The main action of the novel takes place in Moscow in 1899-1900.

Chapter one

Nadia Oleksina, the youngest in the family, could “become a spoiled toy” for older brothers and sisters if a series of misfortunes had not fallen on a large family. First, my mother died, then one of the brothers died in a duel. The elder brother, who escaped from Turkish captivity, shot himself, and the sister-folklore detonated on a bomb that she wanted to throw at the governor. Unable to bear these shocks, his father died.

Ivan Oleksin remained in the Vysokoy family estate, who was drunk on the sly due to the fact that his bride had abandoned him.

Nadia was brought up by the older sister of Varvara, the wife of the millionaire Khomyakov. Once she married a ruined merchant and helped him up, laying down a family estate.

Now the Khomyakovs lived in a huge Moscow mansion. Despite their wealth, they were not accepted in high society: Khomyakov was “of the peasants”, and Varvara’s mother was serf. Nadya Khomyakov loved and considered his pupil.

In the graduating class of an elite female gymnasium, Nadia wrote a fairy tale, which was published in a magazine. On the wave of success, Nadia began scribbling stories, but the editors of the magazines refused to publish them. Khomyakov believed that Nadia had exhausted her supply of ideas.

Literature - not plots, literature - but Russian in particular - a stock of ideas.

Soon Nadya entered private courses, where she listened to lectures on journalism and firmly decided to become a famous journalist.

At this time, Nadia fell in love with a friend of his brother George, Lieutenant Odoevsky. George often brought a friend to the Khomyakovs, but he did not give in to flirtation at Nadenkin, and she sobbed in the evenings in the pillow. Sister Barbara believed that these were happy tears, and “everything natural is rational,” however, it is not worth building a family on a sensual attraction.

Love is incredibly powerful attraction of souls to each other. Soul, not leaping flesh.

Once the butler and trusted man Khomyakova told the owner that at five in the morning Odoevsky left their house. The maid of the girl Grapa was immediately dismissed, and George, risking his career, challenged Odoevsky to a duel.

Odoevsky’s bullet touched the shoulder strap on George’s shoulder, but he refused the shot, for which he was proclaimed a hero. Khomyakov told about everything to General Fyodor Oleksin - the only one of the Oleksins who chose a court career, which is why the rest of the family treated him with coolness. The general got a promotion with a promotion for his brother.

Chapter two

For Nadia, they hired a new maid, Fenichka, with whom the girl quickly became friends. Khomyakov thought that Nadya sat up in the girls, and decided to arrange a magnificent Christmas holiday in order to choose a worthy groom for her.

Nadia, calmed down and repenting, did not give up the idea of ​​becoming a great journalist.

If Russian literature made it clear that there is a serf and there is a master, then Russian journalism must compel the gentlemen to hear the howl of the people.

Nadia refused to celebrate Christmas and left for Vysokoe, to forgive her forgiveness from her parents' graves.

In High, meanwhile, Benevolensky appeared, the husband of Nadina’s sister-democrat, who had once been blown up by a bomb. He escaped from Yakutia, with indefinite penal servitude, and hoped that the Oleksins would help him with the documents. Benevolensky straightened out his passport with a butler who had come to the estate to arrange a holiday for Nadia.

Nadia happily spent Christmas - she decorated a Christmas tree for peasants, she wondered with Fenichka on Christmas night. During the fortune-telling, it was necessary to eavesdrop on under the windows, and Nadia heard a conversation between her brother Ivan and Belevolensky, which made her think.Benevolensky believed that the revolution would turn the Russian people into a mad crowd.

Crowds ‹...› rush to crush offenders as soon as they feel impunity. Therefore, we can fight for freedom only gradually, only in a parliamentary way ...

In the morning, Nadya learned that at night someone had stolen toys from a Christmas tree decorated for peasants. The holiday was hopelessly spoiled, and the girl returned to Moscow.

Crying at the grave of her parents, Nadia told her sister the truth: she did not sleep with Odoevsky, he just sat all night in her room in the presence of a maid. She did this because of an incomprehensible whim.

