Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" tells about the journey of seven peasants across Russia in search of happy person. The work was written in the late 60's - mid 70's. XIX century, after the reforms of Alexander II and the abolition of serfdom. It tells about a post-reform society in which not only many old vices have not disappeared, but many new ones have appeared. According to the plan of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, the wanderers were supposed to reach St. Petersburg at the end of the journey, but due to the illness and imminent death of the author, the poem remained unfinished.
The work “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” is written in blank verse and stylized as Russian folk tales. We suggest reading the online summary of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov chapter by chapter, prepared by the editors of our portal.
Main characters
Novel, Demyan, Luke, Gubin brothers Ivan and Mitrodor, Pahom, Prov- seven peasants who went to look for a happy man.
Other characters
Ermil Girin- the first "candidate" for the title of lucky man, an honest steward, very respected by the peasants.
Matryona Korchagina(Governor) - a peasant woman who is known in her village as a "lucky woman".
Savely- husband's grandfather Matryona Korchagina. Centennial old man.
Prince Utyatin(Last child) - an old landowner, a tyrant, to whom his family, in collusion with the peasants, does not speak about the abolition of serfdom.
Vlas- a peasant, steward of the village, once owned by Utyatin.
Grisha Dobrosklonov- a seminarian, the son of a deacon, dreaming of the liberation of the Russian people; the revolutionary democrat N. Dobrolyubov was the prototype.
Part 1
Prologue
Seven men converge on the "pillar path": Roman, Demyan, Luka, the Gubin brothers (Ivan and Mitrodor), the old man Pakhom and Prov. The county from which they come is called by the author Terpigorev, and the “adjacent villages” from which the peasants come are referred to as Zaplatovo, Dyryaevo, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neyolovo and Neurozhayko, thus, the poem uses artistic technique"speaking" names.
The men got together and argued:
Who has fun
Feel free in Rus'?
Each of them insists on his own. One shouts that the landowner lives most freely, the other that the official, the third - the priest, "fat-bellied merchant", "noble boyar, minister of the sovereign", or the tsar.
From the outside, it seems that the men found a treasure on the road and are now dividing it among themselves. The peasants have already forgotten what business they left the house for (one went to baptize a child, the other to the market ...), and they go no one knows where until night falls. Only here the peasants stop and, "blaming the trouble on the goblin", sit down to rest and continue the argument. Soon it comes to a fight.
Roman hits Pakhomushka,
Demyan hits Luka.
The fight alarmed the whole forest, the echo woke up, the animals and birds got worried, the cow mooed, the cuckoo forged, the jackdaws squeaked, the fox, eavesdropping on the peasants, decides to run away.
And here at the foam
With fright, a tiny chick
Fell from the nest.
When the fight is over, the men pay attention to this chick and catch it. It is easier for a bird than for a peasant, Pahom says. If he had wings, he would fly all over Rus' to find out who lives best on it. “We don’t even need wings,” the rest add, they would only have bread and “a bucket of vodka,” as well as cucumbers, kvass and tea. Then they would have measured the whole "Mother Rus' with their feet."
While the men are interpreting in this way, a chiffchaff flies up to them and asks to let her chick go free. For him, she will give a royal ransom: everything desired by the peasants.
The men agree, and the chiffchaff shows them a place in the forest where a box with a self-assembled tablecloth is buried. Then she enchants clothes on them so that they do not wear out, so that the bast shoes do not break, the footcloths do not decay, and the louse does not breed on the body, and flies away "with her dear chick." In parting, the warbler warns the peasants: they can ask for food from the self-collection tablecloth as much as they like, but you can’t ask for more than a bucket of vodka a day:
And one and two - it will be fulfilled
At your request,
And in the third be trouble!
The peasants rush to the forest, where they really find a self-assembled tablecloth. Overjoyed, they arrange a feast and give a vow: not to return home until they know for sure, "who lives happily, freely in Rus'?"
Thus begins their journey.
Chapter 1. Pop
Far away stretches a wide path lined with birch trees. On it, the peasants mostly come across “small people” - peasants, artisans, beggars, soldiers. Travelers don’t even ask them anything: what kind of happiness is there? Toward evening, the men meet the priest. The men block his way and bow low. In response to the priest's silent question: what do they need?, Luka talks about the dispute and asks: “Is the priest's life sweet?”
