The very first letter of the hero, permeated with the motives of heavenly bliss, introduces a semantic layer of paramount importance for the whole work: “I even dreamed quite pleasantly today, and all my dreams were about you, Varenka. I compared you with a bird from heaven, for the joy of people and for I immediately thought, Varenka, that we, people living in care and anxiety, should also envy the carefree and innocent happiness of heavenly birds ... that is, I made all such distant comparisons. I have one book there , Varenka, it’s the same in it, everything the same is described in great detail" Makar Devushkin’s “Remote Comparisons” have a semantic support, of course, in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I say to you: do not worry about what you eat and what drink, nor for your body, what to put on. Is not the soul greater than food, and the body than clothes? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and our Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than them?" . Devushkin's concern for food, drink, and clothing, as a concern for the soul, makes it impossible for him to fulfill the commandment of the Sermon on the Mount.
Another “remote” comparison of the hero is also noteworthy - the painful sensation of someone else’s gaze (“what will people say?”, “You walk in an overcoat for people”) with girlish shame: “... a poor man looks at the light of God differently , and he looks askance at every passer-by, but looks around him with an embarrassed look, and listens to every word, - they say, is there something they say about him ... Yes, if you forgive me, Varenka, a rude word, then I’ll tell you I’ll say that a poor person has the same shame on this score as you, to put it as an example, girlish. After all, in front of everyone - forgive my rude word - you won’t undress, that’s exactly how a poor person ... " (1; 69). Shame, as the predominant property of Devushkin's worldview (in this respect, the sound of the hero's name is very eloquent) manifests the consciousness of his own nakedness (meaning, of course, his state of mind), which is open to the gaze of another - alien - enemy, established in him. The feeling is reinforced by his perception of the cold, dirty, uncomfortable - "student" Petersburg world.
The origins of the shame that haunts the hero of Dostoevsky go back to the event of biblical history, when the first people after the fall "opened their eyes" and saw their nakedness. As a result of the desire to hide it, clothing arises - "leather robes". "Leather robes" is the main concern that owns the soul of Makar Devushkin, who has forgotten the heavenly bliss that his first letter breathes. In his opinion, this concern is characteristic of a person in general, regardless of his social and property status. "We all ... come out a little shoemakers," writes Makar Alekseevich Varenka, summarizing his life experience. Of course, clothes here do not mean overcoats and boots as such, but the metaphysical "clothing" of the soul, "clothing" the soul of the feat of life. “That is why we sigh, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling; if only we would not be naked even when clothed,” the Apostle Paul points out the need of the soul in “clothes.” “For we, being in this hut, sigh under a burden, because we do not we want to be put off, but put on, so that mortals may be swallowed up with life. For this very thing God created us... for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, that each one may receive according to what he has done..." (2 Corinthians 5, 2-10.
This is one of the most important images of the Gospel, the content of which permeates the entire chronological liturgical and ascetic practice. In the gospel parable, likening the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding feast, this image appears as a "wedding garment". "... The king, having entered to look at those reclining, saw a man there dressed not in wedding clothes, and said to him: friend! How did you enter here not in wedding clothes? He was silent. Then the king said to the servants: having tied his hands and feet, take him and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:2-14). The meaning inherent in the image of the "wedding garment" is revealed in the apostolic words: "all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). "I have been crucified with Christ," says the Apostle Paul, "and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:19-20).
The hero of "Poor People", feeling this spiritual need in himself, tries to create for himself "robes of leather", and first of all he "dresses" the word, "forming a syllable". The features of Makar Devushkin's "syllable" are clearly visible from his first letter. Telling Varenka about his new apartment, he writes: “I live in the kitchen, or it would be much more correct to say this: here, near the kitchen, there is one room (and we, you need to notice, the kitchen is clean, bright, very good), the room is small, the corner is so modest ... that is, or even better to say, the kitchen is large with three windows, so I have a partition along the transverse wall, so it looks like another room comes out, a supernumerary number ... Well, don’t think, mother, that there’s something here some other and mysterious meaning, what was it like, what, they say, is a kitchen! - that is, I, perhaps, live in this very room behind a partition, but that’s nothing; I’m apart from everyone, I live a little, I live quietly "(1 ; fourteen).
