Victor Sonkin. Pirogov and Piskarev

Pirogov and Piskarev
Victor Sonkin

Publication date: April 7, 2000
Nikolay Gogol. Nevsky Avenue

There are three riddles in Gogol's story "Nevsky Prospekt". Firstly, what language is it written in? Secondly, why are two stories, two independent plots combined in one text? Thirdly - but I will talk about this at the very end.

The question about language is both the easiest and the most difficult to answer. Of course, in Russian; in the unprecedented, amazing, phantasmagoric Russian language. They didn’t write like that either before, or during, or later. It takes a lot of endurance and concentration to realize through the delight that many of Gogol’s stylistic tricks come not from innate originality, but from uncertain knowledge. Firstly, the Russian prose language as we know it was still just taking its first steps at that time, and we often had to grope our way; secondly, Gogol’s style is heavily flavored (or one might say clogged) with Little Russian influence. Akhmatova noted at one time that from the first words it is clear that “Dead Souls” was written by a Ukrainian - who else would have thought to explain in the very first paragraph that the men who discussed whether Chichikov’s wheel would or would not reach Moscow and Kazan - Russians? The same is true in Nevsky Prospekt: ​​“ The right people trudge along the streets: sometimes Russian men, hurrying to work, cross the streets "; " A Russian peasant talks about a hryvnia or about seven pennies of copper ." A number of other stylistic oddities undoubtedly reveal in the author of "Nevsky Prospekt" if not the look, then the intonation of a foreigner: " He saw so many respectable old men and semi-old men at one time... "; " The chamber cadets in a shiny suit moved behind him like a perfect wall ." I was especially struck by the following passage: " But now... What a terrible life! What's the use of her living? Is the life of a madman pleasant to his relatives and friends who once loved him? “It took some time to understand that the word “she” does not refer to any heroine, but means “life.” Life lives! How wrong this is, how un-Russian - and how wonderful!

The composition of "Nevsky Prospekt" is also amazing. The plot part is inserted into a massive frame of lyrical digression; the exposition takes up several pages; in fact, it is only in this frame that we are talking about Nevsky Prospekt, because the action of the story only begins with the “universal communication of St. Petersburg”, and takes place in completely different places. So, strictly speaking, the title is misleading to the reader. In addition, inside the frame we find two completely independent stories, which again only briefly touch each other in the beginning - in a completely optional, formal way - and then each develops on its own. It would be nice if they were somehow intertwined - no, one is told without interruptions from beginning to end (and in such a way that it will not seem enough - the hero dies), another begins, and it is also told from beginning to end. All. What follows is the famous passage “ Oh, don’t believe this Nevsky Prospect! ”

What is it for?

Moreover, one must not believe not only Nevsky Prospekt, but also Gogol. He deceives the reader, just as the tinsmith Schiller deceived Pirogov, charging an impossible price of fifteen rubles for work that he did not want to do. When Pirogov “ expressed complete agreement without any contradiction ,” “ the German became thoughtful and began to think about how best to do his work so that it would actually cost fifteen rubles .” Besides, “ as an honest German, he already felt a little ashamed .” That’s why Gogol, at the end, piles one example of deception on top of another: “ Do you imagine that these two fat men, who stopped in front of a church under construction, are judging its architecture? Not at all: they are talking about how strangely two crows sat down one opposite the other. You think What is this enthusiast, waving his arms, talking about how his wife threw a ball out of the window at an officer he didn’t know at all? Not at all, he’s talking about Lafayette ". Gogol is also a little ashamed, and he warns us: " Everything is a deception, everything is a dream, everything is not what it seems! "

In the recent German youth film "Lola Runs" three versions of the same plot are played out in an hour of screen time: the heroine urgently needs to get 150 thousand marks, otherwise her boyfriend will be killed - well, the idea of ​​​​a computer game with numerous "lives", nothing special. The funny thing is that while Lola runs, she runs into (quite literally) different people, and their subsequent fate is illustrated by a series of quickly changing freeze frames. Even if the circumstances of the encounter with these people are no different from version to version, their fate in each version is still completely different.

It is naive to think that the idea of ​​multivariate development of events was born in the outgoing century with its social and other cataclysms. The idea of ​​linear history - from the creation of the world to the Last Judgment - deeply rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition - resists games of multiple endings, but people stubbornly continue to play them: it is interesting to know what would have happened if... Of course, the 20th century was more interested in such experiments than the previous one ("The French Lieutenant's Woman"; " Caution, the Doors Are Closing "; the unforgettable NOVEL and the idea of ​​hypertextual literature in general). But Pushkin, in “Eugene Onegin,” offered readers two options for Lensky’s fate if he had not died in a duel.

Gogol went further. Pay attention to how one plot gives way to another: the first hero dies and is buried; there follows a short passage in the form of a discussion about death (“ I don’t like corpses and the dead, and it’s always unpleasant for me... ”) - a kind of black hole; then the film rewinds back with lightning speed, and we find ourselves at the starting point (“ We, it seems, left Lieutenant Pirogov on how he parted with poor Piskarev... ”).

Here lies the solution to this double. There is no artist Piskarev and lieutenant Pirogov separately; this is the same person. It is enough to listen to the anapest of their almost identical surnames for this to become clear. Then it becomes justified to combine the two plots into the framework of one story: these are two versions of one fate, and history repeats itself in them, quite according to Marx, first as a tragedy, then as a farce. At the same time, Gogol seriously warns that love - after all, it was love that took possession of Piskarev - is the first step on the path to depression, mental degradation, drug addiction and death. And if you treat yourself and the world more simply, like Pirogov, then the matter, of course, will also end badly, but still not so hopeless.

Piskarev died; Pirogov survived, but what happened to him is the third, painful mystery. “ These three artisans... treated him so rudely and impolitely that, I confess, I can’t find words to describe this sad event .” For some reason, I here imagine one scene from “ Pulp Fiction ” by Tarantino, who learned literary lessons well and used the possibilities of non-linear and variable plots to the fullest. But maybe I'm getting carried away.

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Web presence

The text of Gogol's story in readable form can be found on the website of the E. Peskin library. In connection with Nevsky Prospekt as the “communication of St. Petersburg”, Gogol is mentioned on the “ Literary Page ” website; There is also a history of the main street of St. Petersburg , with abundant quotes from the story and interesting illustrations. A detailed and interesting biographical note about Gogol with a bibliography is on the genealogy website (you can generally find a lot of interesting things there). Well, also - to add to the collection of naive poetry of Roman Leibov - the poem " Fuchsia " (or is this the author's pseudonym? There seems to be nothing in the text about fuchsia, but there is something about Nevsky Prospekt, even with a distorted epigraph from Gogol).

A wonderful song based on Gogol’s story was written by youth philologist and akyn Psoy Korolenko. You can read its text here , and listen to its - unfortunately, not the best - arrangement in mp3 format here . Once in one company a conversation arose about what kind of video could be made for this song, and someone said: “And Psoy has already come up with an idea: how a person just walks around Moscow.”

I wanted to add here links to Mandelstam’s double poems and to Brodsky’s poem with a double hero, which M. Gasparov called the “Oberiut Empire” - but either the connection is floundering, or everyone immediately had problems with copyright (as this page assures ) . If anyone is interested, look for it yourself .