ON THE. Nekrasov was always not just a poet - he was a citizen who was deeply concerned about social injustice, and especially about the problems of the Russian peasantry. The cruel treatment of landowners, the exploitation of female and child labor, a joyless life - all this was reflected in his work. And in 18621, the seemingly long-awaited liberation came - the abolition of serfdom. But was this actually liberation? It is to this topic that Nekrasov devotes “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - his most poignant, most famous - and his last work. The poet wrote it from 1863 until his death, but the poem still came out unfinished, so it was prepared for printing from fragments of the poet’s manuscripts. However, this incompleteness turned out to be significant in its own way - after all, for the Russian peasantry, the abolition of serfdom did not become the end of the old life and the beginning of a new one.
“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is worth reading in its entirety, because at first glance it may seem that the plot is too simple for such a complex topic. A dispute between seven men about who should live well in Rus' cannot be the basis for revealing the depth and complexity social conflict. But thanks to Nekrasov’s talent in revealing characters, the work gradually reveals itself. The poem is quite difficult to understand, so it is best to download its entire text and read it several times. It is important to pay attention to how different the understanding of happiness is shown between the peasant and the master: the first believes that it is his material well-being, and the second - that this is as little trouble as possible in his life. At the same time, in order to emphasize the idea of the spirituality of the people, Nekrasov introduces two more characters who come from his midst - these are Ermil Girin and Grisha Dobrosklonov, who sincerely want happiness for the entire peasant class, and so that no one is offended.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is not idealistic, because the poet sees problems not only in the noble class, which is mired in greed, arrogance and cruelty, but also among the peasants. This is primarily drunkenness and obscurantism, as well as degradation, illiteracy and poverty. The problem of finding happiness for yourself personally and for the entire people as a whole, the fight against vices and the desire to make the world a better place are still relevant today. So even in unfinished form Nekrasov's poem is not only a literary, but also a morally ethical example.
Poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who lives well in Rus'” from the perspective of Christian issues
Melnik V.I.
In literary criticism, several attempts have been made to comprehend the work of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov in the context of Christian ideas. Now, of course, it is obvious that D.S. Merezhkovsky was clearly mistaken when he assumed that Nekrasov’s religious level, “at least conscious, is the same as that of all Russian people of average intelligentsia consciousness. If any of Literary like-minded people - Belinsky, Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky - asked him if he believed in God, then there is no doubt that Nekrasov would be surprised and even offended: who do they think he is?
There is no doubt that Nekrasov experienced a complex religious complex in his life, based, on the one hand, on love for the people and excellent knowledge of folk life, reflected in oral folk art, folk ideals, including religious ones, and on the other hand, on personal (from the point of view of the church, heretical) idea of \u200b\u200bthe righteousness of revolutionary rebellion and the need for moral asceticism and repentance. However, this issue requires comprehensive study and is now only beginning to be explored in relation to individual texts of the poet.
From this point of view, the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is of great interest - a kind of encyclopedia of Nekrasov’s moral views. It gives a fairly complete picture of his religious views and knowledge.
It must be said that this knowledge is far from the “average intellectual consciousness”, as D.S. assumed. Merezhkovsky.
Nekrasov, with his heightened sense of repentance, undoubtedly must have always been struck by the images of people who changed dramatically and came from great sin to great repentance.
With some inevitability, Nekrasov constantly returns to the images of such ascetics in his poetry. Thus, back in 1855, in the poem “In the Hospital,” seemingly unexpectedly, but also characteristically, with emphasized drama, one encounters the image of an “old thief” who experienced a strong feeling of repentance:
In his prison
The violent comrade wounded him.
He didn't want to do anything
He just threatened and rowded.
Our nurse approached him,
She suddenly shuddered - and not a word...
A minute passed in strange silence:
Are they looking at each other?
It ended with the sullen villain
Drunk, covered in blood,
Suddenly he burst into tears - in front of his first,
Bright and honest love.
(They knew each other from a young age...)
The old man has changed dramatically:
Cries and prays all day long,
I humbled myself before the doctors.
In a later period, this image acquired an autobiographical character:
Move pen, paper, books!
Dear friend! I heard the legend:
The chains fell from the shoulders of the ascetic,
And the ascetic fell dead!
Sympathy for people of repentance psychological type quite in the spirit of the Russian people. The author of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” and “Princess Volkonskaya” should have been almost fascinated by the story of people making a voluntary sacrifice to God, like the Venerable Galaktion of Vologda, who, being the son of Prince I.F. Belsky, the most distinguished of the Russian boyars, voluntarily left high society, “settled near the Vologda settlement, shut himself up in a cramped cell, put himself on bread and water, chained himself in chains.”
Nekrasov was obviously amazed by the religious heroes and ascetics whom he met in his life or about whom he heard from the people. There are few such ascetics in the poem. We are not yet talking about heroes taken in close-up, such as the folklore ataman Kudeyar or Savely. The episodic characters are interesting in terms of “documentary”: this is the “poor old woman” who “at the tomb of Jesus // Prayed, on Mount Athos // Ascended the heights // Swimmed in the Jordan River...” These are the repeatedly mentioned “wanderers”, this and Fomushka, who has “two-pound chains // girt around his body. // Barefoot in winter and summer.” This is the “Old Believer Kropilnikov,” who “reproaches the laity for godlessness, // Calls into the dense forests // To save themselves...” This is also the townspeople’s widow Efrosinyushka:
Like God's messenger,
The old lady appears
In cholera years;
Buries, heals. Fiddling around
With the sick...
Other “God’s people” are also mentioned in the poem.
Nekrasov not only knows this side of the life of the people well, but it is with his love for “hospitality”, attention to the word of God transmitted through “wandering wanderers” that he connects the potential spiritual power of the people, their mighty growth in the future. Let us remember that the famous words of the poet “The Russian people have not yet been given limits” are given in the poem precisely in a Christian context:
Who has seen how he listens
Your visiting wanderers
Peasant family
He will understand that no matter what work,
Nor eternal care,
Not the yoke of slavery for a long time,
Not the taverns themselves
More to the Russian people
No limits set:
There is a wide path before him!
In the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" the overwhelming majority folk heroes distinguished by true religiosity. Including seven wandering peasants who turn to the nobleman: “No, you are not noble to us, // Give us a Christian word...”
In this sense, we can talk about obvious authorial “pressures”: we will not find such a degree of religiosity of the people, for example, neither in Pushkin, nor in Gogol, nor in Tolstoy. There are reasons for this, which we will discuss below. We note that this is not the case in Nekrasov’s early works.
Nekrasov knows very well folk religious legends, parables, omens, i.e. that sphere which is called folk Orthodoxy and which one way or another manifested itself in the sphere of oral folk art. Here we can name the ones mentioned by him folk superstitions, such as: “Don’t wear a clean shirt on Christmas: otherwise you’ll have a bad harvest” (chapter “Difficult Year”), and folk ideas about a comet (“The Lord walks across the sky // And His angels // Sweep with a fiery broom // Before the feet of God // There is a path in the heavenly field..."), about the afterlife of the boyars and peasants ("And what will be appointed: // They boil in a cauldron, // And we add firewood."
However, Nekrasov’s personal religious experience also emerged in the poem. This experience is somewhat unexpected and very interesting in content. Thus, in the chapter “Demushka” he mentions the Jesus Prayer, although perhaps not in its canonical meaning. In any case, he knows a prayer, the meaning of which was not revealed to every “average intellectual.” Of course, the poet did not know about the Jesus Prayer from experience, but only from hearsay, but he knew. Nekrasov knows (obviously from book sources, although in the poem this is attributed to a simple peasant woman) about the power of prayer in solitude under open air. In the chapter "Governor's Lady" Matryona Timofeevna admits:
Pray on a frosty night
Under God's starry sky
I've loved it ever since.
