Chapter 1. At night in Chevalier's Moscow establishment, two young men escort a third, nobleman Olenin, to serve as a cadet in the Caucasus.
Chapter 2. On the road, Olenin recalls his chaotic life. Almost a youth, he, however, had already managed to squander half of his fortune, although he never found the passionate love he dreamed of. The Caucasus seems to him a romantic place where one can perform heroic deeds.
Lev Tolstoy. Cossacks. Audiobook
Chapter 3. Olenin reaches the southern provinces, sees unusual nature, people in Cossack outfits and mountains, whose greatness greatly impresses him.
Chapter 4. The Cossack population of the Terek Line comes from Old Believers who once fled here from religious persecution. It is very different from the inhabitants of central Russia - in particular, the position of women, who here enjoys much greater freedom and has a very strong influence in family life. The further action of Leo Tolstoy's story takes place in one of the Terek Cossack villages - Novomlinskaya.
Chapter 5. Ulita, the wife of the cornet of Novomlinskaya, has a beautiful daughter, Maryana. One of the snail neighbors really wants to marry her to her son Lukashka.
Chapter 6. Lukashka is at this time with other Cossacks at one of the posts of the Terek border: they are guarding so that the predatory mountain abreks do not cross it. Tolstoy describes this handsome guy of about 20 years old, who stands out from other peers with his intelligence and authoritative character. An elderly, broad-shouldered Uncle Eroshka, the best hunter of these places, comes to the Cossacks’ outpost.
Chapter 7. Nazarka’s friend tells Luka that his village friend Dunayka went on a spree with the Cossack Fomushkin. Nazar advises Lukashka to break up with Dunayka and “move up” to Khorunzhina Maryanka.
In the evening, the constable sends Luka, Nazarka and the Cossack Ergushov on night watch to the river crossing.
Chapter 8. Luka and his friends come on patrol. When his comrades fall asleep, he notices that one of the large snags floating along the river is moving strangely: not with the flow, but as if against it. Luka guesses: a Chechen abrek is clinging to her from below. Without waking his comrades, he takes aim, and when the head of the robber appears among the branches of the snag, he shoots and kills him.
Chapter 9 At dawn, other Cossacks gather at the patrol where Lukashka was shooting. A murdered Chechen is pulled out of the water. Lukashka's trophy is the abrek's gun and dagger.
Chapter 10. Two days later, an infantry regiment comes to billet in the village of Novomlinskaya. Olenin, who now serves there, and his servant Vanyusha settle with Ulita. On the very first day, the beautiful and slender Maryana catches his eye.
Chapter 11. Sitting by the window in the room rented from Ulita, Olenin meets the hunter Eroshka passing by. He invites him to have a drink and sends Vanyusha to Ulita to buy chikhir (wine).
Chapter 12. Maryana goes to pour wine for Vanyusha, passing by the window in front of Olenin and Eroshka. Eroshka tells Olenin that this beauty is being wooed to the Cossack Luka. Maryana had already noticed the young officer who had settled with them. While filling the decanter for Vanyusha, she asks if his master is married, and finds out that he is not.
Chapter 13. In the evening, Cossacks gather near the huts to talk, gnawing on sunflower seeds. The tipsy Luka, Nazar and Ergushov approach the company of women and girls. Lukashka, with a sly grin, speaks to Maryana, who is sitting right there. When she goes home, Luka catches up with her at the fence, tries to hug her and asks for love. At first, Maryana sternly distances herself from him: “I’ll get married, but you won’t get any nonsense from me.” But then he kisses her on the lips and runs home.
Chapter 14. Olenin drinks chikhir with Eroshka all this evening. He tells him about his youth, about the old times when he hunted, fought, and walked with girls. Desperate Eroshka has little faith in God. “You’ll die,” he believes, “grass will grow on the grave, that’s all.” Olenin sadly thinks about these words.
Chapter 15. Eroshka talks a lot about animals and their habits. Listening to his stories, Olenin begins to walk around the yard. Suddenly he hears the sound of a kiss at the fence, sees Maryana slipping past, and some Cossack moves away from the fence. A accidentally caught scene of someone else's love arouses a feeling of loneliness in Olenin's soul. He and Eroshka agree to go hunting together the next morning.
