Summary of the Pawn Chapter. The main characters of the story

The narrative opens with a letter to friend Alexei Mikhailovich Kutuzov, in which Radishchev explains his feelings that forced him to write this book. This is a kind of blessing for work.

Departure

Sofia

Having taken the travel document, our traveler goes to the commissar for horses, but they don’t give them horses, they say that they don’t have them, although there are up to twenty nags in the stable. Twenty kopecks had an effect “on the coachmen.” They harnessed the troika behind the commissar's back, and the traveler set off further. The cab driver sings a mournful song, and the traveler reflects on the character of the Russian man. If a Russian wants to disperse his melancholy, he goes to a tavern; whatever doesn’t suit him, he gets into a fight. The traveler asks God why he turned away from people?

Tosna

A discussion about a disgusting road that is impossible to overcome even in summer rains. In the station hut, the traveler meets an unsuccessful writer - a nobleman who wants to sell him his literary work “about the loss of privileges by the nobles.” The traveler gives him copper pennies, and offers to give the “labor” to the peddlers by weight so that they can use the paper for “wrapping”, because it is not suitable for anything else.

Lyubani

A traveler sees a peasant plowing on a holiday and wonders if he is a schismatic? The peasant is Orthodox, but he is forced to work on Sunday, because... six days a week he goes to corvée. The peasant says that he has three sons and three daughters, the eldest is only ten years old. To keep his family from starving, he has to work at night. He works diligently for himself, but only barely for his master. He is the only worker in the family, but the master has many. The peasant envies the quitrent and state peasants, their lives are easier, then he re-harnesses the horses so that they can rest, while he himself works without rest. The traveler mentally curses all the exploiting landowners and himself for offending his Petrushka when he was drunk.

Miracle

The traveler meets with a university friend, Chelishchev, who talks about his adventure in the raging Baltic, where he almost died because an official refused to send help, saying: “It’s not my position.” Now Chelishchev is leaving the city - “a host of lions”, so as not to see these villains.

Spasskaya field

The traveler got caught in the rain and asked to go into the hut to dry off. There he hears his husband's story about an official who loves "oysters" (oysters). For fulfilling his whim - delivering oysters - he gives ranks and awards from the state treasury. The rain has stopped. The traveler continued his journey with a companion who had asked for it. A fellow traveler tells his story of how he was a merchant, trusted dishonest people, was put on trial, his wife died during childbirth, which began due to worries a month earlier. A friend helped this unfortunate man escape. The traveler wants to help the fugitive, in a dream he imagines himself as an all-powerful ruler, whom everyone admires. This dream reveals to him the wanderer Straight-View, she removes the thorns from his eyes that prevent him from seeing the truth. The author states that the tsar was known among the people as “a deceiver, a hypocrite, a pernicious comedian.” Radishchev shows the discrepancy between Catherine's words and deeds; the ostentatious splendor, the lush, decorative façade of the empire hides behind it terrible scenes of oppression. Pryovzora turns to the king with words of contempt and anger: “Know that you are... the first robber, the first traitor of general silence, the fiercest enemy, directing his anger at the inside of the weak.” Radishchev shows that there are no good kings; they pour out their favors only on the unworthy.

Podberezye

The traveler meets a young man going to St. Petersburg to study with his uncle. Here are the young man's thoughts about the detrimental lack of an education system for the country. He hopes that the descendants will be happier in this regard, because... will be able to study.

Novgorod

The traveler admires the city, remembering its heroic past and how Ivan the Terrible set out to destroy the Novgorod Republic. The author is outraged: what right did the tsar have to “appropriate Novgorod”?

The traveler then goes to his friend, Karp Dementich, who married his son. Everyone sits at the table together (the owner, the young couple, the guest). The traveler draws portraits of his hosts. And the merchant talks about his affairs. Just as he was “launched around the world,” now the son is trading.

Bronnitsy

The traveler goes to the sacred hill and hears the menacing voice of the Almighty: “Why did you want to know the secret?” “What are you looking for, foolish child?” Where the “great city” once was, the traveler sees only poor shacks.

Zaitsev

The traveler meets his friend Krestyankin, who once served and then retired. Krestyankin, a very conscientious and warm-hearted man, was the chairman of the criminal chamber, but left his position, seeing the futility of his efforts. Krestyankin talks about a certain nobleman who began his career as a court stoker, and tells about the atrocities of this unscrupulous man. The peasants could not stand the bullying of the landowner's family and killed everyone. The peasant justified the “guilty” who had been driven to murder by the landowner. No matter how hard Krestyankin fought for a fair solution to this case, nothing happened. They were executed. And he resigned so as not to be an accomplice to this crime. The traveler receives a letter that tells about a strange wedding between “a 78-year-old young man and a 62-year-old young woman,” a certain widow engaged in pimping, and in her old age decided to marry the baron. He marries for money, and in her old age she wants to be called “Your Highness.” The author says that without the Buryndas the light would not have lasted even three days; he is outraged by the absurdity of what is happening.

Sacrum

Seeing the separation of the father from his sons going to work, the traveler recalls that out of one hundred serving noblemen, ninety-eight “become rakes.” He grieves that he too will soon have to part with his eldest son. The author’s reasoning leads him to the conclusion: “Tell the truth, loving father, tell me, true citizen! Don't you want to strangle your son rather than let him go into service? Because in the service everyone cares about their own pockets, and not about the good of their homeland.” The landowner, calling on the traveler to witness how hard it is for him to part with his sons, tells them that they do not owe him anything, but must work for the good of the fatherland.

To do this, he raised and cared for them, taught them sciences and forced them to think. He admonishes his sons not to stray from the true path, not to lose their pure and high souls.

Yazhelbitsy

Driving past the cemetery, the traveler sees a heartbreaking scene when a father, rushing at his son’s coffin, does not allow him to be buried, crying that they are not burying him with his son in order to stop his torment. For he is guilty that his son was born weak and sick and suffered so much as long as he lived. The traveler mentally reasons that he, too, probably passed on to his sons diseases with the vices of his youth.

Valdai

This ancient town is famous for the amorous affection of unmarried women. The traveler says that everyone knows “Valdai bagels and shameless girls.” Next, he tells the legend of a sinful monk who drowned in a lake during a storm while swimming to his beloved.

Edrovo

The traveler sees many elegant women and girls. He admires their healthy appearance, reproaching the noblewomen for disfiguring their figures by wearing corsets, and then dying from childbirth, because... for years they spoiled their bodies for the sake of fashion. The traveler talks to Annushka, who at first behaves sternly, and then, getting into conversation, said that her father died, she lives with her mother and sister, and wants to get married. But they ask a hundred rubles for the groom. Vanyukha wants to go to St. Petersburg to earn money. But the traveler says: “Don’t let him go there, there he will learn to drink and get out of the habit of peasant labor.” He wants to give money, but the family won’t take it. He is amazed by their nobility.

Khotilov

Written on behalf of another traveler, even more progressive in his views than Radishchev. Our traveler finds papers left by his brother. Reading them, he finds arguments similar to his thoughts about the harmfulness of slavery, the evil nature of landowners, and the lack of enlightenment.

Vyshny Volochok

The traveler admires the locks and man-made canals. He talks about a landowner who treated peasants like slaves. They worked for him all day, and he gave them only meager food. The peasants did not have their own plots or livestock. And this “barbarian” flourished. The author calls on the peasants to destroy the estate and tools of this nonhuman, who treats them like oxen.

Vydropusk (again written from someone else’s notes)

The author says that the kings imagined themselves to be gods, surrounded themselves with a hundred servants and imagined that they were useful to the fatherland. But the author is sure that this order needs to be changed. The future is education. Only then will there be justice when people become equal.

Torzhok

The traveler meets a man who wants to open a free printing house. What follows is a discussion about the harmfulness of censorship. “What harm will it do if books are printed without the police stamp?” The author claims that the benefits of this are obvious: “Rulers are not free to separate the people from the truth.” The author in “A Brief Narrative of the Origin of Censorship” says that censorship and the Inquisition have the same roots. And tells the history of printing and censorship in the West. And in Russia... in Russia, what happened with censorship, he promises to tell “another time.”

Copper

The traveler sees a round dance of young women and girls. And then there is a description of the shameful public sale of peasants. A 75-year-old man is waiting to see who will give it to him. His 80-year-old wife was the nurse of the mother of a young master who mercilessly sold his peasants. There is also a 40-year-old woman, the master’s wet nurse, and the entire peasant family, including the baby, going under the hammer. It is scary for a traveler to see this barbarity.

Tver

The traveler listens to the arguments of the tavern interlocutor “at lunch” about the poetry of Lomonosov, Sumarokov and Trediakovsky. The interlocutor reads excerpts from Radishchev’s ode “Liberty,” allegedly written by him, which he is taking to St. Petersburg to publish. The traveler liked the poem, but he did not have time to tell the author about it, because... he left quickly.

Gorodnya

Here the traveler sees a recruitment drive, hears the screams and cries of the peasants, and learns about the many violations and injustices happening during this process. The traveler listens to the story of the servant Vanka, who was raised and taught together with a young master, called Vanyusha, and sent abroad not as a slave, but as a comrade. But the old master favored him, and the young master hated him and was jealous of his success. The old man died. The young master got married, and his wife hated Ivan, humiliated him in every possible way, and then decided to marry him to a dishonored courtyard girl. Ivan called the landowner an “inhuman woman,” and then he was sent to become a soldier. Ivan is happy about this fate. Then the traveler saw three peasants whom the landowner sold as recruits, because... he needed a new carriage. The author is amazed at the lawlessness happening around.

Zavidovo

The traveler sees a warrior in a grenadier's hat, who, demanding horses, threatens the headman with a whip. By order of the headman, fresh horses were taken away from the traveler and given to the grenadier. The traveler is outraged by this order of things. What will you do?

Wedge

The traveler listens to the mournful song of the blind man, and then gives him a ruble. The old man is surprised by the generous alms. He's more excited about the birthday cake than the money. For the ruble can lead someone into temptation, and it will be stolen. Then the traveler gives the old man his scarf from his neck.

