The story “Taras Bulba” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, part of the cycle of stories “Mirgorod” (2 parts), was written in 1834. This is one of the most outstanding Russian historical works in fiction of that time, distinguished by a large number of characters, versatility and thoughtfulness of compositions, as well as the depth and capacity of the characters.
History of creation
The idea of writing a large-scale historical story about the feat of the Zaporozhye Cossacks came to Gogol in 1830; he worked on creating the text for almost ten years, but the final editing was never completed. In 1835, in the first part of Mirgorod, the author’s version of the story “Taras Bulba” was published; in 1942, a slightly different edition of this manuscript was published.
Each time, Nikolai Vasilyevich remained dissatisfied with the printed version of the story, and made changes to its content at least eight times. For example, there was a significant increase in its volume: from three to nine chapters, the images of the main characters became brighter and more textured, more vivid descriptions were added to the battle scenes, the life and life of the Zaporozhye Sich acquired new interesting details.
(Illustration by Viktor Vasnetsov for “Taras Bulba” by Gogol, 1874)
Gogol very carefully and meticulously read the written text in an effort to create that unique combination that would best reveal his talent as a writer, penetrating into the depths of the characters’ characters, showing the unique self-awareness of the entire Ukrainian people as a whole. In order to understand and convey in his work the ideals of the era he describes, the author of the story with great passion and enthusiasm studied a wide variety of sources that described the history of Ukraine.
To give the story a special national flavor, which was clearly manifested in the description of everyday life, the characters, in bright and rich epithets and comparisons, Gogol used works of Ukrainian folklore (thoughts, songs). The work was based on the history of the Cossack uprising of 1638, which Hetman Potocki was tasked with suppressing. The prototype of the main character Taras Bulba was the ataman of the Zaporozhye Army Okhrim Makukha, a brave warrior and ascetic of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, who had three sons (Nazar, Khoma and Omelko).
Analysis of the work
Story line
The beginning of the story is marked by the arrival of Taras Bulba and his sons to the Zaporozhye Sich. Their father brings them in order to, as they say, “smell gunpowder,” “gain their wits,” and, having hardened themselves in battles with enemy forces, become real defenders of their Motherland. Finding themselves in the Sich, young people almost immediately find themselves in the very epicenter of developing events. Without even having time to really look around and get acquainted with local customs, they are called to military service into the Zaporozhye army and go to war with the nobility, which oppresses the Orthodox people, trampling on their rights and freedoms.
The Cossacks, as courageous and noble people, loving their homeland with all their souls and sacredly believing in the vows of their ancestors, could not help but interfere in the atrocities committed by the Polish gentry; they considered it their sacred duty to defend their Fatherland and the faith of their ancestors. The Cossack army goes on a campaign and bravely fights with the Polish army, which is much superior to the Cossack forces both in the number of soldiers and in the number of weapons. Their strength is gradually drying up, although the Cossacks do not admit this to themselves, so great is their faith in the fight for a just cause, fighting spirit and love for their native land.
The Battle of Dubno is described by the author in a unique folklore style, in which the image of the Cossacks is likened to the image of the legendary heroes who defended Rus' in ancient times, which is why Taras Bulba asks his brothers-in-arms three times “do they have gunpowder in their flasks,” to which they also answered three times times: “Yes, dad! The Cossack strength has not weakened, the Cossacks are not yet bending!” Many warriors find their death in this battle, dying with words glorifying the Russian land, because dying for the Motherland was considered the highest valor and honor for the Cossacks.
Main characters
Ataman Taras Bulba
One of the main characters of the story is the Cossack ataman Taras Bulba, this experienced and courageous warrior, together with his eldest son Ostap, is always in the front row of the Cossack offensive. He, like Ostap, who was already elected as chieftain by his brothers-in-arms at the age of 22, is distinguished by his remarkable strength, courage, nobility, strong-willed character and is a true defender of his land and his people, his whole life is devoted to serving the Fatherland and his compatriots.
Eldest son Ostap
A brave warrior, like his father, who loves his land with all his heart, Ostap is captured by the enemy and dies heavy martyrdom. He endures all tortures and trials with stoic courage, like a real giant, whose face is calm and stern. Although it is painful for his father to see his son’s torment, he is proud of him, admires his willpower, and blesses him for a heroic death, because it is worthy only of real men and patriots of his state. His Cossack brothers, who were captured with him, following the example of their chieftain, also accept death on the chopping block with dignity and some pride.
The fate of Taras Bulba himself is no less tragic: having been captured by the Poles, he dies a terrible martyr’s death and is sentenced to be burned at the stake. And again, this selfless and brave old warrior is not afraid of such a cruel death, because for the Cossacks the most terrible thing in their lives was not death, but loss self-esteem, violation of the sacred laws of partnership and betrayal of the Motherland.
Youngest son Andriy
The story also touches on this topic: the youngest son of old Taras, Andriy, having fallen in love with a Polish beauty, becomes a traitor and goes over to the enemy camp. He, like his older brother, is distinguished by courage and boldness, but his spiritual world is richer, more complex and contradictory, his mind is more sharp and dexterous, his mental organization is more subtle and sensitive. Having fallen in love with the Polish lady, Andriy rejects the romance of war, the rapture of battle, the thirst for victory and completely surrenders to the feelings that make him a traitor and traitor to his people. His own father does not forgive him the most terrible sin - treason and sentences him: death by his own hand. Thus, carnal love for a woman, whom the writer considers the source of all troubles and creatures of the devil, overshadowed the love for the Motherland in Andriy’s soul, ultimately not bringing him happiness, and ultimately destroying him.
Features of compositional construction
In this work, the great classic of Russian literature depicted the confrontation between the Ukrainian people and the Polish gentry, who wanted to seize the Ukrainian land and enslave its inhabitants, young and old. In the description of the life and way of life of the Zaporozhye Sich, which the author considered the place where “the will and Cossacks throughout Ukraine” develops, one can feel the author’s especially warm feelings, such as pride, admiration and ardent patriotism. Depicting the life and way of life of the Sich and its inhabitants, Gogol in his brainchild combines historical realities with high lyrical pathos, which amounts to main feature a work that is both realistic and poetic.
The images of literary characters are depicted by the writer through their portraits, described actions, through the prism of relationships with other characters. Even a description of nature, for example the steppe along which old Taras and his sons are traveling, helps to penetrate more deeply into their souls and reveal the character of the heroes. In landscape scenes, various artistic and expressive techniques are present in abundance; there are many epithets, metaphors, comparisons, it is they that give the described objects and phenomena that amazing uniqueness, rage and originality that strike the reader right in the heart and touch the soul.
The story “Taras Bulba” is a heroic work glorifying love for the Motherland, one’s people, Orthodox faith, the holiness of the feat in their name. The image of the Zaporozhye Cossacks is similar to the image epic heroes of antiquity, who harrowed the Russian land from all misfortunes. The work glorifies the courage, heroism, courage and dedication of the heroes who did not betray the sacred bonds of comradeship and defended their native land until their last breath. Traitors to the Motherland are equated by the author to enemy offspring, subject to destruction without any twinge of conscience. After all, such people, having lost honor and conscience, also lose their soul; they should not live on the land of the Fatherland, which the brilliant Russian writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol sang with such great fervor and love in his work.
Taras Bulba.
After graduating from the Kyiv Academy, his two sons, Ostap and Andriy, come to the old Cossack Colonel Taras Bulba. Two stalwart young men, whose healthy and strong faces have not yet been touched by a razor, are embarrassed by their meeting with their father, who makes fun of their clothes as recent seminarians.
The eldest, Ostap, cannot stand his father’s ridicule: “Even though you’re my dad, if you laugh, then, by God, I’ll beat you!” And father and son, instead of greeting each other after a long absence, seriously hit each other with blows. A pale, thin and kind mother tries to reason with her violent husband, who himself stops, glad that he has tested his son. Bulba wants to “greet” the younger one in the same way, but his mother is already hugging him, protecting him from his father.
On the occasion of the arrival of his sons, Taras Bulba convenes all the centurions and the entire regimental rank and announces his decision to send Ostap and Andriy to the Sich, because there is no better science for a young Cossack than the Zaporozhye Sich. At the sight of the young strength of his sons, the military spirit of Taras himself flares up, and he decides to go with them to introduce them to all his old comrades.
The poor mother sits all night over her sleeping children, without closing her eyes, wanting the night to last as long as possible. Her dear sons are taken from her; they take it so that she will never see them! In the morning, after the blessing, the mother, desperate with grief, is barely torn away from the children and taken to the hut.