Having directly named the subject of the description, Devushkin seemed to be frightened by its frank ugliness, recoiled and, as if circling around him, slowly approaches again, looking for a more veiled verbal shell for him. In this way, the hero tries to transform his being - first of all, naturally, in the eyes of another. In Makar Alekseevich, such attempts are associated with the intention to "go out into the world", accompanied by "literary hobbies". These hobbies reveal all the importance for Devushkin's life in the word, when Dostoevsky makes him read Pushkin's "The Stationmaster" and Gogol's "The Overcoat" in turn. The "little" person, thus, from the hero of famous works turns into their reader and judge.
The epigraph to "Poor People", taken from V. F. Odoevsky's story "The Living Dead", contains a slyly ironic lamentation about "storytellers" who, with their writings, "pull out all the ins and outs in the earth." Devushkin discovers this "inside story" both in "The Stationmaster" and in "The Overcoat". But if the first work evokes in him enthusiastic tenderness, then the second - hardens, leads to indignation and pushes him to "rebellion" and "brawl". “In my life it has never happened to me to read such glorious books,” the hero writes about Pushkin’s story. “You read it, as if he himself wrote it, as if, roughly speaking, my own heart, whatever it is already there, took it, turned it out to people inside out, and described everything in detail - that's how! .. No, it's natural! .. It lives "(1; 59). He calls Gogol's "book" "malicious", complaining about the "libel" that offended him precisely because they "sneaked" into his "kennel" and "peeped": "Sometimes you hide, you hide, you hide in what you didn't take, sometimes you are afraid to show your nose - no matter where it is, because you tremble with gossip, because out of everything that is in the world, out of everything, a libel will work for you, and now your whole civil and family life goes through literature, everything is printed, read ", ridiculed, re-judged! Yes, here it will be impossible to appear on the street; after all, everything is so proven here that you will now recognize our brother by one gait" (1; 64). Devushkin, moving from Pushkin's world to Gogol's, felt himself, like Adam and Eve, who tasted the forbidden fruit, "hiding and hiding" (Bocharov S. G. Cold, shame and freedom (History of literature sub speice of Sacred History) // Questions of Literature, 1995. Issue V. P. 141).
The offended hero pronounces a sentence on the "malicious book": "... this is simply implausible, because it cannot happen that there is such an official. Why, after such a thing, one must complain, Varenka, formally complain" (1; 65). In Pushkin's world, the nakedness of the heart, "turned inside out," is not ashamed, but, on the contrary, causes tenderness, because it is covered with merciful sympathy, creating the impression, "as if he wrote it himself." In Gogol's "The Overcoat" there is a cold-cold look of an "alien", a peeping look - and this is not true (later Dostoevsky would say: "There is no truth in realism alone", meaning "photographic" realism - 24; 248).
Skillfully creating in his work the mutual projection of three "kindred" plots, Dostoevsky expanded the framework of Gogol's theme of a poor official, connecting it with the theme of "paternal care". Moreover, he built the latter into the same semantic series in which the motive of Makar Devushkin's "life in the word" unfolded.
Just as the hero of The Stationmaster, who passionately loves his daughter, tries to save her from the seducer who kidnapped her, the hero of Poor People, passionately attached to the orphan Varenka, seeks to protect her from offenders - the officer, the landowner Bykov, by all sorts of "good deeds", Anna Fedorovna. Moreover, Dostoevsky's novel was also transferred to the orientation of Pushkin's plot to gospel parable about the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). In Devushkin's mind, the impression of the "Station Master" he read merges with the reaction to Varenka's intention to go to "strangers" (i.e., "to a country far away"): "... It's a common thing, mother, and over you and it can happen to me ... that's it, mother, and you still want to leave us here, but sin, Varenka, can overtake me. And you can ruin yourself and me, my dear "(1; 59).
The “benefits” with which Devushkin showers Varenka (from “a pound of sweets” and “balsaminchik” to the theater) are explained by an internal attitude that manifests itself in his words: “... I take the place of your own father” (1; 19). These words reveal the underlying motives of his actions in his relationship with his "relative" orphan, inextricably linked with the "literary" and "secular" aspirations of the hero, with "tea" and "boots" "for people." Already in his first novel, Dostoevsky outlined a deeply developed by him in later work the situation of a person who wants to stand in the eyes of another in the place of God. (See about this: Vetlovskaya V.E. Roman by F.M. Dostoevsky "Poor people". L., 1988. P. 154). Hiding one's own "nudity" from the painfully felt alien gaze becomes a prerequisite for Devushkin to assimilate for himself "fatherly" functions in relation to Varenka, and through them - "divine" ones. (The same underlying reason is visible in Devushkin's behavior with Gorshkov.)
