Summary of the story of the victory of Vasily Aksenov. Analysis of Aksenov's story "Victory" (Essay on a free topic)

exaggerated story

In the compartment of a fast train, the grandmaster was playing chess with a random companion.

This man immediately recognized the grandmaster when he entered the compartment, and immediately burned with an unthinkable desire for an unthinkable victory over the grandmaster. “You never know,” he thought, casting sly, recognizing glances at the grandmaster, “you never know, you might think, some kind of frail.”

The grandmaster immediately realized that he was recognized, and resigned himself to anguish: at least two games cannot be avoided. He, too, immediately recognized the type of this man. From the windows of the Chess Club on Gogolevsky Boulevard, he sometimes saw the rosy, steep foreheads of such people.

When the train started moving, the grandmaster's companion stretched himself with naive cunning and indifferently asked:

- Shall we play chess, comrade?

“Yes, perhaps,” the grandmaster muttered.

The companion leaned out of the compartment, called the conductor, chess appeared, he grabbed it too hastily for his indifference, poured it out, took two pawns, clenched them in his fists and showed his fists to the grandmaster. On the bulge between the thumb and forefinger of the left fist, the tattoo indicated: "G.O."

“Left,” said the grandmaster, and winced a little, imagining the blows of these fists, left or right. He got the whites.

“You have to kill time, don’t you?” On the road, chess is a nice thing, - G.O. said good-naturedly, arranging the pieces.

They quickly played the northern gambit, then everything got confused. The grandmaster looked attentively at the board, making small, insignificant moves. Several times before his eyes the possible mating lines of the queen appeared like lightning, but he extinguished these flashes by slightly lowering his eyelids and obeying a faintly buzzing inside, tedious, compassionate note, similar to the buzzing of a mosquito.

“Khas-Bulat is daring, your saklya is poor ...” - G.O. pulled on the same note.

The grandmaster was the embodiment of neatness, the embodiment of the strictness of dress and manners, so characteristic of people who are unsure of themselves and easily hurt. He was young, dressed in a gray suit, a light-colored shirt, and a simple tie. No one but the grandmaster himself knew that his simple ties were marked with the House of Dior trademark. This little secret always somehow warmed and consoled the young and silent grandmaster. Glasses also quite often helped him out, hiding from strangers the uncertainty and timidity of his gaze. He complained about his lips, which tend to stretch into a pitiful smile or tremble. He would gladly close his lips from prying eyes, but this, unfortunately, has not yet been accepted in society.

Game G.O. amazed and upset the grandmaster. On the left flank, the figures crowded in such a way that a tangle of charlatan Kabbalistic signs formed. The entire left flank smelled of the latrine and bleach, the sour smell of the barracks, wet rags in the kitchen, and castor oil and diarrhea from early childhood.

“After all, you are such and such a grandmaster, aren’t you?” asked G.O.

“Yes,” the grandmaster confirmed.

Ha ha ha, what a coincidence! exclaimed G.O.

“What a coincidence? What coincidence is he talking about? This is something unthinkable! Could this happen? I refuse, accept my refusal,” the grandmaster thought quickly in panic, then guessed what was the matter and smiled.

– Yes, of course, of course.

“Here you are a grandmaster, and I’ll put a fork on your queen and rook,” said G.O. He raised his hand. The provocateur horse hung over the board.

“Fork in the ass,” thought the grandmaster. - That's a fork! Grandfather had his own fork, he did not allow anyone to use it. Own. Personal fork, spoon and knife, personal plates and sputum vial. I also remember the “lyre” fur coat, a heavy fur coat with “lyre” fur, it hung at the entrance, the grandfather almost did not go out into the street. Fork for grandparents. It's a pity to lose old people."

While the knight hung over the board, luminous lines and dots of possible pre-match raids and victims flashed before the grandmaster's eyes again. Alas, the croup of a horse with a lagging dirty-purple bike was so convincing that the grandmaster shrugged his shoulders.

- Are you giving away the rook? asked G.O.

- What can you do.

– Sacrificing a rook for an attack? Guessed? - asked G.O., still not daring to put the knight on the desired field.

“Just saving the queen,” the grandmaster muttered.

- You're not catching me? - asked G.O.

- No, you are a strong player.

G.O. made his cherished "fork". The grandmaster hid the queen in a secluded corner behind the terrace, behind a dilapidated stone terrace with carved rotten posts, where in autumn there was a sharp smell of rotting maple leaves. Here you can sit in a comfortable position, squatting. It is nice here; in any case, self-esteem does not suffer. Standing up for a second and looking out from behind the terrace, he saw that G.O. removed the rook.

The introduction of the black knight into the senseless crowd on the left flank, its occupation of the b4-square, in any case, was already suggestive. The grandmaster realized that in this variation, on this green spring evening, youthful myths alone would not be enough for him. All this is true, glorious fools roam the world - cabin boys Billy, cowboys Harry, beauties Mary and Nellie, and the brigantine raises sails, but there comes a moment when you feel the dangerous and real closeness of the black knight on the b4 field. There was a struggle ahead, complex, subtle, fascinating, prudent. There was life ahead.

The grandmaster won a pawn, took out a handkerchief and blew his nose. A few moments in complete solitude, when the lips and nose are hidden by a handkerchief, set him up in a banal philosophical way. “This is how you achieve something,” he thought, “but what next? All your life you strive for something; victory comes to you, but there is no joy from it. For example, the city of Hong Kong, distant and very mysterious, and I have already been there. I've been everywhere before."

The loss of a pawn did little to upset G.O., for he had just won a rook. He responded to the grandmaster with a queen move, which caused heartburn and a momentary headache.

The grandmaster realized that he still had some joys in store. For example, the joy of long, along the entire diagonal, moves of the bishop. If you drag an elephant a little along the board, then this will to some extent replace the swift gliding on a skiff along the sunny, slightly blooming water of a pond near Moscow, from light into shadow, from shadow into light. The grandmaster felt an irresistible, passionate desire to capture the h8 square, because it was a field of love, a tubercle of love, over which transparent dragonflies hung.

