Poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'. Analysis of the chapters “Pop”, “Rural Fair”, “Drunken Night” Thesis plan for who can live well in Rus'

Chapters Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" not only do they reveal different aspects of Russian life: 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 the life of the Russian empire created in the poem, 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 the men meet will paint a broad picture of 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 theme of the poem: 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 an entire 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.

Retelling plan

1. A dispute between men about “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.”
2. Meeting with the priest.
3. A drunken night after the fair.
4. History of Yakima Nagogo.
5. Searching for a happy person among men. A story about Ermil Girin.
6. The men meet the landowner Obolt-Obolduev.
7. Searching for a happy man among women. The story of Matryona Timofeevna.
8 Meeting with an eccentric landowner.
9. The parable about the exemplary slave - Jacob the faithful.
10. A story about two great sinners - Ataman Kudeyar and Pan Glukhovsky. The story of the "peasant sin".
11. Thoughts of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
12. Grisha Dobrosklonov - “people's defender.”

Retelling

Part I

Prologue

The poem begins with the fact that seven men met on a pillar path and argued about “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.” “Roman said: to the landowner, Demyan said: to the official, Luka said: to the priest. To the fat-bellied merchant! - said the Gubin brothers, Ivan and Mitrodor. Old man Pakhom strained and said, looking at the ground: to the noble boyar, to the sovereign’s minister. And Prov said: to the king.” They argued all day and didn’t even notice how night had fallen. The men looked around, realized that they had gone far from home, and decided to rest before heading back. As soon as they had time to settle down under a tree and drink vodka, their argument began with renewed vigor, it even came to a fight. But then the men saw that a small chick had crawled up to the fire and had fallen out of the nest. Pakhom caught it, but then a warbler appeared and began to ask the men to let her chick go, and for this she told them where the self-assembled tablecloth was hidden. The men found a tablecloth, had dinner and decided that they would not return home until they found out “who lives happily and at ease in Rus'.”

Chapter I. Pop

The next day the men set off on their journey. At first they met only peasants, beggars and soldiers, but the men did not ask them “how is it for them - is it easy or difficult to live in Rus'.” Finally, in the evening, they met a priest. The men explained to him that they had a concern that “kept us out of our homes, made us estranged from work, kept us away from food”: “Is the priest’s life sweet? How are you living freely and happily, honest father?” And the priest begins his story.

It turns out that there is no peace, no wealth, no honor in his life. There is no peace, because in a large district “the sick, the dying, the one born into the world does not choose time: for harvesting and haymaking, in the dead of autumn night, in winter, in severe frosts and in spring floods.” And the priest must always go to fulfill his duty. But the most difficult thing, the priest admits, is to watch how a person dies and how his relatives cry over him. There is no priest and no honor, because the people call him “the foal breed”; meeting a priest on the road is considered a bad omen; they make up “jokey tales, obscene songs, and all sorts of blasphemy” about the priest, and they make a lot of jokes about the priest’s family. And it’s hard to get rich as a butt. If in former times, before the abolition of serfdom, there were many landowner estates in the district, in which weddings and christenings were constantly celebrated, now only poor peasants remain who cannot generously pay the priest for his work. The priest himself says that his “soul will turn over” to take money from the poor, but then he will have nothing to feed his family. With these words the priest leaves the men.

Chapter 2. Rural fair

The men continued their journey and ended up in the village of Kuzminskoye, at the fair, and decided to look for a happy one here. “Wanderers went to the shops: they admired the handkerchiefs, Ivanovo calicoes, harnesses, new shoes, and the products of the Kimryaks.” At the shoe shop they meet old man Vavila, who admires the goat shoes, but does not buy them: he promised his little granddaughter to buy shoes, and other family members - various gifts, but drank all the money. Now he is ashamed to appear in front of his granddaughter. The gathered people listen to him, but cannot help, because no one has extra money. But there was one person, Pavel Veretennikov, who bought boots for Vavila. The old man was so emotional that he ran away, forgetting to even thank Veretennikov, “but the other peasants were so comforted, so happy, as if he had given each one a ruble.” The wanderers go to a booth where they watch a comedy with Petrushka.

Chapter 3. Drunken night

Evening comes, and the travelers leave the “turbulent village”. They walk along the road, and everywhere they meet drunken people who are returning home after the fair. From all sides, the wanderers can hear drunken conversations, songs, complaints about a hard life, and the screams of those fighting.