From the "beneficial" Varenka is required to leave the "whim" and by his obedience "to make the old man happy." The heroine, as it were, deigns to this inner attitude of the "benefactor": "I can appreciate in my heart everything that you have done for me, protecting me from evil people, from their persecution and hatred" (1; 21). She "covers" his extreme need for an object of "good deeds", which is revealed with all its acuteness at the moment of separation, when Devushkin has to invent naive and helpless pretexts to keep her. In general, all Devushkin's "good deeds" are carried out at the expense of the salary taken in advance, the increase in debts, that is, the very "squandering" that is spoken of in the gospel parable. Paradoxically, the hero, wishing to establish himself in "paternal" functions, finds himself in the place of the prodigal son. Even the disclosure of the secret of his correspondence with Varenka bears an echo of the gospel "living dissolutely" (the motif of the old man's love for a young girl already indicated in "Poor Folks" is stable throughout Dostoevsky's work right up to his last novel).
Devushkin's "good deeds" end in "revolt" and "debauchery". He is Dostoevsky's first "rebel"; his deaf and frightened free-thinking (why such injustice: some are rich and happy, others are poor and unhappy) will later be loudly picked up by Raskolnikov and Ivan Karamazov. After the "brawl" Varenka sends Makar Alekseevich "fifty dollars". The heroine voluntarily bears the "burdens" of her "benefactor" (cf. the Apostle Paul: "Bear each other's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ" - Gal. 6, 2). Quiet meekness combined with inner strength and determination are indispensable features of her portrait, characteristic of a number of female images of Dostoevsky. They are revealed in particular detail in "The Little Hero" in the description of the appearance of m-me M *: "Near her, everyone felt somehow better, somehow freer, somehow warmer ... There are women who are like sisters of mercy in life. Before them, you can not hide anything, at least nothing that is sick and wounded in the soul.He who suffers, boldly and hopefully go to them and do not be afraid to be a burden to them, because rare of us knows how infinitely it can be. patient love, compassion and forgiveness in another female heart.Whole treasures of sympathy, consolation, hope are stored in these pure hearts, so often also wounded, because a heart that loves a lot, sad a lot ... Neither the depth of the wound, nor its pus, nor its stench will frighten them: whoever approaches them is already worthy of them; Yes, they, however, seem to be born for a feat ... "(2; 273).
Giving similar female images With such properties, Dostoevsky brings them closer to the gospel sinner, exalted by Christ over the Pharisee because she "loved much" (Luke 7:36-48). At the same time, these "sisters of mercy" become "myrrh-bearing women" in their courageous service to "dreamers" and "wanderers". This combination creates typological features, which can be called "magdalenian". Their palette in the post-convict works of the writer is extremely diverse. (Mary Magdalene, along with others, stood at the Cross at suffering on the cross Christ, was present at His burial and was the first to whom Christ appeared after His resurrection.)
The hero, clearly feeling the collapse of his attempts at an imaginary transformation, is aware of the intersection with the life of the "insulted and sad" heroine as a fateful milestone. “I know what I owe you, my dear, I owe!” Makar Devushkin admits to Varenka. “Having recognized you, I began, firstly, to know myself better and began to love you; alone, and as if he were sleeping, and not living in the world. They, my villains, said that even my figure was indecent. And they abhorred me, well, and I began to abhor myself; they said that I was stupid, I I really thought that I was stupid, but when you appeared to me, you illuminated my dark life all my life. I shine with nothing, there is no gloss, no tone, but still I am a man, that in my heart and thoughts I am a man" (1; 82).
The light that illuminates the inner darkness, which Devushkin speaks of, is the light of a true transformation, the rebirth of a "rag" into a person. Chasing away the former, imaginary light of false work ("brilliance", "gloss"), it penetrates into the very depths ("heart and thoughts"), and its action is awakening, enlivening, moving towards love. The intoxicating "squandering" of the unjustly received "inheritance" is opposed by the sober return of the hero himself, crowned with a meeting with "His Excellency", who resurrected his spirit with his deed ("... they resurrected my spirit ..." - 1; 93).
