N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” was created over a period of more than ten years (1863-1876). The main problem that interested the poet was the position of the Russian peasant under serfdom and after “liberation”. About the essence of the royal manifesto, N. A. Nekrasov speaks in the words of the people: “You are good, royal letter, but you are not written about us.” Pictures of folk life are written with epic breadth, and this gives the right to call the poem an encyclopedia of Russian life of that time.
Drawing numerous images of peasants, various characters, the author divides the heroes, as it were, into two camps: slaves and fighters. Already in the prologue we get acquainted with the peasants-truth-seekers. They live in villages with characteristic names: v Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayka. The purpose of their journey is to find a happy person in Russia. Traveling, the peasants meet different people. After listening to a story about his “happiness”, having received advice to find out about the happiness of the landowner, the peasants say:
You are past them, the landowners!
We know them!
Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the "noble" word, they need the "Christian word":
Give me a Christian word!
Noble with a scolding,
With a push and with a poke,
That is unsuitable for us.
Truth seekers are hardworking, always striving to help others. Hearing from a peasant woman that there are not enough working hands to remove the bread in time, the peasants offer:
And what are we, godfather?
Come on sickles! All seven
How will we become tomorrow - by evening
We will harvest all your rye!
Just as willingly, they help the peasants of the Illiterate province mow the grass.
Most fully, Nekrasov reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not reproach their masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position.
Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under a harrow from heat and rain.
The chest is sunken; like a depressed
Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth
Bends like cracks
On dry land...
Reading the description of the appearance of a peasant, we understand that Yakim, all his life toiling on a gray, barren piece of land, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him:
You work alone
And a little work is over,
Look, there are three equity holders:
God, king and lord!
Throughout his long life, Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, starved, went to prison, and, "like a peeled velvet, he returned to his homeland." But still, he finds the strength in himself to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his house with pictures, loves a well-aimed word, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in a latrine trade. And his voice is the voice of the most advanced peasants: . Every peasant has
Soul that black cloud -
Angry, formidable - and it would be necessary
Thunders rumble from there,
Pour bloody rain...
FROM the poet has great sympathy for his hero Yermil Girin, the village headman, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants,
At seven years of a worldly penny
Didn't squeeze under the nail
At the age of seven, he did not touch the right one,
Didn't let the guilty
I didn't bend my heart...
Only once did Yermil act out of conscience, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor is special, not bought by "neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness."
The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil to save the mill, show exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Ermil, not being afraid of the prison, took the side of the peasants when "the patrimony of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled." Ermil Girin is a defender of peasant interests.
The next and most striking image in this series is Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero, a fighter for the cause of the people. In his youth, he, like all peasants, for a long time endured cruel bullying from the landowner Shalashnikov and his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants, he buried the German Vogel alive in the ground. "Twenty years of strict hard labor, twenty years of settlement" Savely received for this. Returning as an old man to his native village, he retained good spirits and hatred for the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" he says about himself. Savely to old age retained a clear mind, cordiality, responsiveness. In the poem, he is shown as a people's avenger:
...Our axes
They lay - for the time being!
He speaks contemptuously of the passive peasants, calling them "dead ... lost."
Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with the folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely embodies the desire of the people for freedom.
This image is given in the same chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters. Matrena Timofeevna goes through many trials. She lived freely and cheerfully in her parents' house, and after marriage she had to work like a slave, endure the reproaches of her husband's relatives, in the fights of her husband. She found joy only in work and in children. She had a hard time with the death of her son Demushka, a year of hunger, and begging. But in difficult times, she showed firmness and perseverance: she fussed about the release of her husband, who was illegally taken as a soldier, she even went to the governor himself. She stood up for Fedotushka when they wanted to punish him with rods. Recalcitrant, resolute, she is always ready to defend her rights, and this brings her closer to Savely. Having told wanderers about her hard life, she says that “it’s not de-lo to look for a happy woman among women.” In a chapter entitled "A Woman's Parable", a Yankee peasant speaks of the female lot:
Keys to female happiness
From our free will
Abandonedlost
God himself.
But Nekrasov is sure that the "keys" must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobroskponov's songs:
You are still in the family as long as a slave,
But the mother is already a free son!
