Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” tells about the journey of seven peasants across Russia in search of a happy person. The work was written in the late 60s to mid 70s. XIX century, after the reforms of Alexander II and the abolition of serfdom. It tells about a post-reform society in which not only many old vices have not disappeared, but many new ones have appeared. According to the plan of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, the wanderers were supposed to reach St. Petersburg at the end of the journey, but due to the illness and imminent death of the author, the poem remained unfinished.
The work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is written in blank verse and stylized as Russian folk tales. We invite you to read online a summary of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov, chapter by chapter, prepared by the editors of our portal.
Main characters
Novel, Demyan, Luke, Gubin brothers Ivan and Mitrodor, Groin, Prov- seven peasants who went to look for a happy man.
Other characters
Ermil Girin- the first “candidate” for the title of lucky man, an honest mayor, very respected by the peasants.
Matryona Korchagina(Governor's wife) - a peasant woman, known in her village as a “lucky woman”.
Savely- grandfather of Matryona Korchagina’s husband. A hundred year old man.
Prince Utyatin(The Last One) is an old landowner, a tyrant, to whom his family, in agreement with the peasants, does not talk about the abolition of serfdom.
Vlas- peasant, mayor of a village that once belonged to Utyatin.
Grisha Dobrosklonov- seminarian, son of a clerk, dreaming of the liberation of the Russian people; the prototype was the revolutionary democrat N. Dobrolyubov.
Part 1
Prologue
Seven men converge on the “pillar path”: Roman, Demyan, Luka, the Gubin brothers (Ivan and Mitrodor), old man Pakhom and Prov. The district from which they come is called by the author Terpigorev, and the “adjacent villages” from which the men come are called Zaplatovo, Dyryaevo, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo and Neurozhaiko, thus the poem uses the artistic device of “speaking” names .
The men got together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
Each of them insists on his own. One shouts that life is most free for the landowner, another that for the official, the third for the priest, “the fat-bellied merchant,” “the noble boyar, the sovereign’s minister,” or the tsar.
From the outside it seems as if the men found a treasure on the road and are now dividing it among themselves. The men have already forgotten what business they left the house for (one was going to baptize a child, the other was going to the market...), and they go to God knows where until night falls. Only here do the men stop and, “blaming the trouble on the devil,” sit down to rest and continue the argument. Soon it comes to a fight.
Roman is pushing Pakhomushka,
Demyan pushes Luka.
The fight alarmed the whole forest, an echo woke up, animals and birds became worried, a cow mooed, a cuckoo croaked, jackdaws squeaked, the fox, who had been eavesdropping on the men, decided to run away.
And then there’s the warbler
Tiny chick with fright
Fell from the nest.
When the fight is over, the men pay attention to this chick and catch it. It’s easier for a bird than for a man, says Pakhom. If he had wings, he would fly all over Rus' to find out who lives best in it. “We wouldn’t even need wings,” the others add, they would just have some bread and “a bucket of vodka,” as well as cucumbers, kvass and tea. Then they would measure all of “Mother Rus' with their feet.”
While the men are interpreting this, a warbler flies up to them and asks them to let her chick go free. For him she will give a royal ransom: everything the men want.
The men agree, and the warbler shows them a place in the forest where a box with a self-assembled tablecloth is buried. Then she enchants their clothes so that they do not wear out, so that their bast shoes do not break, their foot wraps do not rot, and lice do not breed on their bodies, and flies away “with her birth chick.” In parting, the chiffchaff warns the peasant: they can ask for as much food from the self-assembled tablecloth as they want, but you can’t ask for more than a bucket of vodka a day:
And once and twice - it will be fulfilled
At your request,
And the third time there will be trouble!
The peasants rush into the forest, where they actually find a self-assembled tablecloth. Delighted, they throw a feast and make a vow: not to return home until they find out for sure “who lives happily and at ease in Rus'?”
This is how their journey begins.
Chapter 1. Pop
A wide path lined with birch trees stretches far away. On it, the men come across mostly “small people” - peasants, artisans, beggars, soldiers. Travelers don’t even ask them anything: what kind of happiness is there? Towards evening, the men meet the priest. The men block his path and bow low. In response to the priest’s silent question: what do they want?, Luka talks about the dispute that started and asks: “Is the priest’s life sweet?”
The priest thinks for a long time, and then answers that, since it is a sin to grumble against God, he will simply describe his life to the men, and they will figure out for themselves whether it is good.
Happiness, according to the priest, lies in three things: “peace, wealth, honor.” The priest knows no peace: his rank is earned by hard work, and then an equally difficult service begins; the cries of orphans, the cries of widows and the groans of the dying contribute little to peace of mind.
The situation is no better with honor: the priest serves as an object for the witticisms of the common people, obscene tales, anecdotes and fables are written about him, which do not spare not only himself, but also his wife and children.
The last thing that remains is wealth, but even here everything has changed long ago. Yes, there were times when the nobles honored the priest, played magnificent weddings and came to their estates to die - that was the job of the priests, but now “the landowners have scattered across distant foreign lands.” So it turns out that the priest is content with rare copper nickels:
The peasant himself needs
And I would be glad to give it, but there’s nothing...
Having finished his speech, the priest leaves, and the disputants attack Luke with reproaches. They unanimously accuse him of stupidity, of the fact that it was only at first glance that the priest’s housing seemed comfortable to him, but he could not figure it out deeper.
What did you take? stubborn head!
The men would probably have beaten Luka, but then, fortunately for him, at the bend of the road, “the priest’s stern face” appears once again...
Chapter 2. Rural fair
The men continue their journey, and their road goes through empty villages. Finally they meet the rider and ask him where the villagers have gone.
We went to the village of Kuzminskoye,
Today there is a fair...
Then the wanderers decide to also go to the fair - what if it is there that the one “who lives happily” is hiding?
Kuzminskoye is a rich, albeit dirty village. It has two churches, a school (closed), a dirty hotel and even a paramedic. That’s why the fair is rich, and most of all there are taverns, “eleven taverns,” and they don’t have time to pour a drink for everyone:
Oh, Orthodox thirst,
How great are you!
There are a lot of drunk people around. A man scolds a broken ax, and Vavil’s grandfather, who promised to bring shoes for his granddaughter, but drank away all the money, is sad next to him. The people feel sorry for him, but no one can help - they themselves have no money. Fortunately, a “master” happens, Pavlusha Veretennikov, and he buys shoes for Vavila’s granddaughter.
Ofeni (booksellers) also sell at the fair, but the most low-quality books, as well as thicker portraits of generals, are in demand. And no one knows whether the time will come when a man:
Belinsky and Gogol
Will it come from the market?
By evening everyone gets so drunk that even the church with its bell tower seems to be shaking, and the men leave the village.
Chapter 3. Drunken night
It's a quiet night. The men walk along the “hundred-voice” road and hear snatches of other people’s conversations. They talk about officials, about bribes: “And we give fifty dollars to the clerk: We have made a request,” women’s songs are heard asking them to “love.” One drunk guy buries his clothes in the ground, assuring everyone that he is “burying his mother.” At the road sign, the wanderers again meet Pavel Veretennikov. He talks with peasants, writes down their songs and sayings. Having written down enough, Veretennikov blames the peasants for drinking a lot - “it’s a shame to see!” They object to him: the peasant drinks mainly out of grief, and it is a sin to condemn or envy him.
The objector's name is Yakim Goly. Pavlusha also writes down his story in a book. Even in his youth, Yakim bought popular prints for his son and he loved looking at them just as much as the child. When there was a fire in the hut, the first thing he did was rush to tear pictures from the walls, and so all his savings, thirty-five rubles, were burned. Now he gets 11 rubles for a melted lump.
Having heard enough stories, the wanderers sit down to refresh themselves, then one of them, Roman, remains at the guard’s bucket of vodka, and the rest again mix with the crowd in search of the happy one.
