Nikolai Vasilyevich Kuzmin (1890-1987) Russian graphic artist, People's Artist of the RSFSR. In 1929-31, he was one of the leaders of the Thirteen group, which cultivated "tempo drawing", seeking to express the dynamics of modern life. The mastery of a free, elegant stylized drawing (sometimes tinted with watercolors), a subtle, witty interpretation of the style of the era and the emotional structure of the work, inventive humor and sharpness of satire - all this is characteristic of the illustrations for N.S. Leskov (ed. 1955, 1961) and other works of Russian classics.
“Leskov's stroke of Kuzmin is different: mischievous, unexpected, sharp, but essentially kind. The feeling of some flowing warm air around the figures of Tula. The courtiers are caricatured: they shine like Christmas decorations... Subsequently, in the early 60s, N. Kuzmin increased the accents: the tsar and the court became more disgusting, Lefty - more pitiful, the color is more active, the reminiscences from folk graphics are clearer. But the general tone has been preserved: iridescent, laughing, mischievous Leskovian patterns. For the first time, an individual graphic style is not applied to the story from the outside, but, as it were, was born by the very text into which the artist entered in order to experience his events from the inside. (L.A. Anninsky)
Nikolai Vasilyevich Kuzmin about illustrations for "Lefty":
I read and honored Leskov for a long time, but my relationship with him as an illustrator began with a drawing for The Enchanted Wanderer in the one-volume Goslitizdat (1945). I proceeded to the long-conceived sketches for "Lefty" little by little, on the sly, and did not show any of the outsiders what I had done. When everything was decided down to the details, I ventured to show the layout of "Lefty" to the publishing house, where everyone liked it. I took sketches to Leningrad to show A.N. Leskov. He received them with ardent interest. Sometimes he had to resolve my perplexities that arose in the course of work.
- How, in your opinion, are horses harnessed to Platov's carriage - a troika or a train?
- Of course, three.
- But what about in the text: "And the coachman and the postilion are in place?" What are the postilions on the troika?
- That's right, postilion! .. Well, you know, the most attentive author has a slip of the tongue! Look, - the edition of "Lefty" with drawings by N.N. Karazin, it came out during the life of N.S. Leskova, - Platov on the troika!
With the blessing of Andrei Nikolaevich, I also depicted a troika, otherwise the “postilion” in the text stood across the road to me and somehow tied my hands.
During one of my visits, I forgot my drawing with a portrait of Nicholas I. He sent it to me in Moscow with a letter: “When you left, in the evening I saw a large sheet with a “devil’s doll” in it and two folding sheets of pretty paper ... Over these days, I peered into the image you give and was convinced of its fidelity and impressionability. I vividly imagine him in every memory of him. This means that it takes root and lives in visual memory. This is precisely the “imagination” that Leskov speaks of in Tupey and which all the “persons” then tried to embody, and above all this was achieved by Palkin ”(from a letter dated May 17, 1953).
A.N. Leskov wrote to me: "Deep, heartfelt gratitude to you for your tireless desire to help our reader visually remember the images of the great master of the word."
But it happens that even a qualified reader finds in the illustrations something that reveals to him the content of the book from a new perspective. K.I. Chukovsky wrote to me about Lefty: “You exposed its [book] main theme: the violence committed by scoundrels, dullards and boors, over talent, over intellect, over Genius. How great people are trampled under their boots...” Such recognition is the highest award for an illustrator.
Drawings for the tale of N.S. Leskov “Lefty” I have been making for more than four years, and in the process of work, literally every drawing was thought over and reworked dozens of times, as evidenced by the mountains of sketches that I have preserved. I will also say about the general style of illustrations - it, of course, was dictated by the very warehouse of this literary work. This is not a reliable chronicle, but a kind of fairy tale, legend, with all sorts of deliberate inconsistencies, such as, for example: Lefty travels to London by land, and back through the "Solid Sea", etc. Hence the style of drawings, close to the style of ancient Russians pictures.
