Evening classes in the sixth company were coming to an end, and the junior officers were looking at their watches more and more often and impatiently. The regulations of the garrison service were practically studied. The soldiers stood scattered all over the parade ground: near the poplars bordering the highway, near the gymnastics machines, near the doors of the company school, at the sighting machines. All these were imaginary posts, such as, for example, a post at a powder magazine, at a banner, in a guard house, at a cash drawer. The guards walked between them and posted sentries; there was a changing of the guards; The non-commissioned officers checked the posts and tested the knowledge of their soldiers, trying either to trick the sentry with his rifle, or to force him to leave his place, or to hand him some thing for safekeeping, mostly his own cap. The old-time servicemen, who knew this toy casuistry more thoroughly, responded in such cases in an exaggeratedly stern tone: “Stand back! I have no complete right to give a gun to anyone unless I receive an order from the Emperor himself.” But the young people were confused. They did not yet know how to separate jokes and examples from the real demands of the service and fell first to one extreme or the other.

- Khlebnikov! The devil is cross-armed! - shouted the small, round and nimble Corporal Shapovalenko, and commanding suffering was heard in his voice. - I taught you, I taught you, you fool! Whose order have you carried out just now? Arrested? Oh, damn you!.. Answer why you were put in office!

There was serious confusion in the third platoon. The young soldier Mukhamedzhinov, a Tatar who barely understood and spoke Russian, was completely confused by the tricks of his superiors - both real and imaginary. He suddenly became furious, took the gun in his hand and responded to all convictions and orders with one decisive word:

- I’ll stab you!

“But wait... you’re a fool...” non-commissioned officer Bobylev persuaded him. - Who am I? I’m your guard commander, so...

- I’ll stab you! - the Tatar shouted fearfully and angrily, and with bloodshot eyes, he nervously thrust his bayonet at anyone who approached him. A group of soldiers gathered around him, rejoicing at the funny adventure and a moment’s respite from their boring training.

The company commander, Captain Sliva, went to investigate the matter. While he trudged with a sluggish gait, hunched over and dragging his feet, to the other end of the parade ground, the junior officers came together to chat and smoke. There were three of them: Lieutenant Vetkin - a bald, mustachioed man of about thirty-three, a merry fellow, a talker, a singer and a drunkard, Second Lieutenant Romashov, who had served for only his second year in the regiment, and Ensign Lbov, a lively, slender boy with sly, affectionately stupid eyes and an eternal a smile on his thick, naive lips, as if filled with old officer jokes.

“Disgusting,” said Vetkin, looking at his cupronickel watch and angrily clicking the lid. - Why the hell is he still holding a company? Ethiopian!

“You should explain this to him, Pavel Pavlych,” advised Lbov with a sly face.

- Hell no. Go ahead and explain it yourself. The main thing is what? The main thing is that it’s all in vain. They always have a blast before the shows. And they will always overdo it. They will seize the soldier, torture him, torture him, and at the inspection he will stand like a stump. Do you know the famous case where two company commanders argued whose soldier would eat more bread? They both chose the cruelest gluttons. The bet was big - about a hundred rubles. Here is one soldier who ate seven pounds and fell off, he couldn’t take it anymore. The company commander is now talking to the sergeant major: “Have you let me down like this?” And the sergeant-major just gapes: “So I can’t know, your speed, what happened to him. In the morning we did a rehearsal - we cracked eight pounds in one sitting...” So here are ours... They rehearse to no avail, but at the show they sit in galoshes.

“Yesterday...” Lbov suddenly burst out laughing. “Yesterday, classes had already finished in all the companies, I’m going to the apartment, it’s already eight o’clock, probably completely dark.” I see that in the eleventh company they are teaching signals. In chorus. “Na-ve-di, up to gro-di, po-pa-di!” I ask Lieutenant Andrusevich: “Why do you still have such music?” And he says: “It’s us, like dogs, howling at the moon.”

– I’m tired of everything, Kuka! - Vetkin said and yawned. - Wait a minute, who is that riding? I think Beck?

- Yes. Bek-Agamalov, decided the sharp-sighted Lbov. - It sits so beautifully.

“Very beautiful,” Romashov agreed. “In my opinion, he rides better than any cavalryman.” Ooo! She started dancing. Beck is flirting.

An officer wearing white gloves and an adjutant uniform rode slowly along the highway. Below him was a tall, long, golden horse with a short tail, in English. She got excited, impatiently shook her steep neck, gathered like a mouthpiece, and often moved her thin legs.

– Pavel Pavlych, is it true that he is a natural Circassian? – Romashov asked Vetkin.

– I think it’s true. Sometimes Armenians actually pretend to be Circassians and Lezgins, but Bek doesn’t seem to be lying at all. Look how he looks on a horse!

“Wait, I’ll shout to him,” said Lbov.

He put his hands to his mouth and shouted in a choked voice, so that the company commander could not hear:

- Lieutenant Agamalov! Beck!

The officer on horseback pulled on the reins, stopped for a second and turned to the right. Then, turning the horse in this direction and bending slightly in the saddle, he made it jump over the ditch with an elastic movement and galloped at a controlled gallop towards the officers.

He was smaller than average height, dry, wiry, and very strong. His face, with a sloping forehead, a thin hooked nose and decisive, strong lips, was courageous and beautiful and had not yet lost its characteristic oriental pallor - at the same time dark and matte.

“Hello, Bek,” Vetkin said. – Who were you playing tricks in front of? Devas?

Bek-Agamalov shook hands with the officers, leaning low and casually from the saddle. He smiled, and it seemed that his white, clenched teeth cast a reflected light on the entire lower part of his face and on his small, black, well-groomed mustache...

“There were two pretty Jewish girls walking around there.” What do I need? I have zero attention.

- We know how bad you are at checkers! – Vetkin shook his head.

“Listen, gentlemen,” Lbov spoke and laughed again in advance. – Do you know what General Dokhturov said about infantry adjutants? This applies to you, Beck. That they are the most reckless riders in the whole world...

– Don’t lie, Fendrik! - said Bek-Agamalov.

He pushed the horse with his legs and pretended that he wanted to run over the ensign.

- By God! All of them, he says, don’t have horses, but some kind of guitars, guitars - with a fuse, lame, crooked, drunk. And if you give him an order, he’ll fry you anywhere, throughout the entire quarry. A fence is a fence, a ravine is a ravine. Rolling through the bushes. Lost the reins, lost the stirrups, to hell with the hat! Dashing Riders!

- What's new, Beck? – Vetkin asked.

- What's new? Nothing new. Just now, the regimental commander found Lieutenant Colonel Lech in the meeting. He yelled at him so loudly that you could hear him in the cathedral square. And Lech is drunk as a serpent, he cannot pronounce his father and mother. He stands still and sways, with his hands behind his back. And Shulgovich barks at him: “When you talk to the regimental commander, please don’t keep your hands on your ass!” And the servants were here too.

- Screwed on tightly! - Vetkin said with a grin - not quite ironic, not half encouraging. “In the fourth company yesterday, they say, he shouted: “Why are you rubbing the regulations in my nose? I am a charter for you, and no more talk! I am the king and god here!”

