The poem by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'” has its own unique feature. All the names of the villages and the names of the heroes clearly reflect the essence of what is happening. In the first chapter, the reader can meet seven men from the villages “Zaplatovo”, “Dyryaevo”, “Razutovo”, “Znobishino”, “Gorelovo”, “Neelovo”, “Neurozhaiko”, who argue about who has a good life in Rus', and in no way cannot come to an agreement. No one is even going to give in to another... This is how the work begins in an unusual way, which Nikolai Nekrasov conceived in order, as he writes, “to present in a coherent story everything that he knows about the people, everything that happened to be heard from their lips...”
The history of the poem
Nikolai Nekrasov began working on his work in the early 1860s and completed the first part five years later. The prologue was published in the January issue of Sovremennik magazine for 1866. Then painstaking work began on the second part, which was called “The Last One” and was published in 1972. The third part, entitled “Peasant Woman,” was published in 1973, and the fourth, “A Feast for the Whole World,” was published in the fall of 1976, that is, three years later. It’s a pity that the author of the legendary epic was never able to fully complete his plans - the writing of the poem was interrupted by his untimely death in 1877. However, even after 140 years, this work remains important for people; it is read and studied by both children and adults. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is included in the compulsory school curriculum.
Part 1. Prologue: who is the happiest in Rus'
So, the prologue tells how seven men meet on a highway and then go on a journey to find a happy man. Who lives freely, happily and cheerfully in Rus' - this is the main question of curious travelers. Everyone, arguing with another, believes that he is right. Roman shouts that the landowner has the best life, Demyan claims that the life of an official is wonderful, Luka proves that it’s still a priest, the others also express their opinions: “to the noble boyar”, “to the fat-bellied merchant”, “to the sovereign’s minister” or to the tsar .
Such a disagreement leads to an absurd fight, which is observed by birds and animals. It is interesting to read how the author reflects their surprise at what is happening. Even the cow “came to the fire, fixed her eyes on the men, listened to crazy speeches and began, dear heart, to moo, moo, moo!..”
Finally, having kneaded each other's sides, the men came to their senses. They saw a tiny chick of a warbler fly up to the fire, and Pakhom took it in his hands. The travelers began to envy the little birdie, which could fly wherever it wanted. They were talking about what everyone wanted, when suddenly... the bird spoke in a human voice, asking to release the chick and promising a large ransom for it.
The bird showed the men the way to where the real self-assembled tablecloth was buried. Wow! Now you can definitely live without having to worry. But the smart wanderers also asked that their clothes not wear out. “And this will be done by a self-assembled tablecloth,” said the warbler. And she kept her promise.
The men began to live a well-fed and cheerful life. But they haven’t yet resolved the main question: who lives well in Rus' after all? And the friends decided not to return to their families until they found the answer to it.
Chapter 1. Pop
On the way, the men met a priest and, bowing low, asked him to answer “in good conscience, without laughter and without cunning,” whether life was really good for him in Rus'. What the priest said dispelled the seven curious people’s ideas about his happy life. No matter how harsh the circumstances may be - a dead autumn night, or a severe frost, or a spring flood - the priest has to go where he is called, without arguing or contradicting. The work is not easy, and besides, the groans of people leaving for another world, the cries of orphans and the sobs of widows completely upset the peace of the priest’s soul. And only outwardly it seems that the priest is held in high esteem. In fact, he is often the target of ridicule among the common people.
Chapter 2. Rural fair
Further, the road leads purposeful wanderers to other villages, which for some reason turn out to be empty. The reason is that all the people are at the fair in the village of Kuzminskoye. And it was decided to go there to ask people about happiness.
The life of the village gave the men some not very pleasant feelings: there were a lot of drunks around, everything was dirty, dull, and uncomfortable. They also sell books at the fair, but they are of low quality; Belinsky and Gogol cannot be found here.
By evening everyone becomes so drunk that even the church with its bell tower seems to be shaking.
Chapter 3. Drunken night
At night the men are on the road again. They hear drunk people talking. Suddenly attention is drawn to Pavlusha Veretennikov, who is making notes in a notebook. He collects peasant songs and sayings, as well as their stories. After everything that has been said is captured on paper, Veretennikov begins to reproach the assembled people for drunkenness, to which he hears objections: “the peasant drinks mainly because he is in grief, and therefore it is impossible, even a sin, to reproach him for this.
Chapter 4. Happy
The men do not deviate from their goal - to find a happy person at any cost. They promise to reward with a bucket of vodka the one who tells that he is the one who lives freely and cheerfully in Rus'. Drinkers fall for such a “tempting” offer. But no matter how hard they try to colorfully describe the gloomy everyday life of those who want to get drunk for nothing, nothing comes of it. The stories of an old woman who had up to a thousand turnips, a sexton who rejoices when someone pours a drink for him; the paralyzed former servant, who for forty years licked the master's plates with the best French truffle, does not at all impress the stubborn seekers of happiness on Russian soil.
Chapter 5. Landowner.
Maybe luck will smile on them here - the seekers of the happy Russian man assumed when they met the landowner Gavrila Afanasyich Obolt-Obolduev on the road. At first he was frightened, thinking that he had seen robbers, but having learned about the unusual desire of the seven men who blocked his way, he calmed down, laughed and told his story.
Maybe before the landowner considered himself happy, but not now. Indeed, in the old days, Gabriel Afanasyevich was the owner of the entire district, an entire regiment of servants, and organized holidays with theatrical performances and dances. He didn’t even hesitate to invite peasants to the manor’s house to pray on holidays. Now everything has changed: the family estate of Obolta-Obolduev was sold for debts, because, left without peasants who knew how to cultivate the land, the landowner, who was not used to working, suffered heavy losses, which led to a disastrous outcome.
Part 2. The Last One
The next day, the travelers went to the banks of the Volga, where they saw a large hay meadow. Before they had time to talk with the locals, they noticed three boats at the pier. It turns out that this is a noble family: two gentlemen with their wives, their children, servants and a gray-haired old gentleman named Utyatin. Everything in this family, to the surprise of the travelers, happens according to such a scenario, as if the abolition of serfdom had never happened. It turns out that Utyatin became very angry when he learned that the peasants had been given free rein and fell ill with a blow, threatening to deprive his sons of their inheritance. To prevent this from happening, they came up with a cunning plan: they persuaded the peasants to play along with the landowner, posing as serfs. They promised the best meadows as a reward after the master’s death.
Utyatin, hearing that the peasants were staying with him, perked up, and the comedy began. Some even liked the role of serfs, but Agap Petrov could not come to terms with his shameful fate and expressed everything to the landowner’s face. For this the prince sentenced him to flogging. The peasants played a role here too: they took the “rebellious” one to the stable, put wine in front of him and asked him to shout louder, for visibility. Alas, Agap could not bear such humiliation, got very drunk and died that same night.
Next, the Last One (Prince Utyatin) arranges a feast, where, barely moving his tongue, he makes a speech about the advantages and benefits of serfdom. After this, he lies down in the boat and gives up the ghost. Everyone is glad that they finally got rid of the old tyrant, however, the heirs are not even going to fulfill their promise to those who played the role of serfs. The hopes of the peasants were not justified: no one gave them any meadows.
Part 3. Peasant woman.
