Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin is the creator of a special literary genre - a satirical fairy tale. In short stories, the Russian writer denounced bureaucracy, autocracy, and liberalism. This article discusses such works by Saltykov-Shchedrin as "The Wild Landowner", "The Eagle-Maecenas", "The Wise Gudgeon", "Karas-Idealist".

Features of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin

In the tales of this writer, one can meet allegory, the grotesque, and hyperbole. There are features characteristic of Aesopian narrative. The communication between the characters reflects the relationships that prevailed in the society of the 19th century. What satire did the writer use? In order to answer this question, one should briefly talk about the life of the author, who so ruthlessly denounced the inert world of the landlords.

about the author

Saltykov-Shchedrin combined literary activity with public service. The future writer was born in the Tver province, but after graduating from the Lyceum he left for St. Petersburg, where he received a position in the Military Ministry. Already in the first years of work in the capital, the young official began to languish with bureaucracy, lies, boredom that reigned in institutions. With great pleasure, Saltykov-Shchedrin attended various literary evenings, which were dominated by anti-serfdom sentiments. He informed the people of St. Petersburg about his views in the stories "A Tangled Case", "Contradiction". For which he was exiled to Vyatka.

Life in the provinces gave the writer the opportunity to observe in every detail the bureaucratic world, the life of the landowners and the peasants oppressed by them. This experience became the material for the works written later, as well as the formation of special satirical techniques. One of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's contemporaries once said of him: "He knows Russia like no one else."

Satirical tricks of Saltykov-Shchedrin

His work is quite diverse. But fairy tales are perhaps the most popular among the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin. There are several special satirical techniques with which the writer tried to convey to readers the inertia and deceitfulness of the landowner's world. And above all In a veiled form, the author reveals deep political and social problems, expresses his own point of view.

Another technique is the use of fantastic motifs. For example, in The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals, they serve as a means of expressing dissatisfaction with the landowners. And finally, when naming Shchedrin's satirical devices, one cannot fail to mention symbolism. After all, the heroes of fairy tales often point to one of the social phenomena of the 19th century. So, in the main character of the work "Konyaga" all the pain of the Russian people, oppressed for centuries, is reflected. Below is an analysis of individual works by Saltykov-Shchedrin. What satirical devices are used in them?

"Karas-idealist"

In this tale, the views of representatives of the intelligentsia are expressed by Saltykov-Shchedrin. The satirical techniques that can be found in the work "Karas the Idealist" are symbolism, the use of folk sayings and proverbs. Each of the characters is a collective image of representatives of a particular social class.

In the center of the plot of the tale is a discussion between Karas and Ruff. The first, which is already understood from the title of the work, gravitates towards an idealistic worldview, faith in the best. Ruff is, on the contrary, a skeptic, ironic over the theories of his opponent. There is also a third character in the tale - Pike. This unsafe fish symbolizes the powerful of this world in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. Pikes are known to feed on carp. The latter, driven by better feelings, goes to the predator. Karas does not believe in the cruel law of nature (or the established hierarchy in society for centuries). He hopes to reason with Pike with stories about possible equality, universal happiness, and virtue. And therefore it dies. Pike, as the author notes, the word "virtue" is not familiar.

Satirical techniques are used here not only to denounce the rigidity of representatives of certain strata of society. With the help of them, the author tries to convey the futility of moralistic disputes that were widespread among the intelligentsia of the 19th century.

"Wild Landlord"

The theme of serfdom is given a lot of space in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. He had something to say to readers on this score. However, writing a journalistic article about the relationship of landowners to peasants or publishing a work of art in the genre of realism on this topic was fraught with unpleasant consequences for the writer. That is why I had to resort to allegory, light humorous stories. In "The Wild Landowner" we are talking about a typical Russian usurper, not distinguished by education and worldly wisdom.

He hates "muzhiks" and wants to kill them. At the same time, the stupid landowner does not understand that without the peasants he will perish. After all, he does not want to do anything, and he does not know how. One might think that the prototype of the hero of a fairy tale is a certain landowner, whom, perhaps, the writer met in real life. But no. This is not about any particular gentleman. And about the social stratum as a whole.

In full measure, without allegory, Saltykov-Shchedrin revealed this topic in "Lords of the Golovlevs." The heroes of the novel - representatives of a provincial landlord family - die one after another. The reason for their death is stupidity, ignorance, laziness. The character of the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" expects the same fate. After all, he got rid of the peasants, which at first he was glad, but he was not ready for life without them.

"Eagle-philanthropist"

The heroes of this tale are eagles and ravens. The first symbolize the landowners. The second - the peasants. The writer again resorts to the technique of allegory, with the help of which he ridicules the vices of the powerful of this world. There is also a Nightingale, Magpie, Owl and Woodpecker in the tale. Each of the birds is an allegory for a type of people or social class. The characters in the "Eagle-Patron" are more humanized than, for example, the heroes of the fairy tale "Karas-Idealist". So, the Woodpecker, who is in the habit of reasoning, at the end of the bird's story does not become a victim of a predator, but goes to jail.

"Wise Gudgeon"

As in the works described above, in this tale the author raises issues relevant to that time. And here it becomes clear from the very first lines. But the satirical tricks of Saltykov-Shchedrin are the use of artistic means to critically depict the vices not only of social, but also universal. The author narrates in The Wise Gudgeon in a typical fairy-tale style: "Once upon a time there was ...". The author characterizes his hero in this way: "enlightened, moderately liberal."