And advise wives:
You can't pray harder
Nowhere and never.
Ipat, “the servant of the Utyatins,” prays in the open air at Nekrasov’s.
It is impossible to ignore the question of the very nature of Nekrasov’s religious consciousness. In our opinion, M.M. is right. Dunaev, when he states: “This is why Nekrasov stands out from the cohort of like-minded people in life, that he did not have, could not have, indifference to God, to faith: after all, he was rooted in people’s life, he never remained, like Chernyshevsky, an armchair idle thinker , who included the people with all the complexity of their existence into their far-fetched schemes."
However, also F.M. Dostoevsky noted that Nekrasov’s Vlas (1855), a true champion of Christian humility, is a certain exception in Nekrasov’s “rebellious” work: “... It’s so good that it was definitely not you who wrote; it was definitely not you, but someone else who acted in your stead then “on the Volga” in also magnificent verses, about barge haulers’ songs.” Indeed, in Nekrasov’s poetry, spontaneous poetry, there is a certain duality. Nekrasov, a poet of suffering, a poet with a complex of guilt before the people, a poet of personal repentance and admiration for heroism, self-sacrifice, did not always distinguish, so to speak, the moral content of heroism. He seems to be captivated by the very idea of laying down his soul “for his friends.” In the act itself, regardless of its political or other orientation, Nekrasov sees an unconditional aura of holiness. He is equally admired by Vlas, who gave away his ill-gotten wealth and walks across Rus' with an “iron chain,” and by Grisha Dobrosklonov, who, on his rebellious revolutionary path, faces “consumption and Siberia.” And here and there there is a victim who delights Nekrasov and whom he poetizes without any reservations.
This sincerity of Nekrasov seems to reconcile him, albeit with some reservations, both with Dostoevsky, the singer of Christian humility, and with representatives of the revolutionary-democratic camp.
This is the sincerity of Nekrasov the poet, Nekrasov the artist - the central, core point in attempts to comprehend the dual nature of his work. Nekrasov was honest with himself; he wanted repentance in his destiny (“Silence”), self-sacrifice and heroism (“Lead me to the camp of the perishing”). The ideal of holiness was dominant for him.
This artistic sincerity prompted Nekrasov to glorify every human sacrifice, every feat, as long as it was done in the name of other people. Such self-sacrifice became, as it were, Nekrasov’s religion. M.M. correctly noted. Dunaev that the poet “constantly combined the matter... of sacrificial struggle with spiritual concepts, undoubtedly religious.”
Yes, Nekrasov in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (and not only in this work) constantly and organically uses religious concepts and symbols, which are grouped around the idea of sacrifice, self-sacrifice. A consistently implemented system of religious ideas can be traced in the poet’s work.
One of the most famous works of Nikolai Nekrasov is the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, which is distinguished not only by its deep philosophical meaning and social acuity, but also by its bright, original characters - these are seven simple Russian men who got together and argued about who “ life is free and joyful in Rus'.” The poem was first published in 1866 in the Sovremennik magazine. The publication of the poem was resumed three years later, but the tsarist censorship, seeing the content as an attack on the autocratic regime, did not allow it to be published. The poem was published in full only after the revolution in 1917.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” became central work in the work of the great Russian poet, this is his ideological and artistic pinnacle, the result of his thoughts and reflections on the fate of the Russian people and on the roads leading to their happiness and well-being. These questions worried the poet throughout his life and ran like a red thread through his entire life. literary activity. Work on the poem lasted 14 years (1863-1877) and in order to create this “folk epic”, as the author himself called it, useful and understandable for the common people, Nekrasov made a lot of efforts, although in the end it was never finished (8 chapters were planned, 4 were written). A serious illness and then the death of Nekrasov disrupted his plans. Plot incompleteness does not prevent the work from having an acute social character.
Main storyline
The poem was begun by Nekrasov in 1863 after the abolition of serfdom, so its content touches on many problems that arose after the Peasant Reform of 1861. The poem has four chapters, they are united by a common plot about how seven ordinary men argued about who lives well in Rus' and who is truly happy. The plot of the poem, touching on serious philosophical and social problems, is structured in the form of a journey through Russian villages, their “speaking” names perfectly describe the Russian reality of that time: Dyryavina, Razutov, Gorelov, Zaplatov, Neurozhaikin, etc. In the first chapter, called “Prologue,” the men meet on a highway and start their own dispute; in order to resolve it, they go on a trip to Russia. On the way, the disputing men meet a variety of people, these are peasants, merchants, landowners, priests, beggars, and drunkards, they see a wide variety of pictures from people’s lives: funerals, weddings, fairs, elections, etc. .
Meeting different people, the men ask them the same question: how happy they are, but both the priest and the landowner complain about the deterioration of life after the abolition of serfdom, only a few of all the people they meet at the fair admit that they are truly happy.
In the second chapter, entitled “The Last One,” wanderers come to the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki, whose inhabitants, after the abolition of serfdom, continue to pose as serfs, so as not to upset the old count. Nekrasov shows readers how they were then cruelly deceived and robbed by the count's sons.
The third chapter, entitled “Peasant Woman,” describes the search for happiness among the women of that time, the wanderers meet with Matryona Korchagina in the village of Klin, she tells them about her long-suffering fate and advises them not to look for happy people among Russian women.
In the fourth chapter, entitled “A Feast for the Whole World,” wandering seekers of truth find themselves at a feast in the village of Valakhchin, where they understand that the questions they ask people about happiness concern all Russian people, without exception. The ideological finale of the work is the song “Rus”, which originated in the head of a participant in the feast, the son of the parish sexton Grigory Dobrosklonov:
« You're miserable too
you are abundant
you and the omnipotent
Mother Rus'!»
Main characters
The question of who is the main character of the poem remains open, formally these are the men who argued about happiness and decided to go on a trip to Russia to decide who is right, however, the poem clearly states that the main character of the poem is the entire Russian people , perceived as a single whole. The images of the wandering men (Roman, Demyan, Luka, the brothers Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin, the old man Pakhom and Prov) are practically not revealed, their characters are not drawn, they act and express themselves as a single organism, while the images of the people they meet, on the contrary, are painted very carefully, with a lot of details and nuances.
One of the brightest representatives of a man from the people can be called the son of the parish clerk Grigory Dobrosklonov, who was presented by Nekrasov as people's defender, educator and savior. He is one of the key characters and the entire final chapter is devoted to the description of his image. Grisha, like no one else, is close to the people, understands their dreams and aspirations, wants to help them and composes wonderful “good songs” for people that bring joy and hope to those around them. Through his lips, the author proclaims his views and beliefs, gives answers to the pressing social and moral questions raised in the poem. Characters such as seminarian Grisha and honest mayor Yermil Girin do not seek happiness for themselves, they dream of making all people happy at once and devote their entire lives to this. The main idea of the poem follows from Dobrosklonov’s understanding of the very concept of happiness; this feeling can only be fully felt by those who, without reasoning, give their lives for a just cause in the fight for people’s happiness.
