The work of Leskov Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district. Analysis of the work "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (N

In 1864, an essay by Nikolai Leskov appeared in the Epoch magazine, based on the real story of a woman who killed her husband. After this publication, it was planned to create a whole series of stories dedicated to the fatal female fate. The heroines of these works were to be ordinary Russian women. But there was no continuation: the Epoch magazine was soon closed. A summary of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" - the first part of the failed cycle - is the topic of the article.

About the story

This work was called an essay by Nikolai Leskov. "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", as already mentioned, is a work based on real events. However, often in the articles of literary critics it is called a story.

What is "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" about? The analysis of a work of art involves the presentation of the characteristics of the main character. Her name is Katerina Izmailova. One of the critics compared her with the heroine of Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm". Both the first and the second are married to an unloved person. Both Katerina from "Thunderstorm" and the heroine Leskov are unhappy in marriage. But if the first one cannot fight for her love, then the second one is ready to do anything for her happiness, which is what the summary tells about. “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” is a work whose plot can be summarized as follows: the story of a woman who got rid of her husband for the sake of an unfaithful lover.

The fatal passion that pushes Izmailova to commit a crime is so strong that the heroine of the work hardly evokes pity even in the last chapter, which tells about her death. But, without looking ahead, we will present a summary of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", starting from the first chapter.

Characteristics of the main character

Katerina Izmailova is a stately woman. Has a pleasant appearance. The summary of “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” should begin to be retold with a description of Katerina’s short life together with her husband, a wealthy merchant.

The main character is childless. Father-in-law Boris Timofeevich also lives in her husband's house. The author, talking about the life of the heroine, says that the life of a childless woman, and even with an unloved husband, is completely unbearable. As if justifying the future murderer Leskov. "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" begins with the departure of Zinovy ​​Borisovich - Katerina's husband - to the mill dam. It was during his departure that the young merchant's wife began an affair with the worker Sergei.

Beloved of Katerina

It is worth saying a few words about Sergei - the second main character of the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". An analysis of Leskov's work should be done only after a careful reading of the literary text. Indeed, already in the second chapter, the author briefly talks about Sergei. The young man does not work for a long time for the merchant Izmailov. Just a month ago, before the events described by Leskov, he worked in another house, but was expelled for a love affair with the mistress. The writer creates the image of a femme fatale. And she is opposed to the character of a cunning, mercantile and cowardly man.

love connection

The story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" tells about the fatal passion. The main characters - Katerina and Sergey - indulge in love pleasures during the departure of their husband. But if a woman seems to lose her head, then Sergey is not so simple. He constantly reminds Katerina of her husband, depicts fits of jealousy. It is Sergey who pushes Katerina to commit a crime. Which, however, does not justify it.

Izmailova promises her lover to get rid of her husband and make him a merchant. It can be assumed that this is what the worker initially hoped for when entering into a love affair with the hostess. But suddenly the father-in-law finds out about everything. And Katerina, without thinking twice, puts rat poison into Boris Timofeevich's food. The body with the help of Sergei hides in the basement.

Husband's murder

The husband of the unfaithful woman soon "goes" to the same cellar. Zinovy ​​Borisovich has the imprudence to return from a trip at the wrong time. He learns about the betrayal of his wife, for which he is subjected to cruel reprisals. Now, it would seem, everything is going the way the criminals wanted. Husband and father-in-law in the basement. Katerina is a wealthy widow. She should only, for the sake of decency, wait a while, and then you can safely marry a young lover. But unexpectedly, another character from the story “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” appears in her house.

Reviews of Leskov's book by critics and readers say that, despite the cruelty of the heroine, she causes, if not sympathy, then some pity. After all, her future fate is tragic. But the next crime, which she commits after the murder of her husband and father-in-law, makes her one of the most unattractive characters in Russian literature.

Nephew

The new protagonist of Leskov's essay is Fyodor Lyapin. The lad comes to visit his uncle's house. The nephew's money was in the merchant's circulation. Either for mercenary reasons, or perhaps out of fear of being exposed, Katerina commits a more terrible crime. She decides to get rid of Fedor. At the very moment when she covers the boy with a pillow, people begin to break into the house, suspecting that something terrible is happening there. This knock on the door symbolizes the complete moral fall of Katerina. If the murder of an unloved husband could somehow be justified by passion for Sergei, then the death of a minor nephew is a sin that must be followed by cruel punishment.

Arrest

The essay “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” tells about a strong-willed woman. When the lover is taken to the station, he confesses to the murders. Katerina is silent to the last. When it makes no sense to deny, the woman confesses that she killed, but did it for the sake of Sergei. The young man causes some pity among the investigators. Katerina - only hatred and disgust. But the merchant's widow is only concerned about one thing: she wants to get to the stage as soon as possible and be closer to Sergei.

Conclusion

Once at the stage, Katerina is constantly looking for a meeting with Sergei. But he longs to be alone with her. Katerina is no longer interested in him. After all, she is no longer a rich merchant's wife, but an unfortunate prisoner. Sergei quickly finds a replacement for her. In one of the cities, a party from Moscow joins the prisoners. Among them is the girl Sonetka. Sergei falls in love with a young lady. When Izmailova finds out about the betrayal, she spits in his face in front of other prisoners.

In conclusion, Sergei becomes a completely different person. And it is in the last chapters that Katerina is able to arouse sympathy. The former employee not only finds a new passion, but also mocks his former lover. And one day, in order to avenge her public insult, Sergei, along with his new friend, beats a woman.

Death

Izmailova after the betrayal of Sergei does not fall into hysterics. It only takes one evening for her to cry out all the tears, the only witness of which is the imprisoned Fiona. The day after the beating, Izmailov seems extremely calm. She pays no attention to Sergei's bullying and Sonetka's giggles. But, having seized the moment, he pushes the girl and falls with her into the river.

Katerina's suicide was one of the reasons for critics to compare her with Ostrovsky's heroine. However, this is where the similarities between these two female images end. Rather, Izmailova resembles the heroine of Shakespeare's tragedy, a work to which the author of the essay "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" alludes. Cunning and willingness to do anything for the sake of passion - these features of Katerina Izmailova make her one of the most unpleasant literary characters.

This work. Speaking about the history of writing the story, we note that it is known from Leskov’s biography that the author himself was involved in judicial criminal cases, and this suggests that the story of “Lady Macbeth” could well be based on real events, because we are talking about crimes and concepts of morality. The work was written in 1864.

Genre, composition and main theme

Although this article has already noted that the work is a story, Nikolai Leskov himself defined the genre as an essay, since it contains elements of the narration of real events and has its own background. Therefore, it would not be a mistake to call the genre of the work both an essay and a story.

Since in any classical work there is a certain problem, when making an analysis of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", we also do not miss the mention of the problems raised by the author. And the main one is the moral problem, which the heroes of the work do not talk about, but this topic is clearly expressed if you follow the ongoing events and dialogues. The analysis is provided to readers, because everyone can have their own understanding of morality, but there are certain standards, to deviate from which means to act immorally.

Another problem is the manifestation of love, or rather the consideration of what a passionately loving woman is capable of. What is the main theme of the piece?

Of course, this is the theme of love. Intoxicated with feelings, but cold at the time of the crime, Katerina shows by her example what she is ready for for her own happiness. Though we can't call her happy after all she's done. That is why this is an essay - there is no assessment of the characters and characteristics of their personality, but only terrible crimes are described, which can be assessed from the outside.

Basic images

• Katerina. The main character of the essay. She was not beautiful in appearance, but she was an attractive woman, charismatic. Lonely, living without children and husband. From the description of her life, we understand that she is not a potential criminal. And she is ready to enter into a relationship with the first comer who will pay attention to her.
• Sergey. The clerk who did not love Katerina, but played with her and with her feelings.
• The father-in-law who mocked Sergei. He was later killed by Katerina.
• Fedya Lyamin. The son of the murdered husband, a little boy. It was his murder that prompted the heroine to think that it was difficult for her to stop killing.

Important details of the analysis of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"

Of course, "Lady Macbeth" is a morally difficult work about the consequences of the love of an eternally lonely woman. Each murder is described in detail. Love was not a rush of feelings in the life of the main character, she was closed in herself and boring, she spent all the time at home and messed around. Katerina Lvovna understood that love is a certain characteristic of a person that everyone should have, including her. But then she did not realize what such reasoning would bring her to.

Sergei, being her accomplice, hiding the body of his father-in-law together, went to crimes for profit. But Katerina was obsessed, there was no stopping her. After this murder, she felt like the mistress of the house, gave orders to everyone, but at the same time, Sergei was always with her. For the sake of him and their love, she was ready for anything. Which she confirms by the fact that she follows his lead and does not dare to say a word against it.

When Fedya arrived at their house, Sergey became the initiator of the murder. He inspired the woman that the boy is an obstacle to their family happiness. In his opinion, the boy will destroy their union. The image of Fedya is one of the most significant in the essay "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", which we are analyzing. Together with the boy, Catherine's soul also dies. She decides on a brutal murder, even while pregnant.

