Saveliy - the Holy Russian hero and Matryona Timofeevna - the embodiment of the author’s dream about the spiritual powers of the people (based on the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”)
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nekrasov is looking for an answer to a question that has long troubled humanity. The work presents the happiness of the priest, landowner, and local people.
But most often Nekrasov reflects on the happiness of the people and dreams that sooner or later the people will perk up and gather strength to actively fight against the existing system for their freedom and a decent life.
The images of peasants presented in the poem confirm the writer’s hopes and meet his aspirations. And one of the main figures of the poem, standing out for its extraordinary physical strength and spiritual power, is Savely, the Holy Russian hero:
It’s a sin to remain silent about grandfather,
He was also lucky...
This is what Matryona Timofeevna says about Savely.
We learn about Savelia from the chapter “Peasant Woman,” which says that this man grew up in a remote region near the Korezh River. The name itself - Korezhsky region - attracted the writer as a symbol of hardy labor and possessing enormous power a heroic people, of which Saveliy is a prominent representative. The word “korezhit” means “to bend”, “to break”, “to work”, and therefore Korezhina is a land of persistent and hardworking people.
Savely’s appearance personifies the mighty forest element: “With a huge gray mane, uncut for twenty years, with a huge beard, the grandfather looked like a bear. “
Nekrasov shows the complex path along which Savely’s rebellious sentiments grew: from silent patience to open resistance. Prison and Siberian hard labor did not break Savely and did not destroy his self-esteem. “Branded, but not a slave,” he says about himself. He went through all the trials that befell him, but was able to preserve himself. Saveliy treats his resigned fellow villagers with contempt and calls for mass action for final reprisal against the oppressors, but his thoughts are not without contradictions. It is no coincidence that he is compared with Svyatogor, the strongest, but also the most motionless hero epic epic. At the same time, the image of Savely is very contradictory. On the one hand, he called for struggle, on the other, for patience:
We can't find the truth!
Saveliy advises Matryona Timofeevna. These words sound despair, hopelessness, and disbelief in the possibility of changing the bitter fate of the peasant. In the image of Matryona Timofeevna, Nekrasov embodied the best character traits of Russian peasant women. Matryona's highly moral qualities are harmoniously combined with her external beauty.
With her restrained and strict beauty, filled with self-esteem, Matryona represents the type of stately Slavic woman revealed by Nekrasov in the poem “Frost, Red Nose.” The story of her life confirms that Matryona’s character was formed in the conditions of latrine farming, when most of the male population went to the cities. On the shoulders of a woman lay not only the entire burden of peasant labor, but also a huge amount of responsibility for the fate of the family, for raising children.
From the chapter “Before Marriage” we learn about Matryona’s youth, and from the chapter “Songs” - about difficult fate heroines after marriage. Matryona's songs are popular, so her personal fate reflects the typical fate of a peasant woman, ceasing to be her own. Short joys were replaced by frequent and severe misfortunes that could break even strong man. But Matryona persevered and found the spiritual and physical strength to fight for her happiness. Her beloved first-born Demushka dies, she saves her second son Fedotushka from terrible punishment at the cost of severe trials, she had to put in a lot of effort to achieve the release of her husband - and we see that no obstacles stop her, she is ready to fight for her happiness on her own to the last .
The image of Matryona Timofeevna was created in such a way that she seemed to have been through all the vicissitudes that a Russian woman could experience. The voice of Matryona Timofeevna is the voice of the entire Russian people, all Russian women who had the same difficult fate.
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Poet-citizen, poet of the revolutionary struggle, N.A. Nekrasov, who wrote poems amazing in strength and feeling about his comrades Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky, Pisarev, could not help but turn in his work to a new image for Russian literature - the image people's defender.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” shows that forces are maturing among the people that are capable of defending the honor and dignity of people of low rank. The poet represents several characters of people who are ready to join the fight for the humiliated and insulted Russian people, who are in bondage. Among them are Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero, the people's truth-lover Yakim Nagoy, famous for his “strict truth, intelligence and kindness,” Yermil Girin, who knows “to whom he will give his whole life and for whom he will die,” Grisha Dobrosklonov.
Nekrasov portrays Savely the hero as one of those who stood up well for the “patrimony,” seeing in him the embodiment of people’s strength and courage. Neither the rod nor the hard labor reconciled him to his fate. “Branded, but not a slave,” he says about himself. It combines such qualities as self-esteem and hatred of oppressors, remarkable strength and love of freedom, love of nature and perseverance. Reading the lines dedicated to Savely, we understand that only the truly strong and courageous can be so patient and generous as to endure the suffering that befell them.
