Rasputin Valentin

I can't

Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin

I CAN'T...

My friend and I were late for the train and boarded a passing one, taking tickets for a reserved seat carriage. The reserved seats have now faded - either because we have to return to them from the compartments, and not get up, as in our time, from the general ones, or, however, the railway has gone down in all respects. This one, which we climbed into, was littered, smoky and somehow not in the mood for cleaning. The conductor, a pretty, big-eyed student girl, of course, seemed uncomfortable in it, and as soon as the train started moving, she disappeared, and we didn’t see her again for two and a half hours. However, the train was not a long-distance one, it had a three-digit number - who looks at that, who finds fault with that? If only he was lucky, otherwise they, these short-distance travellers, are quite capable of standing.

We sat down on a free bench opposite the old woman with a book and began to look around. The old woman read without glasses - at her age this should be highlighted as a special sign. She held a thick and swollen book in her lap, bowing her neatly gray head with a wide comb in her short-cropped hair. Her lips moved as she read, her moving, sensitive face responded to the life that was in the book with simple-minded interest. On the top shelf above the old woman, a middle-aged man dressed in a sports tights - black with white stripes, tossed and glanced at us with beautiful gray eyes on a thoroughbred long face; the stripes, however, sparkled on his balding head. In his opinion, we were not serious passengers: the two of us with one bag, and for some reason we were cheerful. You can understand fun with hops, but without hops it’s suspicious, especially on the train. Maybe this passenger above was embarrassed by our three free hands, maybe something more serious, but he clearly didn’t like us.

My comrade, as is his wont to be interested in everything, got up and walked around the carriage. When he returned, saying that the carriage was surprisingly not crowded, and began to discuss why the passenger had thinned out now (this was in September), curious people came to our compartment to listen to him - a boy and a girl of about five or seven years old, whom he had managed to a short way out to get someone interested in something. Taking a break, Oleg (that was my friend’s name) reached into his pocket, fumbled for a ballpoint pen and a comb and handed them to the guys. They hesitated, took them and, not knowing what to do with them, remained standing with gifts in their hands, looking at each other in shock. The man above grinned, but it seemed that this inept and sincere gesture calmed him down - he turned away. The old woman, lifting the book and pretending not to look up from it, looked at my friend with a cautious squint, afraid that he might undertake to give something similar to her. We looked more and more like crazy.

And then suddenly we heard either a groan or a cry, so sad and heavy that we felt uneasy. Oleg jumped up:

What is this?

“That’s where the uncle is crying,” the girl said and pointed into the depths of the carriage.

Is uncle crying? Why is he crying?

His drunkenness is crushing him,” the boy explained in a basque voice.

Now that they started talking, it became clear that the boy was older than the girl and knew a thing or two about life.

The old woman finally looked up from her book and, looking into the corridor, confirmed with a sigh:

Oh, I'm tired of it. In front of the city the police intimidated me, so I became quiet. Now again.

I can't! - a voice nearby roared heart-rendingly. “I can’t!”

May you die! - the man in tights responded from above and sat down indignantly, lowering his legs over the old woman. - No, you won’t go further than the next station with me! After all, I wanted to, as a human being, I wanted to film it! To drive like a human being!

I can't! - even more desperately, even more bitterly, his voice interrupted.

Oleg, unable to bear it any longer, went to look, and I followed him. Two partitions away from ours, dropping his shaggy head and occasionally tapping it on the table, a dirty and disheveled figure in a greasy, battered nylon jacket and rubber boots was writhing in convulsions. The compartment was free; no one wanted to see her suffer. Oleg sat down opposite, on the other side of the table, and I sat on the side. The man sitting in front of us, his head buried in the table, fell silent for a while, as if listening to himself or to what was happening around him; then, strangledly, holding back through force, he let out a long guttural groan - he could not express it on purpose, with such an exhalation tearing his throat, so only raging suffering could come out. Oleg began to shake the poor man’s shoulders, he didn’t feel anything for a long time, didn’t understand anything, then he finally raised his head, showing his face, and stared senselessly at us.