Committing murder after murder, changes are noticed in the portrait of Sergei, such as trembling of the lips, tremor of the chin, and others, but Katerina remains completely soulless. But in the denouement of the essay, Katerina herself becomes a victim, and one even feels sorry for her. She no longer loves anyone, including herself.

The work caused a storm of condemnation and indignation. It did not fit the literary criteria and the political mood of the time. The image of Katerina was not recognized as a typical female Russian image.

In this article, we have presented you with a brief analysis of the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", you will find more information on the topic by visiting our literary

Plot

The main character is a young merchant, Katerina Lvovna Izmailova. Her husband is constantly at work, away. She is bored and lonely in the four walls of a big rich house. The husband is barren, but together with his father he reproaches his wife. Katerina falls in love with a young handsome clerk Sergei, gradually her passion turns into passion, the lovers spend the night together. She is ready for anything for the sake of her sinful, criminal love, for the sake of her beloved. And a series of murders begins: first, Katerina Lvovna poisons her father-in-law in order to save Sergei, whom the father-in-law locked in the cellar, then, together with Sergei, she kills her husband, and then strangles her underage nephew Fedya with a pillow, who could challenge her rights to the inheritance. However, at that moment, a crowd of idle men bursts in from the yard, one of whom looked out the window and saw the scene of the murder. An autopsy proves that Fedya died of suffocation, Sergei confesses everything after the words of the priest about the Last Judgment. Investigators find the corpse of Zinovy ​​Borisovich buried in the basement. The murderers are put on trial and, after being punished with whips, they go to hard labor. Sergei instantly loses interest in Katerina as soon as she ceases to be a rich merchant's wife. He is infatuated with another prisoner, takes care of her in front of Katerina and laughs at her love. In the finale, Katerina grabs her rival Sonetka and drowns with her in the cold waters of the river.

Summary of the story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"

Katerina Lvovna, “a very pleasant woman in appearance,” lives in the wealthy house of the merchant Izmailov with her widowed father-in-law Boris Timofeevich and her elderly husband Zinovy ​​Borisovich. Katerina Lvovna has no children, and "with all the contentment" her life "for an unkind husband" is the most boring. In the sixth year of marriage

Zinovy ​​Borisovich leaves for the mill dam, leaving Katerina Lvovna "all alone." In the courtyard of her house, she measures her strength with the impudent worker Sergei, and from the cook Aksinya she learns that this fellow has been serving with the Izmailovs for a month, and was expelled from the former house for "love" with the mistress. In the evening, Sergei comes to Katerina Lvovna, complains of boredom, says that he loves, and stays until morning. But one night, Boris Timofeevich notices how Sergei's red shirt descends from his daughter-in-law's window. The father-in-law threatens that he will tell Katerina Lvovna's husband everything, and send Sergei to jail. On the same night, Katerina Lvovna poisons her father-in-law with a white powder reserved for rats, and continues her "aligoria" with Sergei.

Meanwhile, Sergei becomes dry with Katerina Lvovna, is jealous of her husband and talks about his insignificant state, confessing that he would like to be her husband “before the holy pre-eternal temple”. In response, Katerina Lvovna promises to make him a merchant. Zinovy ​​Borisovich returns home and accuses Katerina Lvovna of "cupids". Katerina Lvovna takes Sergei out and boldly kisses him in front of her husband. Lovers kill Zinovy ​​Borisovich, and the corpse is buried in the cellar. Zinovy ​​Borisovich is searched uselessly, and Katerina Lvovna "does well with Sergei, as a widow at liberty."

Soon Zinovy ​​Borisovich's young nephew Fyodor Lyapin comes to live with Izmailova, whose money the late merchant had in circulation. Urged on by Sergei, Katerina Lvovna plans to kill the God-fearing boy. On the night of the Vespers on the feast of the Introduction, the boy remains in the house alone with his lovers and reads the Life of St. Theodore Stratilates. Sergei grabs Fedya, and Katerina Lvovna smothers him with a feather pillow. But as soon as the boy dies, the house begins to shake from the blows, Sergei panics, sees the deceased Zinovy ​​​​Borisovich, and only Katerina Lvovna understands that it is the people who see through the crack that they are doing in the “sinful house”.

Sergei is taken to the unit, and at the first words of the priest about the Last Judgment, he confesses to the murder of Zinovy ​​Borisovich and calls Katerina Lvovna an accomplice. Katerina Lvovna denies everything, but at the confrontation she admits that she killed "for Sergei." Murderers are punished with whips and sentenced to hard labor. Sergei arouses sympathy, and Katerina Lvovna behaves steadfastly and refuses to even look at a newborn child. He, the only heir of the merchant, is given up for education. Katerina Lvovna thinks only of how to get to the stage as soon as possible and see Sergei. But at the stage, Sergei is unkind and secret dates do not please him. At Nizhny Novgorod, the Moscow party joins the prisoners, with which the soldier Fiona of a free temper and the seventeen-year-old Sonetka go, about whom they say: “it curls around the hands, but does not give into the hands.”

Leskov's story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" is an interesting story that is read in one breath, however, for those who do not have time to read the full version, we suggest that you get acquainted with Leskov's work "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" in a summary. An abridged version of Leskov's work "Lady Macbeth" will allow us to analyze the story.

Leskov Lady Macbeth summary

So, Lady Macbeth Leskova is the main character. "A pleasant-looking woman," who was twenty-three years old. She is married to a fifty-year-old merchant Zinovy ​​Borisovich Izmailov, with whom they live in a prosperous house. Father-in-law Boris Timofeevich lives with them. She and her husband have been together for five years, but they did not have children, and with all the contentment, Lady Macbeth's life with her unloved husband was the most boring. The husband went daily to the mill, the father-in-law was also busy with his own affairs, and Lady Macbeth had to wander around the house, suffering from loneliness. And only in the sixth year of life together with her husband did Ekaterina Lvovna change. She met Sergei. This happened at a time when the mill dam broke through and the husband had to spend there not only daytime, but also nighttime.

Further, Leskov’s work “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” continues with the acquaintance of the hostess with Sergei, whom the previous owner expelled from the service because of his relationship with his wife. Now he served with Izmailov. Having met by chance, the hostess could not resist Sergey's compliments, and when he came to her in the evening, she could not resist kisses. A romance began between them.

But Ekaterina Lvovna did not manage to hide her relationship with Sergei for long, because a week later her father-in-law noticed the clerk descending the pipe. Boris Timofeevich grabbed Sergei, whipped him and locked him in the pantry. The daughter-in-law threatened that she would tell everything to her husband. Further, in the work of Leskov, Lady Macbeth decides to take a desperate step. She decided to poison her father-in-law by adding rat poison to the mushrooms. By morning, the father-in-law was gone. Boris Timofeevich was buried, and the hostess and her lover continued their relationship. However, it is not enough for Sergei to be a lover and he begins to tell Catherine how much he would like to become her husband. Catherine promises to make him a merchant.

Just then, the husband comes home, who begins to accuse his wife of treason, because the whole district is talking about this. Catherine is not embarrassed, and in front of her husband kisses the clerk, after which they kill Zinovy ​​Borisovich, burying him in the cellar. The whole district is looking for the owner, but they never find it, and Catherine, as a widow, begins to manage the estate and is expecting a child who will be the heir.

The next victim of Sergei and the merchant's wife was Izmailov's six-year-old nephew, in whom Catherine saw a rival for her unborn child. After all, only her child was to become the sole heir. But the problem was quickly resolved. She could not allow her to “lose her capital” because of some boy, so on a holiday, after waiting for her aunt to go to church, she and Sergey strangle the child. Only this time they failed to do everything without noise and witnesses.

Sergei was taken to the unit, where he confessed to all the crimes, calling Ekaterina Lvovna his accomplice. At the confrontation, the merchant confessed to her deed.

The story ends with the fact that Lady Macbeth gave birth to a child and abandoned him, giving the heir to be raised by a relative of her husband. After, the criminals were sent to Siberia for hard labor. But, Ekaterina Lvovna was still happy because they were in the same party with Sergei. But Sergei became cold to Catherine, and then there were new girls who came to them with a new batch. Among them was Fiona, with whom Sergey cheated on Catherine, and then the guy started a relationship with the second girl Sonetka, while Sergey began to declare to the merchant's wife that he had never loved her and was with her for the sake of money. The whole party begins to mock Ekaterina Lvovna.

A story about a remarkable Russian character and the disastrous consequences of unbridled passion, the first story of a woman - a serial killer in Russian literature.

comments: Varvara Babitskaya

What is this book about?

Bored young merchant Katerina Izmailova, whose violent nature finds no use in the quiet empty rooms of a merchant's house, starts an affair with a handsome clerk Sergei and, for the sake of this love, commits terrible crimes with amazing composure. Calling "Lady Macbeth ..." an essay, Leskov, as it were, refuses fiction for the sake of the truth of life, creates the illusion of documentary. In fact, “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” is more than a sketch from life: it is an action-packed short story, a tragedy, an anthropological study, and a household story imbued with comedy.

