A summary of Vasily Shukshin’s "Critics"

The work, created in 1964, describes the conflict between rural life and urban culture. The writer juxtaposes a sincere attitude toward art with cold snobbery. The text depicts a daily life situation in detail. An old carpenter’s principles are ridiculed by his own relatives.

The story centers on two characters: seventy-three-year-old grandfather Timofey Makarych Novoskoltsev and his thirteen-year-old grandson Petka. The grandfather is described as a dry, nervous man who suffers from deafness. Petka is distinguished by his height and independence, which is unbelievable for his age. The boy is shy and stubborn. They form a strong friendship.

The main passion of the characters is cinema. Half of Timofey Makarych’s pension is regularly spent on tickets to the village club. At the end of each month, the elderly man cheerfully informs his grandson, "We’ve squandered five rubles!" Petka, for the sake of propriety, feigns surprise. The old man philosophically remarks that the boy’s parents will provide for them. Watching movies brings them both immense benefits.

Friends always buy front-row tickets. The seats are cheaper there, and the slightly deaf Timofey Makarych can hear the lines better. Due to his hearing problems, the old man often misses half the words. He tries to guess the meaning of the dialogue from the actors’ lips. This occasionally leads to funny situations. The old man can suddenly burst into laughter at an unfunny moment, leaving the audience perplexed.

Petka angrily nudges his grandfather, demanding he stop his inappropriate laughter. The old man quietly asks the actors to repeat the line. His grandson whispers the lines about slowing down right into his grandfather’s ear. Realizing his mistake, Timofey Makarych good-naturedly chuckles at himself. Grandfather watches movies with great rapt attention. He often cries when innocent characters are killed on screen.

Timofey Makarych loudly comments on the proceedings. Kissing scenes evoke a condescending smirk from him. He watches the fights with great tension, gripping the back of his chair tightly. In his youth, the old man was an excellent fighter. He instantly senses any falseness in staged fights. The old man resents, offended, "Well, they’re just pretending." He completely ignores Petka’s arguments about fake blood.

Cinema as a subject of controversy

The main verbal battles between grandfather and grandson unfold after leaving the club. Timofey Makarych is extremely judgmental, especially when evaluating films about village life. He often criticizes the stories he’s seen. The old man confidently asserts that such situations don’t happen in real life. Petka stubbornly defends the fiction, desperately asserting the characters’ right to unconventional behavior.

The text gives an example of a typical argument between characters about a young man with an accordion. This character was climbing up to his lover’s window. The old man calls the film character a fool. He argues that sincere feelings require silence, not public singing for the entire village to hear. The grandfather appeals to his own life experience, recalling the moral norms of his youth.

Petka argues heatedly, insisting that times have long since changed. The boy sincerely believes that cinema shouldn’t be judged by the strict standards of reality. He cites the laughter of the other audience members as proof of the film’s success. Timofey Makarych confidently counters these arguments, pointing to his grandson’s youth. The grandfather openly prides himself on his strict selectivity.

Timofey Makarych rarely engages in debate with adult viewers. He’s completely incapable of holding a calm conversation. The old man quickly becomes agitated and resorts to insults. One such incident does occur, however, and it leads to dramatic consequences. After watching the film, which the creators called "Comedy," the grandfather and grandson return home in an irritated state. The old man is indignant at having wasted his money.

Clash with city guests

The atmosphere at home is tense. Petya’s mother’s sister and her husband have arrived from the city to visit her parents. The whole family is sitting in front of the television, watching a film about life on a collective farm. Both grandfather and grandson are fundamentally averse to such programs. Timofey Makarych directly compares watching television to peeping through a keyhole.

Petka immediately goes into the hallway to do his homework. His grandfather stands silently behind the seated audience. He watches the flickering screen for a few minutes and delivers his harsh verdict on the implausibility of what’s happening. Petka’s father quietly asks the old man to be quiet. A polite visitor from the city, smiling, asks the reason for this assessment. Timofey Makarych replies that the on-screen carpenter doesn’t know how to hold an axe properly.

The city relative continues asking questions with a patronizing smile. The grandfather explains his position in detail, citing his life as a carpenter. He easily distinguishes a professional from an amateur. Petya’s aunt intervenes in the conversation. She declares that the technical accuracy of the footage is of absolutely no importance to her. The city woman is interested in the character’s inner psychological world.

