Chapters Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" not only do they reveal different aspects of Russian life: in each chapter we look at this life through the eyes of representatives of different classes. And the story of each of them, as the center, turns to the “kingdom of the peasants,” revealing different sides folk life- his life, work, revealing the people's soul, people's conscience, people's aspirations and aspirations. To use the expression of Nekrasov himself, we “measure” the peasant with different “standards” - both the “master’s” and his own. But in parallel, against the background of the majestic picture of life created in the poem Russian Empire The internal plot of the poem develops - the gradual growth of the heroes’ self-awareness, their spiritual awakening. Observing what is happening, talking with the most different people, men learn to distinguish true happiness from imaginary, illusory ones, they find the answer to the question, “who is the holy of all, who is the sinner of all.” It is characteristic that already in the first part the heroes act as judges, and it is they who have the right to determine: who of those who call themselves happy is truly happy. This is a complex moral task that requires a person to have his own ideals. But it is equally important to note that wanderers increasingly find themselves “lost” in the crowd of peasants: their voices seem to merge with the voices of residents of other provinces, the entire peasant “world.” And the “world” already has a weighty word in condemning or justifying the happy and unhappy, sinners and righteous.
Going on a journey, the peasants are looking for someone who “life is easy and fun in Rus'”. This formula probably presupposes freedom and idleness, inseparable for men with wealth and nobility. To the first of the possible lucky ones I met - ass they ask the question: “Tell us in a divine way: / Is the priest’s life sweet? / How are you living at ease, happily / Are you living, honest father?..” For them, a synonym for a “happy” life is “sweet” life. The priest contrasts this vague idea with his understanding of happiness, which men share: “What do you think happiness is? / Peace, wealth, honor - / Isn’t that right, dear friends?” / They said: so...” It can be assumed that the ellipsis (and not an exclamation mark or period) placed after the peasant words means a pause - the peasants think about the priest’s words, but also accept them. L.A. Evstigneeva writes that the definition of “peace, wealth, honor” is alien to the people’s idea of happiness. This is not entirely true: Nekrasov’s heroes really accepted this understanding of happiness, agreed with it internally: it is these three components - “peace, wealth, honor” that will be for them the basis for judging the priest and landowner, Ermil Girin, for choosing between numerous lucky people, which will appear in the chapter “Happy”. It is precisely because the priest’s life is devoid of peace, wealth, and honor that the men recognize him as unhappy. After listening to the priest’s complaints, they realized that his life was not “sweet” at all. They take out their frustration on Luka, who convinced everyone of the priest’s “happiness.” Scolding him, they remember all the arguments of Luke, who proved the priest’s happiness. Listening to their abuse, we understand what they set off on the journey with, what they considered a “good” life: for them it is a well-fed life:
What, did you take it? stubborn head!
Country club!
That's where the argument gets into!<...>
For three years I, little ones,
He lived with the priest as a worker,
Raspberries are not life!
Popova porridge - with butter,
Popov pie - with filling,
Popov's cabbage soup - with smelt!<...>
Well, here's what you've praised,
A priest's life!
Already in the story one priest appeared important feature of the story. Talking about their lives, about personal troubles, every possible “candidate” for happiness that men meet will paint a broad picture Russian life. This creates the image of Russia - a single world in which the life of each class turns out to be dependent on the life of the entire country. Only against the backdrop of people's life, in close connection with it, does the troubles of the heroes themselves become understandable and explainable. In the story the butt is revealed first of all dark sides the life of a peasant: the priest, confessing to the dying, witnesses the most sorrowful moments in the life of a peasant. From the priest we learn that both in years of rich harvest and in years of famine, the life of a peasant is never easy:
Our benefits are meager,
Sands, swamps, mosses,
The little beast goes from hand to mouth,
Bread will be born on its own,
And if it gets better
The damp earth is the nurse,
So a new problem:
There is nowhere to go with the bread!
There's a need - you'll sell it
For sheer trifle,
And there is a crop failure!
Then pay through the nose,
Sell the cattle!
It is pop that touches on one of the most tragic aspects of people's life - the most important theme of the poem: the sad position of the Russian peasant woman, “the sadwoman, the nurse, the water-maid, the slave, the pilgrim and the eternal toiler.”
One can also note this feature of the narrative: at the heart of each story of the heroes about his life lies antithesis: past - present. At the same time, the heroes do not just compare different stages of their lives: human life, a person’s happiness and misfortune are always connected with those laws - social and moral, according to which the life of the country follows. Characters often make broad generalizations themselves. So, for example, a priest, depicting the current ruin of landowners’ estates, peasant life, and the lives of priests, says:
At a time not far away
Russian Empire
Noble estates
Was full<...>
What weddings were played there,
That children were born
On free bread!<...>
But now it’s not the same!
Like the tribe of Judah,
The landowners dispersed
Across distant foreign lands
And native to Rus'.
The same antithesis will be characteristic of the story Obolta-Oboldueva about the landowner’s life: “Now Rus' is not the same!” - he will say, drawing pictures of the past prosperity and current ruin of noble families. The same theme will be continued in “The Peasant Woman,” which begins with a description of a beautiful landowner’s estate being destroyed by courtyard workers. The past and present will also be contrasted in the story about Savely, the Holy Russian hero. “And there were blessed times / Such times” - this is the pathos of Savely’s own story about his youth and Korezhina’s former life.
But the author’s task is clearly not to glorify lost prosperity. Both in the story of the priest and in the story of the landowner, especially in the stories of Matryona Timofeevna, the leitmotif runs through the idea that the basis of well-being is great work, great patience of the people, the very “fortification” that brought so much grief to the people. “Free bread”, the bread of serfs that was given to landowners for free, is the source of well-being for Russia and all its classes - all except the peasant class.
The painful impression of the priest's story does not disappear even in the chapter describing the rural holiday. Chapter “Rural Fair” opens up new aspects of people's life. Through the eyes of peasants, we look at the simple joys of peasants, we see a motley and drunken crowd. “Blind people” - this Nekrasov definition from the poem “The Unhappy” fully conveys the essence of the picture drawn by the author national holiday. A crowd of peasants offering caps to tavern owners for a bottle of vodka, a drunken peasant who dumped a whole cartload of goods into a ditch, Vavilishka who drank all his money, offen men buying “pictures” with important generals and books “about my stupid lord” for sale to the peasants - All these, both sad and funny scenes, testify to the moral blindness of the people, their ignorance. Perhaps, only one bright episode was noted by the author in this holiday: universal sympathy for the fate of Vavilushka, who drank away all the money and grieved that he would not bring his granddaughter the promised gift: “The people gathered, listened, / Don’t laugh, feel sorry; / If there had been work, some bread / They would have helped him, / But if you take out two two-kopeck pieces, / You’ll be left with nothing.” When the scholar-folklorist Veretennikov helps out the poor peasant, the peasants “were so comforted, / So glad, as if he had given each one / a ruble.” Compassion for someone else's misfortune and the ability to rejoice in someone else's joy - the spiritual responsiveness of the people - all this foreshadows future author's words about the people's golden heart.
Chapter " drunken night» continues the theme of the “great Orthodox thirst”, the immensity of “Russian hops” and paints a picture of wild revelry on the night after the fair. The basis of the chapter is numerous dialogues of different people invisible to either wanderers or readers. Wine made them frank, forced them to talk about the most painful and intimate things. Every dialogue could be turned into a story human life, as a rule, unhappy: poverty, hatred between the closest people in the family - this is what these conversations reveal. This description, which gave rise to the reader’s feeling that “there is no measure for Russian hops,” originally ended the chapter. But it is not by chance that the author writes a sequel, making the center of the chapter “Drunken Night” not these painful pictures, but an explanatory conversation Pavlushi Veretennikova, folklorist scientist, with peasant Yakim Nagim. It is also no coincidence that the author makes the interlocutor of the folklorist scholar not a “craftsman,” as was the case in the first drafts, but rather a peasant. It is not an outside observer, but the peasant himself who provides an explanation for what is happening. “Don’t measure a peasant by the master’s measure!” - the voice of the peasant Yakim Nagogo sounds in response to Veretennikov, who reproached the peasants for “drinking until they stupefy.” Yakim explains public drunkenness by the suffering that was inflicted on the peasants without measure:
There is no measure for Russian hops,
Have they measured our grief?
