Trifonov exchange summary chapter by chapter.
The story "Exchange" by Trifonov was written and published in 1969 in the "New World". This is a story about the confrontation between two families who can not come to a compromise in their relationship. In his work, the author touches upon important social problems that remain relevant to this day.
Main characters
Victor Dmitriev- a man of 37 years old, kind, loving, but completely weak-willed.
Elena Dmitrieva (Lukyanova)- Victor's wife, persistent, ambitious, grasping woman, translator.
Xenia Fedorovna- Victor's mother, a kind, sympathetic woman, a bibliographer.
Other characters
Natasha- daughter of Victor and Elena, sixth grader.
Vera Lazarevna- Elena's mother.
Tanya- Victor's colleague, his former mistress.
When Ksenia Fedorovna, the mother of Viktor Dmitriev, felt unwell, she had to go to the hospital for examination. As a result, the woman was diagnosed with cancer, but she was told that peptic ulcer caused her illness. After the operation, Ksenia Fedorovna “felt improvement, soon began to walk”, and after a couple of months she returned home, in full confidence that she was “on the mend”.
It was at this moment that Dmitriev's wife, Lena, decided to make an exchange and move in with her mother-in-law, who lived in a spacious room. Victor started talking about the exchange much earlier, when there was no “ossified and lasting enmity” between mother and wife, but Lena always refused.
At one time, Dmitriev persistently tried to reconcile two people dear to his heart, but he did not succeed. He sincerely did not understand why "two intelligent, respected women" did not want to go for rapprochement. Even the birth of Natasha's daughter did not help the reign of peace in the family.
Lena tackled the exchange with all the determination she could muster. With some spiritual callousness, she had the strongest quality - "the ability to achieve her own." At first, Victor was indignant at his wife's tactlessness, but after that he began to justify her. After all, she tried not for herself, but for the sake of the future of the whole family, Natasha's comfortable life. In addition, there have been cases of recovery from a terrible disease, and it is quite possible that life with children and a beloved granddaughter will benefit the mother ...
Victor's relationship with his wife was not bad, but his mother-in-law brought her fly in the ointment. Living in the neighborhood, she considered it her duty to appear every day at the Dmitrievs under the pretext of helping, but in fact, in order to "shamelessly interfere in someone else's life."
At work, due to the illness of his mother, Victor had to abandon a long-planned business trip to Siberia. All his thoughts were occupied with where to get money for the upcoming exchange of housing. It would be possible to borrow from the mother-in-law, "but that already meant - to roll."
Upon learning that Victor needed money, his employee Tanya, who had been his mistress in the past, offered her help. A few years ago they were close, but after the connection broke. The young woman's marriage broke up, and Dmitriev lived as before, although he understood that Tanya "would be his best wife."
At Victor's request, Tatyana brought him to a colleague who already had exchange experience, and he gave the broker's phone number. After work, they went to Tatyana's house so that she could transfer the money. Victor feels sorry for his former mistress, who was still in love with him, while he no longer felt anything.
Victor had the warmest memories of the dacha in Pavlinovo, where his mother and sister Laura were now located. The dacha was built by my father, a railway engineer who always dreamed of giving up everything and "taking up writing humorous stories". Father "died early, did not have time to do anything." Much Dmitriev remembered his grandfather - an old revolutionary, a lawyer who lived in the country after returning from the camps.
Having got off at the right stop, Victor imagined with horror how difficult it would be for him to talk about the exchange with his mother and Laura. The sister will certainly understand who is the true initiator of the exchange, because she is "cunning, perspicacious and does not like Lena very much." Laura never understood how one could not love their mother, who all her life helped everyone in every way she could - "with shelter, advice, sympathy." Therefore, she never came to terms with the choice of her brother.
Lena's parents - the Lukyanov couple - were treated with "distrust of everyone and everyone." These were people who possessed an amazing ability to deftly arrange their affairs and adapt perfectly to any conditions of life. All the problems that seemed insurmountable to the Dmitriev family, the Lukyanovs solved quickly and easily, as if playfully.
The Dmitrievs, in turn, treated the Lukyanovs with some contempt. They considered them opportunists and philistines, devoid of any high interests. Those close to Victor believed that he had completely fallen under the influence of his wife, and therefore became a cut off chunk for them.
When Victor finally decided to enter the house, he learned that his mother was getting worse. Having learned about the Dmitrievs' plans regarding the exchange, Laura spoke out strongly against him - “at first everything will be nice, noble, and then irritation will begin”, they are too different people.
Reluctantly, Victor offered his mother the option of an exchange, but she, much to his surprise, refused. Ksenia Fedorovna admitted that she used to really want to live with her son and granddaughter, but now she doesn’t. According to her, "the exchange took place", and a very long time ago, alluding to Victor's complete submission to Elena.
Three days later, Ksenia Fedorovna called her son at work and said that she "agreed to come, she only asked to hurry up." After a long red tape, the issue of the exchange was successfully resolved, and after some time Ksenia Fedorovna died.
