The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the pinnacle work of N.A.’s creativity. Nekrasova. He nurtured the idea of ​​this work for a long time, working on the text of the poem for fourteen years (from 1863 to 1877). In criticism, it is customary to define the genre of a work as an epic poem. This work is not finished, however, despite the incompleteness of the plot, it embodies deep social meaning.

The poem consists of four chapters, united by a plot about how the men argued: who is happy in Rus'. Among the possible options for searching for the happy were the following: landowner, official, priest, merchant, boyar, minister and the tsar himself. However, the men refused to meet with some categories of “lucky” people, since in fact they (like the author) were interested in the question of people’s happiness. The location of the last three parts also remains not fully clarified in the author’s instructions.

The plot of the poem is in the form of a journey. This kind of construction helps to include different pictures. Already in the Prologue, the writer’s subtle irony about Russian reality is heard, expressed in the “telling” names of the villages (“Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neelova, Neurozhaika, etc.”).

The poem has strong conversational intonations. Its text is filled with dialogues, rhetorical questions and exclamations, anaphoric repetitions (“In what year - calculate, In what land - guess”, “How the red sun set, How the evening came...”), repetitions within lines (“Oh, shadows! Black shadows!”). The small landscape sketches presented in the poem are also made as stylizations of folklore: “The night has long since passed, The frequent stars have lit up high heavens. The moon has surfaced, black shadows have cut the road to Zealous walkers.” Numerous inversions, constant epithets, personifications, mention of images from Russian folk tales (“Well! The goblin played a nice joke on us!”) and even riddles (“Without a body, but it lives, Without a tongue, it screams!” (echo)) - all these artistic details also give the poem a folkloric flavor.

ON THE. Nekrasov needs this artistic effect in order to emphasize that the main character of the work is the people. It is no coincidence that there are so many Russian folk names in the novel.

Men's dreams of happiness are simple, their requirements for the joys of life are real and ordinary: bread, vodka, cucumbers, kvass and hot tea.

In search of happiness, men turn to the bird: “Oh, you little birdie! Give us your wings, We’ll fly around the whole kingdom, We’ll look, we’ll explore, We’ll ask and we’ll find out: Who lives happily, at ease in Rus'?” This also shows adherence to the folk poetic tradition. In ancient times, the ability of birds to fly and be transported over long distances was regarded as having supernatural powers and a special closeness to God. In this regard, the men’s request to the bird to borrow its wings emphasizes the symbolic level of perception of the topic: is the kingdom organized fairly? The traditions of the folk tale are embodied in the poem by the image of a self-assembled tablecloth: “Hey, self-assembled tablecloth! Treat the men!

According to your desire, according to your command, everything will appear immediately.” The image of the road in the poem emphasizes the vast expanses of Russia, which once again emphasizes the immense expanses of Russia, which once again indicates the importance of the question raised by the author: how do the inhabitants of a huge country endowed with natural resources live?

Another genre of Russian folklore, to which N.A. Nekrasov addresses in the poem, there is a conspiracy: “You, I see, are a wise bird, Respect - cast a spell on us with old clothes!” Thus, the work also emphasizes the spiritual potential of the people, the bizarre interweaving of Christian and pagan principles in their worldview. The fairy-tale form helps the author to somewhat veil the severity of the things he understands. social problems. According to N.A. Nekrasov, controversial issues should be resolved “according to reason, in a divine way.”

Drawing a gallery in front of the reader social types, ON THE. Nekrasov starts with the priest. This is natural, because a church minister should, logically, understand the idea of ​​the divine world order and social justice better than anyone else. It is no coincidence that men ask the priest to answer “according to conscience, according to reason,” “in a divine way.”

It turns out that the priest simply carries his cross through life and does not consider himself happy: “Our roads are difficult, Our parish is large. The sick, the dying, the one born into the world do not choose time: In the harvest and in the haymaking, In the dead of autumn night, In winter, in severe frosts, And in the spring floods Go

Where is the name? The priest had a chance to see and hear everything, to support people in the most difficult moments of life: “There is no heart that can endure without some trembling the death rattle, the funeral sob, the orphan’s sadness.” The priest's story raises the problem of happiness from the social level of perception to the philosophical. I never dream of peace and honor for my butt. And the former wealth of the parishes is lost with the beginning of the disintegration of noble nests. The priest does not see any spiritual return from his mission (it’s also good that in this parish two-thirds of the population lives in Orthodoxy, while in others there are only schismatics). From his story we learn about the poverty of peasant life: “Our villages are poor, And in them there are sick peasants, And sad women, Nurses, water-maids, Slaves, pilgrims, And eternal workers, Lord, add strength to them! It’s hard to live on pennies with such labor!”

However, the peasant has a different view of the priest’s life: one of the men knows about this well: “for three years he lived with the priest as a worker and knows that he has porridge with butter and pie with filling.

N.A. has it. Nekrasov in the work and original poetic discoveries in the field of figurative and expressive means of language (“...rainy clouds, Like milk cows, Walk across the skies”, “The earth is not dressed in green bright velvet And, like a dead man without a shroud, lies under the cloudy sky Sad and naga").

A fair in the rich trading village of Kuzminskoye sheds light on folk life in Rus'. There is dirt everywhere. One detail is noteworthy: “The house with the inscription: school, 11 standing, packed tightly. A hut with one window, with a picture of a paramedic Bleeding.” Nobody cares about public education and healthcare in the state. ON THE. Nekrasov paints a colorfully dressed peasant crowd. It seems like this picture should put you in a festive mood. However, through this atmosphere of elegance and apparent prosperity, a dark peasant self-awareness clearly peeks through. The feisty Old Believer angrily threatens the people with hunger, seeing fashionable outfits, since, in her opinion, red calicoes are dyed with dog’s blood. Complaining about the lack of education of men, N.A. Nekrasov exclaims with hope: “Eh! eh! Will the time come, When (come, the desired one!..) They will make it clear to the peasant, That a portrait is rose for a portrait, That a book is a rose for a book? When will a man carry not Blucher and not my stupid lord - Belinsky and Gogol From the market?

The fair fun ends in drunkenness and fights. From the stories of women, the reader learns that many of them feel sick at home, as if they were in hard labor. On the one hand, the author is offended to look at this endless drunkenness, but on the other hand, he understands that it is better for the men to drink and forget themselves between hours of hard work than to understand where the fruits of their work go: “And as soon as the work is over, look, they are standing three shareholders: God, king and master!

From the story about Yakima Nagy, we learn about the fate of people who are trying to defend their rights: “Yakim, a wretched old man, once lived in St. Petersburg, but ended up in prison: He decided to compete with a merchant! Like a stripped piece of velcro, he returned to his homeland and took up his plow.” Saving paintings, Yakim lost money during the fire: preserving spirituality, art is higher for him than everyday life.

As the plot of the poem develops, the reader learns about social inequality and social prejudices that N.A. Nekrasov is mercilessly castigated and ridiculed. “Prince Peremetyev had me as a favorite slave. The wife is a beloved slave, And the daughter, together with the young lady, learned French, And all sorts of languages, She was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess...”

The yard servant declares.

The funniest thing about his monologue is that he believes that he has an honorable disease - gout. Even illnesses in Russia are divided by class: men suffer from hoarseness and hernia, and the privileged classes suffer from gout. The disease is considered a noble disease because in order to get it, you need to drink expensive wines: “Champagne, Burgon, Tokay, Wengen You have to drink for thirty years...”. The poet writes with admiration about the feat of the peasant Yermil Girin, who ran the orphan mill. The mill was put up for auction. Yermil began to bargain for it with the merchant Altynnikov himself. Girin did not have enough money; the peasants in the market square lent him money. Having returned the money, Yermil discovered that he still had a ruble. Then the man gave it to the blind: he didn’t need someone else’s. Ermil’s impeccable honesty becomes a worthy response to the trust that the people showed in him by collecting money for him: “They put on a hat full of Tselkoviks, foreheads, Burnt, beaten, tattered Peasant banknotes. He took it sweetly - he didn’t disdain And a copper nickel. He would have become disdainful when he came across another copper hryvnia worth more than a hundred rubles!”

Yermil worked as a clerk in an office and willingly helped peasants write petitions. For this he was elected mayor. He worked regularly: “At seven years old I didn’t squeeze a worldly penny under my fingernail, At seven years I didn’t touch the right one, I didn’t let the guilty one go, I didn’t bend my soul...”.

His only sin was that he shielded his younger brother Mitri from recruiting. Yes, then his conscience tormented him. At first Yermil wanted to hang himself, then he asked him to judge him. They imposed a fine on him: “Fine money for the recruit, a small part for Vlasyevna, a part for the world for wine...”. Finally, a gray-haired priest enters the story about Ermil Girin, who emphasizes that the honor that Girin had was bought not by fear and money, but by “strict truth, intelligence and kindness!” This is how the image of the people's intercessor emerges in the poem - an honest and decent person. However, in the end it turns out that Yermil, after a popular riot, is in prison. Surnames play an important meaningful function in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”: Girin sounds weighty and reliable, but the names of landowners (Obrubkov, Obolt-Obolduev) indicate their limitations and inability to support the Russian people.