No longer hoping to find a happy person among men, the wanderers decided to ask women. And from the lips of a peasant woman named Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina they hear a very sad and, one might say, terrible story. Only in her parents' house was she happy, and then, when she married Philip, a ruddy and strong guy, a hard life began. The love did not last long, because the husband left to work, leaving his young wife with his family. Matryona works tirelessly and sees no support from anyone except the old man Savely, who lives a century after hard labor that lasted twenty years. Only one joy appears in her difficult fate - her son Demushka. But suddenly a terrible misfortune befell the woman: it is impossible to even imagine what happened to the child due to the fact that the mother-in-law did not allow her daughter-in-law to take him with her to the field. Due to an oversight by his grandfather, the boy is eaten by pigs. What a mother's grief! She mourns Demushka all the time, although other children were born in the family. For their sake, a woman sacrifices herself, for example, she takes punishment when they want to flog her son Fedot for a sheep that was carried away by wolves. When Matryona was pregnant with another son, Lidor, her husband was unjustly taken into the army, and his wife had to go to the city to seek the truth. It’s good that the governor’s wife, Elena Alexandrovna, helped her then. By the way, Matryona gave birth to a son in the waiting room.
Yes, life was not easy for the one who was nicknamed “lucky” in the village: she constantly had to fight for herself, and for her children, and for her husband.
Part 4. A feast for the whole world.
At the end of the village of Valakhchina there was a feast, where everyone was gathered: the wandering men, Vlas the elder, and Klim Yakovlevich. Among those celebrating are two seminarians, simple, kind guys - Savvushka and Grisha Dobrosklonov. They sing funny songs and tell different stories. They do this because ordinary people ask for it. From the age of fifteen, Grisha firmly knows that he will devote his life to the happiness of the Russian people. He sings a song about a great and powerful country called Rus'. Is this not the lucky one whom the travelers were so persistently looking for? After all, he clearly sees the purpose of his life - in serving the disadvantaged people. Unfortunately, Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov died untimely, not having time to finish the poem (according to the author’s plan, the men were supposed to go to St. Petersburg). But the thoughts of the seven wanderers coincide with the thoughts of Dobrosklonov, who thinks that every peasant should live freely and cheerfully in Rus'. This was the main intention of the author.
The poem by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov became legendary, a symbol of the struggle for the happy everyday life of ordinary people, as well as the result of the author’s thoughts about the fate of the peasantry.
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.
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is known throughout the world for his folk and unusual works. His dedication to the common people, peasant life, the period of short childhood and constant hardships in adult life arouse not only literary, but also historical interest.Works such as “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are a real excursion into the 60s of the 19th century. The poem literally immerses the reader in the events of post-serfdom. A journey in search of a happy person in the Russian Empire reveals numerous problems of society, paints an unvarnished picture of reality and makes one think about the future of a country that dares to live in a new way.
The history of the creation of Nekrasov's poem
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The exact date when work on the poem began is unknown. But researchers of Nekrasov’s work drew attention to the fact that already in his first part he mentions the Poles who were exiled. This makes it possible to assume that the poet’s idea for the poem arose around 1860-1863, and Nikolai Alekseevich began writing it around 1863. Although the poet’s sketches could have been made earlier.
It is no secret that Nikolai Nekrasov spent a very long time collecting material for his new poetic work. The date on the manuscript after the first chapter is 1865. But this date means that work on the chapter “The Landowner” was completed this year.
It is known that starting in 1866, the first part of Nekrasov’s work tried to see the light of day. For four years, the author tried to publish his work and constantly fell under the discontent and harsh condemnation of censorship. Despite this, work on the poem continued.
The poet had to publish it gradually in the same Sovremennik magazine. So it was published for four years, and all these years the censor was dissatisfied. The poet himself was constantly subject to criticism and persecution. Therefore, he stopped his work for a while, and was able to start it again only in 1870. During this new period of the rise of his literary creativity, he creates three more parts to this poem, which were written at different times:
✪ “The Last One” - 1872.
✪ “Peasant Woman” -1873.
✪ “A Feast for the Whole World” - 1876.
The poet wanted to write a few more chapters, but he was working on his poem at a time when he began to fall ill, so his illness prevented him from realizing these poetic plans. But still, realizing that he would soon die, Nikolai Alekseevich tried in his last part to finish it so that the whole poem had a logical completeness.
The plot of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
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In one of the volosts, on a wide road, there are seven men who live in neighboring villages. And they think about one question: who lives well in their native land. And their conversation got so bad that it soon turned into an argument. It was getting late in the evening, but they could not resolve this dispute. And suddenly the men noticed that they had already walked a long distance, carried away by the conversation. Therefore, they decided not to return home, but to spend the night in the clearing. But the argument continued and led to a fight.
Because of such noise, a chick of a warbler falls out, which Pakhom saves, and for this the exemplary mother is ready to fulfill any desire of the men. Having received the magic tablecloth, the men decide to travel to find the answer to the question that interests them so much. Soon they meet a priest who changes the men’s opinion that he has a good and happy life. The heroes also end up at a rural fair.
They try to find happy people among the drunk, and it soon becomes clear that a peasant doesn’t need much to be happy: he has enough to eat and protects himself from troubles. And to find out about happiness, I advise the heroes to find Ermila Girin, whom everyone knows. And then the men learn his story, and then the master appears. But he also complains about his life.
At the end of the poem, the heroes try to look for happy people among women. They meet one peasant woman, Matryona. They help Korchagina in the field, and in return she tells them her story, where she says that a woman cannot have happiness. Women only suffer.
And now the peasants are already on the banks of the Volga. Then they heard a story about a prince who could not come to terms with the abolition of serfdom, and then a story about two sinners. The story of the sexton's son Grishka Dobrosklonov is also interesting.
You are also poor, You are also abundant, You are also powerful, You are also powerless, Mother Rus'! Saved in slavery, the heart is free - Gold, gold, the people's heart! People's power, mighty power - calm conscience, tenacious truth!
Genre and unusual composition of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
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There is still debate between writers and critics about the composition of Nekrasov's poem. Most researchers of the literary work of Nikolai Nekrasov have come to the conclusion that the material should be arranged as follows: a prologue and part one, then the chapter “Peasant Woman” should be placed, the content should be followed by the chapter “Last One” and in conclusion - “A Feast for the Whole World”.
Evidence of this arrangement of chapters in the plot of the poem is that, for example, in the first part and in the subsequent chapter, the world is depicted when the peasants were not yet free, that is, this is the world that was a little earlier: old and outdated. The next part of Nekrasov already shows how this old world is completely destroyed and perishes.
But already in Nekrasov’s last chapter, the poet shows all the signs that a new life is beginning. The tone of the story changes dramatically and is now lighter, clearer, and more joyful. The reader feels that the poet, like his heroes, believe in the future. This aspiration towards a clear and bright future is especially felt in those moments when the main character, Grishka Dobrosklonov, appears in the poem.
In this part, the poet completes the poem, so it is here that the denouement of the entire plot action takes place. And here is the answer to the question that was posed at the very beginning of the work about who, after all, lives well and freely, carefree and cheerfully in Rus'. It turns out that the most carefree, happy and cheerful person is Grishka, who is the protector of his people. In his beautiful and lyrical songs, he predicted happiness for his people.
But if you carefully read how the poem ends in its last part, you can pay attention to the strangeness of the narrative. The reader does not see the peasants returning to their homes, they do not stop traveling, and, in general, they do not even get to know Grisha. Therefore, a continuation may have been planned here.