After the death of his mother, Victor "became a hypertensive crisis", he noticeably aged, flabby. The dachas in Pavlinovo were demolished and "the Burevestnik stadium and a hotel for athletes" were built in their place.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that the work describes everyday family history, the author managed to fully reveal the moral problems that are typical for many families: spiritual callousness, indifference to loved ones, weakness of character, greed.
A brief retelling of "Exchange" will be useful both for the reader's diary and when doing homework in literature.
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Retelling rating
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Dmitriev's mother, Ksenia Fedorovna, fell seriously ill. In connection with this, his wife started an exchange, wanting to change her mother's good 20-meter room on Profsoyuznaya and the room in which he lived with Dmitriev and daughter Natasha for a two-room apartment. Dmitriev's mother had long wanted to live with her son, but she quarreled with her daughter-in-law, so she left such an idea.
Ksenia Fedorovna Dmitrieva thought she had a peptic ulcer. She felt better and was discharged home. She lived with Dmitriev's sister Laura at a former dacha in Pavlinovo. The words of his wife irritate Dmitriev. Yes, and her whole appearance is unpleasant to him.
The Dmitriev family lives in a poor room in a communal apartment. The couple sleep on a Czech sofa, obtained on the occasion, and Natasha is behind a screen. Natasha's nanny lived in the same room for a long time, so there was no question of intimacy between the spouses. But now that the nanny is gone, Lena was counting on closeness, as if apologizing for the unpleasant conversation. Dmitriev recalls how his mother, after his decision to marry, asked if he thought well, how Lena laughed at her English pronunciation.
Sometimes Dmitriev was imbued with optimism, and it seemed to him that everything was still ahead. Then he was not annoyed either by the morning noise of his wife and mother-in-law, or by an ugly woman on the balcony of a neighboring house, or by a neighbor in a communal apartment who knocked on the bathroom door and demanded that she be released.
On this clear morning in early October, Dmitriev is alarmed by his mother's condition, but he hopes that everything will work out, because Xenia Fyodorovna is better. Lena complains that her mother is seriously ill, but Dmitriev is sure that this is just a common migraine.
When leaving for work, Lena reminds Dmitriev to take the keys to the city apartment from his mother.
Dmitriev worked at GINEGA. On this day, his business trip to the Tyumen region, planned even before his mother's illness, was decided. The director went to meet Dmitriev and sent another employee instead.
Dmitriev realized that this was a day of good luck, and began to think about who to borrow money from. This month, 60 rubles were spent on the treatment of her mother, and Laura asked for at least 50. There was no one to ask, except for her mother-in-law, but Lena experienced such requests painfully.
Suddenly Dmitriev realized that he would not be able to explain to his mother why he was coming. He called Lena, and she told her mother to tell her that this was Dmitriev's idea, and Lena was against it.
After dinner, Dmitriev went to the economists and talked with his former mistress Tanya. Dmitriev met with her 3 years ago, their relationship lasted one summer and was interrupted when his wife and daughter returned from vacation.
Tanya herself offered Dmitriev money, which they agreed to take from her at home after work. Dmitriev refused at first: Tanya set aside 200 rubles for a summer coat, but the summer was already over.
Dmitriev seeks advice from Nevyadomsky, who also changed rooms to an apartment when his mother-in-law fell ill. 3 days after the successfully completed exchange, the mother-in-law died.
Dmitriev realized that he would get to Pavlinovo to Laura and his mother too late, because Tanya lived in a very uncomfortable place - in Nagatin, so he asked for leave from the boss. He had already solved his problems more than once, hiding behind his mother's illness. Then Dmitriev went to Nevyadomsky, with whom he was on bad terms, so Nevyadomsky did not reveal his secrets and advised him to contact the exchange office.
While Dmitriev and Tatyana were driving to her house, she asked about her mother. The women liked each other. Tatyana felt sorry for Dmitriev. She lived in a new 16-story building on the edge of the field. There was a wonderful view from the window of the apartment. Dmitriev thinks he could live in this apartment.
Tatyana's son meets him unfriendly. Tatyana gave the money and treated Dmitriev to cognac and snacks, after which he left.
Dmitriev came to Pavlinovo, to a house built by his father in the Red Partizan cooperative 40 years ago. Vasily Alekseevich, his brother, invited Father Vitya Dmitriev Georgy Alekseevich to the cooperative, and the third brother, Nikolai Alekseevich, also lived there. Now there is no one left in Pavlinovo except Sister Laura. Dmitriev's father was a railway engineer, but he considered it his vocation to write humorous stories, one was even published. My father graduated from the university, and the brothers did not even graduate from the gymnasium due to the civil war. Dmitriev's mother believed that the brothers quarreled because the richer younger ones were infected with petty-bourgeois philistinism.
Laura also believed that her brother "got crazy" when he married Lena Lukyanova, that is, he began to appreciate the benefit more than the idea. But Victor sees that the whole world has "bewildered". Pavlinovo, for example, is being rebuilt, overgrown with amenities.
Dmitriev remembered how the first year after the wedding, he and Lena lived in the country. The problem of a broken cesspool was easily solved by Dmitriev's enterprising father-in-law, whom Viktor's family condemns for a left brick.
Father-in-law made repairs in the first summer. Young people lived in one room, father-in-law and mother-in-law in the other, Ksenia Fedorovna in the third.
