Valentin Pikul three ages okini-san sentimental novel. Valentin Pikul three ages okini-san sentimental novel Three ages okini san summary

In the center of the novel is the dramatic fate of Vladimir Kokovtsev, who went from midshipman to admiral of the Russian fleet. The writer takes his hero through a series of historical events - the Russian-Japanese and World War I, the February and October revolutions, shows the difficult political situation in the Far East, where the interests of Russia, England, and Japan clashed.

Plot

Distant fires of Inosa

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An excerpt characterizing the Three Ages of Okini-san

Natasha, pale and stern, sat beside Marya Dmitrievna, and from the very door met Pierre with a feverishly brilliant, inquiring look. She did not smile, did not nod her head at him, she only looked stubbornly at him, and her glance only asked him whether he was a friend or an enemy like everyone else in relation to Anatole. Pierre himself obviously did not exist for her.
“He knows everything,” said Marya Dmitrievna, pointing to Pierre and turning to Natasha. "He'll tell you if I told the truth."
Natasha, like a hunted, driven animal, looks at the approaching dogs and hunters, looked first at one, then at the other.
“Natalya Ilyinichna,” Pierre began, lowering his eyes and feeling a sense of pity for her and disgust for the operation that he was supposed to do, “whether it’s true or not, it should be all the same to you, because ...
So it's not true that he's married!
- No, its true.
Has he been married for a long time? she asked, “honestly?”
Pierre gave her his word of honor.
– Is he still here? she asked quickly.
Yes, I saw him just now.
She was obviously unable to speak and made signs with her hands to leave her.

Pierre did not stay to dine, but immediately left the room and left. He went to look for Anatole Kuragin in the city, at the thought of which now all his blood rushed to his heart and he experienced difficulty in taking a breath. On the mountains, among the gypsies, at the Comoneno - he was not there. Pierre went to the club.
Everything in the club went on in its usual order: the guests who had gathered for dinner sat in groups and greeted Pierre and talked about the city news. The footman, having greeted him, reported to him, knowing his acquaintance and habits, that a place had been left for him in a small dining room, that Prince Mikhail Zakharych was in the library, and Pavel Timofeich had not yet arrived. One of Pierre's acquaintances, between a conversation about the weather, asked him if he had heard about the kidnapping of Rostova by Kuragin, which they were talking about in the city, was it true? Pierre, laughing, said that this was nonsense, because now he was only from the Rostovs. He asked everyone about Anatole; he was told by one that he had not yet come, the other that he would dine to-day. It was strange for Pierre to look at this calm, indifferent crowd of people who did not know what was going on in his soul. He walked around the hall, waited until everyone had gathered, and without waiting for Anatole, he did not dine and went home.
Anatole, whom he was looking for, dined with Dolokhov that day and consulted with him about how to fix the spoiled case. It seemed to him necessary to see Rostova. In the evening he went to his sister's to talk with her about the means of arranging this meeting. When Pierre, having traveled all over Moscow in vain, returned home, the valet reported to him that Prince Anatol Vasilyich was with the countess. The drawing room of the Countess was full of guests.
Pierre did not greet his wife, whom he did not see after his arrival (she was more than ever hated by him at that moment), entered the living room and, seeing Anatole, went up to him.
“Ah, Pierre,” said the countess, going up to her husband. “You don’t know what position our Anatole is in ...” She stopped, seeing in her husband’s head lowered, in his shining eyes, in his resolute gait, that terrible expression of fury and strength, which she knew and experienced on herself after the duel with Dolokhov.
“Where you are, there is debauchery, evil,” Pierre said to his wife. “Anatole, let’s go, I need to talk to you,” he said in French.
Anatole looked back at his sister and obediently got up, ready to follow Pierre.
Pierre, taking him by the hand, pulled him towards him and left the room.
- Si vous vous permettez dans mon salon, [If you allow yourself in my living room,] - Helen said in a whisper; but Pierre, without answering her, left the room.
Anatole followed him with his usual, youthful gait. But there was concern on his face.
Entering his office, Pierre closed the door and turned to Anatole without looking at him.
- You promised Countess Rostova to marry her and wanted to take her away?
“My dear,” answered Anatole in French (as the whole conversation went), I do not consider myself obliged to answer interrogations made in such a tone.
Pierre's face, already pale, was contorted with fury. He grabbed Anatole by the collar of his uniform with his large hand and began to shake from side to side until Anatole's face assumed a sufficient expression of fear.
“When I say that I need to talk to you ...” Pierre repeated.
- Well, that's stupid. BUT? - said Anatole, feeling the collar button torn off with cloth.
“You are a scoundrel and a bastard, and I don’t know what keeps me from the pleasure of crushing your head with this,” said Pierre, “speaking so artificially because he spoke French. He took the heavy paperweight in his hand and raised it menacingly and immediately put it hastily in its place.
Did you promise to marry her?
- I, I, I did not think; However, I never promised, because ...
Pierre interrupted him. Do you have her letters? Do you have letters? Pierre repeated, moving towards Anatole.
Anatole looked at him and at once, thrusting his hand into his pocket, took out his wallet.

To the married couple of the Avraamovs - Era Pavlovna and Georgy Nikolaevich, in whose family for three generations they have been serving the Fatherland on the seas

Age one. Distant fires of Inosa

Together or on your own
And what is the name, and then what.
We didn't ask anything
And we do not swear that to the grave ...
We love. We just love both.

This happened recently - only a hundred years ago. A strong wind circled over the frozen harbors ... Vladivostok, a small naval settlement, was rebuilt carelessly and without a plan, and every nail or brick needed to create a city had previously circumnavigated the world. The fleet connected the outskirts with the country along a wide arc of the oceans, the ships crossed the equator twice. The crews, ready to pass more than one climatic zone, stocked up with sheepskin coats from frost and pith helmets from sunburn in the tropics. Europe said goodbye to them in the taverns of Cadiz - warm amontiliado in glasses and dances of Spanish girls to the guitar.

Isolation from the metropolis was unbearably painful. The city did not yet have a connection with central Russia; in the darkness of the ocean abyss, it laid only two telegraph cables - to Shanghai and Nagasaki. The eastern facade of the great empire had a tempting future, but its design was not easy. The high cost reigned here terrible. The little book, which cost half a rupee in Moscow, rose in price on the road so quickly that it ended up in Vladivostok at a price of five rubles. Tigers still ran from the taiga to the city, ate out guard dogs from the booths, at night they rushed at the guards at the warehouses, and gnawed the coolie porters to the bone. The beggars usually say: “What God will give”; in Vladivostok they said: “What the fleet will give.” The fleet gave everything - even pokers and oven pans, shovels and cart wheels, sailors tinned pans for grandmothers, boatswain, cursing everything in the world, soldered leaky samovars Here, on the edge of Russia, it was uncomfortable for people and uncomfortable for ships.

* * *

The Siberian flotilla (that wild and outcast mother of the future Pacific Fleet) then had permanent "stations" in Japan, where ships were accustomed to spend the winter, as in paradise, and to be repaired, as at home. The Far East lured sailors not only with primitive romance: here they paid higher salaries, there were more hopes for an early career. True, there were not enough women, and any bride that no one would even look at in Syzran, here in Vladivostok, became capricious, perfectly versed in the number of chevrons on the sleeves of sailors, in the number of stars on officer epaulettes.

