Meeting with Bonaparte

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Encounter with Bonaparte ( Russian Свидание с Бонапартом , Swidanije s Bonapartom ) is a historical novel by the Soviet writer Bulat Okudschawa , which was written from September 1979 to February 1983 in Saloslowo (a village near Moscow ) and in 1983 in issues 7 to 9 (July to September) the Moscow monthly literature magazine Druzhba Narodov was published.

Relations

Three storytellers

  • Nikolai Petrovich Opotschinin, retired major general,
  • Louise Bigarre, French singer in Moscow and
  • Barbara Volkova, landlady
Napoleon's two marching routes on the Russian campaign in 1812. Advance: red. Withdrawal: light blue

are approaching a well-known event - Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaign . The Corsican entered Russian soil on June 24, 1812 near Kovno (Kaunas) on the east bank of the Memel and advanced through Smolensk to Moscow. On October 19, 1812, the conqueror, unsuccessful in the fall of Russia, had to withdraw from Moscow. Louise Bigarre finishes her story on the latter date. This French singer, who performs in Moscow and sings Napoleon there, has nothing to do directly with the other two storytellers, who operate in the province of Kaluga just under two hundred kilometers away - but indirectly. Because none of them actually tell about Napoleon, but rather about General Opotschinin's great-nephew Timofej Michailowitsch Ignatjew, Timoscha or even Titus called. Timoscha is a fighter who, as a 16-year-old boy, took part in the expulsion of the usurper and stayed on the heels of the French Emperor as far as Paris. Until then, the general, who was paralyzed on an ice floe in the Satschaner pond at the beginning of December 1805 during the Battle of Austerlitz, fulfills a heartfelt wish for his great-nephew Timoscha. The invalid with the wooden leg - residing on his estate in Lipenki on the Protwa - sends the boy who is to inherit the Lipenki estate to Moscow. Because after the Battle of Smolensk , the Grande Armée marches a long way from Moscow, but is approaching the Kaluga area. Near Moscow, Count Saint-Priest , a comrade-in-arms of the general, commands a regiment of the Russian army . General Opochinin is happy to put his great-nephew under the wing of the French émigré Saint-Priest. In addition, a good acquaintance from Austerlitz times had written to Opochinin with success. Lieutenant Franz Johann Mender, a Linz teacher of history and natural sciences, was taken to Lipenki in 1807 while fleeing Napoleon and was employed as Timoscha's tutor. The general sends the Austrian lieutenant, known by the Russians as Franz Ivanovich, to accompany his great-nephew to his Moscow city apartment. There Mender meets with Louise Bigarre.

General Opotschinin calls Lieutenant Mender the "crazy Austrian" because the lieutenant thinks that Napoleon is following him to Kaluga or Moscow. Mender has a guilt complex: the Austrian and his company trampled gardens in northern Italy and was chased out of such a paradise by Napoleon.

The retired general feels lonely. Now - in 1812 - he remembers the time after the Swiss campaign , when the war returnees visited his 23-year-old neighbor Barbara Stepanowna, alias Barbara Wolkowa, for the first time in 1800 on her property in Gubino, seventeen versts from Lipenki. The young widow, who had to enter into a marriage of convenience when she was 20, is not alone. She called a daughter - little Lisaveta, Lisa; calls the little one her "chance child". The invalid's renewed efforts in 1812 for the beautiful young woman were unsuccessful. At first the general plays shy and when he dares to venture out, she wants several children from a husband. Opochinin, who has lost his loin strength on the ice floe of the Satschaner pond, sees himself incapable. There is an argument between the general and the patriot Barbara. Barbara - torn between liking and dislike of the general with the gray curls, asks: How can Napoleon, who is advancing inexorably, find an admirer among the Russians in the odd General Opochinin?

From the side stories in the novel, two main plot points should be picked out - those of Lieutenant Prjachin and the Petersburg statesman Alexander Andreevich Swetschin. Timoscha's mother Sonetschka had sold one of her paternal property in the vicinity of Yaroslavl to Prjachin's father, a parvenu from Saint Petersburg . Lieutenant Prjachin comes to Lipenki after the Battle of Vyazma and is entertained by the general with his dragoons . Later, in the general's Moscow city apartment, the singer Louise Bigarre takes care of Lieutenant Prjachin, who was wounded in the battle against Napoleon. And when Barbara wanted to survive in partisan fashion in November 1812 with a group of her peasants in her woods in the face of the fleeing Grande Armée, she also fed the hungry Lieutenant Prjachin. On the advance to Paris, Timoscha and Lieutenant Prjachin befriend each other. In the metropolis on the Seine , the two friends visit Louise Bigarre and revive shared memories of the fire in Moscow and Prjachin's nursing home.