Lbov suddenly laughed again at his own thoughts.

“And here’s another thing, gentlemen, there was a case with an adjutant in the Nth regiment...

“Shut up, Lbov,” Vetkin remarked to him seriously. – The eco broke through for you today.

“There is more news,” Bek-Agamalov continued. He again turned his horse's front towards Lbov and, jokingly, began to run into him. The horse shook its head and snorted, scattering foam around itself. - There is more news. The commander of all companies requires officers to cut down scarecrows. In the ninth company I was so cold it was terrifying. Epifanov was put under arrest because the sword was not sharpened... Why are you cowardly, Fendrik! - Bek-Agamalov suddenly shouted at the ensign. - Get used to it. You yourself will someday be an adjutant. You will sit on a horse like a fried sparrow on a platter.

Composition

"Duel"

In 1905, the story “The Duel,” dedicated to M. Gorky, was published in the collection “Knowledge” (No. 6). It was published during the Tsushima tragedy1 and immediately became a significant social and literary event. The hero of the story, Second Lieutenant Romashov, to whom Kuprin gave autobiographical features, also tried to write a novel about the military: “He was drawn to write a story or a great novel, the outline of which would be the horror and boredom of military life.”

An artistic story (and at the same time a document) about a stupid and rotten officer caste to the core, about an army that rested only on the fear and humiliation of soldiers, was welcomed by the best part of the officer corps. Kuprin received grateful reviews from different parts of the country. However, most of the officers, typical heroes of the Duel, were outraged.

The story has several thematic lines: the officer environment, the combat and barracks life of soldiers, personal relationships between people. “In terms of their... purely human qualities, the officers of Kuprin’s story are very different people. ...almost every officer has the necessary minimum of “good feelings”, bizarrely mixed with cruelty, rudeness, and indifference” (O.N. Mikhailov). Colonel Shulgovich, Captain Sliva, Captain Osadchiy are different people, but they are all retrogrades of army education and training. Young officers, besides Romashov, are represented by Vetkin, Bobetinsky, Olizar, Lobov, Bek-Agamalov. As the embodiment of everything rude and inhuman among the officers of the regiment, Captain Osadchy stands out. A man of wild passions, cruel, full of hatred for everything, a supporter of cane discipline, he is opposed to the main character of the story, Second Lieutenant Romashov.

Against the background of degraded, rude officers and their wives, immersed in “cupids” and “gossip,” Alexandra Petrovna Nikolaeva, Shurochka, seems unusual. For Romashov she is ideal. Shurochka is one of Kuprin’s most successful female images. She is attractive, smart, emotional, but also reasonable and pragmatic. Shurochka seems to be truthful by nature, but lies when her interests require it. She preferred Nikolaev to Kazansky, whom she loved, but who could not take her away from the outback. “Dear Romochka,” who is close to her in his spiritual structure, who loves her ardently and unselfishly, captivates her, but also turns out to be an unsuitable match.

The image of the main character of the story is given in dynamics. Romashov, being at first in the circle of book ideas, in the world of romantic heroism and ambitious aspirations, gradually begins to see the light. This image most fully embodied the features of Kuprin’s hero - a man with a sense of self-esteem and justice, he is easily vulnerable, often defenseless. Among the officers, Romashov does not find like-minded people, everyone is strangers to him, with the exception of Nazansky, in conversations with whom he takes his soul away. The painful emptiness of army life pushed Romashov into a relationship with the regimental “seductress,” Captain Peterson’s wife Raisa. Of course, this soon becomes unbearable for him.

In contrast to other officers, Romashov treats soldiers humanely. He shows concern for Khlebnikov, who is constantly humiliated and downtrodden; he may, contrary to the regulations, tell the senior officer about another injustice, but he is powerless to change anything in this system. The service oppresses him. Romashov comes to the idea of ​​denying war: “Let’s say, tomorrow, let’s say, this very second this thought came to everyone’s minds: Russians, Germans, British, Japanese... and now there is no more war, no more officers and soldiers, everyone has gone home "

Romashov is a type of passive dreamer; his dream serves not as a source of inspiration, not as a stimulus for direct action, but as a means of escape, escape from reality. The attractiveness of this hero lies in his sincerity.

Having experienced a mental crisis, he enters into a kind of duel with this world. The duel with the hapless Nikolaev, which ends the story, becomes a particular expression of Romashov’s irreconcilable conflict with reality. However, simple, ordinary, “natural” Romashov, who stands out from his environment, with tragic inevitability turns out to be too weak and lonely to gain the upper hand. Devoted to his beloved, charming, life-loving, but selfishly calculating Shurochka, Romashov dies.

In 1905, Kuprin witnessed the execution of rebel sailors on the cruiser Ochakov and helped hide several survivors from the cruiser. These events were reflected in his essay “Events in Sevastopol”, after the publication of which a lawsuit was opened against Kuprin - he was forced to leave Sevastopol within 24 hours.

1907-1909 was a difficult period in Kuprin’s creative and personal life, accompanied by feelings of disappointment and confusion after the defeat of the revolution, family troubles, and a break with “Znanie.” Changes also occurred in the writer's political views. A revolutionary explosion still seemed inevitable to him, but now it frightened him a lot. “Disgusting ignorance will finish off beauty and science...” he writes (“The Army and the Revolution in Russia”).

Other works on this work

"Duel"- a story by Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, published in 1905. The story describes the history of the conflict between the young second lieutenant Romashov and a senior officer, which develops against the backdrop of a clash between the romantic worldview of an intelligent young man and the world of a provincial infantry regiment, with its provincial morals, drill and vulgarity of officer society. The most significant work in Kuprin's work.

The first edition of “The Duel” was published with a dedication: “The author dedicates this story to Maxim Gorky with a feeling of sincere friendship and deep respect.” By the author’s own admission, Gorky’s influence was determined by “everything bold and violent in the story.”

Plot

Having returned from regimental training, young second lieutenant Georgy Alekseevich Romashov receives a letter of invitation from Raisa Aleksandrovna Peterson, with whom he had a long-standing, boring relationship, but does not come to the meeting, and tears up the letter. Instead, breaking his promise to himself, the second lieutenant goes to the Nikolaevs (where he often visits), where he has a nice conversation with Shurochka, the wife of Captain Nikolaev. He is preparing to enter military academy and takes almost no part in the conversation.

At the regimental ball, Romashov announces to Raisa Paterson the severance of their relationship, to which she indignantly says a bunch of insults and vows revenge.

At the end of April, Romashov receives a letter from Alexandra Nikolaeva with an invitation to a picnic in honor of her name day. At the picnic, Shurochka and Romashov declare their love. At the same time, Alexandra asks not to come to them anymore because someone is sending her husband false anonymous letters about their relationship.

During the review of the regiment, Romashov fails in front of the commanding general due to his mistake, which led to the fact that the formation order was lost. The main character experiences failure deeply. After the incident, the breakdown in his relationship with the officers intensified. To top it all off, he meets Nikolaev, who coldly talks to him about anonymous letters concerning his wife, and also asks him not to visit him anymore.