Chapter 16. Eroshka lives alone: his wife left him long ago. In the morning, his friend Luka looks into the old hunter’s hut and says that they promised to give him a cross for the killed Chechen, but the greedy centurion took away the expensive gun taken from the dead body. Eroshka advises him not to give in to anyone and always behave like a real horseman. Luka is again preparing to go on patrol at the river crossing.
Chapter 17. His mother and dumb sister gather Luka for the outpost. His mother says that she tried to marry Maryana to him. Grinning, Lukashka goes off into the morning fog.
Chapter 18. Eroshka goes to Olenin early in the morning to take him hunting. Maryana’s father, the cornet, also comes here to negotiate the price that Olenin will pay for renting the hut. After a conversation with the cornet, Olenin privately tells Eroshka about the scene with the kiss that happened in the evening. Eroshka says with laughter that he kissed Maryana, probably his favorite Luka.
Chapter 19. Olenin and Eroshka go into the forest. He and Olenin kill several pheasants, then find the deer's lair, but he runs away from them at the last moment. Eroshka furiously curses himself for approaching the deer from the wrong side. After the hunt, Olenin again thinks about Maryana.
Chapter 20. The next day Olenin goes hunting alone. He enthusiastically searches for pheasants, not paying attention to the huge clouds of mosquitoes. Thoughts flow naturally in his head. In ecstasy, Olenin feels happy, he is suddenly penetrated by the idea that the meaning of life, which he previously sought, is to make other people happy through love and self-sacrifice. Olenin spends the whole day in the thicket and in the evening he loses his way in a dangerous place, where Caucasian abreks often hunt. Olenin does not find the road for a long time and, already in despair, rushes along the edge of a ditch he encounters on the way.
Chapter 21. Soon Olenin is happy to hear Russian speech. It turns out that, having evaded the road, he went to the very outpost where Lukashka and his comrades were serving. Just at this time, the brother of the Chechen killed by Luka arrived there from the other side of the Terek to ransom his dead body. Olenin watches how this proud horseman looks contemptuously at the Russians. The ransomed body is transported by boat across the river. Lukashka chuckles, standing next to his comrades. “Are you happy? What if your brother was killed? - Olenin asks him. “So what? And not without that! Isn’t our brother being beaten?” - Luka answers.
Chapter 22. Lukashka is sent to accompany Olenin to the village. Along the way, Togo is again overcome by an attack of enthusiastic kindness. Olenin asks why Luka has not yet married Maryana. He replies that he first needs to fix a Cossack horse for himself, but there is no money for that yet. In a fit of generosity, Olenin (a rich man) gives Lukashka one of his horses. Luka, a simple and natural man, like nature itself, is amazed at such generosity: it is difficult for him to understand the strange spiritual impulses of a civilized city officer.
Chapter 23. Olenin little by little gets used to village life, to daily tiring and exciting hunting trips. They erase his spiritual doubts and make his character whole. He no longer thinks of returning to Moscow; sometimes he even dreams of becoming a simple Cossack. One day, his former Moscow acquaintance Beletsky, a secular youth who also came to serve in the Caucasus, appears in his hut. Having settled in the same village, Beletsky behaves very frivolously: he gets local old people drunk, throws parties for young Cossack women and boasts to Olenin about his “victories” over many of them.
Chapter 24. Olenin becomes dexterous and strong like a Cossack. He notices that Maryana sometimes admires how he rides past her on a horse. He also really likes this serious, hardworking beauty, but in constant tension he does not think about Maryana as a woman, remembering Luka’s feelings for her. Olenin and Maryana hardly speak. Beletsky is surprised how Olenin, living next to such a girl, did not try to get to know her better. Once he invites Olenin to his place for a get-together with the girls, where Maryana will also be. Maryana's cheeky friend, Ustenka, sets a good table.
