PROLOGUE
On the main road in Pustoporozhnaya volost, seven men meet: Roman, Demyan, Luka, Prov, old man Pakhom, brothers Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin. They come from neighboring villages: Neurozhayki, Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova and Neelova. Men argue about who lives well and freely in Rus'. Roman believes that the landowner, Demyan - the official, and Luka - the priest. Old man Pakhom claims that a minister lives best, the Gubin brothers live best as a merchant, and Prov thinks that he is a king.
It's starting to get dark. The men understand that, carried away by the argument, they have walked thirty miles and now it is too late to return home. They decide to spend the night in the forest, light a fire in the clearing and again begin to argue, and then even fight. Their noise causes all the forest animals to scatter, and a chick falls out of the warbler’s nest, which Pakhom picks up. The mother warbler flies up to the fire and asks in a human voice to let her chick go. For this, she will fulfill any desire of the peasants.
The men decide to go further and find out which of them is right. Warbler tells where you can find a self-assembled tablecloth that will feed and water them on the road. The men find a self-assembled tablecloth and sit down to feast. They agree not to return home until they find out who has the best life in Rus'.
Chapter I. Pop
Soon the travelers meet the priest and tell the priest that they are looking for “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.” They ask the church minister to answer honestly: is he satisfied with his fate?
The priest replies that he carries his cross with humility. If men believe that a happy life means peace, honor and wealth, then he has nothing like that. People don't choose the time of their death. So they call the priest to the dying person, even in the pouring rain, even in the bitter cold. And sometimes the heart cannot stand the tears of widows and orphans.
There is no talk of any honor. They make up all sorts of stories about priests, laugh at them and consider meeting a priest a bad omen. And the wealth of the priests is not what it used to be. Previously, when noble people lived on their family estates, the incomes of the priests were quite good. The landowners gave rich gifts, were baptized and married in the parish church. Here they had a funeral service and were buried. These were the traditions. And now nobles live in capitals and “abroads”, where they celebrate all church rites. But you can’t take much money from poor peasants.
The men bow respectfully to the priest and move on.
CHAPTER II. Country fair
The travelers pass several empty villages and ask: where have all the people gone? It turns out that there is a fair in the neighboring village. The men decide to go there. There are a lot of dressed-up people walking around the fair, selling everything from plows and horses to scarves and books. There are a lot of goods, but there are even more drinking establishments.
Old man Vavila is crying near the bench. He drank all the money and promised his granddaughter goatskin boots. Pavlusha Veretennikov approaches his grandfather and buys shoes for the girl. The delighted old man grabs his shoes and hurries home. Veretennikov is known in the area. He loves to sing and listen to Russian songs.
CHAPTER III. drunken night
After the fair, there are drunk people on the road. Some wander, some crawl, and some even lie in the ditch. Moans and endless drunken conversations can be heard everywhere. Veretennikov is talking with peasants at a road sign. He listens and writes down songs and proverbs, and then begins to reproach the peasants for drinking too much.
A well-drunk man named Yakim gets into an argument with Veretennikov. He says that the common people have accumulated a lot of grievances against landowners and officials. If you didn’t drink, it would be a big disaster, but all the anger dissolves in vodka. There is no measure for men in drunkenness, but is there any measure in grief, in hard work?
Veretennikov agrees with such reasoning and even drinks with the peasants. Here the travelers hear a beautiful young song and decide to look for the lucky ones in the crowd.
CHAPTER IV. Happy
Men walk around and shout: “Come out happy! We’ll pour some vodka!” People crowded around. The travelers began to ask about who was happy and how. They pour it to some, they just laugh at others. But the conclusion from the stories is this: a man’s happiness lies in the fact that he sometimes ate his fill, and God protected him in difficult times.
The men are advised to find Ermila Girin, whom the whole neighborhood knows. One day, the cunning merchant Altynnikov decided to take the mill away from him. He came to an agreement with the judges and declared that Ermila needed to immediately pay a thousand rubles. Girin did not have that kind of money, but he went to the marketplace and asked honest people to chip in. The men responded to the request, and Ermil bought the mill, and then returned all the money to the people. For seven years he was mayor. During that time, I didn’t pocket a single penny. Only once he excluded his younger brother from the recruits, and then he repented in front of all the people and left his post.
The wanderers agree to look for Girin, but the local priest says that Yermil is in prison. Then a troika appears on the road, and in it is a gentleman.
CHAPTER V. Landowner
The men stop the troika, in which the landowner Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev is riding, and ask how he lives. The landowner begins to remember the past with tears. Previously, he owned the entire district, he kept a whole regiment of servants and gave holidays with dancing, theatrical performances and hunting. Now “the great chain has broken.” The landowners have land, but there are no peasants to cultivate it.
Gavrila Afanasyevich was not used to working. It’s not a noble thing to do housekeeping. He only knows how to walk, hunt, and steal from the treasury. Now his family nest has been sold for debts, everything is stolen, and the men drink day and night. Obolt-Obolduev bursts into tears, and the travelers sympathize with him. After this meeting, they understand that they need to look for happiness not among the rich, but in the “Unbroken province, Ungutted volost...”.
PEASANT WOMAN
PROLOGUE
The wanderers decide to look for happy people among women. In one village they are advised to find Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, nicknamed “the governor’s wife.” Soon the men find this beautiful, dignified woman of about thirty-seven. But Korchagina doesn’t want to talk: it’s hard, the bread needs to be removed urgently. Then the travelers offer their help in the field in exchange for a story of happiness. Matryona agrees.
Chapter I. Before marriage
Korchagina spends her childhood in a non-drinking, friendly family, in an atmosphere of love from her parents and brother. Cheerful and agile Matryona works a lot, but also loves to go for a walk. A stranger, the stove maker Philip, is wooing her. They are having a wedding. Now Korchagina understands: she was only happy in her childhood and girlhood.
Chapter II. Songs
Philip brings his young wife to his large family. It’s not easy there for Matryona. Her mother-in-law, father-in-law and sisters-in-law do not allow her to live, they constantly reproach her. Everything happens exactly as it is sung in the songs. Korchagina endures. Then her first-born Demushka is born - like the sun in a window.
