BEGIN LUG

(from the collection of short stories "Notes of a hunter")

“It was a beautiful July day, one of those days that only happens when the weather has settled for a long time. From the very early morning the sky is clear, the dawn does not burn with fire: it is distinguished by a gentle blush. The sun - not fiery, not hot, as during a sultry drought, not dull-purple, as before a storm, but bright and welcomingly radiant - peacefully rises under a narrow and long cloud, shines freshly and plunges into its purple fog. The upper, thin edge of the stretched cloud will sparkle with snakes; their brilliance is like the brilliance of hammered silver ... "

The narrator was hunting in the forest. He "found and shot quite a lot of game."

After that, he decided to return home, but he got lost and went to a place known as the Bezhin Meadow. A fire was burning there, near which were peasant children. They guarded the herd.

“Drive out before evening and drive a herd at the morning dawn - big celebration for peasant boys. The hunter sat down with the boys.

A conversation ensued. It was an amazingly beautiful night. And the fire was very beautiful. “The picture was wonderful: near the lights, a round reddish reflection trembled and seemed to freeze, resting against the darkness; the flame, flashing, occasionally threw quick reflections beyond the line of that circle; a thin tongue of light licks the bare branches of the vine and vanishes at once; sharp, long shadows, bursting in for a moment, in turn reached the very lights: darkness fought with light.

There are five boys: Fedya, Pavlusha, Ilyusha, Kostya and Vanya.

The author describes them in detail. All of them are completely different, but they have much in common - rigor, self-confidence, diligence. The boys are cooking potatoes in a pot. There is a leisurely conversation about evil spirits.

Fedya asks Ilyusha questions about the brownie:

Well, well, did you see the brownie?

No, I didn’t see him, and you can’t even see him, ”Ilyusha answered in a hoarse and weak voice, the sound of which corresponded as well as possible to the expression of his face, - but I heard ... Yes, and I'm not alone.

Where does he live with you? asked Pavlusha.

In an old roll.

Do you go to the factory?

How about we go. My brother, Avdyushka, and I are fox workers.

You see, factory workers! .. "

Ilyusha tells that the brownie is coughing, most likely "from dampness."

The talk about evil spirits is very exciting for the boys. Then Kostya talks about Gavril, a carpenter from Sloboda. All the boys know him.

Gavrila is distinguished by a rare gloominess. He is always silent. His condition is explained by the wind with evil spirits. “So he went into the forest for nuts, and got lost; went - God knows where he went. Already he walked, walked, my brothers - no! can't find the way; and the night is outside. So he sat down under a tree; Come on, they say, I'll wait for the morning, - sat down and dozed off. Here he dozed off and suddenly hears someone calling him. Looks - no one. He dozed off again - they call again. He again looks, looks: and in front of him on a branch a mermaid sits, sways and calls him to her, and she herself dies with laughter, laughs ... And the moon shines strongly, so strongly, the moon clearly shines - everything, my brothers, you can see. So she calls him, and she’s all bright, white, sitting on a branch, like some kind of plotichka or gudgeon, otherwise crucian carp can be so whitish, silver ... "

The mermaid called Gavrila to her. He went first. But then he changed his mind and crossed himself. It was very difficult for him to lay down the cross. But after he crossed himself, the mermaid no longer laughed, but cried. Gavrila asked her: “Why are you crying, you forest potion?” And the mermaid answered: “You wouldn’t be baptized, he says, human, you would live with me in fun until the end of days; but I cry, I am hurt because you were baptized; Yes, I will not be the only one to be killed: be killed also you until the end of days. Kostya continued: “Here she, my brothers, disappeared, and Gavrila immediately understood how he should get out of the forest, that is, to get out ... But since then he has been walking sadly.”

All present are interested in the story. They discuss whether there are mermaids nearby.

Then Ilyusha tells about what happened on Varnavitsy. A drowned man is buried there. This man drowned a long time ago, when the pond was deep. His grave is still visible today. The local clerk sent the kennel Yermila to the post office.