Poetic composition also has its own characteristics. First of all, it is worth paying attention to the construction, which is based on the classical epic. The poem consists of separate chapters in which there is an independent plot, but there is no main character in the poem, since it tells about the people, as if it were an epic of the life of the entire people. All parts are connected into one thanks to those motives that run through the entire plot. For example, the motif of a long road along which peasants walk to find a happy person.
The fabulousness of the composition is easily visible in the work. The text contains many elements that can easily be attributed to folklore. Throughout the journey, the author inserts his own lyrical digressions and elements that are completely unrelated to the plot.
Analysis of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
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From the history of Russia it is known that in 1861 the most shameful phenomenon - serfdom - was abolished. But such a reform caused unrest in society, and new problems soon arose. First of all, the question arose that even a free peasant, poor and destitute, cannot be happy. This problem interested Nikolai Nekrasov, and he decided to write a poem in which the issue of peasant happiness would be considered.
Despite the fact that the work is written in simple language and refers to folklore, it usually seems complex to the reader, since it touches on the most serious philosophical problems and issues. The author himself sought answers to most of the questions all his life. This is probably why writing the poem was so difficult for him, and he created it over the course of fourteen years. But unfortunately, the work was never finished.
The poet intended to write his poem in eight chapters, but due to illness he was able to write only four and they do not follow at all, as expected, one after another. Now the poem is presented in the form and in the sequence proposed by K. Chukovsky, who carefully studied Nekrasov’s archives for a long time.
Nikolai Nekrasov chose ordinary people as the heroes of the poem, so he also used vernacular vocabulary. For a long time, there were debates about who could still be considered the main characters of the poem. So, there were assumptions that these are heroes - men who walk around the country, trying to find a happy person. But other researchers still believed that it was Grishka Dobrosklonov. This question remains open today. But you can consider this poem as if the main character in it is all the common people.
There are no accurate and detailed descriptions of these men in the plot, their characters are also incomprehensible, the author simply does not reveal or show them. But these men are united by one goal, for which they travel. It is also interesting that the episodic faces in Nekrasov’s poem are drawn by the author more clearly, accurately, in detail and vividly. The poet raises many problems that arose among the peasantry after the abolition of serfdom.
Nikolai Alekseevich shows that each hero in his poem has his own concept of happiness. For example, a rich person sees happiness in having financial well-being. And the man dreams that in his life there will be no grief and troubles, which usually await the peasant at every step. There are also heroes who are happy because they believe in the happiness of others. The language of Nekrasov’s poem is close to folk, so it contains a huge amount of vernacular.
Despite the fact that the work remained unfinished, it reflects the entire reality of what happened. This is a real literary gift to all lovers of poetry, history and literature.
In front of you - summary Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'." The poem was conceived as a “people's book,” an epic depicting an entire era in the life of the people. The poet himself spoke about his work like this:
“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.”
As you know, the poet did not finish the poem. Only the first of 4 parts was completed.
We did not shorten the main points that you should pay attention to. The rest is given in a brief summary.
Summary of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by chapter
Click on the desired chapter or part of the work to go to its summary
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
Peasant woman
PART FOUR
Feast for the whole world
PART ONE
PROLOGUE - summary
In what year - calculate
In what land - guess
On the sidewalk
Seven men came together:
Seven temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
From adjacent villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
There is also a poor harvest,
They came together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
Roman said: to the landowner,
“Demyan said: to the official,
Luke said: ass.
To the fat-bellied merchant! -
The Gubin brothers said,
Ivan and Metrodor.
Old man Pakhom pushed
And he said, looking at the ground:
To the noble boyar,
To the sovereign minister.
And Prov said: to the king...
The guy's a bull: he'll get in trouble
What a whim in the head -
Stake her from there
You can’t knock them out: they resist,
Everyone stands on their own!
The men argue and do not notice how evening comes. They lit a fire, went for vodka, had a snack, and again began to argue about who was living “fun, freely in Rus'.” The argument escalated into a fight. At this time, a chick flew up to the fire. I caught him with my groin. A warbler bird appears and asks to let the chick go. In return, she tells you how to find a self-assembled tablecloth. Pakhom releases the chick, the men follow the indicated path and find a self-assembled tablecloth. The men decide not to return home until they find out “for certain,” “Who lives happily, // Freely in Rus'.”
Chapter 1. Pop - summary
The men hit the road. They meet peasants, artisans, coachmen, soldiers, and the travelers understand that the life of these people cannot be called happy. Finally they meet a priest. He proves to the peasants that the priest has no peace, no wealth, no happiness - a diploma is difficult for a priest's son to get, and the priesthood is even more expensive. The priest can be called at any time of the day or night, in any weather. The priest has to see the tears of orphans and the death rattle of a dying man. But there is no honor for the priest - they make up “jokey tales // And obscene songs, // And all sorts of blasphemy” about him. The priest has no wealth either - rich landowners almost no longer live in Rus'. The men agree with the priest. They move on.
Chapter 2. Rural fair - summary
The men see meager living everywhere. A man bathes his horse in the river. The wanderers learn from him that all the people have gone to the fair. The men go there. At the fair, people bargain, have fun, walk, and drink. One man is crying in front of the people - he drank all his money, and his granddaughter is waiting for a treat at home. Pavlusha Veretennikov, nicknamed “the gentleman,” bought boots for his granddaughter. The old man is very happy. Wanderers watch a performance in a booth.
Chapter 3. Drunken night - summary
People return drunk after the fair.
People walk and fall
As if because of the rollers
Enemies with buckshot
They're shooting at the men.
Some guy is burying a little girl, claiming at the same time that he is burying his mother. Women are quarreling in the ditch: who has a worse home? Yakim Nagoy says that “there is no measure for Russian drunkenness,” but it is also impossible to measure the people’s grief.
What follows is a story about Yakime Nagom who previously lived in St. Petersburg, then went to prison due to a lawsuit with a merchant. Then he came to live in his native village. He bought pictures with which he covered the hut and which he loved very much. There was a fire. Yakim rushed to save not the accumulated money, but pictures, which he later hung in the new hut. The people, returning, sing songs. Wanderers are sad about their own home, about their wives.
Chapter 4. Happy - summary
Wanderers walk among the festive crowd with a bucket of vodka. They promise it to someone who convinces him that he is truly happy. The first to arrive is the sexton, who says that he is happy because he believes in the kingdom of heaven. They don't give him vodka. An old woman comes up and says that she has a very large turnip in her garden. They laughed at her and didn’t give her anything either. A soldier comes with medals and says that he is happy that he is alive. They brought it to him.
A stonecutter approaches and talks about his happiness - about his enormous strength. His opponent is a thin man. He says that at one time God punished him for boasting in the same way. The contractor praised him at the construction site, and he was happy - he took the fourteen-pound burden and carried it to the second floor. Since then he has withered away. He goes home to die, an epidemic begins in the carriage, the dead are unloaded at the stations, but he still remains alive.