Soon Laura accused Lena of taking the best cups, placing a bucket of water near her mother's room, and finally hanging her father's portrait in the passage room. Lena did not understand what was wrong with this, because she needed a nail for her watch. Because of this conversation, the father-in-law and mother-in-law were offended, they had to be persuaded to return to the dacha.
The grandfather is in conflict with the Lukyanovs. He does not understand how you can address a worker as "you" or give money in a store to leave the goods.
Dmitriev recalls how Lena sobbed 4 years later, at her grandfather's funeral. Dmitriev didn't go to Aunt Zhenya's funeral. At the funeral, he met with Aunt Zhenya's step-nephew Lyovka Bubrik. After the institute, Lyovka went to Bashkiria, and when he returned, Dmitriev's father-in-law knocked him out a place in GINEGA, although Dmitriev got a job at this place, succumbing to his wife's persuasion.
Dmitriev recalls how at her mother's birthday there was a grand quarrel between the Dmitrievs and Lena, after which she had not been with Ksenia Fedorovna for 5 years. Then Lena, in the heat of the argument, said that Viktor himself decided to take the place prepared for Bubrik.
True, then Lena gave Natasha to her grandmother when Lena and Viktor's trips to Bulgaria were on fire, and the mother-in-law was caring for her sick father-in-law.
All these memories run through Dmitriev's mind as he stands outside Laura's house and watches her silhouette in the kitchen window. Dmitriev feels that there is no dearer soul.
Laura and her husband Felix were sealing the windows. Mother has been sleeping since six o'clock. At half past four she became ill, pain began. Mother is alarmed: everything is the same as in May. She fell asleep after taking painkillers.
Over tea, Laura warns Victor to tell Felix that he does not agree to let Laura go on an expedition to Kunya-Urgench. There are 18 people waiting there. Dmitriev pitches the idea that it is possible to exchange apartments so that he looks after his mother, but presents the exchange as undesirable for himself.
Laura asks why they didn't build a co-op apartment for themselves. Dmitriev almost sincerely says that he personally does not need anything, except for their mother to feel good.
Felix brought a letter from Mammadov, an employee who asked if they should buy sleeping bags with their share.
Mom woke up, and Victor noted that Doctor Faustus was still lying by her bed with a bookmark on the first hundred pages. The mother shows Viktor a child's drawing and asks when it was drawn: before or after the war. Mother is cheerful, joking. She believes that Laura can leave, the mother can handle herself. Then Dmitriev offers to exchange in order to live together. Ksenia Fedorovna replies that she used to want to live with him, but not now. Ksenia Fedorovna claims that Vitya has already exchanged. It happened a long time ago and it happens all the time.
The action takes place in Moscow. The mother of the protagonist, thirty-seven-year-old engineer Viktor Dmitriev, Ksenia Fedorovna, became seriously ill, she has cancer, but she herself believes that she has a peptic ulcer. After the operation, she is sent home. The outcome is clear, but she alone believes that things are on the mend. Immediately after her discharge from the hospital, Dmitriev's wife Lena, an English translator, decides to urgently move in with her mother-in-law so as not to lose a good room on Profsoyuznaya Street. We need an exchange, she even has one option in mind.
There was a time when Dmitriev's mother really wanted to live with him and with her granddaughter Natasha, but since then their relationship with Lena became very tense and this was out of the question. Now Lena herself tells her husband about the need for an exchange. Dmitriev is indignant at such a moment to offer this to his mother, who can guess what the matter is. Nevertheless, he gradually yields to his wife: after all, she is fussing about the family, about the future of Natasha's daughter. In addition, on reflection, Dmitriev begins to reassure himself: maybe not everything is so irrevocable with his mother’s illness, which means that the fact that they will come together will only be good for her, for her well-being - after all, her dream will come true. So Lena, Dmitriev concludes, is wise as a woman, and in vain he immediately attacked her.
Now he is also aimed at the exchange, although he claims that he personally does not need anything. In the service, due to his mother's illness, he refuses to travel. He needs money, since a lot has gone to the doctor, Dmitriev is puzzling over who to borrow from. But it seems that the day is going well for him: the employee Tanya, his former lover, offers money with her usual sensitivity. A few years ago they were close, as a result, Tanya's marriage broke up, she was left alone with her son and continues to love Dmitriev, although she understands that this love is hopeless. In turn, Dmitriev thinks that Tanya would be a better wife for him than Lena. Tanya, at his request, brings Dmitriev together with a colleague with experience in exchange affairs, who does not say anything concrete, but gives the broker's phone number. After work, Dmitriev and Tanya take a taxi and go to her house for money. Tanya is happy to be alone with Dmitriev, to help him in some way. Dmitriev is sincerely sorry for her, maybe he would have stayed longer with her, but he needs to hurry to his mother's dacha, in Pavlinovo.