That's why we endured
That we are heroes.
This is Russian heroism.
Do you think, Matryonushka,
The man is not a hero?
And his life is not a military one,
And death is not written for him
In battle - what a hero!
Talking about national heroes peasant kingdom of homespun Rus', Nekrasov finds amazing, truly epic comparisons:
.. .Hands are twisted with chains,
Feet forged with iron,
Back...dense forests
We walked along it - we broke down...
...And it bends, but does not break,
Doesn't break, doesn't fall...
Isn't he a hero?
The favorite word of the people's avenger Savely - naddai - helps to see in him a person capable of not only encouraging, but, most importantly, uniting, captivating and leading. This word will determine the fate of the proud hero. Recalling his youth, the old man Savely talks about how for eighteen years the peasants endured the tyranny of a cruel German manager, in whose power their whole life was actually in their power. Constant bullying on his part could not but arouse people's indignation. And one day they could not stand it and killed a German.
Tavern... a prison in Bui-gorod,
There I learned to read and write,
So far they have decided on us.
The solution has been reached: hard labor
And whip first...
...And life was not easy.
Twenty years of strict hard labor,
The settlement has been around for twenty years...”
Next to Savely in the poem stands another majestic image of a Russian peasant - the village righteous man Yermil Girin. The very appearance in the world of slavery and unbridled tyranny of people like him serves for Nekrasov as the basis for faith in the future victory of the people and the source of the cheerful feeling that permeates the poem:
People's power
Mighty force -
Conscience is calm,
The truth is alive!
Not through struggle, like Savely, but through labor and skill, Er-mil Girin wants to change the fate of the eternally oppressed. Literate, he becomes a clerk, and then, thanks to his humane attitude towards people, he is elected mayor. Honest, decent, smart, one day Girin, saving his brother from recruitment, commits an unfair act. And the sin he has taken upon his soul gives him no peace.
Doesn't drink, doesn't eat; that's how it ended
What's in the stall with the rope
His father found him.
“Ever since Vlasyevna’s son
I didn't put it in the queue
I hate the white light!
The image of Ermila Girin, who refused his position, is tragic, but cannot fail to evoke respect for his nobility, honesty, and compassion for people. The people around Girina appreciate him for this. And as the episode with the purchase of the mill shows, the people are ready to come to his aid at the right moment, to return kindness for kindness. The situation described by Nekrasov may not be the most typical, but it allows the poet to say that in unity and mutual assistance common people great power is hidden.
Yakim Nagoy is another man whom the wanderers met in their search for happiness in Rus'. It would seem which of him is the defender:
The chest is sunken; like a depressed Belly; at the eyes, at the mouth Bends like cracks on the dried earth;
And he himself looks like Mother Earth: his neck is brown,
Like a layer cut off by a plow,
Brick face
Hand - tree bark,
And the hair is sand.
The very first lines say about him:
He works himself to death
He drinks until he's half dead.
But there is a line in it that allows him to be ranked among the people’s intercessors: Yakim Nagoy protects the people’s soul. Exhausted, having lost strength and health, during a fire he saves not the accumulated thirty-five rubles, but the pictures hanging on the wall in the hut, the only joy of his miserable and gray existence. Pictures are a symbol of something beautiful that lurks in the tormented soul of the people; the case allows the poet to tell the reader about the spiritual beauty inherent in the working people, which, as we know, will “save the world.”
And yet, the future of Russia, Nekrasov is sure, lies with people like Grisha Dobrosklonov: literate, most conscientious people from the people who dedicated their lives to the fight for the people. The image of seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, for whom “fate was preparing a glorious path, a great name as a people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia,” reflected not only the poet’s hopes for a bright future, but also his life ideals. To be in a din where “it’s hard to breathe, where grief can be heard” - life goal Dobrosklonova. His songs do not even sound like a call to fight for liberation, but rather a statement that the struggle has already begun:
The army rises -
Countless!
The strength in her will affect
Indestructible!
This image, according to the poet, contained the only possible answer to the question posed in the poem about the possibility of happiness in Russia at that time. Truly happy Nekrasov He considered only selfless fighters for the people’s good, those who, like Grisha Dobrosklonov, heard “immense strength in their chests,” whose ears were delighted by “the radiant sounds of the noble hymn” - “the embodiment of the people’s happiness.”
