Illustration by V.P. Panov
Very briefly
A boy from a good family is faced with the cruelty and injustice of the world towards the poor. Despite the difficulties, he shows compassion, kindness and nobility, helping the disadvantaged.
“My mother died when I was six years old” - this is how the hero of the story, the boy Vasya, begins the story. His father, the judge, grieved for his wife, paying attention only to his daughter Sonya, since she looked like her mother. And the son "grew like a wild tree in the field", left to himself, without love and care.
The town of Knyazh-Gorodok, where Vasya lives - "stink, dirt, heaps of guys crawling in the street dust" - was surrounded by ponds. On one of them there was an island, on the island - an old castle, the horror of which "reigned over the whole city."
Beggars and other "dark personalities" lived in the ruins of the castle. There were strife between them, and some of the "unfortunate cohabitants" were expelled from the castle. They were left homeless, and Vasya's "heart sank" from pity for them.
The leader of the outcasts was Tyburtsy Drab, who has a terrible monkey appearance. In his eyes "sharp insight and intelligence shone," and the past "was shrouded in the darkness of the unknown."
With him, two children were occasionally seen: a seven-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl.
One day, Vasya and his friends climb into the chapel on the mountain near the castle. Friends were afraid of the "devils" in the darkness of the chapel and ran away, leaving him alone. So Vasya meets Valek and little Marusya. They became friends. Later, Vasya finds himself in a dungeon, where "two jets of light ... poured from above ... stone floor slabs ... the walls were also made of stone ... drowned in complete darkness." This is where his new friends live.
Vasya began to visit children from "bad society" often. Marusya was the same age as his sister, but she looked sickly: thin, pale, sad. Picking flowers was her favorite game. Valek said that "the gray stone sucked the life out of her."
Vasya is tormented by doubts about his father's love, but Valek answered that Vasya's father is a very fair judge - he was not even afraid to condemn the rich count. Vasya thinks about it and begins to look at his father differently.
Tyburtsy learns about Vasya's friendship with Valek and Marusya - he gets angry, but allows the judge's son to go to the dungeon, because his children are happy for the boy. Vasya understands that often the dungeon lives on theft, but with contempt for hungry friends, his "affection has not disappeared." He feels sorry for the sick, always hungry Marusya. He brings her toys.
In autumn, the girl languishes from illness. Vasya tells about the sick, unfortunate Marusa sister, persuades her to give her best doll, donated by her late mother, for a while. And "the little doll did almost a miracle" - Marusya cheered up and began to walk.
The toy is found missing at home. The father forbids the boy to leave the house. Vasya and Valek decide to return the doll, but when the boys took it away, Marusya "opened her eyes ... and wept quietly ... plaintively." Vasya understands that he wanted to deprive his “little friend of the first and last joy of her short life” and leaves the doll.
Father interrogates Vasily in the office, forcing him to confess to stealing.
His face was terrible with anger: “You stole it and demolished it! .. To whom did you demolish it? .. Speak!”
The boy confesses that he took the doll, but says nothing more. Tears dripped from his eyes, but inside "a burning love arose" for those who warmed him in the old chapel.
Suddenly Tyburtsy appears, gives the doll and tells everything to the judge. The father understands that his son is not a thief, but a kind and sympathetic person. He asks Vasya to forgive him. Tyburtsy informs that Marusya has died, and the father lets Vasya go to say goodbye to the girl. He gives him money for the poor.
After these events, Tyburtsy and Valek “suddenly disappeared” from the city, like all “dark personalities”.
Every year, in the spring, Vasya and Sonya brought flowers to Marusya's grave - here they read, thought, shared their youthful thoughts and plans. And, leaving the city forever, "they said their vows over a small grave."
The mother of the little storyteller Vasily died when he was six years old. The father was bored, did not pay attention to his son. From a very small sister, Sonya still played, because she looked like a mother. And the son walked by himself.
There was a river in a small town, an island on the river, and an old castle on the island. Beggars and other suspicious persons settled in the ruins of the castle. Chief among them was Mr. Tiburtsiy Drab. He had two children: a seven-year-old son, Valek, and a three-year-old daughter, Marusya, whom almost no one saw.