At the road pillar, travelers meet Pavel Veretennikov, around whom peasants have gathered. Veretennikov writes down in his little book the songs and proverbs that the peasants sing to him. “Russian peasants are smart,” says Veretennikov, “the only thing that’s not good is that they drink until they become stupefied, they fall into ditches and ditches—it’s a shame to see!” After these words, a man approaches him, who explains that the peasants drink because of a hard life: “There is no measure for Russian hops. Have you measured our grief? Is there a limit to the work? Wine brings down the peasant, but grief does not bring down? Is work not going well? And the peasants drink to forget themselves, to drown their grief in a glass of vodka. But then the man adds: “For our family, we have a non-drinking family!” They don’t drink, and they also struggle, it would be better if they drank, they’re stupid, but that’s their conscience.” When Veretennikov asked what his name was, the man replied: “Yakim Nagoy lives in the village of Bosovo, he works until he’s dead, drinks until he’s half to death!..”, and the rest of the men began to tell Veretennikov the story of Yakim Nagoy. He once lived in St. Petersburg, but he was sent to prison after he decided to compete with a merchant. He was stripped to the last thread, and so he returned to his homeland, where he took up the plow. Since then, he has been “roasting on the strip under the sun” for thirty years. He bought pictures for his son, which he hung around the hut, and he himself loved to look at them. But then one day there was a fire. Yakim, instead of saving the money he had accumulated throughout his life, saved the pictures, which he then hung in the new hut.

Chapter 4. Happy

People who called themselves happy began to gather under the linden tree. A sexton came, whose happiness consisted “not in sables, not in gold,” but “in complacency.” A pockmarked old woman came. She was happy that she had a large turnip. Then the soldier came, happy because “he was in twenty battles and not killed.” The mason began to say that his happiness lies in the hammer with which he earns money. But then another mason approached. He advised not to brag about his strength, otherwise grief might come out of it, as happened to him in his youth: the contractor began to praise him for his strength, but one day he put so many bricks on his stretcher that the man could not bear such a burden and after that he became completely ill. A servant, a servant, also came to the travelers. He stated that his happiness lies in the fact that he has a disease that only noble people suffer from. Various other people came to brag about their happiness, and in the end the wanderers pronounced their verdict on peasant happiness: “Eh, peasant happiness! Leaky, patched, hunchbacked, with calluses, go home!”

But then a man approached them and advised them to ask Ermila Girin about happiness. When the travelers asked who this Ermila was, the man told them. Ermila worked at a mill that did not belong to anyone, but the court decided to sell it. An auction was held, in which Ermila began to compete with the merchant Altynnikov. In the end, Ermila won, only they immediately demanded money from him for the mill, and Ermila did not have that kind of money with her. He asked to give him half an hour, ran to the square and turned to the people with a request to help him. Ermila was a man respected by the people, so every peasant gave him as much money as he could. Yermila bought the mill, and a week later he came back to the square and gave back all the money he had lent. And everyone took as much money as they lent him, no one misappropriated anything extra, there was even one more ruble left. Those gathered began to ask why Ermila Girin was held in such esteem. The narrator said that in his youth Ermila was a clerk in the gendarmerie corps and helped every peasant who turned to him with advice and deeds and did not take a penny for it. Then, when a new prince arrived in the estate and dispersed the gendarme office, the peasants asked him to elect Yermila as mayor of the volost, since they trusted him in everything.

But then the priest interrupted the narrator and said that he was not telling the whole truth about Yermila, that he also had a sin: instead of his younger brother, Yermila, he recruited the only son of the old woman, who was her breadwinner and support. Since then, his conscience haunted him, and one day he almost hanged himself, but instead demanded to be tried as a criminal in front of all the people. The peasants began to ask the prince to take the old woman’s son from the recruits, otherwise Yermila would hang himself from conscience. In the end, their son was returned to the old woman, and Ermila’s brother was sent as a recruit. But Ermila’s conscience still tormented him, so he abandoned his position and began working at the mill. During a riot in the estate, Yermila ended up in prison... Then the cry of a footman, who was flogged for theft, was heard, and the priest did not have time to tell the story to the end.