Three horsemen ride in silence. Old Taras remembers his wild life, a tear freezes in his eyes, his gray head hangs down. Ostap, who has a stern and firm character, although hardened over the years of studying at the Bursa, retained his natural kindness and was touched by the tears of his poor mother. This alone confuses him and makes him lower his head thoughtfully. Andriy is also having a hard time saying goodbye to his mother and home, but his thoughts are occupied with memories of the beautiful Polish woman whom he met just before leaving Kiev.
Then Andriy managed to get into the beauty’s bedroom through the fireplace chimney; a knock on the door forced the Pole to hide the young Cossack under the bed. Tatarka, the lady's servant, as soon as the anxiety passed, took Andriy out into the garden, where he barely escaped from the awakened servants. He saw the beautiful Polish girl again in the church, soon she left - and now, with his eyes cast down into the mane of his horse, Andriy thinks about her.
After a long journey, the Sich meets Taras and his sons with his wild life - a sign of the Zaporozhye will. Cossacks do not like to waste time on military exercises, collecting military experience only in the heat of battle. Ostap and Andriy rush with all the ardor of young men into this riotous sea.
But old Taras does not like an idle life - this is not the kind of activity he wants to prepare his sons for. Having met all his comrades, he is still figuring out how to rouse the Cossacks on a campaign, so as not to waste the Cossack prowess on a continuous feast and drunken fun. He persuades the Cossacks to re-elect the Koschevoy, who keeps peace with the enemies of the Cossacks. The new Koshevoy, under the pressure of the most warlike Cossacks, and above all Taras, decides to go to Poland to celebrate all the evil and disgrace of faith and Cossack glory.
And soon the entire Polish southwest becomes the prey of fear, the rumor running ahead: “Cossacks! The Cossacks have appeared! In one month, the young Cossacks matured in battle, and old Taras loves to see that both of his sons are among the first. The Cossack army is trying to take the city of Dubna, where there is a lot of treasury and wealthy inhabitants, but they encounter desperate resistance from the garrison and residents. The Cossacks besiege the city and wait for famine to begin in it. Having nothing to do, the Cossacks devastate the surrounding area, burning defenseless villages and unharvested grain.
The young, especially the sons of Taras, do not like this life. Old Bulba calms them down, promising hot fights soon. One dark night, Andria is awakened from sleep by a strange creature that looks like a ghost. This is a Tatar, a servant of the same Polish woman with whom Andriy is in love. The Tatar woman whispers that the lady is in the city, she saw Andriy from the city rampart and asks him to come to her or at least give a piece of bread for his dying mother.
Andriy loads the bags with bread, as much as he can carry, and the Tatar woman leads him along the underground passage to the city. Having met his beloved, he renounces his father and brother, comrades and homeland: “The homeland is what our soul seeks, what is dearer to it than anything else. My homeland is you." Andriy remains with the lady to protect her until his last breath from his former comrades.
Polish troops, sent to reinforce the besieged, march into the city past drunken Cossacks, killing many while they were asleep, and capturing many. This event embitters the Cossacks, who decide to continue the siege to the end. Taras, searching for his missing son, receives terrible confirmation of Andriy's betrayal.
The Poles are organizing forays, but the Cossacks are still successfully repelling them. News comes from the Sich that, in the absence of the main force, the Tatars attacked the remaining Cossacks and captured them, seizing the treasury. The Cossack army near Dubno is divided in two - half goes to the rescue of the treasury and comrades, half remains to continue the siege. Taras, leading the siege army, makes a passionate speech in praise of comradeship.
The Poles learn about the weakening of the enemy and move out of the city for a decisive battle. Andriy is among them. Taras Bulba orders the Cossacks to lure him to the forest and there, meeting Andriy face to face, he kills his son, who even before his death utters one word - the name of the beautiful lady. Reinforcements arrive to the Poles, and they defeat the Cossacks. Ostap is captured, the wounded Taras, saved from pursuit, is brought to Sich.
Having recovered from his wounds, Taras, with a lot of money and threats, forces the Jew Yankel to secretly transport him to Warsaw in order to try to ransom Ostap there. Taras is present at terrible execution son in the city square. Not a single groan escapes from Ostap’s chest under torture, only before death he cries out: “Father! where are you! do you hear all this? - “I hear!” - Taras answers above the crowd. They rush to catch him, but Taras is already gone.
One hundred and twenty thousand Cossacks, including the regiment of Taras Bulba, rise up on a campaign against the Poles. Even the Cossacks themselves notice Taras’s excessive ferocity and cruelty towards the enemy. This is how he takes revenge for the death of his son. The defeated Polish hetman Nikolai Pototsky swears not to inflict any offense on the Cossack army in the future. Only Colonel Bulba does not agree to such a peace, assuring his comrades that the asked Poles will not keep their word. And he leads his regiment away. His prediction comes true - having gathered their strength, the Poles treacherously attack the Cossacks and defeat them.
And Taras walks throughout Poland with his regiment, continuing to avenge the death of Ostap and his comrades, mercilessly destroying all living things.
Five regiments under the leadership of that same Pototsky finally overtake the regiment of Taras, who had taken rest in an old collapsed fortress on the banks of the Dniester. The battle lasts four days. The surviving Cossacks make their way, but the old chieftain stops to look for his cradle in the grass, and the haiduks overtake him.
They tie Taras to an oak tree with iron chains, nail his hands and lay a fire under him. Before his death, Taras manages to shout to his comrades to go down to the canoes, which he sees from above, and escape from pursuit along the river. And at the last terrible minute the old chieftain thinks about his comrades, about their future victories, when old Taras is no longer with them.
The Cossacks escape from the chase, row their oars together and talk about their chieftain.
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Images of Ukrainians are inextricably linked with the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Despite the fact that in Gogol’s artistic heritage there are not a few works on topics not related to the life of the Ukrainian village and the Cossacks, readers, first of all, with his name appear images of Taras Bulba and his sons - Andrei and Ostap.
Appearance and age of Taras Bulba
We meet Taras Bulba in old age - we don’t know what he looked like in his youth. Yes, in fact, his age at the time of the unfolding of the main events is also uncertain. Gogol refers to him as “elderly.”
Bulba looks like all older people - he is overweight, his head is covered with gray hair. Since he spent his entire life in campaigns and battles, his body is covered with scars and scars. Despite his age, his hand has not yet lost its former strength and dexterity - he is still strong and powerful.
We invite you to read N.V. Gogol’s poem “ Dead Souls”
His appearance is completed with a mustache and “chuprina” - traditional symbols of the Cossacks.
Bulba's clothing is also traditional for the Cossacks. Taras does not stand out from the general crowd in appearance.
Origin of Taras Bulba
It is generally accepted that the bulk of the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich were people who were not distinguished by the presence of material wealth - flight to the Sich for them was the only salvation from the evil lords and poverty. The financial situation of Taras Bulba does not fall under this trend. He is quite a wealthy man. He has a small farm on his property. Since Taras is a rare guest in the farm, the main work of running the household is done by his wife and sons.
Bulba's family and relationships between its members
Taras Bulba is a married man. He has a rather complicated relationship with his wife - he spends almost all his time in the Sich and sees his wife a couple of times a year.
Bulba does not linger on his farm - he is bored here, he suffers from idleness and therefore strives to quickly return to the Sich. His marriage was not a matter of calculation - there was a feeling of love between the spouses, but a specific relationship developed between them.
Life in the Sich made Bulba rude not only towards his enemies, his relatives do not often bother to be affectionate towards themselves from Taras.
Despite the fact that Taras belongs to the Orthodox religion, he often does not adhere to the basic principles and dogmas, and this is primarily manifested in his communication with his family. He treats his wife rudely and quite cruelly. She receives not only verbal reproaches, but also beatings. In addition, physical violence against his wife is not an isolated phenomenon; for Taras, such behavior is becoming the norm. Whether the head of the family allowed himself to do this before is an uncertain question; Gogol is silent about this.
His cruelty towards his wife is manifested in everything, he does not even bother to address her kindly - the rude “woman” is a common occurrence both in public and during communication with the family.
Despite such a strange relationship, they had two children in their marriage - boys, who were named Ostap and Andrei.
Time has passed - the sons have grown up, at the time when the main events of the story unfolded - they are already adults. Ostap is 22 years old, and Andrey’s age is inaccurate - he is 20-21 years old.