Nekrasov, with a special feeling, created images of truth-seekers, fighters, in which the strength of the people, the will to fight against the oppressors was expressed. However, the poet could not help but turn to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who have become accustomed to their slave position. In the chapter “Happy”, truth seekers meet with a householder who considers himself happy because he was Prince Peremetyev’s favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his daughter, along with the young lady, “learned both French and all kinds of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess.” And the courtyard himself stood for thirty years at the chair of the Most Serene Prince, licked the plates after him and drank the remnants of overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, not understanding all the baseness of his lackey position. The courtyard of Prince Utyatin, Ipat, did not even believe that the “freedom” was declared to the peasants:
And I am the Utyatin princes
Serf - and the whole tight tale!
From childhood to old age, the master in every possible way mocked his slave Ipat. All this the footman took for granted: ... redeemed
Me, the last slave,
In the winter in the hole!
Yes, how wonderful!
Two holes:
In one he will lower in the net,
In another moment it will pull out -
And bring vodka.
Ipat could not forget the master's "favors": the fact that after swimming in the hole the prince "brings vodka", he will plant him "nearby, unworthy, with his princely person."
A submissive slave is also "an exemplary slave - faithful Jacob." He served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... seemed to blow with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave protected and pleased the master until his very old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Yakov “fooled”: first he “drank the dead”, and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience.
With indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors to the people's cause as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain."
To characterize the yard peasants, deprived of a sense of their own dignity, the poet finds contemptuous words: slave, serf, dog, Judas. Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization:
People of the servile rank -
Real dogs sometimes:
The more severe the punishment
So dear to them, gentlemen.
Creating various types of peasants, Ne-krasov claims: there are no happy ones among them, the peasants, even after the abolition of serfdom, are still destitute and dispossessed, only the forms of oppression have changed. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest. And therefore the poet believes that a good life will come in Russia in the future:
More Russian people
No limits set:
Before him is a wide path.
In the poem by N.A. Nekrasov, unlike the peasants, the landowners do not cause sympathy. They are negative and unpleasant. The image of the landlords in the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" is collective. The poet's talent was clearly manifested in his ability to see in individual terms the general characters of the entire social stratum of Russia.
Landlords of the Nekrasov poem
The author introduces readers to the images of landlord Russia, serf and free. Their attitude towards the common people is indignant. The lady loves to flog men who inadvertently utter words familiar to them - swear words for literate gentlemen. The landowner seems to be a little kinder than Polivanov, who, having bought the village, "freezes" and barges in it "in a terrible way."
Fate laughed at the cruel landowner. The master pays his faithful servant with ingratitude. Jacob says goodbye to life before his eyes. Polivanov drives away wolves and birds all night, trying to save his life and not go crazy with fear. Why did faithful Yakov punish Polivanov so? The master sends the servant's nephew to serve, not wanting to marry him to a girl who himself liked. Sick, practically motionless (legs failed), he still hopes to take away what he liked from the peasants. There is no feeling of gratitude in the master's soul. A servant taught him and revealed the sinfulness of his actions, but only at the cost of his life.
Obolt-Obolduev
Barin Gavrila Afanasyevich already outwardly resembles the images of the landowners of all Russia: round, mustachioed, pot-bellied, ruddy. The author uses in the description diminutive suffixes with a dismissive caressing pronunciation - -enk and others. But the description does not change. Cigar, C grade, sweetness does not cause tenderness. There is a sharply opposite attitude towards the character. I want to turn around and walk past. The landowner does not evoke pity. The master tries to behave valiantly, but he fails. Seeing wanderers on the road, Gavrila Afanasyevich was frightened. The peasants, who received liberty, did not deny themselves the desire to avenge many years of humiliation. He pulls out a pistol. The weapon in the hands of the landowner becomes a toy, not real.
Obolt-Obolduev is proud of his origin, but the author also doubts it. For which he received the title and power: the ancestor amused the queen by playing with a bear. Another progenitor was executed for trying to burn the capital and rob the treasury. The landowner is accustomed to comfort. He is not yet accustomed to the fact that he is not served. Talking about his happiness, he asks the peasants for a pillow for comfort, a carpet for comfort, a glass of sherry for mood. The continuous holiday of the landowner with many servants is a thing of the past. Dog hunting, Russian fun pleased the lordly spirit. Obolduev was pleased with the power he possessed. I liked hitting men. Vivid epithets are selected by Nekrasov to the “blows” of Gavrila Afanasyevich:
- Sparkling;
- Furious;
- Cheekbones.