Nikolay Leskov. 1864

When was it written?

Author's dating - "November 26. Kyiv". Leskov worked on "Lady Macbeth ..." in the fall of 1864, visiting his brother in an apartment at Kiev University: he wrote at night, locking himself in a room in a student punishment cell. He later recalled: “But when I wrote my Lady Macbeth, under the influence of overwrought nerves and loneliness, I almost reached delirium. At times I felt unbearably terrified, my hair stood on end, I froze at the slightest rustle, which I myself made by moving my foot or turning my neck. Those were hard moments that I will never forget. Since then, I have avoided describing such horror" 1 How Leskov worked on "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". Sat. articles for the production of the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by the Leningrad State Academic Maly Theatre. L., 1934. ⁠ .

It was assumed that "Lady Macbeth ..." will mark the beginning of a whole series of essays "only some typical female characters of our (Oka and part of the Volga) area"; of all such essays about representatives of different classes Leskov intended to write twelve 2 ⁠ - “each in the amount of one to two sheets, eight from the folk and merchant life and four from the nobility. “Lady Macbeth” (merchant) is followed by “Graziella” (noblewoman), then “Mayorsha Polivodova” (old-world landowner), then “Fevronya Rokhovna” (peasant schismatic) and “Grandmother Bloshka” (midwife). But this cycle never came to fruition.

The gloomy coloring of the story reflected the difficult state of mind of Leskov, who at that time was practically subjected to literary ostracism.

On May 28, 1862, fires broke out in the center of St. Petersburg at Apraksin and Shchukin courtyards, and markets were burning. In an atmosphere of panic, rumors blamed nihilist students for the arson. Leskov made an editorial in Severnaya Pchela urging the police to conduct a thorough investigation and name the perpetrators in order to stop the rumors. The progressive public took this text as a direct denunciation; scandal erupted and "Northern Bee" Pro-government newspaper published in St. Petersburg from 1825 to 1864. Founded by Faddey Bulgarin. At first, the newspaper adhered to democratic views (it published the works of Alexander Pushkin and Kondraty Ryleev), but after the Decembrist uprising, it dramatically changed its political course: it fought against progressive magazines like Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski, and published denunciations. Bulgarin himself wrote in almost all sections of the newspaper. In the 1860s, the new publisher of the Northern Bee, Pavel Usov, tried to make the newspaper more liberal, but was forced to close the publication due to a small number of subscribers. ⁠ sent an unsuccessful correspondent on a long business trip abroad: Lithuania, Austrian Poland, the Czech Republic, Paris. In this semi-exile, the irritated Leskov writes the novel Nowhere, an evil caricature of the nihilists, and upon his return in 1864 he publishes it in "Library for reading" The first large-circulation magazine in Russia, published monthly from 1834 to 1865 in St. Petersburg. The publisher of the magazine was the bookseller Alexander Smirdin, the editor was the writer Osip Senkovsky. The "Library" was designed mainly for the provincial reader, in the capital it was criticized for its protection and superficiality of judgments. By the end of the 1840s, the magazine's popularity began to decline. In 1856, the critic Alexander Druzhinin was called to replace Senkovsky, who worked for the magazine for four years. ⁠ under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky, thereby radically worsening his only emerging literary reputation: “Nowhere” is the fault of my modest fame and the abyss of the most serious insults for me. My opponents wrote and are still ready to repeat that this novel was written by order III Divisions The third branch of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery is a police department dealing with political affairs. It was created in 1826, after the Decembrist uprising, headed by Alexander Benckendorff. In 1880, Section III was abolished, and the affairs of the department were transferred to the Police Department, formed under the Ministry of the Interior. ⁠ ».

How is it written?

Like a thrilling novel. The density of action, the twisted plot, where corpses are heaped up and in each chapter a new twist that does not give the reader a break, will become Leskov's patented technique, due to which, in the eyes of many critics who valued ideas and trends in fiction, Leskov for a long time remained a vulgar "anecdotist ". "Lady Macbeth ..." looks almost like a comic book or, if without anachronisms, like a popular print - Leskov consciously relied on this tradition.

In "Lady Macbeth ..." that "excessiveness", pretentiousness, "linguistic foolishness", in which contemporary criticism of Leskov reproached him in connection with "Lefty", is not yet evident. In other words, the famous Leskovsky tale is not very pronounced in the early essay, but its roots are visible.

"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" in our today's ideas is a story, but the author's genre definition is an essay. Artistic things were also called essays at that time, but this word is inextricably linked in the mind of the 19th century reader with the definition of “physiological”, with journalism, journalism, non-fiction. Leskov insisted that he knew the people firsthand, like democratic writers, but close and in person and showed them what they are. From this author's attitude, the famous Leskovsky tale also grows - according to Boris's definition Eichenbaum 3 Eikhenbaum B. M. Leskov and modern prose // Eikhenbaum B. M. About literature: Works of different years. Moscow: Soviet writer, 1987. ⁠ , "a form of narrative prose that, in its vocabulary, syntax, and selection of intonations, reveals a setting for the oral speech of the narrator." Hence - lively and different, depending on the estate and psychology, the speech of the characters. The author's own intonation is impassive, Leskov writes a report on criminal events without giving moral assessments - except for allowing himself an ironic remark or giving free rein to lyricism in a poetic love scene. “This is a very powerful exploration of the criminal passion of a woman and the cheerful, cynical callousness of her lover. Cold merciless light pours on everything that happens and everything is told with a strong "naturalistic" objectivity" 4 Mirsky D.S. Leskov // Mirsky D.S. History of Russian literature from ancient times to 1925 / Per. from English. R. Grain. London: Overseas Publications Interchange Ltd, 1992. ⁠ .

What influenced her?

First of all - actually "Macbeth": Leskov definitely knew Shakespeare's play - the four-volume "Complete Collection of Dramatic Works ..." by Shakespeare, published in 1865-1868 by Nikolai Gerbel and Nikolai Nekrasov, is still kept in Leskov's library in Orel; plays, including Macbeth, are punctuated with many Leskian litter 5 Afonin L. N. Books from the Leskov Library in the State Museum of I. S. Turgenev // Literary Heritage. Volume 87. M.: Nauka, 1977. ⁠ . And although "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" was written a year before the release of the first volume of this edition, "Macbeth" in the Russian translation by Andrei Kroneberg was published in 1846 - this translation was widely known.

Merchant life was well known to Leskov due to his mixed origin: his father was a modest official who received personal nobility by rank, his mother was from a wealthy landowner family, his paternal grandfather was a priest, his maternal grandmother was from merchants. As his early biographer wrote: “From early childhood, he was under the influence of all these four estates, and in the person of courtyard people and nannies, he was still under the strong influence of the fifth, peasant estate: his nanny was a Moscow soldier, his brother’s nanny, whose stories he heard, — serf" 6 Sementkovsky R. Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov. Full coll. cit., 2nd ed. In 12 vols. T. I. St. Petersburg: Edition of A. F. Marx, 1897. S. IX-X. ⁠ . As Maxim Gorky believed, “Leskov is a writer with the deepest roots among the people, he is completely untouched by any foreign influences" 7 Gebel V. A. N. S. Leskov. In the creative lab. Moscow: Soviet writer, 1945. ⁠ .

In artistic terms, Leskov, forcing the heroes to speak the folk language and only their own language, undoubtedly studied with Gogol. Leskov himself said about his literary sympathies: “When I had the opportunity to read I. S. Turgenev’s Notes of a Hunter for the first time, I trembled all over from the truth of ideas and immediately understood: what is called art. Everything else, except for one more Ostrovsky, seemed to me done and wrong.

Interest in lubok, folklore, anecdote and all sorts of mysticism, which was reflected in "Lady Macbeth ...", writer must 8 Gebel V. A. N. S. Leskov. In the creative lab. Moscow: Soviet writer, 1945. ⁠ also to the now less famous writers of fiction - ethnographers, philologists and Slavophiles: Nicholas Nikolai Vasilyevich Uspensky (1837-1889) - writer, cousin of the writer Gleb Uspensky. He worked in the Sovremennik magazine, was friends with Nekrasov and Chernyshevsky, and shared revolutionary democratic views. After a conflict with the editors of Sovremennik and leaving the magazine, he worked as a teacher, from time to time published his stories and novels in Otechestvennye Zapiski and Vestnik Evropy. After the death of his wife, Ouspensky wandered, gave street concerts, drank a lot, and eventually committed suicide. ⁠ and Gleb Uspensky Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky (1843-1902) - writer. He published in Tolstoy's pedagogical journal Yasnaya Polyana, Sovremennik, worked most of his career in Otechestvennye Zapiski. He was the author of essays on the urban poor, workers, peasants, in particular the essays "The Morals of Rasteryaeva Street" and the cycle of stories "Ruin". In the 1870s he went abroad, where he became close to the populists. Towards the end of his life, Ouspensky suffered from nervous disorders, spent the last ten years in a hospital for the mentally ill. ⁠ , Alexander Veltman Alexander Fomich Veltman (1800-1870) - writer, linguist, archaeologist. For twelve years he served in Bessarabia, was a military topographer, participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1828. After his retirement, he took up literature - Veltman was one of the first to use the time travel technique in novels. He studied ancient Russian literature, translated The Tale of Igor's Campaign. The last years of his life served as director of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin. ⁠ , Vladimir Dal Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (1801-1872) - writer, ethnographer. He served as a military doctor, an official for special assignments with the Governor-General of the Orenburg Territory, participated in the Khiva campaign of 1839. From the 1840s he was engaged in literature and ethnography - he published collections of stories and proverbs. For most of his life he worked on the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, for which he was awarded the Lomonosov Prize and the title of academician. ⁠ , Melnikov-Pechersky Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov (pseudonym - Pechersky; 1818-1883) - writer, ethnographer. He served as a history teacher in Nizhny Novgorod. In the early 1840s, he became friends with Vladimir Dal and entered the service of the Ministry of the Interior. Melnikov was considered one of the main experts on the Old Believers, published in the journals "Letters on the Schism", in which he advocated giving the schismatics full rights. Author of the books "In the Forests" and "On the Mountains", novels about the life of the Trans-Volga Old Believer merchants. ⁠ .