A servant comes, boasts that he was the prince’s favorite slave, that he licked plates with the remains of gourmet food, drank foreign drinks from glasses, and suffers from the noble disease of gout. He is driven away. A Belarusian comes up and says that his happiness lies in bread, which he just can’t get enough of. At home, in Belarus, he ate bread with chaff and bark. A man who had been killed by a bear came and said that his comrades died while hunting, but he remained alive. The man received vodka from the wanderers. Beggars boast that they are happy because they receive food often. The wanderers realize that they wasted vodka on “ peasant happiness" They are advised to ask Yermil Girin, who owned the mill, about happiness. By court decision, the mill is being sold at auction. Yermil won the bargain with the merchant Altynnikov; the clerks demanded a third of the price immediately, contrary to the rules. Yermil did not have money with him, which needed to be deposited within an hour, and it was a long way to go home.
He went out to the square and asked people to borrow as much as they could. They collected more money than was needed. Yermil gave the money, the mill became his, and the next Friday he paid off the debts. The wanderers wonder why the people believed Girin and gave him money. They answer him that he achieved this with the truth. Girin served as a clerk in the estate of Prince Yurlov. He served for five years and did not take anything from anyone, he was attentive to everyone. But he was kicked out, and a new clerk came in his place - a scoundrel and a grabber. After the death of the old prince, the new owner drove out all the old henchmen and ordered the peasants to elect a new mayor. Everyone unanimously elected Ermil. He served honestly, but one day he still committed a crime - his younger brother Mitri " fenced off“, and instead of him, Nenila Vlasyevna’s son became a soldier.
Since that time, Yermil has been sad - he doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, he says he’s a criminal. He said that he should be judged according to his conscience. Nenila Vlasvna’s son was returned, but Mitri was taken away, and a fine was imposed on Ermila. For another year after that, he was not himself, then he resigned from his position, no matter how much they begged him to stay.
The narrator advises going to Girin, but another peasant says that Yermil is in prison. A riot broke out and government troops were needed. To avoid bloodshed, they asked Girin to address the people.
The story is interrupted by the screams of a drunken footman suffering from gout - now he is suffering from beatings for theft. The wanderers are leaving.
Chapter 5. Landowner - summary
The landowner Obolt-Obolduev was
... "ruddy,
Stately, planted,
Sixty years old;
The mustache is gray, long,
Well done touches.
He mistook the men for robbers and even pulled out a pistol. But they told him what was the matter. Obolt-Obolduev laughs, gets out of the stroller and talks about the life of the landowners.
First he talks about the antiquity of his family, then he recalls the old days when
Not only Russian people,
Nature itself is Russian
She submitted to us.
Then the landowners lived well - luxurious feasts, a whole regiment of servants, their own actors, etc. The landowner recalls the dog hunt, unlimited power, how he baptized with his entire estate “on Easter Sunday.”
Now there is decay everywhere - “ The noble class // It’s as if everything was hidden, // It died out!“The landowner cannot understand why the “idle scribblers” encourage him to study and work, after all, he is a nobleman. He says that he has lived in the village for forty years, but cannot distinguish a barley ear from a rye ear. The peasants think:
The great chain has broken,
It tore and splintered:
One way for the master,
Others don't care!..
PART TWO
The last one - summary
The wanderers walk and see hayfields. They take the women's braids and start mowing them. Music can be heard from the river - it’s a landowner riding in a boat. The gray-haired man Vlas urges the women on - they shouldn’t upset the landowner. Three boats moor to the shore, containing a landowner with his family and servants.
The old landowner walks around the hay, complains that the hay is damp, and demands that it be dried. He leaves with his retinue for breakfast. The wanderers ask Vlas (he turned out to be the burgomaster) why the landowner gives orders if serfdom is abolished. Vlas replies that they have a special landowner: when he learned about the abolition of serfdom, he had a stroke - the left half of his body was paralyzed, he lay motionless.
The heirs arrived, but the old man recovered. His sons told him about the abolition of serfdom, but he called them traitors, cowards, etc. Out of fear that they would be disinherited, his sons decide to indulge him in everything.
That’s why they persuade the peasants to make a joke, as if the peasants were returned to the landowners. But some peasants did not need to be persuaded. Ipat, for example, says: “ And I am the princes Utyatin’s slave - and that’s the whole story!“He remembers how the prince harnessed him to a cart, how he bathed him in an ice hole - he dipped him into one ice hole, pulled him out of another - and immediately gave him vodka.
The prince put Ipat on the box to play the violin. The horse stumbled, Ipat fell, and the sleigh ran over him, but the prince drove off. But after some time he returned. Ipat is grateful to the prince that he did not leave him to freeze. Everyone agrees to pretend that serfdom was not abolished.
Vlas does not agree to be burgomaster. Klim Lavin agrees to be it.
Klim has a conscience made of clay,
And Minin’s beard,
If you look, you'll think so
Why can't you find a peasant?
More mature and sober .
The old prince walks around and gives orders, the peasants laugh at him on the sly. The man Agap Petrov did not want to obey the orders of the old landowner, and when he caught him cutting down the forest, he told Utyatin directly about everything, calling him a fool. Ducky got the second blow. But contrary to the expectations of his heirs, the old prince recovered again and began to demand the public flogging of Agap.
The latter is being persuaded by the whole world. They took him to the stables, put a glass of wine in front of him and told him to shout louder. He shouted so loudly that even Utyatin took pity. The drunk Agap was carried home. Soon he died: " The unscrupulous Klim ruined him, anathema, blame!»
Utyatin is sitting at the table at this time. Peasants stand at the porch. Everyone is putting on a comedy, as usual, except for one guy - he laughs. The guy is a newcomer, local customs are funny to him. Utyatin again demands punishment for the rebel. But the wanderers do not want to blame. The burgher's godfather saves the situation - she says that it was her son who laughed - a foolish boy. Utyatin calms down, has fun and swaggers over dinner. After lunch he dies. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But the joy of the peasants was premature: “ With the death of the Last One, the lordly caress disappeared».
PEASANT WOMAN (FROM PART THIRD)
Prologue - summary
The wanderers decide to look for a happy man among women. They are advised to go to the village of Klin and ask Matryona Timofeevna, nicknamed “the governor’s wife.” Arriving in the village, the men see “poor houses.” The lackey he met explains that “The landowner is abroad, //And the steward is dying.” The wanderers meet Matryona Timofeevna.
Matrena Timofeevna
dignified woman,
Wide and dense
About thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful; gray streaked hair,
The eyes are large, strict,
The richest eyelashes,
Severe and dark.
The wanderers talk about their goal. The peasant woman replies that she has no time to talk about life now - she has to go reap rye. The men offer help. Matryona Timofeevna talks about her life.
Chapter 1 – Before marriage. Summary
Matryona Timofeevna was born into a friendly, non-drinking family and lived “like Christ in the bosom.” It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Then Matryona Timofeevna met her betrothed;
There's a stranger on the mountain!
Philip Korchagin - St. Petersburg resident,
Stove maker by skill.
Chapter 2 – Songs. Summary
Matryona Timofeevna ends up in someone else's house.
The family was huge
Grumpy... I'm in trouble
Happy maiden holiday to hell!
My husband went to work
I advised to remain silent and be patient...
As ordered, so done:
I walked with anger in my heart.
And I didn’t say too much
A word to no one.
In winter Philippus came,
Brought a silk handkerchief
Yes, I went for a ride on a sled
On Catherine's day,
And it was as if there was no grief!..
She says that her husband beat her only once, when her husband’s sister arrived and he asked to give her shoes, but Matryona hesitated. Philip went back to work, and Matryona’s son Demushka was born on Kazanskaya. Life in her mother-in-law's house has become even more difficult, but she endures:
Whatever they tell me, I work,
No matter how much they scold me, I remain silent.
