“School around the world” - Tick-tac-toe sea battle. Test on the topic “At school”. Read the question carefully. Answer key. The world around us, grade 2. Instructions: 8. Where can you run, jump, and tumble at school? Choose a geometric figure (or figures) that matches your answer. Russian language mathematics and physics.

“The world around us at school” - Implementation of the principles of scientific, regional and local history, environmental, connection with life, seasonality. Modern educational paradigm: It is also necessary to take into account the possibility of applying and testing acquired knowledge in practice. Philology Mathematics Nature, man, society Art and culture Health Technologies.

“Environment Topic” - Plants produce oxygen that animals breathe. TOPIC: “The world through the eyes of an ecologist.” We work, we relax. Animals. Non-living. Alive. Nature. Ecological connections. Human. Plants. Lesson on the world around us Topic: “The world through the eyes of an ecologist.” Many animals eat plants.

"Ambient Light" - Light is of great importance for the development of life on Earth. The laws of nature are the same. In sayings, proverbs, quotes. Wavelength from 4 10-7 to 7.5 10-7 m. The rest mass of a photon is 0. Photoelectric effect Chemical action of light Photosynthesis Light pressure. Abu Ali ibn Sina. The universe and light came into existence as a result of the Big Bang.

“Program on the world around us” - The purpose of studying the course “The world around us” in elementary school is. Club "Young Ecologist". Thematic planning. Academic subject “The world around us”. Implements the principles of the activity approach. Methods and techniques. A mechanism for evaluating its activities has been developed. Designing a separate lesson. Calendar-thematic planning of lessons about the surrounding world.

“Games around the world” - Active use of role-playing games. Sun Festival. Traveler's school. Follow the traffic rules. Contents of the subject. The structure of a didactic game. Educational and methodological complex A.A. Pleshakov “The world around us”. The ABC of health. Didactic materials. In the land of fabulous animals.

In 1963, one of the stories of the Russian thinker and humanist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was published. It is based on events from the author’s biography. The publication of his books has always caused a huge resonance not only in the Russian-speaking society, but also among Western readers. But the image of Matryona in the story “Matryona’s Dvor” is unique. There was nothing like this before in village prose. And therefore this work took a special place in Russian literature.

Plot

The story is told from the author's perspective. A certain teacher and former camp inmate goes in the summer of 1956 at random, wherever his eyes look. His goal is to get lost somewhere in the dense Russian outback. Despite the ten years he spent in the camp, the hero of the story still hopes to find a job and teach. He succeeds. He settles in the village of Talnovo.

The image of Matryona in the story “Matryona’s Dvor” begins to take shape even before her appearance. A random acquaintance helps the main character find shelter. After a long and unsuccessful search, he offers to go to Matryona, warning that “she lives in a desolate place and is sick.” They are heading towards her.

Matryona's Domain

The house is old and rotten. It had been built many years ago for a large family, but now it was inhabited only by one woman of about sixty. Without a description of the poor life of the village, the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” would not be so insightful. The image of Matryona - the heroine of the story - fully corresponds to the atmosphere of desolation that reigned in the hut. Yellow, sickly face, tired eyes...

The house is full of mice. Among its inhabitants, in addition to the owner herself, are cockroaches and a lanky cat.

The image of Matryona in the story “Matryona’s Dvor” is the basis of the story. Based on it, the author reveals his spiritual world and depicts the characteristic features of other characters.

From the main character the narrator learns about her difficult fate. She lost her husband at the front. She lived her entire life alone. Later, her guest finds out that for many years she has not received a penny: she works not for money, but for sticks.

She was not happy with the tenant and tried to persuade him for some time to find a cleaner and more comfortable house. But the guest’s desire to find a quieter place determined the choice: he stayed with Matryona.

While the teacher was staying with her, the old woman got up before dark and prepared a simple breakfast. And it seemed that some meaning appeared in Matryona’s life.

Peasant image

The image of Matryona in the story “Matryona's Dvor” is an amazingly rare combination of selflessness and hard work. This woman has been working for half a century, not to make a living, but out of habit. Because he cannot imagine any other existence.

