tragic with the comic and lyrical, about the constant adjustment of the ideological principle by the invasion of the comic and lyrical. So, the statement of Alexei Turbin, imbued with tragic pathos, sounds against the backdrop of a drunken feast. The motif of betrayal and flight that arose in the first act (Talberg, the departure of the German troops) is travestyed by the operetta motif of dressing up (the flight of the hetman, who is “carried out” from the palace with a bandaged head and in a German uniform; Shervinsky is dressing up). The tragic beginning reaches its culmination in the first scene of the third act. This is the scene at the Alexander Gymnasium where Alexei Turbin refuses to send people to their deaths. Even before the threat of the death of his ideals and principles, he declares to the junkers: “And here I am, a career officer Alexei Turbin, who endured the war with the Germans, to which captains Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky are witnesses, I accept everything on my conscience and responsibility, I accept everything and, loving you, send home."

Turbin's statement and his act itself appear in the play as the most important moral result of what he experienced. He comes to the recognition of self-worth human life in the face of any idea, no matter how significant it may be.

The situation connected with the fate of the Turbins, which became more and more dramatic as the action developed, in this scene reaches a tragic tension: having recognized the right to life for others, Alexei Turbin cannot recognize such a right for himself. He, as Nikolka suggests, is looking for death, and a stray shell fragment overtakes him.

The tragic fate of Alexei Turbin is the compositional center of the play, but parallel to his line there are lines of a lyrical, comic and tragicomic nature. Bulgakov builds a system of images through a paradoxical mixing of genres; the fates of tragic or lyrical heroes are corrected by comic characters.

The tragicomic beginning is brought into the play by Lariosik, Shervinsky, Myshlaevsky, Nikolka, and the watchman Maxim. All of them are endowed to some extent with naivety of perception, and this gives the author the opportunity, with their help, to constantly shift the tragic and lyrical into a comedic plan. Thus, the tragic theme in the first two films is connected with Alexei Turbin. It occurs against the backdrop of a drunken revel. At the moment when Alexey proclaims a toast to a meeting with the Bolsheviks (“Either we will bury them, or, rather, they will bury us ...”), Lariosik’s inappropriate song (“Thirst for a meeting, / Oath, speech - / Everything in the world / Tryn- grass...”) exacerbates the tragic sound of the episode. But the act ends with a lyrical sienna (an explanation of Elena with Shervinsky), which, in turn, is interrupted by a comedic episode - the awakening of a drunken Lariosik.

The principle of comic reduction is carried out consistently in the most tragic places of the Days of the Turbins. Thus, in the climactic scene of the play, Turbin's heroic deed, which saved the lives of two hundred cadets and students, receives a strange, almost parodic highlight thanks to the tragicomic exit of the gymnasium watchman Maxim, who remained to defend the gymnasium (“I was told by the director ...”).

Of particular importance in the structure of the play are musical commentary and sound symbolism. Constantly not coinciding with the visible plan of action, the musical commentary translates it into the opposite plan, reveals the tragedy in the farce and vice versa. The dispute between the characters often reaches its highest tension not in words, but in musical parts. There is constantly antithesis music - the word. One of the most eloquent examples in this sense is the final scene, where the general feeling of completeness of dramatic events is accompanied by the roar of cannons and “distant dull music” announcing the entry of the Bolsheviks into the city.

The composition of the play is meaningful in this context. It would seem that the scene in the Alexander Gymnasium is not only the climax, but also the denouement of the action, the finale of the drama. In Bulgakov, after it, another, fourth act appears, reproducing the situation of the first.

The circular composition is one of the signs that Bulgakov's stage action, although it takes the form of a direct collision with History, is also expressed in the sphere of "internal action" to no lesser extent than in Chekhov's.

At the beginning of the play - the eve of the tragic events, Talberg's flight and a desperate feast - the "last dinner of the division" before the fight with the Petliurists, when it turns out that tomorrow they will go into battle, but for whom and for what - is unknown.

At the end - Epiphany Christmas Eve of the 19th year, which came two months after the death of Alexei and the wounding of Nikolka, a Christmas tree, again a gathering of friends, the appearance of Talberg and the announcement of the wedding of Elena and Shervinsky - an epilogue of some and the eve of new tragic events, anxious expectation of the arrival of the Bolsheviks.

The beginning and end of the play are intertwined with recurring motifs. First of all, this is the motive for the inevitable meeting with the Bolsheviks. In the 1st act, it is intelligible only to Alexei Turbin: “In Russia, gentlemen, there are two forces: the Bolsheviks and us. We will meet ... When we meet with the Bolsheviks, things will go more cheerfully. Either we will bury them, or, rather, they will bury us. I drink to the meeting, gentlemen!”

In the 4th act, this meeting really looms before everyone, and the attitude towards it is ambiguous: from Myshlaevsky's readiness to go to the Cheka to be shot to Studzinsky's intention to go to the Don, to Denikin. Such disagreement in itself speaks of the awakening in the traditional military environment of the need for self-determination. The interweaving of this motif with the motif of dressing up is interesting. He is connected with Shervinsky, for whom the world is a theater, and he himself is an actor who easily passes from play to play (takes off his cloak, remains in a magnificent Circassian coat, changes his Circassian coat for civilian clothes, comes in a “non-party coat” rented from a janitor, takes off him and appears in a magnificent tailcoat).

The motive of the meeting with the Bolsheviks and its transformation are inseparable from the motive of the “God-bearing people”. It is connected with the understanding that, in the end, the outcome of the meeting will depend on the position of “nice peasants from the writings of Leo Tolstoy”. But in the 1st act a curse is sounded against the “dear peasants”, and in the 4th the thought about them turns into a recognition of the inevitability of tomorrow’s victory of the Bolsheviks (“behind the Bolsheviks there are a cloud of peasants”).

The motif of intoxicated oblivion, booze (“I should drink vodka, vodka” - everyday detail acquires a symbolic character), penetrating the second picture of the 1st act, having arisen in the 4th, is resolved by another mistake of Lariosik, dropping the bottle - for the benefit of general sobering, not only literally, of course.

But the correlation of the motives of the 1st and 4th acts, the most important for Bulgakov's concept, is connected with the image of the House.

In the perception of Lariosik, the house appears first as the embodiment of peace in a raging world, then as a symbol of a better life to come (“We will rest, we will rest ...”). The references to Chekhov, provoked by the literal reproduction of Chekhov's text, should just draw attention to the discrepancy in the interpretation of the image of the House. For Chekhov's heroes, the House is a closed space, a triumph of everyday life that binds a person. For Bulgakov, the motive of the House in the 1st act is associated with the motive of a sinking ship, chaos that has penetrated into the sacred space (booze party). In the 4th act, the motive of the returned life and indestructible everyday life sounds as the basis of the world order. The idea of ​​the intrinsic value of life, the human right to live in spite of the general catastrophe is affirmed. As in the 1st act, the idea of ​​it is realized in the motive of unsleeping fate (a soldier's march to the words of Pushkin's "Song of the Prophetic Oleg"). This motif tragically frames the celebration of resurgent life, revealing its defenselessness. The thunder of six-inch batteries, under which Lariosik utters the classic words in the finale: “We will rest, we will rest ...” becomes the completion, the resolution of the Chekhov theme of the play.

Thus, the image of the mood translates the general impression of the unfolding events into a different register than the thought of the inevitability of the birth of “new Russia”.

So, in the play “Days of the Turbins”, Bulgakov, turning to the image of “Russian strife”, managed to rise above the mood of class strife and affirm the idea of ​​humanity, the inherent value of life, the immutability of traditional moral values. Inheriting the conquests of Chekhov's dramaturgy, Bulgakov created a work that was original in terms of genre, combining historical chronicle with psychological drama, organically including lyrical and tragicomic beginnings.

"Days of the Turbins" connected the dramaturgy of the New Age with the Chekhov era and at the same time revealed the author's desire to write in a new way. The play was a huge success, but in 1929 the performance's opponents ensured that it disappeared from the Moscow Art Theater poster for three years. In February 1932, by decision of the government, the performance was returned to the stage.

I would immediately like to say that Mikhail Bulgakov's work "Days of the Turbins" has become one of the famous and popular works. More than one performance was staged based on his motives, many famous writers and authors quoted him more than once, various passions very often boil around him, in the form of heated discussions and statements.
I must say that many critics and experts in the field of literature speak very respectfully about this work.

The most important theme of this work is the fate of people who consider themselves intelligent and try to live during a bloody, difficult and difficult civil war, a time when general chaos, sadness, grief and oppression reign around.

By the way, the author very reverently paid attention to this very moment, trying to describe everything as vividly and truthfully as possible. The author tries to oppose the chaos that surrounds people with their stubborn and unshakable desire to continue a full life, lead a normal, daily life and be happy, experiencing simple human happiness.

It was not for nothing that this play was almost immediately called immortal, believing that it perfectly conveys the desire of people to live, no matter what.

To understand this play in more detail, you need to try to delve into the thoughts and understand the soul of each of the characters. The main characters of the work were certainly members of the Turbin family. An ordinary and simple family of that time, it should be noted that the family differed from many in that almost every one of the male part was a military man.

The eldest son was a colonel who honestly and proudly carried his rank, the youngest had not yet reached such a high rank and was an ordinary cadet. And the only daughter and sister of her brothers was the young wife of Colonel Thalberg. Of course, such people had all their friends in the military, or people close to this profession.

They tried to live honestly and openly, it was always possible to come to their house just like that, to visit. They were ready to warm and feed, giving shelter.

This family was respected and loved by many, and they themselves always love and respect each other, but they do not show too much sentimentality and tenderness.

Picture or drawing Days of the Turbins

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"Days of the Turbins" - a play by M.A. Bulgakov. The writer's materials contain evidence that on January 19, 1925, he "began to sketch" a play based on the novel The White Guard, which at that time was published by the Rossiya magazine. Bulgakov made these first sketches on his own initiative, i.e. before in April 1925 he receives an offer from the Art Theater to write a drama based on the novel. The first edition of the play was completed in September of the same year and was called, like the novel, The White Guard. In January 1926, Bulgakov completed the second edition; in August-September of the same year, a third one was created, which became final. This edition arose in the process of rehearsals, when the author's text was subjected to numerous corrections. According to the memoirs of P.A. Markov, head of the Moscow Art Theater, the replicas of the play were completed by "at least 15 persons." The title of the play, similar to the novel, was rejected on ideological grounds. The final name was chosen from many options discussed during the production: "White December", "1918", "The Capture of the City", "White Snowstorm", "The Turbin Family".

Premiere of the production directed by I.Ya. Sudakov under the direction of K.S. Stanislavsky, took place on October 5, 1926. The first performers of the main roles were N.P. Khmelev, V.V. Sokolova, B.G. Dobronravov, M.I. Prudkin, M.M. Yanshin and others. The first edition of the play appeared in Germany - translated into German(1927). In the Soviet Union, The Days of the Turbins were first published only in 1955.

The writer's early dramatic experiences date back to 1920-1921, when he, while living in Vladikavkaz, wrote several plays for the local theater. However, it was in the "Days of the Turbins" that Bulgakov the playwright was born. It took place in the process of working on the play, as the cumbersome staging of the novel, which almost literally followed the plot of the original source, turned into an original dramatic work.

In the course of creating the play Days of the Turbins, Bulgakov experienced double pressure: from the side of the Glavrepertkom, who saw the play as a “continuous apology for the White Guard”, and from the Mkhatovites, who sought to make the play more scenic in their terms and bring it closer to the theater-like aesthetics of Chekhov’s drama. As a result, the original author's text was covered with extraneous layers. still remains open question how organic the final version was for Bulgakov, what was brought into the play from the outside, and what was the result of the inner impulse of the writer, who mastered the aesthetics of dramatic art.

The novel and the play are connected by the place and time of the action - Kyiv in "the terrible year after the Nativity of Christ 1918, from the beginning of the second revolution." The fall of the Hetman's government, the capture of the city by the Petliurists, the offensive of the Red Army constitute the historical outline of both works. Against this background, the drama of the Turbin family unfolds. However, the plot and images of the novel in the play have undergone significant changes. The lyrical epic nature of the narrative disappears, and with it the lyrical hero of Bulgakov, Dr. Turbin, a chronicler and observer of unfolding events, in many ways close to the main character of Notes young doctor". In The Days of the Turbins, the reflective intellectual, who has become a victim of circumstances, is replaced by the tragic hero, Colonel Turbin, on whose decision the fate of the officers and cadets entrusted to him depends, forced to make a choice, more moral than political, a hero whose death is inevitable for the author. This person is acting, literally-stage and plot. The most active people in the war are the military. Those who act on the side of the vanquished are the most doomed. That is why Colonel Turbin dies - Dr. Turbin survived.

In the artistic world of the novel and the play, the central place is occupied by the image of the family hearth, the Turbins' house with cream-colored curtains on the windows. The whirlwind of revolutionary events takes people away, but the house remains. It remains the only place where you can warm yourself from the cold near the blazing tiled stove, where behind the "cream curtains" you can hide from the onslaught of events that break lives and destinies. This utopia at home will find its continuation in the finale of the novel The Master and Margarita, in the form of an "eternal shelter" in which Bulgakov's heroes found peace.

In the process of creating the play, from one edition to another, many characters left the plot, new ones appeared, focused on traditional stage masks and roles: for example, a simpleton (Lariosik), a rogue (Shchervinsky). In the third edition (compared to the first), the layer of literary reminiscences and historical and cultural associations has decreased; the genre and style structure of the work has changed significantly. If in the first version the genre of the play gravitated toward the tragic farce, then in the final version, the everyday psychological drama - “family drama” prevails. Some important features of Bulgakov's poetics were lost in the play, which later became vividly manifested in the drama "Running" (1926-1928), whose "eight dreams" tell about the fate of the white movement: mystical coloring, the ghostly atmosphere of phantasmagoria and sleep, the symbols of which permeate reality and are often indistinguishable from it. In the borderline situation between sleep and wakefulness, there are other heroes of Bulgakov (Maksudov "Notes of the Dead", Master).

The playwright's concessions, the director's tricks (remarks: "The people are not with us. They are against us"; the International, which rumbled in the finale) did not protect the play and the performance from the attacks of "left" criticism: about three hundred abusive reviews against one or two sympathetic ones, according to his own calculations. Bulgakov. A.V. Lunacharsky, although he did not interfere with the production, nevertheless assessed the play as "politically incorrect." Newspapers in 1926 were full of headlines "Bulgakov winks at the remnants of the White Guard", "To repulse Bulgakov". The author was accused of philistinism (“the desire for a cozy drink”); playwright Kirshon saw in the play "a mockery of the Russian chauvinist over the Ukrainians." Severe opponents of the play were V.E. Meyerhold, A.Ya. Tairov, V.V. Mayakovsky. The latter in the comedy The Bedbug (Scene of the Future) included the playwright's name in the dictionary of dead words: "Bohemia, bagels, booza, Bulgakov", and in the play "Banya" he mentioned a certain "Uncle Turbins" - a hint at the play "Uncle Vanya", an echo the opinion of the "left" that Bulgakov's drama was written "according to Chekhov's stamp".

Despite the sharp attacks of critics, the performance of the Moscow Art Theater was a resounding success. The theatrical fate of the play as a whole turned out to be happy: already in the first season it was played more than a hundred times, the performance that became legendary remained in the repertoire until June 1941, withstanding 987 performances. The stage life of the play resumed with the production of the Drama Theater. K.S. Stanislavsky (1954), carried out by M.M. Yanshin, who played the role of Lariosik in the Moscow Art Theater performance. This role was now played by the young E.P. Leonov. From the 60s. Bulgakov's "Days of the Turbins" become one of the most repertoire works of the Russian theater.

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Mikhail Bulgakov Days of the Turbins A play in four acts

Characters

Turbine A leksey V a s i l ' y e vich - colonel-artilleryman, 30 years old.

Turbin Nikolay - his brother, 18 years old.

T a l berg Elena V a s i l e vna – their sister, 24 years old.

Tal'berg Vladimir R obertovich - Colonel of the General Staff, her husband, 38 years old.

Myshlaevsky Viktor Viktorovich – staff captain, artilleryman, 38 years old.

Shervinsky Leonid Yuryevych - lieutenant, personal adjutant of the hetman.

Studzinskiy Aleksandr Bronislavovich – captain, 29 years old.

L a r i o s i k - Zhytomyr cousin, 21 years old.

Hetman in all of Ukraine.

B o l b o t u n - commander of the 1st Petlyura Cavalry Division.

Galanba - Petliurist centurion, former uhlan captain.

Hurricane.

K and rp a t y.

F o n Sh r a t t is a German general.

F o n D u s t is a German major.

Doctor of the German Army.

D e s e r t i r-s e c h e v i k.

Man

C a m e r l a k e y.

M a k s i m - gymnasium pedel, 60 years old.

Gaidamak - telephone operator.

F irst officer.

Second officer.

T r e t i y o f ic e r.

F irst Junker.

The second junker.

T r e t i y y n k e r.

Y n kera i g a i d a m a k i.

The first, second and third acts take place in the winter of 1918, the fourth act in early 1919.

The place of action is the city of Kyiv.

Act one

Picture one

Turbin's apartment. Evening. Fire in the fireplace. At the opening of the curtain, the clock strikes nine times and the minuet of Boccherini gently plays.

Alexei bent over the papers.

N i k o l k a (plays the guitar and sings).

Worse rumors every hour: Petliura is coming at us! We loaded machine guns, We fired at Petliura, Machine gunners-chiki-chiki... Dear chiki-chiki... You rescued us, well done.

