A tall policeman who inspires admiration among children and adults, saves birds and animals, and protects Muscovites from hooligans. Who doesn’t recognize Uncle Styopa in the description? The character of the poems was and continues to be an example to follow. And it’s not surprising, because Uncle Styopa is not only tall, but also athletically built. And most importantly, he is honest and decent.
History of creation
Stories about a tall policeman are the calling card of the Soviet writer. The year the first poems about Uncle Styopa were written was 1935. The poem was originally published in the magazine “Pioneer”. Later, poems about the brave giant were published as a separate book. In 1939, a cartoon of the same name was created based on the work. In addition to poems about Uncle Styopa, the cartoon included other works by Mikhalkov.
In 1954, “Uncle Styopa is a policeman” was published in the magazine “Border Guard”. Sergei Mikhalkov did not plan to write a sequel, but a chance meeting prompted the poet to tell the children about Stepan’s future fate.
The author of the poem met the prototype of his own hero. While leaving the yard, the writer violated traffic rules. The man was stopped by a tall policeman. After talking with a friendly representative of the authorities, Mikhalkov found out that before working as a guard, he served in the navy. Thus the idea for a continuation of the poem was born.
In 1964, Soyuzmultfilm filmed Uncle Styopa the Policeman. The singer and actor gave his voice to the brave servant of the law.
The poem “Uncle Styopa and Yegor,” published in 1968, also did not appear by chance. At a meeting with young readers, the writer was asked a question about the hero’s personal life. Mikhalkov decided that he would certainly tell how Stepan’s fate turned out. The logical conclusion of the Soviet epic was the poetic story “Uncle Styopa - Veteran.” The final part was published in the newspaper Pravda in 1981.
Biography
Stepan Stepanov was born and raised in Moscow. The young man lives near Arbat in house number 8/1. Since childhood, the hero has been different from his peers - Stepan grew up to be a tall and broad-shouldered guy. Because of this noticeable feature, neighbors and friends make fun of the hero:
"He's standing under a parachute
And he's a little worried.
And below the people laugh:
“The tower wants to jump from the tower!”
But sarcastic phrases do not hurt Stepan, he is used to this attitude and has even learned to use his own physical abilities. Thanks to his tall stature, Stepan saves pigeons from a fire, pulls a drowning boy out of the water, and helps the kids remove kites from an electric wire.
Stepan has a dream - a young man strives to join the navy. After passing a medical examination, the man goes to the battleship Marat. During his service, Stepan comes under bombing and receives the rank of sergeant major. A man is wounded near Leningrad, so Stepanov leaves military service and returns home.
In Moscow, the hero learns a new profession - he gets a position in the police. In a short time, Stepan becomes a threat to local hooligans and delinquents.
Thanks to his tall stature, a brave policeman repairs a broken traffic light. After this feat, the man receives the funny nickname “Styopa the traffic light.” Stepanov's career is progressing quite quickly. Soon Uncle Styopa receives a post as a guard in a new district of Moscow. In his free time, the man trains at the skating rink. Stepanov takes first place in the speed skating race:
“He’s proud of Uncle Stepa
All capital police:
Styopa looks down from above
Receives first prize"
Soon the eligible bachelor meets his destiny - the girl Manechka. The young people have a noisy wedding, and after a short time Stepan Stepanov becomes a father.
The boy was born big and strong to the delight of his parents. Egor – that’s what Styopa’s happy uncle called his son – is growing and developing quickly. The boy took after his father in character. A kind child helps elders, plays sports and dreams of becoming an astronaut.
Egor is the support and pride of Stepanov Sr. The young man graduates with honors from school, receives the title of Olympic champion and sets serious records in weightlifting. The famous father receives congratulations on his son’s successes from colleagues and even from USSR ministers.
The hero's biography develops without surprises. The man raised his son and retired. In order not to sit at home, Uncle Styopa spends his free time with the children: he takes the kids to the zoo, plays Zarnitsa with schoolchildren, and makes sure that fifth-graders do not smoke.
"He doesn't know any sense of proportion,
They say pensioners.
- Uncle Styopa and now
He wants to be younger than us!”
The former policeman is invited to visit France, and Uncle Styopa reluctantly agrees. Upon returning, Stepan Stepanov falls ill. Local children help the hero treat his cold. The story about the famous giant ends on a happy note: Yegor comes to his father with the news - Uncle Styopa has become a grandfather.
The main characters of the poem are exemplary Soviet citizens. A decent career, a calm family life, victories in sports - the life of Uncle Styopa, like his son, is filled with important and correct values. But this is not the main idea of the stories. Mikhalkov wanted to convey to the little reader that features (both external and internal) are not considered a flaw at all.
- The artist of the first edition of the book “Uncle Styopa” copied the main character from the actor.
- Not one monument was erected to the giant hero, but three: in Moscow, Prokopyevsk and Samara.
- In 1940, a short story “Uncle Styopa and the Red Army” was published, touching on Stepan Stepanov’s military service. Readers did not like the poem and were not included in Mikhalkov’s collections.
- The popular giant has long been the hero of jokes. To this day, kids who have just met the character are amused by the joke:
“Uncle Styopa, get the sparrow!
“No, I don’t want to bend over.”
Quotes
“I don’t need anything - I saved him for nothing!”
“I’ll join the navy if I’m tall enough.”
“I’ll tell you a secret that I serve in the police because I find this service very important!”
“I, Marusya, like in a dream...”
“Which one of you guys smokes? I don’t tolerate smokers!”
Uncle Styopa is the main character of Sergei Mikhalkov’s children’s books, who has become a favorite of Russian children and their parents. The image of Uncle Styopa very successfully transferred to television screens, and the main feature of Uncle Styopa is his enormous height.
There is probably not a single person in Russia who does not know who Uncle Styopa is. Indeed, absolutely everyone knows Uncle Styopa, and his image is certainly associated with very tall stature, a police cap and kindness to children (and not only children). In addition, Uncle Styopa is a kind of quintessence of a positive image of a Soviet policeman, as well as a Soviet citizen. Uncle Styopa is perhaps one of the most positive literary images that were not criticized even after the collapse of the USSR and have retained their popularity for many decades.