Such metaphors do not agree with the stories of the landowner. He claimed that he took care of the peasants, loved them, treated them on holidays. It’s a pity for Obolduev of the past: who will pardon a peasant if you can’t beat him. The connection between the lordly stratum and the peasant was broken. The landowner believes that both sides suffered, but it is felt that neither the wanderers nor the author support his words. The landowner's economy is in decline. He has no idea how to restore his former state, because he cannot work. Obolt's words sound bitter:
“I smoked the sky of God, wore the royal livery, littered the people’s treasury and thought to live like this for a century ...”
The landowner, nicknamed the Last
A prince with a telling surname, which the poet loves, Utyatin, who became the Last among the people, is the last landowner of the described system. During his "reign" beloved serfdom was abolished. The prince did not believe in this, he was struck with anger. The cruel and stingy old man kept his relatives in fear. The heirs of the peasants were persuaded to pretend and lead their former way of life when the landowner was nearby. They promised the peasants land. The peasants fell for false promises. The peasants played their part, but they were deceived, which surprised no one: neither the author nor the wanderers.
The appearance of the landowner is the second type of gentleman in Russia. A frail old man, as thin as a hare in winter. There are signs of predators in appearance: a hawkish sharp nose, long mustaches, a sharp look. The appearance of such a dangerous master of life hidden under a soft mask, cruel and stingy. The petty tyrant, having learned that the peasants were "returned to the landowners," is fooling more than ever. The whims of the master are surprising: playing the violin on horseback, bathing in an ice hole, marrying a 70-year-old widow to a 6-year-old boy, forcing the cows to be silent and not mooing, instead of a dog, he puts a wretched deaf-mute as a watchman.
The prince dies happy, he never found out about the abolition of the right.
One can recognize the author's irony in the image of each landowner. But this is laughter through tears. The grief that the rich fools and the ignorant peasantry have poured into them will last more than one century. Not everyone will be able to rise from their knees and use their will. Not everyone will understand what to do with it. Many men will regret the nobility, the philosophy of serfdom has entered their brains so firmly. The author believes: Russia will rise from sleep, rise, and happy people will fill Russia.
“Images of peasants in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Russia"
Poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Russia" was created in the last period of the poet's life (1863-1876). The ideological idea of the poem is indicated already in its title, and then it is repeated in the text: who in Russia has a good life? In the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia” N.A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their plight. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question, “who lives happily, freely in Russia”, who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The poet speaks about the essence of the royal manifesto in the words of the people: "You are good, royal letter, but you are not written about us." The poet touched upon the topical problems of his time, condemned slavery and oppression, glorified the freedom-loving, talented, strong-willed Russian people. The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. They live in the villages: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayka. They are united by poverty, unpretentiousness, the desire to find a happy person in Russia. Traveling, the peasants meet different people, give them an assessment, determine their attitude to the priest, to the landowner, to the peasant reform, to the peasants. The peasants do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the king. Peasants-truth-seekers have a sense of their own dignity. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, higher, smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the love of the people for work, their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matrena Timofeevna's crop is dying, the men offer her help without hesitation. The peasants of the Illiterate province are just as willing to help mow the grass. “Like teeth from hunger” everyone has a nimble hand.
Traveling in Russia, men meet various people. The disclosure of the images of the heroes met by the truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the position of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, and nobility.
After listening to the story of the priest about his "happiness", having received advice to find out about the happiness of the landowner, the peasants cut him off: you are past them, the landowners! We know them! Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the word of the nobility, they need a "Christian word." “Give me a Christian word! Nobility with a scolding, With a push and with a denture, That is unsuitable for us! They have self-respect. In the chapter "Happy" they angrily see off a sexton, a yard clerk, who boasted of his servile position: "Get out!" They sympathize with the terrible story of the soldier and say to him: “Here, drink, servant! There is nothing to argue with you. You are happy - there is no word.
The author pays the main attention to the peasants. The images of Yakim Nagogoy, Yermila Girin, Saveliy, Matrena Timofeevna combine both common, typical features of the peasantry, such as hatred for all “shareholders” who drain their vitality, and individual features.
More fully, Nekrasov reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not grovel before the masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position. Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under a harrow from heat and rain. His portrait testifies to constant hard work:
And myself to mother earth
He looks like: a brown neck,
Like a layer cut off with a plow,
brick face...