Alexey. God knows what you're eating! Cook's songs. Sing something decent.

N and to about l to and. Why cooks? I composed this myself, Alyosha. (Sings.)

Alexey. It's just about your voice. N and to about l to and. Alyosha, you are in vain, by God! I have a voice, though not the same as Shervinsky's, but still quite decent. Dramatic, most likely - a baritone. Lenochka, and Lenochka! How do you think I have a voice?

ELENA (from her room). Who? By you? I don't have any.

N and to about l to and. She was upset, that's why she answers. And by the way, Alyosha, my singing teacher told me: "You," he says, "Nikolai Vasilievich, in essence, could sing in the opera, if it weren't for the revolution."

Alexey. Your singing teacher is a fool.

N and to about l to and. I knew it. Complete breakdown of nerves in the turbine house. The singing teacher is a fool. I don’t have a voice, but yesterday I still had it, and in general pessimism. I tend to be more optimistic by nature. (Pulls the strings.) Although you know, Alyosha, I myself am beginning to worry. It's already nine o'clock, and he said that he would come in the morning. Has something happened to him?

Alexey. You speak softer. Understood?

N and to about l to and. Here is the commission, the creator, to be a married brother sister.

ELENA (from her room). What time is it in the dining room?

N and to about l to and. Er... nine. Our clock is ahead, Lenochka.

ELENA (from her room). Please don't compose.

N and to about l to and. Look, he's worried. (Sings.) Foggy... Oh, how foggy everything is!...

Alexey. Please don't break my soul. Sing merry.

N and to l to and (sings).

Hello summer folks! Hello gardeners! We started filming a long time ago ... Hey, my song! .. Beloved! Ton caps, Shaped boots, The cadets of the guards are coming ...

The electricity suddenly goes out. Outside the windows with the song is a military unit.

Alexey. The devil knows what it is! It fades every minute. Lenochka, give me candles, please.

ELENA (from her room). Yes Yes!..

Alexey. Some part is gone.

Elena, leaving with a candle, listens. A distant gunshot.

N and to about l to and. How close. The impression is that they are shooting near Svyatoshyn. I wonder what's going on there? Alyosha, maybe you will send me to find out what's the matter at the headquarters? I would go.

Alexey. Of course, you are still missing. Please sit still.

N and to about l to and. Listen, Mr. Colonel... I, in fact, because, you know, inaction... somewhat insulting... People are fighting there... At least our division was more likely to be ready.

Alexey. When I need your advice in preparing the division, I will tell you myself. Understood?

N and to about l to and. Understood. I'm sorry, Colonel.

Electricity flashes.

Elena. Alyosha, where is my husband?

Alexey. Come, Lenochka.

Elena. But how is it? He said that he would come in the morning, but now it is nine o'clock, and he is still missing. Has something already happened to him?

Alexey. Lenochka, well, of course, this cannot be. You know that the line to the west is guarded by the Germans.

Elena. But why is it still not there?

Alexey. Well, obviously, they stand at every station.

N and to about l to and. Revolutionary riding, Lenochka. You drive for an hour, you stop for two.

Well, here he is, I told you! (Running to open the door.) Who's there?

NIKOLKA (letting Myshlaevsky into the hall). Is that you, Vitenka?

M yshlaevsk and y. Well, I, of course, to be crushed! Nicol, take the rifle, please. Here, the devil's mother!

Elena. Victor, where are you from?

M yshlaevsk and y. From under the Red Inn. Hang carefully, Nicol. A bottle of vodka in my pocket. Don't break it. Allow me, Lena, to spend the night, I won’t get home, I’m completely frozen.

Elena. Oh, my God, of course! Go quickly to the fire.

They go to the fireplace.

M yshlaevsk and y. Oh oh oh...

Alexey. Why couldn't they give you felt boots, or what?

M yshlaevsk and y. Felt boots! They are such bastards! (Rushes towards the fire.)

Elena. Here's what: the bath is heating up there now, you undress him as soon as possible, and I'll prepare his underwear. (Exits.)

M yshlaevsk and y. Baby, take it off, take it off, take it off...

N and to about l to and. Now. (Takes off Myshlaevsky's boots.)

M yshlaevsk and y. Easier, brother, oh, easier! I would like to drink vodka, vodka.

Alexey. Now ladies.

N and to about l to and. Alyosha, my toes are frozen.

M yshlaevsk and y. Fingers gone to hell, gone, that's clear.

Alexey. Well, what are you! They will depart. Nikolka, rub his feet with vodka.

M yshlaevsk and y. So I let my legs rub with vodka. (Drinking.) Three hands. It hurts!.. It hurts!.. It's easier.

N and to about l to and. Oh oh oh! How cold is the captain!

ELENA (appears with dressing gown and shoes). Now to his bath. On the!

M yshlaevsk and y. God bless you, Lenochka. Give me some more vodka. (Drinking.)

Elena leaves.

N and to about l to and. What, got warm, captain?

M yshlaevsk and y. It became easier. (Lit up.)

N and to about l to and. Can you tell me what's going on under the Tavern?

M yshlaevsk and y. Snowstorm under the Tavern. That's what's there. And I would have this blizzard, frost, German bastards and Petliura! ..

Alexey. Why, I don’t understand, they drove you under the Tavern?

M yshlaevsk and y. And the peasants are there under the Tavern. These are the cutest peasants of the compositions of Count Leo Tolstoy!

N and to about l to and. Yes, how is it? And in the newspapers they write that the peasants are on the side of the hetman ...

M yshlaevsk and y. What are you, junker, poking me newspapers? I would hang all this newspaper rubbish on one bitch! This morning I personally ran into one grandfather during reconnaissance and I ask: “Where are your lads?” The village is definitely dead. And he blindly did not see that I had epaulettes under my hood, and answered: “Usi were beaten to Petlyura ...”

N and to about l to and. Oh-oh-oh-oh...

M yshlaevsk and y. That's right, "oh-oh-oh-oh" ... I took this Tolstoy horseradish by the shirt-front and I say: "Usi got as far as Petlyura? So I'll shoot you now, old one ... You will learn from me how they run to Petliura. You are running away from me to the kingdom of heaven.

Alexey. How did you get into the city?

M yshlaevsk and y. Changed today, thank you, Lord! The infantry squad arrived. I made a scandal at the headquarters at the post. It was terrible! They are sitting there, drinking cognac in the car. I say, you, I say, sit with the hetman in the palace, and the artillery officers were kicked out in boots in the cold to exchange fire with the peasants! They didn't know how to get rid of me. We, they say, send you, captain, by profession to any artillery unit. Go to the city... Alyosha, take me to your place.

Alexey. With pleasure. I wanted to call you myself. I'll give you the first battery.

M yshlaevsk and y. Benefactor...

N and to about l to and. Hurrah! .. We will all be together. Studzinsky as a senior officer ... Charming! ..

M yshlaevsk and y. Where are you standing?

N and to about l to and. The Alexander Gymnasium was occupied. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow you can perform.

M yshlaevsk and y. Are you waiting for Petliura to fuck you in the back of the head?

N and to about l to and. Well, it's who else!

ELENA (appears with a sheet). Well, Victor, go, go. Go take a shower. On the sheet.

M yshlaevsk and y. Lena clear, let me hug and kiss you for your troubles. What do you think, Lenochka, should I drink vodka now or later, at dinner right away?

Elena. I think later, at dinner, right away. Victor! Have you seen my husband? The husband is gone.

M yshlaevsk and y. What are you, Lenochka, there. He will arrive now. (Exits.)

A continuous call starts.

N and to about l to and. Well, here he is! (Running to the front.)

Alexey. Lord, what is that call?

N and k about l to and opens the door. Appears in the hall LARIOSCIK with a suitcase and a bundle.

L a r i o s i k. So I arrived. I did something with your call.

N and to about l to and. You pressed the button. (Runs out the door, up the stairs.)

L a r i o s i c. Oh, my God! Forgive me, for God's sake! (Entering the room.) Here I am. Hello, dear Elena Vasilievna, I immediately recognized you by the cards. Mom asks you to convey her warmest regards.

The call is terminated. Nikolka enters.

As well as Alexei Vasilyevich.

Alexey. My regards.

L a r i o s i k. Hello, Nikolai Vasilyevich, I have heard so much about you. (To everyone.) Are you surprised, I see? Let me give you a letter, it will explain everything to you. Mom told me to let you read the letter without even undressing.

Elena. What illegible handwriting!

L a r i o s i k. Yes, terrible! Let me read it myself. Mom has such a handwriting that she sometimes writes, and then she herself does not understand what she wrote. I have the same handwriting. It's hereditary for us. (Reads.) “Dear, dear Lenochka! I am sending you my boy directly in a kindred way; shelter and warm him as you know how to do it. After all, you have such a huge apartment ... ”Mom loves and respects you very much, as well as Alexei Vasilyevich. (to Nikolka) And you too. (Reads.) “The little boy enters Kyiv University. With his abilities ... "- oh, this mother! .. - "... it is impossible to sit in Zhytomyr, waste time. I will translate the content for you carefully. I would not like the little boy, accustomed to the family, to live with strangers. But I'm in a hurry, now there's an ambulance train going, he'll tell you everything...' H'm... that's all.

Alexey. May I ask to whom I have the honor of speaking?

L a r i o s i k. How with whom? You do not know me?

Alexey. Unfortunately, I don't have the pleasure.

L a r i o s i k. My God! And you, Elena Vasilievna?

N and to about l to and. And I don't know either.

L a r i o s i k. My God, this is downright witchcraft! After all, your mother sent you a telegram, which should explain everything to you. Mom sent you a telegram in sixty-three words.

N and to about l to and. Sixty-three words!.. Oh-oh-oh!..

Elena. We did not receive any telegram.

L a r i o s i k. Did you receive it? My God! Please forgive me. I thought that they were waiting for me, and directly, without undressing ... Sorry ... I seem to have crushed something ... I'm a terrible loser!

Alexey. Yes you, please, tell me, what is your last name?

Larion Larionovich Surzhansky.

Elena. Is that Lariosik?! Our cousin from Zhytomyr?

L a r i o s i k. Well, yes.

Elena. And you... came to us?

L a r i o s i k. Yes. But, you see, I thought that you were waiting for me ... Forgive me, please, I inherited you ... I thought that you were waiting for me, but if so, then I will go to some hotel ...

Elena. What are the hotels now? Wait, you first of all undress.

Alexey. Yes, no one is chasing you, take off your coat, please.

N and to about l to and. Right here, please. Coats can be hung in the front.

L a r i o s i k. I am sincerely grateful to you. How good is your apartment!

ELENA (in a whisper). Alyosha, what are we going to do with him? He is pretty. Let's put it in the library, the room is empty anyway.

Alexey. Sure, go tell him.

Elena. Here's what, Larion Larionovich, first of all, take a bath... There's already one there—Captain Myshlaevsky... Or, you know, after the train...

L a r i o s i k. Yes, yes, terrible! .. Terrible! .. After all, it took me eleven days from Zhytomyr to Kyiv ...

N and to about l to and. Eleven days!.. Oh-oh-oh!..

L a r i o s i k. Horror, horror! .. This is such a nightmare!

Elena. Oh please!

LARIOSINK: Sincerely to you ... Oh, excuse me, Elena Vasilyevna, I can’t go to the bath.

Alexey. Why can't you go to the bath?

L a r i o s i k. Excuse me, please. Some villains stole a suitcase with linen from me on the ambulance train. The suitcase with books and manuscripts was left, but the linen was all gone.

Elena. Well, this is a fixable problem.

N and to about l to and. I will give, I will give!

L a r i o s i k (intimately, to Nikolka). The shirt, however, I have here, it seems, is one. I wrapped the collected works of Chekhov in it. But would you be so kind as to give me pants?

N and to about l to and. With pleasure. They will be great for you, but we will stab them with safety pins.

L a r i o s i k. I am sincerely grateful to you.

Elena. Larion Larionovich, we will put you in the library. Nikolka, go!

N and to about l to and. Please follow me.

Exit Lariosik and Nikolka.

Alexey. Here's the type! I would cut it off first. Well, Lenochka, turn on the light, I'll go to my room, I still have a lot of things to do, but they interfere with me here. (Exits.)

Elena. Who's there?

G o l o s T a l berg. Me, me Open, please.

Elena. Thank God! Where were you? I worried so much!

TALBERG (entering). Don't kiss me, I'm from the cold, you might catch a cold.

Elena. Where were you?

Talberg: They were detained at the German headquarters. Things to do.

Elena. Well, go, go quickly, get warm. Now let's drink tea.

TALBERG: No need for tea, Lena, wait a minute. Excuse me, whose french is this?

Elena. Myshlaevsky. He had just arrived from the positions, completely frozen.

TALBERG: You can still clean up.

Elena. I am now. (Hangs jacket outside the door.) You know, more news. Now my cousin from Zhytomyr, the famous Lariosik, unexpectedly arrived, Alexei left him in our library.

Talberg: I ​​knew it! One lord Myshlaevsky is not enough. Some more Zhytomyr cousins ​​appear. Not a house, but an inn. I absolutely do not understand Alexei.

Elena. Volodya, you're just tired and in a bad mood. Why don't you like Myshlaevsky? He is very good man.

Talberg. Remarkably good! Tractor regular.

Elena. Volodya!

Talberg: However, now is not up to Myshlaevsky. Lena, close the door... Lena, a terrible thing has happened.

Elena. What's happened?

Talberg: The Germans leave the hetman to his fate.

Elena. Volodya, what are you talking about?! How did you know?

TALBERG: Just now, under strict secrecy, at the German headquarters. No one knows, not even the Hetman himself.

Elena. What will happen now?

TALBERG: What will happen now... H'm... Half past ten. So, sir... What will happen now?... Lena!

Elena. What are you saying?

Tal'berg: I ​​say: "Lena"!

Elena. So what about Lena?

Talberg: Lena, I have to run now.

Elena. Run? Where?

Talberg. To Germany, to Berlin. Hm... My dear, can you imagine what will happen to me if the Russian army does not recapture Petliura and he enters Kyiv?

Elena. You can be hidden.

TALBERG My dear, how can you hide me! I am not a needle. There is not a person in the city who does not know me. Hide the Assistant Secretary of War. I can't, like Senor Myshlaevsky, sit without a jacket in someone else's apartment. They will find me in the best way.

Elena. Wait! I don't understand... So we both have to run?

Talberg: That's just the point, no. Now a terrible picture has emerged. The city is surrounded on all sides, and the only way to get out is in the German headquarters train. They don't take women. I was given one place thanks to my connections.

Elena. In other words, do you want to leave alone?

Talberg: My dear, I don't "want", otherwise I can't! Understand - a disaster! The train leaves in an hour and a half. Decide, and as soon as possible.

Elena. In an hour and a half? As soon as possible? Then I decide to leave.

Tal'berg You're smart. I've always said it. What else did I want to say? Yes, you are smart! However, I already said that.

Elena. How long are we apart?

Talberg: I ​​think for two months. I'll just wait out all this mess in Berlin, and when the hetman returns...

Elena. What if he doesn't come back at all?

Talberg: This cannot be. Even if the Germans leave Ukraine, the Entente will occupy it and restore the hetman. Europe needs Hetman Ukraine as a cordon from the Moscow Bolsheviks. You see, I calculated everything.

Elena. Yes, I see it, but only this: how can it be, because the hetman is still here, they are forming their troops, and you suddenly run away in front of everyone. Will it be smart?

Talberg Dear, this is naive. I'm telling you a secret - I'm running because I know that you will never tell this to anyone. Colonels of the General Staff do not run. They go on a business trip. In my pocket I have a business trip to Berlin from the Hetman's Ministry. What's stupid?

Elena. Very foolish. And what will happen to them all?

Talberg: Let me thank you for comparing me with everyone else. I am not "everything".

Elena. You warn your brothers.

Talberg: Of course, of course. In part, I'm even glad that I'm going alone for such a long time. After all, you will take care of our rooms.

Elena. Vladimir Robertovich, my brothers are here! Do you really think they will drive us out? You have no right...

Talberg: Oh no, no, no... Of course not... But you know the proverb: "Qui va a la chasse, perd sa place." Now one last request. Here... um... without me, of course, there will be this... Shervinsky...

Elena. He happens to be with you too.

Talberg: Unfortunately. You see, my dear, I don't like him.

Elena. What, may I ask?

Talberg: His courtship of you is becoming too intrusive, and I would like to ... Hm ...

Elena. What would you like?

Talberg: I ​​can't tell you what. You are a smart and well-bred woman. You know perfectly well how to behave in order not to cast a shadow on the name Thalberg.

Elena. Okay... I won't cast a shadow over the name Thalberg.

Talberg Why do you answer me so dryly? I'm not telling you that you can change me. I know very well that this cannot be.

Elena. Why do you think, Vladimir Robertovich, that this cannot be? ..

Talberg Elena, Elena, Elena! I do not recognize you. Here are the fruits of communication with Myshlaevsky! Married lady - change! .. A quarter to ten! I am going to be late!

Elena. I'll take you now...

TALBERG: Dear, nothing, nothing, just a suitcase with a little linen in it. Only, for God's sake, rather, I'll give you one minute.

Elena. You still say goodbye to your brothers.

Talberg: It goes without saying, just look, I'm going on a business trip.

Elena. Alyosha! Alyosha! (Runs away.)

ALEXEY (entering). Yes, yes... Ah, hello, Volodya.

Tal'berg: Hello, Alyosha.

Alexey. What's the fuss?

Talberg. You see, I must tell you important news. Tonight the hetman's situation has become very serious.

Alexey. How?

Talberg. Seriously and quite.

Alexey. What's the matter?