Pawns

The traveler treats the child with sugar, and his mother tells her son: “Take the master’s food.” The traveler is surprised why this is bar food. The peasant woman replies that she has nothing to buy sugar with, but they drink it at the bar because they don’t get the money themselves. The peasant woman is sure that these are the tears of slaves. The traveler saw that the owner's bread consisted of three parts of chaff and one part of unsown flour. He looked around for the first time and was horrified by the wretched surroundings. With anger he exclaims: “Cruel-hearted landowner! Look at the children of the peasants who are under your control!”, calls on the exploiters to come to their senses.

Black mud

The traveler meets the wedding train, but is very sad, because... They are going down the aisle under the compulsion of their master.

A word about Lomonosov

The author, passing by the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, entered it in order to honor the grave of the great Lomonosov with his presence. He recalls the life path of a great scientist striving for knowledge. Lomonosov eagerly studied everything that could be learned at that time and studied poetry. The author comes to the conclusion that Lomonosov was great in all matters that he touched.

And now it’s Moscow! Moscow!!!

Good retelling? Tell your friends on social networks and let them prepare for the lesson too!

"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow - SACRES"

Sacrum

In Kresttsy, I witnessed a separation between a father and his children, which touched me all the more sensitively because I am a father myself and may soon be parting with my children. - The unfortunate prejudice of the noble rank tells them to go into service. This one name sets all the blood into extraordinary motion!

A thousand to one, you can say that out of a hundred noblemen who enter the service, 98 become rakes, and two in old age, or, more correctly, two in their decrepit, although not old years, become good people. Others rise to rank, squander or acquire property, and so on. ...Sometimes looking at my big son and thinking that he will soon enter the service or, in other words, that the bird will fly out of the cage, my hair stands on end. Not so that service itself corrupts morals; but in order to have mature morals one must begin the service.

Others will say: who pushes such suckers in the neck? - Who? A general example. Staff officer, seventeen years old; twenty-year-old colonel; twenty-year-old general; chamberlain, senator, governor, chief of troops. And what father would not want his children, even when they are young, to be in noble ranks, followed by wealth, honor and intelligence. Looking at my son, it seems to me: he began to serve, became acquainted with helipads, dissolute people, gamblers, and dandies. I learned to dress up neatly, play cards, use cards to get food, talk about everything without thinking anything, hang around girls or tell nonsense to ladies. Somehow fortune, spinning on a chicken leg, favored him; and my son, without yet shaving his beard, became a noble boyar. He dreamed of himself that he was smarter than everyone in the world. What good can be expected from such a commander or mayor?

Tell me the truth, dear father, tell me, O true citizen! Wouldn't you rather have your son strangled than let him go into service? Doesn’t it pain your heart that your son, a noble boyar, despises merit and dignity, so that their fate is to grovel in the path of ranks, abhorring sneakiness? Won't you weep? that your dear son with a pleasant smile will take away property, honor, poison and slaughter people, not always with his boyar hands, but through the paws of his favorites.

The Krestitsky nobleman seemed to me to be about fifty years old. Sparse gray hairs barely showed through the light brown hair of his head. The regular features of his face marked his soul as calm, unapproachable to passions. A gentle smile of serene pleasure, born of gentleness, pitted his cheeks with pits that are so seductive in women; his gaze, when I entered the room where he was sitting, was fixed on his two sons. His eyes, the eyes of a well-dissolved mind, seemed covered with a slight film of sadness; but the sparks of firmness and hope flew by quickly. Before him stood two young men, almost equal in age, of the same year in the time of birth, but not in the procession of mind and heart they differed from each other. For the ardor of a parent accelerated the disintegration of the mind in the younger one, and the love of a brother moderated the success in sciences in the older one.

The concepts of things were equal in them, they knew the rules of life equally, but nature implanted the sharpness of their minds and the movements of their hearts in them differently. The older man's gaze was firm, his facial features unshakable, and showed the beginnings of a timid soul and steadfastness in undertakings. The younger man's gaze was sharp, his facial features were shaky and unstable. But their smooth movement was an undeceiving sign of the good advice of their fathers. They looked at their father with a timidity unusual for them, from the grief of the impending separation that was taking place, and not from a feeling of power or superiority over them. Rare drops of tears streamed from their eyes.

“My friends,” said the father, “today we will part,” and, hugging them, he pressed the sobbing ones to his chest. I had already witnessed this spectacle for several minutes, standing motionless at the door, like a father turning to me:

Be a witness, sensitive traveler, be a witness to me before the world, how hard it is for my heart to fulfill the sovereign will of custom. I, separating my children from the watchful eye of their parents, have only one urge to do so: let them gain experience, let them know a person from his deeds and, bored with the thunder of worldly life, let them leave him with joy; but let them have peace in persecution and their daily bread in poverty. And for this reason I remain in my field. Do not give (Give - give.), all-generous lord, do not let them wander for the alms of nobles and find a comforter in them! Let their hearts go out to them; let us do good to them with their minds.

Sit down and listen to my word, which must abide in the interior of your souls. I will repeat to you, today we will be separated. With indescribable pleasure I see your tears watering the cheeks of your face. May this trembling advice of your soul carry it into its holiness, may it be shaken at my remembrance, and may I be a shield for you from evils and sorrows.

Having accepted you, even from the womb, into my arms, I did not want anyone to be a steward (caretaker - educator, mentor.) in the accomplishments that concern you. Never has a hired caretaker touched your body, and never a hired mentor has touched your heart and mind. The vigilant eye of my ardor watched over you day and night, so that no insult would come near you; and I call myself blessed, having brought you to separation from me. But do not imagine that I want to extract from your lips gratitude for my care for you or recognition, albeit weak, of what I have done for you. We are driven by our own selfish motives, undertaken for your benefit always had in mind my own pleasure. So, remove from your thoughts that you eat under my power. You don't owe me anything. I want to seek the firmness of our union not in reason, but even less in law. It will be based on your heart. Woe to you if you leave him in oblivion! My image, pursuing the violator of the union of our friendship, will marry him in his secrecy and arrange for him an intolerable execution, until he returns to the union. I also tell you that you don’t owe me anything. Look at me as a stranger and stranger, and if your heart feels some tender inclination towards me, then we will live in friendship, in this greatest prosperity on earth. If it remains without sensation, let us forget each other, as if we would never be born. Grant, O all-generous one, that I may not see this, having gone into your depths, this was preceded! You don’t owe me for feeding or instruction, and least of all for giving birth.

For birth? - Were you a participant? Were you asked and will you be born? Was your birth beneficial or harmful? Do the father and mother, when giving birth to their son, know whether they will be blessed in life or ill-fated? Who can say that when entering into marriage, he was thinking about inheritance and descendants; and if he had this intention, then did he want to produce them for the sake of bliss, or to preserve his name? How can I wish good to someone I don’t know, and what is this?

Can an indefinite desire, anointed with the unknown, be called good?

The urge to marry will also reveal the guilt of birth. Seduced more by the kindness of your mother’s soul than by the beauty of your face, I used the sure method for mutual ardor, sincere love. I received your mother as my wife. But what was the motive of our love? Mutual enjoyment;

delight of the flesh and spirit. While enjoying the joy commanded by nature, we did not think about you. Your birth was pleasant for us, but not for you. Self-production flattered vanity; your birth was new and sensual, so to speak, a union, a confirming union of hearts. He is the source of the initial fervor of parents towards their sons; it is reinforced by habit, a sense of one’s power, and the reflection of filial praise towards the father.

Your mother had the same opinion as me about the insignificance of your positions, which stem from birth. She was not proud of you that she carried you in her womb, she did not demand gratitude, feeding you with her blood; I didn’t want respect for the pain of birth, nor for the boredom of feeding with my own breasts. She tried to give you a good soul, as she herself had, and wanted to instill friendship in her, but not duty, position or slavish obedience. Fate did not allow her to see the fruits of her plantings. She left us with the firmness of spirit, but she still did not want death, your infancy and my ardor were in vain.

Be like her, we won’t lose her at all. She will live with us until we go to her. You know that my dearest conversation with you is about the one who gave birth to you. Then, it seems, her soul talks to us, then she becomes present to us, then she appears in us, then she is still alive. - And the speaker wiped away the drops of tears held in his soul.

As little as you owe me for giving birth, you owe me just as much for raising me. When I treat a stranger, when I feed feathered chicks, when I give food to a dog that licks my right hand, is it for their sake that I do this? I find my own joy, amusement or benefit in this. It is with the same motivation that children are raised. Having been born into the world, you have become citizens of the society in which you live. It was my duty to feed you; for if he had allowed you to die untimely, he would have been a murderer. If I was more diligent in nurturing you than many are, then I followed the feeling of my heart. The power is mine; Yes, I worry about your nourishment or neglect it; May I preserve your days or be a wasteful person in them; I will leave you alive or let you die prematurely - there is clear evidence that you do not owe me that you are alive. If you had died from my neglect of you, as many die, the vengeance of the law would not have pursued me.

But, they will say, you are indebted to me for my teaching and guidance. Was it not my benefit that I was looking for, may you benefit? The praise given to your good behavior, reason, knowledge, your art, extended to you, is reflected on me, like the rays of the sun from a mirror. By praising you, I am being praised.

What could I have done if you had given in to vice, were alien to teaching, dull in reasoning, malicious, vile, lacking sensitivity? Not only would I be a fellow-sufferer in your indirect walk, but perhaps a victim of your fury. But now I remain calm, excommunicating you from myself; your mind is straight, your heart is strong, and I live in it. O my friends, sons of my heart!

Having given birth to you, I had many positions in relation to you, but you owe me nothing; I seek your friendship and love; If you give it to me, blessed will I return to the beginning of life and will not be indignant at my death, leaving you forever, for I will live in your memory.

But if I fulfilled my duty in your upbringing, I am obliged now to tell you the guilt, why I raised you this way and not otherwise and why you were taught this and not another, and for this you will hear the story of your upbringing and know the guilt of all my deeds against you .

