Letter to readers V. Kaverin (about the history of the creation of the novel "Two Captains")

In his article "Sketch of the work" VA Kaverin admitted how much in his writing style the concreteness of representation, the accuracy of knowledge and fact, and sharp object memory mean. Having once promised himself "not to let the imagination run wild", the writer recreates the artistic space of his works with the help of acquaintances, studied to the smallest detail, and most importantly loved and close realities. From such specific details, a generalized image of the old city is created in Kaverin's work. And although in his novels it is called differently - Ensk in "Two Captains", Lopakhin in "Open Book", just "this city" in the story "The End of the Khaza" - it is always recognizable both in its historical and geographical appearance, and in that lyrical outline, which betrays the biographical connection with the author-narrator.
Telling how he put the story of the novel "Two Captains" young man, heard in 1936 in a sanatorium near Leningrad, the writer admitted that he transferred the hero's childhood to his "hometown, called it Ensk. It is not for nothing that my fellow countrymen easily guess the real name of the city in which Sanya Grigoriev was born and raised!" When the first chapters were written, it became clear to the writer that it was in this small town that something extraordinary was going to happen - an accident, an event, a meeting, "the light of the Arctic stars that accidentally fell into a small, abandoned city."

"Two captains". Volume 1. Part 1. Chapter 14. "Flight. I am not sleeping. I pretend to sleep."

Of course, you could just leave home - and remember what your name was! But Petka decided that it was not interesting, and worked out quite complex plan who amazed me with its mystery.
First, we had to give each other a "bloody oath of friendship." There she is:
"Whoever betrays this honest word will not receive mercy until he counts how much sand is in the sea, how many trees are in the forest, how many raindrops are falling from the sky. If he wants to go forward, send back, wants to go left, send to the right. with a hat on the ground, so thunder will strike the one who breaks this word of honor. Fight and seek, find and not give up".
Taking turns pronouncing this oath, we had to shake hands and at once hit the ground with our caps. This was done in Cathedral Garden on the eve of departure. I said the oath by heart, Petka read it from a piece of paper. Then he pricked his finger with a pin and signed it in blood: "PS", that is, Pyotr Skovorodnikov. I scribbled with difficulty: "AG", that is, Alexander Grigoriev.

"Two captains". Volume 1. Part 3. Chapter 5. "Katya's father".

It was a lot of fun at the table, a lot of people, everyone was laughing and talking loudly. But then the father got up with a glass of wine, and immediately everyone fell silent. Katka did not understand what he was saying, but she remembered that everyone clapped and shouted "Hurray" when he finished, and the grandmother muttered again: "Lord!" - and sighed. Then everyone said goodbye to their father and some other sailors, and he threw Katka high and caught her with his kind, big hands.
"Well, Masha," he said to his mother. And they kissed crosswise ...
It was a farewell supper and seeing off of Captain Tatarinov at the Ensk railway station. In May twelve, he came to Ensk to say goodbye to his family, and in mid-June he sailed on the schooner "St. Mary" from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok ...

"Two captains". Volume 1. Part 3. Chapter 12. "Home"

How good it is to return to your hometown after eight years of separation! Everything is familiar - and not familiar. Is this the governor's house? It once seemed huge to me. Is it Wall? Was it so narrow and crooked? Is this really Lopukhinsky Boulevard? But the boulevard consoled me: beautiful new buildings stretched behind the lindens along the main alley. Black lindens were as if painted on a white background, and black shadows from them lay obliquely on the white snow - it was very beautiful.
I walked quickly and at every step I recognized the old, then I was amazed at the changes. Here is the orphanage where Aunt Dasha was going to give me and my sister; it turned green and a large marble plaque with gold letters appeared on the wall. I read it and could not believe my eyes. "Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin stayed in this house in 1824". Damn it! In this house! The shelters would have turned their noses up if they knew it.
And here are the "public places" to which my mother and I once carried a petition! They had now become completely "unattended", the old low bars were removed from the windows, and a plaque hung at the gate: "House of Culture".
And here is the Rampart ...

"Two captains". Volume 1. Part 3. Chapter 14. "Appointment in the Cathedral Garden." Do not believe this man.

The day before we agreed to go to the city museum. Sanya wanted to show us this museum, which they were very proud of in Ensk. It was located in the Pogankin Chambers - an old merchant building, about which Petya Skovorodnikov once said that it was filled with gold, and the merchant Pogankin himself was walled up in the basement, and whoever enters the basement, he will strangle. Indeed, the door to the basement was closed, and there was a huge lock on it, probably from the 12th century, but the windows were open, and through them the carters threw firewood into the basement.

Hamlet of Ensk district. The genesis of the plot in the novel "Two Captains" by Kaverin 

V.B. Smirensky

This poem is encrypted.

V. Kaverin. "Fulfillment of desires".

Analyzing the plot of the novel "Two Captains" by V. Kaverin, the authors critical essay"V. Kaverin" O. Novikov and V. Novikov 1 believe that the novel is marked by a special closeness to folk fantastic narration and therefore it is advisable to draw an analogy not with specific fairy-tale plots, but with the very structure of the genre described in V.Ya. Propp's "Morphology of a Fairy Tale" 2. According to the authors, almost all (thirty-one) of Propp's functions find one or another correspondence in the plot of the novel, starting with the traditional plot "One of the family members is leaving home" - in the novel, this is the arrest of Sani's father on false charges of murder. Further, the authors cite Propp's clarification: "The intensified form of absence is the death of the parents." So it comes out with Kaverin: Sani's father died in prison, and some time later his mother died.

According to O. Novikova and V. Novikov, the second function "They turn to the hero with a ban" is transformed in the novel into the story of Sanina's muteness. When the "ban is violated", that is, Sanya finds speech and begins to recite the letters of Captain Tatarinov everywhere, the "antagonist" (that is, Nikolai Antonovich) is involved in the action. Perhaps, the authors believe that it is absent, only the fourteenth function "A magic agent gets at the disposal of the hero", that is, a miracle in the literal sense. However, this is compensated by the fact that the hero achieves his goal and defeats opponents only when he gains willpower, knowledge, etc.

