Many of I. Bunin’s works are hymns to true love, which has everything: tenderness, passion, and the feeling of that special connection between the souls of two lovers. This feeling is also described in the story “Sunstroke,” which the writer considered one of his best works. Students meet him in 11th grade. We suggest making your preparation for the lesson easier by using the analysis of the work presented below. Analysis will also help you quickly and efficiently prepare for the lesson and the Unified State Exam.
Brief Analysis
Year of writing- 1925
History of creation- I. Bunin was inspired to write the work by the nature of the Maritime Alps. The story was created during the period when the writer was working on a series of works related to love themes.
Subject- The main theme of the work is true love, which a person feels with both soul and body. In the final part of the work, the motive of separation from a loved one appears.
Composition- The formal organization of the story is simple, but there are certain features. The plot elements are placed in a logical sequence, but the work begins with a plot. Another feature is the framing: the story begins and ends with a picture of the sea.
Genre- Story.
Direction- Realism.
History of creation
“Sunstroke” was written by I. Bunin in 1925. It is worth noting that the year of writing coincided with the period when the writer was working on stories on the theme of love. This is one of the factors that explains the psychological depth of the work.
I. Bunin told G. Kuznetsova about the history of its creation. After the conversation, the woman wrote the following in her diary: “We talked yesterday about writing and how stories are born. At I.A. (Ivan Alekseevich) it starts with nature, some picture that flashed in the brain, often a fragment. So the sunstroke came from the idea of going out on deck after dinner, from the light into the darkness of a summer night on the Volga. And the end came later"
Subject
In “Sunstroke,” the analysis of the work should begin with a description of the main problems. The story showed motive, very common in both world and domestic literature. However, the author managed to reveal it in an original way, delving into the psychology of the characters.
At the center of the work topic sincere, ardent love, in the context of which they develop problems relationships between people, separation of lovers, internal contradiction caused by the incompatibility of feelings and circumstances. Issues The work is based on psychologism. The system of images is unbranched, so the reader’s attention is constantly focused on two heroes - the lieutenant and the beautiful stranger.
The story begins with a description of lunch on the deck of a ship. It was under such conditions that the young people met. A spark immediately ran between them. The man suggested that the girl escape from strangers. After getting off the ship, they headed to the hotel. When the young people were left alone, the flames of passion immediately engulfed their bodies and minds.
The time at the hotel flew by. In the morning, the lieutenant and the beautiful stranger were forced to part, but this turned out to be very difficult. Young people wonder what happened to them. They assume it was sunstroke. In these considerations lies the meaning of the title of the work. Sunstroke in this context is a symbol of sudden mental shock, love overshadowing the mind.
The beloved persuades the lieutenant to take her to the deck. Here the man seems to be struck by sunstroke again, because he allows himself to kiss the stranger in front of everyone. The hero cannot recover from separation for a long time. He is tormented by the thought that his beloved most likely has a family, so they are not destined to be together. A man tries to write to his beloved, but then realizes that he does not know her address. In such a rebellious state, the hero spends another night, recent events gradually move away from him. However, they do not pass without a trace: it seems to the lieutenant that he has aged ten years.
Composition
The composition of the work is simple, but some features are worth paying attention to. Plot elements are placed in a logical sequence. However, the story begins not with exposition, but with a plot. This technique enhances the sound of the idea. The characters get to know each other, and then we learn more about them. Development of events - night at the hotel and morning conversation. The climax is the scene of the separation of the lieutenant and the stranger. The denouement - the outbreak of love is gradually forgotten, but leaves a deep mark in the soul of the hero. This conclusion provides the reader with the opportunity to draw certain conclusions.
The framing can also be considered a feature of the composition of the work: the story begins and ends with a scene on the deck.
Genre
The genre of I. Bunin’s work “Sunstroke” is a story, as evidenced by the following signs: small volume, the main role is played by the plot line of lovers, there are only two main characters. The direction of the story is realism.
