The great Russian poet N.A. Nekrasov was born and raised in the rural outback, among endless meadows and fields. As a boy, he loved to run away from home to his village friends. Here he met ordinary working people. Later, having become a poet, he created a number of truthful works about ordinary poor people, their life, speech, as well as Russian nature.
About them social status Even the names of the villages speak: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaiko and others. The priest they met also told about their plight: “The peasant himself is in need, and would be glad to give, but there is nothing...”.
On the one hand, the weather lets us down: it rains constantly, then the sun mercilessly burns, burning the crops. On the other hand, most of the harvest has to be given in the form of taxes:
Look, there are three shareholders standing:
God, king and lord
Nekrasov’s peasants are great workers:
Not gentle white-handed ones,
And we are great people,
At work and at play!
One of these representatives is Yakim Nagoy:
He works himself to death
He drinks until he's half dead!
And he himself is all like Mother Earth: a brick face, a wooden hand, sandy hair. This is how hard peasant work dried him out.
Another representative of the “great people”, Ermila Girin, is shown as an honest, fair, conscientious man. He is respected among the peasants. The enormous trust of his compatriots in him is evidenced by the fact that when Ermila turned to the people for help, everyone chipped in and helped Girin out. He, in turn, returned every penny. And he gave the remaining unclaimed ruble to the blind man.
While in the service, he tried to help everyone and did not take a penny for it: “It takes a bad conscience to extract a penny from a peasant.”
Once, having stumbled and sent another as a recruit instead of his brother, Girin suffers mentally to the point that he is ready to take his own life.
In general, the image of Girin is tragic. The wanderers learn that he is in prison for helping a rebellious village.
The lot of the peasant woman is equally bleak. In the image of Matryona Timofeevna, the author shows the stamina and endurance of a Russian woman.
Matryona's fate includes hard work, like men, family relationships, and the death of her first-born. But she endures all the blows of fate without complaint. And when it comes to her loved ones, she stands up for them. It turns out that there are no happy women among them:
The keys to female happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost, by God himself!
Only Savely supports Matryona Timofeevna. This is an old man who was once a Holy Russian hero, but who wasted his strength in hard work and hard labor:
Where have you gone, strength?
What were you useful for?
Under rods, under sticks
Left for little things!
Savely has weakened physically, but his faith in a better future is alive. He constantly repeats: “Branded, but not a slave!”
It turns out that Savely was sent to hard labor for burying alive the German Vogel, who was disgusted with the peasants because he mercilessly mocked and oppressed them.
Nekrasov calls Saveliy “the hero of Holy Russia”:
And it bends, but does not break,
Doesn't break, doesn't fall...
At Prince Peremetyev's
I was a beloved slave.
Prince Utyatin's lackey Ipat admires his master.
Nekrasov says about these peasant slaves:
People of servile rank
Real dogs Sometimes.
The heavier the punishment,
That's why gentlemen are dearer to them.
In fact, the psychology of slavery was so ingrained in their souls that it completely killed their human dignity.
Thus, Nekrasov’s peasants are heterogeneous, like any society of people. But for the most part they are honest, hardworking, striving for freedom, and therefore happiness, representatives of the peasantry.
It is no coincidence that the poem ends with a song about Rus', in which one can hear hope for the enlightenment of the Russian people:
An innumerable host is rising,
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” N. A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their difficult situation. The main problem This work is a search for an answer to the question, “who lives cheerfully, at ease in Rus',” who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. This is a group portrait, so in the image of the seven “temporarily obliged” only common features, characteristic of the Russian peasant: poverty, curiosity, unpretentiousness. Men do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the king. Peasant truth-seekers have a sense of self-esteem. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, taller, and smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the people’s love for work and their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matryona Timofeevna’s crop is dying, the men without hesitation offer her help; they also help the peasants of the Illiterate province with mowing.
Traveling around Russia, men meet various people. Revealing the images of the heroes encountered by the truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the situation of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, and nobility... But the author still pays the main attention to the peasants.
The images of Yakim Nagogo, Ermila Girin, Savely, Matryona Timofeevna combine both general, typical features peasantry, such as, for example, hatred of all the “shareholders” who extract from them vitality, as well as individual traits.
Yakim Nagoy, personifying the mass of the poor peasantry, “works himself to death,” but lives as a poor man, like the majority of the peasants of the village of Bosovo.
Yakim refutes the opinion that the peasant is poor because he drinks. He reveals the real reason This situation means the need to work for “shareholders.” The fate of Yakim is typical for the peasants of post-reform Rus': he “once lived in St. Petersburg,” but, having lost a lawsuit with a merchant, he ended up in prison, from where he returned, “torn like a sticker” and “took up his plow.”
Another image of the Russian peasant is Ermila Girin. The author endows him with incorruptible honesty and natural intelligence.
Having gone against the “peace”, sacrificing public interests for the sake of personal ones - having given up a neighbor’s guy as a soldier instead of her brother - Yermila is tormented by remorse and comes to the point of thinking about suicide. However, he does not hang himself, but goes to the people to repent.
The episode with the purchase of the mill is important. Nekrasov shows the solidarity of the peasantry. They trust Ermila, and he takes the side of the peasants during the riot.
The author’s idea that Russian peasants are heroes is also important. For this purpose, the image of Savely, the Holy Russian hero, is introduced. Despite the unbearable hard life, the hero has not lost his best qualities. He treats Matryona Timofeevna with sincere love and deeply worries about Demushka’s death. About himself he says: “Branded, but not a slave!” Savely acts as a folk philosopher. He ponders whether the people should continue to endure their lack of rights and oppressed state. Savely comes to the conclusion: it is better to “understand” than to “endure,” and he calls for protest.