This meeting, which is the power center of the plot ending, is naturally saturated with the sound of motives Doomsday when everything secret and invisible turns into obvious and visible. Devushkin Varenka's story is sustained in appropriate tones: "... they call me. They demand me, they call Devushkin ... they started again, closer, closer. Now just above my ear: they say, Devushkina! Devushkina! Where Devushkin? .. I turned dead, froze, I lost my senses, I go - well, yes, I just left dead or alive. They lead me through one room, through another room, through a third room, into the office - I appeared! (1; 92). The assimilation of the hero’s inner experiences to dying and a triple passage through ordeals, culminating in standing before an “unpleasant trial”, will unfold in Dostoevsky’s last novel, The Brothers Karamazov, into a monumental picture of the resurrection of a “new man”.
The "judgment" of Makar Devushkin takes place through himself, who saw himself in the mirror: "... I looked to the right in the mirror, it was so easy to go crazy from what I saw there" (1; 92). The mirror shows him his "nudity", which is emphasized by a torn off button ("...here, mother, it happened that even now I can hardly hold my pen from shame"), which rolled "at the feet of his excellency": "that was all mine justification" (1; 92). The “little” person who does not justify himself is justified by the “judge” himself: “Here, His Excellency turned to the others, gave different orders, and everyone dispersed. As soon as they dispersed, His Excellency hastily takes out a scribe and a hundred-ruble note from it. “Here,” they say, - whatever I can, count as you like ... "- and he put it in my hand ... he turned red all over ... he took my unworthy hand, and shook it, as if to his relatives, as if to a general like himself. "Go," he says, in whatever way I can... Make no mistakes, and now it's a sin in half..." (1; 92-93) "His Excellency" seemed to echo Christ's: "...Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?.. and I do not condemn you; go and do not sin in the future" (John 8, 10-11). In the image of the "court" of the general, the desire to make forgiveness as non-judgmental, merciful, covert as possible is consistently emphasized. "- becomes" relatives ", brother.
So Dostoevsky's first novel outlined the idea that is pivotal for the entire work of the writer - the idea of "restoring a dead person." The mystery of a person "clouded by a sinful thought" cannot be unraveled at the level of an exclusively social structure. It is rooted in the depths of human nature, the law of which is violated by the fall. In Dostoevsky, "poor people" are not just downtrodden, humiliated and insulted outcasts, "pariahs of society", but above all evangelical "poor in spirit", "these little ones", thirsting in social justice for the highest heavenly justice of the Kingdom of God.
The joy of serving others - these are the emotions sisters of mercy experience.
“Every day, day and night, you could find her in the operating room, assisting in operations, while bombs and rockets were falling all around. She showed a presence of mind that was hardly compatible with feminine nature”, Surgeon Nikolai Pirogov wrote about Bakunina. A forty-year-old secular lady, despite the protests of her family, with the sisters of the Exaltation of the Cross community, went to the front to defend Sevastopol. Thus the nursing profession was born. But ten years before that, the first Holy Trinity community of sisters of mercy in Russia was founded by the Grand Duchesses Maria Nikolaevna, Alexandra Nikolaevna and Princess Theresia of Oldenburg.
Anna Volkovich, head of the exhibition department of the Military Medical Museum: "How the community was organized sisters of mercy - it was a hostel where unmarried women were accepted from 18 to 40 years, maidens or widows, why not married, because in common law the girl was managed by her father before marriage, after marriage by her husband, she did not have her own property, she could not get her own passport. This was the only way the lives of women who wanted to benefit not only their families, but also others."
Since the 1920s, the word "mercy" has been withdrawn from circulation, and communities have been disbanded. The revival of sisters of mercy in Russia began in the 90s, when the first (in post-Soviet period) temples. Now there are 5 sister communities in St. Petersburg. The best sisters of mercy are awarded the medal of Ekaterina Bakunina. For those who want to take care of the sick and provide them with spiritual support, there is a school of sisters of mercy, opened at the hospice in Lakhta. Here, for the first time, the sisterhood was reborn.
Ksenia Gromakova, chief sister of the Sisterhood of Mercy of St. Martyr Tatiana: " If a new girl comes and expresses a desire to serve in the sisterhood, we ask if there is a blessing from the confessor. There are those who cannot be blessed, there is no strength, or the husband, or comes to satisfy her pride, if everything works out - at the workplace, the sister receives the first skills in serving in this direction. If medical care - then in the Red Cross sector. At the workplace, she is taught how to talk, how to perform her duties. And in the social cross. And in blue - there are children.