Work test
Rating analysis
Average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 107.
We have prepared for you a series of lessons under the general title “Navigator”. They will help you better understand works of Russian literature and navigate materials dedicated to this work and posted in the public domain on the Internet.
I propose to talk about the story of I.A. Bunin "Sunstroke".
Story by I.A. Bunin's “Sunstroke” (you can read it in full here: text) was written at the beginning of the 20th century. Many phenomena and objects of that time have already disappeared from our lives, but the events themselves could have happened anywhere and anytime.
If you want to think about the issues that the author touches on in the story and that have concerned humanity for centuries, take a look at.
The story about an accidental, suddenly flared up love and a revolution in human perception does not leave indifferent either the writer’s contemporaries or us living a hundred years later. In this section we invite you to find out what critics and philologists think about “Sunstroke”. These materials will help you answer in class, when writing an essay, will be useful in preparing for exams and, of course, will give you the keys to understanding the text. We also recommend Igor Volgin’s program “The Glass Bead Game” (about the collection “Dark Alleys”), where the presenter’s interlocutors discuss the cycle of stories and Bunin’s concept of love. You can see how the idea of a story is conveyed through cinematography by going to the tab.
If you are interested in which of the writers thought about such questions, with whom Bunin, voluntarily or unwittingly, entered into a creative dialogue, go to the section. And for those of you who liked “Sunstroke” and who would gladly read something similar in style and atmosphere, we advise you to look at the tab.
Sunstroke- a painful condition, a disorder of the brain due to prolonged exposure to sunlight on the uncovered surface of the head. This is a special form of heat stroke.
Sunstroke is characterized by the body acquiring more heat than the body is able to manage and cool properly. Not only sweating is disrupted, but also blood circulation (vessels dilate, blood “stagnates” in the brain), free radicals accumulate in the tissues. The consequences of such a blow can be very serious, even threatening cardiac arrest. Sunstroke is very dangerous in terms of its impact, primarily on the nervous system.
Symptoms of sunstroke
Sunstroke is accompanied by headache, lethargy, and vomiting. In severe cases - coma. Symptoms of overheating worsen as the ambient humidity increases. More specific signs of sunstroke largely depend on the degree of damage to the body. Let's look at them:
1. Mild degree
- increased heart rate and breathing;
- pupil dilation.
Measures: remove from the overheated zone, provide assistance. In case of nausea and vomiting, position the patient in such a way as to avoid choking on vomit.
2. Average degree
- severe adynamia;
- severe headache with nausea and;
- stunned;
- uncertainty of movements;
- unsteady gait;
- at times fainting;
- increased heart rate and breathing;
- nosebleed
3. Severe form
A severe form of sunstroke develops suddenly. Face, later pale cyanotic. There have been cases of changes in consciousness from mild to coma, clonic and tonic convulsions, involuntary release of urine and feces, delirium, hallucinations, increased body temperature to 41-42°C, and cases of sudden death. Mortality 20-30%.
The risk of getting sunstroke increases under the following conditions: 
- direct exposure to sun rays on the head;
— increased environmental humidity;
- presence of special health problems (heart disease, endocrine disorders,);
- age up to 1 year (especially newborns) and elderly people (in children, the natural thermoregulation of the body is not yet sufficiently perfect, and in the elderly it already functions poorly);
- excess body weight;
- smoking;
- alcohol intoxication;
When observing the first symptoms, you should quickly respond by providing assistance to the victim. At the same time, do not forget that this will only be first aid, and it is better to immediately call an ambulance, since it is difficult for an ordinary person to determine the severity of the victim’s condition, and especially if it is an elderly person or a child.