Cowardice and passivity are ridiculed in this tale by the great master of satire. After all, it was precisely these vices that were characteristic of most representatives of the intelligentsia in the eighties of the XIX century. The minnow never leaves his hiding place. He lives a long life, avoiding encounters with dangerous inhabitants of the water world. But only before his death he realizes how much he has missed in his long and worthless life.

Grotesque is a term that means a type of artistic imagery (image, style, genre) based on fantasy, laughter, hyperbole, a bizarre combination and contrast of something with something.

In the genre of the grotesque, the ideological and artistic features of Shchedrin's satire were most clearly manifested: its political sharpness and purposefulness, the realism of its fantasy, the ruthlessness and depth of the grotesque, the sly sparkling humor.

"Tales" Shchedrin in miniature contain the problems and images of the entire work of the great satirist. If Shchedrin had written nothing apart from Tales, then they alone would have given him the right to immortality. Of the thirty-two tales of Shchedrin, twenty-nine were written by him in the last decade of his life and, as it were, sum up the forty years of the writer's creative activity.

Shchedrin often resorted to the fairy-tale genre in his work. Elements of fairy-tale fantasy are present in “The History of a City”, while the satirical novel “Modern Idyll” and the chronicle “Abroad” include completed fairy tales.

And it is no coincidence that the heyday of the fairy tale genre falls on Shchedrin in the 80s of the 19th century. It was during this period of rampant political reaction in Russia that the satirist had to look for a form that was most convenient for circumventing censorship and at the same time the closest, understandable to the common people. And the people understood the political acuteness of Shchedrin's generalized conclusions hidden behind Aesop's speech and zoological masks. The writer created a new, original genre of political fairy tale, which combines fantasy with real, topical political reality.

In Shchedrin's fairy tales, as in all of his work, two social forces confront each other: the working people and their exploiters. The people appear under the masks of kind and defenseless animals and birds (and often without a mask, under the name "man"), the exploiters - in the images of predators. And this is already grotesque.

“And I, if you saw: a man is hanging outside the house, in a box on a rope, and smears paint on the wall, or walks on the roof like a fly - this is who I am!” - says the savior-man to the generals. Shchedrin laughs bitterly at the fact that the muzhik, on the orders of the generals, weaves the rope himself, with which they then tie him up. The man is honest, straightforward, kind, unusually quick-witted and smart. He can do everything: get food, sew clothes; he conquers the elemental forces of nature, jokingly swims across the “ocean-sea”. And the muzhik treats his enslavers with derision, without losing his self-esteem. The generals from the fairy tale “How one man fed two generals” look like miserable pygmies compared to the giant man. To depict them, the satirist uses completely different colors. They do not understand anything, they are dirty physically and spiritually, they are cowardly and helpless, greedy and stupid. If you are looking for animal masks, then the pig mask is just right for them.

In the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" Shchedrin summarized his thoughts on the reform of the "liberation" of the peasants, contained in all his works of the 60s. Here he poses an unusually acute problem of the post-reform relations between the feudal nobility and the peasantry completely ruined by the reform: “A cattle will go to the watering place - the landowner shouts: my water! a chicken will wander out of the village - the landowner shouts: my land! And the earth, and water, and air - everything became his!”

This landowner, like the aforementioned generals, had no idea about labor. Abandoned by his peasants, he immediately turns into a dirty and wild animal, becomes a forest predator. And this life, in essence, is a continuation of his previous predatory existence. The savage landowner, like the generals, acquires the outward human appearance again only after his peasants return. Scolding the wild landowner for his stupidity, the police officer tells him that the state cannot exist without peasant taxes and duties, that without peasants everyone will starve to death, that one cannot buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread in the market, and the masters will have no money. The people are the creators of wealth, and the ruling classes are only consumers of this wealth.

The carp from the fairy tale “Karas-idealist” is not a hypocrite, he is truly noble, pure in soul. His ideas as a socialist deserve deep respect, but the methods of their implementation are naive and ridiculous. Shchedrin, being himself a socialist by conviction, did not accept the theory of utopian socialists, he considered it the fruit of an idealistic view of social reality, of the historical process. “I don’t believe... that struggle and strife were a normal law, under the influence of which everything living on earth is supposedly destined to develop. I believe in bloodless prosperity, I believe in harmony…” - the crucian ranted.

In other variations, the idealistic crucian theory was reflected in the fairy tales “The Selfless Hare” and “The Sane Hare”. Here, the heroes are not noble idealists, but cowardly townsfolk, hoping for the kindness of predators. Hares do not doubt the right of the wolf and fox to take their lives, they consider it quite natural that the strong eat the weak, but they hope to touch the wolf's heart with their honesty and humility. “Maybe the wolf… haha… will have mercy on me!” Predators are still predators. Zaitsev is not saved by the fact that they "did not let revolutions in, they did not go out with weapons in their hands."

Shchedrin's wise gudgeon, the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, became the personification of the wingless and vulgar philistine. The meaning of life for this “enlightened, moderately liberal” coward was self-preservation, avoiding clashes, avoiding struggle. Therefore, the minnow lived to a ripe old age unharmed. But what a humiliating life it was! It all consisted of continuous trembling for its own skin. "He lived and trembled - that's all." This fairy tale, written during the years of political reaction in Russia, struck without a hitch at the liberals who groveled before the government because of their own skins, at the townsfolk hiding in their holes from the social struggle.