Dmitriev has fond childhood memories of this dacha, owned by the Krasny Partisan cooperative. The house was built by his father, a railway engineer, who dreamed all his life of leaving this job to write humorous stories. A good man, he was not lucky and died early. Dmitriev remembers him fragmentarily. He remembers better his grandfather, a lawyer, an old revolutionary who returned to Moscow after a long absence (apparently after the camps) and lived for some time in the country until they gave him a room. He did not understand anything in modern life. He also gazed with curiosity at the Lukyanovs, the parents of Dmitriev's wife, who were then also visiting Pavlinovo in the summer. Once on a walk, my grandfather, referring to the Lukyanovs, said that there was no need to despise anyone. These words, clearly addressed to Dmitriev's mother, who often showed intolerance, and to himself, were well remembered by his grandson.
The Lukyanovs differed from the Dmitrievs in their adaptability to life, the ability to deftly arrange any business, whether it was repairing a summer house or placing a granddaughter in an elite English school. They are from the breed of "knowing how to live." What seemed insurmountable to the Dmitrievs, the Lukyanovs solved quickly and simply, only by the only way they knew. It was an enviable property, but such practicality caused the Dmitrievs, especially his mother Ksenia Fedorovna, who was used to selflessly helping others, women with strong moral principles, and sister Laura, an arrogant smile. For them, the Lukyanovs are philistines who care only about personal well-being and are deprived of high interests. In their family, even the word "lukyanitsya" appeared. They are characterized by a kind of spiritual flaw, manifested in tactlessness in relation to others. So, for example, Lena hung the portrait of Dmitriev's father from the middle room to the entrance - just because she needed a nail for the wall clock. Or she took all the best cups of Laura and Xenia Fedorovna.
Dmitriev loves Lena and always defended her from the attacks of her sister and mother, but he also cursed with her because of them. He knows well the strength of Lena, “who gnawed at her desires like a bulldog. Such a pretty female bulldog with a short straw-colored haircut and always a pleasantly tanned, slightly swarthy face. She did not let go until the desires - right in her teeth - turned into flesh. At one time, she pushed Dmitriev to defend his dissertation, but he did not master it, he could not, he refused, and Lena eventually left him alone.
Dmitriev feels that his relatives are condemning him, that they consider him to be a “lukyanish”, and therefore a slice cut off. This became especially noticeable after the story with a relative and former comrade Levka Bubrik. Bubrik returned to Moscow from Bashkiria, where he settled after graduation, and remained unemployed for a long time. He looked for a place at the Institute of Oil and Gas Equipment and really wanted to get a job there. At the request of Lena, who felt sorry for Levka and his wife, her father Ivan Vasilyevich was busy with this matter. However, instead of Bubrik, Dmitriev ended up in this place, because it was better than his previous job. Everything was done again under the wise guidance of Lena, but, of course, with the consent of Dmitriev himself. There was a scandal. However, Lena, protecting her husband from his principled and highly moral relatives, took all the blame.
The conversation about the exchange, which Dmitriev, who arrived at the dacha, begins with his sister Laura, arouses amazement and sharp rejection in her, despite all Dmitriev's reasonable arguments. Laura is sure that her mother cannot be happy next to Lena, even if she tries very hard at first. They are too different people. Ksenia Fyodorovna, just on the eve of her son's arrival, was unwell, then she gets better, and Dmitriev, without delay, proceeds to a decisive conversation. Yes, says the mother, she used to want to live with him, but now she doesn't. The exchange took place, and long ago, she says, referring to Dmitriev's moral capitulation.
Overnight at the dacha, Dmitriev sees his old watercolor drawing on the wall. Once he was fond of painting, did not part with the album. But, having failed in the exam, with grief he rushed to another, the first institute he came across. After graduation, he did not look for romance, like others, he did not go anywhere, he remained in Moscow. Then Lena and her daughter were already there, and the wife said: where is he from them? He is late. His train has left.
In the morning Dmitriev leaves, leaving Laura money. Two days later, the mother calls and says that she agrees to come. When he finally gets along with the exchange, Xenia Fedorovna becomes even better. However, soon the disease worsens again. After the death of his mother, Dmitriev suffers from a hypertensive crisis. He immediately passed, turned gray, aged. And the Dmitrievskaya dacha in Pavlinovo was later demolished, like others, and the Burevestnik stadium and a hotel for athletes were built there.
Summary of Trifonov's story "Exchange"
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The action takes place in Moscow. The mother of the protagonist, thirty-seven-year-old engineer Viktor Dmitriev, Ksenia Fedorovna, became seriously ill, she has cancer, but she herself believes that she has a peptic ulcer. After the operation, she is sent home. The outcome is clear, but she alone believes that things are on the mend. Immediately after her discharge from the hospital, Dmitriev's wife Lena, an English translator, decides to urgently move in with her mother-in-law so as not to lose a good room on Profsoyuznaya Street. We need an exchange, she even has one option in mind.
There was a time when Dmitriev's mother really wanted to live with him and with her granddaughter Natasha, but since then their relationship with Lena has become very tense and this was out of the question. Now Lena herself tells her husband about the need for an exchange. Dmitriev is indignant - at such a moment to offer this to his mother, who can guess what's wrong. Nevertheless, he gradually yields to his wife: after all, she is fussing about the family, about the future of Natasha's daughter. In addition, on reflection, Dmitriev begins to reassure himself: maybe not everything is so irrevocable with his mother’s illness, which means that the fact that they will come together will only be good for her, for her well-being - after all, her dream will come true. So Lena, Dmitriev concludes, is wise as a woman, and in vain he immediately attacked her.
