Chapaev short. Dmitry Furmanov - Chapaev

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

"Kreutzer Sonata"

Early spring. End of the century. There is a train in Russia. There is a lively conversation going on in the carriage; a merchant, a clerk, a lawyer, a smoking lady and other passengers are arguing about the women's question, about marriage and free love. Only love illuminates a marriage, says the smoking lady. Here, in the middle of her speech, a strange sound is heard, as it were, of interrupted laughter or sobbing, and a certain not yet old, gray-haired gentleman with impetuous movements intervenes in the general conversation. Until now, he had responded sharply and briefly to the neighbors' conversations, avoiding communication and acquaintance, but he smoked more and more, looked out the window or drank tea, and at the same time was clearly burdened by his loneliness. So what kind of love, sir asks, what do you mean by true love? Preferring one person over another? But for how long? For a year, for a month, for an hour? After all, this only happens in novels, never in real life. Spiritual affinity? Unity of ideals? But in this case, there is no need to sleep together. Oh, you know me, right? How not? Yes, I am the same Pozdnyshev who killed his wife. Everyone is silent, the conversation is spoiled.

Here is the true story of Pozdnyshev, told by him that same night to one of his fellow travelers, the story of how he was led by this very love to what happened to him. Pozdnyshev, a landowner and candidate of the university (he was even a leader), lived before his marriage, like everyone else in his circle. He lived (in his current opinion) depraved, but, living depraved, he believed that he lived as he should, even morally. He was not a seducer, did not have “unnatural tastes”, did not make the goals of his life out of depravity, but gave himself to him sedately, decently, rather for health, avoiding women who could tie him up. Meanwhile, he could no longer have a pure relationship with a woman; he was, as they say, a "fornicator", similar to a morphine addict, a drunkard, a smoker. Then, as Pozdnyshev put it, without going into details, all sorts of deviations followed. He lived like this until he was thirty, not leaving, however, the desire to arrange for himself the most sublime, "pure" family life, looking closely at the girls for this purpose, and finally found one of the two daughters of a bankrupt Penza landowner, whom he considered worthy of himself.

One evening they rode in a boat and at night, in the moonlight, they returned home. Pozdnyshev admired her slender figure, covered in jersey (he remembered this well), and suddenly decided that it was her. It seemed to him that at that moment she understood everything that he felt, and he, as it seemed to him then, thought the most sublime things, and in fact the jersey was especially to her face, and after the day spent with her, he returned home delighted , confident that she was “the pinnacle of moral perfection,” and already the next day made an offer. Since he did not marry money or connections (she was poor), and besides, he had the intention to keep “monogamy” after marriage, his pride knew no bounds. (I was a terrible pig, but I imagined that I was an angel, Pozdnyshev admitted to his fellow traveler.) However, everything immediately went awry, the honeymoon did not work out. It was disgusting, embarrassing and boring all the time. On the third or fourth day, Pozdnyshev found his wife bored, began to ask, hugged, she cried, unable to explain. And she was sad and hard, and her face expressed unexpected coldness and hostility. How? What? Love is the union of souls, but instead, this is what! Pozdnyshev shuddered. Is it possible that falling in love was exhausted by the satisfaction of sensuality and they remained completely alien to each other? Pozdnyshev did not yet understand that this hostility was a normal, and not a temporary state. But then there was another quarrel, then another, and Pozdnyshev felt that he was “caught”, that marriage was not something pleasant, but, on the contrary, very difficult, but he did not want to admit it to himself or to others. (This bitterness, he reasoned later, was nothing more than a protest of human nature against the "animal" that suppressed it, but then he thought that Zhenya's bad character was to blame.)