So, Uncle Styopa is citizen Stepan Stepanov, who lives “in a house eight fraction one, near the Ilyich outpost” and is very tall. By the way, at various times there were very caustic suggestions that Uncle Styopa suffered from gigantism, but Mikhalkov wrote his book for children, and therefore all the “suffering” of his hero was expressed approximately in the following:
Uncle Styopa took it from the dining room
Double lunch for yourself.
Uncle Styopa went to bed -
He put his feet on the stool.
Well, perhaps, sometimes Uncle Styopa had a hard time finding large-sized clothes and shoes for himself, but at the same time, there were much more positive aspects in his enormous growth. So, he easily took books “from the cabinet” without getting up from his chair, and, most importantly, he was allowed into the stadium for free - they took him for a champion.
As we know, Stepanov worked as a policeman, but that was already in the second book, and before that he had to serve in the navy. So, when Mikhalkov’s first book was published in 1936, it was simply called “Uncle Styopa,” and he was not yet a policeman.
Actually, Uncle S
Tepa is a real kind giant, because all his activities, during working and non-working hours, are aimed at restoring justice, preventing evil and doing good.
Everyone loved Uncle Styopa,
Respected Uncle Styopa:
He was the best friend
All the guys from all the yards.
We can safely say that this good-natured giant has become a real idol of children - nothing negative has ever been seen in the image and behavior of Uncle Styopa. All his activities were aimed at helping people. And he made full use of his gigantic size to help where others could not. A man is drowning - Uncle Styopa is right there, the house is on fire - And Uncle Styopa saves the unfortunate people from the fire, ahead of the firefighters. Whether the traffic light is broken or the railroad tracks are washed out by rain, Uncle Styopa is always “lucky” to be where help is needed.
Therefore, when he came to work in the police, this place turned out to be suitable for him like no other.
Surprisingly, the character of Uncle Styopa turned out to be simply beyond criticism - no matter how much the most skeptical critics tried to find at least something negative, or some subtext in the poems, Mikhalkov’s Uncle Styopa turned out to be impeccable. Even for those who could discern Bolshevik symbolism in any Soviet literature, books about Uncle Styopa turned out to be “clean” - there is no subtext in them, no irony, they are surprisingly bright and kind.
The educational moment, the message to children, appears in all books so gracefully and unobtrusively that it is not perceived as moral at all.
Uncle Styopa early in the morning
He quickly jumped up from the sofa,
The windows were opened wide,
Lodny accepted.
Uncle Styopa brushing teeth
I never forgot.
For all, without exception, children of several generations, Uncle Styopa was a good friend; everyone would like to know him personally - big, kind and reliable.
Mikhalkov himself said that he met his “Uncle Styopa” one day on one of the Moscow streets. It was a huge policeman who checked Mikhalkov, who was driving, for his license, saluted and gently asked him not to violate traffic rules in the future. The writer, meanwhile, was surprised to recognize in the policeman his hero - Uncle Styopa, who, however, was not yet a policeman, but only served in the navy, helped firefighters and was a very exemplary and remarkable citizen. Later it turned out that the policeman with whom the writer spoke had once served in the navy. It was then, after meeting with a giant in uniform, that Mikhalkov wrote the continuation of the poem about Uncle Styopa - “Uncle Styopa is a policeman.” The book was published in 1955.
Another book - “Uncle Styopa and Yegor” - was published in 1968, and the last one - “Uncle Styopa - Veteran” - was published in 1981, it was published in the magazine “Murzilka”.
Kind, strong, devoid of vanity, always ready to do good deeds - this is how millions know Uncle Styopa. He was a real dream - everyone wanted to have a huge and strong friend, and knowing his good-natured and good-natured character, there was no doubt that the main thing was to find Uncle Styopa, and it wouldn’t be difficult to make friends with him.
There is even an opinion that it was Uncle Styopa that largely influenced the level of trust of Soviet people in law enforcement agencies
Uncle Styopa
Uncle Styopa- a character by the Soviet writer Sergei Mikhalkov from the poetic tetralogy of the same name for children. The poem is written in trochaic tetrameter.
A positive character “by the last name Stepanov and by the first name Stepan”, helps firefighters, serves in the navy (battleship Marat), works as a policeman... Distinctive Features Uncle Styopa is enormous growth, love for children, purely positive character traits...
Structure of the work
"Uncle Styopa"
The poem “Uncle Styopa” was first published in the magazine “Pioneer” (1935, No. 7), and in 1936 it was included in the first collection of poems by the poet. It was first published as a separate book by Detizdat in 1936 with illustrations by A. Kanevsky. Subsequently, illustrations were created by V. Moroz, D. Dubinsky, K. Rotov, I. Kesh, V. Suteev, Yu. Korovin and other artists.
“Uncle Styopa” is the first poem of the cycle in which we meet the positive character Uncle Styopa.
In his book about Sergei Mikhalkov, Boris Galanov writes:
About the idea of the appearance of the poem “Uncle Styopa and Yegor”, Sergei Mikhalkov says this:
I, friends, will tell you right away:
This book is on order.
I arrived at kindergarten
I perform for the guys.
- Read “Uncle Styopa”
The chorus asks for the first row.
I read a book to the guys,
I didn’t have time to sit down,
The boy gets up:
- Does Styopa have children?
What will I tell him in response?
He answered hard: “no.”“Uncle Styopa is a veteran”
The final part of “Uncle Styopa is a Veteran” was published in the newspaper “Pravda” (June 1, 1981), in the magazine “Murzilka” (1981, No. 10).
Family
- Wife - Manya (Marusya)
- The son, Yegor Stepanovich Stepanov, is an exemplary boy. Born in winter in the morning very large (8 kg). He did not inherit his gigantism from his father, but he is broad-shouldered and very strong. Since childhood, he has been distinguished by enormous physical strength, won the world championship in lifting weights, is an Olympic champion, and an astronaut. Presumably will fly to Mars
- Daughter-in-law, Yegor's wife - not named
- Granddaughter, daughter of Yegor - not named
Reviews
- On Mikhalkov’s 60th birthday, Nikolai Tikhonov writes in Literaturnaya Gazeta:
His poetic trilogy “Uncle Styopa” rises like a beautiful peak. She has no equal, like her kind hero - a giant with a decisive and fair character, who knows how to be cheerful, wise, brave, loves a joke and cannot stand injustice.