Talberg: It is very possible that the Germans will not provide assistance and that Petlyura will have to be beaten off on their own.

Alexey. What are you saying?!

TALBERG: Very likely.

Alexey. The case is yellowish ... Thank you for saying.

Talberg: Now the second. Since I'm on a business trip right now...

Alexey. Where, if not a secret?

Talberg. To Berlin.

Alexey. Where? To Berlin?

Talberg Yes. No matter how I floundered, I could not get out. Such a disgrace!

Alexey. How long, dare I ask?

Talberg. For two months.

Alexey. Ah, that's how.

Talberg: So, let me wish you all the best. Take care of Elena. (Holds out his hand.)

Alexei hides his hand behind his back.

What does it mean?

Alexey. This means that I don't like your business trip.

Talberg Colonel Turbin!

Alexey. I'm listening, Colonel Thalberg.

TALBERG: You will answer me for this, sir, my wife's brother!

Alexey. And when will you order, Herr Thalberg?

TALBERG: When... Five minutes to ten... When I return.

Alexey. Well, God knows what will happen when you get back!

Talberg: You... you... I have wanted to talk to you for a long time.

Alexey. Don't worry your wife, Mr. Thalberg!

ELENNA (entering). What were you talking about?

Alexey. Nothing, nothing, Lenochka!

Talberg: Nothing, nothing, dear! Well, goodbye, Alyosha!

Alexey. Goodbye, Volodya!

Elena. Nikolka! Nikolka!

N and to l to and (entering). Here I am. Oh, have you arrived?

Elena. Volodya is leaving on a business trip. Say goodbye to him.

Talberg. Goodbye, Nikol.

N and to about l to and. Bon voyage, Colonel.

Talberg: Elena, here's some money for you. I will send it from Berlin immediately. I have the honor to bow. (Walks swiftly into the hall.) Don't see me off, dear, you'll catch a cold. (Exits.)

Elena follows him.

N and to about l to and. Alyosha, how did he leave like that? Where?

Alexey. To Berlin.

N and to about l to and. To Berlin ... At such a moment ... (Looking out the window.) Bargaining with a cab driver. (Philosophically.) Alyosha, you know, I noticed that he looks like a rat.

ALEXEY (mechanically). Quite right, Nicole. And our house is on the ship. Well, go to the guests. Go, go.

Nikolka leaves.

The division hits the sky like a pretty penny. "Very seriously." "Seriously and very." Rat! (Exits.)

ELENA (returns from the hall. Looks out the window). Gone...

Picture two

The table is set for dinner.

ELENA (at the piano, takes the same chord). Left. How did you leave...

SHERVINSKII (suddenly appears on the threshold). Who left?

Elena. My God! How you frightened me, Shervinsky! How did you get in without a call?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Yes, your door is open - everything is wide open. I wish you good health, Elena Vasilievna. (Pulls out a huge bouquet from paper.)

Elena. How many times have I asked you, Leonid Yurievich, not to do this. I hate that you are wasting money.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Money exists to be spent, as Karl Marx said. May I take off my cloak?

Elena. What if I said I didn't?

S h e r v i n s k i y. I would sit all night in a cloak at your feet.

Elena. Oh, Shervinsky, an army compliment.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Sorry, that's a guards compliment. (He takes off his cloak in the hall, remains in the most magnificent Circassian coat.) I am so glad that I saw you! I haven't seen you for such a long time!

Elena. If my memory serves me right, you were with us yesterday.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Ah, Elena Vasilievna, what is “yesterday” in our time! So who left?

Elena. Vladimir Robertovich.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Excuse me, he was supposed to return today!

Elena. Yes, he returned and ... left again.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Where?

Elena. What wonderful roses!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Where?

Elena. To Berlin.

S h e r v i n s k i y. In... Berlin? And for how long, may I ask?

Elena. For two months.

S h e r v i n s k i y. For two months! What are you!.. Sad, sad, sad... I'm so upset, I'm so upset!!

Elena. Shervinsky, kiss your hand for the fifth time.

S h e r v i n s k i y. I can say that I am depressed ... My God, yes, everything is here! Hooray! Hooray!

H o l o s N and k o l k i. Shervinsky! Demon!

Elena. What are you so excited about?

S h e r v i n s k i y. I rejoice... Ah, Elena Vasilievna, you won't understand!...

Elena. You are not a man of the world, Shervinsky.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Am I not a secular person? Let me, why? No, I'm a socialite... It's just, you know, I'm upset... So, therefore, he left, and you stayed.

SHERVINSKII (at the piano). Ma-ma... mia... mi... He is far away, he is yes... he is far away, he does not recognize... Yes... In an incomparable voice. I was driving to you in a cab, it seemed that my voice had also sat down, but when I come here - it turns out, in my voice.

Elena. Notes captured?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Well, how, how ... You are pure goddess!

Elena. The only good thing about you is your voice, and your direct appointment is an opera career.

S h e r v i n s k i y. There is some material. You know, Elena Vasilievna, I once sang an epithalama in Zhmerinka, there is “fa” above, as you know, and I took “la” and kept nine measures.

Elena. How?

S h e r v i n s k i y. He held seven cycles. You really don't believe. By God! Countess Gendrikova was there... She fell in love with me after that la.

Elena. And what happened next?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Poisoned. Potassium cyanide.

Elena. Ah, Shervinsky! It's your disease, honestly. Gentlemen, Shervinsky! Come to the table!

Enter ALEKSEY, STUDZINSKII, and MYSHLAEVSKIY.

Alexey. Hello, Leonid Yurievich. Welcome.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Victor! Alive! Well, thank God! Why are you in a turban?

M yshlaevskii (in a turban from a towel). Hello adjutant.

Shervinsky (Studzinsky). My respects, captain.

Enter L a r i o s i k i N i c o l c a.

M yshlaevsk and y. Let me introduce you. The senior officer of our division is Captain Studzinsky, and this is Monsieur Surzhansky. Bathed with him.

N and to about l to and. Our cousin is from Zhytomyr.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Very nice.

L a r i o s i k. It is sincerely glad to meet you.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Her Imperial Majesty's Life Guards Lancers Regiment and Hetman's Personal Adjutant Lieutenant Shervinsky.

Larion Surzhansky. Sincerely glad to meet you.

M yshlaevsk and y. Yes, you do not come to such despair. Former lifeguard, former guard, former regiment...

Elena. Gentlemen, come to the table.

Alexey. Yes, yes, please, otherwise it’s twelve o’clock, I have to get up early tomorrow.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Wow, what a splendor! On what occasion is the feast, may I ask?

N and to about l to and. The last dinner of the division. Tomorrow we start, Mr. Lieutenant ...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Yeah...

S t u d z i n s k i y. Where do you order, Colonel?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Where do you order?

Alexey. Anywhere, anywhere. I ask you to! Lenochka, be the hostess.

They sit down.

S h e r v i n s k i y. So, then, he left, and you stayed?

Elena. Shervinsky, shut up.

M yshlaevsk and y. Lenochka, will you drink some vodka?

Elena. No no no!..

M yshlaevsk and y. Well then, white wine.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Will you allow me, Colonel?

Alexey. Mercy, you please yourself.

M yshlaevsk and y. Your glass.

L a r i o s i k. Actually, I don’t drink vodka.

M yshlaevsk and y. Sorry, I don't drink either. But one drink. How will you eat herring without vodka? I absolutely do not understand.

L a r i o s i k. I am sincerely grateful to you.

M yshlaevsk and y. For a long, long time I did not drink vodka.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lord! Elena Vasilievna's health! Hooray!

Studzinskii, Lariosik, Myshlevskii. Hooray!

Elena. Quiet! What are you, gentlemen! Wake up the whole lane. And so they say that we have a drinking bout every day.

M yshlaevsk and y. Uh, good! Refreshing vodka. Is not it?

L a r i o s i k. Yes, very much!

M yshlaevsk and y. I beg you, one more glass. Mister Colonel...

Alexey. Don't drive especially, Victor, to perform tomorrow.

N and to about l to and. And let's perform!

Elena. What about the hetman, tell me?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Yes, what about the hetman?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Everything is going well. What a dinner at the palace yesterday!.. For two hundred people. Grouse... Hetman in national costume.

Elena. Yes, they say that the Germans leave us to the mercy of fate?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Don't believe any rumors, Elena Vasilievna.

L a r i o s i k. Thank you, dear Viktor Viktorovich. Actually, I don't drink vodka.

M yshlaevsk and y (drinking). Be ashamed, Larion!

S h e r v i n s k i y, N i k o l k a. Be ashamed!

L a r i o s i k. Thank you most humbly.

Alexey. You, Nikol, do not lean on vodka.

N and to about l to and. Listen, Colonel! I am white wine.

LARIOSSIK: How cleverly you are knocking her over, Viktor Viktorovich.

M yshlaevsk and y. Acquired by exercise.

Alexey. Thank you captain. And the salad?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Thank you very much.

M yshlaevsk and y. Lena is golden! Drink white wine. My joy! Red Lena, I know why you are so upset. Drop it! All goes to good.

S h e r v i n s k i y. All goes to good.

M yshlaevsk and y. No, no, to the bottom, Lenochka, to the bottom!

N and k about l to and (takes a guitar, sings). Whom to drink the cup, who is healthy to be ... drink the cup ...

In with e (sing). Light to Elena Vasilievna!

Lenochka, drink up!

Drink... drink...

Elena is drinking.

They applaud.

M yshlaevsk and y. You look wonderful today. By God. And this hood suits you, I swear on my honor. Gentlemen, look what a hood, completely green!

Elena. This dress, Vitenka, is not green, but gray.

M yshlaevsk and y. Well, so much the worse. Does not matter. Gentlemen, pay attention, she is not a beautiful woman, you say?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Elena Vasilievna is very beautiful. To your health!

M yshlaevsk and y. Lena clear, let me hug and kiss you.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Well, well, Victor, Victor!

M yshlaevsk and y. Leonid, go away. Get away from someone else's husband's wife!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Please let...

M yshlaevsk and y. I can, I'm a childhood friend.

S h e r v i n s k i y. You are a pig, not a childhood friend ...

N and to l to and (getting up). Gentlemen, the health of the division commander!

Studzinsky, Shervinsky and Myshlaevsky get up.

LARIOSC. Hurray!.. Excuse me, gentlemen, I'm not a military man.

M yshlaevsk and y. Nothing, nothing, Larion! Right!

L a r i o s i k. Dear Elena Vasilievna! I can't express how good you make me...

Elena. Very nice.

L a r i o s i k. Dear Alexei Vasilievich ... I cannot express how good it feels to be with you! ..

Alexey. Very nice.

L a r i o s i k. Gentlemen, cream curtains ... behind them you rest your soul ... you forget about all the horrors of the civil war. But our wounded souls are so thirsty for peace ...

M yshlaevsk and y. May I ask you, do you compose poetry?

L a r i o s i k. Me? Yes... I'm writing.

M yshlaevsk and y. So. I'm sorry I interrupted you. Go on.

L a r i o s i k. Please ... Cream curtains ... They separate us from the whole world ... However, I am not a military man ... Eh! .. Pour me another glass.

M yshlaevsk and y. Bravo, Larion! Look, sly, but he said he doesn’t drink. You are a nice guy, Larion, but you make speeches like a highly respected boot.

L a r i o s i k. No, don’t tell me, Viktor Viktorovich, I have spoken more than once ... in the company of my late father’s colleagues ... in Zhitomir ... Well, there are tax inspectors ... They me too ... oh, how they scolded!

M yshlaevsk and y. Tax inspectors are famous beasts.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Drink, Lena, drink, dear!

Elena. Do you want to drink me? Wow, how disgusting!

N i k o l k a (at the piano, sings).

Tell me, sorcerer, favorite of the gods, What will come true in my life? And soon, to the delight of the neighbors-enemies of Mogilnaya, will I be covered with earth?

L a r i o s i k (sings).

So loud, music, play victory.

In with e (sing).

We have won and the enemy is on the run. So for...

L a r i o s i k. The king ...

Alexey. What are you, what are you!

In with e (sing a phrase without words).

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . We will shout a loud “Hurrah! Hooray! Hooray!".

N and to l to and (sings).

From the dark forest towards him...

Everyone sings.

L a r i o s i k. Eh! What fun you have, Elena Vasilievna, dear! Lights!.. Hurrah!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lord! The health of his lordship the hetman of all Ukraine. Hooray!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Guilty. Tomorrow I will go to fight, but I will not drink this toast and I do not advise other officers.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Mister Captain!

L a r i o s i k. A completely unexpected incident.

M yshlaevsk and y (drunk). Because of him, the devil, I froze my legs. (Drinking.)

S t u d z i n s k i y. Colonel, do you approve of the toast?

Alexey. No, I don't approve!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Colonel, let me tell you!

S t u d z i n s k i y. No, let me tell you!

L a r i o s i k. No, let me tell you! The health of Elena Vasilievna, as well as her highly respected husband, who has left for Berlin!

M yshlaevsk and y. In! You guessed it, Larion! Better is hard.

N and to l to and (sings).

Tell me the whole truth, don't be afraid of me...

LARIOSINK: Excuse me, Elena Vasilievna, I am not a military man.

Elena. Nothing, nothing, Larion. You are a kind person, a good one. Come to me here.

L a r i o s i c. Elena Vasilievna! Oh, my God, red wine! ..

N and to about l to and. Salt, sprinkle salt ... nothing.

S t u d z i n s k i y. This is your hetman!..

Alexey. One minute, gentlemen!.. What, really? We gave him a laugh, didn't we? If your hetman, instead of breaking this damn comedy with Ukrainization, would begin the formation of officer corps, because Petliura would not smell of spirit in Little Russia. But this is not enough: we would have swatted the Bolsheviks in Moscow like flies. And the very moment! They say they eat cats there. He would, scoundrel, save Russia!

S h e r v i n s k i y. The Germans would not allow the formation of an army, they are afraid of it.

Alexey. Not true, sir. The Germans needed to be explained that we were not dangerous to them. Certainly! We have lost the war! We now have something else, more terrible than the war, than the Germans, than anything else in the world: we have Bolsheviks. The Germans had to say: “What do you want? Need bread, sugar? Nate, take it, eat it, choke on it, but just help us so that our peasants do not fall ill with the Moscow disease. And now it's too late, now our officers have turned into cafe regulars. Cafe Army! Go get him. So he will go to war with you. He, the scoundrel, has the currency in his pocket. He sits in a coffee shop on Khreshchatyk, and with him all this guards staff mob. Wow, splendid! They gave Colonel Turbin a division: fly, hurry, form, go, Petlyura is coming! .. Excellent, sir! But yesterday I looked at them, and, I give you my word of honor, for the first time my heart trembled.

M yshlaevsk and y. Alyosha, you are my commander! You have an artillery heart! I drink health!

Alexey. It trembled, because for a hundred junkers there are one hundred and twenty students, and they hold a rifle like a shovel. And yesterday on the parade ground... It is snowing, the fog is far away... You know, I imagined a coffin...

Elena. Alyosha, why do you say such gloomy things? Do not dare!

N and to about l to and. Do not be upset, Mr. Commander, we will not extradite.

Alexey. Here, gentlemen, I am sitting now among you, and all I have is one haunting thought. Oh! If only we could have foreseen all this earlier! Do you know what this Petlyura of yours is? This is a myth, this is a black fog. He doesn't exist at all. You look out the window, see what's there. There is a snowstorm, some shadows... In Russia, gentlemen, there are two forces: the Bolsheviks and us. We'll meet Again. I see more terrible times. I see... Well, okay! We will not hold Petlyura. But he won't be here for long. But the Bolsheviks will come for him. That's why I'm going! On the rampage, but I'll go! Because when we meet with them, things will be more fun. Either we will bury them, or rather they will bury us. I drink to the meeting, gentlemen!

L a r i o s i k (at the piano, sings).

Thirst for a meeting, Oaths, speeches - Everything in the world Tryn-grass ...

N and to about l to and. Hello, Larion! (Sings.)

Thirst for a meeting, Oaths, speeches...

Everyone is singing wildly. Lariosik suddenly began to sob.

Elena. Lariosik, what's wrong with you?

N and to about l to and. Larion!

M yshlaevsk and y. What are you, Larion, who offended you?

L a r i o s i k (drunk). I was frightened.

M yshlaevsk and y. Whom? Bolsheviks? Well, we'll show them now! (Takes a Mauser.)

Elena. Victor, what are you doing?!

M yshlaevsk and y. Commissars will shoot. Which one of you is the commissioner?

S h e r v i n s k i y. The Mauser is loaded, gentlemen!!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Captain, sit down this minute!

Elena. Lord, take it from him!

Takes out the Mauser. Lariosik leaves.

Alexey. What are you, crazy? Sit down this minute! It's my fault, gentlemen.

M yshlaevsk and y. So, I got into the company of the Bolsheviks. Very nice. Hello comrades! Let's drink to the health of the commissars. They are cute!

Elena. Victor, don't drink anymore!

M yshlaevsk and y. Shut up, commissioner!

S h e r v i n s k i y. God, how drunk!

Alexey. Lord, this is my fault. Don't listen to what I said. It's just that my nerves are frayed.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Oh no, Colonel. Trust that we understand and that we share everything you have said. We will always defend the Russian Empire!

N and to about l to and. Long live Russia!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Let me speak! You did not understand me! Hetman will do just as you suggest. That's when we manage to fight off Petlyura and the allies help us defeat the Bolsheviks, that's when the hetman will put Ukraine at the feet of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich...

M yshlaevsk and y. Which Alexandrovich? And he says I got drunk.