Unlike Katerina Izmailova, who did not read Patericons, Leskov constantly relied on hagiographic and patristic literature. Finally, he wrote his first essays under a fresh impression of service in the criminal chamber and journalistic investigations.

Lubok "Kazan cat, Astrakhan mind, Siberian mind..." Russia, 18th century

Lubok "Spin, my spin". Russia, around 1850

Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

In No. 1 of "Epoch" - the magazine of the Dostoevsky brothers - for 1865. The essay received its final title only in the 1867 edition of M. Stebnitsky's Tales, Essays and Stories, for which the magazine version was heavily revised. For the essay, Leskov asked Dostoevsky for 65 rubles per sheet and “one hundred stitched prints of each essay” (author's copies), but he never received the fee, although he repeatedly reminded the publisher of this. As a result, Dostoevsky issued a bill to Leskov, which, however, the distressed writer, however, did not present for receipt out of delicacy, knowing that Dostoevsky himself found himself in difficult financial circumstances.

Fedor Dostoevsky. 1872 Photograph by Wilhelm Lauffert. Leskov's story was first published in Epoch, the journal of the Dostoevsky brothers.

Epoch Magazine, February 1865

Mikhail Dostoevsky. 1860s.

How was it received?

By the time Lady Macbeth was released, Leskov was actually declared persona non grata in Russian literature because of the novel Nowhere. Almost simultaneously with Leskov's essay in "Russian word" Monthly magazine published from 1859 to 1866 in St. Petersburg. Founded by Count Grigory Kushelev-Bezborodko. With the arrival of editor Grigory Blagosvetlov and critic Dmitry Pisarev at Russkoye Slovo, the moderately liberal literary magazine turned into a radical social and political publication. The popularity of the magazine was largely due to Pisarev's scathing articles. Russkoye Slovo was closed simultaneously with Sovremennik, after Karakozov's assassination attempt on Alexander II. ⁠ Dmitry Pisarev’s article “A Walk in the Gardens of Russian Literature” appeared - from the cell of the Peter and Paul Fortress, a revolutionary critic angrily asked: “1) Is there now in Russia - apart from the Russky Vestnik - at least one magazine that would dare to print something on its pages issued by Mr. Stebnitsky and signed with his name? 2) Is there at least one honest writer in Russia who will be so careless and indifferent to his reputation that he will agree to work in a magazine that adorns itself with short stories and novels by Mr. Stebnitsky? 9 Pisarev D. I. A walk through the gardens of Russian literature // Pisarev D. I. Literary criticism in 3 volumes. T. 2. Articles of 1864-1865. L.: Artist. lit., 1981. ⁠

Democratic criticism of the 1860s, in principle, refused to evaluate Leskov's work from an artistic point of view. Reviews of "Lady Macbeth ..." did not appear either in 1865, when the magazine was published, or in 1867, when the essay was reprinted in the collection "Tales, Essays and Stories by M. Stebnitsky", or in 1873, when this publication was repeated. Not in the 1890s, shortly before the death of the writer, when his "Complete Works" in 12 volumes was published by the publishing house Alexey Suvorin ⁠ and brought Leskov belated recognition from readers. Not in the 1900s, when the essay was published Adolf Marx Adolf Fedorovich Marx (1838-1904) - book publisher. At the age of 21, he moved from Poland to Russia, at first he taught foreign languages, served as a clerk. In 1870, he founded the massive weekly magazine Niva, and in 1896, his own printing house, where, among other things, he published collections of Russian and foreign classics. After the death of Marx, the publishing house turned into a joint-stock company, most of whose shares were bought by the publisher Ivan Sytin. ⁠ attached to "Niva" Mass weekly magazine, published from 1869 to 1918 in the St. Petersburg publishing house of Adolf Marx. The magazine was aimed at family reading. Since 1894, free supplements began to appear for the Niva, among which collections of Russian and foreign writers were published. Due to the low subscription price and high-quality content, the publication became a great success with readers - in 1894, the annual circulation of the Niva reached 170,000 copies. ⁠ . The only critical response is found in the devastating article by Saltykov-Shchedrin about the “Tales of M. Stebnitsky”, and it sounds like this: “... In the story “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”, the author talks about one woman - Fiona and says that she never refused anyone to a man, and then he adds: “Such women are highly valued in robber gangs, in prison parties and social democratic communes.” All these additions about revolutionaries tearing off everyone’s noses, about Baba Fiona and about nihilist officials are scattered here and there in Mr. Stebnitsky’s book without any connection and serve only as proof that the author from time to time has some kind seizures…” 10 Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Novels, essays and stories by M. Stebnitsky // Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Collected works: in 20 volumes. T. 9. M .: Khudozh. lit., 1970. ⁠

"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". Directed by Roman Balayan. 1989

Boris Kustodiev. Illustration for "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". 1923

“Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” over time was not only appreciated, but also became one of the most famous Leskovsky works, along with “Lefty” and “The Enchanted Wanderer”, both in Russia and in the West. The return to the reader of "Lady Macbeth ..." began with a brochure, which in 1928 was published by the Red Proletarian printing house in a thirty-thousandth edition in the series "Cheap Library of Classics"; in the preface, the story of Katerina Izmailova was interpreted as "a desperate protest of a strong female personality against the stuffy prison of a Russian merchant's house." In 1930 the Leningrad Writers' Publishing House A publishing house founded on the initiative of Leningrad writers in 1927. It published books by Konstantin Fedin, Marietta Shaginyan, Vsevolod Ivanov, Mikhail Koltsov, Boris Eikhenbaum. In 1934, the publishing house merged with the Moscow Association of Writers, on this basis the publishing house "Soviet Writer" arose. ⁠ publishes "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" with illustrations by Boris Kustodiev (already deceased by that time). After that, "Lady Macbeth ..." is reprinted in the USSR continuously.

However, we note that Kustodiev created his illustrations back in 1922-1923; Katerina Izmailova had other admirers in the 1920s. So, in 1927, the constructivist poet Nikolai Ushakov Nikolai Petrovich Ushakov (1899-1973) - poet, writer, translator. He spent most of his life in Kyiv, writing poetry, feuilletons, film scripts, and articles about literature. He gained fame thanks to the poetry collection "Spring of the Republic", published in 1927. He translated into Russian the works of Ukrainian poets and writers - Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, Mikhail Kotsyubinsky. ⁠ wrote the poem "Lady Macbeth", a bloody story of a forester with an epigraph from Leskov, which cannot be cited:

You are alive, no doubt
but why did they bring you
in a sleepy trap
fears,
shadows,
furniture?

And also the ending:

It's not a fight at the gate,
lady -
I don't want to hide,
then follow us
lady,
rides
mounted police.

In 1930, after reading a Leskovsky essay republished in Leningrad and especially inspired by Kustodiev's illustrations, Dmitri Shostakovich decided to write an opera based on the plot of Lady Macbeth.... After the premiere in 1934, the opera was a stormy success not only in the USSR (however, it was removed from the repertoire in January 1936, when the famous article in Pravda appeared - "Muddle instead of music"), but also in the USA and Europe, providing the long popularity of the Leskovian heroine in the West. The first translation of the essay - German - was published in 1921 in Munich; by the 1970s, Lady Macbeth had already been translated into all the major world languages.

The first film adaptation of the essay that has not been preserved was the silent film directed by Alexander Arkatov Katerina the Murderer (1916). It was followed, among others, by Andrzej Wajda's Siberian Lady Macbeth (1962), Roman Balayan's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1989) starring Natalia Andreichenko and Alexander Abdulov, Valery Todorovsky's Moscow Evenings (1994), which moved the action to modernity, and the British film Lady Macbeth (2016), where director William Allroyd transplanted a Leskian plot into Victorian soil.