Is there a limit to the work?<...>
Why is it shameful for you to look,
Like drunk people lying around
So look,
Like being dragged out of a swamp
Peasants have wet hay,
Having mowed down, they drag:
Where horses can't get through
Where and without a burden on foot
It's dangerous to cross
There's a peasant horde there
By Kochs, by Zhorins
Crawling and crawling with whips, -
The peasant's navel is cracking!
The image used by Yakim Naga in defining the peasants is full of contradictions - the army-horde. The army is the army, the peasants are warriors-warriors, heroes - this image will run through the entire Nekrasov poem. Men, workers and sufferers, are interpreted by the author as defenders of Russia, the basis of its wealth and stability. But the peasants are also a “horde”, an unenlightened, spontaneous, blind force. And these dark sides in folk life are also revealed in the poem. Drunkenness saves the peasant from sorrowful thoughts and from the anger that has accumulated in the soul for for many years suffering and injustice. The soul of a peasant is a “black cloud” foreshadowing a “thunderstorm” - this motif will be picked up in the chapter “Peasant Woman”, in “A Feast for the Whole World”. But the soul is peasant and “kind”: its anger “ends in wine.”
The contradictions of the Russian soul are further revealed by the author. Myself Yakima image full of such contradictions. This peasant’s love for the “pictures” that he bought for his son explains a lot. The author does not detail what “pictures” Yakim admired. It may well be that all the same important generals were drawn there as in the pictures described in “ Rural fair" It is important for Nekrasov to emphasize only one thing: during a fire, when people save what is most precious, Yakim did not save the thirty-five rubles he had accumulated, but “pictures.” And his wife saved him - not money, but icons. What was expensive peasant soul, it turned out more important than that what the body needs.
When talking about his hero, the author does not seek to show the uniqueness or peculiarity of Yakima. On the contrary, by emphasizing natural images in the description of his hero, the author creates a portrait-symbol of the entire Russian peasantry - a plowman who has become close to the land over many years. This gives Yakim’s words special weight: we perceive his voice as the voice of the very land-breadwinner, of peasant Rus' itself, calling not for condemnation, but for compassion:
The chest is sunken, as if depressed
Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth
Bends like cracks
On dry ground;
And to Mother Earth myself
He looks like: brown neck,
Like a layer cut off by a plow,
Brick face
Hand - tree bark.
And the hair is sand.
The chapter “Drunken Night” ends with songs in which the people’s soul was most strongly reflected. In one of them they sing “about Mother Volga, about valiant prowess, about maiden beauty.” The song about love and brave strength and will disturbed the peasants, passed “through the hearts of the peasants” with “fire-longing”, made women cry, and caused homesickness in the hearts of wanderers. Thus, the drunken, “cheerful and roaring” crowd of peasants is transformed before the eyes of the readers, and the longing for will and love, for happiness, suppressed by work and wine, opens in the hearts and souls of people.
Wide path
Furnished with birch trees,
Stretches far
Sandy and deaf.
On the sides of the path
There are gentle hills
With fields, with hayfields,
And more often with an inconvenient
Abandoned land;
There are old villages,
There are new villages,
By the rivers, by the ponds...
Russian streams and rivers
Good in spring.
But you, spring fields!
On your shoots the poor
Not fun to watch!
“It’s not for nothing that in the long winter
(Our wanderers interpret)
It snowed every day.
Spring has come - the snow has had its effect!
He is humble for the time being:
It flies - is silent, lies - is silent,
When he dies, then he roars.
Water – everywhere you look!
The fields are completely flooded
Carrying manure - there is no road,
And the time is not too early -
The month of May is coming!”
I don’t like the old ones either,
It’s even more painful for new ones
They should look at the villages.
Oh huts, new huts!
You are smart, let him build you up
Not an extra penny
And blood trouble!..
In the morning we met wanderers
All more people small:
His brother, a peasant-bast-worker,
Craftsmen, beggars,
Soldiers, coachmen.
From the beggars, from the soldiers
The strangers did not ask
How is it for them - is it easy or difficult?
Lives in Rus'?
Soldiers shave with an awl,
Soldiers warm themselves with smoke -
What happiness is there?..
The day was already approaching evening,
They go along the road,
A priest is coming towards me.
The peasants took off their caps.
bowed low,
Lined up
And to the gelding Savras
They blocked the way.
The priest raised his head
He looked and asked with his eyes:
What do they want?
“I suppose! We are not robbers! -
Luke said to the priest.
(Luka is a squat guy,
With a wide beard.
Stubborn, vocal and stupid.
Luke looks like a mill:
One is not a bird mill,
That, no matter how it flaps its wings,
Probably won't fly.)
“We are sedate men,
Of those temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
Nearby villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
Bad harvest too.
Let's go on something important:
We have concerns
Is it such a concern?
Which of the houses did she survive?
She made us friends with work,
I stopped eating.
Give us the right word
To our peasant speech
Without laughter and without cunning,
According to conscience, according to reason,
To answer truthfully
Not so with your care
We'll go to someone else..."
– I give you my true word:
If you ask the matter,
Without laughter and without cunning,
In truth and in reason,
How should one answer?
"Thank you. Listen!
Walking the path,
We came together by chance
They came together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
Roman said: to the landowner,
Demyan said: to the official,
And I said: ass.
Kupchina fat-bellied, -
The Gubin brothers said,
Ivan and Metrodor.
Pakhom said: to the brightest
To the noble boyar,
To the sovereign minister.
And Prov said: to the king...
The guy's a bull: he'll get in trouble
What a whim in the head -
Stake her from there
You can’t knock it out: no matter how much they argue,
We did not agree!
Having argued, we quarreled,
Having quarreled, they fought,
Having caught up, they changed their minds:
Don't go apart
Don't toss and turn in the houses,
Don't see your wives
Not with the little guys
Not with old people,
As long as our dispute
We won't find a solution
Until we find out
Whatever it is - for certain:
Who likes to live happily?
Free in Rus'?
Tell us in a divine way:
Is the priest's life sweet?
How are you - at ease, happily
Are you living, honest father?..”
I looked down and thought,
Sitting in a cart, pop
And he said: “Orthodox!”
It is a sin to grumble against God,
I bear my cross with patience,
I’m living... but how? Listen!
I'll tell you the truth, the truth,
And you have a peasant mind
Be smart! -
“Begin!”
-What do you think is happiness?
Peace, wealth, honor -
Isn't that right, dear friends?
They said: “Yes”...
- Now let's see, brothers,
What's the butt like? peace?
I have to admit, I should start
Almost from birth itself,
How to get a diploma
the priest's son,
At what cost to Popovich
I'm not a sinner, I haven't lived
Nothing from the schismatics.
Fortunately, there was no need:
In my parish there are
Living in Orthodoxy
And there are such volosts,
Where there are almost all schismatics,
So what about the butt?
Everything in the world is changeable,
The world itself will pass away...
Laws formerly strict
To the schismatics, they softened,
And with them the priest
The landowners moved away
They don't live in estates
And die in old age
They don't come to us anymore.
Rich landowners
Pious old ladies,
Which died out
Who have settled down
Near monasteries,
Nobody wears a cassock now
He won’t give you your butt!
Live with only peasants,
Collect worldly hryvnias,
Yes, pies on holidays,
Yes, holy eggs.
The peasant himself needs
And I would be glad to give, but there’s nothing...
PROLOGUE
On the main road in Pustoporozhnaya volost, seven men meet: Roman, Demyan, Luka, Prov, old man Pakhom, brothers Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin. They come from neighboring villages: Neurozhayki, Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova and Neelova. Men argue about who lives well and freely in Rus'. Roman believes that the landowner, Demyan - the official, and Luka - the priest. Old man Pakhom claims that a minister lives best, the Gubin brothers live best as a merchant, and Prov thinks that he is a king.
