Daniel Defoe's novel about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe remains very popular today. The terrible tragedy that formed the basis of the work became very vital and amazed many readers. How many years did Robinson Crusoe spend on the island?
The ship on which the main character was sailing suffered a terrible accident, as a result of which all the people on board the ship died. Only Robinson managed to survive. The main character spent 12 days at sea until he finally made it to the shore of an unknown island. For a long time The main character couldn’t come to his senses. However, having decided that it was necessary to survive, Robinson began to adapt to the local nature - he designed a home for himself, found food, and even tried to tame local animals. Despite the fact that the island was completely uninhabited, Robinson still manages to survive. How many years will Robinson Crusoe spend on the island?
Crusoe builds three houses for himself, two of which are located on the very shore, in case ships suddenly sail and they can be noticed. One is located in the very depths of the jungle so that you can find food for yourself.
New friend
Counting how much time Robinson Crusoe spent on the island, the main character has already lost count of the days and months. One day Crusoe finds human remains on the other side. While exploring the area, Robinson sees a tribe of natives who have captured two people. One had already become dinner for the tribe, and the other was still alive. When the main character decides to save the prisoner, he abruptly takes off and runs towards Robinson's house. Crusoe manages to protect the prisoner, after which he calls him a strange name - “Friday”. Friday stays with Crusoe and becomes his friend.
The rescue
How many years did Robinson Crusoe spend on the island before he managed to escape? The work says that, after living on the island for twenty-five years, a ship suddenly approaches the shore, on which a riot arose. It is on this ship that the main character sails away with Friday, returning to civilized life.
Returning home, Robinson got married, and soon had three children. The family business at home brought him huge income. However, after the death of his wife, the main character decides to return to the island. He sells his lands and sails to those shores that have become his home over all these years.
How many years did Robinson Crusoe spend on the island without losing hope of salvation? More than twenty years. The work teaches readers to never lose hope and faith in the best, shows how important life optimism and the ability to survive in any critical situation are.
It became an instant bestseller and marked the beginning of a classic English novel. The author's work gave impetus to a new literary direction and cinema, and the name Robinson Crusoe became a household name. Despite the fact that Defoe’s manuscript is saturated with philosophical reasoning from cover to cover, it has firmly established itself among young readers: “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” is usually classified as children’s literature, although adult lovers of non-trivial plots are ready to plunge into unprecedented adventures on a desert island together with the main character. hero.
History of creation
Writer Daniel Defoe immortalized given name, publishing the philosophical adventure novel “Robinson Crusoe” in 1719. Although the writer wrote more than one book, it was the work about the unfortunate traveler that firmly ingrained itself in the consciousness of the literary world. Few people know that Daniel not only pleased the regulars of bookstores, but also introduced the residents of Foggy Albion to such a literary genre as the novel.
The writer called his manuscript an allegory, taking as a basis philosophical teachings, prototypes of people and incredible stories. Thus, the reader not only observes the suffering and willpower of Robinson, thrown to the margins of life, but also a man who is morally reborn in communication with nature.
Defoe came up with this seminal work for a reason; the fact is that the master of words was inspired by the stories of boatswain Alexander Selkirk, who spent four years on the uninhabited island of Mas a Tierra in Pacific Ocean.
When the sailor was 27 years old, he, as part of the ship’s crew, set off on a voyage to the shores of South America. Selkirk was an obstinate and prickly man: the adventurer did not know how to keep his mouth shut and did not respect subordination, so the slightest remark from Stradling, the captain of the ship, provoked a violent conflict. One day, after another quarrel, Alexander demanded to stop the ship and land it on land.
Perhaps the boatswain wanted to intimidate his boss, but he immediately satisfied the sailor’s demands. When the ship began to approach the uninhabited island, Selkirk immediately changed his mind, but Stradling turned out to be inexorable. The sailor, who paid for his sharp tongue, spent four years in the “exclusion zone”, and then, when he managed to return to life in society, he began to walk around bars and tell stories of his adventures to local onlookers.