The chest is sunken, like a depressed belly. There are bends near the eyes, near the mouth, like cracks in the dry earth ... Reading the description of the peasant's face, we understand that Yakim, all his life toiling on a gray, barren piece, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him. “You work alone, and as soon as the work is over, look, there are three equity holders: God, the king and the master!” Throughout his long life, Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, starved, went to prison, and, "like a peeled velvet, he returned to his homeland." But still he finds in himself the strength to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his hut with pictures, loves and uses a well-aimed word, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in the seasonal industry. And his voice is the voice of the most resolute peasants. Yakim understands that the peasantry is a great force. He is proud to belong to him. He knows the strength and weakness of the "peasant soul":
Soul that black cloud -
Angry, formidable - and it would be necessary
Thunders rumble from there ...
And everything ends with wine ...
Yakim refutes the opinion that the peasant is poor because he drinks. He reveals the true reason for this situation - the need to work for "shareholders". The fate of Yakim is typical for the peasants of post-reform Russia: he “once lived in St. Petersburg”, but, having lost a lawsuit with a merchant, he ended up in prison, from where he returned, “stripped like a velcro” and “took a plow”.
The writer treats his hero Yermil Girin with great sympathy, a village headman, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants: twisted ... ”Yermil acted not in good conscience only once, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor is special, not bought "neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness." The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil to save the mill, showing exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Ermil, not afraid of the prison, took the side of the peasants when: “the patrimony of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled ...” Ermil Girin is a defender of peasant interests. If the protest of Yakim Nagogoi is spontaneous, then Yermil Girin rises to a conscious protest.
Another hero of the work is Savely. Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero - a fighter for the cause of the people. Savely acts as a folk philosopher. He reflects on whether the people should continue to endure their lack of rights, their oppressed state. Saveliy comes to the conclusion: it is better to “not tolerate” than to “endure”, and he calls for a protest. In his youth, he, like all peasants, for a long time endured cruel abuse from the landowner Shalashnikov, his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants, he buried the living German Vogel in the ground. "Twenty years of strict penal servitude, twenty years of settlement" Savely received for this. Returning to his native village as an old man, Savely retained good spirits and hatred for the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" he said about himself. Savely to old age retained a clear mind, cordiality, responsiveness. In the poem, he is shown as a people's avenger: "our axes lay - for the time being!" He speaks contemptuously of the passive peasants, calling them "the dead ... the lost." Nekrasov calls Savely a Holy Russian hero, raising him very high, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with the folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely embodies the desire of the people for freedom. The image of Savely is given in one chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters.
nekrasov poem peasantry rus
In the last chapter, entitled "A Woman's Parable", a peasant woman speaks of the common female share: "The keys to women's happiness, to our free will are abandoned, lost from God himself." But Nekrasov is sure that the "keys" must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobrosklonov's songs: “You are still a slave in the family, but the mother is already a free son!”
With great love, Nekrasov painted images of truth-seekers, fighters, who expressed the strength of the people, the will to fight against the oppressors. However, the writer did not close his eyes to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who are corrupted by the masters and have become accustomed to their slavish position. In the chapter "Happy" the truth-seeking peasants meet with a "broken-down courtyard man" who considers himself lucky because he was Prince Peremetiev's favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his "daughter - together with the young lady studied both French and all kinds of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess." And the courtyard himself stood for thirty years at the chair of the Most Serene Prince, licked the plates after him and drank the rest of the overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, not understanding all the meanness of his lackey position. The court yard of Prince Utyatin Ipat did not even believe that the "freedom" was announced to the peasants: "And I am the princes Utyatin Kholop - and that's the whole story!"
From childhood to old age, the master, as best he could, mocked his slave Ipat. All this the footman took for granted: “He ransomed me, the last slave, in the winter in the hole! Yes, how wonderful! Two ice-holes: he will lower it in a seine into one, he will instantly pull it out into the other and bring vodka. ” Ipat could not forget the master's "favors" that, after swimming in the hole, the prince would "bring vodka", then he would plant "nearby, unworthy, with his princely person."
The obedient slave is also shown in the image of "an exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful." Yakov served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... casually blew with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave protected and gratified the master until his old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Jacob "stupid". First, he "drank it dead", and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience.
With deep indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors to the people's cause as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain." For images of courtyard peasants who became slaves of their masters and abandoned true peasant interests, the poet finds words of angry contempt: a slave, a serf, a dog, Judas.