Chapter 5. Landowner

The next morning we met the landowner Obolt-Obolduev and decided to ask if he lived happily. The landowner began to tell him that he was “of an eminent family”; his ancestors were known three hundred years ago. This landowner lived in the old days “like Christ in his bosom,” he had honor, respect, a lot of land, several times a month he organized holidays that “any Frenchman” could envy, and went hunting. The landowner kept the peasants strict: “Whoever I want, I will have mercy on, and whomever I want, I will execute. The law is my desire! The fist is my police! But then he added that “he punished with love,” that the peasants loved him, they celebrated Easter together. But the travelers only laughed at his words: “He knocked them down with a stake, or are you going to pray in the manor’s house?..” Then the landowner began to sigh that such a carefree life had passed after the abolition of serfdom. Now the peasants no longer work on the landowners' lands, and the fields have fallen into disrepair. Instead of a hunting horn, the sound of an ax is heard in the forests. Where previously there were manor houses, drinking establishments are now being built. After these words, the landowner began to cry. And the travelers thought: “The great chain has broken, it has broken and it has sprung: one end is hitting the master, the other is hitting the peasant!”

Peasant woman
Prologue

The travelers decided to look for a happy man among women. In one village they were advised to find Matryona Timofeevna and ask her around. The men set off and soon reached the village of Klin, in which lived “Matryona Timofeevna, a dignified woman, broad and dense, about thirty-eight years old. Beautiful: gray hair, large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark. She’s wearing a white shirt, a short sundress, and a sickle over her shoulder.” The men turned to her: “Tell me in divine terms: what is your happiness?” And Matryona Timofeevna began to tell.

Chapter 1. Before marriage

As a girl, Matryona Timofeevna lived happily in a large family where everyone loved her. No one woke her up early; they allowed her to sleep and gain strength. From the age of five she was taken out into the fields, she followed the cows, brought breakfast to her father, then she learned how to harvest hay, and so she got used to work. After work, she and her friends sat at the spinning wheel, sang songs, and went dancing on holidays. Matryona was hiding from the guys; she didn’t want to end up in captivity as a girl. But still she found a groom, Philip, from distant lands. He began to woo her. Matryona did not agree at first, but she liked the guy. Matryona Timofeevna admitted: “While we were bargaining, it must have been, so I think, then there was happiness. And it’s unlikely ever again!” She married Philip.

Chapter 2. Songs

Matryona Timofeevna sings a song about how the groom’s relatives attack his daughter-in-law when she arrives at a new house. Nobody likes her, everyone forces her to work, and if she doesn’t like the work, they can beat her. The same thing happened with Matryona Timofeevna’s new family: “The family was huge, grumpy. I ended up in hell from my maiden will!” Only in her husband could she find support, and it sometimes happened that he beat her. Matryona Timofeevna started singing about a husband who beats his wife, and his relatives do not want to stand up for her, but only order them to beat her even more.

Soon Matryona's son Demushka was born, and now it was easier for her to endure the reproaches of her father-in-law and mother-in-law. But trouble happened to her again. The master's manager began to pester her, and she did not know where to escape from him. Only grandfather Savely helped Matryona cope with all her troubles, only he loved her in her new family.

Chapter 3. Savely, the Holy Russian hero

“With a huge gray mane, tea, twenty years uncut, with a huge beard, the grandfather looked like a bear,” “grandfather had an arched back,” “he was already a hundred years old, according to fairy tales.” “Grandfather lived in a special room, he didn’t like families, he didn’t let them into his corner; and she was angry, barking, his own son called him “branded, a convict.” When the father-in-law began to get very angry with Matryona, she and her son went to Savely and worked there, and Demushka played with his grandfather.

One day Savely told her the story of his life. He lived with other peasants in impenetrable swampy forests, where neither the landowner nor the police could reach. But one day the landowner ordered them to come to him and sent the police after them. The peasants had to obey. The landowner demanded quitrent from them, and when the men began to say that they had nothing, he ordered them to be flogged. Again the peasants had to obey, and they gave the landowner their money. Now every year the landowner came to collect rent from them. But the landowner died, and his heir sent a German manager to the estate. At first, the German lived calmly and became friends with the peasants. Then he began to order them to work. Before the men even had time to come to their senses, they had cut a road from their village to the city. Now you could easily visit them. The German brought his wife and children to the village and began to rob the peasants even more viciously than the previous landowner had robbed. The peasants tolerated him for eighteen years. During this time, the German managed to build a factory. Then he ordered to dig a well. He did not like the work and began to scold the peasants. And Savely and his comrades buried him in a hole dug for a well. For this he was sent to hard labor, where he spent twenty years. Then he returned to his homeland and built a house. The men asked Matryona Timofeevna to continue talking about her life as a woman.

