Quotes from the story “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea. Quotes from the story “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea Leskov Lefty quotes characterizing Nicholas

The collection includes quotes from the story “Lefty” - “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea”:

This way, Your Majesty, it’s impossible to see anything, because our work against this size is much more secret.
... He told everything: what kind of illness Lefty had and why it happened. I understand this disease, but the Germans cannot treat it...
Even though he has an Ovechkin fur coat, he has the soul of a man
...We are not good at science, but only faithfully devoted to our fatherland...our Russian faith is the most correct......I want to go to my native place as soon as possible, because otherwise I might get a form of insanity.

Tula people are smart and knowledgeable in metal work...
...We must take it after thinking and with God’s blessing. Tula people... are also known as the first experts in religion. Tula is full of church piety and a great practitioner of this matter... We ourselves don’t know what we will do, but we will only hope in God...
Everyone began to come up and look: the flea, indeed, had all his feet shod with real horseshoes, and the left-handed man reported that this was not all that was surprising.
...You can hear thin hammers hitting ringing anvils. Tula masters who did amazing work...
Lefty's own name, like the names of many of the greatest geniuses, is forever lost to posterity; but as a myth personified by popular fantasy, he is interesting, and his adventures can serve as a memory of an era, the general spirit of which is accurately and accurately captured.
...I have, - he says, - my parents at home... my little darling is already an old man, and my parent is an old woman and is used to going to church in her parish... (* darling - that is, father)
because,” he says, “I worked smaller than these horseshoes: I forged the nails with which the horseshoes are hammered - no small scope can take them there anymore.”
...I worked smaller than these horseshoes: I forged the nails with which the horseshoes are hammered - no small scope can take them there.
The policeman took the left-handed man onto the sled, but for a long time he could not catch a single oncoming person, so the cab drivers ran away from the police. And the left-hander was lying on the cold paratha all this time; then the policeman caught a cab driver, only without a warm fox, because they hide the fox in the sleigh under themselves this time so that the policemen’s feet would quickly get cold.
And if they had brought the Leftist’s words to the sovereign in due time, the war with the enemy in Crimea would have taken a completely different turn.
They dressed him very warmly and took the left-hander to the ship that was heading to Russia. Here they placed the left-hander in the best possible way, like a real master, but he did not like to sit with the other gentlemen in the closet and was ashamed, but would go on deck, sit down under the gift and ask: “Where is our Russia? »
The English now slap the left-hander on the shoulder and, like an equal, on the hands: “comrade, they say, comrade is a good master, we’ll talk to you later, and now we’ll drink to your well-being.”
He is left-handed and does everything with his left hand.
The Englishman reached Platov, who was now lying on the couch again: Platov listened to him and remembered about the left-hander.
But only when Martyn-Solsky arrived, the left-hander was already finished, because the back of his head was split on the paratha, and he could only say one thing clearly:
The British took the left-hander into their own hands, and sent the Russian courier back to Russia. Although the courier had a rank, and was learned in various languages, they were not interested in him, but were interested in the left-hander - and they went to take the left-hander and show him everything.
Our science is simple: according to the Psalter and the Half-Dream Book, but we don’t know arithmetic at all. It’s like this everywhere here...
He walks in what he was wearing: in shorts**, one trouser leg is in a boot, the other is dangling, and the collar*** is old, the hooks are not fastened, they are lost, and the collar is torn; but it’s okay, don’t be embarrassed.
“We,” he says, “are committed to our homeland, and my little brother is already an old man, and my mother is an old woman and is used to going to church in her parish, and it will be very boring for me here alone, because I am still single.
The courier escorted them to the room, and from there to the food reception hall, where our left-hander was already quite browned, and said: here he is!
The left-hander thinks: the sky is cloudy, his belly is swelling, - there is great boredom, and the road is long and his native place is invisible behind the wave - it will still be more fun to keep a bet.
Lefty looked at their entire life and all their work, but most of all he paid attention to such an object that the British were very surprised. He was less interested in how new guns were made than in what form the old ones were in.
The courier, as soon as he brought him to London, appeared to the right person and gave the box, and put the left-handed man in a hotel room, but he soon became bored here, and he also wanted to eat.
We are poor people and due to our poverty we do not have a small scope, but our eyes are so focused.