Savelia's combination of sincerity, kindness, simplicity, sympathy for the oppressed and hatred of the oppressors makes this image vital and typical.
A special place in the poem, as in all of Nekrasov’s work, is occupied by the display of the “female share”. In the poem, the author reveals it using the example of the image of Matryona Timofeevna. This is a strong and persistent woman, fighting for her freedom and her feminine happiness. But, despite all her efforts, the heroine says: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women.”
The fate of Matryona Timofeevna is typical for a Russian woman: after marriage, she went from “girlhood to hell”; Misfortunes fell upon her one after another... Finally, Matryona Timofeevna, just like the men, is forced to work hard at work in order to feed her family.
The image of Matryona Timofeevna also contains features of the heroic character of the Russian peasantry.
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” the author showed how serfdom cripples people morally. He leads us through a procession of courtyard people, servants, serfs, who, over many years of groveling before the master, have completely lost their own “I” and human dignity. This is the faithful Yakov, who takes revenge on the master by killing himself in front of his eyes, and Ipat, the slave of the Utyatin princes, and Klim. Some peasants even become oppressors, receiving insignificant power from the landowner. The peasants hate these slave slaves even more than the landowners; they despise them.
Thus, Nekrasov showed the stratification among the peasantry associated with the reform of 1861.
The poem also notes such a feature of the Russian peasantry as religiosity. It's a way to escape reality. God is the supreme judge from whom the peasants seek protection and justice. Faith in God is hope for a better life.
Veretennikov Pavlusha - a collector of folklore who met men - seekers of happiness - at a rural fair in the village of Kuzminskoye. This character is given a very meager external characteristic(“He was good at acting out, / Wore a red shirt, / A cloth undergirl, / Grease boots...”), little is known about his origin (“What kind of rank, / The men did not know, / However, they called him “master”) . Due to such uncertainty, V.’s image acquires a generalizing character. His keen interest in the fate of the peasants distinguishes V. from among indifferent observers of the life of the people (figures of various statistical committees), eloquently exposed in the monologue of Yakim Nagogo. V.’s first appearance in the text is accompanied by a selfless act: he helps out the peasant Vavila by buying shoes for his granddaughter. In addition, he is ready to listen to other people's opinions. So, although he condemns the Russian people for drunkenness, he is convinced of the inevitability of this evil: after listening to Yakim, he himself offers him a drink (“Veretennikov / He brought two scales to Yakim”). Seeing the genuine attention from the reasonable master, and “the peasants open up / to the gentleman’s liking.” Among the alleged prototypes of V. are folklorists and ethnographers Pavel Yakushkin and Pavel Rybnikov, figures of the democratic movement of the 1860s. The character probably owes his surname to the journalist P.F. Veretennikov, who visited the Nizhny Novgorod Fair for several years in a row and published reports about it in the Moskovskie Vedomosti.
Vlas- headman of the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki. “Serving under a strict master, / Bearing the burden on his conscience / An involuntary participant / in his cruelties.” After the abolition of serfdom, V. renounced the post of pseudo-burgomaster, but accepted actual responsibility for the fate of the community: “Vlas was the kindest soul, / He was rooting for the entire Vakhlachina” - / Not for one family.” When the hope for the Last One flashed with the death free life “without corvee... without taxes... Without sticks...” is replaced for the peasants by a new concern (litigation with the heirs for the flood meadows), V. becomes an intercessor for the peasants, “lives in Moscow... was in St. Petersburg ... / But there’s no point!” Along with his youth, V. lost his optimism, is afraid of new things, and is always gloomy. But his daily life is rich in unnoticed things. good deeds, for example, in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”, at his initiative, the peasants collect money for the soldier Ovsyanikov. V.'s image is devoid of external specificity: for Nekrasov, he is primarily a representative of the peasantry. His difficult fate (“Not so much in Belokamennaya / On the pavement passed, / As in the soul of a peasant / Offenses passed ...”) - the fate of the entire Russian people.
Girin Ermil Ilyich (Ermila) - one of the most likely candidates for the title of lucky. The real prototype of this character is the peasant A.D. Potanin (1797-1853), who managed by proxy the estate of Countess Orlova, which was called Odoevshchina (after the surnames of the former owners - the Odoevsky princes), and the peasants were baptized into Adovshchina. Potanin became famous for his extraordinary justice. Nekrasovsky G. became known to his fellow villagers for his honesty even in those five years that he served as a clerk in the office (“A bad conscience is necessary - / A peasant should extort a penny from a peasant”). Under the old Prince Yurlov, he was fired, but then, under the young Prince, he was unanimously elected mayor of Adovshchina. During the seven years of his “reign” G. only once betrayed his soul: “... from the recruiting / He shielded his younger brother Mitri.” But repentance for this offense almost led him to suicide. Only thanks to the intervention of a strong master was it possible to restore justice, and instead of Nenila Vlasyevna’s son, Mitriy went to serve, and “the prince himself takes care of him.” G. quit his job, rented the mill “and it became more powerful than ever / Loved by all the people.” When they decided to sell the mill, G. won the auction, but he did not have the money with him to make a deposit. And then “a miracle happened”: G. was rescued by the peasants to whom he turned for help, and in half an hour he managed to collect a thousand rubles in the market square.