It's starting to get dark. The men understand that, carried away by the argument, they have walked thirty miles and now it is too late to return home. They decide to spend the night in the forest, light a fire in the clearing and again begin to argue, and then even fight. Their noise causes all the forest animals to scatter, and a chick falls out of the warbler’s nest, which Pakhom picks up. The mother warbler flies up to the fire and asks in a human voice to let her chick go. For this, she will fulfill any desire of the peasants.
The men decide to go further and find out which of them is right. Warbler tells where you can find a self-assembled tablecloth that will feed and water them on the road. The men find a self-assembled tablecloth and sit down to feast. They agree not to return home until they find out who has the best life in Rus'.
Chapter I. Pop
Soon the travelers meet the priest and tell the priest that they are looking for “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.” They ask the church minister to answer honestly: is he satisfied with his fate?
The priest replies that he carries his cross with humility. If men think that happy life- this is peace, honor and wealth, then he has nothing like that. People don't choose the time of their death. So they call the priest to the dying person, even in the pouring rain, even in the bitter cold. And sometimes the heart cannot stand the tears of widows and orphans.
There is no talk of any honor. They make up all sorts of stories about priests, laugh at them and consider meeting a priest a bad omen. And the wealth of the priests is not what it used to be. Previously, when noble people lived on their family estates, the incomes of the priests were quite good. The landowners gave rich gifts, were baptized and married in the parish church. Here they had a funeral service and were buried. These were the traditions. And now nobles live in capitals and “abroads”, where they celebrate all church rites. But you can’t take much money from poor peasants.
The men bow respectfully to the priest and move on.
CHAPTER II. Country fair
The travelers pass several empty villages and ask: where have all the people gone? It turns out that there is a fair in the neighboring village. The men decide to go there. There are a lot of dressed-up people walking around the fair, selling everything from plows and horses to scarves and books. There are a lot of goods, but there are even more drinking establishments.
Old man Vavila is crying near the bench. He drank all the money and promised his granddaughter goatskin boots. Pavlusha Veretennikov approaches his grandfather and buys shoes for the girl. The delighted old man grabs his shoes and hurries home. Veretennikov is known in the area. He loves to sing and listen to Russian songs.
CHAPTER III. drunken night
After the fair, there are drunk people on the road. Some wander, some crawl, and some even lie in the ditch. Moans and endless drunken conversations can be heard everywhere. Veretennikov is talking with peasants at a road sign. He listens and writes down songs and proverbs, and then begins to reproach the peasants for drinking too much.
A well-drunk man named Yakim gets into an argument with Veretennikov. He says that common people many grievances have accumulated against landowners and officials. If you didn’t drink, it would be a big disaster, but all the anger dissolves in vodka. There is no measure for men in drunkenness, but is there any measure in grief, in hard work?
Veretennikov agrees with such reasoning and even drinks with the peasants. Here the travelers hear a beautiful young song and decide to look for the lucky ones in the crowd.
CHAPTER IV. Happy
Men walk around and shout: “Come out happy! We’ll pour some vodka!” People crowded around. The travelers began to ask about who was happy and how. They pour it to some, they just laugh at others. But the conclusion from the stories is this: a man’s happiness lies in the fact that he sometimes ate his fill, and God protected him in difficult times.
The men are advised to find Ermila Girin, whom the whole neighborhood knows. One day, the cunning merchant Altynnikov decided to take the mill away from him. He came to an agreement with the judges and declared that Ermila needed to immediately pay a thousand rubles. Girin did not have that kind of money, but he went to the marketplace and asked honest people to chip in. The men responded to the request, and Ermil bought the mill, and then returned all the money to the people. For seven years he was mayor. During that time, I didn’t pocket a single penny. Only once he excluded his younger brother from the recruits, and then he repented in front of all the people and left his post.
The wanderers agree to look for Girin, but the local priest says that Yermil is in prison. Then a troika appears on the road, and in it is a gentleman.
CHAPTER V. Landowner
The men stop the troika, in which the landowner Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev is riding, and ask how he lives. The landowner begins to remember the past with tears. Previously, he owned the entire district, he kept a whole regiment of servants and gave holidays with dances, theatrical performances and hunting. Now “the great chain has broken.” The landowners have land, but there are no peasants to cultivate it.
Gavrila Afanasyevich was not used to working. It’s not a noble thing to do housekeeping. He only knows how to walk, hunt, and steal from the treasury. Now his family nest has been sold for debts, everything is stolen, and the men drink day and night. Obolt-Obolduev bursts into tears, and the travelers sympathize with him. After this meeting, they understand that they need to look for happiness not among the rich, but in the “Unbroken province, Ungutted volost...”.
PEASANT WOMAN
PROLOGUE
The wanderers decide to search happy people among women. In one village they are advised to find Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, nicknamed “the governor’s wife.” Soon the men find this beautiful, dignified woman of about thirty-seven. But Korchagina doesn’t want to talk: it’s hard, the bread needs to be removed urgently. Then the travelers offer their help in the field in exchange for a story of happiness. Matryona agrees.
Chapter I. Before marriage
Korchagina spends her childhood in a non-drinking, friendly family, in an atmosphere of love from her parents and brother. Cheerful and agile Matryona works a lot, but also loves to go for a walk. A stranger, the stove maker Philip, is wooing her. They are having a wedding. Now Korchagina understands: she was only happy in her childhood and girlhood.
Chapter II. Songs
Philip brings his young wife to his big family. It’s not easy there for Matryona. Her mother-in-law, father-in-law and sisters-in-law do not allow her to live, they constantly reproach her. Everything happens exactly as it is sung in the songs. Korchagina endures. Then her first-born Demushka is born - like the sun in a window.
The master's manager pesters a young woman. Matryona avoids him as best she can. The manager threatens to give Philip a soldier. Then the woman goes for advice to grandfather Savely, the father-in-law, who is one hundred years old.
Chapter III. Saveliy, Holy Russian hero
Savely looks like a huge bear. He served hard labor for a long time for murder. The cunning German manager sucked all the juice out of the serfs. When he ordered four hungry peasants to dig a well, they pushed the manager into the hole and covered it with earth. Among these killers was Savely.
CHAPTER IV. Demushka
The old man's advice was of no use. The manager, who did not allow Matryona passage, suddenly died. But then another problem happened. The young mother was forced to leave Demushka under the supervision of her grandfather. One day he fell asleep, and the child was eaten by pigs.
The doctor and the judges arrive, perform an autopsy, and interrogate Matryona. She is accused of intentionally killing a child, in conspiracy with an old man. The poor woman is almost losing her mind with grief. And Savely goes to the monastery to atone for his sin.
CHAPTER V. She-Wolf
Four years later, the grandfather returns, and Matryona forgives him. When Korchagina’s eldest son, Fedotushka, turns eight years old, the boy is given to help as a shepherd. One day the she-wolf manages to steal a sheep. Fedot chases after her and snatches out the already dead prey. The she-wolf is terribly thin, she leaves a bloody trail behind her: she cut her nipples on the grass. The predator looks doomedly at Fedot and howls. The boy feels sorry for the she-wolf and her cubs. He leaves the carcass of a sheep to the hungry beast. For this, the villagers want to whip the child, but Matryona accepts the punishment for her son.
CHAPTER VI. Difficult year
A hungry year is coming, in which Matryona is pregnant. Suddenly news comes that her husband is being recruited as a soldier. The eldest son from their family is already serving, so they shouldn’t take the second one, but the landowner doesn’t care about the laws. Matryona is horrified; pictures of poverty and lawlessness appear before her, because her only breadwinner and protector will not be there.