After the suicide of a soldier in one of the companies, drunkenness flares up with especially fierce force in the company of officers. Romashov’s comrade persuades him to go with him to the officers’ club. Closer to the morning, a conflict occurs between Nikolaev and Romashov, ending in a fight. The next day, the officers' court makes a decision that the conflict cannot be ended by reconciliation and sets a time for the duel.

After a long conversation with his friend Neznansky, Romashov is ready to give up the duel and leave the regiment, but when he comes home, he finds Shurochka there, who asks not to give up the duel, as it will harm her husband, who is preparing to enter the General Staff Academy . She claims that she will ensure that none of the duelists are injured. Before leaving, a love scene takes place between them.

However, during the duel, Nikolaev wounds Romashov in the stomach, and he dies from his wounds.

The Russian army has repeatedly become the object of depiction by Russian writers. At the same time, many of them experienced all the “delights” of army life. Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin in this sense can give a hundred points ahead. Having spent his early childhood in an orphanage, the boy was so inspired by the victory of the Russian army in the Russian-Turkish War that he passed the exam for the Moscow Military Academy, which was soon transformed into a cadet corps. Then he will describe all the ugliness of the system of educating future officers in the story “At the Turning Point (Cadets)”, and shortly before his death he will say: “Memories of the rods in the cadet corps remained with me for the rest of my life.”

These memories were reflected in the writer’s further work, and in 1905 the story “The Duel” was published, the features of which this analysis will be devoted to.

A. Kuprin's story is not just sketches of the life of a provincial garrison: before us is a huge social generalization. The reader sees the everyday life of the tsarist army, drill, being pushed around by subordinates, and in the evening drunkenness and debauchery among the officers, which, in fact, is a reflection of the whole picture of life in tsarist Russia.

The story centers on the lives of army officers. Kuprin managed to create a whole gallery of portraits. These are also representatives of the older generation - Colonel Shulgovich, Captain Sliva and Captain Osadchy, who are distinguished by their inhumanity towards soldiers and recognize exclusively cane discipline. There are also younger officers - Nazansky, Vetkin, Bek-Agamalov. But their life is no better: having resigned themselves to the oppressive order in the army, they try to escape from reality by drinking. A. Kuprin depicts how in the army conditions there is a “dehumanization of man - a soldier and an officer”, how the Russian army is dying.

The main character of the story is Second Lieutenant Yuri Alekseevich Romashov. Kuprin himself will say about him: “He is my double.” Indeed, this hero embodies the best features of Kuprin’s heroes: honesty, decency, intelligence, but at the same time a certain dreaminess, a desire to change the world in better side. It is no coincidence that Romashov is lonely among officers, which gives Nazansky the right to say: “You... have some kind of inner light. But in our den it will be extinguished".

Indeed, Nazansky’s words will become prophetic, just like the title of the story itself, “The Duel.” At that time, duels were again allowed for officers as the only opportunity to defend honor and dignity. For Romashov, such a fight will be the first and last in his life.

What will lead the hero to this tragic outcome? Of course, love. Love to married woman, the wife of a colleague, Lieutenant Nikolaev, - Shurochka. Yes, among the “boring, monotonous life,” among rude officers and their wretched wives, she seems to Romashov to be perfection itself. She has traits that the hero lacks: determination, willpower, perseverance in implementing her plans and intentions. Not wanting to vegetate in the provinces, i.e. “to descend, become a regimental lady, go to these wild evenings, gossip, intrigue and get angry about various daily allowances and running orders...”, Shurochka is making every effort to prepare her husband for entry into the General Staff Academy in St. Petersburg, because “They returned to the regiment twice in disgrace”, which means this is the last chance to get out of here to shine with intelligence and beauty in the capital.

It is for this reason that everything is at stake, and Shurochka quite prudently uses Romashov’s love for her. When, after a quarrel between Nikolaev and Romashov, a duel becomes the only possible form of preserving honor, she begs Yuri Alekseevich not to refuse the duel, but to shoot to the side (as Vladimir supposedly should do) so that no one gets hurt. Romashov agrees, and the reader learns about the outcome of the duel from the official report. Behind the dry lines of the report lies the betrayal of Shurochka, so beloved by Romashov: it becomes clear that the duel was a set-up murder.

Thus, Romashov, who seeks justice, lost in his duel with reality. Having forced his hero to see the light, the author did not find a further path for him, and the death of the officer became salvation from moral death.

Appearing during the Russo-Japanese War and in the context of the growth of the first Russian revolution, the work caused a huge public outcry, since it undermined one of the main pillars of the autocratic state - the inviolability of the military caste.
The problems of “The Duel” go beyond the scope of a traditional military story. Kuprin also touches on the issue of the causes of social inequality among people, on possible ways to liberate a person from spiritual oppression, and raises the problem of the relationship between the individual and society, the intelligentsia and the people.
The plot of the work is built on the vicissitudes of the fate of an honest Russian officer, whom the conditions of army barracks life make him think about the wrong relationships between people. The feeling of spiritual decline haunts not only Romashov, but also Shurochka.
The comparison of two heroes, who are characterized by two types of worldviews, is generally characteristic of Kuprin. Both heroes strive to find a way out of the impasse. At the same time, Romashov comes to the idea of ​​​​protesting against the bourgeois well-being and stagnation, and Shurochka adapts to it, despite the outward ostentatious rejection. The author’s attitude towards her is ambivalent; he is closer to Romashov’s “reckless nobility and noble lack of will.” Kuprin even noted that he considers Romashov to be his double, and the story itself is largely autobiographical.
Romashov is a “natural man,” he instinctively resists injustice, but his protest is weak, his dreams and plans are easily destroyed, since they are immature and ill-conceived, often naive. Romashov is close to Chekhov's heroes. But the emerging need for immediate action strengthens his will for active resistance. After meeting with the soldier Khlebnikov, “humiliated and insulted,” a turning point occurs in Romashov’s consciousness; he is shocked by the man’s readiness to commit suicide, in which he sees the only way out of a martyr’s life. The sincerity of Khlebnikov’s impulse especially clearly indicates to Romashov the stupidity and immaturity of his youthful fantasies, which only aimed to prove something to others. Romashov is shocked by the intensity of Khlebnikov’s suffering, and it is the desire to sympathize that makes the second lieutenant think for the first time about the fate of the common people. However, Romashov’s attitude towards Khlebnikov is contradictory: conversations about humanity and justice bear the imprint of abstract humanism, Romashov’s call for compassion is in many ways naive.
In “The Duel,” A. I. Kuprin continues the traditions of psychological analysis of L. N. Tolstoy: in the work, in addition to the protesting voice of the hero himself, who saw the injustice of a cruel and stupid life, one can hear the author’s accusatory voice (Nazansky’s monologues). Kuprin uses Tolstoy’s favorite technique - the technique of substituting a reasoner for the main character. In “The Duel,” Nazansky is the bearer of social ethics. The image of Nazansky is ambiguous: his radical mood (critical monologues, romantic premonition of a “radiant life”, anticipation of future social upheavals, hatred of the lifestyle of the military caste, the ability to appreciate high, pure love, feel the beauty of life) conflicts with his own way of life. The only salvation from moral death is for the individualist Nazansky and for Romashov to escape from all social ties and obligations.