He was walking in what he was wearing: in shorts, one trouser leg was in a boot, the other was dangling, and the collar was old, the hooks were not fastened, they were lost, and the collar was torn; but it’s okay, don’t be embarrassed.
And with this fidelity, the left-hander crossed himself and died.
There was nothing the British could do to tempt him so that he would be seduced by their life...
They were transporting a left-handed man so uncovered, and when they began to transfer him from one cab to another, they would drop everything, but they would pick him up - they would tear his ears so that he would remember.
one is obliquely left-handed, there is a birthmark on his cheek, and the hair on his temples was torn out during training
The British could not guess what the left-handed person was noticing, and he asked:
The gunsmiths are three people, the most skilled of them, one with a left-handed scythe......unworthy of skilled people, on whom the hope of the nation now rested....three skilled people do not refuse any demand...
And Lefty answers: Well, I’ll go like that and answer... and my collar is torn; but it’s okay, don’t be embarrassed.
Platov left Tula, and the three gunsmiths, the most skilled of them, one with a sideways left hand, a birthmark on his cheek, and the hair on his temples torn out during training, said goodbye to their comrades and their family, and, without telling anyone, they took their handbags , put there what they needed to eat and disappeared from the city.
And Count Kiselvrode ordered that the left-hander be washed in the Tulikovo public baths, cut his hair at the barbershop and dressed in a ceremonial caftan from a court singer, so that it would look like he had some kind of paid rank.
The half-skipper went to Skobelev and told him everything: what illness the left-hander had and why it happened.
...I'm still single.
A left-hander sat down at the table and sat there, but he didn’t know how to ask something in English. But then he realized: again he simply taps on the table with his finger and shows it to himself in his mouth - the English guess and serve, but not always what is needed, but he does not accept anything that is not suitable for him.
...The Tula people were not at all inferior to him in cunning, because they immediately had such a plan that they did not even hope that Platov would believe them... So Platov wiggles his mind, and so do the Tula people. Platov wiggled and wiggled, but saw that he could not outweigh Tula...... nothing could stop these cunning masters...
They asked the left-handed man for the first glass, but he politely refused to drink first: he thought maybe he wanted to poison him out of frustration.
...One left-handed man with a sideways eye, a birthmark on his cheek, and the hair on his temples torn out during training...
Such masters as the fabulous left-hander, of course, are no longer in Tula: machines have equalized the inequality of talents and gifts, and genius is not eager to fight against diligence and accuracy.
...On the move, the hooks in the caftans are fastened......to the collar of the sideways Lefty, so that all the hooks of his Cossack flew off...
Then they ordered me to give a receipt, and to put the left-handed person on the floor in the corridor until they were dismantled.
...Yes, the entire roof was immediately torn off the small house... from the craftsmen in their cramped mansion... (from the word mansion)
In an amazing way, the half-skipper somehow very soon found the left-handed man, only they had not yet put him on the bed, but he was lying on the floor in the corridor and complaining to the Englishman.
...After all, they, the scoundrels, shoed the English flea into horseshoes!...

Topics of the issue: quotes characterizing left-handedness, as well as statements, sayings, phrases, aphorisms and quotes from the story “Lefty” - “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea” - the story was written by Nikolai Semenovich Leskov in 1881.

* Ilf I. * Karamzin N. * Kataev V. * Kolchak A. * Krylov I. * Lermontov M. * Leskov N. - new author, quotes* Likhachev D. * Lomonosov M. * Mayakovsky V. * Nabokov V. * Nekrasov N. * Ostrovsky A. * Petrov E. * Prishvin M. * Pushkin A. - new quotes* Radishchev A. * Roerich N. * Saltykov-Shchedrin M. * Simonov K. * Stanislavsky K. * Stanyukovich K. * Stolypin P. * Sumarokov A. * Tolstoy A.K. * Tolstoy A.N. * Tolstoy L.N. * Turgenev I. * Tyutchev F. * Fonvizin D. * Chekhov A. * Schwartz E. * Eisenstein S. * Ehrenburg I.