— Transfer or transfer the victim to the shade or a cool room with sufficient oxygen and a normal level of humidity (the space should be open within the immediate radius, without crowds of people);
- Be sure to put the victim down;
— Legs should be raised, placing any things (for example, a bag) under the ankle area;
— Free from outer clothing (especially those that compress the neck and chest, free from the trouser belt; if the clothing is synthetic or made of thick fabric, it is better to remove it completely);
- Give the victim plenty of cool water (preferably mineral water) with added sugar and a teaspoon of salt on the tip, or at least plain cool water;
- Wet your face with cold water;
— Wet any cloth with cold water and pat your chest (you can pour water over the whole body at about 20°C or take a bath with cool water (18 - 20°C));
— Apply a cold compress (or a bottle of cold water, pieces of ice) to the head (on the forehead and under the back of the head);
- Fan the victim with frequent movements;
— Clear the airways from vomit;
- Wrap the body in a wet sheet or spray with cold water.
— Give a smell of ammonia vapor (from a cotton swab) or a 10% ammonia solution (in case of clouding of consciousness);
- use a sun umbrella (light shades);
- from time to time wipe your face with a handkerchief dipped in cool water;
- If you feel unwell, seek help and take possible measures yourself.
To avoid sunstroke, in hot sunny weather it is recommended to wear hats made of light-colored material that reflects sunlight more strongly.
Be careful and careful when in direct sunlight!
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Tags: sunstroke, signs of sunstroke, sunstroke symptoms, help for sunstroke, first aid for sunstroke, treatment of sunstroke, sunstroke first aid, consequences of sunstroke, symptoms of sunstroke
The Russian premiere will take place on October 4 in Simferopol. The film will be released in wide release on Russian screens on October 9.
The film is based on two works by Ivan Bunin - the story "Sunstroke" and the writer's diaries "Cursed Days". According to the director, “in the great Russian literature, perhaps, there is no work as subtle and permeated with sensuality as Sunstroke, and there is no more tragic and terrible work than Damned Days - a document of the era, an eyewitness chronicle of the tragedy of the Russian world.” .
Nikita Sergeevich planned to film Ivan Bunin’s story “Sunstroke” back in the early 80s of the last century. However, only four years ago the master began filming. They took place in Switzerland, Odessa and other places. Nikita Sergeevich also wrote the script himself in collaboration with Vladimir Moiseenko and Alexander Adabashyan.
The plot of Bunin's story "Sunstroke" is built around the meeting of a lieutenant and a beautiful stranger and the passion that hits them like a sunstroke. Having met on the ship, the heroes go ashore in the small provincial town of Pavlino, where they spend a single night in a hotel. The next morning the woman disappears - her husband and daughter are waiting for her at home. But the lieutenant cannot forget the love affair... Memories of this “sunstroke” do not let him go even in the most difficult days for Russia - at the height of the Civil War and the collapse of society. In 1920, the surviving White Guard officers were asked to surrender their weapons and either leave the country or swear allegiance to the new government.
Sunstroke is not Sunstroke is not just an ordinary love story. “Sunstroke” is providence, magic, something intangible and elusive, understandable only to two. Eleven times I rewrote the story by hand, trying to immerse myself in its energy, to capture the elusive aura of the language. But you can get closer to the mystery of this short story, to understand its atmosphere, only by trying to understand Bunin himself. Therefore, I began to re-read the works of Ivan Alekseevich again and again. And at some point I realized that I wanted to show a different Bunin in the film, contrasting, recognizable and completely unfamiliar,” said Nikita Mikhalkov.
In "Cursed Days" there is no hint of the psychological lyrics of "Sunstroke". The work is imbued with undisguised hatred of the new time, the revolution and those who support this revolution. Bunin writes with unquenchable, unforgiving anger and some kind of physiological disgust. With the same disgust, he writes about ordinary people, stunned and at the same time inspired by the grandiose events taking place. For Bunin, a hereditary nobleman, the collapse of the noble world cannot be perceived differently than the collapse of the world in principle.