Uncle Styopa in culture
In animation
- - “Uncle Styopa” (film studio “Soyuzmultfilm”; scriptwriters S. Mikhalkov, N. Aduev; directors V. Suteev, Lamis Bredis)
- - “Uncle Styopa is a policeman” (film studio “Soyuzmultfilm”; director I. Aksenchuk, artist L. Shvartsman)
In the theatre
In fine arts
In music
- In the song “Strong Drinks” (group “Zveri”) there are the following lines:
Splashes, droplets in the wind
And no one will touch you
Uncle Styopa on candy
Fits in the palm of your handMiscellaneous
- The first part of the tetralogy contains the following lines:
Our sea is unsociable,
Uneasy during the days of war.
Day and night on a battleship
The guns are all loaded.The eyes of the tired do not close
Uncle Styopa is a foreman.
Without binoculars the surface of the sea
He can see it well.Suddenly Uncle Styopa saw
Thirty kilometers away
Something like a periscope
At the battleship on the way.This is true! Look, sailor:
An enemy lurks under the water.
One salvo, followed by a second -
The Germans are drowning under water.Uncle Styopa smiled,
Bent down to the blue sea,
From the abyss of dark waters
The fascist flag is taken out.Wet flag, faded flag,
Under which the enemy was swimming.The rag served the Krauts! -
The sergeant major declares. -
But it will be useful on the farm
Maybe she is after all.If you tear off the swastika,
Wash a rag with soap, -
We'll pin you on the threshold,
Let's wipe our feet!
…
I'll tell you a hundred stories!About the war and about the bombing,
About the big battleship "Marat"
How I was a little wounded,Defending Leningrad.
These lines cause debate as to what kind of war we are talking about. There is a version that the “near-war” lines refer to the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940). The battleship "Marat" was seriously damaged in September 1941 (the bow along the 2nd tower was torn off by an explosion), and has not been listed as a battleship since then.
- The grandson of Sergei Mikhalkov is Yegor Konchalovsky, born in January 1966. The poem “Uncle Styopa and Yegor” was first published in 1968. The poem contains the lines:
What happened in the maternity hospital
On this winter day in the morning?Notes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
Synonyms:See what “Uncle Styopa” is in other dictionaries:
Husband. brother of father or mother, which is why they say paternal or maternal uncle: old. wow, wow. Great uncle, cousin of father or mother. The uncle is also the aunt's husband. In some places called uncle or uncle husband. uncle, uncle, warmly, uncle. | In conversation...... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
Genre Baroque rock Folk rock Years since 1987 Countries of the USSR, Russia ... Wikipedia
UNCLE, and, many. and, she and (simple) dya, yev, husband. 1. Brother of father or mother, as well as husband of aunt. Native village. Cousin village. 2. (plural and, her). In combination with a proper name, it is respectful of a simple middle-aged man, as well as an appeal to an adult man... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
Uncle, uncle, man, uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle, big man, uncle, man, from a fire tower, Kolomna verst, watchtower, fire tower, uncle, verst Dictionary of Russian synonyms. uncle 1. see man. 2. cm... Synonym dictionary
In the Soviet Union, the question of who wrote the work “Uncle Styopa” could be answered by any child, starting from a very early age. And the point is not at all that the author was loyal to any government. You can't fool children. There are good poems, and there are those that can make parents' tongues jam.
Wonderful children's writer
Sergei Mikhalkov's poems for children are talented, full of wit and sympathy for those for whom they are written. They have their own atmosphere that you enjoy entering. Therefore, the trochaic tetrameter of this work is easy to remember. Anyone can remember lines about Stepan Stepanov. And at the same time he will smile.
Someone complained that Mikhalkov and Aleksin did not let anyone in. Maybe this is so. But even if they had allowed it, then anyway now, in 2014, the balance of popularity would not have changed, because reading Mikhalkov and Aleksin is pure joy. “Everyone knows Uncle Styopa”!
Human dignity
Who wrote "Uncle Styopa"? Sergei Mikhalkov is a nobleman, smart and simply handsome. In Soviet times, dynasties of working people (miners, mechanics, milling operators, etc.) were welcomed, but in the field of literature and art everything was the other way around. The assertion that nature rests on the children of geniuses was persistently declared, so one can count on the fingers of the family whose members increased the glory of Russia from generation to generation. For some reason, under the tsar, they were considered representatives of “good Russian families.”
The drawn film “Uncle Styopa” was extremely popular, the author of which, or rather, his external features, were transferred to the cartoon hero. Then it was a peculiar technique - the old man from the fairy tale about the goldfish was copied from the very popular artist Chirkov. It was very cute, and in addition, it created a special joyful atmosphere of recognition.
Of course, most of today's children, having seen enough of the ugliness about the Ninja Turtles, will not appreciate the beauty of these works. But there is a statement that everything comes back sooner or later. We hope that good literature will come back into fashion.
Popularity
“Uncle Styopa,” whose author is S. Mikhalkov, is still in demand. The hero of the work is “familiar to everyone,” otherwise there would be no jokes like “Is Uncle Styopa a policeman?” That is, everyone knows that this handsome guy served in the navy and the police, that he has an enviable height.
Dibrov once said during an interview with Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky that he did not like Gorky. To which the poet’s son replied that he doesn’t like it either until he starts reading. So it is with the poems of the author of two national anthems. The lucky, rich, beautiful, tall, talented and well-educated people are irritated by the very fact of their existence. Undoubtedly, it is worth reading and watching his children's films from beginning to end. Many people like poetry and films.
Paradox
The one who wrote “Uncle Styopa” knew how to take a blow - much more dirt was poured on him than on those whom he oppressed. And this is far from a triumph of justice. But Sergei Mikhalkov does not need protection at all. He was a strong man, surrounded by loving and understanding people.
Beginning of professional activity
Sergei Mikhalkov (the one who wrote “Uncle Styopa”) was born in 1913. At the age of twenty-two he published his first poems for children. A very young guy writes the poem “Uncle Styopa,” which has been republished for 78 years in a row. It is still in demand and loved.