CHAPTER VII. Governor's wife
The woman walks into the city and arrives at the governor’s house in the morning. She asks the doorman to arrange a date for her with the governor. For two rubles, the doorman agrees and lets Matryona into the house. At this time, the governor’s wife comes out of her chambers. Matryona falls at her feet and falls into unconsciousness.
When Korchagina comes to her senses, she sees that she has given birth to a boy. The kind, childless governor's wife fusses with her and the child until Matryona recovers. Together with her husband, who was released from service, the peasant woman returns home. Since then, she has not tired of praying for the health of the governor.
Chapter VIII. The Old Woman's Parable
Matryona ends her story with an appeal to wanderers: do not look for happy people among women. The Lord dropped the keys to women's happiness into the sea, and they were swallowed by a fish. Since then they have been looking for those keys, but they can’t find them.
LAST
Chapter I
I
Travelers come to the banks of the Volga to the village of Vakhlaki. There are beautiful meadows there and haymaking is in full swing. Suddenly music sounds and boats land on the shore. It is old Prince Utyatin who has arrived. He inspects the mowing and swears, and the peasants bow and ask for forgiveness. The men are amazed: everything is like under serfdom. They turn to the local mayor Vlas for clarification.
II
Vlas gives an explanation. The prince became terribly angry when he learned that the peasants had been given free rein, and he was struck down. After that, Utyatin began to act weird. He doesn’t want to believe that he no longer has power over the peasants. He even promised to curse his sons and disinherit them if they spoke such nonsense. So the heirs of the peasants asked them to pretend in front of the master that everything was as before. And for this they will be granted the best meadows.
III
The prince sits down to breakfast, which the peasants gather to gawk at. One of them, the biggest quitter and drunkard, long ago volunteered to play the steward in front of the prince instead of the rebellious Vlas. So he crawls in front of Utyatin, and the people can barely contain their laughter. One, however, cannot cope with himself and laughs. The prince turns blue with anger and orders the rebel to be flogged. One lively peasant woman comes to the rescue, telling the master that her son, the fool, laughed.
The prince forgives everyone and sets off on the boat. Soon the peasants learn that Utyatin died on the way home.
A Feast FOR THE WHOLE WORLD
Dedicated to Sergei Petrovich Botkin
Introduction
The peasants rejoice at the death of the prince. They walk and sing songs, and the former servant of Baron Sineguzin, Vikenty, tells an amazing story.
About the exemplary slave - Yakov Verny
There lived one very cruel and greedy landowner, Polivanov, who had a faithful servant, Yakov. The man suffered a lot from the master. But Polivanov’s legs became paralyzed, and faithful Yakov became an indispensable person for the disabled man. The master is not overjoyed with the slave, calling him his brother.
Yakov’s beloved nephew once decided to get married, and asks the master to marry the girl whom Polivanov had his eye on for himself. The master, for such insolence, gives up his rival as a soldier, and Yakov, out of grief, goes on a drinking binge. Polivanov feels bad without an assistant, but the slave returns to work after two weeks. Again the master is pleased with the servant.
But new trouble is already on the way. On the way to the master's sister, Yakov suddenly turns into a ravine, unharnesses the horses, and hangs himself by the reins. All night the master drives away the crows from the poor body of the servant with a stick.
After this story, the men argued about who was more sinful in Rus': landowners, peasants or robbers? And the pilgrim Ionushka tells the following story.
About two great sinners
Once upon a time there was a gang of robbers led by Ataman Kudeyar. The robber destroyed many innocent souls, but the time has come - he began to repent. And he went to the Holy Sepulcher, and received the schema in the monastery - everyone does not forgive sins, his conscience torments him. Kudeyar settled in the forest under a hundred-year-old oak tree, where he dreamed of a saint who showed him the way to salvation. The murderer will be forgiven when he cuts down this oak tree with the knife that killed people.
Kudeyar began to saw the oak tree in three circles with a knife. Things are going slowly, because the sinner is already advanced in age and weak. One day, the landowner Glukhovsky drives up to the oak tree and begins to mock the old man. He beats, tortures and hangs slaves as much as he wants, but sleeps peacefully. Here Kudeyar falls into a terrible anger and kills the landowner. The oak tree immediately falls, and all the robber’s sins are immediately forgiven.
After this story, the peasant Ignatius Prokhorov begins to argue and prove that the most serious sin is the peasant sin. Here is his story.
Peasant sin
For military services, the admiral receives from the empress eight thousand souls of serfs. Before his death, he calls the elder Gleb and hands him a casket, and in it - free food for all the peasants. After the death of the admiral, the heir began to pester Gleb: he gives him money, free money, just to get the treasured casket. And Gleb trembled and agreed to hand over important documents. So the heir burned all the papers, and eight thousand souls remained in the fortress. The peasants, after listening to Ignatius, agree that this sin is the most serious.
His position in relation to the Peasant Reform of 1861 N.A. Nekrasov expressed in the poem “Elegy”: “The people are liberated, but are the people happy?” As you know, the suffering of the people remained unchanged and ineradicable, and in some ways became even deeper.
Serfdom is fresh in the memory of the peasant, but the new ones did not bring happiness to the people.
Nekrasov gives in his poem a deep and broad social “slice” of the Russia of that time to show that the reform hit “the gentleman with one end, and the peasant with the other.” In post-reform times, both the lower classes and the upper classes are unhappy in their own way.
Question
What questions does Nekrasov pose in his work?
Answer
The poem consists of four parts, interconnected by the unity of the plot. These parts are united by the story of seven men who were overcome by a great “concern” to find out
Whatever it is - for certain,
Who lives happily?
Free in Rus'?
“Are the people happy?” - this main question, which worried Nekrasov all his life, was posed by him at the center of the poem; the poet does not limit himself to a direct answer - depicting the people's grief and disasters, but poses a broader question: what is the meaning of human happiness and what are the ways to achieve it?
The first meeting of the seven truth-seekers takes place with the priest
Question
What, according to the priest, is happiness?
Answer
"Peace, wealth, honor."
Question
Why does the priest himself consider himself unhappy?
Answer
Our roads are difficult.
Our parish is large.
Sick, dying,
Born into the world
They don’t choose time:
In reaping and haymaking,
In the dead of autumn night,
In winter, in severe frosts.
And in the spring flood -
Go wherever you are called!
You go unconditionally.
And even if only the bones
Alone broke, -
No! gets wet every time,
The soul will hurt.
Don't believe it, Orthodox Christians,
There is a limit to habit:
No heart can bear
Without any trepidation
Death rattle
Funeral lament
Orphan's sadness!
Amen!.. Now think.
What's the peace like?..
Question
How does this chapter portray the situation of the peasants? What troubles befall them?
Answer
The fields are completely flooded
Carrying manure - there is no road,
And the time is not too early -
The month of May is coming!”
I don’t like the old ones either,
It’s even more painful for new ones
They should look at the villages.
Oh huts, new huts!
You are smart, let him build you up
Not an extra penny
And blood trouble!..
The main character Nekrasov's poem is the people. This is the central image of the epic.
"Rural Fair"
After meeting with the priest, truth-seekers end up in country fair. Here we see a variety of peasant types. Describe some of them.
Answer
Vavilushka drank away the money intended to buy shoes for his granddaughter. Peasants buy portraits of generals and pulp literature. They visit drinking establishments. They watch Parsley's performance, animatedly commenting on what is happening.
Question
Question
Who is Pavlusha Veretennikov? What is his role in this chapter?
Answer
Pavlusha Veretennikov (part 1, chapter 2, 3).
While collecting folklore, he tries to preserve the richness of Russian speech, helps buy boots for his granddaughter Ermila Girin, but he is not able to fundamentally change the difficult peasant life (he has no such goal).
"Happy"
Question
Give examples of so-called “peasant happiness.”
Student answers
Question
Why, despite adversity, did the Russian peasant not consider himself unhappy? What qualities of the Russian peasant do the author admire?
The poem contains many peasant portraits - group and individual, drawn in detail and casually, with a few strokes.
Portrait characteristics convey not only appearance peasants, in them we read the story of a whole life filled with continuous exhausting labor.