Chapter three

Moscow was waiting for the coronation of the next emperor. The Moscow Governor-General entrusted all preparations to Fedor Oleksin. He began to often visit the Khomyakovs and talk about the lack of will and alcohol addiction of the future Emperor Nicholas II.

Nadia refused the holiday until Fedor introduced the elderly and wealthy bachelor Vologodov into the house of the Khomyakovs. Fedor spoke about the festivities on the Khodynka field, which will be held in honor of the coronation and will be held under police protection.

Supervised holiday, ‹...›. It is really in Russian traditions: have fun, but look around.

This conversation led Nadia to the idea of ​​arranging a Masquerade at Shrovetide. The girl argued that Vologodov would not recognize her.

Nadia decided that all the ladies and their maids in a masquerade would be in masks so that it would be more convenient for her and Fenichka to switch places. At the masquerade, Fenichka shone in the costume of Semiramis, and the girl served the ladies under the guise of a helpful maid.

Deception did not succeed - Vologodov recognized Nadya.

Chapter Four

Nadia refused to develop her secular success, saying that she wants to take place as a person, and not to find a rich husband.

Only an accomplished person is wealthy, and not someone else’s wealth inherited.

Spring has come. All day long, Nadia and Fenichka wandered around Moscow, watching how workers' artels adorn the capital for the upcoming coronation. Khomyakov ironically considered all the magnificent preparations the convulsions of the “long-aging Russian autocracy”, and he saw the future of Russia not in revolution, but in economic reforms.

Vologodov increasingly appeared in the Khomyakovs. This reserved person, educated and educated in England as a true gentleman and survived the betrayal of his beloved, only now realized how lonely he was and did not miss the chance to see Nadia.

Unaware of Vologodov’s feelings, Nadya spent days on the streets, where she met the nobleman of the Nizhny Novgorod Ivan Kalyaev. Girls and a young man met often. Nadia showed him the city and introduced him to the Khomyakovs.

Chapter five

A little later, Khomyakov introduced Nadia to his old friend, a well-known journalist and fiction writer Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Vologodov showed Nadia, Fenichka and Kalyaev how the emperor arrives at the station. Examining the magnificent motorcade, Nadia felt a holy awe - History was happening before her eyes. Ivan, on the other hand, called the imperial family "the German electors who had reached the Russian throne."

History is the soul of the people. ‹...› Spirit, not form. And we have a form, but certainly not a spirit. In this expression, the story becomes immoral, ‹...› deceitful and dead.

This statement of Kalyaev seemed Nadia angry and pathos.

Chapter six

Nadia stopped dating Kalyaev. Instead of walking around Moscow, she went to the Patriarch's Ponds, where she met with Grapa, her former maid, who was fired because of her whim.

Nadia failed to see the coronation. In the evening, Nadenka and the Khomyakovs admired the illumination of Moscow streets. At the end of the walk, they met Nemirovich-Danchenko and invited him to dinner, during which they talked about the future of Russia.

Khomyakov believed that in Russia there is no balance between form and content - the ruling circles worship external splendor and do not see national poverty.This balance is difficult to restore gradually, so Russia faces a revolution.

And the crowd is always a beast. A crowd of people who have lost their minds instantly.

Nadia asked Nemirovich-Danchenko if he would protect her like a famous journalist. He refused, adding that the young ladies are interviewed only in America, and Nadia is “a storyteller both by letter and by nature,” so let the children write fairy tales.

Chapter seven

The next evening, the Khomyakovs went to the Bolshoi Theater, where a performance was to take place in the presence of the emperor. Nadia decided to go to the Khodynskoye field, meet among ordinary people, write an excellent article and prove to Nemirovich-Danchenko that the girl could become a journalist.

Fenichka and Nadia, dressed as governess, went to Khodynka at night, although the distribution of imperial gifts and festivities were scheduled for ten in the morning. In a deep ravine behind the field, the girls found many people who had also arrived in advance and spent the night at bonfires.

After wandering between the fires until dawn and having heard plenty of conversations, the girls decided to return home. They climbed to Khodynka and found themselves between two masses of people - one rose from the ravine, and the other came from Moscow. Nadia was torn from Fenichka, twisted and squeezed with incredible force.

A lot of people with their characters, gait, face, temperament, age, finally turned into a Living Headless Monster, the cell of which every person became ...