N and to about l to and. Emperor killed...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lord! News of the death of His Imperial Majesty...

M yshlaevsk and y. Somewhat exaggerated.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Victor, you are an officer!

Elena. Let him speak, gentlemen!

S h e r v i n s k i y. ... invented by the Bolsheviks. Do you know what happened in the palace of Emperor Wilhelm when he saw the hetman's retinue? Emperor Wilhelm said: “And he will talk to you about the future ...” - the curtain parted, and our sovereign came out.

Enter L a r i o s i k.

He said: “Gentlemen, officers, go to Ukraine and form your units. When the time comes, I will personally take you to the heart of Russia, to Moscow!” And wept.

S t u d z i n s k i y. He is killed! Elena. Shervinsky! It's true?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Elena Vasilievna!

Alexey. Lieutenant, this is a legend! I've heard this story before.

N and to about l to and. Does not matter. May the emperor be dead, long live the emperor! Hurrah!.. Anthem! Shervinsky! Hymn! (Sings.) God save the king! ..

Shervinsky, Studzinsky, Myshlevsky. God save the king!

L a r i o s i k (sings). Strong, domineering...

Nikolka, Studzinskiy, Shervinskiy. Reign for glory...

Elena, Aleksey. Lord, what are you! Don't need this!

M yshlaevskii (crying). Alyosha, is it the people! After all, they are bandits. Professional union of regicides. Peter the Third... Well, what did he do to them? What? Shouting: "War is not necessary!" Great... He stopped the war. And who? The tsar's own gentleman in the face with a bottle! Pavel Petrovich's prince with a cigarette case in the ear... And this one... I forgot how he was... with sideburns, handsome, give me, he thinks, I'll do something nice for the peasants, I'll free them, striped devils. So its a bombshell for that? They must be flogged, the scoundrels, Alyosha! Oh, I feel bad, brothers...

Elena. He's bad!

N and to about l to and. The captain is sick!

Alexey. To the bath.

Studzinsky, Nikolka and Alexei lift Myshlaevsky and carry him out.

Elena. I'll go see what's up with him.

SHERVINSKII (having barred the door). Don't, Lena!

Elena. Gentlemen, gentlemen, it must be like this... Chaos... Smoked... Lariosik, Lariosik!..

S h e r v i n s k i y. What are you, what are you, don't wake him up!

Elena. I got drunk because of you. God, my legs don't move.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Here, here... Will you let me... beside you?

Elena. Sit down... Shervinsky, what will happen to us? How will all this end? Huh?.. I had a bad dream. Generally around Lately worse and worse.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Elena Vasilievna! Everything will be fine, but you do not believe in dreams ...

Elena. No, no, my dream is prophetic. As if we all went on a ship to America and are sitting in the hold. And here comes the storm. The wind howls. Cold cold. Waves. And we are in the hold. The water rises to the very feet ... We climb onto some bunk beds. And suddenly rats. So disgusting, so huge. So scared that I woke up.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Do you know what, Elena Vasilievna? He will not return.

Elena. Who?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Your husband.

Elena. Leonid Yurievich, this is impudence. What's your business? Will return, will not return.

S h e r v i n s k i y. It's a big deal for me. I love you.

Elena. I heard. And you all compose.

S h e r v i n s k i y. By God, I love you.

Elena. Well, love yourself.

S h e r v i n s k i y. I don't want to, I'm tired.

Elena. Wait, wait. Why did you mention my husband when I mentioned the rats?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Because he looks like a rat.

Elena. What a pig you are, Leonid! First, it doesn't look like it at all.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Like two drops. Pince-nez, pointed nose...

Elena. Very very beautiful! Talking nasty things about an absent person, and even his wife!

S h e r v i n s k i y. What kind of wife are you!

Elena. That is, as?

S h e r v i n s k i y. You look at yourself in the mirror. You are beautiful, smart, as they say, intellectually developed. Generally a woman to yat. Accompany beautifully on the piano. And he is next to you - a hanger, a careerist, a staff moment.

Elena. For the eyes! Fine! (Clamps his mouth.)

S h e r v i n s k i y. Yes, I'll tell him this to his face. Long wanted. I'll tell you and challenge you to a duel. You are unhappy with him.

Elena. With whom will I be happy?

S h e r v i n s k i y. With me.

Elena. You are no good.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Wow! .. Why am I not good enough?

Elena. What is good about you?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Yes, you take a look.

Elena. Well, adjutant trinkets, cute as a cherub. And a voice. And nothing more.

S h e r v i n s k i y. So I knew! What a misfortune! Everyone repeats the same thing: Shervinsky is an adjutant, Shervinsky is a singer, this, that, that ... But no one notices that Shervinsky has a soul. And Shervinsky lives like a stray dog, and Shervinsky has no one to bow his head to.

ELENA (pushing his head away). Here is the vile ladies' man! I know your adventures. You all say the same thing. And this one of yours, long. Ugh, painted lips...

S h e r v i n s k i y. She is not long. This is a mezzo-soprano. Elena Vasilievna, by God, I never said anything like that to her and I won’t say it. Not good of you, Lena, how bad of you, Lena.

Elena. I'm not Lena!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Well, it's not good of you, Elena Vasilievna. You don't really have any feelings for me.

Elena. Unfortunately, I really like you.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Aha! I like it. And you don't love your husband.

Elena. No, I love.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena, don't lie. A woman who loves her husband does not have such eyes. I saw women's eyes. Everything is visible in them.

Elena. Well, yes, you are experienced, of course.

S h e r v i n s k i y. How did he leave?!

Elena. And you would.

S h e r v i n s k i y. I? Never! It's shameful. Admit you don't love him!

Elena. Well, well: I do not like and do not respect. I don't respect. Satisfied? But nothing follows from this. Remove your hands.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Why did you kiss me then?

Elena. You are lying! I have never kissed you. Liar with aiguillettes!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Am I lying?.. And at the piano? I sang: "God almighty" ... and we were alone. And I'll even tell you when - the eighth of November. We were alone and you kissed me on the lips.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Nothing?

Elena. This is torment. Honestly! The dishes are dirty. These are drunk. The husband has gone away. All around the world...

S h e r v i n s k i y. We'll take the light. (Extinguishes the overhead light.) So good? Listen, Lena, I love you very much. I won't let you out anyway. You will be my wife.

Elena. Stuck like a snake... like a snake.

S h e r v i n s k i y. What kind of snake am I?

Elena. Seizes every opportunity and seduces. You won't achieve anything. Nothing. Whatever it is, I will not ruin my life because of you. Maybe you'll be even worse.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena, how good you are!

Elena. Get away! I'm drunk. It was you who made me drunk on purpose. You are a known villain. Our whole life is falling apart. Everything disappears, falls.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Elena, don't be afraid, I won't leave you at such a moment. I will be near you, Lena.

Elena. Release me. I'm afraid to cast a shadow on the name Thalberg.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena, leave him completely and marry me... Lena!

They kiss.

Will you get divorced?

Elena. Ah, go to hell!

They kiss.

L a r i o s i k (suddenly). Don't kiss, it makes me sick.

Elena. Let me go! My God! (Runs away.)

L a r i o s i k. Oh! ..

S h e r v i n s k i y. Young man, you didn't see anything!

L a r i o s i k (cloudy). No, I did.

S h e r v i n s k i y. That is, as?

L a r i o s i k. If you have a king, go with the king, but don’t touch the ladies! .. Don’t touch! .. Oh! ..

S h e r v i n s k i y. I didn't play with you.

L a r i o s i k. No, you were playing.

S h e r v i n s k i y. God, how cut!

L a r i o s i k. Let's see what mother will tell you when I die. I said that I'm not a military man, I can't have that much vodka. (Falls on Shervinsky's chest.)

S h e r v i n s k i y. How drunk!

The clock strikes three, the minuet is played.

Action two

Picture one

Hetman's office in the palace. A huge desk with telephones on it. Separate field phone. There is a huge framed map on the wall. Night. The office is brightly lit.

The door opens and the footman lets Shervinsky in.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Hello Fedor.

Lak e y. I wish you good health, sir lieutenant.

S h e r v i n s k i y. How! There is not anyone? And which of the adjutants is on duty at the apparatus?

Lak e y. His Excellency Prince Novozhiltsev.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Where is he?

Lak e y. I can not know. Left half an hour ago.

S h e r v i n s k i y. How it is? And the devices stood for half an hour without an attendant?

Lak e y. Yes, no one called. I was at the door all the time.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Little did he not call! What if he called? At such a moment! The devil knows what it is!

Lak e y. I would take a phone call. They so ordered that until you come, I would write down.

S h e r v i n s k i y. You? Record military telephonograms?!.. Why does he have a softening of the brain? Ah, I got it, I got it! He is ill?

Lak e y. Not at all. They left the palace altogether.

S h e r v i n s k i y. That is, how is it - at all from the palace? You are joking, dear Fedor. Did you leave the palace without handing over your duty? So he is in crazy house departed?

Lak e y. I can not know. They just took their toothbrush, towel and soap from the adjutant's room. I also gave them a newspaper.

S h e r v i n s k i y. What newspaper?

Lak e y. I'm reporting, mister lieutenant: they wrapped soap in yesterday's issue.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Excuse me, here is his checker!

Lak e y. Yes, they left in civilian clothes.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Either I'm crazy, or you. Did he leave me a note, at least? Did you order to deliver anything?

Lak e y. They were ordered to bow.

S h e r v i n s k i y. You are free, Fedor.

Lak e y. I'm listening. May I report, Mr. Adjutant?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Nute-sir?

Lak e y. They deigned to receive bad news.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Where? From home?

Lak e y. Not at all. By field phone. And now they are in a hurry. At the same time, the face has changed a lot.

S h e r v i n s k i y. I hope, Fyodor, that the coloring of the faces of his lordship's adjutants does not concern you. You are talking too much.

Lak e y. I beg your pardon, lieutenant. (Exits.)

SHERVINSKII (speaking on the phone at the hetman's desk). 12-23... Mercy... Is this the apartment of Prince Novozhiltsev?.. Ask Sergei Nikolaevich... What? In a palace? He is not in the palace. I myself speak from the palace... Wait a minute, Seryozha, it's your voice!... Sere... Excuse me...

The phone rings off.

What rudeness! I heard very well that it was him. (Pause.) Shervinsky, Shervinsky... (He calls on the field phone, the phone beeps.) Headquarters of the Svyatoshinsky detachment... Ask the chief of staff... How is he not there? Assistant... Headquarters of the Svyatoshinsky Detachment?.. What the hell!

The chamber enters.

(Writes a note.) Fyodor, give this note to the orderly at once. In order to urgently go to my apartment on Lvovskaya Street, there they will give him a bundle according to this note. To bring him here right now. Here are two karbovanets for his cab. Here is a note to the commandant's office for a pass.

Lak e y. I'm listening. (Exits.)

SHERVINSKII (touches the tanks, thoughtfully). What the hell, honestly!

The phone on the table rings.

I'm listening... Yes. His Lordship's personal adjutant Lieutenant Shervinsky... I wish you good health, Your Excellency... How are you? (Pause.) Chatterbox?! .. How, with the whole staff? .. Listen! (Hangs up the phone.)

The phone rings off. Pause.

I'm dead, gentlemen! (Whistle.)

Behind the scenes, a deaf command: “Attention!” - then the many-voiced cry of the guard: "We wish you good health, your grace!"

LAKEY (opens both halves of the door). His Lordship!

Getman enters. He is in the richest Circassian coat, crimson trousers and boots without heels of the Caucasian type and without spurs. Shiny general's epaulettes. Short trimmed, graying mustache, clean-shaven head, about forty-five years old.

G e tman Hello lieutenant.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Hello, Your Grace.

G e tman Have you arrived?

S h e r v i n s k i y. I dare to ask - who?

G e tman How is it - who? I scheduled a quarter to twelve meeting at my place. There should be the commander of the Russian army, the head of the garrison and representatives of the German command. Where are they?

S h e r v i n s k i y. I can not know. Nobody arrived.

G e tman They are always late. Summary to me for the last hour. Alive!

S h e r v i n s k i y. I venture to report to Your Grace: I have just taken over. Cornet Prince Novozhiltsev, who was on duty in front of me ...

G e tman I have long wanted to point out to you and other adjutants that you should speak Ukrainian. It's a disgrace, after all! Not a single officer of mine speaks the language of the country, and this makes the most negative impression on the Ukrainian units. I walk gently.

S h e r v i n s k i y. I hear, Your Grace. Adjutant on duty cornet ... prince ... (Aside.) The devil knows how "prince" in Ukrainian! .. Damn! (Aloud.) Interim Novozhiltsev... I think... I think... I think...

G e tman Speak Russian!

S h e r v i n s k i y. I'm listening, your grace. Cornet Prince Novozhiltsev, who was on duty in front of me, apparently suddenly fell ill and left for home even before my arrival ...

G e tman What are you talking about? Off duty? How are you? In your right mind? That is, how is it - departed from duty? So he quit his job? What's going on here, after all? (Rings on the phone.) Commandant's office?.. Give a dress at once... You have to hear by the voice who is speaking. An order for an apartment to my adjutant cornet Novozhiltsev, arrest him and deliver him to the commandant's office. This minute.

S h e r v i n s k i y (to the side). It serves him right! He will know how to talk on the phone in other people's voices. Ham!

Hetman (by telephone). Now! (to Shervinsky) But did he leave a note?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Yes sir. But there is nothing on the tape.

G e tman What is he? Crazy? Crazy? Yes, I will shoot him now, right here, at the palace parapet. I'll show you all! Connect with the commander's headquarters now. Ask me immediately! The same goes for the chief garrison and all regimental commanders. Alive!

S h e r v i n s k i y. I dare to report, Your Grace, news of the utmost importance.

G e tman What other news is there?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Five minutes ago, I received a phone call from the commander's headquarters and was told that the commander of the volunteer army under your lordship suddenly fell ill and left with the entire staff on a German train to Germany.

G e tman Are you sane? Your eyes are sore... Do you realize what you have reported? What happened? Disaster, right? Did they run? Why are you silent? Well!..

S h e r v i n s k i y. That's right, Your Grace, a disaster. At ten o'clock in the evening, Petliura's units broke through the city front, and Bolbotun's cavalry went into the breach...

G e tman Bolbotun?.. Where?..

S h e r v i n s k i y. Behind Slobodka, ten versts.

G e tman Wait... wait... so... what is it? I noticed this a long time ago. That's what. Now connect with the headquarters of the German command and ask its representatives to come to me this very minute. Live, baby, live!

S h e r v i n s k i y. I'm listening. (On the phone.) Third. Seien Sie bitte so liebenswurdig, Herr Major fon Dust an den Apparat zu bitten.

Knock on the door.

G e tman Sign in, yes.

Lak e y. Representatives of the German command, General von Schratt and Major von Dust, ask to receive them.

G e tman Ask here now. (to Shervinsky) Set aside.

The footman lets in Fon Shratta and Fon Dust. Both are in grey. Schratt is long-faced and gray-haired. Dust - with a purple face.

Both are in monocles.

Shr and t. Wir haben die Ehre, Euer Durchlaucht zu begrussen.

G e tman Sehrerfreut, Sie zu sehen, meine Herren. Bitte nehmen Sie Platz.

The Germans are seated.

Ich habe eben die Nachricht von der schwierigen Lage unserer Armee erhalten.

Shratt. Das ist uns schon langere Zeit bekannt.

Hetman (Shervinsky). Please record the minutes of the meeting.

S h e r v i n s k i y. May I speak Russian, Your Grace?

G e tman General, may I ask you to speak Russian?

S r a t t (with a sharp accent). Oh yeah! With great pleasure.

G e tman It has now become known to me that the Petliura cavalry has broken through the city front.

Shervinsky writes.

In addition, I have some absolutely incredible news from the headquarters of the Russian command. The headquarters of the Russian command shamefully fled. Das ist ja unerhort! (Pause.) I am addressing the German government through you... with the following statement: Ukraine is in mortal danger. Gangs of Petliura threaten to occupy the capital. In the event of such an outcome, anarchy will occur in the capital. Therefore, I ask the German command to immediately send troops to repel the gangs that have poured in here and restore order in Ukraine, which is so friendly to Germany.

Shratt. Unfortunately, the German command cannot do this.

G e tman How? Notify, General, why?

Shratt. Physisch unmoglich! It is physically impossible to eat. Erstens, firstly, according to our information, Petliura has two hundred thousand troops, superbly armed. Meanwhile, the German command takes the divisions and takes them to Germany.

S h e r v i n s k i y (to the side). Scoundrels!

Shratt: Thus, there are no sufficient forces at the disposal of our weapons. Zweitens, secondly, the whole of Ukraine is on the side of Petliura.

G e tman Lieutenant, underline this phrase in the protocol.

S h e r v i n s k i y. I'm listening, sir.

Shr a t t. Has no antifungal. Underline. Thus, it is impossible to stop Petliura.

G e tman So, the German command suddenly leaves me, the army and the government to the mercy of fate?

Shratt. Niet, we are sent to take Mary to save Your Grace.

G e tman What measures does the command propose?

Shratt. Instant evacuation of your lordship. Now the wagon and nach Germany.

G e tman I'm sorry, I don't understand anything. How is it?.. Guilty. Maybe it was the German command that evacuated Prince Belorukov?

Shr a t. Exactly so.

G e tman Without my consent? (Worried) I don't agree. I protest to the German government against such actions. I still have the opportunity to gather an army in the city and defend Kyiv with my own means. But the responsibility for the destruction of the capital will fall on the German command. And I think the governments of England and France...