The landowner in Rus', too, as it turns out, does not feel happy. When Obolt-Obolduev talks about his “family tree,” we learn that the feats that his ancestors performed can hardly be called such. One of them received a certificate for entertaining the empress on the day of the royal name day. And Prince Shchepin with Vaska Gusev In general, they were criminals: they tried to set fire to Moscow and rob the treasury. N.A. Nekrasov also describes that part of the life of the landowners, which constitutes the former beauty of the landowners' houses with greenhouses, Chinese gazebos and English parks, the traditions of hound hunting. However, all this is a thing of the past: " Oh, you hunting dog! All the landowners will forget, But you, the original Russian Fun! You will not be forgotten forever and ever! We are not sad about ourselves, We are sorry that you, Mother Rus', willingly lost your knightly, warlike, majestic appearance! »

Obolt-Obolduev yearns for the time of serfdom, remembering how voluntary gifts were brought to him and his family in addition to the corvee. ON THE. Nekrasov shows that the landowners found themselves in a difficult situation: they were accustomed to living on the labor of others and did not know how to do anything.

Obolt-Obolduev talks about this in his confession: “Work hard! Who did you think of reading such a sermon? I’m not a peasant lapotnik - I by God's grace Russian nobleman! Russia is not foreign, We have delicate feelings, We are instilled with pride! Noble classes We don’t learn to work. We have a poor official, And he won’t sweep the floors, He won’t light the stove... I’ll tell you, without bragging, I’ve been living almost forever in the village for forty years, And I can’t tell a barley ear from a rye ear, And they sing to me: “Work!”

The chapter “Peasant Woman” is devoted to the position of the Russian woman. This is a cross-cutting theme in the work of N.A. Nekrasov, which indicates her importance in the writer’s worldview. The main character is Matryona Timofeevna (a dignified woman of about thirty-eight). Drawing her portrait, the author admires the beauty of the Russian peasant woman: “Beautiful; gray hair, large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark.” When asked by men about happiness, the woman at first refuses to answer at all, saying that there is labor suffering going on. However, the men agree to help her reap rye, and Timofeevna still decides to tell about herself. Before her marriage, her life was happy, although it was spent in labor (she had to get up early, bring breakfast to her father, feed ducklings, pick mushrooms and berries). The chapter is interspersed with folk songs. During her marriage, Matryona endured beatings and barbs from her husband’s relatives.

The whole life of a peasant woman is spent in hard work, in an attempt to divide her time between work and children: “Week after week, in one order, they walked, Every year, then the children: there is no time Neither to think nor to grieve, God willing to cope with the work Yes, cross your forehead You will eat - when will remain From the elders and from the children, You will fall asleep when you are sick...” Monotony, the inability to even think calmly about one’s life, the need to constantly spend it in endless labor - this is the lot of the Russian woman of the lower classes in Russia.

Soon Matryona lost her parents and child. Submitting to her father-in-law in everything, Timofeevna lives, essentially, for the sake of her children. The story she told about how some wanderer ordered on fasting days not to feed milk to infants smells of terrifying darkness and dense superstition. I remember here the wanderer Feklusha from the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" with its stupid fables. From this comparison, a general picture of the morals existing in Russia emerges. The scene described in the poem when, during a hungry year, a woman is killed with stakes just because she put on a clean shirt at Christmas, eloquently testifies to darkness and ignorance. By folk signs, this leads to crop failure.

Once Timofeevna accepted punishment with rods for her son, who did not save a sheep from a she-wolf. Describing this story, N.A. Nekrasov writes with admiration about the strength and selflessness of maternal love. Timofeevna is a typical Russian woman with a “downcast head” and an angry heart. Emphasizing the strength of character of the heroine, N.A. Nekrasov also shows her in moments of weakness: Matryona is like Alyonushka from the famous painting by artist V.M. Vasnetsova goes to the river, sits on gray pebble broom bush and sobs. Another way out for a woman is to pray.

The description of the difficult life of a peasant woman lifts the curtain on the overall picture folk life in Russia. Hunger, need, recruitment, lack of education and lack of qualified medical care - these are the conditions in which the Russian peasantry finds itself. It is no coincidence that crying and tears are the most frequently used motifs in the poem.

The inserted plot is a fragment of the chapter entitled “Savely, the hero of the Holy Russian” about how the rebellious workers buried the owner. Then Savely suffered penal servitude and a settlement; only in old age was he able to return to his native place.

In the chapter “The Last One,” old Vlas talks about his landowner, who constantly scolded the peasants, not realizing that they were no longer working on the lord’s land, but on their own land. The master issues absurd orders, which make everyone laugh. It doesn’t take long for people to realize that the master has gone crazy. One day the man Agap could not stand it and scolded the master himself. They decided in the presence of the landowner “to punish Agap for his unprecedented insolence.” However, in reality, this punishment turns into a farce: the steward Klim takes Agap to the stable, puts a glass of wine in him and orders him to scream and moan so that the master can hear: “How four men carried Him out of the stable, dead drunk, So the master even took pity: “It’s his own fault, Agapushka.” !

He said kindly." This scene eloquently indicates that the time of noble rule has irrevocably passed. The same idea is emphasized by the scene of the death of the old prince at the end of the chapter: “The amazed peasants looked at each other... crossed themselves... Sighed... Never had such a friendly sigh, Deep, deep, been emitted by the poor Village of Vakhlaki of the Illiterate province...”.

The chapter “A feast for the whole world” was subject to serious censorship edits. In front of it there is a dedication to S.P. Botkin, a famous doctor who treated N.A. Nekrasova.

The most striking episode of the chapter is the fragment “About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful.” It poses the problem of servility. “People of the servile rank are sometimes mere dogs: The more severe the punishment, the dearer the gentlemen are to them,” writes N.A. Nekrasov. The poet convincingly shows that some peasants even like the feeling of servility. They have a slave psychology so firmly developed that they even like humiliation: “Yakov had only joy: to groom, protect, please the Master.”

The landowner, in response to Yakov’s concerns, paid with black ingratitude. He didn’t even allow his nephew Grisha to marry his beloved girl and sent him into conscription. Yakov was offended and took the master to the Devil's Ravine, but did not commit reprisals, but hanged himself in front of the owner. The legless master lay in the ravine all night, seeing the crows pecking at the body of the dead Yakov. A hunter found him in the morning. Returning home, the master realized what a sin he had committed.

Another important image in the poem is the image of the people's intercessor Grisha Dobrosklonov. Only he smiled in the poem to experience happiness. Grisha is still young, but “at the age of fifteen, Gregory already knew firmly that he would live for the happiness of his wretched and dark native corner.” The song “Rus”, composed by the young poet, is a genuine call for a revolutionary reorganization of the world: “The army is rising - Innumerable, the Power in it will be indestructible!” Thus, N.A. Nekrasov, as a poet-citizen, convincingly shows that happiness lies in serving other people, in fighting for the people's cause. “I don’t need either silver or gold, but God grant, so that my fellow countrymen and every peasant may live freely and cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'!” - exclaims the hero. In the image of G. Dobrosklonov N.A. Nekrasov embodied the collective image of a revolutionary, young man, capable of devoting his life to the fight for a bright future for Russia.

Chapters Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" not only open different sides life of Russia: in each chapter we look at this life through the eyes of representatives of different classes. And the story of each of them, as the center, turns to the “kingdom of the peasant”, revealing different aspects of people’s life - their way of life, work, revealing the people’s soul, people’s conscience, people’s aspirations and aspirations. To use the expression of Nekrasov himself, we “measure” the peasant with different “standards” - both the “master’s” and his own. But in parallel, against the background of the majestic picture of life created in the poem Russian Empire The internal plot of the poem develops - the gradual growth of the heroes’ self-awareness, their spiritual awakening. Observing what is happening, talking with a variety of people, men learn to distinguish true happiness from imaginary, illusory ones, they find the answer to the question “who is the holiest of all, who is the greatest sinner of all.” It is characteristic that already in the first part the heroes act as judges, and it is they who have the right to determine: which of those who call themselves happy is truly happy. This is a complex moral task that requires a person to have his own ideals. But it is equally important to note that wanderers increasingly find themselves “lost” in the crowd of peasants: their voices seem to merge with the voices of residents of other provinces, the entire peasant “world.” And the “world” already has a weighty word in condemning or justifying the happy and unhappy, sinners and righteous.