The priest thinks for a long time, and then replies that, since it is a sin to grumble at God, he will simply describe his life to the peasants, and they themselves will realize whether it is good.
Happiness, according to the priest, consists in three things: "peace, wealth, honor." The priest knows no rest: his rank is obtained by hard work, and then no less difficult service begins, the crying of orphans, the cries of widows and the groans of the dying do little to promote peace of mind.
The situation with honor is no better: the priest serves as an object for the witticisms of the common people, obscene tales, anecdotes and fables are composed about him, which do not spare not only himself, but also his wife and children.
The last thing remains, wealth, but even here everything has changed a long time ago. Yes, there were times when the nobles honored the priest, played magnificent weddings and came to their estates to die - that was the work of the priests, but now "the landowners have scattered in distant foreign land." So it turns out that the pop is content with rare copper nickels:
The peasant himself needs
And I would be glad to give, but there is nothing ...
Having finished his speech, the priest leaves, and the debaters attack Luka with reproaches. They unanimously accuse him of stupidity, that it was only in appearance that the priestly housing seemed free to him, but he could not figure it out deeper.
What did you take? stubborn head!
The men would probably have beaten Luka, but here, fortunately for him, at the bend in the road, the “priestly strict face” is once again shown ...
Chapter 2
The men continue on their way, and their road goes through empty villages. Finally, they meet the rider and ask him where the inhabitants have disappeared.
They went to the village of Kuzminskoe,
Today there is a fairground...
Then the wanderers decide to also go to the fair - what if the one “who lives happily” is hiding there?
Kuzminskoye is a rich, though dirty village. It has two churches, a school (closed), a dirty hotel and even a paramedic. That’s why the fair is rich, and most of all there are taverns, “eleven taverns”, and they do not have time to pour for everyone:
Oh, Orthodox thirst,
How big are you!
There are a lot of drunk people around. A peasant scolds a broken ax, grandfather Vavila is sad next to him, who promised to bring shoes to his granddaughter, but drank all the money. The people feel sorry for him, but no one can help - they themselves have no money. Fortunately, there happens to be a "master", Pavlusha Veretennikov, and it is he who buys shoes for Vavila's granddaughter.
Ofeni (booksellers) also sell at the fair, but the most base books, as well as portraits of “thicker” generals, are in demand. And no one knows if the time will come when a man:
Belinsky and Gogol
Will you carry it from the market?
By evening, everyone is so drunk that even the church with the bell tower seems to stagger, and the peasants leave the village.
Chapter 3
It's worth a quiet night. The men walk along the "hundred-voiced" road and hear snippets of other people's conversations. They talk about officials, about bribes: “And we are fifty kopecks to the clerk: We made a request,” women's songs are heard with a request to “fall in love.” One drunk guy buries his clothes in the ground, assuring everyone that he is "burying his mother." At the road post, the wanderers again meet Pavel Veretennikov. He talks with the peasants, writes down their songs and sayings. Having written down enough, Veretennikov blames the peasants for drinking a lot - "it's a shame to look!" They object to him: the peasant drinks mainly from grief, and it is a sin to condemn or envy him.
The objector's name is Yakim Goly. Pavlusha also writes his story in a book. Even in his youth, Yakim bought his son popular prints and he loved to look at them as much as a child. When a fire broke out in the hut, he first of all rushed to tear pictures from the walls, and so all his savings, thirty-five rubles, burned down. For a fused lump, they now give him 11 rubles.
After listening to stories, the wanderers sit down to refresh themselves, then one of them, Roman, remains at the bucket of vodka for the guard, and the rest again mix with the crowd in search of a happy one.
Chapter 4
Wanderers walk in the crowd and call the happy one to come. If such a person appears and tells them about his happiness, then he will be treated to glory with vodka.
