A brief summary of the "History of one city" will make it possible to make a full impression of this work. This is a famous satirical novel written by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. He first saw the light in 1870.
Satirical novel
"The history of one city," a brief summary of which is in this article, is a detailed chronicle of the city of Glupov. Describes the events that occurred from 1731 to 1825. The novel opens with the chapter "From the Publisher", in which the author strongly insists on the authenticity of this annals, and also invites the reader to imagine in reality what this city was like.
The "Appeal to the reader from the last chronicler-chronicler" states that the goal set by everyone who undertook this work is to depict the correspondence of the authorities and the people. Thus, a detailed history of the reign of all the governors of Glupov was obtained.
The origin of the inhabitants of the city
The prehistoric chapter of the novel “The History of a City,” which you are currently reading a brief summary, tells about the victory of the ancient people of the headshots over the tribes surrounding them. True, being stronger than their neighbors, they did not know what to do with it, so they went looking for a prince who could manage them.
To their surprise, all the princes refused them, since no one wanted to rule such a people. Then they had to call the thief, who managed to find the prince. The prince agreed to rule, but did not want to move, sending this thief instead. The people ordered to be called "Foolovites", hence the current name of the city appeared.
These were obedient people, but the thief who ruled them wanted to pacify them, and riots were needed for this. In addition, the thief turned out to be so unclean on hand and steal so much that the prince sent him a noose.
All the rulers whom he sent in his place turned out to be thieves, only ruining the treasury. Then the prince had to come in person, and this ended the prehistoric times for the city of Glupov.
Further in Shchedrin’s novel “The History of a City”, a brief summary will help to quickly recall it, a detailed list of town governors, as well as their biography, is provided.
Dementium the Busty
The first of the significant city governors was Brudasty Dementy Varlamovich, who arrived in 1762.
He was extremely silent and gloomy, constantly repeating only: "I'll ruin!" and "I will not tolerate it!". The townspeople could not understand what was happening, until one day his secretary, going into his office to make a report, saw that the official’s body was sitting at the table, and his head was lying separately. It was completely empty.
The whole city was shocked by this news. We managed to find out everything from the master of the organs of Baibakov, who regularly goes to Brudastoy. He explained that in the head of the mayor in one of the corners there was an organ that could perform only two pieces of music. One was called "I will not tolerate it!", And the second - "I will ruin!"
While Busty got to Glupov, his head was damp, so now he constantly needed to be fixed. Baibakov could not cope with the repair, so he ordered a new head in St. Petersburg, but its delivery was delayed.
It all ended when two identical town governors appeared at once, whom the delivery man, who had specially arrived for this from the province, christened impostors and took him away. Stupid left without leadership. The mayor of the organ in the History of a City (a brief summary helps to recall the main events of the work in memory) is one of the most famous and memorable details.
Anarchy
The city fell into anarchy. From Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The History of a City” (a brief summary will help you prepare for the exam or standings in this work), we learn that anarchy lasted exactly one week.
During this time, as many as six city governors visited power. The claim to power was dubious. If one was based on the work of her husband, and the second on the basis of her father, the others put forward even less well-founded reasons.
In Glupov, hostilities were constantly conducted, in between which some townspeople threw others from the bell tower or drowned. When everyone was tired of anarchy, a new ruler arrived, whose name was Semyon Konstantinovich Dvoekurov.
Semyon Dvoekurov
In Glupov, he launched a very fruitful and beneficial activity. A brief summary of the chapters of "The Story of a City" can give a full impression of it. In particular, honey and brewing were introduced, the use of bay leaves and mustard became mandatory.
Dvoekurov had thoughts to establish his own academy in Glupov, but he did not manage to implement them. Pyotr Petrovich Ferdyshchenko came to replace Semen Konstantinovich. Under him, the city flourished for six years. But in the seventh year he failed. As the Foolovites said, "the demon was embarrassed."
Ferdyshchenko fell in love with the driver's wife Alenka, who, to the great surprise of everyone around him, rejected him. Then Ferdyshchenko went to extreme measures. He branded and exiled her husband to Siberia, only then Alyonka came to her senses and answered with consent.
For the sins of his ruler had to answer the whole city, which fell drought. Hunger followed. Around everyone began to die, one after another. Then the patience of the townspeople came to an end. They sent a walker to Ferdyshchenko, who did not return. They sent a request, but there was no reaction to it. Then they took Alyonka herself and threw her from the bell tower. Ferdyshchenko, too, did not lose time in vain; he wrote numerous reports to his superiors. It was not possible to get bread, but a team of soldiers was sent to Silly.