No one, no enemy could have done to him what he did to himself. The old man, although with difficulty, was still visible in him. Blue and, probably, once clear eyes were covered with bloody veins and swollen, closed so as not to see the white light... They really saw the white light poorly, but the more intensely and mercilessly they peered into their insides, forcing this man to scream from horror. The thick blond hair on his head became piebald from dirt and hung in shaggy patches; a round face, moderately elongated downward with a neat and strong chin, with a slightly upturned nose, which was conceived in this whole light and simple form for innocence and a heartfelt glow - this face, puffy, overgrown, heavy, full of bad blood, was glowing now with a dying black heat. Even the dimple on the chin seemed like a healed wound. And it was impossible to say how old he was - either under thirty, or over forty.

And to remember - the same peasants, his direct ancestors, with the same light brown hair and unpretentious light faces, which, through a wonderful and rare zeal, showing the breed, he got - walked to the Kulikovo field, gathered at the call of Minin and Pozharsky near Nizhny Novgorod , gathered into Stenka Razin’s gang, made their way beyond the Urals with Ermak, taking over the lands that had been spacious for the two former Russias, defeated Hitler... And now here he is.

My friend continued to bother him:

Well? What do you want?

Maybe I can help with something? How can I help you?

Don't know.

“He could use some chicken broth... to soften his stomach,” advised the old lady from our compartment; We didn’t even notice how people gathered around us.

“He doesn’t need chicken broth, he needs a good stopper,” loudly, weightily, apparently knowing a lot about these matters, suggested the big red-haired man, near whom the boy and girl who had visited us were hanging out. Everyone started shouting at once:

Yeah, the stopper got him there. Climbing onto the wall.

He's a stopper - he needs to be tied up. You need to shut your mouth.

And so we go as if in a sobering-up station. And there is no government, everyone has fled. The foreman was called - where is he?

On March 15, 1937, 78 years ago, the famous, fair writer Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin was born. This man had a lot of advantages and a lot of interests. Valentin Grigorievich was a public figure, a hero of socialist labor, a laureate of the USSR State Prize, the Russian State Prize and the Government Prize. But the main thing is that he is a writer, with a capital “P”, his element was journalism, since 1967 he has been a member of the USSR Writers.

Valentin Grigorievich was born in the Irkutsk region, namely in the village of Ust-Uda. The family of the future writer was very ordinary, peasant. The mother's name was Nina Ivanovna, and the father's name was Grigory Nikitich. Some time after the birth of their son, they move to the village of Atlanka. Which soon suffered flooding. It was in this village that Valentin Grigorievich graduated from elementary school, but he graduated from high school far from home, and it was this time that served as the plot of Rasputin’s famous story “French Lessons.”

After graduating from high school, Valentin Grigorievich became a student at the Irkutsk State University, Faculty of History and Philology. During his studies, he did not just sit behind the students, but developed, and already from 1957 Rasputin worked as a freelance correspondent for the newspaper “Soviet Youth”, and already from 1959 he worked on the staff of the newspaper.

He also worked on television; since 1961, Valentin Grigorievich was the editor of literary and dramatic programs at the Irkutsk television studio. In 1962, Valentin Grigorievich resigned and left for Krasnoyarsk. There his work activity is gaining momentum, he worked in the newspapers “Krasnoyarsky Rabochiy” and “Krasnoyarsky Komsomolets”, and collaborated with the newspaper “Soviet Youth”. Around the same period, Rasputin’s creative activity also found its breath. In 1961, the first story “I forgot to ask Leshka” was published, essays of the book “The Land Near the Sky” began to be published, and in 1966 a complete book of this work was published. In 1964, the story “The Man from This World” was published, and the following year the story “The Wind is Looking for You” was published. Valentin Rasputin’s next book was “A Man from This World”, it was published in 1967, after the book “A Man from This World” the book “The Young Guard” was published. In the same year, Valentin Rasputin joined the Union of Writers of the USSR.

In 1970, the story “The Deadline” was written, in 1973 the same story about the period of study in high school “French Lessons”, the following year the story “Live and Remember” was completed, in 1976 “Farewell to Matera”. Valentin Rasputin has been a member of the editorial board of the book series “Literary Monuments of Siberia” since 1979. A year later, he became a member of the editorial board of the Roman-Gazeta magazine. Then Valentin Rasputin began his social activities, for example, he advocated saving Lake Baikal from the pulp and paper mill. In addition, he was opposed to the project of turning the northern and Siberian rivers.