- Deftly, you won back the rook from me, but I slammed, - G.O. boomed in a bass voice, only betraying his irritation with the last word.

“Excuse me,” the grandmaster said quietly. - Maybe you can return the moves?

- No, no, - said G.O., - no concessions, I beg you very much.

"I'll give you a dagger, I'll give you a horse, I'll give you my rifle ..." - he dragged on, plunging into strategic reflections.

The stormy summer celebration of love on the h8 field did not please and at the same time worried the grandmaster. He felt that soon there would be an accumulation of outwardly logical, but inwardly absurd forces in the center. Again there will be a cacophony and the smell of bleach, as in those distant corridors of damned memory on the left flank.

- That's interesting: why are all chess players Jewish? asked G.O.

- Why is everyone? the grandmaster said. “For example, I’m not a Jew.

- Well, here you are, for example, - said the grandmaster, - after all, you are not a Jew.

- Where am I! - muttered G.O. and plunged back into his secret plans.

“If I like him like that, then he likes me like that,” thought G.O. - If I shoot here, he will shoot there, then I go here, he answers like this ... I'll finish him anyway, I'll break him anyway. Just think, grandmaster blattmeister, you still have a thin vein against me. I know your championships: you agree in advance. I’ll crush you anyway, even if there’s blood from my nose!”

“Yes, I have lost an exchange,” he said to the grandmaster, “but that's okay, it's not evening yet.

He launched an attack in the center, and of course, as expected, the center immediately turned into a field of senseless and terrible actions. It was no-love, no-meeting, no-hope, no-hello, no-life. Flu-like chills and again yellow snow, post-war discomfort, the whole body itches. The black queen in the center croaked like a crow in love, crow love, in addition, the neighbors scraped a pewter bowl with a knife. Nothing so definitely proved the meaninglessness and illusory nature of life as this position in the center. It's time to end the game.

“No,” thought the grandmaster, “there is something else besides this.” He put down a large reel of piano pieces by Bach, soothed his heart with pure and monotonous sounds, like the splashing of waves, then left the dacha and went to the sea. Pine trees rustled above him, and under his bare feet there was a sliding and springy coniferous crust.

Remembering the sea and imitating it, he began to understand the position, to harmonize it. My heart suddenly became clear and bright. It is logical, like Bach's coda, that Black came to checkmate. The matte situation glowed dimly and beautifully, completed like an egg. The Grandmaster looked at G.O. He was silent, puffed up, looking into the deepest rear of the grandmaster. He did not notice mat to his king. The grandmaster was silent, afraid to break the charm of this moment.

“Check,” G.O. said quietly and carefully, moving his horse. He could barely contain his inner roar.

…Grandmaster screamed and rushed to run. Following him, stomping and whistling, ran the owner of the dacha, the coachman Euripides and Nina Kuzminichna. Overtaking them, the dog Nochka, unleashed from the chain, overtook the grandmaster.

“Check,” G.O. said once more, rearranging his horse, and gulped air with agonizing lust.

...The grandmaster was led down the aisle among the hushed crowd. Going behind slightly touched his back with some hard object. A man in a black overcoat with SS zippers on his buttonholes was waiting ahead of him. Step - half a second, another step - a second, another step - one and a half, another step - two ... Steps up. Why up? Such things should be done in the pit. You have to be courageous. It is necessary? How long does it take to put a stinky bag of matting on your head? So, it became completely dark and it was difficult to breathe, and only somewhere very far away the orchestra played Bravura "Khas-Bulat daring".

- Mat! - G.O. cried out like a copper pipe.

“Well, you see,” the grandmaster muttered, “congratulations!”

“Ugh,” said G.O., “Ugh, uh, just worn out, just unbelievable, damn it! Unbelievable, checkmate the grandmaster! Unbelievable, but it is a fact! he laughed. - Oh yes I am! He playfully stroked his head. “Oh, you are my grandmaster, grandmaster,” he buzzed, put his palms on the shoulders of the grandmaster and pressed in a friendly way, “you are my dear young man ... Nerves could not stand it, right? Confess!

“Yes, yes, I lost my temper,” the grandmaster hastily confirmed.

G.O. With a broad, free gesture, he swept the pieces off the board. The board was old, chipped, in some places the surface polished layer was torn off, yellow, worn wood was exposed, in some places there were fragments of round stains from glasses of railway tea placed in the old days. The grandmaster looked at the empty board, at sixty-four absolutely impassive fields capable of accommodating not only his own life, but an infinite number of lives, and this endless alternation of light and dark fields filled him with reverence and quiet joy. “It seems,” he thought, “I have not committed any major meanness in my life.”

“But you tell it like that, and no one will believe it,” G.O. sighed sadly.

Why won't they believe? What is so incredible about this? You are a strong, strong-willed player,” the grandmaster said.

“No one will believe,” G.O. repeated, “they will say that I am lying. What evidence do I have?

“Allow me,” the grandmaster looked a little offended, looking at G.O.’s pink, steep forehead, “I will give you a convincing proof. I knew that I would meet you.

He opened his briefcase and took out a large, palm-sized, golden token, on which was beautifully engraved: “The giver of this won a game of chess from me. Grandmaster such and such.

“The only thing left to do is to put in the number,” he said, taking out engraving supplies from his briefcase and beautifully engraving the number in the corner of the token. “This is solid gold,” he said, handing over the token.

- Without cheating? asked G.O.

“Absolutely pure gold,” said the grandmaster. – I have already ordered many of these tokens and will constantly replenish stocks.

In Ryazan, mushrooms with eyes
They eat - they look.

(In: Vasily Aksenov: Literary Destiny. - Samara: Samara University, 1994. p. 84-97)

In the compositional and semantic organization of the story, in accordance with the traditions of Russian literature, a special role is assigned to the so-called strong positions: title, subtitle, beginning and ending.