Chapter 4. Happy
Wanderers walk in the crowd and call for the happy one to appear. If such a one appears and tells them about his happiness, then he will be treated to vodka.
Sober people laugh at such speeches, but a considerable queue of drunk people forms. The sexton comes first. His happiness, in his words, is “in complacency” and in the “kosushechka” that the men pour out. The sexton is driven away, and an old woman appears who, on a small ridge, “up to a thousand turnips were born.” The next to try his luck is a soldier with medals, “he’s barely alive, but he wants a drink.” His happiness is that no matter how much he was tortured in the service, he still remained alive. A stonecutter with a huge hammer also comes, a peasant who overstrained himself in the service but still made it home barely alive, a yard man with a “noble” disease - gout. The latter boasts that for forty years he stood at the table of His Serene Highness, licking plates and finishing glasses of foreign wine. The men drive him away too, because they have simple wine, “not for your lips!”
The queue for the travelers is not getting smaller. The Belarusian peasant is happy that here he eats his fill of rye bread, because in his homeland they baked bread only with chaff, and this caused terrible cramps in the stomach. A man with a folded cheekbone, a hunter, is happy that he survived the fight with the bear, while the rest of his comrades were killed by the bears. Even beggars come: they are happy that there is alms to feed them.
Finally, the bucket is empty, and the wanderers realize that they will not find happiness this way.
Hey, man's happiness!
Leaky, with patches,
Humpbacked with calluses,
Go home!
Here one of the people who approached them advises them to “ask Ermila Girin,” because if he doesn’t turn out to be happy, then there’s nothing to look for. Ermila is a simple man who has earned the great love of the people. The wanderers are told the following story: Ermila once had a mill, but they decided to sell it for debts. The bidding began; the merchant Altynnikov really wanted to buy the mill. Ermila was able to beat his price, but the problem was that he didn’t have the money with him to make a deposit. Then he asked for an hour's delay and ran to the market square to ask the people for money.
And a miracle happened: Yermil received the money. Very soon he had the thousand he needed to buy out the mill. And a week later there was an even more wonderful sight on the square: Yermil was “calculating the people”, he distributed the money to everyone and honestly. There was only one extra ruble left, and Yermil kept asking until sunset whose it was.
The wanderers are perplexed: by what witchcraft did Yermil gain such trust from the people. They are told that this is not witchcraft, but the truth. Girin served as a clerk in an office and never took a penny from anyone, but helped with advice. The old prince soon died, and the new one ordered the peasants to elect a burgomaster. Unanimously, “six thousand souls, the whole estate,” Yermila shouted - although young, he loves the truth!
Only once did Yermil “betray his soul” when he did not recruit his younger brother, Mitri, replacing him with the son of Nenila Vlasyevna. But after this act, Yermil’s conscience tormented him so much that he soon tried to hang himself. Mitri was handed over as a recruit, and Nenila’s son was returned to her. Yermil, for a long time, was not himself, “he resigned from his position,” but instead rented a mill and became “more loved by the people than before.”
But here the priest intervenes in the conversation: all this is true, but going to Yermil Girin is useless. He is sitting in prison. The priest begins to tell how it happened - the village of Stolbnyaki rebelled and the authorities decided to call Yermil - his people will listen.
The story is interrupted by shouts: they caught the thief and flogged him. The thief turns out to be the same footman with the “noble illness”, and after the flogging he runs away as if he had completely forgotten about his illness.
The priest, meanwhile, says goodbye, promising to finish telling the story the next time they meet.
Chapter 5. Landowner
On their further journey, the men meet the landowner Gavrila Afanasich Obolt-Obolduev. The landowner is frightened at first, suspecting them to be robbers, but, having figured out what the matter is, he laughs and begins to tell his story. He traces his noble family back to the Tatar Oboldui, who was skinned by a bear for the amusement of the empress. She gave the Tatar cloth for this. Such were the noble ancestors of the landowner...
The law is my desire!
The fist is my police!
However, not all strictness; the landowner admits that he “attracted hearts more with affection”! All the servants loved him, gave him gifts, and he was like a father to them. But everything changed: the peasants and land were taken away from the landowner. The sound of an ax can be heard from the forests, everyone is being destroyed, drinking houses are springing up in place of estates, because now no one needs a letter at all. And they shout to the landowners:
Wake up, sleepy landowner!
Get up! - study! work!..
But how can a landowner, who has been accustomed to something completely different since childhood, work? They didn’t learn anything, and “thought they’d live like this forever,” but it turned out differently.
The landowner began to cry, and the good-natured peasants almost cried with him, thinking:
The great chain has broken,
Torn and splintered:
One way for the master,
Others don't care!..
Part 2
Last One
The next day, the men go to the banks of the Volga, to a huge hay meadow. They had barely started talking with the locals when music began and three boats moored to the shore. They are a noble family: two gentlemen with their wives, little barchat, servants and a gray-haired old gentleman. The old man inspects the mowing, and everyone bows to him almost to the ground. In one place he stops and orders the dry haystack to be swept away: the hay is still damp. The absurd order is immediately carried out.
The wanderers marvel:
Grandfather!
What a wonderful old man?
It turns out that the old man - Prince Utyatin (the peasants call him the Last One) - having learned about the abolition of serfdom, “beguiled” and fell ill with a stroke. It was announced to his sons that they had betrayed the landowner ideals, were unable to defend them, and if so, they would be left without an inheritance. The sons got scared and persuaded the peasants to fool the landowner a little, with the idea that after his death they would give the village flood meadows. The old man was told that the tsar ordered the serfs to be returned to the landowners, the prince was delighted and stood up. So this comedy continues to this day. Some peasants are even happy about this, for example, the courtyard Ipat:
Ipat said: “Have fun!
And I am the Utyatin princes
Serf - and that’s the whole story!”
But Agap Petrov cannot come to terms with the fact that even in freedom someone will push him around. One day he told the master everything directly, and he had a stroke. When he woke up, he ordered Agap to be flogged, and the peasants, so as not to reveal the deception, took him to the stable, where they placed a bottle of wine in front of him: drink and shout louder! Agap died that same night: it was hard for him to bow down...
The wanderers attend the feast of the Last One, where he gives a speech about the benefits of serfdom, and then lies down in a boat and falls asleep in eternal sleep while listening to songs. The village of Vakhlaki sighs with sincere relief, but no one is giving them the meadows - the trial continues to this day.
Part 3
Peasant woman
“Not everything is between men
Find the happy one
Let’s feel the women!”
With these words, the wanderers go to Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna, the governor, a beautiful woman 38 years old, who, however, already calls herself an old woman. She talks about her life. Then I was only happy, as I was growing up in my parents’ house. But girlhood quickly flew by, and now Matryona is already being wooed. Her betrothed is Philip, handsome, ruddy and strong. He loves his wife (according to her, he only beat him once), but soon he goes to work, and leaves her with his large, but alien to Matryona, family.
Matryona works for her older sister-in-law, her strict mother-in-law, and her father-in-law. She had no joy in her life until her eldest son, Demushka, was born.
In the whole family, only the old grandfather Savely, the “hero of the Holy Russian”, who is living out his life after twenty years of hard labor, feels sorry for Matryona. He ended up in hard labor for the murder of a German manager who did not give the men a single free minute. Savely told Matryona a lot about his life, about “Russian heroism.”
The mother-in-law forbids Matryona to take Demushka into the field: she doesn’t work with him much. The grandfather looks after the child, but one day he falls asleep and the child is eaten by pigs. After some time, Matryona meets Savely at the grave of Demushka, who has gone to repentance at the Sand Monastery. She forgives him and takes him home, where the old man soon dies.
Matryona had other children, but she could not forget Demushka. One of them, the shepherdess Fedot, once wanted to be whipped for a sheep carried away by a wolf, but Matryona took the punishment upon herself. When she was pregnant with Liodorushka, she had to go to the city and ask for the return of her husband, who had been taken into the army. Matryona gave birth right in the waiting room, and the governor’s wife, Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying, helped her. Since then, Matryona “has been glorified as a lucky woman and nicknamed the governor’s wife.” But what kind of happiness is that?