It should be said that the fate of the peasantry always attracted Solzhenitsyn, since his ancestors belonged to this class. And he believed that it was precisely the hard work, sincerity and generosity that distinguished the representatives of this social stratum. This is confirmed by the sincere, truthful image of Matryona in the story “Matryona’s Dvor”.

Fate

In intimate conversations in the evenings, the landlady tells the tenant the story of her life. Efim’s husband died in the war, but first his brother wooed her. She agreed and was listed as his fiancée, but during World War II he went missing and she didn’t wait for him. She married Efim. But Thaddeus returned.

Not a single child of Matryona survived. And then she became a widow.

Its end is tragic. She dies due to her naivety and kindness. This event ends the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”. The image of the righteous Matryona is sadder because, despite all her good qualities, she remains misunderstood by her fellow villagers.

Loneliness

Matryona lived alone in the big house all her life, except for her short-lived female happiness, which was destroyed by the war. And also those years during which she raised Thaddeus’s daughter. He married her namesake and they had six children. Matryona asked him to raise a girl, which he did not refuse. But her adopted daughter also left her.

The image of Matryona in A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matryona’s Dvor” is amazing. Neither eternal poverty, nor insults, nor all kinds of oppression destroy it. The best way for a woman to regain her good spirits was work. And after the work, she became satisfied, enlightened, with a kind smile.

The last righteous woman

She knew how to rejoice in someone else's happiness. Having not accumulated goodness throughout her life, she did not become bitter, and retained the ability to sympathize. Not a single hard work in the village could be done without her participation. Despite her illness, she helped other women, harnessed herself to the plow, forgetting about her old age and the illness that had tormented her for more than twenty years.

This woman never refused anything to her relatives, and her inability to preserve her own “goods” led to the fact that she lost her upper room - her only property, not counting the old rotten house. The image of Matryona in the story by A. I. Solzhenitsyn personifies selflessness and virtue, which for some reason did not evoke either respect or response from others.

Thaddeus

The righteous female character is contrasted with her failed husband Thaddeus, without whom the system of images would be incomplete. "Matrenin's Dvor" is a story in which, in addition to the main character, there are other persons. But Thaddeus is a clear contrast to the main character. Returning from the front alive, he did not forgive his fiancee for betrayal. Although, it should be said that she did not love his brother, but only pitied him. Understanding that it is difficult for his family without a mistress. The death of Matryona at the end of the story is a consequence of the stinginess of Thaddeus and his relatives. Avoiding unnecessary expenses, they decided to transport the room faster, but did not have time, as a result of which Matryona was hit by a train. Only the right hand remained intact. But even after the terrible events, Thaddeus looks at her dead body indifferently, indifferently.

There are also many sorrows and disappointments in the fate of Thaddeus, but the difference between the two characters is that Matryona was able to save her soul, but he was not. After her death, the only thing he cares about is Matrenino’s meager property, which he immediately drags into his house. Thaddeus does not come to the wake.

The image of Holy Rus', which poets so often sang, dissipates with her departure. A village cannot stand without a righteous man. The image of Matryona, the heroine in Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matryona’s Dvor,” is the remnant of a pure Russian soul, which is still alive, but already on its last legs. Because righteousness and kindness are valued less and less in Russia.

The story, as already mentioned, is based on real events. The only differences are in the name of the locality and some small details. The heroine's name was actually Matryona. She lived in one of the villages of the Vladimir region, where the author spent 1956-1957. It was planned to turn her house into a museum in 2011. But Matrenin's yard burned down. In 2013, the house-museum was restored.

The work was first published in the literary magazine “New World”. Solzhenitsyn's previous story caused a positive reaction. The story of the righteous woman gave rise to many disputes and discussions. And yet, critics had to admit that the story was created by a great and truthful artist, capable of returning the people to their native language and continuing the traditions of Russian classical literature.