Regarding the appearance of Lefty. The writer portrays him as a handsome, modest, but self-respecting master, with a sense of his own dignity. Is it necessary to portray him without fail cross-eyed? “Slanting Lefty” is perhaps just a nickname. If you emphasize the strabismus of the Lefty, you get an ugly appearance with a roguish, shifty look (“God marks the rogue”). Therefore, in order to maintain the attractive appearance of Lefty, I had to abandon the emphasis on strabismus.
As for his hairstyle, the deacon's pigtails grew during his hasty work - he had no time to get a haircut. Should it be more tattered and unkempt? After all, after all, he appears before the eyes of strict authorities, puts on his festive caftan and tries to keep everything uniform.
Some find that Lefty's hut looks like mansions. It is known historically that in our forest provinces a wooden frame was the cheapest type of housing and they were cut most often in timber warehouses according to the standard. An ordinary log house had three windows, a thatched roof is not typical for the central provinces. The author himself speaks about the shutters on the windows.
N.V. Kuzmin. The artist and the book. - M .: "Children's literature", 1985
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2 Leskov's tale "Lefty" evoked responses from such well-known illustrators as N.V. Kuzmin, Kukryniksy, L. Epple and animator Yu. Tyurin. In the work of all illustrators, the thought of the tragic fate of a talented person in Russia and the cruelty and coldness of autocracy sounds equally strong. Using the means inherent in artistic graphics, the artists skillfully convey the writer's mild irony in relation to the Tula masters and the satirical overtones in the depiction of "petty Russian life."
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3 Kukryniksy is a common pseudonym for three artists at once: Mikhail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov (1903-1991), Porfiry Nikitich Krylov (1902-1990), Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov (1903-2000), which is compiled according to the initial syllables of their surnames. During their joint work, they illustrated the works of N.V. Gogol, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Chekhov, M. Gorky. In 1974, the artists created illustrations for N.S. Leskov "Lefty". Artists Kukryniksy. Frontispiece to the tale by N.S. Leskov "Lefty". 1974
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4 1.Look at the illustration. Why did the artists place a portrait of Lefty on the frontispiece? How is Lefty represented in the generalized portrait created by the artists? Refer to the text of Leskov's tale and name the traits of the hero's appearance dispersed in the work, which are reflected in the drawing of the Kukryniksy. What were the illustrators guided by when recreating the clothes of the Tula gunsmith? For what business is Lefty depicted in the main illustration for the work? What does it mean that Lefty is doing “a work that is shameful for the English nation”? What tools are shown on the wizard's desktop? Why is there no “melkoscope” on the table? Why does the master hold the hammer in his left hand? Questions and tasks
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Artists Kukryniksy. The Sovereign with Platov in the Kunstkamera. Illustration for the 2nd chapter of the tale, 1974. In the 2nd chapter, which tells about the visit of the sovereign to the Kunstkamera, non-Russian names of objects are deliberately given in a distorted form, give a unique flavor to the whole tale, and make the reader smile.
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6 Questions and tasks 1. What details of the text of the first and second chapters of the tale did the artists transfer to the illustration that recreates the atmosphere of the Kunstkamera? What impression did the Kunstkamera make on the sovereign and Platov? 2. How are the characters depicted in the illustration? What is the reason for the “interference” between the sovereign and Platov during the inspection of the main hall of the Kunstkamera? How did Platov "embarrass" the British? 3. What words from the text of the second chapter can sign the illustration? 4. Compare the illustration of the Kukryniksy with the illustration for the 2nd chapter of the artist N.V. Kuzmin, reproduced in the textbook. Which of the illustrations did you like the most?
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7 Illustration for the 3rd chapter of the tale. 1974 The Emperor and Platov were asked to look through the "melkoscope" of a "nymphosoria" forged from pure "English" steel in the image of a flea. The expressiveness of the scene, its saturation with picturesque details evoked responses both in a series of illustrations by Kuzmin, consisting of 80 drawings, and in a graphic commentary on the tale of the artists Kukryniksy, which included 64 illustrations.
