What happened to Matryona. Analysis of Solzhenitsyn's story “Matrenin's Dvor. What happened after the incident on the railway

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You have probably met more than once such people who are ready to work with all their might for the benefit of others, but at the same time remain outcasts in society. No, they are not degraded either morally or mentally, but no matter how good their actions are, they are not appreciated. A. Solzhenitsyn tells us about one such character in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”.

We are talking about the main character of the story. The reader gets to know Matryona Vasilievna Grigoreva at an already advanced age - she was about 60 years old when we first see her on the pages of the story.

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Her house and yard are gradually falling into disrepair - “the wood chips have rotted, the logs of the log house and the gates, once mighty, have turned gray with age, and their cover has thinned out.”

Their owner is often sick and cannot get up for several days, but once upon a time everything was different: everything was built with a large family in mind, with high quality and soundness. The fact that now only a single woman lives here already sets the reader up to perceive the tragedy of the heroine’s life story.

Matryona's youth

Solzhenitsyn does not tell the reader anything about the childhood of the main character - the main emphasis of the story is on the period of her youth, when the main factors of her future unhappy life were laid.

When Matryona was 19 years old, Thaddeus wooed her; at that time he was 23. The girl agreed, but the war prevented the wedding. There was no news about Thaddeus for a long time, Matryona was faithfully waiting for him, but she did not receive any news or the guy himself. Everyone decided that he had died. His younger brother, Efim, invited Matryona to marry him. Matryona did not love Efim, so she did not agree, and, perhaps, the hope of Thaddeus’s return did not completely leave her, but she was still persuaded: “the smart one comes out after the Intercession, and the fool comes out after Petrov. They didn't have enough hands. I'll go." And as it turned out, it was in vain - her lover returned to Pokrova - he was captured by the Hungarians and therefore there was no news about him.

The news about the marriage of his brother and Matryona came as a blow to him - he wanted to chop up the young people, but the concept that Efim was his brother stopped his intentions. Over time, he forgave them for such an act.

Efim and Matryona remained to live in their parents' house. Matryona still lives in this yard; all the buildings here were made by her father-in-law.

Thaddeus did not marry for a long time, and then he found himself another Matryona - they have six children. Efim also had six children, but none of them survived - all died before the age of three months. Because of this, everyone in the village began to believe that Matryona had the evil eye, they even took her to the nun, but they could not achieve a positive result.

After the death of Matryona, Thaddeus talks about how his brother was ashamed of his wife. Efim preferred to “dress culturally, but she preferred to dress haphazardly, everything in a country style.” Once upon a time, the brothers had to work together in the city. Efim cheated on his wife there: he started a relationship, and didn’t want to return to Matryona

New grief came to Matryona - in 1941 Efim was taken to the front and he never returned from there. Whether Yefim died or found someone else is not known for sure.

So Matryona was left alone: ​​“misunderstood and abandoned even by her husband.”

Living alone

Matryona was kind and sociable. She maintained contact with her husband's relatives. Thaddeus’s wife also often came to her “to complain that her husband was beating her, and that her husband was stingy, pulling the veins out of her, and she cried here for a long time, and her voice was always in her tears.”

Matryona felt sorry for her, her husband hit her only once - the woman walked away as a protest - after this it never happened again.

The teacher, who lives in an apartment with a woman, believes that it is likely that Efim’s wife was luckier than Thaddeus’s wife. The elder brother's wife was always severely beaten.

Matryona didn’t want to live without children and her husband, she decides to ask “that second downtrodden Matryona - the womb of her snatches (or Thaddeus’ little blood?) - for their youngest girl, Kira. For ten years she raised her here as her own, instead of her own who failed.” At the time of the story, the girl lives with her husband in a neighboring village.

Matryona worked diligently on the collective farm “not for money - for sticks”, in total she worked for 25 years, and then, despite the hassle, she managed to get a pension for herself.

Matryona worked hard - she had to prepare peat for the winter and gather lingonberries (on good days, she “brought six bags” per day).

lingonberries. We also had to prepare hay for the goats. “In the morning she took a bag and a sickle and left (...) Having filled the bag with fresh heavy grass, she dragged it home and laid it out in a layer in her yard. A bag of grass made dried hay - a fork.” In addition, she also managed to help others. By her nature, she could not refuse help to anyone. It often happened that one of the relatives or just acquaintances asked her to help dig up potatoes - the woman “left her line of work and went to help.” After harvesting, she, along with other women, harnessed themselves to a plow instead of a horse and plowed the gardens. She didn’t take money for her work: “you just have to hide it for her.”