Sober people chuckle at such speeches, but a considerable queue is lined up from drunk people. The deacon comes first. His happiness, in his words, "is in complacency" and in the "kosushka", which the peasants will pour. The deacon is driven away, and an old woman appears, in which, on a small ridge, "up to a thousand raps were born." The next torturing happiness is a soldier with medals, "a little alive, but I want to drink." His happiness lies in the fact that no matter how they tortured him in the service, he nevertheless remained alive. A stonecutter with a huge hammer also comes, a peasant who overstrained himself in the service, but still, barely alive, drove home, a courtyard man with a "noble" disease - gout. The latter boasts that for forty years he stood at the table of the most illustrious prince, licking plates and drinking foreign wine from glasses. The men drive him away too, because they have a simple wine, “not according to your lips!”.
The line to the wanderers does not become smaller. The Belarusian peasant is happy that he eats his fill here rye bread, because at home they baked bread only with chaff, and this caused terrible pain in the stomach. A man with a folded cheekbone, a hunter, is happy that he survived in a fight with a bear, while the bears killed the rest of his comrades. Even the beggars come: they are happy that there is alms on which they are fed.
Finally, the bucket is empty, and the wanderers realize that this way they will not find happiness.
Hey, happiness man!
Leaky, with patches,
Humpbacked with calluses
Get off home!
Here one of the people who approached them advises “ask Yermila Girin”, because if he does not turn out to be happy, then there is nothing to look for. Ermila is a simple man who deserved the great love of the people. The wanderers are told the following story: once Ermila had a mill, but they decided to sell it for debts. Bidding began, the merchant Altynnikov really wanted to buy the mill. Yermila was able to outbid his price, but the trouble is that he did not have money with him to make a deposit. Then he asked for an hour's reprieve and ran to the market square to ask the people for money.
And a miracle happened: Yermil received money. Very soon, the thousand necessary for the ransom of the mill turned out to be with him. And a week later, on the square, there was an even more wonderful sight: Yermil "counted on the people", handed out all the money and honestly. There was only one extra ruble left, and Yermil asked until sunset whose it was.
Wanderers are perplexed: by what sorcery did Yermil receive such trust from the people. They are told that this is not witchcraft, but the truth. Girin served as a clerk in the office and never took a penny from anyone, but helped with advice. Soon the old prince died, and the new one ordered the peasants to choose a burgomaster. Unanimously, “six thousand souls, with the whole patrimony” Yermila shouted - although young, he loves the truth!
Only once did Yermil "disguise" when he did not recruit his younger brother, Mitriy, replacing him with the son of Nenila Vlasyevna. But the conscience after this act tortured Yermila so much that he soon tried to hang himself. Mitrius was handed over to the recruits, and the son of Nenila was returned to her. Yermil, for a long time, did not walk on his own, “he resigned from his post,” but instead rented a mill and became “more than the former people love.”
But here the priest intervenes in the conversation: all this is true, but it is useless to go to Yermil Girin. He is sitting in jail. The priest begins to tell how it was - the village of Stolbnyaki rebelled and the authorities decided to call Yermila - his people would listen.
The story is interrupted by cries: the thief has been caught and is being flogged. The thief turns out to be the same lackey with a "noble disease", and after the flogging, he flies away as if he had completely forgotten about his illness.
The priest, meanwhile, says goodbye, promising to finish telling the story at the next meeting.
Chapter 5
On my own further way The peasants meet the landowner Gavrila Afanasyich Obolt-Obolduev. The landowner is at first frightened, suspecting robbers in them, but, having figured out what the matter is, he laughs and begins to tell his story. Mine noble family it leads from the Tatar Oboldui, who was skinned by a bear for the amusement of the empress. She granted cloth to the Tatar for this. Such were the noble ancestors of the landowner ...
Law is my wish!
The fist is my police!
However, not all strictness, the landowner admits that he more "attracted hearts with affection"! All the courtyards loved him, gave him gifts, and he was like a father to them. But everything changed: the peasants and the land were taken away from the landowner. The sound of an ax is heard from the forests, everyone is being ruined, instead of estates drinking houses are multiplying, because now no one needs a letter at all. And they shout to the landowners:
Wake up, sleepy landowner!
Get up! - study! work hard!..
