1

Trouble has come to the Turbins' house. The death of their mother is taken seriously by their older brother Alexey, younger Nikolka and sister Elena. Their cozy apartment on the second floor of building No. 13 on Alekseevsky Spusk became empty and gloomy. Dying, the mother bequeathed to live together. But it was very difficult to survive in the frosty and snowy December of 1918.

Alexey Turbin is a twenty-eight-year-old doctor. A few days after his mother’s funeral service, he goes to the priest. The young man’s soul is heavy, so he seeks support from Father Alexander. The priest says that one should not be discouraged, but it will be even harder.

2

The stove in the Turbins’ apartment is hot. This is a remarkable part of the interior. The younger generation leaves various inscriptions and drawings there. Alexey and Nikolka are sitting by the warm stove in the dining room and singing an old cadet song. An alarmed Elena, a 24-year-old red-haired beauty, enters. Her husband Sergei Talberg promised to be there by three o'clock in the afternoon, and it was already ten in the evening. Distant cannon fire can be heard. There are bad rumors circulating around the city: the Germans are leaving Kyiv, Petlyura’s troops are approaching.

Suddenly the doorbell rings. But it was not Talberg who came, but old friend family lieutenant Viktor Myshlaevsky. His detachment of 40 people was thrown into a cordon and promised to be replaced in six hours, but they were replaced within a day. The soldiers stood in the snow in light boots and overcoats, in a terrible frost, without food or shelter, without the ability to light a fire... Two froze to death, two had frostbitten feet.

Myshlaevsky scolds the headquarters and especially Colonel Shchetkin with terrible words. Alexey, Nikolka and Elena are working together to warm up the lieutenant.

The doorbell rings again. This time Thalberg appears, but Elena's joy is short-lived. The husband is packing his things. The Germans leave the city, and Sergei leaves with them. He cannot take his wife with him, because he is going into the unknown. The turbines say goodbye, Thalberg and the German headquarters leave the City.

3

The Turbins' downstairs neighbor, engineer Vasily Lisovich (nicknamed Vasilisa), does not sleep that night. Having covered the windows with blankets, he hides valuables in his home hiding place. Two more hiding places are located in the attic and in the barn. Lisovich is so carried away that he does not notice the man from the street. He watches the engineer through the gap between the blanket and the frame.

And new guests are gathering in the apartment upstairs. Immediately after Talberg’s departure, Alexei’s friends from the gymnasium came: Lieutenant Leonid Shervinsky and Second Lieutenant Fyodor Stepanov, nicknamed Karas. They brought wine and vodka. Soon everyone gets drunk, especially Myshlaevsky, who becomes ill. Alexey has to give Viktor medicines. Already at dawn, the guests go to bed, and Elena cries in her room. She understands that her husband will never return for her.

4

That winter there were many officers in Kyiv. Some, like Alexey Turbin, came from the front. Others fled from the Bolshevik authorities from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Many large officials, merchants, factory owners and landowners with their families and mistresses huddled in cramped apartments with friends and in hotel rooms. They slept on chairs, but they caroused widely and squandered money.

Life became anxious and restless, but outside the City it was even worse. And here all hope is on the Germans. But trouble was already knocking on the door.

5

The first harbinger of misfortune was an explosion in ammunition depots, the second was the murder of the commander of the German army. The third, according to rumors, was the release of Symon Petlyura from the city prison. If only the hetman had known then which prisoner he had released.

That night Alexey Turbin had a dream. He saw Sergeant Zhilin, who, along with the entire squadron, was mowed down by a machine-gun burst, as well as Colonel Nai-Turs, who commanded the detachment that replaced Myshlaevsky. Both were in heaven. God said that for him everyone is equal: both Orthodox and atheist Bolsheviks. And he has already prepared luxurious barracks with red stars for the Red Army soldiers who will die near Perekop in 1920. Alexey had such a good time talking with the sergeant and the colonel that he began to ask to be a doctor in their squadron. And Zhilin nodded his head.

6

Early in the morning Shervinsky and Nikolka left the house. One went to the headquarters of General Belorukov, the second to the volunteer squad. Later Turbin, Myshlaevsky and Karas rose. The unexpectedly cheerful Victor even managed to hit on Anyuta, a maid in the Turbins’ house. On the advice of Karas, all three went to their former gymnasium, where a volunteer artillery division was being formed.

The headquarters was located a five-minute walk from the gymnasium, in the premises of a former Parisian fashion store. The artillery commander, Colonel Malyshev, sent everyone to the disposal of Captain Studzinsky. The division consisted of 120 cadets and 80 students. Experienced officers commanded, which now included Karas and Myshlaevsky.

Turbin went home to change clothes. He gladly put on his military uniform again, Elena sewed on him new shoulder straps. In the evening of the same day, Colonel Malyshev inspected the new formation. After hearing a report that every second person in the division did not know how to shoot, the colonel ordered the squad to be disbanded before 7 am.

7

At night on Vladimirskaya Hill the icy wind blows with might and main and it is completely deserted. But there are German patrols below. Therefore, Kirpaty and Nemolyaka cannot go down to the lower City, they are forced to wait. They see General Belorukov's car driving away. And in the palace, a man with a fox face changes into a German uniform. They bandage his head, and the car takes away the supposedly wounded officer.

In the morning, Colonel Malyshev announces the temporary dissolution of the division. At night, the hetman and the commander of his army fled. Any minute now the Petliurists will enter the City. The volunteers disperse, and the officers bury cartridges, break cannons and rifles, and break the electrical panel in the gymnasium.

Part two

8

In the morning, Colonel Kozyr-Leshko advances his regiment to the City. According to the plan that Colonel Toropets came up with, it is best for the Petliurites to surround Kyiv and launch an offensive in the Kurenevka area. The defenders of the city had to believe that the main breakthrough was being prepared there, but the main troops were going to strike from a completely different direction - in the Svyatoshino area. In accordance with this cunning plan, Kozyr-Leshko changes the deployment of his regiment.

That night, Colonel Shchetkin and his two adjutants disappear after the hetman and the general. In the morning, the phones at the headquarters are still ringing, there is a bustle, but by noon no one is answering the calls. Colonel Bolbotun and his guys froze on the outskirts of the city. They decide to attack without waiting for orders from Toropets' headquarters. A machine gun is knocking in Pechersk, and Galanba’s hundred are going out onto Millionnaya Street.

It’s empty, but a stunned Yakov Feldman jumps out of the entrance. His wife is giving birth and urgently needs a midwife. Galanba stops the frightened Yakov and demands his identification. Feldman hands him the first paper he comes across. This is a certificate stating that he is a supply officer for an armor-piercing battalion. In a rage, Galanba cuts Yakov's head.

9

Bolbotun loses seven Cossacks killed and nine wounded in battles with a rare cadet chain, but significantly advances towards the center. At the corner of Moskovskaya Street he is stopped by an armored car.

There are four vehicles in the hetman's armored division, but since the well-known writer in the city, Mikhail Shpolyansky, was appointed commander of the second armored car, strange things began to happen to the vehicles. One by one, the armored cars break down, and the gunners, mechanics and drivers disappear somewhere. But one car is enough for the Petliurists to stop.

Shpolyansky has an envious person - the son of the librarian Rusakov, who suffers from syphilis. At one time, through his extensive connections, Mikhail helped Rusakov publish an atheistic poem in a collection. Now the failed poet deeply repents. He spits on his work and kneels down, begging God to forgive him. Rusakov believes that the illness that befell him is a punishment for blasphemy.

At this time, Shpolyansky and driver Shchur go on reconnaissance and do not return. By noon, the commander of the armored division, Pleshko, also disappeared.

10

Colonel Nai-Tours is an unusual commander. A burry, medium-height, limping man produces a simply magical effect on those around him: all his orders and requests are immediately carried out. When Nai-Turs was appointed commander of the second department of the squad, he immediately knocked out 200 pairs of felt boots for his cadets. To talk with the quartermaster, the colonel took with him ten soldiers with rifles. And he was not careful to threaten the major general with a Mauser. The quartermaster almost suffered a stroke, but the detachment received felt boots.

By order of the headquarters, Nai-Tours with its cadets guards the Polytechnic Highway. There he is attacked by Kozyr-Leshko. The Cossacks are stopped by two machine guns and rifles, but Nai-Tours gives the command to retreat. After two miles he sends two cadets on reconnaissance. We need to find neighboring units and transport to evacuate the wounded. The scouts return with three cabs and disappointing news: there are no units on either the right or the left. Machine guns, wounded and fifteen more cadets leave on cabs.

In the barracks on Lvovskaya Street, the third section of the infantry squad of twenty-eight cadets is awaiting orders. Quite unexpectedly, the senior in the detachment turns out to be Corporal Nikolai Turbin. All the officers left for headquarters in the morning and never returned. The phone came to life and the order came to move into position. Nikolka leads her squad to the indicated place.

Alexey Turbin sleeps until two o'clock in the afternoon, then quickly gets ready and goes to the gymnasium. Malyshev ordered him to do so. To his surprise, Alexey sees an empty building and guns without locks. He hurries to a Parisian fashion store and finds Malyshev there, burning papers. The colonel advises Alexei to take off his shoulder straps and leave through the back door. Turbin Sr. cannot understand what is happening for a long time. He begins to act when it gets dark in the City. Alexey burns his shoulder straps in the stove and goes out into the yard through the back door.