The main female character of the poem is Matryona Korchagina; the entire third chapter is devoted to a description of her tragic fate, typical of all Russian women. Drawing her portrait, Nekrasov admires her straight, proud posture, simple attire and the amazing beauty of a simple Russian woman (large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark). Her whole life is spent in hard peasant work, she has to endure beatings from her husband and brazen attacks from the manager, she was destined to survive tragic death his firstborn, hunger and deprivation. She lives only for the sake of her children, and without hesitation accepts punishment with rods for her guilty son. The author admires her strength mother's love, endurance and strong character, he sincerely pities her and sympathizes with all Russian women, for Matryona’s fate is the fate of all peasant women of that time, suffering from lawlessness, poverty, religious fanaticism and superstition, and lack of qualified medical care.
The poem also describes the images of landowners, their wives and sons (princes, nobles), depicts the landowners' servants (lackeys, servants, courtyard servants), priests and other clergy, kind governors and cruel German managers, artists, soldiers, wanderers, a huge number secondary characters who give the folk lyric-epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” that unique polyphony and epic breadth that make this work a real masterpiece and the pinnacle of everything literary creativity Nekrasova.
Analysis of the poem
The problems raised in the work are diverse and complex, they affect the lives of various strata of society, including a difficult transition to a new way of life, problems of drunkenness, poverty, obscurantism, greed, cruelty, oppression, the desire to change something, etc.
However, the key problem of this work is the search for simple human happiness, which each of the characters understands in their own way. For example, rich people, such as priests or landowners, think only about their own well-being, this is happiness for them, poorer people, such as ordinary peasants, are happy and happy simple things: staying alive after a bear attack, surviving a beating at work, etc.
The main idea of the poem is that the Russian people deserve to be happy, they deserve it with their suffering, blood and sweat. Nekrasov was convinced that one must fight for one’s happiness and that it is not enough to make one person happy, because this will not solve the whole global problem in general, the poem calls for thinking and striving for happiness for everyone without exception.
Structural and compositional features
The compositional form of the work is distinctive; it is built in accordance with the laws of classical epic, i.e. each chapter can exist independently, and all together they represent a single whole work with a large number of characters and storylines.
The poem, according to the author himself, belongs to the genre of folk epic, it is written in unrhymed iambic trimeter, at the end of each line after stressed syllables there are two unstressed syllables (the use of dactylic casula), in some places there is iambic tetrameter to emphasize the folklore style of the work.
In order for the poem to be understandable to the common man, many common words and expressions are used in it: village, breveshko, fair, empty popple, etc. The poem contains a large number of various examples of folk poetry, these are fairy tales, epics, various proverbs and sayings, folk songs various genres. The language of the work is stylized by the author in the form folk song to improve ease of perception, at that time the use of folklore was considered the best way communication between the intelligentsia and the common people.
In the poem, the author used such means of artistic expression as epithets (“the sun is red”, “black shadows”, a free heart”, “poor people”), comparisons (“jumped out as if disheveled”, “the men fell asleep like the dead”), metaphors ( “the earth lies”, “the warbler is crying”, “the village is seething”). There is also a place for irony and sarcasm, various stylistic figures are used, such as addresses: “Hey, uncle!”, “Oh people, Russian people!”, various exclamations “Chu!”, “Eh, Eh!” etc.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the highest example of a work executed in the folk style of all literary heritage Nekrasova. The elements and images of Russian used by the poet folklore give the work a bright originality, colorfulness and rich national flavor. The fact that Nekrasov made the search for happiness the main theme of the poem is not at all accidental, because the entire Russian people have been searching for it for many thousands of years, this is reflected in his fairy tales, epics, legends, songs and in other various folklore sources as the search for treasure, a happy land, priceless treasure. The theme of this work expressed the most cherished desire of the Russian people throughout its existence - to live happily in a society where justice and equality rule.
Plot lines and their relationship in the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
Plot is the development of action, the course of events that can follow each other in a work. chronological sequence(fairy tales, chivalric novels) or grouped in such a way as to help identify it main idea, the main conflict (concentric plot). The plot reflects life's contradictions, clashes and relationships between the characters, the evolution of their characters and behavior.
The plot of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is largely determined by the genre of the epic poem, which reproduces all the diversity of the life of the people in the post-reform period: their hopes and dramas, holidays and everyday life, episodes and destinies, legends and facts, confessions and rumors, doubts and insights, defeats and victories, illusions and reality, past and present. And in this polyphony of people’s life, it is sometimes difficult to discern the voice of the author, who invited the reader to accept the terms of the game and go with his heroes to an amusing trip. The author himself strictly follows the rules of this game, playing the role of a conscientious narrator and quietly guiding its course, in general, practically not revealing his adulthood. Only sometimes does he allow himself to discover his true level. This role of the author is determined by the purpose of the poem - not only to trace the growth of peasant self-awareness in the post-reform period, but equally to contribute to this process. After all, likening the soul of the people to unplowed virgin soil and calling on the sower, the poet could not help but feel like one of them.
The storyline of the poem - the journey of seven temporarily obliged men across the vast expanses of Rus' in search of a happy one - is designed to accomplish this task.
The premise of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (a necessary element of the plot) is a dispute about the happiness of seven men from adjacent villages with symbolic names (Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaika). They go in search of happiness, having received the support of a grateful magic bird. The role of wanderers in the development of the plot is significant and responsible. Their images are devoid of individual definition, as is customary in folklore. We only know their names and preferences. Yes, Roman thinks happy man landowner, Demyan - official, Luka - priest. Ivan and Metrodor Gubin believe that it is free to Rus' lives“to the fat-bellied merchant,” old Pakhom to the minister, and Prov to the tsar.
The Great Reform changed a lot in the lives of the peasants, but for the most part they were not ready for it. Their concepts were burdened by the centuries-old traditions of slavery, and consciousness was only beginning to awaken, as evidenced by the dispute between the men in the poem.
Nekrasov understood very well that the happiness of the people largely depends on how much they are able to understand their place in life. It is curious that the initial plot emerging in the dispute turns out to be false: of the supposed “lucky ones,” the peasants talk only with the priest and the landowner, refusing other meetings. The fact is that at this stage the possibility of peasant happiness does not even occur to them. And this very concept is associated with them only with the absence of what every hour makes them, peasants, unhappy - hunger, exhausting labor, dependence on all kinds of masters.
That's why at first
From the beggars, from the soldiers
The strangers did not ask
How is it for them - is it easy or difficult?
Lives in Rus'?
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” in addition to the main plot, which solves the problem of growing peasant self-awareness, there are numerous side plot lines. Each of them brings something significant into the consciousness of the peasants.
The turning point in the development of events in the poem is the meeting of seven fortune-seekers with the village priest.
The clergy, especially the rural ones, by the nature of their activities were closer to other ruling classes to the common people. Rituals associated with the birth of children, weddings, and funerals were performed by priests. They possessed the secrets of simple peasant sins and genuine tragedies. Naturally, the best among them could not help but sympathize with the common people, instilling in them love for their neighbors, meekness, patience and faith. It was precisely this priest that the men met. He helped them, firstly, translate their vague ideas about happiness into a clear formula “peace, wealth, honor”, and secondly, he revealed to them a world of suffering not associated with hard work, painful hunger or humiliation. The priest, in essence, translates the concept of happiness into a moral category for the peasants.
The rebuke to Luke, who is called stupid by the narrator, is distinguished by rare unanimity and anger:
What did you take? stubborn head!
Country club!
There he gets into an argument!
Nobles bells -
The priests live like princes.