Going on a journey, the peasants are looking for someone who “life is easy and fun in Rus'”. This formula probably presupposes freedom and idleness, inseparable for men with wealth and nobility. To the first of the possible lucky ones I met - ass they ask the question: “Tell us in a divine way: / Is the priest’s life sweet? / How are you living at ease, happily / Are you living, honest father?..” For them, a synonym for a “happy” life is “sweet” life. The priest contrasts this vague idea with his understanding of happiness, which men share: “What do you think happiness is? / Peace, wealth, honor - / Isn’t that right, dear friends?” / They said: so...” It can be assumed that the ellipsis (and not an exclamation mark or period) placed after the peasant words means a pause - the peasants think about the priest’s words, but also accept them. L.A. Evstigneeva writes that the definition of “peace, wealth, honor” is alien to the people’s idea of ​​happiness. This is not entirely true: Nekrasov’s heroes really accepted this understanding of happiness, agreed with it internally: it is these three components - “peace, wealth, honor” that will be for them the basis for judging the priest and landowner, Ermil Girin, for choosing between numerous lucky people, which will appear in the chapter “Happy”. It is precisely because the priest’s life is devoid of peace, wealth, and honor that the men recognize him as unhappy. After listening to the priest’s complaints, they realized that his life was not “sweet” at all. They take out their frustration on Luka, who convinced everyone of the priest’s “happiness.” Scolding him, they remember all the arguments of Luke, who proved the priest’s happiness. Listening to their abuse, we understand what they set off on the journey with, what they considered a “good” life: for them it is a well-fed life:

What, did you take it? stubborn head!
Country club!
That's where the argument gets into!<...>
For three years I, little ones,
He lived with the priest as a worker,
Raspberries are not life!
Popova porridge - with butter,
Popov pie - with filling,
Popov's cabbage soup - with smelt!<...>
Well, here's what you've praised,
A priest's life!

Already in the story one priest appeared important feature of the story. Talking about their lives, about personal troubles, every possible “candidate” for happiness that men meet will paint a broad picture Russian life. This creates the image of Russia - a single world in which the life of each class turns out to be dependent on the life of the entire country. Only against the backdrop of people's life, in close connection with it, does the troubles of the heroes themselves become understandable and explainable. In the priest's story, first of all, the dark sides of the peasant's life are revealed: the priest, confessing to the dying, becomes a witness to the most sorrowful moments in the peasant's life. From the priest we learn that both in years of rich harvest and in years of famine, the life of a peasant is never easy:

Our benefits are meager,
Sands, swamps, mosses,
The little beast goes from hand to mouth,
Bread will be born on its own,
And if it gets better
The damp earth is the nurse,
So a new problem:
There is nowhere to go with the bread!
There's a need - you'll sell it
For sheer trifle,
And there is a crop failure!
Then pay through the nose,
Sell ​​the cattle!

It is pop that touches on one of the most tragic aspects of people's life - the most important topic poems: the sad position of the Russian peasant woman, “the sad woman, the nurse, the water-maid, the slave, the pilgrim and the eternal toiler.”

One can also note this feature of the narrative: at the heart of each story of the heroes about his life lies antithesis: past - present. At the same time, the heroes do not simply compare different stages of their lives: human life, a person’s happiness and misfortune are always connected with those laws - social and moral, according to which the life of the country follows. Characters often make broad generalizations themselves. So, for example, a priest, depicting the current ruin of landowners’ estates, peasant life, and the lives of priests, says:

At a time not far away
Russian Empire
Noble estates
Was full<...>
What weddings were played there,
That children were born
On free bread!<...>
But now it’s not the same!
Like the tribe of Judah,
The landowners dispersed
Across distant foreign lands
And native to Rus'.

The same antithesis will be characteristic of the story Obolta-Oboldueva about the landowner’s life: “Now Rus' is not the same!” - he will say, drawing pictures of the past prosperity and current ruin of noble families. The same theme will be continued in “The Peasant Woman,” which begins with a description of a beautiful landowner’s estate being destroyed by courtyard workers. The past and present will also be contrasted in the story about Savely, the Holy Russian hero. “And there were blessed times / Such times” - this is the pathos of Savely’s own story about his youth and Korezhina’s former life.

But the author’s task is clearly not to glorify lost prosperity. Both in the story of the priest and in the story of the landowner, especially in the stories of Matryona Timofeevna, the leitmotif is the idea that the basis of well-being is great work, great patience of the people, the very “fortification” that brought so much grief to the people. “Free bread”, the bread of serfs that was given to landowners for free, is the source of well-being for Russia and all its classes - all except the peasant class.

The painful impression of the priest's story does not disappear even in the chapter describing the rural holiday. Chapter " Rural fair» opens up new aspects of people's life. Through the eyes of peasants, we look at the simple joys of peasants, we see a motley and drunken crowd. “Blind people” - this Nekrasov definition from the poem “The Unhappy” fully conveys the essence of the picture of the national holiday drawn by the author. A crowd of peasants offering caps to tavern owners for a bottle of vodka, a drunken peasant who dumped a whole cartload of goods into a ditch, Vavilishka who drank all his money, offen men buying “pictures” with important generals and books “about my stupid lord” for sale to the peasants - All these, both sad and funny scenes, testify to the moral blindness of the people, their ignorance. Perhaps, only one bright episode was noted by the author in this holiday: universal sympathy for the fate of Vavilushka, who drank away all the money and grieved that he would not bring his granddaughter the promised gift: “The people gathered, listened, / Don’t laugh, feel sorry; / If there had been work, some bread / They would have helped him, / But if you take out two two-kopeck pieces, / You’ll be left with nothing.” When the scholar-folklorist Veretennikov helps out the poor peasant, the peasants “were so comforted, / So glad, as if he had given each one / a ruble.” Compassion for someone else's misfortune and the ability to rejoice in someone else's joy - the spiritual responsiveness of the people - all this foreshadows future author's words about the people's golden heart.

Chapter "Drunken Night" continues the theme of the “great Orthodox thirst”, the immensity of “Russian hops” and paints a picture of wild revelry on the night after the fair. The basis of the chapter is numerous dialogues of different people invisible to either wanderers or readers. Wine made them frank, forced them to talk about the most painful and intimate things. Each dialogue could be expanded into the story of human life, as a rule, unhappy: poverty, hatred between the closest people in the family - that’s what these conversations reveal. This description, which gave rise to the reader’s feeling that “there is no measure for Russian hops,” originally ended the chapter. But it is no coincidence that the author writes a sequel, making the center of the chapter “Drunken Night” not these painful pictures, but an explanatory conversation Pavlushi Veretennikova, folklorist scientist, with peasant Yakim Nagim. It is also no coincidence that the author makes the interlocutor of the folklorist scholar not a “craftsman,” as was the case in the first drafts, but rather a peasant. It is not an outside observer, but the peasant himself who provides an explanation for what is happening. “Don’t measure a peasant by the master’s measure!” - the voice of the peasant Yakim Nagogo sounds in response to Veretennikov, who reproached the peasants for “drinking until they stupefy.” Yakim explains public drunkenness by the suffering that was inflicted on the peasants without measure:

There is no measure for Russian hops,
Have they measured our grief?
Is there a limit to the work?<...>
Why is it shameful for you to look,
Like drunk people lying around
So look,
Like being dragged out of a swamp
Peasants have wet hay,
Having mowed down, they drag:
Where horses can't get through
Where and without a burden on foot
It's dangerous to cross
There's a peasant horde there
By Kochs, by Zhorins
Crawling and crawling with whips, -
The peasant's navel is cracking!

The image used by Yakim Naga in defining the peasants is full of contradictions - the army-horde. The army is the army, the peasants are warriors-warriors, heroes - this image will run through the entire Nekrasov poem. Men, workers and sufferers, are interpreted by the author as defenders of Russia, the basis of its wealth and stability. But the peasants are also a “horde”, an unenlightened, spontaneous, blind force. And these dark sides in folk life are also revealed in the poem. Drunkenness saves the peasant from sorrowful thoughts and from the anger that has accumulated in the soul over many years of suffering and injustice. The soul of a peasant is a “black cloud” foreshadowing a “thunderstorm” - this motif will be picked up in the chapter “Peasant Woman”, in “A Feast for the Whole World”. But the soul is peasant and “kind”: its anger “ends in wine.”

The contradictions of the Russian soul are further revealed by the author. Myself Yakima image full of such contradictions. This peasant’s love for the “pictures” that he bought for his son explains a lot. The author does not detail what “pictures” Yakim admired. It may well be that the same important generals were depicted there as in the pictures described in “Rural Fair”. It is important for Nekrasov to emphasize only one thing: during a fire, when people save what is most precious, Yakim did not save the thirty-five rubles he had accumulated, but “pictures.” And his wife saved him - not money, but icons. What was dear to the peasant soul turned out to be more important than what was needed for the body.

When talking about his hero, the author does not seek to show the uniqueness or peculiarity of Yakima. On the contrary, by emphasizing natural images in the description of his hero, the author creates a portrait-symbol of the entire Russian peasantry - a plowman who has become close to the land over many years. This gives Yakim’s words special weight: we perceive his voice as the voice of the very land-breadwinner, of peasant Rus' itself, calling not for condemnation, but for compassion:

The chest is sunken, as if depressed
Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth
Bends like cracks
On dry ground;
And to Mother Earth myself
He looks like: brown neck,
Like a layer cut off by a plow,
Brick face
Hand - tree bark.
And the hair is sand.

The chapter “Drunken Night” ends with songs in which the people’s soul was most strongly reflected. In one of them they sing “about Mother Volga, about valiant prowess, about maiden beauty.” The song about love and brave strength and will disturbed the peasants, passed “through the hearts of the peasants” with “fire-longing”, made women cry, and caused homesickness in the hearts of wanderers. Thus, the drunken, “cheerful and roaring” crowd of peasants is transformed before the eyes of the readers, and the longing for will and love, for happiness, suppressed by work and wine, opens in the hearts and souls of people.