Once, having nothing to do, a boy with friends climbed into a chapel on a mountain near the castle. The friends got scared of the "devils" and ran away. And Vasily met Valek and the little sick Marusya, who stood unsteadily on her legs. He invited his new friends to his garden, but Valek refused: Vasily is the son of a judge. A strict judge will not approve of this.
Vasily began to visit children from "bad society" more and more often. Marusya was the same age as his sister Sonya. But Sonya was round, plump and cheerful. And Marusya was like a white girl who had grown up without the sun: thin, pale, sad. Rarely did she laugh. Then her laughter sounded like a silver bell. And Marusya could not run and play at all, because she lived in a dungeon without sunlight and ate very poorly. Her favorite toy was one: picking flowers. Tiburtius says that the gray stones of the dungeon have sucked life out of the girl.
Vasily complains that his father does not love him - he will never caress him. Valek replies that everyone in the city knows that Vasily's father is a very fair judge, he was not even afraid to condemn the count, shouting that he could buy and sell everyone.
Subsequently, Tiburtius also learns about Vasily's friendship with Valek. He gets a little angry, but allows the judge's son to enter the dungeon. Only to no one - not a word!
Vasily understands in time that only then in the dungeon of goodness did dinner once manage to be stolen. The judge's son is firmly convinced that it is impossible to take someone else's, but he feels so sorry for little Marusya, always hungry ...
Autumn came. The girl was completely ill. She withers and withers. And so sad ... To console her, Vasily tells about the sick, unfortunate girl, sister Sonya.
The sister was moved and allowed her best doll to be given to the patient. Not forever - play.
Marusya was very happy, she even turned pink, and began to smile.
But the nanny began to inquire: “Where did the doll go?” Sonya said that the doll would return, that she went for a walk. This aroused suspicion even more.
Vasily's father interrogates him:
Did you take the doll?
Why did you steal the doll? It's a gift from your dead mother!
But Vasily is stubbornly silent.
Suddenly Tiburtius appears. He gives the doll and tells everything to the judge. The judge understands that his son is a complete thief, but a kind and sympathetic person. He asks Vasily to forgive him. And yet ... A very sad event happened: Marusya died.
The father not only lets his son say goodbye to the girl, but also gives him money for Tiburtius. He also asks to be warned that some of the inhabitants of the castle should get out of the city, because the police are looking for them.
Tiburtius and Valek soon disappeared from the city.
Vasily and his father got along.
Every year, especially in spring, Vasily, Sonya and their father bring flowers to the grave of poor Marusya, the child of the underground.
V.G. Korolenko
Name: Children of the Underground
Genre: Story
Duration: 13min 29sec
Annotation:
The boy Vasya, whose mother died, does not find a common language with his father. It seems to him that he is not needed and not interesting to his father. Vasya tries to spend his time outside the home. There are many homeless people in their town. Once, during his next outing with friends, he meets seven-year-old Valek and three-year-old Marusya. Children have no family and no home. They live with other homeless people on the mountain near the old chapel. They are guarded by the leader of the homeless living in the chapel, Pan Tyburtsy Drab. Since he takes care of them, they assume that this is their father.
Marusya is very weak and pale. Vasya made friends with Valek and Marusya. Vasya treats Marusa with tenderness, like a younger sister. He tries to help them as best he can, sometimes bringing something to eat. However, Marusya is getting weaker and weaker every day.
To please the girl, Vasya asked his sister Sonya for her favorite doll. Marusya is very happy that she now has a doll. It seems that the girl came to life. However, the nanny noticed that the doll was missing. Vasya had a difficult conversation with his father. He hesitates to tell his father the truth. However, Pan Tyburtsy Drab comes to their house and informs them that Marusya has died.
The father, having learned the truth about his son, changed his attitude towards Vasya. He looked at his son with different eyes, was able to understand him. So the death of Marusya brought father and son closer together. The homeless soon disappeared from the town. And the family of the pan judge, Vasya's father, in full force often went to the grave of Marusa.
