The white guard
The White Guard ( Russian Белая гвардия , Belaja Gwardija) is a novel by the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov from 1924 . The play based on it is called The Days of the Turbins ( Дни Турбиных ).
action
The partly autobiographical novel is set in Kiev during the chaotic period of upheaval that followed the October Revolution and the collapse of the Russian Empire . The protagonists are the Turbins, a Russian family: the 28-year-old military doctor Alexei, his 17-year-old brother Nikolka and his 24-year-old sister Jelena. Together with their friends and neighbors, they go through the turmoil and hardships of the civil war.
The novel begins in 1918 when a puppet-like regime of the hetman Skoropadskyj was formed in the Ukraine under the German occupation . Many Russian officers join his service because they see him as the lesser evil vis-à-vis the Bolsheviks and the Ukrainian nationalists of Symon Petlyura . However, after the Germans suffer a defeat in the west and withdraw from the city, the conservative Skoropadskyj can only rely on Russian officers to protect him from the left-wing nationalist Petljura. While they are preparing to defend the city, Skoropadskyj suddenly throws down and flees to Germany. The city's scanty defenders, including Alexei and Nikolka, are left to their fate.
Some commanders prefer the hopeless fight, others order their units to be disbanded in order to save the lives of the Russian soldiers, who are mainly made up of Junkers (including Nikolka). After Petlyura's troops take the city, brutal massacres of Jews and those Russian officers and junkers who have not been able to disguise themselves well enough as civilians begin. Alexei is critically injured while on the run, but is saved by a woman who later becomes his partner.
After his recovery, he was ordered by Petljura's troops, undetected as an officer, to serve them as a military doctor. When he was treating Colonel Leschko, who was notorious for his brutality, Alexei seized the opportunity and shot him. After several days of escape, he returns to his house, where he meets the departing Nikolka. He wants to drive away with the family of his slain commander, while Jelena has already left with her admirer. The cozy common home no longer exists. Many of his friends are dead or have left to join General Denikin's white troops in the Don area. Alexei finds his savior and watches the invasion of the Bolsheviks.
Film adaptations
- 1976: Days of the Turbins , feature film by Vladimir Basov
- 2011: The White Guard , TV series by Sergei Sneschkin