Moral and social problems in A. Kuprin’s story “The Duel”

Kuprin's biography was full of various events that gave the writer rich food for his literary works. The story “The Duel” is rooted in that period of Kuprin’s life when he acquired the experience of a military man. The desire to serve in the army was passionate and romantic in my youth. Kuprin graduated from the cadet corps and the Moscow Alexander Military School. Over time, service and the ostentatious, elegant side of an officer’s life turned out to be its wrong side: tiresomely monotonous classes in “literature” and practicing gun techniques with soldiers dull from drill, drinking in a club and vulgar affairs with regimental libertines. However, it was these years that gave Kuprin the opportunity to comprehensively study provincial military life, as well as get acquainted with the impoverished life of the Belarusian outskirts, the Jewish town, and the morals of the “low-ranking” intelligentsia. The impressions of these years were, as it were, a reserve for many years to come (Kuprin gleaned material for a number of stories and, first of all, the story “The Duel” during his officer service). Work on the story “The Duel” in 1902-1905 was dictated by the desire to carry out a long-conceived plan - to “enough” of the tsarist army, this concentration of stupidity, ignorance and inhumanity.
All the events of the work take place against the backdrop of army life, without ever going beyond it. Perhaps this was done in order to emphasize the real need to at least think about the problems that are shown in the story. After all, the army is a stronghold of autocracy, and if there are shortcomings in it, then we must strive to eliminate them. Otherwise, all the importance and exemplary character of the existing system is a bluff, an empty phrase, and there is no great power.
The main character, Second Lieutenant Romashov, will have to realize the horror of army reality. The author’s choice is not accidental, because Romashov is in many ways very close to Kuprin: both of them graduated from military school and enlisted in the army. From the very beginning of the story, the author sharply immerses us in the atmosphere of army life, painting a picture of company exercises: practicing service at the post, the lack of understanding by some soldiers of what is required of them (Khlebnikov, carrying out the orders of the arrested; Mukhamedzhinov, a Tatar who poorly understands Russian and , as a result, incorrectly executing orders). It is not difficult to understand the reasons for this misunderstanding. Khlebnikov, a Russian soldier, simply does not have any education, and therefore for him everything said by Corporal Shapovalenko is nothing more than an empty phrase. In addition, the reason for such misunderstanding is a sharp change in the situation: just as the author abruptly immerses us in this kind of situation, many recruits had no idea about military affairs before, did not communicate with military people, everything is new for them: “ ...they still did not know how to separate jokes and examples from the real requirements of the service and fell first to one extreme and then to the other.” Mukha-medzhinov does not understand anything due to his nationality, and this is also a big problem for the Russian army - they are trying to “bring everyone under the same brush,” without taking into account the characteristics of each people, which are, so to speak, innate and cannot be eliminated no training, much less shouting or physical punishment.
In general, the problem of assault appears very clearly in this story. This is the apotheosis of social inequality. Of course, we must not forget that corporal punishment for soldiers was abolished only in 1905. But in this case, we are no longer talking about punishment, but about mockery: “The non-commissioned officers brutally beat their subordinates for an insignificant mistake in literature, for a lost leg during marching - they beat them bloody, knocked out teeth, broke their eardrums with blows to the ear, They threw their fists on the ground.” Would a person with a normal psyche behave this way? The moral world of everyone who joins the army changes radically and, as Romashov notes, not for the better. Even Captain Stelkovsky, commander of the fifth company, the best company in the regiment, an officer who always “possessed patient, cold-blooded and confident persistence,” as it turned out, also beat soldiers (as an example, Romashov cites how Stelkovsky knocks out a soldier’s teeth along with his horn, incorrectly who gave the signal through this same horn). In other words, there is no point in envying the fate of people like Stelkovsky.
The fate of ordinary soldiers causes even less envy. After all, they do not even have the basic right to choose: “You cannot hit a person who cannot answer you, who does not have the right to raise his hand to his face to protect himself from a blow. He doesn’t even dare to tilt his head.” The soldiers must endure all this and cannot even complain, because they know perfectly well what will happen to them then.
In addition to the fact that the privates are subjected to systematic beatings, they are also deprived of their livelihood: the small salary they receive, they give almost all of it to their commander. And this same money is spent by the gentlemen officers on all sorts of gatherings in bars with drinking, dirty games (again with money), and in the company of depraved women.
Having officially left the serfdom system 40 years ago and having sacrificed a huge number of human lives for it, Russia at the beginning of the 20th century had a model of such a society in the army, where the officers were exploiting landowners, and ordinary soldiers were serf slaves. The army system is destroying itself from within. It does not sufficiently perform the function assigned to it.
Those who try to go against this system will face a very difficult fate. It is useless to fight such a “machine” alone; it “absorbs everyone and everything.” Even attempts to understand what is happening plunges people into shock: Nazansky, who is constantly ill and went on a drinking binge (obviously, thereby trying to hide from reality), is finally the hero of the story, Romashov. For him, every day the glaring facts of social injustice, all the ugliness of the system, become more and more noticeable. With his characteristic self-criticism, he also finds in himself the reasons for this state of affairs: he became part of the “machine”, mixed with this common gray mass of people who do not understand anything and are lost. Romashov is trying to isolate himself from them: “He began to retire from the company of officers, dined most of the time at home, did not go to dance evenings at all in the meeting and stopped drinking.” He “has definitely matured, become older and more serious in recent days.” This kind of “growing up” was not easy for him: he went through a social conflict, a struggle with himself, he even had close thoughts about suicide (he clearly imagined a picture depicting his dead body and a crowd of people gathered around).
Analyzing the position of the Khlebnikovs in the Russian army, the way of life of the officers and looking for ways out of such a situation, Romashov comes to the idea that an army without war is absurd, and, therefore, in order for this monstrous phenomenon to not exist, “the army”, and it is not it must be necessary for people to understand the uselessness of war: “... Let’s say, tomorrow, let’s say, this very second this thought came to everyone’s minds: Russians, Germans, British, Japanese... And now there’s no more war, no more officers and soldier, everyone went home.” I am also close to a similar idea: to solve such global problems in the army, in order to solve global problems in general, it is necessary that the need for change is understood by the majority of people, since small groups of people, and even more so a few, are unable to change the course of history.