The year 1981 was marked by the release of the stories “Natasha”, “What to convey to the crow”, “Live a century - love a century”. The rather famous story “Fire” was published in 1985. The following year, the writer was elected secretary of the board of the Union of Writers of the USSR and secretary of the board of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR. In 1987, Valentin Rasputin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor; throughout his life he was awarded honorary badges, orders, and prizes more than once. Among his awards were the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Red Banner of Labor, two Orders of Lenin, the Order of Russia for Services to the Fatherland, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Irkutsk Komsomol Prize named after Joseph Utkin, the Prize named after L.N. Tolstoy, named after St. Innocent of Irkutsk, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, named after F.M. Dostoevsky, named after Alexander Nevsky “Faithful Sons of Russia”, Russian Presidential Prize in the field of literature and art, “Big Book” Prize, Government of the Russian Federation in the field of culture, Saints Equal to the Apostles Prize Slavic enlightenment brothers Cyril and Methodius. Valentin Grigorievich was also awarded the prize of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II.

In 1989, Valentin Rasputin became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and a year later a member of the Presidential Council of the USSR. However, Valentin Grigorievich repeatedly asserted his non-involvement in politics; he did not consider himself an activist in this sphere. Although for the first time the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR heard a proposal for Russia to secede from the USSR from Valentin Grigorievich.

And in 2007, Rasputin actively supported the position of the famous political figure Gennady Andreevich Zyuganov, in 2012 he actively protested the oval and supported the criminal prosecution of the femin group Pussi Riot.

Among the more modern offspring of the work of Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin, one can highlight the book “Ivan’s Daughter, Ivan’s Mother”, published in 2004, the essay “Siberia, Siberia” in 2006, the book “These Twenty Killing Years”, jointly written with Viktor Kozhemyaka, published in 2013. .

Valentin Rasputin did many good things, he actively helped the Orthodox life of the country. So in Irkutsk in 1996, he initiated the opening of the Orthodox women's gymnasium in the name of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in 2010 he became a member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture.
But alas, even such bright people who make a huge contribution to the development of anything, in this case cultures and literature, are not eternal. Valentin Rasputin saw life for a long time, but did not see the joy of his loved ones who would like to congratulate him on his 78th birthday, the writer did not live to see his birthday for some 4 hours, He died on March 14, 2015.

Third person narration. There are many general comments and journalistic arguments. The narrative is also interrupted by flashbacks.

March. Ivan Petrovich - driver. He had just returned from work and was tired. His wife Alena meets him. Suddenly he hears people shouting: there is a fire.

ORS warehouses are burning. Ivan Petrovich is frantically thinking about what to take with him to put out the fire. He takes an ax with him. “Russian people have always been smart with hindsight, and they have always arranged themselves in such a way that it would be convenient to live and use, and not as a way to protect themselves and escape more easily and easily. And here, when the village was set up hastily, and especially not much thought: fleeing from the water, who thinks about the fire?

Both parts of the warehouse are on fire: the food and industrial parts. Ivan Petrovich immediately noticed that the spontaneous fight against the fire was led by two reliable people: Afonya and Semyon Koltsov. Rasputin describes fire as a living creature, the main property of which is greed and ferocity.

The authorities are gathering.

This village was built by the timber industry enterprise. It was not built for life, but for a while, until the next nomad. It will never become habitable. There are no trees or gardens.

There is no construction of social facilities in the village, because no one needs anything. While there is work - wood, but in 3-4 years there will be no work left, the workers will work on a shift basis. There is no other work, all the fields were flooded during the construction of the hydroelectric power station.

The head of the section, Boris Timofeich Vodnikov, appears. Although he always quarrels with everyone, he knows how to lead, and you can rely on him.

Alena helps in putting out the fire no less than men: she saves some things.

The Arkharovites are an organizational recruitment brigade (hired non-local workers). They are the negative characters of the story.

Valya the storekeeper does not want to open a warehouse because she is afraid that claims will be made against her if the property is stolen in a panic. Boris Timofeevich orders the Arkharovites to destroy the warehouse. He is looking for the head of the ORS (warehouse), but remembers that he is at the next meeting. Ivan Petrovich advises setting up a watchman and old man Hampo to prevent looting.

