Plot lines and their relationship in the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

The plot is the development of action, the course of events that can follow each other in a chronological sequence (fairy tales, chivalric novels) or grouped in such a way as to help identify it main idea, the main conflict (concentric plot). The plot reflects life's contradictions, clashes and relationships between the characters, the evolution of their characters and behavior.

The plot of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is largely determined by the genre of the epic poem, which reproduces all the diversity of the life of the people in the post-reform period: their hopes and dramas, holidays and everyday life, episodes and destinies, legends and facts, confessions and rumors, doubts and insights, defeats and victories, illusions and reality, past and present. And in this polyphony of folk life, it is sometimes difficult to discern the voice of the author, who invited the reader to accept the terms of the game and go with his heroes on an exciting journey. The author himself strictly follows the rules of this game, playing the role of a conscientious narrator and quietly guiding its course, in general, practically not revealing his adulthood. Only sometimes does he allow himself to discover his true level. This role of the author is determined by the purpose of the poem - not only to trace the growth of peasant self-awareness in the post-reform period, but equally to contribute to this process. After all, likening the soul of the people to unplowed virgin soil and calling on the sower, the poet could not help but feel like one of them.

The storyline of the poem - the journey of seven temporarily obliged men across the vast expanses of Rus' in search of a happy one - is designed to accomplish this task.

The plot “Who lives well in Rus'” (a necessary element of the plot) is a dispute about the happiness of seven men from adjacent villages with symbolic names(Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaika). They go in search of happiness, having received the support of a grateful magic bird. The role of wanderers in the development of the plot is significant and responsible. Their images lack individual definition, as is customary in folklore. We only know their names and preferences. So, Roman considers the landowner a happy person, Demyan - the official, Luka - the priest. Ivan and Metrodor Gubin believe that the “fat-bellied merchant merchant” lives freely in Rus', old Pakhom thinks so for the minister, and Prov for the tsar.

The Great Reform changed a lot in the lives of the peasants, but for the most part they were not ready for it. Their concepts were burdened by the centuries-old traditions of slavery, and consciousness was only beginning to awaken, as evidenced by the dispute between the men in the poem.

Nekrasov understood very well that the happiness of the people largely depends on how much they are able to understand their place in life. It is curious that the initial plot emerging in the dispute turns out to be false: of the supposed “lucky ones,” the peasants talk only with the priest and the landowner, refusing other meetings. The fact is that at this stage the possibility of peasant happiness does not even occur to them. And this very concept is associated with them only with the absence of what makes them, peasants, unhappy every hour - hunger, exhausting labor, dependence on all kinds of masters.

That's why at first

From the beggars, from the soldiers

The strangers did not ask

How is it for them - is it easy or difficult?

Lives in Rus'?

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, in addition to the main plot, problem solver the growth of peasant self-awareness, there are numerous subplots. Each of them brings something significant into the consciousness of the peasants.

The turning point in the development of events in the poem is the meeting of seven fortune-seekers with the village priest.

The clergy, especially the rural ones, by the nature of their activities were closer to the common people than other ruling classes. Rituals associated with the birth of children, weddings, and funerals were performed by priests. They possessed the secrets of simple peasant sins and genuine tragedies. Naturally, the best among them could not help but sympathize with the common people, instilling in them love for their neighbors, meekness, patience and faith. It was precisely this priest that the men met. He helped them, firstly, translate their vague ideas about happiness into a clear formula “peace, wealth, honor”, ​​and secondly, he revealed to them a world of suffering not associated with hard work, painful hunger or humiliation. The priest, in essence, translates the concept of happiness into a moral category for the peasants.

The rebuke to Luke, who is called stupid by the narrator, is distinguished by rare unanimity and anger:

What did you take? stubborn head!

Country club!

There he gets into an argument!

Bell nobles -

The priests live like princes.

For the first time, the peasants could think that if a well-fed and free priest suffers like this, then it is possible that a hungry and dependent man can be happy. And shouldn’t we find out more thoroughly what happiness is before traveling around Rus' in search of a happy one? This is how seven men find themselves at a “rural fair” in the rich village of Kuzminskoye, with two ancient churches, a packed school and

A paramedic's hut with a scary sign, and most importantly, with numerous drinking establishments. The fair's polyphony is filled with bright, jubilant intonations. The narrator rejoices at the abundance of products of rural craftsmen, the variety of fruits of back-breaking labor, simple entertainment, with an experienced hand he makes sketches of peasant characters, types, genre scenes, but sometimes he suddenly seems to forget about his role as a modest narrator, and the powerful figure of the poet-enlightener stands before the readers in full height :

Eh! Eh! will the time come,

When (come what you want!..)

They will let the peasant understand

What a rose a portrait is for a portrait,

What is the book of the book of roses?

When a man is not Blucher

And not my foolish lord -

Belinsky and Gogol

Will it come from the market?

Seven men have the opportunity to see how the people's uncontrollable energy, strength, and joy are absorbed by ugly drunkenness. So, maybe it is the cause of misfortune, and if you save people from the craving for wine, life will change? They cannot help but think about this when faced with Yakim Nagiy. The episode with the plowman has great importance in the formation and development of peasant self-awareness. Nekrasov endows a simple grain grower with an understanding of the importance of public opinion: Yakim Nagoy snatches a pencil from the hands of the intellectual Pavlusha Veretennikov, who is ready to write in a book that smart Russian peasants are being ruined by vodka. He confidently states:

To the master's measure

Don't kill the peasant!

Yakim Nagoy easily establishes cause-and-effect relationships. It is not vodka that makes the peasant’s life unbearable, but unbearable life that makes them turn to vodka as their only consolation. He understands well who is appropriating the fruits of peasant labor:

You work alone

And the work is almost over,

Look, there are three shareholders standing:

God, king and lord!

The peasants, who had previously thoughtlessly agreed with Pavlusha Veretennikov, suddenly agree with Yakim:

Work wouldn't stop me

Trouble would not prevail

Hops will not overcome us!

After this meeting, wanderers have the opportunity to realize the class difference in the concept of happiness and the hostility of the ruling classes to the people. Now they are thinking more and more about the fate of the peasants and are trying to find

Among them are happy ones, or rather, it is important for them to identify popular ideas about happiness and compare them with their own.

“Hey, peasant happiness!

Leaky with patches,

Humpbacked with calluses,

Go home!” -

Here final opinion wanderers about “peasant happiness.”

The story of Yermil Girin is an insert episode with an independent plot. The peasant Fedosei from the village of Dymoglotovo tells it to the happiness seekers, not without reason deciding that this “just a man” can be called happy. He had everything: “peace, money, and honor.” A competent man, he was first a clerk for the manager and in this position he managed to win the respect and gratitude of his fellow villagers, helping them with paperwork that was difficult for them free of charge. Then, under the young prince, he was elected mayor.

Yermilo went to reign

Over the entire princely estate,

And he reigned!

In seven years the world's penny

I didn’t squeeze it under my nail,

At the age of seven I didn’t touch the right one,

He did not allow the guilty

I didn’t bend my heart...

However, the “gray-haired priest” remembered Yermil’s “sin” when, instead of his brother Mitri, he gave the son of the widow Nenila Vlasyevna as a recruit. Ermil was tormented by his conscience, he almost committed suicide until he corrected what he had done. After this incident, Yermil Girin refused the post of headman and acquired a mill, and no money happened to him when he traded it, and the world helped him put the merchant Altynnikov to shame:

Cunning, strong clerks,

And their world is stronger,

The merchant Altynnikov is rich,

And everything cannot resist him

Against the worldly treasury...

Girin returned the money and since then has become “loved by all the people more than ever” for truth, intelligence and kindness. The author allowed the seven wanderers to learn many lessons from this story. They could rise to the understanding of the highest happiness, which consisted in serving their brothers in class, the people. Peasants

You might think about the fact that only in unity they represent an indestructible force. Finally, they should have come to the understanding that for happiness a person must have a clear conscience. However, when the men gathered to visit Yermil, it turned out that “he is sitting in prison,” since, apparently, he did not want to take the side of the bosses, the offenders of the people. The author deliberately does not finish telling the end of Yermil Girin’s story, but it is also instructive. The wandering heroes could understand that for such an impeccable reputation, for such rare happiness, the unknown peasant Girin had to pay with freedom.

On their long journey, the wanderers had to think and learn, just like the readers, however.

They turned out to be much more prepared for the meeting with the landowner than for the meeting with the priest. The peasants are ironic and mocking both when the landowner boasts of his family tree and when he talks about spiritual kinship with the peasant estate. They understand well the polarity of their own interests and those of the landowners. Perhaps for the first time, the wanderers realized that the abolition of serfdom was a great event that would forever leave in the past the horrors of landowner tyranny and omnipotence. And although the reform, which hit “one end at the master, the other at the peasant,” completely deprived them of “lordly affection,” it also called for independence and responsibility for arranging their own lives.

Nekrasov has a theme female destiny takes place in creativity as an independent and especially significant theme. The poet understood well that in serf Russia, a woman bore double oppression, social and family. He makes his wanderers think about the fate of a woman, the ancestor of life, the support and guardian of the family - the basis of people's happiness.

Neighbors called Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina lucky. In some ways she was really lucky: she was born and raised in a family that didn’t drink, she married for love, but otherwise she followed the usual path of a peasant woman. She started working at the age of five, got married early and suffered plenty of insults, insults, and hard work in her husband’s family, lost her first-born son and remained a soldier with children. Matryona Timofeevna is familiar with the master's rods and her husband's beatings. Hardworking, talented (“And a kind worker, / And a hunter to sing and dance / I was from a young age”), passionately loving children and family, Matryona Timofeevna did not break under the blows of fate. In the absence of rights and humiliation, she found the strength to fight injustice and won, returning her husband from the soldiery. Matryona Timofeevna - embodiment moral strength, intelligence and patience of a Russian woman, dedication and beauty.