In this regard, O. Novikova and V. Novikov believe that although folklore elements in literature are qualitatively transformed, nevertheless, they seem to be legitimate attempts to contemporary writers harness the energy of a fairy tale, pairing it with a realistic narrative. Propp's list of functions can serve as a kind of connecting link, a special language into which the plot is translated not only fabulous, but also literary. For example, "The hero leaves the house"; "The hero is tested, questioned, attacked ..."; "The hero arrives unrecognized home or to another country"; " False hero makes unfounded claims ";" The hero is offered a difficult task; " and reigns. "The whole plot of" Two Captains ", according to O. Novikova and V. Novikov, is built on the test of the hero," this is a framing story, centralizing all the other plot threads. "

In addition, researchers see in "The Two Captains" a reflection of a whole spectrum of varieties of the novel genre and, in particular, Dickens' plots. The history of the relationship between Sani and Katya resembles at the same time a medieval romance and a sentimental novel from the 13th century. "Nikolai Antonovich resembles a villainous hero from a Gothic novel" 3.

At one time, A. Fadeev noted that the novel "Two Captains" was written "according to the traditions of a non-Russian classical literature, and Western European, in the manner of Dickens, Stevenson " 4 . It seems to us that the plot of "Two Captains" has a different basis, not directly related to folklore traditions... While acknowledging the links with the traditions of the novel genre, our analysis reveals a much more striking similarity and close connection between the plot of the Caverin novel and the plot of the greatest Shakespearean tragedy"Hamlet".

Let's compare the plots of these works. Prince Hamlet receives "news from the afterlife": the ghost of his father told him that he - the king of Denmark - was treacherously poisoned by his own brother, who seized his throne and married the queen - Hamlet's mother. “Goodbye and remember me,” the Specter summons. Hamlet is shocked by these three heinous crimes committed by Claudius: murder, seizure of the throne and incest. The act of his mother, who so soon agreed to the marriage, also deeply wounds him. Trying to make sure what the ghost of his father told, Hamlet with visiting actors plays in the presence of Claudius, Gertrude and all the courtiers a play about the murder of the king. Claudius, losing his composure, betrays himself (the so-called "mousetrap" scene). Hamlet reproaches his mother for betraying her husband's memory and denounces Claudius. During this conversation, Polonius, eavesdropping, hides behind a carpet, and Hamlet (not intentionally) kills him. This leads to Ophelia's suicide. Claudius sends Hamlet to England with a secret order to kill him upon arrival. Hamlet escapes death and returns to Denmark. Laertes, enraged by the death of his father and sister, agrees with the king's cunning plan and tries to kill Hamlet in a duel with a poisoned rapier. In the finale, all the main characters of the tragedy perish.

The basic construction of the plot of "Two Captains" overlaps with the plot of Shakespeare. At the very beginning of the novel, a boy from the town of Enska, Sanya Grigoriev, receives "news from the other world": Aunt Dasha reads letters from the bag of a drowned postman every evening. He memorizes some of them. They are about the fate of an expedition lost and, probably, lost in the Arctic. A few years later, fate brings him in Moscow with the addressees and characters of the letters found: the widow (Maria Vasilievna) and the daughter (Katya) of the missing captain Ivan Tatarinov and his cousin Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov. But at first Sanya doesn't know about it. Maria Vasilievna is getting married to Nikolai Antonovich. She speaks of him as a man of rare kindness and nobility, who sacrificed everything to equip her brother's expedition. But Sanya by this time already feels a strong distrust of him. Arriving in his native Ensk, he again turns to the surviving letters. "As lightning in a forest illuminates the area, so I understood everything while reading these lines." The letters said that the expedition owed all the failures to Nikolai (that is, Nikolai Antonovich). He was not named by his last name and patronymic, but it was him, Sanya is sure.

So, like Claudius, Nikolai Antonovich committed a triple crime. He sent his brother to certain death, since the schooner had dangerous side cutouts, unsuitable dogs and food, etc. brother.

Sanya exposes these crimes, but his revelations lead to the suicide of Maria Vasilievna. Returning to Moscow, Sanya tells her about the letters and reads them by heart. By the signature "Montigomo Hawk-claw" (albeit mistakenly pronounced by Sanya - Mongotimo) Maria Vasilievna verified their authenticity. The next day she was poisoned. Compared to Shakespeare's Gertrude, her betrayal of her husband's memory is at first somewhat softened. At first, she "ruthlessly" refers to all attempts by Nikolai Antonovich to look after her and show concern. He reaches his goal only after many years.

It is important to motivate Sanya's behavior that relations in the Tatarinov family are strikingly reminiscent of Sanya's events that took place in his own family: after the death of her father, his beloved mother marries "fanfaron" Gayer Kulia. Stepfather, a man with a "fat face" and a very disgusting voice, makes Sanya tremendous dislike. However, his mother liked him. "How could she fall in love with such a man? Unwittingly, Maria Vasilievna also came to my mind, and I decided once and for all that I did not understand women at all." This Gaer Kuliy, who sat down at the place where his father sat and loved to lecture everyone with endless stupid reasoning, demanding that they also thank him for this, in the end, became the cause of the mother's premature death.

When Sanya met Nikolai Antonovich, it turned out that, like Gaer Kuliy, he is also a lover of boring teachings: “Do you know what“ thank you ”is? Keep in mind that depending on whether you know or not. .. "Sanya understands that he is" talking nonsense "specifically to annoy Katya. At the same time, like Gaer, he expects gratitude. So, there is a symmetry in the relationship of the characters: the deceased Sanin's father, mother, stepfather, Sanya, on the one hand, and the deceased captain Tatarinov, Maria Vasilievna, Nikolai Antonovich, Katya, on the other.

At the same time, the teachings of the stepfathers in the novel are consonant with the speeches of the hypocrite Claudius. Let us compare, for example, such quotes: "Korol. The death of our beloved brother is still fresh, and it befits us to bear pain in our hearts ..." "Nikolai Antonovich not only talked to me about his cousin. This was his beloved theme." "He did a lot for him, it is clear why he loved to remember him so much." Thus, owing to the double reflection in the novel of the relationship of the main characters in Hamlet, the motive of "betrayal of her husband's memory" ultimately turns out to be reinforced in V. Kaverin. But the motive for "restoring justice" is also growing. Gradually, the orphan Sanya Grigoriev, looking for traces and recreating the history of the expedition "St. Mary", seems to acquire his new, this time spiritual father in the form of Captain Tatarinov, "as if instructed to tell the story of his life, his death."

Having found the expedition and the body of Captain Tatarinov frozen into the ice, Sanya writes to Katya: "As if I am writing to you from the front - about a friend and about a friend who died in battle. Sorrow and pride for him excite me, and before the spectacle of immortality my soul passionately freezes ... "As a result, external parallels are reinforced by internal psychological motivations 5.