Since infancy, you have not felt any coercion. Although you were guided by my hand in your deeds, you did not feel any of its direction. Your deeds were foreknown and anticipated; I did not want timidity or obedience of obedience to mark you with the slightest trace of the weight of my finger. And for this reason, your spirit, not tolerating the command of a foolish one, is meek towards the advice of friends. But if, dear little ones to you, I found that he had deviated from the path I had appointed, driven by a random emphasis, then I stopped your procession or, better to say, unnoticedly led you back to your previous path, like a stream breaking through strongholds, with a skillful hand turns to its banks .

Timid tenderness was not present in me when, it seemed, I was not caring

(Rachil - cared.) about protecting you from the hostility of the elements and weather.

I wished better that your body should be offended for a moment by passing pain, than that you would remain at the age of perfection.

And for this reason you often walked barefoot, having your head uncovered; in the dust, in the mud, they reclined to rest on a bench or on a stone. I tried no less to remove you from deadly food and drink. Our labors were the best seasoning for our dinner. Remember with what pleasure we dined in a village unknown to us, without finding the way to the house. How delicious rye bread and country kvass seemed to us then!

Do not grumble at me if you are sometimes ridiculed because you do not have a showy ascension (Ascension is a gait), that you stand as if your body is at ease, and not as custom or fashion dictates; that you do not dress with taste, that your hair is curled by the hand of nature, and not by the comber. Do not complain if you are careless in meetings, and especially from women, because you do not know how to praise their beauty;

but remember that you run fast, that you don’t get tired of swimming, that you lift weights without strain, that you know how to drive a plow, dig a ridge, that you wield a scythe and an axe, a plow and a chisel; you know how to ride a horse and shoot.

Don’t be sad that you don’t know how to jump like buffoons. Know that the best dancing does not represent anything majestic; and if you are once touched by the sight of it, then lust will be the root of it, but something else is foreign to it. But you know how to depict animals and inanimate things, to depict the features of the king of nature, man. In painting you will find true pleasure not only for the senses, but also for the mind. I taught you music, so that a trembling string in accordance with your nerves would excite your dormant heart; for music, setting the interior in motion, makes tenderness a habit in us. I also taught you the barbaric art of fighting with a sword. But let this art remain dead in you until your own safety requires it. I hope it will not make you arrogant; for you have a strong spirit and will not consider it an offense if a donkey lays down on you or a pig touches you with its stinking snout. Don’t be afraid to tell anyone that you know how to milk a cow, that you cook shti and porridge, or that a piece of meat you roast will be delicious. The one who knows how to do something himself knows how to force it to be done and will be lenient when it comes to mistakes, knowing all the difficulties in doing it.

In infancy and adolescence I did not burden your mind with ready-made reflections or alien thoughts, I did not burden your memory with unnecessary objects. But, having offered you the path to knowledge, from the moment you began to feel the strength in your mind, you yourself move towards the path that is open to you. Your knowledge is all the more thorough because you acquired it without repeating it, as they say in the proverb, like Jacob’s magpie. Following this rule, until the powers of reason were active in you, I did not offer you the concept of a Supreme Being, and even less of revelation. For whatever you knew before you were intelligent would be a prejudice in you and would interfere with your reasoning. When I saw that you were guided by reason in your judgments, I proposed to you a connection of concepts leading to the knowledge of God; I am confident in the interior of my heart that it is more pleasant for the all-generous father to see two immaculate souls, in whom the lamp of knowledge is not kindled by prejudice, but that they themselves ascend to the initial fire for combustion. I then proposed to you about the revealed law, without hiding from you everything that was said by many in refutation of it. For I wanted you to be able to choose between milk and gall, and I saw with joy that you accepted the vessel of consolation without timidity.

While teaching you information about the sciences, I did not leave behind introducing you to various nations by teaching you foreign languages. But first of all, my concern was that you get to know your own, that you know how to express your thoughts verbally and in writing, so that this explanation would be at ease in you and would not produce sweat on your face. English language, and then in Latin I tried to make others better known to you. For the elasticity of the spirit of freedom, the transition to the image of speech, will accustom the mind to firm concepts, so necessary in all Governments.

But if I allowed your reason to guide your steps in the paths of science, the more vigilant I tried to be in your morality. I tried to moderate the momentary anger in you, subjecting your mind to long-lasting anger that produces vengeance. Vengeance!.. Your soul disgusts him. From this natural, sensitive creature of movement, you have left only the protectiveness of your constitution, trampling on the desire to return wounds.

Now the time has come when your feelings, having reached the perfection of excitement, but not yet the perfection of the concept of what is excited, begin to be disturbed by all appearances. and create a dangerous ripple in your insides. We have now reached the time in which, as they say, reason becomes the determinant of doing and not doing; or better to say, when the feelings, hitherto obsessed with the smoothness of infancy, begin to feel trembling, or when the vital juices, having filled the vessel of youth, begin to exceed its resurrection, seeking the path of their characteristic aspirations. I have kept you hitherto unapproachable from the perverse shocks of the senses, but I have not hidden from you in ignorance the harmful consequences of seduction from the path of moderation in sensual pleasure.

You witnessed how vile the excess of sensory saturation is, and you were disgusted; witnesses of the terrible excitement of passions that exceeded the shores of their natural course, knew their disastrous devastation and were horrified.

My experience, hovering over you, like a new Egid (Egid (egis) - the shield of the supreme god Zeus in Greek mythology, a symbol of protection.), protected you from wrong injuries. Now you will be your own leaders, and although my advice will always be a lamp for your endeavors; for your heart and soul are open to me; but just as the light, moving away from the object, illuminates it less, so you too, rejected by my presence, will faintly feel the warmth of my friendship. And for this purpose, I will teach you the rules of living together and living together, so that, after pacifying your passions, you will not disdain the deeds committed in them, and will not know what repentance is.

The rules of living together, as far as it may concern you, must relate to your physicality and morality. Never forget to use your bodily powers and feelings. Moderate exercise will strengthen them without depleting them and will contribute to your health and long life. And for this purpose, practice the arts, arts and crafts known to you.

Improvement in these may sometimes be necessary. We don't know the future.

If hostile happiness takes away from you everything that it has given you, you will remain rich in moderation of desires, feeding on the work of your hands. But if you neglect everything in the days of bliss, it is too late to think about it in the days of sorrow. Bliss, laziness and immoderate pleasure of the senses destroy both body and spirit. For if you exhaust the body with intemperance, you also exhaust the strength of the spirit. The use of strength will strengthen the body, and with it the spirit. If you feel disgusted with food, and illness is knocking at the door, then arise from your bed, where you cherish your feelings, bring your sleeping members into action with exercise and you will feel an instant renewal of strength; abstain from the food you need for health, and hunger will make your food sweet, which made you sad from being full. Always remember that all you need to satisfy your hunger is a piece of bread and a ladle of water. If the beneficial deprivation of external senses, sleep, moves away from your head and you are unable to renew your mental and physical strength, run from your palaces and, having tired your limbs to the point of fatigue, lie down on your bed and rest in health.

Be neat in your clothing; keep your body clean; for cleanliness contributes to health, and untidiness and stinking of the body often opens an inconspicuous path to vile vices. But don’t be immoderate in this either. Do not hesitate to help by lifting a cart sunk in a ditch, and thereby relieve the fallen; You will dirty your hands, feet and body, but enlighten your heart. Go to the huts of humiliation; comfort those who are languishing in poverty; taste his brashna (Brashno -

bread and salt, food.), and your heart will be gladdened, giving consolation to the grieving.

Now you have reached, I repeat, that terrible time and hour when passions begin to awaken, but the mind is still weak to curb them. For the cup of reason without experience rises on the scales of the will; and the cup of passions will instantly sink down (Down - down.). So, the only way to approach balance is through hard work. Work with your body; your passions will not have such strong excitement; work with your heart, practicing tenderness, sensitivity, condolences, generosity, forgiveness, and your passions will be directed to a good end. Work with your mind, practicing reading, thinking, searching for truth or events; and the mind will control your will and passions. But do not imagine in the delight of your mind that you can crush the roots of passions, that you need to be completely dispassionate. The root of passions is good and is based on our sensitivity by nature itself. When our feelings, external and internal, weaken and become dull, then passions also weaken. They produce good anxiety in a person, but without it he would fall asleep in inaction. A completely dispassionate person is a fool and an absurd idol, who does not achieve either good or evil. It is not a virtue to abstain from evil thoughts without being able to create them. An armless man cannot hurt anyone, but he cannot give help to a drowning man, nor hold on to the shore of a sea falling into the abyss.

So, moderation in passion is good; walking on the path through the environment is reliable. Extremeness in passion is destruction; dispassion is moral death. Like a progressor who has moved away from the path, he runs into the danger of plunging into one ditch or another, such is the case with progress in morality. But if your passions are directed by experience, reason and heart towards a good end, throw off the reins of languid prudence from them, do not shorten their flight; Their metastasis will always be greatness; They know how to dwell on it alone.

But if I urge you not to be dispassionate, what is most needed in your youth is moderation of love passion. It is planted by nature in our hearts for our happiness. And so in his rebirth he can never make a mistake, but in his subject and immoderation. And so be careful, so that you do not make a mistake about the object of your love and do not honor this image with mutual fervor. With a good object of love, the immoderation of this passion will be unknown to you.

Speaking about love, it would be natural to talk about marriage, about this sacred union of society, the rules of which were not drawn by nature in the heart, but the holiness of which state stems from the initial societies. To your mind, as soon as you begin your procession, this would be incomprehensible, and to your heart, which has not experienced the proud passion of love in society, the story of this would be imperceptible to you, and therefore useless. If you want to have an understanding of marriage, remember the one who gave birth to you. Imagine me with her and with you, restore to your hearing our words and mutual kisses, and attach this picture to your heart. Then you will feel a pleasant shudder in it. What is it? You will learn with time; and today be happy with this feeling.

Let us now briefly look at the rules of the hostel. It is not possible to prescribe them with precision, because they are often located according to the circumstances of the moment. But, in order to make as little mistakes as possible, ask your heart at every undertaking; it is good and cannot deceive you at all. Whatever it says, do it. If you follow your heart in youth, you will not go wrong if you have a good heart. But he who pretends to reason, without having hairs at his disposal, proclaiming experience, is a madman.