He stayed in the city. I went back, not quite sober. When he drove past the pond, he saw a lamb on the grave. This lamb was very beautiful, white, curly. Yermil decided to take it.

However, the horse behaved very strangely: staring, shaking its head, resisting. But Yermil still took the lamb. He goes and takes him with him. Yermil looks at the lamb and notices that the lamb is looking him straight in the eyes.

The man became terrified. He began to stroke the lamb and say: "Byasha, byasha." And the ram, in response, bared his teeth and also says: “Byasha, byasha.”

As soon as the boy told this story, the dogs suddenly jumped up and ran off somewhere, barking loudly. The children got scared. But then it turned out that the dogs just sensed something. Paul suggested that they smelled the wolf. The boys continue talking. We are talking about the dead man, the old gentleman. It turns out that he often appears in the district and is looking for something. Once Grandfather Trofimych saw him and asked: “What, father Ivan Ivanovich, would you like to look for on earth?”

And the late master replied that he was looking for gap-grass. He needs her, because "the grave presses" and the master "wants to get out ...".

Ilyusha says that parent Saturday on the porch you can see those who are destined to die this year. Last year, Baba Ulyana went to the porch. She sat for a long time, but then suddenly she saw a boy. He walked without raising his head. He died in the spring. Then Ulyana saw herself. Fedya objects that Baba Ulyana has not yet died. But Ilyusha replied that the year had not ended yet. If you look at it, it will not be clear “what the soul is kept in”.

The boys saw a white dove and assumed that it was a righteous soul flying to heaven.

Kostya asked who Trishka was. Ilyusha replied that he was an amazing person who would come when end times. He will not be able to do anything, he will tempt the people. Trishka is the Antichrist.

During the solar eclipse, a strong panic began. The situation was aggravated by the fact that from a distance everyone saw a man with a strange head. Everyone thought it was Trishka. “And the man was our cooper, Vavila: he bought himself a new jug and put an empty jug on his head and put it on.”

The boys laughed and fell silent. A heron screams over the river, children pay attention to her cry.

Pavlusha recalls that thieves drowned Akim the forester in a pit with water the year before last, and his soul complains.

Therefore, if you pass by, you can hear a groan.

The boys start talking about the goblin, about the frogs. The conversation captivates them, they argue. Pavel went to fetch water. Ilyusha warns him, says that the water one can drag him away.

This is exactly what happened to Akulina after which she went crazy.

Then Kostya remembers the boy Vasya, who drowned in the river. His mother, Feklista, loved her son very much. She seemed to have a presentiment that her son would die from the water. He drowned just when his mother was near. Since then, Feklista has gone crazy.

Pavel returns and says that he heard Vasya's voice. He called him. However, Pavel managed to leave, even got some water. Fedya says that he called him a merman. Ilyusha notices that this Bad sign. However, Paul objects: “you can’t escape your fate,” so you shouldn’t pay attention.

Children listen to the sounds of the night, the cries of birds. Coming wonderful morning which is described in great detail. The author leaves the fire. Later author learned that in the same year Paul died. "He didn't drown: he killed himself by falling off his horse." The author says with pity that Pavel was a wonderful guy.

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There are such literary works, regarding which the words "summary" sound inappropriate. Bezhin Meadow by Turgenev is one of them. If we compare this story with a painting by the master, then you will not see there dense strokes of rich oil paint, carefully “written out” details. Everything is transparent, fleeting, like life itself.

It is no coincidence that Ivan Turgenev picked up such changing, maturing characters in his story. "Bezhin meadow" is both freemen and huge world childhood for boys: Vanya (7 years old), Ilyusha (12 years old), Kostya (10 years old), Pavlusha (12 years old) and Fedya (14 years old). Ivan Sergeevich individualizes the guys with separate strokes of the master: Fedya is slender, a handsome boy from a wealthy family; Pavlusha - with normal appearance, but with a noticeable inner strength; the blind-sighted and hook-nosed Ilyusha is notorious and driven by nature; Kostya - thoughtful and sad; Vanya, the smallest, tired, falls asleep without participating in the conversation.