For the first time, the peasants could think that if a well-fed and free priest suffers like this, then it is possible that a hungry and dependent man can be happy. And shouldn’t we find out more thoroughly what happiness is before traveling around Rus' in search of a happy one? This is how seven men end up on “ rural fair"in the rich village of Kuzminskoye, with two ancient churches, a packed school and
A paramedic's hut with a scary sign, and most importantly, with numerous drinking establishments. The fair's polyphony is filled with bright, jubilant intonations. The narrator rejoices at the abundance of products of rural craftsmen, the variety of fruits of back-breaking labor, simple entertainment, with an experienced hand he makes sketches of peasant characters, types, genre scenes, but sometimes he suddenly seems to forget about his role as a modest narrator, and the powerful figure of the poet-enlightener stands before the readers in full height :
Eh! Eh! will the time come,
When (come what you want!..)
They will let the peasant understand
What a rose is a portrait of a portrait,
What is the book of the book of roses?
When a man is not Blucher
And not my foolish lord -
Belinsky and Gogol
Will it come from the market?
Seven men have the opportunity to see how the people's uncontrollable energy, strength, and joy are absorbed by ugly drunkenness. So, maybe it is the cause of misfortune, and if you free people from the craving for wine, life will change? They cannot help but think about this when faced with Yakim Nagiy. The episode with the plowman has great importance in the formation and development of peasant self-awareness. Nekrasov endows the simple grain grower with an understanding of the meaning public opinion: Yakim Nagoy snatches a pencil from the hands of the intellectual Pavlusha Veretennikov, who is ready to write down in a book that smart Russian peasants are being ruined by vodka. He confidently states:
To the master's measure
Don't kill the peasant!
Yakim Nagoy easily establishes cause-and-effect relationships. It is not vodka that makes a peasant’s life unbearable, but unbearable life that makes them turn to vodka as their only consolation. He understands well who is appropriating the fruits of peasant labor:
You work alone
And the work is almost over,
Look, there are three shareholders standing:
God, king and lord!
The peasants, who had previously mindlessly agreed with Pavlusha Veretennikov, suddenly agree with Yakim:
Work wouldn't stop me
Trouble would not prevail
Hops will not overcome us!
After this meeting, wanderers have the opportunity to realize the class difference in the concept of happiness and the hostility of the ruling classes to the people. Now they are thinking more and more about the fate of the peasants and are trying to find
Among them are happy ones, or rather, it is important for them to identify popular ideas about happiness and compare them with their own.
“Hey, peasant happiness!
Leaky with patches,
Humpbacked with calluses,
Go home!” -
This is the final opinion of wanderers about “peasant happiness.”
The story of Yermil Girin is an insert episode with an independent plot. The peasant Fedosei from the village of Dymoglotovo tells it to the happiness seekers, not without reason deciding that this “just a man” can be called happy. He had everything: “peace, money, and honor.” A competent man, he was first a clerk for the manager and in this position he managed to win the respect and gratitude of his fellow villagers, helping them with paperwork that was difficult for them free of charge. Then, under the young prince, he was elected mayor.
Yermilo went to reign
Over the entire princely estate,
And he reigned!
In seven years the world's penny
I didn’t squeeze it under my nail,
At the age of seven I didn’t touch the right one,
He did not allow the guilty
I didn’t bend my heart...
However, the “gray-haired priest” remembered Yermil’s “sin” when, instead of his brother Mitri, he gave the son of the widow Nenila Vlasyevna as a recruit. Ermil was tormented by his conscience, he almost committed suicide until he corrected what he had done. After this incident, Ermil Girin refused the post of headman and acquired a mill, and no money happened to him when he traded it, and the world helped him put the merchant Altynnikov to shame:
Cunning, strong clerks,
And their world is stronger,
The merchant Altynnikov is rich,
And everything cannot resist him
Against the worldly treasury...
Girin returned the money and since then has become “loved by all the people more than ever” for truth, intelligence and kindness. The author allowed the seven wanderers to learn many lessons from this story. They could rise to the understanding of the highest happiness, which consisted in serving their brothers in class, the people. Peasants
You might think about the fact that only in unity they represent an indestructible force. Finally, they should have come to the understanding that for happiness a person must have a clear conscience. However, when the men gathered to visit Yermil, it turned out that “he is sitting in prison,” since, apparently, he did not want to take the side of the bosses, the offenders of the people. The author deliberately does not finish telling the end of Yermil Girin’s story, but it is also instructive. The wandering heroes could understand that for such an impeccable reputation, for such rare happiness, the unknown peasant Girin had to pay with freedom.
On their long journey, the wanderers had to think and learn, just like the readers, however.
They turned out to be much more prepared for the meeting with the landowner than for the meeting with the priest. The peasants are ironic and mocking both when the landowner boasts of his family tree and when he talks about spiritual kinship with the peasant estate. They understand well the polarity of their own and the landowner's interests. Perhaps for the first time, the wanderers realized that the abolition of serfdom was a great event that would forever leave in the past the horrors of landowner tyranny and omnipotence. And although the reform, which hit “one end at the master, the other at the peasant,” completely deprived them of “lordly affection,” it also called for independence and responsibility for arranging their own lives.
In Nekrasov’s work, the theme of women’s fate appears in his work as an independent and especially significant theme. The poet understood well that in serf Russia, a woman bore double oppression, social and family. He makes his wanderers think about the fate of a woman, the ancestor of life, the support and guardian of the family - the foundation people's happiness.
Neighbors called Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina lucky. In some ways she was really lucky: she was born and raised in a family that didn’t drink, she married for love, but otherwise she followed the usual path of a peasant woman. She started working at the age of five, got married early and suffered plenty of insults, insults, and hard work in her husband’s family, lost her first-born son and remained a soldier with children. Matryona Timofeevna is familiar with the master's rods and her husband's beatings. Hardworking, talented (“And a kind worker, / And a hunter to sing and dance / I was from a young age”), passionately loving children and family, Matryona Timofeevna did not break under the blows of fate. In the absence of rights and humiliation, she found the strength to fight injustice and won, returning her husband from the soldiery. Matryona Timofeevna is the embodiment of the moral strength, intelligence and patience of a Russian woman, dedication and beauty.
In the bitter hopelessness of the peasant fate, the people, almost by folklore inertia, associated happiness with luck (Matryona Timofeevna, for example, was helped by the governor’s wife), but by this time the wanderers had already seen something and did not believe in a lucky chance, so they asked Matryona Timofeevna to pour out her whole soul . And it’s hard for them to disagree with her words:
The keys to women's happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost
From God himself!
However, the conversation with Matryona Timofeevna turned out to be very important for the seven men in determining the paths to people's happiness. An inserted episode with an independent plot about Savely, the Holy Russian hero, played a big role in this.
Savely grew up in a village behind the eyes, separated from the city by dense forests and swamps. The Korezh men were distinguished by their independent character, and the landowner Shalashnikov had “not so great incomes” from them, although he tore the men desperately:
Weak people gave up
And the strong for the patrimony
They stood well.
The manager Vogel, sent by Shalashnikov, tricked the Korezh men into making the road, and then completely enslaved them:
The German has a death grip:
Until he lets you go around the world,
Without moving away, he sucks.