Analysis of the story by A.I. Solzhenitsyn "Matrenin Dvor"

A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s view of the village of the 50-60s is distinguished by its harsh and cruel truth. Therefore, the editor of the magazine “New World” A.T. Tvardovsky insisted on changing the time of action of the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” (1959) from 1956 to 1953. This was an editorial move in the hope of getting Solzhenitsyn’s new work published: the events in the story were transferred to the time before the Khrushchev Thaw. The picture depicted leaves too painful an impression. “The leaves flew around, snow fell - and then melted. They plowed again, sowed again, reaped again. And again the leaves flew away, and again the snow fell. And one revolution. And another revolution. And the whole world turned upside down."

The story is usually based on an incident that reveals the character of the main character. Solzhenitsyn also builds his story on this traditional principle. Fate threw the hero-storyteller to a station with a strange name for Russian places - Torfoprodukt. Here “dense, impenetrable forests stood before and have survived the revolution.” But then they were cut down, reduced to the roots. In the village they no longer baked bread or sold anything edible - the table became meager and poor. Collective farmers “everything goes to the collective farm, right down to the white flies,” and they had to gather hay for their cows from under the snow.

The author reveals the character of the main character of the story, Matryona, through a tragic event - her death. Only after death “the image of Matryona floated before me, as I did not understand her, even living side by side with her.” Throughout the entire story, the author does not give a detailed, specific description of the heroine. Only one portrait detail is constantly emphasized by the author - Matryona’s “radiant”, “kind”, “apologetic” smile. But by the end of the story, the reader imagines the appearance of the heroine. The author’s attitude towards Matryona is felt in the tone of the phrase, the selection of colors: “The frozen window of the entryway, now shortened, was filled with a slightly pink color from the red frosty sun, and this reflection warmed Matryona’s face.” And then - a direct author’s description: “Those people always have good faces, who are in harmony with their conscience.” I remember Matryona’s smooth, melodious, primordially Russian speech, beginning with “some kind of low warm purring, like grandmothers in fairy tales.”

The world around Matryona in her dark hut with a large Russian stove is like a continuation of herself, a part of her life. Everything here is organic and natural: the cockroaches rustling behind the partition, the rustle of which was reminiscent of the “distant sound of the ocean,” and the languid cat, picked up by Matryona out of pity, and the mice, which on the tragic night of Matryona’s death darted about behind the wallpaper as if Matryona herself was “invisibly rushed about and said goodbye to her hut here.” Her favorite ficus trees “filled the owner’s loneliness with a silent but lively crowd.” The same ficus trees that Matryona once saved during a fire, without thinking about the meager wealth she had acquired. The ficus trees froze by the “frightened crowd” that terrible night, and then were taken out of the hut forever...

The author-narrator unfolds the life story of Matryona not immediately, but gradually. She had to endure a lot of grief and injustice in her lifetime: broken love, the death of six children, the loss of her husband in the war, hellish work in the village, severe illness, bitter resentment towards the collective farm, which squeezed all the strength out of her and then wrote her off as unnecessary. , leaving without pension and support. In the fate of Matryona, the tragedy of a rural Russian woman is concentrated - the most expressive, blatant.

But she did not become angry with this world, she retained a good mood, a feeling of joy and pity for others, and a radiant smile still brightens her face. “She had a surefire way to regain her good spirits - work.” And in her old age, Matryona did not know rest: she either grabbed a shovel, then went with a sack into the swamp to cut grass for her dirty white goat, or went with other women to secretly steal peat from the collective farm for winter kindling.

“Matryona was angry with someone invisible,” but she did not hold a grudge against the collective farm. Moreover, according to the very first decree, she went to help the collective farm, without receiving, as before, anything for her work. And she did not refuse help to any distant relative or neighbor, without a shadow of envy later telling the guest about the neighbor’s rich potato harvest. Work was never a burden to her; “Matryona never spared either her labor or her goods.” And everyone around Matryonin shamelessly took advantage of Matryonin’s selflessness.