The island where Alexander Selkirk lived. Now called Robinson Crusoe Island Alexander found himself on the island with a small supply of things; he had gunpowder, an axe, a gun and other accessories. Initially, the sailor suffered from loneliness, but over time he was able to adapt to the harsh realities of life. Rumor has it that, having returned to the city's cobbled streets with stone houses, the sailing enthusiast missed being on an uninhabited piece of land. Journalist Richard Steele, who loved to listen to the traveler's stories, quoted Selkirk as saying:
“I now have 800 pounds, but I will never be as happy as I was when I didn’t have a farthing to my name.”
Richard Steele published Alexander's stories in The Englishman, indirectly introducing Britain to a man who in modern times would be called . But it is possible that the newspaperman took the sayings from his own head, so whether this publication is pure truth or fiction - one can only guess.
Daniel Defoe never revealed the secrets of his own novel to the public, so hypotheses among writers continue to develop to this day. Since Alexander was an uneducated drunkard, he was not like his book incarnation in the person of Robinson Crusoe. Therefore, some researchers are inclined to believe that Henry Pitman served as the prototype.
This doctor was sent into exile in the West Indies, but did not accept his fate and, together with his fellow sufferers, escaped. It's hard to say whether luck was on Henry's side. After a shipwreck, he ended up on the uninhabited island of Salt Tortuga, although in any case everything could have ended much worse.
Other lovers of novels are inclined to believe that the writer was based on the lifestyle of a certain ship captain Richard Knox, who lived in captivity for 20 years in Sri Lanka. It should not be ruled out that Defoe reincarnated himself as Robinson Crusoe. The master of words had a busy life, he not only dipped his pen into the inkwell, but also engaged in journalism and even espionage.
Biography
Robinson Crusoe was the third son in the family and from early childhood dreamed of sea adventures. The boy's parents wished their son a happy future and did not want his life to be like a biography or. In addition, Robinson's older brother died in the war in Flanders, and the middle one went missing.
Therefore, the father saw in the main character the only support in the future. He tearfully begged his son to come to his senses and strive for the measured and calm life of an official. But the boy did not prepare for any craft, but spent his days idly, dreaming of conquering the watery expanse of the Earth.
The instructions of the head of the family briefly calmed his violent ardor, but when the young man turned 18, he collected his belongings secretly from his parents and was tempted by the free trip provided by his friend’s father. Already the first day on the ship became a harbinger of future trials: the storm that broke out awakened remorse in Robinson’s soul, which passed along with the inclement weather and was finally dispelled by alcoholic drinks.
It is worth saying that this was far from the last black streak in the life of Robinson Crusoe. The young man managed to turn from a merchant into a miserable slave of a robber ship after it was captured by Turkish corsairs, and also visited Brazil after he was rescued by a Portuguese ship. True, the conditions of rescue were harsh: the captain promised the young man freedom only after 10 years.
In Brazil, Robinson Crusoe worked tirelessly on tobacco and sugar cane plantations. Main character works continued to lament the instructions of his father, but his passion for adventure outweighed his quiet lifestyle, so Crusoe again got involved in adventures. Robinson's colleagues in the shop had heard enough of his stories about trips to the shores of Guinea, so it is not surprising that the planters decided to build a ship in order to secretly transport slaves to Brazil.
Transporting slaves from Africa was fraught with dangers of sea crossing and legal difficulties. Robinson participated in this illegal expedition as a ship's clerk. The ship sailed on September 1, 1659, that is, exactly eight years after his escape from home.
The prodigal son did not attach importance to the omen of fate, but in vain: the crew survived a severe storm, and the ship began to leak. Ultimately, the remaining crew members set off on a boat that capsized due to a huge shaft the size of a mountain. The exhausted Robinson turned out to be the only survivor of the team: the main character managed to get to land, where his many years of adventure began.
Plot
When Robinson Crusoe realized that he was on a desert island, he was overcome by despair and grief for his dead comrades. In addition, hats, caps and shoes thrown ashore were reminders of past events. Having overcome depression, the protagonist began to think about a way to survive in this seedy and God-forsaken place. The hero finds supplies and tools on the ship, and also builds a hut and a palisade around it.