Continuing to compare the episodes of the novel and the tragedy, we note that although the revelations of Hamlet shocked the Queen, their consequences were completely unexpected. The unexpected murder of Polonius led to the madness and suicide of the innocent Ophelia. From the point of view of "normal" or life logic, the suicide of Maria Vasilievna is more justified than the suicide of Ophelia. But this example shows how far Shakespeare is from the usual logic of life and everyday ideas. Suicide of Maria Vasilievna– a natural event in the general plot structure of the novel. The suicide of Ophelia is a tragedy in a high tragedy, which itself has the deepest philosophical and artistic meaning, an unpredictable plot twist, a kind of intermediate tragic ending, thanks to which the reader and viewer delves into the "unsearchable meaning of good and evil" (B. Pasternak).

Nevertheless, from the formal (plot, or event) point of view, one can state the coincidence of episodes: both in the tragedy and in the novel, one of the main characters is suicide. And one way or another, the hero is burdened with an involuntary feeling of guilt.

Nikolai Antonovich seeks to turn Sanin's evidence of guilt against himself. "This is the man who killed her. She is dying because of the vile, vile snake who says that I killed her husband, my brother." "I threw it out like a snake." Here you can already pay attention to the vocabulary and phraseology of the characters in the novel, to their similarity with the translation of "Hamlet" by M. Lozinsky, which was published in 1936 and with which V.A. Kaverin was probably familiar at the time of the writing of the novel: "The snake, who struck your father, put on his crown."

Sanya intends to find the missing expedition and prove his case. He makes these promises to himself, Katya and even Nikolai Antonovich: "I will find the expedition, I do not believe that it has disappeared without a trace, and then we'll see which of us is right." The oath runs through the novel as a leitmotif: "Fight and seek, find and not give up!" This oath and promises echo Hamlet's oath and promises to avenge his father: "My cry from now on:" Goodbye, goodbye! And remember me. "I swore an oath," although, as you know, the role of Hamlet goes far beyond the usual revenge.

In addition to the most important plot coincidences in the tragedy and the novel, coincidences can be noted that relate to the details of the behavior of the characters.

Sanya comes to Korablev, but at this time Nina Kapitonovna also comes to Korablev. Korablev takes Sanya to the next room with a leaky green curtain in place of the door and says to him: "And listen - it's good for you." Sanya hears all this important conversation, in which they talk about him, Katya and Camomile and looks through a hole in the curtain.

The circumstances of the episode resemble the scene of the meeting between Hamlet and the Queen, when Polonius hides behind a carpet. If in Shakespeare this detail is important from many sides (characterizes the spy zeal of Polonius and becomes the cause of his death, etc.), then in Kaverin this scene is apparently used only so that Sanya quickly learns important news for him.

Claudius, frightened and angry at the revelations, sends Hamlet to Britain with a letter, where there was an order "that immediately after reading it, without delay, without seeing if the ax was sharpened, my head would be taken away", as Hamlet later tells Horatio.

In the novel, Sanya, organizing an expedition to search for Captain Tatarinov, learns from Nina Kapitonovna that Nikolai Antonovich and Romashka "... are writing about everything. Pilot G., pilot G. Donos, come on." And she turns out to be right. An article soon appears, which, indeed, contains a real denunciation and slander against Sanya. The article said that a certain pilot G. denigrates the respected scientist (Nikolai Antonovich) in every possible way, spreads slander, etc. If we consider that the case takes place in the fateful thirties (Kaverin wrote these episodes in 1936-1939), then the effectiveness of the denunciation-article could be no less than the treacherous letter of Claudius to the British king that condemns Hamlet to execution. But, like Hamlet, Sanya avoids this danger with his energetic actions.

Note that there are further overlaps in the character system. Lonely Hamlet has only one true friend- Horatio:

"Hamlet. But why aren't you at Wittenberg, student friend?" Marcellus calls Horatio "the scribe".

Sanya has more friends, but Valka Zhukov stands out among them, who is still interested in biology at school. Then he is a "senior scientist specialist" on an expedition to the North, then a professor. Here we see coincidences in the nature of the activities of the heroes' friends: their distinctive feature- scholarship.

But much big role plays in the novel Romashov, or Daisy. Even at school, his deceit, hypocrisy, double-dealing, denunciations, greed, espionage, etc. are manifested, which he tries, at least sometimes, to hide under the guise of friendship. Early enough he becomes close to Nikolai Antonovich, later becoming his assistant and the closest person in the house. According to the position in the novel and its extremely negative properties, it combines all the main characteristics of the courtiers of Claudius: Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Katya believes that he is similar to Uriah Gipa, the character of Charles Dickens. Perhaps that is why both A. Fadeev and the authors of the essay "V. Kaverin" suggested that the novel reflected the plot of Dickens.

In fact, for the understanding of this image, it is essential that in the novel he also performs the function of Laertes, which is that he is. enters into mortal combat with the hero. If Laertes is driven by revenge, then Romashov is driven by envy and jealousy. At the same time, both the one and the other character act in the most treacherous way. So, Laertes uses a poisoned rapier, and Chamomile throws Sanya, seriously wounded during the war, stealing from him a bag of crackers, a flask of vodka and a pistol, that is, dooms him, it would seem, to certain death. He himself, in any case, is sure of this. "You will be a corpse," he said haughtily, "and no one will know that I am with you." Assuring Katya that Sanya died, Romashka, apparently, himself believes in it.

Thus, as in the case of Maria Vasilievna's suicide, we see that in the novel, in comparison with the tragedy, there is a redistribution of plot functions between the characters.

The vocabulary used by V. Kaverin to characterize Romashov is based on key word"scoundrel". Still on school lesson On a bet, Sanya gives Chamomile to cut his finger. "Cut," I say, and this scoundrel coldly cuts my finger with a penknife. Further: "Chamomile rummaged in my trunk. This new meanness amazed me"; "I will say that Chamomile is a scoundrel and that only a scoundrel will apologize to him." If in the novel these expressions are "scattered" in the text, then in M. Lozinsky's translation they are collected "in a bouquet" in a monologue where Hamlet, choking with anger, says about the king: "Scoundrel. Smiling scoundrel, damned scoundrel! - My tablets, - it is necessary to write down that you can live with a smile and be a scoundrel with a smile. "

In the final scene of the showdown, Sanya says to Romashov: "Sign it, you scoundrel!" – and gives him to sign "the testimony of MV Romashov", which says: "Vile deceiving the leadership of Glavsevmorput, etc." "O regal meanness!" - exclaims Hamlet, shocked by the treacherous letter of Claudius.