The master's manager pesters a young woman. Matryona avoids him as best she can. The manager threatens to give Philip a soldier. Then the woman goes for advice to grandfather Savely, the father-in-law, who is one hundred years old.
Chapter III. Saveliy, Holy Russian hero
Savely looks like a huge bear. He served hard labor for a long time for murder. The cunning German manager sucked all the juice out of the serfs. When he ordered four hungry peasants to dig a well, they pushed the manager into the hole and covered it with earth. Among these killers was Savely.
CHAPTER IV. Demushka
The old man's advice was of no use. The manager, who did not allow Matryona passage, suddenly died. But then another problem happened. The young mother was forced to leave Demushka under the supervision of her grandfather. One day he fell asleep, and the child was eaten by pigs.
The doctor and the judges arrive, perform an autopsy, and interrogate Matryona. She is accused of intentionally killing a child, in conspiracy with an old man. The poor woman is almost losing her mind with grief. And Savely goes to the monastery to atone for his sin.
CHAPTER V. She-Wolf
Four years later, the grandfather returns, and Matryona forgives him. When Korchagina’s eldest son, Fedotushka, turns eight years old, the boy is given to help as a shepherd. One day the she-wolf manages to steal a sheep. Fedot chases after her and snatches out the already dead prey. The she-wolf is terribly thin, she leaves a bloody trail behind her: she cut her nipples on the grass. The predator looks doomedly at Fedot and howls. The boy feels sorry for the she-wolf and her cubs. He leaves the carcass of a sheep to the hungry beast. For this, the villagers want to whip the child, but Matryona accepts the punishment for her son.
CHAPTER VI. Difficult year
A hungry year is coming, in which Matryona is pregnant. Suddenly news comes that her husband is being recruited as a soldier. The eldest son from their family is already serving, so they shouldn’t take the second one, but the landowner doesn’t care about the laws. Matryona is horrified; pictures of poverty and lawlessness appear before her, because her only breadwinner and protector will not be there.
CHAPTER VII. Governor's wife
The woman walks into the city and arrives at the governor's house in the morning. She asks the doorman to arrange a date for her with the governor. For two rubles, the doorman agrees and lets Matryona into the house. At this time, the governor’s wife comes out of her chambers. Matryona falls at her feet and falls into unconsciousness.
When Korchagina comes to her senses, she sees that she has given birth to a boy. The kind, childless governor's wife fusses with her and the child until Matryona recovers. Together with her husband, who was released from service, the peasant woman returns home. Since then, she has not tired of praying for the health of the governor.
Chapter VIII. The Old Woman's Parable
Matryona ends her story with an appeal to wanderers: do not look for happy people among women. The Lord dropped the keys to women's happiness into the sea, and they were swallowed by a fish. Since then they have been looking for those keys, but they can’t find them.
LAST
Chapter I
I
Travelers come to the banks of the Volga to the village of Vakhlaki. There are beautiful meadows there and haymaking is in full swing. Suddenly music sounds and boats land on the shore. It is old Prince Utyatin who has arrived. He inspects the mowing and swears, and the peasants bow and ask for forgiveness. The men are amazed: everything is like under serfdom. They turn to the local mayor Vlas for clarification.
II
Vlas gives an explanation. The prince became terribly angry when he learned that the peasants had been given free rein, and he was struck down. After that, Utyatin began to act weird. He doesn’t want to believe that he no longer has power over the peasants. He even promised to curse his sons and disinherit them if they spoke such nonsense. So the heirs of the peasants asked them to pretend in front of the master that everything was as before. And for this they will be granted the best meadows.
III
The prince sits down to breakfast, which the peasants gather to gawk at. One of them, the biggest quitter and drunkard, had long ago volunteered to play the steward in front of the prince instead of the rebellious Vlas. So he crawls in front of Utyatin, and the people can barely contain their laughter. One, however, cannot cope with himself and laughs. The prince turns blue with anger and orders the rebel to be flogged. One lively peasant woman comes to the rescue, telling the master that her son, the fool, laughed.
The prince forgives everyone and sets off on the boat. Soon the peasants learn that Utyatin died on the way home.
A Feast FOR THE WHOLE WORLD
Dedicated to Sergei Petrovich Botkin
Introduction
The peasants rejoice at the death of the prince. They walk and sing songs, and the former servant of Baron Sineguzin, Vikenty, tells an amazing story.
About the exemplary slave - Yakov Verny
There lived one very cruel and greedy landowner, Polivanov, who had a faithful servant, Yakov. The man suffered a lot from the master. But Polivanov’s legs became paralyzed, and faithful Yakov became an indispensable person for the disabled man. The master is not overjoyed with the slave, calling him his brother.
Yakov’s beloved nephew once decided to get married, and asks the master to marry the girl whom Polivanov had his eye on for himself. The master, for such insolence, gives up his rival as a soldier, and Yakov, out of grief, goes on a drinking binge. Polivanov feels bad without an assistant, but the slave returns to work after two weeks. Again the master is pleased with the servant.
But new trouble is already on the way. On the way to the master's sister, Yakov suddenly turns into a ravine, unharnesses the horses, and hangs himself by the reins. All night the master drives away the crows from the poor body of the servant with a stick.
After this story, the men argued about who was more sinful in Rus': landowners, peasants or robbers? And the pilgrim Ionushka tells the following story.
About two great sinners
Once upon a time there was a gang of robbers led by Ataman Kudeyar. The robber destroyed many innocent souls, but the time has come - he began to repent. And he went to the Holy Sepulcher, and received the schema in the monastery - everyone does not forgive sins, his conscience torments him. Kudeyar settled in the forest under a hundred-year-old oak tree, where he dreamed of a saint who showed him the way to salvation. The murderer will be forgiven when he cuts down this oak tree with the knife that killed people.
Kudeyar began to saw the oak tree in three circles with a knife. Things are going slowly, because the sinner is already advanced in age and weak. One day, the landowner Glukhovsky drives up to the oak tree and begins to mock the old man. He beats, tortures and hangs slaves as much as he wants, but sleeps peacefully. Here Kudeyar falls into a terrible anger and kills the landowner. The oak tree immediately falls, and all the robber’s sins are immediately forgiven.