The rules of community life relate to the fulfillment of folk customs and morals, or to the fulfillment of the law, or to the fulfillment of virtue. If in a society morals and customs are not contrary to the law, if the law does not place any stumbling blocks in the progress of virtue, then compliance with the rules of community life is easy. But where does such a society exist? Everything known to us by many is filled with contradictions in morals and customs, laws and virtues. And that is why it becomes difficult to fulfill the office of a person and a citizen, for they are often in complete opposition.

Since virtue is the pinnacle of human deeds, its fulfillment should not be punctuated by anything. Neglect customs and morals, heedless the civil and sacred law, such sacred things in society, if the fulfillment of them separates you from virtue. Do not dare to cover up any violation of it with the timidity of prudence. You will be prosperous without her in appearance, but blessed only.

By following what customs and morals impose on us, we acquire the favor of those with whom we live. By complying with the law, we can acquire the name honest man. By practicing virtue, we will acquire common trust, respect and surprise, even in those who would not want to feel them in their souls. The treacherous Athenian Senate, giving a cup of poison to Socrates, trembled in its interior before his virtue (Socrates died after drinking a cup of poison (hemlock) according to the verdict of the Athenians).

Never dare to fulfill a custom in reproach of the law. The law, no matter how bad it is, is the bond of society. And if the sovereign himself ordered you to break the law, do not obey him, for he errs to the detriment of himself and society. Let the law be destroyed, since violation of it commands, then obey, for in Russia the sovereign is the source of laws.

But if the law or the sovereign or any authority on earth encouraged you to commit untruth and violate virtue, remain unwavering in it. Do not be afraid of ridicule, or torment, or illness, or imprisonment, less than death itself. Remain unshakable in your soul, like a stone among the rebellious but weak shafts. The fury of your tormentors will be crushed against your firmament; and if they put you to death, you will be ridiculed, but you will live in the memory of noble souls until the end of time. Be afraid in advance to call weakness in actions, this first enemy of virtue, prudence. Today you violate her respect for the sake of which, tomorrow her violation will seem like virtue itself; and so vice will reign in your heart and distort the features of purity in your soul and on your face.

Virtues are either private or public. The motives for the former are always kindness, meekness, condolences, and the root of their benefits is always.

Motivations for social virtues often have their origin in vanity and curiosity. But for this you should not stop fulfilling them.

The pretext they revolve over gives them importance. In Curtius, who saved his fatherland from a destructive ulcer (Curtius Marcus, according to legend, saved Rome. When in 362 BC a bottomless abyss opened up in the Roman forum, the oracle predicted the death of the city if the abyss did not swallow its best good. With the words : “There is no better blessing in Rome than weapons and courage,” young Curtius in armor, on horseback, rushed into the abyss, and it closed.) No one sees either the vain, or the desperate, or bored with life, but the hero. If our motivations for social virtues originate in the humane firmness of the soul, then their brilliance will be much greater.

Always practice private virtues, so that you may be rewarded for practicing public ones.

I will also teach you some executive rules of life. Try above all to earn your own respect in all your deeds, so that, turning your gaze inward in solitude, you would not only be able to repent of what you have done, but would look at yourself with reverence.

Following this rule, avoid, as much as possible, even the form of servility. Once you enter the world, you will soon learn that in society there is a custom to visit holidays in the mornings of noble persons; the custom is stingy, meaningless, showing in the visitors a spirit of timidity, and in the visited a spirit of arrogance and weak reason. The Romans had a similar custom, which they called ambition, that is, ingratiation or treatment; and from there, curiosity is called ambition, for by visiting eminent people, young men earned their way to rank and dignity. The same thing is being done today. But if this custom was introduced among the Romans so that young people would learn how to deal with the experienced, then I doubt that the purpose of this custom would always be preserved immaculately. In our times, when visiting noble gentlemen, no one has the goal of teaching, but to gain their favor. So, let your foot not cross the threshold that separates servility from the performance of office. Do not visit the front hall of a noble boyar, except in accordance with the duty of your rank. Then, among the despised crowd, even the one whom they look at with servility will, in his soul, even with indignation, distinguish you from her.

If it happens that death will cut off my days before you have matured in a good path, and, while still young, passions will take you away from the path of reason, then do not despair, sometimes seeing your wrong progress. In your delusion, in forgetting yourself, love what is good. A dissolute life, immeasurable curiosity, impudence and all the vices of youth leave no hope of correction, for they glide over the surface of the heart without hurting it. I would rather that in your younger years you were dissolute, wasteful, arrogant, rather than money-loving or overly thrifty, dandyish, and more involved in decorating than anything else. A systematic, so to speak, arrangement in panache always means a compressed mind. If they say that Julius Caesar (Julius Caesar (Caesar) - Roman dictator (100-44 BC.)) was a dandy; but his panache had a purpose. His passion for women in his youth was his motivation for this. But from being a dandy, he would instantly put on the foulest rags if it would help him achieve his desires.

In a young man it is not only transient panache that is forgivable, but also almost any kind of tomfoolery. If, with the most beautiful deeds of life, you cover up deceit, lies, treachery, love of money, pride, covetousness, atrocity, then although you will blind your contemporaries with the brilliance of a clear appearance, although you will not find anyone who loves you so much, let him present you with a mirror of truth, do not, however, forget , eclipse the gaze of clairvoyance. It will penetrate the luminous robe of deceit, and virtue will expose the darkness of your soul. Your heart will hate her and, like a sensual woman (Sensual woman - mimosa), will fade with your touch, but instantly, but her arrows from afar will sting and torment you.

Forgive me, my beloved, forgive me, friends of my soul; Today, with a favorable wind, cast off your boat from the shore of alien experience; strive along the shafts of human life, and learn to manage yourself. Blessed, without suffering a wreck, if you reach refuge, we long for it. Be happy on your voyage. This is my sincere wish. Natural forces mine, exhausted by movement and life, will become weak and fade away; I will leave you forever; but this is my testament to you. If hateful happiness exhausts all its arrows over you, if your virtue has no refuge on earth, if, driven to the extreme, there will be no protection for you from oppression - then remember that you are a man, remember your majesty, admire - the crown of bliss, his They are trying to take it away from you. Die.

As a legacy I leave to you the word of the dying Cato (Cato the Younger (95-46 BC) - a Roman, a supporter of the aristocratic republic. He opposed the regime of a personal dictatorship. When he learned about Caesar’s military victory over the forces of the Republicans, he stabbed himself with a sword.). But if you can die in virtue, know how to die in vice and be, so to speak, virtuous in evil itself. If, forgetting my instructions, you rush into evil deeds, the ordinary soul of virtue will become alarmed; I will appear to you in your dreams. Arise from your bed, pursue my vision with your soul. If then a tear flows from your eyes, then go back to sleep; You will awaken to correction. But if, in the midst of your evil undertakings, remembering me, your soul does not waver and your eye remains dry...

Behold the steel, behold the poison. Spare me sorrow; rid the earth of diarrhea. Be my son again. Die to virtue.

Having spoken this to the old man, a youthful blush covered his wrinkled cheeks;

his gaze emitted rays of reliable joy, his facial features shone with a supernatural substance. He kissed his children and, having escorted them to the cart, remained firm until the last parting. But as soon as the ringing of the postal bell informed him that they had begun to move away from him, this elastic soul softened. Tears streamed through his eyes, his chest heaved: he extended his hands after those departing; seemed as if he wanted to stop the horses' rush. The young men, seeing from afar their father in such sadness, wept so loudly that the wind carried their pitiful groan to our ears. They also stretched out their hands to their father; and it seemed as if they were calling him to their place. The elder could not bear this spectacle; his strength weakened, and he fell into my arms.

Meanwhile, the hillock hid the young men who had driven away from our eyes; Having come to his senses, the elder knelt down and raised his hands and eyes to the sky.

“Lord,” he cried, “I pray you, may you strengthen them in the paths of virtue, I pray, may they be blessed.” Vesi, I have not bothered you at all, O all-generous father, with useless prayer. I am confident in my soul that you are good and just. Dearest to you, there is virtue in us; the deeds of a pure heart are the best sacrifice for you... I have now separated my sons from me...

Lord, may your will be done to them. - Confused, but firm in his hope, he drove off to his home.

The word of the Krestitsky nobleman could not leave my head.

His evidence of the insignificance of the power of parents over children seemed undeniable to me. But if in a well-established society it is necessary that young men respect the elders and inexperience is perfection, then, it seems, there is no need to make parental power unlimited. If the union between father and son is not based on tender feelings of the heart, then it is, of course, unstable; and will be unstable in spite of all the laws. If a father sees his slave in his son and seeks his power in laying down the law, if a son honors his father for the sake of inheritance, then what good does that bring to society? Or one more slave in addition to many others, or a snake in his bosom... The father is obliged to raise and teach his son and must be punished for his misdeeds until he comes of age; and let the son find his positions in his heart. If he doesn’t feel anything, then the father is guilty for not planting anything. The son has the right to demand assistance from his father while he remains weak and young;

but in adulthood this natural and natural connection is collapsing. The bird chick does not seek help from those who produced it when it begins to find food on its own.

The male and female forget about their chicks when they mature. This is the law of nature. If civil laws move away from him, they always produce a monster. A child loves his father, mother or mentor until his love turns to another object. May your heart not be offended by this, dear father; nature demands it. Let this be your only consolation, remembering that your son’s son will love his father to the fullest age. Then it will be up to you to turn his ardor towards you.

If you succeed in this, blessed and worthy of respect. In these thoughts I arrived at the post office.

Alexander Radishchev - Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow - KRESTSY, read the text

Main characters

Traveler- a middle-aged man, a wealthy nobleman, who shares his impressions during the trip. He is acutely aware of injustice, feels sorry for the peasants and tries to help them.

Other characters

Mr. Ch.- a good friend of the main character, a man of tough character.

Paul- the captain of a small ship who, risking his own life, saved twenty people trapped in a flooded boat.

Merchant- a victim of a fraudster, because of whom he found himself on trial, having lost his ranks, property and family.

Karp Dementich- merchant of the third guild, eminent citizen.

Peasant- an old friend of the main character, an honest and fair nobleman.

Annushka- a simple peasant girl, honest, sincere, noble.

Blind old man- earns his living by giving alms, in the past - a brave warrior.

