We present to your attention a video lesson on the topic “A.I. Kuprin. "Duel"". The teacher emphasizes that “Duel” by A.I. Kuprin is a famous work by a Russian classic, in which he describes colorful images of Russian officers, philosophical reflections on man and the great intensity of passions. Kuprin’s story “The Duel,” written during the Russo-Japanese War, reveals painful problems that have arisen in the Russian military environment. A.I. Kuprin in this story gives a deep psychological analysis of the romantic image of the young officer Romashov, surrounded by drunkenness, debauchery and dull army life.

Topic: Russian literature of the late XIX - early XX centuries

Lesson: A.I. Kuprin: "Duel"

The story “The Duel” by A.I. Kuprin is a famous work by a Russian classic, in which he describes colorful images of Russian officers, philosophical reflections on man and the great intensity of passions. Kuprin’s story “The Duel,” written during the Russo-Japanese War, reveals painful problems that have arisen in the Russian military environment.

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

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

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

Rice. 3. Dubinsky D.A. Illustration for the story “The Duel” by A. I. Kuprin (1959-60) ().

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

In contrast to other officers, Romashov treats soldiers humanely. He shows concern for Khlebnikov, who is constantly humiliated and downtrodden; he may, contrary to the regulations, tell the senior officer about another injustice, but he is powerless to change anything in this system. Service oppresses him. Romashov comes to the idea of ​​denying the war: “Let’s say, tomorrow, let’s say, this very second this thought came to the minds of everyone: the Russians, the Germans, the British, the Japanese... and now there is no more war, no more officers and soldiers, everything went home." The army depersonalizes people. “What are all these cunning, folded buildings of military craft? Nothing..,” Romashov reflects during his arrest.

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

Romashov loves to dream and is lucky in them. But the reality is different. Romashov does not accept violence. He is bored and scared, but he is attached to this regiment. The hero reflects on what is important in life. Both money and rank are ghosts invented by people. Civilization is governed by fictions, things to which we ourselves give this power. Why does the carnage continue?

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

One of the impetus that drives this tragic story is a break with a previous lover, thereby making the hero his worst enemy (vulgar letters arrive).

Having experienced a mental crisis, he enters into a kind of duel with this world.

Rice. 5. Dubinsky D.A. Illustration for the story by A.I. Kuprin "Duel" (1959-60) ().

Preparing for the show, Romashov ends up in a debriefing session. Everyone is upset because the show is a failure. Romashov is lonely. He is tormented, wandering around the city. He is tossing around. Meets Khlebnikov (an unlucky soldier of his company). Romashov sees the beaten Klebnikov and understands how he (the soldier) is suffering. Romashov saves a soldier from committing suicide. Romashov began to think about people, he wants to change their lives. This step is scary for him because he doesn’t know how to do anything. The officers drink, walk, sing, but the song turns into a funeral service. Romashov then breaks down.

The duel with the hapless Nikolaev, which ends the story, becomes a particular expression of Romashov’s irreconcilable conflict with reality. However, simple, ordinary, “natural” Romashov, who stands out from his environment, with tragic inevitability turns out to be too weak and lonely to gain the upper hand.

Rice. 6. D. Dubinsky. Duel. Illustration for A. Kuprin's story "The Duel"

Violence, boredom, lack of life - all this must end someday. Contrasting the strong and the weak, destroying old ideas. A time will come where there will be no envy. People lack inner dignity and respect for each other.

Devoted to his beloved, charming in her own way, cheerful, but selfishly calculating Shurochka (persuades Romashov to take part in the duel), Romashov dies.

Life deals with Romashov in its own way. Reality wins. The story reveals the confrontation between man and civilization. The army that was created was created on violence and humiliation. Such an army will not win.