The most necessary thing for Robinson was a carpenter's box, which at that time he would not have exchanged for a whole ship filled with gold. Crusoe realized that he would have to stay on the uninhabited island for more than one month or even more than one year, so he began to develop the territory: Robinson sowed the fields with cereals, and tamed wild goats became a source of meat and milk.
This unfortunate traveler felt primitive man. Cut off from civilization, the hero had to show ingenuity and hard work: he learned to bake bread, make clothes and bake clay dishes.
Among other things, Robinson took from the ship feathers, paper, ink, a Bible, as well as a dog, a cat and a talkative parrot, which brightened up his lonely existence. In order to “at least somewhat ease his soul,” the protagonist led Personal diary, where he recorded both noteworthy and insignificant events, for example: “It rained today.”
While exploring the island, Crusoe discovered traces of cannibal savages who travel overland and hold feasts where the main dish is human meat. One day Robinson saves a captive savage who was supposed to end up on the table of the cannibals. Crusoe teaches a new friend English language and calls him Friday, since on this day of the week their fateful acquaintance took place.
During the next cannibal raid, Crusoe and Friday attack the savages and rescue two more prisoners: Friday's father and the Spaniard, whose ship was wrecked.
Finally, Robinson caught his luck by the tail: a ship captured by the rebels sails to the island. The heroes of the work free the captain and help him regain control of the ship. Thus, Robinson Crusoe, after 28 years of life on a desert island, returns to the civilized world to relatives who considered him long dead. Daniel Defoe's book has a happy ending: in Lisbon, Crusoe makes profits from a Brazilian plantation, making him fabulously rich.
Robinson no longer wants to travel by sea, so he transports his wealth to England by land. There, the final test awaits him and Friday: while crossing the Pyrenees, the heroes’ path is blocked by a hungry bear and a pack of wolves, with whom they have to fight.
- The novel about a traveler who settled on a desert island has a sequel. The book “The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” was published in 1719 along with the first part of the work. True, she did not find recognition and fame among the reading public. In Russia, this novel was not published in Russian from 1935 to 1992. The third book, “The Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe,” has not yet been translated into Russian.
- In the film "The Life and Wonderful Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1972) the main role went to, who shared the set with, Vladimir Marenkov and Valentin Kulik. This picture was watched by 26.3 million viewers in the USSR.
- The full title of Defoe's work is: “The Life, Extraordinary and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York, who lived for 28 years all alone on an uninhabited island off the coast of America near the mouth of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship , besides him, died, with an account of his unexpected liberation by pirates, written by himself."
- "Robinsonade" is a new genre in adventure literature and cinema that describes the survival of a person or group of people on a desert island. The number of works filmed and written in a similar style is countless, but we can highlight popular television series, for example, “Lost,” where Terry O’Quinn, Naveen Andrews and other actors played.
- The main character from Defoe's work migrated not only to films, but also to animated works. In 2016, viewers saw the family comedy Robinson Crusoe: A Very Inhabited Island.
In September 1704, Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721), boatswain of the English ship Cinque Ports, after a quarrel with the captain, was marooned on an uninhabited island about 700 kilometers west of Santiago, the current capital of Chile. On the crew list next to Selkirk’s name, the ship’s captain made a note: “Missing in action.” In February 1709, another British ship took Selkirk on board. Thus, Alexander Selkirk lived on the uninhabited island of Mas a Tierra, one of the islands of Juan Fernandez, for more than four years. In 1711 he returned to Britain, where his story became widely known. Alexander Selkirk became the prototype of the main character of the famous novel English writer Daniel Defoe's The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, written in 1719.
What were called the seven wonders of the world in the ancient world?
In ancient times, a tradition arose to highlight seven works of architecture and art that had no equal in the world in majesty, beauty, precious decoration and uniqueness. The expression “wonders of the world” contains the concept of something magical, supernatural. The Latin designation septem miracula mundi - seven wonders of the world - is an inaccurate translation of the original Greek hepta theamata tes oikumenes - seven remarkable creations of the ecumene (inhabited world). The most famous list of the Seven Wonders of the World includes the following: Egyptian pyramids in Giza, the Hanging Gardens in Babylon, the statue of Zeus in Olympia, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Mausolus in Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos lighthouse near Alexandria.