Chapter 4. Demushka

Matryona Timofeevna took her son to work. But the mother-in-law told her to leave it to grandfather Savely, since you won’t earn much with a child. And so she gave Demushka to her grandfather, and she went to work. When I returned home in the evening, it turned out that Savely dozed off in the sun, did not look after the baby, and he was trampled by pigs. Matryona “rolled around like a ball”, “coiled like a worm, called, woke up Demushka - but it was too late to call.” The gendarmes arrived and began to interrogate, “Did you not kill the child in agreement with the peasant Savely?” Then a doctor came to autopsy the child's corpse. Matryona began to ask him not to do this, sent curses on everyone, and everyone decided that she had lost her mind.

At night Matryona came to her son’s tomb and saw Savely there. At first she shouted at him, blaming him for Dema’s death, but then the two of them began to pray.

Chapter 5. She-Wolf

After Demushka’s death, Matryona Timofeevna did not talk to anyone, she could not see Savelia, she did not work. And Savely went to repentance at the Sand Monastery. Then Matryona and her husband went to her parents and got to work. Soon she had more children. So four years passed. Matryona's parents died, and she went to cry at her son's grave. He sees that the grave has been tidied up, there is an icon on it, and Savely is lying on the ground. They talked, Matryona forgave the old man and told him about her grief. Soon Savely died and was buried next to Dema.

Another four years passed. Matryona came to terms with her life, worked for the whole family, but did not harm her children. A praying mantis came to their village and began to teach them how to live correctly, in a divine way. She forbade breastfeeding on fasting days. But Matryona did not listen to her; she decided that it would be better for God to punish her than for her to leave her children hungry. So grief came to her. When her son Fedot was eight years old, his father-in-law gave him to be a shepherdess. One day the boy did not take care of the sheep, and one of them was stolen by a she-wolf. For this, the village elder wanted to flog him. But Matryona threw herself at the landowner’s feet, and he decided to punish his mother instead of his son. Matryona was flogged. In the evening she came to see how her son slept. And the next morning she did not show herself to her husband’s relatives, but went to the river, where she began to cry and call for protection from her parents.

Chapter 6. Difficult year

Two new troubles came to the village: first came a lean year, then a recruitment drive. The mother-in-law began to scold Matryona for causing trouble by wearing a clean shirt on Christmas. And then they wanted to send her husband as a recruit. Matryona didn’t know where to go. She herself did not eat, she gave everything to her husband’s family, and they also scolded her and looked angrily at her children, since they had extra mouths to feed. So Matryona had to “send the children around the world” so that they would ask strangers for money. Finally, her husband was taken away, and pregnant Matryona was left all alone.

Chapter 7. Governor's wife

Her husband was recruited at the wrong time, but no one wanted to help him return home. Matryona, who had been carrying her child to term for the last few days, went to seek help from the governor. She left home at night without telling anyone. I arrived in the city in the early morning. The doorman at the governor's palace told her to try to come in two hours, then maybe the governor would receive her. On the square, Matryona saw a monument to Susanin, and it reminded her of Savely. When the carriage drove up to the palace and the governor’s wife got out, Matryona threw herself at her feet with pleas for intercession. Then she felt bad. The long journey and fatigue affected her health, and she gave birth to a son. The governor's wife helped her, baptized the baby herself and gave him a name. Then she helped save Matryona’s husband from being recruited. Matryona brought her husband home, and his family bowed at her feet and apologized to her.

Chapter 8. The Woman's Parable

Since then they nicknamed Matryona Timofeevna the governor. She began to live as before, worked, raised children. One of her sons has already been recruited. Matryona Timofeevna said to the travelers: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women”: “The keys to women’s happiness, to our free will, are abandoned, lost to God himself!”

Last One

The travelers went to the banks of the Volga and saw peasants working in haymaking. “We haven’t worked for a long time, let’s mow!” - the wanderers asked the local women. After work they sat down to a haystack to rest. Suddenly they see: three boats are floating along the river, in which music is playing, beautiful ladies, two mustachioed gentlemen, children and an old man are sitting. As soon as the peasants saw them, they immediately began to work even harder.

