Several films were put on this text, its plot became the basis of the famous opera. Moreover, for many contemporaries of Pushkin and the most eminent researchers of his work, this is just an adventurous story, the creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” is declared by many to be an error, an obvious mistake of the great poet. Is it so?
Russian Robin Hood
The Pushkin genius forced him to pose more and more new tasks. In the verses appeared that language, which became the basis of great literature, great culture. In prose this language - simple, clear, expressive - was written "Belkin's Tales", which can hardly be called purely prosaic texts, because in them the place for each word, for every sound is precisely verified in the poem.
From the "Young Lady Peasant" to the "Dubrovsky"
Although two years after the “Young Lady-Peasant” in “Dubrovsky” young people from neighboring estates again appear, they even communicate - leaving the right message in the hollow of a tree, the story of creating the novel “Dubrovsky” shows us the new Pushkin. A matured author looks at the world in a completely different way.
Starting in the summer of 1831, for Pushkin it became increasingly important to create a prose work of a different nature, where the main content becomes an interestingly told story. The creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” could begin with the desire to create a Russian replica of the adventurous novels so popular in Western European literature. But to consider the Pushkin text only an echo of Walter Scott’s novels or a discussion on the “robbery” theme proposed by Schiller is unacceptably banal for the level of Alexander Sergeyevich. Perhaps the first incentive thoughts could have a similar form, but then they became much more significant.
Dubrovsky - Ostrovsky?
It was Ostrovsky who at first planned to name the main character Pushkin. Such an impression was made on him by a story told by a good Moscow friend P.V. Nashchokin. The creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” is largely determined by Pushkin’s acquaintance through Nashchokin with the circumstances of the case of the Belarusian landowner Pavel Ostrovsky.
Papers for the possession of a small village of twenty souls, which was in the Minsk province, burned during the Napoleonic invasion. A wealthy neighbor took advantage of this, having seized the village from the impoverished landowner. For some time, he was forced to hire a home teacher, but soon in those places attacks began on law enforcement officers and other officials. The arrested Ostrovsky, according to some reports, managed to escape, having cut chains on the shackles, and his trace was lost. Before us is an almost accurate plot of the Pushkin novel.
Case of Lieutenant Muratov
In the second chapter of Dubrovsky, Pushkin places a document that sums up Troyekurov’s lawsuit with a former friend. This verdict seems to be a work of authorship, its clericalism and heavy turns are so impressive. But it turns out that this is a copy of a document from the lawsuit on the alienation of the estate of Lieutenant Martynov in favor of a neighbor - Colonel Kryukov. Pushkin put a copy of the document into the drafts of the novel, only making pencil corrections - he changed the real names to those with which he endowed the heroes of Dubrovsky.
In drafts a place is designated - Kozlovsky district of the Tambov province, where this story happened. The creation of the novel “Dubrovsky” is largely based on similar processes that took place in the vast expanses of the empire. The final version of the name of the protagonist became a settled case for Pushkin when he got acquainted with similar court cases in the Nizhny Novgorod province, where the famous Pushkin estate of Boldino was located. Among real people, he met a landowner with such an expressive surname. It was this surname that became the name of the unfinished novel when it was decided to publish it in the posthumous collected works.
Riot
Of course, it is difficult to imagine Pushkin’s work as a blind compilation based on real world cases. The story of the creation of the novel Dubrovsky cannot look like this. Pushkin was also interested in more significant phenomena of public life. How could he ignore the armed actions of 1830 in Paris and Lille, the Polish national liberation movement directed against Nicholas I, and cholera riots broke out here and there in the modern Russian Empire.
The work of Pushkin on the history of the Pugachev war left its mark. What is the story of the creation of the novel "Dubrovsky" - a story about a noble robber who fought with government forces - could do without references to the peasant war not forgotten among the people . Men gather in Kistenevskaya Grove, very similar to those whom Pushkin sent to Pugachev’s army in “The Captain’s Daughter”. Also, we do not see the author's full approval of the element of rebellion - in the incomplete Dubrovsky the young robber dissolves his gang, which seems quite logical.
Total
Even a very brief history of the creation of the novel "Dubrovsky" invalidates the derogatory opinion of the most respected writers about this work of Pushkin. To define it as an unsuccessful attempt to make money by creating a lightweight reading, you need to be very arrogant about a great name. Alexander Sergeyevich, who is trying to reach the level of Zagoskin, Lazhechnikov or Bulgarin (this is how he is presented in Dubrovsky by some critics), is too pathetic a sight to be true.
It is not known how the author would have finished his novel, but what is limited by the point he set is enough to really excite the present and future readers.