Chapter 25. At first, Olenin feels very awkward and tries to leave unnoticed, but Beletsky holds him back and places Maryana next to him. Out of embarrassment, Olenin begins to drink a lot. His shyness disappears from the wine, and he finally tries to hug and kiss Maryana. The other girls and Beletsky run out of the room laughing, leaving Olenin and Maryana inside and locking the door from the outside. Maryana smiles at Olenin and playfully reproaches him for the fact that he, a guest in their house, always sits in his room and does not come to her and her parents.
Chapter 26. Olenin is now making close acquaintance with Maryana’s family. He often visits them in the evenings. It becomes increasingly necessary for him to feel Maryana’s presence nearby. Olenin gets used to Cossack life even more, he is enchanted by the Caucasus region. There is no pompous bookish romance here that he had previously expected to meet, but the people here “live as nature lives: they die, are born, copulate, are born again, fight, drink, eat, rejoice and die again.” The old false Moscow life seems funny and disgusting to Olenin.
Chapter 27. Lukashka, who arrived, in gratitude for the donated horse, brings Olenin a beautiful dagger. Luka is going to soon marry Maryana. In the evening, he sneaks under her window and asks the beauty to let him in for the night, but she refuses. Nazark’s friend tells Luka that a “cadet” has started visiting his fiancee’s family. Lukashka is overcome with anger.
Chapter 28. Maryana's parents come to an agreement with Luka's mother about the wedding of their children. Olenin is sad that Maryana is being given away to someone else, but he tries to wish her and Lukashka happiness. In the evening, Uncle Eroshka, who was drunk in an arrangement, comes to Olenin with a balalaika and sings sad songs to him for a long time.
Chapter 29. The village harvests watermelons and grapes. Maryana spends whole days in hard work. Lukashka left for work, and they do not meet. Maryana has become accustomed to Olenin and enjoys feeling his gaze on her. Once the father relays to her and mother his conversation with Olenin’s servant, Vanyusha: he said that his master again received a thousand rubles from Russia.
Chapter 30. In the midst of one hot day, Maryana, lying down under a cart, talks with her friend Ustenka who has come running. She asks how she and Lukashka are doing, and sympathizes with Maryana: she will soon marry a Cossack, “then joy won’t even be a thought, the children will go and work.” “If I were in your place,” says Ustinka, “I would fool your rich guest!” I looked at him, as we had, and it seems that he would have eaten you with his eyes.”
Chapter 31. Olenin comes to Maryana’s vineyard on his way to hunt. “Well, will you soon marry Lukashka?” he asks. - "And what?" - “I’m envious. You are so beautiful! I don’t know what I’m ready to do for you...” At these words, Olenin himself flares up.
Chapter 32. Returning from hunting in the evening, Olenin spends the whole night without sleep out of excitement. More than once he approaches Maryana’s hut, trying to hear her breathing inside, and in the morning, completely distraught, he knocks on her window. Luka's friend Nazarka, passing by, catches him doing this. “Look, what a cornet! One is not enough for her,” he says. Olenin convinces Nazarka that Maryana is honest, but Nazarka that same day, returning to the outpost, tells Lukashka about everything. Olenin completely loses his head from love. For several days he leaves with his regiment to raid the highlanders beyond the Terek, but upon returning, he again sees the beauty and again goes crazy about her.
Chapter 33. Without knowing why, Olenin pours out his soul on paper: he sings of the powerful natural love that he first knew. It cannot be compared with the artificial, feigned feelings of residents of big cities.
Chapter 34. In the evening, Olenin goes to Maryana’s house. Her parents say that they wanted to get married to Lukashka that week, but he was “drunk” in his squad, he drinks, they want rumors that he went to the feet to steal horses. In the evening, when everyone has gone to bed, Olenin manages to be alone with Maryana for a minute. “Don’t marry Lukashka. I'll marry you! - he asks her. Maryana looks at him with disbelief.
Chapter 35. The next day a big holiday is celebrated in the village. Dressed people pour out into the streets. Guys and girls dance in circles and sing. Olenin is looking for a new meeting with Maryana.
Chapter 36. Luka and Nazarka come from service to the holiday. Luka gallops up on a horse to a group of girls, among whom stands Maryana. He tries to look cheerful, but it is noticeable that this is just a mask behind which Lukashka hides gloomy thoughts. Realizing this, Maryana is worried.