Title Victory due to the multi-component meaning of the word, it turns out to be the beginning of a whole bundle of semantic flows, either anticipating the development of the plot, or accompanying it, as it were, “singing”, shading it, or entering into some contradiction with it. Without going into the details of semantic analysis, let us conditionally denote some of the main semantic components that make up a kind of arsenal of potential meanings that may or may not be updated in the text:

1) "limb"; victory in this aspect there is a successful completion and the limit of purposeful action;

2) "alternative"; expressed in contrast victory- defeat", "winner - defeated", as well as in the grammatical valency of the verb "win", which requires two actants - subject and object;

3) "field of activity"; involves the choice of members of the series "struggle - war - rivalry - competition - game".

Subtitle An exaggerated story partly extinguishes the bravura connotation in the semantics of the title. It is perceived as the only explicit retort of the author who wants to designate the subjective beginning, while maintaining a distance between himself and the "inner world" of the text. This backlash makes it possible to avoid the rigidity of the semantic construction, introducing an ironic note into the meaning of the whole and betraying, perhaps, the author's somewhat bashful attitude to the deep content of the story.

The beginning consists of three paragraphs and has a two-part composition. The first part is the initial offer (NP); in it, in a folded, most general form, the plot of the story is presented:

In a fast train compartment, the grandmaster was playing chess with a random companion 2 .

Association link victory – grandmaster playing chess, at first glance, fills in the gap created by the title ( victory in what?) and satisfies the reader's expectations. The syntactic structure of the NP puts the grandmaster in an active position and in the center of the narrative, foreshadowing his victory. However, the semantic association is supported only by juxtaposition in the text; there are no unambiguous indicators of coreference of 3 associates. Thus, the semantic valence of the title is replaced not by the answer, but only by the assumption that it will be about victory grandmaster in a chess game; the tension is not resolved, the reader's expectations are not confirmed or refuted. Furthermore, random satellite in the second part, the beginning is syntactically brought to the fore:

This man immediately recognized the grandmaster when he entered the compartment, and immediately burned with an unthinkable desire for an unthinkable victory over the grandmaster.(S. 346).

Activity satellite is underlined both syntactically (directly transitive predicate with direct object) and lexically ( fired up with desire). Concerning grandmaster, then, on the contrary, its passivity is emphasized: syntactically (the active construction is skillfully turned into a semantically passive one by cutting off the object into a subordinate part), grammatically and lexically ( resigned, not to be avoided):

The grandmaster immediately realized that he was recognized, and resigned himself to anguish: at least two games cannot be avoided. He, too, immediately recognized the type of this man. Sometimes, from the windows of the chess club on Gogolevsky Boulevard, he saw the rosy steep foreheads of such people.. (S. 346).

Syntax parallelism, repetitions ( I knew right away I knew right away– also right awayfound out) only emphasize the differences in the positions of the characters.

So, in the beginning, the "vector of success" fluctuates, foreshadowing the victory of one or the other character; its only explication is sung by a whole chord of contradictory modal meanings: caught fire with (+) unthinkable (-) desire for (+) unthinkable (-) victory as a grandmaster.

A comparison of the names of the characters reveals a significant semantic dissonance in them: nominations based on diverse features are correlated:

grandmaster- random companion

Obeying the law of semantic agreement in the syntagmatic word series, they mutually shade each other and endow with additional semantic components:

Grandmaster – random satellite

a strong chess player - not strong?

Non-random? - not a chess player?

main character? ???

(known, recognizable) - unknown?

not recognizable? ???

Both nomination series are developing, introducing the theme of physical strength/weakness into the semantic lines "field of activity", "strength/weakness". Having learned grandmaster exactly how grandmaster, satellite evaluates it in a different plane:

…think ... some kind of frail

The grandmaster recognizes only the type in the satellite, but also, as it were, on a physical basis: pink cool foreheads of such people

Thus, the "sphere victories” is shifted from play to fighting, even physical confrontation. A new semantic correlation: intelligence - physical strength; it is the recognition of the grandmaster's intellectual superiority that causes the companion's aggressiveness at first.

No less significant semantic correlation between the beginning and the title is created by the development of the theme of finiteness, effectiveness, completeness, given by the title. NP determinant ( In a fast train compartment) indicates the limited place and time in which the action unfolds. In addition to limitedness, isolation is emphasized, as well as movement. But the movement is special: it divides the world of the story into three parts:

1) SOMETHING relative to which it moves Express train; it does not manifest itself in any way, is not limited by anything, is not designated, that is, it is infinite;

2) coupe- a closed little world, limited spatially and temporally;

3) moving Express train; rapid movement is his way of being; neither the starting point nor the destination is mentioned: this movement is in itself, without beginning or end, movement as something constant, and only its speed reminds of the end of the path and the limitations of plot time. In other words, Express train- an image that combines the idea of ​​infinity and limitation. coupe motionless (permanently?) inside the train, TO, infinite, outside.

We have seen that the title and the beginning anticipate some uncertainty in the semantic content of the keyword victory. Further, this uncertainty, instability (lacunarity, semantic valence) goes to the event-plot level, remaining one of the main components of the meaning of the text.

The point is that FACT VICTORIES in the development of the plot, strictly speaking, it is not recorded anywhere, or at least it is recorded ambiguously. First victory attributed grandmaster, but only as a subjective feeling about winning a pawn. Event Mismatch ( won a pawn) and its interpretation ( victory comes) is striking, especially since before that G. O. won the rook. Winning a rook is not called a victory and is perceived by oneself. G. O. in disbelief:

You don't catch me? asked G. O. (S. 347).