TO key scenes Hamlet includes the Phantom scenes and the mousetrap scene in which the antagonist is exposed. In Kaverin, similar scenes are combined into one and placed in the finale of the novel, where, finally, justice finally triumphs. It happens in the following way. Sanya managed to find the expedition's photographic film, which had lain in the ground for about 30 years, and to develop some frames that seemed to be lost forever. And so Sanya demonstrates them in his report in Geographic Society dedicated to the materials found. It is attended by Katya, Korablev, and Nikolai Antonovich himself, that is, as in the scene of the "mousetrap", all the main characters of the novel.

"The light went out, and a tall man in a fur hat appeared on the screen ... He seemed to walk into the hall - a strong, fearless soul. Everyone stood up when he appeared on the screen. (cf. Shakespeare's remark: Come in and out) And in this solemn silence I read the report and the captain's farewell letter: “We can safely say that we owe all our failures only to him.” And then Sanya reads out a document of commitment, where the culprit of the tragedy is directly indicated. Finally, in conclusion, he says about Nikolai Tatarinov: “Once in a conversation with me this man said that he only recognized one witness: the captain himself. And now the captain calls him - full name, patronymic and surname! "

Shakespeare King's Confusion climax, which comes in the scene of the "mousetrap", conveys through the exclamations and remarks of the characters:

About f e l and I. The King Rises!

HAMLET What? Frightened by a blank shot?

Queen. What's with your majesty?

P about l about n and th. Stop playing!

King. Give me some fire. ”“ Let's go!

In the village of Fire, fire, fire!

In the novel, the same problem is solved by descriptive means. We see Nikolai Antonovich "suddenly straightened up, looked around when I loudly called this name." "In my life, I have not heard such a devilish noise," "a terrible commotion arose in the hall." Comparing these episodes, we see that Kaverin seeks to solve the climax and denouement of his novel with a spectacular scene, in which he tries to merge the emotional tension that arises in the tragedy "Hamlet" in the scenes with the ghost and in the scene of the "mousetrap".

O. Novikova and V. Novikov, the authors of the essay "V. Kaverin", believe that in the work on "Two Captains" "the author of the novel seemed to have" forgotten "about his philological erudition: no quotations, no reminiscences, no parody-stylized moments not in the novel. And this, perhaps, is one of the main reasons for the success. " 6.

However, the above material testifies rather to the opposite. We see a fairly consistent use of Shakespeare's plot and system of characters in the tragedy. Nikolay Antonovich, captain Tatarinov, Valka Zhukov and himself consistently reproduce the plot functions of their prototypes the main character... Maria Vasilievna, repeating the fate of Gertrude, commits suicide, like Ophelia. One can quite clearly trace the correspondence to prototypes and their actions in the image of Romashov: espionage and denunciations (Polonius), feigned friendship (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern), an insidious murder attempt (Laertes).

O. Novikova and V. Novikov, striving to bring the novel "Two Captains" closer to the structure of the genre described in "Morphology of a Tale" by V. Ya. Propp, turn out to be right in the sense that in Kaverin's novel, as in a fairy tale, there is a regularity, discovered by Propp: if the set of permanent characters changes in a fairy tale, then a redistribution or combination of plot functions occurs between them 7. Apparently, this pattern operates not only in folklore, but also in literary genres, when, for example, one or another plot is reused. O. Revzina and I. Revzin gave examples of combining or "gluing" functions - the roles of characters in A. Christie's novels 8. Differences associated with the redistribution of functions are of no less interest for plotology and comparative studies than close coincidences.

The revealed coincidences and consonances make one wonder how consciously Kaverin used the plot of the tragedy. It is known what great attention he devoted to the plot and composition in his works. "I have always been and remain a plot writer", " great value compositions ... underestimated in our prose, "– he emphasized in the "Sketch of the work" 9. The author described here in some detail the work on "The Two Captains".

The idea of ​​the novel was associated with an acquaintance with a young biologist. According to Kaverin, his biography captivated the writer so much and seemed so interesting that he "promised himself not to let his imagination run wild." The hero himself, his father, mother, comrades are written exactly as they appeared in the story of a friend. "But imagination still came in handy," admits V. Kaverin. First, the author tried to "see the world through the eyes of a young man shocked by the idea of ​​justice." Secondly, "it became clear to me that something extraordinary was going to happen in this small town (Ensk). The extraordinary thing I was looking for was the light of the Arctic stars that accidentally fell into a small abandoned city." 10.

So, as the author himself testifies, in the basis of the novel "Two Captains" and in the basis of its plot, in addition to the biography of the prototype hero, there were two most important lines. Here we can recall the technique that Kaverin first tried to use in his first story.

In the trilogy "Illuminated Windows" V. Kaverin recalls the beginning of his career as a writer. In 1920, while preparing for an exam in logic, he first read summary Lobachevsky's non-Euclidean geometry and was struck by the courage of the mind, which imagined that parallel lines converge in space.

Returning home after the exam, Kaverin saw a poster announcing a competition for aspiring writers. In the next ten minutes, he decided to leave poetry forever and switch to prose.

"Finally - this was the most important thing - I managed to think over my first story and even call it:" The Eleventh Axiom. "Lobachevsky crossed parallel lines at infinity. All that is necessary is that, regardless of time and space, they ultimately merge, merge ... ".

Arriving home, Kaverin took a ruler and lined a sheet of paper lengthwise into two equal columns. On the left, he began to write the story of a monk who loses faith in God. On the right is the story of a student losing his wealth at cards. At the end of the third page, both parallel lines converged. The student and the monk met on the banks of the Neva. This short story was sent to the competition under the meaningful motto "Art should be based on the formulas of the exact sciences", received an award, but remained unpublished. However, "the idea of ​​the Eleventh Axiom" is a kind of epigraph to all Kaverin's creativity. And in the future he will look for a way of crossing parallel ... " 11

Indeed, in the novel "Two Captains" we see two main lines: in one storyline, the techniques of an adventure novel and a travel novel in the spirit of J. Verne are used. The bag of the drowned postman with soaked and partially damaged letters, which speak of the missing expedition, cannot but recall the letter found in the bottle in the novel "Children of Captain Grant", which, by the way, also describes the search for the missing father. But the use in the novel of authentic documents that reflect the real and dramatic story researchers Far north Sedov and Brusilov, and, most importantly, the search for evidence leading to the triumph of justice (this line turned out to be based on a Shakespearean plot), made the plot not only fascinating, but also literary more significant.

The novel also “works” in a peculiar way, the third storyline, on which Kaverin initially relied - the true biography of a biologist. Rather, here, from the point of view of comparative plotology, the combination of this line with the two above is of interest. In particular, the beginning of the novel, which describes the homelessness and hungry wanderings of Sanya. If in Shakespeare the main character, who is destined to take on the heavy burden of restoring trampled justice, is prince Hamlet, then in the novel the main character is at first a street child, that is, "n and n and y." This well-known literary opposition turned out to be organic, for, as O. Novikova and V. Novikov rightly point out, general structure"Two Captains" clearly manifested the tradition of the novel of education. "Traditional techniques worked vigorously, applied to cutting edge material." 12.