One by one the ships sailed and sailed the oceans!

And the great constancy of the trade winds shortened the way-roads.

It's time to look at the calendar: it was the spring of 1880 ...

By that time, Vladivostok had already acquired its own coat of arms: the Ussuri tiger held two golden anchors in its paws.

* * *

Caught up in the jubilation of the spring trade winds, the propeller-driven clipper "Rider" crossed the Atlantic diagonally, descending to the mouth of La Plata, from where a powerful ocean draft pulled it further - to the Cape of Good Hope. In the pauses of the inevitable calms, the officers finished drinking the official madeira, the team finished off the last barrel of corned beef. In reserve were a fat, never desponding piglet and two affectionate gazelles, purchased from the Portuguese in the Cape Verde Islands.

The team refused to let them into the common cauldron.

Pardon, your wander, - the sailors argued, - they are playing with us, like little children, and we will eat them?

But then you have to sit on one lentil. Without meat, - the commander threatened, - all the way to Cape Town ...

The officers ate hard canned meat, which the midshipman Lenya Euler (a descendant of the great mathematician) called "the relics of the foreman who heroically fell from kidney disease." The Russian consul in Cape Town turned out to be a big bungler: he handed over the mail for the Dzhigit to the Rider, and handed the mail for the Rider to the crew of the Rider. The clipper's senior officer Pyotr Ivanovich Tchaikovsky spoke phlegmatically over dinner in the wardroom:

Let's not beat him, stupid! Obviously, there is no way for a consul to master the difference between a rider, a dzhigit and a rider… Gentlemen, he reminded me, I ask you to avoid the nooks and crannies of “learning the ancient languages” of the world. Get by without it! Better we visit the Kapstad observatory, where the greatest telescope is installed. The contemplation of the southern constellations will give you more pleasure than you would stare at the belly dance of the local devil. The youth of the fleet is obliged to spend the time of navigation with practical benefit.

At the same time, Tchaikovsky (the pedant!) looked expressively at midshipman Vladimir Kokovtsev, who had only recently been allowed to keep a night watch under sail. A very young midshipman, of course, could not resist the question - is it true that in Japan you can have a temporary wife without being responsible for the consequences of this strange concubinage?

Everyone does it… But I haven’t said the main thing yet,” the senior officer of the clipper continued, splitting his beard with his fingers. - The Consul gave an order from under the "spitz" not to rely on winds alone, but to help the sails with a machine. To replace the eastern crisis in the affairs of the Pamirs, from which we, Russians, have no bast shoes

weave, the crisis of the Far East appeared, and then there was a smell of hashish. London nevertheless convinced the Beijing wise men to gather their armies at Kulja to attack Russia! Therefore, we will hurry to Nagasaki, where "Uncle Stepan" is gathering a squadron of twenty-two combat pennants ...

The times were turbulent: England, that skilful machinist of international intrigues, layered one crisis upon another, keeping the world in constant tension; The "Victorians" surrounded Russia with their bases, coal depots and garrisons, they deliberately confused politics, already confused by diplomats. From day to day the Russian people were expecting war.

Valentin Pikul

The Three Ages of Okini-san. Volume 2

Publisher's website www.veche.ru

Second age. Execution of the Argonauts

(Ending. Beginning in Volume 1)

The squadron approached Tsushima with thirty-eight pennants, of which only thirty pennants had combat value (the rest: transport, tugboats, a floating workshop, two hospitals). The "spark telegraph", as radios were then called, received scraps of dispatches in Japanese. Oriental students, taken on a campaign from the Lazarev Institute, could not unravel their meaning. "Ural", which possessed the most powerful radio station, requested permission from the admiral - to jam the work of enemy radio stations with interference. But Rozhdestvensky in this case turned out to be more competent than others, strictly forbidding the squadron to interfere in the close negotiations of Japanese ships.

“If we do this,” he reasonably argued, “the Japanese will immediately spot us, realizing that we are nearby ...

On the bridges of the ships lay ordinary bags with ordinary bricks - in case of urgent flooding of signal books and secret documentation in them. Treasurers dragged iron chests with gold and money closer to the hatches - also for flooding. All these necessary ceremonies were performed without fuss, without frightening anyone ... War is war!

On the bridge, Admiral Rozhdestvensky slept anxiously; the heavy eyelids of his eyes sometimes lifted, his eyes scanned the horizon, he again dozed off, bowing his white head to his chest.

"Shout louder," the signalmen's officers begged.

Euler knocked on Kokovtsev's cabin:

- I'm afraid our "Suvorov" will not make it to Vladivostok.

Kokovtsev noticed his burned hands - in bandages:

- What happened, Lenechka?

“Those damned michels in Cam Rang and Van Fong have stuffed the most excellent rubbish into our bunkers ... Now the coal in the bunkers has started to spontaneously ignite. The flames are already raging below us.

- Are you pouring?

- Yes. But burning coal loses thirty percent of its qualities. Therefore, I say that we will not have enough of it to Vladivostok. And the overrun is terrible - up to a thousand tons per day.

“Don’t talk to anyone about this, Lenechka.

- I will not say. But you, flag-captain, know.

- Good. I'd rather not know...

At dawn, the Aurora noticed a white swift ship, fabulously flying through a gloomy mist; he was attracted by the bright light emanating from the hospital ships, and he was not detained by the ships of the squadron for inspection.

“Obviously, a passenger one,” they guessed on the Suvorov.

The Macedonian whispered to Ignatius:

“That was their cruiser, the Shinano-Maru…” Everything!

Yes, that's it now. They are open. They are exposed.

Flags flew over the Suvorov: READINESS FOR BATTLE.

– And what, these floating palaces of medicine? the admiral asked irritably. Or is the law not written for them?

Rozhdestvensky did not forbid the bright lighting of Kostroma and Orel, did not order the hospitals to go in the distance. The knocking devices of the Slaby-Arco pulled out long paper tapes, on which the hammer knocked out the same combination: “re-re-re-re ...” - obviously, Togo gave the call signs of some of his ship.

Radiotelegraphers swore:

Kokovtsev went down to the armadillo's wardroom, where, on the sofas, without even taking off their shoes, artillery officers in field jackets were dozing - Bogdanov and midshipman Kulnev.

“Gentlemen, what are you doing here?”

"I'm in charge of supply from the cellars," the midshipman explained.

“And I’m from nearby plutongs,” answered Bogdanov, the lieutenant. - If something blurs out, my post is next to it. Don't worry.

Kokovtsev did not even think to worry. He knew what speed a person can develop on ladders and in hatches when he is called to the combat post of the "loud battle bell."

“Then I will lie down, gentlemen, together with you…

Overboard, the water of the ocean gently rustled.

Unexpectedly for himself, Kokovtsev fell asleep very soundly and was awakened by the joyful chiming of glasses. He opened his eyes and sat on the couch. The wardroom was crowded with officers of various ages and ranks, the messengers opened champagne with excitement.

What are you celebrating, gentlemen? Kokovtsev asked.