The next payoff seems more certain:

It's logical, like a Bach code, checkmate came with black. (p. 349)

But the game does not end there: without noticing mate to your king G. O. announces check and then mate to the grandmaster. However, this gain is not mentioned anywhere. victory; moreover, in the eyes of the most triumphant winner, it looks incredible and requires documentary confirmation. And such confirmation is given, but only after the "pointe", which takes the plot beyond the real:

…I will give you conclusive evidence. I knew that I would meet you. He opened his briefcase and took out a large, palm-sized, golden token, on which was beautifully engraved: “The giver of this won a game of chess from me. Grandmaster so-and-so…”, took engraving supplies from his briefcase and beautifully engraved a number in the corner of the token….

- Without cheating? asked G.O.

“Absolutely pure gold,” said the grandmaster. “I have already ordered many of these and will constantly replenish stocks.”(p. 350)

Obviously different semantic content of the three uses of the word victory. In the title, the word has the broadest and most indefinite meaning; in the second usage ( victory over grandmaster) the actualization of the meaning "winning in a chess game" is rather illusory, because grandmaster you can win not only in a chess game, and even most likely not in a chess game; the third usage is plot-related to winning a pawn, but has a clearly broader meaning ( in a banal philosophical way):

This is how you achieve something, he thought, but what next? All your life you strive for something; victory comes to you, but there is no joy from it. (p. 348).

Further, this theme is realized only in chess terminology, and by the end of the story, the meaning of the associates is noticeably concretized: checkmate with black, checkmate situation, checkmate to the king, checkmate, checkmate, checkmate to the grandmaster (unbelievable, but true), won a game of chess. As certainty increases ( victory - won a game of chess) the discrepancy between the development of the verbal-associative series and the development of the plot becomes more and more obvious: victory- won a pawn

mate has come- the game is not over

unbelievable, but it is a fact- not a fact, because the checkmate has already been before.

Since the title anticipates the fact victories, success in some struggle, completion of this struggle, and the plot does not satisfy these expectations with sufficient certainty, one has to look for a fact victories outside the plot, in some other area. The text provides the basis for this.

We have already seen how the motive of struggle, physical strength was woven into the theme of the chess game. In the future, the semantic line " field of activity» is developed at several levels and in several directions. First, the theme of physical strength continues, but only in connection with one of the characters:

(satellite) squeezed them(pawns) he showed the grandmaster with fists and fists... The grandmaster... winced a little, imagining the blows of these fists, left or right.”(p. 346)

... the horse's croup was so convincing(p. 347),

(G. O.): ... " Anyway, I'll finish him off, I'll break him anyway ... you still had a thin against me ... Anyway, I'll crush you, even though the blood from the nose"(p. 49).

Imperceptibly, the theme of confrontation of characters, will is woven into this series, and here the force is also not on the side. grandmaster; He says satellite:

"You are a strong player"(p. 347),

then: "You are a strong, strong-willed player"(S. 350).

G. O. introduces a whole range of motives of confrontation, singing " Khas-Bulat daring... "(S. 346, 348, 350). In all areas grandmaster shows weakness, and not only in the eyes G. O., but also in the author's interpretation:

... the severity of clothes and manners, so characteristic of people who are insecure and easily hurt ... (346),

... hides from strangers the uncertainty and timidity of the look ... lips that tend to stretch in a miserable smile or startle ...(S. 347).

During the game grandmaster all the time yields to the initiative of the companion, even shows cowardice - hides, runs away - and, finally, becomes a victim. At the same time, the theme of force declared in the NP grandmaster does not disappear, but develops in some of the deep layers of the semantics of the text, appearing as glimpses throughout the entire plot, always as a reaction to aggression satellite:

Several times before his eyes the possible mating routes of the queen appeared like lightning.. (S. 346).

While the knight hung over the board, luminous lines and dots of possible pre-mate raids and victims flashed before the grandmaster's eyes again...(S. 347).

In each of the syntagmatic series, members of several associative-semantic paradigms are brought together. All these meanings add up to something iridescent and reminiscent of the paintings of surrealist artists: a sharp, sophisticated thought casts either with lightning or automatic burst, chess horse then turns around provocateur, then hangs over the weak and timid grandmaster with his " convincing» groats, however with a peeled-off bike. Through the image of the weak and timid grandmaster, yielding in everything to an assertive rival, one looks like a western hero shooting tracer bullets, but at the same time an intellectual who is in full control of the situation and yields only out of pity:

... but he extinguished these flashes, slightly lowering his eyelids and obeying the dull, pitiful note that was faintly buzzing inside ...(S. 346).

The grandmaster realized that in this variation…youthful myths alone would not be enough for him.

Thus, two more of the possible spheres of victory arose and disappeared - the struggle of wits and the war of heroes. Another of the possible images of the winner is recognized as untenable and discarded. But this is precisely what shows that the grandmaster is free to choose and change the spheres of struggle and the images of the winner. It even seems to him that he is free to fight in the right direction or finish it. However, he has to discard one by one spheres that did not bring victories , and each of them corresponds to a new stage of human life. After youthful myths victory expected in a new area, equally ambiguously defined; the transition is expressed verbally myth - reality - struggle - life .

Transfer from myth to " reality - struggle - life” occurs in one paragraph and is an elegant example of the interaction of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships in the text. The paradigmatic connection in this series is obvious, although not unambiguous. To show the syntagmatic aspect of the associative-semantic series, we quote the entire paragraph:

The grandmaster realized that in this variation, on this spring green evening, only youthful myths he won't have enough. All this is true, there are glorious fools roaming the world - cabin boys Billy, cowboys Harry, beauties Mary and Nellie, and the brigantine raises sails, but there comes a moment when you feel dangerous and real closeness of the black horse on the fieldb4. was coming struggle, complex subtle, fascinating, prudent. Ahead was life (p. 348).

The concepts in this paragraph seem to flow into each other; but this is only a verbalization of what has already been depicted, although not named. We have already seen the play of meanings "game (struggle) - war". Gradually, the concept was introduced into this series life , but not as a semantic association, but as a sensually perceived image, not a thought, but an image.