Works with continuation
Whoever wrote “Uncle Styopa” created a unique, memorable image for quite a long time. He was prompted to this by questions from little listeners about whether Uncle Styopa had children, and in general, what kind of life he had. A meeting with a very high servant of the law, who, as it turned out, served in the navy, prompted him to write a sequel. Thus, the work “Uncle Styopa - Policeman” saw the light of day. It was first published in 1954. The beloved hero was destined to live to a ripe old age - in 1968 “Uncle Styopa and Egor” was published, and in 1981 “Uncle Styopa - Veteran”. For decades, the glorious image of a policeman-protector has enjoyed constant sympathy among people of all ages.
A spoon of tar
The one who wrote “Uncle Styopa is a Giant” never thought that his hero suffered from gigantism. Readers don’t think so either, because the “most important giant” is perceived as a protector, and not as a freak suffering from a disease that occurs in people with open epiphyseal growth plates. I wonder what Little Red Riding Hood would have gotten sick with in the post-perestroika years if Mikhalkov had written it, whose “Uncle Styopa” could not be healed? Although the doctors examining Stepanov at the military registration and enlistment office before being drafted into the army stated that he was absolutely healthy, and his heart was compared to a working clock mechanism.
It is difficult to write a positive image well
They say that it is much easier to describe and play the role of a scoundrel than a decent person. One must have undoubted talent for the collective image of a positive hero who disinterestedly performs exclusively correct actions to have such attractiveness. At the front, the main character of the poem defended Leningrad, being a sailor on the battleship Marat. The author himself was also at the forefront. He was on the battlefield until he was shell-shocked at Stalingrad. Perhaps the popularity of Stepanov Jr., named Yegor, is inferior to the glory of his father, but he is also a worthy son of the country - an astronaut, and at the same time handsome as an epic hero - ruddy, broad-shouldered, and possesses unprecedented strength.
Beautiful old age
The general cycle of the works described above ends with Yegor having a daughter, therefore, everyone’s beloved uncle Styopa became a grandfather. In Soviet times, it was customary to give gifts to guests - nesting dolls and malachite boxes. In the last part of this series, Uncle Styopa gives the French communists nesting dolls, and everything looks so cute and not at all annoying. And how well, in two phrases, the gossiping neighbors are described, claiming that Stepanov looks young specifically to spite them.
Genuine popularity
In honor of Uncle Styopa, monuments were erected in Moscow and the Kemerovo region. Isn't this popular love and popularity? It is impossible to list the state awards of Sergei Mikhalkov - even two printed pages are not enough. He was the author of popular fables, chairman of the Writers' Union, an honorary member of various organizations, but in the memory of generations, Mikhalkov Sr. will remain as the author of hymns, epitaphs and a children's writer, who penned the immortal work “Uncle Styopa.”
". To begin with, let me remind the reader of the chronology of the birth of the epic about Stepan Stepanov.
Poem "Uncle Styopa"
first published in the magazine “Pioneer” (1935, No. 7).
Poem "Uncle Styopa - Policeman"
first published in the magazine “Border Guard” (1954, No. 20).
Poem "Uncle Styopa and Egor"
first published in the newspaper Pravda (1968, December 27).
Poem "Uncle Styopa - Veteran"
first published in the Pravda newspaper (June 1, 1981).
Instead of a preface, I note that this study goes against the latest data on the influence of height and “beauty” on a person’s success. We'll talk about this next time.
Our investigation will take place in the world of that dream that will no longer come true. An illustration with a broken monument to I. Stalin in Moscow's Muzeon park indicates an active rejection of yesterday's ideals. However, our children can see the canonization of President Putin and other miracles of the mind. Let's leave it until time.
So let's start from the end. Uncle Styopa is meeting the end of his life quite well in the world of 1981. He goes to meetings and participates in public life. He has the pension of a Muscovite and a veteran of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, plus bonuses for participating in the Great Patriotic War. He is respected. Let's try to understand his life. And in the intentions of its author.
So, Uncle Styopa lives in 1935. He's not fabulous. Specific descriptions of the signs of the times are only illuminated by hyperbole. They interpret reality.
For example, descriptions of yard gates. Now there is no trace of them, but then the gates were closed at night, and the janitors were on duty, as useless as the gates themselves.
And here is an example of the interpretation of the “gate”, familiar to every boy of that era: “Hey, goalkeeper, get ready for battle, you are posted at the gate as a sentry, imagine that the border strip is coming behind you.” These are the borders, these are the images of borders and everything connected with them. Everything is serious, and this is not a fairy tale.
Our uncle Styopa lived in Moscow, at the Ilyich outpost, and was known to everyone:
From gate to gate
All the people in the area knew
Where does Stepanov work?
Where is it registered?
How does he live...
...Because everyone is faster
Without special efforts
He filmed the kite for the guys
From telegraph wires.
For children, attention to their fun is a great value, but adults argue differently: a respectable person should not engage in nonsense.
Everyone loved Uncle Styopa,
They respected Uncle Styopa:
He was the best friend
All the guys from all the yards -
But adults are also curious about what kind of “wick” is always hanging out with the kids.
Our hero lives in a corner house “house eight fraction one”, but whether he rents the corner or in some other way is not clear. There are few details about the life of the “famous” person.
The place where the hero of the poem lives has a symbolic name. Three decades later, there was a struggle to establish the “Ilyich outpost” against the old, and now returned, name “Rogozhskaya outpost”.
If you are familiar with M. Khutsiev’s film “Ilyich’s Outpost” / “I’m Twenty Years Old,” you will understand the rich context of advanced youth, the “outpost” as an outpost, and Khrushchev’s short phrases on this matter (“... the hero of the poem is suitable, in the opinion of the poet , under such a then unspoken definition given to “advanced youth...”).
It is remarkable that at that time the name “Ilyich’s outpost” had not yet taken root.
Behind the scenes in the film “The House I Live In” (1957) it sounds:
Silence behind the Rogozhskaya outpost,
The trees are sleeping by the sleepy river.
Only trains run after trains
Yes, someone is being called by beeps.
It is completely appropriate that the lamentation “The House in which I Live” was intended for Khutsiev, and only by chance ended up in other hands.
However, not only many places in Moscow were named after Lenin. And almost everywhere it was approximately as in the St. Petersburg rhyme:
To Ilyich Lane
Don't go without a brick.