She lived poorly, wretchedly, alone - a “lost old woman”, exhausted by work and illness. Relatives almost did not appear in her house, apparently fearing that Matryona would ask them for help. Everyone condemned her in chorus, that she was funny and stupid, that she worked for others for free, that she was always meddling in men’s affairs (after all, she got hit by a train because she wanted to help the men pull their sleighs through the crossing). True, after Matryona’s death, the sisters immediately flocked in, “seized the hut, the goat and the stove, locked her chest, and gutted two hundred funeral rubles from the lining of her coat.” And a friend of half a century, “the only one who sincerely loved Matryona in this village,” who came running in tears with the tragic news, nevertheless, when leaving, took Matryona’s knitted blouse with her so that the sisters would not get it. The sister-in-law, who recognized Matryona’s simplicity and cordiality, spoke about this “with contemptuous regret.” Everyone mercilessly took advantage of Matryona’s kindness and simplicity - and unanimously condemned her for it.

The writer devotes a significant place in the story to the funeral scene. And this is no coincidence. In Matryona’s house, all the relatives and friends in whose surroundings she lived her life gathered for the last time. And it turned out that Matryona was leaving this life, not understood by anyone, not mourned by anyone as a human being. At the funeral dinner they drank a lot, they said loudly, “not about Matryona at all.” According to custom, they sang “Eternal Memory,” but “the voices were hoarse, loud, their faces were drunk, and no one was putting feelings into this eternal memory.”

The death of the heroine is the beginning of decay, the death of the moral foundations that Matryona strengthened with her life. She was the only one in the village who lived in her own world: she arranged her life with work, honesty, kindness and patience, preserving her soul and inner freedom. Popularly wise, sensible, able to appreciate goodness and beauty, smiling and sociable in disposition, Matryona managed to resist evil and violence, preserving her “court,” her world, the special world of the righteous. But Matryona dies - and this world collapses: her house is torn apart log by log, her modest belongings are greedily divided. And there is no one to protect Matryona’s yard, no one even thinks that with Matryona’s departure something very valuable and important, not amenable to division and primitive everyday assessment, is leaving life.

“We all lived next to her and did not understand that she was the very righteous person without whom, according to the proverb, the village would not stand. Neither the city. Not our whole land."

The ending of the story is bitter. The author admits that he, who became related to Matryona, does not pursue any selfish interests, nevertheless did not fully understand her. And only death revealed to him the majestic and tragic image of Matryona. The story is a kind of author's repentance, bitter repentance for the moral blindness of everyone around him, including himself. He bows his head before a man of a selfless soul, absolutely unrequited, defenseless.

Despite the tragedy of the events, the story is written on some very warm, bright, piercing note. It sets the reader up for good feelings and serious thoughts.

The magazine “New World” published several works by Solzhenitsyn, among them “Matrenin’s Dvor”. The story, according to the writer, is “completely autobiographical and reliable.” It talks about the Russian village, about its inhabitants, about their values, about goodness, justice, sympathy and compassion, work and help - qualities that fit into the righteous man, without whom “the village is not worth it.”

“Matryonin’s Dvor” is a story about the injustice and cruelty of human fate, about the Soviet order of post-Stalin times and about the life of the most ordinary people living far from city life. The narration is told not from the perspective of the main character, but from the perspective of the narrator, Ignatyich, who in the whole story seems to play the role of only an outside observer. What is described in the story dates back to 1956 - three years passed after the death of Stalin, and then the Russian people did not yet know or understand how to live on.

“Matrenin’s Dvor” is divided into three parts:

1. The first tells the story of Ignatyich, it begins at the Torfprodukt station. The hero immediately reveals his cards, without making any secret of it: he is a former prisoner, and now works as a teacher at a school, he came there in search of peace and tranquility. In Stalin's time, it was almost impossible for people who had been imprisoned to find a job, and after the death of the leader, many became school teachers (a profession in short supply). Ignatyich stays with an elderly hardworking woman named Matryona, with whom he finds it easy to communicate and has peace of mind. Her dwelling was poor, the roof sometimes leaked, but this did not mean at all that there was no comfort in it: “Maybe to someone from the village, someone richer, Matryona’s hut did not seem friendly, but for us that autumn and winter it was quite good."
2. The second part tells about Matryona’s youth, when she had to go through a lot. The war took her fiancé Fadey away from her, and she had to marry his brother, who still had children in his arms. Taking pity on him, she became his wife, although she did not love him at all. But three years later, Fadey, whom the woman still loved, suddenly returned. The returning warrior hated her and her brother for their betrayal. But hard life could not kill her kindness and hard work, because it was in work and caring for others that she found solace. Matryona even died while doing business - she helped her lover and her sons drag part of her house across the railroad tracks, which was bequeathed to Kira (his daughter). And this death was caused by the greed, greed and callousness of Fadey: he decided to take away the inheritance while Matryona was still alive.
3. The third part talks about how the narrator learns about Matryona’s death and describes the funeral and wake. Her relatives are not crying out of grief, but rather because it is customary, and in their heads there are only thoughts about the division of the property of the deceased. Fadey is not at the wake.