How did the sphinxes installed on the Neva embankment in front of the Academy of Arts appear in St. Petersburg?
These sphinxes are more than 3500 years old. They were sculpted from pink granite, mined in the Aswan quarries in southern Egypt, during the reign of the 18th dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III (1455-1419 BC) and, along with other stone sculptures, decorated the road from the Nile to the pharaoh’s mortuary temple. Over time, the temple collapsed, and the sphinxes were covered with desert sands. During archaeological excavations in 1828, they were removed from the drifts and sent for sale to Alexandria. The Russian officer A.N. Muravyov, who was in Egypt at that time, decided that his country should acquire these ancient Egyptian sculptures, and sent a letter with a drawing of the Sphinx enclosed to the Russian ambassador. The ambassador forwarded the letter to Tsar Nicholas I in St. Petersburg, who forwarded it to the Academy of Arts to find out “whether this acquisition will be useful?” The resolution of the issue was delayed, and the owner of the sphinxes, who was tired of waiting for an answer from Russia, agreed on a sale with the French government. St. Petersburg would not have owned ancient sculptures, but the revolution that broke out in France in 1830 helped. Russia bought sphinxes for 40 thousand rubles. On a sailing ship they set off on a journey to the banks of the Neva, which lasted a whole year. During loading, the cables on which one of the sphinxes was hanging above the deck of the ship broke, and the sphinx fell, breaking the mast and side into splinters. The sphinx's face still bears a deep scar from a broken rope. The journey ended in St. Petersburg in 1832, and in April 1834 the Egyptian sphinxes took their current place.
Today the Mnogo.ru quiz turned to Defoe's novel about an islander against his own will - Robinson Cool. We are asked how many years he spent away from civilization.
Robinson Crusoe and his almost deserted island
Almost uninhabited because Robinson finally met his Friday. To be honest, I haven’t read the book, but this story is so actively used in modern art that I remember the story well and can definitely say that it’s not 8 years old. But I don’t remember exactly 18 or 28, so I’ll turn to the original source. According to Robinson's calculations, he spent a little over twenty-eight years on the island. It’s hard to believe, as well as the fact that any of us can even survive on a desert island. Not only did he survive, but he also met a friend and established livestock farming and agriculture.
So, the correct answer is number three - 28 years.
More informative answers to interesting questions from the daily quiz with bonuses Mnogo.ru:
- There are a lot of varieties of onions, even if you are used to onions, there are also different colors. What is the name of an elongated onion that looks like a bulb?
The plot is most likely based on real story Alexander Selkirk, boatswain of the ship “Cinque Ports” (“Sank Port”), who was distinguished by an extremely quarrelsome and quarrelsome character. In 1704, he was landed at his own request on an uninhabited island, supplied with weapons, food, seeds and tools. Selkirk lived on this island until 1709.
In August 1719, Defoe released a sequel - “ The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", and a year later - " Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe“, but only the first book was included in the treasury of world literature, and it is with it that a new genre concept is associated - “Robinsonade”.
The book was translated into Russian by Yakov Trusov and received the title “ The Life and Adventures of Robinson Cruise, a Natural Englishman"(1st ed., St. Petersburg, 1762-1764, 2nd - 1775, 3rd - 1787, 4th - 1811).
Plot
The book is written as a fictional autobiography of Robinson Crusoe, a resident of York who dreamed of traveling to distant seas. Contrary to the wishes of his father, he left in 1651 native home and goes with a friend on his first sea voyage. It ends in a shipwreck off the English coast, but this did not disappoint Crusoe, and he soon made several trips on a merchant ship. In one of them, his ship was captured off the coast of Africa by Barbary pirates and Crusoe had to be held captive for two years until he escaped on a longboat. He is picked up at sea by a Portuguese ship bound for Brazil, where he settles for the next four years, becoming the owner of a plantation.
