The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the pinnacle of N. A. Nekrasov’s creativity. He himself called it “his favorite child.” Nekrasov gave his poem for many years tireless work, putting into it all the information about the Russian people, accumulated, as the poet said, “by word of mouth” for twenty years. In no other work of Russian literature have the
The same is true of the characters, habits, views, hopes of the Russian people, as in this poem.
The plot of the poem is very close to the folk tale about the search for happiness and truth. The poem opens with a “Prologue” - the most rich chapter in folklore elements. It is in it that the main problem of the poem is constant: “who lives cheerfully, at ease in Rus'.” The heroes of the poem are seven (one of the traditional significant numbers) men are going to “The ungutted province, the ungutted volost, the Izbytkova village.” The seven men who argued in the Prologue are endowed with the best qualities folk character: pain for his people, selflessness, burning interest in the main issues of life. They are interested in the basic question of what is truth and what is happiness.
The description of what the truth-seekers saw during their wanderings in Rus', the stories about themselves of the imaginary “happy” ones to whom the peasants turned, constitutes the main content of the poem.
The composition of the work is built according to the laws of classical epic: it consists of individual parts and chapters Outwardly, these parts are connected by the theme of the road: seven truth-seekers wander around Rus', trying to resolve the question that haunts them: who can live well in Rus'? And here one of the most important motifs of Russian folklore sounds - the motif of wandering. Even the heroes of Russian fairy tales went to look for common happiness, to find out whether it even exists - peasant happiness. The very nature of the poem is also combined with a Russian fairy tale. The journey of the Nekrasov peasants is, in essence, a spiritual journey.
The first chapter of “Pop” opens with the image of a “wide path.” This is one of the important poetic symbols of Russian literature, which embodies the idea of movement, striving forward. This is an image not only of life, but also spiritual path person.
The meeting with the priest in the first chapter of the first part of the poem shows that the peasants do not have their own peasant understanding of happiness. The men do not yet understand that the question of who is happier - the priest, the landowner, the merchant or the tsar - reveals the limitations of their ideas about happiness. These ideas come down only to material interest. It is no coincidence that the priest proclaims the formula for happiness, and the peasants passively agree. “Peace, wealth, honor” - this is the priest’s formula for happiness. But his story makes men think about a lot. Behind the life of the priest, the life of Russia is revealed in its past and present, in its different classes. Like the laity, among priests only the highest clergy live well. But the clergy cannot be happy when the people, their breadwinner, are unhappy. All this indicates a deep crisis that has gripped the entire country.
In the next chapter, " Country fair", main actor is a crowd, wide and many-sided. Nekrasov creates paintings in which the people themselves speak, talk about themselves, revealing the best and most unsightly features of their lives.
creates pictures in which the people themselves speak, talk about themselves, revealing the best and most unsightly features of their lives. But in everything: both in beauty and in ugliness, the people are not pitiful and petty, but large, significant, generous and
In the next chapter, " drunken night", the festive feast reaches its climax. From the depths people's world A strong peasant character appears, Yakim Nagoy. He appears as a symbol of working peasant life: “There are splinters at the eyes, at the mouth, like cracks in dry earth.” For the first time in Russian literature, Nekrasov creates a realistic portrait of a peasant worker. Defending the sense of peasant pride through labor, Yakim sees social injustice towards the people.
You work alone
And the work is almost over,
Look, there are three shareholders standing:
God, king and lord!
In the image of Yakim, the author shows the emergence of spiritual needs among the peasants. “Spiritual bread is higher than earthly bread.”
In the chapter “Happy” the entire peasant kingdom is involved in a dialogue, in a dispute about happiness. In their miserable life, even a tiny bit of luck already seems like happiness. But at the end of the chapter there is a story about a happy man. This story about Yermil Girin moves the action of the epic forward, marks more high level popular idea of happiness. Like Yakim, Yermil is endowed keen sense Christian conscience and honor. It would be given that he has “everything that is needed for happiness: peace of mind, money, and honor.” But at a critical moment in his life, Yermil sacrifices this happiness for the sake of the people's truth and ends up in prison.
In the fifth chapter of the first part, “The Landowner,” the wanderers treat the masters with obvious irony. They already understand that noble “honor” is worth little. The wanderers spoke to the master as boldly and uninhibitedly as Yakim Nagoy. The landowner Obolt-Obolduev is most astonished by the fact that former serfs shouldered the burden of the historical question “Who can live well in Rus'?” As in the case with the priest, the story of the landowner and about the landowner is not just an accusation. It is also about a general catastrophic crisis that engulfs everyone. Therefore, in subsequent parts of the poem, Nekrasov leaves the intended plot outline and artistically explores the life and poetry of the people.