The poem also notes such a feature of the Russian peasantry as religiosity. It's a way to get away from reality. God is the supreme judge, from whom the peasants seek protection and justice. Faith in God is the hope for a better life.
Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization: “people of the servile rank are real dogs sometimes: the harder the punishment, the dearer they are to the Lord.” Creating various types of peasants, Nekrasov claims that there are no happy ones among them, that even after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants are still destitute and bloodless. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest, and he believes that with the help of such people in the future in Russia everyone will live well, and first of all, a good life will come for the Russian people. “The limits of the Russian people have not yet been set: there is a wide path ahead of them” N.A. Nekrasov in the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” recreated the life of the peasantry in post-reform Russia, revealed the typical character traits of Russian peasants, showing that this is a force to be reckoned with, which is gradually beginning to realize its rights.
At the heart of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" N.A. Nekrasov is the image of the Russian peasantry after the abolition of serfdom. Throughout the work, the characters are looking for an answer to the question: “Who lives happily, freely in Russia?” Who is considered happy, who is unhappy.
Men-truth seekers
At the forefront of the study is the journey of seven men through Russian villages in search of an answer to the question posed. In the guise of the seven "volunteers" we see only common features of the peasants, namely: poverty, inquisitiveness, unpretentiousness.
The men ask about the happiness of the meeting peasants, soldiers. The priest, the landowner, the merchant, the nobleman and the tsar seem lucky to them. But the main place in the poem is given to the peasantry.
Yakim Nagoi
Yakim Nagoi works "to death", but lives hand to mouth, like most residents of Bosovo. In the description of the hero, we see how hard Yakim's life is: "... He himself looks like mother earth." Yakim realizes that the peasants are the greatest power, he is proud that he belongs to this group of people. he knows the strengths and weaknesses of the peasant character. The main disadvantage is alcohol, which has a detrimental effect on men.
For Yakim, the opinion that the poverty of the peasantry is caused by the use of wine is unacceptable. In his opinion, this is due to the obligation to work for "shareholders". The fate of the hero is typical for the Russian people after the abolition of serfdom: living in the capital, he enters into a dispute with a merchant, ended up in prison, from where he returned to the village and began to plow the land.
Ermila Girin
Ermila Girina N.A. Nekrasov endowed with honesty and great intelligence. He lived for the sake of the people, was honest, fair, left no one in trouble. He committed the only dishonest act for the sake of the family - he saved his nephew from recruitment. He sent the widow's son instead. From his own deceit, from the torment of conscience, Girin nearly hanged himself. He corrected his mistake and subsequently took the side of the rebellious peasants, for which he was imprisoned.
The episode with the purchase of Yermila's mill is remarkable, when the peasants express their absolute confidence in Yermil Girin, who in return is honest with them to the end.
Saveliy - a hero
Nekrasov pronounces the idea that the peasants for him are akin to heroes. Here appears the image of Savely - the hero of the Holy Russian. He sincerely sympathizes with Matryona, it is hard to rethink Demushka's death. This hero combines kindness, simplicity, sincerity, help to the oppressed and malice towards the oppressors.
Matrena Timofeevna
Peasant women are represented in the image of Matryona Timofeevna. This strong-hearted woman has been fighting for freedom and female happiness all her life. Her life resembles the life of many peasant women of that time, although she is even happier than many. This is taking into account the fact that after marriage she ended up in a family that hated her, she was a husband only once, her firstborn was eaten by pigs, and her whole life is based on hard work in the field.
Peasant Oppressors
The author shows how hard serfdom affects people's lives, how it cripples them, morally destroying them. There are also such peasants who have chosen the side of their masters - Ipat, Klim, Yakov the faithful, who oppress the common people along with the landowners.
In his poem, Nekrasov showed the life of the peasantry after the reform of 1861, displayed the images of Russian peasants, saying that the people have innumerable power and soon they will begin to realize their rights.
In literary works we find the image of people, their way of life, feelings. In the 19th century, there were 2 classes in Russian society: peasants and nobles - with a dissimilar culture and language, so some writers wrote about peasants, while others wrote about nobles. In Krylov, Pushkin, Gogol and others, we will see the image of the peasants. They all portrayed the peasants as different, but they also had a lot in common. Krylov Ivan Andreevich, for example, in his fable "The Dragonfly and the Ant" shows the example of an ant - a peasant, a hard worker whose life is hard, and a dragonfly means the opposite. And we see this in many of Krylov's fables.