Something like this may have been said about the capital’s Ilyich Lane, the former Cossack Lane (now renamed back). The area was under construction. Then he was both visible and heard.
And here there is an “outpost”, and new buildings, the vanguard of a new way of life - both are united by the name. The area is being built up, people are talking about it, it is visible and heard.
Mentions about the hero’s work, registration, and lifestyle are also signs of the times. “Since the end of 1932, after internal passports and city registration were reintroduced, residents of large cities were required to have a residence permit issued by departments of the internal affairs bodies. In houses with separate apartments, the responsibility to register residents was assigned to building managers and the board of cooperatives.”
The level of the housing problem may shock today's reader. The living space was increasingly compressed, from 8 square meters. m per person in 1924 to 5.5 sq. m in 1930 and 4 sq. m in 1940. “Even at such an elite Moscow plant as Hammer and Sickle, 60 percent of workers in 1937 lived in dormitories of one kind or another”5. The main form of dormitories for workers and students is barracks. In 1934 there were more than 5,000 of them, and the number kept growing, and the “decrees” did not save them.
Our hero did not live in a barracks (he takes a cold shower in the morning, although most Muscovites learned about the existence of bathrooms in the sixties), but everyday hardships are familiar to him. The shortage of products (the rationing system was in effect until 1935) was aggravated by a shortage of things, including clothing and shoes (due to the mass slaughter of livestock, a shortage of leather arose). The quality of things acquired by a miraculous coincidence fell below any criticism. And it’s not just because of the hero’s size that the verses about buying clothes should be understood:
Will buy with grief in half,
Turns to the mirrors -
All tailoring work
It's coming apart at the seams!
Markets served as salvation from state trade, where since 1932 peasants were allowed to trade products, but there was also trade in second-hand items.
He was looking for in the market
Greatest boots
He was looking for his pants
Unprecedented width.
The item bought secondhand fell apart not so much because of the disgusting tailoring, but probably because of wear and tear.
It is interesting that readers are not informed about Stepanov’s relatives - about his father, mother and other relatives. Kinship and the family circle were highly valued back then, and a person could hardly be fully perceived as a separate unit.
In his memoirs, the author admitted that he created Uncle Styopa’s son for the sake of children’s questions. The idea of a person existing outside the family, especially a person as positive as our hero, cannot fit into a child’s mind. Even less can this fit into the consciousness of an adult of the thirties, when any questionnaire contained a long series of questions about parents, relatives and friends, social origin, etc.
The absence of relatives happened if there was an origin. However, abandonment of relatives was not a panacea, because the punitive system worked non-stop, even if it had serious glitches (it is characteristic, however, that the Constitution of 1936 proclaimed a new class policy, class restrictions were removed, which remained only for conscription into the army; but since Styopa’s uncle served in the army, the hero’s origins were, if not exemplary, then certainly not reprehensible).
So why didn’t Stepan Semenov have a family in the beginning? The name of the hero convinces us of Dedom’s origin. Doubling - Stepan Stepanov - is hardly accidental. Children who forgot their surname were given surnames by their given names.
Stepan is deprived of ties to the past. He is all in the present and moves with it through history. He is always modern - both in the mid-thirties and in the mid-fifties. This logic can be traced in all parts of the poem.
It is striking and ironic that, taken outside the family circle, the hero is called “uncle,” which became an addition to his name already in his youth.
“Uncle, get the sparrow!” - the children once shouted, chasing a lanky man. So he remains a “guy” for the rest of his life. This is worthy of detail.
Uncle Styopa does not grow in rank at all, serving in the navy or in the police, and remains a sergeant major until old age (“former sergeant major”), he is constant.
Sergeant Major, a military rank introduced into the Soviet armed forces on September 22, 1935, “is awarded to the best senior sergeants. In the USSR Navy, the rank of “foreman” corresponds to the title of “chief ship’s foreman.” It is important that sergeant major is a junior command rank. This is the one who is always next to the soldier or sailor.
Here it is appropriate to remember that once in the army there was an “uncle” - an experienced soldier who helped recruits in comprehending military science. “...every recruit in the regiment is also assigned an old soldier.”
If you really strain your memory, then it comes up: “Tell me, uncle, it’s not without reason...”, in another meaning “uncle” is “assigned to care and supervise the child, a nurturer.”
Meanwhile, the “uncle” is very young. Based on the fact that the first part of the poem was written in 1935, and the hero had not yet served in the army, we can assume that he was most likely born in 1917 (this is important).
If, as a homeless child, he could not remember his last name, then he ended up on the street no later than 1922 - 1923, when he was five or six years old. Having lost the most important connections for a person - “the patronymic emphasizes in the name the spiritual connection with the father, the surname - with the clan” - the hero acquired something more.
Doubling the name is doubling the function. So what does this combination mean?
By surname Stepanov
And named Stepan,
From the regional giants
The most important giant.
Stepan, the old form of Stefan, comes from the Greek word “stephanos”, “wreath”, that is, the hero, the most important of the giants, crowns the giant inflorescence. It's logical. Uncle Styopa embodies the spirit of the culture of totalitarianism. “...the whole individualism of culture... meant that each collective had its own individual representative,” despite the fact that the requirement for individuality “in reality<…>meant hierarchy.”
Stepan Stepanov is a local Moscow deity, monitoring the progress of the world order, debugging the movement of street life. But this deity seems to be not very significant, a kind of “genius loci”, and a rather limited place (by the way, the connection of the kinship term “uncle” with the idea of small “deities” was noted in the scientific literature).
Nicknamed “Kalancha,” Uncle Styopa is not a hero. His exploits do not go beyond the capabilities of a strong and physically developed person (and, very importantly, a courageous and determined person).
Here is one of many examples. Uncle Styopa saves a drowning man:
What's happened?
What kind of scream?
“This is a student drowning.
He fell off a cliff into the river -
Help the man!”
In front of all the people
Uncle Styopa climbs into the water.
If there is anything heroic here, there is certainly nothing extraordinary. The reaction of idle spectators will mislead only the extremely naive.
“This is extraordinary,”
Everyone shouts to him from the bridge. -
You, comrade, are knee-deep
All deep places!”