The men did not tolerate violence - they executed the German Vogel, burying him alive in the ground. The seven wanderers are faced with a difficult question: is violence against oppressors justified? To make it easier for them to answer it, the poet introduces another tragic episode into the plot - the death of Matryona Timofeevna Demushka’s first-born, who was killed by pigs due to Savely’s oversight. Here the old man’s repentance knows no bounds, he prays, asks for forgiveness from God, and goes to the monastery to repent. The author deliberately emphasizes Savely's religiosity, his compassion for all living things - every flower, every living creature. There is a difference in his guilt for the murder of the German Vogel and Demushka. But Savely ultimately does not justify himself for the murder of the manager, or rather, considers it senseless. It was followed by hard labor, settlement, and the realization of wasted power. Savely understands well the severity of the peasant’s life and the righteousness of his anger. He also knows the extent of the potential strength of a “heroic man.” However, its conclusion is clear. He says to Matryona Timofeevna:
Be patient, multi-branched one!
Be patient, long-suffering!
We can't find the truth.
The author brings the seven wanderers to the idea of the righteousness of violent reprisal against the oppressor, and warns against a rash impulse, which will inevitably be followed by punishment and repentance, because nothing will change in life from such a single justice.
The wanderers grew wiser during the months of wandering, and the initial thought of living happily in Rus' was replaced by the thought of people's happiness.
They speak to Elder Vlas from the chapter “The Last One” about the purpose of their journey:
We are looking, Uncle Vlas,
Unflogged province,
Ungutted parish,
Izbytkova village!..
Wanderers think about the universality of happiness (from the province to the village) and mean by it personal integrity, legal protection of property, and well-being.
The level of self-awareness of peasants at this stage is quite high, and now we are talking about ways and income to people's happiness. The first obstacle to it in the post-reform years was the remnants of serfdom in the minds of both landowners and peasants. This is discussed in the chapter “The Last One”. Here the wanderers meet the emasculated Prince Utyatin, who does not want to recognize the tsarist reform, since his noble arrogance is suffering. To please the heirs, who are afraid for their inheritance, the peasants play the “gum” of the old order in front of the landowner for the promised “water meadows.” The author does not spare satirical colors, showing their cruel absurdity and obsolescence. But not all peasants agree to submit to the offensive conditions of the game. For example, Burmist Vlas doesn’t want to be a “clown.” The plot with Agap Petrov shows that even the darkest peasant awakens to a sense of self-worth - a direct consequence of the reform that cannot be reversed.
The death of the Last One is symbolic: it testifies to the final triumph of a new life.
The final chapter of the poem “A Feast for the Whole World” contains several storylines that take place in numerous songs and legends. One of the main themes raised in them is the theme of sin. The guilt of the ruling classes towards the peasants is endless. The song, called “Merry,” talks about the arbitrariness of landowners, officials, even the tsar, depriving peasants of their property and destroying their families. “It’s glorious to live for the people / Saint in Rus'!” - the refrain of the song, sounding like a bitter mockery.
Uncombed, “twisted, twisted, chopped, tortured” Kalinushka is a typical corvee peasant, whose life is written “on his own back.” Having grown up “under the snout of the landowner,” corvée peasants especially suffered from their painstaking arbitrariness and stupid prohibitions, for example, the ban on rude words:
We're tired! truly
We celebrated the will,
Like a holiday: they swore like that,
That priest Ivan was offended
For the ringing of bells,
Whooped that day.
The story of the former traveling footman Vikenty Aleksandrovich “About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful” is another evidence of the irredeemable sin of the autocratic landowner. Mr. Polivanov, with a dark past (“he bought a village with bribes”) and present (“he was free, drunk, drank bitterly”), was distinguished by rare cruelty not only towards serfs, but even towards relatives (“Having married his daughter, his faithful husband / He flogged them and drove them both away naked." And, of course, he did not spare the “exemplary slave, the faithful Yakov,” whom he “in passing blew with his heel” in the teeth.
Jacob is also a product of serfdom, which transformed the best moral qualities of the people: fidelity to duty, devotion, dedication, honesty, hard work - into meaningless servility.
Yakov remained devoted to the master, even when he lost his former strength and became legless. The landowner seemed to finally appreciate the servant’s devotion and began to call him “friend and brother”! The author invisibly stands behind the narrator, designed to convince listeners that the fraternal relationship between master and serf is impossible. Mr. Polivanov forbids Yakov’s beloved nephew to marry Arisha, and his uncle’s requests do not help. Seeing Grisha as a rival, the master gives him up as a soldier. Perhaps for the first time, Yakov thought about something, but he was able to tell the master about his wine in only one way - by hanging himself over him in the forest.
The topic of sin is vigorously discussed by those feasting. There are no less sinners than happy ones. There are landowners, innkeepers, robbers, and peasants here. And the disputes, as at the beginning of the poem, end in a brawl, until Iona Lyapushkin, who often visits the Vakhlat side, comes forward with his story.
The author devotes a special chapter to wanderers and pilgrims who “do not reap, do not sow, but feed” throughout Rus'. The narrator does not hide the fact that among them there are many deceivers, hypocrites and even criminals, but there are also true bearers of spirituality, the need for which is so great among the Russian people. She was not destroyed by backbreaking work, nor by long slavery, nor even by the tavern. The author draws a simple genre scene depicting a family at evening work, while the wanderer she welcomed finishes the story of Athonite. There is so much trusting attention, ardent sympathy, intense fascination on the faces of old people, women, children that the poet exclaims with tenderness, love and faith:
More to the Russian people
No limits set:
There is a wide path before him...
The narrator puts into the mouth of God's wanderer Jonah, warmly revered by the peasants, the legend “About Two Great Sinners,” which he heard in Solovki from Father Pitirim. It is very important for solving the problem of “sin” posed in the poem.
The chieftain of the band of robbers Kudeyar, a murderer who shed a lot of blood, suddenly repented. To atone for his sins, the Lord ordered him to cut down a mighty oak tree with the knife with which he was robbing.
Cuts resilient wood
Sings glory to the Lord,
As the years go by, it gets better
Slowly things move forward.
The first one in that direction, Pan Glukhovsky, laughed at Kudeyar:
You have to live, old man, in my opinion:
How many slaves do I destroy?
I torture, I torture, and I hang,
I wish I could see how I sleep.
In a furious rage, the hermit kills Glukhovsky - and a miracle occurs:
The tree collapsed and rolled down
The monk is off the burden of sins!..
The seven wanderers had already heard once about Savely, who had committed the sin of murder, and had the opportunity to distinguish the murder of the tormentor Vogel from the accidental death of the baby Demushka. Now they had to understand the difference in the sinfulness of the repentant robber Kudeyar and the convinced executioner and libertine Glukhovsky, who tortured the peasants. Kudeyar, who executed Pan Glukhovsky, not only did not commit a sin, but was forgiven by God for past sins. This new level in the minds of those seeking happiness: they are aware of the possibility of violent actions against the militant executioners of the people - actions that are not opposed to the Christian worldview. “Great is the noble sin!” - this is the unanimous conclusion of the peasants. But unexpectedly, the question of those responsible for peasant suffering does not end with the sin of the nobility.
Ignatius Prokhorov tells a folk ballad about a “widower ammiral” who set eight thousand souls free after his death. Headman Gleb sold the “freedom” to the admiral’s heir.
God forgives everything, but Judas sin
It doesn't say goodbye.
Oh man! man! you are the sinner of all,
And for that you will suffer forever!
The poet understood well that serfdom not only unleashed the cruelest instincts of the landowners, but also disfigured the peasant souls.
Betrayal of fellow peasants is a crime that cannot be forgiven. And this lesson is learned by our wanderers, who also had the opportunity to soon become convinced of its effectiveness. The Vakhlaks unanimously attack Yegor Shutov, having received orders from the village of Tiskova to “beat him.” “If the whole world has ordered: / Beat - there is a reason,” says Elder Vlas to the wanderers.