In the bitter hopelessness of the peasant fate, the people, almost by folklore inertia, associated happiness with luck (Matryona Timofeevna, for example, was helped by the governor’s wife), but by this time the wanderers had already seen something in Lucky case They don’t believe it, so they ask Matryona Timofeevna to pour out her whole soul. And it’s hard for them to disagree with her words:

The keys to women's happiness,

From our free will

Abandoned, lost

From God himself!

However, the conversation with Matryona Timofeevna turned out to be very important for the seven men in determining the paths to people's happiness. An inserted episode with an independent plot about Savely, the Holy Russian hero, played a big role in this.

Savely grew up in a village behind the eyes, separated from the city by dense forests and swamps. The Korezh men were distinguished by their independent character, and the landowner Shalashnikov had “not so great incomes” from them, although he tore the men desperately:

Weak people gave up

And the strong for the patrimony

They stood well.

The manager Vogel, sent by Shalashnikov, tricked the Korezh men into making the road, and then completely enslaved them:

The German has a death grip:

Until he lets you go around the world,

Without moving away, he sucks.

The men did not tolerate violence - they executed the German Vogel, burying him alive in the ground. The seven wanderers are faced with a difficult question: is violence against oppressors justified? To make it easier for them to answer it, the poet introduces another tragic episode- the death of Matryona Timofeevna Demushka’s first-born son, who was killed by pigs due to Savely’s negligence. Here the old man’s repentance knows no bounds, he prays, asks for forgiveness from God, and goes to the monastery to repent. The author deliberately emphasizes Savely's religiosity, his compassion for all living things - every flower, every living creature. There is a difference in his guilt for the murder of the German Vogel and Demushka. But Savely ultimately does not justify himself for the murder of the manager, or rather, considers it senseless. It was followed by hard labor, settlement, and the realization of wasted power. Savely understands well the severity of the peasant’s life and the righteousness of his anger. He also knows the extent of the potential strength of a “heroic man.” However, its conclusion is clear. He says to Matryona Timofeevna:

Be patient, multi-branched one!

Be patient, long-suffering!

We can't find the truth.

The author brings the seven wanderers to the idea of ​​the righteousness of violent reprisal against the oppressor, and warns against a rash impulse, which will inevitably be followed by punishment and repentance, because nothing will change in life from such a single justice.

The wanderers grew wiser during the months of wandering, and the initial thought of living happily in Rus' was replaced by the thought of people's happiness.

They speak to Elder Vlas from the chapter “The Last One” about the purpose of their journey:

We are looking, Uncle Vlas,

Unflogged province,

Ungutted parish,

Izbytkova village!..

Wanderers think about the universality of happiness (from the province to the village) and mean by it personal integrity, legal protection of property, and well-being.

The level of self-awareness of peasants at this stage is quite high, and we're talking about Now about the ways and incomes to people's happiness. The first obstacle to it in the post-reform years was the remnants of serfdom in the minds of both landowners and peasants. This is discussed in the chapter “The Last One”. Here the wanderers meet the emasculated Prince Utyatin, who does not want to recognize the tsarist reform, since his noble arrogance is suffering. To please the heirs, who are afraid for their inheritance, the peasants play the “gum” of the old order in front of the landowner for the promised “water meadows.” The author does not spare satirical colors, showing their cruel absurdity and obsolescence. But not all peasants agree to submit to the offensive conditions of the game. For example, Burmist Vlas doesn’t want to be a “clown.” The plot with Agap Petrov shows that even the darkest peasant awakens to a sense of self-worth - a direct consequence of the reform that cannot be reversed.

The death of the Last One is symbolic: it testifies to the final triumph of a new life.

IN final chapter several poems “A Feast for the Whole World” storylines, which take place in numerous songs and legends. One of the main themes raised in them is the theme of sin. The guilt of the ruling classes towards the peasants is endless. The song, called “Merry,” talks about the arbitrariness of landowners, officials, even the tsar, depriving peasants of their property and destroying their families. “It’s glorious to live for the people / Saint in Rus'!” - the refrain of the song, sounding like a bitter mockery.

Uncombed, “twisted, twisted, chopped, tortured” Kalinushka is a typical corvee peasant, whose life is written “on his own back.” Having grown up “under the snout of the landowner,” corvee peasants especially suffered from their painstaking arbitrariness and stupid prohibitions, for example, the ban on rude words:

We're tired! truly

We celebrated the will,

Like a holiday: they swore like that,

That priest Ivan was offended

For the ringing of bells,

Whooped that day.

The story of the former traveling footman Vikenty Aleksandrovich “About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful” is another evidence of the irredeemable sin of the autocratic landowner. Mr. Polivanov, with a dark past (“he bought a village with bribes”) and present (“he was free, drunk, drank bitterly”), was distinguished by rare cruelty not only towards serfs, but even towards relatives (“Having married his daughter, his faithful husband / He flogged them and drove them both away naked." And, of course, he did not spare the “exemplary slave, the faithful Yakov,” whom he “in passing blew with his heel” in the teeth.

Jacob is also a product of serfdom, which transformed the best moral qualities people: fidelity to duty, devotion, selflessness, honesty, hard work - into meaningless servility.

Yakov remained devoted to the master, even when he lost his former strength and became legless. The landowner seemed to finally appreciate the servant’s devotion and began to call him “friend and brother”! The author invisibly stands behind the narrator, designed to convince listeners that the fraternal relationship between master and serf is impossible. Mr. Polivanov forbids Yakov’s beloved nephew to marry Arisha, and his uncle’s requests do not help. Seeing Grisha as a rival, the master gives him up as a soldier. Perhaps for the first time, Yakov thought about something, but he was able to tell the master about his wine in only one way - by hanging himself over him in the forest.

The topic of sin is vigorously discussed by those feasting. There are no less sinners than happy ones. There are landowners, innkeepers, robbers, and peasants here. And the disputes, as at the beginning of the poem, end in a brawl, until Iona Lyapushkin, who often visits the Vakhlat side, comes forward with his story.

The author devotes a special chapter to wanderers and pilgrims who “do not reap, do not sow, but feed” throughout Rus'. The narrator does not hide the fact that among them there are many deceivers, hypocrites and even criminals, but there are also true bearers of spirituality, the need for which is so great among the Russian people. She was not destroyed by backbreaking work, nor by long slavery, nor even by the tavern. The author draws a simple genre scene depicting a family at evening work, while the wanderer she welcomed finishes the story of Athonite. There is so much trusting attention, ardent sympathy, intense fascination on the faces of old people, women, children that the poet exclaims with tenderness, love and faith:

More to the Russian people

No limits set:

There is a wide path before him...

The narrator puts into the mouth of God's wanderer Jonah, warmly revered by the peasants, the legend “About Two Great Sinners,” which he heard in Solovki from Father Pitirim. It is very important for solving the problem of “sin” posed in the poem.

The chieftain of the band of robbers Kudeyar, a murderer who shed a lot of blood, suddenly repented. To atone for his sins, the Lord ordered him to cut down a mighty oak tree with the knife he used to rob him.

Cuts resilient wood

Sings glory to the Lord,

As the years go by, it gets better

Slowly things move forward.

The first one in that direction, Pan Glukhovsky, laughed at Kudeyar:

You have to live, old man, in my opinion:

How many slaves do I destroy?

I torture, I torture, and I hang,

I wish I could see how I sleep.

In a furious rage, the hermit kills Glukhovsky - and a miracle happens:

The tree collapsed and rolled down

The monk is off the burden of sins!..

The seven wanderers had already heard once about Savely, who had committed the sin of murder, and had the opportunity to distinguish the murder of the tormentor Vogel from the accidental death of the baby Demushka. Now they had to understand the difference in the sinfulness of the repentant robber Kudeyar and the convinced executioner and libertine Glukhovsky, who tortured the peasants. Kudeyar, who executed Pan Glukhovsky, not only did not commit a sin, but was forgiven by God for past sins. This is a new level in the consciousness of happiness seekers: they realize the possibility of violent actions against the militant executioners of the people - actions that are not opposed to the Christian worldview. “Great is the noble sin!” - this is the unanimous conclusion of the peasants. But unexpectedly, the question of those responsible for peasant suffering does not end with the sin of the nobility.

Ignatius Prokhorov tells a folk ballad about a “widower ammiral” who set eight thousand souls free after his death. Headman Gleb sold the “freedom” to the admiral’s heir.

God forgives everything, but Judas sin

It doesn't say goodbye.

Oh man! man! you are the sinner of all,

And for that you will suffer forever!

The poet understood well that serfdom not only unleashed the cruelest instincts of the landowners, but mutilated the souls of the peasants.

Betrayal of fellow peasants is a crime that cannot be forgiven. And this lesson is learned by our wanderers, who also had the opportunity to soon become convinced of its effectiveness. The Vakhlaks unanimously attack Yegor Shutov, having received orders from the village of Tiskova to “beat him.” “If the whole world has ordered: / Beat - there is a reason,” says Elder Vlas to the wanderers.

Grisha Dobrosklonov sums up the peasant dispute, explaining to the peasants the main reason for the sins of the nobles and peasants:

The snake will give birth to baby snakes,

And the support is the sins of the landowner,

The sin of Jacob - the unfortunate one,

Gleb gave birth to sin,

Everyone needs to understand, he says, that if “there is no support,” then these sins will no longer exist, that a new time has come.

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nekrasov does not ignore the fate of the soldiers - yesterday’s peasants, torn from the land, from their families, thrown under bullets and rods, often crippled and forgotten. Such is the tall and extremely skinny soldier Ovsyannikov, on whom a “frock coat with medals” hung as if on a pole. Depleted and wounded, he still dreams of receiving a “pension” from the state, but he cannot get to St. Petersburg: cast iron is expensive. At first, “grandfather fed on the district,” and when the instrument deteriorated, he bought three little yellow spoons and began to play on them, composing a song for simple music:

The light is sickening

There is no truth

Life is sickening

The pain is severe.