Wanting to get rich faster, in 1659 he took part in an illegal trading voyage to Africa for black slaves. However, the ship encounters a storm and runs aground on an unknown island near the mouth of the Orinoco. Crusoe was the only survivor of the crew, having swam to the island, which turned out to be uninhabited. Overcoming despair, he rescues all the necessary tools and supplies from the ship before it is completely destroyed by storms. Having settled on the island, he builds himself a well-sheltered and protected home, learns to sew clothes, bake clay dishes, and sows the fields with barley and rice from the ship. He also manages to tame the wild goats that lived on the island, which gives him a stable source of meat and milk, as well as hides for making clothes. Exploring the island for many years, Crusoe discovers traces of cannibal savages who sometimes visit different parts of the island and hold cannibalistic feasts. On one of these visits, he rescues a captive savage who was about to be eaten. He teaches the native English and calls him Friday, since he saved him on that day of the week. Crusoe discovers that Friday is from Trinidad, which can be seen from the opposite side of the island, and that he was captured during a battle between Indian tribes.
The next time the cannibals are seen visiting the island, Crusoe and Friday attack the savages and rescue two more captives. One of them turns out to be Friday's father, and the second is a Spaniard, whose ship was also wrecked. In addition to him, more than a dozen more Spaniards and Portuguese, who were in a hopeless situation among the savages on the mainland, escaped from the ship. Crusoe decides to send the Spaniard along with Friday's father on a boat to bring his comrades to the island and jointly build a ship on which they could all sail to civilized shores.
While Crusoe was waiting for the Spaniard and his crew to return, an unknown ship arrived at the island. This ship was captured by rebels who were going to land the captain and his loyal people on the island. Crusoe and Friday free the captain and help him regain control of the ship. The most unreliable rebels are left on the island, and Crusoe, after 28 years spent on the island, leaves it at the end of 1686 and in 1687 returns to England to his relatives, who considered him long dead. Crusoe travels to Lisbon to make a profit on his plantation in Brazil, which makes him very rich. After this, he transports his wealth overland to England to avoid traveling by sea. Friday accompanies him, and along the way they find themselves on one last adventure together as they fight hungry wolves and a bear while crossing the Pyrenees.
Sequels
There is also a third book by Defoe about Robinson Crusoe, which has not yet been translated into Russian. It is entitled "The Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe" Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe ) and is a collection of essays on moral topics; The name of Robinson Crusoe was used by the author in order to attract public interest in this work.
Meaning
Defoe's novel became a literary sensation and spawned many imitations. He demonstrated man's inexhaustible capabilities in mastering nature and in the fight against a world hostile to him. This message was very consonant with the ideology of early capitalism and the Enlightenment. In Germany alone, in the forty years that followed the publication of the first book about Robinson, no less than forty “Robinsonades” were published. Jonathan Swift challenged the optimism of Defoe's worldview in his thematically related book Gulliver's Travels (1727).
In his novel ( Russian edition The New Robinson Crusoe, or the Adventures of the Chief English Mariner, 1781), the German writer Johann Wetzel subjected the pedagogical and philosophical discussions of the 18th century to sharp satire.
The German poetess Maria Louise Weissmann philosophically interpreted the plot of the novel in her poem “Robinson.”
Filmography
| Year | A country | Name | Characteristics of the film | Performer of the role of Robinson Crusoe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| France | Robinson Crusoe | silent short film by Georges Méliès | Georges Méliès | |
| USA | Robinson Crusoe | silent short film by Otis Turner | Robert Leonard | |
| USA | Little Robinson Crusoe | silent film by Edward F. Kline | Jackie Coogan | |
| USA | The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe | silent short series by Robert F. Hill | Harry Myers | |
| Great Britain | Robinson Crusoe | silent film by M. A. Wetherell | M. A. Wetherell | |