Sashka the Ninth, one of the Arkharovites, says to the main character, stopping him in front of the fire: “Not here. Not here, citizen lawyer. If you burn, who will give us the right to download?!” This is their entire relationship. Arkharovites are carriers of camp concepts, representatives of a city where everyone treats work as a duty, from which it is a worthy thing to shirk. Therefore, Ivan Petrovich is not liked for his adherence to principles. Rasputin's Arkharovites are an expression of the dark sides of civilization and progress.

Ivan Petrovich lived in the village of Egorovka, and his last name is Egorov. He fought as a tanker. People began to leave the village after the war - they knew about the flooding in advance. But Ivan Petrovich stayed, although it was hard to look at the empty village. He also does not become a city dweller because he marries Alena and his mother is ill. And brother Goshka, having left for the city, drank himself to death. In the end, he had to move to a new village - Sosnovka (where the events of the story take place). Ivan Petrovich thinks that he will have to move now, although he doesn’t want to at all.

Ivan Petrovich breaks into one of the food warehouses. The abundant food supplies, gradually destroyed by the chaos of panic and heat, are described in a threatening, hostile manner. Ivan Petrovich catches himself grinning: after all, there is always not enough food in all timber industry enterprises, where does it come from so much here? “Manufactured goods warehouses were crying, Japanese blouses and native frying pans were crying - will so much, in comparison with what was taken out, remain there, in this heat?! But the food warehouses, having been allowed to do so by the right, could still be saved even now if there were a car and more order. But the fire truck, the only one in the entire timber industry enterprise, was torn apart for parts two years ago, it is only listed in service...”

The author (or hero?) talks about the moment at which life went awry. Everything changed when they started cutting down the forest. This is work that does not require the soul, this is the destruction of not only the forest, but also man. Sosnovka began as a normal village: there was mutual assistance, people communicated with each other. But more and more “easy” people began to come who did not want to start a household, but worked only for the sake of relaxation, food and drink. If earlier they drank, embarrassed by it, now there are whole “brigades” with their own leaders. The social situation is deteriorating, crime is growing. The school director, Yuri Andreevich, calculated that as many villagers died during the war as died not by natural causes in young Sosnovka.

People in Sosnovka do not like conscientious people. Forester Andrei Solodov once fined a timber industry enterprise for stumps that were too high, which resulted in a significant delay in wages. After that, his bathhouse burned down and his horse disappeared. A similar attitude towards Ivan Petrovich. He tried to prove to the head of the site that it was not the plan, but the people, the natural resources. But the boss has his own concerns and his own bosses. Therefore, he has to give vodka to the workers at his own expense so that they follow the plan.

Ivan Petrovich lives in a world of absolute values ​​and is ready to actively defend them. But another life position is also presented. Afonya Bronnikov, also from Yegorovka, also an honest man, says: “I think so: I work honestly, I live honestly, I don’t steal, I don’t cheat - and that’s enough. Our job is to live correctly, to set an example through life, and not to drive people into our flock with a stick. The stick won't do any good." Obviously, Rasputin does not agree with this position. Through the mouth of Ivan Petrovich, he says: “But we’re late, we’re late with an example! Late!"

When the fire got close to the vodka, local residents and Arkharov residents showed miracles of organization: they passed the bottles along the chain, rescuing them and drinking them along the way. Ivan Petrovich single-handedly saves vegetable oil. Afonya drags him to save the flour. Someone screams, just waking up: “Goriiiiim!”

Rasputin describes the psychological drama in the soul of Ivan Petrovich. Life has changed. The hero’s values ​​are no longer perceived by society as absolute. But he cannot refuse them and cannot understand modernity.

Ivan Petrovich continues to save flour and sugar. He understands that it will not be possible to save everything, but there are no helpers. He starts to break down the fence. And then, oddly enough, Sashka the Ninth comes to his aid.

Ivan Petrovich runs into Alena. They watch in horror as the remains of a manufactured goods warehouse are robbed.

They have lived with Alena for 32 years. 2 years ago, on their 30th wedding anniversary, they decided to visit their children, two daughters and a son. One daughter is a teacher in some village. The second daughter is in Irkutsk. The son is a pilot, in the village of Syrniki near Khabarovsk. What Ivan Petrovich liked most about his son was that the son takes care of the house, grows apples, and is friends with neighbors and his wife’s relatives. Therefore, when he invited his parents to move in with him, Ivan Petrovich agreed.