Common sense is against it: a schoolboy, even a seven-year-old, is drowning in a place where the river is as deep as his height, that is, a little more than a meter - what, Uncle Styopa’s shin is a meter long? This is not a statement of a real fact, but a modification of the well-known expression “a drunken sea is knee-deep” - it should be read “brave”. The others were frightened and crowded on the shore, talking among themselves.
Here's an example that's a little more complicated. Uncle Styopa again confronts the elements.
The house is burning around the corner
A hundred onlookers are standing around,
The team is putting up the ladders,
Fire hoses are used to extinguish a house.
The whole attic is already on fire,
Pigeons are fighting in the window.
In the yard in a crowd of guys
They say to Uncle Styopa:
“Is it really possible that together with the house
Will our pigeons burn?”
Uncle Styopa from the sidewalk
Reaches up to the attic
Through the fire and smoke of the fire
His hand reaches out.
He opens the window
They fly out of the window
Eighteen doves
And behind them is a sparrow.
It seems like a Herculean effort is going on here. But practically it’s more interesting: the writer skillfully deploys the cliché verbal formula: “Uncle, get the sparrow!”
You can compare the scene about the fire and Uncle Styopa with the scene from S. Marshak’s poem “The Story of an Unknown Hero.”
Many guys
Broad-shouldered and strong,
Many people wear
T-shirts and caps.
A lot in the capital
The same
Icons.
To a glorious feat
Every
Ready!
The episodes are similar in content. But the actions of the heroes are different. Marshak's hero strains all his strength. Mikhalkov's hero performs a heroic deed with a movement of his hand. And yet both heroes are similar. The hero is a typical young man “in his development” (to use a well-known expression), after eighteen years of Soviet power.
By the way, it is necessary to say separately about a detail that, due to the fact that many realities have been forgotten, is not paid attention to. The public who observes the actions of firefighters and does not interfere is not just onlookers, but a special kind of public.
For many decades, fires were a favorite spectacle for townspeople; at the sound of a fire pipe, the ringing of a signal bell, or simply seeing strong flashes in the distance, they hurried to the scene, some came from the other end of the city, just to see how firefighters were fighting the elements.
S. Rumyantsev wrote about the aesthetics and traditions of this kind of spectacle in his unfinished work. Thus, those whom the author calls onlookers are the embodiment of the past, symbols of a bygone way of life.
Moreover, if in Marshak the hero is presented at a critical moment, after which he disappears without even mentioning his name, then in Mikhalkov’s poem the very repetition, the rhythm of Uncle Styopa’s heroic deeds is important.
In structure, one episode of the poem is no different from another: an accident - curious townsfolk who do nothing - Uncle Styopa coming to the rescue. Such standard episodes with a single variable (the efforts of those responsible for order - firefighters, police) make up the first and second parts of the poem.
Uncle Styopa may be a well-known regional hero, but he, like others, is preparing “for work and defense” - jumping from a parachute tower in the Culture and Recreation Park, shooting at a shooting range. “...when a country orders you to be a hero, anyone becomes a hero!”
Thanks to his physical talent, he is already ready for both defense and work: the hero “outgrows” - due to his impressive growth - the framework of the proposed situations. Such are the scenes of jumping from the tower (“the tower wants to jump from the tower”) and visiting the shooting range. . What is the use of visiting a shooting range:
To the shooting range, under a low canopy,
Uncle Styopa barely got in.
…………………………
Looking around the shooting range with alarm,
The cashier says in response:
"You'll have to kneel,
Dear comrade, stand up -
You can target
Without a gun, you can reach it with your hand!”
Uncle Styopa stands out from the crowd, but the mechanical nature of his actions and inevitable success reduce all heroism to nothing. Soviet - mass - heroism is a problem of education, and not of superhuman effort.
In practice, Uncle Styopa only corrects problems that interfere with the smooth and measured flow of everyday life, for which a repair team is usually called in.
During the war, he does not do anything that the author would consider necessary to tell about. Uncle Styopa is an ordinary (even if somewhat special) Soviet person.
Well, Uncle Styopa is part of the social mechanism. However, it is interesting that in general this social mechanism plays the role of a simple mechanical device.
Uncle Styopa, in terms of his parameters, is still not a cog or a nut. He is a lever. This is not only an appropriate comparison for him, but also his literal function, judging by the actions he performs. The very nicknames (not nicknames!) that the guys award him testify to a special static pattern: tower - lighthouse - traffic light. That is precisely why it does not appear where there is increased dynamics of action (and therefore, so to speak, in terms of performance qualities it is not intended for feat as an impulse, but only for effort).
It acts exclusively in the vertical direction, lifting objects from the bottom up or extending its hand; it is not for nothing that the train driver, who was warned about the erosion of the track by Uncle Styopa, mistook it for a semaphore.
These characteristics also correspond to the laws on which the poem about Uncle Styopa is built. Within each part, space is isotropic and movement is uniform.
The relationship between space and time, among other things, indicates that this is not a fairy tale. Uncle Styopa ages in proportion to his age, according to when the next part of the poem is written.
In 1935 he was eighteen, in 1954 - thirty-seven, in 1968 - fifty-one. The age and the series of events are so realistic that funny distortions arise; in a work for children they remain beyond interpretation (for a decade and a half, Uncle Styopa remained and remained in the rank of police sergeant).
So, the hero embodies a new type - the Soviet man. It always appears where it is needed and performs the function that is relevant at the moment: a sliding staircase, a semaphore, a traffic light, a crane. He is not endowed with any personal qualities, he is not kind, not evil, not quick-tempered, not amorous. Its only social characteristic is its applicability in urban environments.
The material world, the environment by which a literary hero is usually defined, is sparse here, almost empty. From his Uncle Styopa: the closet from which he took books, the sofa to which he placed a stool when going to bed (one bolster reclined). In addition, the concept of “one’s own” is quite conditional. These are not personal belongings, but things in use, which is why the hero did not free himself from the sofa, and did not sleep on the floor, having rolled out a mattress for convenience: he lived, in all likelihood, in someone else’s apartment (the custom is to register in a separate apartment for very distant relatives or people who did not cause complete rejection was very common).
The distribution norms that exist in a society where everything is “on coupons” are not designed for Stepanov - Stepa does not focus on this. He perceives this as temporary troubles. Stepan fits perfectly into the norms of existence.