| USA | Mr Robinson Crusoe | adventure comedy | Douglas Fairbanks (as Steve Drexel) | |
| USSR | Robinson Crusoe | black and white stereo film | Pavel Kadochnikov | |
| USA | His mouse Friday | cartoon from the Tom and Jerry series | ||
| USA | Miss Robinson Crusoe | adventure film by Eugene Frenke | Amanda Blake | |
| Mexico | Robinson Crusoe | film version by Luis Buñuel | Dan O'Herlihy | |
| USA | Rabbitson Crusoe | Looney Tunes cartoon | ||
| USA | Robinson Crusoe on Mars | science fiction film | ||
| USA | Robinson Crusoe, US Navy Lieutenant | comedy from W. Disney studio | Dick Van Dyke | |
| USSR | The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe | adventure film by Stanislav Govorukhin | Leonid Kuravlev | |
| Mexico | Robinson and Friday on a desert island | adventure film by Rene Cardona Jr. | Hugo Stieglitz | |
| USA, UK | Man Friday | parody film | Peter O'Toole | |
| Italy | Signor Robinson | parody film | Paolo Villaggio (role Robie) | |
| Czechoslovakia | The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Sailor from York | animated film by Stanislav Latal | Vaclav Postranecki | |
| UK, USA | Crusoe | adventure film by Caleb Deschanel | Aidan Quinn | |
| USA | Robinson Crusoe | adventure film | Pierce Brosnan | |
| France | Robinson Crusoe | adventure film | Pierre Richard | |
| USA | Crusoe | television series | Philip Winchester | |
| France, Belgium | Robinson Crusoe: A Very Inhabited Island | Belgian-French computer-animated film |
Write a review of the article "Robinson Crusoe"
Notes
Literature
- Urnov D. M. Robinson and Gulliver: The Fate of Two literary heroes/ Rep. ed. A. N. Nikolyukin; Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - M.: Nauka, 1973. - 89 p. - (From the history of world culture). - 50,000 copies.(region)
Links
- in the library of Maxim Moshkov
Excerpt characterizing Robinson Crusoe
Vive ce roi vaillanti –[Long live Henry the Fourth!
Long live this brave king!
etc. (French song) ]
sang Morel, winking his eye.
Se diable a quatre…
- Vivarika! Vif seruvaru! sit-down... - the soldier repeated, waving his hand and really catching the tune.
- Look, clever! Go go go go!.. - rough, joyful laughter rose from different sides. Morel, wincing, laughed too.
- Well, go ahead, go ahead!
Qui eut le triple talent,
De boire, de batre,
Et d'etre un vert galant...
[Having triple talent,
drink, fight
and be kind...]
– But it’s also complicated. Well, well, Zaletaev!..
“Kyu...” Zaletaev said with effort. “Kyu yu yu...” he drawled, carefully protruding his lips, “letriptala, de bu de ba and detravagala,” he sang.
- Hey, it’s important! That's it, guardian! oh... go go go! - Well, do you want to eat more?
- Give him some porridge; After all, it won’t be long before he gets enough of hunger.
Again they gave him porridge; and Morel, chuckling, began to work on the third pot. Joyful smiles were on all the faces of the young soldiers looking at Morel. The old soldiers, who considered it indecent to engage in such trifles, lay on the other side of the fire, but occasionally, raising themselves on their elbows, they looked at Morel with a smile.
“People too,” said one of them, dodging into his overcoat. - And wormwood grows on its root.
- Ooh! Lord, Lord! How stellar, passion! Towards the frost... - And everything fell silent.
The stars, as if knowing that now no one would see them, played out in the black sky. Now flaring up, now extinguishing, now shuddering, they busily whispered among themselves about something joyful, but mysterious.
X
The French troops gradually melted away in a mathematically correct progression. And that crossing of the Berezina, about which so much has been written, was only one of the intermediate stages in the destruction of the French army, and not at all a decisive episode of the campaign. If so much has been and is being written about the Berezina, then on the part of the French this happened only because on the broken Berezina Bridge, the disasters that the French army had previously suffered evenly here suddenly grouped together at one moment and into one tragic spectacle that remained in everyone’s memory. On the Russian side, they talked and wrote so much about the Berezina only because, far from the theater of war, in St. Petersburg, a plan was drawn up (by Pfuel) to capture Napoleon in a strategic trap on the Berezina River. Everyone was convinced that everything would actually happen exactly as planned, and therefore insisted that it was the Berezina crossing that destroyed the French. In essence, the results of the Berezinsky crossing were much less disastrous for the French in terms of the loss of guns and prisoners than Krasnoye, as the numbers show.