Analysis of the poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who Lives Well in Rus'"

In January 1866, the next issue of the Sovremennik magazine was published in St. Petersburg. It opened with lines that are now familiar to everyone:

In what year - calculate

In what land - guess...

These words seemed to promise to introduce the reader into an entertaining fairy-tale world, where a warbler bird speaking in human language and a magic tablecloth would appear... So N.A. began with a sly smile and ease. Nekrasov his story about the adventures of seven men who argued about “who lives happily and freely in Russia.”

He devoted many years to working on the poem, which the poet called his “favorite brainchild.” He set himself the goal of writing a “people's book”, useful, understandable to the people and truthful. “I decided,” said Nekrasov, “to present in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who Lives Well in Russia.” This will be an epic of peasant life.” But death interrupted this gigantic work; the work remained unfinished. However, uhThese words seemed to promise to introduce the reader into an entertaining fairy-tale world, where a warbler bird speaking human language and a magic tablecloth would appear... So, with a sly smile and ease, N. A. Nekrasov began his story about the adventures of seven men, who argued about “who lives happily and freely in Russia.”

Already in the “Prologue” a picture of peasant Rus' was visible, the figure of the main character of the work stood up - the Russian peasant, as he really was: in bast shoes, onuchakh, an army coat, unfed, having suffered grief.

Three years later, publication of the poem resumed, but each part was met with severe persecution by the tsarist censors, who believed that the poem was “notable for its extreme ugliness of content.” The last of the written chapters, “A Feast for the Whole World,” came under especially sharp attack. Unfortunately, Nekrasov was not destined to see either the publication of “The Feast” or a separate edition of the poem. Without abbreviations or distortions, the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was published only after the October Revolution.

The poem occupies a central place in Nekrasov’s poetry, is its ideological and artistic pinnacle, the result of the writer’s thoughts about the fate of the people, about their happiness and the paths that lead to it. These thoughts worried the poet throughout his life and ran like a red thread through all his poetic work.

By the 1860s, the Russian peasant became the main character of Nekrasov's poetry. “Peddlers”, “Orina, the soldier’s mother”, “ Railway", "Frost, Red Nose" are the most important works of the poet on the way to the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'."

He devoted many years to working on the poem, which the poet called his “favorite brainchild.” He set himself the goal of writing a “people's book”, useful, understandable to the people and truthful. “I decided,” said Nekrasov, “to present in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who Lives Well in Russia.” This will be an epic of peasant life.” But death interrupted this gigantic work; the work remained unfinished. However, despite this, it retains ideological and artistic integrity.

Nekrasov revived the genre of folk epic in poetry. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a truly folk work: both in its ideological sound, and in the scale of the epic depiction of modern folk life, in posing the fundamental questions of the time, and in heroic pathos, and in the widespread use of poetic traditions of oral folk art, the proximity of poetic language to living speech forms of everyday life and song lyricism.

At the same time, Nekrasov’s poem has features characteristic specifically of critical realism. Instead of one central character, the poem primarily depicts the folk environment as a whole, the living conditions of different social circles. The people's point of view on reality is expressed in the poem already in the very development of the theme, in the fact that all of Russia, all events are shown through the perception of wandering peasants, presented to the reader as if in their vision.

The events of the poem unfold in the first years after the reform of 1861 and the liberation of the peasants. The people, the peasantry, are the true positive heroes of the poem. Nekrasov pinned his hopes for the future on him, although he was aware of the weakness of the forces of peasant protest and the immaturity of the masses for revolutionary action.

In the poem, the author created the image of the peasant Savely, the “hero of the Holy Russian”, “the hero of the homespun”, who personifies the gigantic strength and fortitude of the people. Savely is endowed with features legendary heroes folk epic. This image is associated by Nekrasov with the central theme of the poem - the search for ways to people's happiness. It is no coincidence that Matryona Timofeevna says about Savely to wanderers: “He was also a lucky man.” Savely’s happiness lies in his love of freedom, in his understanding of the need for active struggle of the people, who can only achieve a “free” life in this way.

The poem contains many memorable images of peasants. Here is the smart old mayor Vlas, who has seen a lot in his lifetime, and Yakim Nagoy, a typical representative of the working agricultural peasantry. However, Yakim Naga portrays the poet as not at all like the downtrodden, dark peasant of the patriarchal village. With a deep consciousness of his dignity, he ardently defends the people's honor and makes a fiery speech in defense of the people.

An important role in the poem is occupied by the image of Yermil Girin - a pure and incorruptible “protector of the people”, who takes the side of the rebel peasants and ends up in prison.

In the beautiful female image of Matryona Timofeevna, the poet draws the typical features of a Russian peasant woman. Nekrasov wrote many moving poems about the harsh “female share,” but he had never written about a peasant woman so fully, with such warmth and love as is depicted in the poem Matryonushka.

Along with the peasant characters of the poem, who evoke love and sympathy, Nekrasov also depicts other types of peasants, mainly courtyards - lordly hangers-on, sycophants, obedient slaves and outright traitors. These images are drawn by the poet in the tones of satirical denunciation. The more clearly he saw the protest of the peasantry, the more he believed in the possibility of their liberation, the more irreconcilably he condemned slavish humiliation, servility and servility. Such are the “exemplary slave” Yakov in the poem, who ultimately realizes the humiliation of his position and resorts to pitiful and helpless, but in his slavish consciousness, terrible revenge - suicide in front of his tormentor; the “sensitive lackey” Ipat, who talks about his humiliations with disgusting relish; informer, “one of our own spy” Yegor Shutov; Elder Gleb, seduced by the promises of the heir and agreed to destroy the will of the deceased landowner about the liberation of eight thousand peasants (“Peasant Sin”).

Showing the ignorance, rudeness, superstition, and backwardness of the Russian village of that time, Nekrasov emphasizes the temporary, historically transitory nature of dark sides peasant life.

The world poetically recreated in the poem is a world of sharp social contrasts, clashes, and acute contradictions in life.

In the “round”, “ruddy-faced”, “pot-bellied”, “mustachioed” landowner Obolte-Obolduev, whom the wanderers met, the poet reveals the emptiness and frivolity of a person who is not used to thinking seriously about life. Behind the guise of a good-natured man, behind the courteous courtesy and ostentatious cordiality of Obolt-Obolduev, the reader sees the arrogance and anger of the landowner, barely restrained disgust and hatred for the “muzhich”, for the peasants.

The image of the landowner-tyrant Prince Utyatin, nicknamed by the peasants the Last One, is marked with satire and grotesquery. A predatory look, “a nose with a beak like a hawk,” alcoholism and voluptuousness complement the disgusting appearance of a typical representative of the landowner environment, an inveterate serf owner and despot.

At first glance, the development of the plot of the poem should consist in resolving the dispute between the men: which of the persons they named lives happier - the landowner, the official, the priest, the merchant, the minister or the tsar. However, developing the action of the poem, Nekrasov goes beyond the plot framework set by the plot of the work. Seven peasants are no longer looking for happiness only among representatives of the ruling classes. Going to the fair, in the midst of the people, they ask themselves the question: “Isn’t he hiding there, who lives happily?” In "The Last One" they directly say that the purpose of their journey is to search for people's happiness, the best peasant share:

We are looking, Uncle Vlas,

Unflogged province,

Ungutted parish,

Izbytkova village!..

Having begun the narrative in a semi-fairy-tale humorous tone, the poet gradually deepens the meaning of the question of happiness and gives it an increasingly acute social resonance. The author's intentions are most clearly manifested in the censored part of the poem - “A feast for the whole world.” The story about Grisha Dobrosklonov that began here was to take a central place in the development of the theme of happiness and struggle. Here the poet speaks directly about that path, about that “path” that leads to the embodiment of national happiness. Grisha’s happiness lies in the conscious struggle for a happy future for the people, so that “every peasant can live freely and cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'.”

The image of Grisha is the final one in the series of “people's intercessors” depicted in Nekrasov’s poetry. The author emphasizes in Grisha his close proximity to the people, lively communication with the peasants, in whom he finds complete understanding and support; Grisha is depicted as an inspired dreamer-poet, composing his “good songs” for the people.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the highest example of the folk style of Nekrasov poetry. The folk-song and fairy-tale element of the poem gives it a bright national flavor and is directly related to Nekrasov’s faith in the great future of the people. The main theme of the poem - the search for happiness - goes back to folk tales, songs and other folklore sources, which talked about the search for a happy land, truth, wealth, treasure, etc. This theme expressed the most cherished thought of the masses, their desire for happiness, the age-old dream of the people about a just social system.

Nekrasov used in his poem almost the entire genre diversity of Russian folk poetry: fairy tales, epics, legends, riddles, proverbs, sayings, family songs, love songs, wedding songs, historical songs. Folk poetry provided the poet with rich material for judging peasant life, life, and the customs of the village.

The style of the poem is characterized by a wealth of emotional sounds, a variety of poetic intonation: the sly smile and leisurely narration in the “Prologue” is replaced in subsequent scenes by the ringing polyphony of a seething fair crowd, in “The Last One” - by satirical ridicule, in “The Peasant Woman” - by deep drama and lyrical emotion, and in “A Feast for the Whole World” - with heroic tension and revolutionary pathos.