In the chapter “Peasant Woman,” Matryona Timofeevna appears before the wanderers, embodying best qualities Russian female character. Harsh conditions honed special female character- independent, accustomed to relying on his own strength everywhere and in everything.
The theme of spiritual slavery is central to the chapter “The Last One.” A terrible “comedy” is played out by the characters in this chapter. For the sake of the half-mad Prince Utyatin, they agreed to pretend that serfdom not cancelled. This proves that no reform makes yesterday’s slaves free, spiritually valuable people.
The chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” is a continuation of “The Last One.” This depicts a fundamentally different state of the world. This is already awakened and speaking at once folk Rus'. New heroes are drawn into the festive feast of spiritual awakening. The whole people sings songs of liberation, judges the past, evaluates the present, and begins to think about the future.
liberation, judges the past, evaluates the present, and begins to think about the future. Sometimes these songs are contrasting to each other. For example, the story “About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful” and the legend “About two great sinners”. Yakov takes revenge on the master for all the bullying in a servile manner, committing suicide in front of his eyes. The robber Kudeyar atones for his sins, murders and violence not with humility, but with the murder of the villain - Pan Glukhovsky. Thus, popular morality justifies righteous anger against the oppressors and even violence against them.
According to the original plan, the peasants had to make sure that they found happy person impossible in Rus'. But he appeared in life - “ new hero new era", common democrat. The author introduces a new face into the poem - the people's intercessor Grisha Dobrosklonov, who sees his happiness in serving the people. Despite the fact that Grisha’s personal fate was difficult (“Fate had prepared for him a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia”), he believes in a bright future for the people as a result of the struggle. And as if in response to growth national consciousness The songs of Grisha begin to sound, knowing that people's happiness can only be achieved as a result of a nationwide struggle for the “Unflogged province, Ungutted volost, Izbytkovo village.”
The poem, conceived about the people and for the people, becomes an accusatory act against the landowners.
Nekrasov worked on the poem for more than 13 years. During this time, much has changed in the poem - from the original concept to the plot. Gallery satirical images numerous gentlemen was not completed, Nekrasov left only the priest and the landowner Obolt-Obolduev. The poet put the people in first place, information about whose life Nekrasov had been collecting for a long time. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” became a poem about the fate of the people and their difficult lot. Written at a time when the reform to abolish serfdom was taking place, which brought nothing to the people, the poem shows the path to liberation. Therefore, the question of “who lives happily and freely in Rus'” is no longer resolved within the framework of the happiness of individual people, but by introducing the concept of national happiness. This brings the poem closer to the epic.
Another epic feature is that in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” there are a lot of heroes. Shown here are landowners, priests, peasants with their destinies, and representatives of the “servile rank,” whose purpose in life is to serve the bars. We cannot say who the main character is in them. It is known that seven men go in search of happiness, but it is impossible to single out the main character among them. It can be said that these seven are the main characters. After all, each of them tells his own story and becomes the main character for some time, until he is replaced by someone else. But by and large, the main character of the poem is the entire people.
The genre originality of the poem is the mixing of fairy-tale motifs and real ones. historical facts. At the beginning it is said that seven “temporarily obliged” go in search of happiness. A specific sign of men - temporarily obliged - indicates the real situation of peasants in the 60s of the 19th century. The poem shows big picture life of peasants in post-reform times: ruin, hunger, poverty. The names of the villages (Zaplatovo, Razutovo, Znobishino, Neurozhaika), county (Terpigorev), volost (Pustoporozhnaya), province (Put-up) eloquently testify to the position of the provinces, districts, volosts and villages after the reform of 1861.
The poem widely uses epics, proverbs, fairy tales and stories, and songs. Already in the prologue we meet fairy tale images and motifs: self-assembled tablecloth, goblin, clumsy Durandikha (witch), gray bunny, cunning fox, devil, raven. IN last chapter Many songs appear in the poem: “Hungry”, “Corvee”, “Soldier’s” and others.
Nekrasov's work was not published in its entirety during the author's lifetime due to censorship restrictions. Therefore, there is still debate about the arrangement of parts in the poem. All parts, except for “The Last One” and “A Feast for the Whole World,” are united by wandering peasants. This allows you to freely rearrange the parts. In general, the poem consists of parts and chapters, each of which has an independent plot and could be separated into a separate story or poem.
The poem provides an answer not only to the question posed in its title, but also shows the inevitability of a revolutionary reorganization of the world. Happiness is possible only when the people themselves are the masters of their own lives.