The narrator Okudschawa has it all behind the ears. The second side story, which appears insignificant when read carelessly, forces you to turn back because of its relevance. The general's Lipenkier estate manager, Pastoret, for example, reappears in the house of his Parisian fellow student Swetschin and talks to Louise Bigarre. Towards the end of the novel, Barbara reveals to the reader that Swetschin is Lisa's biological father. General Opotschinin does not mention Mr. Swetschin from Petersburg in his story. It appears in Louise Bigarre's story when the singer and Timosha find what they are looking for in burning Moscow in search of a new place to stay: Svetschin is first introduced as the landlord . The portrait of Lisa's mother Barbara hangs in an adjoining room. The picture looks familiar to Timosha. The graying Svetschin smiles. When the narrator first mentions the name, the reader can hardly guess why the narrator's heart is pounding. Barbara later calls Swetschin her "fugitive husband".

Four clerks

Reading is not easily digestible food. Okudschawa's style has it all. For example, especially in the first half of the novel, the reader has to follow the leaps of the narrator on the time axis.

General Opochinin on the Lipenki estate

  • "Notes from the private life of the retired major general N. Opochinin, former commander of the Moscow Musketeer Regiment"

In wartime, the general was seen as a warrior - not only in the fight against Napoleon. "... you shouldn't let an offender go in peace," he said and shot a Russian ensign in a duel. If the general writing “incoherently” calls Lieutenant Mender a “crazy Austrian” (see above), he could on the one hand be taken as a crazy Russian himself. The 55-year-old invalid general who adores Napoleon prepares the hospitality of the conqueror who is likely to be passing through Lipenki in great detail. On the other hand, the entire loving care of the aging Opotschinin goes to his great-nephew Timoscha. The boy grows up without a mother. The father, battalion commander Major Ignatjew, had already fallen in the fight against Napoleon on that unfortunate December day in 1805, which gave the general the wooden leg made from fresh German linden. Timosha, said the general, inherited the melancholy eyes from his father. Opochinin observes Timosha's patriotism flaring up. The young lad slaps the Lipenkier peasant mayor , who is apparently dying while having a peasant whipped.

The general has hired a steward named Pastoret. Opochinin has to listen to Pastoret verbally castigating Russian slavery . The general said that the whip for the peasants is still better than the guillotine .

Louise Bigarre in Moscow

  • "Louise Bigarre's sad memories of the past"

When the voice of the now 24-year-old Louise, who has lived in Russia for six years, was suddenly found to be inadequate at the leading Imperial Theater in Petersburg, she tried her luck on the funnier Moscow stages with romances in medium pitches. When Moscow burns in the unfortunate year of 1812, Louise moves from her wooden house on Powarskaya Street to the stone house of her neighbor General Opotschinin, where she lives in harmony with Lieutenant Mender and Timoscha. The retreating Russian army moves through the city. The Moscow police asks the three residents to leave the city in vain. The police argument: All fire extinguishing equipment was removed. Louise takes care of Lieutenant Prjachin's wound in the house. The officer, wounded with a fish spear by a drunk man on the Arbat - previously on the road as a negotiator between the fronts - claims to have seen Bonaparte on the city limits.

First the wounded man has to be moved to the princely orangery in a cart. Timoscha tells about his kind great-uncle; calls the general a dreamer. French officers take up their quarters; eat away the supplies from the four persevering with their servants. At least - the post office is still working. Timosha receives a letter from Lipenki. The general was slain by the French with a saber. Opochinin had not accepted the term "lame monkey". Timosha is crying. Mender sits next to it, pale as death.

Napoleon leaves the burning Kremlin . Mr Mender falls into the hands of Russian soldiers who are looking for arsonists. When asked whether he was an arsonist, the Austrian replies with a laugh: “In a philosophical sense, yes” and is shot for his answer. On the further escape from looters and the scorching heat of the burning Moscow, Louise, Timoscha and Prjachin came under in the stone house of Mr. Swetschin. Timosha goes to Vsechswjatskoje to the Cossacks.

When Napoleon leaves, Louise stays in town, reveals herself as a French woman who condemns her compatriots, is surrounded by the outraged Russians and knocked unconscious.

Barbara Wolkowa on the Gubino Estate

  • The memories of Barbara Volkova at an advanced age

Barbara, born in 1777, tells from the perspective of the year 1827 and begins her story before 1801. At that time, the young woman had a "nonsensical marriage" behind her. Now, a quarter of a century later, she regrets her negative attitude towards General Opotschinin, who was returning from Switzerland. Barbara tells the story of her one-sided love for Alexander Andreevich Swetschin, the son of a general. The general had traveled across Europe at Suvorov's side . The son Alexander had been to Versailles ; had also learned at a meeting of the National Assembly what the slogan equality , unimaginable in Russia, means, but had been whistled back by the Tsarina and finally received a hospitable reception in Moscow. Barbara confesses: "I loved Svetschin with bitter love, with curses ..." and follows him in 1812 to the burned-down Moscow. Her city apartment was looted, caught in the fire but not burned down.