- Japanese cruiser. On the right traverse. See?

A shadow low pressed to the water (in the sea "licked"):

“Then pour me one too, gentlemen!”

- Hey, you bastards! A glass to Mr. Flag-Captain ...

Senior officer Makedonsky clinked glasses with Kokovtsev:

- It seems that Izumo is sparing on a par with us. To embed him a good bream under the screws, so that he would come unstuck from the Slavs. And then after all, he rang all the ears of Togo with his signals ...

A gray dawn slowly flared up over the ocean.

– Where are we going now? Kokovtsev shivered shiveringly.

- Let's go to Tsushima ... right through the funnel! Bulbul…

Why so much fun, why are faces so joyful?

Ignatius appeared at the door of the saloon, putting three Havana cigars into a cigarette case, while he said grimly:

“I think I’ll have enough for the rest of my life…

The champagne was poured too generously, the wine splashing with sparks carelessly spilled on the carpets, on the tablecloth.

- Well, with God! Will start now.

- We waited ... finally! - rejoiced at the midshipman.

“Gentlemen, for the beautiful women who are waiting for us.

Macedonian called on the youth:

- Let us sacredly remember that the glorious St. Andrew's flag has perished in the abyss more than once, but has never been disgraced!

Running into the cabin, Kokovtsev pulled off his jacket from the hanger, looked out the porthole - yes, there was no doubt, this was Izumo. Memory was correct: the Japanese cruiser carried eight eight-inch, twelve six-inch guns, and her British machines could develop twenty and a half knots.

“Not bad for those who know something about this business. - Having said this, Kokovtsev cheerfully ran up to the bridge. - Don't scroll through the tables - this is Izumo ... It must be covered. Cover immediately ... Full salvo, otherwise ...

At that moment, the streamlined silhouette of the Japanese cruiser, framed by a white surf, seemed to him even beautiful. Taking advantage of the gain in speed, Izumo either easily outstripped the Russian squadron, or briskly ran back, like a trotter prancing in an arena. On the "Suvorov" the drums of the musicians were beaten.

- To prayer - everyone went upstairs! Go merrily to the church ...

“Yes, drive away the Izumo,” they called from the bridges.

The aft turret of the Suvorov stared at the insolent man with the muzzles of the cannons, and then the Izumo hastily swerved to the side. "Oslyabya" high, high carried the flag of Admiral Felkerzam, and Kokovtsev suddenly became very unwell from the realization that his son, his beloved first-born, was sailing into battle under the flag ... dead man!

In the distance, unsteady and vague, the silhouettes of six more Japanese cruisers were already appearing - the same "licked".

Rozhdestvensky unhurriedly threw back the woolen blanket from his knees and got out of the comfortable longchaise. Said:

- It's still exploration. We have enough time... By the way, the arrested and convicted can be given freedom to fight!

Outwardly, nothing had changed on the squadron, and only the slight movement of the towers and rangefinders indicated that the ships had not died out. But as soon as you look into the cramped compartments, your hearing will be filled with the noise of motors and the hiss of hydraulics, phone calls, shouts through the ear pads of the speech pipes, everything is in motion here, and the muscles of people sometimes overtake the speed of mechanisms, the elevators of the shells howl, along the bends of the highways that entangle the inside of the ship , like veins and arteries of the human body, the pumps distill water, technical oils and glycerins quickly pulsate in them, powerful ventilation roars noisily, greedily sucking avalanches of fresh air into the compartments, and deck bells immediately throw out masses of spent, already spoiled air into the atmosphere ...

This living warm creature is called a ship!

Current page: 1 (total book has 30 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 20 pages]

Valentin Pikul
The Three Ages of Okini-san
sentimental romance

To the married couple of the Avraamovs - Era Pavlovna and Georgy Nikolaevich, in whose family they have been serving the Fatherland on the seas for three generations.

Age one
Distant fires of Inosa

Together or on your own
And what is the name, and then what,
We didn't ask anything
And we do not swear that to the grave ...
We love.
We just love both.

Yosano Akiko

This happened recently - only a hundred years ago.

A strong wind circled over the frozen harbors ... Vladivostok, a small naval settlement, was rebuilt carelessly and without a plan, and every nail or brick needed to create a city had previously circumnavigated the world. The fleet connected the outskirts with the country along a wide arc of the oceans, the ships crossed the equator twice. The crews, ready to pass more than one climatic zone, stocked up with sheepskin coats from frost and pith helmets from sunburn in the tropics. Europe said goodbye to them in the taverns of Cadiz - warm amontilado in glasses and Spanish girls dancing to the guitar.

Isolation from the metropolis was unbearably painful. The city did not yet have a connection with central Russia; in the darkness of the ocean depths, it laid only two telegraph cables - to Shanghai and Nagasaki. An inhabitant of Vladivostok, suffering from a toothache, did not hope to reach Irkutsk - he bought a ticket for the Nippon-Maru steamer and after 60 hours of deafening pitching had the pleasure of being in the comfortable chair of a kind dentist. Our beautiful ladies were cured of longing in the mineral waters of Arima, where they were carried to the springs like geishas by tireless generics.

The eastern facade of the great empire had a tempting future, but its design was not easy. The high cost reigned here terrible. The little book, which cost half a rupee in Moscow, rose in price on the road so quickly that it ended up in Vladivostok at a price of five rubles. Tigers still ran from the taiga to the city, ate out guard dogs from the booths, at night they rushed at the sentries at the warehouses, and gnawed the coolie porters to the bone. Beggars usually say: "What God will give"; in Vladivostok they said: "What will the fleet give." The fleet gave everything - even pokers and oven pans, shovels and cartwheels; the sailors tinned pans for the grandmothers, the boatswain, cursing everything in the world, soldered leaky samovars. Here, on the edge of Russia, it was uncomfortable for people and uncomfortable for ships. The Siberian flotilla (that wild and outcast mother of the future Pacific Fleet) then had permanent "stations" in Japan, where ships were accustomed to spend the winter, as in paradise, and to be repaired, as at home.

The Far East lured sailors not only with primitive romance: here they paid higher salaries, there were more hopes for an early career. True, there were not enough women, and any bride in Vladivostok, whom no one would have looked at in Syzran, became capricious here, perfectly understanding the number of chevrons on the sleeves of sailors, the number of stars on officer epaulettes.

One by one, ships sailed and sailed - oceans! ..

And the great constancy of the trade winds shortened the way-roads.

It's time to look at the calendar: it was the spring of 1880 ...

By that time, Vladivostok had already acquired its own coat of arms: the Ussuri tiger held two golden anchors in its paws.

* * *

Caught up in the jubilation of the spring trade winds, the propeller-driven clipper "Rider" crossed the Atlantic diagonally, descending to the mouth of La Plata, from where a powerful ocean draft pulled it further - to the Cape of Good Hope. In the pauses of the inevitable calms, the officers finished drinking the official madeira, the team finished off the last barrel of corned beef. In stock were a fat, never desponding piglet and two free gazelles purchased from the Portuguese in the Cape Verde Islands.

The team refused to let them into the common cauldron.