After this story, the peasant Ignatius Prokhorov begins to argue and prove that the most serious sin is the peasant sin. Here is his story.
Peasant sin
For military services, the admiral receives from the empress eight thousand souls of serfs. Before his death, he calls the elder Gleb and hands him a casket, and in it - free food for all the peasants. After the death of the admiral, the heir began to pester Gleb: he gives him money, free money, just to get the treasured casket. And Gleb trembled and agreed to hand over important documents. So the heir burned all the papers, and eight thousand souls remained in the fortress. The peasants, after listening to Ignatius, agree that this sin is the most serious.
The poem by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'” has its own unique feature. All the names of the villages and the names of the heroes clearly reflect the essence of what is happening. In the first chapter, the reader can meet seven men from the villages “Zaplatovo”, “Dyryaevo”, “Razutovo”, “Znobishino”, “Gorelovo”, “Neelovo”, “Neurozhaiko”, who argue about who has a good life in Rus', and in no way cannot come to an agreement. No one is even going to give in to another... This is how the work begins in an unusual way, which Nikolai Nekrasov conceived in order, as he writes, “to present in a coherent story everything that he knows about the people, everything that happened to be heard from their lips...”
The history of the poem
Nikolai Nekrasov began working on his work in the early 1860s and completed the first part five years later. The prologue was published in the January issue of Sovremennik magazine for 1866. Then painstaking work began on the second part, which was called “The Last One” and was published in 1972. The third part, entitled “Peasant Woman,” was published in 1973, and the fourth, “A Feast for the Whole World,” was published in the fall of 1976, that is, three years later. It’s a pity that the author of the legendary epic was never able to fully complete his plans - the writing of the poem was interrupted by his untimely death in 1877. However, even after 140 years, this work remains important for people; it is read and studied by both children and adults. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is included in the compulsory school curriculum.
Part 1. Prologue: who is the happiest in Rus'
So, the prologue tells how seven men meet on a highway and then go on a journey to find a happy man. Who lives freely, happily and cheerfully in Rus' - this is the main question of curious travelers. Everyone, arguing with another, believes that he is right. Roman shouts that the landowner has the best life, Demyan claims that the life of an official is wonderful, Luka proves that it’s still a priest, the others also express their opinions: “to the noble boyar”, “to the fat-bellied merchant”, “to the sovereign’s minister” or to the tsar .
Such a disagreement leads to an absurd fight, which is observed by birds and animals. It is interesting to read how the author reflects their surprise at what is happening. Even the cow “came to the fire, fixed her eyes on the men, listened to crazy speeches and began, dear heart, to moo, moo, moo!..”
Finally, having kneaded each other's sides, the men came to their senses. They saw a tiny chick of a warbler fly up to the fire, and Pakhom took it in his hands. The travelers began to envy the little birdie, which could fly wherever it wanted. They were talking about what everyone wanted, when suddenly... the bird spoke in a human voice, asking to release the chick and promising a large ransom for it.
The bird showed the men the way to where the real self-assembled tablecloth was buried. Wow! Now you can definitely live without having to worry. But the smart wanderers also asked that their clothes not wear out. “And this will be done by a self-assembled tablecloth,” said the warbler. And she kept her promise.
The men began to live a well-fed and cheerful life. But they haven’t yet resolved the main question: who lives well in Rus' after all? And the friends decided not to return to their families until they found the answer to it.
Chapter 1. Pop
On the way, the men met a priest and, bowing low, asked him to answer “in good conscience, without laughter and without cunning,” whether life was really good for him in Rus'. What the priest said dispelled the seven curious people’s ideas about his happy life. No matter how harsh the circumstances may be - a dead autumn night, or a severe frost, or a spring flood - the priest has to go where he is called, without arguing or contradicting. The work is not easy, and besides, the groans of people leaving for another world, the cries of orphans and the sobs of widows completely upset the peace of the priest’s soul. And only outwardly it seems that the priest is held in high esteem. In fact, he is often the target of ridicule among the common people.
Chapter 2. Rural fair
Further, the road leads purposeful wanderers to other villages, which for some reason turn out to be empty. The reason is that all the people are at the fair in the village of Kuzminskoye. And it was decided to go there to ask people about happiness.
The life of the village gave the men some not very pleasant feelings: there were a lot of drunks around, everything was dirty, dull, and uncomfortable. They also sell books at the fair, but they are of low quality; Belinsky and Gogol cannot be found here.
By evening everyone becomes so drunk that even the church with its bell tower seems to be shaking.
Chapter 3. Drunken night
At night the men are on the road again. They hear drunk people talking. Suddenly attention is drawn to Pavlusha Veretennikov, who is making notes in a notebook. He collects peasant songs and sayings, as well as their stories. After everything that has been said is captured on paper, Veretennikov begins to reproach the assembled people for drunkenness, to which he hears objections: “the peasant drinks mainly because he is in grief, and therefore it is impossible, even a sin, to reproach him for this.
Chapter 4. Happy
The men do not deviate from their goal - to find a happy person at any cost. They promise to reward with a bucket of vodka the one who tells that he is the one who lives freely and cheerfully in Rus'. Drinkers fall for such a “tempting” offer. But no matter how hard they try to colorfully describe the gloomy everyday life of those who want to get drunk for nothing, nothing comes of it. The stories of an old woman who had up to a thousand turnips, a sexton who rejoices when someone pours a drink for him; the paralyzed former servant, who for forty years licked the master's plates with the best French truffle, does not at all impress the stubborn seekers of happiness on Russian soil.
Chapter 5. Landowner.
Maybe luck will smile on them here - the seekers of the happy Russian man assumed when they met the landowner Gavrila Afanasyich Obolt-Obolduev on the road. At first he was frightened, thinking that he had seen robbers, but having learned about the unusual desire of the seven men who blocked his way, he calmed down, laughed and told his story.
Maybe before the landowner considered himself happy, but not now. Indeed, in the old days, Gabriel Afanasyevich was the owner of the entire district, an entire regiment of servants, and organized holidays with theatrical performances and dances. He didn’t even hesitate to invite peasants to the manor’s house to pray on holidays. Now everything has changed: the Obolta-Obolduev family estate was sold for debts, because, left without peasants who knew how to cultivate the land, the landowner, who was not used to working, suffered heavy losses, which led to a disastrous outcome.