The poet subtly feels and loves the beauty of the native Russian nature of the northern strip. The poet also uses the landscape to create an emotional tone, to more fully and vividly characterize the character’s state of mind.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” has a prominent place in Russian poetry. In it, the fearless truth of pictures of folk life appears in an aura of poetic fabulousness and the beauty of folk art, and the cry of protest and satire merged with the heroism of the revolutionary struggle. All this was expressed with great artistic force in the immortal work of N.A. Nekrasova.

Poem by N.A. Nekrasov’s “Who Lives Well in Rus',” which he worked on for the last ten years of his life, but did not have time to fully implement, cannot be considered unfinished. It contains everything that made up the meaning of the poet’s spiritual, ideological, life and artistic searches from his youth to his death. And this “everything” found a worthy—capacious and harmonious—form of expression.

What is the architectonics of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”? Architectonics is the “architecture” of a work, the construction of a whole from individual structural parts: chapters, parts, etc. In this poem it is complex. Of course, the inconsistency in the division of the enormous text of the poem gives rise to the complexity of its architectonics. Not everything is written down, not everything is uniform and not everything is numbered. However, this does not make the poem any less amazing - it shocks anyone capable of feeling compassion, pain and anger at the sight of cruelty and injustice. Nekrasov, creating typical images of unjustly ruined peasants, made them immortal.

The beginning of the poem -"Prologue" — sets a fabulous tone for the entire work.

Of course, this is a fairy-tale beginning: who knows where and when, who knows why, seven men come together. And a dispute flares up - how can a Russian person live without a dispute? and the men turn into wanderers, wandering along an endless road to find the truth, hidden either behind the next turn, or behind the nearest hill, or even completely unattainable.

In the text of the “Prologue,” whoever doesn’t appear, as if in a fairy tale: a woman - almost a witch, and a gray hare, and small jackdaws, and a chick warbler, and a cuckoo... Seven eagle owls look at the wanderers in the night, the echo echoes their cries, an owl, a cunning fox - everyone has been here. Groin, examining the small birdie - a chick warbler - and seeing that she is happier than the man, decides to find out the truth. And, as in a fairy tale, the mother warbler, rescuing the chick, promises to give the men plenty of everything they ask for on the road, so that they can only find the truthful answer, and shows the way. “Prologue” is not like a fairy tale. This is a fairy tale, only a literary one. So the men make a vow not to return home until they find the truth. And the wandering begins.

Chapter I - "Pop". In it, the priest defines what happiness is - “peace, wealth, honor” - and describes his life in such a way that none of the conditions of happiness fit it. The misfortunes of peasant parishioners in poor villages, the revelry of landowners who left their estates, the desolate life of the locality - all this is in the priest’s bitter answer. And, bowing low to him, the wanderers move on.

In Chapter II wanderers at the fair. The picture of the village: “a house with the inscription: school, empty, / Packed tightly” - and this is in a village “rich, but dirty.” There, at the fair, a phrase familiar to us sounds:

When a man is not Blucher

And not my foolish lord—

Belinsky and Gogol

Will it come from the market?

In Chapter III "Drunken Night" The eternal vice and consolation of the Russian serf peasant is described with bitterness - drunkenness to the point of unconsciousness. Pavlusha Veretennikov appears again, known among the peasants of the village of Kuzminskoye as “the gentleman” and met by wanderers back there, at the fair. He records folk songs, jokes - we would say, collects Russian folklore.

Having written down enough,

Veretennikov told them:

“Russian peasants are smart,

One thing is bad

That they drink until they are stupefied,

They fall into ditches, into ditches—

It’s a shame to see!”

This offends one of the men:

There is no measure for Russian hops.

Have they measured our grief?

Is there a limit to the work?

Wine brings down the peasant,

Doesn't grief overwhelm him?

Work isn't going well?

A man does not measure troubles

Copes with everything

No matter what, come.

This man, who stands up for everyone and defends the dignity of the Russian serf, is one of the most important heroes of the poem, the peasant Yakim Nagoy. This surname - speaking. And he lives in the village of Bosovo. Travelers learn the story of his unimaginably difficult life and ineradicable proud courage from local peasants.

In Chapter IV wanderers wander through the festive crowd, bawling: “Hey! Isn’t there a happy one somewhere?” - and the peasants will respond by smiling and spitting... Pretenders appear, coveting the drink promised by the wanderers “for happiness.” All this is both scary and frivolous. Happy is the soldier that he was beaten, but not killed, did not die of hunger and survived twenty battles. But for some reason this is not enough for wanderers, even though it would be a sin to refuse a soldier a glass. Other naive workers who humbly consider themselves happy also evoke pity and not joy. The stories of the “happy” people are becoming scarier and scarier. There even appears a type of princely “slave”, happy with his “noble” disease - gout - and the fact that at least it brings him closer to the master.

Finally, someone directs the wanderers to Yermil Girin: if he is not happy, then who will be! The story of Ermil is important for the author: the people raised money so that, bypassing the merchant, the man bought himself a mill on the Unzha (a large navigable river in the Kostroma province). The generosity of the people, who give their last for a good cause, is a joy for the author. Nekrasov is proud of the men. Afterwards, Yermil gave everything to his people, the ruble remained ungiven - no owner was found, but the money was collected enormously. Yermil gave the ruble to the poor. The story follows about how Yermil won the people's trust. His incorruptible honesty in the service, first as a clerk, then as a lord’s manager, and his help over many years created this trust. It seemed that the matter was clear - such a person could not help but be happy. And suddenly the gray-haired priest announces: Yermil is sitting in prison. And he was put there in connection with a peasant revolt in the village of Stolbnyaki. How and what - the wanderers did not have time to find out.

In Chapter V - “The Landowner” — the stroller rolls out, and in it is indeed the landowner Obolt-Obolduev. The landowner is described comically: a plump gentleman with a “pistol” and a paunch. Note: he has a “speaking” name, as almost always with Nekrasov. “Tell us, in God’s terms, is the life of a landowner sweet?” - the wanderers stop him. The landowner's stories about his “root” are strange to the peasants. Not exploits, but outrages to please the queen and the intention to set fire to Moscow - these are the memorable deeds of illustrious ancestors. What is the honor for? How to understand? The landowner's story about the delights of the former master's life somehow does not please the peasants, and Obolduev himself recalls with bitterness the past - it is gone, and gone forever.

To adapt to a new life after the abolition of serfdom, you need to study and work. But labor - not a noble habit. Hence the grief.

"The last one." This part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” begins with a picture of haymaking on water meadows. A noble family appears. The appearance of an old man is terrible - the father and grandfather of a noble family. The ancient and evil Prince Utyatin lives because his former serfs, according to the story of the peasant Vlas, conspired with the noble family to imitate the old serf order for the sake of the prince’s peace of mind and so that he would not deny his family an inheritance due to the whim of old age. They promised to give the peasants water meadows after the death of the prince. The “faithful slave” Ipat was also found - in Nekrasov, as you have already noticed, and such types among the peasants find their description. Only the man Agap could not stand it and cursed the Last One for what it was worth. The feigned punishment at the stable with lashes turned out to be fatal for the proud peasant. The last one died almost before the eyes of our wanderers, and the peasants are still suing over the meadows: “The heirs are fighting with the peasants to this day.”

According to the logic of the construction of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” what follows is, as it were, herThe second part , entitled"Peasant Woman" and having its own"Prologue" and your chapters. The peasants, having lost faith in finding someone happy among the men, decide to turn to the women. There is no need to retell what kind and how much “happiness” they find in the lot of women and peasants. All this is expressed with such depth of penetration into a woman’s suffering soul, with such an abundance of details of fate, slowly told by a peasant woman, respectfully called “Matryona Timofeevna, she is the governor’s wife,” that at times it either touches you to tears, or makes you clench your fists with anger. She was happy on her first night as a woman, and when was that!

Weaved into the narrative are songs created by the author on a folk basis, as if sewn on the canvas of a Russian folk song (Chapter 2. “Songs” ). There the wanderers sing with Matryona in turn, and the peasant woman herself, remembering the past.

My hateful husband

Rises:

For the silk lash

Accepted.

Choir

The whip whistled

Blood spattered...

Oh! cherished! cherished!

Blood spattered...

The married life of a peasant woman matched the song. Only her husband's grandfather, Savely, took pity and consoled her. “He was also lucky,” recalls Matryona.

A separate chapter of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is dedicated to this powerful Russian man -"Savely, the Holy Russian hero" . The title of the chapter speaks about its style and content. A branded, former convict, an old man of heroic build speaks little, but aptly. “To not endure is an abyss, to endure is an abyss,” are his favorite words. The old man buried the German Vogel, the lord's manager, alive in the ground for atrocities against the peasants. Savely’s collective image:

Do you think, Matryonushka,

Is the man not a hero?

And his life is not a military one,

And death is not written for him

In battle - what a hero!

Hands are twisted in chains,

Feet forged with iron,

Back...dense forests

We walked along it and broke down.

What about the breasts? Elijah the prophet

It rattles and rolls around

On a chariot of fire...