Story by A.I. Kuprin's "Duel" as a protest against depersonalization and spiritual emptiness

In Kuprin’s “Duel” we are talking about a very conservative and stagnant social environment - the environment of career Russian officers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The writer depicted the life of the officers of the regiment in the provincial outback. Here he used his own experience military service army second lieutenant in an infantry regiment in the Podolsk province. After the publication of “The Duel,” answering a question from a correspondent of one of the newspapers about how he knew army life so well, Kuprin readily explained: “How could I not know... I myself went through this “school”, was an army officer, a battalion adjutant ... If it weren’t for the censorship conditions, I wouldn’t have had enough.” But even adjusted for censorship, the picture of morals in the fictional garrison of the M regiment in the city turned out to be extremely gloomy. The main activities of officers are drunkenness, drill, intrigue, flirting with the wives of colleagues. Officers are not interested in anything that does not relate to military service. Company commander Captain Sliva, for example, in his entire life “has not read a single book or a single newspaper, except for the official part of the organ of the War Ministry, the newspaper Russian Invalid.” The boredom of provincial life not only stupefies, but also embitters. Gentlemen, the officers take out their anger on the lower ranks, rewarding them with punches for any reason or no reason, and on civilians (“shpaki”), whom they mock in every possible way. For one of the characters in the story, Lieutenant Vetkin, even the great poet Pushkin is just “some kind of shpak.” The overwhelming majority of the regiment's officers had become accustomed to their life, "monotonous as a fence and gray as a soldier's cloth." Their spiritual and cultural needs have long since atrophied.
Second Lieutenant Romashov, main character story, is only in its second year. And he is still trying to rise above the routine of everyday life in the army, to maintain at least some interests that go beyond the scope of his military career. “Oh, what are we doing! - Romashov exclaims, - today we’ll get drunk and drunk, tomorrow we’ll go to the company - one, two, left, right - in the evening we’ll drink again, and the day after tomorrow we’ll go back to the company. Is this really what life is all about? Kuprin endowed Romashov with autobiographical features. The writer himself endured the army burden for only four years, leaving the service after failing to enter the General Staff Academy. And he doomed his hero to quick death during a ridiculous duel. Honest and conscientious people like Romashov had little chance of surviving among army officers
“The Duel” was published in 1905, during the days of heavy defeats suffered by the Russian army in the war with Japan. Many contemporaries saw in Kuprin's story a truthful depiction of those vices of army life that led to the tragedy of Tsushima and Port Arthur. The official and conservative press accused the writer of slandering the army. However, the later failures of the Russian troops in the First World War were the revolutionary disaster of 1917. confirmed that Kuprin did not exaggerate at all. The deep gap between the officers and the mass of soldiers, the lack of education and spiritual callousness of the officers predetermined the subsequent collapse of the Russian army, which could not withstand the difficult trials of the World War.
However, it was not only the exposure of army disorders that worried the writer when he created “The Duel.” Kuprin also posed a more global problem of the origins of spiritual unfreedom. He forces Romashov to stand up for the soldier, Tatar Sharafutdinov, for which the second lieutenant is even put under arrest. Romashov gradually begins to worry about the fate of the mass of soldiers, thousands of “downtrodden Khlebnikovs.” He, however, does not have time to understand why in the army even an educated person can easily turn into a stupid executor of any, even the most absurd, orders of his superiors. Kuprin himself denounced militarism from the position of a “natural man” who refuses to kill his own kind. The fact that Sliva, and Romashov, and Vetkin, and Nikolaev, and hundreds and thousands of their subordinates are ultimately intended by their profession to kill people, according to the writer, leaves an indelible imprint on their inner world, ^makes them spiritually defective . It is no coincidence that one of the few positive heroes of “The Duel,” Romashov, dies in a duel from the bullet of the careerist Nikolaev, largely because he is morally unable to shoot a person. The intrigue of Nikolaev’s wife Shurochka, for the sake of her husband’s admission to the academy, in order to get the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of metropolitan life, ready to destroy even the second lieutenant who sympathized with her, could only succeed because of Romashov’s inherent properties of a “natural person”. Kuprin considered the main values ​​of the human personality to be the ability to breathe, feel, and think. Another character in “The Duel” that the writer liked, Nazansky, who among most officers has a reputation as an inveterate person and is about to leave the service due to illness, convinces
Romashova: “...Who is dearer and closer to you? Nobody! You are the king of the world... You are the god of all living things. Everything you see, hear, feel belongs to you. Do what you want. Take whatever you like...” Nazansky, like Kuprin himself, dreamed of a “huge, new, radiant life.” Of course, the army collective and army discipline greatly limit the individual in the manifestations of his individuality. However, in The Duel, Kuprin fell into anarchism to some extent. He did not think then about the question to what extent the freedom to do whatever he wants and take whatever he likes for one person will practically limit the same freedom for other members of society. But in this case, the rights of different people will inevitably come into conflict with each other, which will inevitably lead to a conflict of interests and the creation of various kinds of social institutions to resolve them, again limiting the freedom of individuals. Nevertheless, this clearly erroneous position of Kuprin’s philosophy does not at all detract from the significance of the criticism contained in “The Duel” of army orders, which suppress human nature and deform the personalities of those who are forced to carry out military service for many years.

The author and his characters in A. I. Kuprin’s story “The Duel”

Critical portrayal of army society in A. I. Kuprin’s story “The Duel”

The story takes place in the mid-90s of the 19th century. Contemporaries saw in it a condemnation of the army order and an exposure of the officers. And this opinion will be confirmed by history itself a few years later, when the Russian army suffers a crushing defeat in the battles of Mukden, Liaoliang, and Port Arthur. Why did this happen? It seems to me that “The Duel” clearly and clearly answers the question posed. Can an army be combat-ready where an anti-human, corrupting and stultifying atmosphere reigns, where officers are at a loss when it comes to showing resourcefulness, intelligence and initiative, where soldiers are driven to stupefaction by senseless drills, beatings and bullying?
“With the exception of a few ambitious and careerists, all officers served as forced, unpleasant, disgusting corvée, languishing in it and not loving it. Junior officers, just like schoolboys, were late for classes and slowly ran away from them if they knew that they wouldn’t get punished for it... At the same time, everyone drank heavily, both in the meeting and when visiting each other... On The company officers went to service with the same disgust as the subaltern officers...” we read. Indeed, the regimental life that Kuprin depicts is absurd, vulgar and desolate. There are only two ways to break out of it: go into the reserves (and find yourself without a specialty and means of subsistence) or try to enter the academy and, after graduating, climb to a higher level on the military ladder, “make a career.” However, only a few are capable of this. The fate of the bulk of the officers is to pull an endless and tedious burden with the prospect of retiring with a small pension.
The daily life of officers consisted of leading drill exercises, monitoring the study of “literature” (i.e., military regulations) by soldiers, and attending an officers’ meeting. Drunkenness alone and in company, cards, affairs with other people's wives, traditional picnics and “balkas”, trips to the local brothel - these are all the entertainments available to officers. “The Duel” reveals the dehumanization, mental devastation to which people are subjected in the conditions of army life, the crushing and vulgarization of these people. But sometimes they see the light for a while, and these moments are terrible and tragic: “Occasionally, from time to time, days of some kind of general, general, ugly revelry would come in the regiment. Maybe this happened in those strange moments when people, accidentally connected with each other, but all together condemned to boring inactivity and senseless cruelty, suddenly saw in each other’s eyes, there, far away, in a confused and oppressed consciousness, some mysterious spark of horror, melancholy and madness, and then calm , well-fed like breeding bulls, life seemed to be thrown out of its channel.” Some kind of collective madness began, people seemed to lose their human appearance. “On the way to the meeting, the officers stopped a passing Jew, called him and, tearing off his hat, They drove the cabman forward; then they threw this hat somewhere over the fence, and Bobetinsky beat the cabman.
Army life, cruel and senseless, also gives rise to its own kind of “monsters.” These are degraded and stupefied people, ossified in prejudices - campaigners, vulgar philistines and moral monsters. One of them is Captain Plum. This is a stupid campaigner, a narrow-minded and rude person. “Everything that went beyond the boundaries of the system, regulations and company and which he contemptuously called nonsense and mandrake, certainly did not exist for him. Wearing the harsh burden of service all his life, he did not read a single book or a single newspaper...” Although Sliva is attentive to the needs of soldiers, this quality is negated by his cruelty: “This lethargic, degraded-looking man was terribly stern with the soldiers and not only allowed the non-commissioned officers to fight, but he himself beat him brutally, until there was blood, so much so that the offender fell off his feet under his blows.” Even more terrifying is Captain Osadchy, who inspires “inhuman awe” in his subordinates. Even in his appearance there is something bestial, predatory. He is so cruel to the soldiers that every year someone in his company committed suicide.
What is the reason for such spiritual devastation and moral ugliness? Kuprin answers this question through the mouth of Nazansky, one of the few positive characters in the story: “... and so all of them, even the best, the most tender of them, wonderful fathers and attentive husbands - all of them in the service become base, cowardly, evil , stupid animals. You will ask why? Yes, precisely because none of them believes in the service and does not see the reasonable purpose of this service”; “...for them, service is a complete disgust, a burden, a hated yoke.”
Fleeing from the deadening boredom of army life, officers try to come up with some kind of side activity for themselves. For most, this, of course, is drunkenness and cards. Some are engaged in collecting and handicrafts. Lieutenant Colonel Rafalsky indulges his soul in his home menagerie, Captain Stelkovsky has turned the corruption of young peasant women into a hobby.
What makes people rush into this pool and devote themselves to military service? Kuprin believes that the ideas about the military that have developed in society are partly to blame for this. Thus, the main character of the story, Second Lieutenant Romashov, trying to comprehend the phenomena of life, comes to the conclusion that “the world was divided into two unequal parts: one - the smaller one - the officers, which is surrounded by honor, strength, power, the magical dignity of the uniform and together with the uniform for some reason and patented courage, and physical strength, and arrogant pride; the other - huge and impersonal - civilians, otherwise shpak, shtafirka and hazel grouse; they were despised...” And the writer pronounces a verdict on military service, which, with its illusory valor, was created by “a cruel, shameful, universal misunderstanding.”