Part 2. The Last One
The next day, the travelers went to the banks of the Volga, where they saw a large hay meadow. Before they had time to talk with the locals, they noticed three boats at the pier. It turns out that this is a noble family: two gentlemen with their wives, their children, servants and a gray-haired old gentleman named Utyatin. Everything in this family, to the surprise of the travelers, happens according to such a scenario, as if the abolition of serfdom had never happened. It turns out that Utyatin became very angry when he learned that the peasants had been given free rein and fell ill with a blow, threatening to deprive his sons of their inheritance. To prevent this from happening, they came up with a cunning plan: they persuaded the peasants to play along with the landowner, posing as serfs. They promised the best meadows as a reward after the master’s death.
Utyatin, hearing that the peasants were staying with him, perked up, and the comedy began. Some even liked the role of serfs, but Agap Petrov could not come to terms with his shameful fate and expressed everything to the landowner’s face. For this the prince sentenced him to flogging. The peasants played a role here too: they took the “rebellious” one to the stable, put wine in front of him and asked him to shout louder, for visibility. Alas, Agap could not bear such humiliation, got very drunk and died that same night.
Next, the Last One (Prince Utyatin) arranges a feast, where, barely moving his tongue, he makes a speech about the advantages and benefits of serfdom. After this, he lies down in the boat and gives up the ghost. Everyone is glad that they finally got rid of the old tyrant, however, the heirs are not even going to fulfill their promise to those who played the role of serfs. The hopes of the peasants were not justified: no one gave them any meadows.
Part 3. Peasant woman.
No longer hoping to find a happy person among men, the wanderers decided to ask women. And from the lips of a peasant woman named Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina they hear a very sad and, one might say, terrible story. Only in her parents' house was she happy, and then, when she married Philip, a ruddy and strong guy, a hard life began. The love did not last long, because the husband left to work, leaving his young wife with his family. Matryona works tirelessly and sees no support from anyone except the old man Savely, who lives a century after hard labor that lasted twenty years. Only one joy appears in her difficult fate - her son Demushka. But suddenly a terrible misfortune befell the woman: it is impossible to even imagine what happened to the child due to the fact that the mother-in-law did not allow her daughter-in-law to take him with her to the field. Due to an oversight by his grandfather, the boy is eaten by pigs. What a mother's grief! She mourns Demushka all the time, although other children were born in the family. For their sake, a woman sacrifices herself, for example, she takes punishment when they want to flog her son Fedot for a sheep that was carried away by wolves. When Matryona was pregnant with another son, Lidor, her husband was unjustly taken into the army, and his wife had to go to the city to seek the truth. It’s good that the governor’s wife, Elena Alexandrovna, helped her then. By the way, Matryona gave birth to a son in the waiting room.
Yes, life was not easy for the one who was nicknamed “lucky” in the village: she constantly had to fight for herself, and for her children, and for her husband.
Part 4. A feast for the whole world.
At the end of the village of Valakhchina there was a feast, where everyone was gathered: the wandering men, Vlas the elder, and Klim Yakovlevich. Among those celebrating are two seminarians, simple, kind guys - Savvushka and Grisha Dobrosklonov. They sing funny songs and tell different stories. They do this because ordinary people ask for it. From the age of fifteen, Grisha firmly knows that he will devote his life to the happiness of the Russian people. He sings a song about a great and powerful country called Rus'. Is this not the lucky one whom the travelers were so persistently looking for? After all, he clearly sees the purpose of his life - in serving the disadvantaged people. Unfortunately, Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov died untimely, not having time to finish the poem (according to the author’s plan, the men were supposed to go to St. Petersburg). But the thoughts of the seven wanderers coincide with the thoughts of Dobrosklonov, who thinks that every peasant should live freely and cheerfully in Rus'. This was the main intention of the author.
The poem by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov became legendary, a symbol of the struggle for the happy everyday life of ordinary people, as well as the result of the author’s thoughts about the fate of the peasantry.
IN chapter "Happy" a crowd of men and women will appear on the way. Many of the peasants they met declare themselves “happy,” but the men do not agree with everyone. The researchers noted an important feature in this list of “happy” people - in general, they represent different peasant “professions”, their stories reveal “almost all aspects of the life of the working masses: here are a soldier, a stonecutter, a worker, a Belarusian peasant, etc. ." In this episode, the wanderers themselves act as judges: they do not need to be convinced who is happy and who is not, they decide this issue on their own. And therefore they laughed at the “dismissed sexton”, who assured that happiness lies “in complacency”, in the acceptance of small joy; They laughed at the old woman, “happy” because “in the fall / Up to a thousand turnips were born / On a small ridge.” They pitied the old soldier, who considered it fortunate that he “didn’t succumb to death”, having been in twenty battles. They respected the mighty stonemason, convinced that happiness lies in strength, but still did not agree with him: “<...>But won’t it / be difficult to carry around with this happiness / in old age?..” It is no coincidence that the story of a heroic man who lost both his strength and health through hard work and returned to his homeland to die immediately follows. Strength, youth and health are unreliable grounds for happiness. The Nekrasov peasants did not accept the “happiness” of the bear hunter, who was glad that he did not die, but was only wounded in a fight with the beast, nor do they recognize the happiness of the Belarusian, who received plenty of “bread.” They drove out in disgrace the lackey Prince Peremetyev, who saw happiness in his lackey. But Ermila Girin’s happiness seems very justified to them and to many witnesses of these conversations.
The story of Ermila Girin It is no coincidence that it occupies a central place in the chapter. His story is instructive and really makes you believe that a man can be happy. What is the happiness of Ermila Girin? Coming from a peasant background, he earned money through intelligence and hard work; at first he kept an “orphan mill,” then, when they decided to sell it, he decided to buy it. Deceived by the clerks, Yermil did not bring money to the auction, but the men who knew Girin’s honesty came to the rescue: they collected the “worldly treasury” by the penny. “Mir” has proven its strength, its ability to resist untruth. But the “world” helped Girin because everyone knew his life. And other stories from the life of Ermil Ilyich confirm his kindness and decency. Having sinned once, sending a widow’s son as a soldier instead of his brother, Yermil repented before the people, ready to accept any punishment, any shame:
Yermil Ilyich himself came,
Barefoot, thin, with pads,
With a rope in my hands,
He came and said: “It was time,
I judged you according to my conscience,
Now I myself am more sinful than you:
Judge me!