Shratt. Government of England! French Government!! The German government feels strong enough in itself to prevent the destruction of the capital.

G e tman Is this a threat, general?

Shratt. Warning, Your Grace. Your Lordship has no armed forces at his disposal. The situation is catastrophic...

D U S T (quietly to Schratt). Mein General, wir haben gar keine Zeit. Wir Mussen...

Shratt. Ja-ja ... Your Grace, let me say one last thing: we have just intercepted information that Petliura's cavalry is eight miles from Kyiv. And tomorrow morning she will come in...

G e tman I'll be the last to know!

Shratt: Your Grace, do you know what will happen to you if you are taken prisoner? There is a judgment on your Lordship. He is very sad.

G e tman What's the verdict?

Shratt: I beg your lordship's apologies. (Pause.) Look around. (Pause.) Your Grace, I would ask for an answer instantly. I have only ten small minutes at my disposal, after which I undress myself from the responsibility for your lordship's life.

Big pause.

G e tman I'm going!

Shr a t. Oh, are you coming? (Dostu.) Be kind, act secretly and without any noise.

D with t. Oh, no noise! (Fires a revolver at the ceiling twice.)

Shervinsky is confused.

GETMAN (taking up the revolver). What does it mean?

Shratt. Oh, be calm, Your Grace. (Hides in the curtain of the right door.)

Behind the scenes, there is a rumble, shouts: "Sentry, in a gun!" Stomp.

D u s t (opening the middle door). Ruhig! Calmly! General von Schratt caught a revolver with his trousers, mistakenly hit his head.

Hetman is very healthy. Your Grace, kindly stick your head out... Guards...

GETMAN (in the middle door). Everything is calm, stop worrying.

D at with t (at the door). Please, let the doctor with the instrument through.

The anxiety subsides. Included in the doctor of the German army with a box and a medical bag. Dust locks the middle door with a key.

SHRATT (coming out from behind the curtain). Your Grace, please change into your German uniform as if you were me and I was the wounded man. We will secretly take you out of the city so that no one knows, so as not to cause indignation of the guard.

G e tman Do as you wish.

Field phone call.

Lieutenant, to the apparatus!

S h e r v i n s k i y. His Lordship's office... How?.. What?.. (To the Hetman.) Your Grace, two regiments of Serdyuks have crossed over to Petlyura's side... Enemy cavalry has appeared in the exposed area. Your Grace, what can I say?

G e tman What to convey? Tell them to delay the cavalry for at least half an hour! I must leave! I'll give them armored vehicles!

Shervinsky (by telephone). Are you listening?.. Stay for at least half an hour! His Lordship will give you armored vehicles!

D U S t (taking out a German uniform from a drawer). Your Highness! Anywhere?

G e tman In the bedroom.

Hetman and Dust leave to the right.

SHERVINSKII (near the proscenium). Run, right? Will Elena go or not? (Resolutely, to Shratt.) Your Excellency, I humbly ask you to take me with the hetman, I am his personal adjutant. Besides, with me... my fiancee...

Shratt. With regret, lieutenant, not only your fiancee, but also you can not take. If you want to go, go to our staff train station. I warn you - there are no places, there already is a personal adjutant.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Who?

Shratt. How is it ... Prince Novozhiltsev.

S h e r v i n s k i y. New residents! But when did he do it?

Shratt. When there is a catastrophe, everyone becomes very agile. He was at our headquarters now.

S h e r v i n s k i y. And he will serve under the hetman there, in Berlin?

Shr a t t. Oh niet! Hetman will be alone. No retinue. We will only take to the borders of those who wish to save their neck from your man, and there everyone will do as they wish.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Oh, thank you very much. I can save my neck here too...

Shratt. That's right, lieutenant. You should never leave your homeland. Heimat ist Heimat.

The Hetman and Dustman enter. The Hetman is disguised as a German general. Confused, smoking.

G e tman Lieutenant, burn all papers here.

Dr. Herr Doctor, seien Sie so liebenswurdig... Your Grace, sit down.

The hetman is seated. The doctor bandages his head tightly.

Dr. Fertig.

Shratt (Dustu). car!

D with t. Sogleich.

Shratt. Your Grace, lie down.

G e tman But after all, it is necessary to announce this to the people ... A manifesto? ..

Shr a t. Manifesto! .. Perhaps ...

GETMANN (deafly). Lieutenant, write... God did not give me strength... and I...

D with t. Manifesto ... There is no time for a manifesto ... From the train by telegram ...

G e tman Set aside!

Dws. Your Grace, lie down.

The hetman is placed on a stretcher. Schratt hides. The middle door is opened and a footman appears. Dust, the doctor and the footman carry the hetman out the left door. Shervinsky helps to the door, returns. Shratt enters.

SHRATT. It's all right. (Looks at her bracelet watch.) One o'clock in the morning. (Puts on cap and cloak.) Goodbye, lieutenant. I advise you not to stay here. You can safely disperse. Take off your shoulder straps. (Listens.) Do you hear?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Rapid fire.

SHRATT. Exactly. Pun! "Fluent"! Do you have a side pass?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Yes sir.

Shratt. Auf Wiedersehen. Hurry up. (Exits.)

Shervinsky (suppressed). Pure German work. (Suddenly comes to life.) Well, sir, there is no time. No, no ... no ... (At the table.) Oh, cigarette case! Gold! Hetman forgot. Leave it here? Impossible, lackeys will resist. Wow! A pound must weigh. historical value. (Hides the cigarette case in his pocket.) Nute, sir... (At the table.) We won't fire any papers, except for the adjutant's list. (Burns papers.) Am I a pig or am I not a pig? No, I'm not a pig. (On the phone.) 14-53 ... Yes ... Division? .. Commander on the phone! Urgent!.. Wake up! (Pause.) Colonel Turbin? Shervinsky is speaking. Listen, Aleksey Vasilyevich, carefully: the hetman gave a drape... Drapanul!.. Seriously... No, there is time before dawn... Tell Elena Vasilyevna not to leave the house tomorrow... I will come hide in the morning. Farewell. (Hangs up.) And my conscience is clear and calm... Fyodor!

The chamber enters - varnish.

Did the messenger bring a package?

Lak e y. Yes sir.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Hurry, give it here!

The footman leaves, then returns with a bundle.

L a k e y (confused). May I ask what is the matter with their lordship?

S h e r v i n s k i y. What is this question? Hetman deigns to rest. And keep quiet. You are a good person, Fedor. There is something in your face... sort of... attractive... proletarian...

Lak e y. Yes, sir.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Fyodor, bring me my towel, razor and soap from the adjutant's room.

Lak e y. I'm listening. Would you like a newspaper?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Quite right. And a newspaper.

The footman goes out the left door. Shervinsky at this time puts on a civilian coat and hat, takes off his spurs. Novozhiltseva ties her checker and checker into a knot. The footman appears.

Does this hat suit me?

Lak e y. How about. Will you take a razor in your pocket?

S h e r v i n s k i y. A razor in your pocket... Well, sir... Dear Fyodor, let me leave fifty karbovanets as a keepsake.

Lak e y. Thank you very much.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Let me shake your honest working hand. Don't be surprised, I'm a democrat by nature, Fedor! I have never been to the palace, I have never served as an adjutant.

Lak e y. Clear.

S h e r v i n s k i y. I don't know you. Actually, I'm an opera artist...

Lak e y. Did he give a go?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Flushed out.

Lak e y. Ah, rogue!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Bandit indescribable!

Lak e y. And all of us, therefore, to the mercy of fate?

S h e r v i n s k i y. You see. You are still half hearted, but what about me?

Phone ring.

I'm listening... Ah! Captain!.. Yes! Throw everything to hell and run... So I know what I'm saying... Shervinsky... Good luck. Goodbye! .. Dear Fyodor, no matter how pleasant it is for me to talk with you, but you yourself see that I have no time ... Fyodor, as long as I am in power, I give you this office. What are you watching? Freak! You will figure out what kind of blanket will come out of this curtain. (Disappears.)

Pause. Phone ring.

Lak e y. Listen ... How can I help you? .. You know what? Throw everything to hell and run... Fyodor says... Fyodor!...

Picture two

Empty, gloomy room. Inscription: "Headquarters of the 1st Kinny Division." The standard is blue and yellow. Kerosene lantern at the entrance. Evening. Outside the windows, the occasional sound of horses' hooves. The harmonica quietly plays familiar tunes.

Telephonist (by phone). Tse I, Franko, once again included in the chain ... In the chain, I say! .. Do you hear? .. Tse headquarters of the kin division.

The phone is beeping. Noise offstage. Hurricane and Kirpaty bring in a Sich deserter. His face is bloody.

B o l b o t u n. What is it?

Hurricane. The deserter has been caught, Colonel.

B o l b o t u n. Which regiment?

Silence.

Which regiment, I ask you?

Silence.

T e le f o n i s t. I'm from the headquarters, Franko, joining the chain! Tse headquarters of the kin division! .. Are you listening? .. Ugh, damn it! ..

B o l b o t u n. What are you, God, your mother's soul! BUT? What are you ... At that time, like every honest Cossack wiishov to defend the Ukrainian Republic, the appearance of the White Guards and the Jewish communist, at that time, like every grain grower joined the ranks of the Ukrainian army, are you in the bushes? Do you know what the hetman's officers, and then the commissars, are doing to our grain growers? They bury the living near the ground! Chuv? So I'll dig your own grave! Himself! Centurion Galanbu!

Where did you take it?

K and rp a t y. Behind the stacks, you son of a bitch, running, hovavsya! ..

B o l b o t u n. Oh, infection, infection!

Galanba enters, cold, black, with a black bayonet.

Interrogate, pan centurion, a deserter ... Franko, the disposition! Don't mess with the device!

T e l e f o n i s t. Now, Pan Colonel, now! What are you doing with him? "Don't pick..."

GALANBA (with a cold face). Which regiment?

Silence.

Which regiment?

DESERTIR (weeping). I am not a deserter. Have mercy, pan centurion! I made my way to the infirmary. My feet are frozen.

Telephonist (by phone). Where is the disposition? .. I walk gently. The commander of the kinny division is prohae the disposition ... Do you hear? .. What are you going to do with this apparatus!

G alan b a. Are your feet frozen? And why didn’t you take a look at the headquarters of your regiment? BUT? Which regiment? (Swings.)

You can hear the horses walking along the log bridge.

D e s e r t i r. Second Sich.

G alan b a. We know you, Sich. All the guards. Traitors. Bolsheviks. Take off your boots, take off. And if you do not freeze your legs, but make a mistake, then I will immediately shoot you. Boys! Flashlight!

Telephonist (by phone). Send us an orderly for approval ... To Slobodka! .. So! .. So! .. I hear! .. Gritsko! High orderly will seize the disposition for our headquarters. Dobre? .. Pan Colonel, the disposition will be at once ...

B o l b o t u n. Good...

GALANBA (pulling out Mauser). And here's a condition for you: healthy legs - you will be with me in the next world. Get behind me so I don't hit anyone.

The deserter sits on the floor, takes off his shoes. Silence.

B o l b o t u n. Tse is correct. Shchob another example.

The deserter is illuminated with a lantern.

Kirpaty (with a sigh). Frozen ... Telling the truth.

G alan b a. The note had to be taken. Note, scum! And not run away from the regiment ...

D e s e r t i r. There is no one to take a note from. We don't have a likar in our regiment. There is no one. (Crying.)

G alan b a. Take him into custody! And under arrest to the infirmary! As soon as the likar bandages his leg, return him here to the headquarters and give him fifteen ramrods, knowing the wines, how to run from his regiment without documents.

U r a g a n (bringing out). Go, go!

GALANBA (through the window). Boys, what's up? What?

Boys! Intelligence service! By horses! By horses! Get in! Get in! Kirpaty! Well, run after them! Take the tilki alive! Alive!

B o l b o t u n. Franko, keep in touch!

T e l e f o n i s t.

Stomp behind the stage. Uragan appears, introduces a man with a basket.

Man Honey, I'm fine. What are you!.. I am a craftsman...

G alan b a. What were you detained for?

Man Forgive me, comrade soldier ...

G alan b a. What? Comrade? Who is your friend here?

Man Sorry, sir.

G alan b a. I am not your master. Gentlemen, everyone is with the hetman in the city now. And we will exhaust your guts to your gentlemen. Boy, give it to you closer. Cut this gentleman in the neck. Now bachish, yaki gentlemen here? See?

Man I see.

G alan b a. Light it up guys! Meny sche is given, scho blames the communist.

Man What do you! What are you, have mercy! I am, you see, a shoemaker.

B o l b o t u n. Something you duzhe garno razmovlyaesh on the Moscow movie.

Man Kalutsky we, your health. Kaluga province. Yes, and life is not happy that they stopped here, in Ukraine, to you. I am a shoemaker.

G alan b a. Document!

Man The passport? This minute. My passport is clean.

G alan b a. What's the basket? Where did you go?

Man Boots in the basket, your... blah... wa... boots... s... We work for the shop. We ourselves live in Slobodka, but we carry boots to the city.

G alan b a. Why at night?

Man Just right, in the morning in the city.

B o l b o t u n. Boots ... Wow ... tse garno!

The hurricane opens the basket.

Man I'm sorry, dear citizen, they are not ours, from the master's goods.

B o l b o t u n. From the master! Tse is the best. The master's product is a good product. Boys, take a pair of master's goods.

Disassemble boots.

Man Citizen Minister of War! I'm going to die without these boots. Directly formally lie down in a coffin! Here for two thousand rubles ... This is the master's ...

B o l b o t u n. We will give you a receipt.

Man Excuse me, why do I need a receipt? (He rushes to Bolbotun, he gives him a blow in the ear. He rushes to Galanba.) Mister cavalryman! For two thousand rubles. The main thing is that if I were a bourgeois or, say, a Bolshevik ...

Galanba gives him in the ear.

(Sits down on the ground, bewildered.) What is this being done? And yet, take it! This means - to supply the army? .. Only let me have a couple for the company. (Starts to take off his boots.)

T e l e f o n i s t. Wonder, Pan Colonel, what does Vin rob?

B o l b o t u n. Are you laughing, bitch? Get away from the basket. How long will you be spinning under your feet? For a long time? Well, my patience has run out. Boys, step aside. (Picks up the revolver.)

Man What do you! What do you! What do you!..

B o l b o t u n. Get out of here!

The man with the basket rushes to the door.

We humbly thank you, Pan Colonel!

Telephonist (by phone). I hear!.. I hear!.. Glory! Glory! Pan Colonel! Pan Colonel! Walkers from two Hetman Serdyuk regiments came to the headquarters. Batko negotiated with them about coming over to our side.

B o l b o t u n. Glory! If these regiments will be with us, then Kyiv is ours.

Telephonist (by phone). Gritsko! And we have new boots!.. So... so... I hear, I hear... Glory! Thank you, Pan Colonel, please send a shvidche to the apparatus.

B o l b o t u n (on the phone). Colonel Bolbotun, commander of the first kin division... I hear you... So... So... I'm leaving at once. (To Galanba.) Pan centurion, order the shvidche, all four regiments on the horse! They took the approaches to the city! Glory! Glory!

U ragan, Kirpaty. Offensive?

GALANBA (through the window). Get in! Get in! By horses!

Outside the window, the rumble: "Hurrah!" Galanba runs away.

B o l b o t u n. Take off the device! Horse to me!

The telephone operator removes the device. Bustle.

Hurricane. Commander's horse!

H o l o s a. First chicken, trot march!

Another chicken, trot march! ..

Outside the window, clatter, whistle. Everyone runs off the stage. Then the harmonica rumbles, flying by...

Act Three

Picture one

The lobby of the Alexander Gymnasium. Guns in goats. Boxes, machine guns. Giant staircase. Portrait of Alexander I at the top. Dawn in glass. Behind the scenes, a roar: a division with music passes through the corridors of the gymnasium.

NIKOLKA (behind the scenes he sings to the absurd motive of a soldier's song).

The night breathed the delight of voluptuousness, Full of obscure thoughts and trembling.

Yunkera (singing deafeningly).

I was waiting for you with an insane thirst for happiness, I was waiting for you and thrilled at the window.

N and to l to and (sings).

I cleaned our corner with flowers ...

Student (on the landing of the stairs). Division, stop!

The offstage division comes to a halt with a bang.

Set aside! Captain!

M yshlaevsk and y. First Battery! On the spot! Step march!

The division marches behind the scenes.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Leg! Leg!

M yshlaevsk and y. Ah! Ah! Ah! First battery, stop!

F irst officer. Second battery, stop!

Division stops.

M yshlaevsk and y. Battery, you can smoke! At ease!

Behind the scenes, there is hum and talk.

First officer (to Myshlaevsky). I, mister captain, lack five in a platoon. Apparently, the move was given. Students!

Second officer. Actually, it's bullshit. You won't understand anything.

F irst officer. Why isn't the commander coming? We were scheduled to leave at six, and now it's a quarter to seven.

M yshlaevsk and y. Hush, lieutenant, they called to the palace by phone. Will come now. (To the junkers.) Are you cold?

F irst Junker. That's right, Mr. Captain, it's cool.

M yshlaevsk and y. Why are you standing still? Blue like a dead man. Get warm, warm up. After the command "at ease" you are not a monument. Everyone is their own oven. Cheer up! Hey, second platoon, break desks in classes, heat stoves! Alive!

Yunkera (shouting). Brothers, go to class!

Break desks, heat stoves!

Noise, bustle.

MAKSIM (appears from the closet, horrified). Your Excellency, why are you doing this? To heat stoves with desks?! What a disgrace this is! I was ordered by the director...

F irst officer. The fourteenth event...