V.G. Korolenko - Children of the Underground. Listen to short audio content online.
In the small town of Knyazh-gorodok in southwestern Russia, where the Polish influence is so strong, there lives a family: the boy storyteller Vasya, his sister Sonya and his father. The mother died when the boy was six years old. The father seemed to have forgotten about his son - so deep was his grief.
In the city on the island there is an old abandoned castle where poverty lives.
Old Janusz brings order among the beggars - he welcomes someone, he kicks someone out. The unfortunate exiles, according to rumors, found shelter in the dungeons near the chapel - also abandoned. They “made up a friendly community and were engaged, among other things, in petty theft in the city and its environs.
The organizer and leader of this community of unfortunates was Pan Tyburtsy Drab, the most remarkable personality of all those who did not get along in the old castle.
His appearance was the most muzhik, but he knew Latin and some other wisdom.
He had children: a boy of about seven, but tall and developed beyond his years, and a little four-year-old girl.
Vasya, yearning for his father's attention, wanders around the city, for which he is called a tramp and a worthless boy. The father is so strict and gloomy that the boy is afraid of him and withdraws into himself. Sincerely, the boy loves only his sister Sonya, but both the father and the nanny are afraid that he will spoil the baby and limit their communication.
Once, loitering with the same vagabond boys, Vasya crept up to the chapel and fell down. His comrades fled in fear, they believed that an evil spirit lives in the chapel.
In the chapel, the hero of the story meets the children of Tyburtsy: Valek and a little sickly girl Marusya.
The narrator treats them with apples and offers friendship.
But Valek shakes his head negatively: the son of a beggar, a drunkard and a thief cannot be friends with the son of a pan judge, and the girl invites the narrator to come.
The boy promises to come and tell no one about it.
Especially touches the heart of a sensitive lonely boy Marusya.
“It was a pale, tiny creature, resembling a flower that grew without the rays of the sun. Despite her four years, she still walked poorly, stepping uncertainly with crooked legs and staggering like a blade of grass; her hands were thin and transparent; the head swayed on a thin neck, like the head of a field bell; eyes sometimes looked so unchildishly sad, and the smile reminded me so much of my mother in last days when she used to sit against the open window and the wind shook her blond hair, which made me sad myself, and tears came to my eyes.
I involuntarily compared her to my sister; they were the same age, but my Sonya was round as a donut and elastic as a ball. She ran so briskly when she used to play out, she laughed so loudly, she always wore such beautiful dresses, and every day the maid wove a scarlet ribbon into her dark braids.
And my little friend almost never ran and laughed very rarely, when she laughed, her laughter sounded like the smallest silver bell ...
Her dress was dirty and old, there were no ribbons in the braid, but her hair was much larger and more luxurious than Sonya's, and Valek, to my surprise, knew how to braid it very skillfully, which he did every morning.
When Vasya comes, the children go out and play in the fresh air.
The guest tries to draw the girl into outdoor games, but she cries. She plays with flowers and multi-colored pebbles, saying something. The gray stone had sucked the life out of her.
Children talk about their parents. It turns out that Tyburtsiy greatly respects the “pan judge” because he is fair and not afraid of those in power. He even "sued one count."
The boy is sad that his respected father will never be able to love his son the way he loves Valek and Marusya Tyburtsy, who sometimes even cries over them.
One day, the narrator accidentally discovered the entrance to the dungeon and was struck by the dusk, dampness, and cold. So this is what "gray stone" kills Marusya!
Valek admits to the narrator that sometimes he steals rolls in the market - after all, Marusya cries when she is hungry.
The judge's son is upset: he is used to the moral standards of people who never go hungry, but still does not give up their friends.
For a long time it was possible to hide childhood friendship from Tyburtsiy. Vasya came to the chapel only when he saw Tyburtsy and his company in the city.
Tyburtsy first frightened Vasya to death, promising to fry him at the stake, and then started an adult conversation with him: “To each his own, everyone goes his own way, and who knows ... maybe it’s good that your road ran through ours. It’s good for you, because it’s better to have a piece of a human heart in your chest instead of a cold stone, do you understand? ..”