And he bowed to our feet,
Neither give nor take holy fool<...>
The men's journey could end with a meeting with Yermil Girin. His life corresponds to the people's understanding of happiness and includes: peace, wealth, honor gained by honesty and kindness:
Yes! there was only one man!
He had everything he needed
For happiness: and peace of mind,
And money and honor,
An enviable, true honor,
Not bought with money,
Not with fear: with strict truth,
With intelligence and kindness!
But it is no coincidence that Nekrasov ends the chapter with a story about the misfortune of the happy Girin. “If Nekrasov,” B.Ya. rightly believes. The Bukhshtab wanted to recognize a person like Girin as happy; he could have avoided introducing a prison situation. Of course, Nekrasov wants to show with this episode that happiness in Rus' is hampered by the oppression of the people, which in one way or another deprives the happiness of people who sympathize with the people<...>. The happiness of a merchant who has acquired, albeit legally, a fair amount of capital, even if he is a decent, kind person, is not the happiness that could resolve the dispute between wanderers, because this happiness is not in the understanding that the poet wants to instill in the reader.” One can assume another reason for this ending of the chapter: Nekrasov wanted to show the insufficiency of all these terms for happiness. The happiness of one person, especially an honest one, is impossible against the backdrop of general misfortune.
Other articles on analysis poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.
The prologue tells about the events that occur in the poem itself. Those. about how seven peasants from the villages of Zaplatovo, Neurozhaiko, Dyryavino, Znobishino, Razutovo, Neelovo, Gorelovo started a dispute on the topic “Who can live freely in Rus'?” It is not for nothing that Nikolai Alekseevich submits this acute social issue to the illiterate and ignorant class, which the peasants were considered to be at the end of the 19th century; this is a very bold step - to entrust the search for justice, and, in human terms, happiness, to ordinary men. After all, each of them judges in his own way “who is more at ease” with the landowner, official, priest, merchant, noble boyar, minister of the sovereign or the tsar. The poet included such fairy-tale conventions in the work as a prophetic bird and a self-assembled tablecloth. And the men, having abandoned their affairs, set out on the difficult path of searching for justice and happiness.
Chapter I Pop.
On the way, the peasants meet various wanderers: artisans, beggars, a peasant bast worker just like them, coachmen, and soldiers. But the men don’t ask them questions about happiness: “Soldiers shave with an awl, Soldiers warm themselves with smoke, What kind of happiness is there?” " Towards evening the men met the priest. From his plaintive speeches it turns out that “the landowners went bankrupt,” hinting at the abolition of serfdom by Alexander II the Liberator in 1861. The priest's ideal of happiness is “peace, wealth, honor.” But in real life he did not have this, due to the impoverishment of the landowners and peasants and the rich, well-fed way of life of the priest came to an end.
Chapter II Country Fair.
In this chapter, the men go to the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask the people there about happiness. They hear different things: someone buys something, sells something, and someone, having squandered all their savings, cannot buy gifts for their relatives. Russian people know how to relax, and therefore they walk in a big way, as if they were living on their last day. Having seen enough, the men hit the road.
Chapter III. Drunken night.
At the fair, the men met a new character in the poem - Pavlusha Veretennikov. It is he who tells our “heroes” about the terrible trait of the Russian person - drunkenness. Yakim Nagoy, in turn, counters with the statement that grief has to be drowned in wine. The poet generally created Yakim Nagogo as the embodiment of a plowman-worker who is capable of reflection.
Chapter IV. Happy.
In this chapter, the image of the hero Ermila Girin is painted with new colors. The main emphasis is on the scene with the merchant Altynnikov, regarding the purchase of the mill. To “victory” over the merchant, Girin needs 1000 rubles as quickly as possible. Ermila decides to ask the people for help to lend him this amount. And on market day, on the market square, he carries out his plans. The peasants, imbued with Girin’s situation, “give whatever they are rich in.” This story is precisely related to the search for human happiness. The travelers, having listened carefully to the story, wanted to meet him, but this was not destined to come true, because... Ermila is sitting in prison. And among the people he has a good reputation as a defender of peasant interests.
Chapter V. Landowner.
The fifth chapter of the poem is devoted to the story of the landowner Obolt-Obolduev about his life. The key words in the description of the past life are: “the landowner’s chest breathed freely and easily”: “Whoever I want, I will have mercy, Whoever I want, I will execute. Law is my desire! The fist is my police! " Now everything has changed, the peasants give preference to theft, as a simpler and easier task than work. During the story, the landowner realizes how worthless his life is: “...What did I study? What did I see around? I smoked God’s heaven, wore the royal livery, littered the people’s treasury, and thought of living like this forever.” The chapter ends with the landowner's tears and his feeling of being a deeply unhappy person.
PART II. LAST
Dedicated to the history of Prince Utyatin. He still cannot believe that the reform to free the peasants has forever deprived him of his landowner privileges. The princely sons ask the peasant people to at least outwardly preserve the previous forms of the “landowner-peasant” relationship. This is reflected in the text with the words: “Keep silent, bow down, and don’t contradict the sick man, we will reward you.” The peasants seem to express agreement: “we were joking, fooling around...”. At the end of the second part, the fact of the peasants’ weak self-awareness becomes clear.
PART III. PEASANT WOMAN.
The author composed the third part of the poem from a prologue and eight chapters. The narration comes from the perspective of Matryona Timofeevna, whom everyone around considers lucky, although Matryona herself does not think so. She tells the men about her life. Her confession includes the stories of the Holy Russian hero Savely, which he tells on his own. The life of Matryona Timofeevna is filled with tragedy. Its story begins in the distant past, at a time when people only dared to dream about the abolition of serfdom. Recognizing the situations in which Matryona Timofeevna found herself, it is difficult to believe the human savagery that she had to go through. Matryona left her firstborn with her grandfather Savely. He did not keep an eye on the baby and the child was eaten by pigs.