Another writer, one of the greatest representatives of the culture of the 19th century, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. We know that Pushkin loved his Motherland and his people very much, so the writer was very worried about the problems of the Russian society. In Pushkin, the image of the peasantry is primarily manifested in his two most important works, The Captain's Daughter and Dubrovsky. In these works, Pushkin describes the life and customs of the peasants of that time, in his works he speaks of the simple Russian people not as a crowd, but as a close-knit team that understands that anti-serfdom sentiments are quite real. In the first work, we see how the author describes the peasant uprising of Pugachev, in the second we see the confrontation between the peasantry and the nobility. In each of the works, the writer emphasizes the difficult condition of the peasants, as well as the sharp disagreement between the two classes, arising from the oppression of one class by the other.
In addition to Pushkin, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol raises this topic. The image of the peasantry that Gogol paints is presented, of course, in his work Dead Souls. Gogol in his poem presented Russian society not only in greatness, but also with all its vices. The author presents us in his work with many faces of different power structures and depicts terrible pictures of serfdom. Gogol says that the peasants are presented as slaves of the landlords, as things that can be given away or sold. But despite the fact that Gogol shows such an unflattering picture of the life of the peasantry and sympathizes with them, nevertheless, he does not idealize them, but only shows the strength of the Russian people. It is this idea that the author reflects in chapter 11:
"Oh, trio! bird troika, who invented you? to know that you could only be born among a lively people, in that land that does not like to joke, but spread out like a smooth smooth halfway across the world, and go and count miles until it fills your eyes. And not a cunning, it seems, road projectile, not captured by an iron screw, but hastily alive, with one ax and a chisel, a smart Yaroslavl peasant equipped and assembled you. The coachman is not in German boots: a beard and mittens, and the devil knows what he sits on; but he got up, but swung, and dragged on a song - the horses whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels mixed up in one smooth circle, only the road trembled and the stopped pedestrian screamed in fright! and there she rushed, rushed, rushed! .. And there you could already see in the distance, how something was dusting and boring the air.
Isn't that how you, Russia, that brisk, unbeatable troika, are rushing about? The road smokes under you, the bridges rumble, everything lags behind and is left behind. The contemplator, struck by God's miracle, stopped: is it not lightning thrown from the sky? What does this terrifying movement mean? and what kind of unknown power lies in these horses unknown to the light? Oh, horses, horses, what horses! Are whirlwinds sitting in your manes? Does a sensitive ear burn in every vein of yours? They heard a familiar song from above, together and at once strained their copper breasts and, almost without touching the ground with their hooves, turned into only elongated lines flying through the air, and rushes, all inspired by God! .. Russia, where are you rushing, give me an answer? Doesn't give an answer. A bell is filled with a wonderful ringing; the air torn to pieces rumbles and becomes the wind; everything that is on the earth flies past, and other peoples and states squinting aside and give it the way.
Gogol in this passage emphasizes the strength of the people and the strength of Russia, and also reflects his attitude towards the Russian simple working people.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, like previous authors, became interested in the topic of enslavement. The image of the peasantry is presented by Turgenev in his collection Notes of a Hunter. This collection consists of a number of stories not interconnected, but united by one theme. The author speaks about the peasantry. Many believe that the author painted images of peasants, emphasizing the most typical features of the Russian national character. Turgenev in his stories describes the life of the peasantry and the life of the peasants.
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov expressed his views on serfdom in the work “Who is living well in Russia?”. Already in the title it is clear what the story is about. The main place in the poem is the position of peasants under serfdom and after its abolition. The author tells that several serfs set off on a journey to find out who in Russia should live well. The peasants meet with different people, through the meetings we see the attitude towards the peasant question and towards the peasants in general.
The theme of the peasantry played an important role in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. He expresses his criticism in satirical tales. The author truthfully reflected Russia, in which the landowners are omnipotent and oppress the peasants. But not everyone understands the true meaning of the tale. In his fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin ridicules the landowners' inability to work, their negligence and stupidity. This is also discussed in the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner". In the tale, the author reflects on the unlimited power of the landlords, who oppress the peasants in every possible way. The author makes fun of the ruling class. The life of a landowner without peasants is absolutely impossible. The author sympathizes with the people.