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8 1. Drawings by artists Kukryniksy make the reader smile. Often, their illustrations have features of caricature, which is achieved by a deliberate violation of the proportions of the figures of the characters, the sharpness of the details in the image of the characters. Think about what caused this character of the drawings. To what extent does it correspond to the style of the tale narration? 2. Do you often smile while reading Leskov's "Lefty"? Is a writer's laughter always harmless? 3. How are the heroes of the work depicted in the illustration? How are the mood and behavior of the main and secondary characters of the work conveyed? QUESTIONS AND TASKS
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9 Drawing for the 3rd chapter of the tale. 1962 - 1965. In search of a style of drawings, the artist A. Tyurin turned to the Russian popular popular print. Lubok pictures, often naive, but understandable to ordinary people, were always printed on separate sheets, accompanied by explanatory inscriptions. Creatively using the style of popular prints, A.G. Tyurin captured the main characters of the Leskovsky tale. This illustration depicts Platov lying on the "annoying couch".
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10 QUESTIONS AND TASKS. What feelings does the artist's drawing evoke in you, combining In what way did the artist follow the text of Lesk's tale? What Details of the drawing were invented by the artist as a commentator on the work? Is it possible to say that these details do not, on the whole, contradict the text of Lesk's tale? 2. In what chapters of the story is Platov's "couch" mentioned? Why is the mention of the "stool" accompanied in the work by the definition of "annoying"? How do you understand such an unusual combination of words? Why is the word "bite" devoid of the usual epithet in the 19th chapter of the tale? 3. Compare the image of Platov on the “annoying couch” in the drawing by A. Tyurin and in the illustration by N.V. Kuzmin. How is the mood of the Don Cossack Platov conveyed in the artists' drawings? Which drawing made the most impression on you 4. Using the text of the Leskovsky tale, make up a short story “Platov and the “annoying bite”. Use images created by illustrators in your story.
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11 The true arbiters of events in the tale are the oblique Lefty and his comrades. They undertook to fulfill the sovereign's order, and "now the hope of the nation rested on them." The reader is conquered by self-esteem, self-confidence, responsibility for the task assigned, determination and fortitude. The masters find moral support for a great and responsible work in “church piety”.
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12 Questions and tasks 1. Each of the 20 chapters of the Leskovsky tale introduces something new into the development of the action, which more and more strengthens the reader in the idea that the true guardians of the state interests of Russia are ordinary Russian people, embodied in the images of Lefty and his comrades. Kuzmin takes the reader inside the house and shows how they work. Take a look at Kuzmin's drawing. Choose from the text of chapter 7 different options for the signature. 2. Find in the text of the 6th and 7th chapters the details of the Lefty's portrait characteristics. How are they embodied in the illustrations for Lesk's tale?
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13 A.G. Tyurin. "Run". Illustration To the 8th chapter of Leskov's tale. "Sweat Spiral". Illustration for the 9th Chapter of the tale. 1962 - 1965. The illustration tells how Platov "rolled" to Tula. The word “smoke” evokes a smile, and the inscriptions “running”, “still running” enhance the dynamics of the action conveyed in the drawing. Tyurin's illustration for Chapter 9 responded to the central episode. The artist not only introduces the words “sweaty spiral” into the drawing, but also gives a graphic representation of the “spiral”, it seems to cover all the characters in the scene.
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14 Questions and tasks 1. What did you find unexpected in A. Tyurin's drawing for the 8th chapter of the work? 2. Reading Leskovsky's tale makes the reader smile. And the 9th chapter of the work is no exception. The writer always finds a comic side in a serious subject, presents the reader with surprises that delight, and sometimes puzzle, willingly resorts to an eccentric play on words. The illustrator follows the writer and strives to convey in the drawing what made him, as a reader, smile. What visual means does the artist use to convey the events of Chapter 9?