The writer is certainly a fatalist, so he creates a romantic sense of the uniqueness and irreversibility of this summer evening. After all, the boys will grow up, become different. Is it not in this grace of “drawing in the sand” that the story conceals its summary?! “Bezhin Meadow” by Turgenev captured with the words of a hunter who, by chance, overheard a children’s conversation around a fire, that night, reflections of a flame, inspired faces of little storytellers, horses’ manes fluttering in the wind, stars burning out in their pupils. Later, the impression of transience, "watercolor", will be intensified by the fact that, while reading the mini-epilogue of the story, we find out that Pavel will soon be killed by falling from a horse.

Let's follow the idea of ​​the story, presenting its brief content. Turgenev's "Bezhin Meadow" begins with the fact that the narrator "from the author", hunting near Tula in the Chernsky district, got lost and by the evening went to steppe expanse. He saw the above guys who led the horses out to graze in the steppe at night (at night). The boys told various naive-mysterious stories. Ilyusha - about the brownie, whom he heard while spending the night at a paper mill. Kostya - about the meeting of the carpenter Gavrila with the mermaid. Ilyusha - infernal "horror stories" about the huntsman Yermila and about the woman Ulyana. Ilyusha - about Trishka, who is at solar eclipse. All this seems to the boys mysterious and significant. Already in the morning, having spoken the night, they are trying to determine the difference between the goblin and the water one. Kostya tells about a boy who was dragged away by a merman. Only in the morning the guys fall asleep. Formally, the author determines the summary by the above sequence of stories. "Bezhin Meadow" by Turgenev, thus, appears as a kind of poem in prose - about nature, about childhood, and in broad sense- about the beauty of the Motherland.

Let us return to the analogy of Turgenev's story with watercolors - light, fleeting, and therefore beautiful. The work does not contain any documentation. It does not contain analytical reasoning. But it certainly carries the mood. An adult reader will surely feel longing that childhood has passed, and he is already far from the simple and pure boyish dreams and fantasies, that he cannot hide at night with steppe feather grass, jump on a horse in the middle of the night and rush across the steppe towards wind after the boys. He will be sad that childhood is gone, as if melted under morning rays sun night mist.

About Turgenev's story "Bezhin Meadow", one can probably say in the words of the great Pushkin that the "Russian spirit" is piercingly felt in it. And in the description of the night steppe, and in the muffled conversation of the boys, it is subtly and harmoniously in Turgenev’s way “It smells of Russia”. About the same about Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote, noting that after getting acquainted with the works of Ivan Sergeevich “it is easy to believe”, “breath easily”, life seems more harmonious and perfect.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

"Bezhin Meadow"

On a beautiful July day, I hunted black grouse in the Chernsky district of the Tula province. It was already evening when I decided to return home. I climbed the hill and instead of the familiar places I saw a narrow valley, against which a dense aspen forest rose like a wall. I went along the aspen forest, rounded the hillock and found myself in a hollow. It looked like a cauldron with sloping sides, at the bottom of it stood several large white stones - it seemed that they had slipped there for a secret meeting. It was so quiet and depressing in the valley that my heart sank.

I realized that I was completely lost and decided to follow the stars. Suddenly I saw a huge plain below me, which was bent around wide river. Directly below me in the darkness two fires were burning and smoking. I realized that I went to Bezhin Meadow. My legs gave way from fatigue. I went down to the fires and found there the children who led the horses into the night.

I lay down and began to watch the boys. From conversations, I understood that their names were Fedya, Pavlusha, Ilyusha, Kostya and Vanya. The eldest of them, Fedya, was about 14 years old. He was a slender, handsome boy who, judging by his clothes, belonged to a wealthy family. Pavlusha had an unsightly appearance, but his eyes were smart and direct, and there was strength in his voice. Ilyusha's hook-nosed, elongated and blind-sighted face expressed dull solicitude. Both he and Pavlusha were no more than 12 years old. Kostya, a small, frail boy of about 10, struck me with a thoughtful and sad look. Vanya, who crouched on the sidelines, was only 7 years old.