Of the entire family, only grandfather Savely felt sorry for Matryona Timofeevna’s husband.
Chapter 3. Savely, the Holy Russian hero. Summary.
Matryona Timofeevna talks about Savelia.
With a huge gray mane,
Tea, twenty years uncut,
With a huge beard
Grandfather looked like a bear...<…>
... He's already hit the nail on the head,
According to fairy tales, a hundred years.
Grandfather lived in a special room,
Didn't like families
He didn’t let me into his corner;
And she was angry, barking,
His "branded, convict"
My own son was honoring.
Savely will not be angry,
He will go to his little room,
Reads the holy calendar, gets baptized
And suddenly he will say cheerfully;
“Branded, but not a slave!”...
Savely tells Matryona why he is called “branded.” During his youth, the serf peasants of his village did not pay rent, did not go to corvée, because they lived in remote places and it was difficult to get there. The landowner Shalashnikov tried to collect rent, but was not very successful in this.
Shalashnikov tore excellently,
And not so great
I received income.
Soon Shalashnikov (he was a military man) is killed near Varna. His heir sends a German governor.
He forces the peasants to work. They themselves do not notice how they are cutting a clearing, i.e. it has now become easy to get to them.
And then came hard labor
To the Korezh peasant -
Ruined to the bone!<…>
The German has a death grip:
Until he lets you go around the world,
Without moving away, he sucks!
This went on for eighteen years. The German built a factory and ordered the digging of a well. The German began to scold those who were digging the well for idleness (Savely was among them). The peasants pushed the German into a hole and buried the hole. Next - hard labor, Savelig! tried to escape from it, but was caught. He spent twenty years in hard labor, another twenty in a settlement.
Chapter 4. Demushka. Summary
Matryona Timofeevna gave birth to a son, but her mother-in-law does not allow her to be with the child, since her daughter-in-law has started working less.
The mother-in-law insists that Matryona Timofeevna leave her son with his grandfather. Savely neglected to look after the child: “The old man fell asleep in the sun, // Fed Demidushka to the pigs // Silly grandfather!..” Matryona accuses her grandfather and cries. But it didn't end there:
The Lord was angry
He sent uninvited guests,
Unrighteous judges!
A doctor, a police officer, and the police appear in the village and accuse Matryona of intentionally killing a child. The doctor performs an autopsy, despite Matryona's requests. without desecration // To an honest burial // To betray the baby". They call her crazy. Grandfather Savely says that her madness lies in the fact that she went to the authorities without taking with her “ not a ruble, not a new thing.” Demushka is buried in a closed coffin. Matryona Timofeevna cannot come to her senses, Savely, trying to console her, says that her son is now in heaven.
Chapter 5. She-Wolf - Summary
After Demushka died, Matryona “was not herself” and could not work. The father-in-law decided to teach her a lesson with the reins. The peasant woman bent down at his feet and asked: “Kill!” The father-in-law retreated. Day and night Matryona Timofeevna is at her son’s grave. Closer to winter, my husband arrived. Savely after the death of Demushka
For six days I lay hopelessly,
Then he went into the forests.
That's how grandpa sang, that's how he cried,
That the forest groaned! And in the fall
Went to repentance
To the Sand Monastery.
Every year Matryona gives birth to a child. Three years later, Matryona Timofeevna’s parents die. She goes to her son's grave to cry. Meets grandfather Savely there. He came from the monastery to pray for the “Deme of the Poor, for all the suffering Russian peasantry.” Saveliy did not live long - “in the fall, the old man got some kind of deep wound on his neck, he died with difficulty...”. Savely spoke about the share of the peasants:
There are three paths for men:
Tavern, prison and penal servitude,
And the women in Rus'
Three loops: white silk,
The second is red silk,
And the third - black silk,
Choose any one! .
Four years have passed. Matryona came to terms with everything. One day, a pilgrim pilgrim comes to the village, she talks about the salvation of the soul, and demands from mothers that they not feed their babies milk on fasting days. Matryona Timofeevna did not listen. “Yes, apparently God is angry,” says the peasant woman. When her son Fedot was eight years old, he was sent to herd sheep. One day they brought Fedot and said that he had fed a sheep to a she-wolf. Fedot says that a huge, emaciated she-wolf appeared, grabbed the sheep and started running. Fedot caught up with her and took away the sheep, which was already dead. The she-wolf looked into his eyes pitifully and howled. It was clear from the bleeding nipples that she had wolf cubs in her lair. Fedot took pity on the she-wolf and gave her the sheep. Matryona Timofeevna, trying to save her son from flogging, asks for mercy from the landowner, who orders not the assistant shepherd to be punished, but the “impudent woman.”
Chapter 6. Difficult year. Summary.
Matryona Timofeevna says that the she-wolf did not appear in vain - there was a shortage of bread. The mother-in-law told the neighbors that Matryona had caused the famine by wearing a clean shirt on Christmas Day.
For my husband, for my protector,
I got off cheap;
And one woman
Not for the same thing
Killed to death with stakes.
Don't joke with the hungry!..
After the lack of bread came the recruitment drive. My brother's eldest husband was drafted into the army, so the family did not expect trouble. But Matryona Timofeevna’s husband is taken as a soldier out of turn. Life gets even harder. The children had to be sent around the world. The mother-in-law became even more grumpy.
Okay, don't get dressed,
Don't wash yourself white
The neighbors have sharp eyes,
Tongues out!
Walk on the quieter streets
Carry your head lower
If you're having fun, don't laugh
Don't cry out of sadness!..
Chapter 7. Governor's wife. Summary
Matryona Timofeevna is going to the governor. She has difficulty getting to the city because she is pregnant. He gives a ruble to the doorman to let him in. He says to come in two hours. Matryona Timofeevna arrives, the doorman takes another ruble from her. The governor's wife arrives and Matryona Timofeevna rushes to her asking for intercession. The peasant woman becomes ill. When she comes to, she is told that she has given birth to a child. The governor's wife, Elena Aleksandrovna, was very fond of Matryona Timofeevna, and looked after her son as if she were her own (she herself had no children). A messenger is sent to the village to sort everything out. My husband was returned.
Chapter 8. The Woman's Parable. Summary
The men ask if Matryona Timofeevna told them everything. She says that everyone, except that they survived the fire twice, suffered from anthrax three times, that instead of a horse she had to walk “in the harrow.” Matryona Timofeevna recalls the words of the holy pilgrim who went to "the heights of Athens»:
The keys to women's happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost to God himself!<…>
Yes, they are unlikely to be found...
What kind of fish swallowed
Those keys are reserved,
In what seas is that fish
Walking - God forgot!
PART FOUR.
Feast for the whole world
Introduction - summary
There is a feast in the village. The feast was organized by Klim. They sent for the parish sexton Tryphon. He came with his seminarian sons Savvushka and Grisha.
... It was the eldest
Already nineteen years old;
Now I'm an archdeacon
I looked, and Gregory
Face thin, pale
And the hair is thin, curly,
With a hint of red.
Simple guys, kind,
Mowed, reaped, sowed
And drank vodka on holidays
On a par with the peasantry.
The clerk and the seminarians began to sing.
I. Bitter times - bitter songs - summary
CHEERFUL
“Eat the prison, Yasha! There’s no milk!”
- “Where is our cow?”