In conclusion, let us return to the question, how conscious was Kaverin's use of the Shakespearean plot? A similar question was asked by M. Bakhtin, proving the genre affinity of F.M. Dostoevsky and the ancient menippea. And he answered it decisively: "Of course not! He was not at all a stylist of ancient genres ... Speaking somewhat paradoxically, we can say that not the subjective memory of Dostoevsky, but the objective memory of the genre itself, in which he worked, retained the features of the ancient menippea." 13

In the case of V. Kaverin's novel, we are inclined to attribute all the above intertextual coincidences (in particular, lexical coincidences with the translation of "Hamlet" by M. Lozinsky) to the account of the "subjective memory" of the writer. Moreover, he probably left for the attentive reader a certain "key" to decipher this riddle.

As you know, the author himself dates the origin of his idea of ​​"Two Captains" in 1936 14. Work on the novel "Fulfillment of Desires" has just been completed. One of the indisputable successes in it was the fascinating description of the deciphering by the hero of the tenth chapter of the novel "Eugene Onegin". Perhaps, while working on "Two Captains", Kaverin tried to solve the opposite problem: to encrypt the plot of the greatest and well-known tragedy into the plot of a modern novel. I must admit that he succeeded, since until now no one seems to have noticed this, despite the fact, as V. Kaverin himself pointed out, the novel had "meticulous readers" who saw some deviations from the text of the documents used 15. Such an expert on plot-building as V. Shklovsky did not see this either, who noticed at one time that two novels were inserted into the novel "Fulfillment of Desires": a short story about the deciphering of Pushkin's manuscript and a short story about the seduction of Trubachevsky by Nevorozhin, which turned out to be connected only externally 16.

How did Kaverin manage to transform the tragic Shakespearean plot so skillfully? S. Balukhaty, analyzing the genre of melodrama, noted that it is possible to "read" and "see" a tragedy in such a way that, omitting or weakening its thematic and psychological materials, turn the tragedy into a melodrama, which is characterized by "convex, bright forms, sharp-dramatic conflicts, in-depth plot " 17.

Nowadays, the time of close attention to the novel is gone. However, this should not affect the theoretical interest in its study. As for the "key" to unraveling the plot, which the author left, it is associated with the title of the novel, if one recalls one of the final solemn lines of Shakespeare's tragedy:

Let Hamlet be lifted to the platform,

As a warrior, you are a friend.

Finally, the last "syllable" of the Caverin charade is associated with the name of the hometown of Sani. In general, names such as the city of N. or N, N-sk, etc., have a tradition in literature. But, melting the Shakespearean plot into the plot of his novel, Kaverin could not help but recall his predecessors and among them the famous story related to Shakespeare's theme - "Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district". If the heroine Leskova was from Mtsensk, then my hero, pilot G., let him be simply from ... En s k a, Kaverin might think and left a rhymed trail for future clues: Ensk - Mtsensk - Lady Macbeth - Hamlet ...

5 V. Borisov, V. Kaverin's novel "Two Captains" (See V. Kaverin. Collected works in 6 volumes, vol. 3, M., 1964, p. 627).

8 O. Revzina, I. Revzin, Towards a formal analysis of plot composition. - "Collection of articles on secondary modeling systems", Tartu, 1973, p. 117.

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// In the book: Smirensky V. Analysis of plots.
- M. - AIRO-XX. - with. 9-26.
Among literary connections Chekhov is one of the most important and constant - Shakespeare. New material for the study of Chekhov's literary ties, he gives his play "Three Sisters and Shakespeare's Tragedy" King Lear ".

Executor: Miroshnikov Maxim, student of 7 "K" class

Supervisor: Pitinova Natalya Petrovna, teacher of Russian language and literature

ANALYSIS OF ROMAN VENIAMIN KAVERIN

"TWO CAPTAINS"

Foreword. Biography of V.A. Kaverin

Kaverin Veniamin Aleksandrovich (1902 - 1989), prose writer.

Born on April 6 (NS 19) in Pskov in the family of a musician. In 1912 he entered the Pskov gymnasium. "A friend of my older brother Y. Tynyanov, later famous writer, was my first literary teacher who instilled in me an ardent love for Russian literature ", - will write V. Kaverin.

As a sixteen-year-old boy, he came to Moscow and in 1919, graduated from high school here. He wrote poetry. In 1920 he transferred from Moscow University to Petrogradsky, at the same time enrolling in the Institute oriental languages, graduated from both. He was left at the university in graduate school, where he studied for six years scientific work and in 1929 he defended his dissertation entitled “Baron Brambeus. The story of Osip Senkovsky ". In 1921, together with M. Zoshchenko, N. Tikhonov, Vs. Ivanov was the organizer literary group The Serapion Brothers.

It was first published in the almanac of this group in 1922 (story "Chronicle of the city of Leipzig for 18 ... year"). In the same decade, he wrote stories and stories: "Masters and Apprentices" (1923), "The Suit of Diamonds" (1927), "The End of the Khaza" (1926), the story about the life of scientists "Brawler, or Evenings on Vasilievsky Island"(1929). I decided to become a professional writer, finally devoting myself to literary creativity.

In 1934 - 1936. writes his first novel "The Fulfillment of Desires", in which he set the task not only to convey his knowledge of life, but also to develop his own literary style. It succeeded, the novel was a success.

The most popular piece Kaverina became a novel for youth - "Two captains", the first volume of which was completed in 1938. The outbreak of the Patriotic War stopped work on the second volume. During the war, Kaverin wrote front-line correspondence, military essays, and short stories. At his request, he was sent to the Northern Fleet. It was there, communicating with pilots and submariners on a daily basis, that I realized in which direction the work on the second volume of "Two Captains" would go. In 1944, the second volume of the novel was published.

In 1949 - 1956 worked on the trilogy "Open Book", about the formation and development of microbiology in the country, about the goals of science, about the character of the scientist. The book has gained immense popularity among the reader.

In 1962 Kaverin published the story "Seven Unclean Couples", which tells about the first days of the war. In the same year, the story "Oblique Rain" was written. In the 1970s he created the book of memoirs "In the Old House", as well as the trilogy "Illuminated Windows", in the 1980s - "Drawing", "Verlioka", "Evening Day".