11

Nikolka leads her squad to the crossroads and stops. He was ordered to become a reinforcement for the detachment of the third squad, but the crossroads was empty: neither his own nor Petliurists.

Suddenly, running cadets appear from the alley. They throw down their rifles as they go, tear off their shoulder straps and scatter through the courtyards. The last one to run out is Colonel Nai-Tours. He commands Turbin’s confused squad to run, tear off their shoulder straps and hide in their homes. The indignant Nikolka shouts: “Don’t you dare!” For this he gets hit in the face, and the colonel’s iron hand tears off his shoulder straps “with meat.”

The cadets run away. Nai-Tours deploys a machine gun, and Turbin sees horsemen jumping out of the alley. The colonel shouts at Nikolka to run. But the young man kneels down and hands over the ribbon.

Several bursts of fire force the riders to flee, but dark chains appear from a nearby street. Glass and plaster are falling over the heads of the colonel and Turbin. Nai-Tours suddenly jumps strangely and falls. Nikolka leans over him and hears an order: don’t act like a hero, leave. The Colonel becomes unbearably heavy. Turbin does not immediately understand that he has died.

Nikolka with the Nai-Tours Mauser crawls into the yard and starts to run, but the janitor grabs him. Turbin hits the man in the jaw with the handle. The janitor jumps out into the street and calls for help. Nikolka runs from the locked yard to the neighboring one, and then onto the street. Late in the evening he returns home and finds out that Alexey never came. Elena and Annushka are crying. Suddenly the guns, which had fallen silent during the day, begin to fire.

Eight miles from the City, the telephone rings in a gatehouse. The staff captain reports into the phone that the battery cannot open fire: all the servants and junior officers have fled. He removes the locks from the guns and hides them in the cellar, and then leaves. On the highway, the staff captain is hacked to death with sabers, his boots and watch are removed.

On another battery the call is not answered. Cannons, illuminated by lanterns, begin to fire into the darkness. A hundred horsemen jump out and kill everyone who happens to be near the guns. The officer on the phone shoots himself in the mouth.

Completely exhausted, Nikolka falls asleep without undressing. He wakes up from a strange vision: a young man with a huge head and a bird in a cage. It turns out that it was a relative who came from Zhitomir, Larion Surzhansky, nicknamed Lariosik. His wife cheated on him, and his compassionate mother sent her son to his Kyiv relatives to heal his emotional trauma.

At the same time as Lariosik, Alexey Turbin returns home. He is wounded in the arm, and Nikolka runs for the doctor. The doctor makes a bandage, but he is worried about the fact that scraps of an overcoat got into the wound.

Part three

12

Lariosik turns out to be a kind and grateful person, but not of this world. His passions are canaries and books. Larion really likes the Turbins. There is a warm, cozy atmosphere here, beautiful, caring Elena, honest and noble Nikolka, and thrifty Anyuta. On the very first day, a clumsy guest breaks the set and pinches Nikolka’s hand with a folding bed. But the impressive wad of money that he brought with him, sincere apologies, as well as kindness and decency do not allow the Turbins to be angry with their eccentric relative.

Alexei begins to develop a fever. He's delusional. The family is anxiously waiting for the doctor. The doctor appears late in the evening. An injection of morphine eases the suffering of the elder Turbin.

Nikolka erases the inscriptions from the stove, which prove that officers live in the house. The Turbins' pistols and shoulder straps are carefully packed in a box and hung outside the window in a narrow gap between two houses, which is inaccessible from the street.

They hide Alexei's wound in the house; they tell the neighbors: typhus.

13

How did Turbin Sr. get injured? He ran out into the store yard and immediately realized that there was a dead end. Then Turbin climbed over the wall into the neighboring yard, where the gate was open, and went out into the street. He should have gone home straight away, but Alexei was drawn to the center and decided to see what was happening. On Vladimirskaya Street he came across Petliurists and started to run. Alexey took off his shoulder straps, but forgot to take off his cockade. The Petliurists identified the officer using it and started shooting.

Firing back, Turbin ran into the yard. Here he was wounded in the shoulder. The yard turned out to be impassable, but Alexei was saved by a woman who opened the gate and led him into her house through a whole labyrinth of gardens and gates.

The woman's name was Yulia, she lived alone. A random savior bandaged Turbin, threw out the bloody things, and a day later brought Alexei home in a cab.

14

They said typhus and called. Alexey is also diagnosed with this serious illness. Myshlaevsky, Shervinsky and Karas appear in the apartment one after another in civilian clothes. They stay overnight and play cards.

Suddenly the doorbell rings. This brings a belated telegram, which should warn of Lariosik's arrival. As soon as the apartment's inhabitants take a breath, they begin to break in on the doors. Myshlaevsky goes to open it. The neighbor from below, Lisovich, falls into his arms.

15

This evening they also called the engineer’s apartment and threatened that they would start shooting if they didn’t open. Frightened Vasilisa and his wife Wanda let three men armed with pistols into the house. They declare that they are conducting a search on orders from headquarters and present a piece of paper with a vague stamp.

Uninvited guests turn the whole house over and find a hiding place under the wallpaper. They take their clothes and shoes, leaving behind their rags. Before leaving, they demand a receipt from Vasilisa that he gave everything voluntarily to Kirpaty and Nemolyaka. Having finally threatened the couple to keep quiet, the robbers disappear into the night.

Vasilisa rushes to the neighbors. Myshlaevsky, having examined the scene of the incident, advises Lisovich to be glad that he is alive and not to complain anywhere. Remembering the weapons of the bandits, Nikolka turns pale and runs to the window where the pistols were hung. The box with weapons is no longer there.

The robbers pulled out the nails in the fence and climbed into the gap between the houses. The turbines tightly fill the gap with boards.

16

The next day, a prayer service is held in St. Sophia Cathedral, followed by a parade. In a great crush, a Bolshevik orator climbs onto the fountain. The crowd does not immediately understand what the revolutionaries are agitating for. The Petliurists, having figured it out, want to arrest the speaker, but Shchur and Shpolyansky cleverly frame one of the Ukrainian activists, accusing him of theft. While the crowd beats the “thief,” the agitator calmly leaves. Karas and Shervinsky, who are watching the parade, are delighted with the dexterity and courage of the Bolsheviks.

17

All these days Nikolka cannot decide to inform Nai-Tours’ relatives about the colonel’s fate. He finds out the address and now rings the doorbell. A lady in pince-nez opens the door for Nikolka. There are two more women in the apartment: an elderly one and a young one who looks like a colonel. Nikolka doesn’t even have time to open her mouth before Nai-Turs’ mother realizes that her son has been killed. This was evident from the guest's face.

Nikolka volunteers to help the colonel’s sister Irina take Nai-Tours’ body. They manage to find out that the deceased is in the morgue of the anatomical theater. Turbin identifies the body, and Nai-Turs is buried as expected. The colonel's relatives thank Nikolka.

"The White Guard", Chapter 1 - summary

The intelligent Turbin family living in Kyiv - two brothers and a sister - finds themselves in the middle of the revolution in 1918. Alexey Turbin, to a young doctor- twenty-eight years old, he has already fought in First World War. Nikolka is seventeen and a half. Sister Elena is twenty-four, a year and a half ago she married staff captain Sergei Talberg.

This year, the Turbins buried their mother, who, dying, told the children: “Live!” But the year is ending, it’s already December, and still the terrible blizzard of revolutionary unrest continues. How to live in such a time? Apparently you will have to suffer and die!

White Guard. Episode 1 Film based on the novel by M. Bulgakov (2012)

The priest who performed the funeral service for his mother, Father Alexander, prophesies to Alexei Turbin that it will be even more difficult in the future. But he urges not to lose heart.

"The White Guard", Chapter 2 - summary

The power of the hetman planted by the Germans in Kyiv Skoropadsky staggers. Socialist troops are marching towards the city from Bila Tserkva Petlyura. He is as much a robber as Bolsheviks, differs from them only in Ukrainian nationalism.

On a December evening, the Turbins gather in the living room, hearing through the windows cannon shots already close to Kyiv.

A family friend, a young, courageous lieutenant Viktor Myshlaevsky, unexpectedly rings the doorbell. He is terribly cold, cannot walk home, and asks permission to spend the night. With abuse he tells how he stood in the outskirts of the city on the defensive from the Petliurists. 40 officers were thrown into an open field in the evening, not even given felt boots, and almost without ammunition. Because of the terrible frost, they began to bury themselves in the snow - and two froze, and two more would have to have their legs amputated due to frostbite. The careless drunkard, Colonel Shchetkin, never delivered his shift in the morning. She was brought only to dinner by the brave Colonel Nai-Tours.

Exhausted, Myshlaevsky falls asleep. Elena's husband returns home, the dry and prudent opportunist Captain Talberg, a Baltic by birth. He quickly explains to his wife: Hetman Skoropadsky is being abandoned by German troops, on whom all his power rested. At one o'clock in the morning General von Bussow's train leaves for Germany. Thanks to his staff contacts, the Germans agree to take Talberg with them. He must get ready to leave immediately, but “I can’t take you, Elena, on your wanderings and the unknown.”