The episode about the soldier, the hero of Sevastopol, forced to beg (“Nutka, with George - around the world, around the world”) is instructive for wanderers and the reader, like all the numerous episodes with independent plots included in the poem.

In the difficult search for paths to peasant happiness, it is necessary to show the whole world mercy and compassion for the undeservedly disadvantaged and offended by fate.

By order of the elder Vlas, Klim, who had extraordinary acting skills, helps the soldier Ovsyannikov receive modest popular help, spectacularly and convincingly retelling his story to the assembled people. Little by little, little by little money fell into the old soldier’s wooden plate.

The new “good time” brings new heroes onto the stage, next to whom are seven seekers of happiness.

The true hero of the final plot of the poem is Grisha Dobrosklonov. From childhood he knew bitter need. His father, the parish sexton Tryfon, lived “poorer than the last shabby peasant,” his mother, the “unresponsive farm laborer” Domna, died early. At the seminary, where Grisha studied with his older brother Savva, it was “dark, cold, gloomy, strict, hungry.” The Vakhlaks fed the kind and simple guys, who paid them for it with work and managed their affairs in the city.

The grateful “love for all the Vakhlachina” makes the smart Grisha think about their fate.

...And about fifteen years

Gregory already knew for sure

What will live for happiness

Wretched and dark

Native corner.

It is Gregory who explains to the Vakhlaks that serfdom is the cause of all noble and peasant sins and that it is forever a thing of the past.

All the more closely, all the more joyfully

I listened to Grisha Prov:

Grinning, comrades

“Watch it!”

Prov is one of the seven wanderers who claimed that the king had the best life in Rus'.

This is how the final plot is connected to the main one. Thanks to Grisha's explanations, the wanderers realize the root of the evil of Russian life and the meaning of will for the peasants.

The Vakhlaks appreciate Grisha’s extraordinary mind and speak with respect of his intention to go “to Moscow, to the new city.”

Grisha carefully studies the life, work, worries and aspirations of peasants, artisans, barge haulers, the clergy and “all mysterious Rus'.”

The Angel of Mercy - a fairy-tale image-symbol that replaced the demon of rage - now hovers over Russia. In his song about two paths, sung over a Russian youth, there is a call to take not the usual beaten path for the crowd - a road full of passions, enmity and sin, but a narrow and difficult road for chosen and strong souls.

Go to the downtrodden

Go to the offended -

Fate had in store for him

The path is glorious, the name is loud

People's Defender,

Consumption and Siberia.

Grisha is a talented poet. It is curious that the author calls the song “Veselaya,” apparently composed by him, “not folk”: priests and servants sang it on holidays, and the Vahlaks only stomped and whistled. The signs of bookishness are obvious in it: the strict logic of the construction of the verses, the generalized irony of the chorus, the vocabulary:

It's nice to live for the people

Saint in Rus'!

Wanderers listen to this song, but the other two songs of the poet-citizen remain unheard by them.

The first is permeated with pain for the slave past of the Motherland and hope for happy changes:

Enough! Finished with past settlement,

The settlement with the master has been completed!

The Russian people are gathering strength

And learns to be a citizen.

The concept of citizenship is not yet familiar to travelers; they still have a lot to understand in life, a lot to learn. Perhaps that is why the author at this stage does not connect them with Grisha - on the contrary, he separates them. Grisha’s second song is also inaccessible to the understanding of wanderers, where he talks about the great contradictions of Rus', but expresses hope for the awakening of the people’s forces, for their readiness to fight:

The army rises -

Countless!

The strength in her will affect

Indestructible!

Grisha Dobrosklonov experiences joyful satisfaction from life, because a simple and noble goal is clearly outlined for him - the fight for the people's happiness.

If only our wanderers could be under their own roof,

If only they could know what was happening to Grisha - here

Folklore traditions in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

N.A. Nekrasov conceived the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” as a “people's book.” The poet always made sure that his works had a “style that suits the theme.” The desire to make the poem as accessible as possible to the peasant reader forced the poet to turn to folklore.

From the very first pages he is greeted by a fairy tale, a popular genre: a warbler, grateful for the saved chick, gives the men a “self-assembled tablecloth” and takes care of them throughout the journey.

The reader is familiar with the fairy-tale beginning of the poem:

In what year - calculate

Guess what year...

And the lines that promise the fulfillment of the cherished are doubly desirable and familiar:

According to your wishes,

At my command...

The poet uses fairy-tale repetitions in the poem. These are, for example, references to a self-assembled tablecloth or a stable characteristic of the peasants, as well as the reason for their dispute. Fairy-tale techniques literally permeate Nekrasov’s entire work, creating a magical setting where space and time are subordinate to the characters:

Whether it was long or short,

Whether they walked close or far...

Widely used in the poem and techniques epic epic. The poet likens many images of peasants to real heroes. Such, for example, is Savely, the Holy Russian hero. And Savely himself treats the peasants as true heroes:

Do you think, Matryonushka,

Is the man not a hero?

And life is not a military one for him,

And death is not written for him

In battle - what a hero!

“The Peasant Army Horde” is painted in epic tones by Yakim Nagoy. The bricklayer Trofim, who lifted “at least fourteen pounds” of bricks to the second floor, or the Olonchan stonemason, look like true heroes. The songs of Grisha Dobrosklonov use the vocabulary of the epic epic (“The army is rising - innumerable!”).

The whole poem is designed in a folktale-conversational style, where, naturally, there are a lot of phraseological units: “scattered with my mind”, “almost thirty miles”, “my soul is in pain”, “let loose my laces”, “where did the agility come from”, “suddenly it disappeared as if by hand” ”, “the world is not without good people”, “we’ll treat you well”, “but it turned out to be rubbish”, etc.

There are a lot of proverbs and sayings of all kinds in the poem, organically subordinated to poetic rhythms: “Yes, the belly is not a mirror,” “a worker
the horse eats straw, and the idle dancer eats oats”, “the proud pig was scratching himself on the master’s porch”, “don’t spit on the hot iron - it will hiss”, “high is God, far is the king”, “praise the grass in the haystack, but the master in the coffin”, “one is not a mill bird, which, no matter how much it flaps its wings, probably won’t fly,” “no matter how you suffer from work, you won’t be rich, but you will be hunchbacked,” “yes, our axes lay for the time being,” “and I would be glad to heaven, but where is the door?

Every now and then, riddles are woven into the text, creating picturesque images of either an echo (without a body, but it lives, without a tongue - it screams), then of snow (it lies silent, when it dies, then it roars), then of a lock on the door (It doesn’t bark, it doesn’t bites, but does not let you into the house), then an ax (all your life you bowed, but were not affectionate), then a saw (chews, but does not eat).

Also N.V. Gogol noted that the Russian people have always expressed their soul in song.

ON THE. Nekrasov constantly turns to this genre. Matryona Timofeevna’s songs tell “about a silk whip, about her husband’s relatives.” It is taken up by a peasant choir, indicating the ubiquity of a woman’s suffering in the family.

Matryona Timofeevna’s favorite song “There is a little light on the mountain” is heard by her when she decides to achieve justice and return her husband from the soldiery. This song talks about the choice of a single lover - the master of a woman's destiny. Its location in the poem is determined by the ideological and thematic content of the episode.

Most of the songs Nekrasov introduced into the epic reflect the horrors of serfdom.

The hero of the song “Barshchinnaya” is the unfortunate Kalinushka, whose “skin is completely torn from his bast shoes to his collar, his stomach is swollen with chaff.” His only joy is the tavern. Even more terrible is the life of Pankratushka, a completely starved plowman who dreams of a large loaf of bread. Due to eternal hunger, he lost simple human feelings:

I'll eat it all alone

I can handle it myself

Be it mother or son

Ask - I won’t give / “Hungry” /

The poet never forgets about the hard life of a soldier:

German bullets

Turkish bullets,

French bullets

Russian sticks.

The main idea of ​​the “Soldier’s” song is the ingratitude of the state, which abandoned the crippled and sick defenders of the fatherland to the mercy of fate.

Bitter times gave birth to bitter songs. That is why even “Veselaya” is permeated with irony and talks about the poverty of the peasants “in holy Rus'.”

The song “Salty” tells about the sad side of peasant life - the high cost of salt, so necessary for storing agricultural products and in everyday life, but inaccessible to the poor. The poet also uses the second meaning of the word “salty”, denoting something heavy, exhausting, difficult.

Acting in Nekrasov's epic, the fairy-tale angel of mercy, who replaced the demon of rage, sings a song calling honest hearts “to battle, to work.”

The songs of Grisha Dobrosklonov, still very bookish, are filled with love for the people, faith in their strength, hope for a change in their destiny. His songs reveal a knowledge of folklore: Grisha often uses its artistic and expressive means (vocabulary, constant epithets, general poetic metaphors).

The heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are characterized by confessionalism, so common for works of oral folk art. The priest, then numerous “happy” people, the landowner, Matryona Timofeevna tell the wanderers about their lives.

And we'll see

Church of God,

In front of the church

Let's be baptized for a long time:

"Give her, Lord,

Joy-happiness,

Good darling

Alexandrovna."

With the experienced hand of a brilliant poet, connoisseur and connoisseur of folklore, the poet removes the dialectal phonetic irregularities of genuine lamentations, thereby revealing their artistic spirituality:

Fall my tears

Not on land, not on water,

Not to the Lord's temple!

Fall right on your heart

My villain!

Fluent in N.A. Nekrasov the genre of folk ballad and, introducing it into the poem, skillfully imitates both the form (transferring the last line of the verse to the beginning of the next) and vocabulary. He uses folk phraseology, reproduces the folk etymology of book phrases, and the narrators’ commitment to geographical and factual accuracy of details:

The widower ammiral walked the seas,

I walked the seas, sailed ships,

Near Achakov he fought with the Turk,

Defeated him.