During Napoleon's Russian campaign, Gubino farmers set Barbara's estate on fire. She was able to flee to Jelzowo with Lisa and a few faithful ones; had then hidden in their woods and seen the retreat of tired French guardsmen. After all, the French had brought Russian prisoners with them who were shot as soon as they were left lying in the snow. That November, 1812, Lieutenant Prjachin had ridden through the Kaluga Forest with dragoons. After the war , Major and later Colonel Prjachin was often a guest at Gubino Manor.

Timoscha, who has returned from the war, approaches Lisa, who is now 17, and raves about Bigarre from France. Barbara falls into a letter from Louise Bigarre to Swetschin. The French woman also loved Svetschin unhappily. The singer survived the beating of the Russians and arrived safely in Paris. Svetschin encounters Barbara frostily in Moscow and soon leaves for the “Foreign College” in Petersburg. Before he gets on the equipage, he sounds: "The slaves must be freed, but it is not necessary to guillotine the kings."

It looks as if Timoscha contacted a secret society around 1817, a forerunner of the later Decembrists .

At the beginning of December 1825 the tsar died in Taganrog. After December 14th, Prjachin came to visit and arrested Timosha on suspicion of being a secret group. Lisa follows her lover to Petersburg with a letter to her father in her pocket. In it, Barbara asks for help. Svetschin has meanwhile married a young, rich Petersburg beauty. Madame Polina Swetschina thinks that the husband's child who has traveled here has many similarities with his father. Swetschow talks to Generals Lewaschow and Benckendorff . After all, the suspect languished in the Petersburg casemates until June 1826 .

From Colonel Prjachin's papers

  • Petersburg on August 14, 1826 to Timoscha: Prjachin is so happy that Timoscha has been released from his "safe, short-term imprisonment in Petersburg" and confesses that he has loved Barbara since he met her in the Kaluga Forest.
  • Petersburg on October 21, 1826 to Timoscha: Prjachin mentions the demotion of the Decembrists in July in Petersburg.
  • The following diary entries concern the campaign in 1814 and are noted from January to the beginning of May in Rastatt , Lauterburg , Nancy , Charmont, Mairy , Château de Pont-sur-Seine and Paris: Prjachin had a son. The young father admonishes Timoscha - stay cold blooded! In Paris Prjachin wants to look for the Louise Bigarre who looked after him in Moscow. Together with Timoscha, Prjachin visits Louise Bigarre in Paris. The singer entertains the visit with wine and cheese; tells of her escape through the Russian winter.
  • Petersburg on February 5, 1827 to Timoscha: Prjachin is retired and waiting for an answer.
  • Petersburg on May 16, 1827 to Timosha: Prjachin asks for his letters.

Barbara replied on June 10, 1827 that Timosha committed suicide on July 20, 1826 at his Lipenki estate at the age of 29.

reception

Schröder wrote in Berlin in April 1985 that the novel was "written for Timoscha" and draws parallels to Tolstoy's war and peace .

Used edition

  • Bulat Okudshawa: Meeting with Bonaparte. Historical novel. Translated from the Russian by Thomas Reschke . With an afterword by Ralf Schröder . Volk & Welt, Berlin 1986

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian Дружба народов (журнал) - in German: Friendship of the people
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 4, below
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 45, 9. Zvo
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 45, 9. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 34, 1. Zvu
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 42, 11. Zvu
  7. ↑ Russian Александр Андреевич Свечин, not to be confused with Alexander Andreevich Swetschin (1878–1938)
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 167
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 170
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 173, 5. Zvo, mention p. 175, 4. Zvu
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 197 and p. 208 below
  12. ↑ Edition used, p. 197 and p. 208, 3rd Zvu
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 248, 6. Zvo
  14. ↑ Edition used, p. 25, 12. Zvu
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 168 middle
  16. ↑ Edition used, p. 265, 2nd Zvo
  17. ↑ Edition used, p. 279 below
  18. ↑ Edition used, p. 282, 19. Zvo
  19. ↑ Edition used, p. 284, 3rd Zvo
  20. ↑ In mid-July 1826 five Decembrists were hanged .
  21. ↑ Schröder in the afterword of the edition used, p. 345, 1st Zvu
  22. ↑ Schröder in the afterword of the edition used, p. 339