This is what Matryonushka says to the wanderers and adds: they will never find a happy woman among women, the keys to female happiness are lost, and even God does not know where to find them.
Part 4
Feast for the whole world
There is a feast in the village of Vakhlachina. Everyone gathered here: the wanderers, Klim Yakovlich, and Vlas the elder. Among the feasting are two seminarians, Savvushka and Grisha, good, simple guys. They, at the request of the people, sing a “funny” song, then it’s their turn for different stories. There is a story about an “exemplary slave - Yakov the faithful,” who followed his master all his life, fulfilled all his whims and rejoiced even in the master’s beatings. Only when the master gave his nephew as a soldier did Yakov start drinking, but soon returned to the master. And yet Yakov did not forgive him, and was able to take revenge on Polivanov: he took him, with his legs swollen, into the forest, and there he hanged himself on a pine tree above the master.
A dispute ensues about who is the most sinful. God's wanderer Jonah tells the story of “two sinners,” about the robber Kudeyar. The Lord awakened his conscience and imposed a penance on him: cut down a huge oak tree in the forest, then his sins will be forgiven. But the oak fell only when Kudeyar sprinkled it with the blood of the cruel Pan Glukhovsky. Ignatius Prokhorov objects to Jonah: the peasant’s sin is still greater, and tells a story about the headman. He hid the last will of his master, who decided to set his peasants free before his death. But the headman, seduced by money, tore up his freedom.
The crowd is depressed. Songs are sung: “Hungry”, “Soldier’s”. But the time will come in Rus' for good songs. This is confirmed by two seminarian brothers, Savva and Grisha. Seminarian Grisha, the son of a sexton, has known for sure since the age of fifteen that he wants to devote his life to the people’s happiness. Love for his mother merges in his heart with love for all Vakhlachin. Grisha walks along his land and sings a song about Rus':
You're miserable too
You are also abundant
You are mighty
You are also powerless
Mother Rus'!
And his plans will not be lost: fate is preparing for Grisha “a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.” In the meantime, Grisha sings, and it’s a pity that the wanderers can’t hear him, because then they would understand that they have already found a happy person and could return home.
Conclusion
This ends the unfinished chapters of the poem by Nekrasov. However, even from the surviving parts, the reader is presented with a large-scale picture of post-reform Rus', which with pain is learning to live in a new way. The range of problems raised by the author in the poem is very wide: the problems of widespread drunkenness, ruining the Russian people (it’s not for nothing that a bucket of vodka is offered as a reward to the happy one!), problems of women, ineradicable slave psychology (revealed in the example of Yakov, Ipat) and the main problem of national happiness. Most of these problems, unfortunately, to one degree or another remain relevant today, which is why the work is very popular, and a number of quotes from it have entered everyday speech. The compositional method of the main characters' journey brings the poem closer to an adventure novel, making it easy to read and with great interest.
A brief retelling of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” conveys only the most basic content of the poem; for a more accurate idea of the work, we recommend that you read the full version of “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”
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The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”: concept, plot, composition. Review of the contents of the poem. Historical information about the peasant reform of 1861
On February 19, 1861, Alexander II issued a Manifesto and Regulations that abolished serfdom. What did the men get from the gentlemen?
The peasants were promised personal freedom and the right to dispose of their property. The land was recognized as the property of landowners. Landowners were charged with the responsibility of allocating a plot of land and field plots to the peasants.
The peasants had to buy the land from the landowner. The transition to the purchase of land plots depended not on the wishes of the peasants, but on the will of the landowner. The peasants who, with his permission, switched to the redemption of land plots were called owners, and those who did not switch to the redemption were called temporarily obligated. For the right to use the plot of land received from the landowner before the transfer to redemption, they had to fulfill compulsory duties (pay quitrent or work corvée).
The establishment of temporary obligatory relations preserves the feudal system of exploitation for an indefinite period. The value of the allotment was determined not by the actual market value of the land, but by the income received by the landowner from the estate under serfdom. When buying land, peasants paid for it twice and three times its actual value. For landowners, the redemption operation made it possible to retain in full the income that they received before the reform.
The beggarly allotment could not feed the peasant, and he had to go to the same landowner with a request to accept sharecropping: to cultivate the master's land with his own tools and receive half the harvest for his labor. This mass enslavement of the peasants ended with the massive destruction of the old village. In no other country in the world has the peasantry experienced such ruin, such poverty, even after “liberation”, as in Russia. That is why the first reaction to the Manifesto and the Regulations was the open resistance of the bulk of the peasantry, expressed in the refusal to accept these documents.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is Nekrasov’s pinnacle work.
Nekrasov, following Pushkin and Gogol, decided to depict a broad canvas of the life of the Russian people and their main mass - the Russian peasant of the post-reform era, to show the predatory nature of the peasant reform and the deterioration of the people's lot. An important image of the poem is the image of the road, which brings the author’s position closer to the motifs of the biblical way of the cross, with the traditions of Gogol and Russian folklore. At the same time, the author’s task also included a satirical depiction of the “tops,” where the poet follows Gogol’s traditions. But the main thing is to demonstrate the talent, will, perseverance and optimism of the Russian peasant. In its stylistic features and poetic intonations, the poem is close to works of folklore. The composition of the poem is complex primarily because its concept changed over time, the work remained unfinished, and a number of fragments were not published due to censorship restrictions.
1. The idea of the poem.“The people are liberated, but are the people happy?” - this line from “Elegy” explains Nekrasov’s position in relation to the peasant reform of 1861, which only formally deprived the landowners of their former power, but in fact deceived and robbed peasant Rus'.
2. The history of the creation of the poem. The poem was begun shortly after the peasant reform. The poet worked on the poem from 1863 to 1877, that is, about 14 years. Nekrasov considered its goal to be the depiction of the dispossessed peasantry, among whom - as in all of Russia - there is no happy person. The search for happiness among the upper echelons of society was for Nekrasov only a compositional device. The happiness of the “strong” and “well-fed” was beyond doubt for him. The very word “lucky,” according to Nekrasov, is a synonym for a representative of the privileged classes. Depicting the ruling classes (priest, landowner), Nekrasov first of all focuses on the fact that the reform hit not so much “with one end on the master” as “with the other on the peasant.”
3. Composition of the poem. During the work on the poem, its concept changed, but the poem was never completed by the author, so in criticism there is no consensus on its composition, there is no exact location of its chapters.
The poet calls the wanderers “temporarily obliged,” which shows that the poem was begun no later than 1863, since later this term was very rarely applied to peasants.
Under the chapter “Landowner” there is a date set by the author - 1865, which indicates that before that the poet worked on its first part.
Dates of writing other chapters: “The Last One” - 1872; “Peasant Woman” - 1873; "A Feast for the Whole World" - 1877
Nekrasov wrote “A Feast for the Whole World” while already in a state of mortal illness, but he did not consider this part to be the last, intending to continue the poem with the image of wanderers in St. Petersburg.
It was V.V. Gippius who found in the poem itself objective indications of the sequence of parts: “Time is calculated in it “according to the calendar”: the action of the “Prologue” begins in the spring, when the birds build nests and the cuckoo crows. In the chapter “Pop,” the wanderers say: “And the time is not early, the month of May is approaching.” In the chapter “Rural Fair” there is a mention: “The weather only stared at Nikola in the spring”; Apparently, on St. Nicholas Day (May 9, old style) the fair itself takes place. “The Last One” also begins with the exact date: “Petrovka. It's a hot time. Haymaking is in full swing." In “A Feast for the Whole World” the haymaking is already over: the peasants are going to the market with hay. Finally, in “The Peasant Woman” there is a harvest. The events described in “A Feast for the Whole World” refer to early autumn (Gregory is picking mushrooms in Chapter IV), and the “St. Petersburg part” conceived but not implemented by Nekrasov was supposed to take place in winter, when wanderers would come to St. Petersburg to seek access “ to the noble boyar, the sovereign’s minister.” Presumably the poem could have ended with the St. Petersburg episodes.”