Once every month and a half she had troubles - she had to prepare dinner for the shepherds. On such days, Matryona went shopping: “I bought canned fish, and bought sugar and butter, which I did not eat myself.” Such was the order here - it was necessary to feed her as best as possible, otherwise she would have been made a laughing stock.

After receiving a pension and receiving money for renting out housing, Matryona’s life becomes much easier - the woman “ordered new felt boots for herself. I bought a new padded jacket. And she straightened her coat.” She even managed to save 200 rubles “for her funeral,” which, by the way, didn’t have to wait long. Matryona takes an active part in moving the room from her plot to her relatives. At a railway crossing, she rushes to help pull out a stuck sleigh - an oncoming train hits her and her nephew to death. They took off the bag to wash it. Everything was a mess - no legs, no half of the torso, no left arm. One woman crossed herself and said:

“The Lord left her her right hand.” There will be a prayer to God.

After the woman’s death, everyone quickly forgot her kindness and began, literally on the day of the funeral, to divide her property and condemn Matryona’s life: “and she was unclean; and she didn’t chase after the plant, stupid, she helped strangers for free (and the very reason to remember Matryona came - there was no one to call the garden to plow with a plow).”

Thus, Matryona’s life was full of troubles and tragedies: she lost both her husband and children. For everyone, she was strange and abnormal, because she did not try to live like everyone else, but retained a cheerful and kind disposition until the end of her days.

Solzhenitsyn's story is a reflection of Russian reality in the 50s of the 20th century, when a totalitarian regime ruled. It was difficult for ordinary people to live then. The female lot was often especially tragic. And that’s why the author makes a woman the main character.

– the main character, an elderly woman living in a remote village. Life there is far from ideal: hard work, lack of benefits of civilization. But this is not important for a woman; she sees the meaning of life in helping other people. And she is not afraid of work - she always helps dig up someone else’s garden, or works on a collective farm, while she herself has nothing to do with it.

The image of the heroine surprises with its purity. But this woman had to overcome a lot: both the war and the loss of children. But she remained true to her principles, did not become embittered, but on the contrary, she became even more of a revelation to people. Matryona is unique, because there are almost no selfless people like her left, according to the author.

The heroine's selflessness was often taken advantage of by those around her. They asked for help, and when they got what they wanted, they also mocked her simplicity. Fellow villagers considered Matryona stupid, because they could not understand her sincere impulses.

The worst thing is that Matryona’s longtime lover, Thaddeus, with whom they wanted to get married in their youth, also turned out to be selfish. He was a stately-looking old man, but his soul turned black, like his beard.

Using Matryona's long-standing guilt towards him for marrying his brother, he decided to benefit himself. One day he came to her house with a demand to separate the upper room from the hut and give it to her adopted daughter Kira. At first, the old woman was indignant, because separating the upper room from the entire hut is not safe, the whole house could collapse. But Thaddeus insisted on his own. As a result, Matryona agreed, because she felt guilty before him and loved Kira very much.

After Matryona agreed to separate the upper room, she and her sons began transporting the logs. Matryona also volunteered to help them. So the heroine personally helped destroy her house. And although he was dear to her, Thaddeus and Kira were more valuable. For their sake, she even decided to approach the railway, which she had always feared and, as it turned out, not in vain. After all, the sleigh with logs got stuck on the road - and Matryona was run over by a train. This is how everything ends stupidly for the last righteous woman of this village.

Matryona always lived by the principle: do not spare either your goodness or your labor for others. But her efforts were never appreciated. The tragic ending once again emphasizes the callousness of society. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wanted to show how virtue is a unique trait and how people have forgotten how to respect it.

The relationship between the heroine and those around her is practical on the part of those around her and selfless on the part of Matryona.

Among the best works of A. I. Solzhenitsyn, undoubtedly, is the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” about a simple Russian woman with a difficult fate. Many trials befell her, but until the end of her days the heroine retained in her soul a love of life, boundless kindness, and a willingness to sacrifice herself for the well-being of others. The article offers the reader a description of the image of Matryona.

“Matrenin’s Dvor”: the real basis of the work

He wrote his own in 1959 and at first called it “A village is not worth it without a righteous man” (for censorship reasons the title was later changed). The prototype of the main character was Matryona Timofeevna Zakharova, a resident of the village of Miltsevo, located in the Vladimir region. The writer lived with her during his teaching years after returning from the camps. Therefore, the feelings and thoughts of the narrator largely reflect the views of the author himself, from the first day, as he admitted, he felt something dear and close to his heart in the house of a woman he did not know. Why this became possible can be explained by Matryona's characteristics.