Grisha Dobrosklonov sums up the peasant dispute, explaining to the peasants the main reason for the sins of the nobles and peasants:
The snake will give birth to baby snakes,
And the support is the sins of the landowner,
The sin of Jacob - the unfortunate one,
Gleb gave birth to sin,
Everyone needs to understand, he says, that if “there is no support,” then these sins will no longer exist, that a new time has come.
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nekrasov does not ignore the fate of the soldiers - yesterday’s peasants, torn from the land, from their families, thrown under bullets and rods, often crippled and forgotten. Such is the tall and extremely skinny soldier Ovsyannikov, on whom a “frock coat with medals” hung as if on a pole. Deprived and wounded, he still dreams of receiving a “pension” from the state, but he cannot get to St. Petersburg: cast iron is expensive. At first, “grandfather fed on the district,” and when the instrument deteriorated, he bought three little yellow spoons and began to play on them, composing a song for simple music:
The light is sickening
There is no truth
Life is sickening
The pain is severe.
The episode about the soldier, the hero of Sevastopol, forced to beg (“Nootka, with George - around the world, around the world”) is instructive for wanderers and the reader, like all the numerous episodes with independent plots included in the poem.
In the difficult search for paths to peasant happiness, it is necessary to show the whole world mercy and compassion for the undeservedly disadvantaged and offended by fate.
By order of the elder Vlas, Klim, who had extraordinary acting abilities, helps the soldier Ovsyannikov get a modest people's help, spectacularly and convincingly retelling his story to the assembled people. Little by little, little by little, money fell into the old soldier’s wooden plate.
New « good time"brings new heroes onto the stage, next to whom are seven fortune-seekers.
The true hero of the final plot of the poem is Grisha Dobrosklonov. From childhood he knew bitter need. His father, the parish sexton Tryfon, lived “poorer than the last shabby peasant,” his mother, the “unresponsive farm laborer” Domna, died early. At the seminary, where Grisha studied with his older brother Savva, it was “dark, cold, gloomy, strict, hungry.” The Vakhlaks fed the kind and simple guys, who paid them for it with work and managed their affairs in the city.
The grateful “love for all the Vakhlachina” makes the smart Grisha think about their fate.
...And about fifteen years
Gregory already knew for sure
What will live for happiness
Wretched and dark
Native corner.
It is Gregory who explains to the Vakhlaks that serfdom is the cause of all noble and peasant sins and that it is forever a thing of the past.
All the more closely, all the more joyfully
I listened to Grisha Prov:
Grinning, comrades
“Watch it!”
Prov is one of the seven wanderers who claimed that the king had the best life in Rus'.
This is how the final plot is connected to the main one. Thanks to Grisha's explanations, the wanderers realize the root of evil Russian life and the meaning of will for peasants.
The Vakhlaks appreciate Grisha’s extraordinary mind and speak with respect of his intention to go “to Moscow, to the new city.”
Grisha carefully studies the life, work, worries and aspirations of peasants, artisans, barge haulers, the clergy and “all mysterious Rus'.”
The Angel of Mercy - a fairy-tale image-symbol that replaced the demon of rage - now hovers over Russia. In his song about two paths, sung over a Russian youth, there is a call to take not the usual beaten path for the crowd - a road full of passions, enmity and sin, but a narrow and difficult road for chosen and strong souls.
Go to the downtrodden
Go to the offended -
Fate had in store for him
The path is glorious, the name is loud
People's Defender,
Consumption and Siberia.
Grisha is a talented poet. It is curious that the author calls the song “Veselaya,” apparently composed by him, “not folk”: priests and servants sang it on holidays, and the vakhlaks only stamped their feet and whistled. The signs of bookishness are obvious in it: the strict logic of the construction of the verses, the generalized irony of the chorus, the vocabulary:
It's nice to live for the people
Saint in Rus'!
Wanderers listen to this song, but the other two songs of the poet-citizen remain unheard by them.
The first is permeated with pain for the slave past of the Motherland and hope for happy changes:
Enough! Finished with past settlement,
The settlement with the master has been completed!
The Russian people are gathering strength
And learns to be a citizen.
The concept of citizenship is not yet familiar to travelers; they still have a lot to understand in life, a lot to learn. Perhaps that is why the author at this stage does not connect them with Grisha - on the contrary, he separates them. Grisha’s second song is also inaccessible to the understanding of wanderers, where he talks about the great contradictions of Rus', but expresses hope for the awakening of the people’s forces, for their readiness to fight:
The army rises -
Countless!
The strength in her will affect
Indestructible!
Grisha Dobrosklonov experiences joyful satisfaction from life, because a simple and noble goal is clearly outlined for him - the fight for the people's happiness.
If only our wanderers could be under their own roof,
If only they could know what was happening to Grisha - here
Folklore traditions in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
N.A. Nekrasov conceived the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” as a “people's book.” The poet always made sure that his works had a “style that suits the theme.” The desire to make the poem as accessible as possible to the peasant reader forced the poet to turn to folklore.
From the very first pages he is greeted by a fairy tale, a popular genre: a warbler, grateful for the saved chick, gives the men a “self-assembled tablecloth” and takes care of them throughout the journey.
The reader is familiar with the fairy-tale beginning of the poem:
In what year - calculate
Guess what year...
And the lines promising the fulfillment of the cherished are doubly desirable and familiar:
According to your wishes,
At my command...
The poet uses fairy-tale repetitions in the poem. These are, for example, references to a self-assembled tablecloth or a stable characteristic of the peasants, as well as the reason for their dispute. Fairy-tale techniques literally permeate Nekrasov’s entire work, creating a magical setting where space and time are subordinate to the characters:
Whether it was long or short,
Whether they walked close or far...
The techniques of the epic epic are also widely used in the poem. The poet likens many images of peasants to real heroes. Such, for example, is Savely, the Holy Russian hero. And Savely himself treats the peasants as true heroes:
Do you think, Matryonushka,
Is the man not a hero?
And life is not a military one for him,
And death is not written for him
In battle - what a hero!
“The Peasant Army-Horde” is painted in epic tones by Yakim Nagoy. The bricklayer Trofim, who lifted “at least fourteen pounds” of bricks to the second floor, or the Olonchan stonemason, look like true heroes. The songs of Grisha Dobrosklonov use the vocabulary of the epic epic (“The army is rising - innumerable!”).
The whole poem is designed in a folktale-conversational style, where, naturally, there are a lot of phraseological units: “scattered with my mind”, “almost thirty miles”, “my soul is in pain”, “let loose my laces”, “where did the agility come from”, “suddenly it disappeared as if by hand” ", "the world is not without good people“,” “We’ll treat you like a charmer,” “but it turned out to be rubbish,” etc.
There are a lot of proverbs and sayings of all kinds in the poem, organically subordinated to poetic rhythms: “Yes, the belly is not a mirror,” “a worker
the horse eats straw, and the idle dancer eats oats”, “the proud pig was scratching himself on the master’s porch”, “don’t spit on the hot iron - it will hiss”, “high is God, far is the king”, “praise the grass in the haystack, but the master in the coffin”, “one is not a mill bird, which, no matter how much it flaps its wings, probably won’t fly”, “no matter how much you suffer from work, you will not be rich, but you will be hunchbacked”, “yes, our axes lay for the time being”, “and I would be glad to heaven, but where is the door?