The poet did not have time to make an order about the sequence of parts of the poem. The only thing that is known is that Nekrasov wanted to place the part “A Feast for the Whole World” after “The Last One.” So, literary scholars have come to the conclusion that behind the “Prologue. Part One” should be followed by the parts “Peasant Woman”, “Last One”, “Feast for the Whole World”. All these parts are connected by the theme of the road.
4. Genre of the poem. According to M. G. Kachurin, “before us epic" is a work of art that reflects "great historical events, entire eras in the life of the country and people." The objectivity of the depiction of life is expressed in the fact that the author’s voice is fused with the collective consciousness of the nation; the author depicts life, assessing it from the position of the people. Hence the connection of the poem with folklore, with the people's perception of existence. Thus, “Who lives well in Rus'” - realistic epic poem.
About the plot. The plot is close to folk tales about men's search for a happy man. The beginning of the poem (“In what year - calculate, in what land - guess ...") resembles a fairy tale beginning. Seven men from six the villages “came together”, argued (“Who lives happily and freely in Rus'?”) and went in search of a truly happy person. Everything that the wanderers saw during their journey through Rus', who they met, who they listened to, forms the content of the epic poem.
Nekrasov worked on the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” from 1863 until his death. “I decided to present in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” This will be an epic of modern peasant life,” the poet admitted.
Work on the poem took a total of about fourteen years in Nekrasov’s life.
The year of completion of the poem is considered to be 1876, however, even in 1877, some clarifications were made to the text. “When I started, I didn’t see clearly where it would end...” the poet said at the end of his life.
Many drafts and manuscripts survive. They can be seen in the manuscript departments of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House) in St. Petersburg, the Russian State Library and the Central State Archive of Literature and Art. As always, drafts retain traces of creative search. From the very beginning, Nekrasov focused on finding an original poetic rhythm.
As if continuing the theme stated in “Elegy,” Nekrasov sought to create a picture of people’s life in the difficult period of the 60s of the 19th century, to show the best features of the national character and answer the question that had occupied him for a long time: “The people are liberated, but are they happy? people?"
In an unusual fairy-tale prologue, the idea is stated: seven men decide to find out “who lives happily and freely in Rus',” and for this purpose they set off to wander. In addition to the beginning of the action, the prologue reflects the poetic consciousness of the people; it is designed in an epic-fairy tale manner.
As a refrain, the prologue will run through the entire poem, defining its main idea; it is obvious that it applies not only to the first part, but to the entire poem, although the part “Peasant Woman,” for example, has its own prologue.
The clash of views of seven men is the plot of the work. Next, the truth-seekers must successively meet with the priest, the landowner, the official merchant, the noble boyar and the tsar. These meetings are the main compositional and visual principle in the poem. In addition, the development of the plot is facilitated by the motif of the road and travel, so popular in the literature of the 19th century. Already in the prologue, the fairy-tale and the realistic, the symbolic and the concrete are connected: despite the fairy-tale beginning, the reader guesses where and when the action takes place, and the names of the villages very eloquently testify to the plight of the peasants. As the plot develops, the fabulousness disappears from the poem, giving way to topicality and objectivity in the depiction of Nekrasov’s contemporary reality.
As the author expected, the peasants meet with the priest and the landowner, but then Nekrasov deviates from the original plan, and his heroes begin to look for the happy ones among the peasants. Epic, large-scale paintings are replaced by masterfully drawn characters of individual representatives of the people, and the poem includes a new theme - the theme of people's strength and people's happiness, the theme of Russia.
In modern literary criticism, there is debate about the sequence of chapters, since the work was not formally completed by the author. During Nekrasov’s lifetime, the “Last One” part was published after the first part, and only then came the “Peasant Woman” and “Feast for the Whole World” parts. The calendar time reflected in the poem confirms precisely this version of the composition. The journey of the seven wanderers begins in the spring, and in “The Peasant” they are already getting ready to reap rye, while in “The Last One” the haymaking is just in full swing. It is known that Nekrasov was very attentive to details, however, in modern publications, the part of “The Last One” about the landowner Utyatin, who is losing his mind, is most often located before the final part of the poem “A Feast for the Whole World”: they are connected by the image of the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki, where the action takes place. In addition, the title of the chapter itself indicates, among other things, its location - closer to the end of the work. Like “The Peasant Woman,” the part “A Feast for the Whole World” is designed to return the reader from the world of ugly phenomena and relationships to true values - folk roots, the wisdom of the people.
In the first part, the reader is presented with a “rural fair”, simple stories of peasants about happiness. Then the heroes try to find a happy one among the women: the fate of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina personifies the difficult lot of all Russian women, all of peasant Russia. The tragicomic part of “The Last One,” which in the narrative itself is twice called “comedy,” telling about the difficult parting with slavery, gives way to bitter and kind songs that create the optimistic pathos of the entire poem. Nekrasov, who regretted that he did not have time to finish the poem, still managed to give it plot and compositional completeness with the help of songs that talk about the present and future of Russia, about the spiritual beauty and power hidden in every peasant soul.
“Rural Fair” was written by Nekrasov under the impression of visiting the Nizhny Novgorod fair; the plot of “The Last One” and the story “About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful” were borrowed from real life. It is worth noting that all the facts that the poet uses as the basis of the plot are generalized and brought to the point of typicality.
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 now. 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 in 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 eight thousand serf souls from the empress. 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.
As you know, the author did not finish his last great creation because he was sick with cancer. Terrible pain prevented him from working. Therefore, close friends arranged the existing chapters of the poem in the order that seemed most appropriate to them. But it is still not easy for the reader to understand the chaotic order of the parts and the florid manner of Nekrasov’s narration. Therefore, for your convenience, the Many-Wise Litrekon describes in detail the contents of the chapters in parts in order to convey the plot of the book in all its splendor. The content below forms the outline of the poem in chapters.
In this part, the journey of the truth-seekers is just beginning: they meet a magical bird, which gives them the magical opportunity to travel all over Rus' in search of happiness. The multi-wise Litrekon reproduces everything in abbreviation, but preserves the style and tone of the author.
Prologue
Seven men met on the road and argued about who was living happily in Rus'. The action of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” takes place in...
The tightened province, Terpigorev district, empty volost, from adjacent villages: Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova - Neurozhaika also...
Roman insisted on the candidacy of the landowner, Demyan nominated an official, Luka firmly believed in the prosperity of the priest, Ivan and Metrodor started talking about the merchant, Pakhom gave his vote to the boyar, and Prov even said: “To the Tsar!” They argued all day and walked wherever they looked. As a result, only a passing woman, Gnarled Durandikha, reminded them that it was night outside. But the men were tired (they walked 30 miles) and decided to spend the night in the forest.
They went for vodka, they had a feast and even got into a fight, trying to figure out who was the lucky one in Rus'. Because of the noise and hum, a chick warbler fell out of the nest. 7 eagle owls from 7 trees watched the carnage, even a raven flew in and waited for the fighters to die. Other animals also came: a cow, a fox, a hare. But the fight was over, the men hurried to pack up. Then Pakhom found the chick and began to complain that birds were stronger and freer than people, that he did not have enough wings to find out the answer to their main question. The companions jokingly added that it would be nice to have provisions for the journey. Then the warbler offered them a deal: in exchange for the chick, she provides the heroes with a self-assembled tablecloth, which not only provides food, but also repairs clothes and bast shoes.
The men went to look for “pillar thirty,” and behind it they found the treasured tablecloth in a casket near two pine trees. They made an agreement not to see their family until they found out who lived happily in Rus'.