Now he is also aimed at the exchange, although he claims that he personally does not need anything. In the service, due to his mother's illness, he refuses to travel. He needs money, since a lot has gone to the doctor, Dmitriev is puzzling over who to borrow from. But it seems that the day is going well for him: the employee Tanya, his former lover, offers money with her usual sensitivity. A few years ago they were close, as a result, Tanya's marriage broke up, she was left alone with her son and continues to love Dmitriev, although she understands that this love is hopeless. In turn, Dmitriev thinks that Tanya would be a better wife for him than Lena. Tanya, at his request, brings Dmitriev together with a colleague with experience in exchange affairs, who does not say anything specific, but gives the broker's phone number. After work, Dmitriev and Tanya take a taxi and go to her house for money. Tanya is happy to be alone with Dmitriev, to help him in some way. Dmitriev is sincerely sorry for her, maybe he would have stayed with her longer, but he needs to hurry to his mother's dacha, in Pavlinovo.
With this dacha, owned by the Red Partizan cooperative, Dmitriev has warm childhood memories. The house was built by his father, a railway engineer, who dreamed all his life of leaving this job to write humorous stories. A good man, he was not lucky and died early. Dmitriev remembers him fragmentarily. He remembers better his grandfather, a lawyer, an old revolutionary who returned to Moscow after a long absence (apparently after the camps) and lived for some time in the country until they gave him a room. He did not understand anything in modern life. He also gazed with curiosity at the Lukyanovs, the parents of Dmitriev's wife, who were then also visiting Pavlinovo in the summer. Once on a walk, my grandfather, referring to the Lukyanovs, said that there was no need to despise anyone. These words, clearly addressed to Dmitriev's mother, who often showed intolerance, and to himself, were well remembered by his grandson.
The Lukyanovs differed from the Dmitrievs in their adaptability to life, the ability to deftly arrange any business, whether it was repairing a summer house or placing a granddaughter in an elite English school. They are from the breed of "knowing how to live." What seemed insurmountable to the Dmitrievs, the Lukyanovs solved quickly and simply, only by the only way they knew. This was an enviable property, but such practicality caused the Dmitrievs, especially his mother Ksenia Fedorovna, who was used to selflessly helping others, women with strong moral principles, and sister Laura, an arrogant smile. For them, the Lukyanovs are philistines who care only about personal well-being and are devoid of high interests. In their family, even the word "lukyanitsya" appeared. They are characterized by a kind of spiritual flaw, manifested in tactlessness in relation to others. So, for example, Lena hung the portrait of Father Dmitriev from the middle room to the entrance - only because she needed a nail for the wall clock. Or she took all the best cups of Laura and Xenia Fedorovna.
Dmitriev loves Lena and always defended her from the attacks of her sister and mother, but he also cursed with her because of them. He knows well the strength of Lena, “who gnawed at her desires like a bulldog. Such a pretty female bulldog with a short straw-colored haircut and always a pleasantly tanned, slightly swarthy face. She did not let go until the desires - right in her teeth - did not turn into flesh. At one time, she pushed Dmitriev to defend his dissertation, but he did not master it, he could not, he refused, and Lena eventually left him alone.
Dmitriev feels that his relatives are condemning him, that they consider him to have been “disgusted”, and therefore cut off by a slice. This became especially noticeable after the story with a relative and former comrade Lyovka Bubrik. Bubrik returned to Moscow from Bashkiria, where he settled after graduation, and remained unemployed for a long time. He looked for a place at the Institute of Oil and Gas Equipment and really wanted to get a job there. At the request of Lena, who felt sorry for Lyovka and his wife, her father Ivan Vasilyevich was busy with this case. However, instead of Bubrik, Dmitriev ended up in this place, because it was better than his previous job. Everything was done again under the wise guidance of Lena, but, of course, with the consent of Dmitriev himself. There was a scandal. However, Lena, protecting her husband from his principled and highly moral relatives, took all the blame.
The conversation about the exchange, which Dmitriev, who arrived at the dacha, begins with his sister Laura, arouses amazement and sharp rejection in her, despite all Dmitriev's reasonable arguments. Laura is sure that her mother cannot be happy next to Lena, even if she tries very hard at first. They are too different people. Ksenia Fyodorovna, just on the eve of her son's arrival, was unwell, then she gets better, and Dmitriev, without delay, proceeds to a decisive conversation. Yes, says the mother, she used to want to live with him, but now she doesn't. The exchange took place, and long ago, she says, referring to Dmitriev's moral surrender.
Overnight at the dacha, Dmitriev sees his old watercolor drawing on the wall. Once he was fond of painting, did not part with the album. But, having failed in the exam, with grief he rushed to another, the first institute he came across. After graduation, he did not look for romance, like others, he did not go anywhere, he remained in Moscow. Then Lena and her daughter were already there, and the wife said: where is he from them? He is late. His train has left.