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15 Illustrations for the 9th chapter of the tale. 1950 This is a group portrait of the Tula masters who "undertook to support Platov, and with him all of Russia." “... in order to search for the prototype of Lefty, it is not at all necessary to look for him in Tula among the Gunsmiths, our country is rich in craftsmen - the Kulibins and Polzunovs, - and in my life I have met people more than once who can serve as prototypes for the Lesk hero." Kuzmin names among the prototypes of the hero the inventor-sapper Shevtsov, with whom he served in the engineering troops during the 1st World War, the modeller of the Putilov Plant Vasin, a man of rare modesty, Similar to Lefty, the old watchmaker Esaulov, the great master, who determined the attitude of the master book drawing To the Leskovsky gunsmiths.
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16 questions and tasks 1. Read the last paragraph of the 9th chapter. To what extent does the artist's drawing echo its final lines? 2. What does Kuzmin say with his drawing?
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17 illustration for the 13th chapter of the tale. 1950 This illustration resembles the illustration for the 3rd chapter, when the sovereign Alexander Pavlovich examines a flea through a small scope in England. This is what Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich does, but in St. Petersburg. The artist expressed the attitude of each king to the English flea. Alexander Pavlovich does not believe in the great powers of his people. A different position is held by Nikolai Pavlovich, who believes that the Russian people will not deceive him. The shod flea personifies for the sovereign the loyal loyalty of the Russian people to him.
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18 Questions and tasks 1. Consider the illustration of the Kukryniksy artists for the 13th chapter of the work. What words of the tale make you remember the drawing of artists? How is the sovereign depicted in the illustration? What do artists try to tell the reader with their drawings? 2. Why did the artists introduce courtiers and Platov into the illustration? What do the poses of royal nobles say? How is Platov depicted in the figure? 3. Compare the illustrations for the 3rd and 13th chapters depicting Alexander Pavlovich and Nikolai Pavlovich looking at the English steel flea with a small scope. What is common in the compositional solution of drawings? In what way do you see the similarities and differences in the illustrations of Russian sovereigns, English workers "in laced waistcoats and aprons" and royal nobles? How is Platov's behavior conveyed in the drawings of Artists Kukryniksy? 4. Tell us the difference between Alexander Pavlovich and Nikolai Pavlovich's attitude to the steel flea. Use original, well-aimed words and expressions of the writer in your story.
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19 ILLUSTRATION FOR THE 13TH CHAPTER OF THE TALK. 1952 - 1965 This drawing is ironic. In the illustration of the Kukryniksy, the sovereign bent improbably, that it seems that there are no vertebrae in his back. And in the drawing by A. Tyurin, the figure of the emperor, on the contrary, seems to be wooden, unbending. The artist skillfully uses the technique of exaggeration, when the small scope, which Platov once "lowered into his pocket", is equipped with steps. Yes, and the headdress of the sovereign is heavy, which makes the reader smile. The exaggeration in Tyurin's drawing is one of the means of conveying the irony inherent in Leskov's tale.
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20 Questions and tasks 1. How is Lefty depicted in the illustration? What details of his verbal portrait are shown in the picture? 2. What character traits of Lefty, in your opinion, did the artist try to convey in the illustrations? 3. The possibilities of the word are wider than the possibilities of the image. The writer always tells more than the artist who illustrates his work. Refer to the dialogue of the sovereign and Lefty, the nuances of which cannot be conveyed in the drawing. How does a conversation with the emperor characterize Lefty and his magnificent craftsmanship? What words of Lefty from the 13th and 14th chapters do you especially remember?
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21 Illustration for the 15th chapter of the tale. 1962 - 1965 The illustration shows how the British bow before Lefty's talent, his skill. There is also the thought of Russian backwardness, which fetters the creative forces of the people, and the Lefty's commitment to his homeland.