Those who have not eaten their fill,
Those who slurped unsalted,
Which instead of the master
The volost will tear up. –
This is what post-reform peasants look like. The very choice of names of the villages in which they live: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, etc. – eloquently characterize their living conditions.
Exercise
Give portrait description peasants and comment on it.
Answer
Yakim Nagoy (Part I, Chapter 3) – truth-seeker. Having been in prison for “having decided to compete with a merchant,”
Like a strip of velcro,
He returned to his homeland...
The life of Yakim Nagogo is hard, but his heart reaches out to truth and beauty. A story happens to Yakim that for the first time in the poem questions the possessive, monetary criterion of happiness. In the event of a fire, Yakim first of all saves not the labor money accumulated over a long life, but the pictures bought for his son, which he loved to look at. The pictures turned out to be more expensive than rubles, spiritual bread - higher than our daily bread.
Yakim Nagoy is a person capable of standing up for the people’s interests, ready for a decisive debate with those who judge the people incorrectly.
Ermil Girin (part I, chapter 4)
Conclusion
Nekrasov, following Pushkin and Gogol, decided to depict a broad canvas of the life of the Russian people and their main mass - the Russian peasant of the post-reform era, to show the predatory nature of the Peasant Reform and the deterioration of the people's lot.
Question
Which landowners are shown in the poem?
Answer
At the end of Chapter 4, the landowner appears, to whom the final chapter of Part I, Obolt-Obolduev, is dedicated. His “valiant touches” and outwardly prosperous appearance sharply contrast with the melancholy that settled in the soul of this serf owner. Gone are the days when his desire was the “law,” when “the landowner’s chest breathed // Freely and easily.” Destroyed manor house, the peasants do not show the former deanery, do not believe his “word of honor,” laugh at his clumsy adaptability to the new order, are indignant at his greed when he adds monetary tribute and offerings to the previous corvee and today’s rent, exhausting the strength of the peasants whom he hates.
The appearance of Prince Utyatin is by no means as complacent as in the case of Obolt. “The Last One” has a predatory look (like a lynx looking out // for prey), “a nose with a beak like a hawk,” he demonstrates physical and mental degeneration, for the features of a paralytic are combined with obvious madness.
The poem angrily depicts the landowner Polivanov and the landowner-officer Shalashnikov.
Question
What techniques does Nekrasov use when depicting landowners?
Answer
The landowners in the poem are depicted satirically. This is expressed in their portrait and speech characteristics.
When characterizing Prince Utyatin, satire combined with farce is used. His peasants perform a “comedy” in front of him, stage a joke about their stay under serfdom.
Question
Answer
Question
What are common features landowners depicted in the poem?
Answer
Satirically, depicting representatives of the elite, Nekrasov shows their embitterment, dissatisfaction with the new order, the precariousness of their position, and powerlessness. This is evidence of their crisis, the tragic experience of the death of the old order. There are no truly happy people among these elites, although people still call them “lucky ones.”
The question of the author's intention of the poem causes frequent debate among literary scholars. K.I. Chukovsky believed that the question of the well-being of landowners, priests, merchants, royal dignitaries and the tsar himself was raised in the poem only to disguise the real ideological plan. Researcher M.V. Teplinsky is convinced that the poem does not set the task of finding a happy person at all: “the central author’s intention is to search for ways to people's happiness", understanding what happiness is.
In their search for happiness, seven truth-seeking peasants meet many people, and the reader is faced with a picture of disasters in long-suffering Rus'.
Literature
Dmitry Bykov. Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov // Encyclopedia for children “Avanta+”. Volume 9. Russian literature. Part one. M., 1999
Yu.V. Lebedev Comprehension of the people's soul // Russian literature of the 18th–19th centuries: reference materials. M., 1995
I. Podolskaya. Nekrasov / N.A. Nekrasov. Essays. Moscow: Pravda, 1986
N. Skatov. Nekrasov.
I.A. Fogelson. Literature teaches.
School curriculum for grade 10 with answers and solutions. M., St. Petersburg, 1999
In front of you - summary Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'." The poem was intended as " folk book", an epic depicting an entire era in the life of the people. The poet himself spoke about his work like this:
“I decided to present in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” This will be an epic of modern peasant life.”
As you know, the poet did not finish the poem. Only the first of 4 parts was completed.
We did not shorten the main points that you should pay attention to. The rest is given in a brief summary.
Summary of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by chapter
Click on the desired chapter or part of the work to go to its summary
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
Peasant woman
PART FOUR
Feast for the whole world
PART ONE
PROLOGUE - summary
In what year - calculate
In what land - guess
On the sidewalk
Seven men came together:
Seven temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
From adjacent villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
There is also a poor harvest,
They came together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
Roman said: to the landowner,
“Demyan said: to the official,
Luke said: ass.
To the fat-bellied merchant! -
The Gubin brothers said,
Ivan and Metrodor.
Old man Pakhom pushed
And he said, looking at the ground:
To the noble boyar,
To the sovereign minister.
And Prov said: to the king...
The guy's a bull: he'll get in trouble
What a whim in the head -
Stake her from there
You can’t knock them out: they resist,
Everyone stands on their own!
The men argue and do not notice how evening comes. They lit a fire, went for vodka, had a snack, and again began to argue about who was living “fun, freely in Rus'.” The argument escalated into a fight. At this time, a chick flew up to the fire. I caught him with my groin. A warbler bird appears and asks to let the chick go. In return, she tells you how to find a self-assembled tablecloth. Pakhom releases the chick, the men follow the indicated path and find a self-assembled tablecloth. The men decide not to return home until they find out “for certain,” “Who lives happily, // Freely in Rus'.”
Chapter 1. Pop - summary
The men hit the road. They meet peasants, artisans, coachmen, soldiers, and the travelers understand that the life of these people cannot be called happy. Finally they meet a priest. He proves to the peasants that the priest has no peace, no wealth, no happiness - a diploma is difficult for a priest's son to get, and the priesthood is even more expensive. The priest can be called at any time of the day or night, in any weather. The priest has to see the tears of orphans and the death rattle of a dying man. But there is no honor for the priest - they make up “jokey tales // And obscene songs, // And all sorts of blasphemy” about him. The priest also has no wealth - rich landowners almost no longer live in Rus'. The men agree with the priest. They move on.
Chapter 2. Rural fair - summary
The men see meager living everywhere. A man bathes his horse in the river. The wanderers learn from him that all the people have gone to the fair. The men go there. At the fair, people bargain, have fun, walk, and drink. One man is crying in front of the people - he drank all his money, and his granddaughter is waiting for a treat at home. Pavlusha Veretennikov, nicknamed “the gentleman,” bought boots for his granddaughter. The old man is very happy. Wanderers watch a performance in a booth.
Chapter 3. Drunken night - summary
People return drunk after the fair.
People walk and fall
As if because of the rollers
Enemies with grapeshot
They're shooting at the men.
Some guy is burying a little girl, claiming at the same time that he is burying his mother. Women are quarreling in the ditch: who has a worse home? Yakim Nagoy says that “there is no measure for Russian drunkenness,” but it is also impossible to measure the people’s grief.
What follows is a story about Yakime Nagom, who previously lived in St. Petersburg, then went to prison due to a lawsuit with a merchant. Then he came to live in native village. He bought pictures with which he covered the hut and which he loved very much. There was a fire. Yakim rushed to save not the accumulated money, but pictures, which he later hung in the new hut. The people, returning, sing songs. Wanderers are sad about their own home, about their wives.
Chapter 4. Happy - summary
Wanderers walk among the festive crowd with a bucket of vodka. They promise it to someone who convinces him that he is truly happy. The first to arrive is the sexton, who says that he is happy because he believes in the kingdom of heaven. They don't give him vodka. An old woman comes up and says that she has a very large turnip in her garden. They laughed at her and didn’t give her anything either. A soldier comes with medals and says that he is happy that he is alive. They brought it to him.