“Excuse me, your wanderer,” the sailors argued, “they are playing with us like little children, and we will eat them?”

- But then you have to sit on one lentil. Without meat, - the commander threatened, - all the way to Cape Town.

“Thank you very much, your brat. And if you treat us with pasta once a week, then we don’t need anything else ...

Pasta was then considered the "lord's" food. The officers ate hard canned meat, which midshipman Lenya Euler (a descendant of the great mathematician) called "the relics of the brigadier who heroically fell from kidney disease." The Russian consul in Cape Town turned out to be a big bungler: he handed over the mail for the Dzhigit to the Rider, and handed the mail for the Rider to the crew of the Rider. The clipper's senior officer Pyotr Ivanovich Tchaikovsky spoke phlegmatically over dinner in the wardroom:

"Don't beat him, you silly one!" Obviously, there is no way for a consul to master the difference between a rider, a dzhigit and a rider… Gentlemen, he reminded me, I ask you to avoid the nooks and crannies of “learning the ancient languages” of the world. Get by without it! Better we visit the Kapstadt observatory, where the greatest telescope is installed. The contemplation of the southern constellations will give you more pleasure than you would stare at the belly dance of the local devil. The youth of the fleet is obliged to spend the time of navigation with practical benefit.

At the same time, Tchaikovsky (a pedant!) looked expressively at midshipman Vladimir Kokovtsev, who had only recently been allowed to keep a night watch under sail. A very young midshipman, of course, could not resist the question - is it true that in Japan you can have a temporary wife without being responsible for the consequences of this strange concubinage?

“Everyone does it… But I haven’t said the main thing yet,” the senior officer of the clipper continued, parting his beard with his fingers. - The Consul gave an order from under the "Spitz" not to rely on winds alone, but to help the sails with a machine. In place of the Eastern crisis in the affairs of the Pamirs, from which we, Russians, cannot weave bast shoes, the Far Eastern crisis appeared, and then there was a smell of hashish. London nevertheless convinced the Beijing wise men to gather their armies at Kulja to attack Russia! Therefore, we will hurry to Nagasaki, where "uncle Stepan" is gathering a squadron of twenty-two combat pennants ...

The times were turbulent: England, that skilful machinist of international intrigues, layered one crisis upon another, keeping the world in constant tension; The "Victorians" surrounded Russia with their bases, coal depots and garrisons, deliberately confusing politics, already confused by diplomats. From day to day the Russian people were expecting war.

The mine officer, Lieutenant Atryganiev, at thirty-five years of age seemed to the midshipmen already an old man. A collector at heart, he vigilantly summed up the tricks of treacherous Albion, lovingly observed the manners of women all over the world, and was a good connoisseur of Japanese porcelain... Now the lieutenant said:

- Lord! Don't you think the situation of our Russian fleet is tragic? After all, we revolve around the "ball" with an outstretched hand, like beggars. So far, the British trade in coal and bananas, but imagine that one day they openly declare: stopping! .. I wonder where we will go? ..

Cape Town was crowded with British soldiers in red uniforms, speculators and swindlers, cheaters and courtesans: soldiers came in large numbers to crush the Zulu uprising with cannons, others to cash in on the "diamond rush" that was already shaking angry Africa; inside the black continent, imperialism was making a vile nest in which Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the future Rhodesia, warmed himself ... Modestly and soberly, the crew of the Rider met Easter here - with puddings instead of Easter cakes and luridly painted ostrich eggs; there was no fun! Then, having caulked the decks dried up in the tropics and fitted the rigging weakened in storms, the clipper rushed headlong into the Indian Ocean; in the southern latitudes, Antarctica died with such blizzards that everyone involuntarily remembered the Russian winter-zimushka. And it was even strange, turning to the north, to feel the growing heat. And soon the sailors began to wander around the decks barefoot, as in their native village. From the open hatches of the wardroom came the strumming of the piano, Lenechka Euler played music, and the young officers woefully sang along with him:

In the alley behind the summer station,
When the nightingales sang around,
Schoolgirl in white acacias
She confessed her crazy love to me.
Oh unfaithful! Where are you, where are you?
And what carnival turns you around?
I remember you in a beige dress.
I remember, and my heart trembles ...

Euler slammed the lid of the piano shut with a loud thud.

- The saddest thing is that it was like that for me: the quietest summer station behind Lugoya, white acacia and ... However, it’s easy for us to plot courses on maps and how difficult it is to understand with our hearts that all the past is far away from you.

Atryganiev was lighting a cigar with a secret smile:

Vovochka, now we are waiting for a confession from you.

Kokovtsev was ashamed to talk about his feelings. He said that his father, Olenka, served in the Ministry of Finance. Already a state adviser. And the entrance with a porter in a rich livery.

- What else? he thought. - It seems that three hundred acres in the Poltava region. She is very good, gentlemen... even very good!

“I can guess it myself,” Atryganiev laughed. - Where can she be very bad if she is covered from head to toe with greasy Poltava black earth and decorated with the livery of a doorman.

- I'm sorry, but this gaff! Kokovtsev was offended.

The navy considered all inappropriate witticisms, flat jokes or tactless awkwardness to be gaffs. Atryganev said:

- Since the last time the lighthouse of Cadiz blinked for us, "Uncle Stepan" in Nagasaki has been looking forward to us, and in St. Petersburg they have begun to forget a little. But I still didn’t understand, did you have an acacia with a station, like Lenechka Euler?

The acacia has already faded, but the jasmine has blossomed.

“Vovochka, you are lucky,” Atryganyev answered and shouted to the buffet so that the “cleaners” would serve him tea ...

There was a transitional time for the fleet, when the machine was strenuously defeating the sail, but the machine was considered only an unreliable assistant to the sail. The ship's officers lived as a closed corporation, shutting off the uninitiated into their secrets with many old-fashioned traditions; between the fleet and the shore, a barrier of little-understood marine terminology was built, which the officers also complicated with everyday jargon. "Kronstadt" they have - thin tea with sugar, "lawyer" - strong tea with lemon, "chistyaki" - messengers, "prune" - coal, St. Petersburg Admiralty - "spitz", land with oceans - just a "ball", "hamster "- an officer who avoids women. Finally, Admiral Lesovsky was just "Uncle Stepan."

It's hard to figure it out, but if you want, you can always ...

We walked through the Sunda Strait, leaving the Krakatoa volcano abeam (forty thousand inhabitants of the Dutch Batavia, accustomed to its shudders, did not yet know that they had only two years left to live). The Rider and the Dzhigit went to the Far East before the Rider, but in Manila it became known that the Rogue clipper under the command of Karl Delivron had recently taken water, and this aroused sports jealousy in the crew:

- It would be good for us to catch up with the robbers and overtake!

Tchaikovsky cooled the hot heads of the young midshipmen.

“Nothing will work,” he said. - Charlot Delivron picked up a desperate crew. Even in a strong wind, they do not remove the upper bramssels, they roll with a large roll, scooping water with their sides. What are you gentlemen? Can anyone catch up with Charlot? ..

In the Philippines, we also met fellow countrymen. A gray crowd of peasants steaming in unsheathed sheepskin coats and felt boots, women in severe scarves were drawn to the Manila cemetery - to bury the dead in a foreign land. Kokovtsev called out to the funeral procession:

- Compatriots! You would at least throw off your boots ...