The old landowner went ashore and walked around the entire hayfield. “The peasants bowed low, the mayor fussed before the landowner, like a demon before matins.” And the landowner scolded them for their work and ordered them to dry out the already harvested hay, which was already dry. The travelers were surprised why the old landowner behaved this way with the peasants, because they are now free people and are not under his authority. Old Vlas began to tell them.

“Our landowner is special, his wealth is exorbitant, his rank is important, his family is noble, he has been a weirdo and a fool all his life.” But then serfdom was abolished, but he didn’t believe it, decided that he was being deceived, even argued with the governor about this, and by the evening he had a stroke. His sons were afraid that he might disinherit them, and they agreed with the peasants to live as before, as if the landowner were still their master. Some peasants happily agreed to continue serving the landowner, but many could not agree. For example, Vlas, who was then the mayor, did not know how he would have to carry out the “stupid orders” of the old man. Then another peasant asked to be made mayor, and “the old order went.” And the peasants gathered together and laughed at the master’s stupid orders. For example, he ordered a seventy-year-old widow to be married to a six-year-old boy so that he would support her and build her a new house. He ordered the cows not to moo when they passed the manor's house, because they woke up the landowner.

But then there was a peasant Agap who did not want to obey the master and even reproached other peasants for obedience. One day he was walking with a log, and a gentleman met him. The landowner realized that the log was from his forest and began to scold Agap for theft. But the peasant could not stand it and began to laugh at the landowner. The old man was struck again, they thought that he would now die, but instead he issued a decree to punish Agap for disobedience. Young landowners, their wives, the new mayor and Vlas went to Agap all day, persuaded Agap to pretend, and gave him wine to drink all night. The next morning they locked him in the stable and told him to scream as if he was being beaten, but in fact he was sitting and drinking vodka. The landowner believed it, and he even felt sorry for the peasant. Only Agap, after so much vodka, died in the evening.

The wanderers went to look at the old landowner. And he sits surrounded by sons, daughters-in-law, peasants and has dinner. He began to ask whether the peasants would soon collect the master's hay. The new mayor began to assure him that the hay would be removed in two days, then he declared that the men would not escape from the master, that he was their father and god. The landowner liked this speech, but suddenly he heard that one of the peasants in the crowd laughed, and ordered to find and punish the culprit. The mayor went, and he himself thought about what to do. He began to ask the wanderers to have one of them confess: they are not from here, the master cannot do anything to them. But the travelers did not agree. Then the mayor's godfather, a cunning woman, fell at the master's feet, began to lament, saying that it was her only stupid son who laughed, and begged the master not to scold him. The master took pity. Then he fell asleep and died in his sleep.

Feast for the whole world

Introduction

The peasants organized a holiday, to which the entire estate came, they wanted to celebrate their newfound freedom. The peasants sang songs.

I. Bitter times - bitter songs

Cheerful. The song says that the master took the cow from the peasant, the zemstvo court took the chickens, the tsar took his sons as recruits, and the master took his daughters to himself. “It is glorious to live in holy Rus'!”

Corvee. The poor peasant of Kalinushka has wounds all over his back from beatings, he has nothing to wear, nothing to eat. Everything he earns has to be given to the master. The only joy in life is to go to a tavern and get drunk.

After this song, the peasants began to tell each other how hard it was under corvee. One recalled how their mistress Gertrude Alexandrovna ordered them to be beaten mercilessly. And the peasant Vikenty told the following parable.

About an exemplary slave - Yakov the faithful. Once upon a time there lived a landowner who was very stingy; he even drove away his daughter when she got married. This master had a faithful servant, Yakov, who loved him more than his own life, and did everything to please the master. Yakov never asked his master for anything, but his nephew grew up and wanted to get married. Only the master also liked the bride, so he did not allow Yakov’s nephew to marry, but gave him as a recruit. Yakov decided to take revenge on his master, only his revenge was as servile as his life. The master's legs hurt and he could not walk. Yakov took him into a dense forest and hanged himself in front of his eyes. The master spent the whole night in the ravine, and the next morning hunters found him. He did not recover from what he saw: “You, master, will be an exemplary slave, faithful Yakov, remembered until the day of judgment!”