In the morning Dmitriev leaves, leaving Laura money. Two days later, the mother calls and says that she agrees to come. When he finally gets along with the exchange, Xenia Fedorovna becomes even better. However, soon the disease worsens again. After the death of his mother, Dmitriev suffers from a hypertensive crisis. He immediately passed, turned gray, aged. And the Dmitrievskaya dacha in Pavlinovo was later demolished, like others, and the Burevestnik stadium and a hotel for athletes were built there.
retold
operations sent her home. The outcome is clear, but she alone believes that deld is on the mend. Immediately after her discharge from the hospital, Dmitriev's wife Lena, an English translator, decides to urgently move in with her mother-in-law so as not to lose a good room on Profsoyuznaya Street. We need an exchange, there is even one option in mind.
Tells her husband about the need for an exchange. Dmitriev is indignant: at such a moment to offer this to his mother, who can guess what's the matter! Nevertheless, he gradually yields to his wife: after all, she is fussing about the family, about the future of Natasha's daughter. In addition, on reflection, Dmitriev begins to reassure himself: maybe not everything is so irrevocable with his mother’s illness, which means that the fact that they will come together will only be a boon for her, for her well-being - after all, her dream will come true. So Lena, Dmitriev concludes, is wise as a woman and in vain he immediately attacked her.
Puzzling over who to borrow. But it seems that the day is going well for him: the employee Tanya, his former lover, offers money with her usual sensitivity. A few years ago they were close, as a result, Tanya's marriage broke up, she was left alone with her son and continues to love Dmitriev, although she understands that this love is hopeless. In turn, Dmitriev thinks that Tanya would be a better wife for him than Lena. Tanya, at his request, brings Dmitriev together with a colleague with experience in exchange affairs, who does not say anything concrete, but gives the broker's phone number. After work, Dmitriev and Tanya take a taxi and go to her house for money. Tanya is happy to be alone with Dmitriev, to help him in some way. Dmitriev is sincerely sorry for her; perhaps he would have stayed longer with her, but he needed to hurry to his mother's dacha, in Pavlinovo.
Dmitriev has fond childhood memories of this dacha, owned by the Krasny Partisan cooperative. The house was built by his father, a railway engineer, who dreamed all his life of leaving his job to write humorous stories. A good man, he was not lucky and died early. Dmitriev remembers him fragmentarily. He remembers better his grandfather, a lawyer, an old revolutionary who returned to Moscow after a long absence (apparently after the camps) and lived for some time in the country until they gave him a room. He did not understand anything in modern life. He also gazed with curiosity at the Lukyanovs, the parents of Dmitriev's wife, who were then also visiting Pavlinovo in the summer. Once on a walk, my grandfather, referring to the Lukyanovs, said that there was no need to despise anyone. These words, clearly addressed to Dmitriev's mother, who often showed intolerance, and to himself, were well remembered by his grandson.
The Lukyanovs differed from the Dmitrievs in their adaptability to life, the ability to deftly arrange any business, whether it was repairing a summer house or placing a granddaughter in an elite English school. They are from the breed of "knowing how to live." What seemed insurmountable to the Dmitrievs, the Lukyanovs solved quickly and simply, only by the only way they knew. This was an enviable property, but such practicality caused the Dmitrievs, especially Ksenia Fedorovna, who was used to selflessly helping others, women with strong moral principles, and Victor Laura's sister, an arrogant smile. For them, the Lukyanovs are philistines who care only about personal well-being and are deprived of high interests. The family even had the word "to lukyanitsya". They are characterized by a kind of spiritual flaw, manifested in tactlessness in relation to others. So, for example, Lena hung the portrait of Father Dmitriev from the middle room to the entrance just because she needed a nail for the wall clock. She took all the best cups of Laura and Xenia Fedorovna. Dmitriev loves Lena and always defended her from the attacks of her sister and mother, but he also quarreled with her because of them.
To Moscow from Bashkiria, where he was distributed after the institute, and for a long time remained without work. He looked for a place at the Institute of Oil and Gas Equipment and really wanted to get a job there. At the request of Lena, who felt sorry for Levka and his wife, her father Ivan Vasilyevich was busy with this matter. However, instead of Bubrik, Dmitriev ended up in this place, because it was better than his previous job. Everything was done again under the wise guidance of Lena, but, of course, with the consent of Dmitriev himself. There was a scandal. However, Lena, protecting her husband from his principled and highly moral relatives, took all the blame.
Next to Lena, even if she tries hard at first. They are too different people. Ksenia Fedorovna, just on the eve of her son's arrival, was ill, then she gets better, and Dmitriev, without delay, starts a decisive conversation. Yes, the mother agrees, she used to want to live with him, but now she doesn't. The exchange took place, and long ago, she says, referring to Dmitriev's moral capitulation.
Overnight at the dacha, Dmitriev sees his old watercolor drawing on the wall. Once he was fond of painting, did not part with the album. But, having failed in the exam, with grief he rushed to another, the first institute he came across. After graduation, he did not look for romance, like others, he did not go anywhere, he remained in Moscow. Then Lena and her daughter were already there, and the wife said: where is he from them? He is late. His train has left.