The Toptygins from the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship”, sent by a lion to the voivodeship, set the goal of their rule to commit as much “bloodshed” as possible. By this they aroused the anger of the people, and they suffered the “fate of all fur-bearing animals” - they were killed by the rebels. The same death from the people was accepted by the wolf from the fairy tale “Poor Wolf”, which also “robbed day and night”. In the fairy tale “The Eagle-Patron”, a devastating parody of the king and the ruling classes is given. The eagle is the enemy of science, art, the protector of darkness and ignorance. He destroyed the nightingale for his free songs, literate the woodpecker “dressed up., in shackles and imprisoned in a hollow forever”, ruined the male crows to the ground. . “Let this serve as a lesson to the eagles!” - the satirist concludes the tale meaningfully.

All of Shchedrin's tales were subjected to censorship and alterations. Many of them were published in illegal editions abroad. The masks of the animal world could not hide the political content of Shchedrin's fairy tales. The transfer of human traits - psychological and political - to the animal world created a comic effect, clearly exposed the absurdity of the existing reality.

The images of fairy tales came into use, became common nouns and live for many decades, and the universal types of objects of satire by Saltykov-Shchedrin are still found in our lives today, you just need to take a closer look at the surrounding reality and think.

9. Humanism of F.M. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment"

« The willful murder of even the last of people, the most malicious of people, is not allowed by the spiritual nature of man ... The eternal law came into its own, and he (Raskolnikov) fell under his power. Christ did not come to break, but to fulfill the law... Not so did those who were truly great and ingenious, who performed great deeds for all mankind. They did not consider themselves superhumans, to whom everything is permitted, and therefore they could give a lot to the “human” (N. Berdyaev).

Dostoevsky, by his own admission, was worried about the fate of "nine-tenths of humanity", morally humiliated, socially disadvantaged in the conditions of the contemporary bourgeois system. "Crime and Punishment" is a novel that reproduces pictures of the social suffering of the urban poor. Extreme poverty is characterized by "nowhere else to go". The image of poverty constantly varies throughout the novel. This is the fate of Katerina Ivanovna, who remained after the death of her husband with three young children. This is the fate of Mar-meladov himself. The tragedy of a father forced to accept the fall of his daughter. The fate of Sonya, who committed a "feat of crime" over herself for the love of her loved ones. The torment of children growing up in a dirty corner, next to a drunken father and a dying, irritated mother, in an atmosphere of constant quarrels.

Is it permissible for the sake of the happiness of the majority to destroy the “unnecessary” minority. Dostoevsky answers with all the artistic content of the novel: no - and consistently refutes Raskolnikov's theory: if one person arrogates to himself the right to physically destroy an unnecessary minority for the sake of the happiness of the majority, then "simple arithmetic" will not work: apart from the old money-lender, Raskolnikov also kills Lizaveta - that the most humiliated and insulted, for the sake of which, as he tries to convince himself, the ax was raised.

If Raskolnikov and his ilk take on such a high mission - the defenders of the humiliated and insulted, then they must inevitably consider themselves extraordinary people, to whom everything is allowed, that is, inevitably end with contempt for the very humiliated and insulted whom they defend.

If you allow yourself "blood according to your conscience", then you will inevitably turn into Svidrigailov. Svidri-gailov is the same Raskolnikov, but already completely “corrected” from all sorts of prejudices. Svid-rigailov blocks all paths leading not only to repentance, but even to a purely official surrender to Raskolnikov. And it is no coincidence that only after the suicide of Svidrigailov, Raskolnikov makes this confession.

The most important role in the novel is played by the image of Sonya Marmeladova. Active love for one's neighbor, the ability to respond to someone else's pain (especially deeply manifested in the scene of Raskolnikov's confession to the murder) make the image of Sonya ideal. It is from the standpoint of this ideal that the verdict is pronounced in the novel. For Sonya, all people have the same right to life. No one can achieve happiness, his own or someone else's, through crime. Sonya, according to Dostoevsky, embodies the people's principle: patience and humility, boundless love for a person.

Only love saves and reunites a fallen person with God. The power of love is such that it can contribute to the salvation of even such an unrepentant sinner as Raskolnikov.

The religion of love and self-sacrifice acquires exceptional and decisive significance in Dostoevsky's Christianity. The idea of ​​the inviolability of any human person plays a major role in understanding the ideological meaning of the novel. In the image of Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky executes the denial of the intrinsic value of the human person and shows that any person, including the disgusting old money-lender, is sacred and inviolable, and in this respect people are equal.

Raskolnikov's protest is associated with acute pity for the poor, suffering and helpless.

10. The theme of the family in Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"

The idea of ​​the spiritual foundations of nepotism as an external form of unity between people received special expression in the epilogue of the novel "War and Peace". In the family, as it were, the opposition between spouses is removed, in communication between them, the limitations of loving souls are complemented. Such is the family of Marya Bolkonskaya and Nikolai Rostov, where such opposite principles of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys are combined in a higher synthesis. Wonderful is the feeling of “proud love” of Nicholas for Countess Marya, based on surprise “before her sincerity, before that sublime, moral world, almost inaccessible to him, in which his wife always lived.” And touching is Marya's submissive, tender love "for this man who will never understand everything that she understands, and as if from this she loved him even more, with a touch of passionate tenderness."