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

"DUEL"

Georgy Romashov, “Romochka”, from “Duel” - a young officer. His character does not at all correspond to his chosen field. He is shy, blushes like a young lady, and is ready to respect the dignity of any person, but the results are disastrous. His soldiers are the worst marchers. He himself constantly makes mistakes. His idealistic ideas constantly come into conflict with reality and his life is painful. His only joy is his love for Shurochka. For him, she personifies beauty, grace, education, and culture in general in the atmosphere of a provincial garrison. In her house he feels like a human being. Shurochka also appreciates Romashov’s difference, his difference from others. She is proud and ambitious, her dream is to escape from here. To do this, she forces her husband to prepare for the academy. She herself teaches military disciplines, so as not to get bogged down in idleness, not to become dull in the surrounding lack of spirituality. Romashov and Shurochka found each other, opposites met. But if for Romashov love consumed his entire soul and became the meaning and justification of life, then it bothers Shurochka. Achieving the intended goal is impossible for her with the weak-willed, gentle “Romachka”. Therefore, she only allows herself this weakness for a moment, and then prefers to stay with her unloved, untalented, but persistent and stubborn husband. Once upon a time, Shurochka already refused Nazansky’s love (and now he is a drunken, desperate man). In Shurochka’s understanding, a lover must make sacrifices. After all, she herself, without hesitation, sacrifices both her own and someone else’s love for the sake of well-being and social status. Nazansky was unable to adapt to her demands - and he was removed. Shura will demand even more from Romashov - for the sake of her reputation, for the sake of gossips and talkers, he must sacrifice his life. For George himself, this may even be salvation. After all, if he had not died, at best, he would have suffered the fate of Nazansky. The environment would have swallowed him up and destroyed him.

A. I. Kuprin's story "The Duel" is the pinnacle of creativity, his final work, in which he addresses the problem of the individual and society, their tragic disharmony.

“The Duel” is a politically topical work: the story itself does not say anything about the Russian-Japanese War, but contemporaries perceived it in the context of those events. Kuprin revealed the essence of the state of society that led to the explosion, essentially pointing out the reasons that caused the defeat of the Russian army in the war with Japan.

The documentary style in “The Duel” is obvious (the consonance of the names of the officers - the heroes of the story with those with whom Lieutenant Kuprin served in the 46th Dnieper Infantry Regiment, details of the biography of Romashov and the author himself). Kuprin said so: “The main character is me,” “Romashov is my double.” With all this, the work contained a broad generalizing meaning. The author's attention is drawn to the topic of life in Russia in the first decade of the 20th century. The depiction of the military environment was by no means an end in itself. Starting from a local “army” theme, Kuprin raised problems that worried the entire society; they determined the moral pathos of the story: the fate of the people, the intrinsic value of the human personality, the awakening of its activity.

The title of the story is symbolic; the story became a duel between Kuprin himself and the tsarist army, autocratic orders that were destroying people. This is a duel with lies, immorality, injustice. The decline of morality, the apology for war, robbery, and violence are especially hateful to the humanist writer.

Kuprin shows the path the main character of the story, Romashov, takes in search of the truth. When the hero begins to see clearly and comes to the conclusion about the self-worth, he recognizes the right to respect for human dignity not only in relation to himself, but also extends it to the soldiers. Before our eyes, Romashov is becoming morally mature: “Beating a soldier is dishonorable. You cannot beat a man who cannot answer you, does not have the right to raise his hand to his face to protect himself from a blow. He does not even dare to tilt his head. This is shameful!” Romashov, who asserts: “The Khlebnikovs are my brothers,” and who is aware of the spiritual kinship with the people, takes a huge step forward in his development. This is a completely different person: not the young dreamer we meet at the beginning of the story. However, Romashov dies. The author brought his hero to such a point that, if he had remained alive, it would have been necessary to open up some clear prospect for his future. And this did not seem clear to Kuprin himself.

Loving his hero, Kuprin mourns his death and clearly points out those who are guilty of this, speaks honestly and directly, because he himself more than once suffered cruelly from human indifference.

Is Shurochka Nikolaeva to blame for the death of Romashov? To a greater extent - yes. Her character combines contrasting qualities. She is predatory and smart, beautiful and dexterous. The high and the low and the crudely pragmatic are intertwined in her. The trouble is that these negative qualities of Shurochka are hidden from Romashov for the time being. A pragmatic lady, unscrupulous in the means of achieving goals, the cynical Shurochka removes Romashov as an obstacle in her path. She is betting on her husband - albeit unloved, but she will make sure that he will help her achieve what she wants.

The author's position helps to understand the image of Nazansky. This hero is no less complex and contradictory than Shurochka. Deep understanding of reality, originality of thinking - and reflection, inertia, silence. However, despite all the contradictory nature of Nazansky’s judgments, in his famous monologues, which define the moral pathos of the story, the most important ideas for Kuprin are openly expressed in a journalistic way. Nazansky’s monologues outline two lines: sharp criticism of the autocracy and dreams of a wonderful life.