I pretended to be asleep and the boys continued talking. Ilyusha began to talk about how he had to spend the night with a group of guys at a paper factory. Suddenly, someone stomped upstairs, then began to go down the stairs, approached the door. The door swung open, and behind it - no one. And then suddenly someone coughs. Frightened the brownie boys.

Kostya began a new story. Once the carpenter Gavrila went into the forest for nuts and got lost. It got dark. Gavrila sat down under a tree and dozed off. He woke up because someone was calling him. Gavrila looks - and a mermaid sits on a tree, calls him to her and laughs. Gavrila took it and crossed himself. The mermaid stopped laughing and began to cry plaintively. Gavrila asked why she was crying. She cries because Gavrila crossed herself, the mermaid answered. If he had not been baptized, he would have lived happily with her, and now he will cry until the end of his days. Since then, Gavrila has been walking sadly.

A long-drawn-out sound was heard in the distance, and thin laughter echoed in the forest. The boys shuddered and crossed themselves. Ilyusha told a story that happened on a broken dam, an unclean place. A long time ago, a drowned man was buried there. Once the clerk sent the kennel Yermila to the post office. He returned through the dam late at night. Suddenly he sees Yermil: a little white lamb is sitting on the grave of a drowned man. Yermil decided to take him with him. The lamb does not escape from the hands, it only looks intently into the eyes. Yermil became terribly, he strokes the lamb and says: “Byasha, byasha!”. And the lamb bared his teeth, and answers him: “Byasha, byasha!”.

Suddenly the dogs barked and ran away. Pavlusha rushed after them. Soon he returned and said that the dogs had smelled the wolf. I marveled at the boy's courage. Ilyusha, meanwhile, told about how they met the late master in an unclean place, who was looking for a gap-grass - the grave pressed on him very much. Next story was about the woman Ulyana, who went to the porch on her parents' Saturday night to find out who would die this year. Looks - a woman is walking; looked closely - and this is herself, Ulyana. Then Ilyusha told the belief about amazing person Trishka, who will come during a solar eclipse.

After a short silence, the boys began to discuss how the goblin differs from the water one. Kostya told about the boy who was dragged under the water by the merman. The guys fell asleep only at dawn. In the same year, Paul was killed by falling from a horse.

One July day, the narrator went hunting in the Chernsky district, in the Tula province. Returning from a hunt in the evening, he got lost and ended up in a hollow. Going further, he saw a plain, which was bent by the river. It was Bezhin Meadow. The guys were sitting around two fires. The narrator began to observe the boys. From the conversation it turned out that the oldest Fedya was fourteen years old. Pavlusha looked unsightly, but his eyes were intelligent. Ilyusha looked worried. He and Pavlusha were about twelve. With them was ten-year-old thoughtful Kostya and seven-year-old Vanya, who was dozing at that moment. Pretending to be asleep, the narrator listened to the conversation. Ilyusha told a story about how he spent the night at the factory. Then steps were heard, someone was walking upstairs. The footsteps began to descend and approached the door. There was no one behind the open door. And then someone coughed, it was the tricks of the brownie.

Kostya told how the carpenter Gavrila, lost in the forest, fell asleep under a tree. He woke up hearing his name called. The mermaid was laughing in the tree. Gavrila crossed himself and the mermaid burst into tears. When Gavrila asked why she was crying, the mermaid replied that it was because he crossed himself. Since then, the mermaid has been crying all the time, and Gavrila walks sadly. Laughter rang out in the forest, the boys crossed themselves. Ilyusha began to tell how a drowned man was buried on the dam. The kennel Yermil, returning from the post office at night, found a white lamb on the grave.

He decided to take him. The lamb was not afraid, he just watched very carefully. Yermilustalo felt uneasy. He used to say: "Byasha, byasha." And the lamb answered him: "Byasha, byasha." Suddenly, the frightened dogs rushed to run away, Pavlusha ran after them. Returning, he reported that they were afraid of the wolves. Ilyusha told a few more stories: how the late gentleman was looking for a gap-grass, how a grandmother went to guess at the porch, who would be gone soon. After a short pause, the boys began to talk about the differences between a water goblin and a goblin. Kostya told the story of how the merman dragged the boy along with him. The guys went to bed only in the morning. In the same year, Paul died after falling from his horse.