Main characters

Matryona Vasilievna Grigorieva is an elderly woman, a peasant woman, who was released from work on the collective farm due to illness. She was always happy to help people, even strangers. In the episode when the narrator moves into her hut, the author mentions that she never intentionally looked for a lodger, that is, she did not want to make money on this basis, and did not profit even from what she could. Her wealth was pots of ficus trees and an old domestic cat that she took from the street, a goat, as well as mice and cockroaches. Matryona also married her fiancé’s brother out of a desire to help: “Their mother died...they didn’t have enough hands.”

Matryona herself also had six children, but they all died in early childhood, so she later took in Fadey’s youngest daughter, Kira, to raise her. Matryona rose early in the morning, worked until dark, but did not show fatigue or dissatisfaction to anyone: she was kind and responsive to everyone. She was always very afraid of becoming a burden to someone, she did not complain, she was even afraid to call the doctor again. As Kira grew up, Matryona wanted to give her room as a gift, which required dividing the house - during the move, Fadey’s things got stuck in a sled on the railroad tracks, and Matryona got hit by a train. Now there was no one to ask for help, there was no person ready to unselfishly come to the rescue. But the relatives of the deceased kept in mind only the thought of profit, of dividing what was left of the poor peasant woman, already thinking about it at the funeral. Matryona stood out very much from the background of her fellow villagers, and was thus irreplaceable, invisible and the only righteous person.

Narrator, Ignatyich, to some extent, is a prototype of the writer. He served his exile and was acquitted, after which he set out in search of a calm and serene life, he wanted to work as a school teacher. He found refuge with Matryona. Judging by the desire to move away from the bustle of the city, the narrator is not very sociable and loves silence. He worries when a woman takes his padded jacket by mistake, and is confused by the volume of the loudspeaker. The narrator got along with the owner of the house; this shows that he is still not completely antisocial. However, he doesn’t understand people very well: he understood the meaning by which Matryona lived only after she passed away.

Topics and issues

Solzhenitsyn in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” talks about the life of the inhabitants of the Russian village, about the system of relationships between power and people, about the high meaning of selfless work in the kingdom of selfishness and greed.

Of all this, the theme of labor is shown most clearly. Matryona is a person who does not ask for anything in return and is ready to give herself all for the benefit of others. They don’t appreciate her and don’t even try to understand her, but this is a person who experiences tragedy every day: first, the mistakes of her youth and the pain of loss, then frequent illnesses, hard work, not life, but survival. But from all the problems and hardships, Matryona finds solace in work. And, in the end, it is work and overwork that leads her to death. The meaning of Matryona’s life is precisely this, and also care, help, the desire to be needed. Therefore, active love for others is the main theme of the story.

The problem of morality also occupies an important place in the story. Material values ​​in the village are exalted over the human soul and its work, over humanity in general. The secondary characters are simply unable to understand the depth of Matryona’s character: greed and the desire to possess more clouds their eyes and does not allow them to see kindness and sincerity. Fadey lost his son and wife, his son-in-law faces imprisonment, but his thoughts are on how to protect the logs that were not burned.

In addition, the story has a theme of mysticism: the motive of an unidentified righteous man and the problem of cursed things - which were touched by people full of self-interest. Fadey made the upper room of Matryona's hut cursed, undertaking to knock it down.