Main themes of creativity (“Moloch”, “Olesya”, “Duel”)

A. I. Kuprin, in his best works, reflected the existence of various classes of Russian society at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Continuing the humanistic traditions of Russian literature, especially L. N. Tolstoy and A. P. Chekhov, Kuprin was sensitive to modernity, to its current problems. Kuprin's literary activity began during his stay in the cadet corps. He writes poetry, where notes of despondency and melancholy are heard, or heroic motifs (“Dreams”) are heard. In 1889, a student of the cadet school Kuprin published a short story called “The First Debut” in the magazine “Russian Satirical Leaflet”. For publishing the story without permission from his superiors, Kuprin was arrested in the guardhouse.
Having retired and settled in Kyiv, the writer collaborates in Kyiv newspapers. An interesting literary phenomenon was the series of essays “Kyiv Types”. The images he created reflected the essential features of the motley urban philistine and people of the “bottom”, characteristic of all of Russia. Here you can find images of a “white-lined” student, a landlady, a pious pilgrim, a fireman, a failed singer, a modernist artist, and slum dwellers.
Already in the 90s, based on the material of army life in the stories “Inquiry” and “Overnight”, the writer puts sharp points moral problems. In the story “Inquiry”, the outrageous fact of punishing the Tatar soldier Mukhamet Bayguzin with rods, who could not even understand why he was being punished, makes Second Lieutenant Kozlovsky feel in a new way the deadening, soulless atmosphere of the royal barracks and his role in the system of oppression. The officer's conscience awakens, a feeling of spiritual connection with the hunted soldier is born, dissatisfaction with his position is born, and as a result - an explosion of spontaneous discontent. In these stories one can feel the influence of L. Tolstoy in questions about the moral responsibility of the intelligentsia for the suffering and tragic fate of the people.
In the mid-90s, a new theme, prompted by time, powerfully entered into Kuprin’s work. In the spring, he travels as a newspaper correspondent to the Donetsk basin, where he gets acquainted with the working and living conditions of workers. In 1896 he wrote a long story “Moloch”. The story gives a picture of the life of a large capitalist plant, shows the wretched life of workers' settlements, and spontaneous protests of workers. The writer showed all this through the perception of an intellectual. Engineer Bobrov reacts painfully and acutely to other people's pain and to injustice. The hero compares capitalist progress, which creates factories and factories, with the monstrous idol Moloch, demanding human sacrifices. The specific embodiment of Moloch in the story is the businessman Kvashnin, who does not disdain any means in order to make millions. At the same time, he is not averse to acting as a politician and leader (“the future belongs to us,” “we are the salt of the earth”). Bobrov watches the scene of groveling before Kvashnin with disgust. The subject of the deal with this businessman is Bobrov's fiancee Nina Zinenko. The hero of the story is characterized by duality and hesitation. At the moment of a spontaneous outbreak of protest, the hero seeks to blow up the factory boilers and thereby avenge his own and others’ suffering. But then his determination fades, and he refuses to take revenge on the hated Moloch. The story ends with a story about a workers' revolt, the arson of the plant, Kvashnin's escape and the calling of punitive forces to deal with the rebels.
In 1897, Kuprin served as estate manager in Rivne district. Here he becomes close friends with the peasants, which is reflected in his stories “Wilderness”, “Horse Thieves”, “Silver Wolf”. Writes a wonderful story “Olesya”. Before us is a poetic image of the girl Olesya, who grew up in the hut of an old “witch”, outside the usual norms of a peasant family. Olesya’s love for the intellectual Ivan Timofeevich, who accidentally visited a remote forest village, is a free, simple and strong feeling, without looking back or obligations, among tall pines, painted with the crimson glow of the dying dawn. The girl’s story gets a tragic end; here Olesya’s free life is invaded by the selfish calculations of village officials and the superstitions of dark peasants. Beaten and ridiculed, Olesya is forced to flee her forest nest.
In search of a strong man, Kuprin sometimes waxes poetic about people at the bottom of the social spectrum. Horse thief Buzyga (“Horse Thieves”) is depicted as a powerful character, the author gives him traits of generosity - Buzyga takes care of his boy Vasil. The stories about animals are amazing (“Emerald”, “White Poodle”, “Barbos and Kulka”, “Yu-Yu” and others.) Often strong and beautiful animals become victims of money-grubbing and base human passions.
In 1899, Kuprin met Gorky in Gorky’s magazine “Knowledge” and in 1905 Kuprin’s story “The Duel” was published. The timeliness and social value of the work lay in the fact that it truthfully and vividly showed the internal decay of the Russian army. The hero of the story “The Duel,” the young lieutenant Romashov, unlike Bobrov (“Moloch”), is shown in the process of spiritual growth, gradual insight, liberation from the power of traditional concepts and ideas of his circle. At the beginning of the story, despite his kindness, the hero naively divides everyone into “people of black and white bones,” thinking that he belongs to a special, higher caste. As false illusions dissipate, Romashov begins to reflect on the depravity of army orders, on the injustice of his whole life. He develops a feeling of loneliness, a passionate denial of an inhumanly dirty, wild life. The cruel Osadchy, the violent Bek-Agamalov, the sad Leshchenko, the dapper Bobeinsky, the army servant and the drunkard Sliva - all these officers are shown as alien to the truth-seeker Romashov. In conditions of arbitrariness and lawlessness, they lose not only their true idea of ​​honor, but also their human appearance. This is especially reflected in their attitude towards soldiers.
The story goes through a whole series of episodes of soldier drill, “literature” lessons, preparation for a review, when officers beat soldiers especially brutally, tear eardrums, knock them to the ground with their fists, and force people exhausted from the heat, nervous, to “have fun.” The story truthfully depicts the mass of soldiers, shows individual characters, people of different nationalities with their inherent traditions. Among the soldiers are Russian Khlebnikov, Ukrainians Shevchuk, Boriychuk, Lithuanian Soltys, Cheremis Gainan, Tatars Mukhamettinov, Karafutdinov and many others. All of them - awkward peasants, workers, artisans - have a hard time being separated from their homes and their usual work, the author especially highlights the images of the orderly Gainan and the soldier Khlebnikov.
Khlebnikov, recently torn from the ground, does not organically perceive the army “sciences,” and therefore he has to bear the brunt of the position of a frightened soldier, defenseless against the rudeness of his superiors. The fate of the soldiers worries Romashov. He is not alone in this internal protest. A unique philosopher and theorist, Lieutenant Colonel Kazansky sharply criticizes the order in the army, hates vulgarity and ignorance, dreams of freeing the human “I” from the shackles of a rotten society, he is against despotism and violence. Romashov knows that the soldiers are oppressed by their own ignorance, and by general slavery, and by arbitrariness, and by violence on the part of officers. Paustovsky rightly refers to the scene of Romashov’s meeting with the tortured Khlebnikov, who was trying to throw himself under a train, and their frank conversation as “one of the best scenes in Russian literature.” The officer recognizes the soldier as a friend, forgetting about caste barriers between them. Having sharply posed the question of Khlebnikov's fate, Romashov dies without finding an answer as to which path to liberation should be taken. His fatal duel with officer Nikolaev is, as it were, a consequence of the growing conflict between the hero and the military officer caste. The reason for the duel is connected with the hero’s love for Alexandra Petrovna Nikolaeva - Shurochka. To ensure her husband’s career, Shurochka suppresses the best human feelings in herself and asks Romashov not to shy away from a duel, because this will harm her husband, who wants to enter the academy. “The Duel” became extremely popular in Russia and was soon translated into European languages.
Kuprin’s excellent story “Tambrinus” breathes the atmosphere of revolutionary days. The theme of all-conquering art is intertwined here with the idea of ​​democracy, bold protest “ little man” against the black forces of arbitrariness and reaction. Meek and cheerful Sashka, with his extraordinary talent as a violinist and sincerity, attracts a diverse crowd of longshoremen, fishermen, and smugglers to the Odessa tavern. They greet with delight the melodies that reflect the scene of social moods and events - from the Russian-Japanese War to the Revolution, when Sashka’s violin sounds with the cheerful rhythms of “La Marseillaise”. In the days of the onset of terror, Sashka challenges the disguised detectives and the Black Hundred “scoundrels in a fur hat,” refusing to play the monarchical anthem at their request, openly denouncing them of murders and pogroms. Crippled by the tsarist secret police, he returns to his port friends to play for them on the outskirts of the deafeningly cheerful “Shepherd”. Free creativity and the power of the people's spirit, according to Kuprin, are invincible.
In emigration, in the works of A. I. Kuprin, one begins to encounter a sentimental embellishment of the past of Russia, the very past to which he had previously pronounced judgment. Such, for example, is the autobiographical novel “Junker”. Kuprin could no longer live without his homeland. He returns to Russia in 1937, but writes nothing more and soon dies.