The literary influence of "Lady Macbeth ..." is difficult to separate from Leskov's line in Russian prose as a whole, but, for example, the researcher found an unexpected trace of it in Nabokov's "Lolita", where, in his opinion, a love scene in a garden under a blooming apple tree echoes: "Grid shadows and bunnies, blurring reality, there is clearly from "Lady Macbeth…" 11 ⁠ , and this is much more significant than the analogy that suggests itself Sonnetka - nymphet.

Lady Macbeth. Directed by William Oldroyd. 2016

"Katerina Izmailova". Directed by Mikhail Shapiro. 1966

"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". Directed by Roman Balayan. 1989

"Moscow Nights". Directed by Valery Todorovsky. 1994

Is the essay "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" based on real events?

Rather, on observations of real life, which Leskov owed to his unusually colorful career for a writer. Orphaned at the age of 18, Leskov was forced to earn a living himself and since then served in the Oryol Criminal Chamber, in the recruitment department of the Kyiv Treasury Chamber, in the office of the Kyiv Governor-General, in a private shipping company, in the management of estates, in the ministries of public education and state property. Working in the commercial firm of his relative, the Russified Englishman Alexander Shkott, Leskov traveled on business to almost the entire European part of Russia. “To this cause,” the writer said, “I owe literary creativity. Here I received the entire store of knowledge of the people and the country. Statistical, economic, everyday observations, accumulated in those years, then sufficed for decades of literary comprehension. The writer himself called "Essays on the distillery industry (Penza province)", published in 1861 in "Domestic Notes" A literary magazine published in St. Petersburg from 1818 to 1884. Founded by writer Pavel Svinin. In 1839, the journal passed to Andrei Kraevsky, and Vissarion Belinsky headed the critical department. Lermontov, Herzen, Turgenev, Sollogub were published in Otechestvennye Zapiski. After part of the staff left for Sovremennik, Kraevsky handed over the magazine to Nekrasov in 1868. After the death of the latter, the publication was headed by Saltykov-Shchedrin. In the 1860s, Leskov, Garshin, Mamin-Sibiryak published in it. The magazine was closed by order of the chief censor and former employee of the publication Evgeny Feoktistov. ⁠ .

Katerina Izmailova did not have a direct prototype, but Leskov’s childhood memory was preserved, which could tell him the plot: “Once an old neighbor who had lived for seventy years and went to rest under a blackcurrant bush on a summer day, an impatient daughter-in-law poured boiling sealing wax into her ear ... I remember how he was buried... His ear fell off... Then on Ilyinka (in the square) "the executioner tormented her." She was young and everyone wondered what she was white…” 12 Leskov A. N. The life of Nikolai Leskov: According to his personal, family and non-family records and memories: In 2 vols. T. 1. M .: Khudozh. lit., 1984. S. 474. ⁠ - a trace of this impression can be seen in the description of "Katerina Lvovna's naked white back" during the execution.

Another possible source of inspiration can be seen in a much later letter from Leskov, which deals with the plot of the story. Alexey Suvorin Aleksey Sergeevich Suvorin (1834-1912) - writer, playwright, publisher. Gained fame thanks to the Sunday feuilletons published in the St. Petersburg Vedomosti. In 1876, he bought the Novoe Vremya newspaper, soon founded his own bookstore and printing house, in which he published the reference books Russian Calendar, All Russia, and the Cheap Library series of books. Suvorin's famous dramas include Tatyana Repina, Medea, Dmitry the Pretender and Princess Xenia. ⁠ "Tragedy over trifles": the landowner, having unwittingly committed a crime, is forced to become the mistress of a footman - her accomplice, who blackmails her. Leskov, praising the story, adds that it could be improved: “She could tell in three lines how she gave herself to a footman for the first time ...<…>She had something like a passion for perfume that had never been before ... she kept wiping her hands (like Lady Macbeth) so that she would not smell of his nasty touch.<…>In the Oryol province there was something of this kind. The lady fell into the hands of her coachman and went insane, wiping herself with perfume so that she “did not smell of horse sweat.”<…>Suvorin's lackey is not felt enough by the reader - his tyranny over the victim almost does not appear, and therefore there is no compassion for this woman, which the author certainly had to try. summon…” 13 ⁠ . In this letter of 1885, it is difficult not to hear the echo of Lesk's own essay, and the incident that occurred in Orel, he should have known from his youth.

Mtsensk. Early 20th century

What is in Katerina Lvovna from Lady Macbeth?

“Sometimes such characters are set in our places that no matter how many years have passed since meeting with them, you will never remember some of them without spiritual awe” - this is how Leskov begins the story of the merchant’s wife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, whom “our nobles, with someone's easy word, they began to call ... Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". This nickname, which gave the name to the essay, sounds like an oxymoron - the author emphasizes the ironic sound, attributing the expression not to himself, but to an impressionable public. Here it should be noted that Shakespeare's names were in general use in an ironic context: there was, for example, Dmitry Lensky's vaudeville operetta "Hamlet Sidorovich and Ophelia Kuzminishna" (1873), the parody vaudeville "Othello on the Sands, or Petersburg Arab" (1847) by Pyotr Karatygin ) and Ivan Turgenev's story "Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district" (1849).

But despite the author's mockery, constantly breaking through in the essay, by the end of his comparison of the county merchant's wife with the ancient Scottish queen proves its seriousness, legitimacy, and even leaves the reader in doubt - which of the two is more terrible.

It is believed that the idea of ​​​​the plot could have been given to Leskov by a case from the time of his childhood in Orel, where a young merchant's wife killed her father-in-law by pouring melted sealing wax into his ear while sleeping in the garden. As Maya points out Kucherskaya 14 Kucherskaya M.A. On some features of the architectonics of Leskov's essay "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" // International scientific collection "Leskoviana. Creativity N. S. Leskov. T. 2. Orel: (b.i.), 2009. ⁠ , this exotic method of murder "reminiscent of the scene of the murder of Hamlet's father from Shakespeare's play, and, perhaps, it was this detail that prompted Leskov to think of comparing his heroine with Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, pointing out that quite Shakespearean passions can play out in Mtsensk district."

Again, the same Russian boredom, the boredom of a merchant's house, from which it is fun, they say, even to hang yourself

Nikolai Leskov

Leskov took from Shakespeare not only the common name of the heroine. There is a common plot here - the first murder inevitably entails others, and blind passion (lust for power or voluptuousness) starts an unstoppable process of spiritual corruption, leading to death. Here is a fantastic Shakespearean entourage with ghosts personifying an unclean conscience, which Leskov turns into a fat cat: “You are very clever, Katerina Lvovna, you argue that I am not a cat at all, but I am an eminent merchant Boris Timofeich. I’ve only become so bad now that all my intestines inside have cracked from the bride’s treat.

A careful comparison of the works reveals many textual similarities in them.

For example, the scene in which the crime of Katerina and Sergei is revealed seems to be entirely composed of Shakespearean allusions. “The walls of a quiet house that hid so many crimes shook from deafening blows: the windows rattled, the floors swayed, the chains of hanging lamps quivered and wandered along the walls in fantastic shadows.<…>It seemed that some unearthly forces shook the sinful house to the ground "- compare with Shakespeare's description of the night when he was killed Duncan 15 Here and below, Shakespeare's quotations are based on the translation by Andrey Kroneberg, probably the most famous Leskov. ⁠ :

The night was stormy; above our bedroom
Demolished the pipe; flew through the air
A dull wail and deathly wheezing;
A terrible voice predicted war
Fire and confusion. Owl, faithful companion
Unfortunate times, shouted all night.
The earth is said to have trembled.

But Sergey rushes to run at full speed in superstitious horror, cracking his forehead against the door: “Zinovy ​​Borisych, Zinovy ​​Borisych! he muttered, flying headlong down the stairs and dragging Katerina Lvovna, who had been knocked down, after him.<…>Here it flew over us with an iron sheet. Katerina Lvovna, with her usual composure, replies: “Fool! get up you fool!" This creepy clowning worthy of Charlie Chaplin is a variation on the theme of a feast, where the ghost of Banquo appears to Macbeth, and the lady urges her husband to come to his senses.

At the same time, however, Leskov makes an interesting gender permutation in the characters of his heroes. If Macbeth, a capable student, once taught by his wife, subsequently floods Scotland with blood already without her participation, then Sergey throughout his criminal career is entirely led by Katerina Lvovna, who “turns into a hybrid of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, while the lover becomes a murder weapon:” Katerina Lvovna bent down, squeezed with her hands Sergei's hands, which lay on her husband's throat" 16 ⁠ . Perverse self-pity pushes Katerina Lvovna to kill the boy Fedya: “For what, in fact, should I lose my capital through him? I suffered so much, I took so much sin on my soul. Macbeth is guided by the same logic, forced to commit more and more new murders so that the first one does not turn out to be “senseless” and other people's children do not inherit the throne: “So for the descendants of Banquo / I defiled my soul?”