Sosnovka can no longer be saved. It all started with the arrival of the last brigade of Arkharovites a year ago. They are very united and aggressive. Ivan Petrovich tried to put them in their place, but was almost killed (they wanted to set up an accident).

Alena worked in the library. Ivan Petrovich himself did not notice when, but his wife became an integral part of his own personality. Rasputin idealizes their relationship: complete mutual understanding. And on the issue of leaving, she had the same opinion: she needed to leave, but somehow she didn’t want to.

They help Ivan Petrovich carry flour. But suddenly the assistants disappear. Occasionally, drunk Arkharovites appear, but they are no longer capable of anything. Ivan Petrovich and Afonya, as well as Panteleev, are working. Soon there is no time left to take the bags further away; they are thrown right next to the warehouse. Ivan Petrovich’s eyes darken.

Uncle Misha Hampo has been paralyzed since childhood. His hand did not work, his speech was impaired. But “to understand each other, you don’t need many words. It takes a lot not to understand.” Everyone loved Hampo. He was hardworking. His wife died long ago, he lived alone. He always worked as a watchman, almost for free - Rasputin puts a symbolic meaning into this: Hampo is the keeper of valuables. When theft became established, even he, the most conscientious, had to get used to it.

Ivan Petrovich's life in Sosnovka loses its meaning. He cannot work only for wealth. Work for him is the creation of something eternal. Moral foundations have been destroyed, everything is mixed up: good and evil. One day Afonya asked Ivan Petrovich why he was leaving. Ivan Petrovich replied that he was tired. Afonya regrets: who will remain, what about Yegorovka? Ivan Petrovich wanted to answer that Yegorovka is in each of us. But Afonya only had in mind his bizarre idea to erect a monument to Yegorovka on the surface of the reservoir.

The stronger the fire, the more helpers. Muk manages to be saved, although almost all the participants got drunk. Valya the housekeeper yells that a lot has been stolen, and she has to answer. Ivan Petrovich is already losing consciousness, he needs to rest. In a drunken stupor, the Arkharovites kill Hampo with a mallet, but Hampo manages to run over one of them (Sonya). There are two corpses lying.

Morning comes. Now there will be many commissions, the empty ashes are cordoned off. Ivan Petrovich goes to Athos with the question: what to do now? Afonya says: we will live. Ivan Petrovich agrees.

Ivan Petrovich goes to the spring forest to rest there and calm down. He feels the awakening of the earth and all nature. And he waits for the earth to show him where to go, a lost man.

The plot of V. Rasputin's story is built around the preparation for the death of the old woman Anna. Almost all her children gathered at her bedside. Only her beloved daughter Tatyana, whom her mother affectionately calls Tanchora, did not arrive.

Anna wants all her children to have time to say goodbye to her. Unexpectedly for those around her, the old woman feels better. She can now leave the house and eat. Anna's children, who expected the worst, feel bewildered. Sons Ilya and Mikhail decide to get drunk so that the vodka prepared for the funeral does not “stand idle.” Intoxicated, the brothers begin to talk about life. It turns out that she stopped bringing them joy. Work is no longer fun. Hopes for a bright future have long been abandoned; routine absorbs more and more every day. Mikhail and Ilya love and know how to work. But for some reason, right now, work does not bring the desired satisfaction. Their sister Lucy, taking advantage of the fact that her mother has temporarily stopped needing outside help, goes for a walk around the neighborhood. She remembers her childhood and her favorite horse. Having become an adult, the woman left her native place. It seems to Lucy that she left something very important in her native village, without which it is impossible to live.

Anna continues to wait for her beloved daughter Tanchora. She is saddened that Tanya did not come. Tanchora was sharply different from her sisters Vari and Lucy. My beloved daughter had a very kind and gentle character. Without waiting, the old woman decides to die. She doesn't want to linger in this world. Anna does not find a place for herself in her new life.

Old woman Anna

The elderly woman lived a long and difficult life. A mother of many children raised her children to be worthy people. She is confident that she has fully fulfilled her purpose.

Anna is the real master of her life. And not only life, but also death. The old woman herself made the decision about when to leave this world. She does not tremble before death, does not beg her to prolong her earthly existence. Anna awaits death as a guest, and does not feel any fear of it.