Chapter 37. Grandfather Eroshka and Ergushov come to Luka’s house to drink chikhir in honor of the holiday. Lukashka with impudent anger tells them how the other day he went with Nazarka and the Chechens of the famous leader Girey Khan to steal Nogai horses. Eroshka praises him for his daring and tells how he himself did the same thing in his youth.
Chapter 38. A tipsy Lukashka goes to the round dances of young people. Olenin is already standing here. Seizing the moment, Olenin takes Maryana aside and again begins to persuade her to marry him. Luke sees this scene. When Maryana returns to the round dance, he reproaches her for betraying her with a cadet guest. “I wanted it, I stopped loving you. I love whoever I want,” Maryana answers and goes to Beletsky’s house, where her friends again started a party. Olenin should also come to it.
Chapter 39. All evening Olenin sits in the corner of Beletsky’s hut in an embrace with Maryana, saying that tomorrow he will come to his parents to woo her. She responds by either laughing or squeezing his hands. Going out into the street at night, Olenin is full of happiness.
Chapter 40. The next morning, a commotion arose in the village: a Cossack patrol found Chechen abreks crossing the Terek several miles away. They were surrounded in the breakers and sent to the village for help. Nine Cossacks, led by Lukashka, arm themselves and go to the rescue. Olenin also follows them.
Chapter 41 Under the cover of a Nogai cart with hay, the Cossacks approach the hole where the Chechens are holed up, then quickly rush in with sabers and chop them all down. The brother of Lukashka, who had been killed earlier, turns out to be here and came to ransom his body. Luka tries to take this abrek alive, but he seriously wounds him in the stomach with a pistol - and he himself dies from a Cossack bullet. The bloodied Lukashka is transported home. Olenin comes to Maryana in the evening, but finds her in tears. “Go away, you hateful one!” - she shouts to him.
Chapter 42. Luka lies dying, they are going to bring him a doctor, an expert in herbs, from the mountains. Olenin, realizing that Maryana will never love him, leaves the village for the fortress where the regiment is stationed. Finally, he says goodbye to Eroshka, who asks him for a gun as a gift. Maryana passes by, bowing indifferently. The troika drives off. Olenin looks around and sees: Eroshka and Maryana are apparently talking about their own affairs, not looking at him.
History of creation
“Cossacks” was the fruit of Tolstoy’s ten years of work. In 1851, as a cadet, he went to the Caucasus; he had to live for 5 months in a Pyatigorsk hut, waiting for documents. Tolstoy spent a significant part of his time hunting, in the company of the Cossack Epishka, the prototype of Eroshka from the future story. Then he served in an artillery battery stationed in the village of Starogladovskaya located on the banks of the Terek. The success of Lev Nikolaevich’s first work (“Childhood”), published in 1852, encouraged him to continue his literary activity. In the summer of 1853, Tolstoy wrote a chapter of a manuscript, which he entitled “The Terek Line,” about the life of the Cossacks. The narration was told on behalf of a person who arrived in the village, and this method was preserved until the last edition of “Cossacks”. In August, Tolstoy wrote 3 chapters of the Caucasian novel “The Fugitive,” only small parts of which were included in the final version of “Cossacks.” The writer did not return to this topic until 1856, when he resumed work on the Cossack story (without mention of the officer). The officer appeared in April 1857, when Tolstoy re-wrote 3 chapters of The Fugitive. It was there that many of the characters of the future “Cossacks” appeared, albeit sparingly described.
In the spring of 1858, Lev Nikolaevich again worked on the Caucasian novel, and by May, 5 chapters were written, without any special artistic flourishes. Although they end with a meeting between Lukashka (then still called Kirka) and Maryana, even then the writer stopped at the denouement published in “Cossacks”. At the same time, the narrative style was translated into letters from the main character, officer Rzhavsky. In the fall, Tolstoy significantly processed and expanded the same 5 chapters. In winter, Lev Nikolaevich continued to study and deepen the first part of the Caucasian novel. During a trip to Switzerland in 1860, the writer created a chapter from the third part of the planned novel, where Rzhavsky became Olenin. By February 1862, when Tolstoy returned to the novel, he had already sold the rights to publish it to Mikhail Katkov. Having written 3 more chapters of the third part, in which Olenin had already lived with Maryana for 3 years, Tolstoy decided to abandon the creation of the novel. However, Katkov did not agree to accept payment for the novel back, and Lev Nikolaevich decided to combine the finished chapters of the novel into a story. He devoted the summer and autumn of 1862 to this goal, also adding several new striking episodes.
