1743 The Russian-Swedish war has just ended in victory. The new Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who has not yet come into power, cannot reconcile her two main assistants - the actual Privy Councilor Count Lestocq and Vice-Chancellor Alexei Bestuzhev. Lestok starts an intrigue with an alleged conspiracy against him and the empress, in which members of the Bestuzhev family are involved. At the same time, three students of the Moscow Maritime Academy, founded by Peter the Great with the aim of training midshipmen for the growing Russian fleet - Alexey Korsak, Nikita Olenev and Alexander Belov - for various reasons run away from school and unwittingly become accomplices in the political adventure started by Lestocq. Young people longed for adventure and glory, and now they have to prove in practice that courage, honor, friendship and loyalty are not empty words.
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Nina Sorotokina
Three from the navigation school
Dedicated to my sons
PART ONE
Let's go, Kotov is at home.
Prince Nikita Olenev, a tall fellow with an awkward figure, put his hand on Alexei’s shoulder, as if pushing him towards the door, and the third of the young men, Sasha Belov, passionately exclaimed:
Why not? You are a nobleman! Or do you go and, in our presence, demand an apology from this scoundrel, or, forgive me, Alyoshka, how can you look us in the eye?
What if he refuses to apologize? - Alexey muttered, resisting Nikita’s gently pushing hand.
Then you'll slap him back! - Belov shouted even more furiously.
He had foreseen this hesitation at the door and now gave vent to his indignation.
You all hesitate! You walk like a girl, afraid to spill your blush. Why do you carry a sword on your hip? These are not theatrical props for you. Maybe you'll change your uniform to women's rags?
Having already uttered his last words, Belov realized that there was no need to remember about the theater now, why etch the wounds. Alyoshka was already at the limit, but it was too late. No wonder they said at school: “Fear the goat in front, the horse from behind, and the quiet Alyosha Korsak from all sides.”
Props, you say? - Alexey dropped his hand from his shoulder, which was no longer pushing towards the door, but was patting soothingly, stepped back and pulled the sword out of its sheath:
I won’t let you!.. Hanguard position! Defend yourself, Belov!
Sirs, are you sane? - Nikita Olenev only managed to shout.
Later, Alexey told his friends that he pulled out the sword without intent, just because he didn’t want to fight at all. “Your eyes, however, were dangerous,” answered Nikita.
These “dangerous” eyes forced Olenev to put out his hand, moving the tip of the sword away from the chest of the astonished Belov. The sword struck the open palm and hung, lowered to the floor. Belov regained the gift of speech.
You hurt his hand, you crazy guy! You never know in advance what you will throw out!
Suddenly the door swung open, and a dry-built man in a black camisole appeared on the threshold. He came out into the noise, intending to reprimand the cadets, but he froze with an edifying finger raised. A special decree prohibited the carrying of weapons at school, and here not only did the cadet carry a sword, but he also started a fight.
Why are you here?.. - Kotov began menacingly and fell silent, because Alexey Korsak was walking right at him, putting his sword forward.
Kotov's eyes widened. The sight of the trembling blade did not so much frighten him as discourage him. Have you ever seen a student go armed against a teacher?
Belov was the first to come to his senses and rushed to take away the sword, and the incensed Alexey, who had forgotten what he had in his hands, decided that they wanted to prevent him from explaining himself to Kotov.
Step aside, Alexander! - he shouted, pushing Belov away.
The sword began to shake, cutting the air with a whistle.
Give it back, you fools,” Belov demanded.
I won’t give it back,” Korsak insisted, not understanding what he had to give and frantically remembering the words that etiquette demanded: “For your outrage, sir, I have come to demand satisfaction!” - he finally shouted.
What outrage? Come to your senses! - exclaimed Kotov.
You slapped me!
You are lying!
At that moment, Belov unclenched Alyosha’s fingers, white from effort, the sword shot up and with its very tip tore off the wig that adorned the teacher’s head. The wig described a smooth trajectory and fell straight into the hands of Nikita, who had just finished bandaging his bleeding palm with a handkerchief. The young prince raised his eyes and, seeing Kotov’s bald, smooth head like a jug and the stunned face of Kotov, laughed loudly, indecently. The echo scattered through the corridors, like a scale played on a trumpet. And then Belov’s call came to Alexei’s understanding, but he interpreted it in his own way.
And I will give it back! - he shouted passionately. - I'll give it in full! If there wasn’t your slap, then mine is there... - And he backhanded the drooping cheek, so much so that his hand then ached, as if from hard work.
Kotov only had time to shout: “Uh-uh,” and ran backwards into the room. Alexander quickly slammed the door and, picking up the stunned Korsak, rushed away along the corridor. Nikita hung his wig on the doorknob and, laughing loudly, rushed after his friends.
How did you end up with a sword? - Alexander asked angrily when they, catching their breath, ran out into the street.
I'm from the theater. - Only now Alexey realized what he had done. - Now that’s it, it’s over... to become a soldier... or to Siberia! Kotov decided that I had come to kill him. Why didn't you stop me?
Okay, you have it. - Belov also allowed himself a smile. - My face will now blow up with a bubble. And what a bang, gentlemen!
They walked down the street, waving their arms, remembering new details and funny details. Alexei trudged behind, sighing sadly.
It’s scary to even imagine such a thing,” he said. - You will be imprisoned and released, but what will happen to me?
Don't whine! - shouted Olenev. - We will all answer this together. Keep your nose up, midshipmen!
And they went to the tavern to wash the slap.