“Matrenin Dvor”: first acquaintance with the heroine

The narrator was brought to Grigorieva’s house when all options for apartments for settlement had already been considered. The fact is that Matryona Vasilievna lived alone in an old house. All her property consisted of a bed, a table, benches and her favorite ficus trees. Moreover, a lanky cat, which a woman picked up on the street out of pity, and a goat. She did not receive a pension, since on the collective farm she was given sticks instead of workdays. I could no longer work due to health reasons. Then, however, with great difficulty I received a pension for the loss of my husband. At the same time, she always silently came to the aid of everyone who turned to her, and did not take anything for her work. This is the first characteristic of Matryona in the story “Matryona’s Dvor”. To this we can add that the peasant woman also did not know how to cook, although the tenant was not picky and did not complain. And a couple of times a month she was attacked by severe illness, when the woman could not even stand up. But even at these moments she did not complain, and even tried not to moan, so as not to disturb the tenant. The author especially emphasizes blue eyes and a radiant smile - a symbol of openness and kindness.

The difficult fate of the heroine

Life history helps to better understand a person. Without her, the characterization of Matryona in the story “Matryona’s Yard” will be incomplete.

The peasant woman did not have her own children: all six died in infancy. She did not marry for love: she waited for the groom from the front for several years, and then agreed to become the wife of his younger brother - the time was difficult, and there were not enough hands in the family. Soon after the wedding of the newlyweds, Thaddeus returned, who never forgave Efim and Matryona. It was believed that he placed a curse on them, and later the heroine’s husband would die in World War II. And the woman will take Kira, Thaddeus’s youngest daughter, into her upbringing and give her love and care. The narrator learned about all this from the hostess, and she suddenly appeared before him in a new appearance. Even then, the narrator realized how far his first characterization of Matryona was from reality.

Meanwhile, Matryona's court began to attract the attention of Thaddeus, who wanted to take the dowry assigned to Kira by her adoptive mother. This part of the upper room will be the cause of the heroine’s death.

Live for others

Matryona Vasilievna had long foreseen trouble. The author describes her suffering when it turned out that during her baptism someone had taken her pot of holy water. Then suddenly, before the room was dismantled, the hostess didn’t seem like herself at all. The collapse of the roof meant the end of her life. Such little things made up the heroine’s whole life, which she lived not for herself, but for the sake of others. And when Matryona Vasilyevna went with everyone else, she also wanted to help. Sincere, open, not embittered by the injustices of life. She accepted everything as destined by fate and never complained. Matryona's characterization leads to this conclusion.

“Matrenin’s Dvor” ends with a description of the heroine’s funeral scene. She plays an important role in understanding how different this peasant woman was from the people who surrounded her. The narrator notes with pain that the sisters and Thaddeus immediately began to divide the mistress’s meager property. And even my friend, as if she was sincerely experiencing the loss, managed to grab a blouse for herself. Against the backdrop of everything that was happening, the narrator suddenly remembered the living Matryona, so unlike everyone else. And I realized: she is the righteous man without whom not a single village can stand. What a village there is - the whole land is ours. This is proven by the life and characteristics of Matryona.

“Matryona’s Dvor” contains the author’s regret that during his lifetime he (as well as others) could not fully understand the greatness of this woman. Therefore, one can perceive Solzhenitsyn’s work as a kind of repentance to the heroine for one’s own and others’ spiritual blindness.

One more point is indicative. On the heroine’s mutilated body, her bright face and right hand remained intact. “He will pray for us in the next world,” said one of the women in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor.” The characterization of Matryona, therefore, makes us think about the fact that there are people nearby who are capable of maintaining human dignity, kindness, and humility in unbearable conditions. And partly thanks to them, such concepts as empathy, compassion, and mutual assistance still exist in our world, filled with cruelty.

Year: 1959 Genre: story

1959 Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”, which will be published only in 1963. The essence of the plot of the text of the work is that Matryona, the main character, lives like everyone else at that time. She is one. He lets the tenant-storyteller into his hut. She never lived for herself. Her whole life is about helping someone. The finale of the work tells about the absurd death of Matryona.

the main idea The remarkable work of A.I. Solzhenitsyn “Matrenin’s Dvor” is that the author focuses the reader’s attention on the way of life of the village, but this way of life contains the spiritual poverty and moral ugliness of people. Matryona's life truth is righteousness. Solzhenitsyn asks the question: “What will weigh on the scales of life?” It is probably for this reason that the story was originally titled “A village is not worthwhile without a righteous man.”