G. is driven not by mercantile interest, but by a rebellious spirit: “The mill is not dear to me, / The resentment is great.” And although “he had everything he needed / For happiness: peace, / And money, and honor,” at the moment when the peasants started talking about him (chapter “Happy”), G., in connection with the peasant uprising, is in prison. The speech of the narrator, a gray-haired priest, from whom it becomes known about the arrest of the hero, is unexpectedly interrupted by outside interference, and later he himself refuses to continue the story. But behind this omission one can easily guess both the reason for the riot and G.’s refusal to help in pacifying it.
Gleb- peasant, “great sinner.” According to the legend told in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”, the “ammiral-widower”, participant in the battle “at Achakov” (possibly Count A.V. Orlov-Chesmensky), granted by the empress with eight thousand souls, dying, entrusted to the elder G. his will (free for these peasants). The hero was tempted by the money promised to him and burned the will. Men are inclined to regard this “Judas” sin as the most serious sin ever committed, because of it they will have to “suffer forever.” Only Grisha Dobrosklonov manages to convince the peasants “that they are not responsible / For Gleb the accursed, / It’s all their fault: strengthen yourself!”
Dobrosklonov Grisha - a character who appears in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”; the epilogue of the poem is entirely dedicated to him. “Gregory / Has a thin, pale face / And thin, curly hair / With a tinge of redness.” He is a seminarian, the son of the parish sexton Trifon from the village of Bolshiye Vakhlaki. Their family lives in extreme poverty, only the generosity of Vlas the godfather and other men helped put Grisha and his brother Savva on their feet. Their mother Domna, “an unrequited farmhand / For everyone who helped her in any way / on a rainy day,” died early, leaving a terrible “Salty” song as a reminder of herself. In D.’s mind, her image is inseparable from the image of her homeland: “In the boy’s heart / With love for his poor mother / Love for all the Vakhlachina / Merged.” Already at the age of fifteen he was determined to devote his life to the people. “I don’t need silver, / Nor gold, but God grant, / So that my fellow countrymen / And every peasant / May live freely and cheerfully / Throughout all holy Rus'!” He is going to Moscow to study, while in the meantime he and his brother help the peasants as best they can: they write letters for them, explain the “Regulations on peasants emerging from serfdom,” work and rest “on an equal basis with the peasantry.” Observations on the life of the surrounding poor, reflections on the fate of Russia and its people are clothed in poetic form, D.'s songs are known and loved by the peasants. With his appearance in the poem, the lyrical principle intensifies, the author’s direct assessment invades the narrative. D. is marked with the “seal of the gift of God”; A revolutionary propagandist from among the people, he should, according to Nekrasov, serve as an example for the progressive intelligentsia. In his mouth, the author puts his beliefs, his own version of the answer to the social and moral questions posed in the poem. The image of the hero gives the poem compositional completeness. The real prototype could be N.A. Dobrolyubov.
Elena Alexandrovna - governor's wife, merciful lady, Matryona's savior. “She was kind, she was smart, / Beautiful, healthy, / But God did not give children.” She sheltered a peasant woman after a premature birth, became the child’s godmother, “all the time with Liodorushka / Was worn around like her own.” Thanks to her intercession, it was possible to rescue Philip from the recruiting camp. Matryona praises her benefactor to the skies, and criticism (O. F. Miller) rightly notes echoes of the sentimentalism of the Karamzin period in the image of the governor.
Ipat- a grotesque image of a faithful serf, a lord's lackey, who remained faithful to the owner even after the abolition of serfdom. I. boasts that the landowner “harnessed him with his own hand / to a cart,” bathed him in an ice hole, saved him from the cold death to which he himself had previously doomed. He perceives all this as great blessings. I. causes healthy laughter among wanderers.
Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna - a peasant woman, the third part of the poem is entirely devoted to her life story. “Matryona Timofeevna / A dignified woman, / Broad and dense, / About thirty-eight years old. / Beautiful; gray hair, / Large, stern eyes, / Rich eyelashes, / Severe and dark. / She’s wearing a white shirt, / And a short sundress, / And a sickle over her shoulder.” The fame of the lucky woman brings strangers to her. M. agrees to “lay out her soul” when the men promise to help her in the harvest: the suffering is in full swing. M.’s fate was largely suggested to Nekrasov by the autobiography of the Olonets prisoner I. A. Fedoseeva, published in the 1st volume of “Lamentations of the Northern Territory,” collected by E. V. Barsov (1872). The narrative is based on her laments, as well as other folklore materials, including “Songs collected by P. N. Rybnikov” (1861). Abundance folklore sources, often included practically without changes in the text of “Peasant Women,” and the very name of this part of the poem emphasizes the typicality of M.’s fate: this is the usual fate of a Russian woman, convincingly indicating that the wanderers “started / It’s not a matter - between women // To look for a happy " In his parents' house, in a good, non-drinking family, M. lived happily. But, having married Philip Korchagin, a stove maker, she ended up “by her maiden will in hell”: a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunken father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom the daughter-in-law must work like a slave. However, she was lucky with her husband: only once did it come to beatings. But Philip only returns home from work in the winter, and the rest of the time there is no one to intercede for M. except grandfather Savely, father-in-law. She has to endure the harassment of Sitnikov, the master's manager, which stopped only with his death. For the peasant woman, her first-born De-mushka becomes a consolation in all troubles, but due to Savely’s oversight, the child dies: he is eaten by pigs. An unjust trial is being carried out on a grief-stricken mother. Having not thought of giving a bribe to her boss in time, she witnesses the violation of her child’s body.