Russia, late XX - early XXI- Akunin B. * Altov S. * Vysotsky V. * Geraskina L. * Dementiev A. * Zadornov M. * Kunin V. * Melikhan K. * Okudzhava B. * Rozhdestvensky R. * Sakharov A. * Snegov S. * Solzhenitsyn A. * Suvorov V. * Talkov I. * Troepolsky G. * Uspensky E. * Filatov L. * Chernykh V. * Shenderovich V. * Shcherbakova G.

Leskov Nikolai Semenovich (1831-1895)

Quotes from the works of N.S. Leskova- leaf 1 (2 - new) (3 - new)
Biography of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov >>

Quotes from Nikolai Leskov’s book “Lefty” (The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea), 1881

Such masters as the fabulous left-hander, of course, are no longer in Tula: machines have leveled the inequality of talents and gifts, and genius is not eager to fight against diligence and accuracy. While favoring an increase in earnings, machines do not favor artistic prowess, which sometimes exceeded the limit, inspiring popular imagination to compose fabulous legends similar to the current one. Workers, of course, know how to appreciate the benefits brought to them by the practical devices of mechanical science, but they remember the old days with pride and love. This is their epic, and with a very “human soul”.

When Emperor Alexander Pavlovich graduated from the Vienna Council, he wanted to travel around Europe and see wonders in different states. He traveled to all countries [...] and everyone surprised him with something and wanted to bend him to their side, but with him was the Don Cossack Platov, who did not like this inclination [...]. And if Platov notices that the sovereign is very interested in something foreign, then all those accompanying him are silent, and Platov will now say: “So and so, and we have our own at home, no worse,” and will lead him to something. The British knew this and Before the arrival of the sovereign, they came up with various tricks in order to captivate him with his foreignness and distract him from the Russians. [...] The next day the sovereign and Platov went to the Kunstkamera. [...] The British immediately began to show various surprises and explain what they were up to adapted for military circumstances: sea storm gauges, merblue mantons of foot regiments, and tar waterproof cables for the cavalry. [...] they brought him to Abolon of Polveder himself and took Mortimer’s gun from one hand, and a pistol from the other.
“Here,” they say, “what our productivity is,” and they hand us a gun.
The Emperor looked at Mortimer’s gun calmly, because he had some like that in Tsarskoe Selo, and then they gave him a pistol and said:
- This is a pistol of unknown, inimitable craftsmanship - our admiral pulled it from the belt of the robber chieftain in Candelabria.
The Emperor looked at the pistol and couldn’t see enough of it.
“Ah, ah, ah,” he says, “how is this possible... how can this even be done so subtly!” - And he turns to Platov in Russian and says: - Now, if I had at least one such master in Russia, I would be very happy and proud of this, and I would immediately make that master noble.
And Platov, at these words, at that very moment lowered his right hand into his large trousers and pulled out a gun screwdriver from there. The English say: “It doesn’t open,” but he, not paying attention, just picks the lock. I turned it once, turned it twice - the lock and got out. Platov shows the sovereign the dog, and there on the very bend there is a Russian inscription: “Ivan Moskvin in the city of Tula.”
The British are surprised and nudge each other:
- Oh, we made a mistake!