In the epilogue of War and Peace, a new family gathers under the roof of the Lysogorsky house, uniting the heterogeneous Rostov, Bolkon, and through Pierre Bezukhov also the Karataev principles. “As in a real family, several completely different worlds lived together in the Bald Mountain house, which, each holding its own peculiarity and making concessions to one another, merged into one harmonious whole. Every event that happened in the house was equally - joyful or sad - important for all these worlds; but each world had completely its own, independent of the others, reasons to rejoice or grieve at any event.

This new family did not come about by accident. It was the result of the nationwide unity of people, born of the Patriotic War. Thus, in the epilogue, the connection between the general course of history and individual, intimate relationships between people is affirmed in a new way. The year 1812, which gave Russia a new, higher level of human communication, removed many class barriers and restrictions, led to the emergence of more complex and broad family worlds. The keepers of family foundations are women - Natasha and Marya. Between them there is a strong, spiritual union.

Rostov. The writer is especially sympathetic to the patriarchal Rostov family, whose behavior shows high nobility of feelings, kindness (even rare generosity), naturalness, closeness to the people, moral purity and integrity. The yard servants of the Rostovs - Tikhon, Prokofy, Praskovya Savvishna - are devoted to their masters, feel like a single family with them, show understanding and show attention to the lordly interests.

Bolkonsky. The old prince represents the color of the nobility of the era of Catherine II. He is characterized by true patriotism, breadth of political outlook, understanding of the true interests of Russia, and indomitable energy. Andrey and Marya are advanced, educated people who are looking for new ways in modern life.

The Kuragin family brings only troubles and misfortunes to the peaceful "nests" of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys.

Under Borodin, on the Raevsky battery, where Pierre ends up, one feels "common to everyone, like a family revival." “The soldiers ... mentally accepted Pierre into their family, appropriated and gave him a nickname. “Our master” they called him and they affectionately laughed about him among themselves.

So the feeling of the family, which in peaceful life is sacredly cherished by Rostovs close to the people, will turn out to be historically significant during the Patriotic War of 1812.

11. Patriotic theme in the novel "War and Peace"

In extreme situations, in moments of great upheavals and global changes, a person will definitely prove himself, show his inner essence, certain qualities of his nature. In Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" someone utters big words, engages in noisy activities or useless fuss, someone experiences a simple and natural feeling of "the need for sacrifice and suffering in the consciousness of a common misfortune." The first only think of themselves as patriots and loudly shout about love for the Fatherland, the second - patriots in fact - give their lives in the name of a common victory.

In the first case, we are dealing with false patriotism, repulsive with its falseness, selfishness and hypocrisy. This is how secular nobles behave at a dinner in honor of Bagration; when reading poems about the war, "everyone stood up, feeling that dinner was more important than poetry." A false patriotic atmosphere reigns in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer, Helen Bezukhova and in other St. Petersburg salons: “...calm, luxurious, preoccupied only with ghosts, reflections of life, St. Petersburg life went on in the old way; and because of the course of this life, great efforts had to be made to realize the danger and the difficult situation in which the Russian people found themselves. There were the same exits, balls, the same French theater, the same interests of the courts, the same interests of service and intrigue. This circle of people was far from understanding the all-Russian problems, from understanding the great misfortune and the need of the people in this war. The world continued to live by its own interests, and even in the moment of a nationwide disaster, greed, nomination, and service reign here.

False patriotism is also shown by Count Rostopchin, who puts up stupid "posters" around Moscow, urges the inhabitants of the city not to leave the capital, and then, fleeing the people's wrath, deliberately sends the innocent son of the merchant Vereshchagin to death.

The false patriot is represented in the novel by Berg, who, in a moment of general confusion, is looking for an opportunity to profit and is preoccupied with buying a wardrobe and a toilet "with an English secret." It doesn’t even occur to him that now it’s a shame to think about chiffonierochkas. Such is Drubetskoy, who, like other staff officers, thinks about awards and promotions, wants to "arrange for himself the best position, especially the position of adjutant with an important person, which seemed to him especially tempting in the army." It is probably no coincidence that on the eve of the Battle of Borodino, Pierre notices this greedy excitement on the faces of the officers, he mentally compares it with "another expression of excitement", "which spoke of not personal, but general issues, issues of life and death."

What "other" people are we talking about? These are the faces of ordinary Russian peasants, dressed in soldier's overcoats, for whom the feeling of the Motherland is sacred and inalienable. True patriots in Tushin's battery fight even without cover. Yes, and Tushin himself "did not experience the slightest unpleasant feeling of fear, and the thought that he might be killed or hurt painfully did not cross his mind." The living, vital feeling of the Motherland makes the soldiers resist the enemy with unthinkable stamina. The merchant Ferapontov, who gives his property for plunder when leaving Smolensk, is also, of course, a patriot. "Drag everything, guys, don't leave it to the French!" he shouts to the Russian soldiers.

Pierre Bezukhov gives his money, sells the estate to equip the regiment. A sense of concern for the fate of his country, participation in the common grief makes him, a wealthy aristocrat, go into the thick of the Battle of Borodino.

True patriots were also those who left Moscow, not wanting to submit to Napoleon. They were convinced: "It was impossible to be under the control of the French." They "simply and truly" did "that great work that saved Russia."

Petya Rostov rushes to the front, because "the Fatherland is in danger." And his sister Natasha releases carts for the wounded, although without family property she will remain a dowry.

True patriots in Tolstoy's novel do not think about themselves, they feel the need for their own contribution and even sacrifice, but they do not expect rewards for this, because they carry in their souls a genuine holy sense of the Motherland.