The hero endures everything!

In the chapter"Dyomushka" the worst thing happens: Matryona’s little son, left at home unattended, is eaten by pigs. But this is not enough: the mother was accused of murder, and the police opened the child in front of her eyes. And it’s even more terrible that the innocent culprit in the death of his beloved grandson, who awakened the tormented soul of his grandfather, was Savely the hero himself, already a very old man, who fell asleep and neglected to look after the baby.

In Chapter V - “She-Wolf” — the peasant woman forgives the old man and endures everything that remains in her life. Having chased the she-wolf who carried away the sheep, Matryona's son Fedotka the Shepherd takes pity on the beast: hungry, powerless, with swollen nipples, the mother of the wolf cubs sits down on the grass in front of him, suffers a beating, and the little boy leaves her the sheep, already dead. Matryona accepts punishment for him and lies under the whip.

After this episode, Matryona’s song lamentations on a gray stone above the river, when she, an orphan, calls out to her father and mother for help and comfort, complete the story and create the transition to a new year of disasters -Chapter VI “Difficult Year” . Hungry, “She looks like the kids / I was like her,” Matryona recalls the she-wolf. Her husband is drafted into a soldier without a deadline and without a queue; she remains with her children in her husband’s hostile family - a “freeloader”, without protection or help. The life of a soldier is a special topic, revealed in detail. The soldiers flog her son with rods in the square - you can’t understand why.

A terrible song precedes Matryona's escape alone. winter night (head "Governor" ). She threw herself backward onto the snowy road and prayed to the Intercessor.

And the next morning Matryona went to the governor. She fell at her feet right on the stairs to get her husband back, and gave birth. The governor turned out to be a compassionate woman, and Matryona and her child returned happy. They nicknamed her the Governor, and life seemed to be getting better, but then the time came, and they took the eldest as a soldier. “What else do you need? — Matryona asks the peasants, “the keys to women’s happiness... are lost,” and cannot be found.

The third part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, not called that, but having all the signs of an independent part - dedication to Sergei Petrovich Botkin, introduction and chapters - has a strange name -"A Feast for the Whole World" . In the introduction, some semblance of hope for the freedom granted to the peasants, which is not yet visible, lights up the face of the peasant Vlas with a smile almost for the first time in his life. But its first chapter is"Bitter times - bitter songs" - represents either a stylization of folk couplets telling about hunger and injustices under serfdom, then mournful, “lingering, sad” Vakhlak songs about inescapable forced melancholy, and finally, “Corvee”.

A separate chapter - a story“About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful” - begins as if about a serf peasant of the slave type who interested Nekrasov. However, the story takes an unexpected and sharp turn: unable to bear the insult, Yakov first started drinking, fled, and when he returned, he took the master into a swampy ravine and hanged himself in front of his eyes. The worst sin for a Christian is suicide. The wanderers are shocked and frightened, and a new dispute begins - a dispute about who is the worst sinner of all. Ionushka, the “humble praying mantis,” tells the story.

A new page of the poem opens -"Wanderers and Pilgrims" , for her -"About two great sinners" : a tale about Kudeyar-ataman, a robber who killed countless souls. The story is told in epic verse, and, as if in a Russian song, Kudeyar’s conscience awakens, he accepts hermitage and repentance from the saint who appeared to him: to cut off a century-old oak with the same knife with which he killed. The work takes many years, the hope that it will be possible to complete it before death is weak. Suddenly, the well-known villain Pan Glukhovsky appears on horseback in front of Kudeyar and tempts the hermit with shameless speeches. Kudeyar cannot stand the temptation: the master has a knife in his chest. And - a miracle! — the century-old oak tree collapsed.

The peasants are starting a dispute about whose sin is worse—the “noble” or the “peasant.”In the chapter “Peasant Sin” Also, in an epic verse, Ignatius Prokhorov talks about the sin of Judas (the sin of betrayal) of a peasant elder, who was tempted by the bribe of the heir and hid the owner’s will, in which all eight thousand souls of his peasants were set free. The listeners shudder. There is no forgiveness for the destroyer of eight thousand souls. The despair of the peasants, who recognized that such sins were possible among them, pours out in song. “Hungry” is a terrible song - a spell, the howl of an insatiable beast - not a human. A new face appears - Gregory, the young godson of the headman, the son of a sexton. He consoles and inspires the peasants. After sighing and thinking, they decide: It’s all to blame: strengthen yourself!

It turns out that Grisha is going “to Moscow, to the new city.” And then it becomes clear that Grisha is the hope of the peasant world:

“I don’t need any silver,

Not gold, but God willing,

So that my fellow countrymen

And every peasant

Life was free and fun

All over holy Rus'!

But the story continues, and the wanderers witness how an old soldier, thin as a sliver, hung with medals, rides up on a cart of hay and sings his song - “Soldier’s” with the refrain: “The light is sick, / There is no bread, / There is no shelter, /There is no death,” and to others: “German bullets, /Turkish bullets, /French bullets, /Russian sticks.” Everything about the soldier’s lot is collected in this chapter of the poem.

But here is a new chapter with a cheerful title"Good time - good songs" . Savva and Grisha sing a song of new hope on the Volga bank.

The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of a sexton from the Volga, of course, unites the features of Nekrasov’s dear friends - Belinsky, Dobrolyubov (compare the names), Chernyshevsky. They could sing this song too. Grisha barely managed to survive the famine: his mother’s song, sung by the peasant women, was called “Salty.” A piece watered with a mother's tears is a substitute for salt for a child dying of hunger. “With love for the poor mother / Love for all the Vakhlachina / Merged, - and at the age of fifteen / Gregory already knew firmly / That he would live for the happiness / Of his wretched and dark native corner.” Images of angelic forces appear in the poem, and the style changes dramatically. The poet moves on to marching tercets, reminiscent of the rhythmic tread of the forces of good, inevitably pushing back the obsolete and evil. The “Angel of Mercy” sings an invocation song over a Russian youth.

Grisha, waking up, goes down to the meadows, thinks about the fate of his homeland and sings. The song contains his hope and love. And firm confidence: “Enough! /Completed with the settlement, /Completed the settlement with the master! / The Russian people gather their strength / And learn to be citizens.”

“Rus” is the last song of Grisha Dobrosklonov.

Source (abbreviated): Michalskaya, A.K. Literature: A basic level of: Grade 10. At 2 p.m. Part 1: study. allowance / A.K. Mikhalskaya, O.N. Zaitseva. - M.: Bustard, 2018

Who can live well in Rus'? This question still worries many people, and this fact explains increased attention to the legendary poem by Nekrasov. The author managed to raise a topic that has become eternal in Russia - the topic of asceticism, voluntary self-denial in the name of saving the fatherland. It is the service of a high goal that makes a Russian person happy, as the writer proved with the example of Grisha Dobrosklonov.

“Who lives well in Rus'” is one of latest works Nekrasova. When he wrote it, he was already seriously ill: he was struck by cancer. That's why it's not finished. It was collected bit by bit by the poet’s close friends and arranged the fragments in random order, barely catching the confused logic of the creator, broken by a fatal illness and endless pain. He was dying in agony and yet was able to answer the question posed at the very beginning: Who lives well in Rus'? He himself turned out to be lucky in a broad sense, because he faithfully and selflessly served the interests of the people. This service supported him in the fight against his fatal illness. Thus, the history of the poem began in the first half of the 60s of the 19th century, around 1863 (serfdom was abolished in 1861), and the first part was ready in 1865.

The book was published in fragments. The prologue was published in the January issue of Sovremennik in 1866. Later other chapters were published. All this time, the work attracted the attention of censors and was mercilessly criticized. In the 70s, the author wrote the main parts of the poem: “The Last One,” “The Peasant Woman,” “A Feast for the Whole World.” He planned to write much more, but due to the rapid development of the disease he was unable to and settled on “The Feast...”, where he expressed his main idea regarding the future of Russia. He believed that such holy people as Dobrosklonov would be able to help his homeland, mired in poverty and injustice. Despite the fierce attacks of reviewers, he found the strength to stand up for a just cause to the end.

Genre, kind, direction

ON THE. Nekrasov called his creation “the epic of modern peasant life” and was precise in his formulation: the genre of the work is “Who can live well in Rus'?” - epic poem. That is, at the heart of the book there coexists not just one type of literature, but two: lyricism and epic:

1. Epic component. There was a turning point in the history of the development of Russian society in the 1860s, when people learned to live in new conditions after the abolition of serfdom and other fundamental transformations of their usual way of life. This difficult historical period was described by the writer, reflecting the realities of that time without embellishment or falsehood. In addition, the poem has a clear linear plot and many original characters, which indicates the scale of the work, comparable only to a novel (epic genre). The book also incorporates folklore elements of heroic songs telling about the military campaigns of heroes against enemy camps. All these are generic signs of the epic.
2. Lyrical component. The work is written in verse - this is the main property of lyrics as a genre. The book also contains space for the author's digressions and typically poetic symbols, means of artistic expression, and features of the characters' confessions.