Idea

The above-mentioned themes and problems in the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” are aimed at revealing the depth of the main character’s pure worldview. An ordinary peasant woman serves as an example of the fact that difficulties and losses only strengthen a Russian person, and do not break him. With the death of Matryona, everything that she figuratively built collapses. Her house is being torn apart, the remains of her property are divided among themselves, the yard remains empty and ownerless. Therefore, her life looks pitiful, no one realizes the loss. But won't the same thing happen to the palaces and jewels of the powerful? The author demonstrates the frailty of material things and teaches us not to judge others by their wealth and achievements. The true meaning is the moral character, which does not fade even after death, because it remains in the memory of those who saw its light.

Maybe over time the heroes will notice that a very important part of their life is missing: invaluable values. Why reveal global moral problems in such poor settings? And what then is the meaning of the title of the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”? The last words that Matryona was a righteous woman erase the boundaries of her court and expand them to the scale of the whole world, thereby making the problem of morality universal.

Folk character in the work

Solzhenitsyn reasoned in the article “Repentance and Self-Restraint”: “There are such born angels, they seem to be weightless, they seem to glide over this slurry, without drowning in it at all, even if their feet touch its surface? Each of us has met such people, there are not ten of them and not a hundred of them in Russia, these are righteous people, we saw them, were surprised (“eccentrics”), took advantage of their goodness, in good moments answered them in kind, they are disposed - and immediately immersed again to our doomed depths.”

Matryona is distinguished from the rest by her ability to preserve her humanity and a strong core inside. To those who unscrupulously used her help and kindness, it might seem that she was weak-willed and pliable, but the heroine helped based only on her inner selflessness and moral greatness.

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Sections: Literature

Lesson objectives:

• using the example of a comparative analysis, show the fate of the main characters, answer the problematic questions of the works posed by the authors;
• in the process of comparing and contrasting works, understand the meaning of eternal values ​​(righteousness, simplicity, humanity, humility);
• determine moral priorities and spiritual values ​​of a person;
• educating students about eternal truths that constitute the value of life

Keys to female happiness
From our free will
Abandoned, lost
From God himself!
N.A. Nekrasov

Teacher: The fate of the Russian woman worried and worries writers. How to maintain kindness and not become embittered if the world is so cruel and unfair, if there is no one to protect and you have to survive, relying only on yourself? An example of which roads are chosen by simple peasant women, of whom there are thousands in our country, are the works “Matrenin’s Dvor” and “Pelageya”.

Who is Matryona?

Student:

Matryona Vasilievna, the heroine of A. Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matryona’s Dvor” is a simple, lonely old woman. Her life was hard, many worries and sorrows befell her: six children did not even live to be three months old, her husband did not return from the war. Matryona spared nothing for her relatives, neighbors and even strangers. If the collective farm needed to remove manure, if they needed to help neighbors with plowing or harvesting, everyone went to her, knowing that she would not refuse. And Matryona did not refuse, she helped unselfishly and did not take payment for the work.

Teacher:- Tell us about Pelageya

Student:

Pelageya Anosova, the heroine of F. Abramov’s story “Pelageya,” is a baker who works from dawn to dusk in her bakery. In addition, she must take care of the house, tidy up the yard, cut the grass, and have time to look after her sick husband. All life is a continuous string of identical days passing in backbreaking work. She can’t even afford to rest: all the work rests on her. Pelageya's life is no less difficult.

Teacher:- for a woman it is very important to have a home, a family in which love, respect for each other, care reign, it is important for children to grow up. What is the tragedy of Matryona’s life and female destiny?

Student:

In her youth, fate treated Matryona harshly. She had one and only love for Thaddeus. “That summer... we went with him to sit in the grove. There was a grove here, where the horse yard is now, they cut it down... It didn’t come out without much..” - she tells her story to Ignatich. But Thaddeus went to war and disappeared for three years. The matchmaking of Thaddeus's younger brother, Efim, determined her future fate. She decided to enter their house and not for selfish reasons: “Their mother died... They didn’t have enough hands.” Thaddeus, who suddenly returned from Hungarian captivity, wanted to “chop” both of them: “If it weren’t for my dear brother, I would have chopped you both!”

