The peasants (Chekhov)

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Anton Chekhov

The peasants , also peasants ( Russian Мужики , Muschiki ), is a story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which appeared in the April 1897 issue of the Moscow magazine Russkaya Mysl .

Vladimir Czumikov's translation into German was published by Diederichs in Leipzig in 1902 . Other translations: 1897 into Swedish ( Musjikerna ), 1898 into Bulgarian ( Мужици ) and Czech ( Mužici ), 1899 into Serbo-Croatian ( Mužici ), Danish ( Bønder ) and Norwegian ( Bønder ), 1901 into Hungarian ( A parasztok ) and French ( Les Moujiks ) and in 1905 into Polish ( Chłopi ).

action

Nikolai Tschikildejew comes from the lackey village Shukowo - near the church village Kossogorow. The village got its nickname because it has been providing servants to Moscow for years. Nikolai came to town when he was eleven. Now, due to illness, he can no longer wait in the Moscow Hotel “Slavonic Bazaar”.

Soon he will be penniless. So Nikolai goes back to his village with his wife Olga and their ten-year-old slender daughter Sascha - a serious mistake, as he realizes shortly after arriving in the narrow parental home. The grain only lasted up to Butter Week with the parents in Shukowo . Flour has to be bought in the tavern. In addition to their father Osip and his wife, the 58-year-old quarrelsome Babka, their daughters-in-law Marja and Fjokla and their group of children live in the parents' house. Whenever Nikolai's brother Kirjak comes home, he hits his nose bloody with a single blow of his fist in front of the assembled family in the booze of his wife Marja.

Nikolai is allowed to sleep on the stove as a sick person. Olga has to go to the barn with the other women at night. Marja, who has never left the village, lets Marja describe the shining Moscow to her. Fjokla is “mentally completely undeveloped”, listens but does not understand. When asked about her husband Denis, who serves with the soldiers, Fjokla replies: "He should stay away from me."

Marja and Olga recognize each other as kindred souls and attend the service together. Fjokla has fun with the farmhands on the other side of the river.

When one of the farmhouses in Shukowo burned down late in the evening because the samovar had been handled too carelessly in it , the women had to prevent the fire from spreading to the other houses by carrying water, etc. under the guidance of servants from the neighboring farm. Meanwhile, the Shukow farmers stagger out of the tavern, amazed and drunk. The drunk Kirjak wants to put out the fire, but is brought to reason by one of the servants with a blow in the neck. The "helper" Kirjak crawls back on all fours into the crowd of laughing onlookers. Fjokla is not squeamish with Olga during the extinguishing work; the sister-in-law rules hatefully: “You gnawed on a beautiful paunch in Moscow! Big-bellied! ”And hits Olga on the shoulder with the handlebar .

The village elder Antip Sedelnikow took the samovar away from indebted farmers - including grandfather Ossip, of course - on behalf of the district chief of the rural police who had traveled. Ossip asks to be returned. Nothing. Ossip does not have the required redemption fee of three rubles. Antip takes the chickens away from other indebted farmers.

Nikolai dies. Olga wants to try her luck again as a housemaid in Moscow. The notorious drinker Kirjak wants to hire himself out as a house servant there.

Quote

“Only the rich peasants feared death… The poorer peasants were not afraid of death. Old Ossip and grandmother were told to their faces that they had lived long enough, that it was time to die; They didn't find anything about it ... Death was nothing terrible for Marja either, she was even sad that it hadn't come for so long, and was happy when her children died ... They weren't afraid of death, but every illness gave them an exaggerated one Fear a. "

Social criticism

Olga, who served as a housemaid in a Moscow guesthouse, leaves - as I said - with Sascha Shukowo after Nikolai has died. On the way back to Moscow she asks for alms on the road. The realist Anton Chekhov has this woman ponder about the Zhukovo peasants: “... that these people lived worse than the cattle, and it was terrible to be with them; they were raw, dishonest, dirty, forever drunk, lived in disagreement and constantly fighting with each other because one feared and suspected the other, because they had no respect for one another ... but they were human, they suffered and cried like human beings ... there was hers heavy work that hurts their whole bodies at night, the cruel winters, the poor harvests, the narrowness. And no help. Where should she come from? Those who were richer and more powerful could not help because they themselves were rude, dishonest and drunk… Every smallest official or employee treated the peasants like tramps and even said you to the village and church elders; they imagined they had a right to ... how could help ... come from people who were addicted, greedy, vicious and lazy, who only came to the village to plunder, insult and intimidate? "

reception

  • 1958, Maugham puts the text on a par with Madame Bovary von Flaubert .
  • 1962, Gudrun Düwel writes Anton Chekhov put the states in the Russian village - in contrast to the idylls of the Populists - truthfully represent and cites a passage from the decision of the Moscow censorship authority, "page 193 must be removed when not in agreement prohibit".

German-language editions

Used edition

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Russian entry at fantlab.ru
  2. Entries on translations
  3. Russian Жуково
  4. Russian Косогоров
  5. Russian Славянский базар
  6. Russian бабка - grandmother
  7. Edition used, p. 322, 19. Zvo
  8. Edition used, p. 326, 12. Zvo
  9. Maugham cited in Urban, p. 193, 6. Zvo
  10. Gudrun Düwel in the afterword of the edition used, p. 425, 10. Zvo