Compositions

Landscape in the story of I. S. Turgenev "Bezhin Meadow" Characteristics of the main characters of the story by I. S. Turgenev "Bezhin Meadow"

Turgenev's story "Bezhin Meadow" was first published in 1851 in the Sovremennik magazine. The work was included in the cycle of stories by the author of "Notes of a Hunter". The essay refers to literary direction realism, but it also contains features of romanticism (vivid descriptions of nature, legends and beliefs that are intertwined with real life heroes).

The work is studied in the 6th grade literature program, on our website you can read the summary of "Bezhin Meadow" online.

main characters

Narrator- a hunter, a narration is being conducted on his behalf.

Ilyusha- a boy of about 12 years old, who knows many folk beliefs and stories about evil spirits.

Pavlusha- a boy of about 12 years old, "he looked very smart and straight, and there was strength in his voice."

Other heroes

Fedya- a boy of 14 years old, the oldest of the guys, by all indications - comes from a wealthy family. Went with other guys for fun.

Kostya- a boy of 10 years old.

Vania- a boy of seven years who slept almost all night.

in one of the warm July days the narrator hunted black grouse in the Chernsky district of the Tula province. He shot "quite a lot of game" and returned home in the evening. Lost in the twilight, the narrator first walked past an aspen forest, then found himself in an unfamiliar plowed hollow.

Without trying to make out the roads, he went "by the stars" and suddenly found himself in front of a "vast plain" called Bezhin Meadow, which was skirted by a wide river. At the foot of the hill, the man noticed two fires and people.

The narrator went down to the fires - near them were peasant children from neighboring villages, guarding a herd of horses with two large dogs. The narrator asked to spend the night with them, lay down by the fire and, watching nocturnal nature listening to the guys talk.

There were five boys in total: Fedya, Pavlusha, Ilyusha, Kostya and Vanya. The narrator describes the appearance of the boys. Fedya is "a slender boy, with beautiful and delicate features." Pavlusha - with black hair, gray hair, a pockmarked pale face and a clumsy squat body. Ilyusha - with a hook-nosed, elongated, blind-eyed face, which "expressed some kind of dull, painful solicitude." Kostya is a boy with a pensive and sad look, his eyes, “seemed to want to say something, why in the language,<…>- there were no words. The youngest Vanya slept all night under the matting.

The narrator pretended to be asleep and the boys around the fire started talking. Ilyusha told how, once spending the night with the guys at a paper factory, they heard the brownie. At night, someone knocked and walked above them, and then went down the stairs to them, opened the doors, but the guys did not see anyone at the door. At that moment, the form of one vat began to move, and the hook of the other vat was removed from the nail and stood in place. “Then it was as if someone went to the door and suddenly coughed, how he suffocated.” The boys were very scared.

The following story was told by Kostya - about the suburban carpenter Gavril. Once a man went to the forest for nuts, got lost and decided to spend the night in the forest. But as soon as he falls asleep, he wakes up from the fact that someone is calling him. Finally, Gavrila saw a mermaid sitting on a branch, who called him to her. The man crossed himself - immediately the mermaid, who had previously laughed merrily, burst into tears: “If you didn’t get baptized, he says, man, you would live with me in fun until the end of your days; but I cry, I am hurt because you were baptized; Yes, I will not be the only one to be killed: be killed, and you until the end of days. It disappeared right there. And Gavrila has since become unhappy.

In the distance there was a "drawn-out, ringing, almost groaning sound." The boys shuddered, Ilya whispered: “The power of the cross is with us!” .