The police, ignoring her grief, not considering this an excuse, accused her of conspiring with a convict. The doctor performs an autopsy on the small body in front of Matryona’s eyes; the mother’s grief knows no bounds, and she spends all her time at her son’s grave. Grandfather Savely, feeling guilty, goes into the forests and then to the “Sand Monastery” to repent. Her troubles did not end there: soon, she buried her parents. Matryona gives birth every year. Her husband's parents - her father-in-law and mother-in-law - do not love her and are trying to drive her away from the world. My husband was selected as a recruit out of turn for 25 years. Matryona works alone for everyone. Unable to withstand the onslaught, she asks the governor’s wife for help. While waiting, she loses consciousness, and when she comes to, she learns that she has given birth to a son.
The governor's wife does everything possible for Matryona. The husband is returned home. As a result of her confession, Matryona tells the men: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women!” An old woman in the same village gave a very accurate description of the female lot: “The keys to female happiness, From our free will, Abandoned, lost from God himself! »
PART IV. A Feast FOR THE WHOLE WORLD
Nekrasov included an introduction and five chapters in his final part of the poem. According to the plot, the fourth part continues the second: the death of Prince Utyatin led to the celebration of the peasant people, a discussion of issues about the meadows that were promised to the prince’s sons. This is reflected in the text with the words: “On the day of the death of the old prince, the peasants did not foresee that it would not be hired meadows, but litigation.” “Our” men from seven villages are present at the feast as guests: they listen to songs and stories about Kudeyar, about Yakov, about the elder Gleb. But sooner or later everything comes to an end and “Having fallen asleep, our wanderers remained under the willow.” The songs of Grisha Dobrosklonov reflect the thoughts of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov himself about the people. Consists of an introduction and five chapters.
Plot-wise, the fourth part continues the second part: Prince Utyatin died, and the peasants threw a feast for the whole world, discussing the issue of meadows promised by the prince’s sons (“On the day of the death of the old prince // The peasants did not foresee, // That they were not hired meadows, // And they will get into litigation"). The wanderers are present as guests: they listen to songs, stories about Yakov, about Kudeyar, about the elder Gleb. But now the great feast is over. “Having fallen asleep, our wanderers remained under the willow.” Meanwhile, the author talks about Grisha Dobrosklonov. Grisha Dobrosklonov sings songs that reflect Nekrasov’s own thoughts about the people: “You are poor, You are abundant, You are powerful, You are powerless, Mother Rus'! ..” the work concludes with lines that express the general deep meaning of the entire poem: “Our wanderers would be under their own roof if they could know what was happening to Grisha.” With these lines the author answers the question with which he titled his work. The democratic intellectual Grisha Dobrosklonov is living well in Rus'. Who is a democratic revolutionary who is ready to fight for the people's happiness. The feeling that prompted Nekrasov to write the poem is nothing more than a feeling of real, sincere love for the Russian people. This fact determines the incompleteness of the poem.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky spoke about Nekrasov in his essays: “... Nekrasov’s love for the people was, as it were, the outcome of his own grief in itself. In serving his people with his heart and talent, he found his purification before himself. The people were his real inner need, not just for poetry. He found his justification in his love for him. With his feelings for the people, he elevated his spirit.< .. >He bowed before the truth of the people...” .These words express Nekrasov’s need for the love of the people, which served as a source of inspiration for his poetry.
A short retelling of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” in abbreviation was prepared by Oleg Nikov for the reader’s diary.
Poem by N.A. Nekrasov’s “Who Lives Well in Rus',” which he worked on for the last ten years of his life, but did not have time to fully implement, cannot be considered unfinished. It contains everything that made up the meaning of the poet’s spiritual, ideological, life and artistic searches from his youth to his death. And this “everything” found a worthy—capacious and harmonious—form of expression.
What is the architectonics of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”? Architectonics is the “architecture” of a work, the construction of a whole from individual structural parts: chapters, parts, etc. In this poem it is complex. Of course, the inconsistency in the division of the enormous text of the poem gives rise to the complexity of its architectonics. Not everything is written down, not everything is uniform and not everything is numbered. However, this does not make the poem any less amazing - it shocks anyone capable of feeling compassion, pain and anger at the sight of cruelty and injustice. Nekrasov, creating typical images of unjustly ruined peasants, made them immortal.
The beginning of the poem -"Prologue" — sets a fabulous tone for the entire work.
Of course, this is a fairy-tale beginning: who knows where and when, who knows why, seven men come together. And a dispute flares up - how can a Russian person live without a dispute? and the men turn into wanderers, wandering along an endless road to find the truth, hidden either behind the next turn, or behind the nearest hill, or even completely unattainable.
In the text of the “Prologue,” whoever doesn’t appear, as if in a fairy tale: a woman - almost a witch, and a gray hare, and small jackdaws, and a chick warbler, and a cuckoo... Seven eagle owls look at the wanderers in the night, the echo echoes their cries, an owl, a cunning fox - everyone has been here. Groin, examining the small birdie - a chick warbler - and seeing that she is happier than the man, decides to find out the truth. And, as in a fairy tale, the mother warbler, rescuing the chick, promises to give the men plenty of everything they ask for on the road, so that they can only find the truthful answer, and shows the way. “Prologue” is not like a fairy tale. This is a fairy tale, only a literary one. So the men make a vow not to return home until they find the truth. And the wandering begins.
Chapter I - "Pop". In it, the priest defines what happiness is - “peace, wealth, honor” - and describes his life in such a way that none of the conditions of happiness fit it. The misfortunes of peasant parishioners in poor villages, the revelry of landowners who left their estates, the desolate life of the locality - all this is in the priest’s bitter answer. And, bowing low to him, the wanderers move on.
In Chapter II wanderers at the fair. The picture of the village: “a house with the inscription: school, empty, / Packed tightly” - and this is in a village “rich, but dirty.” There, at the fair, a phrase familiar to us sounds:
When a man is not Blucher
And not my foolish lord—
Belinsky and Gogol
Will it come from the market?
In Chapter III "Drunken Night" The eternal vice and consolation of the Russian serf peasant is described with bitterness - drunkenness to the point of unconsciousness. Pavlusha Veretennikov appears again, known among the peasants of the village of Kuzminskoye as “the gentleman” and met by wanderers back there, at the fair. He records folk songs, jokes - we would say, collects Russian folklore.