A stonecutter approaches and talks about his happiness - about enormous power. His opponent is a thin man. He says that at one time God punished him for boasting in the same way. The contractor praised him at the construction site, and he was happy - he took the fourteen-pound burden and carried it to the second floor. Since then he has withered away. He goes home to die, an epidemic begins in the carriage, the dead are unloaded at the stations, but he still remains alive.
A servant comes, boasts that he was the prince’s favorite slave, that he licked plates with the remains of gourmet food, drank foreign drinks from glasses, and suffers from the noble disease of gout. He is driven away. A Belarusian comes up and says that his happiness lies in bread, which he just can’t get enough of. At home, in Belarus, he ate bread with chaff and bark. A man who had been killed by a bear came and said that his comrades died while hunting, but he remained alive. The man received vodka from the wanderers. Beggars boast that they are happy because they receive food often. The wanderers realize that they wasted vodka on " peasant happiness" They are advised to ask Yermil Girin, who owned the mill, about happiness. By court decision, the mill is being sold at auction. Yermil won the bargain with the merchant Altynnikov; the clerks demanded a third of the price immediately, contrary to the rules. Yermil did not have money with him, which needed to be deposited within an hour, and it was a long way to go home.
He went out to the square and asked people to borrow as much as they could. They collected more money than was needed. Yermil gave the money, the mill became his, and the next Friday he paid off the debts. The wanderers wonder why the people believed Girin and gave him money. They answer him that he achieved this with the truth. Girin served as a clerk in the estate of Prince Yurlov. He served for five years and did not take anything from anyone, he was attentive to everyone. But he was kicked out, and a new clerk came in his place - a scoundrel and a grabber. After the death of the old prince, the new owner drove out all the old henchmen and ordered the peasants to elect a new mayor. Everyone unanimously elected Ermil. He served honestly, but one day he still committed a crime - his younger brother Mitri " fenced off“, and instead of him, Nenila Vlasyevna’s son became a soldier.
Since that time, Yermil has been sad - he doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, he says he’s a criminal. He said that he should be judged according to his conscience. Nenila Vlasvna’s son was returned, but Mitri was taken away, and a fine was imposed on Ermila. For another year after that, he was not himself, then he resigned from his position, no matter how much they begged him to stay.
The narrator advises going to Girin, but another peasant says that Yermil is in prison. A riot broke out and government troops were needed. To avoid bloodshed, they asked Girin to address the people.
The story is interrupted by the screams of a drunken footman suffering from gout - now he is suffering from beatings for theft. The wanderers are leaving.
Chapter 5. Landowner - summary
The landowner Obolt-Obolduev was
... "ruddy,
Stately, planted,
Sixty years old;
The mustache is gray, long,
Well done touches.
He mistook the men for robbers and even pulled out a pistol. But they told him what was the matter. Obolt-Obolduev laughs, gets out of the stroller and talks about the life of the landowners.
First he talks about the antiquity of his family, then he recalls the old days when
Not only Russian people,
Nature itself is Russian
She submitted to us.
Then the landowners lived well - luxurious feasts, a whole regiment of servants, their own actors, etc. The landowner recalls the dog hunt, unlimited power, how he christened himself with his entire estate “on Easter Sunday.”
Now there is decay everywhere - “ The noble class // It’s as if everything was hidden, // It died out!“The landowner cannot understand why the “idle scribblers” encourage him to study and work, after all, he is a nobleman. He says that he has lived in the village for forty years, but cannot distinguish a barley ear from a rye ear. The peasants think:
The great chain has broken,
It tore and splintered:
One way for the master,
Others don't care!..
PART TWO
The last one - summary
The wanderers walk and see hayfields. They take the women's braids and start mowing them. Music can be heard from the river - it’s a landowner riding in a boat. The gray-haired man Vlas urges the women on - they shouldn’t upset the landowner. Three boats moor to the shore, containing a landowner with his family and servants.
The old landowner walks around the hay, complains that the hay is damp, and demands that it be dried. He leaves with his retinue for breakfast. The wanderers ask Vlas (he turned out to be the burgomaster) why the landowner gives orders if serfdom cancelled. Vlas replies that they have a special landowner: when he learned about the abolition of serfdom, he had a stroke - the left half of his body was paralyzed, he lay motionless.
The heirs arrived, but the old man recovered. His sons told him about the abolition of serfdom, but he called them traitors, cowards, etc. Out of fear that they would be disinherited, his sons decide to indulge him in everything.
That’s why they persuade the peasants to make a joke, as if the peasants were returned to the landowners. But some peasants did not need to be persuaded. Ipat, for example, says: “ And I am the princes Utyatin’s slave - and that’s the whole story!“He remembers how the prince harnessed him to a cart, how he bathed him in an ice hole - he dipped him into one ice hole, pulled him out of another - and immediately gave him vodka.
The prince put Ipat on the box to play the violin. The horse stumbled, Ipat fell, and the sleigh ran over him, but the prince drove away. But after some time he returned. Ipat is grateful to the prince that he did not leave him to freeze. Everyone agrees to pretend that serfdom was not abolished.
Vlas does not agree to be burgomaster. Klim Lavin agrees to be it.
Klim has a conscience made of clay,
And Minin’s beard,
If you look, you'll think so
Why can't you find a peasant?
More mature and sober .
The old prince walks around and gives orders, the peasants laugh at him on the sly. The man Agap Petrov did not want to obey the orders of the old landowner, and when he caught him cutting down the forest, he told Utyatin directly about everything, calling him a fool. Ducky got the second blow. But contrary to the expectations of his heirs, the old prince recovered again and began to demand the public flogging of Agap.
The whole world begins to persuade the latter. They took him to the stables, put a glass of wine in front of him and told him to shout louder. He screamed so loudly that even Utyatin took pity. The drunk Agap was carried home. Soon he died: " The unscrupulous Klim ruined him, anathema, blame!»
Utyatin is sitting at the table at this time. Peasants stand at the porch. Everyone is putting on a comedy, as usual, except for one guy - he laughs. The guy is a newcomer, local customs are funny to him. Utyatin again demands punishment for the rebel. But the wanderers do not want to blame. The burgher's godfather saves the situation - she says that it was her son who laughed - a foolish boy. Utyatin calms down, has fun and swaggers over dinner. After lunch he dies. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But the joy of the peasants was premature: “ With the death of the Last One, the lordly caress disappeared».
PEASANT WOMAN (FROM PART THIRD)
Prologue - summary
The wanderers decide to search happy person among women. They are advised to go to the village of Klin and ask Matryona Timofeevna, nicknamed “the governor’s wife.” Arriving in the village, the men see “poor houses.” The lackey he met explains that “The landowner is abroad, //And the steward is dying.” The wanderers meet Matryona Timofeevna.
Matrena Timofeevna
dignified woman,
Wide and dense
About thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful; gray streaked hair,
The eyes are large, strict,
The richest eyelashes,
Severe and dark.
The wanderers talk about their goal. The peasant woman replies that she has no time to talk about life now - she has to go reap rye. The men offer help. Matryona Timofeevna talks about her life.
Chapter 1 – Before marriage. Summary
Matrena Timofeevna was born into a friendly, non-drinking family and lived “like Christ in the bosom.” It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Then Matryona Timofeevna met her betrothed;
There's a stranger on the mountain!
Philip Korchagin - St. Petersburg resident,
Stove maker by skill.
Chapter 2 – Songs. Summary
Matryona Timofeevna ends up in someone else's house.
The family was huge
Grumpy... I'm in trouble
Happy maiden holiday to hell!
My husband went to work
I advised to remain silent and be patient...
As ordered, so done:
I walked with anger in my heart.
And I didn’t say too much
A word to no one.
In winter Philippus came,
Brought a silk handkerchief
Yes, I went for a ride on a sled
On Catherine's day,
And it was as if there was no grief!..