II. Wanderers and pilgrims

There are different kinds of pilgrims in the world. Some of them only hide behind the name of God in order to profit at the expense of others, since it is customary to receive pilgrims in any home and feed them. Therefore, they most often choose rich houses where they can eat well and steal something. But there are also real pilgrims who bring the word of God to a peasant house. Such people go to the poorest house so that God’s mercy may fall on them too. Such pilgrims include Ionushka, who wrote the story “About Two Great Sinners.”

About two great sinners. Ataman Kudeyar was a robber and during his life he killed and robbed many people. But his conscience tormented him, so much so that he could neither eat nor sleep, but only remembered his victims. He disbanded the whole gang and went to pray at the Holy Sepulcher. He wanders, prays, repents, but it doesn’t get any easier for him. The sinner returned to his homeland and began to live under a century-old oak tree. One day he hears a voice that tells him to cut down an oak tree with the same knife with which he used to kill people, then all his sins will be forgiven. The elder worked for several years, but could not cut down the oak tree. Once he met Pan Glukhovskoy, about whom they said that he was a cruel and evil person. When the master asked what the elder was doing, the sinner said that he wanted to atone for his sins. Pan began to laugh and said that his conscience did not torment him at all, even though he had ruined many lives. “A miracle happened to the hermit: he felt furious anger, rushed to Pan Glukhovsky, and plunged a knife into his heart! The bloody gentleman had just fallen with his head on the saddle, a huge tree collapsed, and the echo shook the whole forest.” So Kudeyar prayed for his sins.

III. Both old and new

“Great is the noble sin,” the peasants began to say after Jonah’s story. But the peasant Ignatius Prokhorov objected: “He is great, but he will not be against the sin of the peasant.” And he told the following story.

Peasant sin. For his courage and bravery, the widower admiral received eight thousand souls from the empress. When the time came for the admiral to die, he called the headman to him and handed him a casket containing free food for all the peasants. After his death, a distant relative came and, promising the elder mountains of gold and freedom, begged him for that casket. So eight thousand peasants remained in lordly bondage, and the headman committed the most serious sin: he betrayed his comrades. “So this is the peasant’s sin! Indeed, a terrible sin! - the men decided. Then they sang the song “Hungry” and again started talking about the sin of the landowners and peasants. And so Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of the sexton, said: “The snake will give birth to baby snakes, and the fortress will give birth to the sins of the landowner, the sin of the unfortunate Yakov, and the sin of Gleb! There is no support - there is no landowner who brings a zealous slave to a noose, there is no support - there is no yard servant taking revenge on his villain by suicide, there is no support - there will be no new Gleb in Rus'! Everyone liked the boy’s speech, they began to wish him wealth and an intelligent wife, but Grisha replied that he did not need wealth, but so that “every peasant could live freely, cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'.”

IV. Good times - good songs

In the morning the travelers fell asleep. Grisha and his brother took their father home, and they sang songs along the way. When the brothers put their father to bed, Grisha went for a walk around the village. Grisha studies at the seminary, where he is poorly fed, so he is thin. But he doesn't think about himself at all. All his thoughts are occupied only with his native village and peasant happiness. “Fate had prepared for him a glorious path, a great name as a people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.” Grisha is happy that he can be an intercessor and take care of ordinary people and his homeland. Seven men finally found someone happy, but they didn’t even know about this happiness.

The result of life and creative path. This result is the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus',” on which the author worked for about 20 years. The global nature of the issue required the poet to scale the work, which determined the genre’s originality - epic poem. In it, N.A. Nekrasov, relying on a folklore basis, tried to reflect through the eyes of various representatives of the people all the most important events of post-reform Russia.

The characters of the poem and their idea of happiness. 7 peasants from villages with “talking” names are trying to find the answer to the question posed in the title of the poem: “Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Unharvest...” A dispute that arose between the heroes (“Roman ska -hall: to the landowner, // Demyan said: to the official, // Luka said: to the priest.”), makes them go on the road. The motif of the road becomes cross-cutting and expands the space of the poem, allowing the author to show all of Rus'.

The peasants' initial idea of happiness as “peace, wealth, honor” is being revised. The priest they met dispels the myth about his own well-being:

Our villages are poor, And in them there are sick peasants, And sad women, Nurses, drinkers, Slaves, pilgrims, And eternal workers, Lord, add strength to them! It's hard to live on pennies with such labor!