Then the British called the sovereign to the very last chamber of curiosities [...] they only came to the very last room, and here their workers were standing in tunic vests and aprons and holding a tray with nothing on it. The Emperor was suddenly surprised that he was being served an empty tray.
- What does this mean? - asks; and the English masters answer:
- This is our humble offering to your Majesty.
- What is this?
“But,” they say, “would you like to see a speck?”
The Emperor looked and saw: indeed, the tiniest speck was lying on the silver tray. Workers say:
- If you please, wet your finger and take it in your palm.
- What do I need this speck for?
“This,” they answer, “is not a speck, but a nymphosoria.”
- Is she alive?
“No way,” they answer, “it’s not alive, but we forged it from pure English steel in the image of a flea, and in the middle there is a factory and a spring.” If you please turn the key: she will now start dancing. [...]
A small scope was brought in, and the sovereign saw that there was indeed a key lying on a tray near the flea.
“If you please,” they say, “take her in your palm - she has a winding hole in her little belly, and the key has seven turns, and then she will go to the dance ...
The sovereign grabbed this key with force and with force he could hold it in a pinch, and in another pinch he took a flea and just inserted the key, when he felt that she was starting to move her antennae, then she began to move her legs, and finally she suddenly jumped and in one flight straight dance and two beliefs to one side, then to the other, and so in three variations the whole kavril danced. The Emperor immediately ordered the British to give a million, whatever money they wanted - they wanted it in silver coins, they wanted it in small banknotes. The British asked to be given silver, because they didn’t know much about paper; and then now they showed another trick of theirs: they gave the flea as a gift, but they didn’t bring a case for it: without a case, you can’t keep it or the key, because they will get lost and be thrown into the trash. And their case for it is made of a solid diamond nut - and there is a place in the middle that is pressed out. They didn’t submit this because they say the case is government-issued, but they are strict about government-issued items, even if they are for the sovereign – they cannot be sacrificed.
Platov was very angry because he said:
- Why such fraud! They made a gift and received a million for it, and it’s still not enough! The case, he says, always belongs with every thing. But the sovereign says:
- Please leave it alone, it’s none of your business - don’t spoil politics for me. They have their own custom.” And he asks: “How much does that nut cost that contains the flea?”
The British paid another five thousand for this. Sovereign Alexander Pavlovich said: “Pay,” and he himself dropped the flea into this nut, and with it the key, and in order not to lose the nut itself, he dropped it into his golden snuff-box, and ordered the snuff-box to be put in his travel box, which was all lined with prelamut and fish bone. The sovereign released the Aglitsky masters with honor and told them: “You are the first masters in the whole world, and my people cannot do anything against you.” They were very pleased with this, but Platov could not say anything against the sovereign’s words. He just took the small scope and, without saying anything, put it in his pocket, because “it belongs here,” he says, “and you already took a lot of money from us.”

On the way, he and Platov had very little pleasant conversation, because they had completely different thoughts: the sovereign thought that the British had no equal in art, and Platov argued that ours, no matter what they look at, can do anything, but only they have no useful teaching . And he represented to the sovereign that the English masters have completely different rules of life, science and food, and each person has all the absolute circumstances before him, and through this he has a completely different meaning.

The name Lefty in Russia has long become a household name. This is the name of a skilled craftsman who has no equal in his work. The story by N. Leskov, which gave life to Lefty, was published in 1881 as part of the collection “Righteous” and had the full title “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea.”

In order to write an essay on the story about Lefty, you will need knowledge of the characteristics of its characters and direct quotes confirming them. We recommend that you read the original text carefully and use the quotes below to clarify specific details.

Lefty

The main character of the story is a person with physical characteristics:

“...Tula braid Lefty...”

“Why does he cross himself with his left hand?<…>

“He is left-handed and does everything with his left hand.”

“... one left-handed man with a sideways eye, a birthmark on his cheek, and the hair on his temples torn out during training.”

He is a gunsmith by profession, one of the three most famous craftsmen in Russia specializing in metal weapons, who, however, can fulfill any order, even the most unusual:

“Tula people are smart and knowledgeable in metal work...”

“...weaponsmiths are three people, the most skilled of them, one is left-handed with a scythe...”

“...three masters do not refuse any demand...”

“Tula masters who did amazing work...”

The left-handed person is entrusted with the most delicate work:

“...you can hear thin hammers hitting ringing anvils”

“...I worked smaller than these horseshoes: I forged the nails with which the horseshoes are hammered - no small scope can take them there anymore.”

In modern realities, Lefty and his colleagues would be called real workaholics:

“...All three of them came together in one house with Lefty, they locked the doors, closed the shutters in the windows.<…>For a day, two, three they sit and don’t go anywhere, everyone is tapping with hammers. They are forging something, but what they are forging is unknown.”

The author calls one of the main features of Lefty and his colleagues the cunning of the mind, in which they cannot be surpassed even by courtiers:

“...the Tula people were not inferior to him in cunning, because they immediately had such a plan that they did not even hope that Platov would believe them...”

“So Platov wiggles his mind, and so do the Tula people. Platov wiggled and wiggled, but he saw that he couldn’t outweigh Tula..."

“...nothing could stop these cunning masters...”

Despite his skill and celebrity, Lefty belongs to the poor:

“We are poor people and due to our poverty we do not have a small scope, but our eyes are so focused.”

He lives in a small house with his old parents:

“...yes, the entire roof was torn off the small house at once...”

“...I have,” he says, “my parents at home.”