At the age of eight, they had five children, but life with children was not joy, but torment. The wife was child-loving and gullible, and family life turned into a constant escape from imaginary or real dangers. The presence of children gave new reasons for contention, relations became more and more hostile. By the fourth year, they were already talking simply: “What time is it? Time to sleep. What is lunch today? Where to go? What is in the newspaper? Send for a doctor. Masha's throat hurts." He watched her pour the tea, bring the spoon to her mouth, squish as she sucked in the liquid, and he hated her for that. “It’s good for you to grimace,” he thought, “you tortured me with scenes all night, and I have a meeting.” “You feel good,” she thought, “and I have not slept with the child all night.” And they not only thought so, but also spoke, and so they would have lived, as if in a fog, not understanding themselves, if what had happened had not happened. His wife seemed to have woken up since she stopped giving birth (the doctors suggested remedies), and the constant anxiety about the children began to subside, she seemed to wake up and see the whole world with its joys, which she forgot about. Ah, don't miss it! Time will pass, don't turn back! She was taught from her youth that there is only one thing in the world worthy of attention - love; when she married, she received some of this love, but not all that was expected. Love with her husband was no longer the same, some other, new, clean love began to appear to her, and she began to look around, expecting something, again took up the piano she had abandoned before ... And then this man appeared.

He was a musician, a violinist, the son of a ruined landowner, who graduated from the conservatory in Paris and returned to Russia. His name was Trukhachevsky. (Pozdnyshev even now could not talk about him without hatred: moist eyes, red smiling lips, fixed mustache, his face was vulgar and pretty, and in his manners feigned gaiety, he spoke more and more in hints, fragments.) Trukhachevsky, having arrived in Moscow, went to Pozdnyshev , he introduced him to his wife, immediately the conversation turned to music, he invited her to play with her, she was delighted, and Pozdnyshev pretended to be delighted so that they would not think that he was jealous. Then Trukhachevsky arrived with a violin, they played, his wife seemed interested in one music, but Pozdnyshev suddenly saw (or it seemed to him that he saw) how the beast sitting in both of them asked: “May I?” - and answered: "It is possible." Trukhachevsky had no doubts that this Moscow lady agreed. Pozdnyshev gave him expensive wine at dinner, admired his game, called him to dinner again next Sunday and could hardly restrain himself so as not to kill him immediately.

Soon there was a dinner party, boring, feigned. Pretty soon the music began, they played Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, his wife on the piano, Trukhachevsky on the violin. This sonata is a terrible thing, music is a terrible thing, thought Pozdnyshev. And this is a terrible tool in the hands of anyone. Is it possible to play the Kreutzer Sonata in the living room? Play, clap, eat ice cream? To hear it and live as before, without doing those important things that the music has tuned in to? It's scary, destructive. But for the first time Pozdnyshev shook Trukhachevsky's hand with sincere feeling and thanked him for the pleasure.

The evening ended happily, everyone left. And two days later, Pozdnyshev left for the county in the best of moods, there was an abyss of business. But one night, in bed, Pozdnyshev woke up with a “dirty” thought about her and Trukhachevsky. Horror and anger gripped his heart. How can it be? And how can this not be, if he himself married her for this, and now another person wants the same from her. That person is healthy, unmarried, "between them is the connection of music - the most refined lust of feelings." What can keep them? Nothing. He did not sleep all night, got up at five o'clock, woke the watchman, sent for the horses, got into the chariot at eight and rode off. It was necessary to go thirty-five miles on horseback and eight hours by train, the wait was terrible. What did he want? He wanted his wife not to want what she wanted and even should have wanted. As in delirium, he drove up to his porch, it was the first hour of the night, the light was still on in the windows. He asked the footman who was in the house. Hearing that Trukhachevsky, Pozdnyshev almost burst into tears, but the devil immediately told him: do not be sentimental, they will disperse, there will be no evidence ... It was quiet, the children were sleeping, the lackey Pozdnyshev sent to the station for things and locked the door behind him. He took off his boots and, remaining in stockings, took from the wall a crooked Damascus dagger, never used and terribly sharp. Softly stepping, he went there, sharply opened the door. He forever remembered the expression on their faces, it was an expression of horror. Pozdnyshev rushed at Trukhachevsky, but a sudden heaviness hung on his arm - his wife, Pozdnyshev thought it would be ridiculous to catch up with his wife’s lover in stockings alone, he did not want to be ridiculous and hit his wife with a dagger in left side, and immediately pulled it out, wanting to correct and stop what had been done. “Nanny, he killed me!” Blood gushed from under the corset. “I achieved my goal ...” - and through physical suffering and the proximity of death, her familiar animal hatred was expressed (she did not consider it necessary to talk about the same thing that was the main thing for him, about treason). Only later, when he saw her in the coffin, did he begin to understand what he had done, that he had killed her, that she was alive, warm, but became motionless, waxy, cold, and that this could never, nowhere, be corrected by anything. He spent eleven months in prison awaiting trial and was acquitted. The children were taken by his sister-in-law.