Diocesan Charitable Hospital of Xenia Blazhennaya is a nursing care hospital. Here, elderly people who have experienced a stroke or after serious injuries undergo rehabilitation. 90 percent of them are bedridden patients. The sisters of mercy here are especially needed.
Galina Pivovarova, director of the regional public organization"Sisters of Mercy "White Doves": "Care is special and takes care of state of mind. Approach - how to Christ goes to him. Christ said, what do you do to your neighbor, they did to me. And here they go to everyone with love."
There are sisters of mercy who come to serve in their free time. Lyudmila Ishchenko is a liberated sister. For the 6th year, he devotes all his time to caring for the patients of the Xenia Blazhennaya hospital. The difficulties of caring for bedridden elderly people do not frighten her. "I have worked with metal for 40 years at a plant in a forging press shop, and when I retire, I want to serve people," Ludmila explains.
Lyudmila Ishchenko, sister of mercy: "They lack communication with relatives. Now there are more people who we have time to feed, wash, but there is not much time for personal communication. And everyone wants to stroke, sometimes cross at night, say good words especially before bed. If a person comes to them seasoned, calm, then the sick are the same - they feel it like children. Therefore, we had one nurse - Valya Kolesova, she said, " our babies. "Because (old people) must be treated like small children, otherwise it doesn’t work. Gives us spiritual strength you put them to bed and ask the Lord that they all live until morning, and that their illnesses be left a little. It gives us spiritual strength."
Anna Sergeevna is the oldest patient of the hospital. She is 96 years old, after two fractures of the femoral neck, she stopped walking. Relatives work and cannot provide constant care; in the hospital, sisters of mercy not only care, but also human participation make life easier.
Anna Kvitko: "I'm almost 100 years old, I have never seen such a hospital, for the first time, very good care. I am very grateful, very much, no one offends me. Both legs can't walk did not walk. My husband is disabled the war was, without both hands, I looked after him."
Sooner or later, almost everyone has to feel like a sister of mercy, because loved ones grow old, Yulia assures. A medical-technical college student dreams of working in an ambulance. She practiced at the hospital. And now, as a sister of mercy, she comes here on the weekends. If you experience joy from serving people, then it is your destiny to shine for others.
Anastasia Tamilo, Ekaterina Gorbacheva, Anton Golubev, Valentina Govorushkina and Vladimir Pivnev, Channel One-Petersburg.
There are women who are definitely sisters of mercy in life. You can hide nothing in front of them, at least nothing that is sick and wounded in the soul. Whoever suffers, boldly and with hope go to them and do not be afraid to be a burden, because few of us know how infinitely patient love, compassion and forgiveness can be in another female heart. Entire treasures of sympathy, consolation, hope are stored in these pure hearts, so often also wounded, because the heart that loves a lot, sad a lot, but where the wound is carefully closed from a curious look, because deep grief is most often silent and hidden. Neither the depth of the wound, nor its pus, nor its stench will frighten them: whoever approaches them is worthy of them; yes, they, however, seem to be born for a feat ... F.M. Dostoevsky " little hero ". "The Stavropol maiden", "the heroine of duty", "a woman without fear and doubt" - these were the words used by contemporaries to characterize the young sister of mercy Rimma Ivanova, the only woman in the history of Russia - a holder of the Order of St. George, who did not have an officer rank. Rimma Mikhailovna Ivanova was born June 15, 1894 in Stavropol in the family of the treasurer of the spiritual consistory.After graduating from the course of the Olginsk women's gymnasium, she became a teacher in the Zemstvo school in the village of Petrovskoye.The young teacher dreamed of continuing her education, but these plans were not destined to come true - in 1914 the war with Germany began. without hesitation, in the very first days of the war, Rimma signed up for short courses for the training of nurses, after which she was sent to the diocesan infirmary.But the longer Rimma worked in the hospital and the more she listened to stories about the hardships of front-line life and the suffering of the wounded on the front line, her desire to be with the active army became stronger, and in January 1915, Despite the protests of her parents, Rimma voluntarily went to the front, to the 83rd Samur Infantry Regiment, which was stationed in Stavropol before the war. She flatly refused to stay at the regimental infirmary and, having cut her hair short, under the name of orderly Ivan Ivanov, she left for the front line. When the secret of the young volunteer was revealed, Rimma continued to serve under her real name. The brave sister of mercy rushed into the thick of the