Introduction

The author turns to a friend and complains that his soul “has become wounded by the suffering of mankind.” He sadly notes that in most cases, troubles and misfortunes happen to a person for the reason that he “looks indirectly at the objects around him.”

Departure

Right after dinner with friends main character sits down in a wagon, and “at full horsepower” rushes through the city streets. It’s hard for him to part with people close and dear to his heart, but he tries to overcome the feeling of melancholy.

Unnoticed, he falls asleep to the “ringing of the postal bell”, and, upon waking up, finds out that he is approaching the post office in Sofia.

Sofia

The sleepy postal commissioner refuses to change the traveler's horses. He says that there are no horses and invites him to drink tea and go to bed. However, the man does not believe the commissioner and goes to the stables to personally verify the presence of horses. Although very emaciated, they are still standing in the stable, and are quite capable of taking him to the next station.

The traveler wanted to treat the commissar with a stick for his intractability, but at the last moment he changed his mind. He pays the Sofia coachmen to quickly harness the horses and sets off on the road. The hero comes to the conclusion that “reason is a slave to impatience.”

Tosna

At first, the road from St. Petersburg pleases the traveler, but, “liquefied by the rains,” it becomes impassable. Tired of the strong shaking, he decides to take a little rest. In the post office he finds an old-school solicitor with “a great many tattered papers.”

The solicitor says that he serves as a registrar in the archive and is engaged in compiling family trees. He managed to restore the pedigrees of “many Russian families”, and now he plans to sell them to nobles. However, the traveler understands that this can turn many heads and advises the registrar to sell his records “by weight to peddlers for wrapping.”

Lyubani

During the journey to the tents, the hero’s thoughts are directed to the “immeasurability of the world,” however, philosophical reasoning is hampered by the frankly bad road, and the traveler decides to walk. Not far from the road, he notices a peasant plowing the land. The hero is surprised that the man works on a Sunday, and even in the very heat.

It turns out that the plowman big family, and in order to feed her, he is forced to work for the landowner seven days a week, from morning until late at night. But he does not complain about life, and only laments about the new fashion - giving “his peasants to someone else’s work.” It’s just that ordinary workers can’t do anything about it.

The peasant's story makes the traveler think and rethink his own attitude towards his faithful servant.

Miracle

In the postal hut, the hero unexpectedly meets his good friend, Mr. Ch., who tells him the reason for his forced departure from St. Petersburg.

He decided to visit Kronstadt and explore the rapidly developing city. Finally, Mr. Ch. intended to amuse himself with a boat trip and admire the “magnificent spectacle of the sun rising.” However, a sudden storm interrupted his plans. The ship quickly filled with water and everyone who was on it, regardless of class, began to bail out the water.

The captain of the ship was the first to get to shore, where he turned to the soldiers for help. But the subordinates were afraid to wake up the chief of the garrison, fearing his anger. Exhausted Pavel had no choice but to ask ordinary soldiers to help save people from the sinking boat.

As a result, everyone was saved, but Mr. Ch. was so furious at the indifferent behavior of the garrison commander that he left the city and secular society, which turned out to be on the side of this soulless man.

Spasskaya field

When the traveler was ready to set off again, a heavy downpour began. Realizing that “you can’t cope with the weather,” he returns to the hut and hears a man telling his wife a story about one official. He loved oysters so much that he ate them at every opportunity, and even sent a courier to St. Petersburg for them at government expense.

When the rain stops, the traveler gets ready to hit the road again. A man asks to be his traveling companion and tells his sad story. Being a merchant, he found himself the victim of a clever swindler, because of whom he was put on trial. Having learned about this, his beloved wife, who was pregnant, gave birth prematurely. The baby died, and a few days later the unfortunate woman, who had contracted a fever, also died. At the last moment, the merchant was helped to escape by his faithful friends, and now he is traveling “wherever his eyes look.”

Podberezye

Due to poor health, the hero is forced to take a short break in his journey. He meets a pleasant young man - a seminarian who is on his way to St. Petersburg on foot to visit his uncle.

After talking, the seminarian shares problems with the traveler modern education. In seminaries they teach many sciences, but only in Latin and on the basis of the works of ancient scientists. Having learned English and French, and read the works of European authors, the young man was amazed at how progressive Western minds turned out to be. He is confident that science will only develop if it is “taught in the vernacular.”

Novgorod

Approaching Novgorod, the hero admires “the many monasteries lying around it.” But, once in the city itself, he sees that it is in a deplorable state. Previously, during popular rule, Novgorod flourished, but after its capture by Ivan the Terrible and the establishment of princely power, it gradually began to decay. The hero discusses the topic of “people's rights” and these bitter thoughts do not give him peace.

The traveler stops with his old acquaintance - the merchant Karl Dementievich, who recently married his son. They are talking about the bill system, which, in fact, is completely useless. Taking advantage of the imperfection of the legislative system, Karl Dementievich without a twinge of conscience took out large loans, but repaid them after transferring all the property to his wife.

Bronnitsy

The hero climbs the mountain, “located near Bronnitsy,” on which a pagan temple was previously located. Succumbing to the atmosphere of the ancient place, he reflects on God and the meaning of life. As a result, he comes to the conclusion that only man is free to control his own destiny. To achieve earthly happiness you need to work hard, and God is only an instrument of moral education.

Zaitsovo

In Zaitsov, the traveler meets his old friend, the head of the court, Krestyankin, who has a sensitive soul and a “philanthropic heart.” After many years of separation, friends share the events of their lives, and the main character learns that his friend’s altruism was the reason for his resignation from one business.

A certain landowner who bought the village began to treat the local peasants very cruelly. The patience of the forced people came to an end when the master's sons, for fun, almost raped the bride before the wedding itself. Unable to withstand such outrage, the peasants killed the landowner and his entire family.

The peasant felt sorry for the peasants, but his colleagues insisted on the harshest sentence for them. Not wanting to take part in this dirty business, he left the service.

After this story, the main character receives a letter from his friend, in which he learns about the unexpected wedding of two old men: the former owner of a brothel and Baron Duryndin, who was flattered by the bride’s money.

Sacrums

In Kresttsy, the traveler becomes an involuntary witness to the “separation of a father and his children.” This scene touches the hero because he himself is a father and in the future he will also have to part with them. He is openly annoyed by the “unfortunate prejudice” according to which noble children should go into service. The hero finds in this only the exorbitant vanity of fathers who want to see their offspring in high military ranks. In fact, only two out of a hundred “nobles” become good people, while the rest begin to lead a riotous lifestyle, gradually turning into dissolute dandies.

Yazhelbitsy

This day was sent to the hero by “fate as a test”, since he, driving past the cemetery, becomes an eyewitness to a terrible picture. A father, distraught with grief, interferes with the burial of his dead son, tightly clinging to a small coffin.

It turns out that the boy was sick at birth, and the cause of his illness was “stench disease” - a venereal disease that his father suffered from in his youth.

The hero begins to think about debauchery. He encourages young people to think not only about their health, but also about the health of their descendants, before succumbing to sinful temptation.

Valdai

Arriving in Valdai, the traveler learns that “this town is memorable” for its debauchery local residents, “especially unmarried women.” The hero describes the morals of this city, in which depraved girls lure visitors by offering them their services. The place for love pleasures are the baths, where the Valdai ladies invite moneyed wanderers to relax from the road. Travelers spend the night in the bathhouse, “losing money, health and precious travel time.”

Edrovo

In Edrovo, the traveler sees a group of thirty young rural women. He admires them, he is captivated by “the beauty of youth in full splendor.” The hero compares the artificial, sickly beauty of city coquettes with the lively, strong beauty of peasant women, and this choice is clearly not in favor of city women.

On the way, the traveler meets a young peasant woman, Annushka, who talks about her dream - to marry the guy she loves and give birth to children. But the groom needs one hundred rubles to pay for his ransom, and for their family this is a lot of money. The hero decides to help the young people, but they resolutely refuse help. Despite poverty and low origin, these people did not lose their honor and dignity. The hero is quite surprised at how much “nobility is in the way of thinking of the villagers.”

Khotilov

Driving past Khotilov, the hero begins to reason about human rights. He is immensely saddened by the fact that one of the most important members of society - the farmer - “feels the burden of bondage.” In serfdom he sees a great evil, the cause of many vices among the peasants, and calls for the abolition of this cruel yoke.

Vyshny Volchok

Arriving in Vyshny Volochok, the traveler notices that here reigns “a powerful motivator of human actions - self-interest.” However, all the wealth of this region is the result of the slave labor of local peasants. The hero recalls one landowner who, in pursuit of hard cash, forced his serfs to work seven days a week, took away their livestock and even small plots of land. This gentleman became a famous landowner, but, according to the hero, this does not do him honor, and he does not have the right to “bear the name of a citizen.”

Vydropusk

Driving past Vydropusk, the traveler begins to read his friend’s papers “on the destruction of court officials.” While reading, he reflects on the wasteful luxury and dubious morals that reign at court. The hero is sure that a person should be valued by his personal qualities and perfect actions, but not by the level of his wealth.

Torzhok

At the postal yard in Torzhok, the hero meets a young man who is also on his way to St. Petersburg. They start talking about censorship, which pursues only a derogatory goal - “to cross out, dirty, not allow, tear, burn.” The interlocutors come to the consensus that censorship is an absolutely useless phenomenon and should be replaced by popular opinion.

Copper

Continuing his path, the hero begins to read the local newspaper, in which he comes across an advertisement for the sale of estates and peasants. Bankrupt landowners resort to a similar measure. Very often, during such auctions, peasant families are forever separated, ending up with different owners. The new owners are little concerned about the inhuman grief of their new servants, whom they take for disenfranchised cattle.

Tver

During lunch in one of the taverns in Tver, the traveler meets a young poet. He shares his experiences that poetry in Russia “is still far from greatness.” Most educated people prefer to speak French, forgetting their native Russian language. The poet shares with a new acquaintance his works, which he intends to publish.

Gorodnya

In Gorodnya, the traveler witnesses great confusion among the villagers. As it turned out, “the recruitment was the cause of sobs and tears of many in the crowd.” The authorities ruthlessly take away even only son from an elderly sick widow, dooming her to starvation.