That evening, Tyburtsiy managed to steal a ham from a priest - and in the dungeon there was a real feast.
- Tell me, my Marusya, did I do well that I brought you a roast?
- Fine! - the girl answered, slightly sparkling turquoise eyes. - Manya was hungry.
The boy returns home, not knowing what to think.
“Beggars ... thieves ... they have no home! .. I have long known from those around me that contempt is combined with all this. I even felt all the bitterness of contempt rising from the depths of my soul, but I instinctively protected my affection from this bitter admixture.
With the advent of autumn, Marusya began to get sick. “She didn’t complain about anything, she just kept losing weight; her face grew pale, her eyes darkened, became larger, her eyelids lifted with difficulty.
On warm days, Marusya is taken upstairs, but there are fewer and fewer such days. In the cold, the girl remains in the dungeon - and she is getting worse.
Old Janusz, the head of the beggars in the castle, informs Vasya's father of Tyburtius' bad behavior. And although the pan judge drives the informer away, the boy rushes headlong to report bad news Tyburtsia. We must be more careful.
Marcus is getting worse. Nothing pleases her. Vasya turns to his sister Sonya.
“Sonya had a large doll, with a brightly painted face and luxurious flaxen hair, a gift from her late mother. I had high hopes for this doll, and therefore, having called my sister to a side alley of the garden, I asked her to give it to me for a while. I so convincingly asked her about this, so vividly described to her the poor sick girl who never had her own toys, that Sonya, who at first only pressed the doll to herself, gave it to me and promised to play with other toys for two or three days, without mentioning anything about the doll.
And what? “The little doll did almost a miracle: Marusya, who had not left her bed for a long time, began to walk, leading her blond daughter, and at times even ran, still slapping the floor with her weak legs.”
Sonya does not really complain and does not cry, assuring the nanny that the doll has gone for a walk. But all this seems very suspicious... Clouds are gathering over the boy.
Valek and Vasya decide to return the doll back, but the girl, lying in oblivion, is alarmed at the slightest attempt to take her treasure from her, and the boys retreat.
Finally, the cloud breaks into a thunderstorm. The father calls Vasya into the office and arranges an interrogation for him, accusing him of stealing a doll - and this is the memory of his mother.
The judge, seeing his son's denial, becomes so furious (ready to beat him up) that the boy is afraid to lose his disposition towards his father forever.
And then Tyburtsy appears, who returns the doll and tells his father for whom Vasya took it.
“I was still standing in the same place when the office door opened and both interlocutors entered. I again felt someone's hand on my head and shuddered.
It was my father's hand gently caressing my hair.
Tyburtius took me in his arms and, in the presence of my father, placed me on his knees.
“Come to us,” he said, “father will let you go to say goodbye to my girl ... She ... she died.”
The father asks Vasya for forgiveness, and the son eagerly kisses his hand. Trust relationships are restored. Both understood a lot.
The father gave the boy money:
“Say that I most humbly ask you to accept them from me... Most humbly...”
Vasya says goodbye to his little girlfriend.
"Shortly after the events described, the members of the "bad society" scattered in different directions."
Tyburtsy and Valek disappeared quite unexpectedly, the chapel collapsed.
“Only one grave, fenced with a palisade, every spring turned green with fresh turf, full of flowers.
Sonya and I, and sometimes even with my father, visited this grave ... "
The story "Children of the Underground" was written by the Russian writer Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. The author touched upon the eternal themes of love, friendship and kindness. This work evokes in the reader empathy and sympathy for the young heroes, whose lives are filled with almost nothing but hardships. The book is addressed to teenagers of middle school age, however, there is a version of the story for children's reading. If you do not have a printed edition, then you can read this work online or listen to an audiobook.
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The plot of the work "Children of the Underground"
Events take place in a small town in Poland, Knyazhie-Veno, where the boy Vasya and the girl Sonya live - the children of a respected judge. Their life is measured and calm. But after the death of their mother, a family tragedy turns into severe pain for them and the father's dislike for his six-year-old son. The father moves away from his son and is limited to communication with his daughter.