Thaddeus’s life is developing absurdly: so, it seems, he got married (he also took Matryona from Lipovka as his wife), and built himself a house. It seems that he has nothing to regret: that Matryona bore him six children. But Thaddeus commits atrocities and beats his wife. Yefim and Matryona were not happy either: their children did not survive.

After Efim did not return from the war, Matryona begged from that downtrodden Matryona, Thaddeus’ wife, for their youngest girl, Kira, and raised her for ten years as her own.

Teacher:

Student:

Even in her youth, Pelageya was distinguished by a strong and decisive character. Her husband, Pavel, immediately obeyed her and was weak in character. Seeing her husband off to war, Pelageya said: “Trust in me. No one should comb my hair except you.” As she said, she did so: during the entire war she never crossed the threshold of the club. But Pelageya did not feel much respect for her husband. She realized what her Pavel really was only when she was burying him: “Pavel worked on the collective farm without fail, like a horse, like a machine. And he also fell ill while working on a collective farm. They brought me home from the threshing mill on a sleigh. And who appreciated his work during his lifetime?” She understands that she herself did not appreciate his work, because she was not paid for it. And only at the funeral the villagers speak kindly about Pavel, but he can no longer hear anything. Daughter Alka, whom Pelageya doted on, fled with an officer to the city. She grew up ungrateful and frivolous.

Works of fiction have repeatedly emphasized that work is the basis of life. A person’s character is clearly revealed in his attitude to work. What is Matryona’s attitude towards work?

Student:

Not a single plowing was complete without Matryona; together with other women, she harnessed herself to the plow and pulled it on herself. She could not refuse completely disinterested help to anyone, be it a loved one or a complete stranger. Often leaving her urgent affairs, despite the fact that she was not feeling well, she went to help her neighbors or the collective farm. She sincerely rejoices at someone else’s good harvest, while nothing will ever be born in her sand: “Oh, Ignatyich, and she has big potatoes! I dug in a hurry, I didn’t want to leave the site, by God I really do!” Matryona lifted the bags at five pounds. Work frees her from anger and prevents anything bad from accumulating in her soul.

Teacher:

Tell us about Pelageya’s work.

Student:

At first, Pelageya worked in the barnyard: the mud was terrible, up to her knees. Unlike Matryona, Pelageya makes a deal with her conscience: “She slept with someone else’s man not for pleasure, not for fun.” Out of need, out of heaviness, I decided to do it and finally got a place in the bakery. She worked conscientiously, at full strength. And this strength came from work, from Pelageya’s attitude towards her. Pelageya's bakery is clean. How she tried to make the bread more “spiritual” - she took water for testing from different wells, she chose resin firewood, so that it would be free of soot! She demanded the first grade of flour, and greased the freshly baked loaf with vegetable oil and sugar, then she loved to take the loaf in her hands: “Laughs and caresses.” She’s asking for it in her mouth.” She lights the stove, raises thirty buckets of water, pours in one hundred loaves of black and seventy of white. That’s why it’s so hard for Pelageya to see the new, unkempt baker Ulyanka; just the sight of her almost makes her sick: “Sweaty, greasy, her unwashed hair shines, as if she hasn’t been to a bathhouse in ages.” It is unbearable to look at the uncleaned samovar and washstand, at the unbleached stove, because Pelageya is used to working conscientiously.

Teacher:

Both heroines worked hard in their lives. There is an expression in the Russian language - to make money through backbreaking labor. What did Matryona and Pelageya “earn”?

Student:

Having worked all her life on the collective farm not for money, but for “sticks,” Matryona did not receive a pension and did not accumulate property before her death. A dirty white goat, a lanky cat, ficus trees - that’s what she had. Matryona is completely indifferent to clothes: “I didn’t go out of my way to buy things and then take care of them more than my life. I didn’t bother with outfits. Behind clothes that embellish freaks and villains.”

Student:

Pelageya starved for a third of her life. In 1933, her “father and brother died of hunger.” It was no better during the war. And after the war, before her eyes, her son, her first-born, withered away, because “Pelageya’s breasts were completely dry.” From then on, Pelageya understood the value of a “rag” - this is a product for which a piece of bread could be exchanged. And she began to rake in the textiles with both hands, because she knew: she was not putting chintz or silk into chests, but life itself. Nourishing days in reserve for your daughter, for your husband, for yourself.