Plot
Junker Dmitry Andreevich Olenin leaves Moscow for the Caucasus to his new military unit. Moscow, where he was involved in a love story, bored the young man. Upon arrival, Olenin was quartered in the village of Novomlinskaya near the Terek, awaiting his regiment. Soon the owners of his house give the go-ahead in response to the matchmaking of the daring Cossack Lukashka to their daughter Maryana. Olenin, having made friends with the old Cossack Eroshka, begins to hunt in the surrounding area, and soon a love for the local nature and contempt for the civilization from which he comes awakens in him. He is delighted by the Cossacks who are so different from the city dwellers, and he himself dreams of becoming one of them. The young and strong Cossack woman Maryana delights him, although he does not dare to speak to her. The arriving Prince Beletsky, familiar to Olenin from his old life, and now unpleasant, arranges a feast, where the cadet gets the opportunity to get closer to Maryana. Olenin decides to marry Maryana and stay here to live, getting the girl’s consent to the wedding. Before he manages to ask permission for marriage from the girl’s parents, Olenin with Lukashka and other Cossacks go to the river, where several Chechens crossed to the Cossack bank. The battle ends in victory for the Cossacks, but Lukashka is mortally wounded by a Chechen avenging the murder of his brother. After Lukashka's death, Maryana takes up arms against Olenin and refuses any relationship with him. Olenin realizes that he has nothing more to do here and leaves the village.
Early in the winter morning, from the porch of the Moscow Chevalier Hotel, saying goodbye to friends after a long dinner, Dmitry Andreevich Olenin drives off in a Yamskaya troika to the Caucasian infantry regiment, where he was enlisted as a cadet.
Left without parents from a young age, by the age of twenty-four Olenin had squandered half of his fortune, never completed a course and never served anywhere. He constantly succumbs to the passions of young life, but just enough so as not to be tied down; instinctively runs away from every feeling and deed that requires serious effort. Not knowing with certainty where to direct the power of youth, which he clearly feels within himself, Olenin hopes to change his life with his departure to the Caucasus, so that there will be no more mistakes and repentance in it.
During the long journey, Olenin either indulges in memories of Moscow life, or draws in his imagination alluring pictures of the future. The mountains that open before him at the end of the journey surprise and delight Olenin with the infinity of their majestic beauty. All Moscow memories disappear, and some solemn voice seems to say to him: “Now it has begun.”
The village of Novomlinskaya stands three miles from the Terek, which separates the Cossacks and the highlanders. Cossacks serve on campaigns and at cordons, “sit” on patrol on the banks of the Terek, hunt and fish. Women run the household. This established life is disrupted by the arrival of two companies of the Caucasian infantry regiment, in which Olenin has been serving for three months. He was given an apartment in the house of the cornet and schoolteacher, who came home on holidays. The household is run by his wife, grandmother Ulita, and daughter Maryanka, who is going to be married off to Lukashka, the most daring of the young Cossacks. Just before the arrival of Russian soldiers in the village, on night watch on the banks of the Terek, Lukashka is different - he kills a Chechen sailing to the Russian shore with a gun. When the Cossacks look at the killed abrek, an invisible quiet angel flies over them and leaves this place, and old Eroshka says, as if with regret: “He killed Dzhigit.” Olenin was received coldly by his hosts, as is the custom among the Cossacks when receiving army personnel. But gradually the owners become more tolerant of Olenin. This is facilitated by his openness, generosity, and immediately established friendship with the old Cossack Eroshka, whom everyone in the village respects. Olenin observes the life of the Cossacks, she delights him with natural simplicity and unity with nature. In a fit of good feelings, he gives Lukashka one of his horses, and he accepts the gift, unable to understand such selflessness, although Olenin is sincere in his act. He always treats Uncle Eroshka to wine, immediately agrees with the cornet’s demand to increase the rent for the apartment, although a lower one was agreed upon, gives Lukashka a horse - all these external manifestations of Olenin’s sincere feelings are what the Cossacks call simplicity.