For a long time, K. cannot forgive Savely for his irreparable mistake. Over time, the peasant woman has new children, “there is no time / Neither to think nor to grieve.” The heroine's parents, Savely, die. Her eight-year-old son Fedot faces punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a wolf, and his mother lies under the rod in his place. But the most difficult trials befall her in a lean year. Pregnant, with children, she herself is like a hungry wolf. The recruitment deprives her of her last protector, her husband (he is taken out of turn). In her delirium, she draws terrible pictures of the life of a soldier and soldiers’ children. She leaves the house and runs to the city, where she tries to get to the governor, and when the doorman lets her into the house for a bribe, she throws herself at the feet of the governor Elena Alexandrovna. With her husband and newborn Liodorushka, the heroine returns home, this incident secured her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname “governor”. Further fate it is also full of troubles: one of the sons has already been taken into the army, “They were burned twice... God visited with anthrax... three times.” The “Woman’s Parable” sums up her tragic story: “The keys to women’s happiness, / From our free will / Abandoned, lost / From God himself!” Some of the critics (V.G. Avseenko, V.P. Burenin, N.F. Pavlov) met “The Peasant Woman” with hostility; Nekrasov was accused of implausible exaggerations, false, fake populism. However, even ill-wishers noted some successful episodes. There were also reviews of this chapter as the best part of the poem.
Kudeyar-ataman - “great sinner”, the hero of the legend told by God’s wanderer Jonushka in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World.” The fierce robber unexpectedly repented of his crimes. Neither a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher nor a hermitage brings peace to his soul. The saint who appeared to K. promises him that he will earn forgiveness when he cuts down a century-old oak tree “with the same knife that he robbed.” Years of futile efforts raised doubts in the heart of the old man about the possibility of completing the task. However, “the tree collapsed, the burden of sins rolled off the monk,” when the hermit, in a fit of furious anger, killed Pan Glukhovsky, who was passing by, boasting of his calm conscience: “Salvation / I haven’t been drinking for a long time, / In the world I honor only woman, / Gold, honor and wine... How many slaves I destroy, / I torture, torture and hang, / And if only I could see how I’m sleeping!” The legend about K. was borrowed by Nekrasov from folklore tradition, however, the image of Pan Glukhovsky is quite realistic. Among the possible prototypes is the landowner Glukhovsky from the Smolensk province, who spotted his serf, according to a note in Herzen’s “Bell” dated October 1, 1859.
Nagoy Yakim- “In the village of Bosovo / Yakim Nagoy lives, / He works until he’s dead, / He drinks until he’s half to death!” - this is how the character defines himself. In the poem, he is entrusted to speak out in defense of the people on behalf of the people. The image has deep folklore roots: the hero’s speech is replete with paraphrased proverbs, riddles, in addition, formulas similar to those that characterize his appearance (“The hand is tree bark, / And the hair is sand”) are repeatedly found, for example, in folk spiritual verse "About Yegoriy Khorobry." Nekrasov reinterprets the popular idea of the inseparability of man and nature, emphasizing the unity of the worker with the earth: “He lives and tinkers with the plow, / And death will come to Yakimushka” - / As a lump of earth falls off, / What has dried on the plow ... near the eyes, near the mouth / Bends like cracks / On dry ground<...>the neck is brown, / Like a layer cut off by a plow, / A brick face.”
The character’s biography is not entirely typical for a peasant, it is rich in events: “Yakim, a wretched old man, / Once lived in St. Petersburg, / But he ended up in prison: / He decided to compete with a merchant! / Like a piece of velcro, / He returned to his homeland / And took up the plow.” During the fire, he lost most of his property, since the first thing he did was rush to save the pictures that he bought for his son (“And he himself didn’t smaller than a boy/ Loved to look at them"). However, even in the new house, the hero returns to the old ways and buys new pictures. Countless adversities only strengthen his firm life position. In Chapter III of the first part (“ drunken night") N. pronounces a monologue, where his beliefs are formulated extremely clearly: hard labor, the results of which go to three shareholders (God, the king and the master), and sometimes are completely destroyed by fire; disasters, poverty - all this justifies peasant drunkenness, and it is not worth measuring the peasant “by the master’s standard.” This point of view on the problem of popular drunkenness, widely discussed in journalism in the 1860s, is close to the revolutionary democratic one (according to N. G. Chernyshevsky and N. A. Dobrolyubov, drunkenness is a consequence of poverty). It is no coincidence that this monologue was subsequently used by the populists in their propaganda activities, and was repeatedly rewritten and reprinted separately from the rest of the text of the poem.
Obolt-Obolduev Gavrila Afanasyevich - “The gentleman is round, / Mustachioed, pot-bellied, / With a cigar in his mouth... ruddy, / Stately, stocky, / Sixty years old... Well done, / Hungarian with Brandenburs, / Wide trousers.” Among O.'s eminent ancestors are a Tatar who amused the empress with wild animals, and an embezzler who plotted the arson of Moscow. The hero is proud of his family tree. Previously, the master “smoked... God’s heaven, / Wore the royal livery, / Wasted the people’s treasury / And thought to live like this forever,” but with the abolition of serfdom, “the great chain broke, / It broke and sprang: / One end hit the master, / For others, it’s a man!” With nostalgia, the landowner recalls the lost benefits, explaining along the way that he is sad not for himself, but for his motherland.
A hypocritical, idle, ignorant despot, who sees the purpose of his class in “the ancient name, / The dignity of the nobility / To support with hunting, / With feasts, with all kinds of luxury / And to live by the labor of others.” On top of that, O. is also a coward: he mistakes unarmed men for robbers, and they do not soon manage to persuade him to hide the pistol. Comic effect is intensified by the fact that accusations against oneself come from the lips of the landowner himself.