battle, where she was so needed by the wounded soldiers. She soon became the darling of the regiment. Grateful soldiers and officers, surrounded by her care, could not praise her enough. The valor and courage of Rimma Ivanova during the rescue of the wounded were awarded - two St. George medals and a soldier's St. George's Cross. The regiment commander noted: “Indefatigably, tirelessly, she worked at the most advanced dressing stations, always under destructive ... enemy fire, and, no doubt, she was guided by one ardent desire - to come to the aid of the wounded defenders of the Tsar and the Motherland. The prayers of many wounded rush for her health to her parents, yearning for their daughter, persuaded Rimma to return home and take a break from the horrors of war. Yielding to persistent requests, in the summer of 1915 she took a vacation and arrived in Stavropol. But the attempts of relatives to keep her were unsuccessful - a month later Rimma again went to the front, having entered the disposal of the 105th Orenburg Infantry Regiment under the command of her brother, regimental doctor Vladimir Ivanov. Not wanting to "sit out" in the rear, the ardent girl asked to be sent as a paramedic to the 10th company, which at that time was fighting on the front line near the village of Mokraya Dubrova, Grodno province. On September 9/22, fierce battles began in the area where the positions of the 10th company were located. A flurry of artillery fire fell on the forward positions of the regiment. The girl barely had time to bandage the wounded. As the corps commander General Mishchenko noted, the sister, despite the persuasion of the regimental doctor, officers and soldiers, continued to fulfill her duty on the front line. The enemy pressed on and almost came close to the Russian trenches. The forces of the company were running out. Both officers were killed. Individual soldiers, unable to withstand the onslaught of the enemy, succumbed to panic. Then Rimma jumped out of the trench and shouting "Soldiers, follow me!" rushed forward. Everyone who was still able to hold a weapon in their hands rushed after the brave sister of mercy. Throwing the enemy back, the Russian soldiers broke into the enemy trenches. But the joy of a successful counterattack was overshadowed - a German bullet seriously wounded Rimma, who was in the first chains. The heroine died a glorious death of the brave on the front line of the 105th regiment, mourned by soldiers and officers. She was only 21 years old... At the initiative of the personnel of the regiment, a petition was sent to Emperor Nicholas II to award Rimma Ivanova the Order of St. George, 4th degree. The tsar found himself in a difficult position - it was a purely military order, which was awarded exclusively to officers. Only one woman in Russia has previously been awarded the Military Order - its founder Catherine II. However, the Emperor decided to make an exception. Despite the fact that Rimma Ivanova not only was not an officer, was not a noblewoman, but did not have any military rank, the Tsar signed a nominal decree on the award. Thus, Rimma Ivanova became the first and only Russian citizen to be awarded the Order of St. George for 150 years of its existence. They buried Rimma Ivanova in their native Stavropol, in the fence of St. Andrew's Church, giving her military honors. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich sent a silver wreath to Rimma's grave, intertwined St. George ribbon. And Archpriest Simeon Nikolsky, addressing the townspeople, said: “... The sister of mercy became the leader of the army, accomplished the feat of a hero ... Our city, the city of Stavropol! What glory have you gained! France had Maid of Orleans- Jeanne d "Arc. Russia has the Stavropol maiden - Rimma Ivanova. And her name will henceforth live forever in the kingdoms of the world ... "Rimma herself in her last letter to her family left such a covenant: "My good ones! If you love me, then try to make my wish come true: pray to God, pray for Russia and mankind". Soon they composed a song about the heroine, wrote a waltz dedicated to her, local authorities instituted scholarships in her name. In Vyazma, a monument was erected - a stele to the heroes of the war, on one of the faces of which the name of Rimma Ivanova was written in gold. The public began raising funds for the installation of a monument to the heroine in Stavropol, but the revolution and Civil War prevented the implementation of this idea. Heroes great war, nicknamed "imperialist", the new government was not needed. The name of the sister of mercy Rimma Ivanova, who carried about six hundred Russian wounded soldiers out of the fire, was forgotten. The place of her burial was razed to the ground, and only today a modest tombstone has been erected in the fence of St. Andrew's Cathedral at the supposed place of her burial. On the building of the former Olginskaya gymnasium appeared Memorial plaque, and the Stavropol diocese and the local medical college established the Rimma Ivanova Prize “For Sacrifice and Mercy”. Prepared by Andrey Ivanov, Doctor of Historical Sciences