But for some recruits, service was an escape from daily humiliation at the hands of their masters. The unenviable lot of a soldier is sweeter for them than the life of a slave.

Zavidovo

While changing horses in Zavidovo, the traveler encounters an arrogant and headstrong officer. He is not going to waste time at the inn and demands that the main character give him his horses. The traveler, not paying attention to the commanding tone of the “imperious granoder,” gives him a decisive rebuff. Afterwards he begins to talk about the moral degradation of people who are accustomed to groveling before high ranks.

Wedge

At the station, the hero meets a blind old man singing a folk song. His sad voice, his whole appearance “pierced into the hearts of his listeners.” Wanting to somehow help the old man, the traveler gives him a ruble, but he rejects it, fearing that someone might sin and steal it. Instead of money, he asks the wanderer for a warm scarf. After talking, the blind old man shares the simple story of his life. He accomplished many good deeds, since the old man always believed that “good is pleasing to the Lord.”

Pawns

Black mud

Driving through the Black Mud, the hero witnesses “the autocracy of the nobles over the peasants” - a violent wedding played on the orders of the landowner. Neither the groom nor the bride are at all happy about this union. The traveler believes that such marriages will never bring people happiness and, in fact, are a real crime.

Conclusion

The main idea of the novel is a condemnation of autocracy, serfdom and the landowner class. For the content of the book being so offensive to the monarchy, Radishchev was sentenced to death, but was later pardoned and sent into exile for 10 years.

A brief retelling of “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” will be especially useful for reader's diary. After reading it, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the full version of A. N. Radishchev’s work.

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Retelling rating

Average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 122.

“It is possible for everyone to be an accomplice in the prosperity of their own kind” - it was this thought that prompted Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev to write a story called “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” He, “whose soul has become wounded by the suffering of humanity,” wanted to pour out his thoughts on paper in order to depict in one book the life of the ordinary Russian people in all its ugliness.

The main characters of the story

A storyteller, or traveler, is a person who travels the world in search of the truth. Alas, driving through villages and cities, he sees the extreme poverty of the common people, their oppression by the nobles and nobility. With all his heart he wants to help the unfortunate, but he does not have the authority to do so. The hero of the story is a kind, honest man, his heart is open to the needs of the people. Just remember the episode with Annushka, who could not marry her loved one unless the ransom was paid. The traveler readily wanted to help the girl. In the image of his hero, the thoughts that disturb him are expressed by the author himself, who is fighting for fair treatment of the peasants.
The author of the “project in the future” is a person with even more progressive views than the narrator himself. He left papers in which he outlined brilliant ideas on how to help poor and suffering people.

Departure

The narration is told in the first person. After dinner with his friends, the narrator left the city. Sad thoughts overwhelmed him. Finally, he and the cab driver stopped at the post office. "Where are we?" - he asked. - In Sofia! - was the answer.

Sofia

We arrived in Sofia at night. The sleepy commissar flatly refused to issue new horses needed to continue the journey, lying that there were none. The author had no choice but to turn to the coachmen for help, and they harnessed the horses for a small tip. The narrator hit the road again.

Tosna

At first, the road from St. Petersburg seemed smooth and level, but later the travelers were convinced of the opposite: it was completely impossible to drive along the streets, washed out from the rains. Therefore, we had to stop at the post office. Here the narrator met a man who was sorting out some papers. It was a lawyer who was traveling to St. Petersburg. During a conversation with the official, it turned out that, while serving as a registrar at the discharge archive, he collected the genealogy of Russian clans, which he was very proud of and boasted about, thinking that “the Great Russian nobility should have bought this work, paying for it as much as they do not pay for any other product.” ..." However, the hero of the novel considers all this nonsense and recommends selling these papers to peddlers for wrappers.

Lyubani

The narrator rode and rode, perhaps in winter and summer. One day, tired of the carriage, he decided to walk. And suddenly I saw a peasant plowing in his field in the hot weather, and on Sunday at that.

The hero of the story was surprised: is there really no time to work in weekdays, and leave the day off for rest? It turned out that the peasant had six children who needed to be fed, and since he worked for the landowner all week, the only time left to provide his family with necessities was at night, on holidays and Sundays. “It’s the most diabolical invention to give your peasants to someone else to work for them,” the peasant laments, but he can’t do anything. The narrator, who witnessed blatant injustice, is also upset. Suddenly he remembered that he himself sometimes behaved badly towards his servant Petrusha - and he was ashamed.

Miracle

The sound of a postal bell rang out, and the threshold of the hut where the hero of the story had just entered was crossed by his friend Ch, who had previously remained in St. Petersburg. He began to talk about an unsuccessful boat trip, because the ship on which they sailed almost sank. In the face of death, the boundaries dividing people into rich and poor disappeared. The ruler of the ship showed himself especially heroic, deciding either to save everyone or die himself. He got out of the boat and, “moving from stone to stone, directed his procession to the shore,” accompanied by the sincere prayers of the passengers. Soon another joined him, but “with his feet he stopped motionless on the stone.” Fortunately, the first one managed to get ashore, but indifferent people they refused to help: the boss was sleeping, and the subordinate was afraid to wake him up. Moreover, Pavel—that was the name of the man who saved people on the ship—was struck by the commander’s answer: “This is not my position.” Then, in despair, Pavel ran to the guardhouse where the soldiers were. And I was not mistaken. Thanks to the disposition of these people, who immediately agreed to provide boats to rescue the drowning, everyone remained alive.
But Ch., deeply outraged by the boss’s action, left the city forever.

Spasskaya Polest

The narrator, no matter how hard he tried, failed to bring back his friend. While spending the night at the station due to inclement weather, he overheard a conversation between two spouses. The husband was a juror and told about an official who, for fulfilling a whim - delivering oysters - was rewarded from the state treasury.

Meanwhile, the rain passed. The hero of the story decided to move on, but an unfortunate man asked to be his traveling companion, and on the way he told a very sad story: he was a merchant, however, having trusted wicked people, he was put on trial. The wife gave birth from worries ahead of schedule and died three days later. The newborn also died. And the former merchant was almost taken into custody; it’s good that kind people helped him escape.

This story shocked the narrator so much that he was thinking about how to bring what had happened to the supreme power. However, an unexpected dream prevented good intentions. The hero of the story first sees himself as a great ruler, and is sure that things are going well in the state. However, in the crowd he notices a woman calling herself Truth, who removes the veil from the ruler’s eyes, and he is horrified at how bad and terrible everything really is. Alas, this is just a dream. In reality, there are no good kings.

Podberezye

When the hero woke up from sleep, he could not continue his journey. The head was heavy, and since there was no suitable medicine, the narrator decided to drink coffee. But there was a lot of drink, and he wanted to treat it to the person sitting next to him. young man. They started talking. A new acquaintance was studying at the Novgorod seminary and was going to St. Petersburg to see his uncle. During the conversation, from the student’s complaints, the hero of the story realized that the level of training leaves much to be desired. Having said goodbye, the seminarian did not notice how he dropped a small bunch of paper. The traveler took advantage of this because the young man’s thoughts were interesting to him.

Here, for example, are words that are worth thinking about: “Christian society was at first humble, meek, hiding in deserts and dens, then it grew stronger, raised its head, withdrew from its path, and gave in to superstition...”

The seminarian is upset that the truth is being trampled upon among the people, and instead ignorance and extreme delusion reign. The author completely agrees with him.

Novgorod

Tormented by sad thoughts, the hero of the story entered Novgorod. Despite the greatness, the many monasteries, and the success in trade affairs, the author understood the deplorable state of this city, captured by Ivan the Terrible. But before, Novgorod was ruled by the people, had its own letter and bell, and, although they had princes, they had little influence. What right did a neighboring king have to ruin a prosperous city to the ground? Why can the one who is stronger control the destinies of others? These thoughts haunt the author.

After lunch with the merchant Karp Dementievich, the hero of the story is convinced of the uselessness bill system, which by no means guarantees honesty, but, on the contrary, promotes theft and enrichment in easy ways.

Bronnitsy

Here the wanderer prays to God: “...I can’t believe it, O Almighty! so that a person sends the prayer of his heart to some other creature, and not to You..."

He bows before His power and understands that the Lord gave life to man. “You are looking, O all-generous Father, for a sincere heart and an immaculate soul; they are open everywhere for your coming...” exclaims the narrator.

Zaitsevo

At the postal yard in Zaitsevo, the hero of the work meets an old friend named Krestyankin. Conversations with a friend, although rare, were still distinguished by frankness. And now Krestyankin opened his soul to someone whom he had not seen for so many years. The injustice towards ordinary peasants was so blatant that after one incident he, who was called a philanthropic boss, was forced to resign. And this is what happened. One man of low fortune, who, however, received the rank of collegiate assessor, bought a village where he settled with his family. He cruelly mocked the peasants, considering them brutes. But a more inhumane act was committed by the son of this newly minted nobleman when he tried to rape the bride of one of the peasants just on the eve of her wedding. The embittered groom rescued the girl, but broke the skull of one of his sons, which became the impetus for new aggression by the father, who decided to cruelly punish the perpetrators. And then the peasants rebelled against such injustice, rebelling against the family of fanatics and killing everyone. Naturally, after this they were subjected to trial, execution, or eternal hard labor. When passing the sentence, no one except Krestyankin took into account the circumstances that led to such a crime.

Sacrums

In Kresttsy, the hero of the story witnessed the separation of his father and his sons, who were going to military service. The narrator discusses what the children of nobles become after the army, because you need to begin your service with mature morals, otherwise “...what good can you expect from such a commander or mayor?”

It is difficult for a father to let his young offspring go, but he considers it a necessity, giving instructions on how to act correctly in a given situation. The sons listened for a long time to this speech, pronounced with a feeling of strong anxiety for them. Finally, the time has come to part ways. The young men sobbed loudly as they sat in the cart, and the old man knelt down and began to fervently pray to the Lord that He would preserve them and strengthen them in the paths of virtue.

Yazhelbitsy

In Yazhelbitsy, the narrator drove past a cemetery, but when he heard the cry of a man tearing out his hair, he stopped. This was the father of the deceased son. In great despair, he said that he himself was the killer of the young man, because “he had prepared his death before his birth, giving him a poisoned life...” Alas, this man’s child was born sick. The author laments that “the stinking disease causes great devastation,” and this happens too often.