Old woman Anna considers children her main asset and pride. The woman does not notice that she has long become indifferent to them. Each of them has their own life, each is busy with themselves. What upsets the old woman most of all is the absence of her beloved daughter Tanchora. Neither the main character nor the reader knew the reason why she did not come. Despite everything, Tanya remains her mother’s beloved daughter. If she couldn't come, then there were good reasons for that.

Invisible girlfriend

Death is Anna's invisible and silent interlocutor. The reader feels her presence throughout the entire story. Anna does not see death as an enemy from which she needs to hide or defend. The old woman managed to make friends with her constant companion.

Death as a natural phenomenon
Death is presented without the slightest horror or tragedy. Its arrival is as natural as the arrival of winter after autumn. This inevitable phenomenon in the life of every person cannot be assessed positively or negatively. Death serves as a conductor between two worlds. Without it, it is impossible to move from one state to another.

The invisible friend shows mercy to the one who does not reject or curse her. She agrees to make concessions to each of her new friends. Wise Anna understands this. Friendship with the most terrible phenomenon for every person gives the old woman the right to choose. Anna chooses how to leave this world. Death willingly agrees to come to her in a dream and carefully replace the worldly dream with an eternal dream. The old woman asks for a delay so she can say goodbye to her beloved daughter. Death again yields to the old woman and gives the necessary amount of time.

Despite the fact that every reader understands how the story will end, the author leaves one of the main participants in his work behind the scenes, which further emphasizes the lack of tragedy of death.

Anna's children

Anna's sons and daughters have long lived their own lives. The approaching death of the old woman forces attention to the mother. However, none of the children were able to maintain this attention for too long. Noticing that Anna is feeling better, they strive to return to their thoughts and activities. The brothers immediately drink the vodka left for the wake and begin to complain to each other about life. The sisters, who shared the inheritance at the dying woman’s bedside, disperse in different directions to also plunge into their own worries.

Anna's children try to conscientiously fulfill their duties to their mother. Lucy sews a funeral dress for the old woman. Varvara mourns her mother, as Anna herself wanted. The sons are also ready to do everything necessary to see off the old woman on her final journey. In the depths of their souls, each of them is waiting for that moment when the most unpleasant things will remain in the past and they can return to their daily affairs and responsibilities. Ilya and Mikhail are not so much saddened by the upcoming death of their mother as they are concerned about their own. After their parents pass away, they will be the next generation to pass away. This thought horrifies the brothers so much that they empty one bottle of vodka after another.

main idea

There are no good or bad events in life. A person himself gives one or another assessment to each event. Despite her difficult existence, full of suffering and hardship, Anna does not seek to exaggerate. She intends to leave this world calm and peaceful.

The main theme of the story is the passing of an elderly person, summing up the results. However, there are other topics in the work that the author prefers to talk about less openly.

Valentin Rasputin wants to tell the reader not only about the personal feelings of the characters. “The Deadline,” a brief summary of which tells only how each character relates to death, is, first of all, a story about the change of historical eras. Anna and her children observe the destruction of the old order. Collective farms cease to exist. Young people are forced to leave the village due to lack of work and go in search of work in an unknown direction.

The story contains at the heart of the plot the idea of ​​human relationships, mutual assistance and indifference, which are especially clearly manifested in the grief of others.

Another wonderful work talks about human kindness, fortitude and patience.

Humane socialism will be replaced by ruthless capitalism. Previous values ​​have been devalued. Anna's sons, accustomed to working for the common good, must now work for the survival of their families. Not accepting the new reality, Ilya and Mikhail try to drown out their pain with alcohol. Old woman Anna feels superior to her children. Her death has already come to her and is just waiting for an invitation to enter the house. Mikhail, Ilya, Lyusya, Varvara and Tatyana are young. They will have to live for a long time in a world unfamiliar to them, which is so different from the one in which they were once born. They will have to become different people, abandon their previous ideals, so as not to perish in the new reality. None of Anna's four children expresses a desire to change. Only Tanchora’s opinion remains unknown to the reader.

People's dissatisfaction with the new life is not able to change the course of events. The merciless hand of history will put everything in its place. The younger generation is obliged to adapt in order to raise their offspring differently than they themselves were raised. The old generation will not be able to accept the new rules of the game. He will have to leave this world.