The story "The Kreutzer Sonata" by Leo Tolstoy is a well-known work that was previously censored. In the work, the writer deals with issues of marriage, family relations and attitudes towards women. The main idea of \u200b\u200bthe story "Kreutzer Sonata" is a letter from a woman. The author mentions this in his "Afterword". The meaning of this letter was contained in the following: a woman expressed her opinion about the oppression of women by requirements of a sexual nature.

The Kreutzer Sonata tells about the fate of Vasily Pozdnyshev, who is also the main character of the story. From the very first pages of the work, the writer portrays the character as a person who loves to lead a wild life. However, suddenly, the reader becomes a witness of how Vasily has a great desire to change. In his thirties, he wants to settle down and start a family. Very soon, the hero realizes that he made a big and irreparable mistake. His own wife seems alien to him, and their family life is boring. Of course, his wife gave birth to five beautiful children, but this did not improve the situation. Having lived for eight years, the hero realizes that he is tired of such a life, because he never experienced pleasant sensations. The wife refused to give birth and became interested in the violinist during a joint performance of the Kreutzer Sonata with him. Further, events unfold much more rapidly: Pozdnyshev did not cease to be jealous of his wife and once found her with her lover. This moment in the story "Kreutzer Sonata" is the climax. The reader is waiting, what will Vasily do? Unfortunately, events unfold tragically: Pozdnyshev killed her with a Damascus blade.

So, in the story "Kreutzer Sonata", the propaganda of sexual abstinence can be clearly seen. And above all, this is evident from the judgments of the protagonist. In his opinion, only women are to blame for the fact that he introduced a dissolute life. Of course, he is not proud of his past life and argues that a woman should not behave provocatively. That is why in the story "The Kreutzer Sonata" a scene with his wife's betrayal is presented. The hero himself believes that the discord between him and his wife occurred due to animal instincts. After all, carnal relationships provoke the most terrible crimes, in Pozdnyshev's situation - murder.

The story "Kreutzer Sonata" is dominated by a huge number of controversial judgments. The reader draws attention to the fact that the author sees evil not only in love, but also in art. No wonder this story is considered scandalous, because he believed that it was art that gives rise to the vices of evil.

But I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew V:28

His disciples say to him: if such is the duty of a man to his wife, then it is better not to marry.
He said to them: not everyone can receive this word, but to whom it was given.
For there are eunuchs who were born in this way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Who can accommodate, let him accommodate.
Matthew, XIX, 10, 11, 12

I

It was early spring. We drove for the second day. People traveling for short distances entered and exited the carriage, but three, like me, rode from the very point of departure of the train: an ugly and middle-aged lady, smoking, with an exhausted face, in a semi-male coat and cap, her acquaintance, a talkative man of about forty , with neat new things, and a gentleman who still kept to himself, of small stature with impetuous movements, not yet old, but with obviously prematurely gray curly hair and with unusually shining eyes, quickly darting from object to object. He was dressed in an old, expensive tailor's coat with a lambskin collar and a tall lambskin cap. Under the coat, when it was unbuttoned, one could see the undershirt and the Russian embroidered shirt. The peculiarity of this gentleman also consisted in the fact that he occasionally made strange sounds, similar to coughing or to a laugh that was started and cut short.

This gentleman throughout the journey diligently avoided communication and acquaintance with the passengers. He answered curtly and sharply to the neighbors' conversations, and either read, or, looking out the window, smoked, or, taking provisions from his old bag, drank tea, or ate a snack.

It seemed to me that he was weary of his loneliness, and several times I wanted to talk to him, but whenever our eyes met, which happened often, since we sat obliquely opposite each other, he turned away and took up a book or looked out the window .

During a stop, before the evening of the second day, at a large station, this nervous gentleman went for hot water and made himself tea. The gentleman with neat new things, the lawyer, as I later found out, with his neighbor, a smoking lady in a half-man's coat, went to the station to drink tea.