But how can a landowner work, accustomed to something completely different from childhood? They did not learn anything, and “thought to live like this for a century,” but it turned out differently.
The landowner began to sob, and the good-natured peasants almost wept with him, thinking:
The great chain is broken
Torn - jumped:
One end on the master,
Others for a man! ..
Part 2
Last
The next day, the peasants go to the banks of the Volga, to a huge hay meadow. As soon as they got into a conversation with the locals, music was heard and three boats moored to the shore. They have a noble family: two gentlemen with their wives, little barchats, servants and a gray-haired old gentleman. The old man inspects the mowing, and everyone bows to him almost to the ground. In one place he stops and orders a dry haystack to be spread: the hay is still damp. The absurd order is immediately executed.
Strangers marvel:
Grandfather!
What a wonderful old man.
It turns out that the old man - Prince Utyatin (the peasants call him the Last) - having learned about the abolition of serfdom, "fooled", and came down with a blow. His sons were told that they had betrayed the landowner's ideals, that they could not defend them, and if so, they were left without an inheritance. The sons were frightened and persuaded the peasants to fool the landowner a little, so that after his death they would give the village poem meadows. The old man was told that the tsar ordered the serfs to be returned back to the landowners, the prince was delighted and stood up. So this comedy continues to this day. Some peasants are even happy about this, for example, the courtyard Ipat:
Ipat said: “You have fun!
And I am the Utyatin princes
Serf - and the whole story here!
But Agap Petrov cannot come to terms with the fact that even in the wild someone will push him around. Once he told the master everything directly, and he had a stroke. When he woke up, he ordered Agap to be whipped, and the peasants, in order not to reveal the deceit, led him to the stable, where they put a bottle of wine in front of him: drink and shout louder! Agap died the same night: it was hard for him to bow down...
Wanderers are present at the feast of the Last, where he speaks about the benefits of serfdom, and then lies down in the boat and falls asleep in it with songs. The village of Vahlaki sighs with sincere relief, but no one gives them the meadows - the trial continues to this day.
Part 3
peasant woman
“Not everything is between men
Find a happy
Let's touch the women!”
With these words, the wanderers go to Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna, the governor, beautiful woman 38 years old, who, however, already calls herself an old woman. She talks about her life. Then she was only happy, how she grew up in her parents' house. But girlhood quickly rushed by, and now Matryona is already being wooed. Philip becomes her betrothed, handsome, ruddy and strong. He loves his wife (according to her, he beat him only once), but soon he goes to work, and leaves her with his large, but alien to Matryona, family.
Matryona works for her elder sister-in-law, and for a strict mother-in-law, and for her father-in-law. She had no joy in her life until her eldest son, Demushka, was born.
In the whole family, only the old grandfather Savely, the “Holy Russian hero”, who lives out his life after twenty years of hard labor, regrets Matryona. He ended up in hard labor for the murder of a German manager who did not give the peasants a single free minute. Savely told Matryona a lot about his life, about "Russian heroism."
The mother-in-law forbids Matryona to take Demushka into the field: she does not work much with him. The grandfather looks after the child, but one day he falls asleep, and the pigs eat the child. After some time, Matryona meets Savely at the grave of Demushka, who has gone to repentance in the Sand Monastery. She forgives him and takes him home, where the old man soon dies.
Matryona also had other children, but she could not forget Demushka. One of them, the shepherdess Fedot, once wanted to be whipped for a sheep carried away by a wolf, but Matrena took the punishment upon herself. When she was pregnant with Liodorushka, she had to go to the city to ask for the return of her husband, who had been taken into the soldiers. Right in the waiting room, Matryona gave birth, and the governor, Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying, helped her. Since then, Matryona has been "denounced as a lucky woman, nicknamed the governor's wife." But what kind of happiness is there?
This is what Matryonushka tells the wanderers and adds: they will never find a happy woman among women, the keys to female happiness are lost, and even God does not know where to find them.