The poem contains a veritable scattering of constant epithets: “gray bunny”, “wild little head”, “black souls”, “quick night”, “white body”, “clear falcon”, “burning tears”, “reasonable little head”, “red girls” ”, “good fellow”, “greyhound horse”, “clear eyes”, “bright Sunday”, “ruddy face”, “clown of a pea”.

The number seven, traditionally widely used in folklore (seven Fridays in a week, you can slurp jelly seven miles away, seven don’t wait for one, measure seven times - cut once, etc.) is also noticeable in the poem, where seven men from seven adjacent villages (Zaplatovo, Dyryavino , Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaika) go to travel around the world; seven eagle owls look at them from seven large trees, etc. The poet no less often refers to the number three, also according to folklore tradition: “three lakes of tears”, “three streaks of trouble”, “three loops”, “three shareholders”, “three Matryonas” - etc.

Nekrasov also uses other techniques of oral folk art, for example, interjections and particles that add emotionality to the narrative: “Oh, swallow! Oh! stupid”, “Choo! the horse is knocking its hooves”, “ah, braid! Like gold burns in the sun.”

Common in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are complex words made up of two synonyms (bad-midge, path-path, melancholy-trouble, mother-earth, rye-mother, fruit-berries) or cognate words (rad-radekhonek, mlada -baby) or words reinforced by the repetition of cognate words (good riddance, good riddance, snoring, roaring).

Folklore diminutive suffixes in words (round, pot-bellied, gray-haired, mustachioed, dear) and addresses, including to inanimate objects, are traditional in the poem (“oh, you little birdie...”, “Hey, peasant happiness!”, “ Oh, you canine hunt”, “Oh! drunken night!”), negative comparisons

(It is not the winds that blow violently,

It is not mother earth that sways -

He makes noise, sings, swears,

Fights and kisses

People are celebrating).

The events in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are presented in chronological order - a traditional composition of folk epic works. The numerous side plots of the poem are primarily narrative texts. The diverse rhythms of Nekrasov’s epic poem are determined by the genres of oral folk art: fairy tales, epics, songs, lamentations, cries!

The author is a folk storyteller with a good command of lively folk speech. To the gullible glance of peasant readers, there is little difference from them, just like, for example, wanderers - pilgrims who captivate entertaining stories your listeners. In the course of the story, the narrator discovers the cunning of the mind, beloved by the people, and the ability to satisfy their curiosity and imagination. Christian condemnation is close to his heart

The narrator of the sinfulness of vice and the moral reward of the sufferers and the righteous. And only a sophisticated reader can see behind this role of a folk storyteller the face of a great poet, poet-educator, educator and counselor.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is written mostly in iambic trimeter with two final unstressed syllables. The poet's poems are not rhymed and are distinguished by a richness of consonances and rhythms.

Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” tells about the journey of seven peasants across Russia in search of a happy person. The work was written in the late 60s to mid 70s. XIX century, after the reforms of Alexander II and the abolition of serfdom. It tells about a post-reform society in which not only many old vices have not disappeared, but many new ones have appeared. According to the plan of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, the wanderers were supposed to reach St. Petersburg at the end of the journey, but due to the illness and imminent death of the author, the poem remained unfinished.

The work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is written in blank verse and stylized as Russian folk tales. We invite you to read online a summary of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov, chapter by chapter, prepared by the editors of our portal.

Main characters

Novel, Demyan, Luke, Gubin brothers Ivan and Mitrodor, Groin, Prov- seven peasants who went to look for a happy man.

Other characters

Ermil Girin- the first “candidate” for the title of lucky man, an honest mayor, very respected by the peasants.

Matryona Korchagina(Governor's wife) - a peasant woman, known in her village as a “lucky woman”.

Savely- husband's grandfather Matryona Korchagina. A hundred year old man.

Prince Utyatin(Last One) - old landowner, a tyrant to whom his family, in agreement with the peasants, does not talk about the abolition of serfdom.

Vlas- peasant, mayor of a village that once belonged to Utyatin.

Grisha Dobrosklonov- seminarian, son of a clerk, dreaming of the liberation of the Russian people; the prototype was the revolutionary democrat N. Dobrolyubov.

Part 1

Prologue

Seven men converge on the “pillar path”: Roman, Demyan, Luka, the Gubin brothers (Ivan and Mitrodor), old man Pakhom and Prov. The district from which they come is called by the author Terpigorev, and the “adjacent villages” from which the men come are called Zaplatovo, Dyryaevo, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo and Neurozhaiko, thus the poem uses the artistic device of “speaking” names .

The men got together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?

Each of them insists on his own. One shouts that life is most free for the landowner, another that for the official, the third for the priest, “the fat-bellied merchant,” “the noble boyar, the sovereign’s minister,” or the tsar.

From the outside it seems as if the men found a treasure on the road and are now dividing it among themselves. The men have already forgotten what business they left the house for (one was going to baptize a child, the other was going to the market...), and they go to God knows where until night falls. Only here do the men stop and, “blaming the trouble on the devil,” sit down to rest and continue the argument. Soon it comes to a fight.

Roman is pushing Pakhomushka,
Demyan pushes Luka.

The fight alarmed the whole forest, an echo woke up, animals and birds became worried, a cow mooed, a cuckoo croaked, jackdaws squeaked, the fox, who had been eavesdropping on the men, decided to run away.

And then there’s the warbler
Tiny chick with fright
Fell from the nest.

When the fight is over, the men pay attention to this chick and catch it. It’s easier for a bird than for a man, says Pakhom. If he had wings, he would fly all over Rus' to find out who lives best in it. “We wouldn’t even need wings,” the others add, they would just have some bread and “a bucket of vodka,” as well as cucumbers, kvass and tea. Then they would measure all of “Mother Rus' with their feet.”

While the men are interpreting this, a warbler flies up to them and asks them to let her chick go free. For him she will give a royal ransom: everything the men want.

The men agree, and the warbler shows them a place in the forest where a box with a self-assembled tablecloth is buried. Then she enchants their clothes so that they do not wear out, so that their bast shoes do not break, their foot wraps do not rot, and lice do not breed on their bodies, and flies away “with her birth chick.” In parting, the chiffchaff warns the peasant: they can ask for as much food from the self-assembled tablecloth as they want, but you can’t ask for more than a bucket of vodka a day:

And once and twice - it will be fulfilled
At your request,
And the third time there will be trouble!

The peasants rush into the forest, where they actually find a self-assembled tablecloth. Delighted, they throw a feast and make a vow: not to return home until they find out for sure “who lives happily and at ease in Rus'?”

This is how their journey begins.

Chapter 1. Pop

A wide path lined with birch trees stretches far away. On it, the men come across mostly “small people” - peasants, artisans, beggars, soldiers. Travelers don’t even ask them anything: what kind of happiness is there? Towards evening, the men meet the priest. The men block his path and bow low. In response to the priest’s silent question: what do they want?, Luka talks about the dispute that started and asks: “Is the priest’s life sweet?”

The priest thinks for a long time, and then answers that, since it is a sin to grumble against God, he will simply describe his life to the men, and they will figure out for themselves whether it is good.

Happiness, according to the priest, lies in three things: “peace, wealth, honor.” The priest knows no peace: his rank is earned by hard work, and then an equally difficult service begins; the cries of orphans, the cries of widows and the groans of the dying contribute little to peace of mind.

The situation is no better with honor: the priest serves as an object for the witticisms of the common people, obscene tales, anecdotes and fables are written about him, which do not spare not only himself, but also his wife and children.

The last thing that remains is wealth, but even here everything has changed long ago. Yes, there were times when the nobles honored the priest, played magnificent weddings and came to their estates to die - that was the job of the priests, but now “the landowners have scattered across distant foreign lands.” So it turns out that the priest is content with rare copper nickels:

The peasant himself needs
And I would be glad to give it, but there’s nothing...

Having finished his speech, the priest leaves, and the disputants attack Luke with reproaches. They unanimously accuse him of stupidity, of the fact that it was only at first glance that the priest’s housing seemed comfortable to him, but he could not figure it out deeper.

What did you take? stubborn head!

The men would probably have beaten Luka, but then, fortunately for him, at the bend of the road, “the priest’s stern face” appears once again...

Chapter 2. Rural fair

The men continue their journey, and their road goes through empty villages. Finally they meet the rider and ask him where the villagers have gone.

We went to the village of Kuzminskoye,
Today there is a fair...

Then the wanderers decide to also go to the fair - what if it is there that the one “who lives happily” is hiding?

Kuzminskoye is a rich, albeit dirty village. It has two churches, a school (closed), a dirty hotel and even a paramedic. That’s why the fair is rich, and most of all there are taverns, “eleven taverns,” and they don’t have time to pour a drink for everyone:

Oh Orthodox thirst,
How great are you!

There are a lot of drunk people around. A man scolds a broken ax, and Vavil’s grandfather, who promised to bring shoes for his granddaughter, but drank away all the money, is sad next to him. The people feel sorry for him, but no one can help - they themselves have no money. Fortunately, a “master” happens, Pavlusha Veretennikov, and he buys shoes for Vavila’s granddaughter.

Ofeni (booksellers) also sell at the fair, but the most low-quality books, as well as thicker portraits of generals, are in demand. And no one knows whether the time will come when a man:

Belinsky and Gogol
Will it come from the market?

By evening everyone gets so drunk that even the church with its bell tower seems to be shaking, and the men leave the village.

