Other characters
Talberg Vladimir Robertovich - Elena’s husband, colonel of the General Staff, unpleasant type, 38 years old.
Viktor Viktorovich Myshlaevsky - artilleryman, staff captain, fearless, open person, 38 years old.
Shevrinsky Leonid Yuryevich - lieutenant, personal adjutant of the hetman, has long been in love with Elena.
Studzinsky Alexander Bronislavovich - captain, 29 years old.
Surzhansky Larion Larionovich (Lariosik) is a 21-year-old cousin of the Turbins, originally from Zhitomir.
Summary
Act one
Scene one
In the Turbins’ apartment, Nikolka “plays the guitar and sings.” His brother Alexey asks to sing another song, and a quarrel ensues between them. They notice how nervous their sister Elena is, whose husband has not yet shown up at home.
A frozen Myshlaevsky appears, whom the Turbines begin to warm up. He tells how in the terrible frost they stood against Petlyura without felt boots. After he “caused a scandal at the headquarters at his post,” he was sent to the cavalrymen. Alexey decides to take him home.
At this moment, the doorbell rings, and Lariosik’s Zhytomyr cousin appears on the threshold. Everyone is surprised by his appearance, since the telegram from his mother never reached the Turbins. In the accompanying letter, the mother asked the Turbins, who have “such a huge apartment,” to accept their son, a future student at Kyiv University.
Finally, Talberg appears, whom Elena has been waiting for since the morning. He reports that “the Germans are leaving the hetman to his fate,” and he urgently needs to flee with them “to Germany, to Berlin.” Thanks to his connections, he managed to get one place “on the German staff train.” Confused, Elena lets him go. Saying goodbye to his wife, he is only worried about her not casting “a shadow on the Thalberg family” and ensuring the safety of their rooms. Alexey, having learned about Talberg's escape, does not shake hands with him goodbye. Nikolka notices that Elena’s husband “looks like a rat.”
Scene two
Immediately after Thalberg leaves, Shervinsky “suddenly appears on the threshold” with a huge bouquet for Elena. He showers compliments on Elena, with whom he has been in love for a long time. His mood improves even more when he learns about Thalberg’s sudden “business trip”.
Everyone sits down at the table, drinks, sings songs, discusses politics and the inept command of the hetman. They understand that the war is lost, and “now they have something else, more terrible than the war, than the Germans, than everything in the world” - the Bolsheviks. The drunken Myshlaevsky grabs the Mauser to shoot the Red Commissars, and is taken to the bathtub. Lariosik, unable to withstand the heavy libations, falls asleep. Shervinsky, left alone with Elena, confesses his love to her. Elena, in turn, is forced to admit that she does not love or respect her husband, who abandoned her to the mercy of fate. Shervinsky begs her to divorce Talberg and become his wife.
Act two
Scene one
Shervinsky enters the “hetman’s office in the palace.” From the footman he learns that none of the adjutants are there. He appears. Shervinsky conveys to him “news of extreme importance” - the commander of the volunteer army has left for Germany, since Petliura’s units broke through the front.
“Representatives of the German command” appear and report the retreat of German troops. They invite the hetman to flee to Germany, and he, after a moment's hesitation, agrees. They dress him in a German uniform, wrap his head in bandages and, under the guise of a wounded man, carry him out of the office.
Having learned that there are no more seats on the rescue train, Shervinsky warns Alexei Turbin about the hetman’s escape, dresses in civilian clothes and, at parting, gives the footman money and asks not to extradite him if something happens.
Scene two
A captured deserter with frostbitten feet is brought into the empty headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Division. Colonel Bolbotun finds out that this is a simple soldier who was making his way to the infirmary. The unfortunate man is accused of not having the appropriate document and is taken into custody.
Next they bring a craftsman with a basket full of boots. Bolbotun orders new shoes to be distributed to his people. Having learned that two Hetman Serdyuk regiments could go over to their side, Bolbotun saddles his horse and goes to negotiate.
Act three
Scene one
In the Alexander Gymnasium, cadets under the command of Myshlaevsky are breaking desks to light the stoves. The watchman Maxim is horrified by such vandalism. Hearing the sounds of exploding shells in the distance, one of the cadets has no doubt: “This is for us, Mr. Captain, perhaps.” Myshlaevsky encourages the youngsters, and they start singing a song.