His height also fits into army standards. He is not that big, otherwise he would not have been taken into the army. Passes along the upper border. Tight to tight)
With your height on the plane
It's inconvenient to be on a flight -
Your legs will get tired -
You have nowhere to put them!
For people like you
There are no horses
And the navy needs you -
Serve for the country!
The navy is an ideal place of service for him, here the food is more plentiful, served according to different standards (traditional naval compote of dried fruits, a replacement for a glass of wine, wonderfully emphasizes the “childishness” of Uncle Styopa, this is a “sweet” third dish, loved by children). And the service life - extended in the navy - is just right for Uncle Styopa, following the artistic logic of the image.
However, even for its time, the hero’s growth was not so exotic, as evidenced by the reaction of observers:
And one day past the bridge
To the house eight fraction one
Uncle Steppe's height
A citizen is moving.
No surprise, no outburst of emotion. And the epithet proposed by the author is by no means hyperbolic:
Who, comrades, do you know?
With this prominent sailor?
Yes, he is prominent, that is, “tall, stately, dignified,” and therefore attracts attention, noticeable.
The appearance also indicates something:
Pleated uniform trousers,
He's wearing an overcoat under a belt,
Hands in woolen gloves,
The anchors shine on it.
In the army, where there is a constant shortage of clothes in slow sizes, they found a uniform for him according to his height.
The situation depicted in this episode is quite realistic. Uncle Styopa was drafted into the navy in 1935 or 1936. Four years of service are given in 1939 or 1940, but it was during these years that those who served their required term remained in the army “until the upcoming war,” and Uncle Styopa, who defended Leningrad, that is, who fought along with other sailors of the Baltic Fleet, could not get leave before the Leningrad blockade was lifted, which means not before the end of January 1944.
They really didn’t recognize the hero, because too much time had passed, the previous children had grown up, began to work on an equal basis with adults, some were drafted into the army, and Uncle Styopa is unknown to the current children. After all, almost eight years have passed.
He invites his new acquaintances to visit.
I'll rest. I'll put on my jacket.
I'll lie on the sofa.
Come in after tea -
I'll tell you a hundred stories!
The hero promises to tell about the large battleship “Marat”, almost certainly not about someone else’s ship, but about the one on which he himself served. Such a ship - a battleship, that is, a battleship - was the largest type of ship during the two world wars - it is a match for it.
But the next time cycle was ending: battleships in modern conditions did not represent a serious fighting force and therefore were removed from service, and a little later they were simply destroyed on the orders of N.S. Khrushchev, who saw in them symbols of the Stalin era.
When did Uncle Styopa go to work in the police? And - what interests us much more - why exactly to the police, and not, say, to the fire department, not to water rescuers, etc.?
The uncertainty that is present at the beginning of the second part of the poem (the action here is distant in time):
Who doesn't know Uncle Styopa?
Everyone knows Uncle Styopa!
Everyone knows that Uncle Styopa
Was once a sailor.
That he once lived a long time ago
At the Ilyich outpost.
And what was his nickname:
Uncle Styopa - Kalancha, -
The hero, taking into account his age, was demobilized (not due to injury - he was wounded “a little” while defending Leningrad, in addition, with a serious injury, especially with a disability, he would have been discharged, given a minimum pension) in 1945, at the most extreme - in 1946 And then he became a policeman.
Here we should recall a story suitable as an illustrative example. Yu. Nikulin was called to the district police department and asked why he was demobilized in May, but had not yet gotten a job, while it was September (this was happening in 1946). Having learned that he was not accepted into theater universities, they said - we need such people: front-line soldier, party member, secondary education. Nikulin even wondered whether to take advantage of the offer.
But the question - why Uncle Styopa went to the police - remains unanswered for now. Subjectively, everything is clear, and there is nothing to ask. He is a patriot, as the hero reports with some pomposity (he speaks to the children):
I'll tell you a secret,
That I serve in the police
Because this service
I find it very important!
Who with a rod and a pistol
On duty in winter and summer?
Our Soviet guard;
This is the same sentry!
It’s not for nothing that he avoids
Police post
And he's afraid of the police
One whose conscience is not clear.
One of the meanings of the word “fast”
“...a place or section of terrain where police officers (guards) perform duties to protect public order. A stationary police post is installed where it is necessary to ensure the constant presence of police officers. When setting up a post, its center and boundaries are determined. The center of the post is located in a place where it is most convenient to conduct observation and quickly take measures to prevent and suppress offenses. The distance between the boundaries and the center of the post should not exceed 300 m.”
The design of such a post is ideal for realizing the properties of the hero.
It is like a “pendulum”, testifying to the rhythm of state life (the post, as indicated, has a center and not too distant borders, within which the guard runs).
Stepan performs the same functions, he is still the same “sliding staircase” (lifts up a baby lost in the crowd at the station), “lifting mechanism” (bending down from the bridge, picks up an old woman, who is carried away by the current on an ice floe along with a basket of laundry), “ observation point” (from a distance notices a mischievous man who offended two students).
Uncle Styopa again appears where he is needed, with mechanical obligatoriness - he removes the obstacle and restores the lost rhythm of the social mechanism.
For example, in a case when a traffic light breaks down and no one - typically, not even an ORD employee sitting in a glass booth - is able to do anything, the hero comes to the rescue.
Stepan did not argue -
I took out the traffic light with my hand,
Looked into the middle
Something turned up somewhere...
At the same moment
The right light came on.
Movement restored
There are no traffic jams!
After this, the kids no longer call it “Mayak”, but “Traffic Light”.
As we see, all the functions of the hero, mentioned at the level of significant episodes in the first part, are duplicated in the second, albeit determined by a different context.
Uncle Styopa, a policeman, has a task not of punitive, but of supervisory, control, and yet he is usually assigned a regulatory, debugging function, although his job responsibilities do not include anything like that: Uncle Styopa repairs the traffic light (becoming, as it were, a new fuse that is replaced so that the device continues to work). While on duty, he regulates this or that everyday situation: he helped a lost baby find his mother, and “the family did not fall apart,” he reined in a bully who did not want to pay money to the cash register, and he paid.
The central episode of the second part requires special consideration.