Ovsyanikov- soldier. “...He was fragile on his legs, / Tall and skinny to the extreme; / He was wearing a frock coat with medals / Hanging like on a pole. / It’s impossible to say that he had a kind / face, especially / When he drove the old one - / Damn the devil! The mouth will snarl, / The eyes are like coals!” With his orphan niece Ustinyushka, O. traveled around the villages, earning a living from the district committee, when the instrument became damaged, he composed new sayings and performed them, playing along with himself on spoons. O.'s songs are based on folklore sayings and raesh poems recorded by Nekrasov in 1843-1848. while working on “The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trostnikovaya. The lyrics of these songs sketch out life path soldier: the war near Sevastopol, where he was crippled, a negligent medical examination, where the old man’s wounds were rejected: “Second-rate! / According to them, the pension”, subsequent poverty (“Come on, with George - around the world, around the world”). In connection with the image of O., a topic that is relevant both for Nekrasov and for later Russian literature arises railway. The cast iron in the soldier’s perception is an animated monster: “It snorts in the peasant’s face, / Crushes, maims, tumbles, / Soon the entire Russian people / Will sweep cleaner than a broom!” Klim Lavin explains that the soldier cannot get to the St. Petersburg “Committee for the Wounded” for justice: the tariff on the Moscow-Petersburg road has increased and made it inaccessible to the people. The peasants, the heroes of the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World,” are trying to help the soldier and together collect only “rubles.”
Petrov Agap- “rude, unyielding,” according to Vlas, a man. P. did not want to put up with voluntary slavery; they calmed him down only with the help of wine. Caught by the Last One in the act of a crime (carrying a log from the master’s forest), he broke down and explained his real situation to the master in the most impartial terms. Klim Lavin staged a brutal reprisal against P., getting him drunk instead of flogging him. But from the humiliation suffered and excessive intoxication, the hero dies by the morning of the next day. Such a terrible price is paid by peasants for a voluntary, albeit temporary, renunciation of freedom.
Polivanov- “... a gentleman of low birth,” however, small means did not in the least prevent the manifestation of his despotic nature. He is characterized by the whole range of vices of a typical serf owner: greed, stinginess, cruelty (“with relatives, not only with peasants”), voluptuousness. By old age, the master’s legs were paralyzed: “The eyes are clear, / The cheeks are red, / The plump arms are as white as sugar, / And there are shackles on the legs!” In this trouble, Yakov became his only support, “friend and brother,” but the master repaid him with black ingratitude for his faithful service. The terrible revenge of the slave, the night that P. had to spend in the ravine, “driving away the groans of birds and wolves,” force the master to repent (“I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me!”), but the narrator believes that he will not be forgiven: “You will You, master, are an exemplary slave, / Faithful Jacob, / Remember until the day of judgment!
Pop- according to Luke’s assumption, the priest “lives cheerfully, / At ease in Rus'.” The village priest, who was the first to meet the wanderers on the way, refutes this assumption: he has no peace, no wealth, no happiness. With what difficulty “the priest’s son gets a letter,” Nekrasov himself wrote in the poetic play “Rejected” (1859). In the poem, this theme will appear again in connection with the image of seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov. The priest’s career is restless: “The sick, the dying, / Born into the world / They do not choose time,” no habit will protect from compassion for the dying and orphans, “every time it gets wet, / The soul gets sick.” Pop enjoys dubious honor among the peasantry: folk superstitions are associated with him, he and his family are constant characters in obscene jokes and songs. The priest's wealth was previously due to the generosity of parishioners and landowners, who, with the abolition of serfdom, left their estates and scattered, “like the Jewish tribe... Across distant foreign lands / And across native Rus'.” With the transfer of the schismatics to the supervision of civil authorities in 1864, the local clergy lost another serious source of income, and it was difficult to live on “kopecks” from peasant labor.
Savely- the Holy Russian hero, “with a huge gray mane, / Tea, not cut for twenty years, / With a huge beard, / Grandfather looked like a bear.” Once in a fight with a bear, he injured his back, and in his old age it bent. Native village S, Korezhina, is located in the wilderness, and therefore the peasants live relatively freely (“The zemstvo police / Have not come to us for a year”), although they endure the atrocities of the landowner. The heroism of the Russian peasant lies in patience, but there is a limit to any patience. S. ends up in Siberia for burying a hated German manager alive. Twenty years of hard labor, an unsuccessful attempt to escape, twenty years of settlement did not shake the rebellious spirit in the hero. Having returned home after the amnesty, he lives with the family of his son, Matryona’s father-in-law. Despite his venerable age (according to revision tales, grandfather is a hundred years old), he leads independent life: “He didn’t like families, / He didn’t let them into his corner.” When they reproach him for his convict past, he cheerfully replies: “Branded, but not a slave!” Tempered by harsh trades and human cruelty, S.’s petrified heart could only be melted by Dema’s great-grandson. An accident makes the grandfather the culprit of Demushka's death. His grief is inconsolable, he goes to repentance at the Sand Monastery, tries to beg for forgiveness from the “angry mother.” Having lived one hundred and seven years, before his death he pronounces a terrible sentence on the Russian peasantry: “For men there are three roads: / Tavern, prison and penal servitude, / And for women in Rus' / Three nooses... Climb into any one.” The image of S, in addition to folklore, has social and polemical roots. O. I. Komissarov, who saved Alexander II from the assassination attempt on April 4, 1866, was a Kostroma resident, a fellow countryman of I. Susanin. Monarchists saw this parallel as proof of the thesis about the love of the Russian people for kings. To refute this point of view, Nekrasov settled the rebel S in the Kostroma province, the original patrimony of the Romanovs, and Matryona catches the similarity between him and the monument to Susanin.