Chapter 1: Pop
Spring has come (May), and the men are still walking. The author describes a sad landscape: fields with few shoots, impassable forests, old villages. But it’s also painful for the heroes to see new houses, because “blood trouble” is building them. All this time they saw only the poor.
But suddenly they met a priest. Luka, an eloquent, but stupid and stubborn man, asked about his share. The priest replied that happiness is peace, honor and wealth. But he has none of this. People are born and die not according to schedule, so he is on his feet day and night. It hurts him to see tears and death. It’s ridiculous to talk about honor: the peasants themselves compose shameful songs about priests and do not favor them, as harbingers of death. There is also nothing to say about wealth: if earlier there were many rich nobles in the parish, now the estates have fallen into disrepair, and the common people themselves survive on bread and water. This year the spring was wet again and foreshadowed famine in the village. In a word, the priest has no money, no recognition, no peace.
The men reproached Luka for his mistake. They would have crushed his sides, but they saw the stern face of the retreating priest.
Chapter 2: Country Fair
On a hot holiday day, the men learned that all the residents of the surrounding villages had gone to the rich but dirty village of Kuzminskoye for a fair. There is a private school, two churches, a hotel, and a paramedic. On trading day, the whole village was filled with tents: taverns, shops, etc. Everyone was drunk and cheerful: smart women, joyful men, noisy children. One old woman even said that because of the red calico there would be a crop failure, since it was painted with dog’s blood.
Men walk around and look at the people. They felt sorry for the old man Vavila, who drank everything away, and now he is ashamed to look his family in the eyes. It is especially painful for him to listen to his granddaughter’s requests for shoes. But in the crowd there was a man who gave him two kopecks for the purchase - Pavlusha Veretennikov. No one knew his occupation, but he had money, he was even called a gentleman. People were happy to see his help.
There was a shop there with paintings, where the merchant was required to have fat and dignified generals in the images. He laughed, but trade was brisk. People, despite poverty, bought these unnecessary things. The author complains that they buy meaningless items, when they should take books and portraits of Belinsky and Gogol. These are the people's intercessors who deserve to hang in the peasant's cell.
They went to the booth (traveling theater). We watched a comedy with Petrushka. Afterwards we heard the actors' story about how they used to be serfs, but now they play for the people. The actors are cheerfully greeted. The holiday has reached its climax: everyone is making noise, fighting, kissing, drinking.
By evening the heroes left.
Chapter 3: Drunken Night
The village ends with a prison building (this is the place where prisoners who are led to hard labor in prison camps stop for the night). Next to him lie heaps of drunken bodies, all coming from the fair.
The author reproduces the abrupt speeches of people who go home and collapse from a drunken stupor. There are complaints about the “royal charter” (the liberation of serfs), there are warnings to the village girl (you can’t be hired as a servant, otherwise you will become a mistress), and a song from a drunken old woman asking for love. The police officer will tell the police officer: a peasant was killed on the way from the fair.
The wanderers see a drunk guy digging a hole for his mother's funeral, but it turns out that he was drunk to the point of hallucination, and no one is around. Then they hear the women talking: going home is worse than going to hard labor. The men beat them, rob them, and drink everything away. On the road, only beaten, drunken and rude faces are visible. There is no word without swearing. Women and children are crying. The author discusses their fate: “Is it easy to wait for men from a drinking establishment?”
The heroes see Pavel Veretennikov (the one who gave Vavila the shoes). He writes down songs and proverbs of the peasants, praises them for their intelligence, but reproaches them for drunkenness and rudeness. Then one of them says that the peasant soul is not so happy because of a good life. It’s easier for them to endure troubles and need. But for every family that drinks, there is one that doesn’t drink, and life there is even more difficult for people. For one peasant there are always three shareholders: God, the king and the master. There is also a fire - a “destroying thief” that consumes all the people’s labor.
The peasant also says that it is not hops that bring down the peasant, but exorbitant labor and terrible need: “There is no measure for Russian hops, but have they measured our grief?” He says that where the horse cannot go, the people themselves take on the entire burden and work like cattle. So, the gentlemen look at such a peasant, but they are sick of looking at a drunk? The eloquent worker concludes that “we are great people in work and in debauchery.” Then he has fun and drinks again. His name was Yakim Nagoy.
The author tells his story. The old man once lived in the capital, but a trial with a merchant ruined him. Returning from prison, he took up a plow and became a farmer. He worked tirelessly for 30 years. One day his hut was burning, and he began to save the pictures that he bought for his son. And no one saved the 35 rubles accumulated over a lifetime. They gave him 11 rubles for the sticky lump.
The men confirmed that the hero was right, and Pavel himself brought him vodka. Then 30 young men sang a daring song, and one woman even felt emotional that her young life had been ruined by her old jealous husband. The men themselves also wanted to see their wives from the song. And so they refreshed themselves and went in search of the lucky one.
Chapter 4: Happy
The men promised the lucky man a bucket of wine. The crowd came. The first was the sexton. He said that happiness is in wisdom and simple joys. However, the men did not believe him, since he still lacked material goods like a glass of wine to have fun.
A one-eyed, pockmarked old woman came and boasted of an unprecedented turnip harvest. But she was also spent with God, because this is not enough for happiness.
A soldier approached. His happiness is that he was not killed in 20 battles, that he did not die even from blows of the rod for his offenses. They gave him a drink.
The stonecutter also came running, boasting that he earned 5 rubles a day in silver. They also gave him a drink, but the old and powerless man watched over him, because his strength would soon end and need would come. Tryphon was ruined by a contractor who, praising him, forced him to carry the burden for ten. The worker overstrained himself and withered away. He was also given a drink, since the hero was lucky: he did not die on the road from the capital, but at home he felt better.
Then a servant arrived in time, suffering from gout (a noble disease). He boasted that he was a favorite slave, and his daughter studied with the young lady. He was proud that he licked the plates with expensive dishes and finished the wine after the owner. He was kicked out for arrogance.
A Belarusian peasant joined the crowd, happy to eat to his fill. Another man survived a fight with a bear and was given a treat. The beggars arrived and began to say that they were happy with their generous alms. But the vodka ran out, and the men decided that it was time to end the experiment: there were no lucky people among the people. However, they were told in the crowd that they should call Yermil Girin, who was definitely happy. They told the wanderers his story.
Ermil Ilyich is a simple man. One day he decided to buy a mill, which he had previously managed, but now it was being sold in court. He won the auction, but he did not have that kind of money with him. He decided to ask the people for a ruble loan in order to collect the treasured thousand and buy out the mill. He said that he would give this money for a penny. The people decided to stand up for their representative: they collected the required amount to defeat the merchant. Then the hero gave away all the money, and people honestly took only what they were entitled to. There was even an extra ruble left, which he gave to the blind.
The men asked why they believe Ermila? They were told that in his youth he served as a clerk. He helped everyone voluntarily and selflessly. Then he was fired, but when the owner changed, it was time to choose a burgomaster, and everyone nominated Girin. He lived honestly for 7 years, but when the time came to recruit his brother, he changed his last name to another. Unable to withstand the torment of his conscience, he publicly repented, even wanted to hang himself. He resigned from his position, rented a mill and began to live without sin.
But he was not a lucky man either. One priest said that the hero is in prison. There were riots and fires on his side, and the local authorities ordered Ermila to appease the people with a speech. But then the old man interrupted the story, promising to continue another time. Then people saw the master, everyone bowed low, and the troika’s passage was blocked.
Chapter 5: Landowner
Gavrilo Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev is a dignified and plump middle-aged landowner. He was afraid of the men and pointed a gun at them. But the wanderers only asked if he was happy. He laughed and started a conversation, asking everyone present to sit down (now they are equal under the law, and he even addressed the peasants as “gentlemen”).