She says that her husband beat her only once, when her husband’s sister arrived and he asked to give her shoes, but Matryona hesitated. Philip went back to work, and Matryona’s son Demushka was born on Kazanskaya. Life in her mother-in-law's house has become even more difficult, but she endures:
Whatever they tell me, I work,
No matter how much they scold me, I remain silent.
Of the entire family, only grandfather Savely felt sorry for Matryona Timofeevna’s husband.
Chapter 3. Savely, the Holy Russian hero. Summary.
Matryona Timofeevna talks about Savelia.
With a huge gray mane,
Tea, twenty years uncut,
With a huge beard
Grandfather looked like a bear...<…>
... He's already hit the nail on the head,
According to fairy tales, a hundred years.
Grandfather lived in a special room,
Didn't like families
He didn’t let me into his corner;
And she was angry, barking,
His "branded, convict"
My own son was honoring.
Savely will not be angry,
He will go to his little room,
Reads the holy calendar, gets baptized
And suddenly he will say cheerfully;
“Branded, but not a slave!”...
Savely tells Matryona why he is called “branded.” During his youth, the serf peasants of his village did not pay quitrents and did not go to corvée, because they lived in remote places and it was difficult to get there. The landowner Shalashnikov tried to collect rent, but was not very successful in this.
Shalashnikov tore excellently,
And not so great
I received income.
Soon Shalashnikov (he was a military man) is killed near Varna. His heir sends a German governor.
He forces the peasants to work. They themselves do not notice how they are cutting a clearing, i.e. it has now become easy to get to them.
And then came hard labor
To the Korezh peasant -
Ruined to the bone!<…>
The German has a death grip:
Until he lets you go around the world,
Without moving away, he sucks!
This went on for eighteen years. The German built a factory and ordered the digging of a well. The German began to scold those who were digging the well for idleness (Savely was among them). The peasants pushed the German into a hole and buried the hole. Next - hard labor, Savelig! tried to escape from it, but was caught. He spent twenty years in hard labor, another twenty in a settlement.
Chapter 4. Demushka. Summary
Matryona Timofeevna gave birth to a son, but her mother-in-law does not allow her to be with the child, since her daughter-in-law has begun to work less.
The mother-in-law insists that Matryona Timofeevna leave her son with his grandfather. Savely neglected to look after the child: “The old man fell asleep in the sun, // Fed Demidushka to the pigs // Silly grandfather!..” Matryona accuses her grandfather and cries. But it didn't end there:
The Lord was angry
He sent uninvited guests,
Unrighteous judges!
A doctor, a police officer, and the police appear in the village and accuse Matryona of intentionally killing a child. The doctor performs an autopsy, despite Matryona's requests. without desecration // To an honest burial // To betray the baby". They call her crazy. Grandfather Savely says that her madness lies in the fact that she went to the authorities without taking with her “ not a ruble, not a new thing.” Demushka is buried in closed coffin. Matryona Timofeevna cannot come to her senses, Savely, trying to console her, says that her son is now in heaven.
Chapter 5. She-Wolf - Summary
After Demushka died, Matryona “was not herself” and could not work. The father-in-law decided to teach her a lesson with the reins. The peasant woman bent down at his feet and asked: “Kill!” The father-in-law retreated. Day and night Matryona Timofeevna is at her son’s grave. Closer to winter, my husband arrived. Savely after the death of Demushka
For six days I lay hopelessly,
Then he went into the forests.
That's how grandpa sang, that's how he cried,
That the forest groaned! And in the fall
Went to repentance
To the Sand Monastery.
Every year Matryona gives birth to a child. Three years later, Matryona Timofeevna’s parents die. She goes to her son's grave to cry. Meets grandfather Savely there. He came from the monastery to pray for the “Deme of the Poor, for all that suffers.” Russian peasantry" Saveliy did not live long - “in the fall, the old man got some kind of deep wound on his neck, he died with difficulty...”. Savely spoke about the share of peasants:
There are three paths for men:
Tavern, prison and penal servitude,
And the women in Rus'
Three loops: white silk,
The second is red silk,
And the third - black silk,
Choose any one! .
Four years have passed. Matryona came to terms with everything. One day, a pilgrim pilgrim comes to the village, she talks about the salvation of the soul, and demands from mothers that they not feed their babies milk on fasting days. Matryona Timofeevna did not listen. “Yes, apparently God is angry,” says the peasant woman. When her son Fedot was eight years old, he was sent to herd sheep. One day they brought Fedot and said that he had fed a sheep to a she-wolf. Fedot says that a huge, emaciated she-wolf appeared, grabbed the sheep and started running. Fedot caught up with her and took away the sheep, which was already dead. The she-wolf looked into his eyes pitifully and howled. It was clear from the bleeding nipples that she had wolf cubs in her lair. Fedot took pity on the she-wolf and gave her the sheep. Matryona Timofeevna, trying to save her son from flogging, asks for mercy from the landowner, who orders not the assistant shepherd to be punished, but “the impudent woman.”
Chapter 6. Difficult year. Summary.
Matryona Timofeevna says that the she-wolf did not appear in vain - there was a shortage of bread. The mother-in-law told the neighbors that the famine was caused by Matryona, who put on a clean shirt on Christmas.
For my husband, for my protector,
I got off cheap;
And one woman
Not for the same thing
Killed to death with stakes.
Don't joke with the hungry!..
After the lack of bread came the recruitment drive. My brother's eldest husband was drafted into the army, so the family did not expect trouble. But Matryona Timofeevna’s husband is taken as a soldier out of turn. Life gets even harder. The children had to be sent around the world. The mother-in-law became even more grumpy.
Okay, don't get dressed,
Don't wash yourself white
The neighbors have sharp eyes,
Tongues out!
Walk on the quieter streets
Carry your head lower
If you're having fun, don't laugh
Don't cry out of sadness!..
Chapter 7. Governor's wife. Summary
Matryona Timofeevna is going to the governor. She has difficulty getting to the city because she is pregnant. He gives a ruble to the doorman to let him in. He says to come in two hours. Matryona Timofeevna arrives, the doorman takes another ruble from her. The governor's wife arrives and Matryona Timofeevna rushes to her asking for intercession. The peasant woman becomes ill. When she comes to, she is told that she has given birth to a child. The governor's wife, Elena Aleksandrovna, was very fond of Matryona Timofeevna, and looked after her son as if she were her own (she herself had no children). They send a messenger to the village to sort everything out. My husband was returned.
Chapter 8. The Woman's Parable. Summary
The men ask if Matryona Timofeevna told them everything. She says that everyone, except that they survived the fire twice, suffered from anthrax three times, that instead of a horse she had to walk “in the harrow.” Matryona Timofeevna recalls the words of the holy pilgrim who went to "the heights of Athens»:
The keys to women's happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost to God himself!<…>
Yes, they are unlikely to be found...
What kind of fish swallowed
Those keys are reserved,
In what seas is that fish
Walking - God forgot!
PART FOUR.
Feast for the whole world
Introduction - summary
There is a feast in the village. The feast was organized by Klim. They sent for the parish sexton Tryphon. He came with his seminarian sons Savvushka and Grisha.
... It was the eldest
Already nineteen years old;
Now I'm an archdeacon
I looked, and Gregory
Face thin, pale
And the hair is thin, curly,
With a hint of red.
Simple guys, kind,
Mowed, reaped, sowed
And drank vodka on holidays
On a par with the peasantry.
The clerk and the seminarians began to sing.
I. Bitter times - bitter songs - summary
FUN
“Eat the prison, Yasha! There’s no milk!”
- “Where is our cow?”
Take away, my light!
Master for offspring
I took her home."
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
“Where are our chickens?” -
The girls are screaming.
“Don’t yell, you fools!
The zemstvo court ate them;
I took another cart
Yes, he promised to wait..."
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
Broke my back
But the sauerkraut doesn’t wait!
Baba Katerina
I remembered - roars:
In the yard for over a year
Daughter... no dear!
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
Some of the kids
Lo and behold, there are no children:
The king will take the boys,
Master - daughters!
To one freak
To live forever with family.