Human movements carried Nadia along with them. She ran in a tightly closed row, finely seed, so as not to fall - a fall meant death. Thousands of shuffling feet lifted a cloud of fine dust over Khodynka, which prevented breathing.

After some time, the crowd threw away almost nothing understanding Nadia to the mountain of corpses and still living people. It was impossible to get around her, and the girl crawled along her head and back, and the hands of the dying grabbed her clothes, hair. Of the last forces, half-naked, the girl climbed under the booth and lost consciousness.

And Fenichka was crushed in a narrow passage between the buffets.

Chapter eight

At the theater, Fedor told Khomyakov about a spineless emperor with running eyes, who listens to everyone, and especially his relative, the Moscow governor-general.

At the end of the evening, it became known that the chief police officer asked the governor-general for soldiers to surround the Khodynka field, but he only allocated a platoon of Cossacks - the rest of the troops were involved in parades and shows. In the morning, he set off three more non-combatant companies under the command of Nikolai Oleksin, one of Nadia’s brothers, and forbade the emperor to be disturbed.

What is not in the schedule of coronation celebrations approved by the emperor, there is none at all. Does not exist…

Nemirovich-Danchenko for a long time could not believe the rumors of a wild crush on Khodynka, but soon he saw everything with his own eyes.

The corpses were removed by this time, the orchestra was playing, clowns were playing in booths, and rumpled people with missing faces were sitting on the grass and were silent. The journalist looked into the ravine behind the field and was stupefied - he was full of crushed people with blue faces.

The familiar clown whispered to the journalist that under the booth lies the body of a woman, judging by the noble linen. Soon Nemirovich-Danchenko and Nikolai Oleksin removed the insensitive, slightly living Nadia from under the booth.

Chapter nine

Having delivered Nadya to the hospital, Nemirovich-Danchenko reported the tragedy to Khomyakov. All the following days, Barbara spent at her sister's bedside. Meanwhile, the journalist with Ivan Kalyaev was looking for the body of Fenichka. The sight of hundreds of corpses greatly influenced Ivan - he walked along the rows with coffins and said: “I will remember. I’ll remember that ... ”

Nadia did not find physical damage, but her nervous system was badly damaged. The girl could not get rid of the memories of Khodynka.

All the senses betrayed her, did not submit to her any more, and in every possible way reminded her, their mistress, of their offended feelings.

The girl learned to escape in the memories of her childhood. She did not talk with others and almost did not sleep - she was afraid that she would dream of Khodynka. She recognized that Fenichka was no longer there, but she still did not have the strength to torment her conscience. Nadia for a long time plunged into a state of limitless horror.

And the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation were underway, and all of Europe was amazed at the "lead indifference" of the Russian emperor.

Chapter ten

A few days later, Grapa came to the Khomyakov and asked to hire her as a nurse. Reluctantly, Khomyakov agreed, and Grapa settled in the hospital, replacing Varvara.

Ivan Kalyaev believed that the Moscow Governor was to blame for the Khodynka tragedy.

The presumption of innocence should not exist for national tragedies.

The presence of Grapa brought Nadia a feeling of reliability and peace. The girl was able to sleep. She was more and more immersed in childhood memories and accumulated strength to survive what happened.

Chapter eleven

Fenichka was buried. At the funeral service, Khomyakov noticed how Ivan Kalyaev had changed - “something new had already formed in the young man that could not heal so easily.” Khomyakov decided to seriously talk with him in order to protect him from mistakes.

After the funeral, Fedor appeared to the Khomyakov, not suspecting what had happened to his younger sister. The head of Fedor was busy with the schedule of imperial entertainment, in which there was no time to visit the cemetery of innocent victims. He could not understand how much Nadenka suffered.

Professor Pirogov who treated Nadia believed that the girl was “in a state of active self-torture” and blamed herself for the death of Fenichka. To recover, she needs to cry, but even after that the girl will not be the same.

The whole depth of Nadina’s disease was understood only by Vologodov in love with her.

Vologodov ‹...› he disappeared all day in the Khomyakov’s house, because his second and last love had to come back from here and here.