“...my little brother is already an old man, and my mother is an old woman and is used to going to church in her parish...”

Lefty is not married:

“...I’m still single”

The main character dresses modestly:

“He’s walking in what he was wearing: in shorts, one pant leg is in a boot, the other is dangling, and the collar is old, the hooks don’t fasten, they’re lost, and the collar is torn; but it’s okay, don’t be embarrassed”

It’s hard to call him truly literate:

“Our science is simple: according to the Psalter and the Half-Dream Book, but we don’t know arithmetic at all”

Like his fellow countrymen, Lefty, who received such an “education,” is a believer who begins any task only after receiving a blessing from above through prayer:

“Tula people... are also known as the first experts in religion”

“Tulyak is full of church piety and a great practitioner of this matter...”

“...we must take it after thought and with God’s blessing”

“We ourselves don’t yet know what we will do, but we will only hope in God...”

“...our Russian faith is the most correct...”

The costs of religious education explain his readiness for forgiveness, which is why he so easily accepts Platov’s unfair beatings:

- Forgive me, brother, for tearing your hair off.<…>

“God will forgive.” This is not the first time that such snow has fallen on our heads.

Leskov, however, also endowed Lefty with self-esteem, courage and determination:

“And Lefty replies: “Well, I’ll go like that and answer.”

“...and the collar is torn; but it’s okay, don’t be embarrassed”

Lefty’s devotion to his homeland is also worthy of respect:

“...we are not good at science, but we are loyal to our fatherland”

“...I want to go to my native place as soon as possible, because otherwise I might get a form of insanity”

“There was nothing the British could do to tempt him so that he would be seduced by their lives...”

The main character of "Skaz" is susceptible to a typical Russian disease - heavy drinking:

“I understand this disease, but the Germans cannot treat it...”

However, even dying in poverty and oblivion, Lefty does not think about himself, but about how to finally benefit the fatherland, trying to convey to the king the overseas secret that guns should not be cleaned with bricks:

“Tell the sovereign that the British don’t clean their guns with bricks: let them not clean ours either, otherwise, God forbid war, they’re not good for shooting.”

“And with this fidelity, Lefty crossed himself and died.”

“Such masters as the fabulous Lefty, of course, are no longer in Tula: machines have equalized the inequality of talents and talents...”

Platov

Cossack, originally from the Don, participant in the War of 1812, in which he earned awards:

“...my fellow Don men fought without all this and drove away twelve tongues”

“...now he got up from the couch, hung up the phone and appeared to the sovereign in all orders”

“Platov stood up, put on his medals and went to the sovereign...”

The appearance is remarkable - a “prominent” nose and mustache:

“Platov did not answer the sovereign, he just lowered his hornbeam nose into a shaggy cloak...”

“...and he goes<…>only rings come out of his mustache"

Special features: wounded hands:

“Platov wanted to take the key, but his fingers were stubby: he caught and caught, but he just couldn’t grab it...”

“...showed his fist - so terrible, purple and all chopped up, somehow knitted together...”

At the time of the story, Platov accompanies Alexander I on European trips:

“...Emperor Alexander Pavlovich graduated from the Vienna Council, then he wanted to travel around Europe...<…>with him was the Don Cossack Platov..."

The character is distinguished by his courage, which is recognized by those around him:

“What do you, courageous old man, want from me?”

“It’s you, courageous old man, who speaks well...”

The courtiers don't like him too much:

"And the courtiers<…>they couldn’t stand him for his bravery.”

In addition, the brilliant military man is rather uneducated; from the point of view of the same courtiers, for example, he does not know and does not want to know foreign languages:

“...especially in large meetings where Platov could not speak French completely...”

“...and considered all French conversations to be trifles that are not worth the imagination”

He does not at all consider education useless; moreover, he considers it necessary for Russian masters:

“... the sovereign thought that the British had no equal in art, and Platov argued that ours, no matter what they look at, can do anything, but only they have no useful teaching. And he presented to the sovereign that the English masters have completely different rules of life, science and food...”

The courtier is convinced that Russian cannot be worse than foreign:

“...Platov will now say: so and so, and we have our own at home no worse, - and he will give something away...”

“The Emperor is happy about all this, everything seems very good to him, but Platov maintains his expectation that everything means nothing to him.”