Jan 25 2011

Saltykov - Shchedrin can be called Pushkin's phrase "satire is a bold ruler." These words were spoken by A. S. Pushkin about Fonvizin, one of the founders of Russian satire. Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov, who wrote under the pseudonym Shchedrin, is the pinnacle of Russian satire. Shedrin's works, with all their genre diversity - novels, chronicles, short stories, short stories, essays, plays - merge into one huge artistic canvas. It depicts a whole historical time, like Dante's Divine and Balzac's Human Comedy. But he depicts in powerful condensations the dark sides of life, criticized and denied in the name of the always present, explicitly or implicitly, ideals of social justice and light.

It is difficult to imagine our classical literature without Saltykov-Shchedrin. It is in many ways completely idiosyncratic. “The diagnostician of our social evils and ailments,” was how his contemporaries spoke of him. He knew life not from books. Exiled as a young man to Vyatka for his early works, obliged to serve, Mikhail Evgrafovich thoroughly studied bureaucracy, the injustice of the order, and the life of different strata of society. As a vice-governor, he was convinced that the Russian state primarily cares about the nobles, and not about the people, for whom he himself was imbued with respect.

The writer perfectly depicted the life of a noble family in the Golovlevs, chiefs and officials in the History of a City and many other works. But it seems to me that he reached the pinnacle of expressiveness in his short fairy tales "for children of a fair age." These, as the censors correctly noted, are real satire.

There are many types of masters in Shchedrin's fairy tales: landowners, officials, merchants and others. The writer often depicts them as completely helpless, stupid, arrogant. Here is "about how one man fed two generals." With caustic irony, Saltykov writes: “The generals served in some kind of registry ... therefore, they did not understand anything. They didn't even know the words."

Of course, these generals did not know how to do anything, only to live at the expense of others, believing that buns grow on trees. They almost died. Oh, how many such “generals” are in our lives, who also believe that they should have apartments, cars, dachas, special rations, special hospitals, and so on and so forth, while “loafers” are obliged to work. If only these were on a desert island!

The man is shown as a fine fellow: he can do everything, he can do anything, he even cooks soup in a handful. But the satirist does not spare him either. The generals make this burly man twist a rope for himself so that he doesn't run away. And he obediently obeys the order.

If the generals ended up on the island without a peasant not of their own free will, then the wild landowner, the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, all the time dreamed of getting rid of the unbearable peasants, from whom a bad, servile spirit comes.

Finally, the peasant world disappeared, and the landowner was left alone - all alone. And, of course, wild. "All of him ... overgrown with hair ... and his claws became like iron." The hint is quite clear: the labor of the peasants lives in the bar. And therefore they have enough of everything: peasants, and bread, and livestock, and land, but the peasants have little of everything.

The writer's tales are full of lamentations that the people are too patient, downtrodden and dark. He hints that the forces above the people are cruel, but not so terrible.

The fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship” depicts the Bear, who, with his endless pogroms, brought the peasants out of patience, and they put him on a stalk, “tore off his skin”.

Not everything about Shchedrin is interesting to us today. But the writer is still dear to us with his love for the people, honesty, desire to make life better, loyalty to ideals.

Many writers and poets have used fairy tales in their work. With its help, he revealed one or another vice of humanity or society. The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are sharply individual and unlike any other. Satire was Saltykov-Shchedrin's weapon. At that time, due to the existing strict censorship, the author could not completely expose the vices of society, show all the inconsistency of the Russian administrative apparatus. And yet, with the help of fairy tales “for children of a fair age,” Saltykov-Shchedrin was able to convey to people a sharp criticism of the existing order. The censorship missed the tales of the great satirist, failing to understand their purpose, revealing power, a challenge to the existing order.

To write fairy tales, the author used the grotesque, hyperbole, antithesis. Aesop was also important for the author. Trying to hide the true meaning of what was written from censorship, I had to use this technique as well. The writer liked to come up with neologisms that characterize his characters. For example, words such as “pompadours and pompadours”, “foam skimmer” and others.

Now we will try to consider the features of the genre of the writer's fairy tale using the example of several of his works. In The Wild Landowner, the author shows how far a rich gentleman who finds himself without servants can sink. This story uses hyperbole. At first cultural, the landowner turns into a wild animal that feeds on fly agarics. Here we see how helpless a rich man is without a simple peasant, how unfit and worthless he is. With this tale, the author wanted to show that a simple Russian person is a serious force. A similar idea is put forward in the fairy tale “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”. But here the reader sees the peasant's resignation, his obedience, unquestioning obedience to the two generals. He even ties himself to a chain, which once again indicates the humility, downtroddenness, and bondage of the Russian peasant.

In this tale, the author used both hyperbole and the grotesque. Saltykov - Shchedrin leads the reader to the idea that it is time for the peasant to wake up, to think about his position, to stop meekly obeying. In "The Wise Scribbler" we see the life of an inhabitant who is afraid of everything in the world. The “wise scribbler” is constantly locked up, afraid to once again go out into the street, talk to someone, get to know each other. He leads a closed, boring life. With his life principles, he resembles another, the hero of A.P. Chekhov from the story “The Man in the Case”, Belikov. Just before his death, the scribbler thinks about his life: “Who did he help? Whom did he regret that he did good things in life? - He lived - trembled and died - trembled. And just before death, the layman realizes that no one needs him, no one knows him and will not remember him.

