A stupid story

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A stupid story ( Russian : Скверный анекдот, Skwerny anekdot, German version of the title: A nasty anecdote) is a satirical-grotesque tale by Fyodor Dostoyevsky , which appeared in the St. Petersburg monthly Vemja in 1862 . The story is in the context of the diversity of opinion that has arisen in Russia since the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and the various intellectual currents that it triggered.

Dostoevsky in 1879

action

Close to the Great Prospect on the Petersburg side , the real State Councilor Ivan Ilyich Pralinsky, a high, still single 43-year-old civil civil servant with the rank of general, spends the evening with two older and more experienced civilian general colleagues. He expresses various liberal ideas, particularly with regard to the meaning of "humanity towards subordinates." His colleagues view his views with derision and skepticism. Then at night - he has had six glasses of wine - he walks home. Pralinski notices how people are celebrating in a house and asks a police officer about it. So he learns, Pralinski's subordinate, the registrar Porfiri Petrovich Pseldonimow, the 17-year-old daughter of the titular councilor a. D. Mlekopitaev married. According to reports, the bride brings the wooden house, where people laugh out loud, and four hundred rubles into the marriage.

He wonders whether he should go to the wedding reception of a sub-official with ten rubles a month after midnight, uninvited. In his opinion, he wants to briefly attend the wedding party in order to set a sign of humanity. The groom is embarrassed by the high attendance and only stammered “Ex-Ex-cellence!” Akim Petrovich Subikov, the office manager in the general's office, guest of honor at the loud wedding party, saved the situation. Pralinski takes a deep breath and takes a seat on the sofa. The guests - including the ladies - stop; step back as far as possible. The general is talking tin. His voice trembles as he tries to cheer up the guests, but he doesn't succeed. The groom's mother saves the situation by serving champagne. The general drinks to the couple and wishes them a happy marriage. The first to find the language again is an employee of the satirical newspaper “Goloweschka” and a cheeky high school student.

After the champagne, the general quickly drinks two glasses of brandy. Dostoevsky writes: “Before that he had never drunk ordinary brandy. He felt as if he were going down a mountain in a sleigh, as if in flight ... “When the still mute guests realize that their Excellency is drunk, they continue to dance and scream as they did before his arrival. The general is plagued by an unrestrained urge to speak, but his tongue increasingly fails. Saliva flies from his mouth. He spat on his office manager. Guests ape the speaker. The general ignores hecklers and asks all around: "... have I been very humiliated in your eyes or not?" Icy silence. The one from the satirical sheet clearly affirmed and shouted the truth in the face of the uninvited guest. He had disturbed the general cheerfulness, boasted about his humanity and drank the champagne away from one of his 10-ruble officials. In addition, the general is after the young women of his subordinates.

The bridegroom throws the truth-loving satirist out with his own hands.

Pralinski wants to leave, stumbles and remains unconscious due to his high alcohol level. Pseldonimow insists that the top superior - still unconscious - should sleep in the brand new bridal bed made of imitation walnut. After waking up after Pralinski in the morning, he is very sick. The groom's mother devotedly looks after him all night. The newlyweds spend the wedding night in another room on chairs arranged together. The marriage cannot appear to be consummated because the chairs give way to the side. In response to the rumble, the bride is "rescued from the collapsed wedding camp" by a crowd of women listening at the door. The bride mother accuses the groom of incompetence. The father-in-law had already humiliated Pseldonimov before the wedding. The registrar had to perform a Cossack dance.

After eight days of absence, Pralinski returns to the office. Everyone pretends that nothing has happened. The clerk submits to the general a transfer request for sub-official Pseldonimov. Pralinski approves: "... tell this Pseldonimov that I will not hold anything against him ... that on the contrary I am even prepared to forget everything that has happened ..." Due to the shameful reaction of his office manager, he realizes that the embarrassing incident has not been forgotten so that he collapses in his chair.

filming

  • 1966 Soviet Union : A Silly Story . Feature film by Alexander Alow and Vladimir Naumow. Yevgeny Evstigneyev played General Pralinsky and Viktor Sergachev played the Registrar Pseldonimov. The film was only shown in December 1987.

reception

  • 1975 - Schroeder writes: "The Stupid History (1862) reveals the reactionary core of a liberal reformer " and take the " czar istische reform policy of the sixties" targeted.
  • 2008 - ever. G. Kabakowa (Russian) comes to the same conclusion in her far more detailed study.

German-language editions

  • A stupid story. German by EK Rahsin. Cover illustration by Rene Beeh. Piper, Munich 1914. 88 pages
  • A stupid story . Reclam, Leipzig 1946. 96 pages

Used edition

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 41, 11. Zvo
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 49, 9. Zvu
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 66, 3rd Zvu
  4. ↑ Russian Скверный анекдот (фильм)
  5. ↑ Russian Алов, Александр Александрович
  6. ↑ Russian Наумов, Владимир Наумович
  7. ↑ Russian Сергачёв, Виктор Николаевич
  8. ↑ Schröder in the afterword of the edition used, p. 341, 11. Zvu
  9. ↑ Russian Е. Г. Кабакова
  10. ↑ Russian Борис Леонтьев