Alexey Turbin appears and orders everyone to “listen, remember. Having remembered, execute.” Due to sudden changes in the state situation of Ukraine, he takes responsibility and disbands the division. Alexei orders the cadets and officers to “immediately take off their shoulder straps and all insignia and immediately run and hide in their homes.”
Everyone is in confusion, someone is trying to arrest Alexei for treason. Turbin reports that there is no one to cheat on, since Mr. Ge.
Studzinsky invites everyone to go to the Don to see Denikin, but Alexei replies that there they will meet “the same generals and the same staff horde” who will “force them to fight with their own people.” Turbin declares that the white movement has come to an end not only in Ukraine, but also “in Rostov-on-Don, everywhere.”
Hearing the approaching cannon strikes, “the cadets tore off their shoulder straps and threw down their rifles.” Alexei burns papers and lists of cadets. He orders Myshlaevsky to go to Elena and protect her. Nikolka, despite all the threats, remains with her older brother. While covering the retreating cadets, Alexei dies as a victim of an exploding shell. They shoot at Nikolka, but he manages to escape.
Scene two
After waiting for dawn, Elena is going to go outside and find out about the fate of the brothers. Lariosik is trying with all his might to keep her at home. Shervinsky appears and reports from the doorway that “Petliura has taken the city,” and the entire command has fled. He assures Elena that Alexey and Nikolka will soon return home.
Myshlaevsky and Studzinsky arrive. Myshlaevsky attacks Shervinsky, who at one time “promised both the sovereign and the emperor and drank for the health of his lordship.” Shervinsky recalls that it was he who managed to warn everyone about the betrayal of command. Studzinski has difficulty reconciling his friends.
Having calmed down, Myshlaevsky asks about the details of the hetman’s shameful escape, and Shervinsky, somewhat embellishing, satisfies his curiosity. As proof of his words, he shows the hetman’s heavy gold cigarette case, which he in his haste forgot on the table.
Suddenly there is a knock on the window. Everyone carefully looks out into the street, and then runs into the yard, where they find the wounded Nikolka. Elena guesses that Alexei was killed. Addressing the officers, she accuses them: “Everyone came home, but they killed the commander?” They make excuses that they were only “carrying out his orders.” Studzinski takes the blame for everything that happened. He grabs a revolver and rushes to leave the house. Myshlaevsky calms him down, but the captain begins to go hysterical. Having come to his senses, Nikolka reports: “They killed the commander...”.
Act four
Two months later, on “Epiphany Christmas Eve 1919,” Elena and Lariosik decorate the Christmas tree. Elena asks the young man to read poetry of his own composition, and he, in a fit of frankness, confesses his love to her and asks her to marry him. Elena is forced to admit that she is having an affair. Out of grief, Lariosik is going to go to the Armenian for vodka and drink himself into unconsciousness.
Shervinsky enters and reports that “Petliura is finished.” The Reds must enter the city at night to establish Soviet power. In order not to attract unnecessary attention to himself, Shervinsky was forced to rent his shabby coat from the janitor. He reports that thanks to his beautiful voice he has found a new job.
Shervinsky again proposes to Elena, and she agrees, but on the condition that he changes and stops “bragging and lying.” To celebrate, he tears up Thalberg's portrait. A pale Nikolka enters the room on crutches. Seeing the torn portrait of Thalberg, he guesses everything.
Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky appear, both in civilian clothes. They begin to discuss plans for the future: Studzinsky intends to “follow Petliura” and continue to fight the Bolsheviks, while Myshlaevsky no longer wants to go “to the generals under the command”, he is “for the Bolsheviks, but only against the communists.”
Their argument is interrupted by Shervinsky, who joyfully announces his upcoming wedding with Elena. Everyone begins to congratulate them, and at that moment Thalberg unexpectedly appears. Elena explains that Alexei was killed, “Nikolka is a cripple,” and she is marrying Shervinsky. Myshlaevsky intervenes in the conversation, kicks Talberg out of the house and tells Elena that he agrees to the divorce.
Everyone gathers in the room, turns off the lights and lights the Christmas tree. Lariosik makes a wonderful speech, and cannon shots are heard in the distance. Nikolka notes that this evening will be a great prologue to a new historical play, to which Studinsky replies: “For some - a prologue, and for others - an epilogue”...