Chapter 3. Drunken night

Costs quiet night. The men walk along the “hundred-voice” road and hear snatches of other people’s conversations. They talk about officials, about bribes: “And we give fifty dollars to the clerk: We have made a request,” women’s songs are heard asking them to “love.” One drunk guy buries his clothes in the ground, assuring everyone that he is “burying his mother.” At the road sign, the wanderers again meet Pavel Veretennikov. He talks with peasants, writes down their songs and sayings. Having written down enough, Veretennikov blames the peasants for drinking a lot - “it’s a shame to see!” They object to him: the peasant drinks mainly out of grief, and it is a sin to condemn or envy him.

The objector's name is Yakim Goly. Pavlusha also writes down his story in a book. Even in his youth, Yakim bought popular prints for his son and he loved looking at them just as much as the child. When there was a fire in the hut, the first thing he did was rush to tear pictures from the walls, and so all his savings, thirty-five rubles, were burned. Now he gets 11 rubles for a melted lump.

Having heard enough stories, the wanderers sit down to refresh themselves, then one of them, Roman, remains at the guard’s bucket of vodka, and the rest again mix with the crowd in search of the happy one.

Chapter 4. Happy

Wanderers walk in the crowd and call for the happy one to appear. If such a one appears and tells them about his happiness, then he will be treated to vodka.

Sober people laugh at such speeches, but a considerable queue of drunk people forms. The sexton comes first. His happiness, in his words, is “in complacency” and in the “kosushechka” that the men pour out. The sexton is driven away, and an old woman appears who, on a small ridge, “up to a thousand turnips were born.” The next to try his luck is a soldier with medals, “he’s barely alive, but he wants a drink.” His happiness is that no matter how much he was tortured in the service, he still remained alive. A stonecutter with a huge hammer also comes, a peasant who overstrained himself in the service but still made it home barely alive, a yard man with a “noble” disease - gout. The latter boasts that for forty years he stood at the table of His Serene Highness, licking plates and finishing glasses of foreign wine. The men drive him away too, because they have simple wine, “not for your lips!”

The queue for travelers is not getting smaller. The Belarusian peasant is happy that here he eats his fill of rye bread, because in his homeland they baked bread only with chaff, and this caused terrible cramps in the stomach. A man with a folded cheekbone, a hunter, is happy that he survived the fight with the bear, while the rest of his comrades were killed by the bears. Even beggars come: they are happy that there is alms to feed them.

Finally, the bucket is empty, and the wanderers realize that they will not find happiness this way.

Hey, man's happiness!
Leaky, with patches,
Humpbacked with calluses,
Go home!

Here one of the people who approached them advises them to “ask Ermila Girin,” because if he doesn’t turn out to be happy, then there’s nothing to look for. Ermila is a simple man who has earned the great love of the people. The wanderers are told the following story: Ermila once had a mill, but they decided to sell it for debts. The bidding began; the merchant Altynnikov really wanted to buy the mill. Ermila was able to beat his price, but the problem was that he didn’t have the money with him to make a deposit. Then he asked for an hour's delay and ran to the market square to ask the people for money.

And a miracle happened: Yermil received the money. Very soon he had the thousand he needed to buy out the mill. And a week later there was an even more wonderful sight on the square: Yermil was “calculating the people”, he distributed the money to everyone and honestly. There was only one extra ruble left, and Yermil kept asking until sunset whose it was.

The wanderers are perplexed: by what witchcraft did Yermil gain such trust from the people. They are told that this is not witchcraft, but the truth. Girin served as a clerk in an office and never took a penny from anyone, but helped with advice. The old prince soon died, and the new one ordered the peasants to elect a burgomaster. Unanimously, “six thousand souls, the whole estate,” Yermila shouted - although young, he loves the truth!

Only once did Yermil “betray his soul” when he did not recruit his younger brother, Mitri, replacing him with the son of Nenila Vlasyevna. But after this act, Yermil’s conscience tormented him so much that he soon tried to hang himself. Mitri was handed over as a recruit, and Nenila’s son was returned to her. Yermil, for a long time, was not himself, “he resigned from his position,” but instead rented a mill and became “more loved by the people than before.”

But here the priest intervenes in the conversation: all this is true, but going to Yermil Girin is useless. He is sitting in prison. The priest begins to tell how it happened - the village of Stolbnyaki rebelled and the authorities decided to call Yermil - his people will listen.

The story is interrupted by shouts: they caught the thief and flogged him. The thief turns out to be the same footman with the “noble illness”, and after the flogging he runs away as if he had completely forgotten about his illness.
The priest, meanwhile, says goodbye, promising to finish telling the story the next time they meet.

Chapter 5. Landowner

On their further journey, the men meet the landowner Gavrila Afanasich Obolt-Obolduev. The landowner is frightened at first, suspecting them to be robbers, but, having figured out what the matter is, he laughs and begins to tell his story. Mine noble family it comes from the Tatar Oboldui, who was skinned by a bear for the amusement of the empress. She gave the Tatar cloth for this. Such were the noble ancestors of the landowner...

The law is my desire!
The fist is my police!

However, not all strictness; the landowner admits that he “attracted hearts more with affection”! All the servants loved him, gave him gifts, and he was like a father to them. But everything changed: the peasants and land were taken away from the landowner. The sound of an ax can be heard from the forests, everyone is being destroyed, drinking houses are springing up in place of estates, because now no one needs a letter at all. And they shout to the landowners:

Wake up, sleepy landowner!
Get up! - study! work!..

But how can a landowner, who has been accustomed to something completely different since childhood, work? They didn’t learn anything, and “thought they’d live like this forever,” but it turned out differently.

The landowner began to cry, and the good-natured peasants almost cried with him, thinking:

The great chain has broken,
Torn and splintered:
One way for the master,
Others don't care!..

Part 2

Last One

The next day, the men go to the banks of the Volga, to a huge hay meadow. They had barely started talking with the locals when music began and three boats moored to the shore. They are a noble family: two gentlemen with their wives, little barchat, servants and a gray-haired old gentleman. The old man inspects the mowing, and everyone bows to him almost to the ground. In one place he stops and orders the dry haystack to be swept away: the hay is still damp. The absurd order is immediately carried out.

The wanderers marvel:
Grandfather!
What a wonderful old man?

It turns out that the old man - Prince Utyatin (the peasants call him the Last One) - having learned about the abolition of serfdom, “beguiled” and fell ill with a stroke. It was announced to his sons that they had betrayed the landowner ideals, were unable to defend them, and if so, they would be left without an inheritance. The sons got scared and persuaded the peasants to fool the landowner a little, with the idea that after his death they would give the village flood meadows. The old man was told that the tsar ordered the serfs to be returned to the landowners, the prince was delighted and stood up. So this comedy continues to this day. Some peasants are even happy about this, for example, the courtyard Ipat:

Ipat said: “Have fun!
And I am the princes Utyatin
Serf - and that’s the whole story!”

But Agap Petrov cannot come to terms with the fact that even in freedom someone will push him around. One day he told the master everything directly, and he had a stroke. When he woke up, he ordered Agap to be flogged, and the peasants, so as not to reveal the deception, took him to the stable, where they placed a bottle of wine in front of him: drink and shout louder! Agap died that same night: it was hard for him to bow down...

The wanderers attend the feast of the Last One, where he gives a speech about the benefits of serfdom, and then lies down in a boat and falls asleep in eternal sleep while listening to songs. The village of Vakhlaki sighs with sincere relief, but no one is giving them the meadows - the trial continues to this day.

Part 3

Peasant woman

“Not everything is between men
Find the happy one
Let’s feel the women!”

With these words, the wanderers go to Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna, the governor, beautiful woman 38 years old, who, however, already calls herself an old woman. She talks about her life. Then I was only happy, as I was growing up in my parents’ house. But girlhood quickly flew by, and now Matryona is already being wooed. Her betrothed is Philip, handsome, ruddy and strong. He loves his wife (according to her, he only beat him once), but soon he goes to work, and leaves her with his large, but alien to Matryona, family.

Matryona works for her older sister-in-law, her strict mother-in-law, and her father-in-law. She had no joy in her life until her eldest son, Demushka, was born.

In the whole family, only the old grandfather Savely, the “hero of the Holy Russian”, who is living out his life after twenty years of hard labor, feels sorry for Matryona. He ended up in hard labor for the murder of a German manager who did not give the men a single free minute. Savely told Matryona a lot about his life, about “Russian heroism.”

The mother-in-law forbids Matryona to take Demushka into the field: she doesn’t work with him much. The grandfather looks after the child, but one day he falls asleep and the child is eaten by pigs. After some time, Matryona meets Savely at the grave of Demushka, who has gone to repentance at the Sand Monastery. She forgives him and takes him home, where the old man soon dies.

Matryona had other children, but she could not forget Demushka. One of them, the shepherdess Fedot, once wanted to be whipped for a sheep carried away by a wolf, but Matryona took the punishment upon herself. When she was pregnant with Liodorushka, she had to go to the city and ask for the return of her husband, who had been taken into the army. Matryona gave birth right in the waiting room, and the governor’s wife, Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying, helped her. Since then, Matryona “has been glorified as a lucky woman and nicknamed the governor’s wife.” But what kind of happiness is that?

This is what Matryonushka says to the wanderers and adds: they will never find a happy woman among women, the keys to female happiness are lost, and even God does not know where to find them.

Part 4

Feast for the whole world

There is a feast in the village of Vakhlachina. Everyone gathered here: the wanderers, Klim Yakovlich, and Vlas the elder. Among the feasting are two seminarians, Savvushka and Grisha, good, simple guys. They, at the request of the people, sing a “funny” song, then it’s their turn for different stories. There is a story about an “exemplary slave - Yakov the faithful,” who followed his master all his life, fulfilled all his whims and rejoiced even in the master’s beatings. Only when the master gave his nephew as a soldier did Yakov start drinking, but soon returned to the master. And yet Yakov did not forgive him, and was able to take revenge on Polivanov: he took him, with his legs swollen, into the forest, and there he hanged himself on a pine tree above the master.