During the absence of the gentleman and the lady, several new faces entered the carriage, including a tall, shaven, wrinkled old man, obviously a merchant, in an ilk fur coat and a cloth cap with a huge visor. The merchant sat down opposite the seat of the lady with the lawyer and immediately entered into a conversation with a young man, who looked like a merchant's clerk, who also entered the carriage at this station.

I sat obliquely and, as the train stopped, I could, in those moments when no one was passing, hear snatches of their conversation. The merchant first announced that he was going to his estate, which was only one station away; then, as always, they first started talking about prices, about trade, they talked, as always, about how Moscow trades today, then they started talking about the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. The clerk began to talk about the sprees of some rich merchant known to both at the fair, but the old man did not let him finish and began to tell himself about past sprees in Kunavin, in which he himself participated. He was apparently proud of his participation in them and with visible joy told how he, together with this very acquaintance, once drunk in Kunavin, had done such a thing that it had to be told in a whisper and that the clerk laughed all over the carriage, and the old man also laughed, baring his teeth. two yellow teeth.

Not expecting to hear anything interesting, I got up to walk along the platform until the train left. At the door I met a lawyer with a lady, talking animatedly about something as they walked.

“You won’t have time,” the sociable lawyer told me, “the second call is now.

And sure enough, I did not have time to reach the end of the cars, when the bell rang. When I returned, a lively conversation continued between the lady and the lawyer. The old merchant sat silently opposite them, looking sternly ahead of him and occasionally chewing his teeth disapprovingly.

“Then she directly announced to her husband,” the lawyer said smiling as I walked past him, “that she cannot, and does not want to live with him, because ...

And he began to tell further something that I could not hear. More passengers followed me, a conductor walked by, an artel worker ran in, and for quite some time there was a noise, because of which a conversation was not heard. When all was quiet and I again heard the lawyer's voice, the conversation evidently moved from a particular case to general considerations.

The lawyer talked about how the question of divorce now occupied public opinion in Europe and how more and more often the same cases appeared in our country. Noticing that his voice alone was heard, the lawyer stopped his speech and turned to the old man.

It wasn't like that in the old days, was it? he said, smiling pleasantly.

The old man wanted to answer something, but at that moment the train started moving, and the old man, taking off his cap, began to cross himself and read a prayer in a whisper. The lawyer, averting his eyes, politely waited. Having finished his prayer and triple baptism, the old man put on his cap straight and deep, corrected himself on the spot and began to speak.

“It happened before, sir, only less,” he said. “At the present time, it is impossible not to be. They have become very educated.

The train, moving faster and faster, rumbled in skirmishes, and it was hard for me to hear, but it was interesting, and I moved closer. My neighbor, a nervous gentleman with sparkling eyes, was obviously also interested and, without getting up, listened.

This story can be discussed endlessly. You can argue on every line. One thing is certain: it was in this work that Tolstoy reached the apogee of his psychological talent.

In general, Tolstoy was often accused of being tongue-tied. It is rare that a writer could so ornately express an idea that is already difficult to grasp. But in the Kreutzer Sonata, this tongue-tiedness is beneficial, since from the middle of the story the author's voice simply disappears, and we hear only the voice of a man talking about his desperate love. The voices of the author and Pozdnyshev the narrator merge into a duet, the reader gets the impression that the story is written on behalf of two authors. Something similar can be found in Zweig's story "Amok", by the way, the content of "Amok" and "Kreutzer Sonata", in my opinion, is very closely intertwined. Both Tolstoy and Zweig talk about passion that leads to death, about the voice of sensuality that drowns out the whisper of morality, about the flesh that takes precedence over reason.

One can imagine how the story shocked Tolstoy's contemporaries! In those days, if they talked about carnal things, then on the sidelines, among themselves, and suddenly the writer directly poses a stunning question: what to do with the relationship between a man and a woman who remains depraved in any form, even if they are “sanctified” by the bonds of marriage? And what is to be done with a society that promotes this depravity and encourages vice with all its might? Tolstoy, who, as is well known, has been torn between passions and asceticism all his life, offers a utopia: the only way out of vice is to create a society according to the laws of nature, but with the human mind. The culmination of such a society will be world happiness based on spirituality, and, as a result, the extinction of the human race. And there is no other way out! The terrible story of Tolstoy, thoroughly permeated with biblical motifs, reminds us that humanity is in an impasse. We, in the view of Tolstoy, seem to be standing on a thin bridge between two abysses: the abyss of vice and the abyss of morality. Terrible choice, right? Tolstoy's skill is boundless, he finds a stunningly new, incredible, frightening with its hopelessness topic where, as it is believed, everything has already been mussed to the bone since the time of Shakespeare. No, yet no one will ever surpass Tolstoy in psychologism!