Read the summary of Matrenin Dvor Solzhenitsyn chapter by chapter

Chapter 1

The author-storyteller returns from “places not so remote” to Russia in 1956. No one is waiting for him, and there is no need for him to rush. He has a great desire to be a teacher somewhere in the taiga outback. He was offered to go to Vysokoye Polye, but he didn’t like it there, and he voluntarily asked to go to the place “Torfprodukt”.

In fact, this is the village of Talnovo. In this locality, the author met a kind woman at the market who helped him find shelter. So he became Matryona's lodger. In Matryona's hut there lived mice, cockroaches and a lanky cat. There were also ficus trees on the stools, and they were also members of Matryona’s family.

The rhythm of Matryona’s life was constant: she got up at 5 in the morning because she didn’t rely on the clock (they were already about 27 years old), fed the goat and prepared breakfast for the tenant.

Matryona was told that a decree had been issued according to which it was possible to receive a pension. She began to seek a pension, but the office was far away, and there, either the stamp was in the wrong place, or the certificate was out of date. In general, everything did not work out.
In general, people lived in poverty in Talnovo. And this despite the fact that the village was surrounded by peat bogs. But the lands belonged to the trust, and in order not to freeze in winter, people were forced to steal peat and hide it in secluded places.

Matryona was often asked by fellow villagers for help on their plot. She did not refuse anyone and provided assistance with pleasure. She liked the growth of living plants.

Once every 6 months, Matryona’s turn came to feed the shepherds, and this event drove Matryona into great expense. She herself ate sparingly.

Closer to winter, Matryona received a pension. The neighbors began to envy her. Matryona made herself new felt boots, a coat from an old overcoat and hid 200 rubles for the funeral.

Epiphany has arrived. At this time, her younger sisters came to Matryona. The author was surprised that they had not come to her before. Matryona, having received her pension, became more joyful and, one might say, “flourished in her soul.” The only sad thing was that in the church someone took her bucket of holy water, and she was left without a bucket and without water.

Chapter 2

All of Matryona's neighbors were interested in her guest. Because of her old age, she recounted their questions to him. The narrator told Matryona that he was in prison. Matryona was also not particularly willing to talk about her life. About the fact that she got married and gave birth to 6 children, but they all died in infancy. My husband did not return from the war.

One day Thaddeus came to Matryona. He pleaded for his son in front of the narrator. In the evening, the author learns that Thaddeus is the brother of Matryonushka’s deceased husband.

That same evening Matryona opened up, told how she loved Thaddeus, how she married his brother, how Thaddeus returned from captivity and she apologized to him. How Thaddeus later married another girl. This girl gave birth to six children to Thaddeus, but Matryona’s children did not live well in this world.

Then, according to Matryona, the war began, the husband went to fight and never returned. Then Matryona took her niece Kira and raised her for 10 years until the girl grew up. Since Matryona was in poor health, she thought about death early, accordingly she wrote a will and in it she promised a room-annex to Kira.

Kira comes to Matryona and talks about how in order to get ownership of the land, you need to build something on it. So Thaddeus began to persuade Matryona to move the annex to Kira in the village. Matryona doubted for a long time, but still decided. Then Thaddeus and his sons began to separate the upper room from the hut.

The weather was windy and frosty, so the upper room lay disassembled near Matryona's hut for quite a long time. Matryona was grieving, and on top of that, the cat was missing.

One fine day, the author came home and saw Thaddeus loading a room on a sleigh to transport it to a new place. Matryona decided to escort the upper room. Late at night, the author heard voices and learned the terrible news that at the crossing the locomotive collided with the second sleigh and the son of Thaddeus and Matryona were killed.

Chapter 3

It's dawn. They brought Matryona's body. Preparations for the funeral are underway. Her sisters grieve “from the people.” Only Kira is sincerely sad, and Thaddeus’s wife. The old man was not at the wake - he was trying to deliver a sleigh with boards and logs home.

Matryona was buried, her hut was boarded up, and the narrator was forced to move to another house. He always remembered Matryonushka with a kind word and affection. The new owner always condemned Matryona. The story ends with the words: “We all lived next to her, and did not understand that she was the same righteous man, without whom, according to the proverb, not a village would stand. Neither the city. Neither the whole land is ours.”