The only significance of the Berezina crossing is that this crossing obviously and undoubtedly proved the falsity of all plans for cutting off and the justice of the only possible course of action demanded by both Kutuzov and all the troops (mass) - only following the enemy. The crowd of Frenchmen fled with an ever-increasing force of speed, with all their energy directed towards achieving their goal. She ran like a wounded animal, and she could not get in the way. This was proven not so much by the construction of the crossing as by the traffic on the bridges. When the bridges were broken, unarmed soldiers, Moscow residents, women and children who were in the French convoy - all, under the influence of the force of inertia, did not give up, but ran forward into the boats, into the frozen water.
This aspiration was reasonable. The situation of both those fleeing and those pursuing was equally bad. Remaining with his own, each in distress hoped for the help of a comrade, for a certain place he occupied among his own. Having given himself over to the Russians, he was in the same position of distress, but he was on a lower level in terms of satisfying the needs of life. The French did not need to have correct information that half of the prisoners, with whom they did not know what to do, despite all the Russians’ desire to save them, died from cold and hunger; they felt that it could not be otherwise. The most compassionate Russian commanders and hunters of the French, the French in Russian service could not do anything for the prisoners. The French were destroyed by the disaster in which the Russian army was located. It was impossible to take away bread and clothing from hungry, necessary soldiers in order to give it to the French who were not harmful, not hated, not guilty, but simply unnecessary. Some did; but this was only an exception.
Behind was certain death; there was hope ahead. The ships were burned; there was no other salvation but a collective flight, and all the forces of the French were directed towards this collective flight.
The further the French fled, the more pitiful their remnants were, especially after the Berezina, on which, as a result of the St. Petersburg plan, special hopes were pinned, the more the passions of the Russian commanders flared up, blaming each other and especially Kutuzov. Believing that the failure of the Berezinsky Petersburg plan would be attributed to him, dissatisfaction with him, contempt for him and ridicule of him were expressed more and more strongly. Teasing and contempt, of course, were expressed in a respectful form, in a form in which Kutuzov could not even ask what and for what he was accused. They didn't talk to him seriously; reporting to him and asking his permission, they pretended to perform a sad ritual, and behind his back they winked and tried to deceive him at every step.
All these people, precisely because they could not understand him, recognized that there was no point in talking to the old man; that he would never understand the full depth of their plans; that he would answer with his phrases (it seemed to them that these were just phrases) about the golden bridge, that you cannot come abroad with a crowd of vagabonds, etc. They had already heard all this from him. And everything he said: for example, that we had to wait for food, that people were without boots, it was all so simple, and everything they offered was so complex and clever that it was obvious to them that he was stupid and old, but they were not powerful, brilliant commanders.
Especially after the joining of the armies of the brilliant admiral and the hero of St. Petersburg, Wittgenstein, this mood and staff gossip reached its highest limits. Kutuzov saw this and, sighing, just shrugged his shoulders. Only once, after the Berezina, he became angry and wrote the following letter to Bennigsen, who reported separately to the sovereign:
“Due to your painful seizures, please, Your Excellency, upon receipt of this, go to Kaluga, where you await further orders and assignments from His Imperial Majesty.”
But after Bennigsen was sent to the army, he came Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, who started the campaign and was removed from the army by Kutuzov. Now the Grand Duke, having arrived at the army, informed Kutuzov about the displeasure of the sovereign emperor for the weak successes of our troops and for the slowness of movement. The Emperor himself intended to arrive at the army the other day.
An old man, as experienced in court affairs as in military matters, that Kutuzov, who in August of the same year was chosen commander-in-chief against the will of the sovereign, the one who removed the heir and the Grand Duke from the army, the one who, with his power, in opposition the will of the sovereign, ordered the abandonment of Moscow, this Kutuzov now immediately realized that his time was over, that his role had been played and that he no longer had this imaginary power. And he understood this not just from court relationships. On the one hand, he saw that military affairs, the one in which he played his role, was over, and he felt that his calling had been fulfilled. On the other hand, at the same time he began to feel physical fatigue in his old body and the need for physical rest.
On November 29, Kutuzov entered Vilna - his good Vilna, as he said. Kutuzov was governor of Vilna twice during his service. In the rich, surviving Vilna, in addition to the comforts of life that he had been deprived of for so long, Kutuzov found old friends and memories. And he, suddenly turning away from all military and state concerns, plunged into a smooth, familiar life as much as he was given peace by the passions seething around him, as if everything that was happening now and was about to happen in historical world, did not concern him at all.