The direction within which the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was written is realism. However, the author significantly expanded its boundaries, adding fantastic and folklore elements (prologue, opening, symbolism of numbers, fragments and heroes from folk legends). The poet chose the form of travel for his plan, as a metaphor for the search for truth and happiness that each of us carries out. Many researchers of Nekrasov’s work compare the plot structure with the structure of a folk epic.

Composition

The laws of the genre determined the composition and plot of the poem. Nekrasov finished writing the book in terrible agony, but still did not have time to finish it. This explains the chaotic composition and many branches from the plot, because the works were shaped and restored from drafts by his friends. In the last months of his life, he himself was unable to clearly adhere to the original concept of creation. Thus, the composition “Who Lives Well in Rus'?”, comparable only to the folk epic, is unique. It was developed as a result of the creative development of world literature, and not the direct borrowing of some well-known example.

1. Exposition (Prologue). The meeting of seven men - the heroes of the poem: “On a pillared path / Seven men came together.”
2. The plot is the characters' oath not to return home until they find the answer to their question.
3. The main part consists of many autonomous parts: the reader gets acquainted with a soldier, happy that he was not killed, a slave, proud of his privilege to eat from the master's bowls, a grandmother, whose garden yielded turnips to her delight... While the search for happiness stands still, depicts the slow but steady growth of national self-awareness, which the author wanted to show even more than the declared happiness in Rus'. From random episodes, a general picture of Rus' emerges: poor, drunk, but not hopeless, striving for a better life. In addition, the poem has several large and independent inserted episodes, some of which are even included in autonomous chapters (“The Last One,” “The Peasant Woman”).
4. Climax. The writer calls Grisha Dobrosklonov, a fighter for people's happiness, a happy person in Rus'.
5. Denouement. A serious illness prevented the author from completing his great plan. Even those chapters that he managed to write were sorted and designated by his proxies after his death. You must understand that the poem is not finished, it was written by a very sick person, therefore this work is the most complex and confusing of Nekrasov’s entire literary heritage.
6. The final chapter is called “A Feast for the Whole World.” All night long the peasants sing about the old and new times. Grisha Dobrosklonov sings kind and hopeful songs.

What is the poem about?

Seven men met on the road and argued about who would live well in Rus'? The essence of the poem is that they looked for the answer to this question on the way, talking with representatives of different classes. The revelation of each of them is a separate story. So, the heroes went for a walk in order to resolve the dispute, but only quarreled and started a fight. In the night forest, during a fight, a bird's chick fell from its nest, and one of the men picked it up. The interlocutors sat down by the fire and began to dream of also acquiring wings and everything necessary for their journey in search of the truth. The warbler turns out to be magical and, as a ransom for her chick, tells people how to find a self-assembled tablecloth that will provide them with food and clothing. They find her and feast, and during the feast they vow to find the answer to their question together, but until then not to see any of their relatives and not to return home.

On the road they meet a priest, a peasant woman, the showroom Petrushka, beggars, an overextended worker and a paralyzed former servant, an honest man Ermila Girin, the landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev, the insane Last-Utyatin and his family, the servant Yakov the faithful, God's wanderer Jonah Lyapushkin but none of them were happy man. Each of them is associated with a story of suffering and misadventures full of genuine tragedy. The goal of the journey is achieved only when the wanderers stumbled upon seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, who is happy with his selfless service to his homeland. With good songs, he instills hope in the people, and this is where the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” ends. Nekrasov wanted to continue the story, but did not have time, but he gave his heroes a chance to gain faith in the future of Russia.

The main characters and their characteristics

About the heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” we can say with confidence that they represent a complete system of images that organizes and structures the text. For example, the work emphasizes the unity of the seven wanderers. They do not show individuality or character; they express common features of national self-awareness for all. These characters- a single whole, their dialogues, in fact, are collective speech, which originates from oral folk art. This feature makes Nekrasov’s poem similar to the Russian folklore tradition.

1. Seven wanderers represent former serfs “from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neelova, Neurozhaika and also.” They all put forward their versions of who should live well in Rus': a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a sovereign minister or a tsar. Their character is characterized by persistence: they all demonstrate a reluctance to take someone else's side. Strength, courage and the desire for truth are what unites them. They are passionate and easily angered, but their easygoing nature compensates for these shortcomings. Kindness and responsiveness make them pleasant interlocutors, even despite some meticulousness. Their disposition is harsh and harsh, but life did not spoil them with luxury: the former serfs always bent their backs working for the master, and after the reform no one bothered to provide them with a proper home. So they wandered around Rus' in search of truth and justice. The search itself characterizes them as serious, thoughtful and thorough people. The symbolic number “7” means a hint of luck that awaited them at the end of the journey.
2. Main character– Grisha Dobrosklonov, seminarian, son of a sexton. By nature he is a dreamer, a romantic, loves to compose songs and make people happy. In them he talks about the fate of Russia, about its misfortunes, and at the same time about its mighty strength, which will one day come out and crush injustice. Although he is an idealist, his character is strong, as are his convictions to devote his life to the service of truth. The character feels a calling to be the people's leader and singer of Rus'. He is happy to sacrifice himself to a high idea and help his homeland. However, the author hints that a difficult fate awaits him: prison, exile, hard labor. The authorities do not want to hear the voice of the people, they will try to silence them, and then Grisha will be doomed to torment. But Nekrasov makes it clear with all his might that happiness is a state of spiritual euphoria, and you can only know it by being inspired by a lofty idea.
3. Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina- the main character, a peasant woman, whom her neighbors call lucky because she begged her husband from the wife of the military leader (he, the only breadwinner of the family, was supposed to be recruited for 25 years). However, the woman's life story reveals not luck or fortune, but grief and humiliation. She experienced the loss of her only child, the anger of her mother-in-law, and everyday, exhausting work. Her fate is described in detail in an essay on our website, be sure to check it out.
4. Savely Korchagin- grandfather of Matryona’s husband, a real Russian hero. At one time, he killed a German manager who mercilessly mocked the peasants entrusted to him. For this, a strong and proud man paid with decades of hard labor. Upon his return, he was no longer good for anything; the years of imprisonment trampled his body, but did not break his will, because, as before, he stood up for justice. The hero always said about the Russian peasant: “And it bends, but does not break.” However, without knowing it, the grandfather turns out to be the executioner of his own great-grandson. He did not look after the child, and the pigs ate him.
5. Ermil Girin- a man of exceptional honesty, mayor in the estate of Prince Yurlov. When he needed to buy the mill, he stood in the square and asked people to chip in to help him. After the hero got back on his feet, he returned all the borrowed money to the people. For this he earned respect and honor. But he is unhappy, because he paid for his authority with freedom: after a peasant revolt, suspicion fell on him about his organization, and he was imprisoned.
6. Landowners in the poem“Who lives well in Rus'” are presented in abundance. The author depicts them objectively and even gives some images positive character. For example, governor Elena Alexandrovna, who helped Matryona, appears as a people's benefactor. Also, with a touch of compassion, the writer portrays Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev, who also treated the peasants tolerably, even organized holidays for them, and with the abolition of serfdom, he lost ground under his feet: he was too accustomed to the old order. In contrast to these characters, the image of the Last-Duckling and his treacherous, calculating family was created. The relatives of the old, cruel serf owner decided to deceive him and persuaded the former slaves to participate in the performance in exchange for profitable territories. However, when the old man died, the rich heirs brazenly deceived the common people and drove him away with nothing. The apogee of noble insignificance is the landowner Polivanov, who beats his faithful servant and gives his son as a recruit for trying to marry his beloved girl. Thus, the writer is far from denigrating the nobility everywhere; he is trying to show both sides of the coin.
7. Serf Yakov- an indicative figure of a serf peasant, an antagonist of the hero Savely. Jacob absorbed the entire slavish essence of the oppressed class, overwhelmed by lawlessness and ignorance. When the master beats him and even sends his son to certain death, the servant humbly and resignedly endures the insult. His revenge was consistent with this humility: he hanged himself in the forest right in front of the master, who was crippled and could not get home without his help.
8. Jonah Lyapushkin- God's wanderer who told the men several stories about the life of people in Rus'. It tells about the epiphany of Ataman Kudeyara, who decided to atone for his sins by killing for good, and about the cunning of Gleb the elder, who violated the will of the late master and did not release the serfs on his orders.
9. Pop- a representative of the clergy who complains about the difficult life of a priest. The constant encounter with grief and poverty saddens the heart, not to mention the popular jokes addressed to his rank.

The characters in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are diverse and allow us to paint a picture of the morals and life of that time.