He can even steal if he thinks it will be useful for Russia:

“...and Platov<…>He took the small scope and, without saying anything, put it in his pocket, because “it belongs here,” he said, “and you already took a lot of money from us.”

“He asked them this way and that and spoke to them slyly in the Don style in all manners; but the Tula people were not inferior to him in cunning...<…>So Platov wiggles his mind, and so do the Tula people. Platov wiggled and wiggled, but he saw that he couldn’t outweigh Tula..."

He doesn’t like it when artificial difficulties are created, but he can sincerely sympathize:

“You’d better go to the Cossack Platov - he has simple feelings”

Can't stand waiting:

“...and he’s gritting his teeth—it’s still a while before everything shows up to him. So at that time everything was required very accurately and quickly, so that not a single minute was wasted for Russian usefulness.”

He also always drives at maximum speed, and does not spare either people or animals:

“Platov rode very hastily and with ceremony: he himself sat in a carriage, and on the box two whistling Cossacks with whips on both sides of the driver sat down and so they watered him without mercy so that he could gallop.”

“And if any Cossack dozes off, Platov himself will poke him from the stroller with his foot, and they will rush even angrier.”

If it seems to him that the matter is being deliberately delayed, he becomes openly cruel:

“He will eat us alive until that hour and will not leave our souls untouched.”

Can easily offend forced people:

“It’s in vain that you offend us like that; we, as the sovereign’s ambassador, must endure all insults from you...”

“... how, they say, are you taking him away from us without any tugment? it will not be possible to follow him back! And instead of answering Platov showed them his fist..."

At the same time, he is religious:

“...he cracked a good glass and prayed to God on the road fold...”

“...and in this reasoning he got up twice, crossed himself and drank vodka until he forced himself into a deep sleep”

Platov is not a cardboard character at all. Despite all his declared courage at the beginning of the story, he is quite experienced in court rules, knows very well the tough temper of Nicholas I and not only does not get into trouble unnecessarily, but is even openly afraid of the new sovereign:

“...I don’t dare argue and must remain silent”

<…>

At the end of the story he laments that:

“...I’ve already completely served my time and received full poppletion - now they don’t respect me anymore...”

Interesting fact. The prototype of Platov - the real Count Platov died under Alexander I, until his death he commanded the Don Cossack army.

Alexander I

Emperor Alexander I, at the time of the story, is traveling around Europe and gives the impression of an “affectionate” sovereign to his foreign surroundings:

“...everywhere, through his affectionateness, he always had the most internecine conversations with all sorts of people...”

The Tsar is greedy for everything interesting, especially if it is of foreign origin:

“The British... came up with various tricks in order to captivate him with his foreignness and distract him from the Russians, and in many cases they achieved this...”

“The British immediately began to show various surprises and explain what was what... . The Emperor rejoices at all this, everything seems very good to him...”

The Emperor is very generous, but at the same time he is no less weak-willed. For the fact that the British “give” him a steel flea, he pays them a huge sum:

“The Emperor immediately ordered the British to give a million, whatever money they wanted - they wanted it in silver coins, they wanted it in small banknotes.”

Moreover, if foreign craftsmen refuse to donate a case for their product, Alexander, not wanting to spoil international relations, also pays for it, citing the fact that:

“Please leave it alone, it’s none of your business - don’t spoil politics for me. They have their own custom"

Suppressed by the superiority of the British, he does not want to believe in Russian skill at all:

“...The Emperor realized that the British have no equal in art...”

“...You will no longer argue that we, Russians, with our significance are no good”

Despite Platov’s courage, proving to him that it’s all about education and proper organization, Alexander does not take his objections seriously:

“And I represented to the sovereign that the English masters have completely different rules of life, science and food, and each person has all the absolute circumstances before him, and through this he has a completely different meaning. The Emperor did not want to listen to this for a long time, and Platov, seeing this, did not become stronger.”

Moreover, the sovereign (Napoleon’s winner) in Leskov’s description is so spineless and sensitive that even military affairs put him into depression, from which he eventually dies:

“...The sovereign became melancholy from military affairs and he wanted to have a spiritual confession in Taganrog with priest Fedot.”

Nicholas I

A minor character, a Russian sovereign who inherits an English steel flea. Acts as a strong person who knows how to divide matters into major and minor:

“Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, at first, also did not pay any attention to the flea, because there was confusion when he rose...”