The landowner's family is very ancient (200 years on his father's side, 300 on his mother's side). All these years his ancestors lived well, they had honor, peace, and wealth. Previously, the hero had 5 cooks, a baker, 22 hunters and 17 musicians. He threw fabulous feasts for everyone and bathed in luxury. He describes the hunt especially lovingly: he even imagines himself poisoning a fox.
He speaks about the peasants with love: he tried to treat them like a father, without unnecessary severity. On Easter, he and his relatives kissed all the serfs, exchanged eggs and other gifts. The men themselves voluntarily brought them gifts from different directions, and they received them in the master's house, and the master's wife herself served at the table.
But the free life came to an end. The lands were distributed to the peasants; through thoughtlessness they demolished and destroyed much of what was expensive and useful on the farm or in the memory of the nobleman. Because of the peasant reform, many landowners went bankrupt; now they could no longer live in grand style, because they lived at the expense of the serfs. On their beautiful lands there were now taverns and wretched huts.
The landowner himself complains that he cannot work, since the need for work and science was not instilled in him in childhood. His noble origin hinders, rather than helps, him to settle into his new life. At the end he burst into tears, and the men took pity on him:
The great chain broke, broke - one end snapped at the master, the other at the peasant.
Part two: The Last One
In this part, new adventures and equally amazing discoveries await the heroes. All chapters are described briefly, but the retelling preserves the author's extraordinary language. To achieve this, the Much-Wise Litrecon reproduces the content with quotes.
Chapter 1
The wanderers came to the Volga at the height of haymaking. Along the way we saw a drinking man and a woman with a pitchfork, then we saw a crowd of people with pitchforks and scythes. We joined them and helped mow. At breakfast, old Vlas came running and ordered the peasants to pretend to be serfs in front of the master. He landed on three boats with his entire family.
Everyone diligently bowed to the master’s family, and he checked the property. He found damp hay and threatened to rot the workers in corvée labor if they didn’t do what they needed to do (even though the hay was dry). The wanderers began pouring water for Vlas and asking what was going on.
Chapter 2
Vlas said that Prince Utyatin survived and was sane and thought that serfdom was still in effect. The governor told him the truth, and he became so angry that he was paralyzed. The relatives persuaded the peasants to play along so that the old man would leave them an inheritance, because, angry at the reform, he reproached the children for cowardice and for failing to defend their noble rights. Fearing they would be left with nothing, they came up with a show involving the return of the peasants to the landowners.
Some were even happy to play along. For example, Ipat, remembering the prince’s kindness, did not want to leave the courtyard. Once, on the orders of the landowner, he was playing the violin on the beam in the bitter cold and fell under the sleigh. He was getting ready to die, but the landowner came back for him and even put him in a sleigh to warm himself.
The heirs promised the peasants a meadow near the Volga and other gifts after the death of the old man. For him, they appointed as burgomaster the robber, reckless and cunning man Klim, who was dishonest, but quick-witted and eloquent. He played the sedate peasant perfectly and listened to all the master’s stupid orders. For example, he appointed a deaf-mute man as a watchman and ordered to calm down the cows that moo loudly at night. Everyone got used to this order, because the heirs willingly bought goods from the peasants in order to amuse the old man.
But one day the master was confronted by an intractable man, Agap, who stole a log from the forest. The old man swore at him strongly, but the peasant could not stand it and answered him with rude abuse that the prince was now just a fool. Then the master sentenced the rebel to punishment. But Klim came up with a way out: he gave Agap a drink, took him into the barn and asked him to shout. The landowner was pleased with the punishment, as he heard groans. Agap then died for some unknown reason, and the peasants were sorry, but this scene played out so opportunely: the master thought that his punishment had ruined the peasant, but it was the wine that ruined him.
Chapter 3
Meanwhile, the prince called everyone to line up. He had breakfast with numerous relatives and retinue. The burgomaster announced that the hay had to be removed in three days, since the master was sure that his serfs were on corvée. By chance, Klim said about the master's term, and the old man burst out laughing, because, in his opinion, the master's term is the whole life of a slave, and it seemed strange to him that the workers were talking about some kind of time of their own. For an hour he said that peasants are obliged to obey their masters, and this will always be the case.
Klim answered him that everything here is the master’s, and they don’t even think about rebellion. He made a speech in honor of the master, and everyone began to pray for his health. Without landowners, the burgomaster said, the peasants could not live or work. The prince was moved, but at that moment one of the men burst out laughing, unable to bear the pretense. The old man ordered him to be brought in for punishment.
Klim was looking for the culprit: no one wanted to go. He joked that even in hell the peasant will serve the master: the nobles will cook in the cauldron, and the men will add firewood. The heirs arrived in time and offered 5 rubles to the one who presented himself as guilty. As a result, Klima’s godfather fell at the feet of the last child and began to sob that it was her son who was laughing, who was born mad. The master forgave the poor man and laughed at his prank, becoming cheerful. They opened champagne and gave the peasants gingerbread and sweet vodka. The feast began. The old man almost started dancing with the women himself, but his legs couldn’t hold him up. He ordered his sons and their wives to dance and ridiculed them for their inability. He ordered Lyuba (the young white-haired daughter-in-law) to sing and fell asleep.
Klim made a speech that he would not have taken even a thousand rubles for such service if he had not known that the old man was swaggering only according to his peasant will. The peasants had a nice walk and went home, but their relatives greeted them with the news: their village of Vakhlaki is in mourning, because the master has already died. The people let out a deep sigh.
But the heirs did not keep their promise and did not give the meadows to the peasants. To this day, Vlas goes to the capital for litigation, but to no avail.
Third part: Peasant woman
It tells about the hard lot of women in Rus'. A brief retelling of the story of Matryona Korchagina will help you write high-quality essays and even prepare for the Unified State Exam in literature.
Prologue
Wanderers passed the village of Nagotino and decided to ask around if there were any happy women among them. The women pointed out that there is only the kind and smart Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, nicknamed the “governor”. She was dubbed the lucky one.
While the men go searching, the author describes every grain crop he encounters. Wheat is bad because it “feeds by choice,” unlike rye, which always produces a crop. The beautiful flax also ripened, in which the bird, freed by the wanderers, was entangled. But what makes me especially happy is the peas that all the travelers pluck. All the kids are running around with vegetables, and this year the beets have started well.
So the men reached Klin, where Matryona lived. This is a very poor village with crooked houses. But there is a rich estate with a tower, where the travelers went. The owner was abroad, and the estate was falling into disrepair. While the men were fishing, a pregnant woman complained that for the 4th day her son Mitenka had been sitting on bread crusts. The child sat on the basin and pretended that it was his stroller.
The estate is in complete ruin: there are no berries or fruits. In the garden the figures all have their noses cut off. Pegs from the balcony go into the fire. Suddenly a man in a cassock came out and began to sing a soulful song. This is the singer Novo-Arkhangelsky, to whom the gentlemen promised a career in Italy, but they forgot and left.
The wanderers went and met a bunch of reapers and reapers. There they saw a dignified and dense woman - Matryona (38 years old). She agreed to give an answer, but in exchange for help with the housework, because it was time to deal with the harvest.
Chapter 1: Before Marriage
Matryona came in the evening and told her story. As a girl, she lived happily in a non-drinking family where everyone loved each other. Her mother especially pitied her, predicting unhappiness in her marriage. The heroine began working at the age of 5, and at 7 she already had a whole list of responsibilities: herding ducks, bringing food to her father, etc. She grew up to be an enviably beautiful woman and a conscientious worker.
She avoided suitors, but a trickster turned up - stove maker Philip Korchagin. The heroine did not want to get married, she even told her groom about it, but he assured her that he would not offend her. In the end, she fell in love with him, because the guy looked handsome and strong. Only during the matchmaking did she see happiness, and after that, no longer...
They played a wedding, but Matryona speaks about it sadly and agrees to drink vodka.