In the morning Dmitriev leaves, leaving Laura money. Two days later, the mother calls and says that she agrees to come. When he finally gets along with the exchange, Xenia Fedorovna becomes even better. However, soon the disease worsens again. After the death of his mother, Dmitriev suffers from a hypertensive crisis. He immediately passed, turned gray, aged. And the Dmitrievskaya dacha in Pavlinovo was later demolished, like others, and the Burevestnik stadium and a hotel for athletes were built there.
Dmitriev Viktor Georgievich - the main character of the story, a thirty-seven-year-old employee of the research institute, a hereditary Muscovite and an intellectual. His mother fell mortally ill, and his wife, who openly did not love her mother-in-law before, suddenly suggested that her husband urgently exchange their apartments for one large one and settle with her mother, that is, use her imminent death to increase their living space. Offended by his wife’s spiritual deafness, D. nevertheless begins to act - he consults with experienced people, dutifully endures the squeamish attitude towards himself of those around him, and most importantly, he goes to his sick mother for negotiations, realizing that this is finishing off his mother - she still does not know everything about his illness and hope for a recovery.
Active life is over - he is "led" by his wife. In his youth, he dreamed of becoming an artist and had reason to do so, but after failing the entrance exams to the art institute, he went to the technical institute in desperation. After graduating from the institute, he could go on an interesting job distribution - D. “offered various tempting odysseys,” but by this time a daughter had already been born and it was necessary to take care of the family. "It's too late," his wife told him, and D. inwardly agrees with her. Works in research institute connected with geology. Attempts to write (under the joint pressure of mother and wife) a dissertation ended in failure - there was not enough efficiency and ambition. But D., with the help of his wife, occupies a very profitable position in the research institute, intended for his friend.
To reconcile the wife with the mother remain ineffectual. Nevertheless, the definition of D. as a "traitor", belonging to D.'s sister, looks uncontroversial, superficial. D. well feels in his relatives the degeneration of the intelligentsia code of conduct into rhetoric moving away from real life, the transformation of intelligence into a kind of caste consciousness, in which his family is defined as "petty-bourgeois".
D. perceives the discord between his wife and his relatives as a confrontation between realists and idealists. D. loves his wife, acutely feeling in her the charm and power of real life. Realizing the moral costs in life attitudes, D. justifies it: who is to blame for the fact that life is the way it is, and not the way we would like to see it. D. does not resist his inner rapprochement with his wife and her family: “It is not so bad to intermarry with people of a strange breed. Inject fresh blood. Take advantage of someone else's skill. Those who do not know how to live with a long joint life-being begin to burden each other a little -: just this noble inability of theirs, which they are proud of. The "ability to live" of his wife and her relatives delights and frightens him. Having renounced the intellectual caste consciousness, D. nevertheless feels helpless in his relations with life; he is mentally flabby, indecisive, more and more becoming a consumer of his wife's ability to live. He is the same in his relationship with Tanya, who was his mistress for a short time and continues to love him. D. comes up with the idea that Tanya would be the best wife for him, but D. is not able to take a decisive step. There is some consumerism in his relationship with Tanya - he uses her sympathy, sincere understanding, help, but he himself is not able to give her anything. Yes, it doesn't really bother him.
At the end of the story, after the death of his mother and the “successful” completion of the hassle with the exchange, D. “somehow immediately gave up, turned gray. Not yet an old man, but already elderly, with limp cheeks uncle.
Of these, those who were engaged in revolutionary affairs in their youth, sat in a fortress, exiled, fled abroad, worked in Switzerland, in Belgium, knew Vera Zasulich, and completely counted once or twice. D. was “small, shrunken, with bluish-copper tanned skin on his face, with clumsy, disfigured hard work, stiff hands, he always dressed neatly, wore shirts with a tie ...”. (The text says" that by the mid-fifties "Dmitriev had not seen his grandfather for many years", that he "recently returned to Moscow, was very sick and needed rest" - from these details, an experienced reader of the early seventies calculates that the grandfather went through camps.) He believes that “there is nothing more stupid than to look for ideals in the past. With interest, he only looks ahead, but, unfortunately, he will see little. He lives one summer at the Dmitrievs' dacha, observes the beginning of the married life of Dmitriev and Lena, the first disputes between the family clans of the Lukyanovs and Dmitrievs, without clearly supporting either side. D. is the first to point out to Dmitriev the nobility, the tactlessness of his wife and mother-in-law, mockingly perceives their "ability to live." And at the same time, in a dispute with Ksenia Fedorovna, he is categorical in denying the right of an intelligent person to contempt. The only member of the Dmitriev family whom Lena treated with respect.
