The Created Legend · Chapter
XVI explained
Elisaveta and Trirodov visit Voronok to find the family of a murdered worker, attend the funeral which becomes a tense political demonstration, and later observe a provocative detective in a tavern.
What happens
Elisaveta and Trirodov visit Voronok to find the family of a murdered worker, attend the funeral which becomes a tense political demonstration, and later observe a provocative detective in a tavern.
Themes in this chapter
Revolution and Social Upheaval
The funeral of the murdered workers becomes a site of political demonstration, with police surveillance, Cossacks, and a forbidden speech.
Death and Resurrection
The chapter centers on the death of workers and the funeral rites, with the crowd's revolutionary song suggesting a symbolic resurrection of spirit.
Class Conflict and Culture
The stark contrast between the poor, the police, and the revolutionary activists highlights class tensions.
Characters to notice
- Elisaveta
Accompanies Trirodov to Voronok's house, visits the dead worker's family, attends the funeral, and goes to a tavern afterward.
- Trirodov
Meets Elisaveta at the gates, informs her about the authorities' actions, visits Voronok, attends the funeral, and goes to the tavern with Elisaveta.
- Voronok
A Social Democratic Party worker who provides information about the dead worker's family and accompanies Elisaveta and Trirodov.
- Bodeyev
The instructor who attempts to give a speech at the funeral but is stopped by the colonel of the gendarmes.
- Borodulin
A drunkard in a red shirt who boasts of being a detective and harasses people in the street.
- Stchemilov
Mentioned as having been arrested after a search of his house.
Key passages
“The whole picture of the life of the poor was here in all its sordidness; dirty, malicious children played here, and abused each other, and wrangled; a drunkard reeled; grey buckets swung on a grey wooden yoke across the shoulders of a grey woman in a worn grey dress.”
The scene vividly depicts the grim poverty of the neighborhood: grimy, quarrelsome children, a staggering drunk, and a woman in gray carrying buckets.
Illustrates the oppressive environment of the poor.
“The colonel of the gendarmes went up to him, and said sternly: 'It is forbidden. I must ask you to do without speeches or demonstrations.'”
The gendarme colonel forbids Bodeyev from making a speech at the funeral.
Shows state suppression of political expression.
“Then suddenly a voice was heard. And in an instant the whole crowd began to sing words of a proud, melancholy, revolutionary song.”
The crowd spontaneously breaks into a revolutionary song after the funeral.
Demonstrates defiance and collective spirit.
“I am Borodulin! ... I'm a detective, that's what I am!”
Borodulin drunkenly declares himself a detective in the tavern.
Reveals the presence of provocateurs and informants.