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn "Matrenin's Dvor"

Picture or drawing of Matrenin Dvor

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“Matryona’s Dvor” by Solzhenitsyn is a story about the tragic fate of an open woman, Matryona, who is not like her fellow villagers. Published for the first time in the magazine “New World” in 1963.

The story is told in the first person. The main character becomes Matryona's lodger and talks about her amazing fate. The first title of the story, “A village is not worthwhile without a righteous man,” well conveyed the idea of ​​the work about a pure, unselfish soul, but was replaced to avoid problems with censorship.

Main characters

Narrator- an elderly man who served some time in prison and wants a quiet, peaceful life in the Russian outback. He settled with Matryona and talks about the fate of the heroine.

Matryona– a single woman of about sixty. She lives alone in her hut and is often sick.

Other characters

Thaddeus- Matryona's former lover, a tenacious, greedy old man.

Matryona's sisters– women who seek their own benefit in everything treat Matryona as a consumer.

One hundred and eighty-four kilometers from Moscow, on the road to Kazan and Murom, train passengers were always surprised by a serious decrease in speed. People rushed to the windows and talked about possible track repairs. Passing this section, the train again picked up its previous speed. And the reason for the slowdown was known only to the drivers and the author.

Chapter 1

In the summer of 1956, the author returned from the “burning desert at random just to Russia.” His return “dragged on for about ten years,” and he was in no hurry to go anywhere or to anyone. The narrator wanted to go somewhere into the Russian outback with forests and fields.

He dreamed of “teaching” away from the bustle of the city, and he was sent to a town with the poetic name Vysokoye Pole. The author didn’t like it there, and he asked to be redirected to a place with the terrible name “Peatproduct”. Upon arrival in the village, the narrator understands that “it’s easier to come here than to leave later.”

In addition to the owner, the hut was inhabited by mice, cockroaches, and a lame cat that had been picked up out of pity.

Every morning the hostess woke up at 5 am, afraid to oversleep, since she did not really trust her watch, which had been running for 27 years. She fed her “dirty white crooked goat” and prepared a simple breakfast for the guest.

Once Matryona learned from rural women that “a new pension law had been passed.” And Matryona began to seek a pension, but it was very difficult to get it, the different offices to which the woman was sent were located tens of kilometers from each other, and the day had to be spent just because of one signature.

People in the village lived poorly, despite the fact that peat swamps stretched for hundreds of kilometers around Talnovo, the peat from them “belonged to the trust.” Rural women had to haul bags of peat for themselves for the winter, hiding from the raids of the guards. The soil here was sandy and the harvests were poor.

People in the village often called Matryona to their garden, and she, abandoning her work, went to help them. Talnovsky women almost lined up to take Matryona to their garden, because she worked for pleasure, rejoicing at someone else’s good harvest.

Once every month and a half, the housewife had her turn to feed the shepherds. This lunch “put Matryona at great expense” because she had to buy her sugar, canned food, and butter. Grandmother herself did not allow herself such luxury even on holidays, living only on what her poor garden gave her.

Matryona once told about the horse Volchok, who got scared and “carried the sleigh into the lake.” “The men jumped back, but she grabbed the reins and stopped.” At the same time, despite her apparent fearlessness, the hostess was afraid of fire and, until her knees trembled, of trains.

By winter, Matryona still received a pension. The neighbors began to envy her. And grandma finally ordered herself new felt boots, a coat from an old overcoat, and hid two hundred rubles for the funeral.

Once, Matryona’s three younger sisters came to Epiphany evenings. The author was surprised, because he had never seen them before. I thought maybe they were afraid that Matryona would ask them for help, so they didn’t come.

With the receipt of her pension, my grandmother seemed to come to life, and work was easier for her, and her illness bothered her less often. Only one event darkened the grandmother’s mood: at Epiphany in the church, someone took her pot with holy water, and she was left without water and without a pot.

Chapter 2

The Talnovsky women asked Matryona about her guest. And she passed the questions on to him. The author only told the landlady that he was in prison. I myself didn’t ask about the old woman’s past; I didn’t think there was anything interesting there. I only knew that she got married and came to this hut as a mistress. She had six children, but they all died. Later she had a student named Kira. But Matryona’s husband did not return from the war.

