For what?

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For what? ( Russian За что? , Sa chto? ) Is a story by Leo Tolstoy , which was created in early 1906 and in the same year in Tolstoy's reading circle appeared.

Tolstoy has the story of the attempted escape of the Polish couple Albina and Jozef Migurski from the book “ Siberia and the Katorga ” (Russian Сибирь и каторга) by the Russian ethnographer Sergei Maximow, published in 1891

prehistory

At the time of the Second Partition of Poland : Pan Jaczewski fought against Catherine II under Kościuszko in 1794 . Jaczewski hated King Poniatowski because of his relationship with the Russian tsarina. As a follower of Napoleon , Jaczewski had commanded a regiment in 1812. The opening of the Sejm in Warsaw on November 27, 1815 by Alexander I was welcomed by Jaczewski, but was disappointed by the politics of the stubborn Konstantin and in 1825 he withdrew to his Rozanka estate. Jaczewski, married for the second time, has two marriageable daughters from his first marriage - Albina and Wanda.

action

Albina was fifteen years old when the young Jozef Migurski visited the Jaczewski family in the spring of 1830. Everyone on Rozanka assumes that the visitor wants to free Wanda. However, the expected application does not come. Jozef and Albina fall in love. Jozef leaves without explaining.

During the November uprising in 1830, Jozef successfully fought against the Russians in the ranks of Dwernicki near Stoczek . Nikolai I strikes back: Diebitsch and Paskewitsch suppress the rebellious Poles . Officer Jozef Migurski's estate is confiscated. Jozef is demoted to a simple soldier and sent to an Urals infantry battalion.

In 1831 old Jaczewski fell ill and went to Vilna with his family in 1832 . Jozef writes to Vilna. In 1833 Jaczewski traveled to Baden with his family . Wanda married a Polish emigrant there. Jaczewski dies. Albina inherits a considerable fortune and returns to Rozanka with the stepmother. In November 1833 Albina went to Uralsk and married Jozef there. The couple has two children. After five years of marriage on the Ural River , the children fall ill and die. Tolstoy depicts the death of the children like this: Both could have survived if a doctor had been available.

Albina cannot get over the death of her children and asks: "What for?"

The Polish math teacher Rossołowski is transferred to Jozef's battalion as a punishment. Rossołowski had previously been chastised for participating in the Sierociński's conspiracy. Together with the experienced escape helper Rossołowski, Albina forges an escape plan for Jozef and herself. The route leads from Uralsk to Saratov in a carriage . A boat trip to the Caspian Sea is planned from Saratov . The travel destination is Persia . It turns out differently. The 34-year-old coachman, the Cossack Danilo Lifanow from Obschtschi Syrt , reports the two refugees to the Russian police. Jozef is sentenced to a thousand strokes of the gauntlet . Most delinquents do not survive such sentences. Jozef is lucky. In association with Wanda, his relatives achieve mitigation - lifelong settlement in Siberia. Albina follows the husband eastwards.

Self-testimony

Dieckmann writes in his epilogue: “Tolstoy himself felt this story as something with which he paid off his guilt. In his childhood, he confided to his secretary NN Gussew, he was brought up in the usual hatred of the Poles, which is why he wanted to repay with double recognition. "

filming

German-language editions

  • For what? German by Arthur Luther . S. 217–247 in: Gisela Drohla (Ed.): Leo N. Tolstoj. All the stories. Eighth volume. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1961 (2nd edition of the edition in eight volumes 1982)
  • For what? Translated from the Russian by Hermann Asemissen . P. 268–298 in: Eberhard Dieckmann (Ed.): Lew Tolstoi. Haji Murat. Late stories (contains: Hajji Murat. After the ball. The fake coupon. Alyosha the pot. What for? The divine and the human. What I saw in dreams. Father Vasily. Power of the child. The monk-priest Iliodor. Who are the murderers? Conversation with a stranger. The stranger and the farmer. Songs in the village. Three days in the country. Children's wisdom. Grateful soil. Chodynka. Unwanted. Post-legacy records of the monk Fyodor Kuzmich. All the same. There are no guilty parties in the world ). 623 pages, vol. 13 by Eberhard Dieckmann (ed.), Gerhard Dudek (ed.): Lew Tolstoi. Collected works in twenty volumes . Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1986 (edition used)
  • The stories. Vol. 2. Late stories. 1886–1910 (contains: The canvas knife . The death of Ivan Ilyich . The Kreutz sonata . The devil. Master and servant . Father Sergei. After the ball . Haji-Murad . The fake coupon. Aljosha the pot . Kornej Wasiljew. The strawberries. For what? The divine and the human. What I saw in a dream . On the Chodynka field ). Artemis and Winkler, Düsseldorf 2001. 813 pages, ISBN 978-3-538-06906-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian Круг чтения , taken from Russian За что?
  2. ↑ Russian Максимов, Сергей Васильевич
  3. ^ Dieckman in the notes on the edition used, p. 613, entry 268
  4. ^ Polish Konstytucja Królestwa Polskiego
  5. ↑ engl. Battle of Stoczek
  6. ↑ Polish. January Henryk Sierociński
  7. ↑ Russian Гусев, Николай Николаевич
  8. ↑ Dieckmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 599, 1. Zvu
  9. ↑ Russian За что? (фильм)
  10. ^ Polish Magdalena Wójcik
  11. ↑ Filming entry in the IMDb

Remarks

  1. ↑ Poetic freedom: Tolstoy has renamed Vincent Migurskis first name to Jozef.
  2. ↑ In 1859 Jozef was allowed to return to Poland ( Vincent Migurski ).