Brief summary of Turbin Days
1
(1)
Days of the Turbins
The play “Days of the Turbins” was created on the basis of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”, but in the course of the work the author was forced, given the conventionality of the stage and censorship requirements, to compress the action and the number of characters to a minimum and abandon many of his favorite ideas and images. As in the novel, in the play Bulgakov turns to the depiction of a family during the tragic days of the Civil War and, following Tolstoy’s traditions, contrasts the chaos of war with everyday pictures of life in the Turbino house. The play consists of four acts and has a ring composition: the ending echoes the beginning. The events of the first three acts of “Days of the Turbins” relate to the winter of 1918, the fourth - to the beginning of 1919. From the first act of the play, the playwright lovingly creates the image of the House, which is made up of everyday realities that are important to the author himself: a fire in the fireplace, a clock that gently plays Boccherini’s minuet, a piano, cream curtains. From the first scene it becomes clear that in this house there is an atmosphere of warmth, friendship, attention and sympathy for each other, an atmosphere of love. The house is inhabited by Alexey, Nikolka, Elena Turbins, but here they find a warm welcome, clean linen and a hot bath for the frostbitten Myshlaevsky, a friend of the house, and the Zhytomyr cousin, whom no one expected, Lariosik, a poet and touching little man. Despite the troubling times, there is a place for friends on this island of fading family life. Only Talberg, Elena’s husband, is a foreign phenomenon here. He grumbles: “Not a house, but an inn.” And it is the careerist Talberg who flees, abandoning Elena to the mercy of fate, from this house, like a rat from a ship, fleeing from a doomed city and country.
In the scene of Alexei's farewell to Talberg, the main conflict of the play is outlined: between decency, loyalty to duty and honor of the defenders of the House, representatives of the “White Guard,” on the one hand, and meanness, betrayal, cowardice and selfishness of the “staff bastard” fleeing the country at the pace of a rat. ", with another. Alexey does not shake hands with Talberg, showing his rejection of his behavior, and is ready to answer for this in a duel of honor. This is how conflict arises in the family line. The beginning of a love affair also appears, which does not play a decisive role in the conflict of the play, but the flight of Elena’s husband allows her to decide her fate on her own and later accept Shervinsky’s offer. All the men of the Turbin house, except Lariosik, are officers of the White Army. They face a deliberately doomed attempt to defend the city from Petliura. Tragic predestination can be heard in Alexei’s monologue during the “last supper of the division.” He anticipates a mortal battle with the Bolsheviks, and is indignant that the hetman did not begin in time to form officer corps that would have slammed not only Petliura, but also the Bolsheviks in Moscow. And now the officers have turned into cafe regulars. “He’s sitting in a coffee shop on Khreshchatyk, and with him all this guards staff horde.” In Colonel Turbin’s division, “for every hundred cadets there are one hundred and twenty students, and they hold a rifle like a shovel.” Anticipating his own death, Alexey still goes to defend the city (I’m in trouble, but I’ll go!), He cannot do otherwise. Just like other officers: Myshlaevsky, Studzinsky and his younger brother Nikolka.
War breaks into the Turbins' house, bringing chaos. The familiar world is collapsing, the favorite march to Pushkin’s poems “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” has to be sung without “seditious” words, brokenness and confusion are felt in people’s moods, but still the first act ends with a lyrical scene of Elena’s explanation with Shervinsky. As in: throughout the play, in this scene the tragic is successfully intertwined with the comic: the lovers’ kiss is interrupted by the drunken Lariosik’s remark: “Don’t kiss, otherwise I’ll feel sick.”