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22 Questions and tasks 1. How is Lefty depicted in the illustration? Remember what Lefty was wearing before the trip to England. For what purpose was this done? What does the posture and facial expression of the Lefty indicate? 2. How are the British depicted in the illustration? What words from the text of the 15th chapter were guided by the artist, depicting the English in the picture? 3. Literary critic I.V. Stolyarov writes: “... for understanding the general meaning of the tale, it is fundamentally important that the very result of the “breathless” work of the Tula masters is fraught with an “insidious” duality of impression: they really managed to create a miracle - to shoe a “nymphosoria”. However, their dominance is not absolute. A flea, forged by eye, can no longer "danse dance." An improved English curiosity "is at the same time hopelessly broken." Do you agree with the opinion of the literary critic? 4. Refer to the text of the work. What do the British say to Lefty about the shod flea? What do they see as the reason that she does not dance? 5. What illustrations would you like to draw following the drawing by the artist Tyurin, responding to the “foreign views” of Lefty? Describe one of the illustrations orally.
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23 Illustration for the 19th chapter of the tale. 1962 -1965 In the 19th chapter, the sad story about the tragic fate of Lefty - "the great little man" - ends. The Kukryniksy captured the dead Lefty on the floor in the corridor of the Common Obukhvinskaya Hospital, where “an unknown estate accepts everyone to die”, the meeting of Doctor Martyn-Solsky with the Angry Count Chernyshev and, finally, a gun with such a barrel in which bullets dangle. The artist preferred to depict the dead Lefty Next to the palace, guarded by Sentinels. What is the reason for such an illustrative solution?
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24 Questions and tasks 1. Why did the artist refuse to follow the artistic text exactly and capture the death of Lefty near the palace? What does the artist say with his illustration? 2. The art of illustration is still perceived ambiguously. There are critics who deny the illustration, seeing it as a "bad educational tool." Illustrator Kuzmin emphasizes: "My own reading experience protests against the assertion that an illustration is an obstacle to the perception of a literary work." You got acquainted with the illustrations for the tale "Lefty", made by the artists Kukryniksy, Kuzmin and Tyurin. Whose illustrations do you like best? Which ones would you especially like to highlight? Why? 3. Read the final chapter of the work. Why is the work called “tale” in the subtitle, and “legend” in the last chapter? What is the writer's point in the final chapter?
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25 USED LITERATURE 1. KOLOKOLTSEV E.N. ILLUSTRATIONS FOR THE TALE "LEFT-HANDED" - J. "LITERATURE AT SCHOOL" No. 10 - 2005 Kurdyumova
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“Leskov Lefty Lesson” - The narration is conducted on behalf of the narrator, a person with a special character and way of speech. He was born on February 4 (16), 1831. in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol province, in a noble family. Monument to N.S. Leskov in Orel. Leskov writes the tale "Lefty". After studying, he served as an official in the courts of the city of Orel. Church of St. Michael the Archangel.
"Lefty" - Why does the master hold the hammer in his left hand? TV show "Lefty". Soyuzmultfilm, 1964 Compare the drawing by A.G. Tyurin with the final lines of the 3rd chapter of the tale. Arkady Georgievich Tyurin (1932 - 2003). ? - Is the writer's laughter always harmless? Under a common pseudonym, they acted as: graphic artists, cartoonists, illustrators.
Kukryniksy is a creative team of Soviet graphic artists and painters, which included full members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, People's Artists of the USSR (1958), Heroes of Socialist Labor Mikhail Vasilievich Kupriyanov (1903–1991), Porfiry Nikitich Krylov (1902–1990) and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokolov (1903–2000).
The pseudonym "Kukryniksy" is composed of the first syllables of the names of Kupriyanov and Krylov, as well as the first three letters of the name and the first letter of the name of Nikolai Sokolov. Three artists worked by the method of collective creativity (each also worked individually - on portraits and landscapes). They are best known for their numerous skillfully executed caricatures and cartoons, as well as book illustrations created in a characteristic caricature style.