Elena cries quietly, but doesn’t mind. Thalberg promises that he will make his way from Germany through Romania to the Crimea and the Don in order to come to Kyiv with Denikin’s troops. He busily packs his suitcase, quickly says goodbye to Elena’s brothers, and at one in the morning leaves with the German train.

"The White Guard", Chapter 3 - summary

The turbines occupy the 2nd floor of a two-story house No. 13 on Alekseevsky Spusk, and the owner of the house, engineer Vasily Lisovich, lives on the first floor, whom acquaintances call Vasilisa for his cowardice and womanly vanity.

That night, Lisovich, having curtained the windows in the room with a sheet and blanket, hides an envelope with money in a secret place inside the wall. He does not notice that a white sheet on a green-painted window has attracted the attention of one street passerby. He climbed the tree and through the gap above the upper edge of the curtain saw everything that Vasilisa was doing.

Having calculated the balance of Ukrainian money saved for running costs, Lisovich goes to bed. He sees in a dream how thieves are opening his hiding place, but soon he wakes up with curses: upstairs they are loudly playing the guitar and singing...

It was two more friends who came to the Turbins: staff adjutant Leonid Shervinsky and artilleryman Fyodor Stepanov (gymnasium nickname - Karas). They brought wine and vodka. The whole company, together with the awakened Myshlaevsky, sits down at the table. Karas is encouraging everyone who wants to defend Kyiv from Petliura to join the mortar division being formed, where Colonel Malyshev is an excellent commander. Shervinsky, clearly in love with Elena, is glad to hear about Thalberg’s departure and begins to sing a passionate epithalamium.

White Guard. Episode 2. Film based on the novel by M. Bulgakov (2012)

Everyone drinks to the Entente allies to help Kyiv fight off Petliura. Alexei Turbin scolds the hetman: he oppressed the Russian language, until last days did not allow the formation of an army from Russian officers - and at the decisive moment he found himself without troops. If the hetman had begun to create officer corps in April, we would now drive the Bolsheviks out of Moscow! Alexey says that he will go to Malyshev’s division.

Shervinsky conveys staff rumors that Emperor Nicholas is not killed, but escaped from the hands of the communists. Everyone at the table understands that this is unlikely, but they still sing in delight “God Save the Tsar!”

Myshlaevsky and Alexey get very drunk. Seeing this, Elena puts everyone to bed. She is alone in her room, sadly sitting on her bed, thinking about her husband’s departure and suddenly clearly realizing that in a year and a half of marriage, she never had respect for this cold careerist. Alexey Turbin also thinks about Talberg with disgust.

"The White Guard", Chapter 4 - summary

Throughout the last year (1918), a stream of wealthy people fleeing Bolshevik Russia poured into Kyiv. It intensifies after the election of the hetman, when with German help it is possible to establish some order. Most of the visitors are an idle, depraved crowd. Countless cafes, theaters, clubs, cabarets, full of drugged prostitutes, open for her in the city.

Many officers also come to Kyiv - with haunted eyes after the collapse of the Russian army and the soldiers' tyranny of 1917. Lousy, unshaven, poorly dressed officers do not find support from Skoropadsky. Only a few manage to join the hetman's convoy, sporting fantastic shoulder straps. The rest are hanging around doing nothing.

So the 4 cadet schools that were in Kyiv before the revolution remain closed. Many of their students fail to complete the course. Among these is the ardent Nikolka Turbin.

The city is calm thanks to the Germans. But there is a feeling that peace is fragile. News is coming from the villages that the revolutionary robberies of the peasants cannot be stopped.

"The White Guard", Chapter 5 - summary

Signs of imminent disaster are multiplying in Kyiv. In May there is a terrible explosion of weapons depots in the suburb of Bald Mountain. On July 30, in broad daylight, on the street, the Socialist Revolutionaries killed the commander-in-chief of the German army in Ukraine, Field Marshal Eichhorn, with a bomb. And then the troublemaker Simon Petlyura, a mysterious man who immediately goes to lead the peasants rioting in the villages, is released from the hetman’s prison.

A village revolt is very dangerous because many men have recently returned from the war - with weapons, and having learned to shoot there. And by the end of the year, the Germans were defeated in the First World War. They themselves are starting revolution, overthrow the emperor Wilhelm. That is why they are now in a hurry to withdraw their troops from Ukraine.

White Guard. Episode 3. Film based on the novel by M. Bulgakov (2012)

...Aleksey Turbin is sleeping, and he dreams that on the eve of Paradise he met Captain Zhilin and with him his entire squadron of Belgrade Hussars, who died in 1916 in the Vilna direction. For some reason, their commander, the still living Colonel Nai-Tours in the armor of a crusader, also jumped here. Zhilin tells Alexei that the Apostle Peter allowed his entire detachment into Paradise, although they took with them several cheerful women along the way. And Zhilin saw mansions in heaven painted with red stars. Peter said that the Red Army soldiers would soon go there and kill many of them under fire. Perekop. Zhilin was surprised that the atheist Bolsheviks would be allowed into Paradise, but the Almighty himself explained to him: “Well, they don’t believe in me, what can you do. One believes, the other doesn’t believe, but you all have the same actions: now you’re at each other’s throats. All of you, Zhilin, are the same - killed on the battlefield.”

Alexey Turbin also wanted to rush into the gates of heaven - but woke up...

"The White Guard", Chapter 6 - summary

Registration for the mortar division takes place in the former Parisian Chic store of Madame Anjou, in the city center. In the morning after a drunken night, Karas, already in the division, brings Alexei Turbin and Myshlaevsky here. Elena baptizes them at home before leaving.

The division commander, Colonel Malyshev, is a young man of about 30, with lively and intelligent eyes. He is very happy about the arrival of Myshlaevsky, an artilleryman who fought on the German front. At first, Malyshev is wary of Doctor Turbin, but is very happy to learn that he is not a socialist, like most intellectuals, but an ardent hater of Kerensky.

Myshlaevsky and Turbin are enrolled in the division. In an hour they must report to the parade ground of the Alexander Gymnasium, where soldiers are being trained. Turbin runs home at this hour, and on the way back to the gymnasium he suddenly sees a crowd of people carrying coffins with the bodies of several warrant officers. The Petliurites surrounded and killed that night an officer detachment in the village of Popelyukha, gouged out their eyes, cut out shoulder straps on their shoulders...

Turbin himself studied at the Aleksandrovskaya Gymnasium, and after the front, fate brought him here again. There are no high school students now, the building stands empty, and on the parade ground young volunteers, students and cadets, run around the scary, blunt-nosed mortars, learning to handle them. The classes are led by senior division officers Studzinsky, Myshlaevsky and Karas. Turbine is assigned to train two soldiers to be paramedics.

Colonel Malyshev arrives. Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky quietly report to him their impressions of the recruits: “They will fight. But complete inexperience. For one hundred and twenty cadets, there are eighty students who do not know how to hold a rifle in their hands.” Malyshev, with a gloomy look, informs the officers that the headquarters will not give the division either horses or shells, so they will have to give up classes with mortars and teach rifle shooting. The colonel orders that most of the recruits be dismissed for the night, leaving only 60 of the best cadets in the gymnasium as a guard for weapons.

In the lobby of the gymnasium, officers remove the drapery from the portrait of its founder, Emperor Alexander I, which had been hanging closed since the first days of the revolution. The Emperor points his hand to the Borodino regiments in the portrait. Looking at the picture, Alexey Turbin remembers the happy pre-revolutionary days. “Emperor Alexander, save the dying house by the Borodino regiments! Revive them, take them off the canvas! They would have beaten Petlyura.”

Malyshev orders the division to reassemble on the parade ground tomorrow morning, but he allows Turbin to arrive only at two o’clock in the afternoon. The remaining guard of cadets under the command of Studzinsky and Myshlaevsky stoked the stoves in the gymnasium all night long with “Notes of the Fatherland” and “Library for Reading” for 1863...

"The White Guard", Chapter 7 - summary

There is indecent fuss in the Hetman's palace this night. Skoropadsky, rushing in front of the mirrors, changes into the uniform of a German major. The doctor who came in tightly bandaged his head, and the hetman was taken away in a car from the side entrance under the guise of the German Major Schratt, who allegedly accidentally wounded himself in the head while discharging a revolver. No one in the city knows about Skoropadsky’s escape yet, but the military informs Colonel Malyshev about it.

In the morning, Malyshev announces to the fighters of his division gathered at the gymnasium: “During the night in state situation dramatic and sudden changes have occurred in Ukraine. Therefore, the mortar division has been disbanded! Take here in the workshop all the weapons that everyone wants, and go home! I would advise those who want to continue the fight to make their way to Denikin on the Don.”

There is a dull murmur among the stunned, uncomprehending young men. Captain Studzinsky even makes an attempt to arrest Malyshev. However, he calms the excitement with a loud shout and continues: “Do you want to defend the hetman? But today, at about four o’clock in the morning, shamefully leaving us all to the mercy of fate, he fled like the last scoundrel and coward, along with the army commander, General Belorukov! Petliura has an army of over one hundred thousand on the outskirts of the city. In unequal battles with her today, a handful of officers and cadets, standing in the field and abandoned by two scoundrels who should have been hanged, will die. And I’m disbanding you to save you from certain death!”