The spiritual generosity, breadth and kindness of the people in “Rural Fair” focuses the attention of the peasants on the peasant soul. “Drunken Night” represents the “lucky one” - Yakim Nagogo, who becomes a symbol of spirituality: this little man took pictures from the burning hut, and his wife saved the icons, but the material values that they had lived on burned. Popular rumors include Ermila Girin (“In prison he sits...”), Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina (“It’s not a matter between women // Look for a happy one!..”), Saveliy - “the hero of the Holy Russian” ( “He was also lucky...”). But the fate of each of them is difficult. Their happiness has a moral content: “honor... not bought by money or fear: by strict truth, intelligence and kindness,” “harmony in the family,” freedom, for which one is not afraid to go to hard labor.

The life of the landowner is not much better in modern times: estates are being transferred, gardens are being cut down, desolation reigns all around:

The fields are unfinished, the crops are not sown, there is no trace of order! Oh mother! O homeland!

The painful breakdown of the era also affected the nobility:

The great chain broke, It broke and sprang apart: One end hit the master, The other hit the peasant!..

Happy in the poem. But who in Rus' “lives joyfully” and “at ease”? The path of the people's intercessor, according to the author, is the path to happiness. Nekrasov stands on the side of the rebels in the name of justice and freedom. The embodiment of this author's idea is the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov. The son of a peasant woman, who knows all the hardships of life of ordinary people, stands for people's happiness:

The people's share, their happiness, light and freedom, first of all!

Grisha’s song “Rus” about the “heart of the people”, which retained its freedom even in slavery, about strength, a calm conscience, about truth, becomes “the embodiment of the people’s happiness.” Material from the site

Enough! The settlement with the past has been completed, the settlement with the master has been completed! The Russian people are gathering strength and learning to be citizens...

At the end of the poem, the author’s idea of happiness is united by the choice of the sons of Rus', “marked with the seal of God’s gift.” The choice of the “narrow, honest” road along which intercessors go “for the bypassed, for the oppressed,” according to N. A. Nekrasov, is the path to happiness.

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essay on the topic: how does the hero of Nekrasov’s poem imagine happiness? Who lives well in Rus' and the author himself
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who lives well in Rus' quotes from heroes

Features of the composition of the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

I. Introduction

Composition is the composition, arrangement and relationship of the parts and elements of a work of art. (See Glossary for details.)

II. main part

1. The main plot core of the poem is the search for “happy” by seven peasants. This storyline seems to pass through the destinies of many people and ends with the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov, who gives the answer to the question posed in the title of the poem.

2. In the process of searching for happiness, seven peasants meet many people, listen to numerous stories, and themselves take part in some events. The motif of wandering and travel makes it possible for Nekrasov to expand the scope of the original plot, to introduce many inserted plots (see Glossary), images and destinies into the composition of the poem. Thanks to this compositional structure, the poem truly becomes a kind of “encyclopedia” of Russian peasant life.

3. In Nekrasov’s poem there is actually no main character, or rather, the entire peasant world and partly other classes that come into contact with it become such a hero. The most important characters can be called Matryona Timofeevna, Savely, Ermil Girin, Yakim Nagogo, Grisha Dobrosklonov. But along with them, there are many minor and episodic characters in the poem, without whom the picture of Russian village life would be incomplete. These are the elder Vlas, Klim Lavin, the landowner, the priest, the nameless peasants from the chapters “Happy”, “Drunken Night”, “Lastly”, etc.

4. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was written a short time after the abolition of serfdom, therefore comparisons of pre-reform and post-reform life occupy an important place in its composition. This opposition runs through the entire poem and is most clearly expressed in the parts “A Feast for the Whole World,” “Last One,” and in the chapters “Pop” and Landowner.

5. A special compositional originality characterizes the part “A feast for the whole world.” In it, Nekrasov widely refers to the genre of song, sometimes stylized as folk, sometimes purely literary. The genre of legend-parable also appears here (“About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful”, “About two great sinners”, “Peasant sin”). These genre inclusions are important because they directly or indirectly raise questions that are key to understanding the life of post-reform peasant Russia: about slave and free nature, about sin and truth, about the prospects for the development of the Russian village, etc.