Analysis of the novel "Two Captains"

This summer I got acquainted with a wonderful literary work - the novel "Two Captains", while reading the "summer" literature recommended by the teacher. This novel was written by Veniamin Aleksandrovich Kaverin, a wonderful Soviet writer. The book was published in 1944, and in 1945 the writer received the Stalin Prize for it.

It is no exaggeration to say that "Two Captains" is the cultivated book of several generations of Soviet people. I liked the novel very much too. I read it almost in one breath, and the heroes of the book became my friends. I believe that the novel helps the reader to solve many important questions.

In my opinion, the novel "Two Captains" is a book about a search - a search for truth, one's own life path, its moral and moral position... It is no coincidence that its heroes are captains - people who are looking for new ways and leading others!

In the novel "Two Captains" by Veniamin Kaverin stories pass before us two main characters - Sani Grigoriev and Captain Tatarinov.

V the center of the novel is the fate of Captain Sani Grigoriev. As a boy, fate connects him with another captain - the missing captain Tatarinov, and his family. We can say that Sanya devotes his whole life to finding out the truth about Tatarinov's expedition and restoring the defamatory name of this person.

In the process of searching for the truth, Sanya grows up, learns life, he has to make fundamental, sometimes very difficult, decisions.

The events of the novel take place in several places - the city of Ensk, Moscow and Leningrad. The author describes the 30s and years of the Great Patriotic War- the time of childhood and youth of Sani Grigoriev. The book is full of memorable events, important and unexpected plot twists.

Many of them are associated with the image of Sani, with his honest and courageous deeds.

I remember the episode when Grigoriev, rereading old letters, learns the truth about Captain Tatarinov: important discovery- discovered the Northern Land, which he named after his wife - Mary. Sanya also learns about the vile role of the cousin of the captain Nikolai Antonovich - he made it so that most of the equipment on the schooner Tatarinov was unusable. Almost the entire expedition died due to the fault of this man!

Sanya seeks to "restore justice" and tell everything about Nikolai Antonovich. But at the same time, Grigoriev only makes it worse - in his own words, he practically kills Tatarinov's widow. This event repels Sanya and Katya, Tatarinov's daughter, with whom the hero falls in love.

Thus, the author of the book shows that there are no unambiguous actions in life. What seems right can turn into its opposite side at any moment. You need to carefully consider all the consequences before committing any important act.

Also particularly memorable for me events in the book was the discovery by captain Grigoriev, becoming an adult, of the navigator Tatarinov's diary, which, after many obstacles, was published in Pravda. This means that people learned about the true meaning of Tatarinov's expedition, learned the truth about this heroic captain.

Almost at the end of the novel, Grigoriev finds the body of Ivan Lvovich. This means that the hero's mission is complete. The Geographical Society hears Sani's report, where he tells the whole truth about Tatarinov's expedition.

Sanka's whole life is connected with the feat of a brave captain, since childhood he is equal to a brave explorer of the North and in adulthood finds the expedition "St. Mary " fulfilling his duty to the memory of Ivan Lvovich.

V. Kaverin did not just invent the hero of his work, Captain Tatarinov. He took advantage of the story of two brave conquerors of the Far North. One of them was Sedov. From another he took the actual story of his journey. It was Brusilov. The drift of the "Saint Mary" exactly repeats the drift of the Brusilov "Saint Anna". The diary of navigator Klimov is completely based on the diary of navigator "St. Anna" Albanov - one of the two surviving members of this tragic expedition.

So, how did Ivan Lvovich Tatarinov grow up? It was a boy born to a poor fishing family on the shore Sea of ​​Azov(Krasnodar Territory). In his youth, he went as a sailor on oil tankers between Batum and Novorossiysk. Then he passed the exam for a "naval ensign" and served in the Hydrographic Directorate, with proud indifference enduring the arrogant rejection of the officers.

Tatarinov read a lot, took notes on the margins of books. He argued with Nansen. Either the captain "completely agreed", then "completely disagree" with him. He reproached him that, before reaching the pole of some four hundred kilometers, Nansen turned to the ground. The ingenious thought: "Ice will solve its problem by itself" was written there. On a piece of yellowed paper that fell out of Nansen's book, Ivan Lvovich Tatarinov wrote in his hand: “Amundsen wants to leave Norway the honor of opening the North Pole at all costs, and we will go this year and prove to the whole world that the Russians are capable of this feat ". He wanted, like Nansen, to go, perhaps further north with drifting ice, and then reach the pole on dogs.

In mid-June 1912, the schooner "St. Maria "left St. Petersburg for Vladivostok. At first, the ship was sailing on the planned course, but in the Kara Sea, the "Holy Mary" froze and slowly began to move northward along with polar ice... Thus, willingly or not, the captain had to abandon the original intention - to go to Vladivostok along the coast of Siberia. “But every cloud has a silver lining! A completely different thought now occupies me, ”he wrote in a letter to his wife. Ice was even in the cabins, and every morning they had to chop it down with an ax. It was a very arduous journey, but all the people held up well and would probably have done the job if they hadn't been late with the equipment and if that equipment hadn't been so bad. The team owed all its failures to the betrayal of Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov. Of the sixty dogs he sold to the team in Arkhangelsk, most of them had to be shot on Novaya Zemlya. “We took a risk, we knew that we were taking a risk, but we did not expect such a blow,” wrote Tatarinov. ... "

Among the captain's parting letters were a map of the filmed area and business papers. One of them was a copy of the obligation, according to which the captain refuses any remuneration in advance, all commercial production upon his return to the "Main Land" belongs to Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov, the captain is responsible with all his property to Tatarinov in case of loss of the vessel.

But despite the difficulties, he managed to draw conclusions from his observations and formulas, proposed by him, allow you to subtract the speed and direction of ice movement in any area of ​​the Arctic Ocean. This seems almost unbelievable when you remember that the relatively short drift of St. Mary ”took place in places that, it would seem, do not provide data for such broad results.

The captain was left alone, all his comrades were killed, he could no longer walk, was freezing on the move, on halts, he could not even warm up while eating, his legs were frostbitten. “I am afraid that we are finished, and I have no hope even that you will ever read these lines. We can no longer walk, we are freezing on the move, at halts, we cannot even get warm while eating, ”we read his lines.

Tatarinov understood that soon his turn was also, but he was not at all afraid of death, because he did more than in his power to stay alive.

His story ended not in defeat and unknown death, but in victory.