Part 4
A feast for the whole world
There is a feast in the village of Vakhlachina. Everyone gathered here: both wanderers, and Klim Yakovlich, and Vlas the headman. Among the feasters are two seminarians, Savvushka and Grisha, good simple guys. They, at the request of the people, sing a "merry" song, then the turn comes for different stories. There is a story about “an exemplary slave - Jacob the faithful”, who all his life went after the master, fulfilled all his whims and even rejoiced at the master's beatings. Only when the master gave his nephew to the soldiers, Yakov took to drink, but soon returned to the master. And yet, Yakov did not forgive him, and was able to take revenge on Polivanov: he brought him, with his legs off, into the forest, and there he hanged himself on a pine tree above the master.
There is a dispute about who is the most sinful of all. God's wanderer Jonah tells the story of "two sinners", about the robber Kudeyar. The Lord awakened a conscience in him and imposed a penance on him: cut down a huge oak tree in the forest, then his sins will be forgiven him. But the oak fell only when Kudeyar sprinkled it with the blood of the cruel Pan Glukhovsky. Ignatius Prokhorov objects to Jonah: the peasant's sin is still greater, and tells the story of the headman. He hid last will his master, who decided before his death to release his peasants. But the headman, tempted by money, tore free.
The crowd is subdued. Songs are sung: "Hungry", "Soldier's". But the time will come in Rus' for good songs. Confirmation of this is two seminarian brothers, Savva and Grisha. The seminarian Grisha, the son of a sexton, has known since the age of fifteen that he wants to devote his life to the happiness of the people. Love for his mother merges in his heart with love for the whole vakhlachin. Grisha walks along his edge and sings a song about Rus':
You are poor
You are abundant
You are powerful
You are powerless
Mother Rus'!
And his plans will not be lost: fate prepares Grisha “a glorious path, a loud name people's protector, consumption and Siberia. In the meantime, Grisha sings, and it is a pity that the wanderers do not hear him, because then they would understand that they had already found a happy person and could return home.
Conclusion
This ends the unfinished chapters of the poem by Nekrasov. However, even from the surviving parts, the reader is presented with a large-scale picture of post-reform Rus', which, with torment, is learning to live in a new way. The range of problems raised by the author in the poem is very wide: the problems of widespread drunkenness, the ruining of a Russian person (it’s not without reason that a bucket of vodka is offered as a reward!) The problems of women, the ineradicable slave psychology (revealed on the example of Yakov, Ipat) and the main problem of people's happiness. Most of these problems, unfortunately, to one degree or another still remain relevant today, which is why the work is very popular, and a number of quotations from it have become part of everyday speech. Compositional technique the wanderings of the protagonists brings the poem closer to an adventure novel, thanks to which it is read easily and with great interest.
A brief retelling of “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” conveys only the most basic content of the poem; for a more accurate idea of the work, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with full version"To whom in Rus' it is good to live."
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If we analyze the data on the distribution of income among various segments of the Russian population, the following picture emerges: 13.4% of the population live in extreme poverty with incomes below 4900 rubles per month, 27.8% live in poverty with incomes from 4900 to 7400 rubles, in 38.8% of those with incomes from 7400 to 17,000 rubles live above poverty, the so-called rich among the poor live above poverty - 10.9% with incomes from 17,000 to 25,000 rubles, 7.3% live with an average income with incomes of 25 000 to 50,000 rubles, wealthy people include 1.1% with incomes from 50,000 to 75,000 rubles, and only 0.7% of the rich have incomes over 75,000 rubles per month.
From the above data, it can be seen that the first three groups - low-income citizens of Russia (extremely poor, poor, and the poor, whose income is below 17 thousand rubles a month) - make up exactly 80% of the population modern Russia. 80% of low-income citizens of Russia - this is almost 113 million people (worker and field worker, student and teacher, engineer, research worker, labor veteran, etc.), as a rule, they do not have high incomes. And with such incomes, how can 80% of the population of Russia live in the conditions of current inflation, with the unrestrained growth of tariffs, prices for gasoline, electricity, gas?
But among the remaining 20% of the population, whose income is over 17 thousand rubles a month, there is a group of citizens who are not embarrassed by either prices or tariffs - these are wealthy and wealthy citizens of Russia. And this group of citizens in the amount of 1.8% of the population of Russia concentrated in their hands almost 80% of all the country's income. Is that fair?!