Trophim (Trifon) - “a man with shortness of breath, / Relaxed, thin / (Sharp nose, like a dead one, / Thin arms like a rake, / Long legs like knitting needles, / Not a man - a mosquito).” A former bricklayer, a born strongman. Yielding to the provocation of the contractor, he “carried one at the extreme / Fourteen pounds” to the second floor and broke himself. One of the most vivid and terrible images in the poem. In the chapter “Happy,” T. boasts of the happiness that allowed him to get from St. Petersburg to his homeland alive, unlike many other “feverish, feverish workers” who were thrown out of the carriage when they began to rave.
Utyatin (Last One) - "thin! / Like winter hares, / All white... The nose is beaked like a hawk, / The mustache is gray, long / And - different eyes: / One healthy one glows, / And the left one is cloudy, cloudy, / Like a tin penny! Having “exorbitant wealth, / An important rank, a noble family,” U. does not believe in the abolition of serfdom. As a result of an argument with the governor, he becomes paralyzed. “It was not self-interest, / But arrogance cut him off.” The prince's sons are afraid that he will deprive them of their inheritance in favor of their side daughters, and they persuade the peasants to pretend to be serfs again. The peasant world allowed “the dismissed master to show off / During the remaining hours.” On the day of the arrival of wanderers - seekers of happiness - in the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki, the Last One finally dies, then the peasants arrange a “feast for the whole world”. The image of U. has a grotesque character. The absurd orders of the tyrant master will make the peasants laugh.
Shalashnikov- landowner, former owner of Korezhina, military man. Taking advantage of the distance from provincial town, where the landowner stood with his regiment, the Korezhin peasants did not pay quitrent. Sh. decided to extract the quitrent by force, tore the peasants so much that “the brains were already shaking / In their little heads.” Savely remembers the landowner as an unsurpassed master: “He knew how to flog! / He tanned my skin so well that it lasts for a hundred years.” He died near Varna, his death put an end to the relative prosperity of the peasants.
Yakov- “about the exemplary slave - Yakov the faithful”, a former servant tells in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”. “People of the servile rank are / Sometimes mere dogs: / The more severe the punishment, / The dearer the Lord is to them.” So was Ya. until Mr. Polivanov, having coveted his nephew’s bride, sold him as a recruit. The exemplary slave took to drinking, but returned two weeks later, taking pity on the helpless master. However, his enemy was already “torturing him.” Ya takes Polivanov to visit his sister, halfway turns into the Devil's Ravine, unharnesses the horses and, contrary to the master's fears, does not kill him, but hangs himself, leaving the owner alone with his conscience for the whole night. This method of revenge (“to drag dry misfortune” - to hang oneself in the domain of the offender in order to make him suffer for the rest of his life) was indeed known, especially among the eastern peoples. Nekrasov, creating the image of Ya., turns to the story that A.F. Koni told him (who, in turn, heard it from the watchman of the volost government), and only slightly modifies it. This tragedy is another illustration of the destructiveness of serfdom. Through the mouth of Grisha Dobrosklonov, Nekrasov summarizes: “No support - no landowner, / Drives a zealous slave to the noose, / No support - no servant, / Taking revenge / on his villain by suicide.”
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is based on N.A. Nekrasov is an image of the Russian peasantry after the abolition of serfdom. Throughout the entire work, the characters are looking for the answer to the question: “Who lives happily and freely in Rus'?”, who is considered happy, who is unhappy.
Truth-seekers
At the forefront of the research is the journey of seven men through Russian villages in search of an answer to the question posed. In the appearance of the seven “freely obligated” we see only the common features of the peasants, namely: poverty, inquisitiveness, unpretentiousness.
The men ask about the happiness of the peasants and soldiers they meet. They consider the priest, the landowner, the merchant, the nobleman and the tsar to be lucky. But the main place in the poem is given to the peasantry.
Yakim Nagoy
Yakim Nagoy works “to death”, but lives from hand to mouth, like most residents of Bosovo. In the description of the hero, we see how difficult Yakim’s life is: “...He himself looks like Mother Earth.” Yakim realizes that the peasants are the greatest power, he is proud that he belongs to this group of people. he is familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the peasant character. The main disadvantage is alcohol, which has a detrimental effect on men.
For Yakima, the idea that the poverty of the peasantry is caused by drinking wine is unacceptable. In his opinion, this is due to the obligation to work for “shareholders.” The fate of the hero is typical for the Russian people after the abolition of serfdom: while living in the capital, he enters into an argument with a merchant, ends up in prison, from where he returns to the village and begins to plow the land.
Ermila Girin
Ermila Girina N.A. Nekrasov endowed with honesty and great mind. He lived for the sake of the people, was honest, fair, and did not leave anyone in trouble. The only dishonest act he committed was for the sake of his family - saving his nephew from being recruited. He sent the widow's son instead. From his own deceit and torment of conscience, Girin almost hanged himself. He corrected his mistake and subsequently took the side of the rebellious peasants, for which he was imprisoned.
The episode with the purchase of Ermil’s mill is remarkable, when the peasants express absolute trust in Ermil Girin, and he, in return, is completely honest with them.
Savely - hero
Nekrasov expresses the idea that peasants for him are akin to heroes. Here comes the image of Savely, the Holy Russian hero. He sincerely sympathizes with Matryona and has a hard time rethinking the death of Demushka. This hero combines goodness, simplicity, sincerity, help to the oppressed and anger towards the oppressors.
