Summary of “Borodino” Lermontov
“Borodino” – a work dedicated to the historical events of the war of 1812. In this poem, the story of the war is entrusted to the old soldier. Lermontov was able to show the people’s view of the war. And his lyrical hero – a soldier – speaks with a common language, with characteristic proverbs and sayings. The lyric narrative begins with a question to the old soldier:
“Tell me, uncle, it’s not for nothing that Moscow, burnt by fire,
After all, there were fighting fights,
Yes, they say, even what!
No wonder the whole of Russia remembers the day of Borodin!
The old soldier compares the old time with the present, the people of his generation and the young people:
– Yes, there were people in our time,
Not that the present tribe:
Bogatyri – not you!
He says that they had an unenviable fate, as many expected death on the battlefield.
But they fought for the freedom
And then we found a large field:
There is a clear out where in the wild!
It becomes clear that the narrator is in the past an artilleryman (“I scored a charge in a gun tight”). He believes that there is no need to be cunning, to gain something – one must fight for one’s land:
What’s there to cunning, perhaps to battle;
We will go to break the wall,
We’ll stand our head for our homeland!
Further details of the battle are transmitted: for two days there was a shootout, which did not make any changes (“What’s the use of such a trifle?”), Everyone was expecting the third day, which promised to be decisive. They began to hear the talk: “It’s time to get to the canister!” But then night fell, and the hero lay down to take a nap at the carriage. All night long it was heard “how
But everything changed, it was just dawn: “everything began to stir noisily”, the soldiers were being built. Here the narrator speaks of his commander, who died in battle: “Our colonel was born with a grip: / Servant to the king, father to the soldiers…” The colonel made a speech in front of the soldiers, urging them to fight.
And he said, with his eyes sparkling:
“Guys, is not Moscow for us?
Die down near Moscow,
How our brothers died! “
The author conveys the tension of the battle, says that they are fighting redoubts with a huge number of opponents: before them “visited and flashed” and “lancers with motley badges,” and “dragoons with horse tails.” The tension of the battle is conveyed by the selection of a special vocabulary:
You do not see such battles!
Banners fluttered like shadows,
In the smoke, the fire shone,
It sounded like a bulat, sarc bittered,
The hand of the fighters is tired,
And the cores of bloody bodies prevented the cores from flying.
He is proud of the courage shown by the Russian soldiers in the battle of Borodino:
The enemy had learned a lot that day,
What does Russian battle mean,
Our hand-to-hand fight.
On the battlefield, a complete mess was created:
The earth shook – like our breasts; Mixed in a bunch of horses, people,
And the volleys of a thousand guns Merged in a long howl…
But even after such a battle, the soldiers felt ready for a new battle the next day, “to the end to stand.” The old soldier describes the victory as follows:
Here the drums crackled –
And the basurmans retreated.
Then we began to count,
The soldiers finish the story, repeating the words that “there were people in our time”, that few of them returned home alive and that if they had not “God’s will”, they would not have given Moscow to the enemy. The soldier, the leading narrator, is not alone, he only speaks in the name of all. At the same time, he constantly emphasizes the commonness of patriotic goals:
And we promised to die,
And we have kept the oath of loyalty in the battle of Borodino…
The poet constantly emphasizes the general attitude to the war, as a serious military duty. This is perhaps the main idea of the poem – the community of people in the face of the enemy.
The old soldier often repeats: “Yes, there were people in our time, not that the present tribe…”. In these words – a complaint about the present generation, envy of the great past, full of glory and valor. Lermontov himself believed that this poem is not a shame to show Pushkin.
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