In the second act, the plot goes beyond the Turbino house, introducing the family line to the historical one. Bulgakov shows the hetman’s headquarters, where Shervinsky went on duty, the Germans taking the hetman with them, then the headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Division of the Petliurites, engaged in outright robbery. The flight of the disguised hetman, staff officers and commander-in-chief of the volunteer army, leaving the defenders of the city without leadership and shamefully betraying them, forces Colonel Turbin to disband the division. Warned by Shervinsvim in time, Alexey decides to take on this responsibility in order to save the lives of young volunteers in: officers. The scene in the lobby of the Alexander Gymnasium is the climax for the entire play and for both storylines. Alexey does not immediately meet with understanding from his division. There is a commotion, someone is crying, someone is threatening the colonel with a revolver, demanding that he be arrested. Then Turbin asks the main question: “Who do you want to protect? "There is no longer an answer to this question. It used to be, now instead of great Russia and the army there is a “staff bastard” and a coffee army. The same thing on the Don, everywhere. “The White movement... is over... The people carried us. He is against us." In this context, the death of Alexei, who embodies the image of a noble, uncompromising, honest officer and person, is symbolic. Having disbanded the division, Turbin remains to wait for the outpost, and in the opinion of Nikolka, who did not abandon his brother, despite all the threats, to wait for “death from shame,” which was not slow to appear. Alexey is dying, the white movement in Ukraine is dying. Nikolka was wounded, but escaped, and he has to inform Elena that “the commander was killed.” Again the action moves to the Turbins' house, which has suffered a tragic loss. All the officers have returned, except Alexei, and Elena, who has lost her head with grief, blames them, adding a sense of guilt to the pain of loss. Studzinski cannot stand these accusations and tries to shoot himself. Elena still finds the courage to retract her words: “I said it out of grief. My head went blank. Give me the revolver!” And Studzinski’s hysterical cry: “No one dares to reproach me! Nobody! Nobody! I carried out all the orders of Colonel Turbin!” - they are preparing Elena’s reaction to Nikolka’s last confession about Alexei’s death and her fainting. Even in unbearable grief, these people retain their nobility and generosity.
The last action takes place on Epiphany Eve, which occurred two months after the events described. “The apartment is lit. Elena and Lariosik are cleaning up the Christmas tree.” Bulgakov, creating a realistic and historically verified work, for the first time violated historical chronology, moving the departure of the Petliurites from Kiev two weeks ahead, it was so important for him, by his own admission, to use the Christmas tree in the last act. The image of a Christmas tree shining with lights brought back comfort and childhood memories to an orphaned house, fenced off from war and chaos and, most importantly, gave hope. For some time, the world returned behind the cream curtains with its holiday (Baptism of what?), the confusion of relationships, the triumph of friendship. Lariosik declares his love to Elena, Elena and Shervinsky announce their engagement, and Talberg unexpectedly returns.
From the point of view of the logic of character, this return is not justified: the coward Talberg could not decide on such a risky undertaking - to stop by Kyiv besieged by the Reds on the way to the Don. However, to end the main conflict, as well as the love one, it was necessary to deal with Vladimir Robertovich completely, and in his person - with all the “staff bastard”. The main accusation against him is the death of Alexei. There is no longer the same leniency towards Talberg as towards friends who have done everything in their power: he is a traitor. The Turbino House has again gathered a warm circle of friends at the table, but Alexei is not there, and Nikolka is a cripple, outside the window the orchestra is playing “The Internationale. And the Bolshevik guns salute. The future is worrying and unclear. To summarize, the writer trusts mainly the military man Myshlaevsky and the non-military man Larnosik. Viktor Myshlaevsky drives Talberg away, and he takes upon himself the responsibility to say what Alexey would say if he were alive. Myshlaevsky refuses to go to the Don, under the command of the same generals. He refuses to flee Russia: “I won’t go, I’ll be here in Russia. And whatever happens to her!” It is obvious that all the heroes of “Days of the Turbins” will share the fate of the fatherland, as the noble people of that time did, as a rule, dooming themselves to death or suffering. Myshlaevsky also expressed the belief that Russia has a future. “There will be no old one, there will be a new one. The victory march sounds again and again: “We have won, and the enemy is running, running, running!” The social enemy is on the doorstep, but the Christmas tree is on fire in the house, Lariosik makes a speech: “We are all together again.” Lariosin generously wishes his beloved woman happiness with another and quotes Chekhov: “We will rest, we will rest.” And then a new historical play. War and peace, chaos and a quiet “harbour with cream curtains”, decency and betrayal, history and the private life of a family are components of the conflict of the play, its eternal universal context. Bulgakov had to change a lot under pressure from the General Repertoire Committee and add a “red” accent. However, the play has retained its attractive power - the exceptional charm of the characters, the image of the House-ship that has survived the fight against the elements, unshakable values even in these troubled times: love for the motherland, for women, for family, friendship not subject to ideological differences, loyalty to honor and debt.
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