Valdai

Valdai is a town that was inhabited by captive Poles during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, where flushed girls shamelessly indulge in debauchery, dragging travelers into the web of love pleasures. The narrator, having described the local morals, parted with this extremely dissolute city with pain in his heart.

Edrovo

Having reached the city of Edrovo, the narrator saw a crowd of thirty women. Their attractiveness did not escape his gaze, but he was disturbed by thoughts about the bleak future of these beautiful peasant women.

Suddenly the hero of the story met one of them on the road and decided to start a conversation. Anna – that was the girl’s name – at first warily answered his questions, thinking that the traveler, like others, wished harm, but when she saw that the stranger was disposed towards her, she was very surprised, because she was not used to polite treatment. Finally, believing in the sincere intentions of the traveler, she opened up and told her sad story. It turned out that Annushka’s father had recently died, and she was left with her mother and little sister. The girl has a fiancé, Vanya, but it is not possible to marry him until a ransom of one hundred rubles is paid. Then the narrator decides to help the young couple. He asks Anya to take him to his mother, but, entering their house, he sees Ivan. It turns out that there is no need for ransom anymore, because the groom's father has decided to let him go, and the wedding is expected on Sunday. No matter how hard Anna’s new acquaintance tried to give money for the needs of the future family, nothing was accepted from him.

The narrator admires the chastity of the peasant girl and reflects on this on the way to Khotilov, the next town.

Khotilov (future project)

It is written from the perspective of another traveler who is even more progressive in his views. A traveler, passing by, finds papers left by his old friend in front of the post office. In them, serfdom is called evil, crime, slavery, because “to the lack of food and clothing they added work to the point of exhaustion.” The author of the letter calls for the abolition of serfdom, for all people to consider each other as brothers, so that they internally feel how generous the Father of all, God, is to them.

Vyshny Volchok

“In Russia, many farmers do not work for themselves; and so the abundance of land in many parts of Russia proves the aggravated lot of its inhabitants” - this thought frightens the narrator, who, passing a city called Vyshny Volchok, is surprised at its wealth. It is impossible to build happiness on the tears and blood of oppressed peasants, the author is convinced. The prosperity of some at the expense of the misfortune of others is a blatant injustice.

Vydropusk

The narrator again begins to re-read the papers of his friend, who wrote “a project for the future” and fully agrees that the consequences of the actions of kings who surround themselves with luxury are disastrous. The author uses amazing figures of speech in this regard: “in the place of nobility of soul and generosity, servility and self-distrust have been sown,” “true misers for great things”... He sincerely regrets this state of affairs and calls for moderation of desires to be an example for future posterity.

Torzhok

Here the narrator meets a man who wants to achieve the right to free printing in the city, free from censorship, and in connection with this sends a petition. He is outraged by the fact that censorship harms free thought, and expresses it directly: it is necessary for writers to be controlled by society. The author also talks about the history of censorship.

Copper

On the way to Mednoe, the narrator reads his friend's papers again and again. And, delving into the text, he sees a glaring problem: if some landowner goes bankrupt, his peasants are sold at auction, and forced people cannot even know what fate awaits them. This is a great evil.

Tver

The author and his friend argue that versification was crushed in the bud, not allowing it to come into force. They talk about poetry and gradually come to the topic of freedom. The narrator’s friend, who goes to St. Petersburg to ask for the publication of the author’s book of poems, reads excerpts from an ode of his own composition with a similar title.

Gorodnya

There was a cry in this city, the cause of which was recruitment. Tears are shed by mothers, wives, and brides. One of the serf boys goes into the army, forced to leave his mother alone; the girl, his bride, is also crying, not wanting to part with the groom, because they were not even allowed to get married. Hearing their cry, the guy tries to console the people he loves. And only one man of about thirty named Ivan rejoices at such a change in circumstances. He is a slave to his mistress, and hopes that the army will be a liberation from the heavy oppression of an imperious and cruel mistress, who forced him to forcibly marry a pregnant maid.

Zavidovo

A traveler in Zavidovo saw a sad picture. The poor elder cringed before the warrior in a grenadier’s cap, hearing angry shouts: “Hurry up the horses!” and seeing the whip hanging over him. His Excellency's arrival was expected. However, there were not enough horses. Finally, they ordered the narrator's horses to be unharnessed, despite his indignation. Many who imagine themselves to be high ranks are unworthy of the respect and respect that is shown to them, the traveler is sure.

Wedge

Here the traveler meets a blind old man sitting near the post office, who sings a sad song. Everyone around him gives him alms. The hero of the story also took pity, giving a ruble to the unfortunate man and was surprised by what he said: “...What do I need it for now? I don’t see where to put it; He will, perhaps, give rise to a crime...” He refused such a generous alms and told the story of his life. The blind man is convinced that he lost his sight for his sins, because during the war “he did not give forgiveness to the unarmed.”

Pawns

At the end of the journey, the wanderer entered one of the huts, wanting to have lunch. Seeing that the guest was putting sugar in his coffee, the poor peasant woman asked to give some of this delicacy to the child. They got to talking, and the unfortunate woman began to lament that the bread they were eating consisted of three-quarters chaff and one part unsowed flour. The traveler was struck by the extremely poor furnishings of the woman’s home: walls covered with soot, a wooden cup and mugs called plates. Alas, those whose sweat and blood earned the boyars white bread lived in such poverty. The hero of the story is outraged by what is happening and says that their atrocities are seen by the Fair Heavenly Judge, who is impartial.

Black mud

And finally, the traveler witnessed a wedding, but a very unusual one, because those entering into marriage were very sad and joyless. Why did this happen? Why were the newlyweds, although they hated each other, forced to enter into an alliance? Because this was done not according to their will, but at the whim of the same nobles.

A word about Lomonosov

In the most last chapter the author talks about the significant contribution of Mikhail Lomonosov to science and culture. This man of genius, having been born in poverty, was able to decisively leave home and receive the education he needed so much outside its walls. “Persistent diligence in learning languages made Lomonosov a fellow citizen of Athens and Rome...” And such diligence was generously rewarded.

“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” - A. N. Radishchev. Brief content

5 (100%) 4 votes

A bright and entertaining work by A. Radishchev talks about the unfair treatment of the main class Russian Empire- peasant class. Being a convinced patriot of his country, A. Radishchev is deeply shocked by how the peasants live, the layer of the population that feeds the entire country and through whose labor all other classes live. A. Radishchev is convinced that the reluctance to open your eyes and understand the injustice of the country’s class structure is the root of all troubles and misfortunes.

The work teaches that sometimes the usual way of life, which seems correct and fair only because it lasts for many years, can be monstrously unfair, and not thinking about it means tacitly agreeing with injustice.

Read the summary: Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Radishchev

The classic work is written in the form of travel notes. The author, narrating and discussing what the traveler sees and feels during the trip, expresses his worries about the fate of the country, his indignation at the monstrous indifference, negligence, and sometimes even cruelty towards serfs. All this is allowed, all this is tacitly agreed upon, and in some cases justified and even approved.

In the work the author talks about the other side of life Russian society, about generally accepted values, about the morals reigning in it. It is necessary to remember that many of the problems that A. Radishchev talks about are still relevant today.

The main character of the book is a middle-aged man, a nobleman, and not a poor man at all. He is traveling to Moscow in his carriage. What he sees along the way makes him think deeply about life and is told in the first person.

Chapter 1. Sofia

This part talks about how caretakers work at stations where travelers change horses. The employee, not wanting to disturb himself at night, claims that all the horses are occupied.

The main character, making sure that the stable is full of horses, goes to the coachmen, who, for a small offering, graciously agree to work and provide him with a carriage and horses, and the traveler leaves, experiencing ambiguous and mixed feelings.

Chapter 2. Tosna

This part presents a narrative about various noble families. The author expresses the idea of how stupid and absurd it is to boast about one’s breed, which was not given as a reward for any merits or exploits, but simply because of the right of birth from one’s ancestors.

Chapter 3. Lyubani

In this part, the traveler communicates with a man. Tired and exhausted from the road and potholes, the hero decides to walk. He meets a man in a field. A man plows a field in the sun. The day described is Sunday, a day on which it is a sin to work.

The man is forced to work, despite the fact that he himself considers it a sin, in order to feed his children, because the rest of the time he works for his master, who does not care about the hardships of life of his serfs.

Hearing this, the main character experiences burning shame not only for all the nobles, but also for himself. Having thought deeply about his behavior, he admits that sometimes he is also unfair.

Chapter 4. Miracle

This part tells how a traveler meets his friend, and he talks about how he suffered a very unpleasant sea voyage. The ship almost sank. On the shore, no one could do anything, because the boss was sleeping, and all the employees were afraid to wake him up.

Finally, the ship's helmsman was able to find those who wanted to help them. When the travelers got ashore and demanded an answer from the chief, he brazenly said that he was not obliged to do anything.

Chapter 5. Spasskaya Polesie

The author sleeps at the transit point. A juror and his wife are nearby. The assessor tells her how the governor, whose favorite dish is oysters, sends his employees to buy oysters under the pretext of business trips.

In the morning, the couple ask the main character to take them into his crew and tell how the official lost everything he had in life thanks to the negligence of officials. Being a decent person, he was forced to leave his home and flee from police persecution.

The traveler gets sick on the road, he sleeps, he dreams that he has become a powerful man. In a dream, it seems to him that everything in his country is arranged as it should. But suddenly a healer named Truth comes to him and gives him the opportunity to realize the fruits of her reign.

He suddenly realizes that his courtiers were misleading him that everything in the country is in complete disorder. The main character wakes up in fear.

Chapter 6. Podbrezie

In this part, the main character speaks to a man who recently graduated from the seminary. He is disappointed with education. received at the theological seminary and wants to gain true, not false knowledge in St. Petersburg.

A young seminarian talks about how in seminaries all lessons are taught in Latin, no one understands anything, and the knowledge they give there is stupid and useless.