Eroshka talks a lot about Cossack life, and the simple philosophy contained in these stories delights Olenin. They hunt together, Olenin admires the wild nature, listens to Eroshka’s instructions and reflections and feels that he gradually wants to merge more and more with the life around him. He walks through the forest all day, returns hungry and tired, has dinner, drinks with Eroshka, sees the mountains at sunset from the porch, listens to stories about hunting, about abreks, about a carefree, daring life. Olenin is filled with a feeling of unreasonable love and finally finds a feeling of happiness. “God did everything for the joy of man. There is no sin in anything,” says Uncle Eroshka. And Olenin seems to answer him in his thoughts: “Everyone needs to live, we need to be happy... The need for happiness is embedded in a person.” One day while hunting, Olenin imagines that he is “the same mosquito, or the same pheasant or deer, like those who now live around him.” But no matter how subtly Olenin felt. nature, no matter how he understands the life around him, she does not accept him, and he realizes this with bitterness.
Olenin takes part in one expedition and is promoted to officer. He eschews the hackneyed rut of army life, which consists mostly of playing cards and carousing in fortresses, and in the villages - courting Cossack women. Every morning, having admired the mountains and Maryanka, Olenin goes hunting. In the evening he returns tired, hungry, but completely happy. Eroshka certainly comes to him, they talk for a long time and go to bed.
Olenin sees Maryanka every day and admires her just as he admires the beauty of the mountains and sky, without even thinking about other relationships. But the more he watches her, the more, imperceptibly, he falls in love.
Prince Beletsky, an acquaintance from the Moscow world, imposes his friendship on Olenin. Unlike Olenin, Beletsky leads the ordinary life of a wealthy Caucasian officer in the village. He persuades Olenin to come to the party where Maryanka is supposed to be. Obeying the peculiar humorous rules of such parties, Olenin and Maryanka are left alone, and he kisses her. After this, “the wall that previously separated them was destroyed.” Olenin spends more and more time in the owners’ room, looking for any excuse to see Maryanka. Thinking more and more about his life and succumbing to the feeling that washed over him, Olenin is ready to marry Maryanka.
At the same time, preparations for the wedding of Lukashka and Maryanka continue. In such a strange state, when outwardly everything is going towards this wedding, and Olenin’s feeling grows stronger and his determination becomes clearer, he proposes to the girl. Maryanka agrees, subject to the consent of her parents. The next morning Olenin is going to go to the owners to ask for the hand of their daughter. He sees Cossacks on the street, among them Lukashka, who are going to catch the abreks who have moved to this side of the Terek. Obeying duty, Olenin goes with them.
The Chechens, surrounded by Cossacks, know that they cannot escape, and are preparing for the last battle. During the fight, the brother of the Chechen whom Lukashka had previously killed shoots Lukashka in the stomach with a pistol. Lukashka is brought to the village, Olenin learns that he is dying.
When Olenin tries to talk to Maryanka, she rejects him with contempt and anger, and he suddenly clearly understands that he can never be loved by her. Olenin decides to go to the fortress, to the regiment. Unlike the thoughts he had in Moscow, now he no longer repents and does not promise himself better changes. Before leaving Novomlinskaya, he is silent, and in this silence one can feel a hidden, previously unknown understanding of the gap between him and the life around him. Eroshka, who is accompanying him, intuitively senses Olenin’s inner essence. “After all, I love you, I feel so sorry for you! You are so bitter, all alone, all alone. You’re somehow unloved!” - he says goodbye. Having driven away, Olenin looks back and sees the old man and Maryana talking about their affairs and no longer looking at him.
Brief summary of Tolstoy's story “Cossacks”
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The action of the story takes place in the village of Novominskaya, located next to the Terek, separating the lands of the Cossacks and Chechens. It is here that the Caucasian infantry regiment is located, in which cadet Dmitry Andreevich Olenin serves.