Able to respect the merits of others:

“It’s you, courageous old man, who speaks well, and I entrust you to believe this matter.”

He knows how to inspire fear and respect even in such a brave courtier as Platov:

“Platov was afraid to show himself to the sovereign, because Nikolai Pavlovich was terribly wonderful and memorable...<…>And at least he wasn’t afraid of any enemy in the world, but then he chickened out...”

Has excellent memory:

“...Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich did not forget about anything...”

Unlike its predecessor, it denies superiority to foreign masters over Russians:

“Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich was very confident in his Russian people...”

“...my brother was surprised at this thing and praised the strangers who did the nymphosoria most of all, but I hope for my own people that they are no worse than anyone. They won’t let my word slip and will do something.”

“...he relies on his people...”

The basis of the confrontation between Nikolai and foreign masters, first of all, is his own pride:

“...I didn’t like to give in to any foreigner...”

“What a dashing thing! “But I haven’t diminished my faith in Russian masters...”

“Give it here. I know that my friends cannot deceive me. Something has been done here beyond the pale."

“I know that my Russian people will not deceive me”

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1. “The British made a flea out of steel, and our Tula blacksmiths shod it and sent it back to them”;
2. “We are poor people, and due to our poverty we do not have a small scope, but our eyes are so focused”;
3. “God will forgive - this is not the first time that such snow has fallen on our heads”;
4. “Tell the sovereign that the British don’t clean their guns with bricks: let them not clean ours either, otherwise, God forbid war, they’re not good for shooting”;
5. "Please don't spoil politics for me."

1) one oblique left-hander, there is a birthmark on his cheek, and the hair on his temples was torn out during training
2) Even though he has an Ovechkin fur coat, he has the soul of a man

3) - And is your name here? - asked the sovereign.

“No way,” the left-handed man replies, “I’m the only one who doesn’t exist.”

Why?

And because,” he says, “I worked smaller than these horseshoes: I forged the nails with which the horseshoes are hammered - no small scope can take them there anymore.”

4) - Forgive me, brother, for tearing your hair off.

Lefty answers:

God will forgive - this is not the first time such snow has fallen on our heads.

We are poor people and due to our poverty we do not have a small scope, but our eyes are so focused.
5) The courier said:

He is left-handed and does everything with his left hand.

The British began to be even more surprised - and began to pump wine into both the left-hander and the courier, and did so for three whole days, and then they said: “Now that’s enough.” After a symphony of water with erfix they took it and, completely refreshed, began to question the left-hander: where did he and what did he study and how long has he known arithmetic?

Lefty answers:

Our science is simple: but the Psalter and the Half-Dream Book, and we don’t know arithmetic at all.

The English looked at each other and said:

It is amazing.

And Lefty answers them:

This is the case everywhere here.

And what, they ask, is this book in Russia, “The Half-Dream Book”?

This, he says, is a book that relates to the fact that if in the Psalter King David vaguely revealed something about fortune-telling, then in the Half-Dream Book they guess the addition.

They say:

This is a pity, it would be better if you knew at least four rules of addition from arithmetic, then it would be much more useful for you than the entire Half-Dream Book. Then you could realize that in every machine there is a calculation of force; Otherwise, you are very skillful in your hands, but you didn’t realize that such a small machine, like the one in the nymphosoria, is designed for the most accurate precision and cannot carry its shoes. Because of this, the nymphosoria now does not jump and does not dance.

Lefty agreed.

There is no doubt about this, he says, that we are not too deep in the sciences, but only loyal to our fatherland.

And the British tell him:

Stay with us, we will impart great education to you, and you will become an amazing master.

But the left-hander did not agree to this.

“I have,” he says, “my parents at home.”

The British called themselves to send money to his parents, but the left-handed man did not take it.

“We,” he says, “are committed to our homeland, and my little brother is already an old man, and my mother is an old woman and is used to going to church in her parish, and it will be very boring for me here alone, because I am still single.

You, they say, will get used to it, accept our law, and we will marry you.

“This,” answered the left-hander, “can never happen.”

Why is that?

Because,” he answers, “our Russian faith is the most correct, and as our right-wingers believed, our descendants should believe just as surely.”