Chapter twelve

Each year, Barbara celebrated the anniversary of the death of her mother. This year, she canceled a trip to the estate to the graves of her parents, limited to a requiem.

Before leaving for St. Petersburg, Ivan Kalyaev appeared to say goodbye to Khomyakov. At the University of St. Petersburg, he hoped to find like-minded people who believed that it was necessary to change the form that crushed the content. Khomyakov realized that he was late for a conversation - Ivan had matured in a matter of days, and it was useless to dissuade him.

Nadia’s elder brother arrived, a wise Tolstoyan, tried to talk with her sister about the soul that had hurt her so much.

The body is a form. The soul is the content. And the beautiful form may be empty, and the great soul to vegetate in a rotten log house.

Nadia did not find solace in a conversation with her older brother.

The Oleksins brothers decided to take their sister home, hoping that she would feel better in her native walls.

Chapter thirteen

The brothers were mistaken: Nadia was not ready to meet with the memory of Fenichka and fell into apathy, fleeing the torment of conscience, because the maid died because of her whim. She perked up a bit after learning that Benevolensky had arrived in Moscow with Ivan. Nadia compared herself to her sister, the wife of Benevolensky, who fell on the bomb to save the children of the governor. But Benevolensky could not find the right words and dissuade Nadia, who believed that ...

Cruelty, lies and predatory, bestial, insatiable greed - these are the three whales on which the world stands. And he will stand until he tramples himself.

The girl asked to keep Ivan Kalyaev, who, unlike the sister-peoples, could trample this world.

Only Nicholas wife could stir Nadenka. This narrow-minded little bourgeois reminded Nadia of a man in love with her. The girl met with Vologodov, who immediately offered her a hand and a heart.

Chapter fourteen

Nadia asked Vologodov for time to think, and when he was happy, he left, with a sigh, she said: "He loves the uniform ... So, I’m not there."Varvara realized that Nadia was afraid to bring misfortune to Vologodov, as Fenichka brought him.

Vologodov persuaded Varvara to take his sister to the disgraced old man Epiphanius, exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery.

This summer, Varvara did not go to her sons for the first time, who lived and studied in Europe. She sent her husband instead, and herself, accompanied by Vologodov, drove Nadia to the Solovetsky Monastery.

Upon learning that Khomyakov was traveling to Europe, Benevolensky asked to take him with him. He vowed that he was not a supporter of terror, but professed the "phased destruction of the existing system."

At the first stage - a constitutional monarchy, at the second - a bourgeois republic. Without bombs, revolvers and terror, but, in English, by parliamentary struggle.

Khomyakov drove Benevolensky across the border as a representative of his company.

From Arkhangelsk, Nadia was transported to the Solovetsky Island. Before that, the girl told Barbara that she had kept her mind, sacrificing her ambitions. Now she only dreams of a good husband and healthy children, borrowing this dream from Fenichka.

Epiphanius, a small, gray-haired old man, locked Nadia in a deaf cell alone with the icon of the Blessed Yaroslavl Intercessor and the Comforter "Satisfy My Sorrows." Only here Nadia was able to cry.

Sobbing, she returned to her sister, and when she calmed down, she agreed to become Vologodov's wife.

Epilogue

Nadia became strict, unsmiling and very religious. Vologodov loved her and all his life he hoped that Nadenkin’s soul would rise again, but a miracle did not happen.

A bomb is a bomb, even when it is covered with its own body.

Khomyakov made friends with Benevolensky, and soon mysterious guests began to visit his mansion. Barbara ceased to trust her husband and soon broke up with him, and the sons took her side. Left alone, Khomyakov moved to Switzerland, where he shot himself.

Grigory Oleksin resigned, went to war in South Africa and died in battle.

“The case of the tragic consequences due to insufficient compliance with the order when distributing gifts on the Khodynsky field” was dropped on the brakes and written off to the archive.

Persons of the first and second grades The rank tables have never been, and indeed could not be, guilty of anything.

Ivan Kalyaev became a fighter and killed the culprit of the Khodynka tragedy, the Moscow Governor-General. He was arrested at the scene of the murder and hanged a few months later.

On the day of his execution, Nadia’s daughter, Kaleria Vologodova, turned five years old ...