Olenin is 24 years old, until now his life has been easy and carefree. He made a lot of mistakes, tried not to take anything seriously and managed to waste half of the fortune that his parents, who died when Dmitry was a child, left him. He saw joining the regiment as a chance to start a new life.
The village where Olenin arrives lives its own measured life. Olenin is placed in the house of a cornet, who works as a school teacher and comes home only on holidays. The owners of the house - grandmother Ulita and her daughter Maryanka - are not very friendly to Olenin at first, but this has nothing to do with the young man himself - the Cossacks are just used to treating all strangers this way. Moreover, usually army officers do not behave very decently, from the point of view of the Cossacks - they spend their free time drinking, courting young Cossack women and playing cards.
But Olenin is not like that at all. He likes the measured life of the Cossacks, he takes a closer look at them, listens carefully to the stories of old Eroshka and gradually joins the new atmosphere for him. He spends the whole day in the forest, hunting, and in the evening, returning home, has dinner and has long conversations with Eroshka. He treats Eroshka with wine, gives a horse to the young Cossack Lukashka, and agrees to the cornet’s demands to pay more for the apartment than was agreed upon at the very beginning. All this changes the attitude of local residents towards him. Olenin admires not only the nature around him, but also the Cossacks themselves.
He especially likes Maryanka. But he looks at her in the same way as he looks at the beauty of the mountains surrounding the village and does not think about anything more. Moreover, Maryanka is preparing for her wedding with Lukashka. But one day, having succumbed to the persuasion of Prince Beletsky, whom he knew back in Moscow, he comes to a party where Maryanka is also present. Left alone with her, he kisses her and realizes that he loves her and is ready to marry her. Seeing that the wedding of Maryanka and Lukashka is being prepared, Olenin proposes to her. The girl agrees, but Olenin also needs to get her parents’ consent to the wedding.
Having gone to the girl’s parents, he sees a detachment of Cossacks on the street and learns that several abreks have crossed the Terek. Together with the detachment, he leaves and takes part in a battle in which Lukashka is mortally wounded. Returning to the village, Olenin goes to talk to Maryanka, but sees that she again has a very negative attitude towards him. Realizing that she will never love him, Olenin decides to leave the village for the fortress. Now he no longer dreams of a new life, as he did when leaving Moscow.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Everything became quiet in Moscow. Rarely, rarely, can you hear the screech of wheels on a winter street. There are no longer any lights in the windows, and the lanterns have gone out. The sounds of bells echo from the churches and, swaying over the sleeping city, remember the morning. The streets are empty. Rarely does a night cab driver mix sand and snow with narrow runners and, having moved to another corner, fall asleep while waiting for the rider. The old woman will go to the church, where, reflected in the golden frames, the asymmetrically placed wax candles burn red and sparsely. The working people are already getting up after a long winter night and going to work.
And the gentlemen still have evening.
In one of Chevalier’s windows, a fire glows illegally from under a closed shutter. A carriage, sleigh and cab drivers stand at the entrance, cramped with their rears. The postal service is right there. The janitor, wrapped up and cowered, seems to be hiding behind the corner of the house.
“And why are they pouring from empty to empty? - thinks the footman, with a haggard face, sitting in the hallway. “And all for my duty!” From the next bright room you can hear the voices of three young people having dinner. They are sitting in the room near the table, on which are the remains of dinner and wine. One, small, clean, thin and ugly, sits and looks at the departing person with kind, tired eyes. Another, tall one, lies next to a table littered with empty bottles and plays with the clock key. The third, in a brand new sheepskin coat, walks around the room and, occasionally stopping, cracks almonds in his rather thick and strong fingers, but with clean nails, and everyone smiles at something; his eyes and face are burning. He speaks with fervor and with gestures; it is clear that he cannot find words, and all the words that come to him seem insufficient to express everything that has come to his heart. He smiles constantly.
Now we can say everything! - says the one leaving. “It’s not that I’m making excuses, but I would like you to at least understand me as I understand myself, and not as vulgarity views this matter.” “You say that I am guilty before her,” he turns to the one who looks at him with kind eyes.