Their father is distrustful of science, but recognizes the need for education, so he sends his sons to gnaw on the granite of science. Both brothers study at the Kyiv Academy. Taras Bulba himself, a smart and fairly educated person, actively hides this fact and often passes himself off as a complete fool.
Taras is also rude and strict towards his sons. He believes that boys should not be tender and full of romantic impulses. For Bulba, they are, first of all, the future defenders of their homeland. In his eyes, the future of his sons is inextricably linked with the Sich and the Cossacks.
Unfortunately, everything does not happen the way Taras wants. At the beginning, everything goes according to Bulba’s plan - he and his sons go to the Sich.
This is the first visit to the Sich by his sons, so this event becomes exciting both for young people who want to prove themselves in the best possible way, and for their father, who wants everyone to like his sons.
Further events became tragic both for Ostap and Andrei and for Taras himself: Andrei goes over to the side of the Poles - his love for the Polish lady turns out to be stronger than his love for his father and Motherland. At the next meeting, Taras coldly, in front of Ostap’s eyes, kills his youngest son. When committing the murder of his son, Taras is not guided by fear of public opinion, although it is likely that Taras has thoughts of universal condemnation. In Bulba’s eyes, Andrei is a traitor and there can be no mitigating circumstances for him.
Fate is extremely unkind to Bulba’s eldest son. He is captured. Taras is trying to save his now only son from death. He bravely goes behind enemy lines, but his plan does not work - Taras fails to free his son and is publicly executed.
The life of Taras Bulba in the Sich
Taras Bulba in the eyes of readers is an ideal Cossack. He is brave and brave, worries about the fate of his Motherland, and tries to make life better through his activities. His image in this regard is akin to the images of medieval knights and heroes of folk epic.
Taras Bulba spends most of his time in the Sich. There he is no longer an ordinary Cossack. At the time of the story, Taras is a colonel. He enjoys authority among the Cossacks - and this is not surprising. Military campaigns are not a curiosity for him, but a way of life. During hostilities, Bulba is not a passive observer, he actively takes part in the actions, tries to understand the elements of tactics and military affairs, so his experience and military skills become a subject of admiration. Valor and courage are his constant characteristics.
Life in the Sich is devoid of luxury and all kinds of amenities, so excessive comfort is an unusual phenomenon for him. Taras is used to being content with little and not striving for luxury.
Like any person, Taras is not without a dark side. He is overly stubborn and impatient. Last fact significantly complicates his life - he is reluctant to join military diplomacy - in this regard, the personal always takes precedence, and Taras begins to be guided by emotions and feelings, and not by common sense.
He dreams of the moment when his sons will become brave and courageous warriors like himself. To do this, he is ready to resort to meanness.
When he and his sons arrived at the Sich, it turned out that no military campaigns were planned in the near future. This does not suit Taras. Bulba does not try to understand the reasons for the refusal; he is driven only by blind desire. He arranges a shift in positions and puts his own man in the place of the smoker, who is ready to organize a military campaign. Such meanness does not bring Taras happiness. Taras's valor, courage and courage do not save the situation - the military campaign becomes a tragedy.
Nevertheless, despite such an act, the Cossacks trust Taras and, finding themselves in a difficult position during the siege, choose him to a commanding position. This does not happen because the situation is hopeless. Taras deals fiercely and mercilessly with his enemies, he is ready for a feat, to sacrifice himself in order to achieve a higher goal.
Death of Taras Bulba
After Ostap's execution, Taras is overcome by the saddest impulses. The personal tragedy associated with the death of his son does not allow him to think sensibly and evaluate the events taking place. His heart is not filled with pity for Andrei - the young man betrayed his father, his homeland, and the Orthodox faith, but Taras does not have the strength to forgive the death of his eldest son, Ostap.
He becomes reckless, unnecessarily risks himself and contradicts all orders that are aimed at reconciliation with the Poles. In his eyes, Ostap remained a valiant and loyal Cossack; Taras believes that his son would have a great future. After making peace with the Poles, Taras organizes his detachment and attacks the villages. Such actions could not last forever - Bulba is captured and burned alive at the stake, but even in the last minutes of his life he is true to his sense of patriotism - he tells his comrades the path to retreat.
Let's summarize: Taras Bulba is an ambiguous personality. On the one hand, he is a brave warrior, the ideal of a Cossack, but that is where his ideality ends. He is a bad husband and not a good father. Compassion and affection towards his family are alien to him. His actions in the military field often saved the Cossacks, but he failed to save his sons.
Characteristics of Taras Bulba in the story “Taras Bulba” by Gogol: description of appearance and character
3.9 (77.78%) 18 votesThe main feature of a work of art on a historical theme is that the author organically combines a story about events that actually took place with the author’s fiction. The story “Taras Bulba” by N.V. Gogol is somewhat unusual in this regard: historical events it is not specified; moreover, when reading, it is sometimes quite difficult to determine at what time the actions take place - in the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries. In addition, none of the heroes is a historical figure, including Taras himself. Despite this, from the moment the work appeared, it has been classified as an epic story, sometimes called a novel. What is the strength and scale of “Taras Bulba”?
The history of the story
The writer’s appeal to the topic of the Cossacks was not accidental. A native of the Poltava province, since childhood he had heard a lot about the heroic feat of the people during the fight against numerous external invaders. Later, when Gogol began to write, he was particularly interested in such brave and devoted people as Taras Bulba. There were many of them in the Sich. Often former serfs became Cossacks - they found a home and comrades here.
N.V. Gogol studied many sources on this issue, including manuscripts of Ukrainian chronicles, historical studies by Boplan and Myshetsky. Not satisfied with what he read (in his opinion, they contained meager information, which was not enough to understand the soul of the people), Gogol turned to folklore. and the Dumas dedicated to them talked about the peculiarities of the characters, morals and life of the Cossacks. They gave the writer excellent “living” material, which became an excellent addition to scientific sources, and some storylines were included in the story in a revised form.
Historical basis of the story
“Taras Bulba” is a book about free people who inhabited the territory of the Dnieper region in the 16th and 17th centuries. Their center was the Zaporozhye Sich - its name is due to the fact that it was fortified on all sides with a fence of fallen trees - abatis. It had its own way of life and management. Subject to frequent attacks from Poles, Turks, and Lithuanians, the Cossacks had a very strong, well-trained army. Most They spent time in battles and military campaigns, and the trophies they obtained became their main means of livelihood. It is no coincidence that the light rooms in the house where his wife lived alone include numerous signs of the owner’s camp life.
The year 1596 became fatal for the Ukrainian people, who were at that time under the rule of the Lithuanians and Poles. adopted a union on the unification under the authority of the Pope of Rome of two Christian religions: Orthodox and Catholic. Decision further complicated the difficult relations between the Poles and the Cossacks, which resulted in open military confrontations. Gogol dedicated his story to this period.
Image of the Zaporozhye Sich
The main school for educating persistent, courageous warriors was a special way of life and management, and the teachers were experienced Cossacks who had repeatedly shown their valor in battle. One of them was Colonel Taras Bulba. His biography is a story about the formation of a true patriot, for whom the interests and freedom of the fatherland are above all.
It resembled a large republic based on the principles of humanism and equality. Koshevoy was chosen by a general decision, usually from among the most worthy. During the battle, the Cossacks had to obey him unconditionally, but in peacetime it was his responsibility to take care of the Cossacks.
In the Sich, everything was arranged to ensure the everyday life and military campaigns of its inhabitants: all kinds of workshops and forges worked, and cattle were raised. Ostap and Andriy will see all this when Taras Bulba brings them here.
The history of the short existence of the Zaporozhye Republic showed a new way of organizing people's lives, based on brotherhood, unity and freedom, and not on the oppression of the weak by the strong.
The main school for the Cossack is the military brotherhood
How the formation of young warriors took place can be judged by the example of the sons of Taras, Ostap and Andriy. They completed their studies at Bursa, after which their path lay in Zaporozhye. The father greets his sons after a long separation not with hugs and kisses, but with a fist test of their strength and dexterity.
The life of Taras Bulba was unpretentious, as evidenced by the feast in honor of the arrival of his sons (“bring... the whole ram, the goat... and more burners” - these are the words the old Cossack addresses to his wife) and sleep in the open air.
Ostap and Andriy had not even been at home for a day before they set off for the Sich, where the best comradeship in the world and glorious exploits for their homeland and religion awaited them. Their father was convinced that the only real school for them could be participation in combat battles.