M yshlaevsk and y. And with what, old man, to heat the stoves?

M a k s i m. Firewood, father, firewood.

M yshlaevsk and y. Where is your wood?

M a k s i m. We have no firewood.

M yshlaevsk and y. Well, get out of here, old man, sausage to hell! Hey, second platoon, what the hell?..

M a k s and m. Lord my God, saints-pleasers! What is it doing! Tatars, pure Tatars. There were many troops... (Leaves. Shouts offstage.) Gentlemen of the military, what are you doing!

Yunkera (they break desks, saw them, heat the stove. Sing).

A storm covers the sky with mist, Whirlwinds of snow twisting, Then, like a beast, she will howl, Then she will cry like a child ...

M a k s m. Eh, who kindles the stoves like that?

Y n k e r a (sing).

Oh, you, my Sasha-kanashki! ..

(Sadly.)

Have mercy on us, God, for the last time...

Sudden close break. Pause. Bustle.

F irst officer. Projectile.

M yshlaevsk and y. The break is close.

F irst Junker. This is for us, Mr. Captain, perhaps.

M yshlaevsk and y. Nonsense! Petliura spat.

The song freezes.

F irst officer. I think, Mr. Captain, that I will have to see Petliura today. I wonder what he is like?

SECOND OFFICER (gloomy). You know, don't rush.

M yshlaevsk and y. Our business is small. Let's see - we'll see. (To the junkers.) Junkers, what are you... Why are you sour? Have fun!

Y n k e r a (sing).

And when they lead us up the white stairs to the blue land...

SECOND JUNKER (flies up to Studzinsky). Division Commander!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Become! Division, calm down! Alignment to the middle! Lord officers! Lord officers!

M yshlaevsk and y. The first battery, at attention!

ALEKSEY enters.

ALEKSEY (Studzinsky). List! How many are missing?

S t u d z i n s k i y (quietly). Twenty-two people.

ALEXEY (tears the list). Our outpost on Demievka?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Yes sir!

Alexey. Return!

S t u d z i n s k i y (to the second cadet). Bring back the outpost!

The second junker. I'm listening. (Runs away.)

Alexey. I order gentlemen officers and the division to listen carefully to what I announce to them. Listen, remember. Remember, execute.

During the night, in our position, in the position of the entire Russian army, I would say, in the state position of Ukraine, sharp and sudden changes took place ... Therefore, I announce to you that I am disbanding our division.

Dead silence.

The fight against Petliura is over. I order everyone, including officers, to immediately take off their shoulder straps, all insignia and immediately run and hide at home.

I finished. Fulfill orders!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Mister Colonel! Alexey Vasilyevich!

F irst officer. Mister Colonel! Alexey Vasilyevich!

Second officer. What does it mean?

Alexey. Be silent! Don't argue! Fulfill orders! Alive!

T r e t i y o f ic e r. What does that mean, Colonel? Arrest him!

Y n k e r a. To arrest?!.

We don't understand anything!

How - to arrest?! .. What are you, mad?! ..

Petlyura broke in!..

That's the thing! I knew it!..

F irst officer. What does that mean, Colonel?

T r e t i y o f ic e r. Hey, first platoon, follow me!

Confused junkers with rifles run in.

N and to about l to and. What are you gentlemen, what are you doing?

Second officer. Arrest him! He passed on to Petlyura!

T r e t i y o f ic e r. Colonel, you are under arrest!

MYSHLAEVSKY (holding the third officer). Wait, lieutenant!

T r e t i y o f ic e r. Let me go, mister captain, hands off! Juncker, take him!

M yshlaevsk and y. Junkers, back!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Alexei Vasilievich, look what is being done.

N and to about l to and. Back!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Back, they tell you! Do not listen to junior officers!

F irst officer. Lord, what is this?

Second officer. Lord!

turmoil. Revolvers in the hands of the officers.

T r e t i y o f ic e r. Do not listen to senior officers!

F irst Junker. There's a riot in the division!

F irst officer. What are you doing?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Be silent! Attention!

T r e t i y o f ic e r. Take him!

Alexey. Be silent! I will keep talking!

Y n k e r a. Nothing to talk about!

We don't want to listen!

We don't want to listen!

Be equal to the commander of the second battery!

N and to about l to and. Let him speak.

T r e t i y o f ic e r. Hush, junker, calm down! Let him speak, we won't let him out of here!

M yshlaevsk and y. Get your junkers back this second!

F irst officer. Attention! On the spot!

Y n k e r a. Attention! Attention! Attention!

Alexey. Yes ... I would be very good if I went into battle with such a squad that the Lord God sent me in your person. But, gentlemen, what is excusable for a young volunteer is inexcusable (for the third officer) to you, Mr. Lieutenant! I thought that each of you would understand that a misfortune had happened, that your commander did not dare to say shameful things. But you are clueless. Who do you wish to protect? Answer me.

Silence.

Answer when the commander asks! Whom?

T r e t i y o f ic e r. Hetman promised to protect.

Alexey. Hetman? Fine! Today, at three o'clock in the morning, the hetman, leaving the army to the mercy of fate, fled, disguised as a German officer, in a German train to Germany. So while the lieutenant is going to defend the hetman, he is long gone. He is safely on his way to Berlin.

Y n k e r a. To Berlin?

What is he talking about?!

We don't want to listen!

F irst Junker. Gentlemen, why are you listening to him?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Be silent!

Hum. Dawn in the windows.

Alexey. But this is not enough. Simultaneously with this channel, another channel ran in the same direction - His Excellency, the commander of the army, Prince Belorukov. So, my friends, there is not only no one to protect, but even no one to command us, for the prince's headquarters set in motion with him.

Y n k e r a. It can not be!

It can't be!

It's a lie!

Alexey. Who said it's a lie? Who said it's a lie? I was at the headquarters now. I have checked all the information. I am responsible for my every word!.. So, gentlemen! Here we are, there are two hundred of us. And then there is Petliura. What am I saying - not there, but here! My friends, his cavalry is on the outskirts of the city! He has a 200,000-strong army, and we have in place we, two or three infantry squads and three batteries. Understandably? Then one of you took out a revolver at my address. He scared me crazy. Boy!

T r e t i y o f ic e r. Mister Colonel...

Alexey. Be silent! So, sir. If all of you now, under these conditions, would issue a decision to defend ... what? whom? .. in a word, go into battle - I won’t lead you, because I don’t participate in the booth, especially since you will pay for this booth with your blood and it’s completely pointless all of you!

N and to about l to and. Staff bastard! Hum and roar.

Y n k e r a. What should we do now?

Lie down in the coffin!

Go to hell!.. What are you, at a rally?

Stay still!

They were driven into a trap.

Third Junker (runs in crying). They shouted: forward, forward, and now back. If I find a hetman, I'll kill him!

F irst officer. Take this woman to hell! Junkers, listen: if what the colonel says is true, look up to me! Let's get trains - and to the Don, to Denikin!

Y n k e r a. On Don! To Denikin!

Easy business... what are you talking about!

On the Don - impossible! ..

S t u d z i n s k i y. Alexei Vasilyevich, it’s true, we need to drop everything and take the division to the Don.

Alexey. Captain Studzinsky! Do not dare! I'm in command of a division! I will order, and you - to execute! To Don? Listen, you! There, on the Don, you will meet the same thing, if only you make your way to the Don. You will meet the same generals and the same staff mob.

N and to about l to and. The same staff bastard!

Alexey. Absolutely correct. They will force you to fight your own people. And when he splits your heads open, they will run away abroad... I know that in Rostov it is the same as in Kyiv. There are divisions without shells, there are cadets without boots, and officers are sitting in coffee houses. Listen to me my friends! I, a combat officer, was instructed to push you into a fight. What would it be! But not for what. I publicly declare that I will not lead you and will not let you in! I tell you: the white movement in Ukraine is over. He will end in Rostov-on-Don, everywhere! The people are not with us. He is against us. So it's over! Coffin! Lid! And here I am, a career officer Alexei Turbin, who endured the war with the Germans, as witnessed by captains Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky, I accept everything on my conscience and responsibility, I accept everything, I warn you and, loving you, I send you home. I finished.

Tear off shoulder straps, throw rifles and immediately go home!

Junkers tear off shoulder straps, throw rifles.

M yshlaevsk and y (shouts). Quiet! Colonel, may I set fire to the gymnasium building?

Alexey. I do not allow.

Cannon strike. Glass shattered.

M yshlaevsk and y. Machine gun!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Junkers, go home!

M yshlaevsk and y. Junkers, hang up, go home!

Pipe behind the stage. The junkers and officers scatter. Nikolka hits the box with the switches with his rifle and runs away. The light goes out. Aleksey rips papers by the stove and burns them. Long pause. M a c i m enters.

Alexey. Who are you?

M a k s i m. I am the watchman here.

Alexey. Get out of here, they'll kill you here.

MAKSIM: Your Excellency, where am I going to go? I have nothing to depart from state property. In two classes, the desks were broken, they made such a loss that I can’t even express it. And the world ... There were a lot of troops, but this - sorry ...

Alexey. Old man, get away from me.

M a k s i m. Now at least cut me with a saber, but I will not leave. What was said to me by the director...

Alexey. Well, what did the director say to you?

M a k s i m. Maxim, you will be left alone ... Maxim, look ... And what about you ...

Alexey. Do you understand Russian, old man? They will kill you. Go somewhere in the basement, hide there, so that your spirit is not there.

M a k s and m. Who will answer? Maxim is responsible for everything. There were all sorts of people for the tsar and against the tsar, frenzied soldiers, but to break desks ...

Alexey. Where did the lists go? (He breaks the closet with his foot.)

MAKSIM: Your Excellency, he has the key. Gymnasium closet, and you - a leg. (Goes away, crosses himself.)

Cannon strike.

Queen of Heaven... Mistress... Lord Jesus...

Alexey. So it! Give! Give! Concert! Music! Well, you'll get me someday, sir hetman! Reptile!

Myshlaevskiy appears upstairs. A light glow seeps through the windows.

MAKSIM: Your Excellency, at least you order him. What is it? Kicked open the closet!

M yshlaevsk and y. Old man, don't get in the way. Go away.

M a k s i m. Tatars, directly Tatars ... (Disappears.)

M yshlaevsk and y (from a distance). Alyosha! I lit the storehouse! Will Petlyura have shish instead of overcoats!

Alexey. For God's sake, don't linger. Run home.

M yshlaevsk and y. The matter is small. Now I'll pump two more bombs into the hay - and go. What are you sitting on?

Alexey. Until the outpost comes running, I can't.

M yshlaevsk and y. Alyosha, is it necessary? BUT?

Alexey. Well, what are you talking about, captain!

M yshlaevsk and y. I'll stay with you then.

Alexey. What do I need you for, Victor? I order: to Elena now! Guard her! I'm following you. What are you all mad about? Will you listen or not?

M yshlaevsk and y. Okay, Alyosha. Run to Lenka!

Alexey. Nikolka, look if he's gone. Throw him in the neck, for God's sake.

M yshlaevsk and y. Okay! Alyosha, don't take risks!

Alexey. Learn a scientist!

Myshlaevsky disappears.

Really. "Seriously and very"... And when they lead us up the white stairs to the blue region... The outpost would not fall asleep...

N and k about l to a (appears upstairs, sneaks). Alyosha!

Alexey. Are you trying to joke with me, or what?! Home this minute, take off your shoulder straps! Out!

N and to about l to and. I won't go without you, Colonel.

Alexey. What?! (Pulls out revolver.)

N and to about l to and. Shoot, shoot your brother!

Alexey. Blockhead.

N and to about l to and. Scold, scold your brother. I know what you're sitting on! I know you are a commander, you expect death from shame, that's what! Well, then I'll watch over you. Lenka will kill me.

Alexey. Hey somebody! Take Junker Turbin! Captain Myshlaevsky!

N and to about l to and. Everyone's already gone!

Alexey. Well, wait, bastard, I'll talk to you at home!

Noise and clatter. The junkers who were in the outpost run in.

Y n k e r a (running through). Petliura's cavalry is next! ..

Alexey. Juncker! Listen to the command! Basement passage to Podil! I will cover you. Tear off your shoulder straps on the way!

Behind the scenes, a dashing whistle is approaching, the harmonica sounds muffled: “And it makes noise and hums ...”

Run, run! I'll cover you! (Rushes to the window upstairs.) Run, I beg you. Pity Lenka!

A close burst of a projectile. Glasses shattered. Alex falls.

N and to about l to and. Mister Colonel! Alyoshka! Alyosha, what have you done?!

Alexey. Non-commissioned officer Turbin, throw heroism to hell! (Pauses.)

N and to about l to and. Colonel... this cannot be! Alyosha, get up!

Stomp and hum. The haidamaks run in.

Hurricane. Whoa! Bach! Bach! Get it, lads! Tremay!

Kirpaty shoots Nikolka.

GALANBA (running in). Live! Live to take it, lads!

Nikolka crawls up the stairs, grinning.

K and rp a t y. Look, wolf cub! Oh you son of a bitch!

Hurricane. You will not leave! You will not leave!

Haidamaks appear.

N and to about l to and. Hangmen, don't give up! Don't give up, bandits! (Throws himself off the railing and disappears.)

K and rp a t y. Oh circus! (Shoots.) There is no one else.

G alan b a. Why did you guys release it? Ah, the hat!

Harmonica: “And it makes noise and buzzes ...” Behind the scenes, a cry: “Glory, glory!” Pipes behind the stage. Bolbotun, followed by haidamaks with standards.

Banners float up the stairs. Deafening march.

Picture two

Turbin's apartment. Dawn. There is no electricity. A candle burns on a card table.

L a r i o s i c. Elena Vasilievna, dear! Position me however you like! Do you want me to get dressed and go look for them?

Elena. Ah, no, no! What are you, Lariosik! You will be killed in the street. Will wait. My God, it's still glowing. What a terrible dawn! What's going on there? I just want to know one thing: where are they?

L a r i o s i k. My God, how terrible the civil war is!

Elena. You know what: I'm a woman, they won't touch me. I'll go and see what's going on outside.

L a r i o s i k. Elena Vasilievna, I will not let you in! Yes, I ... I simply won’t let you in! .. What will Alexei Vasilyevich tell me! He ordered not to let you out on any account, and I gave him my word.

Elena. I am close...

L a r i o s i c. Elena Vasilievna!

Elena. At least find out what's going on...

L a r i o s i k. I will go myself ...

Elena. Leave it... We'll wait...

L a r i o s i k. Your husband did very well that he left. This is a very wise move. He will now survive this terrible mess in Berlin and return.

Elena. My spouse? My husband? Don't mention my husband's name again in the house. Do you hear?

L a r i o s i k. All right, Elena Vasilievna ... I will always find something to say in time ... Maybe you want tea? I would put a samovar...

Elena. No, don't...

LARIOSSIK: Wait, wait, don't open it, you have to ask who's there. Who's there?

S h e r v i n s k i y. It's me! I... Shervinsky...

Elena. Thank God! (Opens.) What does that mean? Catastrophe?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Petliura took the city.

L a r i o s i k. Did you take it? God, what a horror!

Elena. Where are they? In battle?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Don't worry, Elena Vasilievna! I warned Aleksei Vasilyevich a few hours ago. Everything is going perfectly well.

Elena. How is everything going well? And the hetman? Troops?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Hetman fled tonight.

Elena. Did you run? Abandoned the army?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Exactly. And Prince Belorukov. (Takes off coat.)

Elena. Scoundrels!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Indescribable scoundrels!

L a r i o s i k. Why is the light not on?

S h e r v i n s k i y. They shelled the station.

L a r i o s i k. Ai-ai-ai...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Elena Vasilievna, can I hide with you? Now the officers will be searched.

Elena. Well, of course!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Elena Vasilievna, if you only knew how happy I am that you are alive and well.

Knock on the door.

Larion, ask who's there...

Lariosik opens the door. M yshlaevskii and Studzinskii enter.

Elena. Glory to you Lord! And where are Alyosha and Nikolai?

M yshlaevsk and y. Calm down, Lena. Now they will come. Don't be afraid, the streets are still free. The outpost holds them both. Oh, is this one here? Well, then you know everything...

Elena. Thank you all. Well, the Germans! Well, the Germans!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Nothing ... nothing ... someday we will all remember ... Nothing!

M yshlaevsk and y. Hello Larion!

LARIOSC. Here, Vityenka, what terrible incidents!

M yshlaevsk and y. Yes, incidents of the first class.

Elena. Who do you look like! Go get warm, I'll put the samovar on for you.

SHERVINSKII (from the fireplace). Help you, Lena?

Elena. No need. I myself. (Runs away.)

M yshlaevsk and y. Zdorovenki bula, Pan's personal adjutant. Why are you without aiguillettes? .. "Go, gentlemen, officers, to Ukraine and form your units ..." And he shed a tear. For your mother's legs!

S h e r v i n s k i y. What does this buffoonish tone mean?

M yshlaevsk and y. The booth turned out, that's why the tone is farcical. Well, you promised the Sovereign Emperor and drank for the health of your lordship. By the way, where is this lordship now, at present?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Why would you?

M yshlaevsk and y. And here's why: if I came across this very ladyship now, I would take her by the legs and slam my head on the pavement until I felt complete satisfaction. And your staff horde in the lavatory should be drowned!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Mr. Myshlaevsky, please do not forget!

M yshlaevsk and y. Scoundrels!

S h e r v i n s k i y. What-oh?

L a r i o s i k. Why quarrel?