A dispute ensues about who is the most sinful. God's wanderer Jonah tells the story of “two sinners,” about the robber Kudeyar. The Lord awakened his conscience and imposed a penance on him: cut down a huge oak tree in the forest, then his sins will be forgiven. But the oak fell only when Kudeyar sprinkled it with the blood of the cruel Pan Glukhovsky. Ignatius Prokhorov objects to Jonah: the peasant’s sin is still greater, and tells a story about the headman. He hid the last will of his master, who decided to set his peasants free before his death. But the headman, seduced by money, tore up his freedom.

The crowd is depressed. Songs are sung: “Hungry”, “Soldier’s”. But the time will come in Rus' for good songs. This is confirmed by two seminarian brothers, Savva and Grisha. Seminarian Grisha, the son of a sexton, has known for sure since the age of fifteen that he wants to devote his life to the people’s happiness. Love for his mother merges in his heart with love for all Vakhlachin. Grisha walks along his land and sings a song about Rus':

You're miserable too
You are also abundant
You are mighty
You are also powerless
Mother Rus'!

And his plans will not be lost: fate is preparing for Grisha “a glorious path, a great name people's defender, consumption and Siberia." In the meantime, Grisha sings, and it’s a pity that the wanderers can’t hear him, because then they would understand that they have already found a happy person and could return home.

Conclusion

This ends the unfinished chapters of the poem by Nekrasov. However, even from the surviving parts, the reader is presented with a large-scale picture of post-reform Rus', which with pain is learning to live in a new way. The range of problems raised by the author in the poem is very wide: the problems of widespread drunkenness, ruining the Russian people (no wonder a bucket of vodka is offered as a reward to the happy one!) problems of women, ineradicable slave psychology (revealed in the example of Yakov, Ipat) and main problem people's happiness. Most of these problems, unfortunately, to one degree or another remain relevant today, which is why the work is very popular, and a number of quotes from it have entered everyday speech. The compositional device of the main characters' journey brings the poem closer to adventure novel, making it easy to read and with great interest.

A brief retelling of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” conveys only the most basic content of the poem; for a more accurate idea of ​​the work, we recommend that you read the full version of “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”

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PROLOGUE

On the main road in Pustoporozhnaya volost, seven men meet: Roman, Demyan, Luka, Prov, old man Pakhom, brothers Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin. They come from neighboring villages: Neurozhayki, Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova and Neelova. Men argue about who lives well and freely in Rus'. Roman believes that the landowner, Demyan - the official, and Luka - the priest. Old man Pakhom claims that a minister lives best, the Gubin brothers live best as a merchant, and Prov thinks that he is a king.

It's starting to get dark. The men understand that, carried away by the argument, they have walked thirty miles and now it is too late to return home. They decide to spend the night in the forest, light a fire in the clearing and again begin to argue, and then even fight. Their noise causes all the forest animals to scatter, and a chick falls out of the warbler’s nest, which Pakhom picks up. The mother warbler flies up to the fire and asks in a human voice to let her chick go. For this, she will fulfill any desire of the peasants.

The men decide to go further and find out which of them is right. Warbler tells where you can find a self-assembled tablecloth that will feed and water them on the road. The men find a self-assembled tablecloth and sit down to feast. They agree not to return home until they find out who has the best life in Rus'.

Chapter I. Pop

Soon the travelers meet the priest and tell the priest that they are looking for “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.” They ask the church minister to answer honestly: is he satisfied with his fate?

The priest replies that he carries his cross with humility. If men believe that a happy life means peace, honor and wealth, then he has nothing like that. People don't choose the time of their death. So they call the priest to the dying person, even in the pouring rain, even in the bitter cold. And sometimes the heart cannot stand the tears of widows and orphans.

There is no talk of any honor. They make up all sorts of stories about priests, laugh at them and consider meeting a priest a bad omen. And the wealth of the priests is not what it used to be. Previously, when noble people lived on their family estates, the incomes of the priests were quite good. The landowners gave rich gifts, were baptized and married in the parish church. Here they had a funeral service and were buried. These were the traditions. And now nobles live in capitals and “abroads”, where they celebrate all church rites. But you can’t take much money from poor peasants.

The men bow respectfully to the priest and move on.

CHAPTER II. Country fair

The travelers pass several empty villages and ask: where have all the people gone? It turns out that there is a fair in the neighboring village. The men decide to go there. There are a lot of dressed-up people walking around the fair, selling everything from plows and horses to scarves and books. There are a lot of goods, but there are even more drinking establishments.

Old man Vavila is crying near the bench. He drank all the money and promised his granddaughter goatskin boots. Pavlusha Veretennikov approaches his grandfather and buys shoes for the girl. The delighted old man grabs his shoes and hurries home. Veretennikov is known in the area. He loves to sing and listen to Russian songs.

CHAPTER III. drunken night

After the fair, there are drunk people on the road. Some wander, some crawl, and some even lie in the ditch. Moans and endless drunken conversations can be heard everywhere. Veretennikov is talking with peasants at a road sign. He listens and writes down songs and proverbs, and then begins to reproach the peasants for drinking too much.

A well-drunk man named Yakim gets into an argument with Veretennikov. He says that the common people have accumulated a lot of grievances against landowners and officials. If you didn’t drink, it would be a big disaster, but all the anger dissolves in vodka. There is no measure for men in drunkenness, but is there any measure in grief, in hard work?

Veretennikov agrees with such reasoning and even drinks with the peasants. Here the travelers hear a beautiful young song and decide to look for the lucky ones in the crowd.

CHAPTER IV. Happy

Men walk around and shout: “Come out happy! We’ll pour some vodka!” People crowded around. The travelers began to ask about who was happy and how. They pour it to some, they just laugh at others. But the conclusion from the stories is this: a man’s happiness lies in the fact that he sometimes ate his fill, and God protected him in difficult times.

The men are advised to find Ermila Girin, whom the whole neighborhood knows. One day, the cunning merchant Altynnikov decided to take the mill away from him. He came to an agreement with the judges and declared that Ermila needed to immediately pay a thousand rubles. Girin did not have that kind of money, but he went to the marketplace and asked honest people to chip in. The men responded to the request, and Ermil bought the mill, and then returned all the money to the people. For seven years he was mayor. During that time, I didn’t pocket a single penny. Only once did he exclude his younger brother from the recruits, but then he repented in front of all the people and left his post.

The wanderers agree to look for Girin, but the local priest says that Yermil is in prison. Then a troika appears on the road, and in it is a gentleman.

CHAPTER V. Landowner

The men stop the troika, in which the landowner Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev is riding, and ask how he lives. The landowner begins to remember the past with tears. Previously, he owned the entire district, he kept a whole regiment of servants and held holidays with dancing, theatrical performances and hunting. Now “the great chain has broken.” The landowners have land, but there are no peasants to cultivate it.

Gavrila Afanasyevich was not used to working. It’s not a noble thing to do housekeeping. He only knows how to walk, hunt, and steal from the treasury. Now his family nest has been sold for debts, everything is stolen, and the men drink day and night. Obolt-Obolduev bursts into tears, and the travelers sympathize with him. After this meeting, they understand that they need to look for happiness not among the rich, but in the “Unbroken province, Ungutted volost...”.

PEASANT WOMAN

PROLOGUE

The wanderers decide to look for happy people among women. In one village they are advised to find Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, nicknamed “the governor’s wife.” Soon the men find this beautiful, dignified woman of about thirty-seven. But Korchagina doesn’t want to talk: it’s hard, the bread needs to be removed urgently. Then the travelers offer their help in the field in exchange for a story of happiness. Matryona agrees.

Chapter I. Before marriage

Korchagina spends her childhood in a non-drinking, friendly family, in an atmosphere of love from her parents and brother. Cheerful and agile Matryona works a lot, but also loves to go for a walk. A stranger, the stove maker Philip, is wooing her. They are having a wedding. Now Korchagina understands: she was only happy in her childhood and girlhood.

Chapter II. Songs

Philip brings his young wife to his large family. It’s not easy there for Matryona. Her mother-in-law, father-in-law and sisters-in-law do not allow her to live, they constantly reproach her. Everything happens exactly as it is sung in the songs. Korchagina endures. Then her first-born Demushka is born - like the sun in a window.

The master's manager pesters a young woman. Matryona avoids him as best she can. The manager threatens to give Philip a soldier. Then the woman goes for advice to grandfather Savely, the father-in-law, who is one hundred years old.

Chapter III. Saveliy, Holy Russian hero

Savely looks like a huge bear. He for a long time served hard labor for murder. The cunning German manager sucked all the juice out of the serfs. When he ordered four hungry peasants to dig a well, they pushed the manager into the hole and covered it with earth. Among these killers was Savely.

CHAPTER IV. Demushka

The old man's advice was of no use. The manager, who did not allow Matryona passage, suddenly died. But then another problem happened. The young mother was forced to leave Demushka under the supervision of her grandfather. One day he fell asleep, and the child was eaten by pigs.

The doctor and the judges arrive, perform an autopsy, and interrogate Matryona. She is accused of intentionally killing a child, in conspiracy with an old man. The poor woman is almost losing her mind with grief. And Savely goes to the monastery to atone for his sin.

CHAPTER V. She-Wolf

Four years later, the grandfather returns, and Matryona forgives him. When Korchagina’s eldest son, Fedotushka, turns eight years old, the boy is given to help as a shepherd. One day the she-wolf manages to steal a sheep. Fedot chases after her and snatches out the already dead prey. The she-wolf is terribly thin, she leaves a bloody trail behind her: she cut her nipples on the grass. The predator looks doomedly at Fedot and howls. The boy feels sorry for the she-wolf and her cubs. He leaves the carcass of a sheep to the hungry beast. For this, the villagers want to whip the child, but Matryona accepts the punishment for her son.