Lady Macbeth remarks that she would have stabbed Duncan herself, "If he weren't / In his sleep he looks so sharply like his father." Katerina Izmailova, sending her father-in-law to the forefathers (“This is a kind of tyrannicide, which can also be considered as parricide" 17 Zheri K. Sensuality and Crime in N. S. Leskova’s “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” // Russian Literature. 2004. No. 1. S. 102-110. ⁠ ), does not hesitate: “She suddenly turned around in the full breadth of her awakened nature and became so determined that it was impossible to appease her.” The same resolute at first, Lady Macbeth goes crazy and, in delirium, cannot wipe imaginary blood stains from her hands. Not so with Katerina Lvovna, who routinely cleans the floorboards from the samovar: "the stain was washed out without any trace."

It is she who, like Macbeth, who cannot say “Amen”, “wants to remember the prayer and moves her lips, and her lips whisper: “how we walked with you, we sat through the long autumn nights, with a fierce death from the wide world people were escorted”. But unlike Lady Macbeth, who committed suicide because of remorse, Izmailova does not know remorse, and uses suicide as an opportunity to take her rival with her. So Leskov, comically reducing Shakespearean images, at the same time makes his heroine surpass the prototype in everything, turning her into the mistress of her own destiny.

The county merchant's wife not only ranks with Shakespeare's tragic heroine, she is more Lady Macbeth than Lady Macbeth herself.

Nikolay Mylnikov. Portrait of Nadezhda Ivanovna Soboleva. 1830s. Yaroslavl Art Museum

Merchant wife. Photographer William Carrick. From the series "Russian types". 1850s–70s

How was the women's question reflected in "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"?

The sixties of the XIX century, when “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” appeared, were a time of heated discussion of women's emancipation, including sexual emancipation - as Irina Paperno writes, “The Liberation of a Woman” was understood as freedom in general, and freedom in personal relationships (emotional emancipation and the destruction of the foundations of traditional marriage) was identified with social liberation humanity" 18 Paperno I. Semiotics of behavior: Nikolai Chernyshevsky is a man of the era of realism. M .: New Literary Review, 1996. S. 55. ⁠ .

Leskov devoted several articles to the women's issue in 1861: his position was ambivalent. On the one hand, Leskov liberally argued that the refusal to recognize a woman's equal rights with a man is absurd and only leads to "the incessant violation by women of many social laws through anarchist" 19 Leskov N.S. Russian women and emancipation // Russian speech. No. 344, 346. June 1 and 8. ⁠ , and defended women's education, the right to adequately earn a piece of bread and follow their calling. On the other hand, he denied the very existence of the "women's issue" - in a bad marriage, men and women suffer equally, but the remedy for this is the Christian ideal of the family, and one should not confuse emancipation with debauchery: "We are not talking about forgetfulness of duties, daring and opportunities in the name of the principle of emancipation, to leave her husband and even children, but about the emancipation of education and work for the benefit of the family and society" 20 Leskov N. S. Specialists in the women's part // Literary Library. 1867. September; December. ⁠ . Glorifying "a good family woman", a kind wife and mother, he added that debauchery "under all the names, no matter what they were invented for him, is still debauchery, not freedom."

In this context, "Lady Macbeth ..." sounds like a sermon of a notorious conservative moralist about the tragic consequences of forgetting the boundaries of what is permitted. Katerina Lvovna, not inclined either to education, or to work, or to religion, devoid, as it turns out, even of her maternal instinct, “violates social laws in an anarchic way,” and this, as usual, begins with debauchery. As the researcher Catherine Géry writes: “The criminal plot of the story is sharply polemical in relation to the model of a possible solution to family conflicts, which was then proposed by Chernyshevsky. In the image of Katerina Lvovna, one can see the writer’s lively reaction to the image of Vera Pavlovna in the novel “What make?" 21 Zheri K. Sensuality and Crime in N. S. Leskova’s “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” // Russian Literature. 2004. No. 1. S. 102-110. ⁠ .

Oh, soul, soul! Yes, what kind of people did you know that they only have a door to a woman and the road?

Nikolai Leskov

This point of view, however, is not confirmed by Leskov himself in his review of Chernyshevsky's novel. Falling down on nihilists - idlers and phrasemongers, "freaks of Russian civilization" and "trash with pollen" 22 Leskov N. S. Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky in his novel “What is to be done?” // Leskov N. S. Collected works in 11 volumes. T. 10. M.: GIHL, 1957. S. 487-489. ⁠ , Leskov sees an alternative to them precisely in the heroes of Chernyshevsky, who “work to the sweat, but not out of a single desire for personal profit” and at the same time “converge of their own accord, without any nasty monetary calculations: they love each other for a while, but then, as it happens, in one of these two hearts a new attachment lights up, and the vow is changed. In all disinterestedness, respect for mutual natural rights, a quiet, sure move on your own path. This is quite far from the posture of a reactionary-guardian, who sees in liberal ideas one sermon of sheer sin.

Russian classics of the 19th century did not recommend women to freely express their sexuality. Carnal urges inevitably end in disaster: because of passion, Larisa Ogudalova was shot dead and Katerina Kabanova drowned herself near Ostrovsky, Nastasya Filippovna was stabbed to death at Dostoevsky, Goncharov in a novel on the same topic makes a precipice a symbol of masterful passion, there is nothing to say about Anna Karenina. It seems that "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" was written in the same tradition. And even brings the moralizing thought to the limit: the passion of Katerina Izmailova is of an exclusively carnal nature, demonic influx in its purest form, not covered by romantic illusions, devoid of idealization (even Sergey's sadistic mockery does not put an end to it), it is opposite to the ideal of the family and excludes motherhood.

Sexuality is shown in Leskovsky's essay as an element, a dark and chthonic force. In the love scene under a blooming apple tree, Katerina Lvovna seems to dissolve in the moonlight: “These whimsical, bright spots have gilded her all, and so they flicker on her, and tremble like living fiery butterflies, or as if all the grass under the trees was taken by the moon net and walks from side to side”; and around her mermaid laughter is heard. This image resonates in the finale, where the heroine rises up to her waist from the water to rush at her rival "like a strong pike" - or like a mermaid. In this erotic scene, superstitious fear is combined with admiration - according to Zheri, the entire artistic system of the essay “violates the strict tradition of self-censorship in depicting the sensual side of love that has long existed in Russian literature”; the crime story becomes, over the course of the text, "a study of sexuality in its purest form" 23 McLean. N. S. Leskov, the Man and his Art. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, 1977. P. 147. Op. by K. Zhery. ⁠ . Whatever opinion Leskov held about free love at different periods of his life, the talent of the artist was stronger than the principles of a publicist.

Boris Kustodiev. Illustration for "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". 1923

"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". Directed by Roman Balayan. 1989

Does Leskov justify his heroine?

Lev Anninsky notes the “terrible unpredictability” in the souls of Leskov’s heroes: “What kind of “Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky is there - this is not a ray of light, here a fountain of blood beats from the bottom of the soul; here "Anna Karenina" is foreshadowed - the vengeance of demonic passion; here Dostoevsky matches the problematic - it is not for nothing that Dostoevsky published “Lady Macbeth ...” in his journal. You can’t put Lesk’s four-time murderer for the sake of love into any “typology of characters.” Katerina Lvovna and her Sergey not only did not fit into the literary typology of the characters of the 1860s, but directly contradicted it. Two hard-working, devout merchants, and then an innocent child, are strangled for their own benefit by two traditionally positive heroes - natives of the people: a Russian woman, ready to sacrifice everything for her love, "our recognized conscience, our last justification", and the clerk Sergei, reminiscent of Nekrasov "gardener". This allusion in Anninsky seems justified: in Nekrasov's ballad, the noble daughter, like the merchant's wife Izmailova, comes to admire the curly-haired worker; a joking struggle ensues - "It darkened in the eyes, the soul shuddered, / I gave - I did not give a golden ring ...", which develops into love joys. Katerina’s affair with Sergey also began in the same way: “No, but let me take it like that, set-ups,” Seryoga treated, spreading his curls. “Well, take it,” replied Katerina Lvovna, cheered up, and lifted her elbows up.

Like the Nekrasov gardener, Sergei is caught when he makes his way from the master's burner at dawn, and then they are exiled to hard labor. Even the description of Katerina Lvovna - "She was not tall, but slender, her neck seemed to be carved out of marble, her shoulders were round, her chest was strong, her nose was straight, thin, her eyes were black, lively, her high white forehead and black, even blue-black hair" - as if Nekrasov predicted: “Chernobrova, stately, like white sugar! .. / It became terrible, I didn’t finish my song.”

Another parallel to the Lesk story is Vsevolod Krestovsky's ballad "Vanka the Keymaker", which has become a folk song. “There was a lot on those nights in the bedroom of Zinovy ​​​​Borisych and wine from the mother-in-law’s cellar was drunk, and sweet sweets were eaten, and lips were kissed on sugar hostesses, and played with black curls on a soft headboard” - like a paraphrase of a ballad:

There was a lot to drink
Yes, you have been abused
And in the red something is alive
And loving kiss!
On the bed, into the will of the prince,
There we lie down
And for the chest, the chest of a swan,
More than once was enough!