Many cadets are crying in despair. The division disperses, having damaged as many of the thrown mortars and guns as possible. Myshlaevsky and Karas, not seeing Alexei Turbin in the gymnasium and not knowing that Malyshev ordered him to come only at two o’clock in the afternoon, think that he has already been notified of the dissolution of the division.

Part 2

"The White Guard", Chapter 8 - summary

At dawn, December 14, 1918, in the village of Popelyukhe near Kiev, where the ensigns had recently been slaughtered, Petliura’s Colonel Kozyr-Leshko raises his cavalry detachment, 400 Sabeluks. Singing a Ukrainian song, he rides out to a new position, on the other side of the city. This is how the cunning plan of Colonel Toropets, commander of the Kyiv obloga, is carried out. Toropets plans to distract the city defenders with artillery cannonade from the north, and launch the main attack in the center and south.

Meanwhile, the pampered Colonel Shchetkin, leading detachments of these defenders in the snowy fields, secretly abandons his fighters and goes to a rich Kyiv apartment, to a plump blonde, where he drinks coffee and goes to bed...

The impatient Petliura Colonel Bolbotun decides to speed up Toropets' plan - and without preparation he bursts into the city with his cavalry. To his surprise, he does not meet resistance until the Nikolaev Military School. Only there are 30 cadets and four officers firing at him from their only machine gun.

Bolbotun's reconnaissance team, headed by the centurion Galanba, rushes along the empty Millionnaya Street. Here Galanba chops with a saber on the head of Yakov Feldman, a famous Jew and supplier of armored parts to Hetman Skoropadsky, who accidentally came out to meet them from the entrance.

"The White Guard", Chapter 9 - summary

An armored car approaches a group of cadets near the school to help. After three shots from his gun, the movement of the Bolbotun regiment completely stops.

Not one armored car, but four, should have approached the cadets - and then the Petliurists would have had to flee. But recently, Mikhail Shpolyansky, a revolutionary ensign awarded personally by Kerensky, black, with velvet tanks, similar to Eugene Onegin, was appointed commander of the second vehicle in the hetman’s armored regiment.

This reveler and poet, who came from Petrograd, squandered money in Kyiv, founded the poetic order “Magnetic Triolet” under his chairmanship, maintained two mistresses, played iron and spoke in clubs. Recently Shpolyansky treated the head of “Magnetic Triolet” in a cafe in the evening, and after dinner the aspiring poet Rusakov, already suffering from syphilis, cried drunkenly on his beaver cuffs. Shpolyansky went from the cafe to his mistress Yulia on Malaya Provalnaya Street, and Rusakov, arriving home, looked at the red rash on his chest with tears and on his knees prayed for the forgiveness of the Lord, who punished him with a serious illness for writing anti-God poems.

The next day, Shpolyansky, to everyone’s surprise, entered Skoropadsky’s armored division, where instead of beavers and a top hat, he began to wear a military sheepskin coat, all smeared with machine oil. Four Hetman armored cars had great success in the battles with the Petliurists near the city. But three days before the fateful December 14, Shpolyansky, having slowly gathered gunners and car drivers, began to convince them: it was stupid to defend the reactionary hetman. Soon both he and Petliura will be replaced by a third, the only correct historical force - the Bolsheviks.

On the eve of December 14, Shpolyansky, together with other drivers, poured sugar into the engines of armored cars. When the battle with the cavalry that entered Kyiv began, only one of the four cars started up. He was brought to the aid of the cadets by the heroic ensign Strashkevich. He detained the enemy, but could not drive him out of Kyiv.

"The White Guard", Chapter 10 - summary

Hussar Colonel Nai-Tours is a heroic front-line soldier who speaks with a burr and turns his whole body, looking to the side, because after being wounded his neck is cramped. In the first days of December, he recruits up to 150 cadets into the second department of the city defense squad, but demands papas and felt boots for all of them. Clean General Makushin in the supply department replies that he doesn’t have that much uniform. Nye then calls several of his cadets with loaded rifles: “Write a request, your Excellency. Live up. We don’t have time, we have an hour to go. Nepgiyatel under the very godod. If you don’t write, you stupid stag, I’ll hit you in the head with a Colt, you’re dragging your feet.” The general writes on the paper with a jumping hand: “Give up.”

All morning on December 14th, Nye’s detachment sat in the barracks, receiving no orders. Only during the day does he receive an order to go guard the Polytechnic Highway. Here, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Nai sees the approaching Petlyura regiment of Kozyr-Leshko.

By order of Nye, his battalion fires several volleys at the enemy. But, seeing that the enemy has appeared from the side, he orders his soldiers to retreat. A cadet sent to reconnaissance into the city returned and reported that the Petliura cavalry was already on all sides. Nay loudly shouts to his chains: “Save yourself as best you can!”

...And the first section of the squad - 28 cadets, among whom is Nikolka Turbin, languishes idle in the barracks until lunch. Only at three o’clock in the afternoon the phone suddenly rings: “Go outside along the route!” There is no commander - and Nikolka has to lead everyone, as the eldest.

…Alexey Turbin sleeps late that day. Having woken up, he hastily gets ready to go to the division gymnasium, knowing nothing about the city events. On the street he is surprised by the nearby sounds of machine gun fire. Having arrived in a cab to the gymnasium, he sees that the division is not there. “They left without me!” - Alexey thinks in despair, but notices with surprise: the mortars remain in the same places, and they are without locks.

Guessing that a catastrophe has happened, Turbin runs to Madame Anjou's store. There, Colonel Malyshev, disguised as a student, burns lists of division fighters in the oven. “You don’t know anything yet? – Malyshev shouts to Alexey. “Take off your shoulder straps quickly and run, hide!” He talks about the flight of the hetman and the fact that the division was dissolved. Waving his fists, he curses the staff generals.

“Run! Just not out into the street, but through the back door!” - Malyshev exclaims and disappears into the back door. The stupefied Turbin tears off his shoulder straps and rushes to the same place where the colonel disappeared.

"The White Guard", Chapter 11 - summary

Nikolka leads 28 of his cadets through all of Kyiv. At the last intersection, the detachment lies down on the snow with rifles, prepares a machine gun: shooting can be heard very close.

Suddenly other cadets fly out to the intersection. “Run with us! Save yourself, whoever can!” - they shout to the Nikolkins.

The last of the runners appears Colonel Nai-Tours with a Colt in his hand. “Yunkegga! Listen to my command! - he shouts. - Bend your shoulder straps, kokagdy, bgosai oguzhie! Along Fonagny pegeulok - only along Fonagny! - two-wheeler to Gazyezzhaya, to Podol! The fight is over! The staff are stegvy!..”

The cadets scatter, and Nye rushes to the machine gun. Nikolka, who had not run with everyone else, runs up to him. Nai chases him: “Go away, you stupid mavy!”, but Nikolka: “I don’t want to, Mr. Colonel.”

Horsemen jump out to the crossroads. Nye fires a machine gun at them. Several riders fall, the rest immediately disappear. However, the Petliurists lying down further down the street open up hurricane fire, two at a time, at the machine gun. Nai falls, bleeding, and dies, having only managed to say: “Unteg-tseg, God bless you to go gay... Malo-Pgovalnaya...” Nikolka, grabbing the colonel’s Colt, miraculously crawls under heavy fire around the corner, into Lantern Lane.

Jumping up, he rushes into the first yard. Here he is, shouting “Hold him!” Hold the Junkerey!” - the janitor tries to grab it. But Nikolka hits him in the teeth with the handle of a Colt, and the janitor runs away with a bloody beard.

Nikolka climbs over two high walls as she runs, bleeding her toes and breaking her nails. Running out of breath onto Razyezzhaya Street, he tears up his documents as he goes. He rushes to Podol, as Nai-Tours ordered. Having met a cadet with a rifle along the way, he pushes him into the entrance: “Hide. I am a cadet. Catastrophe. Petlyura took the city!

Nikolka happily gets home through Podol. Elena is crying there: Alexey has not returned!

By nightfall, the exhausted Nikolka falls into an uneasy sleep. But the noise wakes him up. Sitting on the bed, he vaguely sees a strange man in front of him, stranger in a jacket, riding breeches and boots with jockey cuffs. In his hand is a cage with a canary. The stranger says in a tragic voice: “She was with her lover on the very sofa on which I read poetry to her. And after the bills for seventy-five thousand, I signed without hesitation, like a gentleman... And, imagine, a coincidence: I arrived here at the same time as your brother.”

Hearing about his brother, Nikolka flies like lightning into the dining room. There, in someone else’s coat and someone else’s trousers, a bluish-pale Alexey is lying on the sofa, with Elena rushing about next to him.

Alexei is wounded in the arm by a bullet. Nikolka rushes after the doctor. He treats the wound and explains: the bullet did not affect either the bone or large vessels, but shreds of wool from the overcoat got into the wound, so inflammation begins. But you can’t take Alexei to the hospital - the Petliurists will find him there...

Part 3

Chapter 12

The stranger who appeared at the Turbins’ place is Sergei Talberg’s nephew Larion Surzhansky (Lariosik), a strange and careless man, but kind and sympathetic. His wife cheated on him in his native Zhitomir, and, suffering mentally in his city, he decided to go and visit the Turbins, whom he had never seen before. Lariosik's mother, warning of his arrival, sent a 63-word telegram to Kyiv, but due to war time it did not arrive.