The young man forgot his papers. It talks about Martinism and Freemasonry. The traveler understands that the seminarian never received any knowledge about spirituality and became interested in mysticism. The main character himself rejects the strange opinions of the Freemasons.

Chapter 7. Novgorod

In this chapter, A. Radishchev gives an excursion into history. Once upon a time the Principality of Novgorod was very famous and influential. Everyone strived for justice.

But after Ivan the Terrible subjugated Novgorod, everything fell into decay. The traveler thinks about whether Ivan the Terrible could have acted this way from a moral point of view, asking himself the question whether everything can be decided from a position of strength.

Based on historical documents, A. Radishchev, through the mouth of his main character, talks about the democratic principles of government in this city, and, in principle, about the morals and orders in it.

According to the works of literary scholars, A. Radishchev did not quite correctly imagine the historical picture of the city, which means he somewhat idealized it. In reality, of course, Novgorod at that time was ruled by the mighty of the world this, those in whose hands power is concentrated. According to researchers, democracy as such was absent in this city.

This section outlines the image of the swindler Karp Dementievich. He deceives people, but is considered a respected person. This is a merchant who takes advances for goods without giving anything in return. While robbing people, he does not consider himself guilty of anything at all.

Karp Dementievich cleverly evades the law because he guessed to transfer all his property to his wife.

A. Radishchev in this chapter points out that such adventures occur throughout the country, since the judicial and legislative systems are very imperfect and require significant reform, which is especially important in the trade sector.

Chapter 8. Bronnitsy

This part describes how the traveler goes to a hill where previously there was a certain temple of worship of pagan gods. The main character indulges in deep thoughts about God, about life itself, about man’s place in it.

According to the character, a person himself must manage his life and do everything to make it full and happy.

The role of God is to give man a merciful soul and consciousness, and man himself must achieve happiness and prosperity.

Chapter 9. Zaitsevo

The section of the work talks about how the main character met his friend named Krestyankin, who worked as a boss in court.

Once Krestyankin had the opportunity to work on a case that involved the murder of a cruel landowner who mistreated his peasants. He beat them, forced them to work too much and go hungry, and subjected them to inhumane suffering.

In the end, the people, driven to white heat, killed both the master and his children. Peasant sympathized with them with all his heart and considered them innocent, but his colleagues insisted that the criminals must be convicted so that others would be discouraged.

Not wanting to be one of the defendants in an unfair trial, Krestyankin left the service. At the end of the conversation, the official disappears, and the author is given a message from St. Petersburg.

In the letter, a friend of the protagonist talks about the wedding of two elderly libertines. The woman is sixty-two years old, and the man is seventy-eight years old. The bride was once a brothel owner and became rich while also doing dirty work.

As for her fiancé, Baron Duryndin, he decided to marry her for the sake of her wealth. And the lady herself got married because she was afraid to be left alone.

Chapter 10. Sacrums

This part describes the scene of how adult sons leave their father’s house, and their parents tell them wise words of parting, telling them how to live among people. When young people are left by their parents, the traveler himself is moved.

He thinks about how happy parents are to have kind children. The character talks a lot about relationships in good families.

Chapter 11. Yazhelbitsy

This part tells how a father participated in the funeral of his son. The section gives a story about the despair in which the father was. The father blamed himself for the death of his beloved child.

The man's fault was that the boy was ill with early childhood, since in his youth his father took medicines for bad diseases. These drugs were based on mercury, which was detrimental to the health of unborn children.

The traveler himself, with a feeling of guilt and shame, recalled how in his youth he suffered a venereal disease, and now his destructive passions can also affect his offspring.

Deep in thought, the main character reflects on the harmfulness of debauchery and how people should eradicate vice from their lives.

Chapter 12. Valdai

In this part there is a story about the city of Valdai, which has a very bad reputation. Since there are a lot of priestesses of love in this city, many gentlemen passing through stop there to spend time in the baths with prostitutes.

Chapter 13. Edrovo

During the trip, the traveler saw several peasant women. On the way, he reflects on the fact that village women are much nicer in appearance than ladies in the city. The main character thinks about how little makeup the ladies wear fluffy dresses and expensive corsets compared to sundresses.

The chapter describes the traveler’s conversation with the peasant woman Anna. Anna says that she and her fiancé cannot get married because they do not have a hundred rubles for the ransom. Wanting to contribute to the happiness of young people, the main character wants to give a hundred rubles, but Anna and her mother refuse.

Despite their poverty, the peasant women are ashamed to accept money from the master, because accepting such a gift means that the master is paying off the girl for his amorous pranks. Since the peasant women do not want shame on themselves, they do not take money.

After talking with the peasant women, the traveler thinks for a long time about the problem of unequal marriages and the reasons that push people to marry very young and immature people. He reflects on how rich people marry girls who have not grown up at all, which, according to the author, is unforgivable.

Chapter 14. Khotilov

This part is devoted to reflections on the abolition of serfdom. The traveler saw a package on the road. He unfolds the papers of a certain person unknown to the main character. There are thoughts about the abolition of serfdom. The author of the project says that slavery is a problem of society, a legalized crime, and it, like any evil, must be eradicated.

Then it turns out that these are the papers of one of the main character’s friends, because, in addition to the project on the abolition of serfdom, he forgot other documents. The traveler takes all the papers and reads them along the way.

Chapter 15. Vyshny Volochok

When a traveler passes through this city, he sees a prosperous estate, rich fields and a huge amount of goods. He reflects that all this was achieved through criminal means, since it was earned at the cost of the ruined lives of the peasants, at the expense of their hard work, health and lives.

The traveler recalls one nobleman he knew, who, wanting to receive more profit from his estate, forced his serfs to work without rest and holidays. He took away their cattle, land and even food. The estate indeed became very rich, but the peasants themselves were destitute.

The main character himself feels a sense of shame for such owners, believes that they need to be put in their place, and does not understand how others have the conscience to praise them for their enterprise and intelligence.

Chapter 16

This chapter provides reflections on luxury goods and morals at court. Continuing to read the papers of his friend, the main character stumbles upon a draft reform on court positions. The main idea set out in the document is that the head of state should distinguish himself not through the pomp of his court and trinkets, but through the wisdom of his government. This chapter touches on the name of Catherine II, who loved luxury.

Chapter 17. Torzhok

This part of the book talks about the problems of censorship and the need to abolish it. A traveler meets a man heading to St. Petersburg. He really wants to achieve the abolition of censorship in the city of Torzhok, seeking the right to print any books he wants.

This person believes that readers themselves are the censors of books, and the censorship service violates the democratic principles of society. As you know, in the 18th century the Russian state had very strict censorship, and printing was very tightly controlled.

According to A. Radishchev, censorship was introduced by the church, and its first servants were clerics.

Chapter 18. Copper

This part describes how serfs are served. During a trip, a traveler reads about how serfs are released along with all their belongings for the debts of their bar. Children are separated from their parents, but no one cares about this, because serfs are a commodity.

Chapter 19. Tver

When a traveler visits Tver, he communicates with the poet and discusses with him the problems of literature in Russia. The poet reads his work to him.

Chapter 20. Gorodnya

In this place, the main character sees how a serf guy goes into the army, forced to leave his mother alone.

There they sell serfs as soldiers so that the landowner can buy himself horses and a fashionable carriage.

Chapter 21. Zavidovo

The main character witnesses how high-ranking officials are served at stops and at what speed horses are served for them.

The traveler expresses his thoughts that not all high ranks are worth the respect and respect that they demand for themselves.

Chapter 22. Wedge

In this part the traveler saw a beggar. He refuses the ruble given to him and asks for something warm to wear. The main character gives him the scarf, and later finds out that the beggar died in this scarf, and he was buried in it.

Chapter 23. Pawns

This part depicts the character’s conversation with a peasant woman who talks about injustice and poverty. The traveler thinks for a long time about why the peasants, who produce everything that the whole country eats, are themselves forced to live in constant hunger.

Chapter 24. Black mud

In this part, the main character talks about forced weddings, which bring no happiness or joy to anyone.

Chapter 25

The work of A. Radishchev is one of the most progressive works not only of the past, but also of our time.

The famous pigeons lived in the dovecote. They performed a letter delivery service. The owners of these birds constantly organized competitions to select more capable individuals. They taught pigeons to quickly deliver mail and return home

Summary of Saltykov-Shchedrin's idealist crucian carp

There was a dispute between the crucian carp and the ruff. Yorsh argued that you cannot live your whole life without cheating. Crucian carp is the idealistic protagonist of the story. Lives in a quiet place and conducts discussions about the fact that fish cannot eat each other.

Summary of the boastful warrior Plautus

Plautus takes as the basis for his comedy a very common image, which was often used before him. We are talking about professional military men who began to appear in Greece over time.

Summary Time night Petrushevskaya

This work is a kind of diary. In it, the main character describes her entire life. Mostly, she thinks and writes at night. The heroine is a mother of two children

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Summary of the Pawn Chapter. The main characters of the story

Departure

Sofia

Tosna

Lyubani

Miracle

Spasskaya field

Podberezye

Novgorod

Bronnitsy

Zaitsev

Sacrum

Yazhelbitsy

Valdai

Edrovo

Khotilov

Vyshny Volochok

Vydropusk (again written from someone else’s notes)

Torzhok

Copper

Tver

Gorodnya

Zavidovo

Wedge

Pawns

Black mud

A word about Lomonosov

"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow - SACRES"

See also Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich - Prose (stories, poems, novels...):

Main characters

Other characters

Introduction

Departure

Sofia

Tosna

Lyubani

Miracle

Spasskaya field

Podberezye

Novgorod

Bronnitsy

Zaitsovo

Sacrums

Yazhelbitsy

Valdai

Edrovo

Khotilov

Vyshny Volchok

Vydropusk

Torzhok

Copper

Tver

Gorodnya

Zavidovo

Wedge

Pawns

Black mud

Conclusion

Novel test

Retelling rating

The main characters of the story

Departure

Sofia

Tosna

Lyubani

Miracle

Spasskaya Polest

Podberezye

Novgorod

Bronnitsy

Zaitsevo

Sacrums

Yazhelbitsy

Valdai

Edrovo

Khotilov (future project)

Vyshny Volchok

Vydropusk

Torzhok

Copper