Krestovsky's young princess and Vanya the housekeeper perish like Romeo and Juliet, while Nekrasov's noble daughter is the unwitting culprit of the hero's misfortune. The heroine of Leskova, on the other hand, is evil incarnate herself - and at the same time a victim, and her beloved turns from a victim of class differences into a tempter, accomplice, and then an executioner. Leskov seems to be saying: look how living life looks in comparison with ideological and literary schemes, there are no pure victims and villains, unambiguous roles, the human soul is dark. The naturalistic description of the crime in all its cynical efficiency is combined with sympathy for the heroine.

The moral death of Katerina Lvovna takes place gradually: she kills her father-in-law, standing up for her beloved Sergei, beaten by him and locked up; husband - in self-defense, in response to a humiliating threat, grinding his teeth: “And-them! I can't stand it." But this is a trick: in fact, Zinovy ​​Borisovich has already “steamed his master’s darling” with tea poisoned by her, his fate was decided, no matter how he behaved. Finally, Katerina Lvovna kills the boy because of Sergei's greed; it is characteristic that this last - by no means excusable - murder was omitted in his opera by Shostakovich, who decided to make Katerina a rebel and a victim.

Ilya Glazunov. Katerina Lvovna Izmailova. Illustration for "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". 1973

Ilya Glazunov. Bailiff. Illustration for "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". 1973

How and why do different storytelling styles overlap in Lady Macbeth?

“The writer’s voice setting consists in the ability to master the voice and language of his hero and not stray from altos to basses. ... My priests speak in a spiritual way, nihilists - in a nihilistic way, peasants - in a peasant way, upstarts from them and buffoons - with frills, etc., - Leskov said, according to his recollections contemporary 24 Cit. Quoted from: Eikhenbaum B. "Excessive" writer (To the 100th anniversary of the birth of N. Leskov) // Eikhenbaum B. About prose. L.: Artist. lit., 1969. S. 327-345. ⁠ . - From myself, I speak the language of old fairy tales and church-folk in a purely literary speech. In "Lady Macbeth..." the narrator's speech—literary, neutral—serves as a framework for the characteristic speech of the characters. The author shows his own face only in the last part of the essay, which tells about the fate of Katerina Lvovna and Sergey after the arrest: Leskov himself never observed these realities, but his publisher, Dostoevsky, the author of Notes from the House of the Dead, confirmed that the description is plausible. The writer accompanies the “most joyless picture” of the hard labor stage with a psychological remark: “... Whoever the thought of death in this sad situation does not flatter, but frightens, should try to drown out these howling voices with something even more ugly. The common man understands this very well: sometimes he unleashes his bestial simplicity, begins to be stupid, to mock himself, people, feelings. Not particularly gentle and without that, he becomes purely angry. A publicist breaks through in the fiction writer - after all, "Lady Macbeth ..." is one of Leskov's first artistic essays, the polemical lining is close to the surface there: it is no coincidence that Saltykov-Shchedrin answers these author's remarks in his response in his response, ignoring the plot and style. Here Leskov indirectly polemicizes with the idealistic ideas of contemporary revolutionary-democratic criticism about the "common man". Leskov liked to emphasize that, unlike the people-loving writers of the 60s, the common people know firsthand, and therefore claimed the special reliability of his everyday life: even though his heroes are fictional, they are written off from nature.

As you and I walked, the autumn long nights sat out, with a fierce death from the wide world people were escorted

Nikolai Leskov

For example, Sergei is a “girl”, expelled from a previous place of service for having an affair with the mistress: “The thief took everything - both in height, in face, in beauty, and will flatter and lead to sin. And what is fickle, scoundrel, fickle, fickle!” This is a petty, vulgar character, and his love speeches are an example of lackey chic: “The song is sung: “sadness and melancholy seized without a dear friend,” and this longing, I tell you, Katerina Ilvovna, is so, I can say, sensitive to my own heart that I would take it and cut it out of my chest with a damask knife and throw it at your feet. Here comes to mind another murderous servant, bred by Dostoevsky twenty years later - Pavel Smerdyakov with his couplets and claims: “Can a Russian peasant have a feeling against an educated person?” - cf. Sergey: “We have everything because of poverty, Katerina Ilvovna, you yourself deign to know, lack of education. How can they understand anything about love properly! At the same time, the speech of the “educated” Sergey is distorted and illiterate: “Why am I going to get out of here.”

Katerina Lvovna, as we know, is of simple origin, but she speaks correctly and without antics. After all, Katerina Izmailova is “a character ... which you won’t remember without spiritual awe”; By the time of Leskov, Russian literature could not yet conceive of a tragic heroine speaking "tapericha." The cute clerk and the tragic heroine seem to be taken from different artistic systems.

Leskov imitates reality, but still on the principle of "shake, but do not mix" - appoints different characters responsible for different layers of being.

"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". Directed by Roman Balayan. 1989

Boris Kustodiev. Illustration for "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". 1923

Does “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” look like a lubok?

From the ideological wars that overshadowed Leskov’s literary debut and created an artistic dead end situation, the writer, fortunately, found a practical way out, which made him Leskov: after the novels “Nowhere” and “On Knives” that were directly journalistic and not particularly valuable in literary terms. “he begins to create an iconostasis of her saints and righteous for Russia” - rather than ridicule people who are worthless, he decides to offer inspiring images. However, as he wrote Alexander Amfiteatrov Alexander Valentinovich Amfiteatrov (1862-1938) - literary and theater critic, publicist. He was an opera singer, but then left the opera career and took up journalism. In 1899, together with the journalist Vlas Doroshevich, he opened the newspaper Rossiya. Three years later, the newspaper was closed for satire on the royal family, and Amfiteatrov himself was in exile. On his return from exile, he emigrated. He returned to Russia shortly before the revolution, but in 1921 he again went abroad, where he collaborated with emigre publications. Author of dozens of novels, short stories, plays and collections of short stories. ⁠ , “in order to become an artist of positive ideals, Leskov was a man too newly converted”: having renounced his former Social Democratic sympathies, falling upon them and being defeated, Leskov rushed to look for among the people not mummers, but genuine the righteous 25 Gorky M. N. S. Leskov // Gorky M. Collected works: in 30 volumes. T. 24. M .: GIHL, 1953. ⁠ . However, his own school of reporters, knowledge of the subject and just a sense of humor came into conflict with this task, from which the reader infinitely benefited: Leskov's "righteous" (the most striking example) are always at least ambivalent and therefore interesting. “In his didactic stories, the same trait is always noticed as in moralizing children's books or in novels from the first centuries of Christianity: bad boys, contrary to the wishes of the author, are written much livelier and more interesting than good-natured ones, and pagans attract attention much more Christian" 26 Amfiteatrov A. V. Collected works of Al. Amfiteatrov. T. 22. Rulers of thoughts. St. Petersburg: Education, 1914-1916. ⁠ .

An excellent illustration of this thought is Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Katerina Izmailova was written as a direct opposite of the heroine of another Leskovsky essay - "The Life of a Woman", published two years earlier.

The plot there is very similar: the peasant girl Nastya is forcibly extradited to a despotic merchant family; she finds the only outlet in love for her neighbor Stepan, the story ends tragically - the lovers go through the stage, Nastya goes crazy and dies. There is, in fact, only one conflict: illegal passion sweeps away a person like a typhoon, leaving behind corpses. Only Nastya is a righteous person and a victim, and Katerina is a sinner and a murderer. This difference is resolved primarily stylistically: “The love dialogues of Nastya and Stepan were built like a folk song broken into replicas. Love dialogues between Katerina Lvovna and Sergey are perceived as ironically stylized inscriptions for popular prints. The whole movement of this love situation is, as it were, a template condensed to the point of horror - a young merchant's wife deceives her old husband with a clerk. Not only templates results" 27 ⁠ .

Boris Timofeyich died, and he died after eating mushrooms, as many people die after eating them.

Nikolai Leskov

In “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”, the hagiographic motif is reversed - Maya Kucherskaya, among others, writes that the episode of the murder of Fedya Lyamin refers to this semantic layer. The sick boy reads in a patericon (which Katerina Lvovna, as we remember, never took into her hands) the life of his saint, the martyr Theodore Stratilates, and admires how he pleased God. The case takes place during the Vespers, on the feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Mother of God; according to the Gospel, the Virgin Mary, already carrying Christ in her womb, meets with Elizabeth, who also carries the future John the Baptist in herself: “When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby jumped up in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41). Katerina Izmailova also feels how “her own child turned under her heart for the first time, and she felt cold in her chest” - but this does not soften her heart, but rather strengthens her determination to quickly make the lad Fedya a martyr so that her own heir will receive capital for the sake of Sergei's pleasures.