For illustrations to the tale by N. S. Leskov “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea”, they were awarded the gold medal of the Academy of Arts of the USSR.
“In the 70s, the Kukryniksy offered their reading of “Lefty” in their series. This series is widely known, crowned with medals and prizes. You can instantly recognize the style of the authors in it: the drawings are “electrified” by sarcastic expression; Leskov's story is lived through, as in Kuzmin's [N. V. Kuzmin, illustrator], “from within”, but sharper, angrier ... As one critic aptly noted, here the artists are hurt for Lefty, so that one feels almost their personal resentment; with an angry, "Shchedrin" setting of the pen, the Kukryniksy easily found a stylistic solution for their feelings, prompted rather by many years of work in the field of political caricature with its hatred of the object, than by penetration into the spirit of Lesk's crafty writing. L.A. Anninsky.
The title of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov - "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea" - determined the stylistic task of the illustrators. A tale means a true story pretending to be a fairy tale. Allegedly a fun and funny action, a farce, but in fact the true story of the death of a wonderful talent. Kukryniksy, I think, sought to penetrate into the very intonation of Leskov, into the pace of his speech - smooth and sharp, pathetic and ordinary, with curlicues of sayings and jokes, and at the same time direct, angry, accusatory. The main thing in the language of "Lefty" is dialogues, reproduction of conversations in palaces and huts, questions and biting answers. Theater? Yes, that is exactly how the Kukryniksy read “Lefty”.
But the theater is special - a performance on the fairground, as if reconstructed by the current children's theater. A play about a play.
Of course, turning to the "Lefty", the Kukryniksy could not help but recall the wonderful edition of the Lesk tale with illustrations by Nikolai Vasilyevich Kuzmin, published fifteen years ago. It was a wonderful smart book. Leskov's book is for adults who know a lot about Russian history... Recalling folk print-lubok. The opening subtext of Leskov is his piercing intelligent tenderness, his bitter poetry.
The Kukryniksy had a different, completely different goal. In the thirties, when Alexei Maksimovich Gorky patronized the “inseparable and consubstantial trinity”, determining its path in art, he said: “A particularly important and serious task is to give children books about where private property came from ... This task can be allowed by a number of historical books, and sharp political pamphlets, and everyday satire directed against the remnants of possessiveness ... "
The political pamphlet is the most important color of the Kukryniksy theater in Levsha. Like the characters of “comedia del arte”, the English with Emperor Alexander and the “Don Cossack” Platov stand in the opening to the first chapter: almost flat colored figures, as if toy people cut out of whatman paper, wearing a paper dress. Scenery appears - also a flat (ordinary ruler on a white field) staircase, along which the sovereign and Platov go to the cabinets of curiosities, pot-bellied busts and “Abolon polvedersky”, which holds a Mortimer gun in one hand, and a pistol in the other. This unprecedented Abolon even on the super is like a caricatured epigraph about the desecration of art, about the monstrous pragmatism, ridiculed by Leskov so long ago.
There is a detail on the dust jacket that is not in the picture repeated inside the book: heavy gold cords on a dense black background, as if a theater curtain has been pulled back. The detail of the Kukryniksy is always very significant, it could not have appeared here by chance. "Theater in the book-theater" - that's what it means, I think.
Finally, heroic characters appear on the pages of Lefty - a trio of Tula gunsmiths - and then the poisonous color chosen by the artists for caricature characters disappears, gray zipuns and rusty, sparse-haired heads look from the pages with precious authenticity. A little more, and the color would have completely disappeared ... But the conventions of a fairy tale theatrical narrative would not have allowed this, and therefore in the scenes of Lefty's humiliation, the color is deathly deaf, fantastic, especially on the floor of the "common people's Obukhva hospital."