CHAPTER VI. Difficult year

A hungry year is coming, in which Matryona is pregnant. Suddenly news comes that her husband is being recruited as a soldier. The eldest son from their family is already serving, so they shouldn’t take the second one, but the landowner doesn’t care about the laws. Matryona is horrified; pictures of poverty and lawlessness appear before her, because her only breadwinner and protector will not be there.

CHAPTER VII. Governor's wife

The woman walks into the city and arrives at the governor's house in the morning. She asks the doorman to arrange a date for her with the governor. For two rubles, the doorman agrees and lets Matryona into the house. At this time, the governor’s wife comes out of her chambers. Matryona falls at her feet and falls into unconsciousness.

When Korchagina comes to her senses, she sees that she has given birth to a boy. The kind, childless governor’s wife fusses with her and the child until Matryona recovers. Together with her husband, who was released from service, the peasant woman returns home. Since then, she has not tired of praying for the health of the governor.

Chapter VIII. The Old Woman's Parable

Matryona ends her story with an appeal to wanderers: do not look for happy people among women. The Lord dropped the keys to women's happiness into the sea, and they were swallowed by a fish. Since then they have been looking for those keys, but they can’t find them.

LAST

Chapter I

I

Travelers come to the banks of the Volga to the village of Vakhlaki. There are beautiful meadows there and haymaking is in full swing. Suddenly music sounds and boats land on the shore. It is old Prince Utyatin who has arrived. He inspects the mowing and swears, and the peasants bow and ask for forgiveness. The men are amazed: everything is like under serfdom. They turn to the local mayor Vlas for clarification.

II

Vlas gives an explanation. The prince became terribly angry when he learned that the peasants had been given free rein, and he was struck down. After that, Utyatin began to act weird. He doesn’t want to believe that he no longer has power over the peasants. He even promised to curse his sons and disinherit them if they spoke such nonsense. So the heirs of the peasants asked them to pretend in front of the master that everything was as before. And for this they will be granted the best meadows.

III

The prince sits down to breakfast, which the peasants gather to gawk at. One of them, the biggest quitter and drunkard, had long ago volunteered to play the steward in front of the prince instead of the rebellious Vlas. So he crawls in front of Utyatin, and the people can barely contain their laughter. One, however, cannot cope with himself and laughs. The prince turns blue with anger and orders the rebel to be flogged. One lively peasant woman comes to the rescue, telling the master that her son, the fool, laughed.

The prince forgives everyone and sets off on the boat. Soon the peasants learn that Utyatin died on the way home.

A Feast FOR THE WHOLE WORLD

Dedicated to Sergei Petrovich Botkin

Introduction

The peasants rejoice at the death of the prince. They walk and sing songs, and the former servant of Baron Sineguzin, Vikenty, tells an amazing story.

About the exemplary slave - Yakov Verny

There lived one very cruel and greedy landowner, Polivanov, who had a faithful servant, Yakov. The man suffered a lot from the master. But Polivanov’s legs became paralyzed, and faithful Yakov became an indispensable person for the disabled man. The master is not overjoyed with the slave, calling him his brother.

Yakov’s beloved nephew once decided to get married, and asks the master to marry the girl whom Polivanov had his eye on for himself. The master, for such insolence, gives up his rival as a soldier, and Yakov, out of grief, goes on a drinking binge. Polivanov feels bad without an assistant, but the slave returns to work after two weeks. Again the master is pleased with the servant.

But new trouble is already on the way. On the way to the master's sister, Yakov suddenly turns into a ravine, unharnesses the horses, and hangs himself by the reins. All night the master drives away the crows from the poor body of the servant with a stick.

After this story, the men argued about who was more sinful in Rus': landowners, peasants or robbers? And the pilgrim Ionushka tells the following story.

About two great sinners

Once upon a time there was a gang of robbers led by Ataman Kudeyar. The robber destroyed many innocent souls, but the time has come - he began to repent. And he went to the Holy Sepulcher, and received the schema in the monastery - everyone does not forgive sins, his conscience torments him. Kudeyar settled in the forest under a hundred-year-old oak tree, where he dreamed of a saint who showed him the way to salvation. The murderer will be forgiven when he cuts down this oak tree with the knife that killed people.

Kudeyar began to saw the oak tree in three circles with a knife. Things are going slowly, because the sinner is already advanced in age and weak. One day, the landowner Glukhovsky drives up to the oak tree and begins to mock the old man. He beats, tortures and hangs slaves as much as he wants, but sleeps peacefully. Here Kudeyar falls into a terrible anger and kills the landowner. The oak tree immediately falls, and all the robber’s sins are immediately forgiven.

After this story, the peasant Ignatius Prokhorov begins to argue and prove that the most serious sin is the peasant sin. Here is his story.

Peasant sin

For military services, the admiral receives from the empress eight thousand souls of serfs. Before his death, he calls the elder Gleb and hands him a casket, and in it - free food for all the peasants. After the death of the admiral, the heir began to pester Gleb: he gives him money, free money, just to get the treasured casket. And Gleb trembled and agreed to hand over important documents. So the heir burned all the papers, and eight thousand souls remained in the fortress. The peasants, after listening to Ignatius, agree that this sin is the most serious.

Year: 1877 Genre: poem

Rus' is a country in which even poverty has its charms. After all, the poor, who are slaves to the power of the landowners of that time, have time to reflect and see what the overweight landowner will never see.

Once upon a time, on the most ordinary road, where there was an intersection, men, of whom there were seven, accidentally met. These men are the most ordinary poor men whom fate itself brought together. The men just recently left serfdom, and are now temporarily in bondage. They, as it turned out, lived very close to each other. Their villages were adjacent - the villages of Zaplatova, Razutova, Dyryavina, Znobishina, as well as Gorelova, Neelova and Neurozhaika. The names of the villages are very peculiar, but to some extent, they reflect their owners.

Men are simple people and willing to talk. That's why, instead of just continuing their long journey, they decide to talk. They argue about which of the rich and noble people lives better. A landowner, an official, a boyar or a merchant, or maybe even a sovereign father? Each of them has its own own opinion, which they cherish, and do not want to agree with each other. The argument flares up more and more, but nevertheless, I want to eat. You cannot live without food, even if you feel bad and sad. When they argued, without noticing it, they walked, but in the wrong direction. Suddenly they noticed it, but it was too late. The men gave a distance of as much as thirty miles.

It was too late to return home, and therefore they decided to continue the argument right there on the road, surrounded by wild nature. They quickly light a fire to keep warm, since it’s already evening. Vodka will help them. The argument, as always happens among ordinary men, develops into a brawl. The fight ends, but it doesn't give anyone any results. As always happens, the decision to be there is unexpected. One of the company of men sees a bird and catches it; the mother of the bird, in order to free her chick, tells them about the self-assembled tablecloth. After all, men on their road meet many people who, alas, do not have the happiness that men are looking for. But they do not despair of finding a happy person.

Read the summary of Who Lives Well in Rus' by Nekrasov chapter by chapter

Part 1. Prologue

Seven temporary men met on the road. They began to argue about who lives funny, very freely in Rus'. While they were arguing, evening came, they went for vodka, lit a fire and began to argue again. The argument turned into a fight, while Pakhom caught a small chick. The mother bird flies in and asks to let her child go in exchange for a story about where to get a self-assembled tablecloth. The comrades decide to go wherever they look until they find out who lives well in Rus'.

Chapter 1. Pop

Men go on a hike. They pass through steppes, fields, abandoned houses, meeting both rich and poor. They asked the soldier they met about whether he was living a happy life, and the soldier responded by saying that he shaved with an awl and warmed himself with smoke. We passed by the priest. We decided to ask him how life was in Rus'. Pop claims that happiness does not lie in prosperity, luxury and tranquility. And he proves that he has no peace of mind, night and day they can call him to the dying man, that his son cannot learn to read and write, that he often sees sobs and tears at the coffins.

The priest claims that the landowners have scattered across native land and from this there is now no wealth, as there used to be, for the priest. In the old days, he attended weddings of rich people and made money from it, but now everyone has left. He told me that he used to come to a peasant family to bury the breadwinner, but there was nothing to take from them. The priest went on his way.

Chapter 2. Country Fair

Wherever men go, they see stingy housing. A pilgrim washes his horse in the river, and the men ask him where the people from the village have gone. He replies that the fair is today in the village of Kuzminskaya. The men, coming to the fair, watch how honest people dance, walk, and drink. And they look at how one old man asks people for help. He promised to bring a gift to his granddaughter, but he doesn’t have two hryvnia.

Then a gentleman appears, as the young man in a red shirt is called, and buys shoes for the old man’s granddaughter. At the fair you can find everything your heart desires: books by Gogol, Belinsky, portraits and so on. Travelers watch a performance with Petrushka, people give the actors drinks and a lot of money.

Chapter 3. Drunken night

Returning home after the holiday, people fell into ditches from drunkenness, women fought, complaining about life. Veretennikov, the one who bought the shoes for his granddaughter, walked along arguing that Russians are good and smart people, but drunkenness spoils everything, being a big disadvantage for people. The men told Veretennikov about Nagy Yakima. This guy lived in St. Petersburg and after a quarrel with a merchant he went to prison. One day he gave his son various pictures that hung on the walls, and he admired them more than his son. One day there was a fire, so instead of saving money, he started collecting pictures.

His money melted and then merchants gave only eleven rubles for it, and now the pictures hang on the walls in the new house. Yakim said that men don’t lie and said that sadness will come and people will be sad if they stop drinking. Then the young people began to hum the song, and they sang so well that one girl passing by couldn’t even hold back her tears. She complained that her husband was very jealous and she sat at home as if on a leash. After the story, the men began to remember their wives, realized that they missed them, and decided to quickly find out who was living well in Rus'.

