History of creation and contents
The story was written by Vasily Makarovich Shukshin in 1970 and was then published in the seventh issue of the New World magazine. It was also included in the book of short stories “Characters,” published in 1973, and in the collection “Conversations under a Clear Moon.” The writer’s main idea was inspired by personal impressions from meetings and conversations with fellow villagers during short visits to his homeland in the village of Srostki, Altai Territory. The author considered “Cut” to be one of his favorite stories.
Main characters
As in any other work of this genre, there are few heroes here. Two main ones, between which there is a conflict, and the rest are minor:
- Gleb Kapustin is a local demagogue and debater, a sawmill worker.
- Konstantin Ivanovich Zhuravlev is a candidate of philological sciences, who left the village in his youth and moved to the city.
- Valentina is Zhuravlev’s wife.
- Agafya is his mother.
- Rural men.
Retrospectively, there is also a colonel present, also from this village.
Brief retelling
The middle son Kostya came from the city with his wife and schoolgirl daughter to old woman Agafya Zhuravleva in the small village of Novaya. They arrived to rest, visit, and brought gifts: an electric samovar, a colorful robe and wooden spoons. And news of this soon spread throughout the village.
It so happened that from this village, although small, many “notable” people came out: one colonel, two pilots, a doctor, a journalist. And since Konstantin Ivanovich was a candidate of philological sciences, he was also a scientist. It just so happened that when one of them visited his small homeland, a lot of people would crowd into his house to hear about city life and tell the local news themselves, if the visitor was interested in asking about it. But the main fun was considered to be “cutting off” the guest. Start a discussion with him, and bring him to everyone's ridicule.
There was a special person for this purpose - Gleb Kapustin - a strong man, well-read and malicious. Not a single “noble” could stand arguing with him. The colonel who looked into his father’s house was shaved off during the War of 1812. The military man could not remember the name of the count who ordered Moscow to be burned, he said - Rasputin, and they argued so much that he had to run to the teacher to find out. For six months afterwards, the men quoted Gleb as saying to his opponent: “Calm down, calm down, Comrade Colonel, you and I are not in Fili...”
And now, having waited for Kapustin from work in the evening, they informed him that the candidates had arrived (Zhuravlev’s wife also had a scientific degree), and went to visit. Gleb is ahead, and everyone else is behind him. This is how an experienced fist fighter is led when it becomes known that a certain new ruffian has appeared on a hostile street. But they themselves went as if to a performance, anticipating the pleasure of the upcoming humiliation of the city upstart.
Konstantin Ivanovich, not suspecting anything, was delighted with the guests, fussed, and invited them to the table. I recognized my fellow countrymen and asked questions. We remembered our childhood. Kapustin did not participate in the foreplay. He was originally from another village and until today he did not know Zhuravlev. He sat modestly and looked closely. Until I decided that it was time to ask the first question. And he organized it in this form: “How do you identify yourself?” The candidate had to translate it into Russian: “What do I do, or what?”
And although Konstantin Ivanovich worked at the philological faculty, Kapustin defined it as philosophical (he needed it that way) and arranged an exam consisting of questions, one more absurd than the other. He was interested in:
- What is more primary - matter or spirit?
- How does philosophy now define the concept of weightlessness, is there any confusion about this?
- How does the representative of science present here personally relate to the problem of shamanism in certain regions of the North?
- What if the Moon is a creation of the mind and how to contact alien inhabitants?
Gleb was not interested in answers. Each question asked with a twist was also accompanied by sarcastic comments, which is why Zhuravlev first laughed sincerely, then became confused and invited his wife to be present at the “strange conversation,” and there he lost his temper, which is exactly what his opponent needed. In every such dispute, there came a moment when Kapustin “soared up” above the visitor and unleashed an irresistible blow from a height. This happened now too. He was carried away.