Teacher:

The state is obliged to take care of its citizens, the people who honestly worked for it, gave their health and strength. How is the role of the state reflected in both works?

Student:

It should be answered with bitterness that the state seems to have forgotten the hard worker Matryona: she does not receive any help from him. In order to somehow survive, she has to go to the station with other women to steal peat.

Student:

Pelageya does not rely on anyone but herself. All her life she tried to save money: she seems to live no worse than others. However, Abramov managed to show how the village is spiritually impoverished. Pelageya is also forced to steal. She carries buckets of slop from the bakery for the pig: otherwise, without getting out, without making acquaintances, without stealing, without adapting, even with such hard labor you cannot provide yourself with a tolerable life. Before her death, she asks herself: what did she achieve, what did she achieve, why did she suffer so much? And he doesn’t find answers to all these questions. A strong, hardworking woman is lost in a world where there is nothing familiar to her: no husband, no daughter, no job, which means no happiness.

What is the attitude of fellow villagers towards Matryona?

Student:

All reviews about Matryona from fellow villagers are disapproving: “...and she was unclean; and I didn’t chase the factory; and not careful; and she didn’t even keep a pig, for some reason she didn’t like to feed it; and stupid, she helped strangers for free.” The sister-in-law told the author that her husband, Efim, did not love her either, because she did not know how to dress “culturedly,” that he got himself a “sudarka” in the city when he went to work.”

Who was able to appreciate the moral purity and beauty of the main character, “misunderstood and abandoned even by her husband, who buried six children, ... a stranger to her sisters, sisters-in-law, funny, foolishly working for others for free?”

Student:

A. Solzhenitsyn, the author (he is also the hero of the story, since the story is told on behalf of the author), considers Matryona a righteous woman, without whom “...the village does not stand. Neither the city. Neither the whole land is ours.” This is a woman with an immensely kind soul. People like her do not allow the village to die spiritually. She does not complain about fate, does not envy, does not condemn anyone, and does not hold malice in her heart. Without worrying about it specifically, she restored the author’s faith in human nobility, goodness, and purity.

What is the attitude of fellow villagers towards Pelageya?

Student:

Pelageya, unlike Matryona, can hardly be called a righteous woman. All her life she was drawn to “good people” and made the necessary acquaintances. She has such qualities as envy, anger, cruelty and ambition. Pelageya did not go to congratulate her sister-in-law on Angel's Day, since she does not belong to the circle of the chosen ones, but, despite her fatigue, she went to visit Pyotr Ivanovich, where there are many necessary people. During the years of working at the bakery, she got used to being visible, since the attitude towards bread and towards the baker was respectful. Many even envied her: “Gorgeous. You live a great life!” Indeed, the house was a delight to look at: a new slate roof, the porch covered with glass. A bathhouse, a cellar, a well and a vegetable garden - everything is at hand. Many condemned her: “Kulachikha! I ruined my parents’ house!”

The teacher reads excerpts from the story “Alka”:

Abramov wrote a continuation of the story “Pelageya”, the work is called “Alka”. We are talking about Pelageya’s only daughter, Alka, who fled with a military man to the city, a daughter who did not come to either her father’s funeral or her mother’s funeral. But she returns to the village and is surprised to hear Khristoforovna’s words: “Two girls from the city lived with me - they really liked our water. They say there is no water like this, grandmother, in the world. Everyone was running along the Paladina boundary.” Paladin's boundary is the boundary of his own mother. How rare it is when a trail is named after one’s own mother! Paladya is the village, home name of Pelageya. That's what her late father called her. This means that the villagers retained a good memory of Pelageya. This means that she didn’t live in vain, it means that her work was appreciated and remembered!

Teacher:

We traced the fates of two Russian women - Matryona and Pelageya. Did you find out what is common between them and what is the difference? I can’t help but remember the fate of another Matryona, Matryona Timofeevna from Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” These are representatives of different eras. In your opinion, has the fate of Russian women changed? Prepare a written answer to the question for the next lesson.