These were immigrants from impoverished Russia, who were expected by Far Eastern Russia. In the wilds of the Amur-Ussuri taiga, the people undertook to lift the virgin lands, throw nourishing grain into it.

- Yes, the officials told us that it was colder farther from the Rasseya! So we drag on ourselves from Odessa itself ...

Kokovtsev was so stunned by this meeting that, without any ceremony, he allowed the peasants to kiss him; the peasant women, rejoicing at the Russian man, kissed the midshipman too.

“You are our dear,” they lamented. - Tell me, is it long to swim? Were exhausted in some spirit. How many old people and children have been left abroad in graveyards. The crosses on our graves will rot - no one will probably fix it ...

Youth is generous: it squanders time and distance, it does not spare money, and midshipman Kokovtsev, having opened his wallet, presented fellow countrymen with money, ordered them to buy fruit for the children.

- And from here to Russia, - he explained, - very close: Hong Kong, Formosa, Shanghai, Nagasaki and ... you are at home! Be patient. Are there any Pskov people among you? I myself am from the Porkhov district, my mother is there in the estate ... she misses you, poor thing!

The Rider unfurled her sails again. What does a young man not change his mind in the ocean from zero zero to zero four. “Oh, mother, mother, why are you so stupid?” I remembered how recently I visited my parent in her seedy Porkhov lull. Happy, she drove Vovochka to relatives and neighbors - always with a sword, with a cocked hat and midshipman's aiguillette. In vain he argued that on weekdays a dagger was supposed to be attached to the uniform, mother was inflamed: “Respect my pride - not with a knife, but with a saber!” And all his vacation, Kokovtsev shyly cringed under the greedy eyes of the county ladies, who looked longingly at the maritime miracle Yudo ... On the eve of sailing to Japan, Kokovtsev passed the exam for the rank of midshipman, and, oddly enough, he found his bride in the paddling pool of Pargolovsky Park. A pretty girl, saving a spaniel puppy at a depth, began to sink herself, but the brave midshipman pulled both of them ashore - the girl by the hair, and the puppy by the ear. After this bath, in love beforehand, Kokovtsev appeared in a rich house on Kronverksky Prospekt, where events developed strictly according to plan: the spaniel, at the sight of his savior from happiness, let a large puddle in the hallway, and Olenka gave her a kiss of goodbye and promised to wait - at least all her life ... This fairy tale was suddenly covered with muddy water, and the midshipman, completely naked, but with a saber and epaulettes, found himself on the quarters of an unfamiliar ship, stepping barefoot into the center of a copper circle with the inscription: “Here Nelson fell” (Nelson fell here)!

“Excuse me, Pyotr Ivanovich,” Kokovtsev woke up from his slumber. - I'm not sleeping, I just remembered something.

On Russian ships, treatment in ranks was despised, officers called each other by name and patronymic. A gusty wind curled Tchaikovsky's beard over his shoulder, he angrily pointed to the lower main topsails and muttered:

- What should a midshipman who is on duty remember?

- Yes, so ... sheer nonsense.

- This nonsense, of course, could not resist: gave you an oath?

- Yes, Pyotr Ivanovich, I also could not resist ... gave!

Strongly cursing the eruptions of soot from the chimney, which spoiled the whiteness of the sailing romance of the fleet, Tchaikovsky said:

- It seems that Sinop has become the swan song of the sails. The trade winds with monsoons still rustle over us, but we will perish in the noise of cars, illuminated by a bright electric radiance ...

He went to the cabin to fill up. At four o'clock in the morning, Atryganyev got up on the bridge, but Kokovtsev, having handed over the watch to him, was in no hurry to cling to the pillow. The mine officer argued:

“I would like to marry an Englishwoman from the colonies in order to be able to tell her to her face what I think about the Victorian breed. Sometimes it is useful to lay out a map of the world: all channels and straits, land ledges and bays with excellent soil are decorated with British flags. And we, the unfortunate ones, sail from Kronstadt to Kamchatka, not even having coal stations. And only at the very end of the journey, when it’s still a stone’s throw to the homeland, Japan opens up its cozy harbors for us, sparing no fresh water for us, the convenience of docks, good coal, sweet persimmons and smiles of charming women ... I’m bored in Europe, Vovochka, I has long become an incorrigible admirer of the East!

The starry sky quickly flew over the masts buzzing with tension: the “Rider” famously absorbed space. A mysterious country lurked beyond the horizon, and the faint contours of an unknown life, as if growing out of the deep bowels of awakening Asia, seemed to have already wavered over the centuries-old abyss ...

The tall lighthouse of Nagasaki, surrounded by a forest of delicate lines, sent a short, disturbing glimpse into the ocean.

Japan was entering the thirteenth year of the Meiji era. She had already taken over from Europe the railways and smallpox vaccination, the organization of the post office and photographing criminals in front and profile, she dressed the military in European uniforms.

* * *

Nagasaki lurked in the depths of a picturesque bay filled with ships. A mountain hung over the city, overgrown with camphor oaks and old camellias, in their greenery one could see the Osuwa Temple, in the courtyard of which the Japanese kept the bronze horse of Buddha ...

The Rogue was already here. Delivron called out:

- Riders! How far from Kronstadt?

“Two hundred and forty-three days,” they answered from the clipper.

- No accidents?

- Like clockwork ...

- So here it is, this incomprehensible Japan: pink almond bushes and white tangerine groves.

- What smells? Tchaikovsky asked.

“Kerosene,” Euler sniffed at once.

- Yes! There the ship from Odessa is unloading, which brought barrels from our Nobel to the Japanese ... Salute to the nation - fire!

The bow cannons of the clipper proclaimed a loud toast to the Japanese people. The gunners knocked ringing glasses out of the barrels, loaded the guns again - Admiral Lesovsky, this violent "Uncle Stepan", was already waiting for his portion of respect from the "Europe", like an avid drunkard waiting for a glass of vodka at a party.

- Flag of the admiral ... salute! Then Tchaikovsky calmly took off his gloves. - Congratulations, gentlemen: we are in Japan ... Hey, on the tank: put a stopper on. Hey, in plutongs: move away from the cannons! .. God is with him, with this stinking kerosene, he concluded. “But you young people still breathe deeper. Japan has a special aroma, and by the way, the hair of Japanese women is fraught with the inexpressible fragrance of this amazing country ...

... For a quarter of a millennium, Japan was ruled by a clan of mighty shoguns from the Tokugawa samurai family, and the mikado himself, a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, enjoyed powerless grandeur in the artsy gardens of Kyoto. The self-isolation of the country was reminiscent of a solitary life sentence: one generation succeeded another, and the shogunate did not allow communication with foreigners. The Japanese, who visited foreign lands, were threatened with the death penalty upon their return to their homeland. The islanders were sure that all Europeans were barbarians. But sea storms more than once carried Japanese fishermen to foreign shores. Russia baptized the Japanese, they completely dissolved in our troubled, rampant life. What was the confusion in the shogunate of the XVIII century, when it became known that in Siberia there is a school in which the Japanese themselves teach their Russian language ...