Chapter 2: Songs
Matryona sings a song about her arrival at her husband's house. All the members of someone else’s family attacked her with reproaches: “Some people will call her a slob, some will call her a slob.” The people were grumpy, their house became hell for the free girl. The husband advised to remain silent and endure, because he could not do anything.
The heroine was obliged to look after her drunken father-in-law, work for her older sister-in-law, and observe all the signs, otherwise her mother-in-law would be offended. The relationship with the husband was good, but one day he hit his wife when he did not wait for her answer on time. He asked for her shoes for his visiting sister, but Matryona was lifting the weight and could not say a word. As punishment for her silence, he hit her. And the relatives were happy to say an extra bad word. But the woman is sure that it is not appropriate for a wife to consider her husband’s beatings as business.
She continued her story. To the delight of Matryona, a handsome son, Demushka, was born. The anger was removed from her soul by her firstborn. But a new misfortune came: the master’s manager began to harass. The mother-in-law even intimidated the woman so that she would be more kind, otherwise they would take Philip as a recruit. However, Matryona went to seek intercession from her husband’s grandfather. And she decided to tell his story in more detail.
Chapter 3: Savely, the Holy Russian hero
Savely lived in the upper room, he was a heroic height and fathoms at the shoulders, although he was already a hundred years old, and he could not straighten up. The woman compares him to a bear - he was a strong and proud man. But his family didn’t like him and called him a convict, but he answered: but he’s not a slave. In response to the reproaches of his relatives, he joked cruelly: he shouted that matchmakers were coming to his granddaughter, and there were beggars. He could have bruised his son for drunkenness. In the summer he picked mushrooms and berries, set snares for birds, and in the winter he lay on the stove.
As Matryona felt bad, she ran to him in the upper room, where he did not allow anyone but her. He told her why he was sent to hard labor.
They lived in a remote village, and their owner himself could not get there: there was no road. Neither the police nor the officials reached that place either. But then a drought began, and the police began to move in so that their master could receive the quitrent. At first they paid off, but then they came to Shalashnikov themselves: there was nothing to pay the quitrent, there was a bad harvest. He flogged and flogged them, and in the end they paid off and surrendered, promising to pay on time. However, no matter how much the landowner tore at them in the future, they withheld the quitrent and did not give everything they had. But the nobleman died, his heir came and appointed the German Vogel in charge. The manager became the full ruler. To force the peasants to pay, he ordered them to build a road and outwitted them. Together with the local authorities, he ruined the serfs, because he tore until he squeezed out the last ruble, enlisting the support of the police.
Telling this, Savely concludes that the Russian peasant is a hero, although he does not fight, since he endures such a yoke. He himself bitterly admits that his great strength was wasted on little things like endless beatings.
They endured Vogel's rule for 18 years. The German brought them down when they were digging a hole for the plant, and he didn’t even give them breakfast. The men pushed him into a hole and covered him alive. For this they were sentenced to hard labor and corporal punishment. But they survived everything, and Savely even escaped from hard labor, but they caught him and returned him. He suffered 20 years in hard labor, 20 years in a settlement, but returned home with savings ahead of schedule under the amnesty. While he was rich, his family loved him, but then the love passed.
At the end of the chapter, the woman began again to herself: her tormentor-manager died of cholera, but another misfortune happened, which she will talk about in the next chapter.
Chapter 4: Demushka
The story begins with a song about a bird whose chicks burned along with the tree where the nest was. The bird circles around the ashes and cannot shout to them.
Matryona talks about a new misfortune. The mother-in-law forced him to leave his son with Savely. One day, the grandfather crawls towards the heroine and repents of his sin. He didn’t pay attention, and the heroine’s son was eaten by pigs. The story is interrupted by lamentation that it is better to endure the beatings than to leave the baby to relatives.
The police officer and other officials arrived to interrogate the mother and grandfather. Matryona was accused of conspiring with Savely and poisoning the child. In her presence, her son was opened up. Then the woman began to curse her tormentors, and they even wanted to tie her up. Having driven her into a frenzy, visiting officials began accusing her of insanity. Seeing the feast of the doctor, priest and police officer, she lost consciousness.
I woke up in the house and went to my son’s coffin. She kicked my grandfather out of the house, accusing him of murder. But he did not leave, reading a prayer. Savely admitted that Dema melted his hardened heart. He consoled her that the child was now in heaven. She forgave him, but complained for a long time that the doctor opened the baby, mocking the corpse. The old man replied that they would not find the truth, neither God nor the king would come to their defense, so there was no point in tormenting themselves. They are serfs, they are destined to suffer.
Until the morning they prayed together over the corpse.
Chapter 5: She-Wolf
Matryona suffered for a long time, abandoned her work and, in response to reproaches, asked the reconciliation to kill her. She spent all her time at the grave. Even her parents did not come to see her, so as not to upset her further.
Winter has come, my husband has arrived. They were both grieving. Grandfather went into the forest, and then into the monastery. She and Philip went to Matryona’s parents, visited, and she felt better.
For three years she lived quietly, worked and gave birth to new children. But she worked for two and was severely malnourished. In her fourth year, her parents died. She went to her son’s grave, and there she saw Savely. He once again asked for forgiveness and said that he had been praying all day long for Dema and for the peasantry. They hugged and cried.
Soon he died: “he withered and withered for a hundred days,” and then fell asleep in eternal sleep. Before his death, grandfather said that there are three roads for a peasant in Rus': “tavern, prison and hard labor,” and for women there are three nooses (black, red and white) to choose from.
4 years have passed: the heroine submitted to everything. She worked for the whole family, endured beatings and reproaches, but she took care of the children like a she-wolf. One day, a wanderer ordered the village women not to breastfeed their children during Lent, and only Matryona did not listen, feeling sorry for the children.
At the age of 8, her son Fedot went to serve as a shepherd. And then trouble happened: they wanted to whip him because he gave the already dead sheep to the she-wolf, taking pity on it. But the mother snatched her son from the headman and went to the landowner with a prayer. He decided that the mother would serve the punishment for the child: let her be flogged.
Matryona endured everything, and the next day she went to the broom and sobbed alone. She complained to her late father and her late mother that she had no protection on earth. She said in conclusion about herself and her life:
I have my head down
I carry an angry heart!..
Chapter 6: A Difficult Year
Famine came to the village. The mother-in-law accused Matryona that she was inviting trouble by wearing a clean shirt on Christmas (such a sign). Her husband protected her, but her neighbors threatened her with death.
But a new misfortune came: the husband, bypassing the law, was recruited (at that time he served for 25 years). His brother had already left for his family, but local officials were bribed. It was necessary to go to the governor for the truth. And so the family, having learned about Philip’s fate, began to “cripple” Matryona’s children, because soon there would be no intercessor. They began to be deprived of everything, because there was no breadwinner, they were not even allowed on the threshold. The mother sent the children for alms to feed themselves. Tired of enduring, Matryona gathered to seek justice against the officials. I left home at night and heard my favorite song about Mashenka, who lives in a little room under a Christmas tree, and people come for her and call her home.
Chapter 7: The Governor's Lady
Matryona prayed on a frosty night and has done so often since then, because women cannot find a better remedy for troubles. Having prayed about her difficult fate, she went to the city to look for the governor.
I arrived during the night and saw the official’s palace. Having given the sentry money, the heroine found out that she needed to go to the doorman. Having told about the trouble, she gave him two kopecks. The woman began to wait the allotted time - 2 hours. Then, for a ruble, the doorman let her in and gave her tea. By chance, Matryona saw the governor’s wife and threw herself at her feet with a prayer, telling her about the trouble. Right there she gave birth to a son.
Elena Alexandrovna listened to her and helped, then even baptized her child. Philip was returned to his wife.
At the end, the heroine sings a song in gratitude to the good governor.