Cossacks
Approaching the Sich, Taras and his sons saw a Cossack picturesquely sleeping in the middle of the road. He spread out like a lion and attracted everyone's admiration. Wide trousers like the sea, a proudly thrown forelock (it was certainly left on a shaved head), a good horse - this is what a real Cossack looked like. It is no coincidence that the main character of the story appeals to his sons with a call to immediately change their “demonic” clothes (they came from Bursa in them) to something worthy of a Cossack. And they really were immediately transformed in morocco boots, wide trousers, scarlet Cossacks and lambskin hats. The image was completed with a Turkish pistol and a sharp saber. The young men riding on the glorious stallions evoked admiration and pride from their father.
The historical basis of the story “Taras Bulba” obliged the author to treat the Cossacks impartially. With all due respect to them and their valor, Gogol also truthfully says that at times their behavior caused condemnation and misunderstanding. This referred to the riotous and drunken life that they led in between battles, excessive cruelty (for the murder of a criminal they were buried in a grave with the victim alive) and a low cultural level.
The Power of Camaraderie
The main advantage of the Cossacks was that in a moment of danger they could quickly mobilize and act as a single army against the enemy. Their dedication, patriotism, courage and devotion to the common cause knew no bounds. In the story, this was proven more than once by Taras Bulba himself. The biography of other prominent warriors, including experienced Tovkach, Kukubenko, Pavel Gubenko, Mosiy Shilo and young Ostap, also emphasizes this.
Bulba said well about the unity and main purpose of the Cossacks in his speech on the eve of the decisive battle: “There are no bonds more holy than comradeship!” His speech is an expression of great wisdom and holy faith that he and his brethren are defending a just cause. IN difficult moment Taras’s words encourage the Cossacks, remind them of their sacred duty to protect their comrades, always remember the Orthodox faith and devotion to their homeland. The worst thing for a Cossack was betrayal: this was not forgiven to anyone. Taras kills his own son after learning that because of his love for a beautiful Polish woman, he chose personal interests over public ones. So the bonds of brotherhood turned out to be more important than blood. The fact that this fact corresponded to reality is evidenced by the historical basis of the story.
Taras Bulba - the best representative of the Cossacks
A colonel with a stern character who has gone through a glorious battle path. A glorious ataman and comrade who could support with an encouraging word and give good advice V Hard time. He possessed a burning hatred for the enemy who encroached on the Orthodox faith, and did not spare his own life for the sake of saving his homeland and his brothers in arms. Accustomed to a free life, he was content with an open field and was absolutely unpretentious in everyday life. This is how Gogol portrays the main character. He spent his whole life in battles and always found himself in the most dangerous place. Weapons, a smoking pipe and the glorious horse of Taras Bulba constituted his main wealth. At the same time, he could joke and joke around, he was happy with life.
Disappointed in youngest son the hero felt great pride in Ostap. Risking his life, Bulba came to the place of execution to see him for the last time. And when Ostap, who steadfastly endured the agony of death, last minute called him, in one word, which made the whole square tremble, he expressed his pride, approval and support not only for his son, but for his spiritual comrade and ally. Until the end of his life, Taras will grieve for his son and take revenge for his death. The experience will add to his cruelty and hatred of the enemy, but will not break his will and fortitude.
The story does not contain the usual description of Taras Bulba for the hero, since this is not so important. The main thing is that he has the qualities that made it possible to survive during that cruel time.
Hyperbolization of Taras in the execution scene
The characterization of the hero is complemented by the description of his death, which is largely absurd. The hero is captured because he bends down to pick up a fallen pipe - he doesn’t even want to give it to the damned enemy. Here Taras resembles a folk hero: about three dozen people were able to defeat him with difficulty.
In the last scene, the author describes not the pain from the fire that the hero experienced, but his anxiety for the fate of his brothers floating down the river. At the moment of death, he behaves with dignity, remaining true to the main principles of partnership. The main thing is that he was sure that he had not lived his life in vain. This is exactly what a real Cossack was like.
The significance of the work today
The historical basis of the story “Taras Bulba” is the liberation struggle of the people against the invaders who encroached on their country and faith. Thanks to such strong-willed people as Taras Bulba, his son and comrades, they managed to defend independence and freedom more than once.
The work of N.V. Gogol and his heroes have become a model of masculinity and patriotism for many, so it will never lose its relevance and significance.
“Analytical newspaper “Secret Research”, No. 11, 2009
The new film about Taras Bulba became the box office leader in Russia (it is also shown in Ukraine and Belarus). The film was enthusiastically received by the Russian great powers; Russian politicians speak enthusiastically about it: they say that the film shows that Ukraine and Belarus have always belonged to Moscow. And the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Zyuganov sent 700 Russian communists to cinemas - as a “cultural campaign”. However, both the film and Gogol’s work itself have very little historical truth, being, in fact, only great-power propaganda of tsarism.
GREAT POWER HYSTERIA
On April 13, 2009, The New York Times published an article by Ellen Barry, “A Wild Cossack Enters Cultural Confrontation.” The article begins like this:
“The newest movie hero burst onto Russian screens in April, cutting down Polish nobles with his saber like cabbage. Taras Bulba, a 15th-century Cossack immortalized in Nikolai Gogol's novel of the same name, despises peace negotiations as a "woman's affair" and inspires his people with speeches about the Russian soul. When the Polish soldiers burn him at the stake at the end, he proclaims loyalty to the Russian Tsar, although the flames have already touched his mustache.
This is already an inaccuracy: the events described by Gogol could not have happened in the 15th century: then there was neither “Russia” (Muscovy was still an ulus of the Horde), nor “Russian tsars” (only Ivan the Terrible proclaimed himself the first in 1547), nor "Rzeczpospolita", with which Bulba fought. Further in the article:
“The premiere of the film with a budget of 20 million dollars took place in Moscow on April 1. The hall was packed, and riders in Cossack costumes pranced in front of the cinema entrance. A film by Vladimir Bortko, the filming of which was partially financed Russian ministry culture is a hymn to militant patriotism. At the premiere, many spectators cried.
It is also a salvo in the culture war between Russia and Ukraine's pro-Western leadership. The heroes of the film are Ukrainian Cossacks, but they are fighting an enemy who came from the West and, dying, talk about the “Orthodox Russian land.” Bortko sought to show that “there is no separate Ukraine,” as he put it in an interview, and that “the Russian people are united.” Leaving the hall, the audience said that they hoped that the film would strengthen pro-Russian sentiment in Ukraine.
The core of the film is the idea of a great Russia. At the very beginning, Bulba, played by the outstanding Ukrainian actor Bogdan Stupka, heartfeltly pronounces to the Cossacks the words that generations of Soviet schoolchildren learned by heart: “No, brothers, to love like a Russian soul - to love not just with your mind or anything else, but everything that God has given, whatever is in you.”
High-ranking Ukrainian officials did not attend the premiere on April 2. But the spectators leaving the hall said that they were deeply touched by Bortko's call for Slavic unity.
At the film's premiere in Moscow's Oktyabr cinema, which seats 3,000 people, the audience applauded Bulba's speech about the "Russian soul", and again when Cossacks with torches in their hands sweep through Western Ukraine, driving out the Poles. Among the ecstatic spectators was ultranationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky. “This is better than hundreds of books and hundreds of lessons,” he told Vesti-TV after the premiere. “Everyone who watches the film will understand that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, and that the enemy is from the West.”
What is surprising in these statements is the complete ignorance of those who created and then watched this film. How, for example, should we understand “Bortko’s call for Slavic unity” if the “enemy from the West” is the SLAVIC POLES? Or in the ideas of Bortko and Zhirinovsky, the Poles are not Slavs? So why should we unite not with the Poles, but for some reason with the Russians? But not only that: these Russians themselves are not Slavs at all, but Finno-Ugrians of Muscovy and Tatars of the Horde. It turns out that Ukrainians are called to unite with the Great Horde.
But the most interesting thing is that Taras Bulba fought not with the Poles, but with the Belarusians - Gogol shows the war of 1654-1667, in which Ukrainian Cossacks and Muscovites destroyed half of the population of Belarus...
GOGOL'S MISCONCEPTIONS
When did the events described in the story take place? Gogol, it seems, was confused about this himself, since he begins his story like this (I quote from the 1842 edition):
“Bulba was terribly stubborn. This was one of those characters that could only arise in the difficult 15th century in a semi-nomadic corner of Europe, when all of southern primitive Russia, abandoned by its princes, was devastated, burned to the ground by the indomitable raids of Mongol predators...”