According to the income and property declarations of federal officials for 2016, the Minister for North Caucasus Affairs Lev Kuznetsov "earned" 582 million rubles, in 2015 it was 47.9 million rubles, i.e. income increased 12 times. His wife's income increased from 10.9 million to 47.9 million rubles, i.е. increased 3 times.
The smallest income in 2016 was from the Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev - 5.6 million rubles (in 2015 it was 50 million rubles). His wife earned 9.9 million rubles in 2016, in 2015 it was 6 million rubles.
Sergey Kiriyenko became the record holder among the employees of the presidential administration with 85 million 486.9 thousand rubles. By the way, he moved to work in the Kremlin administration in the fall of 2016 from the post of head of Rosatom.
Interestingly, they go to the ministers already with rich property and high incomes, or are they acquired at ministerial posts?
But what a picture with our "servants of the people" - deputies. From September 1, 2013, the salaries of State Duma deputies increased from 161 to 254 thousand rubles - automatically, following the salaries of federal ministers. And from September 1, 2014, deputy salaries, again by decision of the Kremlin, automatically increased to an almost indecent 420 thousand rubles a month (!). Of course, the regional deputies did not remain in debt and also raised the issue of raising their salaries.
And what do you think, “servants of the people”, the voter is very happy for you that you receive a salary 10-15 times more than his, whose interests you are obliged to protect by status? Just do not think that the salary of a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation annoys people less than the salary of a deputy from other parties. Understand that the voter is annoyed not by the deputy's belonging to one party or another, but by the monstrous material stratification between voters and "servants of the people." And therefore, the not sickly salary of the deputies, including those from the Communist Party, allows the voters to say: “And why are you, the Communists, better than the edross?”
But there is still a special group of people in Russia - the oligarchs. In 2016, the wealth of 200 Russian oligarchs increased by $100 billion and now reaches $460 billion. Of these, the most-most (in dollars): Leonid Mikhelson - 18.4, Alexei Mordashev - 17.5, Vladimir Lisin - 16.1, Gennady Timchenko - 16.0, Alisher Usmanov - 15.2. And when this elite keeps their fortunes in American banks, then you still need to figure out whose elite it is?
But the paradox of Russia is that in our resource-rich country, you see poverty almost everywhere. As a mockery of the people, the subsistence minimum for the able-bodied population was set at 10,446 rubles per month and the minimum wage was legally approved in the amount of 7,500 rubles. Even Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets admitted that it is “practically impossible” to live on such a minimum. And there are about 5 million such people in the country. She called the poverty of working people in Russia "a unique phenomenon."
Authorities explain this paradox by sanctions, crisis, low prices for oil. The people are impoverished, the incomes of the population are falling, and in 2016 alone, the number of dollar billionaires has increased by almost a quarter. But how is it possible that there is no money to maintain schools, hospitals, feldsher stations, libraries, houses of culture, which are now ruthlessly reduced, or, as officials now say, “optimized”, because there is no money for their maintenance, but to grow dollar For some reason, billionaires have money?!
And it is completely incomprehensible: why, both at the federal and regional levels, the government finds funds for a wide variety of purposes - from thoughtless salaries and additional payments to officials and managers to all kinds of projects that people can do without in difficult times. For example, the creation of the Yeltsin Center for 5 billion rubles. But for a real increase in the standard of living ordinary people there is always no money. And at the same time they are accompanied by a wish: “There is no money, but you hold on!”
In a word, 80% of the population of Russia live on kopecks and rubles, and 1.8% - on dollars and euros. At the same time, even according to official data, the ratio of the incomes of the richest 10% of Russian citizens to the incomes of the poorest 10% is 17:1, although, according to many independent experts, this ratio is several times higher. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the ratio of the maximum wages managers to wages of other employees in Russia is 26:1. What is the reason for such a striking difference in the incomes of the population of Russia, neither Prime Minister D. Medvedev nor President V. Putin can clearly explain.
And then who can explain to the population of Russia why the people "got" unemployment, lack of money, continuous growth utility tariffs and prices for everything and everything, a negligible living wage, the minimum wage, the constant search for a better life? Why did 20 million citizens find themselves in a state of outright poverty?