Every now and then, riddles are woven into the text, creating picturesque images of either an echo (without a body, but it lives, without a tongue - it screams), then snow (it lies silent, when it dies, then it roars), then a lock on the door (Does not bark, does not bites, but does not let you into the house), then an ax (all your life you bowed, but were not affectionate), then a saw (chews, but does not eat).
Also N.V. Gogol noted that the Russian people have always expressed their soul in song.
ON THE. Nekrasov constantly turns to this genre. Matryona Timofeevna’s songs tell “about a silk whip, about her husband’s relatives.” It is taken up by a peasant choir, indicating the ubiquity of women’s suffering in the family.
Matryona Timofeevna’s favorite song “There is a little light on the mountain” is heard by her when she decides to achieve justice and return her husband from the soldiery. This song talks about the choice of a single lover - the master of a woman's destiny. Its location in the poem is determined by the ideological and thematic content of the episode.
Most of the songs Nekrasov introduced into the epic reflect the horrors of serfdom.
The hero of the song “Barshchinnaya” is the unfortunate Kalinushka, whose “skin is completely torn from his bast shoes to his collar, his stomach is swollen with chaff.” His only joy is the tavern. Even more terrible is the life of Pankratushka, a completely starved plowman who dreams of a large loaf of bread. Due to eternal hunger, he lost simple human feelings:
I'll eat it all alone
I can handle it myself
Be it mother or son
Ask - I won’t give / “Hungry” /
The poet never forgets about the hard life of a soldier:
German bullets
Turkish bullets,
French bullets
Russian chopsticks.
The main idea of the “Soldier’s” song is the ingratitude of the state, which abandoned the crippled and sick defenders of the fatherland to the mercy of fate.
Bitter times gave birth to bitter songs. That is why even “Veselaya” is permeated with irony and talks about the poverty of the peasants “in holy Rus'.”
The song “Salty” tells about the sad side of peasant life - the high cost of salt, which is so necessary for storing agricultural products and in everyday life, but inaccessible to the poor. The poet also uses the second meaning of the word “salty”, denoting something heavy, exhausting, difficult.
Acting in Nekrasov's epic, the fairy-tale angel of mercy, who replaced the demon of rage, sings a song calling honest hearts “to battle, to work.”
The songs of Grisha Dobrosklonov, still very bookish, are filled with love for the people, faith in their strength, hope for a change in their destiny. His songs reveal a knowledge of folklore: Grisha often uses its artistic and expressive means (vocabulary, constant epithets, general poetic metaphors).
The heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are characterized by confessionalism, so common in works of oral folk art. The priest, then numerous “happy” people, the landowner, Matryona Timofeevna tell the wanderers about their lives.
And we'll see
Church of God,
In front of the church
Let's be baptized for a long time:
"Give her, Lord,
Joy-happiness,
Good darling
Alexandrovna."
With the experienced hand of a brilliant poet, connoisseur and connoisseur of folklore, the poet removes the dialectal phonetic irregularities of genuine lamentations, thereby revealing their artistic spirituality:
Fall my tears
Not on land, not on water,
Not to the Lord's temple!
Fall right on your heart
My villain!
Fluent in N.A. Nekrasov the genre of folk ballad and, introducing it into the poem, skillfully imitates both the form (transferring the last line of the verse to the beginning of the next) and vocabulary. He uses folk phraseology, reproduces the folk etymology of book phrases, and the narrators’ commitment to geographical and factual accuracy of details:
The widower ammiral walked the seas,
I walked the seas, sailed ships,
Near Achakov he fought with a Turk,
Defeated him.
The poem contains a genuine scattering constant epithets: “gray bunny”, “wild little head”, “black souls”, “quick night”, “white body”, “clear falcon”, “burning tears”, “reasonable little head”, “red girls”, “good fellow” , “greyhound horse”, “clear eyes”, “bright Sunday”, “ruddy face”, “pea jester”.
The number seven, traditionally widely used in folklore (seven Fridays in a week, you can slurp jelly seven miles away, seven don’t wait for one, measure seven times - cut once, etc.) is also noticeable in the poem, where seven men from seven adjacent villages (Zaplatovo, Dyryavino , Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaika) go to travel around the world; seven eagle owls look at them from seven large trees, etc. The poet also refers no less often to the number three, also according to folklore tradition: “three lakes of tears”, “three streaks of trouble”, “three loops”, “three shareholders”, “three Matryonas” - etc.
Nekrasov also uses other techniques of oral folk art, for example, interjections and particles that add emotionality to the narrative: “Oh, swallow! Oh! stupid”, “Choo! the horse is knocking its hooves”, “ah, braid! Like gold burns in the sun.”
Common in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are complex words made up of two synonyms (bad-midge, path-path, melancholy-trouble, mother-earth, rye-mother, fruit-berries) or cognate words (rad-radekhonek, mlada -baby) or words reinforced by the repetition of cognate words (good riddance, good riddance, snoring, roaring).
Traditional in the poem are folklore diminutive suffixes in words (round, pot-bellied, gray-haired, mustachioed, dear), addresses, including to inanimate objects (“oh, you little birdie...”, “Hey, peasant happiness!”, “ Oh, you canine hunt”, “Oh! drunken night!”), negative comparisons
(It is not the winds that blow violently,
It is not mother earth that sways -
He makes noise, sings, swears,
Fights and kisses
People are celebrating).
The events in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are presented in chronological order - a traditional composition of folk epic works. The numerous side plots of the poem are primarily narrative texts. The diverse rhythms of Nekrasov’s epic poem are determined by the genres of oral folk art: fairy tales, epics, songs, lamentations, cries!
The author is a folk storyteller with a good command of live in folk speech. To the gullible eye of peasant readers, there is little difference from them, just like, for example, wanderers - pilgrims, captivating their listeners with entertaining stories. In the course of the story, the narrator discovers the cunning of the mind, beloved by the people, and the ability to satisfy their curiosity and imagination. Christian condemnation is close to his heart
The narrator of the sinfulness of vice and the moral reward of the sufferers and the righteous. And only a sophisticated reader can see behind this role of a folk storyteller the face of a great poet, poet-educator, educator and counselor.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is written mostly in iambic trimeter with two final unstressed syllables. The poet's poems are not rhymed and are distinguished by a richness of consonances and rhythms.
In January 1866, the next issue of the Sovremennik magazine was published in St. Petersburg. It opened with lines that are now familiar to everyone:
In what year - calculate
Guess which land...
These words seemed to promise to introduce the reader into an entertaining fairy-tale world, where a warbler bird speaking human language and a magic tablecloth would appear... So N. began with a sly smile and ease.
A. Nekrasov his story about the adventures of seven men who argued about “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.”
Already in the “Prologue” a picture of peasant Rus' was visible, the figure of the main character of the work stood up - the Russian peasant, as he really was: in bast shoes, onuchakh, an army coat, unfed, having suffered grief.
Three years later, publication of the poem resumed, but each part was met with severe persecution by the tsarist censors, who believed that the poem was “notable for its extreme ugliness of content.” The last chapter written, “A Feast for the Whole World,” came under especially sharp attack. Unfortunately, Nekrasov was not destined to see either the publication of “The Feast” or a separate edition of the poem. Without abbreviations or distortions, the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was published only after the October Revolution.
The poem occupies a central place in Nekrasov’s poetry, is its ideological and artistic peak, the result of the writer’s thoughts about the fate of the people, about their happiness and the paths that lead to it. These thoughts worried the poet throughout his life and ran like a red thread through all his poetic work.
By the 1860s, the Russian peasant became the main hero of Nekrasov’s poetry. “Peddlers”, “Orina, the soldier’s mother”, “Railway”, “Frost, Red Nose” are the most important works of the poet on the way to the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.