The mass of officers shown by Kuprin in the story are people different in their human qualities. Almost each of them has a minimum of “good” feelings, bizarrely mixed with cruelty, rudeness, and indifference. These “good” feelings are distorted beyond recognition by caste military prejudices. Let the regiment commander Shulgovich, under his thunderous bourbonism, hide his concern for the officers, or Lieutenant Colonel Rafalsky loves animals and devotes all his free and non-free time to collecting a rare domestic menagerie - no real relief, no matter how much they want, they cannot bring. The officers are just an obedient instrument of inhuman statutory conventions.

In 1905, Kuprin created "The Duel". Today we will look at the summary of this story. The first edition of the work was published with a dedication to M. Gorky. The influence of this writer determined everything “violent” and “brave” in the story, as Kuprin himself admitted. The "duel", a brief summary of which we will consider, begins as follows.

Romashov's bad luck

The young officer Romashov, after evening classes required by the regulations of the garrison service, wandered idle through the streets of the city. This man was only in his second year in the service and had a funny habit of thinking about himself in the 3rd person, as in cliched novels. The hero was a little unlucky that evening. Shulgovich, the regiment commander, arrived, who was in a bad mood and therefore reprimanded Romashov’s soldier, a Tatar who did not understand Russian well. Both the soldier and the second lieutenant were punished. Romashov was supposed to spend four days under house arrest. During walks, he loved to dream that he would soon enter the academy, successfully passing the exams, and then make a brilliant career and prove to everyone in the regiment what he really was.

Relationships with Shurochka and Raisa Peterson

What does Kuprin talk about next (“The Duel”)? The summary continues with the story that the main character often visited Nikolaev, his friend. Every time he promised not to go there anymore, because he couldn’t bother people every time. In addition, the hero was hopelessly in love with Shurochka (Alexandra Petrovna, the lieutenant’s wife). The orderly Gainan interrupted his thoughts. He brought a letter from Peterson Raisa Alexandrovna. Romashov had been deceiving her husband with her for a long time and boringly, and he was already quite tired of it. The smell of this woman’s sickly-sweet perfume made Romashov sick, as did the vulgar tone of her letters. The main character decided to go to the Nikolaevs after all. In the fourth chapter, the author describes his visit.

Preparing Nikolaev for exams

Vladimir Efimovich (that was Nikolaev’s name) was busy. He was preparing to enter the academy, but failed the exams every time. His wife Shurochka made every effort to help him. She already learned the program better than him.

Nikolaev was studying, and meanwhile Shurochka and Romochka (as Alexandra called him) were discussing an article in the newspaper about fights in the army. They were recently legalized. According to Shurochka, this was harsh, but for Russian officers it was necessary at least for individuals like Nazansky and Archakovsky to know their place. Unlike Alexandra, Romashov does not consider Nazansky bad. Soon it was necessary to go to bed, and the second lieutenant left the Nikolaevs. The fifth chapter begins with the fact that on the street the main character hears his frequent visits being discussed by an orderly. He decides to visit Nazansky, who has been on a drinking binge for some time.

Romashov goes to Nazansky

Nazansky, in a drunken delirium, tells Romashov that he was once in love with a woman. There was nothing between them, and he believes that the lady stopped loving him because of her drunkenness. Then he takes out one of her letters and shows it to Romashov, who recognizes Shurochka's handwriting. It becomes clear to the main character why she speaks so poorly of Nazansky. Another letter is waiting for him at home. It is from Raisa Alexandrovna, Romashov’s mistress who is disgusted. Now it contains only threats and hints that she knows about Romashova’s “relationship” with Nikolaeva. This letter ends the fifth chapter.

At the next ball, organized in the regiment, the main character announced Peterson’s breakup, and she promised to take revenge on him for this. Soon anonymous people began to come to the Nikolaevs.