Debunking the romance of military service (based on the story “The Duel”)

Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin is an honest and selfless artist, a patriot of Russia. In his critical works, the writer tried to show the “ulcers” of modern society in order to quickly cure them. The story “The Duel,” published in 1905, at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, explained the reasons for Russia’s defeat in this war.
The writer, with pain and bitterness, shows the senseless drill and cruelty that reigned in the tsarist army, and, as a result, the army, which was incapable of combat, the decayed officers, and the downtrodden soldiers.
Through the eyes of the hero of the story, Yuri Alekseevich Romashov, a picture of training on the parade ground is given, when “... they go too far, they pull at a soldier, they torture him, they bully him, and at the inspection he will stand like a stump...”
But even the officers do not see the point in daily grueling exercises on the parade ground, accompanied by shouting and punching of the officers. Such activities give rise to only one desire - to finish them as quickly as possible and lose yourself in a drunken stupor.
Romashov’s dreams of education and an academy are just fantasies that are not destined to turn into reality. “Nonsense! My whole life is in front of me! - thought Romashov, and, carried away by his thoughts, he walked more cheerfully and breathed deeper. - Well, to spite them all, tomorrow morning I’ll sit down with books, prepare and enter the academy... Work! Oh, with hard work you can do whatever you want. Just pull yourself together.” It’s just that something that is possible in dreams becomes unattainable in reality. Yuri Alekseevich is a fruitless dreamer, an idealist who will not lift his hand to achieve those wonderful plans that he builds endlessly in his imagination.
Love for Shurochka Nikolaeva - Alexandra Petrovna - is the only bright feeling of his gray and hopeless life in the garrison. Romashov understands that he is acting basely, caring for the wife of a colleague, but this is stronger than him. Yuri Alekseevich, as usual, builds castles in the air on the theme of “love”. But the more magnificent and unbridled his imagination, the more insignificant the hero. Both he himself and the readers understand that the hero goes into the world of illusions due to helplessness and fear of life. He is not able to change his life, but only “goes with the flow,” tearing his soul with fruitless dreams. The hero is not devoid of nobility, compassion for weak and humiliated soldiers. But this is the compassion of a “friend in misfortune” for someone like himself.
Drunk Kazansky explains to Romashov what he himself always secretly knew and felt: “Why do I serve? ...Because I was told since childhood and now everyone around me says that the most important thing in life is to serve and to be well-fed and well dressed. And so I do things for which I have absolutely no soul, I carry out orders for the sake of animal fear of life, which sometimes seem cruel to me, and sometimes senseless...” Nazansky calls the time of binge drinking “a time of freedom.”
Loving Shurochka, Romashov understands that this love is out of hopelessness. This woman is capable of any meanness. For the sake of her ambitious goals, she stepped over Kazansky, over Romashov... Who's next?
So gradually the story, written, it would seem, on an army theme, outgrows its narrow framework, touching upon universal human problems.
The democratic public and criticism, welcoming the “Duel,” sought first of all to reveal its revolutionary meaning. “The military class is only part of the huge bureaucratic class that has filled the Russian land...” When reading the story, “you begin to intensely feel the oppression of the surrounding life and look for a way out of it,” wrote “Bulletin and Library of Self-Education” for 1905. But the phenomenon of the story is that it has not lost its meaning even today, no matter how sad it may be to admit.