At the end of the war, making a report to the Geographical Society, Sanya Grigoriev said that the facts that were established by the expedition of Captain Tatarinov did not lose their significance. So, on the basis of the study of the drift, the famous polar explorer Professor V. suggested the existence of an unknown island between the 78th and 80th parallels, and this island was discovered in 1935 - and exactly where V. determined its place. The constant drift established by Nansen was confirmed by the voyage of Captain Tatarinov, and the formulas for the comparative movement of ice and wind represent a huge contribution to Russian science.

The expedition's photographic films were developed, which had lain in the ground for about thirty years.

On them he appears to us - a tall man in a fur hat, in fur boots tied under the knees with straps. He stands, stubbornly bowing his head, leaning on a gun, and a dead bear, with folded paws like a kitten, lies at his feet. This was a strong, fearless soul!

Everyone stood up when he appeared on the screen, and such a silence, such a solemn silence reigned in the hall that no one dared even breathe, let alone say a word.

“… It’s bitter for me to think about all the things that I could have done if it were not for the fact that they helped me, but at least not hindered me. One consolation is that by my labors new vast lands have been discovered and annexed to Russia ... ", - we read the lines written by the brave captain. He named the land after his wife, Marya Vasilievna.

And in the last hours of his life he was not thinking about himself, but worried about his family: "My dear Mashenka, somehow you will live without me!"

A courageous and clear character, purity of thought, clarity of purpose - all this exposes a person of great soul.

And the captain Tatarinov is buried as a hero. Ships entering the Yenisei Gulf see his grave from afar. They walk past her with flags at half-mast, and cannon fireworks thunder. The tomb was built of white stone, and it sparkles dazzlingly under the rays of the unsetting polar sun. Carved at the height of human growth following words: “Here rests the body of Captain I.L. Tatarinov, who made one of the most courageous voyages and died on the way back from the Severnaya Zemlya discovered by him in June 1915. "Fight and seek, find and not give up!"- this is the motto of the work.

That is why all the heroes of the story consider I.L. Tatarinov is a hero. Because he was a fearless man, fought with death, and in spite of everything he achieved his goal.

As a result, the truth triumphs - Nikolai Antonovich is punished, and the name of Sani is now inextricably linked with the name of Tatarinov: "Such captains move humanity and science forward".

And, in my opinion, this is absolutely true. Tatarinov's discovery was very important for science. But the act of Sani, who devoted many years to restoring justice, can also be called a feat - both scientific and human. This hero always lived by the laws of goodness and justice, never went to meanness. This is precisely what helped him to withstand the most severe conditions.

We can say the same about Sani's wife - Katya Tatarinova. By strength of character, this woman is on a par with her husband. She went through all the trials that befell her, but remained faithful to Sana, carried her love to the end. And this despite the fact that many people tried to tear apart the heroes. One of them is an imaginary friend of Sani "Romashka" - Romashov. On the account of this man there were a lot of mean things - betrayals, betrayals, lies.

As a result, he was also punished - he was sent to prison. Another villain was also punished - Nikolai Antonovich, who was expelled from science in disgrace.

Conclusions.

Based on what I said above, we come to the conclusion that "Two Captains" and its heroes teach us a lot. “In all trials, it is necessary to maintain dignity in oneself, to always remain human. Under any circumstances, one must be faithful to good, love, light. Only then is it possible to cope with all the tests ”, - says the writer V. Kaverin.

And the heroes of his book show us that we need to face life, to meet any difficulties. Then you are provided interesting life full of adventure and real action. A life that will not be ashamed to remember in old age.

Bibliography.

Once in the city of Ensk, on the banks of the river, a dead postman and a bag with letters were found. Aunt Dasha read aloud one letter to her neighbors every day. Sana Grigoriev especially remembered the lines about long-distance polar expeditions ...

Sanya lives in Ensk with his parents and sister Sasha. By an absurd accident, Sanya's father is accused of murder and arrested. Only little Sanya knows about the real killer, but because of the dumbness, from which the wonderful doctor Ivan Ivanovich will only relieve him later, he cannot do anything. The father dies in prison, after a while the mother gets married. The stepfather turns out to be a cruel and vile person who tortures both children and his wife.

After the death of his mother, Aunt Dasha and neighbor Skovorodnikov decide to send Sanya and his sister to an orphanage. Then Sanya and his friend Petya Skovorodnikov flee to Moscow, and from there to Turkestan. “Fight and seek, find and not give up” - this oath keeps them on their way. The boys walk to Moscow, but Petkin's uncle, whom they counted on, went to the front. After three months of almost free work with speculators, they have to hide from checking. Petka manages to escape, and Sanya first ends up in a distribution center for street children, and from there to a school-commune.

Sanya likes it at school: he reads and sculpts from clay, he makes new friends - Valka Zhukov and Romashka. Once Sanya helps to bring a bag to an unfamiliar old woman who lives in the apartment of the head of the school Nikolai Antonovich Tatarinov. Here Sanya meets Katya, a pretty girl with pigtails and dark, lively eyes, who is somewhat inclined to ask herself. After a while, Sanya again finds himself in the familiar house of the Tatarinovs: Nikolai Antonovich sends him there for a lactometer, a device for checking the composition of milk. But the lactometer explodes. Katya is going to take the blame, but proud Sanya does not allow her to do it.

The Tatarinovs' apartment becomes for Sani "something like Ali Baba's cave with its treasures, mysteries and dangers." Nina Kapitonovna, whom Sanya helps with all the housework and who feeds him with lunches, is a "treasure"; Marya Vasilievna, "not a widow, not a husband's wife," who always wears a black dress and often sinks into melancholy, is a "mystery"; and "danger" - Nikolai Antonovich, as it turned out, Katya's great-uncle. Favorite theme of Nikolai Antonovich's stories - cousin, that is, the husband of Marya Vasilievna, about whom he "cared for all his life" and who "turned out to be ungrateful." Nikolai Antonovich has long been in love with Marya Vasilievna, but while she is "ruthless" to him, it is more likely that the geography teacher Korablev, who sometimes comes to visit, evokes her sympathy. Although, when Korablev makes an offer to Marya Vasilyevna, he is refused. On the same day, Nikolai Antonovich gathers the school council at home, where Korablev is sharply condemned. It was decided to limit the activities of the geography teacher - then he would be offended and leave, Sanya informs Korablev about everything he heard, but as a result Nikolai Antonovich kicks Sanya out of the house. Offended Sanya, suspecting Korablev of betrayal, leaves the commune. After wandering around Moscow all day, he becomes completely ill and ends up in the hospital, where Dr. Ivan Ivanovich again rescues him.