G.O.'s game amazed and upset the grandmaster. On the left flank, the figures crowded in this way ... The entire left flank smelled of the latrine and bleach, the sour smell of the barracks, wet rags in the kitchen, and also pulled castor oil and diarrhea from early childhood"(p. 347).

You might think that this failure in the game brings up the most unpleasant memories in the memory of the grandmaster. So it is, but the author repeats this technique repeatedly, and the theme of memories is somehow gradually extinguished, replaced by a sense of synchronism between the two planes of what is happening - games and life. This synchronicity passes in places into a complete merger:

« Here you are a grandmaster, and I'll put a fork on the queen and rook, - said G.O. He raised his hand. The provocateur horse hung over the board"(p. 347).

The grandmaster thinks:

…Fork for grandparents. It's sad to lose old people.

The grandmaster… hid the queen in a secluded corner behind a dilapidated stone terrace…

(remember, the game takes place in a fast train compartment)

...where in autumn there was a sharp smell of rotting maple leaves. Here you can sit in a comfortable position, squatting. It's good here, in any case, pride does not suffer. For a second rising and looking out from behind the terrace, he saw that G. O. had removed the boat (S. 347).

The combination of several (up to three) personal, spatial and temporal plans at the same time in this paragraph allows you to guess about infinity, omnipresence who is named in the story grandmaster ; it is impossible to identify this essence with a personality, since it is precisely its indiscreteness that is emphasized. However, at the next stage struggle/life» grandmaster suffers heartburn and headache from the moves of the black queen. Twice he changes the sphere of expected success, both times it is framed as a retreat, although success seems to have been achieved. First, he chooses as a consolation (after the loss of the rook) the simple joys of life:

The grandmaster realized that he still had some joys in store. For example, the joy of long, along the entire diagonal, moves of the bishop. If you drag an elephant a little along the board, then this will to some extent replace the swift sliding on a skiff along the sunny, slightly blooming water of a pond near Moscow, from light into shadow, from shadow into light(p. 348).

Skiff- an obvious association with the lost rook. Here the desire for love arises by itself:

The grandmaster felt a passionate, irresistible desire to capture the h8 square, because it was field of love, tubercle of love over which hung transparent dragonflies(p. 348).

"Feast of Love" comes effortlessly, but it irritates the opponent and increases his aggressiveness.

At the end of this episode, the themes " life" and " the game”, only it is not quite clear which of these concepts is definable and which is predicative. It seems that the author deliberately made the equation reversible so that each option corresponds to one of the iridescent realities combined in one image:

Nothing so definitely proved the meaninglessness and illusory nature of life as this position in the center. Time to end the game (S. 349).

And indeed, Life is a game comes to an end, whether by will grandmaster , or according to the internal logic games/life . But there was another area in which you can win. Let's call it "harmony". Perhaps in life this corresponds to creativity:

No, thought the grandmaster, there is something else besidesthis. He put down a large reel of piano pieces by Bach, soothed his heart with clear and monotonous sounds, like splashing water, then left the dacha and went to the sea. ...

Remembering the sea and imitating it, he began to understand the position, harmonize her. My heart suddenly became clear and bright.

It is logical, like Bach's CODA, that Black came to checkmate. MATTE SITUATION LIGHTED DIMLY AND BEAUTIFULLY, COMPLETE LIKE AN EGG(S. 349).

The last phrase in its paradoxical semantics and excessive aesthetics is worthy of a separate study. In the semantic development of the text, this is, of course, the culmination - but not the only one. She is the denouement victory! - but not the last, even in that game/life (youthful myths - love - harmony ), which lived grandmaster during the development of the plot; because execution follows.

The success of a grandmaster in the field of harmony is complete and perfect. But it is precisely this area for him satellite simply does not exist; he continues to fight, remaining at your level, in your field, and wins there. So topic of mismatch, which already indirectly arose in the associative-verbal series, goes to the level of superficial meaning. But it was declared much earlier and even verbalized at the beginning of the game:

“After all, you are such and such a grandmaster? asked G.O.

“Yes,” the grandmaster confirmed.

Ha ha ha, what a coincidence! exclaimed G.O.

- What a coincidence? What coincidence is he talking about? This is something unthinkable! Could this happen? I refuse, accept my refusal, the grandmaster thought quickly in panic, then guessed what was the matter and smiled.

– Yes, of course, of course.

“Here you are a grandmaster, and I’m putting a fork on your queen and rook,” said G.O. (S. 347).

The episode is ambiguous; now it is important for us that coincidence in question is not explained, but the entire episode demonstrates mismatch in everything: grandmaster terrified of someone else coincidences(2), not the one (1) that he said G. O. Then the grandmaster seemed to understand what kind of coincidence (3) he was talking about, but, firstly, he did not explain it to us, and secondly, it seems that he made a mistake again, as evidenced by the unexpectedness of the subsequent move G. O. Matches 1, 2, 3 do not match. Thus, the author puts forward the topic of inconsistencies in a number of key ones.

The spheres in which the characters live and act do not coincide.

Game G.O. consists in finishing off, crushing another. The author builds her description in the form of an improperly direct (inappropriately authorial) speech, where the line between the thoughts of the hero and the author is erased:

G.O.'s game amazed and upset the grandmaster. On the left flank, the figures crowded in such a way that a a tangle of charlatan cabalistic signs. The entire left flank smelled of the latrine and bleach, the sour smell of the barracks...(S. 347).

Evil in the game G. O., captures each time a new period of the grandmaster's life, in the description of which there is, apparently, an autobiographical moment. This evil is quite recognizable and correlated with the life of a number of generations of Soviet people: in early childhood – barracks or maybe jail smells of castor oil and diarrhea , in adolescence - the loss of loved ones and fear provocateurs , then love clouded by the fear that again it will smell of bleach, as in those distant corridors of the damned memory.