Every connoisseur of Russian literature should know the summary of Rasputin's "Fire". This is one of the author's key works. It acutely poses the problems of our time. Due to this, the novel aroused great interest among readers.

The place of "Fire" in Rasputin's work

A brief summary of Rasputin's "Fire" gives a complete picture of his work in the 80s. By that time, he was already well known as the author of the stories “Money for Maria”, “The Deadline”, “Live and Remember”, and the cult “Farewell to Matera”.

He wrote the story "Fire" in 1985. At that time, Rasputin was already a recognized classic of the Russian so-called village prose. The problems that he raised on the pages of his works always found a lively response from readers.

Plot of the story

A summary of Rasputin's "Fire" begins with a description of the events occurring in the month of March. The narration is conducted from a third person. It is filled with a large number of lyrical digressions and arguments of a journalistic nature.

At the center of the story is the driver Ivan Petrovich. At the beginning of the work, he returns from work tired. He is met by his wife Alena. But a quiet family evening is not destined to happen on this day. They hear screams: fire.

It turns out that ORS warehouses are on fire. Ivan Petrovich, in turmoil, gets ready for the fire and takes an ax with him. It turns out that the fire is serious. Both parts of the warehouse are on fire. One is industrial, the second is food. The main character immediately notes to himself that the fight against the fire is led by two extremely unreliable people. This is Semyon Koltsov and Afonya.

Fighting fire

The authorities gather to decide how to fight the fire. The site manager, Vodnikov, is a skilled and expressive person. He swears a lot at his subordinates, but you can rely on him. Alena, who takes out some things, helps no less than the men in saving the warehouses from the fire.

At the same time, the negative characters in both the story and the summary of Rasputin’s “Fire” are the Arkharov brigade. These are hired workers who do not live in these places and are only interested in their earnings.

Detachment of Arkharovites

Valentin Rasputin in “Fire,” a summary of which is presented in this article, describes the essence of the Arkharov detachment. They are carriers of camp concepts. Therefore, when the main character tries to throw himself into the fire, he is dissuaded because they view work only as a duty and are not ready to risk their lives for the sake of a common cause.

Because of his inherent integrity, they do not like Ivan Petrovich. In Rasputin's "Fire", the content of which is worth knowing to every lover of his work, they personify the dark side of impending progress.

The story of Ivan Petrovich

At the same time, Ivan Petrovich himself is a simple and sincere person. He was born in the village of Yegorovka. During the Great Patriotic War he was a tank driver.

Already in peacetime, it became known that the village would soon be flooded. There is a direct connection here with another story by Rasputin - “Farewell to Matera”. Ivan Petrovich also knows about this. But unlike the others, he is in no hurry to leave. Only in extreme cases does he move to Sosnovka, where the events of the story unfold.

The main character selflessly runs into one of the food warehouses. At the same time, he notices how many supplies there are, although everyone has always been told that there is not enough food. Here the hero in the summary of the story “Fire” by Rasputin begins to reason when life has gone awry. He comes to the conclusion that everything changed when they started cutting down the forest. This is stupid work that destroys both the nature around and the person himself.

Because of her, more and more frivolous people are coming to Sosnovka, who are only after easy money. At the same time, crime in rural areas is increasing. They begin to treat all conscientious and honest people with suspicion.

The main thing for Ivan Petrovich remains absolute values, which he is ready to actively defend.

Antipode of the main character

In Rasputin's "Fire", in a very brief summary, it is necessary to mention the antipodean protagonist. This is Afonya Bronnikov. He believes that the main thing is to live honestly and not steal. Set a lesson for everyone around you by example.

Rasputin and his main character categorically disagree with this. They believe that everyone is already too late to set an example.

At the fire, everyone is transformed when the fire gets close to the vodka. Arkharovites and local residents save her, forming a chain and managing to get drunk along the way. Only Ivan Petrovich is trying to save the vegetable oil. A real psychological drama unfolds in the soul of the main character.

Nobody helps him. He and his wife watch in horror as the remains of a manufactured goods warehouse are robbed.

By the way, he and his wife have been together for more than 30 years. She's a librarian. "Fire" is a work by Rasputin, in which the author consciously idealizes their relationship. According to him, they have complete mutual understanding.