The boy considers himself abandoned and wanders aimlessly around the city, and one day he meets two impoverished little tramps, Valerka and Marusya, who are forced to steal and beg in order to survive. They live in the ruins of an old castle with their father Tiburtius and other beggars. Thus, Vasya finds friends for himself and invites them to play in the garden of his house, but Tiburtius does not approve of such hospitality, because he knows that the boy's father is a respected judge in the city. However, the guys do not betray their friendship and continue to meet.
Speaking of storylines, then a few should be distinguished:
- relationships between children from different worlds;
- relationship between father and son in different worlds;
- adult relationships.
Heroes of the story
It is believed that the work of V. G. Korolenko recreates some facts of the author’s biography, studying which one is amazed at the authenticity of the author’s word and its sincerity, because when you read it, you empathize with all the heroes of the work and are deeply imbued with their sorrows and thoughts.
Attention should be paid that in the story "Children of the Underground" there are children-heroes:
- Boy Vasya
- his sister Sonya;
- Valery.
- his sister Marusya.
Adult heroes should also be singled out separately:
- Judge (father of Vasya and Sonya);
- Tiburtsy Drab (father of Marusya and Valerka).
- Janusz - leader of the poor;
- servants in the house of Vasya and Sonya's father
In the image of the boy Vasya, the author embodied himself, described his feelings and sensations from the world as he perceived it in childhood. This hero has the ability to understand people well and the ability to pity and empathize with those who are in trouble.
His father is a fair and honest man who, despite his respected position as a judge, can despair and worry just like others. However, one cannot fail to note the wisdom of the father of Marusya and Valerka, Tiburtius, who was forced to become homeless and beg with his children.
V. G. Korolenko united two worlds and two families, and revealed the characters of the heroes with better side. In each of these heroes, he demonstrated such traits as understanding, empathy, nobility and the ability to help others.
The heroes of the story teach us not to be shy in the face of life's difficulties and to accept life with all its charms and disappointments. In addition, V. G. Korolenko, using their example, encourages the reader to understand the bitter fate of his neighbor, not forgetting about sympathy, mutual assistance and respect for people, regardless of their status and position.
"Children of the Underground" is a story of teenagers that teaches any reader to be human and not to shy away from the grief of others, despite existing social prejudices. It sinks into the very heart and invisibly changes the formed worldview of every person, including a child.
Chapter 1
It takes place in the Polish town of Knyazhie-Veno. This place is unusual, it is surrounded by ponds, on which one of them stands an island, and on the island there is an abandoned castle in which poor people live.
Among such objectionable personalities were the well-educated Tiburtsy and his children: the seven-year-old boy Valerka and the three-year-old girl Marusya. The "exiles" were forced to find a new shelter and settled in the dungeon of the castle, which was located next to the old chapel.
Chapter 2
Six-year-old Vasya, the son of a judge, after the death of his mother, due to the fact that he considers himself useless to anyone, becomes a vagabond, because a respected person and a widower does not pay due attention to his son, because he himself cannot survive the loss of his wife. And if he finds a minute to talk with his daughter Sonya, then the boy really remains abandoned in this tragedy.
Vasya is a child with a fine mental organization. He is very worried about his father's cooling towards him and therefore begins to wander. His image in the work conveys the misfortune of the boy with all his healthy morality and sensitivity. He, by chance, went from a prosperous life to a poor one. I came as a guest, but I tried to understand and sincerely sympathize with those who ended up in that world. On the one hand, he lives surrounded by servants and does not know what it is to starve, and on the other, he is a child of the streets, abandoned by his father without attention and experiencing the horror of loneliness.
Chapter 3
Vasya meets Valerka and Marusya from underground when he explores an old chapel and is interested in the cemetery adjacent to it. Vasya learns from them that the children of the chapel are "exiles" who were evicted from the castle. The boy promises what will come to his new acquaintances as often as possible and bring them food. Valerka, as if reluctantly, allows him to do good deeds and bypasses questions about his house with "noble silence."