Yes, it’s my fault,” the small and bad man answers, and it seems that even more kindness and fatigue are expressed in his gaze.
“I know why you say this,” the driver continues. - To be loved, in your opinion, is the same happiness as to love, and enough for a lifetime if you have achieved it once.
Yes, very pleased, my soul! “More than necessary,” confirms the small and ugly one, opening and closing his eyes.
But why not love yourself! - says the departing man, thinks and seems to look at his friend with regret. - Why not love? I don't like it. No, to be loved is misfortune, misfortune when you feel that you are to blame because you do not give the same and cannot give. Oh my god! - He waved his hand. - After all, if all this was done rationally, otherwise it’s all done in reverse, somehow not our way, but in our own way. It's like I stole this feeling. And you think so; don't refuse, you have to think about it. But would you believe it, of all the stupidities and nasty things that I have done a lot in my life, this is one for which I do not and cannot repent. Neither at first nor after did I lie to myself or to her. It seemed to me that I had finally fallen in love, but then I saw that it was an involuntary lie, that it was impossible to love like that, and I could not go further; and she went. Am I to blame for not being able to? What was I supposed to do?
Well, it's over now! - said the friend, lighting a cigar to disperse his sleep. - There’s only one thing: you haven’t loved yet and don’t know what it means to love.
The one who was wearing a short fur coat wanted to say something again and grabbed his head. But what he wanted to say was not expressed.
Did not love! Yes, I really didn’t like it. Yes, there is in me a desire to love, a stronger desire than which one cannot have! Yes again, is there such a love? Everything remains something unfinished. Well, what can I say! I messed up, I messed up my life. But it's over now, you're right. And I feel that a new life is beginning.
In which you will mess up again,” said the one lying on the sofa and playing with the clock key; but the one driving away did not hear him.
“I’m both sad and glad that I’m going,” he continued. - Why is it sad? I don't know.
And the departing man began to talk about only himself, not noticing that others were not as interested in this as he was. A person is never as selfish as in a moment of spiritual delight. It seems to him that there is nothing in the world at this moment more beautiful and interesting than himself.
Dmitry Andreich, the coachman doesn’t want to wait! - said a young courtyard man wearing a fur coat and tied with a scarf who came in. - Horses since twelve o'clock, and now it's four.
Dmitry Andreich looked at his Vanyusha. In his tied scarf, in his felted boots, in his sleepy face, he heard the voice of another life calling him - a life of work, deprivation, activity.
Indeed, goodbye! - he said, looking for the unfastened hook on himself.
Despite the advice to give the coachman more vodka, he put on his hat and stood in the middle of the room. They kissed once, twice, stopped and then kissed a third time. The one who was wearing a short fur coat came up to the table, drank the glass that was standing on the table, took the small and ugly one by the hand and blushed.
No, I’ll still say it... It is necessary and possible to be frank with you, because I love you... You love her, don’t you? I always thought that... right?
“Yes,” answered the friend, smiling even more meekly.
And maybe…
“Please, the candles have been ordered to be put out,” said the sleepy footman, who had listened to the last conversation and wondered why the gentlemen always said the same thing. - Who would you like to write down the bill for? Behind you, sir? - he added, turning to the tall one, knowing in advance who to turn to.
Follow me,” said the tall one. - How many?
Twenty-six rubles.
The tall man thought for a moment, but said nothing and put the bill in his pocket.
And the two talking had their own way.
Goodbye, you're a great guy! - said the small and ugly gentleman with gentle eyes.
Tears welled up in both of their eyes. They went out onto the porch.
Oh yes! - said the one driving away, blushing and turning to the tall one. - You will arrange the account for Chevalier, and then write to me.
“Okay, okay,” said the tall one, putting on his gloves. - I envy you! - he added completely unexpectedly when they went out onto the porch.
The departing man sat in the sleigh, wrapped himself in a fur coat and said: “Well! let’s go,” and even moved in the sleigh to give room to the one who said that he envied him; his voice trembled.
The person who saw him off said: “Goodbye, Mitya, God grant you...” He wanted nothing more than for him to leave as quickly as possible, and therefore could not say what he wanted.