Bunin has such a burning hatred for revolutionary Russia that he is ready to agree to its occupation by literally anyone: be it the Germans, the Entente, or the Japanese. Yes, even if it were the devil himself - if only this very devil would drive the rebellious cattle back into the slums of workers' settlements and return the policemen to the streets, guarding the usual world order. Angry, bilious, mocking, filled with melancholy and fear of the future - these are the “Cursed Days”.
What will be the main thing and what will be secondary, Mikhalkov, in general, made it clear quite directly. “This will not be a film about love, but about how Russia perished,” the director said. In other words, in the foreground the viewer will see the Civil War and the death of the country, and the love of an officer and a mysterious stranger will act as a plot anchor for the chaotic pictures from “Cursed Days.”
“The main question of our hero in 1920: how did it all happen? I really want this question to sound differently: how to make sure this doesn’t happen?” - the director emphasized.
“The film is woven from the interweaving of completely airy, light, bewitching moments of the “sunstroke” of 1907 and the dark, devastating and tragic events of the “damned days” of 1920 - the time when the Russian world was “torn to shreds” by the Civil War, when tens of thousands of Russians people had to flee their home country, seeking refuge in European countries, in particular in Serbia,” explained Nikita Mikhalkov himself.
According to the director, the choice of Belgrade for the premiere was not accidental, because “in the 1920s, Serbia provided significant support to tens of thousands of Russian emigrants, essentially becoming a new home for them.”
According to him, “many people” are invited to the premiere of “Sunstroke”: “Emir Kusturica promised to come. My actors should be there. As I said, this will be the film’s birthday, and I’m inviting all my friends. And I’m glad, that not one of them, unless, of course, he was filming somewhere, refused to come.”
The leading actors in the film “Sunstroke” are Russian actress Victoria Solovyova, as well as the aspiring Latvian actor Martins Kalita. Moreover, for the 25-year-old artist this work became her film debut. And the young Baltic actor was voiced by Evgeny Mironov. According to the concept of the picture, there is nothing extraordinary in the characters, they are just a man and a woman, beautiful, young, healthy, but they had to play in such a way that there was nothing vulgar and vulgar in their fleeting connection, so that all looks, smiles, touches became high and pure poetry.
The film was shot on the Volga and Odessa, as well as on Lake Geneva. Location filming began in 2012. They were held in Pavlovo-on-Oka and in Odessa.
For filming on the water, the director was only satisfied with an operating steamship, but he could not find one in Russia. Therefore, it was decided to film in Switzerland, on Lake Geneva. Russian landscapes were subsequently added on the computer.
The idea of making a film based on Bunin’s works came to the famous director 30 years ago, but Mikhalkov began to implement this idea only in 2010. According to Nikita Mikhalkov, he has been working towards this scenario for 37 years. “I’ve been working towards this film for a very long time, I wrote an application for “Sunstroke” when Bunin was still banned. But I hoped that someday they would still let me film it. Then I came up with the idea of combining “Sunstroke” with “The Damned Days,” a terrible evidence of the exodus of the White Army (and the Russian intelligentsia in general) from the country. And this connection seemed especially important to me today,” explained Nikita Mikhalkov.