Take away, my light!
Master for offspring
I took her home."
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
“Where are our chickens?” -
The girls are screaming.
“Don’t yell, you fools!
The zemstvo court ate them;
I took another cart
Yes, he promised to wait..."
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
Broke my back
But the sauerkraut doesn’t wait!
Baba Katerina
I remembered - roars:
In the yard for over a year
Daughter... no dear!
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
Some of the kids
Lo and behold, there are no children:
The king will take the boys,
Master - daughters!
To one freak
Live forever with your family.
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
Then the Vakhlaks sang:
Corvée
Kalinushka is poor and unkempt,
He has nothing to show off,
Only the back is painted,
You don't know behind your shirt.
From bast shoes to gate
The skin is all ripped open
The belly swells with chaff.
Twisted, twisted,
Flogged, tormented,
Kalina barely walks.
He'll knock on the innkeeper's feet,
Sorrow will drown in wine,
It will only come back to haunt you on Saturday
From the master's stable to his wife...
The men remember the old order. One of the men recalls how one day their lady decided to mercilessly beat the one “who would say a strong word.” The men stopped arguing, but as soon as the will was announced, they lost their souls so much that “Priest Ivan was offended.” Another man talks about the exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful. The greedy landowner Polivanov had a faithful servant, Yakov. He was devoted to the master without limit.
Yakov appeared like this from his youth,
Yakov had only joy:
To groom, protect, please the master
Yes, rock my little nephew.
Jacob's nephew Grisha grew up and asked the master for permission to marry the girl Arina.
However, the master himself liked her. He gave Grisha as a soldier, despite Yakov's pleas. The slave started drinking and disappeared. Polivanov feels bad without Yakov. Two weeks later the slave returned. Polivanov is going to visit his sister, Yakov is taking him. They drive through the forest, Yakov turns into a remote place - Devil's Ravine. Polivanov is frightened and begs for mercy. But Yakov says that he is not going to get his hands dirty with murder, and hangs himself from a tree. Polivanov is left alone. He spends the whole night in the ravine, screaming, calling people, but no one responds. In the morning a hunter finds him. The landowner returns home, lamenting: “I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me!
After the story, the men start an argument about who is more sinful - the innkeepers, the landowners, the peasants or the robbers. Klim Lavin fights with a merchant. Jonushka, the “humble mantis,” talks about the power of faith. His story is about the holy fool Fomushka, who called people to escape to the forests, but he was arrested and taken to prison. From the cart, Fomushka shouted: “They beat you with sticks, rods, whips, you will be beaten with iron rods!” In the morning, a military team arrived and the pacification and interrogations began, i.e. Fomushka’s prophecy “almost came true.” Jonah talks about Euphrosyne, the messenger of God, who during the cholera years “buries, heals, and tends to the sick.” Jonah Lyapushkin - praying mantis and wanderer. The peasants loved him and argued about who would be the first to shelter him. When he appeared, everyone brought out icons to meet him, and Jonah followed those whose icons he liked best. Jonah tells a parable about two great sinners.
ABOUT TWO GREAT SINNERS
The story was told to Jonah in Solovki by Father Pitirim. There were twelve robbers, whose chieftain was Kudeyar. They lived in a dense forest, plundered a lot of wealth, and killed a lot of innocent souls. From near Kyiv, Kudeyar took himself a beautiful girl. Unexpectedly, “the Lord awakened the conscience” of the robber. Kudeyar " He blew off his mistress's head // And spotted Esaul" Came home with a tartar in monastic clothes y,” day and night he prays to God for forgiveness. The saint of the Lord appeared in front of Kudeyar. He pointed to a huge oak tree and said: “ With the same knife that robbed him, // Cut him with the same hand!..<…>The tree will just fall, // The chains of sin will fall" Kudeyar begins to do what he was told. Time passes, and Pan Glukhovsky drives by. He asks what Kudeyar is doing.
A lot of cruel, scary
The old man heard about the master
And as a lesson to the sinner
He told his secret.
Pan grinned: “Salvation
I haven't had tea for a long time,
In the world I honor only a woman,
Gold, honor and wine.
You have to live, old man, in my opinion:
How many slaves do I destroy?
I torment, torture and hang,
I wish I could see how I’m sleeping!”
The hermit becomes furious, attacks the master and plunges a knife into his heart. At that very moment the tree collapsed, and the load of sins fell from the old man.
III. Both old and new - summary
PEASANT SIN
One admiral was granted eight thousand peasant souls by the Empress for his military service, for the battle with the Turks near Ochakov. Dying, he gives the casket to Gleb the elder. The casket is ordered to be taken care of, since it contains a will according to which all eight thousand souls will receive freedom. After the death of the admiral, a distant relative appears on the estate, promises the headman a lot of money, and the will is burned. Everyone agrees with Ignat that this is a great sin. Grisha Dobrosklonov talks about the freedom of the peasants, that “there will be no new Gleb in Rus'.” Vlas wishes Grisha wealth and a smart and healthy wife. Grisha in response:
I don't need any silver
Not gold, but God willing,
So that my fellow countrymen
And every peasant
Life was free and fun
All over holy Rus'!
A cart with hay is approaching. The soldier Ovsyannikov is sitting on the cart with his niece Ustinyushka. The soldier made his living with the help of a raik - a portable panorama that showed objects through a magnifying glass. But the instrument broke. The soldier then came up with new songs and began to play the spoons. Sings a song.
Soldier's Toshen light,
There is no truth
Life is sickening
The pain is severe.
German bullets
Turkish bullets,
French bullets
Russian sticks!
Klim notices that in his yard there is a log on which he has been chopping wood since his youth. She is “not as wounded” as Ovsyannikov. However, the soldier did not receive full board, since the doctor’s assistant, when examining the wounds, said that they were second-rate. The soldier submits a petition again.
IV. Good time - good songs - summary.
Grisha and Savva take their father home and sing:
Share of the people
His happiness.
Light and freedom
First of all!
We're a little
We ask God:
Fair deal
Do it skillfully
Give us strength!
Working life -
Direct to friend
Road to the heart
Away from the threshold
Coward and lazy!
Isn't it heaven?
Share of the people
His happiness.
Light and freedom
First of all!
Father fell asleep, Savvushka took up his book, and Grisha went into the field. Grisha has a thin face - they were underfed by the housekeeper at the seminary. Grisha remembers his mother Domna, whose favorite son he was. Sings a song:
In the middle of the world below
For a free heart
There are two ways.
Weigh the proud strength,
Weigh your strong will, -
Which way to go?
One spacious
The road is rough,
The passions of a slave,
It's huge,
Greedy for temptation
There's a crowd coming.
About sincere life,
About the lofty goal
The idea there is funny.
Eternal boils there,
Inhuman
Enmity-war.
For mortal blessings...
There are souls captive there
Full of sin.<…>
The other one is tight
The road is honest
They walk along it
Only strong souls
Loving,
To fight, to work.
For the bypassed
For the oppressed -
In their footsteps
Go to the downtrodden
Go to the offended -
Be the first there.
No matter how dark the vahlachina is,
No matter how crammed with corvée
And slavery - and she,
Having been blessed, I placed
In Grigory Dobrosklonov
Such a messenger.
Fate had in store for him
The path is glorious, the name is loud
People's Defender,
Consumption and Siberia.