Matrena Timofeevna
Peasant women are represented in the image of Matryona Timofeevna. This strong soul a woman fights all her life for freedom and female happiness. Her life resembles the life of many peasant women of that time, although she is even happier than many. This is taking into account the fact that after marriage she ended up in a family that hated her, she was married only once, her first-born was eaten by pigs, and her whole life is based on hard work in the fields.
Peasant oppressors
The author shows how hard serfdom affects people’s lives, how it cripples them, destroying them morally. There are also peasants who chose the side of their masters - Ipat, Klim, Yakov the Faithful, who oppress the common people along with the landowners.
In his poem, Nekrasov showed the life of the peasantry after the reform of 1861, depicted images of Russian peasants, saying that the people have untold power and will soon begin to realize their rights.
“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is one of the most famous works N.A. Nekrasova. In the poem, the writer managed to reflect all the hardships and torments that the Russian people endure. The characteristics of the heroes are especially significant in this context. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a work rich in bright, expressive and original characters, which we will consider in the article.
The meaning of the prologue
The beginning of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” plays a special role in understanding the work. The prologue resembles a fairy tale opening like “In a Certain Kingdom”:
In what year - calculate
In what land - guess...
The following tells about the men who came from different villages (Neelova, Zaplatova, etc.). All titles and names are telling; with them Nekrasov gives a clear description of places and characters. In the prologue, the men's journey begins. This is where the fairy-tale elements in the text end, the reader is introduced to the real world.
List of heroes
All the heroes of the poem can be divided into four groups. The first group consists of the main characters who went for happiness:
- Demyan;
- Novel;
- Prov;
- Groin;
- Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin;
- Luke.
Then come the landowners: Obolt-Obolduev; Glukhovskaya; Utyatin; Shalashnikov; Peremetev.
Slaves and peasants met by travelers: Yakim Nagoy, Egor Shutov, Ermil Girin, Sidor, Ipat, Vlas, Klim, Gleb, Yakov, Agap, Proshka, Savely, Matryona.
And heroes who do not belong to the main groups: Vogel, Altynnikov, Grisha.
Now let's look at the key characters in the poem.
Dobrosklonov Grisha
Grisha Dobrosklonov appears in the episode “A Feast for the Whole World”; the entire epilogue of the work is dedicated to this character. He himself is a seminarian, the son of a clerk from the village of Bolshiye Vakhlaki. Grisha's family lives very poorly, only thanks to the generosity of the peasants they managed to raise him and his brother Savva to their feet. Their mother, a farm laborer, died early from overwork. For Grisha, her image merged with the image of her homeland: “With love for the poor mother, love for all the Vakhlachina.”
While still a fifteen-year-old child, Grisha Dobrosklonov decided to devote his life to helping the people. In the future, he wants to go to Moscow to study, but for now, together with his brother, he helps the men as best he can: he works with them, explains new laws, reads documents to them, writes letters for them. Grisha composes songs that reflect observations of poverty and suffering of the people, and thoughts about the future of Russia. The appearance of this character enhances the lyricism of the poem. Nekrasov’s attitude towards his hero is clearly positive; the writer sees in him a revolutionary from the people who should become an example for upper strata society. Grisha voices the thoughts and position of Nekrasov himself, solutions to social and moral problems. N.A. is considered the prototype of this character. Dobrolyubova.
Ipat
Ipat is a “sensitive serf,” as Nekrasov calls him, and in this characteristic one can hear the poet’s irony. This character also makes travelers laugh when they learn about his life. Ipat is a grotesque character; he became the embodiment of a faithful lackey, a lordly slave who remained faithful to his master even after the abolition of serfdom. He is proud and considers it a great blessing for himself how the master bathed him in an ice hole, harnessed him to a cart, and saved him from death, to which he himself doomed. Such a character cannot even evoke sympathy from Nekrasov; only laughter and contempt are heard from the poet.
Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna
The peasant woman Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina is the heroine to whom Nekrasov dedicated the entire third part of the poem. This is how the poet describes her: “A dignified woman, about thirty-eight years old, broad and dense. Beautiful... big eyes... stern and dark. She’s wearing a white shirt and a short sundress.” Travelers are led to the woman by her words. Matryona agrees to talk about her life if the men will help in the harvest. The title of this chapter (“Peasant Woman”) emphasizes the typicality of Korchagina’s fate for Russian women. And the author’s words “it’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women” emphasize the futility of the wanderers’ search.
Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina was born into a good, non-drinking family, and she lived happily there. But after marriage, she found herself “in hell”: her father-in-law was a drunkard, her mother-in-law was superstitious, and she had to work for her sister-in-law without straightening her back. Matryona was lucky with her husband: he only beat her once, but all the time, except winter, he was at work. Therefore, there was no one to stand up for the woman; the only one who tried to protect her was grandfather Savely. The woman endures the harassment of Sitnikov, who has no authority because he is the master’s manager. Matryona's only consolation is her first child, Dema, but due to Savely's oversight, he dies: the boy is eaten by pigs.
Time passes, Matryona has new children, parents and grandfather Savely die of old age. The most difficult years are the lean years, when the whole family has to go hungry. When her husband, the last intercessor, is selected as a soldier out of turn, she goes to the city. He finds the general's house and throws himself at the feet of his wife, asking for intercession. Thanks to the help of the general's wife, Matryona and her husband return home. It was after this incident that everyone considered her lucky. But in the future, the woman will face only troubles: her eldest son is already a soldier. Nekrasov, summing up, says that the key to female happiness has long been lost.