And now the ships of many countries were saluting the Rider from the raid, and Lieutenant Atryganyev drew the attention of midshipmen to the funny cosmopolitan neighborhood of pennants - as a result of the open door policy:

- The newspapers say that capitalism needs new markets. How to understand this - I do not know. Probably, when the goods are heavily soaked and covered with mold, Queen Victoria is dozing, half-eyed, worried - who would sell her junk at a higher price? And then a fun shop opened in Japan ...

Opened to the world, the Japanese at first gave very little - umbrellas and engravings, ropes and mats, elegant fans and legends about devoted geishas who know how to love with sophisticated subtlety. But on the other hand, the Japanese took too much from their impudent "discoverers" - the secrets of hardening Bessemer steel and boilers of the Belleville system, Borsig's locomotives and Zeiss optical lenses. Every year Japan invaded international life more boldly, greedily adopting everything that caught its eye, whether it was cannon shutters invented at Armstrong's factories, or Kapellmeister Eckert's performance of the Bismarck March on wind instruments. It seemed that the islanders acted on the principle of avid hoarders: put everything in one pile, then we'll figure it out ...

From the heights of the marshes, having fixed the sails, the sailors were already running along the shrouds to the deck, like dexterous acrobats pouring into the arena from under the dome of the circus. It became quiet. Kokovtsev heard the chirping of cicadas on the shore, distant music. Lenya Euler asked him:

“Don’t you think something strange awaits us on this shore?” Something that will never happen again.

“This music captivates me,” Kokovtsev answered.

“Japanese women are playing,” Tchaikovsky explained. “Obviously, the officers from our cruisers are squandering their last money on Inos beauties. You, - he said to Kokovtsev, - look in the wrong direction: the lights of Inosa shine on our port side. Once there was a village, and now it has become a suburb of Nagasaki ....

Paper lanterns lit up in the darkening greenery of the gardens. Atryganiev jumped onto the bridge from the running "banquet":

- You will not believe! When I was in Nagasaki four years ago, we were surrounded by boats - fune, from which the Japanese traded daughters like cheap radishes. Now, by decree of the Mikado, girls are allowed to be sold only to factories. Temporary worldly happiness is acquired in Japan under a contract. This custom here does not bother anyone, and you hamsters, do not be embarrassed ...

The officers left the bridge, and Kokovtsev absorbed the smells of a foreign, unfamiliar land for a long time. A large, nasty rat, dragging its tail bald from old age along the deck, dragged a cracker stolen from a gaping sailor into the hatch.

The midshipman reluctantly went down to the wardroom. There were pineapple cores and open boxes of Manila cigars on the table. Frisky monkeys jumped between the lampshades, swinging them.

What are you talking about, gentlemen?

- We are discussing what kind of scolding from the admiral will be tomorrow ...

"Rider" was guilty, and even very much so. According to the naval position, entering the roadstead, the clipper is obliged to “cut off” the stern of the flagship, closely passing under its balcony, in order to attest to special respect with this risky maneuver. The closer he gets, the more honor is given to the admiral!

- All right, - Tchaikovsky got up from the sofa. - The morning is wiser than the evening. Somehow we'll get away. Let's go to bed, gentlemen. The clipper is tired. I'm tired. The masts are tired. We are all tired...

Russia did not open the Japanese "doors" with guns; its relationship with its overseas neighbor developed differently. Petersburg did not impose humiliating treatises on Tokyo, the Russians did not scoff at customs alien to them. Once in the society of polite people, they behaved politely. It was noted that the Russian sailor, yesterday's serf, converges with the Japanese much easier than with the French or Germans. Foreigners, despising the "yellows", mocked Japanese customs, not recognizing the laws of this country. An American or an Englishman usually boarded a railroad car without a ticket, while demanding special respect for himself. The Russians never allowed such rudeness, and the observant Japanese always singled out Russians among other foreigners ... Early in the morning, the clipper was surrounded by fune with trinket dealers, hotel owners and restaurant owners, but Tchaikovsky, cheerfully greeting Japanese acquaintances, asked them to row up to the "Rider" a little later :

- We have a big gathering - we are waiting for our admiral ...

The crew lined up on the quarterdeck, the buglers sang the signal of "going in", when the squadron flagship - "Uncle Stepan" rose from the whaleboat to the clipper, uttering the first growl:

“Why didn’t you cut my stern yesterday?”

They explained to him: the flagship "Europe" was squeezed between the cruisers "Asia" and "Africa", and they could hit one of the three with a spy or a bowsprit during the maneuver.

“And we didn’t want to embarrass ourselves in front of the British!”

- That's right, - Lesovsky approved them ...

The advanced ideas of Chernyshevsky and Ushinsky, promoted by the "Sea Collection", even influenced this formidable relic of the former rod-and-stick era, and "Uncle Stepan" no longer cripples sailors, from now on only allowing deft blows on the nose with the button of the cuff of his uniform. Having scratched several noses in the crew of the Rider in this way, the old man swore at the poorly fitted stays and went down to the wardroom.

- Presumably, - he said, - our troops, in order not to irritate the Beijing blockheads, will leave the Ili Valley, and the Uyghurs are asking for our citizenship, because the Manchus slaughter everything alive under Ghulja, even cats. The combat readiness of the squadron remains in force: the crisis has not passed, and we must expect new tricks from London. You will be stationed in Nagasaki, and I am sending the Dzhigit clipper to Vladivostok ...

After the admiral, Japanese and Japanese women filled the wardroom, loudly rustling the silks of their clothes, they laid out their goods, at the sight of which their eyes ran wide, and they wanted to buy everything immediately: bone fans, painted screens, ashtrays with crying frogs.

Atryganiev said squeamishly:

- All this firewood! Please do not waste money on trifles, moreover, in Yokohama, things of greater authenticity are much cheaper. And don’t buy porcelain without me at all ...

The first impression of Nagasaki is that all the Japanese have been waiting for midshipman Kokovtsev for a long time, he finally arrived, and now the crowd, lavishing smiles, is immensely happy to see him. The Japanese seemed to carry a charge of light cheerfulness, women moved with quick steps, folded umbrellas flew up energetically in the hands of men, children did not lag behind adults. The second impression of the city is cleanliness and tidiness, smooth pavements, an abundance of flowers in the flower beds and vegetables on the shelves, braziers smoked everywhere, near which passers-by hurriedly ate. The third impression is a lot of Russian signboards, rickshaws brought officers to the restaurants "Petersburg" and "Vladivostok", and for the sailors a cheap "Kronstadt" worked around the clock, at the door of which an experienced barker was on duty:

- Rusika sailor, drink some water, have a bite to eat ...

It was strange that in the turmoil of the street, the Japanese managed to move without pushing anyone, everyone was smiling and polite, and if a rude shout was heard somewhere, then it always belonged to a European or an American.

Having joined the rhythm of the movement of the Japanese crowd, Kokovtsev greedily absorbed the bright colors of an unfamiliar life, and the young stomach, tired of the "canned food", already demanded a hearty dinner. But the midshipman was afraid of the first meeting with Japanese cuisine, and therefore visited the Rossiya restaurant, where, according to the name, everything was in a Russian way, and the owner in a vest immediately approached Kokovtsev:

- I dare to serve your highness? ..