So, Gogol dates the events to the 15th century - when indeed Muscovy was still an ulus of the Horde, and the lands of Ukraine were not at all “abandoned by their princes” and “devastated”, as he invents, but quite flourished as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (about which Gogol nowhere does not mention a word). Until 1569, Kiev region, Zaporozhye (then “Field”), Podolia, Volyn were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
However, in the same paragraph the writer contradicts himself:
“The Polish kings, who found themselves, instead of appanage princes, rulers of these vast lands, although distant and weak, understood the importance of the Cossacks and the benefits of such a warlike guard life.”
The Poles became the rulers of Ukraine only at the conclusion of the Union of 1569 (the creation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), when in exchange for assistance in the liberation of Polotsk occupied by Ivan the Terrible, we gave the lands of Ukraine to the Poles. Then there was the Church Union of 1596 - after Boris Godunov bargained with the Greeks in 1589 for the right of the united Muscovite Horde religion to be called for the first time the “Russian Orthodox Church” - instead of the Russian Orthodox Church of Kyiv. As follows further from the text, the events of the story take place in the middle of the 17th century, and not at all in the 15th century and not even in the 16th.
Gogol: “There was no craft that a Cossack did not know: to smoke wine, equip a cart, grind gunpowder, do blacksmithing and plumbing work and, in addition to that, go wild, drink and revel as only a Russian can - all it was up to him.”
At that time, there was no ethnic group “Russians”, but there was an ethnic group “Rusyns”, which meant only Ukrainians. As for the Russians (called Muscovites), in the 15th century there was a “prohibition” in Muscovy, so Gogol’s phrase “to walk recklessly, drink and revel as only a Russian can” is a fiction.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania historian Mikhalon Litvin during the period of Ivan the Terrible’s father, Vasily III (whom Litvin’s contemporary Sigismund Herberstein depicts and describes in his book “Notes on Muscovy” in a turban, in a Persian robe and with a scimitar), wrote a book well known to historians “On the Morals of the Tatars, Litvins and Muscovites." In it, Litvin clearly indicated that Litvins (that is, Belarusians) become drunkards, and Muscovites DO NOT DRINK AT ALL, since their faith forbids them (the faith is not the Russian of Kyiv, but their own Muscovite).
Mikhalon Litvin wrote:
“Litvins [that is, now Belarusians] eat exquisite overseas dishes, drink a variety of wines, hence various diseases. However, although the Muscovites, Tatars and Turks own the lands that produce grapes, they do not drink wine, but by selling it to Christians, they receive funds for the war. They are convinced that they are fulfilling the will of God if they destroy Christian blood in any way.”
“Peasants in Lithuania [that is, in Belarus], having abandoned rural work, converge in taverns. There they revel day and night, forcing the learned bears to amuse their fellow drinkers by dancing to the sound of bagpipes. That is why it happens that when, having squandered their property, people begin to starve, they take the path of robbery and robbery, so that in any Lithuanian [Belarusian] land they pay for this crime with their heads for one month more people than in a hundred or two hundred years in all the lands of the Tatars and Muscovites, where drunkenness is prohibited.
Indeed, among the Tatars, anyone who just tastes the wine receives eighty blows with sticks and pays a fine in the same amount of coins. There are no taverns anywhere in Muscovy.
Therefore, if only a drop of wine is found on any head of the family, then his entire house is destroyed, his property is confiscated, his family and his neighbors in the village are beaten, and he himself is doomed to life imprisonment. Neighbors are treated so harshly because they are considered to be infected by this communication and to be accomplices of a terrible crime.
...Since Muscovites abstain from drunkenness, their cities are famous for their various skilled craftsmen; They, sending us wooden ladles and staves to help the weak, old, and drunken in walking, as well as saddle cloths, swords, faleras and various weapons, take away our gold.
Prince Ivan [Ivan III], having converted the people to sobriety, banned taverns everywhere. He expanded his possessions, subjugating Ryazan, Tver, Suzdal, Volodov and other principalities... Novgorod, Pskov North and others.
...In the same way, the now reigning sovereign [Vasily III], born of him, keeps his people in such sobriety that he is in no way inferior to the Tatars.”
How can this be compared with Gogol’s words about “Russian drunkenness”?
Gogol about Bulba: “Eternally restless, he considered himself the legitimate defender of Orthodoxy.”
The writer everywhere confuses the faith of Kyiv and the faith of Muscovy, but these were always DIFFERENT RELIGIONS. Kyiv was initially part of the Byzantine religion - and followed it, but Finnish Muscovy, baptized by the Kyiv priests only during its capture by Yuri Dolgoruky, during the Horde adopted Horde Nestorianism - a schismatic faith that gives power the status of “God on Earth”. Which greatly pleased the kings of the Horde, and then the kings of Muscovy.
Moscow historian A. Bychkov in the book “ Kievan Rus: a country that never existed? (M., 2005) gives many examples that the Muscovite faith was not considered Christian. He writes, in particular:
“As Georg Schleising reports in his book “The Religion of the Muscovites” (1695), Russians at this time (and this is already the time of Peter the Great) consider themselves Greek Orthodox, but instead of greeting they say “Salom” (actually, it is written “Shalom”, but and Schlesing writes the words “matchmaker” as “schvaha”).” Next, Bychkov follows with a long quotation from Schleising, in which the religion of the Muscovites is presented as obscene and wild, completely unChristian. Then there are a lot of other quotes and information, including:
“As Cardinal D’Ely reported to Rome at the beginning of the 15th century, “the Russians [that is, the Muscovites of the Horde-Muscovy] brought their Christianity closer to paganism to such an extent that it was difficult to say what prevailed in the resulting mixture: whether Christianity, which had taken into itself pagan principles, or paganism that absorbed the Christian doctrine."
In the minds of Gogol (and those who read his story or watch the film based on it now) both in those days and today, there are supposedly only two faiths in Ukraine: Polish Catholic and Russian Orthodox. This is a huge lie.
Firstly, the Uniates are not Catholics, but the same true Orthodox Christians of Byzantium, who only after Byzantium itself accepted the supremacy of the Pope, but at the same time retain all their Orthodox rites and traditions.
Secondly, the Orthodoxy of Kyiv and the “Orthodoxy” of Moscow, as I already said, are two completely different religions. Kievan Orthodoxy (in the Middle Ages, which covered the lands of Ukraine, Eastern Lithuania-Belarus of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Grand Duchy of Tver and two Republics - Pskov and Novgorod) - never deified power, the Orthodox crossed themselves with two fingers, and had its own pantheon of saints. And among Moscow “Orthodoxy” (in the Middle Ages, united for the entire Horde) - power was deified as “the equal of Jesus and Mohammed” and as “vicars of God on Earth”, people crossed themselves with three fingers, and Ivan the Terrible included among the “saints of the Moscow faith” at a time about 40 Tatar Murzas - for the fact that they came into his service and his faith with all their peoples.
So what is “common” here?
I will add that Ivan the Terrible, when capturing Tver, Pskov, Novgorod and Polotsk, always first of all massacred all of our Orthodox clergy and destroyed churches. That's how a "co-religionist" is!
An important nuance: in the 17th century, under the Tsar of Muscovy, Alexei Mikhailovich, belonging to the Moscow faith automatically meant an oath to the Tsar as his “God Tsar.” The Cossacks of Eastern Ukraine accepted the Moscow faith as a condition for coming under the authority of Moscow - only in 1654, and before that Taras Bulba and his associates could not possibly have been people of the Moscow faith - because they did not consider the Moscow feudal lord their “king of God” and did not swear allegiance to him. So here too Gogol has an inconsistency.
An interesting detail: Taras Bulba and his Cossacks shave their faces, but for his Muscovites, Alexei Mikhailovich issues a strict decree: severely punish everyone who, in the Lithuanian fashion, also began to shave their beards. The king wrote that a beard is a sign of a Christian, and those without beards are infidels. It is clear that this representation of the Moscow satrap is taken from the eastern traditions of the Horde.
WHO IS TARAS BULBA?
The degree of heroization of Taras Bulba has reached literally anecdotal proportions: Taras Bulba dumplings are sold in Minsk stores. Why not sell Otto Skorzeny meatballs and Nestor Makhno chopped cutlets?..
When the series “Brigade” appeared on Russian TV, glorifying the life of a gangster group, many public figures in Russia were indignant: what does this series teach people? Lead a gangster lifestyle and sympathize with the robbers who rob them? And what does he teach our children?