That same day, turning awkwardly in the kitchen, Lariosik breaks the Turbins’ expensive set. He comically but sincerely apologizes, and then takes out the eight thousand hidden there from behind the lining of his jacket and gives it to Elena for his maintenance.

It took Lariosik 11 days to travel from Zhitomir to Kyiv. The train was stopped by the Petliurites, and Lariosik, who they mistook for an officer, only miraculously escaped execution. In his eccentricity, he tells Turbin about this as an ordinary minor incident. Despite Lariosik's oddities, everyone in the family likes him.

The maid Anyuta tells how she saw the corpses of two officers killed by Petliurists right on the street. Nikolka wonders if Karas and Myshlaevsky are alive. And why did Nai-Tours mention Malo-Provalnaya Street before his death? With the help of Lariosik, Nikolka hides Nai-Tours' Colt and her own Browning, hanging them in a box outside the window that looks out into a narrow clearing covered with snowdrifts on the blank wall of a neighboring house.

The next day, Alexey’s temperature rises above forty. He begins to rave and from time to time repeats a woman's name - Julia. In his dreams, he sees Colonel Malyshev in front of him, burning documents, and remembers how he himself ran out the back door from Madame Anjou’s store...

Chapter 13

Having then run out of the store, Alexey hears shooting very close. Through the courtyards he gets out into the street, and, having turned one corner, he sees Petliurists on foot with rifles right in front of him.

“Stop! - they shout. - Yes, he’s an officer! Call the officer!" Turbin rushes to run, feeling for the revolver in his pocket. He turns into Malo-Provalnaya Street. Shots are heard from behind, and Alexey feels as if someone was pulling his left armpit with wooden pincers.

He takes a revolver out of his pocket, shoots six times at the Petliurists - “the seventh bullet for himself, otherwise they will torture you, they will cut the shoulder straps off your shoulders.” Ahead is a remote alley. Turbin is waiting for certain death, but a young woman emerges from the wall of the fence female figure, shouting with outstretched hands: “Officer! Here! Here…"

She is at the gate. He rushes towards her. The stranger closes the gate behind him with a latch and runs, leading him along, through a whole labyrinth of narrow passages, where there are several more gates. They run into the entrance, and there into the apartment opened by the lady.

Exhausted from loss of blood, Alexey falls unconscious to the floor in the hallway. The woman revives him by splashing water and then bandages him.

He kisses her hand. “Well, you are brave! – she says admiringly. “One Petliurist fell from your shots.” Alexey introduces himself to the lady, and she says her name: Yulia Alexandrovna Reiss.

Turbin sees a piano and ficus trees in the apartment. There is a photo of a man with epaulettes on the wall, but Yulia is alone at home. She helps Alexey get to the sofa.

He lies down. At night he starts to feel feverish. Julia is sitting nearby. Alexey suddenly throws his hand behind her neck, pulls her towards him and kisses her on the lips. Julia lies down next to him and strokes his head until he falls asleep.

Early in the morning she takes him out into the street, gets into a cab with him and brings him home to the Turbins.

Chapter 14

The next evening, Viktor Myshlaevsky and Karas appear. They come to the Turbins in disguise, without an officer's uniform, learning bad news: Alexei, in addition to his wound, also has typhus: his temperature has already reached forty.

Shervinsky also comes. The ardent Myshlaevsky curses with his last words the hetman, his commander-in-chief and the entire “headquarters horde.”

Guests stay overnight. Late in the evening everyone sits down to play screw - Myshlaevsky paired with Lariosik. Having learned that Lariosik sometimes writes poetry, Victor laughs at him, saying that out of all the literature he himself recognizes only “War and Peace”: “It was not written by some idiot, but by an artillery officer.”

Lariosik doesn't play cards well. Myshlaevsky yells at him for making wrong moves. In the midst of an argument, the doorbell suddenly rings. Is everyone frozen, assuming Petlyura’s night search? Myshlaevsky goes to open it with caution. However, it turns out that this is the postman who brought the same 63-word telegram that Lariosik’s mother wrote. Elena reads it: “A terrible misfortune befell my son, period Operetta actor Lipsky...”

There is a sudden and wild knock on the door. Everyone turns to stone again. But on the threshold - not those who came with a search, but a disheveled Vasilisa, who, as soon as he entered, fell into the hands of Myshlaevsky.

Chapter 15

This evening, Vasilisa and his wife Wanda hid the money again: they pinned it with buttons to the underside of the table top (many Kiev residents did this then). But it was not without reason that a few days ago some passer-by watched from a tree through the window as Vasilisa used her wall hiding place...

Around midnight today, a call comes to his and Wanda’s apartment. “Open up. Don’t go away, otherwise we’ll shoot through the door...” comes a voice from the other side. Vasilisa opens the door with trembling hands.

Three people enter. One has a face with small, deeply sunken eyes, similar to a wolf. The second is of gigantic stature, young, with bare, stubble-free cheeks and womanish habits. The third has a sunken nose, corroded on the side by a festering scab. They poke Vasilisa with a “mandate”: “It is ordered to conduct a thorough search of resident Vasily Lisovich, on Alekseevsky Spusk, house No. 13. Resistance is punishable by rosstril.” The mandate was allegedly issued by some “kuren” of the Petliura army, but the seal is very illegible.

The wolf and the mutilated man take out the Colt and Browning and point it at Vasilisa. He's dizzy. Those who come immediately begin to tap the walls - and by the sound they find the hiding place. “Oh, you bitch tail. Having sealed the pennies into the wall? We need to kill you!” They take money and valuables from the hiding place.

The giant beams with joy when he sees chevron boots with patent-leather toes under Vasilisa’s bed and begins to change into them, throwing off his own rags. “I’ve accumulated things, I’ve stuffed my face, I’m pink, like a pig, and you’re wondering what kind people wear? – the Wolf hisses angrily at Vasilisa. “His feet are frozen, he rotted in the trenches for you, and you played the gramophones.”

The disfigured man takes off his pants and, left in only tattered underpants, puts on Vasilisa’s trousers hanging on the chair. The wolf exchanges his dirty tunic for Vasilisa’s jacket, takes a watch from the table and demands that Vasilisa write a receipt that he gave everything he took from him voluntarily. Lisovich, almost crying, writes on paper from Volk’s dictation: “Things... handed over intact during the search. And I have no complaints.” - “Who did you give it to?” - “Write: we received Nemolyak, Kirpaty and Otaman Uragan from the safety.”

All three leave, with a final warning: “If you attack us, our boys will kill you. Do not leave the apartment until the morning, you will be severely punished for this...”

After they leave, Wanda falls on the chest and sobs. "God. Vasya... But it wasn’t a search. They were bandits!” - “I understood it myself!” After marking time, Vasilisa rushes into the Turbins’ apartment...

From there everyone goes down to him. Myshlaevsky advises not to complain anywhere: no one will be caught anyway. And Nikolka, having learned that the bandits were armed with a Colt and a Browning, rushes to the box that he and Lariosik hung outside his window. It's empty! Both revolvers are stolen!

The Lisovichs beg for one of the officers to spend the rest of the night with them. Karas agrees to this. The stingy Wanda, inevitably becoming generous, treats him to pickled mushrooms, veal and cognac at her home. Satisfied, Karas lies down on the ottoman, and Vasilisa sits down in a chair next to her and mournfully laments: “Everything that was acquired through hard work, one evening went into the pockets of some scoundrels... I do not deny the revolution, I am a former cadet. But here in Russia the revolution has degenerated into Pugachevism. The main thing has disappeared - respect for property. And now I have an ominous confidence that only autocracy can save us! The worst dictatorship!

Chapter 16

In the Kiev Cathedral of Hagia Sophia there are a lot of people, you can’t squeeze through. A prayer service is held here in honor of the occupation of the city by Petlyura. The crowd is surprised: “But the Petliurites are socialists. What does this have to do with priests? “Give the priests a blue one, so they can serve the devil mass.”

By severe frost The people's river flows in procession from the temple to the main square. The majority of Petliura's supporters in the crowd gathered only out of curiosity. The women scream: “Oh, I want to spoil Petlyura. It seems like the wine is indescribably handsome.” But he himself is nowhere to be seen.

Petlyura’s troops are parading through the streets to the square under yellow and black banners. The mounted regiments of Bolbotun and Kozyr-Leshko are riding, the Sich Riflemen (who fought in the First World War against Russia for Austria-Hungary) are marching. Shouts of welcome can be heard from the sidewalks. Hearing the cry: “Get them!” Officers! I’ll show them off in uniform!” - several Petliurists grab two people indicated in the crowd and drag them into an alley. A volley is heard from there. The bodies of the dead are thrown right on the sidewalk.

Having climbed into a niche on the wall of one house, Nikolka watches the parade.

A small rally gathers near the frozen fountain. The speaker is lifted onto the fountain. Shouting: “Glory to the people!” and in his first words, rejoicing at the capture of the city, he suddenly calls the listeners “ comrades" and calls them: " Let's take an oath that we will not destroy weapons, docs red the ensign will not flutter over the entire working world. The Soviets of workers, villagers and Cossack deputies live..."