S t u d z i n s k i y. This very minute, as a senior, I ask you to stop this conversation! Absolutely ridiculous and leads nowhere! What are you, in fact, stuck to the man? Lieutenant, calm down.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Captain Myshlaevsky's behavior has been unbearable lately... And most importantly, rudeness! Am I to blame for the crash? On the contrary, I warned you all. If it wasn't for me, it's still a question whether he would be sitting here alive or not!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Quite right, lieutenant. And we are very grateful to you.

ELENNA (enters). What's happened? What's the matter?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Elena Vasilievna, don't worry, everything will be all right. I vouch for you. Go to yourself.

Elena leaves.

Victor, I'm sorry, you have no right.

M yshlaevsk and y. Well, okay, come on, Leonid! I got excited. It's such a shame!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Pretty strange.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Come on, not before. (Sits down by the fire.)

M yshlaevsk and y. Where is Alyosha and Nikolka, really?

S t u d z i n s k i y. I myself am worried ... I wait five minutes, and after that I will go forward ...

M yshlaevsk and y. Well, it means that he gave a move in front of you?

S h e r v i n s k i y. With me: I was until the last minute.

M yshlaevsk and y. Wonderful spectacle! I would give dearly to be present at this! Why didn't you kill him like a dog?

S h e r v i n s k i y. You should go and kill him yourself!

M yshlaevsk and y. Would kill, be calm. Well, did he say anything to you as parting?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Well, he said! Hugs, thanked for the faithful service ...

M yshlaevsk and y. And shed a tear?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Yes, I teared up...

L a r i o s i k. Did you shed a tear? Tell me please!..

M yshlaevsk and y. Maybe he gave you something as a parting gift? For example, a golden monogrammed cigarette case.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Yes, he gave me a cigarette case.

M yshlaevsk and y. Look, the devil!.. Excuse me, Leonid, I'm afraid you'll get angry again. You are, in fact, a good person, but you have oddities ...

S h e r v i n s k i y. What do you mean by this?

M yshlaevsk and y. Yes, how can I put it ... You should be a writer ... You have a rich fantasy ... Shed a tear ... Well, if I said: show me the cigarette case!

Shervinsky silently shows the cigarette case.

Killed! Indeed a monogram!

S h e r v i n s k i y. What should I say, Captain Myshlaevsky?

M yshlaevsk and y. This minute. In front of you, gentlemen, I beg his pardon.

L a r i o s i k. I have never seen such beauty in my life! A whole pound probably weighs.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Eighty-four spools.

Knock on the window.

Lord!..

M yshlaevsk and y. I don't like tricks... Why not through the door?...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Gentlemen... revolvers... it's better to throw them away. (Hides the cigarette case behind the fireplace.)

Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky go up to the window and, carefully moving the curtain aside, look out.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Oh, I can't forgive myself!

M yshlaevsk and y. What a devilry!

L a r i o s i c. Oh, my God! (He rushes to inform Elena.) Elena...

M yshlaevsk and y. Where the hell are you?.. Have you lost your mind!.. How can you!

Everyone runs out. Pause. Bring in Nikolka.

Lenka, Lenka must be taken away somewhere... My God! Alyosha, where is it?.. Killing me is not enough!.. Put it down, put it down... right on the floor...

S t u d z i n s k i y. It would be better on the sofa. Look for the wound, look for the wound!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Head is broken!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Blood in the boot... Take off your boots...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Let's move it... over there... It can't be on the floor, really...

S t u d z i n s k i y. Lariosik! Lively carry a pillow and a blanket. Lay on the sofa.

They carry Nikolka to the sofa.

Cut your boots!.. Cut your boots!.. Aleksei Vasilyevich has bandages in his office.

Shervinsky runs away.

Grab the alcohol! Lord my God, how did he turn up? What is it?.. Where is Alexei Vasilievich?..

Shervinsky comes running with iodine and bandages. Studzinsky is bandaging Nikolka's head.

L a r i o s i k. Is he dying?

N and to l to and (coming to himself). ABOUT!

M yshlaevsk and y. Go crazy!.. Say only one word: where is Alyoshka?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Where is Alexei Vasilyevich?

N and to about l to and. Lord...

M yshlaevsk and y. What?

Yelena enters swiftly.

Lenochka, don't worry. He fell and hit his head. There is nothing terrible.

Elena. Yes, he was hurt! What are you saying?

N and to about l to and. No, Lenochka, no...

Elena. Where is Alexei? Where is Alexey? (Persistently.) You were with him. Answer one word: where is Alexei?

M yshlaevsk and y. What to do now?

S t u d z i n s k i y (Myshlaevsky). It can't be! Can not!..

Elena. Why are you silent?

N and to about l to and. Lenochka... Now...

Elena. Do not lie! Just don't lie! Myshlaevsky makes a sign to Nikolka - "be quiet."

S t u d z i n s k i y. Elena Vasilievna...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena, what are you...

Elena. Well, everything is clear! They killed Alexei!

M yshlaevsk and y. What are you, what are you, Lena! What did you take from?

Elena. You look at his face. Look. What a face to me! I knew, I felt, even when he left, I knew that it would end like this!

Stu dz i n s k i y (Nikolka). Say what's wrong with him?!

Elena. Larion! Alyosha was killed...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Give me some water...

Elena. Larion! Alyosha was killed! Yesterday you sat at the table with him - remember? And they killed him...

L a r i o s i k. Elena Vasilievna, dear ...

Elena. And you?! senior officers! senior officers! Everyone came home, but the commander was killed? ..

M yshlaevsk and y. Lena, have pity on us, what are you saying?! We all followed his orders. Everything!

S t u d z i n s k i y. No, she's absolutely right! I'm all to blame. You couldn't leave him! I am a senior officer, and I will correct my mistake! (Picks up a revolver.)

M yshlaevsk and y. Where? No, stop! No, stop!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Take your hands off!

M yshlaevsk and y. Well, will I be left alone? You are not to blame for anything! Nothing! I saw him last, warned him and fulfilled everything. Lena!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Captain Myshlaevsky, let me out this minute!

M yshlaevsk and y. Give me the revolver! Shervinsky!

S h e r v i n s k i y. You have no right! Do you want to make it even worse? You have no right! (Holds Studzinsky.)

M yshlaevsk and y. Lena, order him! All because of your words. Take his revolver!

Elena. I said out of grief. I got confused in my head. Give me the revolver!

S t u d z i n s k i y (hysterically). No one dares to blame me! None! None! I carried out all the orders of Colonel Turbin!

Elena. Nobody!.. Nobody!.. I went crazy.

M yshlaevsk and y. Nikolka, speak... Lena, be courageous. We'll find him... We'll find him... Be honest...

N and to about l to and. Commander killed...

Elena faints.

act four

After two months. Epiphany Christmas Eve 1919. The apartment is lit up: Elena and Lariosik are cleaning the Christmas tree.

L a r i o s i k (on the ladder). I believe that this star... (Listens mysteriously.)

Elena. What do you?

LARIOSINK: No, it seemed to me... Elena Vasilievna, I assure you, this is the end. They will take the city.

Elena. Don't rush, Lariosik, nothing is known yet.

L a r i o s i k. A sure sign - there is no shooting. I frankly confess to you, Elena Vasilievna, over the past two months I have been terribly tired of shooting. I dont like...

Elena. I share your taste.

L a r i o s i k. I believe that this star will be very appropriate here.

Elena. Get down, Lariosik, otherwise I'm afraid that you will break your head.

LARIOSINK: Well, what are you, Elena Vasilievna! .. Christmas tree to yat, as Vitenka says. I would like to see a person who would say that the tree is ugly! Ah, Elena Vasilievna, if you only knew! The Christmas tree reminds me of the irretrievable days of my childhood in Zhitomir... The lights... The green Christmas tree... (Pause.) However, I feel better here, much better than when I was a child. I wouldn’t have gone anywhere from here ... So I would have sat all my life under the tree at your feet and would not have gone anywhere ...

Elena. You would be bored. You are a terrible poet, Larion.

L a r i o s i k. No, what a poet I am! Where the hell is there ... Oh, excuse me, Elena Vasilievna!

Elena. Read, read something new. Well read. I really like your poems. You are very capable.

L a r i o s i k. Are you sincere?

Elena. Absolutely sincere.

LARIOSC. All right... I'll read it... I'll read it... Dedicated... Well, in a word, dedicated... No, I won't read poetry to you.

Elena. Why?

L a r i o s i k. No, why? ..

Elena. And to whom is it dedicated?

L a r i o s i k. To one woman.

Elena. Secret?

L a r i o s i k. Secret. To you.

Elena. Thank you dear.

LARIOSC. What a thank you to me!.. You can't make an overcoat out of thanks... Oh, excuse me, Elena Vasilievna, I got infected from Myshlaevsky. You know, such expressions come out...

Elena. I see. I think you are in love with Myshlaevsky.

L a r i o s i k. No. I'm in love with you.

Elena. Don't fall in love with me, Larion, don't.

L a r i o s i k. You know what? Marry me.

Elena. You are a touching person. Only this is impossible.

L a r i o s i k. He will not return! .. But how will you be alone? Alone, without support, without participation. Well, it's true, I'm a rather scab support ... weak, but I will love you very much. All life. You are my ideal. He won't come. Now, especially when the Bolsheviks are advancing ... He will not return!

Elena. He will not return. But that's not the point. Even if he came back, my life with him would still be over.

L a r i o s i k. They cut him off ... I could not look at you when he left. My heart was bleeding. After all, it was scary to look at you, by God ...

Elena. Was I that bad?

L a r i o s i k. Horror! Nightmare! Thin, very thin ... The face is yellow, pre-yellow ...

Elena. What are you thinking, Larion!

L a r i o s i k. Oh ... really, what the hell ... But now you are better, much better ... You are now ruddy, rosy ...

Elena. You, Lariosik, are an inimitable person. Come to me, I will kiss you on the forehead.

L a r i o s i k. On the forehead? Well, on the forehead - so on the forehead!

Elena kisses him on the forehead.

Of course, how can you love me!

Elena. It's even possible. Only I have a novel.

L a r i o s i k. What? Novel! Who? You? Are you having an affair? Can not be!

Elena. Am I not fit?

L a r i o s i k. You are a saint! You... And who is he? I know him?

Elena. And very well. L a r i o s i k. I know very well? .. Wait ... Who is it? Stop, stop, stop!.. Young man... you haven't seen anything... Get off the king, but don't touch the ladies... But I thought it was a dream. Damned lucky!

Elena. Lariosik! It is not modest!

L a r i o s i k. I'm leaving ... I'm leaving ....

Elena. Where where?

L a r i o s i k. I will go to the Armenian for vodka and drink myself unconscious ...

Elena. So I let you... Larion, I'll be your friend.

L a r i o s i k. I read it, I read it in novels ... As “I will be a friend” - that means it’s over, the end! End! (Puts on coat.)

Elena. Lariosik! Come back sooner! The guests are coming soon!

Lariosik, having opened the door, collides in the hall with Shervinsky, who comes in. He is in a vile hat and tattered coat, in blue glasses.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Hello Elena Vasilievna! Hello Larion!

L a r i o s i k. A ... hello ... hello. (Disappears.)

Elena. My God! Who do you look like!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Well, thank you, Elena Vasilievna. I already tried! Today I am driving in a cab, and already some proletarians are already darting and darting along the sidewalks. And one says in such an affectionate voice: “Look, Ukrainian master! Wait, he says, see you tomorrow. Tomorrow we will remove you from the cabs! I have an experienced eye. I, as I looked at him, immediately realized that I had to go home and change clothes. I congratulate you - Petliura cover!

Elena. What are you talking about?!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Tonight will be red. So, Soviet power and the like!

Elena. What are you happy about? You might think that you yourself are a Bolshevik!

S h e r v i n s k i y. I am sympathetic! And I rented a coat from the janitor. This is a non-partisan coat.

Elena. This minute, if you please, remove this muck!

S h e r v i n s k i y. I'm listening! (He takes off his coat, hat, galoshes, glasses, remains in a magnificent tailcoat suit.) Here, congratulations, just from the debut. Sang and accepted.

Elena. Congratulations.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena, is there anyone at home? How is Nikolka?

Elena. Asleep...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena, Lena...

Elena. Let me in... Wait, why did you shave off your sideburns?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Makeup is more convenient.

Elena. It’s more convenient for you to make up like a Bolshevik. Oh, cunning, cowardly creature! Don't be afraid, no one will touch you.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Well, let them try to touch a person who has two full octaves in his voice and two more notes at the top! .. Lenochka! Can you explain?

Elena. Explain yourself.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena! It's all over... Nikolka is recovering... Petliura is being kicked out... I made my debut... Now it's starting new life. It is impossible for us to languish any longer. He won't come. They cut him off, Lena! I'm not bad, by God! .. I'm not bad. You look at yourself. You're alone. You wither...

Elena. Will you mend?

S h e r v i n s k i y. And from what should I, Lenochka, correct myself?

Elena. Leonid, I will become your wife if you change. And above all, stop lying!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Am I such a liar, Lenochka?

Elena. You are not a liar, but God knows you, some kind of empty, like a nut... What is it?! I saw the Sovereign Emperor in a curtain. And shed a tear... And there was nothing like that. This long one is a mezzo-soprano, but it turns out that she is just a saleswoman in a Semadeni coffee shop...

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lenochka, she served for a very short time, while she was without an engagement.

Elena. She seems to have an engagement!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena! I swear on the memory of my late mother, and also on my father - we had nothing. I'm an orphan.

Elena. I do not care. I'm not interested in your dirty secrets. Another thing is important: that you stop boasting and lying. The only time he told the truth was when he spoke about a cigarette case, and then no one believed it, the proof had to be presented. Fu!.. Shame... Shame...

S h e r v i n s k i y. About the cigarette case, I just lied to everything. Hetman did not give it to me, did not hug and did not shed a tear. He just forgot it on the table, and I hid it.

Elena. Pulled off the table?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Hid. This is a historical value.

Elena. My God, this was still missing! Give it here! (Takes away the cigarette case and hides it.)

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lenochka, the cigarettes there are mine.

Elena. Blessed is your God that you thought to tell me this. What if I found out myself?

S h e r v i n s k i y. How would you know?

Elena. Savage!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Not at all. Baby, I've changed terribly. I don't recognize myself, to be honest! The catastrophe had an effect on me, or Alyosha's death... I am different now. And don't worry financially, Lenusha, I'm - wow ... Today I sang at the debut, and the director says to me: “You, says Leonid Yuryevich, show amazing hopes. You should, he says, have to go to Moscow, to the Bolshoi Theater ... ”He came up to me, hugged me and ...

Elena. So what?

S h e r v i n s k i y. And nothing ... I went along the corridor ...

Elena. Incorrigible!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena!

Elena. What are we going to do with Thalberg?

S h e r v i n s k i y. Divorce. Divorce. Do you know his address? A telegram to him and a letter that it's all over! It's over!

Elena. Well, OK! I'm bored and lonely. It's dreary. Good! I agree!

S h e r v i n s k i y. You won, Galilean! Lena! (Sings.) And you will be the queen of mi-i-i-ra ... “Salt” is pure! (Pointing to Thalberg's portrait.) I demand that he be thrown out! I can't see him!

Elena. Wow, what a tone!

SHERVINSKII (affectionately). I, Lenochka, cannot see him. (He breaks the portrait out of the frame and throws it into the fireplace.) Rat! And my conscience is clear and calm!

Elena. A frill suits you very well ... You are beautiful, what can I say! ..

S h e r v i n s k i y. We won't get lost...

Elena. Oh, I'm not afraid for you!.. You won't be lost!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena, let's go to you... I'll sing, you'll accompany... After all, we haven't seen each other for two months. All in public and in public.

Elena. Yes, they will come now.

S h e r v i n s k i y. And then we'll be back.

They leave and close the door. A piano is heard. Shervinsky sings the epithalamus from Nero in a magnificent voice.

NIKOLKA (enters, in a black cap, on crutches. Pale and weak. In a student jacket). Ah! .. Rehearsing! (Seeing the frame of the portrait.) Ah!.. Kicked out. I understand ... I guessed for a long time. (Lies down on the sofa.)

L a r i o s i k (appears in the hall). Nikolasha! Got up? One? Wait, I'll bring you a pillow. (Brings a pillow to Nikolka.)

N and to about l to and. Don't worry, Larion, you don't need to. Thanks. It can be seen, Larion, I will remain so crippled.

L a r i o s i c. Well, what are you, what are you, Nikolasha, shame on you!

N and to about l to and. Listen, Larion, why aren't they there yet?

L a r i o s i k. Not yet, but they will be soon. You know, I'm walking down the street right now - carts, carts, and on them these, with tails. It can be seen that the Bolsheviks beat them up nicely.

N and to about l to and. So they need it!

L a r i o s i k. But nevertheless I got some vodka! For the only time in my life I was lucky! I thought I would never get it. That's the kind of person I am! The weather was great when I went out. The sky is clear, the stars are shining, the cannons are not firing... Everything is going well in nature. But as soon as I show myself on the street, it will definitely snow. And indeed, he went out - and sleet sculpts in his face. But I got a bottle!.. Let Myshlaevsky know what I'm capable of. He fell twice, fucked the back of his head, but he held the bottle in his hands.

G o l o s S h e r v i n c o g o "You bless love..."

N and to about l to and. Look, see?.. Amazing news! Elena separates from her husband. She will marry Shervinsky.

L a r i o s i k (drops the bottle). Already?

N and to about l to and. Eh, Lariosik, uh!.. What are you, Larion, what are you?.. Ah... I understand! Did you crash too?

L a r i o s i k. Nikol, when it comes to Elena Vasilievna, such words as crashed are inappropriate. Understood? She is golden!