Timofey Makarych is deeply angered by the city guests’ condescending attitude. He abruptly declares that it’s impossible for the filmmakers to deceive him. His aunt’s husband laughs loudly at the old man’s reaction. Petka’s parents are physically embarrassed by their grandfather’s behavior. The father sends Timofey Makarych to help his grandson with his homework. He quietly explains to the guest that the old man is completely uneducated.

Neglected, Timofey Makarych sadly goes to his grandson. He complains to Petka about the cruel ridicule of his educated relatives. The old man feels his wounded pride very keenly. Petka tries in vain to calm his upset grandfather. The boy advises him to ignore the hurtful words. Timofey Makarych falls silent, rummages through his chest, takes the money he’s hidden, and quickly leaves the house.

The Climax and Destruction of the TV

An hour later, Timofey Makarych returns heavily intoxicated. This surprises Petka, as his grandfather usually avoids alcohol. The old man sinks heavily onto a bench and begins to rant and rave about the injustice. Alcohol removes internal barriers. The pent-up resentment of a simple working man bursts forth. His professional skills have been devalued by the smiles of the city’s visitors.

Grandfather screams desperately toward the closed door of the living room. He denounces the arrogance of city dwellers. These relatives are proud of their money, but they’ve never held a real axe in their lives. Timofey Makarych loudly demands respect for his many years of physical labor. Petka is deeply alarmed by Grandfather’s aggressive behavior and tries to take off his shoes.

Petka, struggling to remove one boot, hopes the conflict is over. However, his grandfather suddenly raises his head. The memory of those contemptuous smirks enrages him again. The old man’s eyes gleam recklessly. Grabbing the boot he had removed, Timofey Makarych resolutely heads into the bright room. Petka is physically unable to stop the enraged old man from acting rashly.

Timofey Makarych bursts into his relatives’ room. With a loud cry about real carpenters, he hurls a heavy boot straight at the television screen. The picture tube instantly shatters. The terrified audience jumps from their seats. The city woman lets out a piercing shriek. The old man continues screaming, aggressively demanding to know how to hold an axe.

Petka’s father lunges at his enraged grandfather, attempting to subdue him. Timofey Makarych puts up a desperate fight. During the scuffle, wooden chairs crash down. The townswoman runs out into the street in panic. The much stronger father completely overpowers the struggling old man. He twists his grandfather’s arms behind his back and ties them tightly with a towel.

Timofey Makarych lies helplessly face down on the floor, his beard rubbing against the painted floorboards. Petka watches in horror, eyes wide open. The boy’s mother silently picks up the shards of the broken picture tube. The visitor from the city stands to the side, shaking his head reproachfully. Petka’s father grins angrily and thanks his parent for the chaos.

Standing on the cold floor, the old man refuses to give in. He continues to shout, defending his professional dignity. Timofey Makarych proudly reminds his relatives that he built half the village with his own hands. The old man refuses to accept the fact that strangers dare to point out his lack of understanding of carpentry.

The arrival of the police and the finale

Soon, the frightened woman from the city returns. The local police officer, Yermolai Kibyakov, comes into the house with her. He greets Grandpa Timofey with a broad smile and a cheerful smile. Petka’s father asks the police officer to take the unruly old man away for the night. Yermolai calmly hangs his cap on a nail. The policeman takes a sheet of paper from his clipboard and sits down at the table to write up a report.

The process of writing the report is described with bureaucratic precision. Yermolai records the details of Timofey Novoskoltsev, born in 1890. The policeman carefully notes: "His hands, he says, are not at all like those of carpenters." The document details the grandfather’s refusal to calm down and his kick with his right boot on the television.

Having finished writing, Kibyakov puts the document back in his tablet. He commanded his bound grandfather to rise. Only then did Petka fully grasp the gravity of the situation. The boy clearly realized that his grandfather was being roughly dragged back to the cell. The grandson desperately rushed to the old man’s defense, crying loudly and begging his father not to hand Timofey Makarych over to the police.

His father roughly pushes his crying son away. Policeman Kibyakov laughingly promises to put the grandfather in jail. This brings even more bitter tears to the child. His mother takes Petka into a corner, trying to calm him with promises that the old man will spend the night at the police station and return home in the morning. The detained grandfather is quickly given shoes and led away from his home under guard.

A woman from the city also tries to console the sobbing Petka. She says, "They took him to a sobering-up station, to a sobering-up station!" The woman cites inappropriate examples from Moscow life, where the police often take people to sobering-up stations. The boy clearly recalls that it was this woman who personally brought the local police officer. Petka roughly pushes the woman away, climbs onto the stove, and buries his wet face in a pillow. There, the child cries inconsolably, grieving over his friend’s arrest.