Up close, the eyes and black Onegin sideburns of Ensign Shpolyansky flash in the thick beaver collar. One of the crowd screams heart-rendingly, rushing towards the speaker: “Try yoga! This is a provocation. Bolshevik! Moskal! But a man standing next to Shpolyansky grabs the screamer by the belt, and another yells: “Brothers, the clock has been cut!” The crowd rushes to beat, like a thief, the one who wanted to arrest the Bolshevik.

The speaker disappears at this time. Soon in the alley you can see Shpolyansky treating him to a cigarette from a golden cigarette case.

The crowd drives the beaten “thief” in front of them, who sobs pitifully: “You are wrong! I am a famous Ukrainian poet. My last name is Gorbolaz. I wrote an anthology of Ukrainian poetry!” In response, they hit him on the neck.

Myshlaevsky and Karas are looking at this scene from the sidewalk. “Well done Bolsheviks,” Myshlaevsky says to Karasyu. “Did you see how cleverly the orator was melted down?” Why I love you is for your courage, motherfucker’s leg.”

Chapter 17

After a long search, Nikolka finds out that the Nai-Turs family lives on Malo-Provalnaya, 21. Today, straight from the religious procession, she runs there.

The door is opened by a gloomy lady in pince-nez, looking suspiciously. But upon learning that Nikolka has information about Naya, she lets him into the room.

There are two more women there, an old one and a young one. Both look like Naya. Nikolka understands: mother and sister.

“Well, tell me, well...” - the eldest stubbornly insists. Seeing Nikolka’s silence, she shouts to the young man: “Irina, Felix has been killed!” - and falls backwards. Nikolka also begins to cry.

He tells his mother and sister how heroically Nai died - and volunteers to go look for his body in the death chamber. Naya's sister, Irina, says that she will go with him...

The morgue has a disgusting, terrible smell, so heavy that it seems sticky; it seems that you can even see him. Nikolka and Irina hand the bill to the guard. He reports them to the professor and receives permission to look for the body among many brought in the last days.

Nikolka persuades Irina not to enter the room where naked human bodies, male and female, lie in stacks like firewood. Nikolka notices Naya's corpse from above. Together with the watchman, they take him upstairs.

That same night, Nye’s body is washed in the chapel, dressed in a jacket, a crown is placed on his forehead, and a St. George’s ribbon is placed on his chest. The old mother with a shaking head thanks Nikolka, and he cries again and leaves the chapel into the snow...

Chapter 18

On the morning of December 22, Alexey Turbin lies dying. The gray-haired professor-doctor tells Elena that there is almost no hope and leaves, leaving his assistant, Brodovich, with the patient just in case.

Elena, with a distorted face, goes into her room, kneels before the icon of the Mother of God and begins to pray passionately. “Most Pure Virgin. Ask your son to send a miracle. Why are you ending our family in one year? My mother took it from us, I don’t have a husband and never will, I already understand that clearly. And now you’re taking Alexei away too. How will Nikol and I be alone at a time like this?”

Her speech comes in a continuous stream, her eyes become crazy. And it seems to her that next to the torn tomb Christ appeared, risen, gracious and barefoot. And Nikolka opens the door to the room: “Elena, go to Alexei quickly!”

Alexey's consciousness returns. He understands: he has just passed - and did not destroy him - the most dangerous crisis of the disease. Brodovich, agitated and shocked, injects him with medicine from a syringe with a trembling hand.

Chapter 19

A month and a half passes. On February 2, 1919, a thinner Alexey Turbin stands at the window and again listens to the sounds of guns in the outskirts of the city. But now it is not Petliura who is coming to expel the hetman, but the Bolsheviks to Petliura. “The horror will come in the city with the Bolsheviks!” - Alexey thinks.

He has already resumed his medical practice at home, and now a patient is calling him. This is a thin young poet Rusakov, sick with syphilis.

Rusakov tells Turbin that he used to be a fighter against God and a sinner, but now he prays to the Almighty day and night. Alexey tells the poet that he can’t have cocaine, alcohol, or women. - “I have already moved away from temptations and bad people, - answers Rusakov. - The evil genius of my life, the vile Mikhail Shpolyansky, who persuades wives to debauchery and young men to vice, left for the city of the devil - Bolshevik Moscow, to lead hordes of angels to Kiev, as they once went to Sodom and Gomorrah. Satan will come for him - Trotsky." The poet predicts that the people of Kiev will soon face even more terrible trials.

When Rusakov leaves, Alexey, despite the danger from the Bolsheviks, whose carts are already thundering through the city streets, goes to Julia Reiss to thank her for saving her and give her his late mother’s bracelet.

At Julia’s house, he, unable to bear it, hugs and kisses her. Having again noticed a photo of a man with black sideburns in the apartment, Alexey asks Yulia who it is. “This is my cousin, Shpolyansky. He has now left for Moscow,” Yulia answers, looking down. She is ashamed to admit that in fact Shpolyansky was her lover.

Turbin asks Yulia for permission to come again. She allows it. Coming out of Yulia on Malo-Provalnaya, Alexey unexpectedly meets Nikolka: he was on the same street, but in a different house - with Nai-Tours’ sister, Irina...

Elena Turbina receives a letter from Warsaw in the evening. Olya, a friend who has gone there, informs: “your ex-husband Talberg is going from here not to Denikin, but to Paris, with Lidochka Hertz, whom he plans to marry.” Alexey enters. Elena hands him a letter and cries on his chest...

Chapter 20

The year 1918 was great and terrible, but 1919 was worse.

In the first days of February, the Haidamaks of Petliura flee Kyiv from the advancing Bolsheviks. Petlyura is no more. But will anyone pay for the blood he shed? No. Nobody. The snow will simply melt, the green Ukrainian grass will sprout and hide everything underneath...

At night in a Kyiv apartment, the syphilitic poet Rusakov reads Apocalypse, reverently frozen over the words: “...and there will be no more death; There will be no more crying, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things have passed away...”

And the Turbins' house is sleeping. On the first floor, Vasilisa dreams that there was no revolution and that he grew a rich harvest of vegetables in the garden, but round piglets came running, tore up all the beds with their snouts, and then began to jump at him, baring their sharp fangs.

Elena dreams that the frivolous Shervinsky, who is increasingly courting her, joyfully sings in an operatic voice: “We will live, we will live!!” “And death will come, we will die...” Nikolka, who comes in with a guitar, answers him, his neck is covered in blood, and on his forehead there is a yellow aureole with icons. Realizing that Nikolka will die, Elena wakes up screaming and sobs for a long time...

And in the outbuilding, smiling joyfully, the little stupid boy Petka sees a happy dream about a big diamond ball on a green meadow...

The action of the novel takes place in the winter of 1918/19 in a certain City, in which Kyiv is clearly visible. The city is occupied by German occupation forces, and the hetman of “all Ukraine” is in power. However, any day now Petlyura’s army may enter the City - fighting is already taking place twelve kilometers from the City. The city lives a strange, unnatural life: it is full of visitors from Moscow and St. Petersburg - bankers, businessmen, journalists, lawyers, poets - who have flocked there since the election of the hetman, since the spring of 1918.

In the dining room of the Turbins' house at dinner, Alexey Turbin, a doctor, his younger brother Nikolka, a non-commissioned officer, their sister Elena and family friends - Lieutenant Myshlaevsky, Second Lieutenant Stepanov, nicknamed Karas, and Lieutenant Shervinsky, adjutant at the headquarters of Prince Belorukov, commander of all military forces of Ukraine , - excitedly discussing the fate of their beloved City. The elder Turbin believes that the hetman is to blame for everything with his Ukrainization: until the very last moment he did not allow the formation of the Russian army, and if this had happened on time, a selected army of cadets, students, high school students and officers, of whom there are thousands, would have been formed. and not only would they have defended the City, but Petliura would not have been in spirit in Little Russia, moreover, they would have gone to Moscow and saved Russia.

Elena's husband, Captain of the General Staff Sergei Ivanovich Talberg, announces to his wife that the Germans are leaving the City and he, Talberg, is being taken on the headquarters train leaving tonight. Talberg is confident that within three months he will return to the City with Denikin’s army, which is now forming on the Don. In the meantime, he cannot take Elena into the unknown, and she will have to stay in the City.

To protect against the advancing troops of Petlyura, the formation of Russian military formations begins in the City. Karas, Myshlaevsky and Alexey Turbin appear to the commander of the emerging mortar division, Colonel Malyshev, and enter service: Karas and Myshlaevsky - as officers, Turbin - as a division doctor. However, the next night - from December 13 to 14 - the hetman and General Belorukov flee the City on a German train, and Colonel Malyshev dissolves the newly formed division: he has no one to protect, there is no legal authority in the City.

By December 10, Colonel Nai-Tours completes the formation of the second department of the first squad. Considering waging war without winter equipment for soldiers impossible, Colonel Nai-Tours, threatening the head of the supply department with a Colt, receives felt boots and hats for his one hundred and fifty cadets. On the morning of December 14, Petlyura attacks the City; Nai-Tours receives orders to guard the Polytechnic Highway and, if the enemy appears, to take the fight. Nai-Tours, having entered into battle with the advanced detachments of the enemy, sends three cadets to find out where the hetman’s units are. Those sent return with the message that there are no units anywhere, there is machine-gun fire in the rear, and the enemy cavalry is entering the City. Nai realizes that they are trapped.