After the guys calmed down, Ilyusha started talking about the recent incident on the broken dam - "an unclean wilderness" where a drowned man was buried. The boy said that somehow the clerk sent the kennel Yermila to the post office, but the man was delayed and returned at night. Climbing over the dam, he noticed a lamb on the grave of a drowned man. The man took the animal with him, but while he was driving, he noticed that the lamb was staring into his eyes. He began to stroke his wool like that, - he says: “Byasha, byasha!” And the ram suddenly bares his teeth, and he too: "Byasha, byasha ...".

Suddenly, “both dogs got up at once, with convulsive barking rushed away from the fire and disappeared into the darkness. All the boys were scared." Pavlusha ran after the dogs, but soon rode on a horse and said that he thought the dogs had smelled the wolf, but there was nothing there.

The boys continued talking. Ilyusha said that in Varnavitsy they often met the late master, who was looking for a gap-grass, because the grave was pressing hard on him. Kostya was surprised - he thought that the dead could only be seen on parental Saturday. Ilyusha replied that on parental Saturday you can also find out who will die soon: you need to sit on the church porch and watch who passes by you. So Baba Ulyana, sitting on the porch, saw herself walking.

The boys quieted down. A white dove flew over them. The guys remember the “foresight of heaven” that recently happened in Shalamovo - a solar eclipse. Ilyusha retells the belief about Trishka - a crafty man who will appear during an eclipse and who can neither be caught nor put in jail.

Suddenly, the sharp cry of a heron was heard twice over the river. The boys started talking about the goblin - it seemed to Kostya that he somehow heard his cries. Ilya objected: the goblin does not scream, he is dumb - “only claps and cracks his hands.”

Pavlusha got up and went to the river for water. Ilyusha at that time told the boys that when a person draws water from the river, the water man can grab him by the hand and drag him to him. The guys remembered Akulina the fool, whom the water man “spoiled”, as well as Vasya, who, while playing on the shore, accidentally drowned. Upon returning, Pavlusha said that when he was drawing water, they called him, as if from under the water, in Vasya's voice.

By morning, the conversation of the boys gradually subsided, and the narrator dozed off. The man woke up before dawn and, nodding to the awakened Pavlusha, went "along the smoking river." “Unfortunately, I must add that in the same year Pavel died. He did not drown: he killed himself by falling off his horse. It's a pity, he was a nice guy!"

Conclusion

The story of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev "Bezhin Meadow" reveals to the reader the world of folk poetic signs and fairy tales about all kinds of "evil spirits": brownies, mermaids, wood goblins, water spirits, ghosts. In the work, legends and beliefs are harmoniously complemented by pictures of picturesque nature, and the composition of the essay itself refers the reader to the colloquial genre " scary story», hallmark which are elements of mysticism and an inexplicable, mysterious tragic end.

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Retelling rating

average rating: 4.7. Total ratings received: 4764.

To a galaxy of remarkable Russian writers of the 19th century who received world recognition and the love of readers during his lifetime, refers to Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. In his works, he poetically described the pictures of Russian nature, the beauty human feelings. The work of Ivan Sergeevich is complex world human psychology. With the story "Bezhin Meadow", the image was first introduced into Russian literature. children's world and child psychology. With the appearance of this story, the theme of the world of Russian peasants expanded.

History of creation

Peasant children are drawn by the writer with tenderness and love, he notes their rich spiritual world the ability to feel nature and its beauty. The writer aroused in readers love and respect for peasant children, made them think about their further destinies. The story itself is part of a larger cycle under common name Hunter's Notes. The cycle is notable for the fact that for the first time in Russian literature, types of Russian peasants are brought to the stage, described with such sympathy and detail that Turgenev's contemporaries considered that a new estate had appeared that was worthy of a literary description.

In 1843 I.S. Turgenev met the famous critic V.G. Belinsky, who inspired him to create the "Hunter's Notes". In 1845, Ivan Sergeevich decided to devote himself entirely to literature. He spent the summer in the village, giving everything free time hunting and communication with peasants and their children. The plans for the creation of the work were announced for the first time in August-September 1850. Then, on the draft manuscript, notes appeared containing plans for writing the story. At the beginning of 1851, the story was written in St. Petersburg and in February was published in the Sovremennik magazine.