N and to about l to and. She is red, Larion, red. Downright misfortune. That's why everyone likes that the redhead. As anyone sees, now the bouquets are starting to be carried. So all the time in our apartment there were bouquets, like brooms. But Thalberg was angry. Well, you pick up the pieces, otherwise Myshlaevsky will appear right now, he will kill you.

L a r i o s i k. Don't tell him. (Picks up the pieces.)

The call, Lariosik lets in Myshlaevsky and Studzinskogo. Both are in civilian clothes.

M yshlaevsk and y. The Reds defeated Petlyura! Petliura's troops are leaving the city!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Yes Yes! The Reds are already in Slobodka. They'll be here in half an hour.

M yshlaevsk and y. Tomorrow, in this way, a Soviet republic will turn out here ... Excuse me, it smells of vodka! Who drank vodka ahead of time? Confess. Why is this being done in this God-saved house?!.. You wash floors with vodka?!.. I know whose job it is! What are you all hitting?! What are you all hitting! This is in the full sense of the word golden hands! Whatever he touches - bam, fragments! Well, if you already have such an itch - hit the sets!

Behind the stage all the time the piano.

L a r i o s i k. What right have you to make remarks to me! I do not wish!

M yshlaevsk and y. What is everyone yelling at me for? Soon they will start beating! However, today I am kind for some reason. Mir, Larion, I'm not angry with you.

N and to about l to and. Why is there no shooting?

M yshlaevsk and y. Quietly, politely go. And without any fight!

L a r i o s i k. And most importantly, the most amazing thing is that everyone rejoices, even the undercut bourgeois. Before that, everyone was tired of Petliura!

N and to about l to and. I wonder what the Bolsheviks look like?

M yshlaevsk and y. You will see, you will see.

L a r i o s i k. Captain, what do you think?

S t u d z i n s k i y. I don't know, I don't understand now. It is best for us to get up and leave after Petliura. How we White Guards will get along with the Bolsheviks, I have no idea!

M yshlaevsk and y. Where for Petliura?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Attach to some convoy and go to Galicia.

M yshlaevsk and y. And then where?

S t u d z i n s k i y. And there on the Don, to Denikin, and fight the Bolsheviks.

M yshlaevsk and y. Again, then, to the generals under command? This is a very smart plan. It is a pity that Alyoshka is lying in the ground, otherwise he could tell a lot of interesting things about the generals. But it's a pity, the commander calmed down.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Do not torment my soul, do not remember.

M yshlaevsk and y. No, excuse me, he's gone, excuse me, I'll talk... Back to the army, fight again? Especially when I saw Alyoshka in the anatomical theater.

Nikolka cried.

L a r i o s i k. Nikolasha, Nikolasha, what are you, wait a minute!

M yshlaevsk and y. Enough! I have been fighting since 1914. For what? For the fatherland? And this is the fatherland, when they threw me to shame?! .. And I again go to these lordships ?! Oh no. Did you see? (Shows shish.) Shish!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Please explain yourself in words.

M yshlaevsk and y. I'll explain now, be trustworthy. What am I, an idiot, really? No, I, Viktor Myshlaevsky, declare that I have nothing more to do with these scoundrel generals. I finished!

L a r i o s i k. Viktor Myshlaevsky became a Bolshevik.

M yshlaevsk and y. Yes, if you like, I am for the Bolsheviks!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Victor, what are you talking about?

M yshlaevsk and y. I am for the Bolsheviks, but only against the Communists.

S t u d z i n s k i y. This is ridiculous. You need to understand what you are talking about.

Lariosik: Let me tell you that they are one and the same: Bolshevism and communism.

M yshlaevskii (mimicking). "Bolshevism and Communism". Well, then for the communists ...

S t u d z i n s k i y. Listen, captain, you mentioned the word "fatherland." What kind of fatherland, when the Bolsheviks? Russia is finished. You remember, the commander said, and the commander was right: here they are, the Bolsheviks! ..

M yshlaevsk and y. Bolsheviks?.. Excellent! Very glad!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Yes, they will mobilize you.

M yshlaevsk and y. And I will go and serve. Yes!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Why?!

M yshlaevsk and y. And here's why! That's why! Because at Petlyura, you said how much? Two hundred thousand! These two hundred thousand heels have been smeared with lard and are blowing at the very word "Bolsheviks". Did you see? Purely! Because behind the Bolsheviks there are a cloud of peasants ... And what can I oppose to them all? Leggings with piping? And they can't see this edge... Now they take up machine guns. Wouldn't you like to... In the front are the Red Guards, like a wall, in the back are speculators and all sorts of riffraff with the hetman, and I'm in the middle? Submissive servant! No, I'm tired of portraying manure in the hole. Let them mobilize! At least I will know that I will serve in the Russian army. The people are not with us. The people are against us. Alyosha was right!

S t u d z i n s k i y. But what the hell is the Russian army when they finished off Russia?! Yes, they will shoot us anyway!

M yshlaevsk and y. And they will do great! They will take it to the Cheka, tax it and withdraw it to the expense. And they are calmer, and we ...

S t u d z i n s k i y. I will fight them!

M yshlaevsk and y. Please put on your overcoat! Go ahead! Blow!.. Shpar to the Bolsheviks, shout to them: I won't let you in! Nikolka has already been thrown down the stairs once! Did you take your head off? And you will be completely torn off. And rightly so - do not climb. Now things are not ours!

L a r i o s i k. I am against the horrors of civil war. In fact, why shed blood?

M yshlaevsk and y. Have you been to the war?

L a r i o s i k. Vitenka, I have a white ticket. Weak lungs. And besides, I'm the only son of my mother.

M yshlaevsk and y. That's right, comrade white ticket.

S t u d z i n s k i y. We had Russia - a great power! ..

M yshlaevsk and y. And it will be!.. It will be!

S t u d z i n s k i y. Yes, it will be, it will be - wait!

M yshlaevsk and y. The old will not be, the new will be. New! And here's what you tell me. When you are smashed to pieces on the Don - and that they will sack you, I predict to you - and when your Denikin gives a tear abroad - and I also predict this to you - then where?

S t u d z i n s k i y. Also abroad.

M yshlaevsk and y. You are needed there like a third wheel for a cannon! Wherever you go, they will spit in your mug from Singapore to Paris. I will not go, I will be here in Russia. And be with her what will be!.. Well, it's over, that's enough, I'm closing the meeting.

S t u d z i n s k i y. I see that I am alone.

SHERVINSKII (runs in). Wait, wait, don't close the meetings. I have an extraordinary application. Elena Vasilievna Talberg divorces her husband, former Colonel of the General Staff Talberg, and leaves ... (Bows, pointing to himself.)

Elena enters.

L a r i o s i k. Ah! ..

M yshlaevsk and y. Come on, Larion, where are we with the cloth snout in the Kalash row. Lena clear, let me hug and kiss you.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Congratulations, Elena Vasilievna.

MYSHLAEVSKY (follows Lariosik, who has run into the hall). Larion, congratulations - uncomfortable! Then you come back here.

L a r i o s i k (Elena). I congratulate you and wish you happiness. (to Shervinsky) Congratulations... congratulations.

M yshlaevsk and y. But well done, well done! After all, what a woman! He speaks English, plays the piano, but at the same time he can put on a samovar. I myself would marry you, Lena, with pleasure.

Elena. I wouldn't marry you, Vitenka.

M yshlaevsk and y. Well, it is not necessary. I love you so much. And I myself am mostly a bachelor and a military man. I like it to be cozy at home, without women and children, like in the barracks ... Larion, pour it! We must congratulate!

S h e r v i n s k i y. Wait, gentlemen! Don't drink this wine! I'll bring it to you now. You know what kind of wine it is! Wow! .. (He looked at Elena, faded.) Well, the average wine. Ordinary "Abrau-Durso".

M yshlaevsk and y. Lena, your work! Get married, Shervinsky, you're perfectly healthy! Well, congratulations and I wish you...

The door to the hall opens, and Thalberg enters in a civilian overcoat, with a suitcase.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Lord! Vladimir Robertovich... Vladimir Robertovich...

Talberg. My respect.

Dead pause.

M yshlaevsk and y. This number!

Talberg Hello, Lena! Are you surprised?

A little strange! It would seem that I could be more surprised to find such a cheerful company in my half at such a difficult time. Hello Lena. What does it mean?

S h e r v i n s k i y. And here's what...

Elena. Wait a minute... Gentlemen, everyone come out for a minute, leave us alone with Vladimir Robertovich.

S h e r v i n s k i y. Lena, I don't want to!

M yshlaevsk and y. Wait, wait... We'll settle everything. Keep calm... Should we roll out, Lenochka?

Elena. Yes.

M yshlaevsk and y. I know you are smart. In which case, call me. Personally. Well, gentlemen, let's smoke, let's go to Larion. Larion, take your pillow and let's go.

Everyone leaves, and for some reason Lariosik is on tiptoe.

Elena. I ask you to.

Talberg: What does all this mean? Please explain.

What jokes? Where is Alexey?

Elena. Alexei was killed.

Talberg: It can't be!.. When?

Elena. Two months ago, two days after you left.

TALBERG: Oh, my God, it's terrible! But I did warn you. Do you remember?

Elena. Yes I remember. And Nikolka is a cripple.

Talberg: Of course, all this is terrible... But I'm not to blame for this whole story... And you must admit that this is by no means the reason for organizing such a, I would say, stupid demonstration.

Elena. Tell me how did you get back? After all, today the Bolsheviks will already be ...

Talberg: I ​​am well aware of the matter. The Hetmanate turned out to be a stupid operetta. The Germans deceived us. But in Berlin I managed to get a business trip to the Don, to General Krasnov. Kyiv must be abandoned immediately ... there is no time ... I'm behind you.

Elena. You see, I am divorcing you and marrying Shervinsky.

TALBERG (after a long pause). Good! Very good! To take advantage of my absence to arrange a vulgar novel...

Elena. Victor!..

Enter M yshlaevsk and y.

M yshlaevsk and y. Lena, are you authorizing me to explain myself?

Elena. Yes! (Exits.)

M yshlaevsk and y. Understood. (Goes up to Thalberg.) Well? Out! .. (Strikes him.)

Thalberg is confused. Goes to the front, leaves.

M yshlaevsk and y. Lena! Personally!

Elena enters.

Left. Gives a divorce. We talked very nicely.

Elena. Thank you Victor! (Kisses him and runs away.)

M yshlaevsk and y. Larion!

L a r i o s i k (enters). Already left?

M yshlaevsk and y. Gone!

L a r i o s i c. You are a genius, Vitenka!

M yshlaevsk and y. "I am a genius - Igor Severyanin." Put out the lights, light the tree and play some kind of march.

Lariosik puts out the light in the room, illuminates the Christmas tree with electric bulbs, runs out into the next room. March.

Lord, please!

Enter Shervinsky, Studzinsky, Nikolka and Yelena.

S t u d z i n s k i y. Very nice! And how comfortable it was!

M yshlaevsk and y. Larion's work. Well, now let me congratulate you for real. Larion, that's enough!

LARIOSC enters with a guitar, hands it to Nikolka.

Congratulations, Lena clear, once and for all. Forget everything. And in general - your health! (Drinking.)

N and kolka (touches the strings of the guitar, sings).

Tell me, sorcerer, favorite of the gods, What will come true in my life? And soon, to the delight of the neighbors-enemies of Mogilnaya, will I be covered with earth? So louder, music, play victory, We won, and the enemy is running, running, running!

M yshlaevsk and y (sings). So for the Council of People's Commissars...

Everyone, except Studzinsky, picks up:

“We will burst out loud“ Hurrah! Hooray! Hooray!".

S t u d z i n s k i y. Well, the devil knows what!.. Shame on you!

N and to l to and (sings).

From the dark forest, an inspired wizard walks towards him...

L a r i o s i k. Wonderful! .. Lights ... Christmas tree ...

M yshlaevsk and y. Larion! Give us a speech!

N and to about l to and. That's right, talk!

L a r i o s i c. I, gentlemen, really do not know how! And besides, I'm very shy.

M yshlaevsk and y. Larion speaks!

L a r i o s i k. Well, if society pleases, I will say. I'm just sorry, I didn't prepare. Lord! We met at the most difficult and terrible time, and we all went through a lot, a lot ... including myself. I survived the drama of life ... And my fragile ship was battered by the waves of the civil war for a long time ...

M yshlaevsk and y. How good about the ship ...

L a r i o s i c. Yes, a ship ... Until it was washed up in this harbor with cream curtains, with people that I liked so much ... However, I found drama with them too ... Well, not it is worth talking about sorrows. Time has turned. Here Petlyura disappeared... Everyone is alive... yes... we are all together again... And even more than that: here is Elena Vasilyevna, she also experienced a lot, a lot and deserves happiness, because she is a wonderful woman. And I want to tell her in the words of the writer: "We will rest, we will rest ..."

Distant cannon strikes.

M yshlaevsk and y. So, sir! .. Have a rest! .. Five ... six ... Nine! ..

Elena. Is there a fight again?

S h e r v i n s k i y. No. It's fireworks!

M yshlaevsk and y. Quite right: the six-inch battery salutes.

Behind the scene from afar, getting closer, the orchestra plays the "Internationale".

Lord, do you hear? It's the red ones coming!

Everyone goes to the window.

N and to about l to and. Gentlemen, tonight is a great prologue to a new historical play.

S t u d z i n s k i y. To whom - a prologue, and to whom - an epilogue.

Notes

1

"Whoever goes hunting loses his place" (French). Here and in what follows, the translation is made by the author.

(back)

2

Please, call Major von Doust to the telephone. Yes... Yes... (German)

(back)

3

We have the honor to greet Your Grace (German).

(back)

4

I am very glad to see you, gentlemen. Please sit down ... I have just received news of the plight of our army (German).

(back)

5

We have known about this for a long time.

(back)

6

This is unheard of! (German)

(back)

7

Your Excellency, we don't have time. We must... (German)

(back)

8

Quiet! (German)

(back)

9

Homeland is homeland (German).

(back)

10

Mr. Doctor, be so kind... (German)

(back)

11

Done (German).

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12

This minute (German).

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13

Goodbye (German)

(back).

Characters

Act one

Picture one

Picture two

Action two

Picture one

Picture two

Act Three

Picture one

Picture two

Action four. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Days of the Turbins"

1 History of the creation of the play

On April 3, 1925, at the Moscow Art Theater, Bulgakov was offered to write a play based on the novel The White Guard. Bulgakov began work on the first edition in July 1925. In the play, as in the novel, Bulgakov based himself on his own memories of Kyiv during civil war. The author read the first edition in the theater in early September of the same year, subsequently the play was repeatedly edited. The play was allowed to be staged on September 25, 1926.

Modern critics attribute the play to the pinnacle of Bulgakov's theatrical success, but her stage fate was thorny.

The play premiered at the Moscow Art Theater on October 5, 1926. The production, where the stars of the Moscow Art Theater were occupied, enjoyed great audience success, but received devastating reviews in the then Soviet press. In April 1929, The Days of the Turbins were withdrawn from the repertoire. The author was accused of petty-bourgeois and bourgeois mood, propaganda of the white movement.

But Bulgakov's patron turned out to be Stalin himself, who watched the play about twenty times. With his instructions, the performance was restored and entered the classical repertoire of the theater. For Mikhail Bulgakov, who was doing odd jobs, staging at the Moscow Art Theater was perhaps the only way to support his family.

On February 16, 1932, the production was resumed and continued on the stage of the Art Theater until June 1941. In total, in 1926-1941, the play ran 987 times.

Editions of the play : "Days of the Turbins" - a play by M. A. Bulgakov, written on the basis of the novel "The White Guard". At the beginning of September 1925, in the presence of Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (Alekseev) (1863-1938), he read the first edition of the play in the theater. Almost everything has been repeated here. storylines novel and retained its main characters. Aleksey Turbin was still a military doctor, and Colonels Malyshev and Nai-Tours were among the actors. This edition did not satisfy the Moscow Art Theater because of its length and the presence of characters and episodes duplicating each other. In the next edition, which Bulgakov read to the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater at the end of October 1925, Nai-Tours was already eliminated and his remarks were transferred to Colonel Malyshev. And by the end of January 1926, when the final distribution of roles in the future performance was made, Bulgakov also removed Malyshev, turning Alexei Turbin into a career artillery colonel, a true spokesman for the ideology of the white movement. Andrei Mikhailovich Zemsky (1892-1946), the husband of Bulgakov's sister Nadezhda, served as an artillery officer in 1917. Acquaintance with the son-in-law prompted the playwright to make the main characters of D.T. gunners.

Now the hero closest to the author - Colonel Turbin - gave the white idea a catharsis with his death. By this point, the play had basically taken shape. Later, under the influence of censorship, a scene was filmed at Petliura's headquarters, for Petliura's freemen in their cruel element very much resembled Red Army soldiers. In early editions, as in the novel, the "turnover" of the Petliurists in red was emphasized by the "red tails" (shanks) on their hats.

The name "White Guard" provoked an objection. K. S. Stanislavsky, under pressure from the Glavrepertkom, proposed replacing it with "Before the End", which Bulgakov categorically rejected. In August 1926, the parties agreed on the name "Days of the Turbins" (the "Turbin Family" appeared as an intermediate option). On September 25, 1926, D.T. were allowed by the Glavrepertkom only in the Moscow Art Theater. In the last days before the premiere, a number of changes had to be made, especially in the finale, where all the growing sounds of the “Internationale” appeared, and Myshlaevsky was forced to say a toast to the Red Army and express his readiness to serve in it: “At least I know that I will serve in the Russian army."