III. Conclusion

The composition of Nekrasov's poem is complex and original. In terms of the variety of elements included in it and the significant role of inserted plots, it can be compared with such works as Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” and Gogol’s “Dead Souls.” The compositional features of the poem corresponded to Nekrasov’s main task: to present as fully as possible the life of a Russian village at the turn of two historical eras.

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who lives well in Rus' composition of the poem
plan for an essay on the topic of kama in Rus' it’s good to live

The result of life and creative path. This result is the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus',” on which the author worked for about 20 years. The global nature of the issue required the poet to scale the work, which determined the genre's originality - the epic poem. In it, N.A. Nekrasov, relying on a folklore basis, tried to reflect through the eyes of different representatives of the people all the most important events of post-reform Russia.

The characters of the poem and their idea of happiness. 7 peasants from villages with “telling” names are trying to find the answer to the question posed in the title of the poem: “Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neelova, Neurozhaika...” A dispute that arose between the characters (“Roman said: to the landowner, / / Demyan said: to the official, // Luka said: to the priest.”), makes them go on the road. The motif of the road becomes cross-cutting and expands the space of the poem, allowing the author to show all of Russia.

The peasants' initial idea of happiness as “peace, wealth, honor” is being revised. The priest they met dispels the myth about his own well-being:
Our villages are poor,
And the peasants in them are sick
Yes, women are sad
Nurses, drinkers,
Slaves, pilgrims
And eternal workers,
Lord, give them strength!
With so much work for pennies
Life is hard!

The spiritual generosity, breadth and kindness of the people in “Rural Fair” focuses the attention of the peasants on the peasant soul. “Drunken Night” represents the “lucky one” - Yakim Nagogo, who becomes a symbol of spirituality: this little man took pictures from the burning hut, and his wife saved the icons, but the material values that they acquired burned. Popular rumors include Ermila Girin (“In prison he sits...”), Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina (“It’s not a matter between women // Look for a happy one!..”), Saveliy - “the hero of the Holy Russian” (“Happy Man”). there was also..."). But the fate of each of them is difficult. Their happiness has a moral content: “honor... not bought by either money or fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness”, “harmony in the family”, freedom, for which one is not afraid to go to hard labor. Not much is better in the new time and the life of a landowner: estates are being transferred, gardens are being cut down, desolation reigns all around:
Fields are unfinished,
Crops are not sown,
There is no trace of order!
Oh mother! O homeland!

The painful breakdown of the era also affected the noble class:
The great chain has broken,
Torn and splintered:
One way for the master,
Others don't care!..

Happy in the poem. But who in Rus' “lives cheerfully” and “at ease”? The path of the people's intercessor, according to the author, is the path to happiness. Nekrasov stands on the side of the rebels in the name of justice and freedom. The embodiment of this author's idea is the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov. The son of a peasant woman, who knows all the hardships of life of ordinary people, stands for people's happiness:
Share of the people
His happiness
Light and freedom
First of all!

Grisha's song "Rus" about the "heart of the people", which retained its freedom even in slavery, about strength, a calm conscience, about truth, becomes "the embodiment of the people's happiness."

The chapter “A Feast for the Whole World,” in which the wanderers meet Grisha Dobrosklonov, demonstrates the gradually awakening self-awareness of the peasants (from the chapter “Bitter times - bitter songs” to the chapter “Good times - good songs”). It was after the feast that Grisha composed a song in which the words of the “free son” sound:
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...

At the end of the poem, the author’s idea of happiness is united by the choice of the sons of Russia, “marked with the seal of God’s gift.” The choice of the “narrow, honest” road along which intercessors go “for the bypassed, for the oppressed,” according to N. A. Nekrasov, is the path to happiness.

The reader recognizes one of the main characters of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - Savely - when he is already an old man who has lived a long and difficult life. The poet paints a colorful portrait of this amazing old man: With a huge gray...

Great happiness falls to those who, even in early youth, find themselves and their main goal aspirations. G. Krzhizhanovsky Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is a wonderful Russian poet, whose works are dedicated to the people....

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” includes a huge number of signs and beliefs, proverbs and sayings, riddles and individual folklore images, scattered throughout the poem and giving it extreme folklore richness. (From “A Writer’s Diary”) S....

The poems “Dead Souls” and “Who Lives Well in Rus'” have other similarities in addition to the genre. One of them is the similarity of the compositions of the poems based on the journey of the main characters. Both authors wanted to write works that would display...