Nekrasov began working on the poem in 1863, when “Frost, Red Nose” was written, and continued until his death. But if the poem “Frost...” can be compared with a tragedy, the content of which is the death of a person in a heroic struggle against elements beyond his control, then “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is an epic where an individual person finds the meaning and happiness of his existence in unity with the world of people and the world as God's creation. Nekrasov is interested complete image people, and the individual images highlighted in the poem are given as episodic, the story of their lives only temporarily surfaces on the surface of the epic stream. Therefore, Nekrasov’s poem can be called “ folk epic ", and its poetic form emphasizes its relationship with folk epic. Nekrasov’s epic is “molded” from various folklore genres: fairy tales, tales, riddles, proverbs, spiritual poems, work and ritual songs, drawn-out lyric songs, parables, etc.
Nekrasov's epic had a clear social task. In this sense, his work is quite topical and relevant. In the 60-70s, the movement of “going to the people” began, the practice of “small deeds”, when the Russian intelligentsia voluntarily went to villages, organized schools and hospitals, tried to rebuild the life and work of peasants, and lead them on the path of education and culture. At the same time, interest in the peasant culture: Russian folklore is collected and systematized (the image of such a collector - Pavlusha Veretennikov - is in the poem). But the surest way to study the situation of the people was statistics, a science that at that time received the most rapid development. In addition, these people: teachers, doctors, statisticians, land surveyors, agronomists, folklorists - left us a series of wonderful essays about the life and everyday life of post-reform Russia. Sociological cross-section village life Nekrasov also does in his poem: almost all types of the Russian rural population pass before us, from the beggar to the landowner. Nekrasov is trying to see what happened to peasant Russia as a result of the reform of 1861, which upended the entire habitual way of life. In what ways has Rus' remained the same Russia, what is irrevocably gone, what has appeared, what is eternal and what is transitory in folk life?
It is generally accepted that with his poem Nekrasov answers the question he posed in one of his poems: “The people have been liberated, but are the people happy? “In fact, this is a rhetorical question. It is clear that he is unhappy, and then there is no need to write a poem. But the question that became the title: “Who can live well in Rus'? “—translates Nekrasov’s quest from the philosophical and sociological areas to the ethical area. If not the people, then who is living well?
To answer the main question, “strange” people, i.e. wanderers, set off on the road - seven men. But these people are strange in the usual sense. A peasant is a sedentary person, tied to the land, for whom there are no vacations or weekends, whose life obeys only the rhythm of nature. And they set off to wander, and even when - at the most difficult time! But this strangeness of theirs is a reflection of the revolution that all peasant Rus' is experiencing. All of it has moved, started from its place, all of it is in motion, like spring streams, now transparent, clean, now muddy, carrying winter debris, now calm and majestic, now seething and unpredictable.
Therefore, the composition of the poem is based on motives of the road and search. They allow you to walk throughout Rus' and see it in its entirety. But how to show all of Rus'? The author uses the technique of panoramic image, when the image is created by a series of generalized pictures, crowd scenes, from which individual persons and episodes are snatched.
Disputes about the composition of the work are still ongoing, but most scientists have come to the conclusion that it should be like this: “Prologue. Part One”, “Peasant Woman”, “Last One”, “Feast for the Whole World”. The arguments in favor of this particular arrangement of material are as follows. The first part and chapter “Peasant Woman” depicts an old, moribund world. “The Last One” shows the death of this world. In the final part, “A Feast for the Whole World,” signs of new life are especially noticeable, the overall tone of the narrative is lighter, more joyful, and one feels a focus on the future, associated primarily with the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov. In addition, the ending of this part plays the role of a kind of denouement, since it is here that the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the work sounds: “Who lives cheerfully, freely in Russia?” Turns out to be a happy person people's defender Grisha Dobrosklonov, who in his songs predicted “the embodiment of people’s happiness.” At the same time, this is a special kind of denouement. She does not return the wanderers to their homes, does not put an end to their search, because the wanderers do not know about Grisha’s happiness. That is why it was possible to write a continuation of the poem, where the wanderers had to look for a happy person further, while following the wrong trail - right up to the king himself. The peculiarity of the composition of the poem is its construction, based on the laws of the classical epic: it consists of separate relatively autonomous parts and chapters, its hero is not an individual person, but the entire Russian people, and therefore in genre it is an epic of national life.
The external connection of the parts of the poem is determined by the motive of the road and the search for happiness, which also corresponds to the genre of folk epic tale. The plot and compositional method of organizing the narrative - the journey of the peasant heroes - is complemented by the inclusion of author's digressions and extra-plot elements. The epic nature of the work is also determined by the majestically calm pace of the narrative, based on folklore elements. The life of post-reform Russia is shown in all its complexity and versatility, and the breadth of coverage general view on the world as a kind of wholeness is combined with the author’s lyrical emotion and detail external descriptions. The genre of the epic poem allowed Nekrasov to reflect the life of the entire country, the entire nation, and at one of its most difficult, turning points.
Essay on literature on the topic: Genre and composition of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
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