One day, when he came home, the narrator saw an old man - Thaddeus Mironovich. He came to ask for his son, Antoshka Grigoriev. The author recalls that for some reason Matryona herself sometimes asked for this insanely lazy and arrogant boy, who was transferred from class to class just so as “not to spoil the performance statistics.” After the petitioner left, the narrator learned from the hostess that it was the brother of her missing husband. That same evening she said that she was supposed to marry him. As a nineteen-year-old girl, Matryona loved Thaddeus. But he was taken to war, where he went missing. Three years later, Thaddeus’s mother died, the house was left without a mistress, and Thaddeus’s younger brother, Efim, came to woo the girl. No longer hoping to see her beloved, Matryona got married in the hot summer and became the mistress of this house, and in the winter Thaddeus returned “from Hungarian captivity.” Matryona threw herself at his feet, and he said that “if it weren’t for my dear brother, he would have chopped you both up.”

He later took as his wife “another Matryona” - a girl from a neighboring village, whom he chose as his wife only because of her name.

The author remembered how she came to her landlady and often complained that her husband beat her and offended her. She gave birth to Thaddeus six children. And Matryona’s children were born and died almost immediately. “Damage” is to blame for everything, she thought.

Soon the war began, and Efim was taken away, from where he never returned. Lonely Matryona took little Kira from the “Second Matryona” and raised her for 10 years, until the girl married a driver and left. Since Matryona was very ill, she took care of her will early, in which she ordered that part of her hut - a wooden outbuilding - be given to her pupil.

Kira came to visit and said that in Cherusty (where she lives), in order to get land for young people, it is necessary to erect some kind of building. The room bequeathed to Matrenina was very suitable for this purpose. Thaddeus began to come often and persuade the woman to give her up now, during her lifetime. Matryona did not feel sorry for the upper room, but she was afraid to break the roof of the house. And so, on a cold February day, Thaddeus came with his sons and began to separate the upper room, which he had once built with his father.

The room lay near the house for two weeks because a blizzard covered all the roads. But Matryona was not herself, and besides, three of her sisters came and scolded her for allowing the room to be given away. On the same days, “a lanky cat wandered out of the yard and disappeared,” which greatly upset the owner.

One day, returning from work, the narrator saw old man Thaddeus driving a tractor and loading a dismantled room onto two homemade sleds. Afterwards we drank moonshine and in the dark drove the hut to Cherusti. Matryona went to see them off, but never returned. At one o'clock in the morning the author heard voices in the village. It turned out that the second sleigh, which Thaddeus had attached to the first out of greed, got stuck on the flights and fell apart. At that time, a steam locomotive was moving, you couldn’t see it because of the hillock, you couldn’t hear it because of the tractor engine. He ran into a sleigh, killing one of the drivers, the son of Thaddeus and Matryona. Late at night, Matryona’s friend Masha came, talked about it, grieved, and then told the author that Matryona bequeathed her “faggot” to her, and she wanted to take it in memory of her friend.

Chapter 3

The next morning they were going to bury Matryona. The narrator describes how her sisters came to say goodbye to her, crying “to show” and blaming Thaddeus and his family for her death. Only Kira truly grieved for her deceased adoptive mother, and “Second Matryona,” Thaddeus’s wife. The old man himself was not at the wake. When they transported the ill-fated upper room, the first sleigh with planks and armor remained standing at the crossing. And, at a time when one of his sons died, his son-in-law was under investigation, and his daughter Kira was almost losing her mind with grief, he was only worried about how to deliver the sleigh home, and begged all his friends to help him.

After Matryona’s funeral, her hut was “filled up until spring,” and the author moved in with “one of her sisters-in-law.” The woman often remembered Matryona, but always with condemnation. And in these memories a completely new image of a woman arose, who was so strikingly different from the people around. Matryona lived with an open heart, always helped others, and never refused help to anyone, even though her health was poor.

A. I. Solzhenitsyn ends his work with the words: “We all lived next to her, and did not understand that she was the same righteous person, without whom, according to the proverb, not a village would stand. Neither the city. Neither the whole land is ours."

Conclusion

The work of Alexander Solzhenitsyn tells the story of the fate of a sincere Russian woman, who “had fewer sins than a lame-legged cat.” The image of the main character is the image of that very righteous man, without whom the village cannot stand. Matryona devotes her entire life to others, there is not a drop of malice or falsehood in her. Those around her take advantage of her kindness, and do not realize how holy and pure this woman’s soul is.

Since a brief retelling of “Matrenin’s Dvor” does not convey the original author’s speech and atmosphere of the story, it is worth reading it in full.

Story test

Retelling rating

Average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 9747.