The undeciphered thread of Ariadne of the work "King-fish". Summary of the Astafyev novel

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Viktor Petrovich Astafiev did not aspire to become a writer. Once, after the victory, the front-line soldier had to hear how the invited writer read false military stories to the workers. Astafiev, who was awarded the "Order of the Red Banner" and the medal "For Courage", was deeply offended by the words of untruth. On the same night, the story "Siberian" is born, and with it - a knee-deep classic of Russian and Soviet literature. Astafiev's work "Tsar-fish" will be written by him later - in 30 years. In the meantime, seriously wounded and shell-shocked for another 10 years, he will dream of war in peacetime.

Before the service there were: a repressed father, a tragically deceased mother, an orphanage. The classic deeply comprehended the war as an advanced soldier, objectively, without "political departmental tales" - from the retreat along the Zhytomyr highway with the "broken" corpses of "his own" in liquid mud to the mediocre and bloody forcing of the Dnieper in the fall of 1943. Without a break, without preparation, without watercraft, building on the success of the Kursk Bulge. (Then, out of ordinary soldiers, only one in seven sailed to the other side, most of them300,000 ordinary guys who died during the crossing just drowned).

However, according to his mental make-up, there were aspects of the interaction between nature and man, good and evil, much closer than the theme of war. “Something very important in the balance of Nature - Man - Society has been violated,” Astafiev understood intuitively. "Tsar-fish" suggests its brief content as non-linear, multi-variant. That's what the genre is - a philosophical novella! This is a story about a fisherman and not about a fisherman, about a fish and not about a fish. Let's find out! After all, Astafiev's work is about all of us! In an almost fabulous epic manner, against the backdrop of village life, the author gradually brings the thoughtful reader to the idea of repentance. The central character is the we althy owner Ignatich, a lucky fisherman who does not disdain poaching. Seeing once a huge sturgeon, he understands that one cannot cope with this alone. But greed takes over. The sturgeon is the "King-fish". The summary of Astafiev's work further brings us to the plot situation, when entangled in nets and hooks, both sturgeon and Ignatich equally risk their lives. The situation is allegorical. Death threatens both equally. And only then the fisherman, trying to escape, remembers his sin - an unfair act against the woman Glasha. When there is almost no strength left, he repents from the bottom of his heart, asking for forgiveness in absentia. After that, suddenly the lines loosen, and mutual release occurs.

Do you think this is about fishing in a country where the KGB vigilantly monitorsdissidents? What does the classic write about in Aesopian language? What is important not to miss when trying to display the short stories "Tsar Fish" as accurately as possible?

Astafiev in the era of stagnation, with the flair of a classic, is the first to find a solution to the global pressing question: “How can we live on?” (After all, there is nothing ahead. It is obvious that the communism promised in 5 years by Khrushchev will not come.) What does not allow us to move on, what is holding us back? And then an insight comes to the writer: we need to repent. And Astafiev, as a front-line soldier, as a citizen, does not hesitate to present this idea to society in "Tsar-Fish" in the only form in which this is possible, so as not to become an outcast.

Later in their Picnic by the Road, the Strugatsky brothers, in the poignant final scene, will also put saving words of repentance and blessing to all people into the mouth of the main character, who is in the power of the anomalous zone. It is noteworthy that in the future, the growing contradictions led to the fact that the theme of repentance became even more relevant than in the form we introduced in "King-fish". Summary

Astafiev's work certainly inspired the third classic, Viktor Pelevin, to a soul-crushing episode in his phantasmagoric novel The Sacred Book of the Werewolf. Turned into a lame and unfortunate wolf, Mikhalych (the Russian people), realizing the futility of his condition and yet repenting, sobbingly asks the Motley Cow (Russian Land) for him oil in order to survive and pay off the freeloaders. Pelevin finds for this reallyheartfelt and touching words…

Let's get back to the novel. Its main idea is the vital necessity of repentance. Only in this way will both Man and the "Tsar-Fish" survive. The summary of Astafiev's work leads us to an understanding of the relevance of repentance, which is fundamentally important both for each person and society as a whole. Classics need to be heard in time. They, being the s alt of the earth, a decade before the cataclysm sound the alarm. Perhaps then, in the 70s, having civilizedly resolved the contradictions and become a democratic country, exposing our impartial historical pages and repenting, we would have prevented the collapse of the superpower. We would have become more open and understandable if we had not given R. Reagan a chance in 10 years to force the Western World to simultaneously impose financial sanctions on us, declaring us the "Evil Empire". After all, in 1974 the USSR was not yet doomed.