With the image of this evil, associative-semantic connections go beyond the scope of this text. These are, firstly, echoes with other texts by V.P. Aksenova. So, the alleged initials of one of the characters - G. 0. - correspond to the name of the character in the story "Rendezvous", written almost at the same time: Helmut Osipovich Lygern. Secondly, these are appeals to the experience of the Soviet reader of the 60s: a tattoo between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, pink foreheads ... under the windows of the Chess Club on Gogol Boulevard , quotes ( the brigantine raises the sails ), as well as, apparently, a number of names of episodic characters: cottage owner , coachman Euripides , Nina Kuzminichna . All these details, especially the names, look random in the text, not motivated by the development of the plot. It is known that such components are usually the most significant in the text. Meanwhile, this semantic layer is almost completely closed to the reader, who is not familiar with the socio-cultural context of the era.

At the same time, it would be too great a simplification to reduce the deep meaning of the text to allusions to the realities of one era. Camps, provocateurs and barracks are presented in the text as one of the hypostases of Evil, the image of which overflows, flows from one form to another, creating a picture of the many-sided denial of life in general. How the overall picture is formed can be clearly seen in the example of one small fragment:

He (G.O.) launched an attack in the center, and of course, as expected, the center immediately turned in the field of senseless and terrible actions. It was no-love, no-meeting, no hello, no hope, no life. Flu-like chills and again yellow snow, post-war discomfort, the whole body itches. black queen in the center karkal like a lover crow, crow love in addition, the neighbors scraped a pewter bowl with a knife. Nothing so definitely proved the meaninglessness and illusory nature of life as this position in the center; time to end the game(S. 349).

In this interlacing of associative-figurative and associative-semantic rows, there are several links of verbal chains that permeate the text and, therefore, are important, but not considered by us. Among them are a number nonsensical associated everywhere with actions G. O ., as well as next to crowd – senseless crowd . It unites G. O. With crowd- Unlike grandmaster. It is also worth noting the paradigms “field”, “ghostly”, etc. But in order to understand the degree of ambiguity of the whole picture, it is necessary to comment on a rather complex conglomerate of associative connections, appealing to the universal human sociocultural context. Formally, it is sealed by repetition black :

black horse - black queen - man in a black overcoat

However, the traditional color symbolism here is only the tip of the iceberg, only a signal that draws attention to the complex associative-symbolic construction that raises the concept of the text to a higher level of generalization. Replays black combine a number of already formed conceptual constructions and build new connections, and in different ways.

First, against the background of the already established paradigm

black horse - provocateur - barracks- (camp)" black queen ,

which the caws like a crow in love , is associated, of course, with " funnel».

But then a black dog appears

… the dog Nochka, unleashed from the chain, overtook the grandmaster

and the image of evil becomes more comprehensive, folklore (cf.: “The black horse stumbled under Chud-Yud, the black raven on his shoulder started up, the black dog bristled near his feet”).

a man in a black overcoat with SS zippers on his buttonholes...

Though lightning and SS, with them merge into the image of universal evil and those flashes that appeared before the eyes like lightning grandmaster and which he extinguished despite efforts provocateur horse.

The concretization turned into a new expansion, including the “just” violence of “good over evil” in the sphere of evil. I

The further description of the execution is incomprehensible, if you do not raise the existing concept to one more level, the signal of which is the inclusion of a new symbol in the associative series - copper pipe

Mat! - G.O. cried out like a copper pipe.

In the biblical tradition horse symbolizes the flesh in its opposition to the spirit, dogs are persecutors, and the ravine in which in pre-Christian times children were sacrificed, drowning out their cries with music, was called Gehenna, later fiery Gehenna 4 . In this system of associations, the picture of the execution becomes clearer. grandmaster:

... Steps up. Why up? Such things should be done in the pit.... So, it became completely dark and it was difficult to breathe, and only somewhere very far away the orchestra played brilliantly"Khas-Bulat remote"(S. 349-350).

If a such things , which should be done in a hole - a sacrifice, then this time it was performed on a mountain, that is, on Golgotha. The theme of sacrifice was verbalized long before its implementation in the plot:

Donate rook to attack? asked G. O. “Just saving the queen,” muttered the grandmaster;

…Luminous lines and points of possible pre-match raids flashed before the grandmaster again, and victims (S. 347).

This interpretation is consistent with the episode with gold token, using the “copper-gold” correlation, where copper symbolizes carnal sacrifice, and gold symbolizes a spiritual offering, incense*. It becomes clear why in the plot there are two victories : the victory of the flesh over the spirit, which kills him, and the victory of the spirit, complete as an egg , i.e. just as fruitful. The paradoxical meaning of these words brings us back to the problem of end and infinity, already stated in the title and opening. In the plot, this correlation was expressed in the fact that G. O., although he represented the many-faced evil, nevertheless, as a character, he constantly remained within the framework of the plot and the limited space / time that was defined in the opening: in the compartment of an express train. Not once during the game is a window, landscape outside the window, any kind of lighting, etc. mentioned. Meanwhile grandmaster all the time found himself outside this chronotope: then for terrace old house, then barracks, then on pond near Moscow. Time during these movements looks like a kind of corridor in which smells that come from different eras are mixed.

... and also from early childhood I was drawn to castor oil and diarrhea.

The space grows as the story progresses.

the corridor – behind the terrace - a pond near Moscow - a forest - a sea,

then, in the execution scene, it is abstracted ( up / in the hole ) and finally collapses at the moment of execution

it became very dark and it was difficult to breathe.

Time, as it were, accumulates signs and in the episode of the execution, accommodating almost eternity from Gehenna to Golgotha ​​and the SS man in addition, is reduced to seconds, which he counts grandmaster.

As soon as the sacrifice is completed, the heroes again find themselves in a closed space / time coupe; Furthermore, grandmaster seriously sums up the life he lived during the game and has already ended:

The grandmaster looked at the empty board, at sixty-four absolutely impassive fields, able to contain not only his own life, but an infinite number of lives, and this endless alternation of dark and light fields filled him with reverence and quiet joy.