Grisha sings a song about the bright future of his Motherland: “ You are still destined to suffer a lot, //But you will not die, I know" Grisha sees a barge hauler who, having completed his work, with the coppers jingling in his pocket, goes to the tavern. Grisha sings another song.
RUS
You're miserable too
You are also abundant
You are mighty
You are also powerless
Mother Rus'!
Saved in slavery
Free heart -
Gold, gold
People's heart!
People's power
Mighty force -
Conscience is calm,
The truth is alive!
Strength with untruth
They don't get along
Sacrifice by untruth
Not called -
Rus' does not move,
Rus' is like dead!
And she caught fire
Hidden spark -
They stood up - unwounded,
They came out - uninvited,
Live by the grain
The mountains have been destroyed!
The army rises -
Countless!
The strength in her will affect
Indestructible!
You're miserable too
You are also abundant
You're downtrodden
You are omnipotent
Mother Rus'!..
Grisha is pleased with his song:
He heard the immense strength in his chest,
The sounds of grace delighted his ears,
The radiant sounds of the noble hymn -
He sang the embodiment of people's happiness!..
I hope this summary of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” helped you prepare for your Russian literature lesson.
Summary of the poem:
One day, seven men - recent serfs, and now temporarily obliged "from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhaika, etc." meet on the main road. Instead of going their own way, the men start an argument about who lives happily and freely in Rus'. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky person in Rus': a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of sovereigns or a tsar.
While arguing, they do not notice that they have taken a detour of thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue the argument over vodka - which, of course, little by little develops into a fight. But a fight does not help resolve the issue that worries the men.
The solution is found unexpectedly: one of the men, Pakhom, catches a warbler chick, and in order to free the chick, the warbler tells the men where they can find a self-assembled tablecloth. Now the men are provided with bread, vodka, cucumbers, kvass, tea - in a word, everything they need for a long journey. And besides, a self-assembled tablecloth will repair and wash their clothes! Having received all these benefits, the men make a vow to find out “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.”
The first possible “lucky person” they meet along the way turns out to be a priest. (The soldiers and beggars they met were not the ones to ask about happiness!) But the priest’s answer to the question of whether his life is sweet disappoints the men. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the priest does not possess any of these benefits. In the haymaking, in the harvest, in the dead of autumn night, in the severe frost, he must go to where there are the sick, the dying and those being born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of funeral sobs and orphan's sadness - so much so that his hand does not rise to take copper coins - a pitiful reward for the demand. The landowners, who previously lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only throughout Rus', but also in distant foreign lands; there is no hope for their retribution. Well, the men themselves know how much honor the priest deserves: they feel embarrassed when the priest reproaches him for obscene songs and insults towards priests.
Realizing that the Russian priest is not one of the lucky ones, the men go to a holiday fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask people about happiness. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded house with the sign “school”, a paramedic’s hut, and a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village there are drinking establishments, in each of which they barely have time to cope with thirsty people. Old man Vavila cannot buy goatskin shoes for his granddaughter because he drank himself to a penny. It’s good that Pavlusha Veretennikov, a lover of Russian songs, whom everyone calls “master” for some reason, buys him the treasured gift.
Male wanderers watch the farcical Petrushka, watch how the ladies stock up on books - but not Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of unknown fat generals and works about “my lord stupid.” They also see how a busy trading day ends: widespread drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the men are indignant at Pavlusha Veretennikov’s attempt to measure the peasant against the master’s standard. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Rus': he will not withstand either backbreaking labor or peasant misfortune; without drinking, bloody rain would pour out of the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoy from the village of Bosovo - one of those who “work until they die and drink half to death.” Yakim believes that only pigs walk on the earth and never see the sky. During the fire, he himself did not save the money he had accumulated throughout his life, but the useless and beloved pictures hanging in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Rus'.
Male wanderers do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Rus'. But even for the promise of giving free water to the lucky ones, they fail to find them. For the sake of free booze, both the overworked worker, the paralyzed former servant who spent forty years licking the master’s plates with the best French truffle, and even ragged beggars are ready to declare themselves lucky.
Finally, someone tells them the story of Yermil Girin, the mayor in the estate of Prince Yurlov, who earned universal respect for his justice and honesty. When Girin needed money to buy the mill, the men lent it to him without even requiring a receipt. But Yermil is now unhappy: after the peasant revolt, he is in prison.
The ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the wandering peasants about the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform. He remembers how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, fields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who completely belonged to him. Obolt-Obolduev talks with emotion about how on the twelve holidays he invited his serfs to pray in the master's house - despite the fact that after this he had to drive the women away from the entire estate to wash the floors.
And although the men themselves know that life in serfdom was far from the idyll depicted by Obolduev, they still understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, hit both the master, who was immediately deprived of his usual way of life, and the peasant.
Desperate to find someone happy among the men, the wanderers decide to ask the women. The surrounding peasants remember that Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina lives in the village of Klin, whom everyone considers lucky. But Matryona herself thinks differently. In confirmation, she tells the wanderers the story of her life.
Before her marriage, Matryona lived in a teetotal and wealthy peasant family. She married a stove-maker from a foreign village, Philip Korchagin. But the only happy night for her was that night when the groom persuaded Matryona to marry him; then the usual hopeless life of a village woman began. True, her husband loved her and beat her only once, but soon he went to work in St. Petersburg, and Matryona was forced to endure insults in her father-in-law’s family. The only one who felt sorry for Matryona was grandfather Savely, who lived out his life in the family after hard labor, where he got caught for the murder of a hated German manager. Savely told Matryona what Russian heroism is: it is impossible to defeat a peasant, because he “bends, but does not break.”
The birth of Demushka's first child brightened Matryona's life. But soon her mother-in-law forbade her to take the child into the field, and the old grandfather Savely did not take care of the baby and fed him to pigs. In front of Matryona, the judges who came from the city performed an autopsy on her child. Matryona could not forget her first-born, although after that she had five sons. . One of them, the shepherd Fedot, once allowed a she-wolf to carry away a sheep. Matryona accepted the punishment assigned to her son. Then, being pregnant with her son Liodor, she was forced to go to the city to seek justice: her husband, bypassing the laws, was taken into the army. Matryona was then helped by the governor Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying.
By all peasant standards, the life of Matryona Korchagina can be considered happy. But it is impossible to talk about the invisible spiritual storm that passed through this woman - just like about unpaid mortal grievances, and about the blood of her firstborn. Matrena Timofeevna is convinced that a Russian peasant woman cannot be happy at all, because the keys to her happiness and free will are lost to God himself.
At the height of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. A noble family swims to the shore in three boats. The mowers, having just sat down to rest, immediately jump up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help the heirs hide the abolition of serfdom from the crazy landowner Utyatin. The relatives of the Last-Duckling promise the men floodplain meadows for this. But after the long-awaited death of the Last One, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain.
Here, near the village of Vakhlachina, wanderers listen to peasant songs - corvee songs, hunger songs, soldiers' songs, salt songs - and stories about serfdom. One of these stories is about the exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful. Yakov's only joy was pleasing his master, the small landowner Polivanov. Tyrant Polivanov, in gratitude, hit Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even greater love in the lackey’s soul. As Polivanov grew older, his legs became weak, and Yakov began to follow him like a child. But when Yakov’s nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the beautiful serf Arisha, Polivanov, out of jealousy, gave the guy as a recruit. Yakov started drinking, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way available to him, the lackey. Having taken the master into the forest, Yakov hanged himself right above him on a pine tree. Polivanov spent the night under the corpse of his faithful servant, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror.