Romashov loses consciousness in front of Shulgovich

Continues to describe the troubles that befell the main character, Kuprin (“The Duel”). The summary of Romashov’s official failures was that his superiors were dissatisfied with him, and therefore one day Shulgovich, a colonel, called him to his office and gave him a scolding (this is described in the 7th chapter). Shulgovich did not like the fact that he argued with his senior ranks and also took part in officers’ drinking sessions. Romashov's head was spinning from these reprimands. He felt that a little more and he would hit the colonel. However, instead the main character lost consciousness. Shulgovich was seriously scared. He said that he got excited, that he loved all his officers equally and did not want to offend him. Shulgovich offered to make peace with Romashov and even invited him to dinner. The officers' meeting takes place on Saturday evening, and Romashov has been appointed master of the ball.

Ball

It is impossible not to say a few words about the ball, describing the work that Kuprin created (“The Duel”). A summary of the chapters will not suit all readers. Some people want to get acquainted with certain scenes in the original. For those who are interested in the details of the ball, we note that its description is given by the author in the 8th and 9th chapters. All the officers with their daughters and wives are present. Raisa Peterson is also among the guests. This woman, whose pride is wounded by the break with Romashov, creates a scene during the quadrille and insults Nikolaeva.

Name day, explanation with Shurochka

At the end of April, Alexandra Petrovna invites the main character to their common name day. Money is tight for him now; the bartender no longer lets him borrow cigarettes. However, for the sake of this occasion, Romashov borrowed some money from Rafalsky (in the 12th chapter) in order to buy perfume for Shurochka, which is noted by Alexander Kuprin (“The Duel”). A summary of the celebration scene is as follows. It turned out to be quite noisy. Romashov sat next to Shurochka and tried not to listen to the shallow jokes and stupid conversations of the officers. Sometimes he touched the hand of his beloved, which Nikolaev really did not like. Then, after the feast, he decided to take a walk with Shurochka in the grove (Chapter 14). She admitted that Romashov was dear to her, that they had common desires and thoughts, but the relationship should be abandoned. Shurochka hurried him to return quickly before their departure was discovered. Nikolaev was already very dissatisfied with the anonymous messages he received.

Corps review, arrest of Romashov

Isn’t it interesting what events continue Kuprin’s story “The Duel”? The summary proceeds to a description of the corps review held in May. The author talks about him in the 15th chapter. All captains, except Stelkovsky, raise their companies at the crack of dawn. He decided to let his soldiers sleep, and at the review they looked “well done,” “dexterous,” “with fresh faces.” As a result, when the general checked how the soldiers were rearranging and marching, he was satisfied only with the 5th company, commanded by Stelkovsky. The worst, however, was yet to come. Inspired by the solemn moment, during the ceremonial march Romashov became so daydreaming that he did not notice how he disrupted the formation of the entire company. In addition, one exhausted soldier fell to the ground in front of the general. Second Lieutenant Romashov is given a severe sentence for this. He should be in the divisional guardhouse under arrest.

Conversation with Khlebnikov, suicide of a soldier from Osadchy's company

However, the troubles of Romashov, the hero created by Kuprin (“The Duel”), do not end with public disgrace. Reading a chapter-by-chapter summary is, of course, not as exciting as the original work. Describing the main events, we note that there was an explanation with Nikolaev, who asked him not to come to them anymore and to stop the senseless flow of anonymous messages. On the way home, Romashov met a soldier who had fainted. His last name is Khlebnikov. This soldier cried and complained to Romashov about serving in the company (Chapter 16). Everyone mocked him, beat him, but he has been suffering from a hernia since childhood and is unfit to study. To Romashov, his own problems seemed trivial against the background of this unfortunate soldier. The worst happened at the end of May. At this time, a soldier in Osadchy’s company hanged himself (Chapter 18). This was followed by incessant drinking. Everyone got drunk at officers' meetings.

Insulting Nikolaev, scheduling a duel

Kuprin's story "The Duel" is already approaching the end. A summary of his further events prepares the inevitable ending. At a meeting, one day Bek-Agamalov, drunk, almost hit a young lady who called him a fool. The main character barely managed to stop him. Nikolaev and Osadchy were also there. The latter held a funeral service for the suicide soldier. The main character demanded to stop this farce, but Nikolaev intervened and said that people like Romashov would disgrace the regiment. A conflict broke out between them, during which the main character threw unfinished beer in Nikolaev’s face (Chapter 19). The officers' court decided that this quarrel could only end in a duel. Anyone who refuses it should leave the service. Nazansky strongly advises Romashov to refuse the fight, since life is an amazing and exciting phenomenon (Chapter 20).