Chapter 4
Vasya visits the guys, brings them "goodies", which little Marusya is especially happy about; they play and reveal the terrible secret of the castle. On one of his visits, Vasya discovers the girl's abnormal thinness, her unsteady gait, and learns from Valerka that Marusya is ill. But what exactly is unclear, Vasya understands only one thing - life pulls out of it the dungeon and the "gray stones" among which his friends live.
Chapter 5
Valerka decides to show Vasya their habitat with Marusya and they all descend into the dungeon together. But this does not frighten the boy as much as what he learns about later: all the beggars in this dungeon, including his friends, live by theft. The protagonist develops an internal moral conflict and deep down he cannot accept this.
It can be said that the obvious truth of what is happening for a nine-year-old boy from a good, intelligent family turned out to be a difficult obstacle in understanding that his closest friend is a thief. Therefore, even after Valerka escorts him to their place of residence, Vasya shuns and cannot play with the guys, as before. Their interesting amusements immediately stop, Vasya returns home early, goes to bed and falls asleep all in tears.
Chapter 6
The devoted friendship continued. Vasya meets the father of his friends - Tiburtsiy Drab, because no matter how hard the guys tried, they could not hide the meetings of little tramps and the son of the city judge for a long time, and one day Tiburtsiy discovers a stranger in his home, but, to Vasya's surprise, he shows unexpected nobility when meeting him. Is it true, he sees the hospitality of the owner only then when he has no doubt that the boy did not tell anyone about the secret hiding place of the beggars.
Tibutius always had a high opinion of Vasya's father and said that he was perhaps the only person in judging who had a heart. But despite such an attitude towards him, he still checks the boy "for lice", and he with honor and dignity passes the test.
Chapter 7
Autumn is coming. The weather is getting worse, but Vasya does not stop visiting his friends. The illness of five-year-old Marusya is entering a critical phase. And at the moment when Vasya shows a desire to be near his friends during the girl’s serious illness and help them in every possible way, his father learns from the leader of the “aristocrats” Janusz, who also begs in the ruins of the castle, that Vasya goes to the dungeon.
His father, of course, does not believe the tramp and the beggar, but visits to "bad society" become dangerous for the boy. Vasya is very worried and cannot watch without tears how the girl slowly disappears from life, to which he became very attached and began to consider his sister.
Due to the obstacles that have arisen in his visit to the sick Marusa and the completely broken Valerka, Vasya decides to tell Tiburtius Drab about the gossip and betrayal of the old man Janusz. He replies that this is bad, because the judge, although a good person, will not go against the law.
Chapter 8
This chapter describes the ending of the story. Marcus is getting worse. Vasya brings his toys to the dungeon to somehow distract the girl from her illness. But this method has little effect on her condition, and then he comes up with a different way to help: the boy turns to his sister Sonya for help and asks her for a luxurious doll - the memory of their dead mother. Sonya does not want to give it away, but Vasya still persuades his sister and runs to Marusya with a chic girl's gift.
Marusa liked the doll very much. She became for her a kind of "living water". The girl not only got out of bed, but also began to walk. However, this did not last long, because after a while she again fell ill.
Vasya is faced with problems that arise at home because of the doll, but this is not Sonya's fault; the servants suspected something was wrong, and the father began to worry very much about the loss of the gift of his beloved wife.
Vasya falls under house arrest, which ends with a biased interrogation of his father, but does not reveal the secret of the disappearance of the doll and does not confess about his friends.
The father squeezes his son's shoulder more and more, gets angry and hurts his son, but not out of malice, but only because he cannot cope with internal anger. And in the midst of a tense conflict between the judge and his son, Tiburtsy calls Vasya from the street. He meets the boy's father and tells the whole story of friendship between Vasya and his children, returns the doll and invites Vasya to say goodbye to Marusya. “Come to us to say goodbye to my girl. Father will let you go. She died,” says Tiburtsiy.
This moment reaches the limit of the tragedy of this work. The author describes the farewell ceremony, as well as how the vagabonds leave the dungeon, the abandoned chapel collapses, and a grave remains in the cemetery that was next to it, which Vasya, Sonya and their father often visit. read our article.