Another story - about two great sinners - is told to the men by God's wanderer Jonah Lyapushkin. The Lord awakened the conscience of the chieftain of the robbers Kudeyar. The robber atoned for his sins for a long time, but all of them were forgiven him only after he, in a surge of anger, killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky.
The wandering men also listen to the story of another sinner - Gleb the headman, who for money hid the last will of the late widower admiral, who decided to free his peasants.
But it is not only wandering men who think about the people’s happiness. The sexton’s son, seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, lives on Vakhlachin. In his heart, love for his late mother merged with love for all of Vakhlachina. For fifteen years now, Grisha knew for sure who he was ready to give his life to, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all the mysterious Rus' as a wretched, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible force that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in it. Such strong souls as Grisha Dobrosklonov’s are called by the angel of mercy to an honest path. Fate is preparing for Grisha “a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.”
If the wandering men knew what was happening in the soul of Grisha Dobrosklonov, they would probably understand that they could already return to their native shelter, because the goal of their journey had been achieved.
Construction: Nekrasov assumed that the poem would have seven or eight parts, but managed to write only four, which, perhaps, did not follow one another. Part one is the only one without a title. Prologue: “In what year - count,
In what land - guess
On the sidewalk
Seven men came together..."
They got into an argument:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
Further in the poem there are 6 answers to this question: to the landowner, official, priest, merchant, minister, tsar. The peasants decide not to return home until they find the correct answer. They find a self-assembled tablecloth that will feed them and set off.
The first part represents both in content and form something unified and integral. “The Peasant Woman” ideologically and partly the plot can be adjacent to the first part and can follow the part “The Last One”, being at the same time an independent poem within the poem. The “Last One” part is ideologically close to “The Feast...”, but also differs significantly from the last part both in content and form. Between these parts there is a gap of five years (1872-1877) - the time of activity of the revolutionary populists.
The researchers suggested that the correct sequence is:
"Prologue" and part one.
"The last one." From the second part. "A feast for the whole world." Chapter two.
"Peasant woman" From the third part.
Plot: Image of post-reform Russia. Nekrasov wrote the poem over the course of twenty years, collecting material for it “word by word.” The poem covers folk life unusually widely. Nekrasov wanted to depict all social strata in it: from the peasant to the tsar. But, unfortunately, the poem was never finished - the death of the poet prevented it. The main problem, the main question of the work is already clearly visible in the title “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - this is the problem of happiness.
Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” begins with the question: “In what year - calculate, in what land - guess.” But it is not difficult to understand what period Nekrasov is talking about. The poet is referring to the reform of 1861, according to which the peasants were “freed”, and they, not having their own land, fell into even greater bondage.
The plot of the poem is based on a description of the journey across Rus' of seven temporarily obliged men. The men are looking for a happy person and on their way they meet a variety of people, listen to stories about different human destinies. This is how the poem unfolds a broad picture of contemporary Russian life for Nekrasov.
Main characters:
Temporarily obliged peasants who went to look for who was living happily and at ease in Rus'
· Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin
· Old Man Pakhom
The author treats with undisguised sympathy those peasants who do not put up with their hungry, powerless existence. Unlike the world of exploiters and moral monsters, slaves like Yakov, Gleb, Sidor, Ipat, the best of the peasants in the poem retained true humanity, the ability to self-sacrifice, and spiritual nobility. These are Matryona Timofeevna, the hero Saveliy, Yakim Nagoy, Ermil Girin, Agap Petrov, headman Vlas, seven truth-seekers and others. Each of them has his own task in life, his own reason to “seek the truth,” but all of them together testify that peasant Rus' has already awakened and come to life. Truth seekers see such happiness for the Russian people:
I don't need any silver
Not gold, but God willing,
So that my fellow countrymen
And every peasant
Lived freely and cheerfully
All over holy Rus'!
In Yakima Nagom presents the unique character of the people's lover of truth, the peasant "righteous man". Yakim lives the same hardworking, beggarly life as the rest of the peasantry. But he has a rebellious disposition. Iakim is an honest worker with a great sense of self-worth. Yakim is smart, he understands perfectly why the peasant lives so wretchedly, so poorly. These words belong to him:
Every peasant
Soul, like a black cloud,
Angry, menacing - and it should be
Thunder will roar from there,
Bloody rains,
And it all ends with wine.
Ermil Girin is also noteworthy. A competent man, he served as a clerk and became famous throughout the region for his justice, intelligence and selfless devotion to the people. Yermil showed himself to be an exemplary headman when the people elected him to this position. However, Nekrasov does not make him an ideal righteous man. Yermil, feeling sorry for his younger brother, appoints Vlasyevna’s son as a recruit, and then, in a fit of repentance, almost commits suicide. Ermil's story ends sadly. He is jailed for his speech during the riot. The image of Yermil testifies to the spiritual forces hidden in the Russian people, the wealth of moral qualities of the peasantry.
But only in the chapter “Savely - the hero of the Holy Russian” does the peasant protest turn into a rebellion, ending with the murder of the oppressor. True, the reprisal against the German manager is still spontaneous, but such was the reality of serf society. Peasant revolts arose spontaneously as a response to the brutal oppression of peasants by landowners and managers of their estates.
It is not the meek and submissive who are close to the poet, but the rebellious and courageous rebels, such as Savely, the “hero of the Holy Russian”, Yakim Nagoy, whose behavior speaks of the awakening of the consciousness of the peasantry, of its simmering protest against oppression.
Nekrasov wrote about the oppressed people of his country with anger and pain. But the poet was able to notice the “hidden spark” of the powerful internal forces inherent in the people, and looked forward with hope and faith:
The army rises
Uncountable,
The strength in her will affect
Indestructible.
The peasant theme in the poem is inexhaustible, multifaceted, the entire figurative system of the poem is devoted to the theme of revealing peasant happiness. In this regard, we can recall the “happy” peasant woman Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna, nicknamed the “governor’s wife” for her special luck, and people of the serf rank, for example, the “exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful,” who managed to take revenge on his offending master, and the hard-working peasants from chapters of “The Last One,” who are forced to perform a comedy in front of the old Prince Utyatin, pretending that there was no abolition of serfdom, and many other images of the poem.
Meaning
The idea runs through the entire poem about the impossibility of living like this any longer, about the difficult peasant lot, about peasant ruin. This motif of the hungry life of the peasantry, who are “tormented by melancholy and misfortune,” sounds with particular force in the song called “Hungry” by Nekrasov. The poet does not soften the colors, showing poverty, harsh morals, religious prejudices and drunkenness in peasant life.
The position of the people is depicted with extreme clarity by the names of those places where the truth-seeking peasants come from: Terpigorev county, Pustoporozhnaya volost, the villages of Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo. The poem very clearly depicts the joyless, powerless, hungry life of the people. “A peasant’s happiness,” the poet exclaims bitterly, “holey with patches, hunchbacked with calluses!” As before, the peasants are people who “didn’t eat their fill and slurped without salt.” The only thing that has changed is that “now the volost will tear them up instead of the master.”
The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov reveals the meaning of the entire poem. This is a fighter who opposes this way of life. His happiness is in freedom, in his own and in others. He will try to do everything so that the people of Rus' are no longer in captivity.