The artists gave each chapter a kind of landscape-event curtain-headband: here is Tula - the city of "the first experts in religion" - with slanting domes of countless churches and a passing road with Platov's speeding carriage and whistling Cossacks watering the driver "without mercy" to ride. Here is Nicholas, seated on a throne under a double-headed eagle, and on both sides of the chair-throne, Princess Alexandra Nikolaevna and Platov; here is a courier with Lefty, rushing from St. Petersburg to London, and London with foggy silhouettes of parliament, Big Ben and bright, like a candy wrapper, flat figures of important walking Englishmen ... Such a curtain will rise, and behind it a page illustration - a funny and sad action the great Leskov, "an epic ... with a very human soul."
As if pointing binoculars at some stage details, the Kukryniksy depicted objects - the endings of chapters. Are these endings funny? No, ironic. An important feeling in the emotional palette of the little reader. "Melkoskop" on a royal crimson pillow with golden tassels, a flea shod foot through a magnifying lens, a gun barrel cleaned with crushed bricks and an empty general's glove, sticking his finger into it ... And in the epilogue of the book a sad medal appears - light yellow, with a white profile Left-handed, with a laurel branch, a tool of the Tula gunsmith. The medal is placed under a paragraph of sad Leskovsky reflection: "machines have evened out the inequality of talents and gifts, and genius is not torn in the struggle against diligence and accuracy."
Having considered Kukryniks's "Lefty", I mentally return to its long-standing source - magazine illustrations for Mikhail Sholokhov's "Azure Steppe". And the graphic principle of artists becomes clear: to translate into the language of fine art not the plot and not the events of the book in themselves, but the word and intonation of the writer, and unobtrusively, as if in a game, convey them to the reader, evoking in him a noble anger for violence and tenderness for talent.
Pistunova A.M. A consubstantial trinity. –M.: Soviet Russia, 1978 (p.244-249)
Chapter "Epic... with a very human soul."
N. S. LESKOV. "LEFT-HANDED". ILLUSTRATIONS KUKRYNIKSOV
Publishing house "Fine Arts". Moscow. 1979
Includes 16 postcards
Format 15 x 10.5 cm
Circulation 130 000
Artists Kukryniksy
The price of one postcard is 3 kopecks.
Price of a set
1. The left-hander's own name, like the names of many of the greatest geniuses, is forever lost to posterity; but as a myth personified by folk fantasy, it is interesting, and its adventures can serve as a recollection of an era, the general spirit of which is captured aptly and correctly.
2. And the British did not sleep at that very time either, because they too were spinning. While the emperor was having fun at the ball, they arranged such a new surprise for him that they took away all of Platov's imagination.
3. The next day, as Platov appeared to the sovereign with good morning, he said to him:
- Let them now lay a two-seater carriage, and we will go to the new cabinets of curiosities to look.
4. A melkoscope hit, and the sovereign saw that there really was a key on the tray near the flea.
“If you please,” they say, “take her in the palm of your hand - she has a wind-up hole in her tummy, and the key has seven turns, and then she will dance ... The sovereign seized this key with force and could hold it with force in a pinch, and in another pinch I took the flea and just inserted the key, when I felt that she was starting to move her antennae, then she began to sort out her legs, and finally she suddenly jumped and on one fly a straight dance and two variations to the side, then to another, and so in three variations she danced the whole kavril.
5. Petersburg. Palace Square
6. - ... I know what you are, well, alone, there’s nothing to do - I believe you, but just look, so as not to replace the diamond and don’t spoil the English fine work, but don’t bother for long, because I drive fast: two weeks will not pass before I turn back from the quiet Don to Petersburg - then I must certainly have something to show the sovereign.
8. All three of them came together in one house to the left-hander, locked the doors, closed the shutters in the windows, lit the icon lamp in front of Nikolai's image and began to work. For a day, two, three, they sit and do not go anywhere, everyone taps with hammers. They forge something like that, but what they forge - nothing is known. Everyone is curious, but no one can find out anything, because the workers do not say anything and do not show themselves outside. Different people went to the house, knocked on the doors under different forms to ask for fire or salt, but the three artisans do not open up to any demand, and even what they eat is unknown.