The works of Tolstoy are the case when the speech of the characters, at first glance, is incoherent, the plot is vague, but it is worth reading to the end, and the picture is formed like a puzzle. This is because every detail, like a pawn, is on its own cell of the playing field. There is no overload with symbols and tropes (means of artistic expression). But they are present in the right quantities: "twos" are scattered throughout the story (two glasses of tea, two hours, two years, etc.) as a reminder of the inseparable pair "man-woman". Speaking surnames Tolstoy uses very carefully, but accurately. Pozdnyshev, one must understand, from "late" - most likely, this "late" refers to the entire corrupted society that gave birth to our hero. The name of the hero Tolstoy, in fact, gives the answer to the question of what will happen to us, and which of the two abysses will swallow us up. The surname Trukhachevsky also immediately tells us what the hero is (again, a product of society) - dust, and nothing more! At the beginning of his story, Pozdnyshev, speaking of the initially vicious upbringing of girls, takes the collective name Lisa to illustrate the image of young ladies: "My Lisa is crazy about music ... Take me, take me, my Lisa!" And then we learn that the daughter of the hero is also called ... Lisa. By this “coincidence,” the writer shows the viciousness of the circle: Pozdnyshev’s daughter will be corrupted just like her mother and her daughter’s daughter, and this circle will never break.

Scary, right?

Another amazing moment: Pozdnyshev stabs his wife under the ribs, on the left side. This can be seen as another biblical motif: God created Eve from Adam's rib. In Tolstoy, Adam kills the depraved Eve, and at the same time, a part of himself, his own rib. Only in this way, according to Tolstoy, can one get rid of the diabolical passions that sit in each of us. Kill.

Now it's your turn! Please tell us your impressions. Why did Tolstoy call the story "The Kreutzer Sonata"? What surprised you the most?

PS: the book can be discussed until Sunday :) So take your time!

PPS: Who did not unsubscribe from yesterday's five-minute meeting, we are waiting for your results :)

The Kreutzer Sonata is an outstanding work by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1891. Because of its provocative content, it was immediately subjected to severe censorship. The story raises questions of marriage, family, attitude towards a woman. On all these burning topics, the author has his own original opinion, which shocked astonished readers. The content and problems of this work will be discussed in this article.

History of creation

The story "The Kreutzer Sonata" was written by Tolstoy at the time of a severe mental and creative crisis. The author claimed that in his life there was a restructuring of "activities that are called artistic." Everything in the work - the poetic system, style, structure of literary characters - has undergone a significant change in comparison with the earlier works of Lev Nikolayevich. Tolstoy, in his Afterword, called the main idea of the “Kreutzer Sonata” a letter from a certain woman who was called Slavyanka and expressed in her message her own opinion about the oppression of women by the requirements of a sexual nature. Researchers of the classic's work date the rough writing of the story to October 1887. The work has been rewritten several times by the author. The final version was first read by Tolstoy in November 1989 to a select audience at the Kuzminsky House.

Censorship

In 1889, Tolstoy sent the story The Kreutzer Sonata to the St. Petersburg publishing house Posrednik, where they immediately doubted that the work would be passed by the censors. Employees of the publishing house took the trouble to rewrite the work with their own hands and distribute copies of it throughout St. Petersburg. It produced the effect of an exploding bomb. However, the official publication was still very far away. The opinion of the employees of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs was unequivocal: the story would never be published in Russia, and the book would be subject to immediate destruction. The thirteenth volume of the collected works of L. Tolstoy was refused to be printed for the same reasons - the Kreutzer Sonata was included in it. And only the personal permission of Alexander III, which Andreevna's wife achieved, allowed the scandalous book to be published in 1891. Why was censorship so merciless to the work? The answer to this question can be found in the description of the story.