He devoted many years to working on the poem, which the poet called his “favorite brainchild.” He set himself the goal of writing a “people's book”, useful, understandable to the people and truthful. “I decided,” said Nekrasov, “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 peasant life.” But death interrupted this gigantic work; the work remained unfinished. However, despite this, it retains ideological and artistic integrity.
Nekrasov revived the genre of folk epic in poetry. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a truly folk work: both in its ideological sound, and in the scale of the epic depiction of modern folk life, in raising the fundamental questions of the time, and in heroic pathos, and in the widespread use of poetic traditions of oral folk art, closeness poetic language to living speech forms of everyday life and song lyricism.
At the same time, Nekrasov’s poem has features characteristic specifically of critical realism. Instead of one central character, the poem primarily depicts the folk environment as a whole, the living conditions of different social circles. The people's point of view on reality is expressed in the poem already in the very development of the theme, in the fact that all of Rus', all events are shown through the perception of wandering peasants, presented to the reader as if in their vision.
The events of the poem unfold in the first years after the reform of 1861 and the liberation of the peasants. The people, the peasantry, are the true positive heroes of the poem. Nekrasov pinned his hopes for the future on him, although he was aware of the weakness of the forces of peasant protest and the immaturity of the masses for revolutionary action.
In the poem, the author created the image of the peasant Savely, “the Holy Russian hero,” “the homespun hero,” who personifies the gigantic strength and fortitude of the people. Savely is endowed with the features of the legendary heroes of the folk epic. This image is associated by Nekrasov with central theme poems - the search for ways to people's happiness. It is no coincidence that Matryona Timofeevna says about Savely to wanderers: “He was also a lucky man.” Savely’s happiness lies in his love of freedom, in his understanding of the need for active struggle of the people, who can only achieve a “free” life in this way.
The poem contains many memorable images of peasants. Here is the smart old mayor Vlas, who has seen a lot in his time, and Yakim Nagoy, a typical representative of the working agricultural peasantry. However, Yakim Naga portrays the poet as not at all like a downtrodden, dark peasant of a patriarchal village. With a deep consciousness of his dignity, he ardently defends the people's honor and makes a fiery speech in defense of the people.
An important role in the poem is occupied by the image of Yermil Girin - a pure and incorruptible “protector of the people”, who takes the side of the rebel peasants and ends up in prison.
In the beautiful female image of Matryona Timofeevna, the poet draws the typical features of a Russian peasant woman. Nekrasov wrote many moving poems about the harsh “female share,” but he had never written about a peasant woman so fully, with such warmth and love as is depicted in the poem Matryonushka.
Along with the peasant characters of the poem, who evoke love and sympathy, Nekrasov also depicts other types of peasants, mostly courtyards - lordly hangers-on, sycophants, obedient slaves and outright traitors. These images are drawn by the poet in the tones of satirical denunciation. The more clearly he saw the protest of the peasantry, the more he believed in the possibility of their liberation, the more irreconcilably he condemned slavish humiliation, servility and servility. Such are the “exemplary slave” Yakov in the poem, who ultimately realizes the humiliation of his position and resorts to pitiful and helpless, but in his slavish consciousness, terrible revenge - suicide in front of his tormentor; the “sensitive lackey” Ipat, who talks about his humiliations with disgusting relish; informer, “one of our own spy” Yegor Shutov; Elder Gleb, seduced by the promises of the heir and agreed to destroy the will of the deceased landowner about the liberation of eight thousand peasants (“Peasant Sin”).
Showing the ignorance, rudeness, superstition, and backwardness of the Russian village of that time, Nekrasov emphasizes the temporary, historically transient nature of the dark sides of peasant life.
The world poetically recreated in the poem is a world of sharp social contrasts, clashes, and acute contradictions in life.
In the “round”, “ruddy-faced”, “pot-bellied”, “mustachioed” landowner Obolt-Obolduev, whom the wanderers met, the poet reveals the emptiness and frivolity of a man who is not used to thinking seriously about life. Behind the guise of a good-natured man, behind Obolt-Obolduev’s courteous courtesy and ostentatious cordiality, the reader sees the arrogance and malice of the landowner, barely restrained disgust and hatred for the “men”, for the peasants.
The image of the landowner-tyrant Prince Utyatin, nicknamed by the peasants the Last One, is marked with satire and grotesquery. A predatory look, “a nose with a beak like a hawk,” alcoholism and voluptuousness complement the disgusting appearance of a typical representative of the landowner environment, an inveterate serf owner and despot.
At first glance, the development of the plot of the poem should consist in resolving the dispute between the men: which of the persons they named lives happier - the landowner, the official, the priest, the merchant, the minister or the tsar. However, developing the action of the poem, Nekrasov goes beyond the plot framework set by the plot of the work. Seven peasants are no longer looking for happiness only among representatives of the ruling classes. Going to the fair, in the midst of the people, they ask themselves the question: “Isn’t he hiding there, who lives happily?” In “The Last One” they directly say that the purpose of their journey is to search for people’s happiness, a better peasant lot:
We are looking, Uncle Vlas,
Unflogged province,
Ungutted parish,
Izbytkova village!..
Having begun the narrative in a semi-fairy-tale humorous tone, the poet gradually deepens the meaning of the question of happiness and gives it an increasingly acute social resonance. The author's intentions are most clearly manifested in the censored part of the poem - “A feast for the whole world.” The story about Grisha Dobrosklonov that began here was to take a central place in the development of the theme of happiness and struggle. Here the poet speaks directly about that path, about that “path” that leads to the embodiment of national happiness. Grisha’s happiness lies in the conscious struggle for a happy future for the people, so that “every peasant can live freely and cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'.”
The image of Grisha is the final one in the series of “people’s intercessors” depicted in Nekrasov’s poetry. The author emphasizes in Grisha his close proximity to the people, lively communication with the peasants, in whom he finds complete understanding and support; Grisha is depicted as an inspired dreamer-poet, composing his “good songs” for the people.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the highest example of the folk style of Nekrasov poetry. The folk song and fairy-tale element of the poem gives it a bright national flavor and is directly related to Nekrasov’s faith in the great future of the people. The main theme of the poem - the search for happiness - goes back to folk tales, songs and other folklore sources, which talked about the search for a happy land, truth, wealth, treasure, etc. This theme expressed the most cherished thought of the masses, their desire for happiness, the age-old dream of the people about a fair social system.
Nekrasov used in his poem almost the entire genre diversity of Russian folk poetry: fairy tales, epics, legends, riddles, proverbs, sayings, family songs, love songs, wedding songs, historical songs. Folk poetry provided the poet with rich material for judging peasant life, life, and the customs of the village.
The style of the poem is characterized by a wealth of emotional sounds, a variety of poetic intonation: the sly smile and leisurely narration in the “Prologue” is replaced in subsequent scenes by the ringing polyphony of a seething fair crowd, in “The Last One” - by satirical ridicule, in “The Peasant Woman” - by deep drama and lyrical emotion, and in “A Feast for the Whole World” - with heroic tension and revolutionary pathos.
The poet subtly feels and loves the beauty of the native Russian nature of the northern strip. The poet also uses the landscape to create an emotional tone, to more fully and vividly characterize the character’s state of mind.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” has a prominent place in Russian poetry. In it, the fearless truth of pictures of folk life appears in an aura of poetic fabulousness and the beauty of folk art, and the cry of protest and satire merged with the heroism of the revolutionary struggle.