An hour earlier, Nikolai Turbin, corporal of the third section of the first infantry squad, receives an order to lead the team along the route. Arriving at the appointed place, Nikolka sees with horror the fleeing cadets and hears the command of Colonel Nai-Tours, ordering all the cadets - both his own and those from Nikolka’s team - to rip off their shoulder straps, cockades, throw away their weapons, tear up documents, run and hide. The colonel himself covers the retreat of the cadets. Before Nikolka's eyes, the mortally wounded colonel dies. Shocked Nikolka, leaving Nai-Tours, makes his way through courtyards and alleys to the house.

Meanwhile, Alexey, who was not informed about the dissolution of the division, having appeared, as he was ordered, at two o’clock, finds an empty building with abandoned guns. Having found Colonel Malyshev, he receives an explanation of what is happening: The city was taken by Petliura’s troops. Alexei, having torn off his shoulder straps, goes home, but runs into Petlyura’s soldiers, who, recognizing him as an officer (in his haste, he forgot to take off the badge from his hat), pursue him. Alexei, wounded in the arm, is hidden in her house by a woman unknown to him named Yulia Reise. The next day, after dressing Alexei in civilian dress, Yulia takes him home in a cab. At the same time as Alexey, Talberg’s cousin Larion comes to the Turbins from Zhitomir, who has experienced a personal drama: his wife left him. Larion really likes it in the Turbins' house, and all the Turbins find him very nice.

Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich, nicknamed Vasilisa, the owner of the house in which the Turbins live, occupies the first floor of the same house, while the Turbins live on the second. On the eve of the day when Petlyura entered the City, Vasilisa builds a hiding place in which she hides money and jewelry. However, through a crack in a loosely curtained window, an unknown person is watching Vasilisa’s actions. The next day, three armed men come to Vasilisa with a search warrant. First of all, they open the cache, and then take Vasilisa’s watch, suit and shoes. After the “guests” leave, Vasilisa and his wife realize that they were bandits. Vasilisa runs to the Turbins, and Karas goes to them to protect them from a possible new attack. The usually stingy Vanda Mikhailovna, Vasilisa’s wife, does not skimp here: there is cognac, veal, and pickled mushrooms on the table. Happy Crucian dozes, listening to Vasilisa’s plaintive speeches.

Three days later, Nikolka, having learned the address of Nai-Turs’s family, goes to the colonel’s relatives. He tells Nai's mother and sister the details of his death. Together with the colonel's sister Irina, Nikolka finds Nai-Turs's body in the morgue, and that same night the funeral service is held in the chapel at the Nai-Turs anatomical theater.

A few days later, Alexei’s wound becomes inflamed, and in addition, he has typhus: high fever, delirium. According to the conclusion of the consultation, the patient is hopeless; On December 22, the agony begins. Elena locks herself in the bedroom and passionately prays to the Most Holy Theotokos, begging her to save her brother from death. “Let Sergei not return,” she whispers, “but do not punish this with death.” To the amazement of the doctor on duty with him, Alexey regains consciousness - the crisis is over.

A month and a half later, Alexey, who has finally recovered, goes to Yulia Reisa, who saved him from death, and gives her his late mother’s bracelet. Alexey asks Yulia for permission to visit her. After leaving Yulia, he meets Nikolka, returning from Irina Nai-Tours.

Elena receives a letter from a friend from Warsaw, in which she informs her about Talberg's upcoming marriage to their mutual friend. Elena, sobbing, remembers her prayer.

On the night of February 2-3, the withdrawal of Petliura’s troops from the City began. You can hear the roar of Bolshevik guns approaching the City.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov

"White Guard"

Winter 1918/19. A certain City in which Kyiv is clearly visible. The city is occupied by German occupation forces, and the hetman of “all Ukraine” is in power. However, any day now Petlyura’s army may enter the City - fighting is already taking place twelve kilometers from the City. The city lives a strange, unnatural life: it is full of visitors from Moscow and St. Petersburg - bankers, businessmen, journalists, lawyers, poets - who flocked there from the moment the hetman was elected, in the spring of 1918.

In the dining room of the Turbins' house at dinner, Alexei Turbin, a doctor, his younger brother Nikolka, a non-commissioned officer, their sister Elena and family friends - Lieutenant Myshlaevsky, Second Lieutenant Stepanov, nicknamed Karas, and Lieutenant Shervinsky, adjutant at the headquarters of Prince Belorukov, commander of all military forces of Ukraine , — excitedly discussing the fate of their beloved City. The elder Turbin believes that the hetman is to blame for everything with his Ukrainization: until the very last moment he did not allow the formation of the Russian army, and if this had happened on time, a selected army of cadets, students, high school students and officers, of whom there are thousands, would have been formed. and not only would they have defended the City, but Petliura would not have been in spirit in Little Russia, moreover, they would have gone to Moscow and saved Russia.

Elena's husband, Captain of the General Staff Sergei Ivanovich Talberg, announces to his wife that the Germans are leaving the City and he, Talberg, is being taken on the headquarters train leaving tonight. Talberg is confident that within three months he will return to the City with Denikin’s army, which is now forming on the Don. In the meantime, he cannot take Elena into the unknown, and she will have to stay in the City.

To protect against the advancing troops of Petlyura, the formation of Russian military formations begins in the City. Karas, Myshlaevsky and Alexey Turbin appear to the commander of the emerging mortar division, Colonel Malyshev, and enter service: Karas and Myshlaevsky - as officers, Turbin - as a division doctor. However, the next night - from December 13 to 14 - the hetman and General Belorukov flee the City on a German train, and Colonel Malyshev dissolves the newly formed division: he has no one to protect, there is no legal authority in the City.

By December 10, Colonel Nai-Tours completes the formation of the second department of the first squad. Considering waging war without winter equipment for soldiers impossible, Colonel Nai-Tours, threatening the head of the supply department with a Colt, receives felt boots and hats for his one hundred and fifty cadets. On the morning of December 14, Petlyura attacks the City; Nai-Tours receives orders to guard the Polytechnic Highway and, if the enemy appears, to take the fight. Nai-Tours, having entered into battle with the advanced detachments of the enemy, sends three cadets to find out where the hetman’s units are. Those sent return with the message that there are no units anywhere, there is machine-gun fire in the rear, and enemy cavalry is entering the City. Nai realizes that they are trapped.

An hour earlier, Nikolai Turbin, corporal of the third section of the first infantry squad, receives an order to lead the team along the route. Arriving at the appointed place, Nikolka sees with horror the fleeing cadets and hears the command of Colonel Nai-Tours, ordering all the cadets - both his own and those from Nikolka’s team - to rip off their shoulder straps, cockades, throw away their weapons, tear up documents, run and hide. The colonel himself covers the retreat of the cadets. Before Nikolka's eyes, the mortally wounded colonel dies. Shocked Nikolka, leaving Nai-Tours, makes his way through courtyards and alleys to the house.

Meanwhile, Alexey, who was not informed about the dissolution of the division, having appeared, as he was ordered, at two o’clock, finds an empty building with abandoned guns. Having found Colonel Malyshev, he receives an explanation of what is happening: The city was taken by Petliura’s troops. Alexei, having torn off his shoulder straps, goes home, but runs into Petlyura’s soldiers, who, recognizing him as an officer (in his haste, he forgot to take off the badge from his hat), pursue him. Alexei, wounded in the arm, is sheltered in her house by a woman unknown to him named Julia Reiss. The next day, after dressing Alexei in civilian dress, Yulia takes him home in a cab. At the same time as Alexey, Talberg’s cousin Larion comes to the Turbins from Zhitomir, who has experienced a personal drama: his wife left him. Larion really likes it in the Turbins' house, and all the Turbins find him very nice.

Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich, nicknamed Vasilisa, the owner of the house in which the Turbins live, occupies the first floor of the same house, while the Turbins live on the second. On the eve of the day when Petlyura entered the City, Vasilisa builds a hiding place in which she hides money and jewelry. However, through a crack in a loosely curtained window, an unknown person is watching Vasilisa’s actions. The next day, three armed men come to Vasilisa with a search warrant. First of all, they open the cache, and then take Vasilisa’s watch, suit and shoes. After the “guests” leave, Vasilisa and his wife realize that they were bandits. Vasilisa runs to the Turbins, and Karas goes to them to protect them from a possible new attack. The usually stingy Vanda Mikhailovna, Vasilisa’s wife, does not skimp here: there is cognac, veal, and pickled mushrooms on the table. Happy Crucian dozes, listening to Vasilisa’s plaintive speeches.

Three days later, Nikolka, having learned the address of Nai-Turs’s family, goes to the colonel’s relatives. He tells Nai's mother and sister the details of his death. Together with the colonel's sister Irina, Nikolka finds Nai-Turs's body in the morgue, and that same night the funeral service is held in the chapel at the Nai-Turs anatomical theater.

A few days later, Alexei’s wound becomes inflamed, and in addition, he has typhus: high fever, delirium. According to the conclusion of the consultation, the patient is hopeless; On December 22, the agony begins. Elena locks herself in the bedroom and passionately prays to the Most Holy Theotokos, begging her to save her brother from death. “Let Sergei not return,” she whispers, “but do not punish this with death.” To the amazement of the doctor on duty with him, Alexei regains consciousness - the crisis is over.