He reminded visiting guests that candidacy is not a suit that you buy once and for all. That this suit needs to be cleaned, and his candidacy needs to be supported. Why show off by driving up in a taxi and unloading five suitcases from the trunk, impressive, but with a minus sign. And we need to be more modest and simpler. Don’t get carried away, otherwise it will be more painful to fall from a height. “Do you know what makes me special? I love to click on the nose. Don’t go above the waterline... You need to be more modest!”
And the candidate’s remarks and his wife’s question drown in this stream of words: “Why are we immodest?” The main thing is not an argument, but the ability to humiliate, insult and put the interlocutor in his place. “But you sit and think,” he says at parting and leaves everyone with a feeling of fulfilled duty. He leaves alone, and the men who separate later, even though they admire Kapustin’s abilities, still feel sorry for Kostya. You can hear the sympathy in their voices. Gleb amazed, surprised, but there was no love for him. Gleb is cruel, and no one has ever loved cruelty anywhere.
The next day he inquired about the condition of the candidates, and hearing that he had deftly shaved them yesterday, he remarked with a satisfied grin: “Nothing. This is useful. Let him think at his leisure. Otherwise they take on too much.”
Author's preliminary notes
Of course, acquaintance with the work in abbreviation does not create a unique atmosphere, which is achieved by the special intonation of the master. You need to read the entire story (fortunately, it is very short) to appreciate all the shades and nuances of the characters’ language, and the characteristics that the author succinctly gives them.
Vasily Makarovich himself left an interesting note in his drafts, made at the very initial stage of work on the work: “A learned man came to the village, a native of these places. Guests came to visit a fellow countryman. And one came to “talk.” And he spewed such scientific, bastard nonsense, so intricately... The scientist is confused, his fellow villagers listen with respect and horror to the idiot, who is not such an idiot after all.” Shukshin himself encountered similar things in his life. More than once he received letters from Srostki, in which former friends condemned him for the fact that he began to understand too much about himself.
The writer clearly looked at such attacks and saw behind them only shameless and evil revenge for the fact that someone managed to realize their talent in life, but such Kapustins did not.
Summary
Next, the story “Cut” is presented to the reader in a brief summary. The retelling of Shukshin’s work should begin with the arrival of the Zhuravlev family to their mother to visit the old woman and take a break from city life and worries.
Their arrival does not go unnoticed by local residents. The men, anticipating the next spectacle, as if by chance, inform a certain Gleb Kapustin about the arrival of a fellow countryman.
Gleb was a “respected” person among his fellow villagers. He was famous for the fact that he could easily “cut off” the most educated person in a conversation, putting him in an uncomfortable position. According to a long-established tradition, when one of his fellow countrymen came to stay in his native land, villagers came to him in the evening to ask him about city life. Each time, Gleb, a malicious and envious man of about forty, invariably appeared.
And this time, towards evening, he and the men moved to the Zhuravlevs’ house. On the way, he is informed that Konstantin is a candidate of science, like his wife Valentina. The group rubs their hands in anticipation of the spectacle.
Zhuravlev sincerely rejoices at the appearance of old acquaintances, sets the table, simultaneously remembering his school years and childhood. However, a good conversation does not work out - Kapustin remains gloomily silent, preparing for an attack.
Suddenly, Gleb comes to life when he hears that Konstantin works at the philology department, and asks the candidate a lot of questions about philosophy, obviously thinking that they are the same thing. However, Kapustin’s questions were a set of absurd phrases and names that he had once heard or read. He had not the slightest idea about their meaning.
Gleb is allegedly interested in the question of the primacy of matter, the problems of shamanism in the north, the concept of weightlessness and the origin of the moon. The stream of questions with which he bombarded the candidate did not stop, and the confused Konstantin, completely confused, invites his wife to talk.
Trying to be more polite, the spouses try to grasp the meaning of the conversation, but Gleb’s completely absurd, ridiculous phrases make them smile. Noticing their irony, Kapustin pathetically, with instruction, declares that candidacy is not only a title, a suit, but also a certain filling in the mind.