Or maybe there is no need to look for explanations why Russian society turned out to be so monstrously divided into rich and poor? Maybe you just need to remember from what moment this became possible? Remember when Russia chose this path of development for itself. And not just remember, but also realize your actions before presidential elections in 2018.
Vladimir EMBULAEV
doctor of economic sciences, professor, Vladivostok
Such works as "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" is a real digression into the 60s of the XIX century. The poem literally immerses the reader in the events of the post-serf times. Journey, in search of a happy man in Russian Empire, exposes the numerous problems of society, without embellishment paints a picture of reality and makes you think about the future of the country that dared to live in a new way.
The history of the creation of the Nekrasov poem
The exact date of the start of work on the poem is unknown. But the researchers of Nekrasov's work drew attention to the fact that already in his first part he mentions the Poles who were exiled. This makes it possible to assume that the idea of the poem arose from the poet around 1860-1863, and Nikolai Alekseevich started writing it around 1863. Although the sketches by the poet could have been done earlier.
It is no secret that Nikolai Nekrasov has been collecting material for his new poetic work for a very long time. The date on the manuscript after the first chapter is 1865. But this date means that work on the chapter "Landlord" was completed this year.
It is known that since 1866 the first part of Nekrasov's work tried to see the light. For four years, the author tried to publish his work and constantly fell under discontent and sharp condemnation of censorship. Despite this, work on the poem continued.
The poet had to print it gradually all in the same magazine Sovremennik. So it was printed for four years, and all these years the censorship was unhappy. The poet himself was constantly criticized and persecuted. Therefore, he stopped his work for a while, and was able to start it again only in 1870. In this new period of rising literary creativity he creates three more parts to this poem, which were written at different times:
✪ "Last Child" -1872.
✪ "Peasant Woman" -1873.
✪ "Feast for the whole world" - 1876.
The poet wanted to write a few more chapters, but he was working on his poem at the time when he began to fall ill, so the illness prevented him from realizing these poetic plans. But still realizing that he would soon die, Nikolai Alekseevich tried in his last part to finish it so that the whole poem had logical completeness.
The plot of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'"
In one of the volosts, on a wide road, there are seven peasants who live in neighboring villages. And they think about one question: who lives well in their native land. And their conversation reached such a point that it soon turns into an argument. The matter went on towards the evening, and they could not resolve this dispute in any way. And suddenly the peasants noticed that they had already traveled a long distance, carried away by the conversation. Therefore, they decided not to return home, but to spend the night in a clearing. But the argument continued and ended in a fight.
From such a noise, a chick of a warbler falls out, which Pahom saves, and for this an exemplary mother is ready to fulfill any desire of the men. Having received a magic tablecloth, the men decide to go on a journey to find the answer to the question that interests them so much. Soon they meet a priest who changes the opinion of the men that he lives well and happily. Heroes also get to the village fair.
They try to find happy people among the drunks, and it soon turns out that a peasant doesn’t need much to be happy: eat enough to protect himself from troubles. And in order to learn about happiness, I advise the heroes to find Yermila Girin, whom everyone knows. And here the men learn his story, and then the gentleman appears. But he also complains about his life.
At the end of the poem, the heroes try to look for happy people among women. They get acquainted with one peasant woman Matryona. They help Korchagina in the field, and for this she tells them her story, where she says that a woman cannot have happiness. Women only suffer.
And now the peasants are already on the banks of the Volga. Then they heard a story about a prince who could not come to terms with the abolition of serfdom, and then a story about two sinners. The story of the son of the deacon Grishka Dobrosklonov is also interesting.
You are wretched, You are plentiful, You are powerful, You are powerless, Mother Rus'! In slavery, the saved Heart is free - Gold, gold The heart of the people! The strength of the people, the mighty strength - the conscience is calm, the truth is tenacious!
Genre and unusual composition of the poem "To whom in Rus' it is good to live"
About what is the composition of the Nekrasov poem, there are still disputes between writers and critics. Most researchers of the literary work of Nikolai Nekrasov came to the conclusion that the material should be arranged as follows: the prologue and part one, then the chapter "Peasant Woman" should be placed, the chapter "Last Child" follows the content and in conclusion - "Feast - for the whole world."