Terrible narrow-minded alienation, isolation in oneself is shown by the writer in "The Wise Scribbler". M.E. Saltykov - Shchedrin is bitter and hurt for the Russian people. Reading Saltykov-Shchedrin is rather difficult. Therefore, perhaps, many did not understand the meaning of his fairy tales. But most of the "children of a fair age" appreciated the great satirist on merit.

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The work of Saltykov-Shchedrin can rightfully be called the highest achievement of social satire of the 1860s-1880s. N. V. Gogol, who created a satirical-philosophical picture of the modern world, is not without reason considered to be the closest predecessor of Shchedrin. However, Saltykov-Shchedrin sets himself a fundamentally different creative task: to expose and destroy as a phenomenon. V. G. Belinsky, speaking about Gogol's work, defined his humor as "calm in its indignation, good-natured in its cunning", comparing it with other "formidable and open, bilious, poisonous, merciless". This second characteristic deeply reveals the essence of Shchedrin's satire. He removed Gogol's lyricism from satire, made it more explicit and grotesque. But this work did not become simpler and more monotonous. On the contrary, they fully manifested the all-encompassing "bungling" of Russian society in the 19th century.

Fairy Tales for Children of a Fair Age were created in the last years of the writer's life (1883-1886) and appear before us as a kind of result of Saltykov-Shchedrin's work in literature. And in terms of the richness of artistic techniques, and in terms of ideological significance, and in terms of the variety of social types recreated, this book can be fully considered an artistic synthesis of the entire work of the writer. The form of the fairy tale gave Shchedrin the opportunity to speak openly on the problems that troubled him. Turning to folklore, the writer sought to preserve its genre and artistic features, using them to draw the reader's attention to the main problem of his work. The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin by their genre nature are a kind of fusion of two different genres of folklore and author's literature: fairy tales and fables. When writing fairy tales, the author used the grotesque, hyperbole, and antithesis.

Grotesque and hyperbole are the main artistic techniques with which the author creates the fairy tale "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals." The main characters are a peasant and two idler generals. Two completely helpless generals miraculously ended up on a desert island, and they got there straight out of bed in nightgowns and with orders around their necks. The generals almost eat each other, because they cannot not only catch fish or game, but also pluck the fruit from the tree. In order not to starve, they decide to look for a man. And he was immediately found: sitting under a tree and shirking from work. The "huge man" turns out to be a master of all trades. He got apples from the tree, and dug out potatoes from the ground, and prepared a snare for the hazel grouse from his own hair, and got the fire, and prepared provisions. And what? He gave ten apples to the generals, and took one for himself - sour. He even twisted a rope so that his generals would be tied to a tree with it. Moreover, he was ready "to please the generals for the fact that they favored him, a parasite, and did not disdain his peasant labor."

The peasant and swan fluff scored to deliver his generals in comfort. No matter how much they scold the peasant for parasitism, and the peasant "rows and rows, and feeds the generals with herrings."

Hyperbole and grotesque appear throughout the story. Both the dexterity of the peasant and the ignorance of the generals are extremely exaggerated. A skillful man cooks soup in a handful. Stupid generals do not know that they bake flour rolls. The hungry general swallows the order of his friend. It is also an unconditional hyperbole that the peasant built the ship and took the generals directly to Bolshaya Podyacheskaya.

The extreme exaggeration of individual situations allowed the writer to turn a funny story about stupid and useless generals into a furious denunciation of the existing order in Russia, which contribute to their emergence and carefree existence. In Shchedrin's fairy tales there are no random details and superfluous words, and the characters are revealed in actions and words. The writer draws attention to the funny side of the depicted. Suffice it to recall that the generals were in nightgowns, and around their necks hung an order.

The originality of Shchedrin's fairy tales also lies in the fact that in them the real is intertwined with the fantastic, thereby creating a comic effect. On a fabulous island, the generals find the well-known reactionary newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti. From an extraordinary island not far from St. Petersburg, to Bolshaya Podyacheskaya.

These fairy tales are a magnificent artistic monument of a bygone era. Many images have become common nouns, denoting the social phenomena of Russian and world reality.