“It seems,” he thought, “I have not committed any major meanness in my life.. (S. 350).

This is how the associative-verbal and plot elaboration of a complex conceptual construction, which cannot be formulated unambiguously (and this is not what a literary text is created for), is brought together. The variety of associations creates space for thought and gives it a general direction, which, with the utmost simplification, can be expressed by a number of formulas like the following: the flesh is limited in space and time - the spirit is infinite and omnipresent; the flesh is destined for Gehenna, the spirit for Golgotha; the struggle/game of spirit and flesh, good and evil is life; it is endlessly repeatable, provided that the spirit remains spirit, which, apparently, is the victory; we are shown only one game, one variant of this endless conflict.

It is impossible not to return once again to the semantic correlation of the names of the characters. Their initial relationship is obvious; the more significant is the semantic correlation: grandmaster becomes only the one who plays this game , a satellite - only during the game.

It would be possible to continue the presentation, but outside the texture of the text shimmering with meanings, these truths turn out to be an endless simplification.

By handing a gold token to a partner, the grandmaster (Creator?) not only certifies the sacrifice as a victory. Gold, pure gold symbolizes in Christian literature both redemption and the power of spiritual gifts 7 . This gift reinforces the endless repetition of the collision:

- Without cheating? asked G.O.

“Absolutely pure gold,” said the grandmaster. – I have already ordered a lot of these tokens and will constantly replenish stocks . (p. 350)

Notes

1. Zverev A. Fourth Generation Blues // Literary Review. 1992. No. 11/
2. From 7.
3. Aksenov Vas. Rendezvous: Novels and Stories. M.: Text, 1991. S. 346. Further

I quote from this edition with page numbers in the text of the article.

4. Pointe - an unexpected plot twist, an unexpected denouement of the novel. http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/39563

1. Core-reference ... - the relationship between the components of the statement (usually

noun phrases) that designate the same extralinguistic object or

situation, that is, they have the same referent. See: E. V. Paducheva, Coreference

//lingu. encyclopedic. dictionary. M., 1990. S. 243.

1. See: Bible Encyclopedia. Publishing House of the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra, 1990.

pp. 406, 785, 664, 157.

1. There. S. 157; cf. nomination "G. O.".
2. There. S. 257.
3. There. S. 281.

Lisovitskaya L. E., 1994

Necessary Afterword

I got to the conference “Vasily Aksenov: Literary Destiny” (1993) thanks to V.P. Skobelev at the suggestion of M.N. Vezerova, who sympathized with my attempts to fit into the local scientific landscape. Linguists considered my experiments to be too text-centric and said that I thought of my interpretations for the authors, while literary critics were against (and rightly!) the analysis of A.S. Pushkin without taking into account the opinions of all previous Pushkinists.

The conference provided an opportunity to analyze the text of a recognized author, which, moreover, can refute my conjectures or confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method of analysis.

The meeting was so exciting that the first meeting with V.P. Aksenov, when I handed him my opus, I remember vaguely; he showed no enthusiasm, and I was embarrassed in front of a celebrity. We agreed to discuss the article in two days at the Philharmonic, where a meeting of writers with the city public was scheduled.

I was late, seized the moment in the bustle of the break, and a short conversation left a long trail of misunderstanding and room for interpretation. He immediately asked why I did not refer to Zholkovsky. For me, this meant, at best, an accusation of incompetence, at worst, of plagiarism, especially since my babble about the limited library fund sounded strange and unconvincing, I understood the scale of A.K. Zholkovsky, but during the years of emigration his name was forgotten. Then V.P. asked what I thought about the episode with the grandmaster's Jewishness, and I replied that I deliberately avoided this episode. My explanations (I really did not know what to do with this, because in the context of my interpretation, the episode fit into the motive of Golgotha, but, as it seemed to me, it was too specific, narrowed the topic of world evil: in Uzbekistan, where I grew up, anti-Semitism was not the most acute manifestation of xenophobia).

Thank God, I did not have time to say this, our conversation was interrupted. I did not know that on that day at the Philharmonic, Aksenov and Voinovich were met by people with anti-Semitic posters. At the next conference, I was embarrassed to return to the conversation, especially since I found only references to Zholkovsky's article in the literature, and managed to read the article itself much later. But even reading did not dispel the feeling that I was suspected of using someone else's work without exile; returning to the issue of anti-Semitism was also somehow awkward. Over time, I realized: the calm consent of V.P. with my publication, almost complete coincidence of my interpretation with the interpretation of A.K. Zholkovsky only confirms the effectiveness of my method of analysis, rather flattering for me.

As for mismatches:

- I read a later edition, where the author himself removed the quotes in the title, and retained the episode with the black uniform imposed, according to Zholkovsky, demonstrating, it seems to me, greater tolerance, a more serious and cautious attitude towards " pre-mat raids and victims"than many old "sixties" and new liberals;

- the difference in interpretations is quite within the allowable interval of the reader's perception, taking into account differences in individual experience, worldview, and also the method of analysis. The coincidence in the choice of text speaks more about the story itself, which is rather similar to a Western European short story: a crystallized semantic structure is easily detected in its linguistic fabric, and the surreal elements of the plot themselves encourage the reader to analyze, while stories often mask their deep meaning with lyrical everyday writing.

For the sake of acceptable volume and readability, only the results of my linguistic actions were shown in the article.

Aksenov's story "Victory" was written in the early sixties, at the height of the Khrushchev thaw. At this time, society slowly flourished, recovering from thirty years of cruel totalitarianism. In literature, this heyday was marked by the arrival of a new wave of writers and poets who became the "rulers of thoughts" of the younger generation. Some of them returned from the camps, others got the opportunity to print previously banned works, and still others (including Aksenov) were completely new people in literature. Inspired by the thaw, they created works that were absolutely independent of the party line and nomenklatura directives, and which brought out all the thoughts and hopes of the youth.