But just like that, the notorious Sich of Cossacks, which Gogol praises as a kind of “Ukrainian formation and the image of Ukraine as a Fatherland,” is exactly such a GANG.
Taras Bulba (like the rest of the Cossacks of this Sich gang) CAN’T DO ANYTHING BY HIMSELF, and - what’s saddest of all - doesn’t want to engage in creative work at all. That is, to grow or build something with your own hands. THIS MAN DOESN'T KNOW WORK. He, in fact, follows the unwritten laws of thieves: they say, a thief in law should not work, but should live only by theft and robbery. This is what this “hero” has been doing all his life.
This is an ignoramus and a lazy person, morally and mentally - a complete degenerate and nonentity, a bastard and a bloodsucker, who sees his calling as killing people, and the only means of feeding his family is robbery. He doesn't know how to do anything else in life. Including even making dumplings - although for some reason they were named after him...
At that time government was weak on the outskirts and at the junctions of countries - all sorts of clusters of bandits formed there. In the Atlantic, they are known as pirates, and on the territory of the former USSR, their own pirate states appeared in exactly this way - the most famous of them is the country of the Cossacks of Stepan Razin in the Caspian Sea, which lived by robbery of trade routes and all neighbors in all directions of the world. Taras Bulba was also a contemporary of Razin in his Zaporozhye Sich - the same gangster formation that lived only by robbery. At the same time, Gogol’s attempts to endow these bandits with some reasoning “about the Fatherland and Rus'” seem RIDICULOUS. They had no Fatherland, just as there was no Rus' - the very word “Zaporozhye” meant “BEYOND THE THRESHOLD OF Rus',” that is, it was no longer Rus'-Ukraine, but God knows what else was non-Russian and non-Ukrainian.
Just as Stepan Razin wore a turban and was fond of Islam, the Zaporozhye Cossacks wear Turkish trousers and fight with Tatar crooked sabers. There is not an ounce of anything “Russian” or “Ukrainian” in this.
Gogol directly writes that the Cossacks of Zaporozhye do not know what creative work is, but can only steal and rob from those who are engaged in creative work (primarily their northern neighbors, the Belarusians), and then drink away the loot. When Taras Bulba drank away his loot from the Belarusians (or even Poles, Crimean Tatars, Muscovites - or their Galicians and Volynians), then he went to his bandit superiors (chapter 3):
“Finally, one day I came to the Koschevoi and told him directly:
What, Koschevoi, is it time for the Cossacks to take a walk?
“There’s nowhere to go for a walk,” answered the Koschevoi, taking a small pipe out of his mouth and spitting it to the side.
How is there nowhere? You can go to Tureshina or Tatarva.
“It’s not possible either to Tureshina or to Tatarva,” answered the Koschevoy, taking his pipe again in cold blood.
How can you not?
So. We promised peace to the Sultan."
What a disaster it is - Taras Bulba is now doomed to starvation - NOBODY TO rob!..
When there is no one to rob outside, you have to rob “your own Jews”: after all, Bulba’s children Andrei and Ostap are asking for food. What to do - you have to engage in Jewish pogroms under a far-fetched pretext (chapter 4):
"- How? so that the Cossacks would be brothers with you? - said one of the crowd. - You can’t wait, damned Jews! To the Dnieper, gentlemen! Drown them all, you bastards!
These words were a signal. The Jews were grabbed by the arms and began to be thrown into the waves. A pitiful cry was heard from all sides, but the stern Cossacks only laughed, seeing how the Jewish legs in shoes and stockings dangled in the air.”
In Gogol (chapter 10):
“Two hundred canoes were lowered into the Dnieper, and Asia Minor saw them, with shaved heads and long forelocks, putting its flowering banks to sword and fire; I saw the turbans of my Mohammedan inhabitants scattered, like her countless flowers, on the blood-soaked fields and floating along the shores. She saw quite a few Zaporozhye trousers stained with tar, muscular arms with black whips. The Cossacks ate too much and broke all the grapes; Whole heaps of manure were left in mosques; expensive Persian shawls were used instead of glasses and they were used to girdle soiled scrolls with them.”
This is the glorification of banditry and vandalism. Well, okay, they killed and stole - why defecate in mosques? For the glory of what?
It is significant that N.V. himself Gogol was a Judeophobe - and makes his main character the same Judeophobe. According to Gogol’s fantasy, the Cossacks were betrayed by the “Jews” during the siege of Dubna (chapter 9):
“The Jews, however, took advantage of the sally and sniffed out everything: where and why the Cossacks went, and with which military leaders, and which kurens, and how many there were, and how many were left in place, and what they were thinking of doing - in a word, through In a few minutes, everyone in the city knew everything. The colonels took heart and prepared to give battle.”
Or here is a typical passage (chapter 10):
“Taras locked the door and looked out the small window at this dirty Jewish avenue. Three Jews stopped in the middle of the street and began to talk rather excitedly; They were soon joined by a fourth, and finally a fifth. He heard it repeated again: “Mordecai, Mordecai.” The Jews constantly looked in one direction of the street; finally, at the end of it, from behind a crappy house, a foot in a Jewish shoe appeared and the coattails of a half-caftan flashed. “Ah, Mordecai, Mordecai!” - all the Jews shouted in one voice. A skinny Jew, somewhat shorter than Yankel, but much more covered with wrinkles, with an enormous upper lip, approached the impatient crowd, and all the Jews vied with each other to tell him, and Mordecai glanced at the small window several times, and Taras guessed that they were talking about him. Mordecai waved his arms, listened, interrupted the speech, often spat on the side and, raising the tails of his caftan, put his hand into his pocket and took out some trinkets, and showed off his very nasty trousers. Finally, all the Jews raised such a cry that the Jew standing on guard had to give a sign for silence, and Taras already began to fear for his safety, but, remembering that the Jews cannot reason otherwise than on the street, and that their language itself the demon will not understand, he has calmed down.”
If you show this paragraph to Europeans today, without saying that Gogol wrote it, then anyone in Europe will say that it was written by some kind of Nazi and pathological anti-Semite a la Hitler. As you can see, rare dirt was dripping from the pen of the classic...
Gogol (chapter 12): “The chronicle pages depict in detail how the Polish garrisons fled from the liberated cities; how the unscrupulous Jewish tenants were hanged..."
The writer is lying: the Cossacks in the areas they captured slaughtered ALL the Jews living there - about 80 thousand, and not just “unscrupulous Jewish tenants,” of whom there were only a few (and the Jewish people themselves in Ukraine lived much poorer than the Ukrainians). After all, you have to feed your children something to these bandits - that’s why Judeophobia became a pretext for robbery.
WHO DID TARAS BULBA FIGHT WITH?
Gogol, obviously, hated the Belarusians (who were also called Litvins when writing his story) and considered them “Poles”, and Belarus itself as Poland. Here is a typical episode (chapter 7):
“Taras looked at the Jew and was amazed that he had already visited the city.
What enemy brought you there?
“I’ll tell you now,” Yankel said. - As soon as I heard a noise at dawn and the Cossacks began to shoot, I grabbed my caftan and, without putting it on, ran there at a run;<...>I look - ahead of the detachment is Pan Cornet Galyandovich.<...>Although he has farms, and estates, and four castles, and steppe land all the way to Shklov, he has no pennies like a Cossack - nothing. And now, if the Breslav Jews had not armed him, he would have nothing to go to war in. That’s why he wasn’t at the Sejm.”
Galyandovich - the surname is not Polish, not Russian, not Zhemoit - but purely and only Belarusian (in -vich). And Shklov is not Poland, but Eastern Belarus.
But for Gogol, we, Belarus, are “pure Poland”, because it was not Ukraine at all, but our Grand Duchy of Lithuania that created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with Poland - a single union State in which our gentry and our Belarusian people were integrated with the Poles in all spheres of life. This is why Gogol hated us so much - and this hatred of Belarusians is shown in the film based on his story that has now been shot. Both in Gogol and in this film, all Belarusians are “Poles” and “Poland”.
But we were neither “Poles” nor “Poland”, but we were ourselves - Litvinians and Lithuania Grand Duchy of Lithuania, only part of the State allied with Poland. Alas, this is beyond the understanding of both Gogol and the film’s authors (and, naturally, modern ignorant viewers).