He called himself Gordey Ivanovich Pakhomov; knowingly asked how long it took to calm down, whether anyone had died in the sea, like the health of the miner Atryganyev. In the menu card, dishes and wines were listed in seven columns in seven languages (including Spanish), and in the first row, next to Japanese hieroglyphs, appetizing kulebyaki with squeal, hodgepodge with mushrooms, sour cabbage soup with sour cream were temptingly listed.

- We have the freshest goods, we get from Odessa from steamers ... Wouldn't you like to see an English newspaper? Also fresh from Hong Kong. A memorial service was deigned to be served in St. Petersburg according to the writer Dostoevsky. - Having inquired about the name of the midshipman, Pakhomov was extremely surprised. - Here are those! And who is the captain of the second rank Pavel Semenovich Kokovtsev?

- My uncle. Recently died in Revel.

- He was a good man, the kingdom of heaven to him.

- Did you know my uncle Pasha?

- It all started with him ... Agashka! Pakhomov called; a portly woman appeared, wrapped in a colorful kimono, but her head was tied with a scarf in Russian style. “Agashka, you bow at your feet: here are the tribes of our benefactor ...” Then he modestly sat down beside the young officer. - But I'm from Porkhov, like you, sir! Born into your uncle's serfs. Was with him as a valet. When he sailed to Japan, he grabbed me for the sake of service. At that time, the reform just fell out for us. For the unwitting, meaning. This is in the sixty-first year from the birth of Christ ... Do you remember?

- Yes, where is it! I was then three years old.

- Well! And we swam in Hakodate, and there I looked after the cook from our consul ... Agashka! Her very. - Pakhomov pointed to the vast womb of his wife. - He came to Pavel Semyonitch and - at his feet: the bride, they say, is in mind, you can’t keep me in the same position, so let me go.

- What about uncle? Kokovtsev asked.

- You are a fool, he says, you will disappear here, and no one will know. And as you can see, I didn't disappear. Any stapler will envy me!

Vladimir Kokovtsev took out heavy (and inconvenient for the wallet) Mexican dollars, which paid salaries to officers in the squadron of Admiral Lesovsky. He piled them up like pancakes on a plate. Gordey Ivanovich was sincerely offended:

- Eh, no! I won’t take anything from you, sir… Pavel Semyonitch, eternal memory to him, gave me two hundred rubles in eternal separation. On, said, fools, on the first furnishing. With his money and got a restaurant. Do not offend…

He went out to see the midshipman outside. Kokovtsev asked him about geishas - I would like to see their dances.

- What is it for? Pakhomov snorted. “You won’t like geishas.” It's boring with them, and the feeding is bad. You can't get enough of their tea without sugar. I see you have other concerns. There are girls for that, they are called - musume, and they are smart in Russian. You need one to conduct conversations in our way ...

To spend the night Kokovtsev returned to the clipper.

- I can’t feel my legs under me, so I ran.

Tchaikovsky played solitaire:

- Did you run? What then are rickshaws for?

- I am ashamed, a man, to ride a man.

“And this unfortunate rickshaw, thanks to your scrupulousness, may have been left without dinner today.

“I never thought about that,” Kokovtsev confessed.

- And you think ... By the way, do not flatter yourself with the appearance of the Japanese. Here you will not meet people in beggarly rags, as is the case in Russia, but Japan is a classic country of the poor! By the way, have you been to Inos yet? So visit ... There is such an Oya-san, a very dexterous lady, and you cannot avoid her office. Oya-san maintains a reserve of Japanese girls in Inose. She probably already knows the lists of young clipper officers in order to provide her “musumushki” with a sure income.

Kokovtsev protested vehemently, saying that he could not love by contract. Tchaikovsky chuckled in response:

- And you, such an eccentric, first sign a contract, then you may not love. Who is asking you for this? No one... But be so kind as to provide the poor girl with a sure income. Otherwise, why should she live? Remember the same rickshaw whose services you thoughtlessly refused ...

The wardroom was filled with magnolias, camellias and roses - they were sent to the clipper by the kind women of Inosa. Midshipman Euler also returned from the shore:

“There are so many temptations here, and there are many beautiful women among Japanese women. But they are all so small - like dolls!

As a youth, Kokovtsev was embarrassed to think frankly about women. Tchaikovsky, it seems, deliberately guarded him all the way to Japan itself, so that here, in full view of Inosa, he would hand him over directly to the hands of the venerable Oya-san ... Further, it was not his concern.

* * *

Rushing into the future, Japan hastily mastered the achievements of Europe, but at the same time, the Japanese never compromised their traditions. Inosa generally remained a particle of the past era, and the proximity of magnificent docks, in which chasers riveted the lining of cruisers, only intensified the striking contrast between the two Japans - the old (Edo) and the new (Meiji) ... The embankments bathed in bushes of wisteria; between the docks and workshops of the Mitsubishi firm, one could see the building of a Russian military hospital. The British warned in their sailing directions that Inosa was like a Russian settlement, where they, the British, better not to look: they would meet a cold reception here ... After the formidable typhoon of 1858, which broke the Russian frigate Askold, six hundred crew members washed ashore near Nagasaki , found a warm welcome at the Goshinji temple, and the inhabitants of the village of Inosy became the best friends of the sailors. This is where the mysterious paradox is hidden: the Tokugawa shogunate closed the “doors” of Japan, and the common people of Japan themselves opened their hearts. The inhabitants of Inosa surprisingly quickly mastered the Russian language 1
Among them was the thirteen-year-old boy Chikatomo Shiga (or, in other words, Shinho; 1845-1914), who mastered the Russian language in communication with the crew of the Askold frigate; subsequently a well-known writer in Japan, a diplomat and a translator from the Russian language, a great friend of Russia, who visited her twice.

They adapted to Russian cuisine, adopted our customs, and the sailors learned something from Japanese habits. A cordial touching friendship began, very far from politics. Since that time, the cemetery of sailors remained in Inos, over the years it grew wider, the Japanese carefully looked after the Russian graves, as if their close relatives were resting in them. Perhaps, on the streets of other cities, the smiles on the faces of the Japanese were artificial, obviously fake, but in Inos, the inhabitants of Inos were satisfied with the most sincere smile of every Russian person ...

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* * *

To the married couple of the Avraamovs - Era Pavlovna and Georgy Nikolaevich, in whose family they have been serving the Fatherland on the seas for three generations.

Age one. Distant fires of Inosa

Together or on your own
And what is the name, and then what,
We didn't ask anything
And we do not swear that to the grave ...
We love.
We just love both.
Yosano Akiko

This happened recently - only a hundred years ago.

One by one, ships sailed and sailed - oceans! ..

And the great constancy of the trade winds shortened the way-roads.

It's time to look at the calendar: it was the spring of 1880 ...

By that time, Vladivostok had already acquired its own coat of arms: the Ussuri tiger held two golden anchors in its paws.