Chichagov, one of the most passionate cutters and overturners, Chichagov, who first wanted to make a diversion to Greece, and then to Warsaw, but did not want to go where he was ordered, Chichagov, known for his courage in speaking to the sovereign, Chichagov, who considered Kutuzov benefited himself, because when he was sent in the 11th year to conclude peace with Turkey in addition to Kutuzov, he, making sure that peace had already been concluded, admitted to the sovereign that the merit of concluding peace belonged to Kutuzov; This Chichagov was the first to meet Kutuzov in Vilna at the castle where Kutuzov was supposed to stay. Chichagov in a naval uniform, with a dirk, holding his cap under his arm, gave Kutuzov his drill report and the keys to the city. That contemptuously respectful attitude of young people towards an old man who had lost his mind was expressed in highest degree in the entire appeal of Chichagov, who already knew the charges leveled against Kutuzov.
While talking with Chichagov, Kutuzov, among other things, told him that the carriages with dishes captured from him in Borisov were intact and would be returned to him.
- C"est pour me dire que je n"ai pas sur quoi manger... Je puis au contraire vous fournir de tout dans le cas meme ou vous voudriez donner des diners, [You want to tell me that I have nothing to eat. On the contrary, I can serve you all, even if you wanted to give dinners.] - Chichagov said, flushing, with every word he wanted to prove that he was right and therefore assumed that Kutuzov was preoccupied with this very thing. Kutuzov smiled his thin, penetrating smile and, shrugging his shoulders, answered: “Ce n"est que pour vous dire ce que je vous dis. [I want to say only what I say.]
In Vilna, Kutuzov, contrary to the will of the sovereign, stopped most troops. Kutuzov, as his close associates said, had become unusually depressed and physically weakened during his stay in Vilna. He was reluctant to deal with the affairs of the army, leaving everything to his generals and, while waiting for the sovereign, indulged in an absent-minded life.
Having left St. Petersburg with his retinue - Count Tolstoy, Prince Volkonsky, Arakcheev and others, on December 7, the sovereign arrived in Vilna on December 11 and drove straight up to the castle in a road sleigh. At the castle, despite the severe frost, stood about a hundred generals and staff officers in full dress uniform and an honor guard from the Semenovsky regiment.
The courier, who galloped up to the castle in a sweaty troika, ahead of the sovereign, shouted: “He’s coming!” Konovnitsyn rushed into the hallway to report to Kutuzov, who was waiting in a small Swiss room.
A minute later, the thick, large figure of an old man, in full dress uniform, with all the regalia covering his chest, and his belly pulled up by a scarf, pumping, came out onto the porch. Kutuzov put his hat on the front, picked up his gloves and sideways, stepping with difficulty down the steps, stepped down and took in his hand the report prepared for submission to the sovereign.
Running, whispering, the troika still desperately flying by, and all eyes turned to the jumping sleigh, in which the figures of the sovereign and Volkonsky were already visible.
All this, out of a fifty-year habit, had a physically disturbing effect on the old general; He hurriedly felt himself with concern, straightened his hat, and at that moment the sovereign, emerging from the sleigh, raised his eyes to him, cheered up and stretched out, submitted a report and began to speak in his measured, ingratiating voice.
The Emperor glanced quickly at Kutuzov from head to toe, frowned for a moment, but immediately, overcoming himself, walked up and, spreading his arms, hugged the old general. Again, according to the old, familiar impression and in relation to his sincere thoughts, this hug, as usual, had an effect on Kutuzov: he sobbed.
The Emperor greeted the officers and the Semenovsky guard and, shaking the old man’s hand again, went with him to the castle.
Left alone with the field marshal, the sovereign expressed his displeasure to him for the slowness of the pursuit, for the mistakes in Krasnoye and on the Berezina, and conveyed his thoughts about the future campaign abroad. Kutuzov made no objections or comments. The same submissive and meaningless expression with which, seven years ago, he listened to the orders of the sovereign on the Field of Austerlitz, was now established on his face.