Aksyonov became a leader among young prose writers in the sixties. "Victory" is one of his first stories. It is quite small, but very interesting. So, in the compartment of a fast train, the young grandmaster meets a random fellow traveler. The fellow traveler, immediately recognizing the grandmaster, is instantly charged with an "inconceivable desire" to defeat him. Simply because the sight of an awkward, intelligent grandmaster evokes ridicule and contempt in him: "... you never know, just think, some kind of frail." The grandmaster easily agrees to the game, and the game begins... And then a very strange thing happens: once the game has begun, the game takes on an unexpected character. From a simple sports competition, it develops into a merciless struggle of two generations, completely alien in spirit and beliefs. On the chessboard, not just white and black pieces converged, but two lives, two views on life. Conflicting in real life as well, the rivals meet openly on the chess field, and the battle begins not to lie, but to death. The grandmaster in this battle represents the entire young generation of the sixties. He is neat, well-mannered, correct and, although timid, is ready to fight for his ideals to the last. His mysterious fellow traveler acquires frightening and almost mystical features. Its external description is almost absent; his physical appearance is unclear and foggy, only a steep pink forehead and huge fists stand out clearly, on one of which (left) is visible the tattoo "G. O." But this is also a collective staff. It contains all the worst features that are found in the uncultured part of modern society: hypocrisy, ignorance, rudeness, hatred of the "smart", contempt for the young. Without a shadow of a doubt, he asks the grandmaster: "I wonder why all chess players are Jews?.." There is something infinitely mean in this.

The clear and precise thoughts of the grandmaster are opposed by the confusion in the head and on the G.O. field. That place on the board, where the G.O. Carried away by a deep offensive, G.O. makes a number of mistakes, and now the grandmaster is close to victory, and the reader who loves justice is looking forward to this victory, when suddenly, quite unexpectedly ... the grandmaster loses. G. O. announces a checkmate, and the entire bright disposition of the grandmaster collapses, and he himself sees how he is led to execution by black people in overcoats with SS lightning bolts and how a bag is put on his head to the distant sounds of "Khas-Bulat" ... What did it happen? Is it possible that vulgarity and ignorance have emerged victorious, and are they destined to strangle all bright ideals? In no case. The injured grandmaster still feels that he is higher than his winner, that he has never committed meanness, and hands the jubilant G.O.

The main thing that expresses this story is the willingness of the younger generation to defend their views and convictions, to fight for the very right to an independent existence, no matter what force tries to crush and absorb this generation. Although the grandmaster lost the game, he is not morally defeated and is ready for future battles. The story ends with his words that he has already ordered a lot of gold tokens for his future winners and will constantly replenish stocks. The grandmaster, like his entire generation, has a whole life ahead of him. What a big, exciting party.

With a difference of two years, in 1966 and 1968, in the two main (after Novy Mir) literary magazines of that time - Youth and Banner - two stories that were not typical for that era appeared. The humorous section of Yunost published Vasily Aksenov's Victory, and the prose section of Znamya featured Yury Trifonov's Winner.

Trifonov at this time is intensively working on stories, trying to find a new literary style. He learns to say everything in subtext, but without Hemingway's boasting, without demonstrative underlining. He writes simple stories in which events are given in a reportage, chronicle and without the author's assessment. "Winner" is a story about how Soviet journalists go to the only living participant in the Second - Paris - Olympiad in 1900. A bald, 98-year-old man without a single tooth lives in a remote province. He is cared for by a woman assigned by social services who hates him for living so long. In the runners' competition, he was the last and yet calls himself the winner: “He says that he is the winner of the Olympic Games. …Now he is the winner. Everyone is dead, but he is alive. Basil, an international journalist, mutters with horror and disgust: “You don’t have to live long ... And that fellow who won four hundred meters then, seventy years ago, even if he later rotted somewhere near Verdun or on the Marne, is still he ... And this one, with his longevity as an elephant turtle…” Trifonov, for the first time in Soviet literature, refuses to draw a clear conclusion, but in the finale the narrator suddenly says: “And I think that you can be the craziest old man who forgot to die, useless, but suddenly - piercingly, to trembling - to smell this smell of burnt branches that stretches with the wind from the mountain ... "The winner was the one who lived the longest, and not the one who died most beautifully - this is a surprisingly strange, new conclusion for Trifonov, who always poeticized his father - hero, commissar of the Civil War.

Trifonov's "Winner" interestingly echoes Vasily Aksenov's "Victory". It is strange that two of the main writers of their generations wrote short stories with almost identical titles almost simultaneously. Perhaps this coincidence is due to the fact that at that time the very concept of victory needed a significant adjustment. The winner in Aksyonov's story, the grandmaster who won the match, faces a certain man, G.O., who did not notice his defeat. And even after he got a checkmate, he continues to attack the grandmaster. And he hands him a golden token, on which is written: “The giver of this won a game of chess from me. Grandmaster such and such. This, of course, is a mockery, but it is also an acknowledgment that victory in the usual, traditional sense is impossible, unthinkable.

The stories were written in 1966 and 1968, in a situation of defeat. The “thaw” suffered a defeat, the young generation of writers suffered a defeat, which failed to protect either its freedom or its future. The victory was won by various G.O., who, not noticing their own doom, continue to stubbornly rush towards the goal. Aksenov's story is much more frank, much simpler than Trifonov's story. Aksyonov did not count on any subtext - he regarded this story more as a stylistic exercise, although he still got an extremely deep thing, if you like, the Soviet analogue of Nabokov's "Luzhin's Defense".

Both of these stories are about how the true winner is not the triumphant. The true winner is the one who survives all. And it is no coincidence that Korney Chukovsky at the same time repeated more than once: "In Russia one must live long." And Aksenov himself said: "We have a chance, at least, to survive them." The fact that life, which was so easily scattered by Soviet romantics, is the highest asset, was suddenly revealed to the heroes of 1966 and 1968.