The guys walked past the building
What's on Vosstanya Square,
Suddenly they look - Stepan is standing,
Their favorite giant!
Everyone froze in surprise:
- Uncle Styopa! It is you?
This is not your department
And not your area of Moscow!
The words of the guys indicate the static nature of the hero, his inherent quality - he can’t even move anywhere, he is tied to his area and his department, but that’s not the point.
It can be assumed that the guys who know where Uncle Styopa works and even his police department live nearby from there, and ended up on Vosstaniya Square by accident (well, for example, they were going to the zoo). Why was Uncle Styopa here? He answers, as always, vaguely:
Uncle Styopa saluted
He smiled and winked:
- I received an honorary post!
And now on the pavement,
Where the building is high-rise,
There is a high-altitude guard!
Logically, the vertical dominant, which is the high-rise building on Vosstaniya Square, indeed requires an environment commensurate with it, a “high-rise guardhouse.” But this is a particular thing; it is much more important that the high-rise building itself did not appear by chance. Conceived as an accompaniment to the vertical of the Palace of the Soviets, “a necklace of eight verticals reveals the central core of the capital; their carefully thought-out location is connected both with the topography of the city and with the structure of its plan”21 (the eighth building, which should have been located in Zaryadye, was not built, as, in fact, the Palace of the Soviets).
The building mentioned in the poem is remarkable in its own way: “The high-rise residential building on Vosstaniya Square (1950 - 1954, architects M. Posokhin and A. Mndoyants, engineer M. Vokhomsky) forms a spectacular completion of large sections of the Garden Ring and radial streets; it dominates the territory of the zoo, which lies in low areas, and the districts of Krasnaya Presnya. The wings of the building rise in steep terraces to 18 floors; the 22nd floor has a central volume, above which an octagonal tower with a tent-spire rises up to 160 m. This building contains 452 apartments. The ledges of the wings provided a transition from the powerful main massif to the surrounding buildings”22. By the way, it was built just opposite the house where Sergei Mikhalkov lived during the creation of the poem and lives to this day. The address may have formally changed due to renaming or changing the numbering of houses, but both the house and apartment remained the same.
However, this is not the main thing. And to introduce the reader to the essence of the matter, an excursion into history is needed.
The shortage of personnel in the police after the war and the low level of their training required emergency measures: organizational and educational.
“...the core of mass patriotic education was supposed to be the idea of “Moscow patriotism,” to which in one of its public speaking 1947 was directly indicated by the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks G. M. Popov. The same speech contained a symbolic definition of Moscow as the center of the “Slavic world.”
A number of events were timed to coincide with the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow (1947), and a closed government decree on the construction of eight Moscow skyscrapers dates back to January of the same year.
The next stage - the transition from the propaganda of “Moscow patriotism”, which had become obsolete due to political circumstances, to all-Russian patriotism - took shape in the spring of 1949.
But new actions to improve the work of the police, as well as staffing and selection of personnel, did not yield anything. This was followed by a Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated August 27, 1953, as well as an order of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs dated September 17, 1953, again related to reorganization issues.
It is interesting that the head of the GUM Political Department I.A. Kozhina proposed to allow the publication of an all-Union police magazine and to assist creative workers in creating literary works and feature films about the police. This is how things unfolded!
Enough chronicles and stories... Suffice it to say that the reorganization entailed such important consequences as the withdrawal of the police from the MGB system, as well as a decrease in the crime rate, which by that time had increased significantly (thanks to Beria for the amnesty of criminals in 1953).
This activity also affected artistic production: classic Soviet films about the police were released, and books about them appeared. Finally, the second part of the poem appeared - “Uncle Styopa is a policeman.”
Its text captures the vicissitudes of state ideology projected onto police construction. From a Moscow deity, Uncle Styopa - with a change in ideological doctrine - automatically moves to the rank of a state deity (the solarity of the hero is emphasized by a sign located at the level of the navel - a shiny coat of arms on a belt buckle, another sign - a cockade).
And now among the giants,
Those that the whole country knows,
Stepan Stepanov is alive and well -
Former naval sergeant major.
He walks around the area
From yard to yard,
And again he’s wearing shoulder straps,
With a pistol holster.
Inscribed in the “nationwide”, “Moscow” remains, it is not for nothing that courtyards are mentioned again (by the sixties, they were increasingly opening up outward, into the city whole: the gates were not locked at night, and the gate doors themselves disappeared, massive and useless iron hinges remained sticking out in the walls ). Uncle Styopa’s behavior reveals: “Look around, son!” - he says to the boy lost at the station. The moment will come when Uncle Styopa will finally become a father.
This is where we should have ended. The eventless third and fourth parts of the poem - “Uncle Styopa and Yegor” and “Uncle Styopa - Veteran” - are qualitatively different from the previous parts; they can be regarded as extensive insertions before the ending, albeit devoid of any artistic merit, but logically connected with the previous text.
The hero lived and grew up together with the country, and together with the country he plunged into old age, similar to childhood. Let us recall that the fourth part was published on June 1, 1981 in the newspaper Pravda. This is a period later called stagnation, the rich folklore of which varied the plot of L. I. Brezhnev, who fell into childhood, in this and that way.
Uncle Styopa communicates only with children, and slightly despises his veteran peers who slaughter a goat. But his position in the world has also changed - whether the world has grown, or whether the hero has decreased. He flies to Paris on a ticket, sitting in the passenger seat, although the narrow spaces between the rows of seats are not very comfortable for an ordinary passenger.
The translator's joke in the Paris episode that Uncle Styopa is a little lower than the Eiffel Tower should be understood precisely as a joke. And as a gesture of politeness one should take the statement that he
...they called it everywhere
In French - “Giant”.
Only a few years will pass before the beginning of the historical period called “perestroika”, and the hero will finally recede into the background.
And yet there is no need to accuse the author of opportunism and embellishing the ugly reality. The phenomenon of S. Mikhalkov - and his famous hero - is that both the hero and his creator quite sincerely and organically fit into any historical period.
Let us give one indirect argument: the period from 1934 to 1936 was the first more or less well-fed period after the collapse of the NEP. The card system was even abolished, just for a short time.
During this small period of time, Uncle Styopa managed to appear, familiar to everyone from childhood, whether you are a reader or a listener.