After lunch, we walked out of the brightly and hotly lit dining room onto the deck and stopped at the railing. She closed her eyes, put her hand to her cheek with her palm facing outward, laughed a simple, charming laugh—everything was charming about this little woman—and said: - I seem to be drunk... Where did you come from? Three hours ago I didn’t even know you existed. I don't even know where you sat down. In Samara? But still... Is it my head spinning or are we turning somewhere? There was darkness and lights ahead. From the darkness, a strong, soft wind beat in the face, and the lights rushed somewhere to the side: the steamer, with Volga panache, abruptly described a wide arc, running up to a small pier. The lieutenant took her hand and raised it to his lips. The hand, small and strong, smelled of tan. And her heart sank blissfully and terribly at the thought of how strong and dark she must be under this light canvas dress after a whole month of lying under the southern sun, on the hot sea sand (she said that she was coming from Anapa). The lieutenant muttered:- Let's go... - Where? - she asked in surprise. - On this pier.- For what? He said nothing. She again put the back of her hand to her hot cheek. - Crazy... “Let’s get off,” he repeated stupidly. - I beg you... “Oh, do as you wish,” she said, turning away. The runaway steamer hit the dimly lit dock with a soft thud, and they almost fell on top of each other. The end of the rope flew over their heads, then it rushed back, and the water boiled noisily, the gangway rattled... The lieutenant rushed to get his things. A minute later they passed the sleepy office, came out onto sand deep as deep as the hub, and silently sat down in a dusty cab. The gentle climb uphill, among rare crooked streetlights, along a road soft with dust, seemed endless. But then they got up, drove out and crackled along the pavement, there was some kind of square, public places, a tower, the warmth and smells of a night summer provincial town... The cab driver stopped near the illuminated entrance, behind the open doors of which an old wooden staircase rose steeply, old, unshaven the footman in a pink blouse and frock coat took his things with displeasure and walked forward on his trampled feet. They entered a large, but terribly stuffy room, hotly heated by the sun during the day, with white drawn curtains on the windows and two unburnt candles on the mirror - and as soon as they entered and the footman closed the door, the lieutenant so impulsively rushed to her and both of them suffocated so frantically in a kiss , that for many years later they remembered this moment: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives. At ten o'clock in the morning, sunny, hot, happy, with the ringing of churches, with the bazaar on the square in front of the hotel, with the smell of hay, tar and again all that complex and odorous smell that a Russian district town smells of, she, this little nameless woman, who did not say her name, jokingly calling herself a beautiful stranger, left. We slept little, but in the morning, coming out from behind the screen near the bed, washing and dressing in five minutes, she was as fresh as she was at seventeen. Was she embarrassed? No, very little. She was still simple, cheerful and - already reasonable. “No, no, honey,” she said in response to his request to go further together, “no, you must stay until the next ship.” If we go together, everything will be ruined. This will be very unpleasant for me. I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think of me. Nothing even similar to what happened has ever happened to me, and there never will be again. The eclipse definitely hit me... Or, rather, we both got something like sunstroke... And the lieutenant somehow easily agreed with her. In a light and happy spirit, he took her to the pier - just in time for the departure of the pink Airplane - kissed her on the deck in front of everyone and barely had time to jump onto the gangplank, which had already moved back. Just as easily, carefree, he returned to the hotel. However, something has changed. The room without her seemed somehow completely different than it was with her. It was still full of her - and empty. It was strange! There was still the smell of her good English cologne, her unfinished cup was still standing on the tray, but she was no longer there... And the lieutenant’s heart suddenly sank with such tenderness that the lieutenant hurried to light a cigarette and walked back and forth around the room several times. - A strange adventure! - he said out loud, laughing and feeling tears welling up in his eyes. - “I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think...” And she already left... The screen had been pulled back, the bed had not yet been made. And he felt that he simply had no strength to look at this bed now. He closed it with a screen, closed the windows so as not to hear the market talk and the creaking of wheels, lowered the white bubbling curtains, sat down on the sofa... Yes, that’s the end of this “road adventure”! She left - and now she’s already far away, probably sitting in the glass white