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
Then the Vakhlaks sang:
Corvée
Kalinushka is poor and unkempt,
He has nothing to show off,
Only the back is painted,
You don't know behind your shirt.
From bast shoes to gate
The skin is all ripped open
The stomach swells with chaff.
Twisted, twisted,
Flogged, tormented,
Kalina barely walks.
He will knock on the innkeeper's feet,
Sorrow will drown in wine,
It will only come back to haunt you on Saturday
From the master's stable to his wife...
The men remember the old order. One of the men recalls how one day their lady decided to mercilessly beat the one “who would say a strong word.” The men stopped arguing, but as soon as the will was announced, they lost their souls so much that “Priest Ivan was offended.” Another man talks about a serf exemplary Jacob true. The greedy landowner Polivanov had a faithful servant, Yakov. He was devoted to the master without limit.
Yakov appeared like this from his youth,
Yakov had only joy:
To groom, protect, please the master
Yes, rock my little nephew.
Jacob's nephew Grisha grew up and asked the master for permission to marry the girl Arina.
However, the master himself liked her. He gave Grisha as a soldier, despite Yakov's pleas. The slave started drinking and disappeared. Polivanov feels bad without Yakov. Two weeks later the slave returned. Polivanov is going to visit his sister, Yakov is taking him. They drive through the forest, Yakov turns into a remote place - Devil's Ravine. Polivanov is frightened and begs for mercy. But Yakov says that he is not going to get his hands dirty with murder, and hangs himself from a tree. Polivanov is left alone. He spends the whole night in the ravine, screaming, calling people, but no one responds. In the morning a hunter finds him. The landowner returns home, lamenting: “I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me!
After the story, the men start an argument about who is more sinful - the innkeepers, the landowners, the peasants or the robbers. Klim Lavin fights with a merchant. Jonushka, the “humble mantis,” talks about the power of faith. His story is about the holy fool Fomushka, who called people to escape to the forests, but he was arrested and taken to prison. From the cart, Fomushka shouted: “They beat you with sticks, rods, whips, you will be beaten with iron rods!” In the morning, a military team arrived and the pacification and interrogations began, i.e. Fomushka’s prophecy “almost came true.” Jonah talks about Euphrosyne, the messenger of God, who during the cholera years “buries, heals, and tends to the sick.” Jonah Lyapushkin - praying mantis and wanderer. The peasants loved him and argued about who would be the first to shelter him. When he appeared, everyone brought out icons to meet him, and Jonah followed those whose icons he liked best. Jonah tells a parable about two great sinners.
ABOUT TWO GREAT SINNERS
The story was told to Jonah in Solovki by Father Pitirim. There were twelve robbers, whose chieftain was Kudeyar. They lived in a dense forest, plundered a lot of wealth, and killed a lot of innocent souls. From near Kyiv, Kudeyar took himself a beautiful girl. Unexpectedly, “the Lord awakened the conscience” of the robber. Kudeyar " He blew off his mistress's head // And spotted Esaul" Came home with a tartar in monastic clothes y,” day and night he prays to God for forgiveness. The saint of the Lord appeared in front of Kudeyar. He pointed to a huge oak tree and said: “ With the same knife that robbed him, // Cut him with the same hand!..<…>The tree will just fall, // The chains of sin will fall" Kudeyar begins to do what he was told. Time passes, and Pan Glukhovsky drives by. He asks what Kudeyar is doing.
A lot of cruel, scary
The old man heard about the master
And as a lesson to the sinner
He told his secret.
Pan grinned: “Salvation
I haven't had tea for a long time,
In the world I honor only a woman,
Gold, honor and wine.
You have to live, old man, in my opinion:
How many slaves do I destroy?
I torment, torture and hang,
I wish I could see how I’m sleeping!”
The hermit becomes furious, attacks the master and plunges a knife into his heart. At that very moment the tree collapsed, and the load of sins fell from the old man.
III. Both old and new - summary
PEASANT SIN
One admiral for military service, for the battle with the Turks near Ochakov, the empress granted eight thousand souls of peasants. Dying, he gives the casket to Gleb the elder. The casket is ordered to be taken care of, since it contains a will according to which all eight thousand souls will receive freedom. After the death of the admiral, a distant relative appears on the estate, promises the headman a lot of money, and the will is burned. Everyone agrees with Ignat that this is a great sin. Grisha Dobrosklonov speaks about the freedom of the peasants, that “there will be no new Gleb in Rus'.” Vlas wishes Grisha wealth and a smart and healthy wife. Grisha in response:
I don't need any silver
Not gold, but God willing,
So that my fellow countrymen
And every peasant
Life was free and fun
All over holy Rus'!
A cart with hay is approaching. The soldier Ovsyannikov is sitting on the cart with his niece Ustinyushka. The soldier made his living with the help of a raik - a portable panorama that showed objects through a magnifying glass. But the instrument broke. The soldier then came up with new songs and began to play the spoons. Sings a song.
Soldier's Toshen light,
There is no truth
Life is sickening
The pain is severe.
German bullets
Turkish bullets,
French bullets
Russian sticks!
Klim notices that in his yard there is a log on which he has been chopping wood since his youth. She is “not as wounded” as Ovsyannikov. However, the soldier did not receive full board, since the doctor’s assistant, when examining the wounds, said that they were second-rate. The soldier submits a petition again.
IV. Good time - good songs - summary.
Grisha and Savva take their father home and sing:
Share of the people
His happiness.
Light and freedom
First of all!
We're a little
We ask God:
Fair deal
Do it skillfully
Give us strength!
Working life -
Direct to friend
Road to the heart
Away from the threshold
Coward and lazy!
Isn't it heaven?
Share of the people
His happiness.
Light and freedom
First of all!
Father fell asleep, Savvushka took up his book, and Grisha went into the field. Grisha has a thin face - they were underfed by the housekeeper at the seminary. Grisha remembers his mother Domna, whose favorite son he was. Sings a song:
In the middle of the world below
For a free heart
There are two ways.
Weigh the proud strength,
Weigh your strong will, -
Which way to go?
One spacious
The road is rough,
The passions of a slave,
It's huge,
Greedy for temptation
There's a crowd coming.
About sincere life,
About the lofty goal
The idea there is funny.
Eternal boils there,
Inhuman
Enmity-war.
For mortal blessings...
There are souls captive there
Full of sin.<…>
The other one is tight
The road is honest
They walk along it
Only strong souls
Loving,
To fight, to work.
For the bypassed
For the oppressed -
In their footsteps
Go to the downtrodden
Go to the offended -
Be the first there.
No matter how dark the vahlachina is,
No matter how crammed with corvée
And slavery - and she,
Having been blessed, I placed
In Grigory Dobrosklonov
Such a messenger.
Fate had in store for him
The path is glorious, the name is loud
People's Defender,
Consumption and Siberia.
Grisha sings a song about the bright future of his Motherland: “ You are still destined to suffer a lot, //But you will not die, I know" Grisha sees a barge hauler who, having completed his work, jingling coppers in his pocket, goes to the tavern. Grisha sings another song.
RUS
You're miserable too
You are also abundant
You are mighty
You are also powerless
Mother Rus'!
Saved in slavery
Free heart -
Gold, gold
People's heart!
People's power
Mighty force -
Conscience is calm,
The truth is alive!
Strength with untruth
They don't get along
Sacrifice by untruth
Not called -
Rus' does not move,
Rus' is like dead!
And she caught fire
Hidden spark -
They stood up - unwounded,
They came out - uninvited,
Live by the grain
The mountains have been destroyed!
The army rises -
Countless!
The strength in her will affect
Indestructible!
You're miserable too
You are also abundant
You're downtrodden
You are omnipotent
Mother Rus'!..
Grisha is pleased with his song:
He heard the immense strength in his chest,
The sounds of grace delighted his ears,
The radiant sounds of the noble hymn -
He sang the embodiment of people's happiness!..
I hope this summary of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” helped you prepare for your Russian literature lesson.