Having written down enough,
Veretennikov told them:
“Russian peasants are smart,
One thing is bad
That they drink until they are stupefied,
They fall into ditches, into ditches—
It’s a shame to see!”
This offends one of the men:
There is no measure for Russian hops.
Have they measured our grief?
Is there a limit to the work?
Wine brings down the peasant,
Doesn't grief overwhelm him?
Work isn't going well?
A man does not measure troubles
Copes with everything
No matter what, come.
This man, who stands up for everyone and defends the dignity of the Russian serf, is one of the most important heroes of the poem, the peasant Yakim Nagoy. This surname - speaking. And he lives in the village of Bosovo. Travelers learn the story of his unimaginably difficult life and ineradicable proud courage from local peasants.
In Chapter IV wanderers wander through the festive crowd, bawling: “Hey! Isn’t there a happy one somewhere?” - and the peasants will respond by smiling and spitting... Pretenders appear, coveting the drink promised by the wanderers “for happiness.” All this is both scary and frivolous. Happy is the soldier that he was beaten, but not killed, did not die of hunger and survived twenty battles. But for some reason this is not enough for wanderers, even though it would be a sin to refuse a soldier a glass. Other naive workers who humbly consider themselves happy also evoke pity and not joy. The stories of the “happy” people are becoming scarier and scarier. There even appears a type of princely “slave”, happy with his “noble” disease - gout - and the fact that at least it brings him closer to the master.
Finally, someone directs the wanderers to Yermil Girin: if he is not happy, then who will be! The story of Ermil is important for the author: the people raised money so that, bypassing the merchant, the man bought himself a mill on the Unzha (a large navigable river in the Kostroma province). The generosity of the people, who give their last for a good cause, is a joy for the author. Nekrasov is proud of the men. Afterwards, Yermil gave everything to his people, the ruble remained ungiven - no owner was found, but the money was collected enormously. Yermil gave the ruble to the poor. The story follows about how Yermil won the people's trust. His incorruptible honesty in the service, first as a clerk, then as a lord’s manager, and his help over many years created this trust. It seemed that the matter was clear - such a person could not help but be happy. And suddenly the gray-haired priest announces: Yermil is sitting in prison. And he was put there in connection with a peasant revolt in the village of Stolbnyaki. How and what - the wanderers did not have time to find out.
In Chapter V - “The Landowner” — the stroller rolls out, and in it is indeed the landowner Obolt-Obolduev. The landowner is described comically: a plump gentleman with a “pistol” and a paunch. Note: he has a “speaking” name, as almost always with Nekrasov. “Tell us, in God’s terms, is the life of a landowner sweet?” - the wanderers stop him. The landowner's stories about his “root” are strange to the peasants. Not exploits, but outrages to please the queen and the intention to set fire to Moscow - these are the memorable deeds of illustrious ancestors. What is the honor for? How to understand? The landowner's story about the delights of the former master's life somehow does not please the peasants, and Obolduev himself recalls with bitterness the past - it is gone, and gone forever.
To adapt to a new life after the abolition of serfdom, you need to study and work. But labor - not a noble habit. Hence the grief.
"The last one." This part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” begins with a picture of haymaking on water meadows. A noble family appears. The appearance of an old man is terrible - the father and grandfather of a noble family. The ancient and evil Prince Utyatin lives because his former serfs, according to the story of the peasant Vlas, conspired with the noble family to imitate the old serf order for the sake of the prince’s peace of mind and so that he would not deny his family an inheritance due to the whim of old age. They promised to give the peasants water meadows after the death of the prince. The “faithful slave” Ipat was also found - in Nekrasov, as you have already noticed, and such types among the peasants find their description. Only the man Agap could not stand it and cursed the Last One for what it was worth. The feigned punishment at the stable with lashes turned out to be fatal for the proud peasant. The last one died almost before the eyes of our wanderers, and the peasants are still suing over the meadows: “The heirs are fighting with the peasants to this day.”
According to the logic of the construction of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” what follows is, as it were, herThe second part , entitled"Peasant Woman" and having its own"Prologue" and your chapters. The peasants, having lost faith in finding someone happy among the men, decide to turn to the women. There is no need to retell what kind and how much “happiness” they find in the lot of women and peasants. All this is expressed with such depth of penetration into a woman’s suffering soul, with such an abundance of details of fate, slowly told by a peasant woman, respectfully called “Matryona Timofeevna, she is the governor’s wife,” that at times it either touches you to tears, or makes you clench your fists with anger. She was happy on her first night as a woman, and when was that!
Weaved into the narrative are songs created by the author on a folk basis, as if sewn on the canvas of a Russian folk song (Chapter 2. “Songs” ). There the wanderers sing with Matryona in turn, and the peasant woman herself, remembering the past.
My hateful husband
Rises:
For the silk lash
Accepted.
Choir
The whip whistled
Blood spattered...
Oh! cherished! cherished!
Blood spattered...
The married life of a peasant woman matched the song. Only her husband's grandfather, Savely, took pity and consoled her. “He was also lucky,” recalls Matryona.
A separate chapter of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is dedicated to this powerful Russian man -"Savely, the Holy Russian hero" . The title of the chapter speaks about its style and content. A branded, former convict, an old man of heroic build speaks little, but aptly. “To not endure is an abyss, to endure is an abyss,” are his favorite words. The old man buried the German Vogel, the lord's manager, alive in the ground for atrocities against the peasants. Savely’s collective image:
Do you think, Matryonushka,
Is the man not a hero?
And his life is not a military one,
And death is not written for him
In battle - what a hero!
Hands are twisted in chains,
Feet forged with iron,
Back...dense forests
We walked along it and broke down.
What about the breasts? Elijah the prophet
It rattles and rolls around
On a chariot of fire...
The hero endures everything!
In the chapter"Dyomushka" the worst thing happens: Matryona’s little son, left at home unattended, is eaten by pigs. But this is not enough: the mother was accused of murder, and the police opened the child in front of her eyes. And it’s even more terrible that the innocent culprit in the death of his beloved grandson, who awakened the tormented soul of his grandfather, was Savely the hero himself, already a very old man, who fell asleep and neglected to look after the baby.