A month and a half later, Alexey, who has finally recovered, goes to Julia Reiss, who saved him from death, and gives her his late mother’s bracelet. Alexey asks Yulia for permission to visit her. After leaving Yulia, he meets Nikolka, returning from Irina Nai-Tours.

Elena receives a letter from a friend from Warsaw, in which she informs her about Talberg's upcoming marriage to their mutual friend. Elena, sobbing, remembers her prayer.

On the night of February 2-3, the withdrawal of Petliura’s troops from the City began. You can hear the roar of Bolshevik guns approaching the City.

In the winter of 1918/19, a certain City (meaning Kyiv) was occupied by German troops, power belonged to the hetman of “all Ukraine”. The City is restless - an invasion by Petliura's troops is expected.

In the dining room of the Turbins' house, the doctor Alexei Turbin, his sister Elena, their brother, non-commissioned officer Nikolka, and friends - lieutenants Myshlaevsky and Shervinsy and second lieutenant Stepanov, nicknamed Karas, gathered. Elena's husband, Captain of the General Staff Sergei Talberg, tells his wife that he needs to leave the City that night. To protect the City from Petliura's army, Russian military formations are formed.

Alexey Turbin, Karas and Myshlaevsky enter service in the emerging mortar division: Karas and Myshlaevsky as officers, and Turbin as a doctor. However, the next night, the hetman and commander-in-chief Belorukov flee the City, and the new division has to be disbanded - since there is no power in the city, then there is no one to protect.

On the morning of December 14, Petliura’s troops attack the City. Colonel Nai-Tours enters battle with the enemy. Having learned that there are no hetman units anywhere in the city, he realizes that his detachment was in a trap. He orders his cadets to tear off their shoulder straps, run and hide. Having received a mortal wound, the colonel dies. All this happens in front of Nikolka Turbin, who arrived at the battlefield with his team of cadets. Leaving Nai-Turs, Nikolka flees for her life.

At this time, Alexei Turbin is being pursued by Petliura soldiers, who recognize him as an officer. The wounded Alexei manages to escape thanks to a woman named Julia Reiss, who hides him in her house. The next day Turbin returns home; At the same time, Larion, Talberg’s cousin, arrives from Zhitomir.

The owner of the house where the Turbins live becomes a victim of robbery. Armed people break into his house and, under the guise of a search, open the cache, take away money, jewelry and belongings. The owner turns to the Turbins for help, and Karas volunteers to guard him. Three days later, Nikolka goes to the mother and sister of the deceased Nai-Tours. He tells them the details of his death.

Alexei's wound becomes inflamed, and, in addition, he is diagnosed with typhus. Doctors say the patient is hopeless. Elena prays to the Most Holy Theotokos for his salvation. Alexey is recovering. Having finally recovered, he goes to Julia Reiss to give her his late mother’s bracelet. On the way home, he meets Nikolka, returning from Irina Nai-Tours.

Elena finds out that Thalberg is going to marry her friend. On the night of February 2-3, Petliura’s troops began leaving the City.

Essays

“Every noble person is deeply aware of his blood ties with the fatherland” (V.G. Belinsky) (based on the novel “The White Guard” by M.A. Bulgakov) “Life is given for good deeds” (based on the novel “The White Guard” by M. A. Bulgakov) “Family Thought” in Russian literature based on the novel “The White Guard” “Man is a piece of history” (based on M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”) Analysis of Chapter 1, Part 1 of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Analysis of the episode “Scene in the Alexander Gymnasium” (based on the novel “The White Guard” by M. A. Bulgakov) Thalberg's flight (analysis of an episode from Chapter 2 of Part 1 of M. A. Bulgakov's novel “The White Guard”). Struggle or surrender: The theme of the intelligentsia and revolution in the works of M.A. Bulgakov (novel "The White Guard" and plays "Days of the Turbins" and "Running") The death of Nai-Turs and the salvation of Nikolai (analysis of an episode from chapter 11 of part 2 of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”) Civil war in the novels by A. Fadeev “Destruction” and M. Bulgakov “The White Guard” The Turbin House as a reflection of the Turbin family in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Tasks and Dreams of M. Bulgakov in the novel "The White Guard" Ideological and artistic originality of Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Portrayal of the white movement in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Depiction of the Civil War in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” The “imaginary” and “real” intelligentsia in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Intelligentsia and revolution in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” History as depicted by M. A. Bulgakov (using the example of the novel “The White Guard”). The history of the creation of Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” How is the white movement presented in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”? The beginning of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” (analysis of Chapter 1, Part 1) The beginning of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” (analysis of Chapter 1 of the first part). The image of the City in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” The image of a house in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” The image of the house and the city in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Images of white officers in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” The main images in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” The main images of the novel “The White Guard” by M. Bulgakov Reflection of the civil war in Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”. Why is the Turbins' house so attractive? (Based on the novel by M. A. Bulgakov “The White Guard”) The problem of choice in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” The problem of humanism in war (based on the novels by M. Bulgakov “The White Guard” and M. Sholokhov “Quiet Don”) The problem of moral choice in the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The White Guard". The problem of moral choice in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Problems of the novel by M. A. Bulgakov “The White Guard” Discussions about love, friendship, military duty based on the novel “The White Guard” The role of Alexei Turbin's dream (based on the novel by M. A. Bulgakov “The White Guard”) The role of the heroes’ dreams in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” The Turbin family (based on the novel by M. A. Bulgakov “The White Guard”) The system of images in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Dreams of heroes and their meaning in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” The dreams of the heroes and their connection with the problems of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”. The characters’ dreams and their connection with the problems of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Dreams of the heroes of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”. (Analysis of Chapter 20 of Part 3) Scene in the Alexander Gymnasium (analysis of an episode from Chapter 7 of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”) The caches of engineer Lisovich (analysis of an episode from chapter 3 of part 1 of M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”) The theme of revolution, civil war and the fate of the Russian intelligentsia in Russian literature (Pasternak, Bulgakov) The tragedy of the intelligentsia in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” A man at a turning point in history in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” What is attractive about the Turbins’ house (based on M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”) The theme of love in Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard” Discussions about love, friendship, the basis of the novel “The White Guard” Analysis of the novel "The White Guard" by M.A. Bulgakov I Reflection of the civil war in the novel Discussions about love, friendship, military duty based on the novel The man at the breaking point of history in the novel A house is a concentration of cultural and spiritual values ​​(Based on the novel by M. A. Bulgakov “The White Guard”) Symbols of Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard”

The action of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard" takes place in Ukraine in the midst of the civil war. The city, according to the author's description, strongly resembles Kyiv, is occupied by German troops. Petlyura’s troops may come here any day now. There is confusion and turmoil everywhere.

At dinner at the Turbins'

In the Turbins’ large house, several military men are talking over dinner: military doctor Alexey Turbin, non-commissioned officer Nikolai Turbin, Lieutenant Myshlevsky, Second Lieutenant Stepanov, nicknamed Karas, and the adjutant of the headquarters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Lieutenant Shervinsky. Also present at the table is the Turbins’ sister Elena.

We are talking about the terrible prospects of the arrival of Petliura’s troops and the search for ways to prevent this.

Alexey Turbin believes that if it were not for the Ukrainian hetman, in the city where many officers and cadets had accumulated, it would have been possible to gather a good army not only to repel Petliura, but also to save all of Russia.

The rest do not object to him, but argue that the reigning chaos and the desire to quickly escape from here will not lead to anything good.

At this time, Sergei Ivanovich Talberg, the husband of Elena Turbina, appears and, as if to confirm the last words, reports that tonight he must leave the city along with the German troops. Consoling his wife, he promises to return in 3 months along with Denikin’s army.

Failed attempt to save the city

And at this time, a division is being formed in the city under the command of Colonel Malyshev. Karas, Myshlevsky and Alexey Turbin happily enroll in his service. The next day they must report to division headquarters in full military bearing. However, at night, along with German troops, the hetman leaves the city along with his entire government, and Colonel Malyshev disbands his small army. Petlyura enters the city.

Alexey Turbin, who knew nothing about these events, comes to the headquarters of the already disbanded division and, having learned about what happened, tears off his officer's uniform with annoyance. Walking through the city, he attracts the attention of Petlyura’s soldiers and realizes with horror that he forgot to take off his officer’s hat. He runs under fire from the Petliurists and one of the bullets hits him in the arm. But at the most critical moment, an unknown young woman saves him, hiding him in her house.

In parallel to this, dramatic events take place outside the city. There, Colonel Nai-Tours gathered his combat detachment, which Nikolai Turbin joined, and is preparing to defend the city from Petliura. A battle ensues, during which Nai-Tours learns that the bulk of Petliura’s troops bypassed him and entered the city. The courageous colonel gives the order to all his soldiers to leave, and he himself dies in front of Nikolai, covering his soldiers and officers.

Meanwhile, Alexei becomes seriously ill. He has typhus and his wounded arm is inflamed. The council of doctors comes to a terrible conclusion: Turbin will not be able to survive. But despite this, Alexei miraculously manages to avoid death.

Artillery cannonade can be heard outside the window. Petlyura's troops leave the city. Soon the Red Army will enter it.

The novel ends on these two optimistic notes.