Russia in the works of A. I. Kuprin (based on the story “The Duel”)

The time when humanity enters new Age, raises the question of the fate of Russia especially acutely. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. this issue was hotly discussed in all levels of society. This could not but be reflected in the literature of that time, and therefore many writers paid attention to this topic. Kuprin’s story “The Duel” poses similar burning questions to the reader.
The army is always associated with the concept of the Motherland, so Kuprin in the story depicted the life of an ordinary regiment through the eyes of the main character, Second Lieutenant Romashov. “The Duel” was released in May 1905, as the war with Japan approached its ignominious end. Soldiers died in the thousands due to the mediocrity and stupidity of the generals when the Pacific Fleet was completely destroyed at Tsushima. And the work, in which Kuprin exposed the whole essence of army life, all its vices, caused a massive wave of anger.
The story makes a painful impression on the reader. Almost all the officers in “The Duel” are nonentities, stupid people, drunkards, cowardly careerists and ignoramuses. The author shows the disgusting drinking bouts of the officers, their entire lives mired in vulgarity. The army school of humiliation is especially vividly depicted, where officers ultimately took out all their failures and anger on the soldiers. The entire method of training in the regiment was based on punishment. This method was most clearly demonstrated at the regiment review. Describing this scene, Kuprin questions the combat effectiveness of the Russian army. In contrast to this, Kuprin brings up the fifth company of Captain Stelkovsky, showing how this vicious circle can be broken.
The character of Nazansky, a drunken officer with extraordinary intelligence and spiritual qualities, stands apart in the story. Nazansky opens our eyes to everything that is happening. The army destroys everything good in a person, making him a complete nonentity. Nazansky says about this: “Everything that is talented and capable is drunk.”
In “The Duel,” Kuprin expressed his opinion about why Russia lost the war, but the author expresses hope that it is possible to eradicate these torques. This is evidenced by the scene of general drunkenness, in which a moment of universal insight occurs - normal human feelings awaken in the officers, although, unfortunately, not for long. The interesting thing is that the story remains relevant

The strength and weakness of the nature of Second Lieutenant Romashov (based on the story “The Duel” by A. I. Kuprin)

Second Lieutenant Romashov is the main character in the story “The Duel.” In the work of A. I. Kuprin “Duel”
245 is the most significant work of the beginning of the century. In the story, the writer synthesized his observations of army life. He had repeatedly addressed this topic before, but in smaller works. Since Kuprin himself served in the regiment, the atmosphere recreated in the book reflects reality.
Kuprin said about his story: “The main character is me.” Indeed, the biographies of the author and the hero have a lot in common. It can be assumed that Kuprin put some of his thoughts into Romashov’s mouth. However, the hero is an independent person.
Romashov's character is shown in constant development, in dynamics. This distinguishes him from all the other heroes who “entered” the story with already fully developed characters, views, and concepts.
The story about the fate of the main character begins after he served in the regiment for a year and a half, since cardinal, significant changes began to occur to Romashov not from the very beginning of his service. When he first arrived at the garrison, he was overwhelmed by dreams of glory. Then for him, officer and human honor were synonymous. In his fantasies, the newly-minted officer saw how he pacifies a riot, inspires soldiers to fight by his example, receives awards, but all this is just a figment of the imagination. In fact, he takes part in daily drinking bouts, plays cards, enters into a long relationship and does not tell anyone the necessary connection with an insignificant woman. All this is done out of boredom, since this is the only entertainment in the garrison, and the service is monotonous and causes nothing but boredom.
Daydreaming and lack of will are traits of Romashov’s nature that immediately catch the eye. Take, for example, his habit of mentally speaking about himself in the third person with some cliched phrases, like the hero of a novel. Then the author introduces us closer to the hero, and the reader learns that Romashov is characterized by warmth, gentleness, and compassion. However, all these wonderful qualities cannot always manifest themselves because of the same weak will.
In Romashov’s soul there is a constant struggle between a man and an officer. It is changing before our eyes. Gradually he banishes caste prejudices from himself. He sees that all the officers are stupid, embittered, but at the same time they boast of “the honor of their uniform.” They allow themselves to beat soldiers, and this happens every day. As a result, the rank and file turn into faceless, obedient slaves. Whether they are smart or stupid, whether they are workers or peasants, the army makes them indistinguishable from each other.
Romashov never had to raise his hand against soldiers, taking advantage of his position and superiority. As a deeply impressionable nature, he cannot remain indifferent to what is happening around him. He learns to see a friend, a brother in a soldier. It is he who saves Private Khlebnikov from suicide.
His colleague Nazansky, a drunken officer-philosopher, has a significant influence on Romashov. Kuprin put his own ideas into his mouth: about freedom of spirit, about peaceful existence, about the need to fight against tsarism (the stronghold of which is the army). At the same time, Nazansky slides into the ideas of Nietzscheanism, into the glorification of individualism and the denial of the collective. Thus, although this drunken officer conveys many of the author’s ideas and moods, at the same time he serves as an example of the detrimental influence of an officer’s life on an intelligent and promising person. It should be noted that intellectually Nazansky is much higher than Romashov, and he considers him his teacher.
Romashov, like a sponge, absorbs Kazansky’s ideas about a free person. He thinks about it a lot. The turning point in Romashov’s spiritual development was his internal monologue in defense of the Personality. It is then that he realizes not only his own, but also the individuality of each person individually. Seeing that army life suppresses the Personality, the second lieutenant tries to look for those to blame, but does not find them and even begins to grumble at God.
The fact that Romashov does not succumb to the influence of a destructive atmosphere is his strength. He has his own opinion, he protests internally.
The seeds sown by Nazansky sprout in Romashov’s soul. All the time thinking about the order existing in the garrison, he comes to the idea of ​​​​the complete abolition of the army. As for the danger of war, Romashov believes that all people on earth can simply agree on peace and the issue will disappear by itself. This only speaks of the second lieutenant’s complete isolation from earthly realities. He lives his fantasies.
In the end, the hero comes to the only correct conclusion, in his opinion. He wants to leave the service and devote himself either to science, or art, or physical labor. Who knows what would have happened to Second Lieutenant Romashov if not for the duel that interrupted all his dreams. He was sacrificed for the career of another officer. Romashov was never able to do anything; his life was tragically cut short at the beginning of his journey.
Kuprin presented the image of the main character of “The Duel” very vividly and psychologically believable. He did not idealize Romashov at all, despite his obvious sympathy and sympathy, he did not ignore either his merits or his shortcomings. Romashov is a weak man in himself, but strong theme that he was able to resist the influence of the environment, not to subordinate his mind, thoughts, ideas to it. It wasn't his fault that it came to nothing.
The image of Second Lieutenant Romashov is an undoubted achievement of the writer, this is one of his most memorable heroes, thanks to which “The Duel” not only after its first edition, but even to this day enjoys the love of readers.