Analysis of the work

Plot

The story is told from the perspective of the author, who loves to hunt. One day in July, while hunting for black grouse, he got lost and, going to the fire of a burning fire, went out to huge meadow, which the locals called Bezhin. Five peasant boys were sitting near the fire. Asking them for a lodging for the night, the hunter lay down by the fire, watching the boys.

In the further narration, the author describes five heroes: Vanya, Kostya, Ilya, Pavlusha and Fedor, their appearance, characters and stories of each of them. Turgenev has always been indifferent to spiritual and emotional gifted people, sincere and honest. These are the people he describes in his works. Most of them live hard, while they adhere to high moral principles, are very demanding of themselves and others.

Heroes and characteristics

With deep sympathy, the author describes five boys, each of whom has his own character, appearance, and his own characteristics. Here is how the writer describes one of the five boys, Pavlusha. The boy is not very handsome, his face is wrong, but the author notices in his voice and look strong character. Appearance his speaks of the extreme poverty of the family, since all his clothes consisted of a simple shirt and patched trousers. It is he who is entrusted to monitor the stew in the pot. He speaks with knowledge of the matter about the fish splashing in the water and about the star that rolled down from the sky.

From his actions and speech, it is clear that he is the most courageous of all the guys. This boy causes the greatest sympathy not only for the author, but also for the reader. With one twig, not afraid, at night, he rode alone on the wolf. Pavlusha knows all animals and birds very well. He is brave and not afraid to accept. When he says that it seemed to him what the waterman called him, the cowardly Ilyusha says that this is a bad omen. But Pavel answers him that he does not believe in omens, but believes in fate, from which you cannot escape anywhere. At the end of the story, the author informs the reader that Pavlusha died after falling from his horse.

Next comes Fedya, a fourteen-year-old boy “with beautiful and thin, slightly small features, curly blond hair, bright eyes and a constant half-joyful, half-scattered smile. He belonged, by all indications, to a wealthy family and went into the field not out of need, but just for fun. He is the oldest among the guys. He behaves importantly, by the right of an elder. He speaks patronizingly, as if fearing to drop his dignity.

The third boy, Ilyusha, was completely different. Also a simple peasant boy. He looks to be no more than twelve years old. His insignificant, long, hook-nosed face had a permanent expression of dull, sickly solicitude. His lips were compressed and did not move, and his eyebrows were drawn together, as if he was squinting from the fire all the time. The boy is neat. As Turgenev describes his appearance, "the rope carefully pulled together his neat black scroll." He is only 12 years old, but he already works with his brother in a paper mill. It can be concluded that he is a hardworking and responsible boy. Ilyusha, as the author noted, knew everything well folk beliefs, which Pavlik completely denied.

Kostya looked no more than 10 years old, his small freckled face was pointed like a squirrel's, huge black eyes stood out on him. He was also poorly dressed, thin, of small stature. He spoke in a thin voice. The author's attention is attracted by his sad, thoughtful look. He is a little cowardly boy, but, nevertheless, goes out with the boys every night to graze horses, sit by the night fire and listen to scary stories.

The most inconspicuous boy of all five is ten-year-old Vanya, who was lying near the fire, "quietly crouching under the angular matting, and only occasionally sticking out his blond curly head from under it." He is the youngest of all, the writer does not give him portrait characteristics. But all his actions, admiring the night sky, admiring the stars, which he compares with bees, characterize him as an inquisitive, sensitive and very sincere person.

All the peasant children mentioned in the story are very close to nature, they literally live in unity with it. From the early childhood they already know what work is, they independently learn the world. This is facilitated by work at home and in the field, and during trips to the "night". Therefore, Turgenev describes them with such love and reverent attention. These children are our future.

The writer's story does not belong only to the time of its creation, to the 19th century. This story is profoundly modern and timely at all times. Today, more than ever, a return to nature is required, to the understanding that it is necessary to protect it and live with it in unity, like a beloved mother, but not a stepmother. To educate our children on labor and respect for it, on respect for the working person. Then the world around us will change, become cleaner and more beautiful.