The Kreutzer Sonata tells about the fate of the protagonist, Vasily Pozdnyshev, who, having lived a stormy, full of fun adventures, decided to settle down at the age of thirty and started a family. He married for love, wanted to adhere to "monogamy" and was terribly proud of his good intentions. However, the relationship between the spouses was already shaken in Pozdnyshev, he felt the hostility of his young wife and compared it with the “satisfaction of sensuality”, which allegedly “exhausted” the sublime love. Over time, the hero realized that his marriage would not bring him any pleasant sensations. Everything was "disgusting, shameful and boring." The birth and upbringing of children served as another reason for disputes and abuse. For eight years, the couple had five children, after which the wife refused to give birth, put herself in order and began to look around in search of new experiences. She became interested in a handsome violinist during a joint performance of the Kreutzer Sonata with him. Pozdnyshev suffered from jealousy and one day, catching his wife with a rival, he killed her with a Damascus blade.

Attitude towards a woman

The plot is tragic, but quite acceptable. Why did Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata so outrage and shock society? First of all, the judgments expressed by the main character. His own dissolute behavior in his youth makes him disgusted. But he blames it primarily on women. It is they who put on seductive dresses, they strive to be "objects of passion." He accuses mothers who want to profitably marry off their daughters and for this dressing them in seductive outfits. He says that women are well aware of their power over men and actively use it, knowing that carnal desires prevail over all other most elevated intentions of the stronger sex. And everyone refers not only to fallen persons, whose services, without hiding, are used by representatives of the rich classes. In fact, he calls the behavior of ladies of high society prostitution and claims that women will always be in a humiliated position until they learn to be modest and chaste.

Attitude towards marriage

The story "Kreutzer Sonata", the analysis of which is presented in this article, actively promotes sexual abstinence. And not just outside of marriage. Tolstoy refers to the saying from the Gospel of Matthew: “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” and applies these lines not only to any outside lady, but even to his own wife. He considers carnal pleasures unnatural and disgusting. He thinks that his relationship with his wife has deteriorated due to the animal instincts that he often showed inappropriately towards her. He believes that the human nature of an unspoiled girl opposes all manifestations of bodily love. If a person fulfills lofty aspirations in the name of love for God, then low, carnal ones - out of love for himself, and this brings the sinner closer to the devil. And the unclean provokes even greater crimes, in the case of Pozdnyshev - to murder.

Attitude towards children

The Kreutzer Sonata contains many ambiguous judgments. Tolstoy (a brief summary of the story is given in this article) from the generally accepted opinion about selfless love for one's own children. The appearance of five offspring in the Pozdnyshev family not only did not improve relations in the family of the protagonist, but completely ruined them. The gullible and child-loving wife was constantly worried about the children, which finally poisoned Pozdnyshev's life. When one of the children fell ill, existence for Vasily turned into a complete hell. In addition, the couple learned to "fight" with each other ... children. Everyone had their favorite. Over time, the guys grew up and learned to take the side of one of the parents, which is only once again. However, Tolstoy, through the lips of his hero, claims that childbearing saved him from the pangs of constant jealousy, since the wife was engaged only in family affairs and had no desire to flirt. The most terrible thing began when doctors taught her how to prevent pregnancy.

Attitude towards art

It is no coincidence that the most scandalous story of Lev Nikolaevich is called the Kreutzer Sonata. Tolstoy, the summary of whose work we are now retelling, had his own original opinion about art. He considered him another evil that awakens the basest vices in people. Pozdnyshev's wife stopped giving birth, got prettier and again became interested in playing the piano. This was the beginning of the end. First, according to the protagonist, most adultery is committed in a noble society under the pretext of practicing the arts, especially music. Secondly, music makes an "irritating impression" on the listeners, it makes you feel what the author of the work felt at the time of writing, merge with experiences that are not characteristic of a person, make him believe in new opportunities, expand, so to speak, the horizons of his own perception . What for? What did Pozdnyshev's wife feel at the moment of the performance of the Kreutzer Sonata, what new desires crept into her receptive soul? The protagonist is inclined to blame the final fall of his wife on the corrupting power of music, which should correspond to the place and time of performance, and not awaken animal instincts in people.