As we see, both the hero of the poem and its author are full of faith that a person’s happiness lies in revolutionary service to the people. A faith based, as history has shown, on rather utopian ideas of that time, when people firmly believed that the Russian people would gather their strength and learn to be citizens.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the result of N.A.’s entire work. Nekrasova. It was conceived “about the people and for the people” and was written from 1863 to 1876. The author considered his work “an epic of modern peasant life.” In it, Nekrasov asked the question: did the abolition of serfdom bring happiness to the peasantry? To find the answer, the poet sends seven men on a long journey across Russia in search of at least one happy person.
On their way, wanderers meet many faces, heroes, destinies. Savely becomes one of the people they meet. Nekrasov calls him “the hero of Holy Russia.” The travelers see in front of them an old man, “with a huge gray mane, ... with a huge beard,” “he is already a hundred years old, according to fairy tales.” But, despite his age, this man felt enormous strength and power: “...will he straighten up? The bear will punch a hole in the light with his head!”
This strength and power, as the wanderers later learned, was manifested not only in Savely’s appearance. They are, first of all, in his character, inner core, moral qualities.
The son often called Savely a convict and “branded.” To which this hero always answered: “Branded, but not a slave!” Love of freedom, the desire for internal independence - this is what made Savely a real “Holy Russian” hero.
Why did this hero end up in hard labor? In his youth, he rebelled against the German manager sent by the landowner to their village. Vogel made sure that “hard labor came to the Korezh peasant - he ruined him to the bone!” At first the whole village endured it. In this Savely sees the heroism of the Russian peasant in general. But what is his heroism? In patience and endurance, the peasants endured Vogel’s yoke for seventeen years:
And it bends, but does not break,
Doesn't break, doesn't fall...
Isn't he a hero?
But soon the peasant’s patience came to an end:
Happened, I'm lightly
Pushed him with his shoulder
Then another pushed him,
And the third...
The people's anger, having received an impetus, fell like an avalanche on the monster manager. The men buried him alive in the ground, in the very hole that he ordered the peasants to dig. Nekrasov, thus, shows here that the people’s patience is coming to an end. Moreover, although patience is national trait character, it must have its boundaries. The poet calls on you to start fighting for the improvement of your life, for your destiny.
Behind crime committed Savely and other peasants were sent to hard labor. But before that they kept him in prison, where the hero learned to read and write, and was flogged. But Savely doesn’t even consider this a punishment: “If they didn’t tear it out, they anointed it, it’s a bad fight!”
The hero escaped from hard labor several times, but was returned and punished. Saveliy spent twenty years in strict penal servitude, twenty years in settlements. Returning home, he built his own house. It would seem that now you can live and work in peace. But is this possible for Russian peasants? Nekrasov shows that no.
Already at home, probably the most terrible event happened to Savely, worse than twenty years of hard labor. Old hero did not look after his great-grandson Demushka, and the boy was eaten by pigs. Saveliy could not forgive himself for this sin until the end of his life. He felt guilty before Demushka’s mother, and before all people, and before God.
After the boy’s death, the hero almost settled at his grave, and then completely went to the monastery to atone for his sins. It is the last part of Savely’s life that explains the definition that Nekrasov gives him - “Holy Russian”. The poet sees the great strength and invincibility of the Russian man precisely in morality, the inner core of a simple peasant, largely based on faith in God.
But probably no one can speak better about his fate and destiny better than Savely himself. This is how the old man himself evaluates his life:
Eh, the share of Holy Russian
Homemade hero!
He's been bullied all his life.
Time will change its mind
About death - hellish torment
In the other world they are waiting.
In the image of Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero, are embodied enormous forces Russian people, their powerful potential. This is expressed both in the physical appearance of the hero and in his inner purity, love of freedom, and pride. However, it is worth noting that Savely has not yet decided on a complete rebellion, a revolution. In anger, he buries Vogel, but his words, especially at the end of his life, sound humility. Moreover, Savely believes that torment and suffering will await him not only in this life, but also in the next world.
That is why Nekrasov places his revolutionary hopes on Grisha Dobroskolonov, who must understand the potential of such Savelievs and raise them to revolution, to lead them to a better life.
The reader recognizes one of the main characters of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - Savely - when he is already an old man who has lived a long and difficult life. The poet paints a colorful portrait of this amazing old man:
WITH huge gray mane,
Tea, twenty years uncut,
WITH huge beard,
Grandfather looked like a bear
Especially, like from the forest,
He bent over and went out.