The described event took place under the arches of the Sukharev Tower, where in the forties of the 18th century the Naval Academy, or simply a navigation school, was located, training midshipmen for the Russian fleet. Once upon a time, Russia really needed a navigation school. The sea was the true passion of Peter I. He decided to train almost all of his nobility in maritime service in order to turn noble children into captains, engineers and shipwrights. For these purposes, a school of mathematical and navigational arts was opened in Moscow in 1701. Cadets were recruited forcibly, like recruits into a regiment. The children of nobles, clerks, and non-commissioned officers sat at common desks. The training was conducted “officially,” that is, according to all the rules. Aberdeen University professor Forvarson and two assistants taught marine science to the youngsters. Leonty Magnitsky, author of the famous Mathematics, taught a digital course. Peter's tireless comrade-in-arms, Bruce, equipped an observatory in the upper tier of the Sukharev Tower and himself and the cadets observed the movement of the heavenly bodies. The average person avoided the school on Sretenka, considering it a hangout for warlocks. They said about Bruce that he sold his soul to the devil for the secret of living and dead water. After Peter's death, many of his undertakings were abandoned. The heirs to the throne were engaged in executions, hunting and balls. Former comrades-in-arms of the reformer, who saw the meaning of life in serving the state, after the death of their idol, shed the guise of patriots and remembered their own vital needs. In Russia it was easier to build a fleet than to instill an understanding of the need for this fleet. Now, when the ships were quietly rotting in the shallow Kronstadt harbors, remembering the battles of Gangut and Grenham, when the very idea of Russia as a maritime power became unnecessary and was kept only out of habit, the Moscow Navigation School completely withered away. Even under Peter the Great, in 1715, a Naval Academy was created in St. Petersburg to teach the entire nautical science, and at the Sukharev school, although it was renamed an academy following the example of the capital, it was prescribed to have only elementary courses.
But transferring the cadets, or, as they were called, “sea pets,” to St. Petersburg for further training was troublesome and expensive, and again, after passing arithmetic, they began to somehow teach round and flat navigation, naval astronomy and other wisdom.
The Admiralty Board looked over the staff of the navigation school with bewilderment - should it be closed completely or merged with another educational institution? At the St. Petersburg Academy, the students live in barracks, the guards officers maintain strict order in the classrooms, but in Moscow everything is the old fashioned way. And how to teach “frunt” to a horde in tattered, tattered uniforms? How to force the “sea guards” scattered in the slums to go to classes, if from hunger and homesickness the cadets seemed to become drunk, looked independently and fell into insolence, the most innocent of which was robbing a monastery garden or a bakery?
In those days, the appetite for knowledge was instilled by flogging. Every ignoramus perceived the words “beat” and “teach” as synonyms. But the navigation school broke all records. So many rods were brought to it that the above-mentioned educational institution could rather be mistaken for a factory for the production of baskets and other products from flexible vines.
The rods were dumped in a spacious basement room, nicknamed the “kruit chamber” by the cadets, and daily executions took place there. The right corner of the basement was divided into nooks in which the hours and days of the guardhouse were counted. They flogged me for the slightest offense, and most of all for my reluctance to learn. Nothing disgusted land cadets more than the sea. It seemed to them that they were being trained to play the role of drowned men, and all this hubbub about the defense of the fatherland, sailing directions, foremasts and navigation was nothing more than a ritual before that terrible hour when they would go to the bottom. “Even if it’s a bad service, but on the shore,” was the prayer of the cadets. There were, however, those at school in whom the sea aroused not fear, but curiosity and even interest, and they connected their ambitious plans precisely with the fleet. Among these cadets were Alyosha Korsak, an unsuccessful duelist. But what a joke of fate!
Mar 21, 2017Three from the navigation school Nina Sorotokina
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Title: Three from the navigation school
“Life is for the Motherland, honor is for no one.” This is the motto of the “Russian Musketeers”, midshipmen Alyosha Korsak, Sasha Belov and Nikita Olenev. Probably everyone in the post-Soviet space knows them. But few people have read the book “Three from the Navigation School,” on which the film “Midshipmen, Forward!” was based.
And it was written in the 80s by a specialist in plumbing systems, the wife of the brilliant physicist Felix Ulinich, Nina Sorotokina. I wrote it without any particular ambitions, for my growing sons. However, it so happened that it was her “Midshipmen” that became the most recognizable heroes of Russian literature of the late twentieth century.
Nina Sorotokina writes superbly, easily, cleanly, inserting just enough outdated words into the text so that they do not interfere, but the reader feels the spirit of the times. That is why, probably, when you start reading “Three from the Navigation School,” it seems that the book was written in the 19th century and the writer who invented the three friends has long been dead. But Nina Sorotokina is alive and well, lives in the village, writes books. After the novel “Three from the Navigation School” was put into print, Sorotokina with a light heart abandoned the study of sewerage projects and devoted herself to creativity. She also called director Svetlana Druzhinina at Mosfilm and asked to read her unpublished novel. Oddly enough, Druzhinina agreed. This is how the well-known “Midshipmen” were born.
The book and the film are, of course, different. The novel has less action, chases and sword swinging, but more excursions into history. When Nina Sorotokina began writing “Three from the Navigation School,” she said, she did not leave the historical library. And from this point of view, her “Midshipmen” compares favorably with Dumas’ “Musketeers” - all the historical events described in the book really happened.
Whether you watched Midshipmen 30 years ago, rewatched it last week, or didn't watch it at all, it's a fun read. Even if you know the film by heart, you will still discover a lot of new things. And, by the way, it is not at all necessary to abandon the images created by Kharatyan and Zhigunov in the film. The writer said in an interview that when she saw her midshipmen at the auditions, she almost lost consciousness. Because these were not the actors who would play the roles, but they were the “Three from the Navigation School” - Alyosha, Sasha and Nikita, about whom she wrote.
“Three from the Navigation School” is the first book in the series about midshipmen. Sorotokina wrote three more: “Date in St. Petersburg”, “Chancellor” and “The Law of Couples”. They should be read in this order.
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