• The satire of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin is truthful and fair, although often poisonous and evil. His tales are both a satire on the autocratic rulers, and an image of the tragic situation of the oppressed people, their hard labor, and ridicule of the masters and landowners. Tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are a special form of satire. Depicting reality, the author takes only the most striking features, episodes, exaggerates as much as possible when depicting them, showing events as if under a magnifying glass. In the fairy tale "The Tale of How […]
• M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin is a Russian satirist who created many wonderful works. His satire is always fair and truthful, he hits right on target, revealing the problems of contemporary society. The author reached the heights of expressiveness in his fairy tales. In these small works, Saltykov-Shchedrin denounces the abuses of the bureaucracy, the injustice of the order. He was upset that in Russia, first of all, they care about the nobles, and not about the people, for whom he himself was imbued with respect. All this he shows in […]
• The work of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin occupies a special place in Russian literature of the 19th century. All his works are imbued with love for the people, the desire to make life better. However, his satire is often caustic and evil, but always truthful and fair. M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in his fairy tales depicts many types of gentlemen. These are officials, and merchants, and nobles, and generals. In the fairy tale “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals,” the author shows two generals as helpless, stupid and arrogant. “Served […]
• For the second half of the 19th century, the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was extremely important. The fact is that in that era there were no such harsh and harsh champions of truth who condemned social vices as Saltykov. The writer chose this path quite consciously, since he was deeply convinced that there should be an artist who acts as a pointing finger for society. It is noteworthy that he began his career as a "whistleblower" as a poet. But this did not bring him either wide popularity and fame, or […]
• Somewhere I read and remembered the idea that when the political content of a work comes to the fore in art, when they pay attention primarily to ideological content, compliance with a certain ideology, forgetting about artistry, art and literature begin to degenerate. we read "What to do?" Chernyshevsky, the works of Mayakovsky, and absolutely none of the young knows the "ideological" novels of the 20-30s, say, "Cement", "Sot" and others. I think it's an exaggeration [...]
• The talented Russian satirist of the 19th century M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin devoted his life to writing works in which he denounced autocracy and serfdom in Russia. He, like no one else, knew the structure of the "state machine", studied the psychology of the chiefs of all ranks, the Russian bureaucracy. In order to show the vices of public administration in their entirety and depth, the writer used the grotesque technique, which he considered the most effective means of reflecting reality. The grotesque image always comes out […]
• “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was written in the form of a chronicler-archivist’s story about the past of the city of Glupov, but the writer was not interested in the historical topic, he wrote about real Russia, about what worried him as an artist and citizen of his country. Having stylized the events of a hundred years ago, giving them the features of the epoch of the 18th century, Saltykov-Shchedrin appears in various capacities: first, he narrates on behalf of the archivists, the compilers of the Foolovsky Chronicler, then from the […]
• It would be unfair to limit the entire range of problems in the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin to a description of the confrontation between peasants and landowners and the inactivity of the intelligentsia. While in public service, the author had the opportunity to get to know the so-called masters of life, whose images found their place in his fairy tales. Examples of such are "Poor Wolf", "The Tale of the Toothy Pike", etc. There are two sides to them - those who are oppressed and oppressed, and those who are oppressed and oppressed. We are accustomed to certain […]
• The History of a City is the greatest satirical canvas-novel. This is a merciless denunciation of the entire system of government of tsarist Russia. The History of a City, completed in 1870, shows that the people in the post-reform period remained as disenfranchised as the officials were petty tyrants of the 1970s. differed from the pre-reform ones only in that they robbed in more modern, capitalist ways. The city of Foolov is the personification of autocratic Russia, the Russian people. Its rulers embody specific traits […]
• The "History of a City" denounces the imperfection of the social and political life of Russia. Unfortunately, Russia rarely had good rulers. You can prove this by opening any history textbook. Saltykov-Shchedrin, sincerely worried about the fate of his homeland, could not stay away from this problem. A peculiar solution was the work "The History of a City". The central issue in this book is the power and political imperfection of the country, more precisely one city of Foolov. Everything - and the history of […]
• "The History of a City" can rightfully be considered the pinnacle of Saltykov-Shchedrin's work. It was this work that brought him the fame of a satirist writer, for a long time, strengthening it. I believe that The History of a City is one of the most unusual books on the history of the Russian state. The originality of the "History of a City" - in an amazing combination of real and fantastic. The book was created as a parody of Karamzin's History of the Russian State. Historians often wrote history "according to the kings", which […]
• Works about peasants and landowners occupy a significant place in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. Most likely this happened because the writer faced this problem at a young age. Saltykov-Shchedrin spent his childhood in the village of Spas-Ugol, Kalyazinsky district, Tver province. His parents were quite rich people, they owned land. Thus, the future writer saw with his own eyes all the shortcomings and contradictions of serfdom. Aware of the problem, familiar from infancy, Saltykov-Shchedrin […]
• The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are distinguished not only by caustic satire and genuine tragedy, but also by the peculiar construction of the plot and images. The author approached writing "Fairy Tales" already at a mature age, when a lot was comprehended, passed and thought out in detail. The appeal to the fairy tale genre itself is also not accidental. The tale is distinguished by allegoricalness, capacity of expression. The volume of the folk tale is also not very large, which makes it possible to focus on one specific problem and show it as if through a magnifying glass. It seems to me that for satire […]
• The name of Saltykov-Shchedrin is on a par with such world-famous satirists as Mark Twain, Francois Rabelais, Jonathan Swift and Aesop. Satire has always been considered an "ungrateful" genre - the state regime has never accepted the caustic criticism of writers. They tried to protect the people from the creativity of such figures in a variety of ways: they banned books for publication, exiled writers. But it was all in vain. These people were known, read their works and respected for their courage. Mikhail Evgrafovich was no exception [...]
• According to Blok, he devoted his life to the theme of the Motherland. The poet claimed that absolutely all of his poems are about the Motherland. The verses of the Motherland cycle confirm this statement of the author. In the third volume of Blok's lyrical poems, the cycle "Motherland" vividly testifies to the magnitude and depth of the poetic talent of its creator. This cycle belongs to the late stage of Blok's work. Like most poets of the Silver Age, Blok was concerned about the historical future of the country, doubts and anxiety sound in his poems. In the same time […]
• I have long liked to read the works of different writers and fantasize about how I would put on a play or make a movie based on them. I especially like to present films based on fairy tales and fantasy. Cinema is a very convenient genre for filming magical stories. Here you can achieve any special effects with the help of computer graphics and voice acting. Even actors can not be invited. But, if I were the director, then not stars, and not even professional artists, would always play in my films, but my peers, their parents, and maybe […]
• The beginning of the creative path of M. Gorky fell on a period of crisis in the social and spiritual life of Russia. According to the writer himself, the terrible “poor life”, the lack of hope among people, prompted him to write. Gorky saw the cause of the created situation primarily in man. Therefore, he decided to offer society a new ideal of a Protestant man, a fighter against slavery and injustice. Gorky knew well the life of the poor, from whom society turned away. In his early youth, he himself was a "tramp". His stories […]
• Ernest Hemingway is a classic of world literature, winner of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes. The future writer was born in 1899 in Oak Park, a privileged suburb of Chicago. His father was a doctor. He tried to instill in his son a love for the world around him. Also, the writer's worldview was influenced by his grandfather. At the age of 12, Ernest received a gift from him - a single-shot gun. It was from this that Hemingway's passion for hunting began. The first stories of the future classic were published in the school magazine "Table". Also […]
• The theme of the "little man" is one of the central themes in Russian literature. Pushkin (The Bronze Horseman), Tolstoy, and Chekhov touched on it in their works. Continuing the traditions of Russian literature, especially Gogol, Dostoevsky writes with pain and love about the "little man" living in a cold and cruel world. The writer himself remarked: "We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat." The theme of the "little man", "humiliated and offended" was particularly strong in Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. One […]
• Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is a great Russian poet, the founder of Russian realistic literature. The poet makes you forget all the little things and worries of life, awakens in a person all the best, deep and real. He is the author of a special perception of the world, therefore it is impossible to fully comprehend the essence of his thoughts and feelings. The best features of the Russian character come out with exceptional brightness and fullness in Pushkin's work. The theme of the historical past of the motherland has always worried the poet. He wrote such a work as […]