salon or on the deck and looking at the huge river shining in the sun, at the oncoming rafts, at the yellow shallows, at the shining distance of water and sky, at this entire immeasurable Volga expanse. .. And forgive, and forever, forever... Because where can they meet now? “I can’t,” he thought, “I can’t, out of the blue, come to this city, where her husband is, where her three-year-old girl is, in general her whole family and her whole ordinary life!” - And this city seemed to him some kind of special, reserved city, and the thought that she would live her lonely life in it, often, perhaps, remembering him, remembering their chance, such a fleeting meeting, and he already will never see her, this thought amazed and amazed him. No, this can't be! It would be too wild, unnatural, implausible! - And he felt such pain and such uselessness of his entire future life without her that he was overcome by horror and despair. “What the hell! - he thought, getting up, again starting to walk around the room and trying not to look at the bed behind the screen. - What’s wrong with me? And what is special about it and what actually happened? In fact, it looks like some kind of sunstroke! And most importantly, how can I now spend the whole day in this outback without her?” He still remembered all of her, with all her slightest features, he remembered the smell of her tan and canvas dress, her strong body, the lively, simple and cheerful sound of her voice... The feeling of the pleasures he had just experienced with all her feminine charm was still unusually alive in him , but now the main thing was still this second, completely new feeling - that strange, incomprehensible feeling that was not there at all while they were together, which he could not even imagine in himself, starting yesterday this, as he thought, was only funny an acquaintance that could no longer be told to her now! “And most importantly,” he thought, “you’ll never be able to tell!” And what to do, how to live this endless day, with these memories, with this insoluble torment, in this godforsaken town above the very shining Volga along which this pink steamer carried her away! I needed to save myself, do something, distract myself, go somewhere. He resolutely put on his cap, took the stack, quickly walked, jingling his spurs, along the empty corridor, ran down the steep stairs to the entrance... Yes, but where to go? At the entrance stood a cab driver, young, in a smart suit, and calmly smoking a cigarette. The lieutenant looked at him in confusion and amazement: how can you sit so calmly on the box, smoke and generally be simple, careless, indifferent? “I’m probably the only one so terribly unhappy in this whole city,” he thought, heading towards the bazaar. The market was already leaving. For some reason, he walked through the fresh manure among the carts, among the carts with cucumbers, among the new bowls and pots, and the women sitting on the ground vied with each other to call him, took the pots in their hands and knocked, rang them with their fingers, showing their good quality, men they stunned him, shouted to him: “Here are the first grade cucumbers, your honor!” It was all so stupid and absurd that he fled from the market. He went to the cathedral, where they were singing loudly, cheerfully and decisively, with the consciousness of a fulfilled duty, then he walked for a long time, circling around the small, hot and neglected garden on the cliff of a mountain, above the boundless light steel expanse of the river... Shoulder straps and buttons of his jacket it was so hot that it was impossible to touch them. The inside of his cap was wet from sweat, his face was burning... Returning to the hotel, he entered with pleasure into the large and empty cool dining room on the ground floor, took off his cap with pleasure and sat down at a table near the open window, which was filled with heat, but still - there was a whiff of air, I ordered a botvinya with ice... Everything was good, there was immeasurable happiness, great joy in everything; even in this heat and in all the smells of the market, in this whole unfamiliar town and in this old county hotel there was it, this joy, and at the same time the heart was simply torn to pieces. He drank several glasses of vodka, snacked on lightly salted cucumbers with dill and felt that he, without a second thought, would die tomorrow, if by some miracle he could return her, spend another, this day, with her - spend only then, only then, to tell her and prove it somehow, to convince her how painfully and enthusiastically he loves her... Why prove it? Why convince? He didn’t know why, but it was more necessary than life. - My nerves are completely gone! - he said, pouring his fifth glass of vodka. He pushed his shoe away from him, asked for black coffee and began to smoke and think intensely: what should he do now, how to get rid of this sudden, unexpected love? But getting rid of it—he felt it too vividly—was impossible. And he suddenly quickly stood up again, took his cap and riding stack and, asking where the post office was, hurriedly went there with the phrase of the telegram already prepared in