Finale of the work

In the evening, Shurochka comes to Romashov. She asks not to give up the duel, as it will look very dubious (Chapter 22). Shurochka also tells him how she spent years of her life for her husband’s career, and because of this incident Nikolaev may not be allowed to take the exam. She claims that she warned her husband not to shoot Romashov. Thus, the duel must take place, but no one should be injured. At the end of the meeting, Shurochka hugged Romochka and kissed him. They won't see each other again, so there's nothing to be afraid of. The duel took place the next morning.

Compiling a brief retelling of Kuprin's story "The Duel", we have come to the final, 23rd chapter. It is very short and is a report drawn up by the regimental commander, in which it was said that Nikolaev mortally wounded Romashov. 7 minutes later the latter died from internal hemorrhage.

This is how A. I. Kuprin ends “The Duel.” A summary of the chapters will help you remember or recognize its plot, and will also guide you to which place in the story you should turn to for a detailed acquaintance with the main episodes.

Story by A.I. Kuprin's "Duel" became a kind of explosion, a shock for readers. This work told the whole truth about the Russian army of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And this truth was terrifying.
Kuprin himself, as you know, served in the army and knew “from the inside” all its laws and procedures. For the first time in Russian literature, he openly and in detail showed how the military disfigures people, deliberately destroying their personality. The writer argued that it is not beneficial for the army to have thinking, critical people in its ranks. The very specifics of the army required machines in their ranks that could only obey and kill. And when all this was superimposed on Russian reality, the army turned for a person into an unbearable torture, the ending of which was known in advance - death, spiritual or physical.
At the center of the story is the fate of the young officer Georgy Romashov. The writer portrays him as a subtle, deep, thinking and feeling nature. Romashov is a romantic. He came to the army to serve the Motherland, to defend the fatherland. But, plunging into the painful everyday life of the army, the hero begins to see the true face of the Russian army. And this truth repels Romashov.
The hero enters into a kind of duel with the life around him, the army machine. He tries to approach everything from the point of view of human morality, morality. Romashov tries to treat people with love and understanding. Therefore, his heart breaks, and his mind cannot understand what the hero sees around him.
Struck by the case of Khlebnikov, who was driven to despair by the bullying of the officers, Romashov begins to sympathize with him. But, besides this, he realizes that the downtrodden “gray Khlebnikovs with their monotonously submissive and exhausted faces are in fact living people, and not mechanical quantities called a company, battalion, regiment...” That is, the hero begins to see a personality in each soldier . And with such an approach and view it is impossible to exist in the army, where the individual is deliberately ignored and destroyed.
Here, in the army, Romashov falls in love. Shurochka Nikolaeva, the wife of Lieutenant Nikolaeva, becomes his “goddess”. This woman can also be boldly called a victim of the army system. Talented, capable, with a sharp mind and beautiful appearance, she could make the happiness of some outstanding person. Moreover, Alexandra Petrovna is very ambitious. She strives to go to St. Petersburg, where, in her opinion, real life happens.
That is why Shurochka so wants her husband to finally pass the exams and enter the General Staff Academy. This would open the way for him to further career growth. The heroine makes every effort to ensure that Lieutenant Nikolaev masters the program, but it is given to him with great difficulty. Unfortunately, Shurochka’s husband is a narrow-minded and not very capable person.
Romashov adores Alexandra Petrovna. Everything about her seems beautiful to him. But gradually we begin to understand that the romantic hero largely invented the image of his beloved and endowed her with ideal features. In fact, Shurochka turned out to be quite eccentric and selfish. Carried away by “dear Romochka” out of boredom and emptiness, she practically becomes the culprit of his death. A duel takes place between Lieutenant Nikolaev and Romashov over Shurochka. And Romashov dies.
This death is very natural in the logic of the story's development. Let us remember that as a result of his reflections, Romashov comes to the conclusion that the army is not needed at all. But he doesn’t know what he personally can do to improve the situation. We can say that Romashov finds himself at a moral and ideological crossroads. He is aware of the depravity and incorrectness of the system and the way of life around him, but does not see a way out, has no idea how to fix it.
In general, at the end of the story, all the fights that the hero fought throughout his life are revealed and brought together. This is Romashov’s duel with himself, with his weakness, daydreaming, indecision. This is also his duel with society, which destroys the individual in a person and interferes with the awakening of the individual’s self-awareness. As a result, all this is embodied in a literal duel between Romashov and his “rival” - Lieutenant Nikolaev.
Romashov dies in a duel. And this sad ending of his life is very symbolic. The hero lost the fight with life, or rather, with its absurd order. In such a life there is no place for pure and bright souls, says Kuprin. It is important that Romashov dies precisely at the moment when his soul is full of love for Shurochka Nikolaeva. Thus, Kuprin once again emphasizes that the existing system and way of life destroys all that is best, living, and sincere. In the army and life described by the writer, there is no place for people. Only dullness, slaves, and cannon fodder survive there.
Even the power of love is unable to change anything in the current system. Or was it not there, a real feeling? Kuprin shows that in the army there is no place for Christian love - for one’s neighbor, for man in general. Everything here is built only on violence and destruction. There is no place here for a person to love himself, because the system destroys it from the roots.
There is no place in the army for a man to love a woman. Shurochka does not love her husband, but lives with him, hoping for his promotion. She likes young Romashov, but she does not see her “hero” in him. And, despite this, she plays with him and becomes the reason for his death.
Thus, Kuprin makes us understand that in the Russian army of the early 20th century there is no place for love, which means there is no place for life. The Russian army is doomed to death, extinction.