Agap Petrov
Agap is an inflexible and stupid man, according to the peasants who know him. And all because Petrov did not want to put up with the voluntary slavery that fate was pushing the peasants into. The only thing that could calm him down was wine.
When he was caught carrying a log from the master's forest and accused of theft, he could not stand it and told the owner everything he thought about the real state of affairs and life in Russia. Klim Lavin, not wanting to punish Agap, stages a brutal reprisal against him. And then, wanting to console him, he gives him something to drink. But humiliation and excessive drunkenness lead the hero to die in the morning. This is the price the peasants pay for the right to openly express their thoughts and desire to be free.
Veretennikov Pavlusha
Veretennikov was met by men in the village of Kuzminskoye, at a fair; he is a collector of folklore. Nekrasov gives a poor description of his appearance and does not talk about his origin: “The men did not know what family and rank.” However, for some reason everyone calls him master. This uncertainty is necessary for the image of Pavlusha to be generalized. Compared to people, Veretennikov stands out for his concern about the fate of the Russian people. He is not an indifferent observer, like the participants in the many inactive committees that Yakim Nagoy denounces. Nekrasov emphasizes the hero’s kindness and responsiveness by the fact that his very first appearance is marked by a selfless act: Pavlusha helps out a peasant buying shoes for his granddaughter. Genuine concern for the people also attracts travelers to the “master”.
The prototype of the image was the ethnographers-folklorists Pavel Rybnikov and Pavel Yakushkin, who participated in the democratic movement of the 60s of the 19th century. The surname belongs to the journalist P.F. Veretennikov, who visited country fairs and published reports in Moskovskie Vedomosti.
Yakov
Yakov is a faithful servant, a former servant, he is described in the part of the poem called “A Feast for the Whole World.” The hero was loyal to his master, endured any punishment and performed even the most difficult work without complaint. This continued until the master, who liked his nephew’s bride, sent him to recruit service. Yakov started drinking, but still returned to his owner. However, the man wanted revenge. One day, when he was taking Polivanov (the master) to his sister, Yakov turned off the road into Devil’s Ravine, unharnessed his horse and hanged himself in front of the owner, wanting to leave him alone with his conscience all night. Similar cases revenge was indeed common among the peasants. Nekrasov based his story on a true story he heard from A.F. Horses.
Ermila Girin
Characteristics of the heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is impossible without a description of this character. It is Ermila who can be considered one of the lucky ones whom the travelers were looking for. The prototype of the hero was A.D. Potanin, a peasant, manager of the Orlovs' estate, famous for his unprecedented justice.
Girin is revered among the peasants because of his honesty. For seven years he was burgomaster, but only once did he allow himself to abuse his power: he did not give his younger brother Mitri as a recruit. But the unrighteous act tormented Yermil so much that he almost killed himself. The intervention of the master saved the situation, he restored justice, returned the peasant who had been unfairly sent to the recruits and sent Mitri to serve, but personally took care of him. Girin then left the service and became a miller. When the mill that he rented was sold, Ermila won the auction, but he did not have the money with him to pay the deposit. The people helped out the peasant: in half an hour, men who remembered kindness collected a thousand rubles for him.
All of Girin’s actions were driven by the desire for justice. Despite the fact that he lived in prosperity and had a considerable household, when a peasant revolt broke out, he did not stand aside, for which he ended up in prison.
Pop
The characterization of the heroes continues. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a work rich in characters of different classes, characters and aspirations. Therefore, Nekrasov could not help but turn to the image of a clergyman. According to Luke, it is the priest who should “live cheerfully and freely in Rus'.” And the first on their way, the seekers of happiness meet the village priest, who refutes Luke’s words. The priest has no happiness, wealth or peace of mind. And getting an education is very difficult. The life of a clergyman is not at all sweet: he sees off last path those who die, blesses those who are born, and his soul hurts for the suffering and tormented people.
But the people themselves do not particularly honor the priest. He and his family are constantly the subject of superstitions, jokes, obscene ridicule and songs. And all the wealth of the priests consisted of donations from parishioners, among whom were many landowners. But with the cancellation, most of the rich flock scattered around the world. In 1864, the clergy was deprived of another source of income: schismatics, by decree of the emperor, came under the tutelage of the civil authorities. And with the pennies that the peasants bring, “it’s hard to live.”
Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev
Our description of the heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is coming to an end; of course, we could not give descriptions of all the characters in the poem, but we included the most important ones in the review. The last of them significant heroes became Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev - a representative of the lordly class. He is round, pot-bellied, mustachioed, ruddy, stocky, and sixty years old. One of the famous ancestors of Gavrila Afanasyevich was a Tatar who entertained the empress with wild animals, stole from the treasury and plotted the arson of Moscow. Obolt-Obolduev is proud of his ancestor. But he is sad because now he can no longer make money from peasant labor as before. The landowner covers up his sorrows with concern for the peasant and the fate of Russia.
This idle, ignorant and hypocritical person I am convinced that the purpose of his class is to “live by the labor of others.” When creating an image, Nekrasov does not skimp on shortcomings and endows his hero with cowardice. This trait is manifested in a comical incident when Obolt-Obolduev mistakes unarmed peasants for robbers and threatens them with a pistol. It took a lot of effort for the men to dissuade the former owner.
Conclusion
Thus, N. A. Nekrasov’s poem is filled with a number of bright, original characters, designed from all sides to reflect the position of the people in Russia, the attitude of different classes and government officials towards them. It is precisely thanks to such a number of descriptions of human destinies, often based on real stories, the work leaves no one indifferent.