his head: “From now on, my whole life is forever, until the grave, yours, in your power.” But, having reached the old thick-walled house where there was a post office and telegraph, he stopped in horror: he knew the city where she lived, he knew that she had a husband and a three-year-old daughter, but he did not know her last name or first name! He asked her about this several times yesterday at dinner and at the hotel, and each time she laughed and said: - Why do you need to know who I am, what my name is? On the corner, near the post office, there was a photographic showcase. He looked for a long time at a large portrait of some military man in thick epaulets, with bulging eyes, a low forehead, with amazingly magnificent sideburns and a wide chest, completely decorated with orders... How wild, scary is everything everyday, ordinary, when the heart is struck, - yes, he was amazed, he now understood it, by this terrible “sunstroke,” by too much love, by too much happiness! He looked at the newlywed couple - a young man in a long frock coat and white tie, with a crew cut, stretched out in front on the arm of a girl in a wedding gauze - he turned his eyes to the portrait of some pretty and perky young lady in a student cap at an askew... Then, languishing with painful envy of all these unknown, non-suffering people, he began to look intently along the street. - Where to go? What to do? The street was completely empty. The houses were all the same, white, two-story, merchant houses, with large gardens, and it seemed that there was not a soul in them; white thick dust lay on the pavement; and all this was blinding, everything was flooded with hot, fiery and joyful, but here it seemed like an aimless sun. In the distance the street rose, hunched over and rested on a cloudless, grayish sky with a reflection. There was something southern about it, reminiscent of Sevastopol, Kerch... Anapa. This was especially unbearable. And the lieutenant, with his head bowed, squinting from the light, intently looking at his feet, staggering, stumbling, clinging spur to spur, walked back. He returned to the hotel so overwhelmed with fatigue, as if he had made a huge trek somewhere in Turkestan, in the Sahara. He, gathering his last strength, entered his large and empty room. The room was already tidy, devoid of the last traces of her - only one hairpin, forgotten by her, lay on the night table! He took off his jacket and looked at himself in the mirror: his face - an ordinary officer’s face, gray from the tan, with a whitish mustache, bleached from the sun and bluish white eyes, which seemed even whiter from the tan - now had an excited, crazy expression, and in There was something youthful and deeply unhappy about the thin white shirt with a standing starched collar. He lay down on the bed on his back and put his dusty boots on the dump. The windows were open, the curtains were drawn, and a light breeze blew them in from time to time, blowing into the room the heat of heated iron roofs and all this luminous and now completely empty, silent Volga world. He lay with his hands under the back of his head and looked intently in front of him. Then he clenched his teeth, closed his eyelids, feeling the tears rolling down his cheeks from under them, and finally fell asleep, and when he opened his eyes again, the evening sun was already turning reddish yellow behind the curtains. The wind died down, the room was stuffy and dry, like in an oven... Both yesterday and this morning were remembered as if they had happened ten years ago. He slowly got up, slowly washed his face, raised the curtains, rang the bell and asked for the samovar and the bill, and drank tea with lemon for a long time. Then he ordered a cab driver to be brought, things to be taken out, and, sitting in the cab, on its red, faded seat, he gave the footman five whole rubles. - And it looks like, your honor, that it was I who brought you at night! - the driver said cheerfully, taking the reins. When we went down to the pier, the blue summer night was already shining over the Volga, and many colorful lights were already scattered along the river, and the lights were hanging on the masts of the approaching steamship. - Delivered it right! - the cab driver said ingratiatingly. The lieutenant gave him five rubles, took a ticket, walked to the pier... Just like yesterday, there was a soft knock on its pier and slight dizziness from the unsteadiness underfoot, then a flying end, the sound of water boiling and running forward under the wheels a little back the steamer pulled up... And the crowd of people on this ship, already everywhere lit and smelling of kitchen, seemed unusually friendly and good. A minute later they ran further, upward, to the same place where she had been carried away just that morning. The dark summer dawn faded far ahead, gloomily, sleepily and multi-coloredly reflected in the river, which in some places still glowed like trembling ripples in the distance beneath it, under this dawn, and the lights floated and floated back, scattered in the darkness around. The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older. Maritime Alps, 1925.