Evidence of this arrangement of chapters in the plot of the poem was that, for example, in the first part and in the subsequent chapter, the world is depicted when the peasants were not yet free, that is, this is the world that was a little earlier: old and obsolete. The next Nekrasov part already shows how this old world collapses completely and dies.
But already in the last Nekrasov chapter, the poet shows all the signs that the new life. The tone of the narrative changes dramatically and now it is lighter, clearer, more joyful. The reader feels that the poet, like his characters, believes in the future. Especially this aspiration for a clear and bright future is felt at those moments when the poem appears main character- Grishka Dobrosklonov.
In this part, the poet completes the poem, so it is here that the denouement of the entire plot action takes place. And here is the answer to the question that was posed at the very beginning of the work about who, after all, is well and free, carefree and cheerful in Rus'. It turns out that the most carefree, happy and cheerful person is Grishka, who is the protector of his people. In his beautiful and lyrical songs, he predicted happiness for his people.
But if you carefully read how the denouement in the poem comes in its last part, then you can pay attention to the oddities of the story. The reader does not see the peasants returning to their homes, they do not stop traveling, and, in general, they do not even get to know Grisha. Therefore, a continuation was probably planned here.
Poetic composition has its own peculiarities. First of all, it is worth paying attention to the construction, which is based on the classical epic. The poem consists of separate chapters, in which there is an independent plot, but there is no main character in the poem, since it tells about the people, as if it were an epic of the life of the whole people. All parts are connected into one thanks to the motives that run through the entire plot. For example, motive long journey along which the peasants go to find a happy man.
In the work, the fabulousness of the composition is easily visible. There are many elements in the text that can easily be attributed to folklore. During the entire journey, the author inserts his digressions and elements that are completely irrelevant to the plot.
Analysis of Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'"
It is known from the history of Russia that in 1861 the most shameful phenomenon, serfdom, was abolished. But such a reform caused unrest in society, and soon new problems arose. First of all, the question arose that even a free peasant, poor and destitute, cannot be happy. This problem interested Nikolai Nekrasov, and he decided to write a poem in which the question of peasant happiness would be considered.
Even though the work was written plain language, and has an appeal to folklore, but for the perception of the reader it usually seems difficult, since it touches on the most serious philosophical problems and questions. For most of the questions, the author himself has been looking for answers all his life. Perhaps that is why it was so difficult for him to write a poem, and he created it for fourteen years. But, unfortunately, the work was never completed.
The poet was conceived to write his poem of eight chapters, but due to illness he was able to write only four and they do not follow at all, as expected, one after another. Now the poem is presented in the form, in the sequence suggested by K. Chukovsky, who for a long time carefully studied the Nekrasov archives.
Nikolai Nekrasov chose ordinary people as the heroes of the poem, which is why he also used colloquial vocabulary. For a long time there were disputes about who can still be attributed to the main characters of the poem. So, there were suggestions that these were heroes - men who walk around the country, trying to find a happy person. But other researchers still believed that it was Grishka Dobrosklonov. This question remains open to this day. But you can consider this poem as if the protagonist in it is the whole common people.
There are no accurate and detailed descriptions of these men in the plot, their characters are also incomprehensible, the author simply does not reveal or show them. But on the other hand, these men are united by one goal, for the sake of which they travel. It is also interesting that the episodic faces in Nekrasov's poem are drawn by the author more clearly, accurately, in detail and vividly. The poet raises many problems that arose among the peasantry after the abolition of serfdom.
Nikolai Alekseevich shows that for each character in his poem there is a concept of happiness. For example, a rich person sees happiness in having financial well-being. And the peasant dreams that in his life there would be no grief and troubles that usually lie in wait for the peasant at every step. There are also heroes who are happy because they believe in the happiness of others. The language of the Nekrasov poem is close to the folk language, so there is a huge amount of vernacular in it.
Despite the fact that the work remained unfinished, it reflects the whole reality of what was happening. This is a real literary gift to all lovers of poetry, history and literature.