The work of Saltykov Shchedrin can rightly be called the highest achievement of social satire of the 1860s-1880s. The closest predecessor of Shchedrin, not without reason, is considered to be N.V. Gogol, who created a satirical philosophical picture of the modern world. However, Saltykov Shchedrin sets himself a fundamentally different creative task: to expose and destroy as a phenomenon. V. G. Belinsky, speaking about Gogol’s work, defined his humor as “calm in its indignation, good-natured in its cunning”, comparing it with other “formidable and open,

Bile, poisonous, merciless.” This second characteristic deeply reveals the essence of Shchedrin's satire. He removed Gogol's lyricism from satire, made it more explicit and grotesque. But this work did not become simpler and more monotonous. On the contrary, they fully manifested the all-encompassing “bungling” of Russian society in the 19th century.
“Tales for Children of a Fair Age” were created in the last years of the writer’s life (1883-1886) and appear before us as a kind of result of Saltykov Shchedrin’s work in literature. And in terms of the richness of artistic techniques, and in terms of ideological significance, and in terms of the variety of social types recreated, this book can be fully considered an artistic synthesis of the entire work of the writer. The form of the fairy tale gave Shchedrin the opportunity to speak openly on the problems that troubled him. Turning to folklore, the writer sought to preserve its genre and artistic features, using them to draw the reader's attention to the main problem of his work. The tales of Saltykov Shchedrin by their genre nature are a kind of fusion of two different genres of folklore and author's literature: fairy tales and fables. When writing fairy tales, the author used the grotesque, hyperbole, and antithesis.
Grotesque and hyperbole are the main artistic techniques with which the author creates a fairy tale “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”. The main characters are a peasant and two idler generals. Two completely helpless generals miraculously ended up on a desert island, and they got there straight out of bed in nightgowns and with orders around their necks. The generals almost eat each other, because they cannot not only catch fish or game, but also pluck the fruit from the tree. In order not to starve, they decide to look for a man. And he was immediately found: sitting under a tree and shirking from work. The “huge man” turns out to be a master of all trades. He got apples from the tree, and dug out potatoes from the ground, and prepared a snare for the hazel grouse from his own hair, and got the fire, and prepared provisions. And what? He gave ten apples to the generals, and took one for himself - sour. He even twisted a rope so that his generals would be tied to a tree with it. Moreover, he was ready to “please the generals for the fact that they favored him, a parasite, and did not disdain his peasant labor.”
The peasant and swan fluff scored to deliver his generals in comfort. No matter how much they scold the peasant for parasitism, but the peasant "rows and rows and feeds the generals with herrings."
Hyperbole and grotesque appear throughout the story. Both the dexterity of the peasant and the ignorance of the generals are extremely exaggerated. A skillful man cooks soup in a handful. Stupid generals do not know that they bake flour rolls. The hungry general swallows the order of his friend. It is also an unconditional hyperbole that the peasant built the ship and took the generals directly to Bolshaya Podyacheskaya.
The extreme exaggeration of individual situations allowed the writer to turn a funny story about stupid and useless generals into a furious denunciation of the existing order in Russia, which contribute to their emergence and carefree existence. In Shchedrin's fairy tales there are no random details and superfluous words, and the characters are revealed in actions and words. The writer draws attention to the funny side of the depicted. Suffice it to recall that the generals were in nightgowns, and around their necks hung an order.
The originality of Shchedrin's fairy tales also lies in the fact that in them the real is intertwined with the fantastic, thereby creating a comic effect. On a fabulous island, the generals find the well-known reactionary newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti. From an extraordinary island not far from St. Petersburg, to Bolshaya Podyacheskaya.
These fairy tales are a magnificent artistic monument of a bygone era. Many images have become common nouns, denoting the social phenomena of Russian and world reality.

You read at once: Hyperbole and grotesque in the fairy tale by M. E. Saltykov Shchedrin “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”