Dmitrieva Ksenia Fedorovna - Dmitriev's mother, works as "senior bibliographer of one large academic library." Kind, disinterested, delicate, trying to follow the old intellectual norms of behavior in everything. “... Mother is constantly surrounded by people in whose fate she takes part. Some elderly half-familiar people live in her room for a long time ... casual friends from rest homes who want to get to Moscow doctors, or provincial girls and boys, children of distant relatives who have come to enter institutes. The mother tries to help everyone completely disinterestedly ... Perhaps, more precisely, she loves to help in such a way that, God forbid, no self-interest comes out. But this was the self-interest: doing good deeds, all the time to be aware of yourself as a good person. From the very first meeting with Lena, he feels in her a stranger to himself and helplessly warns his son. In further relationships with Lena, as a rule, he is inferior to her. But it can also be “granite” when issues of morality are discussed in the family. Hearing from his father the phrase that it is stupid to despise anyone, he objects: “If we give up contempt, we will deprive ourselves of the last weapon.” In the story, she owns the wording of what happened to her son in family life: “You have already exchanged, Vitya. The exchange took place ... ”(that is,“ he went crazy ”- in the terminology of Dmitriev’s sister). Having fallen ill, at first she does not realize the seriousness of what is happening, she hopes for a recovery, but after talking with her son, who offered her to come, she quickly understands what is the matter and agrees.
Special textbook on translation. Her main feature is the ability to achieve her own: “she bit into her desires like a bulldog. Such a pretty female bulldog with a short straw-colored haircut and always a pleasantly tanned, slightly swarthy face. She did not let go until the desires - right in her teeth - turned into flesh. Great property! Beautiful, amazing, decisive for life. Property of real men. Decisive, proactive, has a strong character, easily finds a common language with different people, especially with the right ones. The story emphasizes her purely feminine attraction for Dmitriev, her heightened taste for life. She takes care of her family, her husband, understanding his good in her own way. Sometimes he catches and embodies those desires of Dmitriev, which he himself does not know about. The reverse side of these qualities is moral promiscuity in means. Can be tactless and arrogant. Her husband accuses her of "underdevelopment of feelings", the presence of "subhuman". Arranging, at the request of Dmitriev's relatives, his friend Levka Bubrik for an interesting and profitable job, L. at the last moment decides that this position is more suitable for her husband, and arranges Dmitriev for this place. At the same time, the indignation of Dmitriev’s relatives and friends takes over: “I’m to blame, I’m the only one, don’t blame Vitka!” Perceptive, well sees the funny and ridiculous features of others. In a clash with the Dmitriev family, who frankly do not like her, she defends herself with the concept of "prudence", mocks the swindle and rhetoric of their code of conduct, acutely feeling her superiority over Dmitriev's sister and mother in the ability to live a real life. He feels hurt by the contemptuous attitude of his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Justifies his actions by the fact that he is trying for the good of the family and almost sacrifices himself. Everyone condemns her, although the husband fully enjoys the fruits of achievements.
Laura (Dmitrieva Lora Georgievna) - Dmitriev's sister. An archaeologist by profession. For months he will disappear with her husband Felix on expeditions. "Black hair with gray hair ... tanned forehead - the annual five months in Central Asia made her almost Uzbek." Not too happy in her personal life, she says about her husband, with whom she had a sluggish, joyless romance for years, that he is extremely tactless. The most categorical guardian of the "intelligent" traditions of the Dmitriev family. Lena's main enemy in their family. “Laura never learned to look a little deeper than what is on the surface. Her thoughts never bend ... How can one not understand that people are not loved not for their vices, but they are not loved for their virtues. Calls Dmitriev a traitor. At his grandfather's funeral, by asking if he will go to the wake, he makes it clear to his brother that the family considers him a stranger.
Lukyanov Ivan Vasilievich, like his wife, was from the breed of "able to live." “His main strength was connections, long-term acquaintances… he once started with the owner in the city of Kirsanov, but since 1926… when he was nominated for the director of the factory… he moved along the administrative line. When Dmitriev met him, Ivan Vasilievich was already very old, overweight, suffered from shortness of breath, had a heart attack, all sorts of hardships and storms such as dismissal, party penalties, reinstatement, appointments with promotions, slander and slander from various bastards who strove to destroy him, but, as he himself admitted, "in relation to these moments, he was saved by only one thing: he was on the alert." The habit of constant mistrust and vigilant vigilance rubbed into his nature so much that Ivan Vasilyevich showed it everywhere. The images of the Lukyanovs are given in the story in a somewhat caricatured way.
Lukyanova Vera Lazarevna, Dmitriev's mother-in-law, came to them almost daily under the pretext of helping, "but in fact with the sole purpose of shamelessly interfering in someone else's life." Mentally undeveloped, vindictive, suspicious. Pretentious in manners, morbidly proud, claims to belong to the new elite. He proudly remembers his uncle, the owner of leather workshops. The son-in-law, and at the same time all his relatives, despises for worthlessness.
Than Lena. Smart, mentally sensitive, tactful, able to forgive a lot and sympathize. She divorced her husband after an affair with Dmitriev, having no hope of marrying him. The only person from whom Dmitriev can accept help without feeling humiliated. But, taking advantage of T.'s kindness, sensitivity, Dmitriev feels only gratitude for her, nothing more. “She is thirty-four, still a young woman, but over the past year she has passed very well ... She has lost a lot of weight, her thin neck sticks out of her collar, on her thin face from a millet, freckled pallor, only eyes - kind - shine in constant fright. “Not long ago, a year ago, there was something in her tall figure that worried Dmitriev ... But now there was nothing left ... Now she was just a tall, thin, very long-legged woman with a bunch of henna-dyed hair on a thin neck.”