Gogol writes (chapter 12):
“The trace of Tarasov was found. One hundred and twenty thousand Cossack troops appeared on the borders of Ukraine. This was no longer some small unit or detachment that set out to prey or to hijack the Tatars. No, the whole nation rose up, for the patience of the people was overflowing, - it rose up to take revenge for the ridicule of their rights, for the shameful humiliation of their morals, for the insult to the faith of their ancestors and holy customs, for the disgrace of churches, for the atrocities of foreign lords, for oppression, for union, for the shameful the dominion of Judaism on Christian land - for everything that has accumulated and aggravated the harsh hatred of the Cossacks since ancient times.”
Interesting: I’m quoting the story according to the 1842 edition - is it really possible that this is also in the current textbooks of the CIS countries of Russian literature: “for the shameful rule of Judaism on Christian land”? Or do the censors of the CIS Ministries of Education find these statements by Gogol unacceptable for schoolchildren to read? But then this is HERESY: a CLASSIC OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE is being censored. He wrote one thing - but schoolchildren read something completely different, not knowing WHAT Gogol REALLY wrote.
I’m sure that the censors of the USSR completely changed the content of this story by Gogol (at least by removing all Gogol’s Judeophobia and changing “Jew” to “Jew” everywhere), but I won’t compare the 1842 edition (which is now posted on the Internet) with the modern one - I’ll leave it at that as “homework” for the most curious readers.
“The chronicle pages depict in detail how the Polish garrisons fled from the liberated cities; how the unscrupulous Jewish tenants were hanged; how weak was the crown hetman Nikolai Pototsky with his numerous army against this irresistible force; how, defeated, pursued, he drowned in a small river the best part his troops; how the formidable Cossack regiments surrounded him in the small town of Polonny and how, driven to extremity, the Polish hetman vowed full satisfaction in everything from the king and government officials and the return of all former rights and advantages.”
Wikipedia reports about Nikolai Pototsky:
“Mikolaj Potocki, Nikolai Potocki, nicknamed Bearpaw (1595 - November 20, 1651) - Polish magnate, statesman and military leader. Great Crown Hetman (1646-1651), fought against the Cossacks. In particular, in 1637-1638. led the suppression of the Cossack uprisings led by Yakov Ostryanin and Gunya. In 1648, twice defeated by Khmelnitsky, he was in Tatar captivity. In 1651 he forced the Cossacks to peace. ...The history of the Cossack uprising of 1637-1638, suppressed by Hetman N. Pototsky, formed the basis of the novel by N.V. Gogol’s “Taras Bulba” and gave specific examples of the dramatic destinies of the heroes.”
In some ways I sympathize with the struggle of Ukrainians for their national freedom from Poland - but Gogol here puts this struggle in a completely different direction: they say, the Ukrainians fought so that, having left Poland, not create their own independent State, but become exactly the same already a powerless vassal of Moscow. After all, Gogol ends his story with these words:
“When Taras Bulba woke up from the blow and looked at the Dniester, the Cossacks were already on their canoes and rowing with oars; bullets rained down on them from above, but did not reach them. And the joyful eyes of the old chieftain flashed.
Farewell, comrades! - he shouted to them from above. - Remember me and come here again next spring and have a good walk! What did they take, the damn Poles? Do you think there is anything in the world that a Cossack would be afraid of? Wait a minute, the time will come, there will be time, you will find out what the Orthodox Russian faith is! Even now, distant and close peoples sense: their king is rising from the Russian land, and there will be no power in the world that would not submit to him!..”
This is propaganda of the Moscow great power, especially since Taras Bulba could not have known the word “comrade” - this is a Tatar word that from the Horde entered the Muscovite language. Bulba was not a Muscovite, he did not live in the Horde - the word “comrade” is not in any Slavic language (except near-Slavic Russian).
About “what the Orthodox Russian faith is” was discussed above. And the phrase “Already, distant and close peoples sense: their king is rising from the Russian land, and there will be no power in the world that would not submit to him!..” - this is clearly extremely far from the mentality of the Cossacks and the whole of Ukraine - like the past, as well as the current one. Moreover, at that time the Moscow kings did not own Russia-Ukraine, but they owned the entire Horde. So the Moscow tsars should correctly be called not “Russian tsars” at all, but HORDE Tsars - which they were. And the so-called “reunification of Ukraine with Russia” was actually a “REUNION WITH THE HORDE”, with its Finno-Ugric and Turkic peoples, its mentality, its morals and customs, its political and social way of life. With its Horde culture and its Horde history.
Of course, it is the right of Eastern Ukraine to decide with whom it should “reunite.” But this whole legend about Taras Bulba simultaneously hides a monstrous genocide over Belarus and Belarusians - the genocide of the war of 1654-1667, in which EVERY SECOND BELARUS died at the hands of the Moscow and Ukrainian occupiers.
GENOCIDE OF COSSACKS OVER BELARUS
There is no doubt that it is about this war that Gogol writes in the last chapter, where he attributes the atrocities of Colonel Bulba to the “Polish lands”, but in fact the Cossacks then engaged in genocide only in BELARUS, and not in Poland, where they did not reach:
“And Taras walked throughout Poland with his regiment, burned eighteen towns, near forty churches, and already reached Krakow.”
Gogol here calls our Belarus “All Poland,” because it was not in Poland, but precisely and only here, that the Cossacks of Khmelnitsky and Zolotarenko were engaged in robbery and genocide. And the words “already reached Krakow” should apparently be attributed to the occupation of Brest by the troops of the Cossacks and Muscovites - who massacred the entire local population there, including every baby.
“He beat up all the nobles a lot, plundered the richest lands and the best castles; the Cossacks unsealed and poured on the ground the centuries-old meads and wines that had been preserved safely in the master's cellars; They chopped up and burned the expensive cloth, clothes and utensils found in the storerooms. “Don't regret anything!” - only Taras repeated. The Cossacks did not respect black-browed panyankas, white-breasted, fair-faced girls; they could not escape at the very altars: Taras lit them along with the altars. More than one snow-white hands rose from the fiery flame to the heavens, accompanied by pitiful screams that would have made the dampest earth move and the steppe grass would have drooped to the ground in pity. But the cruel Cossacks did not listen to anything and, lifting their babies from the streets with spears, threw them into the flames.”
This was not in Poland, but on our territory of Belarus. During the war of 1654-67. The Cossack troops of Khmelnitsky and Zolotarenko never reached the territory of Poland. Together with the allied forces of the Muscovites of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, they exterminated 80% of the population of Eastern Belarus (Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel regions), 50% of the population of Central Belarus (Minsk region), about 30% of the population of Western Belarus (Brest and Grodno regions). The invaders did not reach Poland and Zhemoytia.
Here is what the Belarusian historian Vladimir Orlov writes about this war in the book “Invisible Belarus”:
“In 1654, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich started another war for the “original Russian lands.” Hiding behind words about protecting Orthodoxy from the oppression of the “damned Poles,” three huge armies totaling up to 100 thousand invaded Belarus. The royal governors Trubetskoy, Sheremetyev and the Cossack ataman Zolotarenko occupied Vitebsk, Polotsk, Orsha, Krichev, Mstislavl, Gomel, Shklov and other cities. Those who refused to capitulate and bravely defended themselves were destroyed by order of the tsar, and their population was killed or taken captive. The saddest fate awaited Mstislavl, where, as Russian historical documents testify, “more than ten thousand gentry, Lithuanians and other service people were beaten.” Rechitsa, Zhlobin, Rogachev turned into ruins. In 1655 Vilnia was occupied.
All the guarantees given by Alexei Mikhailovich that he would preserve the rights and property of the Belarusian gentry and provide for the Orthodox Belarusians [who renounced the Union under threat of death and converted to the Moscow faith. - Approx. V.R.] a quiet life (promises which, it must be said, initially had quite a significant influence on the lands bordering Russia) were forgotten. In the occupied lands, the tsarist warriors committed open robbery and violence. In response, a massive partisan movement began, especially active in the Mstislav region (by the way, it was from that war that the world-famous Belarusian partisan tradition began). In July 1654, a detachment of three thousand Belarusian peasants from the Kolesnikovskaya volost heroically attacked the 15,000-strong army of governor Trubetskoy. The residents of Mogilev, who surrendered the city to the Tsar's archers without a fight, could not stand the torture and endless robberies: on February 1, 1661, they rebelled and in a few hours massacred the entire 7,000-strong Tsar's garrison. The people's liberation movement in the occupied Belarusian lands gave the troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the opportunity to move on to successful military operations. As a result of the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, the Smolensk and Chernigov voivodeships were transferred to the Russian state, but the entire north of Belarus had to be returned to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
Our country emerged from that war having suffered heavy losses. Belarus was missing more than half of its inhabitants who died in battles, died of hunger, and were resettled in Russia. In absolute numbers, it looked like this: out of 2 million 900 thousand, about 1 million 350 thousand remained alive, and in the east of Belarus not even a third of the population survived. Moscow archers sold captured Belarusians into Persian slavery at Astrakhan markets for three rubles per soul. As Gennady Saganovich, a researcher of those events, writes, the war of 1654-1667. as if it had replaced our land. Almost everything has become different: from living conditions to the national gene pool. Belarusians have almost lost their elite, citizens, and entrepreneurs. It was as a result of this war that thousands and thousands of educated and skilled Belarusians, discussed above, ended up in a foreign land, in Moscow and other Russian cities. And it was incredibly difficult for the peasant people to rise to national consolidation. It is precisely in that economic, cultural, demographic catastrophe that the origins of many national complexes and troubles of today’s Belarusians lie.”