I never understood before the self-sufficiency of Olesya and her grandmother from Kuprin’s story “Olesya”. Smart Russian women live in the forest and they don’t need anything else. Olesya is actually Alena, they began to call her Olesya in Polesie, where her grandmother brought her granddaughter from Russia.

And so I re-read the story, and everything is clear there; I simply didn’t pay attention to it due to our Soviet darkness. Olesya is full of otherworldly power, and her mother was like that, and her grandmother was like that. Olesya is sure that this power comes from the Devil. The hero of the story recognizes this power in her, but tries to explain everything to her rationally, talks about hypnosis and scientific discoveries. He himself understands that Olesya owns some ancient techniques, part of some ancient knowledge. And he begins to persuade Olesya to go to church so that she understands that there is nothing in her from dark forces.

Olesya knows the fate of her beloved, knows her destiny, but from a certain moment the will of her man becomes stronger than her will, she goes to church and a disaster happens, but not metaphysical, but quite everyday, which leads to the end of the love affair.

The hero wanted to reconcile the irreconcilable.

So why are Olesya and grandma so self-sufficient? And it’s simple, they have a strength that doesn’t exist in other people, they feel this strength, it keeps them afloat.

But what a sacrificial love Olesya has!

But here is another heroine from Kuprin’s story “The Duel,” Shurochka, this is the blackest female character that I can only remember in Russian literature. And again, this one somehow flew by, because criticism wrote about the horrors of life as an officer, but the horror of the story lies elsewhere.

Shurochka, whom Kuprin describes as an unusually charming woman, is, in fact, very attractive. But what is she doing? She kills almost literally two noble people, thirty-year-old Nazansky and a twenty-one-year-old boy, Lieutenant Romashov.

Both are madly in love with her, she makes them fall in love with her. But when Nazansky tries to start a new life and leaves the army, the ambitious Shurochka, striving for wealth and social life, does not follow him, she does not need a simple life. As a result, Nazansky returns to service to be near the woman he loves (she is married to another officer), becomes an alcoholic and goes crazy.

Dramatically and with Romashov, Shurochka flirts with him, begins an affair, but her husband is jealous and challenges Romashov to a duel. The night before the fight, Shurochka comes to the boy Romashov, gives herself to him and says that her husband will shoot in the air, which Romashov must also do.

As a result, Shurochka’s husband kills the boy outright, but Shurochka and her husband go to enter the General Staff Academy, i.e. Her husband will enroll for the third time, and Shurochka has a chance for a social life.

Here you go! Associated with dark forces, Olesya is an example of sacrifice and nobility, and Shurochka is an example of the lowest creature a woman can be. She uses her charms for the sake of whim, out of boredom, and then to destroy men.

Something in the image of Shurochka can be seen from Kuprin’s first wife; it was with her that he lived when he wrote “The Duel.”