Savely's life turned out to be very difficult; fate did not spoil him. In his old age, Savely lived with the family of his son, Matryona Timofeevna’s father-in-law. It is noteworthy that grandfather Savely does not like his family. Obviously, all household members have far from the most best qualities, and an honest and sincere old man feels this very well. In his family of origin Savely is called “branded, convict.” And he himself, not at all offended by this, says: “Branded, but not a slave.
It’s interesting to observe how Savely is not averse to making fun of his family members:
A will annoy him greatly-
He jokes: “Look at this
Matchmakers are coming to us!” Unmarried
Cinderella - to the window:
an instead of matchmakers- beggars!
From a tin button
Grandfather sculpted a two-kopeck coin,
Tossed up on the floor-
Father-in-law got caught!
Not drunk from the pub-
The beaten man trudged in!
What does this relationship between the old man and his family indicate? First of all, it is striking that Savely differs both from his son and from all his relatives. His son does not possess any exceptional qualities, does not disdain drunkenness, and is almost completely devoid of kindness and nobility. And Savely, on the contrary, is kind, smart, and outstanding. He shuns his household; apparently, he is disgusted by the pettiness, envy, and malice characteristic of his relatives. Old man Savely is the only one in his husband’s family who was kind to Matryona. The old man does not hide all the hardships that befell him:
“Oh, the share of Holy Russian
Homemade hero!
He's been bullied all his life.
Time will change its mind
ABOUT death is hellish torment
In the other world they are waiting.”
Old man Savely is very freedom-loving. It combines qualities such as physical and mental strength. Savely is a real Russian hero who does not recognize any pressure over himself. In his youth, Savely had remarkable strength; no one could compete with him. In addition, life was different before, the peasants were not burdened with the difficult responsibility of paying dues and working off corvée. As Savely himself says:
We did not rule the corvee,
We didn't pay rent
A so, when it comes to reason,
IN We'll send you three years.
In such circumstances, the character of young Savely was strengthened. No one put pressure on her, no one made her feel like a slave. Moreover, nature itself was on the side of the peasants:
There are dense forests all around,
There are swampy swamps all around,
No horse can come to us,
Neither let's go on foot!
Nature itself protected the peasants from the invasion of the master, the police and other troublemakers. Therefore, the peasants could live and work peacefully, without feeling someone else’s power over them.
When reading these lines, fairy-tale motifs come to mind, because in fairy tales and legends people were absolutely free, they were in charge of their own lives.
The old man talks about how the peasants dealt with bears:
We were only worried
Bears... yes with bears
We managed it easily.
With a knife and a spear
I myself am scarier than the elk,
Along protected paths
I go: “My forest!” - I scream.
Savely, like a real fairy-tale hero, lays claim to the forest surrounding him. It is the forest - with its untrodden paths and mighty trees - that is the real element of the hero Savely. In the forest, the hero is not afraid of anything; he is the real master of the silent kingdom around him. That is why in old age he leaves his family and goes into the forest.
The unity of the hero Savely and the nature surrounding him seems undeniable. Nature helps Savely become stronger. Even in old age, when years and adversity have bent the old man’s back, remarkable strength is still felt in him.
Savely tells how in his youth his fellow villagers managed to deceive the master and hide their existing wealth from him. And even though they had to endure a lot for this, no one could blame people for cowardice and lack of will. The peasants were able to convince the landowners of their absolute poverty, so they managed to avoid complete ruin and enslavement.
Savely is a very proud person. This is felt in everything: in his attitude to life, in his steadfastness and courage with which he defends his own. When he talks about his youth, he remembers how only people weak in spirit surrendered to the master. Of course, he himself was not one of those people:
Shalashnikov tore excellently,
And he received not so much great income:
Weak people gave up
A strong for the patrimony
They stood well.
I also endured
He remained silent and thought:
“No matter how you take it, son of a dog,
A you can’t knock out your whole soul,
Leave something behind!”
Old man Savely bitterly says that now there is practically no self-respect left in people. Now cowardice, animal fear for oneself and one’s well-being and lack of desire to fight prevail:
These were proud people!
A now give me a slap-
Police officer, landowner
They're taking their last penny!
Savely's young years were spent in an atmosphere of freedom. But peasant freedom did not last long. The master died, and his heir sent a German, who at first behaved quietly and unnoticed. The German gradually became friends with the entire local population and gradually observed peasant life.
Gradually he gained the trust of the peasants and ordered them to drain the swamp, then cut down the forest. In a word, the peasants came to their senses only when a magnificent road appeared along which their godforsaken place could be easily reached.