“The drawing of her image is a household template, but a template drawn with such thick paint that it turns into a kind of tragic splint" 28 Gromov P., Eikhenbaum B. N. S. Leskov (Essay on creativity) // N. S. Leskov. Collected works: in 11 vols. M.: GIHL, 1956. ⁠ . A tragic lubok is, in essence, an icon. In Russian culture, the sublime hagiographic genre and the mass, entertaining genre of lubok are closer to each other than it might seem - it is enough to recall the traditional hagiographic icons, on which the face of the saint is framed in fact by a comic strip depicting the most striking episodes of his biography. The story of Katerina Lvovna is anti-life, the story of a strong and passionate nature, over which the demonic temptation has prevailed. A saint becomes a saint through victory over the passions; in a sense, ultimate sin and holiness are two manifestations of the same great power, which later will unfold in all colors in Dostoevsky: "And I am Karamazov." Leskov’s Katerina Izmailova is not just a criminal, no matter how low and casually the essayist Leskov presented her story, she is a martyr who mistook the Antichrist for Christ: “I was ready for Sergei into fire, into water, into prison and to the cross.” Recall how Leskov describes her - she was not a beauty, but she was bright and handsome: "The nose is straight, thin, her eyes are black, lively, a high white forehead and black, even blue-black hair." A portrait suitable for depiction in a bright and primitively graphic popular print story like "The Funny Tale of a Merchant's Wife and a Bailiff". But the iconographic face can also be described.

In reality, Katerina Izmailova is devoid of both class prejudices and self-interest, and only passion gives form to her fatal deeds. Sergei has class and selfish motives, but he alone is important to her - however, socialist criticism needed to read into the essay the conflict of a bold and strong folk nature with a musty merchant environment.

As the literary critic Valentin Gebel put it, “one could say about Katerina Izmailova that she is not a ray of the sun falling into darkness, but lightning generated by darkness itself and only more clearly emphasizing the impenetrable darkness of merchant life.”

She wanted passion to be brought to her not in the form of russula, but under a spicy, spicy seasoning, with suffering and sacrifice.

Nikolai Leskov

An unbiased reading of the essay, however, does not show an impenetrable darkness in the merchant life described by Leskov. Although the husband and father-in-law reproach Katerina Lvovna with infertility (obviously unfair: Zinovy ​​Borisovich had no children in his first marriage, and Katerina Lvovna immediately becomes pregnant from Sergei), but more, as follows from the text, they do not oppress. This is not at all the merchant-tyrant Dikoy and not the widow Kabanikh from "Thunderstorm", who "clothes the poor, but completely ate at home." Both Lesk merchants are hardworking, pious people, at dawn, after drinking tea, they go on business until late at night. They, of course, also restrict the freedom of the young merchant's wife, but they do not eat food.

Both Katerinas are nostalgic about the free life in girls, but their memories look exactly the opposite. Here is Katerina Kabanova: “I used to get up early; if it’s summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring water with me and that’s it, water all the flowers in the house.<…>And we will come from the church, sit down for some work, more like gold velvet, and the wanderers will begin to tell: where they were, what they saw, different lives, or they sing poetry.<…>And then, it happened, a girl, I would get up at night - we also had lamps burning everywhere - but somewhere in a corner and pray until the morning. But Izmailova: “I would run with buckets to the river and swim in a shirt under the pier or sprinkle sunflower husks through the gate of a passer-by; but here everything is different.” Even before meeting Sergei, Katerina Lvovna understands freedom precisely as a free manifestation of sexuality - the young clerk simply releases the genie from the bottle - "as if the demons had broken loose." Unlike Katerina Kabanova, she has nothing to do with herself: she’s not a hunter to read, she doesn’t come to needlework, she doesn’t go to church.

In an 1867 article "The Russian Drama Theater in St. Petersburg" Leskov wrote: "There is no doubt that self-interest, meanness, hardness of heart and voluptuousness, like any other vices of mankind, are as old as mankind itself"; only the forms of their manifestation, according to Leskov, differ depending on time and class: if in a decent society vices are made up, then in people “simple, soiled, unrestrained” slavish obedience to bad passions manifests itself “in forms so rude and uncomplicated that for recognition they hardly need any special powers of observation. All the vices of these people walk naked, as our forefathers walked.” It was not the environment that made Katerina Lvovna vicious, but the environment made her a convenient, visual object for the study of vice.

Stanislav Zhukovsky. Interior with a samovar. 1914 Private collection

Why did Stalin hate Shostakovich's opera?

In 1930, inspired by the first Leningrad edition of Lady Macbeth after a long break, with illustrations by the late Kustodiev, the young Dmitri Shostakovich took Leskovsky's plot for his second opera. The 24-year-old composer was already the author of three symphonies, two ballets, the opera The Nose (after Gogol), music for films and performances; he gained fame as an innovator and hope of Russian music. His "Lady Macbeth ..." was expected: as soon as Shostakovich finished the score, the Leningrad Maly Opera Theater and the Moscow Musical Theater named after V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko began staging. Both premieres in January 1934 received thunderous applause and enthusiastic press; the opera was also staged at the Bolshoi Theater and was repeatedly presented in triumph in Europe and America.

Shostakovich defined the genre of his opera as “tragedy-satire”, moreover, Katerina Izmailova is responsible for tragedy and only tragedy, and everyone else is responsible for satire. In other words, the composer completely justified Katerina Lvovna, for which, in particular, he threw out the murder of a child from the libretto. After one of the first performances, one of the audience noticed that the opera should not have been called “Lady Macbeth…”, but “Juliet…” or “Desdemona of the Mtsensk district,” the composer agreed with this, who, on the advice of Nemirovich-Danchenko, gave the opera new name - "Katerina Izmailova". The demonic woman with blood on her hands turned into a victim of passion.

As Solomon Volkov writes, Boris Kustodiev “in addition to “legitimate” illustrations ... also drew numerous erotic variations on the theme of “Lady Macbeth”, which were not intended for publication. After his death, fearing searches, the family hastened to destroy these drawings. Volkov suggests that Shostakovich saw those sketches, and this influenced the clearly erotic nature of his operas 30 Volkov S. Stalin and Shostakovich: the case of "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district" // Znamya. 2004. No. 8. ⁠ .

The composer was not horrified by the violence of passion, but glorified it. Sergei Eisenstein told his students in 1933 about Shostakovich's opera: "In music, the 'biological' love line is drawn with the utmost brightness." Sergei Prokofiev, in private conversations, characterized her even more sharply: “This swine music - waves of lust go on and on!” The embodiment of evil in “Katerina Izmailova” was no longer the heroine, but “something grandiose and at the same time disgustingly real, embossed, everyday, felt almost physiologically: crowd" 31 Anninsky L. A. World celebrity from the Mtsensk district // Anninsky L. A. Leskovskoe necklace. M.: Book, 1986. ⁠ .

Why, allow me to report to you, madam, after all, a child also happens from something.

Nikolai Leskov

For the time being, Soviet criticism praised the opera, finding in it an ideological correspondence to the era: “Leskov in his story drags through old morality and talks like humanist; one needs the eyes and ears of a Soviet composer to do what Leskov could not do - to see and show the true killer behind the external crimes of the heroine - the autocratic system. Shostakovich himself said that he switched the places of executioners and victims: after all, Leskov’s husband, father-in-law, good people, autocracy do nothing terrible with Katerina Lvovna, and they are almost completely absent - in the fine silence and emptiness of the merchant’s house she depicted alone with her demons.

In 1936, Pravda published an editorial entitled "Muddle Instead of Music", in which an anonymous author (many contemporaries believed that it was Stalin himself) smashed Shostakovich's opera - this article began a campaign against formalism in the USSR and persecution of the composer.

“It is known that sexual scenes in literature, theater and cinema infuriated Stalin,” writes Volkov. Indeed, undisguised eroticism is one of the main points of accusation in Muddle: “The music quacks, hoots, puffs, suffocates, in order to depict love scenes as naturally as possible. And “love” is smeared throughout the opera in its most vulgar form” — it’s no better that, in order to depict passion, the composer borrows “nervous, convulsive, seizure music” from bourgeois Western jazz.

There is also an ideological reproach there: “Everyone is presented monotonously, in animal form, both merchants and people. The predator-merchant, who seized upon wealth and power through murder, is presented as some kind of "victim" of bourgeois society. Here it is time for the modern reader to get confused, because the opera has just been praised along the ideological line. However, Pyotr Pospelov suggests 32 Pospelov P. "I would like to hope that..." On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the article "Muddle instead of music" // https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/126083 ⁠ that Shostakovich, regardless of the nature of his work, was chosen for a demonstrative flogging simply because of his visibility and reputation as an innovator.

“Muddle instead of music” became an unprecedented phenomenon in its own way: “The genre of the article itself was not so much new - a hybrid of art criticism and a party and government decree - as the transpersonal, objective status of the editorial publication of the main newspaper of the country.<…>It was also new that the object of criticism was not ideological harmfulness ... it was precisely the artistic qualities of the work, its aesthetics that were discussed. The main newspaper of the country expressed the official state point of view on art, and socialist realism was appointed the only acceptable art, in which there was no place for the "gross naturalism" and formalistic aestheticism of Shostakovich's opera. From now on, the aesthetic demands of simplicity, naturalness, general accessibility, propaganda intensity were presented to art - where could Shostakovich be: for a start, Leskov's "Lady Macbeth ..." would not fit these criteria.

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