Thus, Gogol turned out to be the “chronicler” of the GENOCIDE OVER THE BELARUS, and even glorified him in the image of Taras Bulba, the colonel who brought this genocide to the Belarusians. And the details are precise: “at the very altars they could not escape: Taras lit them along with the altars.” The Muscovites and Cossacks gave our population an ultimatum - acceptance of the faith of Muscovy with an automatic oath to its “God Tsar”; if they refused, they drove the entire population into his temple, locked them there and burned them all en masse - along with infants.
Belarusian archaeologists have found hundreds of such evidence of GENOCIDE in our country, an order of magnitude more terrible than the Nazi genocide. A typical picture of that war: a temple burned in the center of a Belarusian settlement (mostly Uniate or Catholic, less often Jewish - in our Grand Duchy of Lithuania 39% of the population were Uniates, 38% were Catholics, 10% were Jews). It contains an accumulation of charred human bones, and in the majority - the mother’s bones hug the bones of a child or several of her children.
TARAS BULBA: BELARUS VERSION
Viewers of the film “Taras Bulba” in the Russian Federation and Ukraine have their own historical associations, and I personally have mine. I dare to remind you that on March 22, 1943, our Khatyn was burned not by the Germans, but by THE HEIRS MENTALLY literary hero Gogol Taras Bulba, because they are exactly the same anti-Semites and Belarussophobes, Nazis, bandits, fanatics and frostbitten sadists.
These are Taras Bulba's relatives - policemen from Ukraine: the 118th Ukrainian police battalion. In December 1986, during trial Chief of Staff of the 118th Ukrainian Police Battalion Vasyura said:
“It was a gang of bandits whose main thing was to rob and get drunk. Take platoon commander Meleshko - a career Soviet officer and a regular sadist, literally going crazy from the smell of blood. The cook Myshak was eager to carry out all the operations in order to brutalize and rob, the translator Lukovich tortured people during interrogations, raped women... They were all the bastards of the bastards ... "
According to Gogol’s story, Taras Bulba was exactly the same scoundrel of scoundrels, “eager to undertake all operations in order to commit atrocities and rob.” It was precisely these Ukrainian “Taras Bulba” that burned thousands of our “Khatyns” in the war of 1654-1667.
However, historical truth is not on the side of Gogol and the Russian great powers: in that war it was not “Taras Bulba” and the Muscovites who won, but the Belarusians and Poles. Gogol's story ends with scenes of the bloody occupation of Belarus by the Cossacks - but why doesn't the writer talk about how the Belarusian partisans made it so that the Cossacks and Muscovites here BURNED THE EARTH UNDER THEIR FEET? With the help of the Poles, we expelled these bandits from the Fatherland (their troops were so morally decayed due to looting that they ceased to be an army), who not only sent our wealth in caravans to their Muscovy and Ukraine, but also took 300,000 Belarusians for sale into slavery. So the victory was still ours. And whoever won should write history (as they say in Moscow), therefore the current Russian film about Taras Bulba is a film of the losers of the war, not the winners of it, this is the version of the losing side - deliberately false.
In conclusion, I will say that the Russian great power is becoming Lately very active: there the state finances deliberately false films about history (like this one about Taras Bulba or about the “Polish occupation of Moscow”) and at the same time created a “Commission to counter the falsification of history to the detriment of the interests of Russia.” That is, imperial propaganda is in full swing, aimed at undermining the statehood of neighboring countries by falsifying their history. According to media reports, this commission will allocate grants to historians of the former colonies Tsarist Russia- for them to write pro-Russian books and to assert the “greatness of Russia.” That is, a “fifth column” is being created, working off foreign handouts.
I consider it unacceptable to discredit and demonize both our Grand Duchy of Lithuania and our great heritage of Belarusians and Poles - our allied Slavic state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Which looks completely wild and strange against the backdrop of the fact that no one in the world creates films that would similarly discredit and demonize medieval Muscovy, showing it in an unsightly light. Why should we watch films in which our Belarusian great-grandfathers are presented negatively? Previously, Tatarstan was just as outraged because of the anti-Tatar film about Ermak.
TARAS BULBA OF THE XX CENTURY
Now it’s clear why both Gogol’s book and the film based on it are wild and unacceptable for Belarus. But why didn’t even the “Ukrainian separatists” themselves like the film?
As for Eastern Ukraine, after the “reunification with Moscow” and the immediate subsequent general campaign against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, two years later it became disillusioned with Muscovy and tried to free itself from it, but that was not the case. As it turned out, the Cossacks “exchanged their awl for soap”: in Poland they still had more freedoms than now near Moscow. Therefore, to today's Ukrainians, Gogol's version seems false.
Plus, I’ll note on my own: “the unity of Ukrainians and Russians” (the troops of Khmelnitsky-Zolotarenko and Alexei Mikhailovich) was forged in the general campaign against Belarus, where they destroyed half of the population of Belarus. How it is possible to “forge the reunification of Russia and Ukraine” in the destruction of half of Belarus is incomprehensible to the mind within the framework of the myth of “three branches of a single ancient Russian people.” They say that in order for two branches to unite, they must together half destroy their third branch. Moreover, it was planned to completely destroy us Belarusians: “There will be no Union, there will be no Latinism,” and all Belarusians then were either Catholics or Uniates...
But this temporary collaboration with Moscow (the peak of which, the “act of unity”, was the general occupation of Belarus) was a delusion, which was proven by the rest of the history of relations between Ukraine and Russia: after all, the Ukrainians did not want to be “Russians” and part of “Great Russia” .
However, Gogol singles out those events as “the peak of the rapprochement between Ukraine and Muscovy” precisely because, in the wake of anti-Polish sentiments, Moscow was seen as an ally. When anti-Polish sentiments subsided, Ukrainians discovered that they found themselves in even greater national slavery. In any case, Gogol, when writing his books, could not have suspected that in the 1850-1860s tsarism would prohibit Ukrainians from turning to God in their language, prohibit the Ukrainian Faith and the Bible in their language, and generally prohibit all book publishing in the Ukrainian language. (Just as in 1839, by decree of the tsar, this was done with the Belarusians.)
If Gogol’s Taras Bulba goes to war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for much smaller and insignificant “oppression”, then now for this real national genocide on the part of tsarism - this hero should become the odious “Terminator”. That is, it smoothly transitions into the image of Petlyura or Stepan Bender. They are the modern embodiment of Taras Bulba. For some reason, Russians (primarily the authors of the film about Bulba) don’t see this. Although Bulba is a type of Ukrainian nationalist, and not a person with the mentality of the Horde-Russia - how absurdly both Gogol himself and the authors of the film made a mistake, not understanding the main thing. And because of this mistake they made Bulba “their hero.”
This seems to me an amazing delusion: all the current Ukrainian “Taras Bulba” united in UNA-UNSO, where mentally the same Zaporozhye Sich is now - but in a new incarnation. Gogol tore the image of Bulba out of the entire context of History, trying to “freeze” it in the fight against the Belarusians and Poles, where Russia was an ally. But if this image is revived from the “frozen” classic, then Bulba turns out to be ordinary Ukrainian nationalist. Moreover, in a very thorough manner, the industrialized mass extermination of both Jews and Belarusians.
For some reason, the image of Taras Bulba created by Gogol obsessively reminds me of the very real chief of staff of the 118th Ukrainian police battalion, Vasyura, who led the destruction of our Khatyn on March 22, 1943. In my opinion, this Ukrainian Natsik and bandit is, in its purest form, “Gogol’s Taras Bulba of the twentieth century.” Times change, but people and characters remain essentially the same - this is the Law of History...
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