The spouses are completely lost. And Gleb, not wanting to stop, continues his moral teachings, urging them to read more newspapers, so that when they come to the people, they will be more collected and modest. When asked by Konstantin’s wife what immodesty is, he invites the spouses to think about it after they leave.
Grinning, he leaves the house, enjoying the admiring glances of the men and the confusion of the Zhuravlevs.
Reviews about the story
“Cut” immediately attracted the attention of the reading public and caused serious discussion in literary circles. Despite the clearly expressed author's position and the transparency of the situation, controversy developed both around the images of the main characters and about the very idea of the work. It got to the point that, in attempts to explain Gleb’s behavioral line, some critics, getting carried away, called him almost a spontaneous rebel, a defender of the village in front of the arrogance and arrogance of the city.
Participants in the conflict
But this approach is unlikely to be legitimate, because in the image of a candidate of sciences we see an intelligent, friendly person who has achieved success in life thanks to his intelligence and hard work. Throughout the entire dispute, Konstantin Ivanovich behaves adequately to the situation, tries to honestly understand what is happening, and there is no arrogance or snobbery in his behavior. His attitude towards others is respectful. And Zhuravlev loses the verbal battle only because he does not humiliate himself to retaliatory rudeness. His good manners do not even allow him to interrupt his interlocutor.
Kapustin is its complete opposite. This is a local truth-teller, arrogant, ill-mannered, and has no idea about behavior at a party and a sense of tact. He strives for one goal - to debunk the city smart guys, show them their real place, and at the same time assert himself in the eyes of his fellow villagers. And for this, all means are good. Having read popular literature, picked up superficial knowledge without deep understanding, Gleb sprinkles pseudoscientific maxims (about the problems of shamanism) and recommendations (how to establish a dialogue with aliens when they come).
For a serious person, this is a bunch of nonsense, but the men around Kapustin don’t think so at all. Little understanding of what they are talking about, they believe that since the visitor is silent, therefore, he has nothing to cover, and victory is on their side. And all of Gleb’s efforts are not aimed at “talking to an intelligent person,” which is how he begins his conversation, but only at making an impression on the local public, even if this means turning someone’s face into the dirt.
Villagers in the story
Men are another main character in the work, on whom the moral outcome of the confrontation depends. This is the organizer, the spectator, and the judge of the action that unfolds before the reader. In a broad sense, this is the image of a crowd opposing a positive hero. Coming from a rural environment himself , Shukshin knew very well both the good and bad sides of the peasant character . The truth of life, noticed by the writer, revealed the most serious social and moral problems of the village.
This is aggressive ignorance associated with a lack of normal education, which entails envy and rejection of other people's successes. Hence this whole performance, in which an innocent person is doomed in advance to become a victim, because he is simply unfamiliar with the rules by which the local game is played. The crowd, the gray mass, gladly rejects from itself all the best that it has produced, perceiving it as a foreign element.
The desire to put down and humiliate a successful and truly intelligent person is generally characteristic of undeveloped people. This way they receive a kind of compensation for their own personal inferiority. In fiction, this looks like a reproach to the entire system, which is unable to give a person the opportunity to receive a normal education and upbringing, to develop himself, and accustoms him only to mechanical agricultural labor.
Meaning of the name
In Ancient Greece, where the concepts of demos - people and ochlos - crowd were clearly opposed, there was a parable about the Milesian tyrant Thrasybulus. Demonstrating the principle of his rule to the ambassadors of the neighboring state, he went out into the wheat field and began to knock down the ears of corn that grew taller than others with a cane. The word “cut” in the title of the story has the same allusion. This is what the method of grain harvesting used to be called in the villages.
Minor characters from Shukshin's story "Cut"
Zhuravleva Valentina
— Konstantin’s wife, also a candidate of sciences. She is smart, behaves modestly, does not interfere in men’s conversations, but when her husband is in a difficult situation, she tries to support him.