Subject

• The main theme of the work is Liberty- rests on the problem that the Russian peasant did not know what to do with it, and how to adapt to new realities. The national character is also “problematic”: people-thinkers, people-seekers of truth still drink, live in oblivion and empty talk. They are not able to squeeze slaves out of themselves until their poverty acquires at least the modest dignity of poverty, until they stop living in drunken illusions, until they realize their strength and pride, trampled upon by centuries of humiliating state of affairs that were sold, lost and bought.
• Happiness theme. The poet believes that a person can get the highest satisfaction from life only by helping other people. The real value of being is to feel needed by society, to bring goodness, love and justice into the world. Selfless and selfless service to a good cause fills every moment with sublime meaning, an idea, without which time loses its color, becomes dull from inaction or selfishness. Grisha Dobrosklonov is happy not because of his wealth or his position in the world, but because he is leading Russia and his people to a bright future.
• Homeland theme. Although Rus' appears in the eyes of readers as a poor and tortured, but still a beautiful country with a great future and a heroic past. Nekrasov feels sorry for his homeland, devoting himself entirely to its correction and improvement. For him, the homeland is the people, the people are his muse. All these concepts are closely intertwined in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The author's patriotism is especially clearly expressed at the end of the book, when the wanderers find a lucky man who lives in the interests of society. In the strong and patient Russian woman, in the justice and honor of the heroic peasant, in the sincere good-heartedness of the folk singer, the creator sees the true image of his state, full of dignity and spirituality.
• Theme of labor. Useful activity elevates Nekrasov's poor heroes above the vanity and depravity of the nobility. It is idleness that destroys the Russian master, turning him into a self-satisfied and arrogant nonentity. But the common people have skills and true virtue that are really important for society, without them there will be no Russia, but the country will manage without noble tyrants, revelers and greedy seekers of wealth. So the writer comes to the conclusion that the value of each citizen is determined only by his contribution to the common cause - the prosperity of the homeland.
• Mystical motive. Fantastic elements appear already in the Prologue and immerse the reader in the fabulous atmosphere of the epic, where one must follow the development of the idea, and not the realism of the circumstances. Seven eagle owls on seven trees - the magic number 7, which promises good luck. A raven praying to the devil is another mask of the devil, because the raven symbolizes death, grave decay and infernal forces. He is opposed by a good force in the form of a warbler bird, which equips the men for the journey. A self-assembled tablecloth is a poetic symbol of happiness and contentment. “The Wide Road” is a symbol of the open ending of the poem and the basis of the plot, because on both sides of the road travelers are presented with a multifaceted and authentic panorama of Russian life. The image of an unknown fish in unknown seas, which has absorbed “the keys to female happiness,” is symbolic. The crying she-wolf with bloody nipples also clearly demonstrates the difficult fate of the Russian peasant woman. One of the most striking images of the reform is the “great chain”, which, having broken, “split one end over the master, the other over the peasant!” The seven wanderers are a symbol of the entire people of Russia, restless, waiting for change and seeking happiness.

Issues

• In the epic poem Nekrasov touched upon a large number of acute and topical issues of the time. The main problem in “Who can live well in Rus'?” - the problem of happiness, both socially and philosophically. She is connected with social issue abolition of serfdom, which greatly changed (and not in better side) traditional way of life of all segments of the population. It would seem that this is freedom, what else do people need? Isn't this happiness? However, in reality, it turned out that the people, who, due to long slavery, do not know how to live independently, found themselves thrown to the mercy of fate. A priest, a landowner, a peasant woman, Grisha Dobrosklonov and seven men are real Russian characters and destinies. The author described them based on his rich experience of communicating with people from the common people. The problems of the work are also taken from life: disorder and confusion after the reform to abolish serfdom really affected all classes. No one organized jobs or at least land plots for yesterday's slaves, no one provided the landowner with competent instructions and laws regulating his new relations with workers.
• The problem of alcoholism. The wanderers come to an unpleasant conclusion: life in Rus' is so difficult that without drunkenness the peasant will completely die. He needs oblivion and fog in order to somehow pull the burden of a hopeless existence and hard labor.
• The problem of social inequality. The landowners have been torturing the peasants with impunity for years, and Savelia has had her whole life ruined for killing such an oppressor. For deception, nothing will happen to the relatives of the Last One, and their servants will again be left with nothing.
• The philosophical problem of searching for truth, which each of us encounters, is allegorically expressed in the journey of seven wanderers who understand that without this discovery their lives become worthless.

Idea of ​​the work

A road fight between men is not an everyday quarrel, but an eternal, great dispute, in which all layers of Russian society of that time figure to one degree or another. All its main representatives (priest, landowner, merchant, official, tsar) are summoned to the peasant court. For the first time, men can and have the right to judge. For all the years of slavery and poverty, they are not looking for retribution, but for an answer: how to live? This expresses the meaning of Nekrasov’s poem “Who can live well in Rus'?” - growth of national self-awareness on the ruins of the old system. The author’s point of view is expressed by Grisha Dobrosklonov in his songs: “And fate, the companion of the Slav’s days, lightened your burden! You are still a slave in the family, but the mother of a free son!..” Despite the negative consequences of the reform of 1861, the creator believes that behind it lies a happy future for the fatherland. At the beginning of change it is always difficult, but this work will be rewarded a hundredfold.

The most important condition for further prosperity is overcoming internal slavery:

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

Even though the poem is not finished, the main idea Voiced by Nekrasov. Already the first of the songs in “A Feast for the Whole World” gives an answer to the question posed in the title: “The share of the people, their happiness, light and freedom, above all!”

End

In the finale, the author expresses his point of view on the changes that have occurred in Russia in connection with the abolition of serfdom and, finally, sums up the results of the search: Grisha Dobrosklonov is recognized as the lucky one. It is he who is the bearer of Nekrasov’s opinion, and in his songs Nikolai Alekseevich’s true attitude to what he described is hidden. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” ends with a feast for the whole world in the literal sense of the word: this is the name of the last chapter, where the characters celebrate and rejoice at the happy completion of the search.

Conclusion

In Rus', it is good for Nekrasov’s hero Grisha Dobrosklonov, since he serves people, and, therefore, lives with meaning. Grisha is a fighter for truth, a prototype of a revolutionary. The conclusion that can be drawn based on the work is simple: the lucky one has been found, Rus' is embarking on the path of reform, the people are reaching through thorns to the title of citizen. The great meaning of the poem lies in this bright omen. It has been teaching people altruism and the ability to serve high ideals, rather than vulgar and passing cults, for centuries. From the point of view of literary excellence, the book also has great value: it is truly a folk epic, reflecting a controversial, complex, and at the same time the most important historical era.

Of course, the poem would not be so valuable if it only taught lessons in history and literature. She gives life lessons, and this is its most important property. The moral of the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is that it is necessary to work for the good of your homeland, not to scold it, but to help it with deeds, because it is easier to push around with a word, but not everyone can and really wants to change something. This is happiness - to be in your place, to be needed not only by yourself, but also by the people. Only together can we achieve significant results, only together can we overcome the problems and hardships of this overcoming. Grisha Dobrosklonov tried to unite and unite people with his songs so that they would face change shoulder to shoulder. This is its holy purpose, and everyone has it; it is important not to be lazy to go out on the road and look for it, as the seven wanderers did.

Criticism

The reviewers were attentive to Nekrasov’s work, because he himself was an important person in literary circles and had enormous authority. Its phenomenal civil lyrics Entire monographs were devoted to the most detailed analysis of the creative methodology and ideological and thematic originality of his poetry. For example, here is how the writer S.A. spoke about his style. Andreevsky:

He brought the anapest, abandoned on Olympus, out of oblivion and for many years made this heavy but flexible meter as common as the airy and melodious iambic had remained from the time of Pushkin to Nekrasov. This rhythm, favored by the poet, reminiscent rotational movement barrel organ, allowed him to stay on the borders of poetry and prose, joke around with the crowd, speak smoothly and vulgarly, insert a funny and cruel joke, express bitter truths and imperceptibly, slowing down the beat, with more solemn words, move into floridity.

Korney Chukovsky spoke with inspiration about Nikolai Alekseevich’s thorough preparation for work, citing this example of writing as a standard:

Nekrasov himself constantly “visited Russian huts,” thanks to which both soldier and peasant speech became thoroughly known to him from childhood: not only from books, but also in practice, he studied the common language and from a young age became a great connoisseur of folk poetic images and folk forms thinking, folk aesthetics.

The poet's death came as a surprise and a blow to many of his friends and colleagues. As you know, F.M. spoke at his funeral. Dostoevsky with a heartfelt speech inspired by impressions from a poem he recently read. In particular, among other things, he said:

He really was in highest degree original and, indeed, came with a “new word”.

First of all, his poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” became a “new word”. No one before him had understood so deeply the peasant, simple, everyday grief. His colleague in his speech noted that Nekrasov was dear to him precisely because he bowed “to the people’s truth with all his being, which he testified to in his the best creatures" However, Fyodor Mikhailovich did not support his radical views on the reorganization of Russia, however, like many thinkers of that time. Therefore, criticism reacted to the publication violently, and in some cases aggressively. In this situation, the honor of his friend was defended by the famous reviewer, master of words Vissarion Belinsky:

N. Nekrasov in his last work remained true to his idea: to arouse the sympathy of the upper classes of society for the common people, their needs and requirements.

Quite caustically, recalling, apparently, professional disagreements, I. S. Turgenev spoke about the work:

Nekrasov's poems, collected into one focus, are burned.

The liberal writer was not a supporter of his former editor and openly expressed his doubts about his talent as an artist:

In the white thread stitched, seasoned with all sorts of absurdities, painfully hatched fabrications of the mournful muse of Mr. Nekrasov - there is not even a penny of it, poetry.”

He truly was a man of very high nobility of soul and a man of great intelligence. And as a poet he is, of course, superior to all poets.

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