And then came hard labor
To the Korezh peasant -
ruined the threads
Free life is over, now the peasants have fully felt all the hardships of a forced existence. Old man Savely speaks about people's long-suffering, explaining it by the courage and spiritual strength of people. Only the truly strong and courageous people can be so patient as to endure such bullying, and so generous as not to forgive such treatment of themselves.
A that's why we endured
What we- heroes.
IN Tom is Russian heroism.
Do you think, Matryonushka,
Man- not a hero"?
And his life is not a military one,
And death is not written for him
In battle- and the hero!
Nekrasov finds amazing comparisons when talking about people's patience and courage. He uses folk epic, speaking about heroes:
Hands are twisted in chains,
Feet forged with iron,
Back...dense forests
Walked along it - broke.
What about the breasts? Elijah the prophet
By it rattles and rolls around
On a chariot of fire...
The hero endures everything!
Old man Savely tells how the peasants endured the arbitrariness of the German manager for eighteen years. Their whole life was now at the mercy of this cruel man. People had to work tirelessly. And the manager was always dissatisfied with the results of the work and demanded more. Constant bullying from the Germans causes strong indignation in the souls of the peasants. And one day another round of bullying forced people to commit a crime. They kill the German manager. When reading these lines, the thought of supreme justice comes to mind. The peasants had already felt completely powerless and weak-willed. Everything they held dear was taken from them. But you can’t mock a person with complete impunity. Sooner or later you will have to pay for your actions.
But, of course, the murder of the manager did not go unpunished:
The life of Savely, the Holy Russian hero, after hard labor was very difficult. He spent twenty years in captivity, only to be released closer to old age. Savely's whole life is very tragic, and in his old age he turns out to be the unwitting culprit in the death of his little grandson. This incident once again proves that, despite all his strength, Savely cannot withstand hostile circumstances. He is just a toy in the hands of fate.
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” immerses us into the world of peasant life in Russia. Nekrasov’s work on this work occurred after the peasant reform of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one. This can be seen from the first lines of the “Prologue”, where the wanderers are called “temporarily obliged” - this is the name given to the peasants who emerged from serfdom after the reform.
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” we see diverse images of Russian peasants, learn about their views on life, find out what kind of life they live and what problems exist in the life of the Russian people. Nekrasov’s depiction of the peasantry is closely connected with the problem of searching happy person- the purpose of the journey of seven men across Rus'. This journey allows us to get acquainted with all the unsightly sides of Russian life.
Savely is rightfully considered one of the main images of the poem, with whom the reader becomes acquainted in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World.” Saveliy's life story is very difficult, like that of all peasants of the post-reform era. But this hero is distinguished by a special freedom-loving spirit, inflexibility in the face of the hardships of peasant life. He bravely endures all the bullying of the master, who wants to force his subjects to pay him tribute by flogging. But all patience comes to an end.
This is what happened with Savely, who, unable to bear the tricks of the German Vogel, seems to accidentally push him towards a hole dug by the peasants. Savely, of course, is serving his sentence: twenty years of hard labor and twenty years of settlements. But do not break him - the hero of the Holy Russian: “branded, but not a slave”! He returns home to his son's family. The author draws Savely in the traditions of Russian folklore:
With a huge gray mane,
Tea, twenty years without a haircut,
With a huge beard
Grandfather looked like a bear...
The old man lives separately from his relatives, because he sees that he is needed in the family, while he gave money... He only treats Matryona Timofeevna with love. But the hero’s soul opened up and blossomed when his daughter-in-law Matryona brought him his grandson Dyomushka.
Savely began to look at the world completely differently, he thawed at the sight of the boy, and with all his heart he became attached to the child. But even here, evil fate trips him up. Star Saveliy - fell asleep while babysitting Dyoma. The boy was torn to death by hungry pigs... Savely's soul is torn from pain! He takes the blame upon himself and repents of everything to Matryona Timofeevna, telling her how much he loved the boy.
Savely will spend the rest of his long hundred-seven-year life atonement for his sin in monasteries. Thus, Nekrasov shows in the image of Savely a deep commitment to faith in God, combined with a huge reserve of patience of the Russian people. Matryona forgives his grandfather and understands how Savely’s soul is tormented. And this forgiveness also has a deep meaning, revealing the character of the Russian peasant.
Here is another image of the Russian peasant, about whom the author says: “lucky too.” Savely appears in the poem as a folk philosopher; he reflects on whether the people should endure a powerless and oppressed state. Savely combines kindness, simplicity, sympathy for the oppressed and hatred for the oppressors of the peasants.
ON THE. Nekrasov in the image of Savely showed a people gradually beginning to realize their rights and a force to be reckoned with.