Guys
- people are generally friendly, but they love it when Gleb puts smart people from the city in their place. The injured party evokes their sympathy, but Kapustin’s “education” is admired. He belongs to the peasants, he belongs to the village, but they don’t like him because Gleb is cruel.
The author does not take the side of one or another hero; he reflected the internal confrontation of the people and the intelligentsia as a social phenomenon.
Meaning in creative writing
It is no coincidence that the author highly valued this work of his. It reflected with maximum force one of the fundamental principles of Russian literature - capacity and depth, when “words are cramped, but thoughts are spacious.” And critics of Shukshin’s “Cut”, despite all the contradictory opinions, always highly appreciated artistic skill and literary perfection, expressed in a form that was simple to the point of genius.
Images of weirdos
Vasily Makarovich created a whole gallery of wonderful folk portraits in his work. At the same time, he was attracted to people who were simple, poorly educated, but distinguished from everyone else by some kind of strangeness. According to the writer, it is in such unusual heroes that both positive and negative traits of the national character are most clearly manifested. He felt sympathy for most of his eccentric characters and described them with gentle humor and restrained tenderness . Conventionally, they can be divided into three groups:
- Naive. People like Chudik from the story of the same name, Sergei Dukhanin (“Boots”) are touchingly caring, deeply feeling people.
- Thinkers. Andrey Erin (“Microscope”), Monya Kvasov (“Stubborn”) - who are ready to make personal sacrifices for the sake of everyone’s well-being.
- Cruel and ignorant. Like Gleb Kapustin or Kolka Shurygin from the story “A Strong Man”.
Shukshin has a wonderful technique for marking his heroes. He never describes the emotional experiences of negative characters, as if they do not have them at all. While the heroes with whom he sympathizes are precisely busy searching for the meaning of life and beauty in their own souls.
Summary
Konstantin Zhuravlev and his family came to a small village called Novaya to rest with his mother. Yes, he didn’t just come, but “drove up in a taxi.” This served as a sign that he was a scientist and rich. The news immediately spread throughout the village that the middle son had arrived to stay with Grandma Agafya.
By evening the whole village knew that both he and his wife were candidates of science. They brought a samovar, a robe and wooden spoons as a gift to their mother.
Village men pulled up to Gleb Kapustin’s hut. Gleb was famous for his erudition and malice.
The village was famous for producing many gifted people. When they came to visit their parents, fellow countrymen came to see them in the evening. The visitors told strange stories, sometimes listening to the stories of the villagers.
Gleb’s role in this situation was special: he came to “cut off” the famous guest. For men it was a special kind of entertainment. Kapustin was a newcomer from another village. The men did not like him, but as soon as one of the “nobles” arrived, they went first to Gleb, and then with him to the celebrity.
A year before Zhuravlev’s arrival, Gleb cut off the colonel. The conversation turned to the War of 1812. It turned out that the guest had forgotten who ordered the burning of Moscow. He said it was Count Rasputin. The local erudite “soared like a kite over the colonel.” The colonel swore, they ran to the teacher to confirm that Kapustin was right. Gleb, with a red face, repeated the phrase: “Calm down, Comrade Colonel, we’re not in Fili, right?” The colonel was very upset, and in Novaya many days later they remembered how Kapustin cut off the colonel. Gleb chuckled and “squinted his eyes vengefully.” The mothers of nobles were afraid of him.
This time too, Kapustin came home from work, cleaned himself up and went out to the men. The whole company went to visit the candidates. Gleb walked ahead like an experienced fist fighter.
Konstantin Ivanovich warmly greeted the guests. The mother set the table, the men sat down and started talking. They even somehow forgot about Kapustin, and then he “got on the candidate.” He asked what field the candidate was in. He said that he was at the philology department. Gleb clarified whether this was philosophy. Konstantin Ivanovich confirmed. Gleb perked up and started talking about the primacy of spirit and matter, asking the candidate’s opinion on this issue. And Gleb went off using terms, Konstantin Ivanovich didn’t even know what to answer, and called his wife for help.