The people calmed down, but then Ferdyshchenko got a new hobby - the archery Domashka. Through it, fires came to Stupid. The Pushkarskaya Sloboda burned down, and then the fire spread to the Sloven and Bolotnaya settlements. Only then Ferdyshchenko retreated, returning Domashka.
The reign of this mayor ended in a journey. He went in search of a city pasture. In all places he was greeted, always treated to dinner. Three days later he died of an overeating.
Basilisk Borodavkin
The summary of the “History of a city” provides a detailed description of all the events of the novel. Vasilisk Semenovich Borodavkin, who immediately decisively took up the matter, became a new important leader for the city.
He studied the entire history of the city, deciding that the only role model is the Doubles. But by that time all his undertakings and achievements had been forgotten and abandoned, in Glupov they even stopped sowing mustard. Borodavkin first decided to correct this injustice. And as a punishment for such carelessness, he ordered the consumption of olive oil.
But the Foolovites did not agree to this. Then Borodavkin decided to go on a campaign on the Streletskaya settlement. The trip lasted 9 days, but not everything went well. In the brief content of the roman of "History of a city" you can find confirmation of this. In the dark, often had to fight with their own, and some real soldiers imperceptibly replaced by tin. But the mayor still survived.
But having come to the settlement, he did not find anyone in it and began to pull away on logs of the house. He organized several more wars for enlightenment, but all this ultimately led to the impoverishment of Glupov, which finally ended with another mayor, Negodyaeva. In this state, he was found by the next important ruler, Cherkesshenin by the name of Mikeladze.
His rule was not marked by virtually any events and decrees; he focused entirely on attention to the female sex. The city could breathe calmly.
Theophylact Benevolensky
Feofilakt Irinarkhovich Benevolensky is an important character for the plot, described in Saltykov-Shchedrin's “The Story of a City”. The summary of the novel helps to learn the plot without reading the whole work. Benevolensky was a close friend of Speransky, even studied with him at the same lyceum. From a friend, he adopted a passion for legislation.
The trouble was that the mayor did not have such functions, so it was necessary to pass laws secretly. Benevolensky did this at home with the merchant Raspopova, and at night he scattered them throughout the city. But he was not destined to rule for a long time. The authorities found out about his connections with Napoleon and fired.
Lt. Col. Pimple
Another ruler was Lt. Col. Pimple. From the summary of the "History of a city" from the passage you can understand what it was like. It was described as follows:
The pimple was no longer young, but it was preserved unusually. Shoulder-shaped, folded by a ridge, he seemed to say with his whole figure: do not look at the fact that I have a gray mustache: I can! I can still very much! He was blush, had red and juicy lips, due to which a row of white teeth was visible; his walk was active and vigorous, a quick gesture. And all this was decorated with brilliant headquarters officer epaulettes, which played on his shoulders at the slightest movement.
He practically did not deal with the city, so life simply flourished. The crops were so plentiful that the Foolovites were wary. The secret of Pimple was revealed by the leader of the nobility, who noticed that from the pimple's head it smells of truffles. A big lover of minced meat pounced and ate his head.
After that, State Councilor Ivanov arrived in Stupid. He was so short that he could not accommodate anything lengthy, and died. The next was a foreign viscount de Chario, who had a lot of fun, for which he was sent abroad. At the same time, he turned out to be a woman.
Erast Sadilov
Important changes began with the arrival of Erast Grustilov. With him, everyone was completely mired in laziness and debauchery. Nobody wanted to work, the famine began again.
Gustilov was engaged only in balls. The pharmacist’s wife set him on the path of good. The townspeople repented, but no one returned to work. And when the authorities found out that the local nobility reads Strakhov at night, then Grustilov was completely dismissed.
Ugryum-Burcheev
Over time, Ugryum-Burcheev came to power in the city. It is known that he was a complete idiot from The History of a City. Summary in grade 8 is especially useful, because then they study Saltykov-Shchedrin. In Glupov, Ugryum-Burcheev decided to make the same streets with the same houses and families.
To do this, he destroyed everything and began to build anew, but the river stood in the way. He began to build dams from the construction debris left after the destruction, but the river washed them away every time. Then Ugryum-Burcheev led the Foolovites away from the river. For the city, they chose a new place, in the lowland, where construction began.
Sad end
It is not known how it all ended, because the publisher claims that the notebooks with all the details were lost. The scoundrel in the face of Ugryum-Burcheev eventually disappeared very suddenly, as if dissolved in the air, and the story on this stopped its course. The publisher does not give any other details and circumstances at all.
The story concludes with the so-called exculpatory documents. These are the works of various city governors, which they wrote at different times as a warning to their followers.