Caught up in the jubilation of the spring trade winds, the propeller-driven clipper "Rider" crossed the Atlantic diagonally, descending to the mouth of La Plata, from where a powerful ocean draft pulled it further - to the Cape of Good Hope. In the pauses of the inevitable calms, the officers finished drinking the official madeira, the team finished off the last barrel of corned beef. In stock were a fat, never desponding piglet and two free gazelles purchased from the Portuguese in the Cape Verde Islands.

The team refused to let them into the common cauldron.

“Excuse me, your wanderer,” the sailors argued, “they are playing with us like little children, and we will eat them?”

- But then you have to sit on one lentil. Without meat, - the commander threatened, - all the way to Cape Town.

“Thank you very much, your brat. And if you treat us with pasta once a week, then we don’t need anything else ...

The times were turbulent: England, that skilful machinist of international intrigues, layered one crisis upon another, keeping the world in constant tension; The "Victorians" surrounded Russia with their bases, coal depots and garrisons, deliberately confusing politics, already confused by diplomats. From day to day the Russian people were expecting war.

And soon the sailors began to wander around the decks barefoot, as in their native village. From the open hatches of the wardroom came the strumming of the piano, Lenechka Euler played music, and the young officers woefully sang along with him:

In the alley behind the summer station,
When the nightingales sang around,
Schoolgirl in white acacias
She confessed her crazy love to me.
Oh unfaithful! Where are you, where are you?
And what carnival turns you around?
I remember you in a beige dress.
I remember, and my heart trembles ...

Euler slammed the lid of the piano shut with a loud thud.

Atryganiev was lighting a cigar with a secret smile:

Vovochka, now we are waiting for a confession from you.

Kokovtsev was ashamed to talk about his feelings. He said that his father, Olenka, served in the Ministry of Finance. Already a state adviser. And the entrance with a porter in a rich livery.

- What else? he thought. - It seems that three hundred acres in the Poltava region. She is very good, gentlemen... even very good!

“I can guess it myself,” Atryganiev laughed. - Where can she be very bad if she is covered from head to toe with greasy Poltava black earth and decorated with the livery of a doorman.

- I'm sorry, but this gaff! Kokovtsev was offended.

The navy considered all inappropriate witticisms, flat jokes or tactless awkwardness to be gaffs. Atryganev said:

The acacia has already faded, but the jasmine has blossomed.

“Vovochka, you are lucky,” Atryganyev answered and shouted to the buffet so that the “cleaners” would serve him tea ...

It's hard to figure it out, but if you want, you can always ...

- It would be good for us to catch up with the robbers and overtake!

Tchaikovsky cooled the hot heads of the young midshipmen.

- Compatriots! You would at least throw off your boots ...

- Yes, the officials told us that it was colder farther from the Rasseya! So we drag on ourselves from Odessa itself ...

Kokovtsev was so stunned by this meeting that, without any ceremony, he allowed the peasants to kiss him; the peasant women, rejoicing at the Russian man, kissed the midshipman too.

“Excuse me, Pyotr Ivanovich,” Kokovtsev woke up from his slumber. - I'm not sleeping, I just remembered something.

- What should a midshipman who is on duty remember?

- Yes, so ... sheer nonsense.

- This nonsense, of course, could not resist: gave you an oath?

- Yes, Pyotr Ivanovich, I also could not resist ... gave!

Strongly cursing the eruptions of soot from the chimney, which spoiled the whiteness of the sailing romance of the fleet, Tchaikovsky said:

- It seems that Sinop has become the swan song of the sails. The trade winds with monsoons still rustle over us, but we will perish in the noise of cars, illuminated by a bright electric radiance ...

The tall lighthouse of Nagasaki, surrounded by a forest of delicate lines, sent a short, disturbing glimpse into the ocean.

The Rogue was already here. Delivron called out:

- Riders! How far from Kronstadt?

“Two hundred and forty-three days,” they answered from the clipper.

- No accidents?

- Like clockwork ...

- So here it is, this incomprehensible Japan: pink almond bushes and white tangerine groves.

- What smells? Tchaikovsky asked.

“Kerosene,” Euler sniffed at once.

- Yes! There the ship from Odessa is unloading, which brought barrels from our Nobel to the Japanese ... Salute to the nation - fire!

“Don’t you think something strange awaits us on this shore?” Something that will never happen again.

“This music captivates me,” Kokovtsev answered.

Paper lanterns lit up in the darkening greenery of the gardens. Atryganiev jumped onto the bridge from the running "banquet":

The midshipman reluctantly went down to the wardroom. There were pineapple cores and open boxes of Manila cigars on the table. Frisky monkeys jumped between the lampshades, swinging them.

What are you talking about, gentlemen?

- We are discussing what kind of scolding from the admiral will be tomorrow ...

- We have a big gathering - we are waiting for our admiral ...

The crew lined up on the quarterdeck, the buglers sang the signal of "going in", when the squadron flagship - "Uncle Stepan" rose from the whaleboat to the clipper, uttering the first growl:

“Why didn’t you cut my stern yesterday?”

They explained to him: the flagship "Europe" was squeezed between the cruisers "Asia" and "Africa", and they could hit one of the three with a spy or a bowsprit during the maneuver.

“And we didn’t want to embarrass ourselves in front of the British!”

- That's right, - Lesovsky approved them ...

Atryganiev said squeamishly:

- All this firewood! Please do not waste money on trifles, moreover, in Yokohama, things of greater authenticity are much cheaper. And don’t buy porcelain without me at all ...

- Rusika sailor, let's drink some water, have a bite to eat ...

- I dare to serve your highness? ..

- My uncle. Recently died in Revel.

- He was a good man, the kingdom of heaven to him.

- Did you know my uncle Pasha?

- Yes, where is it! I was then three years old.

- What about uncle? Kokovtsev asked.

- You are a fool, he says, you will disappear here, and no one will know.

And as you can see, I didn't disappear. Any stapler will envy me!

- Eh, no! I won’t take anything from you, sir… Pavel Semyonitch, eternal memory to him, gave me two hundred rubles in eternal separation. On, said, fools, on the first furnishing.

With his money and got a restaurant. Do not offend…

He went out to see the midshipman outside. Kokovtsev quietly asked him about the geishas - I would like to see their dances.

To spend the night Kokovtsev returned to the clipper.

- I can’t feel my legs under me, so I ran.

Tchaikovsky played solitaire:

- Did you run? What then are rickshaws for?

- I am ashamed, a man, to ride a man.

“And this unfortunate rickshaw, thanks to your scrupulousness, may have been left without dinner today.

“I never thought about that,” Kokovtsev confessed.

Kokovtsev protested vehemently, saying that he could not love by contract. Tchaikovsky chuckled in response:

The wardroom was filled with magnolias, camellias and roses - they were sent to the clipper by the kind women of Inosa.

Midshipman Euler also returned from the shore:

“There are so many temptations here, and there are many beautiful women among Japanese women. But they are all so small - like dolls!

Portal for the student. Self-training

Plot

Distant fires of Inosa

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing the Three Ages of Okini-san

Age one. Distant fires of Inosa

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Valentin Pikul The Three Ages of Okini-san sentimental romance

Age one Distant fires of Inosa

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Age one. Distant fires of Inosa

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