Opinion of contemporaries

Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata" became the subject of furious discussion not only in Russia, but also abroad. Chekhov admired the importance of the idea and the beauty of the execution of the story, but later it began to seem ridiculous and stupid to him. Moreover, he argued that many judgments in the work expose its author as a person "ignorant, not bothering ... to read two or three books written by specialists." The church categorically condemned the ideological content of the story. Many secular critics agreed with her. They vied with each other to praise the artistic features of the story and also fiercely criticized its meaning. A. Razumovsky, I. Romanov stated that Lev Nikolayevich "in a frenzy" distorted the intimate details of family relations and "talked nonsense." They were echoed by foreign literary critics. American Isabel Halgood, Tolstoy's translator, considered the content of the story to be obscene even by the standards of freedom of speech in Russia and Europe. Leo Tolstoy was forced to publish an "Afterword", in which he expounded the main ideas of his work in a simple and understandable language.

Reciprocal tale

Leo Tolstoy heard a lot of negative reviews about his story. The Kreutzer Sonata forced readers to reconsider generally accepted norms, made the issue extremely relevant and discussed. The opinion of the author's wife, Sophia Andreevna, is interesting. Comparisons and parallels with the family life of Lev Nikolaevich after the publication of the story were inevitable. Although Tolstoy's wife carefully rewrote The Kreutzer Sonata and actively sought its publication, she harbored a grudge against her famous husband. Being an outstanding and talented woman, she wrote a response work “Whose fault”, in which she entered into a debate with Lev Nikolaevich. The story was not published until 1994, but received negative reviews from critics. However, in it Sofya Andreevna expressed her point of view, which exposed the behavior of men and their true attitude towards women. The Kreutzer Sonata, reviews of which appeared even after the death of the author, left a deep mark on Tolstoy's family life, forever upsetting his relationship with his wife.

Finally

In the collected works of Leo Tolstoy, the Kreutzer Sonata takes pride of place. The public of that time did not know a more frank book. The prohibition of official censorship made it even more popular. According to contemporaries, after the appearance of this work, instead of the on-duty question “how are you?” everyone asked each other about the Kreutzer Sonata. Many of the thoughts expressed in the work still seem controversial, and sometimes funny. However, a psychologically accurate description of family relationships, which over time acquire a negative connotation, remains relevant today and requires careful study.

This story, saturated with the colors of everyday life and harsh reality, begins in one of the train cars, where a very heated and exciting conversation is being held about the essence of love and its attributes. The conversation begins with an elderly man and a lady with a cigarette. They vied with each other to discuss whether marriage is necessary, whether education is necessary, and what love is.

But suddenly their fascinating conversation is interrupted by either careless laughter or quiet crying. And everyone immediately pays attention to a very reserved and quiet passenger who did not utter a word during the whole trip. And with some feeling of resentment and anger, the passenger asks those around him the question: “What kind of ... love ... sanctifies marriage?” In his voice one can hear a complete denial of this feeling and the institution of marriage. Excited by those around me, overwhelmed with the curiosity of such skepticism, of course, I immediately begin to interrogate the traveler's last name, which was Pozdnyshev, and he, in turn, although not willingly, begins the story.

His story begins with a very stormy and completely unchaste youth. When being a guy, he did things contrary to morality and spiritual purity. However, after some time, he still managed to find a woman who was able to awaken in him a feeling of love and spirituality. They created an alliance that was considered correct and pleasing to society in all respects. But everyday life and other quarrels completely killed all the light that was in them. They began to hate each other, constant quarrels and reproaches sometimes brought to very dangerous extremes.

And suddenly a music teacher Trukhachevsky appears in their gray and dull life, giving individual lessons for his wife. He immediately attracts with his gallantry and then does not make you wait long for reciprocal emotions. Vasily's wife falls in love with him and they have a secret romance. Of course, Pozdnyshev immediately begins to guess about mutual sympathies, and a feeling of jealousy flares up in him with a wild and insurmountable flame. He catches his wife cheating and his mind is clouded. Pozdnyshev attacks the lovers. Trukhachevsky manages to escape, and Vasily's wife takes the whole blow. He wounds her with a dagger in the side, from which she dies.

This story, according to the writer himself, clearly reveals all the immorality and depravity of society. And he teaches, first of all, to preserve and protect the values \u200b\u200bof one's family and marriage, without entering into dangerous and vicious relationships.