Life in Sosnovka

While rescuing provisions from a warehouse, Ivan Petrovich reflects on his future in Sosnovka. In his opinion, his entire life ahead is slowly losing all meaning. For him, the main thing in work is not wealth, as for Afonya, but some kind of creativity. But after moral foundations collapse around him, he gives up.

In Rasputin's "Fire", a summary of the chapters is described in this article, a conversation between the protagonist and Afonya is given. He asks why Ivan Petrovich is going to leave. He admits that he is tired. When Afonya begins to lament who Egorovka will now be left with. Ivan Petrovich amazes him with his confidence - Egorovka is in each of us.

The denouement of the story

Over time, the fire intensifies. Flour is mostly saved. But at the same time, almost all participants get very drunk. The storekeeper complains that the warehouses are heavily looted. And not so much was burned as much as it was dispersed. Ivan Petrovich loses consciousness in complete powerlessness.

A fight breaks out between drunk Arkharovites, which results in two corpses. The next morning the ashes are cordoned off. Everyone is waiting for the arrival of a commission from the center, which must assess the damage and establish the causes of the fire. Confused, Ivan Petrovich asks his neighbor Afonya what they will do next. What he reassures him about is that all that remains is to live.

At the end of the story, Ivan Petrovich goes to the spring forest, where he seeks rest and tranquility. He feels that nature is waking up around him. He expects that she will be the one to show him the way and help a lost person.

Analysis of Rasputin's story

Many researchers note that Rasputin in “Fire”, the analysis is in this article, continues the theme of studying the life of people who became forced migrants. For the first time he brings it up in the story "Farewell to Matera". This work, in some way, is its continuation.

The characters in this story move from a village to an urban settlement. They find themselves locked in it. It’s like living in a grave, admits the main character Ivan Petrovich.

The fire allows the author and the reader to clearly see who is worth what. Helps to explore the past and present of the characters in the work. During a fire, people discover that the fire contains goods they have never seen before. And they didn’t even suspect that they were in their warehouses. These are scarce food products and foreign knitwear. Taking advantage of the confusion, some begin not to save valuables from the fire, but engage in real looting.

Social catastrophe

For Rasputin, the fire is an obvious symbol of the social catastrophe that is approaching Sosnovka. The author is looking for an explanation for this phenomenon.

One of the reasons for the moral decay of society is that in Sosnovka no one is engaged in agriculture. People only harvest timber. That is, they take from nature without providing anything in return. There are many visitors in the village who arrived for a short time to work. Therefore, it does not develop, looks untidy and uncomfortable. The story represents the psychology of the degeneration of a peasant farmer into a dependent who only destroys the nature around him.

The reader is conveyed acute anxiety from the ruthless destruction of nature that occurs on the pages of the story. Due to the large volume of work that needs to be done, many workers are required. Therefore, they recruit everyone, often just anyone.

Social strata mix in Sosnovka. A coherent society is disintegrating before our eyes. In just two decades, the concept of morality in the village is changing. What was previously not allowed and not accepted becomes acceptable.

A striking detail is that in Sosnovka the houses do not even have front gardens. Everyone realizes that this is only temporary housing. Only the main character, Ivan Petrovich, remains true to his life principles. He has his own concepts of good and evil. He not only works honestly, but also worries about the decline of morals and strives to change this situation. But he finds virtually no support among those around him.

He tries to prevent the Arkharovites from establishing power, but they take revenge on him by puncturing the tires of the car. They constantly do petty mischief. Either sand will be poured into the carburetor, or the brake hoses on the trailer will be damaged, or a beam that almost kills the main character.

In the end, Ivan Petrovich and his wife decide to leave. They want to head to the Far East. One of their sons lives there. But even here the main character cannot leave Sosnovka. Afonya begins to reproach him, asking who will remain if people like them leave. Ivan Petrovich does not dare to take this step.

It is worth noting that there are enough positive characters in the story. This is the wife of the main character Alena, and the old uncle Hampo, and the controversial head of the site Boris Timofeevich Vodnikov.

The key to understanding the essence of the work remains the symbolic description of nature. If at the very beginning of the story, when it’s March, she seems to be in a daze. Then towards the end of the work it calms down before the coming blossoming. Walking on the spring earth, Ivan Petrovich expects that it will lead him to the right path.