Chapter 8: The Woman's Parable
Matryona was nicknamed lucky for this. Since then, many more troubles have happened: the Siberian ulcer, and fires, and her son was taken as a recruit. The woman experienced everything and said that no one among the peasant women is happy, everyone does not live, but survives. She sent seekers of truth to the king and nobles, but did not order the women to be touched.
One righteous woman told her that the keys to female happiness were lost and no one would find them. Apparently, the fish swallowed them and carried them to the bottom. But other keys were found - for slaves. The serf men were freed, but the women still had no freedom. Apparently, the keys to their freedom were indeed carried away by a fish, and even God forgot which one.
Feast for the whole world
The wanderers returned to the village of Prince Utyatin to Vlas and Klim. There they feasted. Trifon, a sexton and a drunkard, came to the meeting. He brought his sons - Grisha and Savva. Both guys are seminarians, very kind and humble: they help people for free. They write letters, interpret laws, live with the peasants on an equal basis. Savva wanted to be a deacon, but fate promised Gregory a different destiny.
At a meeting, the peasants decided what to do with the meadows that the heirs did not want to give up to them. Everyone agreed that it was necessary to work in this way from now on without the master, so that there would be enough time for both the tavern and his wife. The dispute gave way to a song: in it, the peasants ask where the cattle and poultry are, where are the sons and daughters, and in response they received the news that either the landowners or officials had taken them. The verses end with the phrase: “It is glorious to live for the holy people in Rus'.” Then came a sad song about the hardships of a peasant's life.
Then the peasants began to remember how hard it was to live under the master: messengers came from the masters for the girls, and their backs ached from the endless labor. One day the lady forbade them to swear, and they even flogged them for swearing. And a local celebrity, Vikenty Alexandrovich, spoke about the slave Yakov Verny.
About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful
There lived a serf with Polivanov, a cruel landowner, who robbed his own daughter and kicked her out of the house with her beaten husband. This man did not get along with anyone and took out his anger on the serfs. But the servant loved him and lived to please the master. He had one weakness - love for his nephew.
In old age, Polivanov’s legs gave out. They were replaced by a faithful servant, who whiled away all his days with him, like a relative. However, the landowner, having learned about his nephew’s love for the beautiful Arisha, out of jealousy, turned the guy into a recruit, and the slave did not forgive this: he started drinking. But then he returned and began to look after the owner again, because no one could replace him.
But one day Yakov took the master to his sister and turned into a ravine. There he hanged himself, having coldly listened to the pleas of his owner, who was only afraid for his life. The sobbing and powerless landowner was left in the field alone with the corpse. A hunter found him the next morning, and only then Polivanov realized how guilty he was towards his servant.
The men began to argue about who sinned the most: the tavern owners, the landowners, the robbers, or the peasants themselves? As a result, the disputants, the merchant and Klim, got into a fight. Klim won. Ionushka, the praying mantis and the wanderer, undertook to reconcile them. He said that entire villages go begging in the fall, doing nothing and only ruining gullible peasants. One wanderer in his memory taught girls to sing, but only later it turned out that he simply “spoilt” them. The same gentlemen play nice with the landowners and rob them completely. A certain Kropilnikov called on everyone to save themselves in the forest, and he himself almost started a rebellion in the village. But there are also positive reasons: the Posad widow Efrosinya treated people with the plague without fear of infection. But more often than not, the wanderers simply entertained the tired people with their stories, everyone listened to them with pleasure. The author says that the craving for spiritual life indicates that slavery did not set limits for the Russian people, that they have the strength and intelligence for development. The soul of the people is good soil, and only a sower is needed.
About two great sinners
Jonah then spoke about two great sinners. There was a tribe of robbers, and their leader was Kudeyar. They killed a lot of people. Suddenly the ataman’s conscience awoke: the souls of the murdered came to him. As a result, he cut off his mistress’s head and spotted the captain, and then completely disbanded the gang. I donated all my property to the church, went to holy places, but it didn’t get any easier. God took pity and sent a messenger with an ultimatum: when the righteous man cuts down an oak tree with a knife in three reaches, then sin will go away. Kudeyar began to work. But one day he met Pan Glukhovsky, a sinner. He told him about his conduct. But the villain only laughed: he tortures and kills, but sleeps peacefully. Then Kudeyar killed him out of anger, and the oak tree fell.
Everyone went on the ferry, sailing along the Volga. The wealthy man Ignatius also decided to talk about the peasant sin.
Peasant sin
For his services, the admiral was given 8,000 souls. Before his death, he called the headman and told him to keep the casket where the will for all the other peasants was hidden.
But the admiral was buried, and his relative arrived. He bribed Gleb, the will was burned, and all the people became slaves of the illegitimate heir. The man himself betrayed his own people, which is why Ignatius considers him the most sinful.
Everyone calmed down and began to feel sad: indeed, the peasants have been toil under the yoke of slavery for centuries. They remembered their sorrows: there was little money, and the local authorities were annoying, and the merchants were fleecing them. Everyone lay down and thought about their own things. They sang a hungry song about a man without food or shelter. They sang it not with their voices, but with all their hungry guts.
Grigory, the sexton's son, came and asked why everyone was not cheerful: there was no bondage, they would not be forced into corvée, there was no threat of hunger, and they were not responsible for Gleb the traitor. The people began to rejoice again, having listened to the speaker. If there is no serfdom, he says, then there will be no sins in Rus'. Everyone wished Grisha wealth for such words, but he said that he only needed people's happiness.
Then the heroes saw how the villagers beat Yegor Shutov: wherever he appeared, everywhere he was received like that, because one village asked 14 others for this without explanation.
The wanderers and the company met the grandfather, a soldier weak from wounds, and Ustina (the grandfather’s niece). They began to play the spoons, and Klim began to sing. A soldier's song about the Sevastopol War. Main events: the soldier comes to the commission, where all his wounds are equated to the consequences of a market brawl and the injuries are valued at more than a ruble. They gave the warrior alms for the song.
The feast is over. Grisha and Savva took their drunken father home and sang songs about the freedom and happiness of the Russian people.
Epilogue: Grisha Dobrosklonov
Chapter 1
The sons and the drunken father returned from the feast. Savva put him to bed and began to read, and Grisha went for a walk. They lived poorer than the peasants: there were not even cattle in the house, and the house consisted of one room.
At the seminary, the young people were fed poorly and were thin. Only in the village they were fed well by kind people like Vlas. In return, the young men helped the peasants and ran around the city on their instructions. Their mother died from worries and grief: the mistress had no money, not even salt. The children survived by miracle and alms from workers. The father drank a lot, but was proud of his children.
All her life the late mother thought about salt, and even composed a song about the need. It describes how a mother feeds her youngest son, but he cannot eat bread without salt. The woman finally salted it with a tear.
Grisha missed his mother, and his love for her became for him love for all of Vakhlachina, who became his nurse. He was ready to die for his native land, and at the age of 15 he knew exactly what he was living for.
Then the author gives a song about two paths in life. The path of the slave is a sinful and full of temptation road for the stupid crowd. Enmity for a place in the sun is always seething on it. She is good and broad only in appearance, but “deaf to goodness.” The honest path is a narrow path for workers who help the offended and humiliated. This is Grisha's road.
Chapter 2
Gregory, remembering the feast, composed a song about his homeland. Russia will have to suffer, but it will not perish, because it is already overcoming the darkness of ignorance and slavery. Previously, the Slav was a slave, but now the people are “learning to be citizens.” The next generation of peasants will be free.
The hero met children in the forest, picked mushrooms with them and went swimming. The city appeared before him after the fire; one prison survived. Seeing a satisfied barge hauler (a person who pulls a ship ashore), he composed a song about him too. The man worked a hard day, but made it through the barge. Now he has washed, bought gifts for his relatives and is going home to rest.
Then the seminarian thought about the people, remembering that his teacher compared people with the hero Ilya Muromets, who always saved his native land. He composed a new song about Rus'. There he talks about raising the national spirit, about awakening national self-awareness in people.