Four years have passed - Sanya is seventeen years old. At the school there is a performance of the staged "trial of Eugene Onegin", it is here that Sanya meets Katya again and reveals his secret to her: he has been preparing to become a pilot for a long time. Sanya finally learns from Katya the story of Captain Tatarinov. In June of the twelfth year, having stopped in Ensk to say goodbye to his family, he went out on the schooner “St. Maria ”from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. The expedition did not return. Maria Vasilievna unsuccessfully sent a petition for help to the tsar: it was believed that if Tatarinov died, it was through his own fault: he "was careless with state property." The captain's family moved to Nikolai Antonovich. Sanya often meets Katya: they go to the skating rink together, to the zoo, where Sanya suddenly runs into his stepfather. At the school ball, Sanya and Katya are left alone, but their conversation is interrupted by Romashka, who then reports everything to Nikolai Antonovich. Sanya is no longer accepted by the Tatarinovs, and Katya is sent to her aunt in Ensk. Sanya beats up Camomile, it turns out, and in the story with Korablev it was he who played fateful role... And yet Sanya regrets his deed - with a heavy feeling he leaves for Ensk.

V hometown Sanya finds his aunt Dasha, old man Skovorodnikov, and his sister Sasha, he learns that Petka also lives in Moscow and is going to become an artist. Once again Sanya re-reads the old letters - and suddenly realizes that they are directly related to the expedition of Captain Tatarinov! With excitement, Sanya learns that none other than Ivan Lvovich Tatarinov discovered the Northern Land and named it in honor of his wife Marya Vasilievna, that it was Nikolai Antonovich's fault that this “ scary person”, Most of the equipment was found to be unusable. The lines in which the name of Nikolai is directly named are washed out by water and have survived only in Sanya's memory, but Katya believes him.

Sanya firmly and decisively denounces Nikolai Antonovich in front of Marya Vasilievna and even demands that it is she who "bring the charge." Only then Sanya realizes that this conversation finally defeated Marya Vasilievna, convinced her of the decision to commit suicide, because Nikolai Antonovich was already her husband by that time ... Doctors fail to save Marya Vasilievna: she is dying. At the funeral, Sanya approaches Katya, but she turns away from him. Nikolai Antonovich managed to convince everyone that the letter was not at all about him, but about some kind of "von Vyshimirsky" and that Sanya was guilty of the death of Marya Vasilievna. Sanya can only work hard to prepare for admission to the flight school, so that someday she will find the expedition of Captain Tatarinov and prove her case. Last time seeing Katya, he leaves to study in Leningrad. He is engaged in flight school and at the same time works at a plant in Leningrad; both sister Sasha and her husband Petya Skovorodnikov study at the Academy of Arts. Finally Sanya achieves an appointment to the North. In the city of the Arctic, he meets with Dr. Ivan Ivanovich, who shows him the navigator's diaries “St. Mary ”by Ivan Klimov, who died in 1914 in Arkhangelsk. Patiently deciphering the records, Sanya learns that the captain Tatarinov, having sent people in search of land, himself remained on the ship. The navigator describes the hardships of the campaign, speaks of his captain with admiration and respect. Sanya understands that the traces of the expedition must be looked for in the Land of Mary.

From Vali Zhukov Sanya learns about some Moscow news: Camomile has become "the closest person" in the Tatarinovs' house and, it seems, "is going to marry Katya." Sanya constantly thinks about Katya - he decides to go to Moscow. In the meantime, he and the doctor receive the task to fly to the remote Vanokan camp, but they end up in a blizzard. Thanks to the forced landing, Sanya finds a hook from the schooner “St. Maria". Gradually, a coherent picture is formed from the "fragments" of the captain's history.

In Moscow, Sanya plans to make a report on the expedition. But first it turns out that Nikolai Antonovich had already partially outstripped him, having published an article about the discovery of Captain Tatarinov, and then the same Nikolai Antonovich with his assistant Romashka published in Pravda a slander against Sanya and thereby sought to cancel the report. Ivan Pavlovich Korablev helps Sanya and Katya in many ways. With his assistance, mistrust disappears in relations between young people: Sanya understands that Katya is trying to impose a marriage with Camomile. Katya leaves the Tatarinovs' house. Now she is a geologist, head of the expedition.

Insignificant, but now somewhat "settled down" Romashka is playing a double game: he offers Sanya evidence of Nikolai Antonovich's guilt if he refuses Katya. Sanya informs Nikolai Antonovich about this, but he is no longer able to resist the clever "assistant". With the help of the Hero Soviet Union the pilot Ch. Sanya still gets permission for the expedition, and Pravda publishes his article with excerpts from the navigator's diary. In the meantime, he returns to the North.

They again try to cancel the expedition, but Katya is decisive - and in the spring she and Sanya must meet in Leningrad to prepare for the search. The lovers are happy - on white nights they walk around the city, all the time they are preparing for the expedition. Sasha, Sania's sister, gave birth to a son, but suddenly her condition deteriorates sharply - and she dies. Expedition to no clear reason canceled - Sanya is given a completely different appointment.

Five years pass. Sanya and Katya, now Tatarinova-Grigorieva, live on Far East, then in the Crimea, then in Moscow. They eventually settle in Leningrad with Petya, his son, and Katya's grandmother. Sanya takes part in the war in Spain, and then leaves for the front. Once Katya again meets Camomile, and he tells her about how he, saving the wounded Sanya, tried to get out of the German encirclement and how Sanya disappeared. Katya does not want to believe Camomile, in this difficult time she does not lose hope. Indeed, Chamomile is lying: in fact, he did not save, but abandoned the seriously wounded Sanya, taking away his weapons and documents. Sanya manages to get out: he is treated in a hospital, and from there he goes to Leningrad in search of Katya.

Katya is not in Leningrad, but Sanya is invited to fly to the North, where battles are already underway. Sanya, never finding Katya either in Moscow, where he just missed her, or in Yaroslavl, thinks that she is in Novosibirsk. During the successful completion of one of the combat missions, the crew of Grigoriev makes an emergency landing near the place where, according to Sani, it is necessary to look for traces of the expedition of Captain Tatarinov. Sanya finds the captain's body, as well as his farewell letters and reports. And returning to Polyarny, Sanya finds Katya with Dr. Pavlov.

In the summer of 1944, Sanya and Katya spend their vacation in Moscow, where they see all their friends. Sanya needs to do two things: he testifies in the case of the convicted Romashov, and his report on the expedition, on the discoveries of Captain Tatarinov, and on why this expedition died, is passed with great success in the Geographical Society. Nikolai Antonovich is expelled from the hall in disgrace. In Ensk, the family gathers at the table again. Old man Skovorodnikov in his speech unites Tatarinov and Sanya: "such captains move humanity and science forward."