Chapter 4. Happy

Travelers, passing by an idle crowd, look for happy people in it, promising to pour them a drink. The clerk came to them first, knowing that happiness does not lie in luxury and wealth, but in faith in God. He talked about what he believes and that makes him happy. Next, the old woman talks about her happiness; the turnip in her garden has grown huge and appetizing. In response, she hears ridicule and advice to go home. Afterwards the soldier tells the story that after twenty battles he remained alive, that he survived hunger and did not die, that this made him happy. He gets a glass of vodka and leaves. The stonecutter wields a large hammer and has immense strength.

In response, the thin man ridicules him, advising him not to boast about his strength, otherwise God will take away his strength. The contractor boasts that he carried objects weighing fourteen pounds with ease to the second floor, but Lately lost his strength and was about to die in his hometown. A nobleman came to them and told them that he lived with his mistress, ate very well with them, drank drinks from other people's glasses and developed a strange illness. He was wrong in his diagnosis several times, but in the end it turned out that it was gout. The wanderers kick him out so that he does not drink wine with them. Then the Belarusian said that happiness is in bread. Beggars see happiness in giving a lot. The vodka is running out, but they haven’t found a truly happy person, they are advised to look for happiness from Ermila Girin, who runs the mill. Yermil is awarded to sell it, wins the auction, but has no money.

He went to ask the people in the square for a loan, collected money, and the mill became his property. The next day he returned to everyone good people who helped him in difficult times, they get their money. The travelers were amazed that the people believed Ermila’s words and helped. Good people said that Ermila was the colonel’s clerk. He worked honestly, but he was driven away. When the colonel died and the time came to choose a mayor, everyone unanimously chose Yermil. Someone said that Ermila did not correctly judge the son of the peasant woman Nenila Vlasyevna.

Ermila was very sad that he could let the peasant woman down. He ordered that the people judge him, young man awarded a fine. He quit his job and rented a mill and established his own order on it. They advised travelers to go to Girin, but the people said that he was in prison. And then everything is interrupted because a footman is whipped on the side of the road for theft. The wanderers asked for the continuation of the story, and in response they heard a promise to continue at the next meeting.

Chapter 5. Landowner

The wanderers meet a landowner who mistakes them for thieves and even threatens them with a pistol. Obolt Obolduev, having understood the people, started a story about the antiquity of his family, that while serving the sovereign he had a salary of two rubles. He remembers feasts rich in various foods, servants, of whom he had a whole regiment. Regrets the lost unlimited power. The landowner told how kind he was, how people prayed in his house, how spiritual purity was created in his house. And now their gardens have been cut down, their houses have been dismantled brick by brick, the forest has been plundered, not a trace remains of their former life. The landowner complains that he is not created for such a life; after living in the village for forty years, he will not be able to distinguish barley from rye, but they demand that he work. The landowner is crying, the people sympathize with him.

Part 2. The Last One

The wanderers, walking past the hayfield, decide to mow a little, they are bored with their work. The gray-haired man Vlas drives the women out of the fields and asks them not to disturb the landowner. Landowners catch fish in boats in the river. We moored and went around the hayfield. The wanderers began to ask the man about the landowner. It turned out that the sons, in collusion with the people, were deliberately indulging the master so that he would not deprive them of their inheritance. The sons beg everyone to play along with them. One man, Ipat, serves without playing along, for the salvation that the master gave him. Over time, everyone gets used to deception and lives like that. Only the man Agap Petrov did not want to play these games. Utyatina grabbed the second blow, but again he woke up and ordered Agap to be publicly flogged. The sons put the wine in the stable and asked them to shout loudly so that the prince could hear them up to the porch. But soon Agap died, they say from the prince’s wine. People stand in front of the porch and play a comedy; one rich man can’t stand it and laughs loudly. A peasant woman saves the situation and falls at the prince’s feet, claiming that it was her stupid little son who laughed. As soon as Utyatin died, all the people breathed freely.

Part 3. Peasant woman

They send to the neighboring village to Matryona Timofeevna to ask about happiness. There is hunger and poverty in the village. Someone caught a small fish in the river and talks about how once upon a time a larger fish was caught.

Theft is rampant, people are trying to steal something. Travelers find Matryona Timofeevna. She insists that she doesn’t have time to rant, she needs to remove the rye. The wanderers help her; while working, Timofeevna begins to willingly talk about her life.

Chapter 1. Before marriage

In her youth, the girl had a strong family. IN parental home She lived without knowing troubles, she had enough time to have fun and work. One day Philip Korchagin appeared, and the father promised to give his daughter as a wife. Matryona resisted for a long time, but eventually agreed.

Chapter 2. Songs

Next, the story is about life in the house of the father-in-law and mother-in-law, which is interrupted by sad songs. They beat her once for being slow. Her husband leaves for work, and she gives birth to a child. She calls him Demushka. Her husband's parents began to scold her often, but she endured everything. Only the father-in-law, old man Savely, felt sorry for his daughter-in-law.

Chapter 3. Savely, the Holy Russian hero

He lived in an upper room, did not like his family and did not allow them into his house. He told Matryona about his life. In his youth he was a Jew in a serf family. The village was remote, you had to get there through thickets and swamps. The landowner in the village was Shalashnikov, but he could not get to the village, and the peasants did not even go to him when called. The rent was not paid; the police were given fish and honey as tribute. They went to the master and complained that there was no rent. Having threatened with flogging, the landowner still received his tribute. After some time, a notification comes that Shalashnikov has been killed.

The rogue came instead of the landowner. He ordered trees to be cut down if there was no money. When the workers came to their senses, they realized that they had cut a road to the village. The German robbed them to the last penny. Vogel built a factory and ordered a ditch to be dug. The peasants sat down to rest at lunch, the German went to scold them for idleness. They pushed him into a ditch and buried him alive. He ended up in hard labor and escaped from there twenty years later. During hard labor he saved up money, built a hut and now lives there.

Chapter 4. Demushka

The daughter-in-law scolded the girl for not working enough. She began to leave her son to his grandfather. Grandfather ran to the field and told him that he had overlooked and fed Demushka to the pigs. The mother’s grief was not enough, but the police began to come often, they suspected that she had killed the child on purpose. She mourned him for a long time. And Savely kept reassuring her.

Chapter 5. Patrimony

As soon as you die, the work stops. The father-in-law decided to teach a lesson and beat the bride. She began to beg to kill her, and her father took pity. The mother mourned at her son’s grave all day and night. In winter, my husband returned. Grandfather left from grief, first into the forest, then into the monastery. After that, Matryona gave birth every year. And again a series of troubles began. Timofeevna's parents died. Grandfather returned from the monastery, asked his mother for forgiveness, and said that he had prayed for Demushka. But he never lived long; he died very hard. Before his death, he spoke about three paths of life for women and two paths for men. Four years later, a praying mantis comes to the village.

She kept talking about some beliefs and advised against feeding babies with breast milk on fasting days. Timofeevna did not listen, then she regretted it, she says God punished her. When her child, Fedot, was eight years old, he began to herd sheep. And somehow they came to complain about him. They say that he fed the sheep to the she-wolf. Mother began to question Fedot. The child said that before he could blink an eye, a she-wolf appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the sheep. He ran after him and caught up, but the sheep was dead. The she-wolf howled, it was clear that she had cubs somewhere in the hole. He took pity on her and gave her the dead sheep. They tried to flog Fetod, but his mother took all the punishment upon herself.

Chapter 6. Difficult year

Matryona Timofeevna said that it was not easy for the she-wolf to see her son like that. He believes that this was a harbinger of famine. My mother-in-law spread all the gossip around the village about Matryona. She said that her daughter-in-law cawed out hunger because she knew how to do such things. She said that her husband was protecting her.

After the hunger strike, they began to take children from villages to serve. They took her husband's brother first, she was calm that her husband would be with her in difficult times. But my husband was also taken away from the queue. Life becomes unbearable, her mother-in-law and father-in-law begin to mock her even more.

Picture or drawing Who lives well in Rus'

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ON THE. Nekrasov was always not just a poet - he was a citizen who was deeply concerned about social injustice, and especially about the problems of the Russian peasantry. The cruel treatment of landowners, the exploitation of female and child labor, a joyless life - all this was reflected in his work. And in 18621, the seemingly long-awaited liberation came - the abolition of serfdom. But was this actually liberation? It is to this topic that Nekrasov devotes “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - his most poignant, most famous - and his last work. The poet wrote it from 1863 until his death, but the poem still came out unfinished, so it was prepared for printing from fragments of the poet’s manuscripts. However, this incompleteness turned out to be symbolic in its own way - after all, for the Russian peasantry, the abolition of serfdom did not become the end of the old life and the beginning of a new one.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is worth reading in its entirety, because at first glance it may seem that the plot is too simple for such complex topic. A dispute between seven men about who should live well in Rus' cannot be the basis for revealing the depth and complexity of the social conflict. But thanks to Nekrasov’s talent in revealing characters, the work gradually reveals itself. The poem is quite difficult to understand, so it is best to download its entire text and read it several times. It is important to pay attention to how different the peasant’s and the master’s understanding of happiness is: the first believes that this is his material well-being, and the second believes that this is the least possible number of troubles in his life. At the same time, in order to emphasize the idea of ​​​​the spirituality of the people, Nekrasov introduces two more characters who come from his midst - these are Ermil Girin and Grisha Dobrosklonov, who sincerely want happiness for the entire peasant class, and so that no one is offended.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is not idealistic, because the poet sees problems not only in the noble class, which is mired in greed, arrogance and cruelty, but also among the peasants. This is primarily drunkenness and obscurantism, as well as degradation, illiteracy and poverty. The problem of finding happiness for yourself personally and for the entire people as a whole, the fight against vices and the desire to make the world a better place are still relevant today. So even in its unfinished form, Nekrasov’s poem is not only a literary, but also a moral and ethical example.