In Chapter V - “She-Wolf” — the peasant woman forgives the old man and endures everything that remains in her life. Having chased the she-wolf who carried away the sheep, Matryona's son Fedotka the Shepherd takes pity on the beast: hungry, powerless, with swollen nipples, the mother of the wolf cubs sits down on the grass in front of him, suffers a beating, and the little boy leaves her the sheep, already dead. Matryona accepts punishment for him and lies under the whip.
After this episode, Matryona’s song lamentations on a gray stone above the river, when she, an orphan, calls out to her father and mother for help and comfort, complete the story and create the transition to a new year of disasters -Chapter VI “Difficult Year” . Hungry, “She looks like the kids / I was like her,” Matryona recalls the she-wolf. Her husband is drafted into a soldier without a deadline and without a queue; she remains with her children in her husband’s hostile family - a “freeloader”, without protection or help. The life of a soldier is a special topic, revealed in detail. The soldiers flog her son with rods in the square - you can’t understand why.
A terrible song precedes Matryona's escape alone into the winter night (head "Governor" ). She threw herself backward onto the snowy road and prayed to the Intercessor.
And the next morning Matryona went to the governor. She fell at her feet right on the stairs to get her husband back, and gave birth. The governor turned out to be a compassionate woman, and Matryona and her child returned happy. They nicknamed her the Governor, and life seemed to be getting better, but then the time came, and they took the eldest as a soldier. “What else do you need? — Matryona asks the peasants, “the keys to women’s happiness... are lost,” and cannot be found.
The third part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, not called that, but having all the signs of an independent part - dedication to Sergei Petrovich Botkin, introduction and chapters - has a strange name -"A Feast for the Whole World" . In the introduction, some semblance of hope for the freedom granted to the peasants, which is not yet visible, lights up the face of the peasant Vlas with a smile almost for the first time in his life. But its first chapter is"Bitter times - bitter songs" - represents either a stylization of folk couplets telling about hunger and injustices under serfdom, then mournful, “lingering, sad” Vakhlak songs about inescapable forced melancholy, and finally, “Corvee”.
A separate chapter - a story“About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful” - begins as if about a serf peasant of the slave type who interested Nekrasov. However, the story takes an unexpected and sharp turn: unable to bear the insult, Yakov first started drinking, fled, and when he returned, he took the master into a swampy ravine and hanged himself in front of his eyes. The worst sin for a Christian is suicide. The wanderers are shocked and frightened, and a new dispute begins - a dispute about who is the worst sinner of all. Ionushka, the “humble praying mantis,” tells the story.
A new page of the poem opens -"Wanderers and Pilgrims" , for her -"About two great sinners" : a tale about Kudeyar-ataman, a robber who killed countless souls. The story is told in epic verse, and, as if in a Russian song, Kudeyar’s conscience awakens, he accepts hermitage and repentance from the saint who appeared to him: to cut off a century-old oak with the same knife with which he killed. The work takes many years, the hope that it will be possible to complete it before death is weak. Suddenly, the well-known villain Pan Glukhovsky appears on horseback in front of Kudeyar and tempts the hermit with shameless speeches. Kudeyar cannot stand the temptation: the master has a knife in his chest. And - a miracle! — the century-old oak tree collapsed.
The peasants are starting a dispute about whose sin is worse—the “noble” or the “peasant.”In the chapter “Peasant Sin” Also, in an epic verse, Ignatius Prokhorov talks about the sin of Judas (the sin of betrayal) of a peasant elder, who was tempted by the bribe of the heir and hid the owner’s will, in which all eight thousand souls of his peasants were set free. The listeners shudder. There is no forgiveness for the destroyer of eight thousand souls. The despair of the peasants, who recognized that such sins were possible among them, pours out in song. “Hungry” is a terrible song - a spell, the howl of an insatiable beast - not a human. A new face appears - Gregory, the young godson of the headman, the son of a sexton. He consoles and inspires the peasants. After sighing and thinking, they decide: It’s all to blame: strengthen yourself!
It turns out that Grisha is going “to Moscow, to the new city.” And then it becomes clear that Grisha is the hope of the peasant world:
“I don’t need any silver,
Not gold, but God willing,
So that my fellow countrymen
And every peasant
Life was free and fun
All over holy Rus'!
But the story continues, and the wanderers witness how an old soldier, thin as a sliver, hung with medals, rides up on a cart of hay and sings his song - “Soldier’s” with the refrain: “The light is sick, / There is no bread, / There is no shelter, /There is no death,” and to others: “German bullets, /Turkish bullets, /French bullets, /Russian sticks.” Everything about the soldier’s lot is collected in this chapter of the poem.
But here is a new chapter with a cheerful title"Good time - good songs" . Savva and Grisha sing a song of new hope on the Volga bank.
The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of a sexton from the Volga, of course, unites the features of Nekrasov’s dear friends - Belinsky, Dobrolyubov (compare the names), Chernyshevsky. They could sing this song too. Grisha barely managed to survive the famine: his mother’s song, sung by the peasant women, was called “Salty.” A piece watered with a mother's tears is a substitute for salt for a child dying of hunger. “With love for the poor mother / Love for all the Vakhlachina / Merged, - and at the age of fifteen / Gregory already knew firmly / That he would live for the happiness / Of his wretched and dark native corner.” Images of angelic forces appear in the poem, and the style changes dramatically. The poet moves on to marching tercets, reminiscent of the rhythmic tread of the forces of good, inevitably pushing back the obsolete and evil. The “Angel of Mercy” sings an invocation song over a Russian youth.
Grisha, waking up, goes down to the meadows, thinks about the fate of his homeland and sings. The song contains his hope and love. And firm confidence: “Enough! /Completed with the settlement, /Completed the settlement with the master! / The Russian people gather their strength / And learn to be citizens.”
“Rus” is the last song of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
Source (abbreviated): Michalskaya, A.K. Literature: Basic level: 10th grade. At 2 p.m. Part 1: study. allowance / A.K. Mikhalskaya, O.N. Zaitseva. - M.: Bustard, 2018