9. Then the whistlers took a log from the street, faked it in a fire-like manner under the roofing bolt and the entire roof from the small house at once and turned it off. But they took off the roof, and they themselves fell down now, because the masters in their close mansion from breathless work in the air became such a sweaty spiral that an unaccustomed person from a fresh fad and once could not breathe.
10. And Platov shouted:
“Well, you’re lying, scoundrels, I won’t part with you like that, but one of you will go to Petersburg with me, and I’ll try to find out what your tricks are there.
And with that, he stretched out his hand, grabbed the left-handed left-hander by the collar with his short fingers, so that all the hooks from the Cossack flew off, and threw him into the carriage at his feet.
“Sit down,” he says, “here, all the way to St. Petersburg, like a pubel, you will answer me for everyone.” And you, - says the whistlers, - now the guide! Do not yawn, so that the day after tomorrow I will be in St. Petersburg with the sovereign.
11. They took out the casket from behind the stove, removed the cloth cover from it, opened the golden flea, which it was before and how it lay.
The emperor looked and said:
- What a dashing!
But he did not diminish his faith in Russian masters, but ordered to call his beloved daughter Alexandra Nikolaevna and ordered her:
- You have thin fingers on your hands - take a small key and start the abdominal machine in this nymphosoria as soon as possible.
12. - If, - says (left-handed), - there was a better smallscope, which magnifies five million, so you deigned, - he says, - to see that on each horseshoe the master's name is displayed: which Russian master did that horseshoe.
- And your name is here? - asked the sovereign.
- Not at all, - the left-hander answers, - I don’t have one.
- Why not?
“Because,” he says, “I worked smaller than these horseshoes: I forged carnations with which the horseshoes were clogged, no small scope can take it there.
The Emperor asked:
- Where is your melkoscope with which you could make this surprise?
The lefty replied:
- We are poor people and because of our poverty we do not have a small scope, but we have shot our eyes like that.
13. And the English say to him:
- Stay with us, we will give you a great education, and you will become an amazing master.
But the left-hander did not agree to this.
- I have, - he says, - there are parents at home.
The British called themselves to send money to his parents, but the left-hander did not take it.
“We,” he says, “are committed to our homeland, and my aunt is already an old man, and my parent is an old woman and used to going to church in her parish, and it will be very boring for me here alone, because I’m still in a single rank.
“You,” they say, “get used to it, accept our law, and we will marry you.”
- This, - answered the left-hander, - can never be ...
The British could not bring him down with anything, so that he would be seduced by their life, but only persuaded him to stay for a short time.
14. He was not so interested in how new guns were made, but in what form the old ones were. Everything goes around and praises, and says:
- This is what we can do.
And when he gets to the old gun, he puts his finger in the barrel, moves along the walls and sighs:
- This, - he says, - against ours is not an example of the most excellent.
15. They drove a left-hander so uncovered, but when they start transferring from one cab to another, they all drop it, and they start picking it up - they tear the ears so that they come to memory. They brought him to one hospital - they don’t accept him without a tugament, they brought him to another - and they don’t accept him there, and so on to the third, and to the fourth - until the very morning they dragged him along all the remote crooked paths and transplanted everything, so that he was beaten all over. Then one assistant doctor told the policeman to take him to the common people's Obukhvinsk hospital, where everyone of an unknown class is accepted to die.
16. In an amazing manner, the half-skipper found the left-hander very soon, only they had not yet laid him on the bed, and he was lying on the floor in the corridor and complaining to the Englishman.
- I would, - he says, - two words to the sovereign must certainly be said ...
But only when Martyn-Solsky arrived, the left-hander was already running out, because the back of his head was split on parat, and he could only clearly pronounce:
- Tell the sovereign that the British do not clean their guns with bricks: even if they don’t clean ours, otherwise, God forbid, they are not good for shooting. And with this fidelity, the left-hander crossed himself and died.